LaCie ha recently released the industry's first ever 5TB external hard drives. The standalone cube allows 25 terabytes of storage thanks to Seagate's new hard drives; the LaCie 5big Thnderbolt series can be paired with up to five individual 5-terabyte drives for a maximum of 25TB. It is also available in a 10TB config, but naturally the price increases with storage.
The new drives are extensions to the Lacie 5big Thunderbolt, 2big Thunderbolt and d2 Thunderbolt ranges.
As well as individual drives with(out) external casings, Lacie is using the technology in its five hard disk RAID arrays, offering up to 25TB, for all your major storage needs.
However, probably not particularly suitable for the average household owner for a number of reasons (the incredible amount of storage it can hold far surpasses that of any typical home. Not to mention the grand price of a figure just under £2k). However if it were to be for your average use, each (£279) 5B of the nifty storage device can store up to 82,000 photos.
The 5big would be more suited to large businesses and corporations looking for suitable back up hardware for frequent and large back-ups.
The target audience for the product has been assumed to be those in the video editing and photo markets.
The automatic is a small device that plugs into a vehicles diagnostics system through its OBD-II Data Link connector. Its also have 4.0 bluetooth built in, which then transmits data wirelessly to the companion smart phone app - it identifies driving habits such as sharp breaking, speeding and excessive acceleration. This could lead to excessive fuel consumption and poor maintenance of the car itself.
As well as this, the device also enables to to find your parked car, alerts emergency services in the event of a break in and can provide a diagnostic analysis should any warning lights turn on on the dashboard.
The Automatic was released in early 2013 but has recently been given an update which allows users to turn their automatic Link hardware devices into iBeacons. These then allow users to transmit to/ receive information from other sensors or devices in the vicinity.
This new technology would be very helpful for society as it can determine the fuel consumption of the user's vehicle and thus enable them to make changes with their driving and allow for less fuel to be consumed. This therefore means that they would not have to pay as much for petrol/ diesel and saves them money; this feature would also provide service to the environment as it would be making cars/ other transport more energy efficient. In terms of business this could help transport orientated companies such as those that make deliveries and rely on the transportation of goods to areas far away/ even nearby. Most courier services would benefit from this and would save them money on vehicle repairs and costs spent on fuel. this would also allow data to be colelcted and give feedback to members of staff that are perhaps not driving as efficiently as possible andthus costing the company money.
3D printers were first introduced in the 1980's, however it wasn't until the early 2010's that the printers became widely available commercially.
The 3D printer creates a three dimensional object, of virtually any shape, from a digital model. This is achieved using an additive process in which successive layers of material are laid down in different shapes, and is different to other processes such as machining, as this method uses techniques such as cutting and drilling.
These amazing contraptions have enabled objects from an average fork, to the extensive use of it in medicine. It has been used to visualize and manipulate internal organs, blood vessels or bones in advance of the actual operations. This is especially useful in lengthy, complex procedures and has been used to plan conjoined twin separations, pediatric heart surgeries, facial transplants and many more.
It can also be applied to medical conditions far less severe such as the creation of prosthetic's; this would enable the patient to have a leg or other limb to look identical to their remaining one.
It isn't only useful in hospitals, but can also be used in the every day home, and with recent developments, you can now print in multicolour, and if developments progress even faster, we may even be able to print out our own food, thus ending world hunger.
However, one of the downfalls of such a printer, is the astronomical price at which they come, making it very unlikely that average home owners with be able to purchase one and get their moneys worth.
Teki is a recent development in technology by company: Accenture that has successfully allowed thousands of people with xBox Kinect to visit the doctor from home.
The project was instituted after a noticeable increase in senior citizens placing strain upon the limited resources that the healthcare system provides, particularly in Basque Country, Spain and other parts of the world. The software and subsequent devices allow patients with chronic conditions to quickly check in with their doctors through an xBox Kinect unit that is connected to the internet, consequently meaning reduced office visits that are often time consuming, as well as catching problems before they require hospitalization.
Users receive a wireless heart rate monitor that measures pulse, as well as a spirometer for the measurement of respiratory levels. They also communicate with their doctor through either text, call, or video call (which is most popular, and is the easiest method of effective communication). The interface also allows patients to complete symptom related questionnaires through gesture control as well as Kinects 3D depth sensing technology to determine whether they are performing rehabilitative exercises correctly.
The development of this has has a massive impact on both society and the healthcare business and has saved over approximately 55 million dollars as well as 52 thousand visits to the hospital.
This has meant that those members of Spanish society are able to get the check ups they need without having to leave the comfort of their own home; thus spending money on petrol and other travel expenses, and most importantly, it reduces the amount of time that both doctors and patients spend on both travelling to appointments (for home visits) and the time spent in the waiting room. It also means that patients that are unable to travel due to incapacitating illness, lack of time or money can still get the treatment that they require.
