No product on the market, yet he has all this going for him. Do you respect this young innovator's techno-business-gangsta yet? What if I told you that the Businessweek writeup has the market for this gadget at about a half BILLION dollars??!! Yeah, who do you know who had it going like this at 23?
Well, Bubba Watson officially has the coolest golf cart ever...because it is a HOVERCRAFT!
U.S. Masters Champion Bubba Watson and Oakley set out to create the world's first hovercraft golf cart. The result, the BW1, is is golf course transportation that can glide over any terrain type there (and water), without damaging the grass. Will this bring more folks out to the links to try the age old Scottish game of strategy? Maybe, but most may never get out of the cart!
(Bonus: This means that one day there'll be no more yelling at relatives about leaving lights on and running up the bill in homes using this innovation.)
First it was stuffed animals, then T-shirts, and now it's a cartoon Web series - the Angry Birds franchise just continues to grow.
Rovio announced today that the first episode of the weekly Angry Birds cartoon show, "Angry Birds Toons," is set to air on March 16. Viewers will be able to watch what is happening "deep in the heart of Piggy Island" and find out whether those merciless piggies ever get hold of the birds' eggs.The game maker hinted at turning the wildly popular game into an animated series last April. In addition to the cartoon, the company has also said that an Angry Birds movie is in the works, which is expected to debut in the middle of 2016. It seems Rovio's overall goal is to transform from a gaming company to an entertainment company.
Zynga is also getting into the entertainment business. The social gaming company isworking with Director Brett Ratner, of "Prison Break" fame, to create a half-hour animated television series on the popular game Farmville.
It's unclear what devices, apps, and sites will eventually air "Angry Birds Toons." But it's been said that there will be 52 episodes that will each last about three minutes and be available on a variety of devices. For the March 16 premier, it looks like the cartoon will only be broadcast on the show's Web site.
Construction of the highways of the future (in the Netherlands) begins this year! Roads that will help recharge electric cars, display weather conditions for drivers on the street, and light the roadsides and pavement beneath their feet (tires)... heavily utilizing renewable energy sources like wind and solar). Incredible!
You know that pic you wished you had not sent? You know... that picture. Well, if you used the Snapchat app, it's like you didn't. People using the app send messages, pictures, and even video that quickly disappear, so there's no pressure to look cool... or worrying that the receiver will have permanent "dirt" on you (think: angry ex with that nude Valentine's Day pic you sent). If someone cheats and tries to take a screenshot of your snap to keep, the app notifies you. And in the realm of Snapchat, getting caught trying to beat... er... the system by capturing a screen image of what was sent is taboo. Of course, folks have started to figure out ways to save images without getting caught; so if you choose to use the free app, use care.
Snapchat is currently a big enough idea to draw some major Internet players; but still small enough to not have been bought or taken public for big dollars just yet. But we know the deal: Inventors Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy (Stanford schoolmates and Kappa Sigma frat brothers) have stopped taking calls on Snapchat for now... even from Businessweek... Something big is probably on the horizon (hopefully more money, without more problems). The driver for Snapchat's success: Sex. Sex sells. It always has! The first promotional images featured hot women with sly smiles. Since the dawn of photographic media, folks have been looking to share erotic media. A second driver: PRIVATE communication. Be it porn, near porn, or just-between-us messages... humans have NEEDED to be sure that certain conversations are kept secret (preferably destroyed after the receiver understands them). Snapchat's success hinges on both: continuing success on trends of people sharing explicit material and their need for privacy.
Ali Hajimiri, a professor of electrical engineering at the California Institute of Technology, has created a chip capable of producing terahertz waves-radiation (or T-rays) that can penetrate materials such as plastic and wood without the side effects associated with X-rays. So far, T-rays have been used mostly in experiments in medical and dental imaging. But Hajimiri, working with postdoctoral researcher Kaushik Sengupta, got thousands of tiny transistors to operate in concert, producing T-rays from a smaller machine. When connected with a computer or mobile device, the 0.1 inch-wide silicon chip technology could help doctors locate skin cancer noninvasively, speed up passenger scans at airport security lines, scan suspicious packages at the post office, or find art hidden behind painted walls.
