Driverless Cars

After all, we are prone to road rage; rush headlong into traffic jams; break rules; get distracted; and crash into each other. That is why our automobiles need tank-like bumper bars and military-grade crumple zones. And it is why we need speed limits and traffic police. Self-driving cars won't have our limitations. They will prevent tens of thousands of fatalities every year and better our lifestyles. The liability issues regarding fully driverless cars will be easy: the car's manufacturer or software developer will be responsible for any accident unless it can be shown that a human driver was at fault. This sounds like very muddy territory. There is also the risk of hacking and this software development for cars has to include some serious protection from viruses and other people. Being the devil's advocate, there is no better opportunity for hacking than a several hundred pound weapon on wheels. On the brighter side, just think about how efficient things would be because the cars will not need to have all the human precautions and we will not even need to have our own because it will be always available. Not to mention wasting time to find parking spots or being stuck in traffic jams. What are your thoughts or expectations for these cars?

The Phone Call

Is the phone call dead? The younger generation seems to be using other communication services such as texting and emailing. There is just so much that written words cannot convey when you can just call the other person. A lot of misunderstanding could be avoided if we would just pick up the phone. There is a mobile application that can combine all of these communication features and you can even do conference calls with it. It is called Talko. It is not the first of its kind but it does have some interesting features. If a conference call is in progress, for example, a late participant can listen to the part they missed or replay the entire call (or parts of the call) after the call is over. The app also includes indicators that display if a contact is driving or has a low battery; it can also tell whether that person is using Wi-Fi or cell signal. That way, others can ascertain when — and how — is the best time and way to contact that person.

Professional Texting

In businesses, there are many ways to communicate with your employees and coworkers such as using internet phones, emails, and leaving voicemails. What about texting? Does it seem to be unprofessional? We use texting much more widely but business professionals are still not jumping on the wagon of sending texts for work. What happened to the phone call? You would think that would be the first choice in order to get things done quickly but these days it is a second option to writing text. But, just like email, any sort of text does not include tone and messages can be easily misunderstood. I think it all comes down to being more permissive, flexible and allowing people to Band-Aid their fear of rejection. If we text or email someone, we can re-read it 15 times before sending until it’s just the way we like it. If we interact on the phone, we don’t know what can be thrown at us and how we will react.

The iWatch: Where Does it Stand?

It has a "crown" knob to control scrolling and zoom without having to touch the screen, silent pulse notifications, a slate of health and fitness mobile applications and compatibility with Apple's new Apple Pay app, which lets users scan and pay card-free at participating stores. One of the drawbacks is that it has to be connected to the iPhone and comes with a $350 price tag. Some analyst think that it might be able to really shake up the market with smartwatches. Personally, they have been around for a while and it is a matter of people not adopting this technology. I also think that the watch is a solution to a problem that we have not found yet. Accord to several surveys, only about 3% of the population wear watches. Apple is going to do some heavy lifting if they want to get the other people to even think about wearing a watch, let alone getting a smartwatch. What do you think?

Signs To Consider If You Are Thinking of Quitting Your Job

We all come to a point in our lives when we need to re-evaluate where we are headed. Sometimes that includes thinking about changing jobs or even careers and that is never a bad thing. One of the things that you need to consider is if you are feeling bored and uninspired. Are you showing up every morning dragging your feet and just feeling miserable? Do you really want to put up with it for eight hours a day Monday through Friday? Hopefully you have an awesome job with a great paycheck. You probably tolerate fairly well most of your co-workers. But you just don’t belong at the company. Everything is going great but the schedule is not what you want it to be or something just does not jive with your morals or personality, or you do not care for the services of your company. First look to see if you can go to a different department though, there might be more opportunity with the software development team versus the mobile applications. If you keep being passed over for high-profile projects or promotions, then clearly someone up top hasn't realized how talented you are. Instead of wasting your potential at a place where your work isn't acknowledged or respected, find somewhere else where you might thrive.

iPhone 6 Rumors

It is almost that time of the year again....the new iPhone is going to come out in a couple months. There are a lot of rumor surround the new smartphone as far as what sort of specs it is going to have. First of all, it is going to have a larger screen. The market is leaning toward larger screens but the the past iPhones have not been keeping up with that demand. The larger screens are better for photographs and video conferencing and other communication services. Not only will it have a larger screen, it will also be thinner and lighter. As far as the software development goes, it will be a lot better and faster. Laptop Magazine reported that the iPhone 6 will potentially include a 20-nanometer quad-core, 64-bit A8 CPU. This would make it noticeably faster when browsing the Internet, processing graphics and running apps. That all sounds wonderful but we might have to wait a couple weeks longer because of some possible production glitches. That and people mauling each other over the newest shiny toy.

Personal Earbuds

Every person's ear is like a finger print, it is unique and has its own shape. Yet, earbuds are usually made to fit close enough. Wouldn't it be amazing to have your own custom earbuds that are made specially for your ears? This means that they will not be falling out when you are jogging or just using a phone service. Enter OwnPhones. These earbuds are wireless and custom 3D printed just for your ear based off of a scan that you can do with your phones. It is a project on Kickstarter which claims that it will be the best earphone that you have ever worn. The price at this point is about $300. The goal has been reached on Kickstarter and there are already several prototypes. This is just the beginning of 3D printing projects and I am sure that there will be more to come.