CES 2019: Setting the Stage For This Year’s Trends in Tech

The tech world is kicking the new year off right with the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Here, the curtain was pulled back on some of the major trends that are expected to emerge this year, including AI, improved self-driving cars, gaming, 5G technology and more. The four-day event also hosted many keynotes from speakers from Verizon, IBM, AT&T among others.

These were some of the top picks for new tech at CES this year

Sphero Specdrums

Apps and toys to teach children, or even adults to code, are not new, but Sphero has developed a way that may be irresistible for anyone. The Sphero Specdrums work like this: use the app to assign sounds to each color. These sounds can be beats, loops, musical notes, or even just a sound. Then with the silicone ring tap on the colored playpad or record your own sounds and capture your own colors to play on the world around you.  

FenSens

Make your car an intelligent, autonomous car with the FenSens rear-mounted easy to install sensor and app that can warn you if there’s something too close to your vehicle.

KitchenAid Smart Display

This isn’t the first Google Assistant enabled display, but this might be the first one you aren’t worried about having in your kitchen. The KitchenAid Smart Display has a 10–inch screen and the specs you’d expect to find in a smart speaker, but also is IPX5 water and dust resistant, so you can spill near in, drop food on it, anything you’d expect to happen while cooking. The company even suggests that you can wash it in your sink if the need arises.

Samsung GEMS-H

The Gait Enhancing Motivational System (or GEMS) is Samsung’s line of assistive wearable concepts. The GEMS-H is a lightweight lower-body exoskeleton that helps aid in mobility and can even add resistance for injury rehabilitation

FenSens

Make your car an intelligent, autonomous car with the FenSens rear-mounted easy to install sensor and app that can warn you if there’s something too close to your vehicle.

Bell Nexus

Uber and Bell Helicopter partnered with other parties to develop the Bell Nexus, which is essentially an air taxi. The concept goes along with Uber’s goal of launching and on-demand air service by 2023.

BotBoxer

For the techie that is also into fitness, BotBoxer is the answer to the Peloton trend of smart exercise. A punching bag on a stick that is loaded with motion and pressure sensors as well as analytics that can determine your body position and predict where your hits will be so it can react to your movements.

Otter+ Pop Symmetry Series

The convenience of a Popsocket with the safety of an Otterbox case. The Otter + Pop symmetry series lets you maximize your phone with easy swapping of Pop Sockets for personalization.

Royale FlexPai

The first genuine foldable smartphone isn’t really a smartphone at all, it’s a compact tablet with a 7.8 inch display that when doubled over and folded is a fully functional smartphone. It’s not perfected yet, but it is a glance at things to come on the innovation front.

Samsung 75-inch MicroLED TV “The Wall”

Samsung’s first MicroLED TV was introduced last year at CES, but that was mostly to show what was coming. Now, the technology is something that you can have in your own home. The 75 inch TV is going to be massively expensive but will have all the near-perfect picture quality as OLED without the feared durability issues.

BreadBot

While kitchen devices are nothing new to CES, but the enormous BreadBot may be more for bakery usage. The huge appliance says it can make 10 loaves of bread every hour.

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IOT Products To Feel Like You’re Living in 3017

The Internet of Things is a fast-growing market that is creating high powered products that can do everything from managing household tasks to enhancing your marketing strategy.

It is predicted that the IoT market will grow from 15.4 billion devices in 2015 to 30.7 billion devices in 2020 and 75.4 billion in 2025, according to IHS Technology’s report “IoT platforms: enabling the Internet of Things”. These are some of the most futuristic IoT products for a life that Marty McFly would be in awe of.

June Oven

The June Oven calls itself seven appliances in one. The June Oven functions as a convection oven, slow cooker, dehydrator, air fryer, broiler, warming drawer and toaster oven. It comes with a list of over 100 one tap cooking programs for quick and easy cooking. With a mobile app that you can use to turn on the oven, watch live video of your food cooking, and check food temperature, the June Oven is a one-stop shop for futuristic cooking.

CUJO AI

Cujo is an IoT company that gives you a smart firewall to protect your home or business to secure all smart devices and protect them from outside threats, including hackers. Using AI, Cujo is able to personalize the security for each connected device in your network. View your personal analytics, set filters, limits, and alerts so you can stay on top of how your networks functions.

