Emerging Technologies Presentation

First, I would like to commend everyone on a superb job for our last project! I saw some really cool technologies that people found and I would say walking around to each presentation Friday was really interesting. There were incredibly medical advancements, like a bionic arm that moves itself naturally like a real arm. There was Twitter for toddlers, called Twoddler. This technology was a little odd to think about. The child has a board that they play with and what they decide to play with indicates the twitter message they send. So if they press on the picture of their mom, their Twoddler is updated to say, "[Insert name] misses their mom!" Another person presented on a 3D laptop! She made it sound like it was pretty exciting for avid gamers because it would completely revolutionize how people game online, but it is a pretty incredible technological advancement in itself. You have 3D glasses that you put on and your screen instantly becomes 3D-pretty standard. The cool thing is that when you take off the glasses you do not have the blue and red fuzzy lines that you usually would with a 3D screen. The laptop looks and operates like a normal laptop. My favorite technology that I saw was the bluetooth spying tool. The bluetooth set it so small you do not even notice it in a person's ear. This spy tool has a two way radio so you can hear what your other party is saying, but talk back to them as well. The girl presenting used the example of going on a blind date. Have the spy tool in your ear and your friends can tell you what to say and, if you want to, you can talk back to them. Your date will be none the wiser!

Apple TV

For my final project in Com 435, I decided to choose the Apple TV as my technology. Apple TV sparked my interest when my younger brother told me about how it was number one on his Christmas list. He commuted to high school everyday and as a result had a bunch of movies, television shows, and music videos on his iPod that he would watch on the train. The only place he could watch these movies were on his iPod or on his computer, but if he wanted to watch them anywhere else or share them with anyone else he couldn't. Then Apple devised Apple TV to solve this problem. Even though my little brother will have to wait a little bit until the price of Apple TV goes down, the idea of Apple TV is very cool! Apple TV looks similar to a tiny cable box and only needs an HDMI cable cord to hook into the box and the TV to work. It works with Ethernet or Wifi to give you access to iTunes, Youtube, Flickr, or your Mobileme on your television. You can rent or buy movies on demand or access your library of movies from iTunes. If you plug in the Apple TV into your computer, as you would your iPod, you can sync it up to work like an external hard drive to save all your media from your Mac onto Apple TV. If you have an iPhone or iPod touch you can download the Remote app to control your Apple TV. This Remote app even allows you to control say your iTunes from anywhere in your house! This technology is an example of convergence of technologies. Internet, television, and computer are all converging into one technology to give the viewer more control over what they watch. Will Apple TV affect the business of Cable, Satellite, and normal television stations programming? It might have a slight affect, but television providers should not be too worried. The fact that people have to pay to watch their shows does give free television programming and DVR an advantage. But Apple always seems to find a way to revolutionize technology, especially their own, so only time will tell!

Presenting...The Magic Mouse

Sometimes there are some technologies that no one thinks of needing improvement. How can you revolutionize something like a mouse? Who was even thinking that it needed to be revolutionized? Apple was thinking! If you are familiar with the touch screen capabilities of an iPhone then you can imagine what the new Magic Mouse is like to control. It is not necessarily that the new Magic Mouse has new options that you cannot find with an ordinary mouse. The Magic Mouse just makes all the movements and options of a regular computer mouse easier and quicker. So what can it do? Well you can right click and left click by just tapping or clicking on the right and left side of the mouse. The updated capabilities come when you scroll or sift through things on your desktop. Scrolling on the new Magic Mouse just takes two fingers and a swipe down or across the mouse. No clicking furiously to get to the bottom or side of an article. If you can't see something clearly, the Magic Mouse allows you to enlarge the image. People raving about this mouse say that the controls just feel more natural and that it is easier to manipulate than a regular mouse. Below is the link to the Apple website and to a video of what the mouse does. Check it out!


http://www.apple.com/magicmouse/

iPhone's Apps That Aid Geocaching

Remember earlier in the semester when we completed the geocaching activity? We were told to bring in any technology-laptop, phone, camera-to record our findings and to help in our findings. Well if you're a fan of convergence and lightweight technology, then for the geocaching you should have just downloaded some iPhone apps to help you search for the clues. Two ways to track where you were going and to let the lead reporters know where you were going are by using the MotionX GPS app or the Trails app. MotionX GPS tracks the route that you take and records the amount of time you've been walking, how fast, and how far. If you chart your course and then export it using the Trails app, the lead reporters could see what course you took and follow you. If you want something a bit quicker to keep the reporters in the loop, you could use the Maps app. You find your location on a map, tap it, and then send it to whoever you need to and they instantly know your location. This is probably the most interesting, creative app I have seen. Think about not only the geocaching activity, but also the amount of time you will not waste with calling and texting your location. Someone could find you instantly and avoid the confusion and stress of questions like, "Where are you?!" or "Is there any signs around you?" The iPhone has apps for taking notes, voice recordings, and shooting video if you needed some other aids in your search. The last app, however, would be best overall, I think, for this activity (not to mention it's incredible that a phone can actually have this capability). It is a 360* panoramic camera app. Snap away in a full circle and then use the Panorama app. It will take these images and mesh them together to make one full image! So instead of lugging around a laptop or just texting and picture messaging back and forth with the lead reporter, you could have just brought your iPhone to give the lead reporter a full range of information about your location and the location of the clues.