Posts Categorized: Consumer Technology

Bad wiring or bad chemistry? What’s behind Samsung’s exploding smartphone batteries?

Posted by & filed under Amazon, Apple, Consumer Technology, Google.

Samsung has been forced to recall thousands of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones because some of the batteries in the devices overheated and exploded.  The company hasn’t yet explained the cause. And it’s curious, because lithium-ion batteries — the kinds used in the phones — are safely used in millions of wireless devices around the world. Source: CBC News… Read more »

How the street light has been given a hi-tech makeover

Posted by & filed under Civil Liberties, Cloud Computing, Consumer Technology, Cybersecurity, Emerging Technologies.

Not only are light bulbs getting sharper and more energy efficient as they are upgraded to LEDs, but they increasingly help fight crime, promote safe cycling and even protect turtles.  That’s because street lights are also becoming the eyes and ears of “smart” cities.  Lamp posts double as data collectors, communicating with a central control… Read more »

Competition heats up to build Canada’s first Arctic fibre line, as Inuit want in

Posted by & filed under bandwidth, Consumer Technology.

High-speed fibre-optic internet could finally be coming to Nunavut, with two groups now competing to run subsea cables through the Arctic archipelago. For the past year, Nunavut Resource Corporation, which is partly owned by the Kitikmeot Inuit Association, has been lobbying the federal government for support for a new $850-million plan to build onto existing fibre optic networks in Labrador, Quebec and the… Read more »

No connectivity: the internet ‘blackout zone’ that is rural Canada

Posted by & filed under bandwidth, Competitive advantage, Consumer Technology, Ethical Issues.

An Ottawa Valley family’s monumental struggle to get broadband internet shows that a significant geographic digital divide still exists in Canada, even for those who aren’t very far from urban centres.  “I live an hour from our nation’s capital, 10 minutes from the town of Renfrew on a busy highway,” says Kevin LeGris.  “I’m in… Read more »

How people use their phones in bed

Posted by & filed under Consumer Technology, Ethical Issues.

Fifteen million people in the UK [that’s about a quarter] are disrupting their sleep patterns by looking at their mobile phones and other devices, with a third of them checking for messages at night and more than a sixth replying to them. Source: BBC Business Date: October 4th, 2016 Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37471676 Discussion 1) How might this behavior impact… Read more »

Is this the moment e-sports comes of age?

Posted by & filed under Competitive advantage, Consumer Technology, Emerging Technologies, Entertainment.

It is a deal that could mark the moment e-sports enters the big league. The US owners of a famous basketball franchise and investors in Premier League club Crystal Palace have snapped up two of the leading e-sports teams.  The Philadelphia 76ers have acquired Team Dignitas and Apex, and will merge them into what the… Read more »

Snapchat launches sunglasses with camera

Posted by & filed under Competitive advantage, Consumer Technology, Emerging Technologies, Ethical Issues.

Messaging app firm Snapchat has announced its first gadget – sunglasses with a built-in camera. The device, which the company is calling Spectacles, will go on sale later this year priced at $130. The glasses will record up to 30 seconds of video at a time. Source: BBC Date: September 28th, 2016 Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37460682 Discussion 1) Why might Snap(chat) succeed… Read more »