With a new Star Trek film due out this Summer, get ready for the regular slew of tenuous associations, philosophical and technological. Given that, let’s say upfront that the likely arrival of this concept, as just floated by chipmaker AMD, is years away.

Radar and tracking technology continues to develop into new, innovative application areas, from UAV navigation to archaeological mapping.

Smartphones designed to exploit the emerging 4G networks are ravenous for data, and that's good news for service operators who need ways to maximise usage-based revenue models. But the transition from 3G to 4G is likely to throw up several contentious issues that will take time and effort to reconcile.