Fold-able Phones Flop

We have seen a few different varieties of fold-able phones pop up over the past few years.  What are they and why should we care?  Well, the idea of fold-able phones is pretty self-explanatory…they are touchscreen display phones that fold in some way or another, and continue to work as a touch display once folded.  Why should you care?  Well to be brutally honest, at the moment the results have been quite ugly, and so for the moment being, you have no reason to care.  Concept designs that have yet to be truly released, such as the Samsung Galaxy Fold, the Huawei Mate X, the ROYOLE Flexpai, and other let down products are the best to be offered in this category of device, and they have ALL been huge let downs.

Taking the Samsung Galaxy Fold as an example, the phone promises to be innovative and exceptional in its usefulness for having two different size screens that can allow the user a wide range of capabilities, but also be a compact and easily portable phone one second, while having a vibrant and large screen the next.  The problem is, instead of succeeding at both (or at least one), its failing in both categories.  The small screen isn’t totally fold-able, but instead more bendable.  It produces a ginormous gap between the two halves of the inner display, and makes the phone look like a this piece of paper that is halfway through being folded for a piece of origami.  When opened up to be used for its larger more impressive display, there is a very obvious line that is splitting the screen in half in a very messy and distracting way, not to mention the worst aspect of the phone, in which its very likely that one half of the large display could simply choose to stop working at any moment and turn into a large white canvas that is completely unresponsive and useless.

These phones are expected to be the next revolutionary product, and guiding the way to a new innovative and creative design future.  Instead, it looks like they may just end up being a nearly two thousand dollar paperweight.

 

What do you think?

https://www.tomsguide.com/us/foldable-phones-release-date,news-28705.html

Samsung keeps reminding us that the Galaxy Fold is a huge embarrassment

Never look at your phone for Navigation again!

If you are like me and typically use the navigation tool on your cell phone to find you way places, you may need this nifty device.  I will admit that I have been tempted many times to look on my phone while I drive in order to find my way around town, and I do depend heavily on looking to the right or left of my steering wheel to look at my Garmin GPS when I drive in order to be able to get anywhere that I haven’t been before.

The problem always seems to be that I have to take my eyes off the road (even for a short few seconds) in order to see where I am on the map.  This is typically not a big deal when I’m driving rather slow on smaller residential roads, but when driving at high speeds this can be a very dangerous glance away from the path ahead.  That’s where NAVDY comes in handy!

NAVDY is a holographic display smart device centered around its GPS component.  It originally is made in order to be a heads-up glass projection display that will appear with all the vital GPS map and route information directly on your front windshield right before your very eyes.  This way the driver only has to glance at the lower part of their view of the road, and their use of peripheral vision driving is minimized.  But the inventors of this gadget didn’t stop with navigation.  They also included applications such as phone and music device pairing, and a scroll software navigation tool that attaches to your steering wheel, so that you can control the device effortlessly with only your thumb, and most importantly without removing your hands from the wheel!

If you think this device is for you, check it out!

https://shopuk.navdy.com/

 

Having Trouble Sleeping? Look No Further!

Ever find yourself having difficulty either falling asleep, staying asleep, or not getting enough deep sleep via proper REM cycles?  Insomnia has plagued many people for many years, and there are a lot of suggestions for fixing this problem, but none have been proven to have 100% success rate for 100% of people with insomnia.  So the kind folks at ‘Phillip’s’ created a new remedy that may be the solution that insomniacs have been looking for, and its called “The SmartSleep”.

Its basically a headband that helps you channel deep sleep by reading signals in your brain and patterns that allow it to identify your deep sleep time periods, and then helps you stay there.  Once the headband has been calibrated for your brain and sleep schedules, and it is able to recognize the difference between being awake, light sleep, and REM sleep, it will specifically play soothing music, sound effects, and other quiet tones of your choosing.  This way, if the headband realizes that you are starting to wake up when you aren’t supposed to be, it can sooth you back to sleep and keep your REM cycle in regular intervals to maximize rest and effect sleep in the shortest time possible.

I personally don’t have issues with sleeping, but I have many friends and family members who find good sleep, or simply sleep altogether a difficult task, so this invention could be a solid and improvable solution to their problems and other insomniacs around the world.

Check it out!

