Author Archives: Sophie Kravet

Meet Jibo, The World’s First Family Robot

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Jibo is the world’s first family robot.

“JIBO’s potential extends far beyond engaging in casual conversation and completing daily tasks.”- Yahoo

“This Friendly Robot Could One Day Be Your Family’s Personal Assistant”- Wired

“JIBO isn’t an appliance, it’s a companion, one that can interact and react with its human owners in ways that delight.“- Mashable

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The Jibo robot does the same stuff as your phone, and is very comparable to Siri.” It’s a little pod with a motorized swivel, equipped with cameras, microphones and a display. It recognizes faces and voices, and can act as a personal assistant by setting reminders, delivering messages and offering to take group photos. It also serves as a telepresence robot for video chat.” (Time.com)

Why it’s hot: Is this the future? 100 years ago no one would have ever imagined that cell phones would make their way into society and people would become dependent on such devices.Today we look at Jibo and some may think this is an outrageous idea, while others applaud the creators. Who would buy such a thing, why is it necessary? But maybe this is the next step in technology.

The iPhone Case That Does Away With The Worst Part of Selfies

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Casecam: solving selfie problems all over the world.

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“That little mirror in the photos above holds your phone up, serving as the tripod. The camera is then essentially taking a photo of the mirror, which is pointed at you.

Maybe you’re thinking something along the lines of ‘That’s all well and good, but my iPhone’s camera app doesn’t have a timer function.’ No problemo, dear reader. CaseCam also comes with a free app that has a built-in timer. ” (Huffington Post)

Also, if your friend has the app, you can connect your two phones using WiFi and see yourself on your friends phone. This enables you to control the camera remotely to see how you look.

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CaseCam currently has a Kickstarter page, and creators hope to make these cases for the iPhone 5 and 5s

Why Its Hot:

Selfies are huge. We have seen many industries marketing their products around selfies, including Samsung WeFie campaign that took place this past fiscal year. This case is fun, and seems like it would attract a younger crowd. Teenaged girls are always checking to see how they look in pictures after they are taken. If they have the case, and their friend downloads the app, this makes for a whole new world of picture taking.

 

 

 

 

 

pd.ID

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Raise your hand if you’ve been told to never put your drink down at a party.

The pd.id, or personal drink ID now detects if there are drugs in your drink. “Here’s how it works: Stick the pocket-sized gizmo into your drink, and it will scan for color, conductivity and temperature. It then takes that information and compares it to a database of drinks it knows by connecting to an app on your phone.” (Huffington Post, Gradoni)

If the pd.id doesn’t detect any drugs in the drink, a small light on the device flashes green. If the device does in fact detect a common date-rape drug like Ambien or Rohyponal it will flash red.

The article highlights how in 2005 the U.S. Department of Justice found 4 percent of sexual assault victims had been drugged. Wilson, the creator of pd.id calls this device a “warning system.”o-PDID-570

Why its Hot:

Unfortunately sexual assault is a terrible crime that happens all too often. There are countless stories that involve drinking and date rape drugs. The pd.ID detector, although it cannot put an end to sexual assault, is a great device that allows people to drink at ease and not have to worry about what’s in their drink.

The iPad of Vacuum Cleaners

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Dyson has created the DC59; a newer, lighter, and quieter, cordless Motorhead vacuum.

Rob Green, an engineer at Dyson explained, “We wondered, ‘Why shouldn’t vacuuming be more convienent? Why should you have to get this big machine out of the cupboard, unwind the cord, plug it in, do one room, unplug it, go to the next room, plug it in and so on?” (NYTimes)

The DC59 weighs under 5 pounds and has a thin hot pink and purple body. Dyson highlights how manuverable this machine is, and comes with many attachments that allow it to be used in a lot of different ways.

The interesting part of this machine is the way it is actually being made. “Rather than the usual Silicon Vallet application of algorithims and microprocessors, Dyson’s advances in cordless vacuums have been made possible by willingness to rethink such old-fashioned devices as motors, gears, axles, magnets and other components buried in physical machines.

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Why It’s Hot:

Vacuums aren’t the “sexiest” products and not many companies are jumping to remodel vacuums. Dyson as found a way to revamp the modern day vacuum and make it more appealing.

