Google continues with Glass 2 – Early Prototypes in the hands of Developers

Gadget, Good News, Lessons Learned, ,

As the public already knows this, Google’s Glass project has gone away for the time being. But, as it seems, Google is still heading strong on continuing with Glass further study and development. Only this time, away from the public eye.

Google is working with developers on the next version, Google Glass 2 (as reported from 9to5Google). Prototypes of the new Glass might already be in the hands of developers (at Work partners) who have received “very early versions” of the next iteration of Google Glass. With these trusted developers, Google will give consumers a reason to get excited about its wearable in the coming months.

Oculus Rift and Gear VR have taken the place of Glass as the most discussed headsets on the market. The upcoming HoloLens, by Microsoft, is also competing for the public attention and love, and is expected to give a very good fight. And so, Google will have to find a way to compete in a field that has changed significantly since the first Glass models began shipping.

 

Post origin: http://bgr.com/2015/02/23/google-glass-2-prototypes/

Wide-range Internet Using Your Car and Public Transportation

IoT, Mobile, Social, , , , ,

Some 3 years ago, while driving my car on the way to a client, I thought about the Internet and connectivity. I remembered that sometimes I get bad or no reception at all. This must of happened to you, at least once, while on the road, your mobile reception drops and you lose your internet connectivity.

And so, I was thinking about creating a wide range internet connectivity network, using car-to-car and public transportation vehicles as routes for the network. So, the more players you have on the network, the stronger and more stable it is. For several reasons, back then, I drop this idea and moved on to other projects.

This week, in Portugal, VENIAM was rising, a wireless network was created of WiFi vehicles and public transportation locataions, with the potential of creating a truly smart city.

https://www.veniam.com/

 

 

Soon, Your Heartbeat Could Replace Your Signature

Business, Money, Social, , , , ,

Many companies are developing and implementing payment systems that use fingerprints, eye scans, blood veins, and heartbeats as payment methods. These methods may well replace the traditional, and easily stolen, plastic credit cards that carry your personal information.

Currently, banks are issuing credit cards that have both the magnetic strip of information and a computer chip embedded in them with personal information; But, they are refusing to demand users input a PIN to access their credit. In their opinion,  it is too much of an imposition to force consumers to both sign a receipt and type in a four-number code to ensure their personal information safety.

Biometric Security, is the idea of linking between a person’s unique physical signatures, such as heartbeat or iris prints, to their credit card information. Similar to Apple’s fingerprint scanning technology on the iPhone; The same technology could be used for payment systems.

Bionym has created a device known as Nymi, which has a heartbeat-monitoring armband that can link with a payment terminal to authorize a purchase. The Nymi armband does not even transmit biometric information; instead it confirms a person’s identity through the heartbeat, then encrypts the necessary credit information that can only be read by a payment terminal that reads heartbeats.

Bionym says the Nymi could replace many other items the average consumer carries, such as car keys. The information that can be stored in the Nymi and accessed only through the signature heartbeat is nearly endless.

“You can leave your phone and wallet at home, go for a run, pick up a coffee and snack and return home,” said Bionym president Andrew D’Souza to Mashable.com.

First seen on: http://www.businessinsider.com/

 

Would YOU use your own heart beat to replace your passwords?

 

Microsoft Introduced the HoloLens At A Great Timing

Context, Digital Reviews, Experience, IoT, , , , ,

Last week Microsoft has introduced the HoloLones, which are a smart virtual reality (VR) headset for the home and office use.

The HoloLens are the product of Microsoft’s research project two years ago, where they played with the idea of linking holograms to your TV. This turned into a headset that sits on your head and runs the new holographic software.

Unlike something like the Oculus Rift, which presents you with a complete virtual world, the HoloLens has clear lenses, and imposes your holographic structures and worlds on the environment around you. In short, it’s an augmented reality device along the lines of something like Google Glass.

Microsoft has presented this new device at a great timing: the Google Glass is dead, the Oculus Rift and the Sony Project Morpheus are still yet to reach consumers, and the best of the rest have failed to really capture the imagination. Microsoft’s HoloLens is something a bit different, with potential to become a huge success. When comparing the HoloLens to the Google Glass it is very important to keep in mind that the HoloLens are not only wireless, but don’t require connection to any other device, which means that you can walk around in the office or home.

 

What future do you see for the HoloLens?

 

Gogoro Smartscooter Might Actually Succeed where Better Place Failed

Business, Social, , , , ,

You’ve recently heard about Ubitricity’s mobile charging device – which can diminish the problem of recharge time by allowing drivers to take power from retrofit lamppost anywhere, anytime. Now, Gogoro offer up another solution to accompany the launch of the first Smartscooter.

 

The Gogoro is a downsizing of Better Place attempt to create a battery swapping framework for electric cars, which folded due to poor sales.
Since scooters are simpler and smaller than cars, they require smaller and cheaper batteries; meaning Gogoro just might succeed where Better Place failed.

Read more about the Smart GOGORO on the website: http://www.gogoro.com/

 

Do you like this new electric Smartscooter? Will you buy/ride one?

 

Google Glass is A Dead Enterprise Wearable with Lost Potential

Business, Experience, Mobile, , ,

As a response to my previously posted blog Google Glass Sucks and it’s Dead? Wait, what?! :

Google announced it was ending the Glass Explorer program yesterday (on the 15th) and handing over the reins to Nest’s Tony Fadell, it seemed to exit with more of a whimper than a scream. Let’s face it, from its earliest days, people loved to hate Glass.

