Google delivery drone.
Google has secretly been working on the Project Wing program at GoogleX for the last two years. The company has been working on building flying robots that can deliver products across a city in a minute or two. (Video)
Continue reading… “Project Wing – Google’s secret drone-delivery project”
A ban on office communications in the evening and during vacation time could even become law.
Some German companies such as BMW, Volkswagen and Deutsche Telekom, in the last few years, have banned after-hours calls and emails to workers. The point of the ban is to actually let people take time off in the evening, rather than effectively being half-working all the time.
Continue reading… “Germany considers ban on after-hours office communications to workers”
Private investment in electric transmission has quintupled from $2.7 billion in 1997 to $14.1 billion in 2012.
Private electric utilities in America have been doing something surprising over the past ten years – they have been investing a lot of money in power lines and other electric-transmission infrastructure. (Chart)
Library vending machine in China.
By Zach Hyman: There seems to be sufficient demand and interest in China for enabling people to check out books 24 hours a day. The not-so-cheap library vending machines have taken root across both urban and rural areas, each with a very different set of needs and each bearing vastly different reputations for serving their citizens. (Pics)
Continue reading… “Introducing the Library Vending Machine”
For high-tech workers in San Francisco, the average annual wage rose to $156,518 in 2013, up almost 19 percent from the year before. That ranked the city No. 1 for high-tech wage growth out of 34 markets nationwide, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data crunched by JLL, a commercial real estate services firm.
Continue reading… “Tech wages that will astound you”
The Sense sleep tracking device has been backed by angel investors and crowdfunding campaigns.
Wall Street Journal’s Evelyn Rusli reports that startups are tapping new sources of early-stage funding, including ad hoc networks of wealthy tech executives doing some investing on the side, and that should give some big venture capital firms pause. Twenty-three year old entrepreneur James Proud is the latest example. He has raised $10.5 million from a circle of well-connected angel investors and an additional $2.4 million in a Kickstarter campaign for his sleep-tracker device Hello.
Continue reading… “Pre-VC rounds are shaking up early-stage funding”
What will the workforce look like in 2019?
Human-resources experts predict significant changes within the workforce over the next five years. They predict a sizable shift as millennials take their seats at businesses large and small, and Baby Boomers simultaneously either retire or modify their work styles to reflect increasingly flexible and mobile opportunities.
Continue reading… “Top 5 ways the workforce will change in the next 5 years”
Futurist Thomas Frey: In 1964, and open letter was drafted and sent to President Johnson, warning him of the coming Triple Revolution.
Continue reading… “When it comes to jobs, why is this time different?”
Harvard Law professor Cass Sustein found in his survey on “predictive shopping,” 41% of people would “enroll in a program in which the seller sent you books that it knew you would purchase, and billed your credit card.” That number went down to 29% if the company didn’t ask for your consent first.
Continue reading… “The future of shopping may be no shopping at all”
Watson will transform entire industries.
IBM’s artificial intelligence computing platform, Watson, is changing the way we compute. From its roots as a robotic contestant on Jeopardy, the machine-learning marvel is now being positioned as a tool for doctors, businesspeople, and scientists worldwide–one that can answer any question posed to it in natural English.
Continue reading… “Top 5 ways Watson will change the way we compute”
Solar is now the fastest growing segment in the energy business in the U.S.
The energy storage era is upon us. States like California and New York have adapted energy policies that will make it possible to economically deploy storage systems, while technology advancements have boosted performance and trimmed costs. For the first time in history it will become feasible to store electric energy.
Transparent solar cell.
Developed by researchers in Michigan State University, a new material, called a transparent luminescent solar concentrator, can be used to cover anything that has a flat, clear surface. Transparent solar cell technology has been attempted before, but the energy the cells produced was poor and the materials they were made out of were highly colored.
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.