Phone or tablet? Can't decide? Well now there's an answer to your problems...
...Phablets!
A phone-tablet, hence the name. Although the technology behind these isn't new and the idea isn't the most creative ever, they are slowly creeping their way into the market. There are a few very popular devices, mainly the Samsung Galaxy Note, HTC One Max, Nokia Lumia 1520 and iPad Mini, although the iPad Mini isn't really a phablet as it doesn't have the phone element.
Although some consumers hate the idea and see of it as a step backwards to the times of the 'brick' phone others like it, as it gives a mid-range alternative.
Like them or not, it will be interesting to see how these do in the market in the new few months.
Friday, 6 December 2013
Future Development #4 - Apps
Applications. Or Apps for short. Most people now own and regularly use apps on their smartphone or tablet, for browsing social networking, communications, gaming and more useful things like such as turning our phones into torches. Apps are recently new, but have grown rapidly and continue to do so, so who knows where they can go, how long will it be before we can use our phone to put the kettle on for when we walk in the door, we can already control computers and TV's so why does it have to stop there?
There are thousands of apps out there, and it is now easier than ever to join in and develop your own using free programming applications. The future of these apps grows with the development of newer technologies like those previously describe on this blog, who knows what we'll be able to do by pressing some buttons in the next few years. This is in terms of both business in manufacturing goods and providing a service as well as consumers.
The main issue is though, have we become too reliant on technology and our apps? What happens when things break down, a satellite fails?
Future Development #3 - Google Glass
Google Glass is another form 'wearable tech' but isn't available to members of the public at the moment, because as it's a Google product, the amount of research and development will be very high to ensure that the product does not fail, and so far from what we've seen it does look very exciting.
A pair of glasses that you can turn a screen on and show everything you wanted to do and talk to it to provide you with information, directions or play music etc, it just sounds like a smartphone we can wear. Similarly to the Samsung Galaxy Gear you can connect your Glass to an Android phone to provide some more features and improvements to those existing features.
But with the product still in research and development it may be a while before it's available for consumers, but it's certainly exciting and one to look our for in the future, as it can only get better and better.
A pair of glasses that you can turn a screen on and show everything you wanted to do and talk to it to provide you with information, directions or play music etc, it just sounds like a smartphone we can wear. Similarly to the Samsung Galaxy Gear you can connect your Glass to an Android phone to provide some more features and improvements to those existing features.
But with the product still in research and development it may be a while before it's available for consumers, but it's certainly exciting and one to look our for in the future, as it can only get better and better.
Future Technology #2 - Wearable Tech
Wearable Tech has been all over the main technology news websites, mainly watches and curved glass for screens. But recently Samsung have released their first piece of 'wearable' technology the Samsung Galaxy Gear, a watch, but it's more than just a watch.
This "watch" has many exciting features that we're use to seeing on our smartphones and tablets, such as a camera and some basic apps but the screen size and battery life are what some users are questioning. But if you have a Samsung phone and a Samsung headset you might fancy looking into one as you can connect it to your phone and earpiece to make calls, play music, etc. But if you don't it's probably more of a gimmick. Plus you may look a bit silly if you have a small wrist and large watch, but if that doesn't bother you then, you're fine.
Without a doubt there is potential in 'smartwatches' and other wearable tech but at the moment they still don't have anything on our smartphones.
Retailing from prices between £200 - £450 it may be worth waiting for these to develop even further as no doubt the capabilities of these devices will increase in time to come, and prices may even fall with new developments.
This "watch" has many exciting features that we're use to seeing on our smartphones and tablets, such as a camera and some basic apps but the screen size and battery life are what some users are questioning. But if you have a Samsung phone and a Samsung headset you might fancy looking into one as you can connect it to your phone and earpiece to make calls, play music, etc. But if you don't it's probably more of a gimmick. Plus you may look a bit silly if you have a small wrist and large watch, but if that doesn't bother you then, you're fine.
Without a doubt there is potential in 'smartwatches' and other wearable tech but at the moment they still don't have anything on our smartphones.
Retailing from prices between £200 - £450 it may be worth waiting for these to develop even further as no doubt the capabilities of these devices will increase in time to come, and prices may even fall with new developments.
Thursday, 10 October 2013
Future Development #1 - Robots
Robots. To some a typical metal box with un-natural movement and speech which is probably not worth the cost to make, but to some it's a lot more than that, a real life-like human, that is still very expensive. Robots are essentially computers, they are operated by computer software, and this makes it very difficult to make robots like humans. Computers are very good at what human are very bad at such as complex maths equations quickly, but are very bad at things we find easy and do naturally such as recognising objects.