Eight

Eight specializes in smart sleep. Eight’s smart mattresses offer a personalized option to build your most comfortable bed and all are built with technology that can track your sleep patterns, set alarms, and have smart temperature controls to keep you cool or warm. If you already own a mattress you love, Eight also sells a sensor layer that can fit over any mattress that boasts those same features.

Click and Grow

If you’re trying to grow an indoor garden to start growing your own fresh herbs and produce, or if you’re simply trying to combat a lack of a green thumb, the Click and Grow Smart Gardens are a great way to move towards a fresh, sustainable and easy way to garden. Built with NASA developed Smart Soil to ensure the ideal oxygen, nutrient and water configurations and a modular LED lamp arm for a perfectly controlled environment, the perfect garden is only a click away.

Coros Omni Bike Helmet

Enhance your bike ride with a smart helmet that allows you to listen to music, make phone calls, and access audio navigation without blocking out the noise of the outside world that is imperative to your safety. With automatic  LED safety lights and an emergency sensor that alerts your emergency contacts in the case of a collision, your rides have never been safer or more high tech.

ProGlove’s Smart Glove

This glove designed for industrial workers allows for real-time haptic and visual feedback, gesture sensing, and wireless connectivity. Designed to withstand the requirements for safety in industrial conditions, the gloves are also equipped with a barcode scanner for quality control on the floor and assembly line tracking.

Kohler Verdera Smart Mirror

The Verdera Smart Mirror is the first lighted mirror available to consumers with Amazon Alexa embedded. Control other smart Kohler products by voice or with the Kohler Konnect app, as well as access the full functionality of the Amazon Echo; from traffic reports to weather updates, shopping and playing music. With an adjustable voice controlled LED lighting, you’ll ensure that you always look your best. This smart mirror also has built-in motion-activated night lights for easy navigation in the dark.  

Amazon Dash Buttons

Amazon has been pushing their Dash Buttons for a couple years now, but the technology doesn’t get any less enticing. With buttons that connect to your wifi network and link to Amazon’s app, you can simply push the button to order more of the things you need, with a dash button for almost everything, including laundry detergent, paper products, dish soap, batteries, and groceries.

GM’s Marketplace

This in-vehicle commerce platform is the first of its kind. With Marketplace, drivers of GM vehicles can complete errands in a truly efficient manner. Make dinner reservations, find the nearest gas station, order and pay for a coffee and more, without hassle, right from the car’s touchscreen.

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Marketing Trend: Omni-Channel Marketing

Marketing is ever evolving, and consumers’ paths to purchasing are no longer as linear as they once were. Because marketers need to adapt to a changing climate, new techniques are constantly developed. Omni-Channel marketing is one such strategy that businesses are using to keep up with the trend of keeping things as simple as possible.

What is Omni-Channel Marketing?

“Omni-Channel”  is no doubt a marketing buzzword, but the concept adheres to a shift in the needs of both consumer and marketer. Omni-channel marketing is the answer to marketers needing to provide a consistent experience and path to purchase.

Because consumers now can engage with a brand and products on multiple platforms (physical store, app, website, catalog, social media), it is important that each experience with the product and brand complement the others.

Hubspot defines omni-channel marketing as “… a multi-channel approach to marketing, selling, and serving customers in a way that creates an integrated and cohesive customer experience no matter how or where a customer reaches out.” Read about some of their top examples of an Omni-Channel experience here.

How to implement Omni-Channel Marketing into your strategy

• Create a customer profile

Consolidating a customer profile can be a challenge, as customers are constantly interacting with a slew of different channels. By creating a broad and complete picture of your consumers, you can create a better overall customer experience. This can be done using collected data and applying it to your strategy. This article discusses how you can come up ahead of the competition by succeeding at cross-channel marketing.

• Interact on preferred channels

Consumers are moving back and forth on devices and platforms just for a single transaction. Be sure to keep all lines of communication open for a seamless experience. This includes, but is not limited to social media, email support, video chat, web chatbots, texting, and calling.

• Use aggregated data

Compiling data is already important, but in order to use omni-channel marketing, data is everything. From creating your customer profile to understanding how to adapt to market changes and adding platforms, data will help you gain insight into how to make your marketing strategy work for you.

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Event Profile: SXSW 2018

South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas has become a cultural mecca for music and film buffs, as well as a place for hosting interactive events that cover a range of topics from everything new in technology, to entertainment and advertising. There is always a huge amount of news coming from this week-long event, so here is a breakdown of what we’ve seen so far.

