Tech Trends – Aug 15-16
A new hope for Disney, how you can speak to spacemen, free messaging while on holiday and more in this week’s ‘Weekend in Tech Trends’. But first, you might have noticed a slight change on blog.passkit.com.
It’s been a long-time coming, but you can now sign up to our Blog mailing list. And doing so will not only keep you up to date on all the latest articles, but also allow you to receive monthly round-ups on everything we’ve been up to at PassKit. Which includes: #PFR Fun Friday activities like this one, new product launches like these, and more insider articles from PassKiteers like here.
Now that’s out of the way, here’s your regular Weekend In Tech Trends article for Aug 15-16
1) Tech Trends – FireChat Now Works Everywhere, Even On A Plane
FireChat might not be amongst the newest of tech trends, but it recently took off with the announcement that you can send messages while in the air. It’s the app that everyone used during the Hong Kong protests in 2014, the Ecuadorian protests in 2015, and last year in Iraq while the country faced restrictions on Internet use. But it’s not all bad news for FireChat. Because there’s one reason to really love it, outside the obvious anti-government, anti-phone network, anti-social network associations. And it has everything to do with your summer holiday.
FireChat lets you send messages without a connection. It bounces them between users’ phones via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals, until it finds one with a capable network connection. Which means you can send a message while abroad without worrying about extortionate network fees. It doesn’t rely on any carrier and will work anywhere, even on a plane. The only downside is it will take around 10-20mins to send.
SOURCE: Business Insider
2) Tech Trends – Slack Integrates With Email
Slack is the hot new in-office instant messaging service that’s not just taken San Francisco, but the World by storm. Even all the way over here in Hong Kong it’s having a dramatic effect. Our office in particular uses it for everything, from scheduling business meetings and sharing interesting tech trends, to sending animated gifs, and even brainstorming big ideas. And now it’s about to get even better.
Slack is one step closer to culling email completely, hopefully, as Standard and Plus members can soon have email directed to Slack. And while this looks as though the two coms channels are acting all cosy, in reality Slack is moving in for the kill. Because allowing someone to access email in Slack is equivalent to letting your dog eat dinner at the table. Once comfortable in that situation, they’ll settle and never want to go back.
SOURCE: Slack
3) Tech Trends – A Galaxy Not So Far Away
Disney, you are our only hope. Considering you own all the rights to one of the century’s best universes. Which you’ll of course already have guessed is Star Wars, arguably the greatest space opera ever told. And thanks to the Mickey Mouse making, property buying wonder company, you’ll soon have your very own Star Wars experience to explore in great, great detail. Just “Don’t get cocky, kid”.
Disney recently announced they are building not one, but two new immersive Star Wars experience parks – both 14 acres large. Each park will let visitors walk through fully realized worlds, where they can interact with characters, fly the Millennium Falcon, have a drink at the cantina, and experience a major battle. “We are creating a jaw-dropping new world that represents our largest single-themed land expansion ever,” Bob Iger, Disney’s CEO.
And while there might be a million Star Wars quotes rushing through your head, looking at the images below we’re 99.9% sure “Let’s blow this thing and go home” isn’t one of them.
SOURCE: Quartz
4) Tech Trends – Speak To The Astronauts
Even in today’s world, it can be hard to place a call. You can loose signal, battery, someone’s number, and even the will to live, while waiting for someone to answer. Which is why it might surprise you to hear it’s apparently very easy to call the International Space Station. Easy as pie, ham pie.
Because the astronauts orbiting Earth at around 5 miles per second are carrying a HAM radio with them. So while a seemingly quick call to somewhere as close as next-door needs credit, battery, and to bounce off a satellite, reaching the International Space Station some 400km away with a HAM is shockingly simpler. You just need to know when and how.
Read the full article on Quartz to find out exactly what you need to do it: Speaking with Spacemen
SOURCE: Quartz
