Recon Jet. Sounds futuristic, huh? Well, it is. Augmented reality used to be a figment of sci-fi writers imaginations, until Google gave tech companies everywhere hope that wearable technology and augmented reality is possible, and more importantly, will sell. A lot. More and more innovators and startups are diving into the ocean of possibilities with augmented reality, and more specifically, augmented reality glasses. Of course, Google Glass is just for the average Joe, not really developed for any certain profession or hobby. Recon Jet, on the other hand is. It’s developed for those of you out there who are healthily obsessed with sports.
There are many smartphone apps and watches that can help with the two sports Recon Jet specializes in: running and cycling. But Recon Instruments, the makers of Recon Jet said “Pfft, we can do better!” And, truthfully, they did. They blew away those petty apps and watches. And here’s why. Recon’s augmented reality glasses Recon Jet has everything an athlete could want. Starting with, of course, a map. When you are exercising, instead of going only where you know how to get back, you could potentially just go wherever you fancy and use Recon Jet to get back. If you bike to work, and you don’t pay attention and get lost, Recon’s got you covered.
All the helpful stats and information that the other exercising apps and watches are all built in the Recon Jet, such as heart rate, time, distance, social rankings, social networks, vertical ascent, elevation and much more. Plus, more, all accessible right at the touch of the touchpad. While in the middle of an exercise or a race, knowing if you are slowing down or being able to see the exact race course so you don’t accidentally turn early and have to turn around is sometimes key.
The Recon Jet
The Recon Jet’s hardware is a pair fancy polarized sports glasses with a small curving rectangle with a high resolution display screen. Unlike Google Glass, the screen is not opaque, though it is pretty small so it is not very annoying and doesn’t block your view. In the rectangle, there is a dual core CPU, accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, altimeter, thermometer. So basically, it can track and tell you a LOT of stats.
A Concept Of What Recon Jet Would Show When Playing Golf
Overall, these glasses are exactly what every serious athlete was hoping for. They are an athletes best friend. Ok, that might be going a little to far. But Recon Jet can also be used for other practices, such as surgery and as Recon CMO Tom Fowler said,
“I showed this to a U.S. Army doctor who had done a couple of tours in Afghanistan, and he said that if he’d had one in Afghanistan, people would have made it who, sadly, did not.”
These glasses make running and biking a better experience for the serious athletes all around. And if you are thinking about integrating technology in your daily workout by buying a fancy expensive watch or such devices, and are willing to cough up a couple hundred more dollars, the $600 Recon Jet is for you.
With all the recent talk about Google Glass, and the releasing of Galaxy Gear and Pebble, it was inevitable that someone would eventually say “What if we put all the useful things from your phone on a ring to!” Sure, a ring is something small and not noticeable, but really, taking out your phone doesn’t take that long. Still, it’s not like it wouldn’t be helpful. So now that everyone is putting technology on every wearable item there is, the creators of Smarty Ring jumped right ahead and made a, you guessed it, smart ring.
Ok, so maybe watches, especially smart watches, are not for everyone. The Smarty Ring is a good alternative, unless of course you don’t like rings either. Then you would go for the more expensive Google Glass, but for the sake of this article, lets just say you do. The Smarty Ring, based off of their Indiegogo campaign and conceptual designs, is a stainless steel ring, with a curved screen on one side and some media (play, pause, ect.) controls on the side. It’s very sleek, and a cool ring by itself even if it just showed the time, but lets see what how useful it is with the other functions added in to.
The Conceptual Smarty Rings
Smarty Ring can handle anything a normal smart accessory would. Of course, it can show the time, but it also has a stopwatch (or stopring), a timer and an alarm. It notifies you when you have a email, text, call (which you can pick up on your phone as usual), or updates from Twitter, Facebook, Skype and Google Hangouts. Smarty Ring claims that it could reduce the times you check your phone a day by 60%, but when it notifies you that you have a call or a text, you just take out your phone and answer. They say that it stops you from digging around to find your phone just to have no notifications, and I admit, that has happened, but maybe 60% is a bit much.
The Conceptual Smarty Ring Charger
And that’s pretty much it. You can control music and other media on your phone through the Bluetooth controls, but if you take away the phone it’s connected to it’s just a fancy watch ring. I’m not saying that it wouldn’t be helpful, but unless you spend every second of your free time checking Facebook or Twitter, the Smarty Ring isn’t really necessary. Though it pretty cool.