SXSW Trust Barometer

Every year, festival attendees are polled for the Trust Barometer, which measures the general feelings those attending have towards technology, business, and media. The results of this year’s poll brought up interesting discussions, as there is a very low amount of trust in emerging technology, one of SXSW’s biggest draws.

Most of the distrust comes from a shift towards a need for more human elements in technological interactions, and a distrust in blockchain technology, virtual reality, and autonomous vehicles. Discussions about smaller, more personal social media platforms were held, as well as conversations about the widespread use of bots and voice assistants and how the reactions to these technologies have become more and more personal, with users sometimes treating bots as though they were chatting with another human being. There is without a doubt a need to shift to more personal communication methods and develop an understanding of how emotional attachments can tie into interacting with these responsive communication technologies.

Experiential Exhibitions: ‘Westworld’ and ‘Ready Player One’

HBO hit-show Westworld and Steven Spielberg’s ‘Ready Player One’ both partnered with creative agency Giant Spoon to bring the worlds of the screen to life for festival attendees. These immersive exhibits allow you to step into the ‘Westworld’ town of Sweetwater and the Oasis of  ‘Ready Player One’ interacting with environments, actors in character, and becoming a character yourself. Read a review of the ‘Westworld’ exhibit on Forbes and Business Insider and see a walkthrough of Sweetwater here and the ‘Ready Player One’ exhibit here.

Speeches

SXSW is focused on cultivating the creative and entrepreneurial spirit throughout the world, and each day speakers from convergence, music, technology, and film focused paths present their take on various topics. The hope is to generate meaningful conversations about the state of the world in each of SXSW’s featured verticals. Notable speakers this year include Elon Musk, Melinda Gates, Darren Aronofsky, Sadiq Khan, and Esther Perel.

SXSW ends this Saturday, so there is bound to be more excitement in the last few days of the festival. For more SXSW news and live streams of keynotes and other events, visit sxsw.com.

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Bitcoin, Ethereum and More. An Introduction to Cryptocurrency

In 2008 a new currency was revealed to the world. Satoshi Nakamoto published a research paper that outlined a design for a digital currency called Bitcoin. The revelation solved one of the internet’s biggest questions, how to create digital money. Recently you may have seen that Bitcoin values are rising and falling at amazing rates, but why? And how do you take advantage of the madness and hype around cryptocurrency?

Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrency first and foremost are not the same as traditional currency, and perhaps the main difference is that it is not controlled by any central authority (banks, governments, etc.) Cryptocurrencies are “mined” by miners using computers and hardware to monitor and process transactions and the network the currency is based on. Miners receive the correlated digital currency in exchange for their work. Bitcoin maybe be one of the most well known of the available cryptocurrency types, but it isn’t the only one available, or the only one making the news. Litecoin, Ethereum, and Zcash are just some of the major contenders and each has its own privacy and trading capacities.

The buzz around cryptocurrency and specifically Bitcoin reached new heights last month as the price per “coin” surged to $19,500 USD. This made headlines as investors and other individuals raced to put money into the coins hoping to strike gold. However, last week, there was a sudden drop, with coins trading down to $9,200 USD (as of today the current value of one coin is $10,542.92 USD).  The drop was sudden and rattled those that had recently sunk money into the volatile market.

When the price surge occurred, Bitcoin’s electricity consumption hit a record high of 42.1 terawatt-hours. Energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions are a point of contention for many, as the rate of emissions rivals that of the entire country of New Zealand (roughly 20 million metric tons per year).

The process of grouping Bitcoin transactions and mining the transactions is to blame for the high use of electricity. Vox writer Umair Irfan says, “this process is like finding solutions to complicated math problems that become progressively more difficult. It’s a competitive process, with one miner receiving the award, currently 12.5 bitcoins, roughly every 10 minutes, so there’s a strong incentive to throw as much processor power — and thereby electricity — at the mining effort.” Or as Alex Hern of the Guardian says, the process is,  “a competition to waste the most electricity possible by doing pointless arithmetic quintillions of times a second.”

You do not have to mine your own cryptocurrency as it is relatively easy to purchase online, but buyer beware: the value does fluctuate, as discussed previously.  To get started investing in Bitcoin or Ethereum simply download the Coinbase app and create an account. Add an account to make payments from and tap ”Buy”. There are weekly purchasing limits based upon the type of payment account you set up, but you are now ready to start investing.

