Volvo's Electric Car Charger

Electric cars can be environmentally friendly and economically responsible, but they're not necessarily known for being flashy. Volvo is now trying to change that by introducing a new portable electric charger for your car.

The stately charger, which looks a bit like a futuristic flower, has an inner lattice-work which is filled with solar panels to catch the sun at every angle, thus recharging your automobile. The charger can fill a depleted battery in 12 hours.

Volvo as crash-free Car in 2020

This video not only lays out Volvo's strategy, but mirrors the work other automakers are doing that will eventually result in autonomous cars.

Google's Chromecast stick pushes Netflix and YouTube to your TV

Today Google introduced the Chromecast, a sticklike device that connects to one of your TV's HDMI inputs and accepts video wirelessly pushed from smartphones, tablets, and the Chrome browser. It's available for just $35 starting today from the Google Play store in the U.S., with availability in other countries to follow.

The compact 2-inch device will work with Netflix, YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, and

Samsung takes the Lead over Apple

The Apple-Samsung war extends far beyond smartphones and patents. Fortune on Monday released its Global 500, a ranked list of the world's biggest companies by revenue. Samsung Electronics nabbed the 14th spot in the list with revenue of $178.6 billion last year. Apple was close behind in 19th place with $156.5 billion in revenue.

Samsung jumped from 20th place last year, after securing $149 billion in revenues. Apple was all the way back in 55th place in 2012 with $108 billion in revenue.

Despite their success at winning the technology space, it appears neither Samsung nor Apple should expect to hit the top spot anytime soon. 

Apple will control your Car's Key Features through Touch Screen

Granted Tuesday by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, a patent dubbed "Programmable tactile touch screen displays and man-machine interfaces for improved vehicle instrumentation and telematics" (patent number 8,482,535) describes a tactile-feel touch screen that would let you adjust several of the key features and functions in your car.

The patent discusses such options as controlling the temperature, the

Gene That Spurs Early Puberty

In order to identify the genetic causes of early puberty, the researchers conducted a gene sequence

analysis of 40 members of 15 families with central precocious puberty.

Their results, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, reveal that the gene MKRN3, which is passed along by the father, is the culprit. The researchers found that four mutations of the MKRN3 gene cause early activation of reproductive hormones and encourage puberty.