Mini Cell Towers

Have you even been frustrated because you dropped an important call because of horrible services? Of course you have since it is part of having a cell phone and subscribing to a phone services. In contrast to the massive metal towers that can beam out cellular service for miles, small cells are only about the size of a wireless router, and their signals don't extend much beyond the boundaries of your home. Qualcomm sees the devices as a solution to the wireless industry's so-called spectrum crunch. Wireless spectrum -- the invisible infrastructure over which all wireless transmissions travel -- is a finite resource just like cloud services, and it is getting gobbled up by people streaming Netflix and YouTube videos on their tablets and smartphones. Small cells help address that problem by routing traffic to your mobile carrier's network via your home Internet connection, leaving more space on the airwaves for other users. Aside from those designed for home usage, there are also slightly larger cells that can be installed in places like malls and city blocks to provide more coverage space.

Technology as Babysitters

Picture this: your kid is screaming their head off over wanting that new fancy toy in the middle of the store and there is nothing that is calming them down. Enter the smartphone or tablet with Minecraft of Candy Crush. This type of pacifier has more computing power than required to put humans on the moon. As long as it works, it really doesn't matter. These wonderful computers also occupy kids while the parents just sit by quietly waiting for the batteries to run out. Does anyone else see something wrong with this picture? When these smart devices came on the market, they were shiny and the future of computing looked bright. I mean we could now see the person we were talking with over internet phone services. Now it is just business as usual since the novelty has worn off and they are your kids' virtual playground. In my day, we had actual playgrounds and we ran around playing games and saw each other in person. Any suggestions before kids forget what it is like to play outside?

Reinventing Aging

There are so many different technologies that can help redefine the way people age which are available. Despite their availability, technology has not been widely adopted by older people or their families. The reasons are easy enough to intuit: Seniors are technology-phobic, or afraid of being stigmatized; they don’t know what products are available or where to find them; or they do know, but the gadgets themselves are too expensive. There is a pretty good handle of the science of the technologies but the really problem that needs solving is a gaining of understanding of how people that age view themselves and the technology that is supposed to be helping them. Some of the technology are communication services such as cell phones and alert systems. There are even gaming apps that help with different cognitive functions. Many people have not considered this issue but it going to hit like a tidal wave in about 2050 with the aging population.

Robots Kicking Butt

Some people are convinced that the robots are going to take over the world in one way or another. And you thought that all that software development was just for good. Here are a couple examples of robots taking over. At the Big Bang Fair in Birmingham, England, a robot made from a Samsung Galaxy 4 smartphone and Lego Mindstorms components established a new world’s record for solving a 4×4×4 Rubik’s Cube. The Cubestormer 3 needed just 3.25 seconds to align the colors on each side of the cube, breaking the old record (held by its sibling, the Cubestormer 2) by more than two seconds. The best time a puny human can muster? 5.5 seconds, by Mats Valk of the Netherlands. Earlier this week, researchers at Oxford published a report predicting that nearly half of all U.S. workers will eventually be replaced by automatons. The top occupations in danger of being replaced by software: loan officers, receptionists, and paralegals. Those with relative job security include chiropractors, choreographers, and the clergy. At least some of us have a prayer of staying employed.

Wireless Everything?

If the internet and phone services are wireless, why in the world do we still have wired electricity? It's not actually putting electricity in the air. What we're doing is putting a magnetic field in the air. It works like this: WiTricity build a "Source Resonator" -- a coil of electrical wire that generates a magnetic field when power is attached. If another coil is brought close, an electrical charge can be generated in it. No wires required. In the house of the future, wire-free energy transfer could be as easy as wireless internet. If all goes to WiTricity's plans, smartphones will charge in your pocket as you wander around, televisions will flicker with no wires attached, and electric cars will refuel while sitting on the driveway. WiTricity have already demonstrated their ability to power laptops, cell-phones, and TVs by attaching resonator coils to batteries -- and an electric car refueller is reportedly in the works. Talk about exciting.

Technology Helping Expression

Many parents and teachers of children with special needs wonder if using technology to communicate is a good idea, or if it will stifle and get in the way of oral speech production. Application development has definitely come a long way in this area of technology. As children progress through typical stages of language development, they are usually quick to find oral speech to be the easiest and fastest way to get a message across. But for some children with a variety of speech, cognitive or physical impairments, verbal speech is not an effective way to communicate. It's important to remember that we communicate in many different ways. We use facial expressions, gestures and body language, writing and oral speech, to name a few. If verbal speech is impeded, assistive technology can help them discover the joys of expressing themselves. One of the best devices are the tablets where children can use apps that have pictures and sounds to get across whatever it is that they want to say. What do you think about the help of technology when there are impairments in either speech or other forms of expression?

Pay Attention

As you are reading this post, I bet that you have other things to do such as getting back to web development project or answer the emails that are piling up in your inbox. You are also probably chatting on Facebook, checking your phones, and trying to do something else. There is only one way to avoid this situation, which no one ever does because there's too much risk. The first is to all out shut down your phone and all forms of social media. This includes phone powered down entirely, not even glancing at Facebook for a second, and even avoiding Gmail because Google had the genius idea of making that social. The risk that exists in this situation is the fact that if, on the off-chance, something actually important happens, you will forever be blamed for not helping. I have found that because of all the technology and constant connectivity, people, myself included, have found it near impossible to even stay focused on the conversation topic. I have been in the middle of a sentence, and had friends start talking about a completely different event that happened. Try to keep track of the conversation and all you will end up with is a headache.