Once you purchase your chosen cryptocurrency you can either save it or spend it. Some of the things bitcoin is spent on include food delivery, socks, gaming, as well as being used as ante when placing online bets. The world of cryptocurrency is becoming much more accessible to the general public, and will thusly stay newsworthy as the interest in diversified finance and the community of cryptocurrency investors grows.

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Hacks For a More Productive 2018

Unlock your full potential today by using some of these productivity tricks. Put these hacks to good use so you can write more, learn more, and do more to succeed.

1. Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro technique was developed in the 1980s and uses a timer to break up your workday into 25-minute intervals (called Pomodoros), followed by a short break. After four Pomodoros you then take a longer break. There are apps, websites and even browser extensions that can help you track the process. This might not work for everyone, and creatives especially could struggle with the constant breaks in the creative process, but it could be worth a try to find a technique that works for you.

2. The two-minute rule

The two-minute rule is based on the mindset that if something takes two minutes or less to complete you should do it right away. This helps alleviate procrastination on small tasks and helps to prevent things from stacking up to become more of a chore.

3. Task batching

Rather than falling prey to multitasking, you can use task batching to focus your energy on specific tasks. This means allotting time for each type of work you have. For example, setting aside 15-minute increments for email, an hour for writing, 30 minutes for social media, whatever will work for you and your workday.

4.Two pizza rule

Jeff Bezos is credited with this next idea, the two pizza rule. This is a guideline that helps set limits on the number of attendees allowed in a meeting, with the idea that the number of attendees should not exceed the number of people that could eat two pizzas. This keeps the meeting focused on the task at hand.

5. Utilize your calendar

Your calendar can be the best tool for making the most of a day, simply because you can visualize everything that has to get done. You can use a calendar to schedule task batching, or simply plan and set aside days that will be meeting free and focused on doing the work you have to do uninterrupted.

6.Turn off alerts

It may not be possible to turn your phone completely off during the times you need to focus, but you can cut down on distractions by silencing it, or by completely disabling notifications. By doing this you are silencing outside “noise” so you can make finishing what you are working on your main priority.

7. Use tools to streamline your work

Hootsuite, Mailchimp, Trello, Buffer, the list goes on and on. There are tons of free and paid tools available online that can help streamline your workflow, focusing on everything from project management to digital marketing and social media.

8.Don’t drown in the shallow end

It’s easy to get bogged down stressing out about all the small things you have to do, and this can cause you to be distracted from the big meaningful items on your to-do list. Setting your priorities can make the small tasks seem less daunting, and therefore less stressful.

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Marketing Tool: Chatbots

80% of marketers are expected to be using chatbots by 2020. Personalized marketing is becoming an expectation for consumers, and chatbots are another tool to bring personalization to your audience. It is certainly fair to say that not every company will need a chatbot, and that some customers will not utilize or like the option of using a chatbot, but for ever-evolving times, it is important to understand this trend as it is, as it can be, and to fully acknowledge the pros and cons of using chatbots within a marketing strategy.

What is a Chatbot?

NBC defines a chatbot simply as: “simple artificial intelligence systems that you interact with via text. Those interactions can be straightforward, like asking a bot to give you a weather report, or more complex, like having one troubleshoot a problem with your internet service.”

How do Chatbots work?

A chatbot responds to a message just as a customer support employee would, but is available at all times. Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa are all examples of widely used chatbots. Chatbots are programmed with specifically coded responses to questions or can be built with AI and can, therefore, expand their knowledge base with machine learning.  When your customer asks a question or interacts with your bot, the responses that it gives are modeled to act like a real human response. Sometimes, a question will be impossible for the bot to answer, either because it has no prior experience with that question or because it is phrased in a way too complicated for the bot to understand. If that is holding you back, there are ways to program your bot to have prompts that might be able to get the bot and your customers back on track.

Why use a Chatbot for marketing?

Chatbots do more than just answering questions, they can also effectively drive engagement, make sales and nurture leads. Because chatbots built to use AI can learn, they can also remember details and have a more personalized and human interaction with your customers, something that is important as “nine out of ten consumers say personalization has an impact on their buying decisions, “ says research from LeadsCon. The evolution of social media and technology has played into the need to utilize big data in order to provide a more targeted and engaging approach to customer support and marketing.  Check out Hubspot’s list of seven brands using chatbots and get inspired!

