SolarCity generator
Tesla Motors lithium-ion battery packs aren’t just powering electric luxury sports sedans for wealthy any more. They’ve started appearing in a small number of California homes to store electricity generated by rooftop solar panels, and SolarCity, the Silicon Valley solar installer, will start providing Tesla batteries for businesses that want to cut their utility bills.
Continue reading… “Tesla batteries are powering an energy revolution”
“The Key to Erebor”
Hollywood is embracing 3D printing in a big way. Warner Bros. will offer fans digital blueprints of “The Key to Erebor” to help market he Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug. “The Key to Erebor” is a key item from the series, which fans can 3D print on their own or send to a company like Shapeways to print for them.
Continue reading… “3D printing is Hollywood’s smartest new marketing tool”
Mobile penetration in Africa is still growing at 4.2 percent annually.
People tend to have certain paradigms about the “developed world” and the “developing world.” Including, of course, media-fed images of Africa as a place of almost irredeemable poverty, deprivation, and pain. Many of our paradigms are, of course, illusions.
Continue reading… “Mobile penetration in Africa hits 80% and is still growing”
“Farmers may operate an unmanned aircraft over their own property for personal use.”
Good news from the Academy of Model Aeronautics: The FAA has clarified its rules (which were assumed but not confirmed) that private use of drones over their own property is allowed now:
Continue reading… “FAA permits drone use by farmers”
There are more tablets available with kid-protections and controls.
Tech is topping the Christmas lists this year as parents are prepared to indulge. A PBS Kids survey shows that 54 percent of parents plan to pick up a techie gift this year, more specifically tablets. Kids want bigger screens to play games and watch movies on. Kids want tablets more than they want game consoles, according to the survey.
Biggest funding source is family and friends.
You hear about startups in Silicon Valley getting venture capitalor crowdfunding money all the time. But the two combined barely make up the money given by startups’ biggest funding source: friends and family. (Infographic)
Continue reading… “Biggest funding source for startups is surprising”
UPS researching delivery drones.
Amazon made headlines when it announced it was working on small drones that could deliver customers packages in half an hour or less someday. But the e-commerce giant isn’t the only company researching how to harness the potential of small unmanned aircraft: the world’s largest parcel service, UPS, has been experimenting with its own version of flying parcel carriers.
Continue reading… “UPS researching drones to compete with Amazon Prime Air”
Students in Shanghai ranked as the world’s best.
The OECD is out with new global rankings of how students in various countries do in reading, science, and math. You can see below how Asian countries are obliterating everyone else in these categories.
Continue reading… “U.S. students rank below global average in math, reading, and science”
The Phantom 2 Vision quadcopter.
A man crashed a quadcopter on a busy street in New York City in September. Footage has accidentally been shot of the inside of someone’s apartment. Drones cause problems, but the technology is too exciting to write off. (Video)
Continue reading… “Personal drones are coming and they will change everything”
Face-reading technology raises many questions about privacy and surveillance.
Private emotions are often revealed in tiny, fleeting facial expressions, visible only to a best friend — or to a skilled poker player. Now, computer software is using frame-by-frame video analysis to read subtle muscular changes that flash across our faces in milliseconds, signaling emotions like happiness, sadness and disgust.
Continue reading… “When algorithms grow accustomed to your face”
Futurist Thomas Frey: Every time I delete spam from my inbox, I feel a tiny piece of my life flitter away.
Sitting needlessly at stoplights, or watching the minutes tick away as I wait in some line, or being forced to fill out yet another form, our precious time is being coopted by everyone from inconsiderate businesses, to overbearing government, to painful security checks at the airport.
Continue reading… “When Wasting Time becomes a Crime”
Only 1% of orders on shopping sites came from people who visited a social network immediately before.
Online sales on Black Friday hit another record this year. Social media only played a relatively small role — at least when measured directly, according to the latest data from IBM.
Continue reading… “Only 1% of online Black Friday sales were driven by social media”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.