However, replacing real life visits with these Kinect ones may not be as effective, for the technology might not pick up on smaller illnesses that are hard to find unless thoroughly examined by a doctor. Patients may need further treatment which the technology might not pick up on, thus meaning the patient goes untreated.
The new technology also has had a very positive effect on the healthcare business: doctors are able to see more patients due to less time being spent on asking questions and prescribing medicine. It also saves a considerable amount of money on other expenses that are involved in appointments: they would no longer have to employ as many receptionists due to the systems capability for patients to book their own appointments (if necessary) online as well as being able to access their health records themselves. This would then mean that they could spend the money saved on improving healthcare services and buying more machines and revolutionary medicines etc.
It has also has a positive impact on Microsoft who were the co-developers of the technology which has kept them ahead of rival companies such as Sony - the makers of the Play Stations.
Google Glass is the newest piece of technology from Google that has been in the hands of beta testers (members of the public who applied for the trial) for almost four months. Google Glass is a wearable computer with an optical head-mounted display that is being developed by Google in the Project Glassresearch and development project, with a mission of producing a mass-market ubiquitous computer. Google Glass displays information in a smartphone-like hands-free format, that can communicate with the Internet via natural language voice commands. The new device allows the wearer to record what they are seeing, as well as input commands via speech recognition (just as Apple's Siri does). The new device has been compared to a smart phone that you wear. This new revolution in smart phone technology is particularly convenient to society through the way that you can easily record videos, which would be very handy if you were a student in a lecture, or a businessman in a meeting: it means that you no longer have to strain your hands writing endless pages of notes. The impracticality of a hands-free kit when driving or doing any other kind of activity that requires use of both your hands has been abolished through the innovative design and user interface, which is entirely speech recognition. There are downfalls to this design, however, as the lack of buttons means that if there is an issue with the speech software, you're in a spot of bother. As well as this, the placement of the screen being so close to the eye could cause damage to the eye if exposed to the device for a lengthy period of time. It could also cause danger as the screen may obscure proper vision.
It's the year 2013 and technology has been advancing at an incredible rate over the past decade or so, with massive advancements in smart phones and social networking being one of the fastest to grow.
Alas! These smart phones are not the only devices capable of social networking: Samsung has come out with a fridge that holds WiFi capabilities. This means that it can email you when the time for re-stocking the fridge draws near, with what foods you need to buy. It has WiFi access and an Operating System, and these combined allow you to even program your fridge so that it automatically orders your groceries for you from an online delivery service on a weekly basis.
The "App Fridge" also allows you to write memos and store photos, rather than have your kitchen look messy and covered with tacky fridge magnets from holidays and gift shops, that hold up scribbled notes and torn photographs. This way of organising your fridge means that the everyday homeowner can have a more convenient lifestyle particularly for those juggling work, a home and children!
The affect that this 'Wi-Fi' Fridge would have on businesses is not a very substantial one, unless the business specializes in catering such as bakeries, restaurants and other small establishments. Most larger establishments have industrial sized refrigerators and this tiny-in-comparison fridge would not be appropriate. However, this innovative design with it's convenient applications could be imported into industrial sized appliances for easy stock managing, which would therefore improve the company's efficiency.
Society has been strongly affected by the development of technology, particularly more so in recent years. The introduction of the smart phone has become a recent phenomenon and approximately 91.4 million people in the US own one and in the world smart phones hold a fifth of the total mobile phone population.
These statistics show that people all around the world are becoming increasingly more social and this new technology is helping this develop even further. Smart phones not only enable users to call and send text messages, but the ability to use their 3G mobile data means that people can connect via social networking websites such as Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter. Moreover, smartphones also allow individuals who depend on communication for their work to do this with greater ease: phones such as the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy offer applications such as diaries, reminders and notes which enable users to use the devices as day planners. This makes day to day organisation a lot more convenient as perks such as an alarm when a task must be carried out, rather than manually writing the task down into a diary, avoids going over on lunch break and thus become late for that important meeting.
In conjunction with this, Social Networking has provided both a positive and negative impact on society through the way that it brings people together. Smartphones, coupled with this dependency on social networking have raised issues such as the way people would rather text than talk to friends via good old-fashioned face-to-face communication. Some may argue that the new developments have created a more social environment among teenagers and young adults in particular, as they are able to communicate when face-to-face is not an option, as well as making new 'friends' across the globe and keeping on contact with old friends and those who have moved across country without having to pay an extortionate phone bill. However, as has always been the case since the internet first started up in the early nineties, predators take advantage of the anonymity of the World Wide Web and it has become a much larger problem in recent years, with numerous cases of both cyber-bullying, pedophilia and grooming.
