Sys Nica

Thursday, December 17, 2015

The Future of Transportation

Four revolutions in transportation are taking place this decade.

This post is a look at how they will shape your life, your business and our world.

In 2011, Peter Thiel famously said, "We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters…"

Guess what? The flying car is coming, and so is a heck of a lot more.

In this post, I want to explore the latest developments in:

Autonomous Vehicles
Telepresence Robots and Virtual Worlds
Hyperloop
Point-to-Point Aerial Transport

Each of these will change where we live, work and interact.

Autonomous Vehicles

Autonomous cars are coming and coming fast. Every major car company has autonomous cars under development. By 2035, it's expected there will be more than 54 million autonomous cars on the road, and this will change everything.

Saved Lives: There are 1.2 million people killed every year in car accidents. Autonomous cars don't drive drunk, don't text, don't have Alzheimer's, and don't fall asleep at the wheel.

Reclaiming Land: You can fit eight times more autonomous cars on our roads, making their land use more efficient. In Los Angeles, it's estimated that more than half of the land in the city belongs to the cars in the form of garages, driveways, roads, and parking lots.

Saved Energy: Today, we give close to 25 percent of all of our energy to personal transportation, and 25 percent of our greenhouse gases are going to the car.

Saved Money: Get rid of needing to own a car, paying for insurance and parking, trade out 4,000-lb. cars for lighter electric cars that don’t crash, and you can expect to save 90% on your local automotive transportation bill.

Best of all, you can call any kind of car you need, when you need it. Need a nap? Order a car with a bed. Want to party? Order one with a fully-stocked bar. Need a business meeting? Up drives a conference room on wheels.

Telepresence Robotics and Virtual Worlds

In the US alone, business travel spending will top $310 billion in 2015 (Global Business Travel Association), or about 490.4 million business trips.

The idea of having to schlep your "meat body" from one location to another for a meeting will soon be old-school.

Instead you'll plug into a virtual world, or use a Beam robot to connect virtually. Already, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Sony, HTC, and Suitable Technologies are spending billions of dollars to develop the hardware and perfect the experience.

Beyond the advantage of saving serious cash and time flying from LA to NY, meeting someone "in person" will ultimately be a disadvantage. When I'm speaking to you over a virtual link or telepresence robot, I can watch your pupillary dilation, have my system pull up and recall facts about our last conversation, and enrich my interaction with you in countless ways.

In the next decade, you will attend conferences, meetings, interviews, keynotes and maybe even dates by telepresence and virtual worlds. Just the advantage of avoiding a full cavity search courtesy of airport TSA makes it worth it.

For me, I have 15 Beam robots between my offices at XPRIZE (Los Angeles), Singularity University (Mountain View), Human Longevity Inc. (San Diego), and Planetary Resources (Seattle). In a single day, I'll routinely hop between four cities with a click of a button.

Discussion — 4 Responses

50 Safekeeping Self-Defense Gadgets

From Hi-Tech Tasers to Pepper Spray Phones

The main function of self-defense gadgets is to guard one's safety, but these creations also focus on form. While equipping one with safety measures, these products also pay attention to design and style.

A lot of tasers and pepper sprays are becoming multi-functional. With the prevalence of smartphones, some brands are even producing taser-incorporated phone cases. This type of design makes weaponry conveniently portable and discrete.

A more stationary self-defense item is the Burglar Blaster set. It detects thieves from within 2,000 square feet of its range and releases pepper spray when alarmed. The Burglar Blaster's sleek design mounts onto your wall, resembling a security system.

While many self-defense creations are blatantly obvious, other are disguised. For instance, Austrian artist Toni Spyra makes weapons out of everyday objects like wooden clothes hangers or perfume bottles.

Nothing beats simplicity.

These self defense pens by Schrade aren't your average writing accessories. These self defense pens are widely used by law enforcement officers, fire fighters, outdoor enthusiasts and regular people like you and I. The Schrade brand has been in the defense business for many years, if you are planning to get an item to protect yourself, the self defense pens are a great choice for their effectiveness and quality.

A little outdated yet very effective > http://www.trendhunter.com/slideshow/selfdefense-gadgets

*Always wear sunglasses or reflective glasses, "Just for Us".

Best Smart Home Gadgets of 2015

Looking to make your home just a little smarter? While still in its infancy, the number of smart home products—devices that let you control your lighting, thermostat, or even your crock pot from your smartphone—is rapidly growing. From GE to Belkin to Home Depot, tons of products and whole ecosystems want to help you control your home via a single iOS or Android app. You can pick and choose your favorite gadgets to assemble an affordable intelligent abode on your own terms, or opt for an entire smart home system that does all the work for you. Here are some of our favorite smart home systems and individual gadgets.

