Geek Weekly: Technology Decisions' quirky tech stories for 13 October

Technology Decisions’ weekly wrap of IT fails, latest tech, new must-have gadgets, ‘computer says no’ moments and more.

Mushrooms to power batteries? This adaptable fungus has been known to enhance food dishes and improve health (not to mention offer mind-altering experiences), but now the common mushroom may be powering your car or getting your phone to run longer. Engineers at the University of California have shown that mushrooms can create long-lasting, environmentally friendly anodes for lithium-ion batteries. The researchers have been looking into how natural materials might replace the graphite used in batteries.

Would you like a double tax return this year? A computer glitch by the Leicester City Council in England has been blamed for doing just that. Officials have admitted that when they were trying to pay £43,000 to council taxpayers they doubled it up to £86,000. It is believed around one quarter of the loss can be claimed back by cancelling cheques but the rest will be up to people returning the money — and if they don’t, they may face prosecution. Opposition Tory councillor Ross Grant reportedly said it was ‘worrying’ that it is described as a computer glitch. “Can we be confident it won’t happen again and with bigger numbers?” he asked. “Normally when a computer does something wrong it’s the fault of the person using it.”

Another airport glitch causes traveller delays. Another IT failure has caused commuter headaches for passengers of Southwest Airlines, which delayed hundreds of flights on Sunday and left staff issuing hand-written tickets. One passenger reportedly tweeted “Crazy long — can’t even see the end!” The technical glitch is the latest disruption to airline services with American Airlines blaming a computer failure for flight delays to three major hubs for a two-hour period on 17 September. While closer to home, huge lines were to be seen at Brisbane International airport on 7 October as thousands of inbound passengers were stuck for several hours at customs due to a problem with the SmartGate processing system.

Gartner’s top 10 predictions. Robots are the way of the future, according to Gartner, which has released its annual top 10 list of strategic predictions. If the IT research firm has it right, more than 3 million workers by 2018 will be supervised by a ‘roboboss’; many employees in public safety roles will be required to wear health and fitness tracking devices — possibly as part of their contracts; and autonomous software agents outside of human control will participate in 5% of all economic transactions. Read the rest of the list here.

A robot that’s a smartphone. Where else but Japan would we see a robot smartphone emerge? Sharp has developed the RoboHoN, which stands just under 20 cm high and features a camera, projector and an LCD screen on its back. There’s also a mic, speaker and a facial and voice recognition system that responds to commands. You can even make your robot smartphone dance. Not completely sure why you would need to… but it certainly is cute.