Category: Future

Donna Murdoch, Future, New visions

As UberX and Lyft Get Cheaper, Should You Sell Your Car?

After spending time in an Uber-friendly city, I can see how this would be an option.  Article from Big Think.  “Two industry disruptors, Uber and Lyft, are changing the way people commute in urban centers. This summer, the companies are rolling out new pricing schemes meant to outfox established taxi companies. “The price cut amounts to 20 percent in New York and 25 percent in San Francisco and Los Angeles. By the company’s math, that leaves the price of a ride lower than that of a taxi in New York, and in other cities the price is now significantly lower.””

via As UberX and Lyft Get Cheaper, Should You Sell Your Car? | IdeaFeed | Big Think.

Donna Murdoch, Future, Tech Software

MIT Spin-Out Luminoso – Analyzes Social Media Conversations Across Languages

This is amazing technology in every way.  Crowdsourcing opinion and analyzing it regardless of language could have unlimited application.  “The company says it can cull through millions of communications collected from social networks and websites by its customers, identifying shifting sentiment, picking up subtext and translating slang. And the text analysis technology works in English, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Chinese and Japanese.”

via MIT Spin-Out Luminoso Raises $6.5 Million | Re/code.

Future, Startups

Trademarks 101: Your 10 Biggest Questions, Answered

For entrepreneurs, these are probably the most common questions and concerns as they start to talk about their idea, put a team together, and begin to make it happen.  Should they be protecting their ideas?   “For a startup, intellectual property is often the most valuable asset. Yet, IP isn’t just about patents and inventions. It can also include your brand assets — everything from the company name to the logo and product tagline.”  From Mashable.

via Trademarks 101: Your 10 Biggest Questions, Answered.

Donna Murdoch, Future

California Will Start Granting Licenses For Driverless Cars In September

Didn’t realize we’d already come so far.  I can’t quite imagine this on the East Coast, but it will be interesting to see.  From TechCrunch.  “Come September, the California Department of Motor Vehicles will begin granting licenses to select driverless cars and their human co-pilots, which will make it a bit less legally iffy as to whether or not they’re actually allowed to be on a public road.”

via California Will Start Granting Licenses For Driverless Cars In September | TechCrunch.

Donna Murdoch, Future, Tech Hardware

SmartThings officially launches its connected home platform with a new certification program

TNW profiles one of the newest “Internet of Things” connected home systems.   Smart Things want to be very open, but very easy and offer different levels of certification, which = interoperability.  “SmartThings founder Alex Hawkinson said in an interview that the company’s vision is to make every home a smart home by creating the easiest, most accessible experience for customers while maintaining an open platform. With those objectives, the startup has its hands full, as ease of use and openness don’t always go together.”

via SmartThings officially launches its connected home platform with a new certification program – The Next Web.

Donna Murdoch, Future, Tech Hardware

What Will Activity Tracking Bands Do with Their Prime Real Estate on Your Wrist?

From MIT Technology Review.  What else can we control with something that has so many capabilities?  “The band is designed in the hope that you’ll wear it almost all the time, taking it off only for charging the battery and going swimming. And that says a lot about how important Jawbone and its main rival, Fitbit, are becoming. Few other companies have gotten people to put—and keep—electronics on their bodies. And getting the technology right is not trivial: Nike, whose Fuelband is considered the No. 3 seller in the market, is reconsidering its strategy and expects to lay off some people on the team behind the product.”

via What Will Activity Tracking Bands Do with Their Prime Real Estate on Your Wrist? | MIT Technology Review.

Donna Murdoch, Future, New visions, Tech Hardware

The Next Big Thing You Missed: One Day, You’ll Google the Physical World With a Scanner Like This

We’re all used to typing in what we need to know on our phones.  But what about the physical world around us?  There’s no way to Google physical objects, Wired explains in this article about a scanner being developed in Tel Aviv.  Imagine running this scanner over a pill or piece of fruit to find out the molecular breakdown.  We can’t do that now.  “That needs to change, says Dror Sharon. He’s the co-founder and CEO of Consumer Physics, a Tel Aviv startup trying to fill that gap with a handheld device called Scio. Scio is a scanner, about the size of a flash drive, that can determine the molecular makeup of objects like food and medication.”

via The Next Big Thing You Missed: One Day, You’ll Google the Physical World With a Scanner Like This | Business | WIRED.

Digital Puglishing, Donna Murdoch, Future, Tech Hardware, Tech Software

Hackathons Are the New Career Fairs

An ideal way for companies to hunt for talent.  Hackathons show a candidate in context – how they collaborate and how they generate ideas.  This article from Mashable explains in detail.   “For those looking to score a job at a hot tech startup or a coveted spot with a tech behemoth like Facebook or Square, the job search scene has an up-and-coming competitor to the traditional career fair: hackathons.”

via Hackathons Are the New Career Fairs.