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Showing posts with label innovation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label innovation. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 12, 2019
Thursday, August 9, 2018
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.
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 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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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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Thursday, March 15, 2018
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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Wednesday, January 3, 2018
Books to Read in 2018
As the new year begins and New Year’s resolutions are made, one that many people bring up each year is that of wanting to read more books in the year to come. These are some top picks for books about business, technology, personal growth, leadership and more.
Business
Rise and Grind by Daymond John
The Shark Tank panelist and entrepreneur uses his own life experiences to tell readers how to succeed in their lives with inspiration to use persistence, grit, and spectacular work ethic.
Crushing It by Gary Vaynerchuk
VaynerMedia CEO Gary Vaynerchuk is known for his no downtime approach to life and business, as well as for building a brand that is solid and highly successful. Vaynerchuk outlines what you need to know to do the same for your brand.
The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle and Will Damron
Learn how successful groups are built and strengthened, with Coyle’s in-depth look into how group culture can be cultivated.
Technology
The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone by Brian Merchant
The introduction of the iPhone changed the course of history, for technology, social trends and more. This national bestseller takes readers through the history of the development and release of the influential Apple device.
Surviving the Tech Storm: Strategy in Times of Technological Uncertainty by Nicklas Bergman
The technological changes that we have gone through have entered us into a new era that is filled with questions and challenges. Bergman offers insight into how to make decisions and find insights into an uncertain world.
What To Do When Machines Do Everything: How to Get Ahead in a World of AI, Algorithms, Bots and Big Data by Malcolm Frank, Paul Roehrig, and Ben Pring
The digital economy is changing the future of work and how business is done. The authors provide a roadmap to take steps to move ahead in a world that is moving more quickly than we can.
Leadership
Brave Leadership: Unleash Your Most Confident, Powerful and Authentic Self to Get the Results You Need by Kimberly Davis
Learn how to get results and become the leader you want to be in this guide for all leadership journeys. Davis dives into the essential tools and tips that anyone can use to reach their full potential and help feel more confident, satisfied and purposeful.
The CEO Next Door: The 4 Behaviors That Transform Ordinary People into World Class Leaders by Elena L. Botelho and Kim R. Powell
Botelho and Powell’s in-depth look at CEOs and executives uncovers what makes these leaders successful. Though this book may be more research intensive, the messages that it delivers with the conclusions can help you rise to the top as well.
A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey
Former FBI director James Comey reveals never before told stories of his time in the government sharing insights into what makes an effective leader.
Money
The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko
First released in 1996, this exposé about wealthy Americans has now been updated for the context of the current state of the world. Learn how the truly wealthy demographic behaves and how you can modify your life and spending habits to fit within this exclusive group.
Cold Hard Truth On Men, Women, and Money by Kevin O’Leary
Shark Tank’s Mr. Wonderful, Kevin O’Leary presents a new take on finance in a witty and funny way that presents advice to someone at any stage in their life. It’s not too late to take control of your finance, and O’Leary presents this in a well rounded and personable way.
The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey
Taking a fitness type stab at revamping personal finance, Ramsey presents a plan that can help you pay off debts, build a strong financial safety net and create a budget without sacrificing your personal relationships.
Personal Growth
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness -Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler
Nudge opens the eyes of the reader up to the fact that nothing we have to decide on is presented in a neutral way. By acknowledging bias, and understanding how the human brain perceives choice you can influence others to make decisions that are better for everyone in your life.
Your Best Year Ever by Michael Hyatt
Hyatt dives into how you can achieve your goals instead of letting them get pushed back only to regret ignoring them. Whether your goals are centered around relationships, financial, or educational, this book can help you to reset your life and achieve the goals you set.
Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg
After her husband’s sudden death, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg fell into a vast depression. But with hard work, she was able to build resilience and find her way towards recovery. Option B houses Sandberg’s journal excerpts, research and other contributors’ personal stories that showcase peak levels of perseverance. Learn how to develop compassion, appreciation, and resilience as well as the ability help others find the same qualities within themselves.
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Wednesday, September 13, 2017
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.
Thursday, August 10, 2017
Wearable Technology For Health and Wellness
Constantly evolving technology is changing how we live our lives. From managing our schedules and social lives to tracking health and wellness, the average person in the 21st century relies on smart devices to help run their life. As technology improves, the features that are available to us today become more and more useful.
Technological improvements are not only making strides for better functioning devices, but also for better health. This article from Positive Health Wellness discusses eight ways that modern technology can help make you healthier, from the doctor’s office to your own personal health.
But what can you do to ensure that you are tracking your health and fitness effectively on a personal level? Of course there is the Apple Health app but there are other downloadable apps that specialize in tracking your health like Myfitnesspal for logging food and exercise, Couch to 5K to get new runners up and moving and Sleep Cycle to log sleep patterns.
