Consumer Technology World Brief

There are hundreds of millions of regular televisions packing HDMI ports, and Google’s new Chromecast device offers a way to put some brains into TVs by giving them access to web-based content. Having a Chromecast dongle connected to your TV means you can stream videos straight from a Google Play, Netflix or YouTube app, or mirror the content in any open tab in Google’s Chrome browser using a tab casting feature. Chromecast is backed by Google, whose relationships with content providers and developers mean that the Google Cast technology powering it will soon be popping up in even more apps. Not to mention, there’s the price. At USD 35, it’s almost a third of the cost of Plair and also Roku 3 and Apple TV, the current most popular devices that bring internet video to your TV. Sure, it’s not as fully featured as some of its competitors, but it does provide a lot for just USD 35, and it’s a platform that’s likely to improve dramatically as more apps start to support the technology.

Continue reading Economic & Innovation World Review Report July-August 2013 →

Consumer Technology World Brief

The arrival of Intel Haswell process microarchitecture brings a whole new wave of electronic devices into the market. It is an upgrade from the previous Ivy Bridge version which promises better performance and longer battery life. With the recent market focus on ultrabooks and tablet computing the Haswell chips could not have come at a better time. The introduction of the Haswell chip definitely is changing the landscape for mobile computing making tablets a more practical and mainstream device than they previously were. For desktop users however the move from Ivy Bridge to Haswell is less clear. A performance gain of up to ten percent is expected, but in most cases, it might be lower. Power usage is lower, of course, but that’s really not enough to drive the cost of a motherboard and processor swap. The gain for mobile users look to be more substantial than desktop users, which is certainly key to Intel’s future, since laptop and ultraportable PC sales is the one bright spot in the PC growth arena.

Continue reading Economic & Innovation World Review Report – June-July 2013 →

Consumer Technology World Brief

3D printers are all the rage now with much discussions happening over the ramifications of being able to print virtually any device and in particular the ability to print homemade weapons such as guns. NASA however has taken a different approach toward the interest in 3D printing with an idea that it can be used to print food. They have announced a grant to develop the world’s first 3D food printer. Most economists believe the current system to produce food is unsustainable and in the near future it is inevitable that food prices will cost more. The idea is to change what we conventionally see as food. The food printer is suggested to be able to utilize proteins, carbohydrates and sugars to create edible food products. One proposed alternative is that it will be able to provide a customized nutrition level on an individual scale based on their personal requirements. One possible application of this concept for NASA is food for long space travel, where food has to stay edible for periods as long as 15-30 years.

Continue reading Economic & Innovation World Review Report May – June →

Consumer Technology Regional Brief

Instead of relying on a bog-standard bulb to beam light out over a darkened road, car headlights in the future would use something more akin to a projector. A camera sits nestled beneath that projector, keeping an eye on drops of rain as they enter the headlights’ beams. Information from that camera is sent to a processing unit, which identifies raindrops and makes a guess as to where each droplet is headed. The projector then blots out the bits of its projection where the rain drops are. The result is a light that shines out from the front of a car in the dark, but doesn’t highlight any rain. This would increase the visibility of driving at night as the view of the driver would not be inhibited by the lights being reflected off the raindrops. This is being jointly developed by Intel and Carnegie Mellon University.

Continue reading Economic & Innovation World Review Report April – May 2013 →