Aww, not quite what you were expecting? C'mon though. It's still pretty cool tech, right?
A car that is able to drive itself on familiar routes has been shown off at an event at Oxford University.
The technology uses lasers and small cameras to memorise regular journeys like the commute or the school run.
The engineers and researchers behind the project are aiming to produce a low-cost system that "takes the strain" off drivers.
Other companies, such as Google, have also been testing driverless vehicle technology.Until the car can hit the streets, the team is testing it out in a specially-made environment at Begbroke Science Park in Oxfordshirei.
Autonomous technology is being tested by several car manufacturers and technology companies.
Marcus Eliasson, Arnaud Taffanel, and Tobias Antonsson are the engineers behind the Swedish startup Bitcraze; and they now accepting pre-orders for a palm-sized quadcopter called the Crazyflie Nano. At less than four inches across and 19 grams, the device is small enough to fly under tables and chairs, and through enclosed spaces.
The trio used only open source material for the project's hardware and code. So, they did not have to waste time and money they did not have to test and perfect their market version. No fighting over intellectual property rights either.
They have already gotten suggestions for modifications to the $149 device, and hacked the copter to carry a video camera, LEDs, and even an inductive charger. There will already be a more advanced, $173 Crazyflie Nano, with a magnetometer and altimeter offered.
Whoa. As a high-tech society, we have already crossed many barriers; some, perhaps, maybe we should not have.
'The U.S. Air Force, right now, has the ability to archive every single video that comes off of every single UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle]. We're moving to an increasingly electronic society where our movements are going to be tracked.'
- Mary "Missy" Cummings, MIT Humans and Automation Lab
One million terabytes of video a day, with high enough resolution to track an object six inches from the sidewalk... in your city... from 15,000 feet above... saved forever. Take a second to be amazed. Then spend the rest of your day SHOOK!
This might already be deployed in Afghanistan... it MIGHT already be deployed closer to home! That information is classified.
Watch yourself, people. Big Brother probably is. Just saying.
'This is the next generation of surveillance... It is important for the public to know that some of these capabilities exist.'
- Yiannis Antoniades, BAE Systems, Creator of ARGUS-IS
H?SHTAG$ is a new mini-documentary series from the Red Bull Music Academy, covering emerging music trends of interest across the web - like #CloudRap, #SeaPunk, #PostDubStep, and #AdvancedPop.
Above is "Don't Call It #AltRnB" (the first episode of H?SHTAG$), which explores... #AltRnB (or #HipsterRnB or #InternetRnB or whatever-you-get-from-watching-this-RnB). The video takes a look at the current renaissance of contemporary R&B - featuring Jeremy 'Zodiac' Rose (former half of The Weeknd), Miguel, Rochelle Jordan, and more. Very interesting discussion.
This is a game-changer for people who use wheelchairs to get around. Japan's Chiba Institute of Technology has developed a robotic wheelchair that negotiates obstacles by turning its wheels into legs and climbing over them.
Holes and gaps in the road, bumps, sidewalk curbs, and steps currently bar access to free travel for those in a traditional wheelchair. Turning around in small spaces is also a huge challenge. But Chiba's chair will change that. More robot than mobility chair, the robo-chair can actually climb stairs and move safely over uneven surfaces and onto or down off curbs. In addition, it can retract and realign its wheels to make tight 360 degree turns, all with the twist of a joystick.
So, this model proves the robo-chair to be more than a concept; rather a prototype. Next up: A project to develop wheelchairs that help people reach and read items too far overhead for folks using mobility chairs of today.
It's been a LONG time since I caught SNL. Had to check it out this past Saturday night when I heard Kendrick Lamar would be the featured performer. Gotta make sure those ratings are nice, so they invite some real Hip-Hop artist back on the show. If you missed it, check it below. The show is also hosted by Adam Levine.
AMAZING! The Dutch artist Berndnaut Smilde has developed a way to create a small, perfect white cloud in the middle of a room. By carefully manipulating the temperature, humidity and lighting in a room, Smilde conjures a cloud out of... well... thin air... using a fog machine!
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