Puzzle games have been growing substantially in the mobile gaming ratings, being a very good way to waste time. Nowadays, when you are on the subway, walking to work, or even just in an escalator, you just have to grab your phone and work on that puzzle game you just can’t solve, or that game that you really really want to break the record for. Games such as Candy Crush and Spell Tower are skyrocketing, and Dots, a simple puzzle game, may end up going through the roof.
The Game In Play
Dots is based of a simple childrens concept: connect the dots. In childrens books, you connect the dots to make shapes. In dots, you connect the correctly colored dots to gain points. The board consists of a 6×6 grid of dots, and each dot could be one of these colors: red, blue, yellow, black or pink. You can connect dots of the same colors, only horizontally and vertically, to get points. Logically, the more dots you connect, the more points you get.
There are 2 ways to get more than the usual amount of points. First of all, if you make a square out of dots in a game, and connect them, you get a big bonus. Also, all the dots of that color disappear, leaving room for more and more rectangles. It is a cycle that you want to gain access to. The second way to gain more points is to use your power-ups. One power-up adds 5 moves or 10 seconds onto you clock, the second one takes away one dot, and the last one takes away all of one color, just like a square. The most helpful one is the last one, or expanders, but you have to buy all of them using points you earn during each game.
A Sample Situation
There are 3 modes of play in Dots: timed, 30 moves, and Endless. Timed is where you only get a minute to get as many points as you can. The trick in that type is just try to go fast- it doesn’t matter how small the ones you get are. The second one is 30 moves, which as you can probably tell, you have 30 moves in.To get a high score, contemplate the consequences of your moves and see if you can make a square. Endless, the last one, is a (obviously) infinite game that just keeps on going and keeps adding to your score. You can also quickly turn on gravity, which make the balls float around a fall to whatever side is near the ground, and when you turn it back on, they are shuffled.
A Dots Screenshot
Dots is overall a very fun and time consuming game. But, even though the regular game is consuming, it is one of those awesome games that you can start and quickly stop playing constantly and never even disrupt your game or your mind-set. In fact, while writing this, I was playing Dots off and on, and yet I still broke my personal record. The great new iOS 7 style interface and colors work great together, and it is just a great game for the busy, working person.
Nike not only makes clothing and equipment. They have also delved into the industry of fitness devices. This type of devices track how many steps you take, how long you ran and other statistics like that. There are many apps, devices that go in shoes, clip-ons and wristwatches that can do these tasks. Nike+’s new Fuelband will try to make a wristwatch that the world hasn’t seen before. Nike Fuel, Nike’s all around unit of exercise, will be leading this charge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gMmzHzQmF0
The wristwatch is different than most watches. For instance, there is no face, making it more of a wristband. There is a button on the side that activates Nike’s clever screen. Lights flash underneath the rubbery surface, which actually are visible through the surface. The customizable scrolling interface is not the fastest, but for someone who only cares about a couple statistics, it’s perfectly fine. On the bottom, a clip has placed so that you can unclip it and plug it into a USB port. That probably wouldn’t be needed though, since it can be Bluetooth connected to your mobile device. The battery is surprisingly long-winded. I have been wearing mine for 1 week now and have been constantly checking it, but it is only a quarter through.
The Band
Nike Fuel is like a unit of measuring your exercise in a very lax way. If you are really paranoid about knowing what exactly happens when, you probably would want to spend more money on a more expensive watch. I’m not saying that the Fuelband can’t track sessions of different activities, because it can. You can start a session, select your activity, and have it record all the usual statistics. But the difference between Fuelband and other devices is that it is ALWAYS tracking. While you are walking around the house, while you are working, even while you are sleeping if you wear it.
A Simplified Version Of What’s On The App
Nike’s Fuelband app also adds to the experience. There, you can look at your daily stats, see if you beat your goal, or at least got into the green area of the color scale. You can see interesting statistics, like when you do your most exercising, your best day, and your total Nike Fuel. Trophies are also a big part of Nike’s app. Trophies are basically landmarks, such as “double your daily goal” or ” win 10 hours in 1 day”. They also come with cool animations, which are fun and motivating.
Some Of The Scroll Options
Nike Fuel is basically a wristband for anyone who is interesting in how much they workout each day with out trying and is satisfied with how much they are, or for someone who just wants to lose weight or something like that. If you keep upping your goal like Fuelband suggests, you can easily use Fuelband for that type of activity. Overall, it is a fun, motivating way to exercise and find out how much you do, just in daily life. That puts them ahead of any other device in that category, and I recommend it to the average Joe, which unfortunately that fit in the US. Hopefully Fuelband, along with the other devices and companies can fix that.
