Robots Are Now The Workforce

In a recent article written by Brian Heater, he goes into detail about the recent improvements and employment of robots in factories around the country.

Although this is only the beginning, the engineers at Esko Bionics have developed usable exoskeletons that are more than capable of performing repetitive and useful tasks in many areas (such as on the battlefield and in factories).

Although the technology is not quite mainstream yet, it is continually improving and is too becoming less expensive as the materials become more readily available; this, in practice, means that our future will most likely be filled with robots taking over our laborious and dangerous jobs, leaving many unemployed.

However, on the other side, this means that there is a great market and need for more engineers and robotic enthusiasts in order to ensure that our future is safe and reliable.

It will be very interesting to see how these companies integrate robots and how they help shape our future.

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Cameras Are Changing

Since the genesis of cameras, the sole purpose and goal has been to capture whatever is in front of it when asked.  However, with the explosion of artificial intelligence and “machine learning”, cameras are too being re-modeled in a way that will make them smart.

So far, Google has invested in a company called Clips, which uses machine learning to automatically take snapshots of anything it deems “interesting” (people, pets, etc.).  In addition, a company called Lighthouse AI is looking to use this new generation of cameras to create a safer and more reliable security system in their house–much like the iPhone X’s face recognition.

Twitter changes character limit to 280!

The first sentence of this article about Twitter was written in 140 characters, so we can show what has long been the top length of a tweet.

Ever since Twitter’s genesis in 2006, it has famously put a restriction on tweets longer than 140 characters.  In other words, there was a hard cap at 140 characters.  If one wanted had more to say than that, then they had to publish multiple tweets.  That is, until today.

Twitter said in a statement that they believe this change will encourage people to tweet more, perhaps because of the ability to express more information.  They too said that in a trial run, the expanded limit led to an increase in “likes, retweets, and engagement” as well as the users feeling “more satisfied” with how they were able to express themselves (nytimes.com).  The company also reported, however, that in the trial run only 5% of tweets exceeded the 140 limit.  Nevertheless, it seems that the increase has allowed its users an easier platform to get their point across without having to send multiple tweets.

Twitter’s subtle yet long-desired update will prove to be monumental.  Not only will users be able to fully express their opinions, but too engage with one-another like never before.  An increase in engagement will ultimately lead to more users and activity on the social media platform, which then poses bigger threats to its competitors like Facebook and Reddit.

How the Internet Is Saving Culture, Not Killing It

This article discusses how people of the future may look back upon today’s society as a time of ‘renaissance’.  The article states that “for people of the future, our time may be remembered as a period not of death, but of rejuvenation and rebirth”.  Digital technology is allowing for many different art forms to take center stage and allow for anyone to be exposed.  Because of this, ads and revenue have too become a vital part of the internet and all it encapsulates.  However, a recent shift in subscriptions shows the growing potential behind the sustainability of the internet.

YouTube, Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Apple music are just some examples of how subscriptions are taking over.  With a growing dependence on these services, the internet is becoming a reliable hub for all content creators across the globe.  Additionally, with the constant use of social media, content creators are ever so close to their audience and possess a new opportunity to directly communicate with millions at a moment’s notice.

As these trends continue to grow, the lives of content creators continue to do the same.  Hopefully, our time will indeed be considered a sort of modern-day renaissance.  I think that right now is a special time in the realm of technology and for it to merely be glossed over in the future would be a shame.  There are a lot of exciting and important changes taking place every day, and I hope that my kids one day learn about the pivotal times I lived in.

2016: A Tech Retrospective

As the new year rolls in, it’s time to take a look back and see just how technology has evolved in the past year.  Although many technological leaps were made in the past 365, 2016 was overall fairly disappointing from the consumer’s standpoint.

With Samsung recalling more than 2.5 million Note 7 smartphones, hover-boards being banned in all public areas, and fake news spreading like a wild fire on social media, this year has been far from dull.  However, this year has been exciting in the negative sense.  With the presidential campaign having taken center stage for the grand majority of the year, news outlets were pressed in hoping to publish all important content as fast as possible.  However, this led to an increase in “fake” news being published all across social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google.   With the help of fact-checking sites, these news publishings were noticed.  These sites were under heavy criticism, and for good reason.  The “news” seen by millions potentially altered the outcome of this year’s historic election.

Continuing on, a lackluster performance was given this year by virtual assistants.  These include Google’s Home, Amazon’s Echo, and Apple’s Siri.  Overall, despite all of the advertisements put in place by these companies and hype within the consumer world, these products ended up subpar.  Several basic functions and tasks were unable to be handled by these products, delivering an overall disappointing result.  That being said, the more use put into these machines, the more development and improvements will come in the upcoming months/years.

Although many products did not end the way we would’ve liked, there were some improvement across the technological world.  These included Wi-Fi, virtual reality (VR), online streaming, among others.  Of course, there were many positives that came out of this year.  Massive strides were made in the fields of virtual reality and online streaming.  Virtual reality, a concept once thought of as impossible, has completely taken over.  The tremendous potential behind these devices has yet to be completely uncovered, as it is mainly gaming as of now.  However, keep an eye on these devices, as they become increasingly available.  Live streaming has also taken massive strides in the right direction.  Facebook and Twitter have taken this and ran with it, making live video streaming truly a new medium for sharing and exploring information.  Anyone has the ability to stream, making this a very practical way to connect.  These are just two examples, but this year has been very kind to certain types of technology, while leaving others behind.

Here’s to a new year full of new technology, new opportunities, and new realities.