JUNE 20-21:
Samsung tackles road safety, Star Wars speeder bikes become reality, Taylor Swift sways Apple and more.
1 – SAMSUNG HAS SAVED YOUR SUMMER
Nobody likes to be stuck behind a slow moving truck. But you’re guaranteed to be at some point in your life. It’s just one of those things you have to endure, like chickenpox. What you shouldn’t have to endure, however, is taking your own life in your hands when you attempt to overtake. And Samsung agree.
They’ve placed a camera on the front and 4 displays on the rear of their trucks, so drivers stuck behind them will now be able to see whether or not they can pass. Samsung believes this is the solution to the leading cause of traffic deaths, and we agree. Plus, it’s literally making those ugly looking large transport vehicles disappear from our roads. But you could also argue there’s a better solution hidden here.
What if Samsung played movies instead? Think about it. You wouldn’t care so much if you got stuck behind a truck playing Star Wars Episode 7. Which would also mean you wouldn’t care about overtaking. In fact, you might actually start enjoying being stuck behind a truck this summer.
Check out the video below to see how Samsung plans on “Saving lives, not changing them”.
Source – The Verge
2 – THE FORCE IS STRONG WITH THIS STAR WARS TOY
Star Wars fans have dreamed of this day. When they can cruise around the woods on a speeder bike or pod race in their back garden. And now they soon can, because one company is trying to make this a reality.
Malloy Aeronautics has landed a contract with the U.S. Army Research Laboratory to start building hoverbikes for military use. “Right now, Malloy’s prototype hoverbike could go as fast as 92 mph, but it has only been tested when tied to the ground, so it doesn’t fly too high. It’s about the size of a small car, and weighs about 600 pounds. The company plans to test the bike without restrictions in the coming months,” reported Mashable. And Even though it’s being contracted for military use, it looks like the galaxy isn’t so far, far away after all.
Source – Mashable
3 – SWEET WORDS FROM MISS SWIFT
The American sweetheart announced via her Tumblr recently that you will not be listening to her album “1989” on Apple Music when it launches. A bold claim considering the company’s foot hold on the music industry. So why the sudden strong-arm from Taylor Swift?
Music is one of Apple’s latest offerings that’s set to compete directly with successful streaming services like Spotify and Tidal. And to attract market share away from these heavy hitters, Apple has announced a 3 month free trial for all users. Which is where the issue lies, as Miss Swift pointed out in her post that Apple will receive huge exposure from this while artists “will not be paid for its [Apple Music’s] success” during this 3 month period.
Now as of writing, Apple has officially announced a revision of their standpoint on Apple Music. They will be paying artists. Which is a huge achievement and just goes to show that content really is king in technology.
Source: TechCrunch
4 – TWITTER TAKES TO ECOMMERCE
After rolling out a buy button last Fall, Twitter has decided to make pages that make it easier to gather information and purchase products. These ‘Product Pages’ and ‘Collections’ will include multiple tweets and without a doubt feature the buy button. And they couldn’t come sooner, as Twitter needs more than ever to show that they can still bring in heavy amounts of revenue.
Below you’ll see what might start popping up rather soon. It could also be predicted that Twitter will enable purchases with Apple Pay — via Passbook [soon to be ‘Apple Wallet’] — on these ‘Product Pages’ and ‘Collections’. Especially considering the mobile dominant consumption of Twitter content and Apple’s mobile payment solution now integrating with apps and online purchases. So be on the look out for new ways to purchase from Twitter in the coming months — especially with a mobile payment services like Apple Wallet or Google Wallet.
Source – TechCrunch
5 – PAY BY THE PAGE – AMAZON
Starting next month, authors who rely on Amazon’s Kindle as a revenue stream could be making a lot less money. Or a lot more, depending on how you look at it. The new system applies to authors using the Amazon Lending Library or Kindle Unlimited, both of which use a subscription model. It also applies to authors who are enrolled in the Kindle Direct Publishing program. But what does it mean?
Under the new program, authors are paid by how many pages the reader actually reads, instead of whether the book is downloaded or borrowed. This comes as a response to a complaint by authors with longer books who claimed the current compensation wasn’t fair. We’re personally hoping this increases the quality of books. How? Because the author is going to be under even more pressure to keep you turning pages, thus creating better content.
Source – TheVerge
We clearly live in exciting times (speeder bikes and Taylor Swift music for all, coming soon) where every week there are new innovations in tech, trends and interesting news topics. We can’t wait to see what happens next week.