Today wouldn’t be the same if computers hadn’t been invented. Everything would be run manually, not to mention the lack of the World Wide Web, the average Joes greatest information source. Unfortunately, to create anything from scratch on a nowadays computer, you have to do it in code. Being a Coder, or Programmer, is now a very popular and important job for the economy and businesses. There are many codes, such as Python and Java Script, some being easier or more useful than the others, but they are all hard to learn. That is why teaching kids to code is very important for the next generations success. Some websites have sprouted up, such as Codeacademy, and they’re not bad, but for some younger or more visual learners, the websites are not for them. A new technique, using actual robots is starting to be used, and great example of that is the new robots Bo and Yana by Play-i.
There are many simple robots for kids out there that have an easy visual coding system and flash colors and move, but Bo and Yana are probably the most advanced yet. Yana is a small ball, which can move around and be set as a character by emitting sounds and lights. Bo is 3 of Yanas stacked into a pyramid. Bo not only moves, but can detect objects, take in more complicated code, and have accessories added to it like a xylophone mallet or a plow. Together, these robots make Play-i, a fun and more interesting way to learn the basics of coding.
Bo (Left) And Yana (Right)
The difference between Play-i and other coding robots is that Bo and Yana are more like an actual creature with a brain and eyes, unlike other robots that look like a big stepped on ball of wax. It gives kids a way to feel like they are doing more than coding. They are creating this creature. Also, another great feature of Bo and Yana is that they do not only take Play-i’s visual language. For older kids, you can even coding in other more-well known languages. Scratch and Blockly are even accepted, which is a first for robots in education.
Bo Skillfully Playing His Xylophone
Bo and Yana are just more ways that people are trying to influence kids to learn to code. As Play-i says, coding nowadays is almost as important as reading and writing. If you can think of a job, you probably have to know how to use a computer. Coding is an important skill in the technology industry, and you’d be crazy if you said that wasn’t the biggest industry currently. So to teach kids programming should be rightfully high on the education list, something that it isn’t. Bo and Yana are certainly helping that and it’s starting to turn around.
Voice recognition software has boomed in the last year of two, especially becoming famous when Google released plans for their Google Glass, a augmented reality glass that is almost entirely based off voice controls. Even before that, Apple added Siri to their iOS, the infamous voice dictation system that allows you to ask it questions and easily move around the phone. This feature was criticized continuously for it’s bad recognition, causing it fail and be shunned by users. Even after the ups and downs of the tech, many people still think it can be very helpful to average Joes everywhere. Some of those people are the creators of XOWi, the always-helpful mini clip assistant.
XOWis
XOWi itself basically is a lot like Apple’s iPod Shuffle, besides for the fact that the only thing the Shuffle does is play music. The XOWi, a little clip, can be put on computers, lamps, books, but it is mainly meant to be put on your shirt’s collar, or as a necklace. To activate XOWi, all you have to do is press the little button that takes up most of XOWi’s hardware. XOWi is really only about the size of a small mint can. Meanwhile, Siri is the size of an iPhone (obviously) and still takes up both of your hands. The great thing about XOWi is that it speaks back the answer like a human would, unlike Siri or Google Now, which usually shows you a list or map.
All The Different Capabilities Of XOWi
XOWi has many different functions, including the ones Siri has, except XOWi has more that would be more useful without a phone in everyday life. For instance, XOWi can take notes that you can easily have played back to you, or tell jokes. Another feature that is quite useful, if not more for the younger generation, is the Quiz feature. XOWi can even quiz you on certain topics. All these features, plus more, are being added to by developers everywhere.
The XOWi Founders
XOWi is the perfect tool to illustrate the new age of technology. A crowd-funded project, XOWi is a small startup in need of money. Their product is a tool to make you life mobile phone-based and more handsfree. It uses speech-recognition tech to let you do many thing that otherwise would involve a smartphone. Right now, we are on the computer a big percentage of the day (not counting night). XOWi, and other wearable tech projects such as Google Glass and Galaxy Gear are still technology, but they are trying to let you live your life at the same time.
Learning a language is always hard. Especially after the age of about 14, you mind hardens, making it harder for other information to make it’s way in. Fortunately, technology has it’s way of making most of life easier, including learning languages. Since you probably grew up only using one language, it is hardwired into your mine. Just the fact that I am writing this right now is amazing, considering how many words I have memorized over time, if you think about it. Everyone does, but how much information you mind has been storing for thousands of years longer than computers have is astonishing.