Even though it’s simple to keep track of your health and fitness patterns with your phone and corresponding apps, perhaps the easiest and now one of the most popular ways to track your habits is through wearable technology in the form of a fitness band or smartwatch. These 6 wearables can change the way you live, workout and more!
Fitbit
Synonymous with fitness tracking, the Fitbit comes in many styles, each with distinct features and designs for whatever activity you are trying to track. Some have screens, others are just a simple band. But all of them are powerful, and track your fitness progress.
Apple Watch
If you are looking for more than a fitness tracker the Apple Watch is a logical move. Consistent with the style of iPhone’s iOS, this smartwatch pairs fitness with smartphone technology, allowing you to respond to messages, phone calls and other notifications right on your wrist.
aHealth Watch
The newest product from Mobile.Net is the aHealth watch. This fitness tracker has unique features that you will be hard pressed to find elsewhere. The aHealth watch can not only monitor activity and sleep, but also blood pressure and blood oxygen levels.
Xaomi Band
This colorful and simple band helps you to understand your daily activity without becoming overwhelming. With vibration and light notifications, ability to unlock your phone and a low price point, the Xaomi Band is a great start for those looking to try a wearable that aren’t sure they will like or fully utilize a tracker with more functionality.
Huawei Watch
A smartwatch that looks like an analog watch is exactly what the high powered business person needs. High class, beautiful construction, and a highly effective fitness tracking ability. You are also able to play music offline, utilize Google Assistant and make one touch payments with NFC mobile payments.
Technology and health now go hand in hand. How do you integrate tech products or other innovations into your personal health and fitness?
Thursday, April 13, 2017
Minnesota Tech Businesses To Watch
Headquartering 17 Fortune 500 companies, Minnesota is already full of recognizable names in the business world, but there is a movement happening that is bringing more and more to the Twin Cities.
Technology companies are found all over in large cities, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, New York City only begin to make up the list and now Minneapolis and Saint Paul are facing recognition. Home to these great tech startups, five Minnesota companies have also been included in Deloitte Technology’s 2016 Fast 500 list.
Code42
Software company Code42, founded in 2001 works with huge names in business, education and more, backing up data with their CrashPlan solution. Every file is backed up to a secure platform and protected, which limits risk, heightens privacy and prevents data loss.
Deloitte Ranking: 335
FireFly Computers
Founded in 2011, FireFly Computers specializes in bringing great hardware and technology solutions to businesses of any size and with any budget that are easy to use and help you to get all the parts of your business on the same page.
Deloitte Ranking: 187
JAMF Software
Promoting the idea of a better experience for Apple products in businesses and schools, Jamf works to bring IT solutions to empower Apple users. Headquartered in Minneapolis, Jamf is growing at an exponential rate, with offices in nine countries, and managing more than 7 million devices.
Deloitte Ranking: 396
Qumu Corporations
Qumu sells technology that focuses on video management and publication for business. Qumu allows you to create, distribute, edit and protect your video content.
Deloitte Ranking: 303
Stratasys Ltd.
3D printing company Stratasys works to not only innovate, but also to simplify design issues. Stratasys works on all levels; from single part design and manufacturing to building your company an entire lab of 3D printers.
Deloitte Ranking: 331
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Small Business vs. Startup
When starting a new venture or running an existing business, with the immense amount of financial and personal investment that requires, semantics is the last thing one thinks about. Words like entrepreneur, business owner and CEO get thrown around pretty often, and with the rockstar allure that shows like Shark Tank have brought, their definitions are now practically common knowledge. The new buzzword, floating around the business world is startup, not to be confused with a small business … And so you don’t make that mistake, here is a breakdown!
Startup
Definition: A startup is an entrepreneurial venture which is typically a newly emerged, fast-growing business that aims to meet a marketplace need by developing or offering an innovative product, process or service.
Major Keys:
- Rapid Growth
- Passion
- Innovation
- Market disruption
Small business
Definition: The definition of a small business is an independently owned and operated company that is limited in size and in revenue depending on the industry.
Major Keys:
- Profit
- Existing
- Longevity
- Market share
Startup vs Small business
A small business can have products or services that have been around for millennia, creating for itself a space in the current market. Small business’ hope to grow quickly, but more important than growth is first revenue and then profit, versus a startup’s main priority being explosive and exponential growth. A startup would put a new spin on an old product or service, or better yet, create something brand new. Startups aren’t concerned with gaining market share, they are here to to turn the existing market on its head. As you can see, although startups and small business’ have similarities, there are some fundamental differences in structure and purpose.
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