CES 2015

CES 2015: 25 new products and technologies worth talking about

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/09/new-products-technologies-ces-2015

In many ways, this year’s CES technology show in Las Vegas is business as usual. Devices are getting thinner, a new acronym is spawned every minute, and every company is revolutionising something in their press releases.

What are the products whose implications will last longer than the in-show hype, though? Below, we’ve rounded up 25 of the new products and technologies from CES 2015 that are worth talking about. Which, note, isn’t the same thing as calling them the “best” products or the ones most likely to be commercially successful. These are some products

Gogoro Smartscooter

Gogoro’s Smartscooter is an electric scooter with a range of nearly 100 miles, but you don’t recharge its battery: you swap it. The company will operate a series of hubs where batteries can be reserved ahead of time, then swapped for the one that’s running out. There’s no news on its launch date or likely price, including the cost of the ongoing subscription for the batteries.

Talking point: better or worse than the Tesla model of charging points?

Voxel8 3D printer

There are plenty of 3D printer companies showing off their new devices at CES, but the Voxel8 is the most intriguing of the lot. Its focus is on printing electronic circuits rather than just plastic objects, using conductive ink that dries quickly, and can be embedded in other objects. In the future, it could be used from devices including hearing aids, wearable gadgets and even quadcopter drones.

Talking point: What does it mean for tech if we can print our own circuits?

Developers made $10bn from apple

Developers made $10bn from iOS apps in 2014

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/08/apple-10bn-payouts-ios-apps-2014

Apple paid out $10bn to developers of apps for its iPhone and iPad in 2014, taking its total paid out since its App Store’s launch in 2008 to $25bn. Apple’s 30% revenue share of all apps spending means it earned an additional $4.3bn from sales of iOS apps in 2014, plus sales of its own range of iOS apps.

“This year is off to a tremendous start after a record-breaking year for the App Store and our developer community,” said Apple’s senior vice president of software and services Eddy Cue, as the company announced that iOS users spent nearly $500m on apps and in-app purchases in the first week of January alone. Apple said that billings on the App Store rose 50% in 2014, although its corresponding figures for 2013 suggest the growth in spending on iOS apps was smaller than that in 2014.

Apple added that its Apps for RED charity drive in November and December helped boost its donations to the Aids charity to $20m in the final quarter of 2014, and $100m since it started working with the organisation.

2014 had its bumpy moments for Apple’s relationship with iOS developers too, however: the year ended with a lively debate about the company’s App Store approval policies that has continued in to 2015.

Intel investment $25m

Intel trains sights on Google Glass with $25m investment in Vuzix
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/05/intel-google-glass-vuzix-investment

This article is about how intel are now also investing in new wearable technology by paying $24.8 million for a 30% stake in US firm Vuzix. This shows that wearable technology may be the future with all large companies such as Google heavily investing in the new technology.

The latest is Intel, paying $24.8m for a 30% stake in US firm Vuzix, which has made its name with devices aimed at consumers and workplaces – for example hospitals, warehouses and call centres – alike.Vuzix says it will use the investment to speed up the development of its next line of “fashion-based wearable display products”, following the launch of its M100 device in 2014 through a partnership with another tech firm, Lenovo.

“We are trying to bring technology companies and fashion companies together,” said Bell.
Sales of Vuzix’s existing devices have been growing, albeit from a small base: the company reported revenues of $664.6k in the third quarter of 2014, up 96% year-on-year.
“We’re making a very big bet on wearables. We have announced we have a family of chipsets coming out in the next year that are wearables specific. It’s a pretty safe bet … Our plan is to partner with the best people, and have them teach us.”

Removingads?

Google Contributor: can I really pay to remove ads? 

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/21/google-contributor-pay-remove-ads

This article is about how Google have provided a new service to its internet browsers that allows them to remove ads and pay a small fee. Google are doing this to try and exoeriment whether companies can just recieve a small fee from their audience rather than have advertisements.

·         Google lets users choose how much they want to pay to not see ads from $1, $2 or $3 (£1.91) a month tied to a Google account.

·         Google is starting the service with 10 publishing partners, including Mashable, Imgur, WikiHow and Science Daily.

I find this article interesting as it shows how institutions are testing out different ways of funding their sites other than advertising, which in a way is similar to the paywall that some newspaper institutions have.

Football Fans not to post Vine videos of goals online.

Premier League warns fans not to post Vine videos of goals online.

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/aug/15/premier-league-warns-fans-vine-videos-goals

This article is about how football fans are producing vines, gifs, and video clips of football matches and posting them on social media sites such as twitter without being aware that it is a crime due to the breach of copyright. It discusses how these free clips could force commercial partners to pay less and negotiate for deals with the premier league as the content is being revealed online for free. Also, it says that legal action could be taken out on those who produce and upload these vines.

·         @FootballVines Twitter page has more than 539,000 

·         Sky Sport and BT paid £3bn for rights to show 

·         Twitter received a total of 9,199 copyright takedown notices in the first six months of this year. A 38% increase compared with the second half of 2013, of which in 76% of the cases, material was removed.

I believe that this story is interesting as it would be very hard to police the internet and ensure that nobody will produce these illegal videos. Also, I believe that this article is used as a scare tactic to prevent as many people from producing this type of media content.

Malware spied on companies and governments

Malware spied on companies and governments in 10 countries since 2008

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/24/malware-regin-surveillance-companies-government-individuals-symantec

An advance malware application has been detected which spies on private companies, governments, research institutes and individuals in 10 countries since 2008, Symantec Corp the inventors of Norton reprted it on Sunday 23rd November. this specific malware is hard to detected and even when it is detected it isn't clear what the malware is actually doing, it has been described as having 5 layers and each layer has little information on that compleat layer and only once all layer have been discovered it can be analysed properly.

Regin uses what is called a modular approach that allows it to load custom features tailored to targets, the same method applied in other malware, such as Flamer and Weevil (the Mask). Some of its features were similar to Duqu malware, uncovered in September 2011 and related to a computer worm called Stuxnet, discovered the previous year. About 28% of targets were in telecoms, while other victims were in the energy, airline, hospitality and research sectors.The program was apparently withdrawn in 2011, but resurfaced in 2013.

Ched Evans

Ched Evans rape debate: Ofcom to investigate BBC DJ’s comments

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/dec/01/ched-evans-rape-debate-ofcom-bbc-nick-conrad-norfolk 

This article speaks about how ofcom are investigating the comments made by a DJ on a radio station which may be seen as offensive in which one of the things he said was women need to keep their knickers on. This is him referring to the Ched Evans case in which Evans was put in jail for allegedly raping a woman and has now been released and wants to come back into football again

I believe what he said was wrong but if he wanted to give his real opinion then he should have because there is no point in lying however what he said was wrong and I believe if something happens to him such as being suspended I believe it would be fair but he has apologized so he knows where he went wrong.