Enough philosophy. A common program that is bent on helping people learn new languages is the famous Rosetta Stone. It’s a computer program that drills the language into your brain having you fill in sentences, with pictures underneath to give you a hint. It is perfectly fine….besides the fact that it is over $100. Very expensive. So otherwise you wanted to take lessons, it is pretty much your only option. Until now.
The Duolingo Owl
Duolingo is a free app for iOS and Android that has same objective as Rosetta Stone, yet a slightly different approach. As part of the lessons, Duolingo the picture approach, but only for filling in the word and gender for current languages, German, Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese. Most of the Duolingo lessons are set in packets, such as basics, plurals, animals, and number. These packets are each set in a way so that you know sufficient information to fill in the rest of the sentence, while also learning the new words. Inside the packets, there are lessons, with each lesson teaching about 5-6 words. Each lesson is made up of a couple of different types of problems such as translating the sentences (with hints), repeating sentences using the microphone, and probably the most common, translating sentences by picking words out of a batch. There are many others, and this variety makes you learn every aspect of the language to move on. There are just enough hints so that if you don’t know it, you don’t pass. In each lesson, there are 20 questions, with which you only have 3 lives. If you lose all your lives, you have to start over again.
Sample Duolingo Problems
The great thing about Duolingo is that it is very social. Every time you correctly complete a lesson, you earn 10 XP, plus 1 extra for remaining lives. Your XP is tracked by day, week and month so you can track your usage and learn curve, and once you get a certain amount, you go up a level. You level is your rank in Duolingian society, and the higher rank you have in the most languages the better. You can even compete with your friends and see who has the most XP overall, in the week, and the month.
The Learning Tree Part Of My Home Screen
Even though Duoling is a great app, they also made a computer version for people really into it. It is built right into the browser, and you can complete lessons and packets just like on the mobile version. The only difference is that the online version has many other side-features that can be very useful. For instance, you can go over the words you have mastered and see which ones are overdue for a revisit, which is easily done, and have discussions about Duolingo and give feedback with other users. Another unique feature in Duolingo is that immerse yourself in article in your language, and even translate them. All these features give Duolingo a step ahead of any other language program.
Duolingo is always growing. Now that Duolingo has started the Incubator, anyone can sign up to contribute to a growing course. Right now, most growing courses are English in another language, such as Russian or Japanese. Sooner or later, though, there will be more languages so that you can try out as many different languages as possible and see how they all connect. But just starting the Incubator shows how much Duolingo cares about the public, and how they get the best experience possible.
Styluses have become a popular tool for people who often use tablets, and have trouble touching the buttons. Also, styluses can be used for doodling, drawing, and writing instead of typing. It’s sort of an exclusive tool, and only some people use it and need it, but Adobe still wants to have their one of their first pieces of hardware be one.
Adobe have been known for their software and software only, but they want to change that. Their new project, released at Adobe Max in May, is Project Mighty, the Adobe-integrated stylus. But, it’s not like you can change the world by making a stylus. There’s not much to change to the classic design. It’s the software that Adobe made to go along with it that is new and cool. As usual.
The Adobe Hardware Set
The actual hardware of Mighty is not much different than any other stylus. The only addition to the hardware is the button on the end at the end of your fingertip. In the app, you can draw and write on a blank page using the standard color, texture and type of pen. But what if you want to change that? That’s what the button is for. You hit that, and a circle of options come up. From there, you can change the color, type of pen/utensil, color, and other variables.
The Set In Everyday Life
Another interesting feature that they exposed is the Cloud Clipboard. Since Mighty is run by Adobe’s Creative Cloud, they have the ability to use the cloud to their advantage. So they made Cloud Clipboard. Cloud Clipboard allows you to access any of your drawings, on any device. You can just paste any of your previous drawings right into your current drawing. It’s great for working with the device you have on you, then later adding it to your final version.
Mighty
Adobe decided to go even further, making a second piece of hardware, nicknamed Project Napoleon. Napoleon, because the product is literally “a short ruler”. So they do have a sense of humor. Anyway, when you put Napoleon on your tablet or phone, a exactly straight line appears that you can trace. The line you draw automatically snaps to the line, but you can decide how long it is. Also, Napoleon can do other lines, like curves, triangles, L’s and more. Napoleon is the perfect companion for Mighty, and even if it is not completely needed, for any architect, or mathematician, it could be useful.
Napoleon
Project Mighty and Napoleon are the perfect pair of tools for anyone who wants a stylus and virtual ruler. They easily integrate with Adobe’s Creative Cloud, making for easy switching between devices. Napoleon adds another dimension to that, making Mighty a unique system and pushing it out into the limelight. “The hope is that we can finally enable a new generation to finally turn these (tablets) from consumption to creation. There are all sorts of mini hopes that come out of that, the hope that we make better software, the hope that we change the way we make software,” says Dowd. “But at the end of the day, if we can teach a generation of young creators to draw or they can be inspired to draw or feel good about drawing, then perhaps we’ve saved drawing.”