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Marketing Trend: Expiring Content

Have you ever opened an email telling you that there is a “limited time only” sale, then went on to click that ad to shop even if you haven’t purchased anything from that store in years? Placing a hard and fast deadline on a sale or promotion is nothing new in marketing and sales, but with the growth of content marketing, there is now an influx of content only available for a limited time, otherwise known as “Expiring Content”.

One Day Only! Defining Expiring Content:

Moz.com defines expiring content  as “content on a website that is only relevant for a limited period of time.” The easiest examples of widespread expiring content are Snapchat and Instagram Stories. Posts expire 24 hours after being published. In a world where mobile marketing strategy is becoming more and more prevalent, expiring content is perfect for breaking through the clutter of too much available content.

Why use expiring content?

Exclusivity

If the idea of expiring content seems foolish, now is the time to reconsider. Psychologically, the human brain often desires things that are exclusive or rare. This is due to the Scarcity Principle, a psychological phenomenon that can cause consumers to purchase items or, in the case of expiring content, view posts because they are seen as more valuable because of limited availability.

Relevance

Using expiring content ensures that your content only exists for as long as it is relevant. With this mindset, you can post promotional materials, events, and contests and let the posts filter out on their own after the window of opportunity for your audience has passed.

Improved Social Reach

Snapchat and Instagram aren’t the only platforms where you can have expiring content. Facebook has a feature that allows you to set your posts to expire and you can set up blog posts on WordPress to phase out over time as well.  Some studies have shown that having expiring content can improve your social reach due to your own irrelevant older content phasing out to clear the pathways for new content to be seen.

With more proven benefits, improved reach and SEO, expiring content is making its mark on the marketing world. Will you try expiring content in your next marketing strategy?

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Tech Radar: Self-Driving Cars

Just like home automation, cars are getting smarter as well.  From Google to Tesla, Uber to Nissan, self-driving cars are becoming autonomous with the future as much as anything else. In fact, CES 2017 was full of companies showcasing their autonomous driving plans, with BMW announcing their plan for a fleet of fully autonomous vehicles to hit roads for testing before the end of the year.

But despite the excitement, the advent of these vehicles is marked by legal trouble, public distaste and distrust, and even location based prohibitions. This is what you need to know about self-driving cars and the future of transportation.

Tesla

Tesla is perhaps the self-driving technology with the most public knowledge due to some less than desirable past driving results. Tesla’s automation combined with the electric cars they create makes them a huge player in both the environmental and driverless car future. Run by an incredibly powerful computer, and enabling cameras, radars, sensors, and ultrasonics to provide the driverless experience, this car is equipped with a huge amount of groundbreaking technology. However their proclivity to bend traffic rules (mostly speed limits) has been the cause of headlines recently, and the fatal accident last June involving a self-driving Tesla and a semi truck was news for many weeks as the safety of driverless cars and the technology behind them was scrutinized.

Google’s WAYMO

Google has been working on automated driving for years, and now in its current inception, the internet giant’s movement is called Waymo. Google’s software and built-in-house hardware allow a completely driverless experience, with sensors that detect any possible obstacles and predict behavior, allowing the vehicle to execute the best navigation and defensive driving possible.  Road tests have put the Waymo enabled vehicles to the test going through complex situations and real driving conditions, even giving the cars the ability to react to any unexpected situations. Many experts have speculated that if Tesla’s cars utilized the same technology as Google’s cars, June’s accident between the semi and the autonomous car would not have happened.

Nissan

Japanese car manufacturer Nissan has announced that its autonomous vehicles should be out testing the roads in England come February. The cars are manufactured in Sunderland, so it is easy to see why the location is set as it is. Government clearance is still awaiting approval, but once the plan is approved, testing will begin. Equipped with radar, laser and camera systems the Nissan Intelligent Mobility Suite is aboard the company’s electric car (Nissan Leaf), putting this manufacturer in direct competition with Tesla.

The driverless car is still relatively new, but you can expect to see more of them as the year progresses and more companies jump on board. Rules and regulations will change, as will technology and the sheer amount of options open to those that are interested in automated driving technology. There’s no doubt that these cars could change the face of transportation for just about everybody, whether these advancements are good or bad remains to be seen.

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