The third generation of the excellent Dropcam, this $199 camera now shoots video in 1080p (up from 720p), and has a magnetic, swiveling base that lets you set it up almost anywhere. It features two-way audio, sharp night vision and a powerful digital zoom, and integrates with other smart home products, such as the Nest Learning Thermostat. But to really make use of Nest Cam's features, you'll have to shell out $10 or more per month for the Nest Aware program, which gives you access to cloud storage and much more.

A mere touch of your finger unlocks or locks this otherwise normal-looking front door bolt lock. You can assign virtual keys permanently or temporarily, monitor ins and outs remotely and receive activity alerts via the Kevo app. Kevo's quotidian aesthetics are actually part of its security function – unlike other, perhaps admittedly smarter, locks, nefarious folks will have no clue to Kevo's intelligence. And in case of a technical snafu, Kevo can be opened with a reliable regular key. Kevo also is due to be incorporated into both the Home Depot/Wink and Staples Connect ecosystems.

Complete report > http://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-smart-home-gadgets,review-2008.html

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Doing business in Nicaragua.

Nicaragua is the 107th largest export economy in the world and the 95th most complex economy according to the Economic Complexity Index (ECI). In 2013, Nicaragua exported $6.39B and imported $6.02B, resulting in a positive trade balance of $371M. In 2013 the GDP of Nicaragua was $11.3B and its GDP per capita was $1.85k.

The top exports of Nicaragua are Insulated Wire ($1.09B), Knit Sweaters ($474M), Gold ($439M), Coffee ($380M) and Knit T-shirts($366M), using the 1992 revision of the HS (Harmonized System) classification. Its top imports are Crude Petroleum ($460M), Refined Petroleum ($442M), Packaged Medicaments ($266M), Light Rubberized Knitted Fabric ($176M) and Delivery Trucks ($149M).

The top export destinations of Nicaragua are the United States($3.41B), Mexico ($623M), Venezuela ($492M), Canada ($392M) and El Salvador ($245M). The top import origins are the United States($945M), Curaçao ($750M), China ($681M), Mexico ($579M) and Costa Rica ($494M).

Nicaragua borders Costa Rica and Honduras by land and El Salvador and Colombia by sea.

Full review at > http://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/nic/

The Top 10, Top 10 Predictions for 2016

The time of year when crystal balls get a viewing and many pundits put out their annual predictions for the coming year. Rather than thinking up my own, I figured I’d regurgitate what many others are expecting to happen.

7 Future Predictions for the Internet of Things – IoT is one of the hottest terms and trends. From connected cars, homes, businesses and more, connected devices are becoming more prevalent in our lives. Stable Kernel looks at the future economic growth, development of smart cities, wearables, privacy challenges and how voice commands will become the norm.

Top 10 Humanoid Robots Designed To Match Human Capabilities And Emotions – While once a dream of The Jetsons, companion robots in the home will become as common as pets, even if the pet is a robot. WT VOX explores whether robots could fully replace humans by 2045 as some predict and takes a look at the top 10 that are starting to match human capability.

The top security threats of 2016 – ZDNet digs into McAfee's 2016 cybersecurity threat report covering areas like hardware, ransomware, cloud services, connected cars and the warehouses of stolen data. From the Ashley Madison hack, to Jeeps taken off-road and the TalkTalk breach, digital infiltration is now a daily occurrence and no one is immune.

Forrester’s top 10 predictions for business in 2016 — and what they mean for tech – Computerworld summarizes Forrester’s top 10 predictions and how 2016 will be the year that the companies that thrive will be those advancing down the customer obsession path. They look at critical business issues like loyalty, analytics, personalization and how privacy will become a value to which customers will respond. You need to live a customer-obsessed operating model to survive.

IBM predicts tech world of 2016 – At number 5, IBM has published its 6th annual Five in Five - where it predicts five innovations that will change all of our lives in the next five years, with mind-reading machines apparently set to be interpreting our thoughts by 2016. From generating our own energy to no more passwords to almost everyone having some sort of mobile technology, IBM Labs is exploring these emerging technologies.