Music and apps have been the two big advantages of mobile technology (in general). Another basic use of the smartphone has become popular only in the last decade: Podcasts. The ability to record a couple of people discussing a certain topic, such as technology, news, and comedy is relatively new. You can also record programs directly from radio stations, such as NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me or This American Life (with their permission). Podcasts have become a mainstream thing in the last couple years with Apple giving easy access from iOS.
The App
Even with Podcasts becoming popular, there hasn’t been one single super-amazing podcast app that everyone uses. One of the best is Pocket Casts, which recently updated their app for iOS 7, the first podcast to do so. So, currently, Pocket Casts is the most attractive option for podcast listeners. Pocket Casts easy downloading and subscribing interface is much better than Apple’s app, which appears less functional and stylish by comparison.
The Pocket Casts Logo
Pocket Casts great iOS 7-like set-up makes it very easy to access tons of podcasts. On the “add podcasts” page, all the podcast album covers are formatted into a nice grid, from which you can get a description of the podcast by tapping on it. Many of the podcasts you may have already heard of because they are sections of a radio station, but most of the are probably new. Once you’ve found a podcast you like and have subscribed (all free, they get their money from advertisements), you automatically get the first cast, and every future one. You can also fill up your time by listening to past ones, which are also free.
Pocket Casts On A Samsung Device
Easy and free access to podcasts if pretty new for the 21st century. But to do it in a good fashion to is almost irresistible. The elegant design of the home screen, playing screen and adding podcasts screen fits well with the rest of the OS. If you are looking for a Podcast app, I recommend Pocket Casts. If you have never tried podcasts, they are a really cool way to get information on whatever you are interested in.
After all those concepts, leaks, concepts, previews, developer releases, reviews, releases, more reviews, and now finally, the real thing. The software we have aaaaaalllllllll been waiting for, ladies and gentlemen, here is iOS 7!
Ok. If you followed iOS 7 at all, you probably have seen that video before. It was shown at the 2013 WWDC, and was followed up by the introduction videos for both iPhone 5c and 5s in the same style. But, to be honest, the final product was not changed that much since the WWDC. Small details, app icons, that sort of thing. More importantly, it is still iOS 7, the revolutionary operating software that completely changes how you use your phone. It practically makes it a new phone.
Some New Screens In iOS 7
Apparently, Jony Ive really likes flip down/up bars, because there are now 3 on iOS 7. First of all, the well anticipated Control Center bar was added. To open Control Center, all you have to do is flick up from any screen. The semi-opaque bar comes up, and from that, you can access most of the stuff you actually use in Settings. You can turn on WiFi (but to change the station, you have to go into settings), Airdrop, Airplane Mode, Do Not Disturb, mute, change the brightness and the sound level, and access Airplay and any connected Bluetooth items. Control Center is probably the most useful of the added bars.
A Comparison Of A Concept iOS 7 and the Real iOS 7
The second bar is actually just the search bar redesigned. In all the previous iOS’, the search is in the far right page. In the new iOS, the search bar is just a flick away. To access it, you just flick down in the middle of the home screen on any page. A little search bar pops up, an you just type whatever you want just like the old search. The last bar, the old notification bar, hasn’t been changed that much. The leathery texture of the old bar has been removed, like the rest of iOS 7, and replaced with a black-ish opaqueness.
The Classic Home Screen In iOS 7
There couple other small features that weren’t explained very thoroughly in the 2 conferences releasing iOS 7. For instance, a couple swipe gestures have been added. For instance, if you are in an app, and you want to get out, you could either hit the home button, or you could pinch in with all your fingers. The app will close, but it will do so in way that makes it look like a ripple. Very Apple-like.
Control Center Being Shown Off For The First Time
Overall, iOS 7’s new and insightive design is certainly a great leap up from anything Apple has attempted in the past. Getting rid of the textures and shiny-3D app icons was a big risk, but it will probably pay off. The big features that have been changed are: Notifications, the search bar, the dock, all the app icons, the text, the colors, the lock screen, Siri, and much more. iOS 7 definitely works well with the new iPhones and iPad Mini, but we’ll just have to wait and see what Apple can come up with in their new style.
TOTW: Google's Project Ara Modular Phone May Be The Future Of SmartphonesOctober 30, 2014
