Technology

Even in the age of smartphones, New York City’s more than 11,000 public street payphones bring in about $18 million a year, between coins and advertising revenue. Contracts with companies responsible for installing, maintaining and operating payphones are set expire October 15, 2014 – spurring the city to launch The Reinvent Payphones Design Challenge.  The contest, aimed at urban designers, planners, technologists and policy experts, challenged participants to come up with physical and virtual prototypes to give payphones a modern facelift.

In recent years, 3-D printing has changed professional designing: Prototypes can be “printed” in plastic or other materials before going into mass production. Now, 3-D printing could be headed for the home.

MakerBot operates a storefront on Mulberry Street, where it sells 3-D printers designed for the professional and personal markets.

The company’s efforts follow the work of Hid Lipson, a robotics researcher at Cornell University, who has experimented with 3-D printers in 1999. He’s already “printed” such diverse items as batteries and cookies. His goal: to print a robot.

The debut Microsoft’s new tablet computer, Surface, drew curious crowds to Times Square. The Windows-powered device is the latest entry into a market dominated by the iPad.

Hundreds of eager customers spent days waiting in line to be among the first to buy Apple’s iPhone 5 – but the lure might be more about status than a love of gadgets. A recent study suggests buying popular items, such as the latest iPhone, plays a role in establishing social identity.

Despite mixed reviews, the demand for the iPhone 5 appears as strong as it was for previous models. Prices range from $199, with a mandatory two-year contract, to nearly $700 without one.