Mary Meeker unveiled her 2016 report at the Code Conference this week. Seen here earlier in the year with Sam O’Keefe, Battlefield Editor, TechCrunch at the TechCrunch 9th Annual Crunchies Awards on February 8, 2016 in San Francisco, California. Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch[/caption] The annual Mary Meeker Internet Trends report was released this week, with detailed analysis of current trends and predictions for the year ahead. Meanwhile, a Taiwanese company announced the latest in robot technology as Asus showcased their ‘Zenbo’ home robot. Scientists at Harvard also revealed their new discovery—an artificial leaf that can produce energy. Read more about these, and other popular tech stories on Flipboard from the last week. 1. 2016 Internet Trends Report—SlideShare, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Top line: “The 2016 edition of Mary Meeker’s annual Internet Trends report covers today’s Internet growth and an in-depth look at the following:

• Global Internet users have surpassed 3B; India has supplanted the US as the world’s second-largest Internet market.
• The proliferation of data generated by a multitude of devices has fostered tremendous business opportunity, but privacy concerns abound.
• New online-first brands have rapidly grown in popularity for the millennial generation with their focus on omni-channel and personalized distribution strategies.”

Topic to follow: Technology trends 2. Meet Zenbo, the Asus robot that costs no more than a smartphone—The Guardian, Samuel Gibbs Top line: “The Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Asus has unveiled a home robot called Zenbo that can talk, control your home and provide assistance when needed – all for the cost of a top-end smartphone.” Topic to follow: Robots 3. Harvard Scientist Engineers Bacterium That Inhales CO2, Produces Energy—Forbes, Jeff McMahon Top line: “The chemist who gave us the artificial leaf has genetically engineered bacteria to absorb hydrogen and carbon dioxide and convert them into alcohol fuel.” Topic to follow: Energy 4. One chip to rule them all? The Internet of Things and the next great era of hardware—TechCrunch, Narbeh Derhacobian Top line: “It’s been almost 10 years since Apple unveiled the iPhone. Since that day, the smartphone has been the overwhelming driver of innovation in the technology industry. Cameras, Wi-Fi, batteries, touch sensors, baseband processors and memory chips — in less than a decade, these components have made stunning advances to keep up with consumer demand to have sleeker, more powerful devices every year.” Topic to follow: Internet of Things 5. GeForce GTX 1070: This is the graphics card you’ve been waiting for—Polygon, Brian Crecente Top line: “It was clear the day Nvidia announced its new Pascal-powered GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card that there was a new champion for desktop gaming. The GTX 1080, according to Nvidia’s tests and our own, provides a significant bump in graphics power compared to the GTX 980, GTX 980 Ti and GTX Titan X.” Topic to follow: Computer graphics 6. Harvard and MIT teamed up for this open-source online education platform—Cult of Mac, Staff Writer Top line: “A joint effort between Harvard and MIT — dubbed EdX — is aiming to provide not only a place for learning new skills, but a platform for innovating new ways of teaching and learning over the web. It’s a non-profit online education platform partnered with nearly 100 of the world’s leading universities and institutions – Harvard, MIT, Microsoft, Caltech, Columbia, you get the picture – to provide students anywhere in the world access to more than 1,000 certified courses. As an open source platform, it also offers educators an opportunity to design and implement their own modes of teaching.” Topic to follow: Harvard 7. Tokyo Thrift: Infobar is the most beautiful series of phones ever made—The Verge, Sam Byford Top line: “The Infobar line is the work of Naoto Fukasawa, one of the most famous and influential industrial designers in Japan; he’s also behind the ±0 brand and several iconic Muji products like the wall-mounted CD player. Fukasawa conceived the first phone in the line, pictured above, as an intentional breakaway from the flip phones you probably associate with Japan in the 2000s.” Topic to follow: Phones 8. A new app wants to help you beat the credit card companies—Mashable, Jason Abbruzzese Top line: “‘[It’s] kind of like a self driving car for your credit card,’ said Jason Brown, cofounder of Tally. Tally is a new app that offers the ability to automate your credit card payments, ensuring you’ll never again be hit with a late fee.” Topics to follow: Credit cards and Mobile banking 9. Tesla made a major bet to stand out from the competition — and now it might backfire—Business Insider, Matthew DeBord Top line: “Everyone in the auto industry now grudgingly admits that Tesla has forever altered consumers’ expectations for how advanced in-car tech should be. But Tesla’s most advanced feature is largely hidden — and will need to undergo a big change in the coming years if the electric-car maker hopes to realize the far-reaching vision of CEO Elon Musk.” Topic to follow: Electricity 10. Computers could develop consciousness and may need ‘human’ rights, says Oxford professor—The Telegraph Top line: “Advances in artificial intelligence could lead to computers and smartphones developing consciousness and they may need to be given ‘human’ rights, an expert has claimed. Marcus du Sautoy, who took over from Richard Dawkins as Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University in 2008 said it was now possible to measure consciousness and, in the future, technology could be deemed to be ‘alive.’” Topic to follow: Artificial intelligence ~JessE is reading Cool Technology