#fiafo

[fiafo]

Personal Expression

As a company we want to blog more. We want all our team members to blog, express and share more. We keep saying "We should blog about that!" and yet, we're all pretty lousy at following through and blogging.

Why? I wish we had the answer. When you run and work in a small tech business, we're all so invested in building great products and making sure we keep improving on our core skills it is easy to reflect and ask; "Who has the time?".

Time is a huge factor, but not one that really, truly, honestly stops us from sharing and expressing through our blog. I think it has more to do with 'confidence'. We're a small team of product designers, software developers and electrical engineers. We love what we do. Discussion with each other is easy and internally sharing what we discover and learn is common place. But when it comes down to transferring our recent discovery into a blog post, we freeze. Confidence appears lost in an ability to write something (we believe) meaningful and enjoyable to an external audience.

Here and now, I'm declaring that we do not need to feel pressured to 'write a blog post'. The rise of Twitter and Instagram has proven less can be more. So from now on at FiaFo the pressure is off to 'blog'. Instead we're going to try and instill a spirit of sharing.

This hopefully means less time worrying about how to write something, and more time simply sharing the stuff we're all already publishing in Instagram feeds, Twitter discussions, You Tube channels etc etc

To facilitate this new spirit, our blog is now powered by Tumblr so the act of cross posting and thus sharing is made as easy and integrated as possible. Each of our individual blog themes have also had a revamp in readiness. It may take time for us to run with this, but this is at least a challenge for us to go for it!

[fiafo]

Google Have Their own Self-Driving Cars!?

(image: theguardian.com)

Google are starting to build their own line of self-driving cars.

However, the car sounds massively scary. It will have a stop-go button, but no controls, steering wheel or pedals. How is this car supposed to drive without controls!? Google have seemed to take this fear into account, and they have the vehicle look like a smart-car with a "friendly" face; to make it seem non-threatening and help users accept self-driving technology.

Co-founder Sergey Brin revealed his plans plans at a conference in California, stating that Google were "really excited about this vehicle" and they're hoping to "really push the capabilities of self driving technology". He added that the cars had the ability to "improve people's lives by transforming mobility".

Although this is a massive step forward in the world of technology, some researchers working in this field are investigating potential downsides to driverless car technology. For instance, they believe that the cars could make traffic and urban sprawl worse, as people will most likely accept longer commutes as they do not have to drive themselves.

(image: bbc.co.uk)

So far, the self driving cars had covered 700,000 miles of public roads in autonomous mode, and Google are now tackling the tricky problem of busy city streets. The company plans to build a fleet of around 200 of the cars in Detroit, USAM with the hope of using them as an autonomous technology test bed.

Nobody knows exactly when the cars will be ready, but Google is aiming for them to be ready in a year. But with the advanced technology, I doubt it'll be that quick.

[fiafo]

Fully Functional Wolverine Claws!?

(image: dailydot.com)

Garage inventor, Colin Furze, has really done a lot of stuff in his time as an inventor, but his latest creation is really cool (and highly dangerous!). He's created Wolverine claws, that can both extend and retract.

A lot of people have tried to replicate the metal claws that the mutant, Wolverine, is famous for, but all of those only do one half of the equation: the claw extension. Once the claws came out, they had to be manually set back in place, massively unlike Furze's.

With the help of a super clever compressed air system, Furze’s claws are able to extend and retract on command, although he needs to wear a large backpack to make it all work, but it's better than turning your skeleton to adamantium. Having a giant backpack is probably about as close as you can get to the real claws (I really want one).

This isn’t Furze’s first venture into the land of insane DIY. Back in 2007, he made a massive (and a very shoddy looking) Wall Of Death, so he could ride around on his lil’ Honda Skyride, almost horizontally. Then, in 2012, he modified a mobility scooter to go way past it's original 4mph, up to 70mph.

(image: twitter.com) 

Furze is already planning more X-Men themed projects for the future, maybe being inspired by the upcoming new X-Men film, Days Of Future Past, so we’ll keep an eye out for more crazy and brilliant inventions of his.

[fiafo]

The Surface Pro 3

(image: pcworld.com)

Last week, Microsoft announced the Surface Pro 3 and a new direction for the Surface line. They don't want to compete with the iPad anymore. No, Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 is looking to be better the "heavy" MacBook Air.

This argument has been around for a while, and instead of explaining that the Surface Pro can be an iPad and a MacBook Air and then an iPad again, Microsoft is now simply saying the new Surface Pro is better than the MacBook Air. And, from reviews on the Internet, Microsoft might actually win this battle. The Surface Pro 3 is more powerful and versatile than anything from Samsung, Lenovo or HP.

The Surface has always said that a tablet could replace a laptop, but through two Surface generations, that has failed to actually happen. The Surface Pro 1 and 2 were too heavy and thick, and the screens were too small and the devices didn’t work well while on a lap. The Surface Pro 3 solves all of those problems, by having a larger 12 inch screen, and has a higher resolution than the MacBook Air. The Surface Pro 3 also had a keyboard that is thinner than the MacBook Air, and includes 4g, built-in. And for better or worse, the Surface Pro 3 is a touchscreen and has novel OneNote features such as a mode that instantly lets users jot down notes even when the device is turned off. That's pretty impressive.

