from BostInno by Lucia Maffei Cambridge-based startup Woobo has launched the first edition of its educational toy for children – a talkative, furry round animal with a high-pitched voice, a variety of gender-neutral activities for kids, a short USB port-shaped tail and a planned retail price of $199. According to the company’s co-founder ...

by Lucia Maffei, BostInno Full disclosure: I’m not writing this story by myself. While I’m typing on the keyboard, Grammarly – a free extension for Chrome – works on background checking grammar, spellings and punctuation. Typos are underlined in red: for each mistake I make, “Did you mean” windows appear with a ...

by Jeff Engel, Xconomy The “smart” device movement has brought us gadgets like Internet-connected thermostats, light bulbs, and speakers. Now, a startup out of MIT called Ori wants to add furniture and walls to the so-called Internet of Things. “When we think of the home of the future or office ...

by Megan Turchi, Boston.com Empty nesters no more. At least that’s the plan. On Thursday, Mayor Martin J. Walsh — in collaboration with the Elderly Commission, the Mayor’s Housing Innovation Lab, and a social enterprise startup called Nesterly — announced the Intergenerational Homeshare Pilot. The program’s goal is to match Boston homeowners who have a ...

from MIT News by Rob Matheson Sitting in a stifling subway car or walking Boston’s cold winter streets may soon become more bearable, thanks to a “personal thermostat” wristband being released by MIT spinout Embr Labs. For a design competition in 2013, four MIT engineering students created a smart wristband, ...

Have you bought a really nice bedspread with a design from India and assumed it’s just something a designer dreamt up somewhere? Sometimes the designs have been appropriated from artists who live in “isolated areas, in the absence of mass manufacturing.” What’s required is a sort of “Shutterstock for cultural ...