In fact, from the moment Google announced Glass, people reacted harshly to the new technology. They simply hated the idea of nerds with computers on their faces who could take photos or videos surreptitiously. A new word, Glassholes, entered the popular lexicon to describe folks who wore Glass.

You can continue reading the full blog post on TechCrunch site.

But, does that mean Google Glass is really dead this time?

In its current form, Glass is undoubtedly dead, but there’s no reason to believe Google won’t relaunch it with a new version in the coming month — likely around its annual I/O developer conference.

Now, Glass is becoming its own business unit inside of Google, Tony Fadell will oversee the program, and sales to businesses, developers and schools will continue. Google is also encouraging developers to continue writing apps for the platform. Those are not signs that Google plans to cancel the platform. With Fadell in charge, I doubt Google will only focus on business use cases, as Fadell doesn’t do enterprise.

You can continue reading the full blog post on TechCrunch site.

 

Do you this the Glass will be re-born as a successful wearable or will die in to the night?

Instacart, a Grocery-Delivery Startup, is Evaluated At A $2 Billion

Food, Money, Startup, , ,

Back in June, the company’s valuation was $400 million and it raised $44 million. So that’s a pretty big valuation leap. Founder and CEO Apoorva Mehta said the company planned to use the new funding for continued geographic growth, technology enhancements, and category expansion.

Instacart, launched about 3 years ago, operates in 15 cities and service 4,000 shoppers with groceries delivery.

Instacart is just one of several startups trying to tackle the speedy-delivery space, including New York-based WunWun, which delivers small orders of groceries and other goods without a delivery fee in under an hour, and Postmates, which does the same, but with a $5 delivery fee. It also competes with FreshDirect, which delivers groceries to the Northeast with a delivery fee of up to $7.99 for next-day service.

Big players like Google, with Shopping Express, and Amazon, with AmazonFresh, are also experimenting with same-day grocery delivery. Both can bring customers their goods same-day, but with longer delivery windows than those of Instacart, Postmates, or WunWun.

This fund-raise was reported by TechCrunch at the beginning of December 2014.

 

In the ‘Internet of Things’ Market, Big Technology Companies will Dominate, and fend off Startups

Business, IoT, Startup, ,

The Internet of Things, or IoT, will bring the web to many formerly unconnected home appliances, business devices, and even cities; e.g., smart parking meters, smart homes etc.

In new research from BI Intelligence, they discuss why established chip makers, IT-consulting firms, and networking equipment manufacturers are actually well positioned to take a major share of the IoT market, and fend off startups.

Here are some of the key findings from the BI Intelligence report:

  • Legacy tech companies have longstanding sales relationships with businesses and governments, which will be the biggest adopters of IoT software, services, and devices.
  • These companies’ product portfolios align with what business clients need to create the backbone of IoT systems. The building blocks of the IoT will be networking equipment, routers, specialized chipsets and sensors, machine-to-machine communications, cloud-computing platforms, and database and data-analytics packages.
  • Legacy tech players have the resources needed to provide hands-on installation services and ongoing customer support to large businesses. The IoT will primarily be a software and services market.
  • Security is a central concern, and large businesses and governments are more likely to trust their data with large vendors they’ve worked with before over untested startups.

You can find the full BI report here

Get Out Of The Building

Business, Inspiration, Lessons Learned, Startup, , , ,

Albert Einstein said:

The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.

Staying in the office or lab, and researching and trying to figure out the best approach for the best product – is a waste of time. Instead you need to bring your ideas to the real world, get feedback, iterate and continue develop.

To “get out of the building” means exactly that; Having a brief brainstorming in the office, quickly developing a basic prototype, and bringing it to the public, the target audience in short time. The sooner you get out of the building, the better. You then have valuable feedback, to continue iterating your product development and process building.

By staying “in the office” you have your thoughts only, which are not new, and are not the market’s opinion and thoughts of your solution and product.

Steve Blank mentioned this concept of “getting out of the building”, early on and many times since. Getting out of the building helps you understand and build the Minimal Viable Product (MVP).

Click here to read more about Getting out of the Building by Steve Blank.  Another good resource is the dedicated blog in here

Levitating Bluetooth Speakers are Here to Stay

Gadget, Startup,

Lately, the personal music market have seen more and more gadgets to enhance sound quality of music and our experience of it. Great sound system is a must in every home and to every music lover, and if the speaker/system looks good, that’s even better.

The levitating speakers use magnetic levitation to get the speaker to float about an inch off of the base, and it spins while it plays. One of the great things about levitating speakers is the fact the you get a 360° sound quality.

In the past week, two crowd-sourced projects for Levitating Bluetooth Speakers came to my attention:

The Mars’s Levitating 360° Sound Projection

This speaker reduces sound wave absorption into surfaces by levitating above the subwoofer charging station. It detects the distance  of your bluetooth-paired phone, and adjust the sound accordingly.

You can see more details on the project’s page:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/mars-by-crazybaby-a-levitating-bluetooth-speaker

 

The Om/One Levitating Bluetooth Speaker

This speaker packs a punch of sound: a full, crisp, clear 105 decibels. Similarly to the Mar’s speaker, the Om/One also acts as a microphone, so you can use it to take calls.

You can see more details on the project’s page:
https://stacksocial.com/sales/the-om-one-levitating-bluetooth-speaker?aid=a-49y03t13

 

Do you know of other levitating speakers? or, levitating cool gadgets?