Philips Releases New SmartSleep Headband That Uses Science to Help You Achieve Deep Sleep

 

Sensitive Samples Require Sensitive Hands

For many Oceanographers and deep sea scientists, studying delicate species of coral can be a bit of a headache.  Many of these coral are incredibly important to understanding the “ins-n-outs” of how the sea ecosystems function, and to truly be able to study them to the fullest, extracting samples is a must.  Unfortunately, collecting these samples isn’t easily when many of these species of coral can be destroyed or disturbed beyond research conditions if extracted by a human hand.  The oils secretions as well as force that is applied via human hands can destroy samples quite easily, as well as many rare species living in areas that aren’t able to be reached by humans yet, mainly due to pressure conditions and oxygen levels being dangerously low.

Enter:  “Squishy Fingers”; a nifty invention created by marine biologist David Gruber and roboticist Robert Wood to solve the problem of these sample extractions.  The robot uses silicone and fiber glass “Fingers” to elaborately and remotely collect these sensitive samples and retrieve them for proper research. If you’re interested in Oceanography and specifically coral research, this is definitely and invention you should take a closer look into! 

Check it out:  https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/160120-squishy-fingers-robotic-hands-corals-rovs/

 

Is Bell Flight’s Nexus the Vehicle of the Future?

Bell Flight Inc is a company that many people may not have heard of or recognize by name, but you are most likely very familiar with their claim to fame aircraft the V-22 Osprey, a legendary Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) craft that is used heavily by the United States Air Force and Marine Corps for operations that require the speed of a fixed wing airplane, but the precision of a rotary wing helicopter.  With their incredible success in the military market, Bell Flight has decided to take their designs to a more commercial market, and create a similar product to the average civilian…Well maybe more of the average VERY VERY rich civilian.

The “Bell Nexus” is also a rotary wing aircraft that falls into the category of a VTOL air frame, but it is most definitely for a civilian to use to do their day to day activities.  As a company, Bell Flight firmly believes that “urban air travel is coming closer to the masses through recent advancements in technology and software”.  This design is unique to other “urban air travel” however, in the aspect of the craft being entirely electric, making it significantly quieter than many of its competitor’s products, which is not only an attractive quality for those living in the communities underneath the operating airspace of the Nexus, but also much more unfriendly.  The project is still most definitely in it’s infancy, but prototypes have been made with reasonable results.  The process is obviously at a slow pace right now due to such strict aviation laws in the United States, but Bell Flight’s good relationship with the United States Military should bode well for them when negotiating for trial time with the FAA when testing with the Nexus gets to much more serious levels.

Check it out! Link: https://www.bellflight.com/company/innovation/nexus

 

The Hottest New Way to Shave

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For some people, shaving isn’t a big deal, however for myself and many others in my family, shaving can be a pain, especially when you are required to stay clean shaven everyday but you tend to grown a full beard every 24 hours.  One thing that helps ease the pain of shaving however, is a nice hot towel to open up your cleanly trimmed pours, and Gillette Razor’s newest shaving piece of technology is a nifty gadget that helps create that feeling while you shave!

The GilletteLab’s “Heated Razor” is the next greatest invention in their long line-up of razors and it is supposed to give that “Hot Towel” feel while you shave.  Using what is called a “Warming Bar” that is powered by a wireless charging electromagnetic battery, the razor’s temperature can be adjusted and customized to the user’s preference for the ideal and most comfortable possible shave.  This is personally something that I would love to try one day, and if it becomes an affordable product one day once it is no longer sold out, I would definitely like to see if it lives up to the potential that Gillette claims.

 

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-heated-razor-by-gillettelabs-sold-out?utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=sasdeep&utm_content=link&sscid=41k3_bmvop#/

Verizon’s 5G Network

Most people have heard about 3G networks, and I’d beg to say that most people have heard of 4G networks as well.  Its a pretty simply system that when a higher number is added in front of the capital letter “G”, that means the faster the download, upload, and streaming speeds there are for products.  4G is pretty fast already, and with LTE it gets even a little faster, so you can imagine that everyone’s eyes got a little bit bigger with anticipation when very recently Verizon decided to unveil their plan of implementing 5G.

Being that its still in its infancy, there are plenty problems and bugs that are being fixed, and its consistency and reliability regarding speed are not even close to being where Verizon wants, but for now it shows a little bit of promise.  It is currently in a beta testing phase for those who have access in small areas in Chicago, and it has been show to have speeds for downloading more than 600 mega bits per second and increase data connections anywhere between 10 and 100 times stronger than most current 4G networks.  These are some bold claims, and some people who have gotten to try this beta phase, such as Jessica Dolcourt, have said that things seem “At times…[what] Verizon has promised”, but also a significant amount of times “acted a lot like 4G”.