DDoS Predictions for 2016, IBM Insights – Also from Big Blue, they are sharing insight into new types of DDoS attacks that are to be expected during the coming year. DDoS is no longer a nagging problem but a bona fide technique to disable a company’s resources. BitTorrent, malicious JavaScript and Temporal Lensing DDoS (pdf) attacks are all explained. As I’ve mentioned before, there have always been protesters and activists - some write letters, some picket on the sidewalk, some throw rocks and with the advent of the internet, now you can protest (and more) by creating digital havoc.

5 IT industry predictions for 2016 from Forrester and IDC – CIO.com hits on the 2016 predictions of IDC and Forrester, two of the largest analyst firms. In their distillation, there could be a bleak future for legacy vendors since according to IDC, ‘by 2020, more than 30 percent of the IT vendors will not exist as we know them today.’ There will also be some cloud consolidation, big data gets even bigger and traditional enterprises will turn into software companies. Software developers will become a scarce commodity.

IDC Software Licensing and Pricing Predictions 2016: Top 10 Predictions – And speaking of software, Amy Konary of IDC writes about focus areas like the growth of subscription and outcomes-based pricing, the real cost of licensing complexity, usage models in IoT, the business model impacts of the convergence of cloud, mobile, social, and big data technologies.

10+1 Commandments For Companies Developing Wearable Health Trackers – Many of us will be getting a wearable or two this holiday season so ScienceRoll rolled up it’s 10+1 commandments every company developing wearable health trackers should follow. Practical value, online communities, long live batteries and gamification are what user’s desire. We know you want to make money but focus on helping people live a healthier life.

In-depth: Top 10 Internet of Things companies to watch – We started with IoT and figured I’d caboose this with another. RCRWireless digs in to the top players in both Industrial IoT and Consumer IoT. Many of the names are familiar: Cisco, IBM, ATT, Google, GE, Samsung and a few others are already hedging their future on all these connected nouns. See what these organizations are doing both internally and externally to embrace IoT and take advantage of this proposed multi-trillion dollar market opportunity.

And if you want to see if any of the previous year’s predictions came true, here ya go:

Product Hunt Predicts the Tech Hits of 2016

If social media is all about what’s happening in the world right now, then Product Hunt is a platform that shows us what’s coming next. One glance at the site’s homepage gives a glimpse into Silicon Valley’s id — 3-D-printed jewelry, smart kitchen devices, and a Drake-only version of Google. Launched as a newsletter in 2014 by a former product manager named Ryan Hoover, the Reddit-style forum is simply a list of products submitted by the companies' founders and then ranked by users’ votes. But it's quickly become a dynamic, influential community devoted to figuring out just which tech gadgets and services we’ll all be lusting after next.

Last year, Product Hunt featured more than 11,000 items, ranging from Instagram’s Hyperlapse to Hive, a free, unlimited cloud-storage service — and 23 million unique visitors showed up to gawk at them. The site strikes such a chord in part because obsessing about tech products has become more mainstream as the churn and growth of the tech industry have made it harder to parse what’s going on. Before he created Product Hunt, Hoover says, “I didn't know of an online destination for this discovery and discussion.” A CliffsNotes version of the market itself, the site provides an instant sense of being as in-the-know as any venture capitalist.

Unlike gadget sites driven by editors and ads, Product Hunt is all about the engagement of its users, who are often entrepreneurs themselves. The site is particularly beneficial for founders, who effectively receive free feedback and market-testing. Popularity on the platform means potential high demand, and insider comments often provide insight. “What we're trying to do is help enable makers that build something people want,” says Hoover.

Take Meerkat, for example, the live-streaming video app that piggybacks off Twitter to allow users to become their own broadcasters. Early approval from Product Hunt’s expert community drove attention to the company, which has gone viral in recent weeks; Madonna even used it to debut a music video. Recently, HBO Now has climbed high on Product Hunt's list; an app for collecting cocktail recipes and a video-sharing platform are popular as well. But that's just what happened to be up. We asked Hoover to pick out seven products that have made it to the top of the list by inspiring the most up-votes on Product Hunt — a hint at what might be the must-have technology of tomorrow.

Magic

Magic is an aggregator of other services, an Uber for Ubers: Send a regular text message to the phone number 83489 with literally any request, and the company will do its best to serve your needs immediately, following up via on-demand platforms like Uber, Homejoy, and Mechanical Turk. “Magic is one example of many on-demand virtual-assistant services that use a combination of humans and machines to perform micro-tasks,” Hoover says. This company, however, takes the choosing out of the equation by figuring literally everything out for you. Of course, this trick is hard to pull off successfully. It’s “a bold claim that has yet to be proven as a scaleable business model,” he adds.