But with a few companies investing a lot of money in research and development of robots they have come on leaps ad bounds recently, below is a video of a robot called 'Asimo' developed by Honda.
As you can see from the video, this isn't your typical robot that you see in animation films, this is a real robot that actually aids humans. However this still isn't cheap, Asimo has lots of expensive technology including sensors, microphones etc.
So while Robots are very much a reality for big companies, it may still be some time before we have them around the home helping us, or sometime before they take over the world, but this is definitely an exciting development and something we should be excited about seeing them in the future.
But with a few companies investing a lot of money in research and development of robots they have come on leaps ad bounds recently, below is a video of a robot called 'Asimo' developed by Honda.
As you can see from the video, this isn't your typical robot that you see in animation films, this is a real robot that actually aids humans. However this still isn't cheap, Asimo has lots of expensive technology including sensors, microphones etc.
So while Robots are very much a reality for big companies, it may still be some time before we have them around the home helping us, or sometime before they take over the world, but this is definitely an exciting development and something we should be excited about seeing them in the future.
Friday, 20 September 2013
Future Developments - Introduction
ICT is one of, if not the most, quickest moving market in the world. It always has been and will continue to do so for years to come, and is very hard to keep up to date with. Your mobile phone, laptop, tablet whatever that you brought six months ago, is it still the market leader? Is it still the latest most up to date piece of technology? I can almost guarantee that it is not. The latest technology for your everyday user to be in and around the news is the 'smartwatch' a wearable piece of technology that is a phone, MP3 players, and watch (if you didn't guess) all in one. It's a wearable computer.
So why does technology keep striving forward? Well for starters there's the change in needs for end users as well as manufacturers, they want to improve efficiency and reduce costs so they can increase profits, and a machine is the perfect solution, yes it has a huge one of cost but those costs are so often re-paid extremely quickly. But that's not so good for the workman, many of who have have lost their jobs through technology. The reduction in size of simple components such as transistors and resistors have lead to huge breakthroughs and made things a lot more powerful in a smaller area, a prime example being my mobile phone (HTC One X) that has a quad-core processor, something we were only beginning to see in desktop computers 8 years ago, that may seem a long time ago, but you think of the size of my phone and a large desktop computer, there's a huge huge huge difference so personally I think that's just incredible. Other reasons for the continued advance of ICT technologies is that development of flash storage and advances in telecommunications meaning we can transfer and take our data anywhere, without wires!
Some technologies are in there prime, such as GPS Navigation, which again my phone has, and that I must admit I rely on to get me anyway that's further than about 10 miles, i'm useless at navigating! Many people will say we have become too reliant on technology and to a point I agree, but if it's there we may as well make the most of it!
So what next for the world of technology? Many of these things I'm about to mention already exist, but are still so very expensive and contain issues such as brain controlled computing, IRIS scanning, robots! How long will it be before we have robots in our homes, how long will it be before they take over the world?
So why does technology keep striving forward? Well for starters there's the change in needs for end users as well as manufacturers, they want to improve efficiency and reduce costs so they can increase profits, and a machine is the perfect solution, yes it has a huge one of cost but those costs are so often re-paid extremely quickly. But that's not so good for the workman, many of who have have lost their jobs through technology. The reduction in size of simple components such as transistors and resistors have lead to huge breakthroughs and made things a lot more powerful in a smaller area, a prime example being my mobile phone (HTC One X) that has a quad-core processor, something we were only beginning to see in desktop computers 8 years ago, that may seem a long time ago, but you think of the size of my phone and a large desktop computer, there's a huge huge huge difference so personally I think that's just incredible. Other reasons for the continued advance of ICT technologies is that development of flash storage and advances in telecommunications meaning we can transfer and take our data anywhere, without wires!
Some technologies are in there prime, such as GPS Navigation, which again my phone has, and that I must admit I rely on to get me anyway that's further than about 10 miles, i'm useless at navigating! Many people will say we have become too reliant on technology and to a point I agree, but if it's there we may as well make the most of it!
So what next for the world of technology? Many of these things I'm about to mention already exist, but are still so very expensive and contain issues such as brain controlled computing, IRIS scanning, robots! How long will it be before we have robots in our homes, how long will it be before they take over the world?
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