I certainly hope that this plan for increased network speeds and downloading/uploading performance lives up to its hype, because I still find myself being frustrated and not satisfied with the speeds of 4G connections, even with the help of LTE.

 

https://www.cnet.com/news/testing-verizons-new-5g-speeds-exposed-three-major-issues-with-the-next-gen-data-network/

 

4D Printing – Just When You Thought 3D Printing Couldn’t Get Any Cooler

3D printing has taken the world by storm since its major developments and improvements in more recent years.  By making 3D printing more accessible to the common everyday person through resource groups and college funds, people have been able to push 3D printing to new levels that defy the simple stagnant designs that come from the basic 3D printing method.

Introducing, 4D printing!  We may not be actually entering the fourth dimension, but we are entering a new age of 3D printing.  4D printing is simply a more advanced way of 3D printing, but instead adds the aspect of a product that changes due to a trigger.  For example, you could simply 3D print a normal cube, or you could 4D print a box that unfolds itself when wind penetrates it and causes it to flatten out into a 2D shape.  This trigger mechanism is incredibly innovative and helpful, and its applications seemingly limitless.

Most 4D printing labs can be found at the famous Massechusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and these labs have come up with some pretty nifty inventions using the dynamic aspects offered by 4D printing, such as a water valve that automatically shuts when hot water is applied, sneakers that will change shape and form to fit the weather and activity your in, and a special type of ink that changes shape and form when reacting with water.  Check it out!

 

https://all3dp.com/1/4d-printing/

 

And just like that, The Blind can See!

Biomedical Engineering has done some incredible things in recent years.  Prosthetic limbs have made amazing advancements, cochlear implants have allowed people with damaged hearing to go from practically deaf to hearing again, and even small organs are beginning to be 3D printed by organic 3D printers.  But now there is a new invention on the market that is changing the lives of those who have unfortunately lost the ability to see.  The Second Sight Argus II is a small computer chip that can be embedded into a person’s eye surgically that communicates to a state-of-the-art eyeglass device that works to transmit what the glasses take in and register to the user’s brain.  Its still in its development stages, or only allows the user to currently see rough outlines of objects, but that is still leaps and bounds better than nothing.  To someone like Allen Zderad, who lost his ability to see 10 years prior to using the glasses, it was an emotional moment for him when he was finally able to see his wife for the first time in a decade.  Even in its infancy, the Second Sight project looks incredibly promising, and as if it has the potential to change millions of lives, specifically bettering the lives of those who were unfortunate enough to have lost their sight.

Watch This Man Who’s Been Blind For A Decade See Again Using The Second Sight Argus II

Amazing Jetpack design inspired from ‘Iron Man’

Richard Browning is very rich, much like the fictional character in popular marvel comics Tony Stark.  Also similar to Tony Stark, Browning’s father was an ambitious engineer and inventor.  This unsurprisingly lead Richard to identify with such a genius fictional character, and start creating new incredible inventions of his own.  As many people know, Tony Stark’s alter-ego super hero identity is Iron Man, who flies around the world in a suit of armor that is propelled through the air on jet thrustors.  This idea lead Richard Browning to take on the adventure of creating his own flying metal suit as well.  Although it is quite different in design, its beginnings are very similar to those depicted in the popular marvel movie “Iron Man” in 2008.  Richard Browning started with his creation having single thrustors on each arm and leg, and eventually boosting the power up from there by adding more thrustors.  Eventually he realized that his design would benefit in the area of stability and ease of use by removing the individual leg thrustors and replacing them with a single more powerful thrustor placed on the back of the suit.  There are quite a few “body-controlled jet engine power suit” designs out on the market today, and many have similar designs and abilities to Browning’s, but as of now Richard’s suit design holds the land speed record for this type of invention.  They are actually currently available to purchase in their testing stages, but Browning understands quite well the power and abilities of the invention he has made, and isn’t selling this for any less than $443,000.  They are custom made however, so if you have the money to spend, you could soon by flying around like Iron Man at speeds up to 32 miles per hour or go as high as 12,000 feet into the air.

https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/jet-pack-lets-you-live-your-iron-man-fantasies-you-ncna893661