(image: techcrunch.com)

But still, the MacBook Air is everyone's favourite. It's the best laptop on the market, by far, and Apple have progressed the MacBook Air to near perfection. Nobody knows that better than Microsoft.

Meanwhile, Windows 8 has highly evolved since its release, carefully blending the old Windows with the new Windows. Microsoft might have actually reached their goal where the Surface can finally be a Windows user’s MacBook Air.

[fiafo]

Chromosonic - the Colour Changing Fabric

(image: vimeo.com)

Embedding electronics into comforters, clothes, and wall-hangings, are beginning to be a thing of the future for many developers around.

Chromosonic, by Hungarian designer Judit Eszter Karpati, is an  electronic textile that can change colour and pattern when touched or when sound is aimed for it. The change of colour happens due to temperature-sensitive dye; meaning audio files - processed through an Arduino (check out our own, George) - heat up nichrome wires woven into the fabric, making ithe pattern on the fabric pulse in time with the sounds playing.

And since the fabric is dyed with thermochromatic ink, the colours can change from temperature changes too. So you can sit on it, lean on it, "draw" on it, and it'll take up the pattern that you have when touching the fabric.

In addition to achieving a beautiful effect, the project occupies some conceptual territory. Karpati's creation more than a piece of decor but less than another screen. This can be a revolutionary product that can be used to change our habitats in ways that have nothing to do with utility or efficiency. 

(image: chromosonic.tumblr.com)

I would love to have one of these rugs just to experiment with the sound waves. I'd most likely scream into a microphone, just to watch the colours fade in and out in sync with the noise.

See the fabric in action in this video here.

[fiafo]

Snakable’s New USB Charging Cable

(image: kickstarter.com)

I know how frustrating USB chargers can be (my own snapped a few months ago), but now we don't have to worry about bending or using Sellotape anymore!

Snakable has created a new USB charger that won't break, or wear away with use. It has built-in protection from the dangers of over-bending and strain, with a patent-pending strain relief assembly on its end that has free-moving ball joints to prevent the cable from bending beyond a safe radius, meaning that we won't need to buy new chargers whenever our own breaks.

The ball-and-joint assembly is there to make the cables less prone to breaking, but if they do happen to strain too far, the individual joints can simply come apart then be snapped back into place, with little effort.

The cable Wes Goulbourne, the main man of this project, is looking to put into production will be available in Apple Lightning and Micro USB formats. It will be around 4 ft. long, and come in red, white, orange, black, and green.

(image: kickstarter.com)

The project has a Kickstarter that has raised over $20,000 in backers. The cables will sell for $30 (£17), but backers can pledge $20 to take early delivery, which is aimed for August. Those who pledge $30 can also get a wall plug in a matching colour. Goulbourne is looking to raise $28,000 to finance the developing costs, and I don't think it will be a problem for him.

Nobody likes broken USBs.

[fiafo]

Pocket Printer Kicks Off

(image: bbc.co.uk)

Zuta Labs have created a Kickstarter for their amazing pocket printer, and already, they have raised $442,892 (£260,000) for their mini printer.

Instead of putting countless pieces of paper into a fairly large machine, the pocket printer will fit an ink cartridge to a small robot that will move across the paper and print over the piece of paper to create a document. However, it is quite slow, and that may determine it's appeal to customers and buyers.

The current prototype can only print a page per minute, in black and white, and offers a significantly lower resolution than traditional desktop inkjets. However, the engineers for the project said that they hop to make improvements before the first devices are shipped to backers of the Kickstarter campaign in January.

(image: kickstarter.com)

The current prototype uses a black ink Hewlett-Packard cartridge. And, due to the Kickstarter, the company will be able to buy smaller and stronger engines for the device, making it move faster whilst printing. And they'll be able to work on newer and smaller versions of the cartridges.

There is no word on a price just yet, but these printers seem very promising so far. We look forward to hearing about them in the future.

[fiafo]

M3D Printer Whizzes Past $1m Kickstarter on First Day

(image: 3ders.org)

Micro, a $299 (£178) 3D printer, hit their Kickstarter funding goal of $50,000 in only 11 minutes and then continued to raise $1.46 million less than two full days after the campaign started. Unbelievable!

It was created by a Bethesda, Md. company called M3D, and they say that the printer it the cheapest 3D printer that can be used straight out of the box. The printer is cube-shaped and is 7.3-inches wide. It weighs around 2.2 lbs. It works with Windows, Mac and Linux, has a USB-compatible connection, and supports a number of different materials, including ABS, PLA and Nylon.

What's the most impressive about the 3D printer is it's price. $299 is very cheap when compared to other printers that are currently on the market. The Makerbot's Replicator Mini, another 'micro' 3D printer, costs $1,375 (£819).

(image: uncrate.com)

The Micro should be available for late 2014 or early 2015. M3D claims that the huge interest for the campaign will not delay delivery schedules.