The 
adult entertainment industry has a reputation as a technology bellwether, but these days that’s largely thanks to its past accomplishments.
While porn was certainly responsible for VHS tapes besting beta and can likely lay claim to leading the charge in online streaming video, it hasn’t done a lot to push the needle in several years.
Hollywood 
stars Levar Burton and Kristen Bell have got nothing on Pebble when it comes to crowdfunding.
The smartwatch maker on Tuesday unveiled the Pebble Time, its second generation product, and fans of the company couldn’t hand over their cash fast enough.
The 
competition is getting more intense for Facebook’s Oculus Rift.
Valve Software, the videogame developer and creator/operator of the industry’s largest PC game digital distribution platform, will unveil its own virtual reality hardware next week at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco. The company has not yet announced whether the system will see a commercial release, but it is actively meeting with content partners at the show, generally an indicator that it does plan to do so.
Google 
has gone back to the drawing board with Glass, but wearable technology—an up-and-coming product class for the past few years—finally seems poised to burst into the mainstream.
Once restricted to the athletically minded and early adopters of tech, wearables are priming for tremendous growth. According to CSS Insight’s latest global wearables forecast, sales are predicted to jump from 29 million units in 2014 to 172 million by 2018, with the biggest spike expected to take place this year. Juniper Research is even more optimistic, seeing global revenues from wearables hitting $53.2 billion by 2019, a nearly 12-fold increase over 2014.
That projected growth, not surprisingly, includes all sorts of new products, with a wide range of focuses. Here are 10 wearables expected to launch this year that might be worth keeping an eye on.
The 
Federal Aviation Administration’s proposed drone rules clip the wings of Amazon’s Prime Air delivery service in the United States, but the online retailer could be eyeing other countries for testing to keep momentum going.
Amazon, in its sole statement regarding the FAA proposal, said it remains “prepared to deploy [Prime Air] where we have the regulatory support we need.” Translation: We’re willing to move our operations elsewhere.
Ellen 
DeGeneres’ selfie was the most buzzed-about moment of last year’s Oscars — reaching a level of popularity so quickly that it managed to break Twitter. But what a lot of people don’t realize is that shot was actually the second selfie she took during the show.
For Josh Spector, managing director of digital media for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the night-and-day difference between the two shots was a victory. DeGeneres taking a selfie, of course, was planned well in advance of the show’s start. But when the first one didn’t take off, Spector and his team adjusted plans for the second — and in doing so, they managed to capture lightning in a bottle.
By 
any conceivable measure, it has been a particulary vicious winter across the U.S.
Buffalo kicked things off with a 70-inch plus storm last November. Syracuse has seen snow continuously since Jan. 29. And the Boston area has been repeatedly hammered – seeing over 95 inches of the white stuff so far this year – with more on the way.
Valentine’s 
Day may be generally associated with sweetness, but if you want to win the heart of a craft beer lover, sour is the way to go this year.
Tangy, sour tasting beers are the hottest trend in the craft world these days – and they’re resulting in some really interesting (and really tasty) concoctions.
Eighty 
years ago, the beer industry had a breakthrough. The Gottfried Krueger brewery in Richmond, Va, working with the American Can Co., was the first beer maker to put beer in a can—and it was an immediate and overwhelming success.
These days, cans are less associated with fine beer—and generally thought of as the container of choice for brands like Bud Light and Pabst Blue Ribbon. But as craft breweries expand their footprint and distribution boundaries, the can is making a comeback.
Read more at Fortune.com
Columbus 
Nova is expanding its footprint in the video game business.
The New York-based investment firm has purchased Sony Online Entertainment, which is responsible for massively multiplayer online games like “EverQuest,” “PlanetSide” and “DC Universe Online” for an undisclosed amount.
Chris Morris: Journalist 