 

Uber Reached Deal With New York on Surge Pricing Emergencies

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Uber reached an agreement with NY attorney general that would limit the cost an Uber driver can charge during emergencies.

Uber currently runs on a surge pricing model; the cost of rides increases during periods of high demand.The new agreement that was recently reached caps how high fare can reach during times of “abnormal disruptions of the market”– refering to citywide emergencies.

“Uber said the agreement was part of the company’s new nationwide policy of limiting surge pricing during emergencies. Fares may still rise higher than usual during an emergency, Uber said, but the increase will be restricted. Uber also said it planned to donate 20 percent of elevated fares charged during emergencies to the American Red Cross.” (Isaac)

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/08/uber-reaches-agreement-with-n-y-on-surge-pricing-during-emergencies/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

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Why It’s Hot:

Uber is a hot app that has been grabbing the attention of many. Uber was publicly critisized during Huricane Sandy when it applied surge pricing to many customers. Mr. Schneiderman wrote, “The abilitiy to pay truly exorbitant prices shouldn’t determine someone’s ability to get critical goods and services when theyre in short supply in an emergency.”

 

 

Facebook users or guinea pigs?

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This past weekend it came to light that in 2012 Facebook had been conducting an experiment on more than half a million daily Facebook users. Facebook had manipulated news feeds so that it could control the amount of negative and positive posts that would appear on ones homepage. Facebook claims that the experiment was to see how much influence Facebook has on the general user.

“To determine whether it could alter the emotional state of its users and prompt them to post either more positive or negative content, the site’s data scientists enabled an algorithm, for one week, to automatically omit content that contained words associated with either positive or negative emotions from the central news feeds of 689,003 users” (Albergotti).

A furor erupted over the idea that Facebook had toyed with its users emotions, and had used them as “guinea pigs.”

hot saucehttp://online.wsj.com/articles/furor-erupts-over-facebook-experiment-on-users-1404085840

Why It’s Hot:

People are furious that this experiment took place. This was a huge eye opener to users for them to realize that what they are seeing and posting can be manipulated by Facebook employees. Is this a turning point for Facebook? Only time will tell.

 

 

 

Hi, I’m a Tablet. I’ll Be Your Waiter Tonight

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Restaurants are now realizing that they are “late to the technology revolution.” Recently food chains like McDonalds, Panera, Applebees, and Chilli’s Grill & Bar have been rushing to incorporate tablets, apps, and computerized kitchen equipment and data analysis capabilities. The aim is to speed up the overall process that a customer encounters at a restuarant like waiting for food or the check.

Ronald M Shaich, chief executive of Panera Bread formed this idea a few years ago after reflecting on his daily life. Shaich highlights how every morning it was a routine for him to call ahead to the local Panera nearest his house to have his kids lunches ready to be picked up.  He says “It sudenly occured to me that this was a wonderful system for the C.E.O., but what about the other eight million people who order from Panera?” (Strom, NYTimes) His end goal is for customers to have an overall better experience, because in turn it will benefit the business. digital-menus-tablet

Why it’s hot: It’s very interesting to see how technology can really make its way into any setting. Different types of technology are impacting the food service industry and this is only the beginning. Will tablets eventually take the place of waiters completely? Chilli’s claims that tablets have helped one of their biggest complaints- slow service.

 

 

 

 

 

KeyMe. Copy Keys, Solve Lockouts

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KeyMe is a new smarphone app that allows its users to scan their keys and automatically uploads a digital version to the cloud. People are now able to copy keys instantly by opening up the app and requesting a copy be made and sent to their address.

KeyMe was also designed to solve lockouts. People can find locksmiths and show them the picture of the key that was scanned in the app. The locksmith will be able to make a new key quickly and at a low cost.

KeyMe also has 5 different kisoks set up around NYC. If it’s late at night and a locksmith itsnt available, there are 24 hour kiosks that can produce new keys.               

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Why It’s Hot: People are always losing house keys, apartment keys, car keys, all sorts of keys. Now it is super easy to take a picture of your key, have it stored in the app KeyMe, and have a copy made or a brand new key when necessary.