With red-light camera‘s everywhere and GPS navigation companies selling data to police departments, isn’t the next logical step that the data from our cars and apps will be used to send us invoices for road usage, tickets for speeding or wreckless driving or raising our insurance rates based on driving habits, regardless of who is driving the car.
Archives for May 2011
Awesome or Scary?
A lot of really cool things have been coming out of the Google I/O conference this week, one of which is zero-touch near field communication (NFC) in the upcoming version of Android (name Ice Cream Sandwich). Engadget.com has a video of the demonstration where two Android Nexus phones share things with each other without having to press anything or start an app.
On the surface, that’s really cool. You don’t have to wait to fire up an app or wait for someone else to approve your request. However, how easy is it going to be to “pocket share” a web site or your contact information with someone you’re standing next to in line at the store. Or once NFC payments are a reality, how easy is it going to be to accidentally pay for someone else’s purchase or have your credit card information unwittingly shared?
Flying Trains?
I love robots and all things technology, so this article on how a Ground-Effect Robot Could Be Key To Future High-Speed Trains caught my attention. Growing up in Europe, trains and subways are a way of life and convenient transportation, but not always the fastest. However, living in Texas now, I appreciate the convenience of good, reliable public transportation because here (at least in the Dallas / Fort Worth area) it is virtually non-existent. Everyone here has to have a car, because even if you wanted to take public transportation, you would most likely be able to only get almost where you wanted to go, but not all the way there.
I tried to see if I could take public transportation to work a while back, but living on the outskirts of the DFW Metroplex, there was no way to get from my house to work without a private vehicle. I have to drive 15 minutes just to get to the closest park and ride, to start an adventure that would take me two hours and still wouldn’t get me all the way to work.
How Are Sports Teams Using Social Media?
Social media has become mainstream in the traditional media, as television networks have incorporated Twitter hashtags into their broadcasts, professional sports leagues have followed suit. Leagues, such as the NFL, have walked a fine line of promoting themselves on social media and monitoring/regulating how their players interact with their followers on social media.
Athletes have been put in compromising situations because of their use of social media and some have even decided to call it quits after outpouring of hatred via social media channels. As the usage of social media has become more mainstream, we are becoming more and more blinded to its usage.