Emerging Technology News

Despite our gadgets improving and becoming more portable, keeping them charged continues to be a major problem. However, the new solar charger kindle jacket by SolarFocus is a cleverly designed gadget that tops up your Kindle’s battery when it’s in the sun.

Turnitin is an online resource used by most university and college professors worldwide to check plagiarism. Created by iParadigms, the resource has proven incredibly popular yet controversial although used only to check a paper or essay for plagiarism. Some feel having their essays checked out by Turnitin is akin to an ‘admission of guilt’ which is unconstitutional by education governing bodies of universities although the jury is still out on how accurate that is. The process is that the college or university buys a licence to use the service and then submits papers for review. While on the surface the service seems straight forward enough its popularity is waning although the objective is positive. Plagiarism has no place in a learning institution and the danger of ignoring such practices can result in gross misconduct if one is indeed plagiarising. For example, if a doctor you see happened to pass his final examination through plagiarism and time comes for a medical translation that concerns you, you could be at risk of an uninformed practitioner who cheated his way into a qualification; your health is at risk. The software to check plagiarism is traversing a grey area though between two factions warring over its merits.

The British food distribution company Blue Skies has started using the TempTRIP monitoring device to ensure the high quality freshness of its fruits from African food distribution channels to European supermarkets. Employing more than 2000 people in South Africa, Ghana, Egypt and Brazil, Blue Skies sources freshly harvested fruit for supermarket chains in the UK, Europe and South Africa, transporting their cargo in under 48 hours. Fruit is cut and packed at the country of origin, ensuring fair trade in its global food distribution methods.

The Canadian company Ortsbo showcased its new online service Live & Global, which uses propriety technology and close-captioning for accurate real time translation for online video into fifty three languages. Translation options are impressive scanning a wide range of languages, from Maltese to Chinese and Italian to Yiddish. At the showcase in Las Vegas, audiences watched closely as the software achieved real time translation of Variety magazine’s Entertainment Summit via an online video platform. The Ortsbo president, David Lucatch, stressed the potential of the real time translation product for global corporate meetings, stating that that “regardless of the language you speak, today you speak your client’s language.” The company has already signed a deal with IndyCar for the real time translation of press conferences and social media events.

When was the last time you checked your MySpace account? Have you logged into Friendster in the last three years? Social media sites are not built to last; people tend to move on or forget about their profiles, but could Facebook be the first eternal social media networking site. Right now your Facebook profile is set to outlast you or indeed even the site itself. Since the data is stored on a public face, even if you were to change your name and hide in the jungle essentially you would still exist to the world. In a decade we’ll all have that awkward moment where we’ve posted something we’re ashamed of on social media and business might feel at risk. At least by this point we’d all pretty much be in the same boat.

The fields of technology and design are constantly developing and evolving, and naturally each one influences the other; this has resulted in some highly innovative shelving designs to make large-scale industrial storage simpler and more efficient than ever, but designers have also recognised the potential for creating new and unusual ways to improve storage spaces in the home. Here’s a look at three modern shelving designs for the home or office – each of these designs combines function and style to bring about a truly unique and creative storage solution.

With the amount of computer viruses people are consumed with protecting their computers against attacks and make a point of getting firewalls and anti-virus software frequently updated. The one thing that most people don’t think about are viruses carried around on their keyboards. New keyboard technology has shown that keyboards weren’t used that much in sterile environments due to the amount of germs they carry. With the latest self-sanitizing keyboard looking to burst onto the market many hospitals and laboratories that hinge on clinical cleanliness, may finally have their answer to sanitary keyboards.

With the Consumer Electronics Show happening in Las Vegas, once again we will see how the impact of mobile technology, in the form of smart phones, wireless devices and smaller technology that can be embedded into clothing will give health benefits to the medical industry. With numerous patents for new technologies going past the desk of regulatory affairs specialists in the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) the trade show highlights not only the latest in technology for connectivity in business and social, but also the benefits of the technology on healthcare and numerous studies show the benefit of these technologies going mainstream. Keeping in contact with patients through immediate methods such as txt messages and emails wherever they are is one of the penetrating effects of smartphones and mobile computing technology devices that have medical applications to fulfil basic requirements that were only available at hospitals before.

It’s a warning as old as the internet; keep your passwords safe and secure, don’t open any strange files and keep your anti-virus software up to date. Yet a Facebook hack dubbed Ramnit has claimed more than 45,000 logins and continues to spread. Although it seems France and the United Kingdom are the most affected in the online Facebook hack; Ramnit is spreading fast and it seems the only protection is to steer clear from strange applications on the social network. Don’t give out permissions to access your account for random applications; that is if you don’t want someone to hack your Facebook account. A bulletin issued by security researchers at Securlet warned that although Ramnit is one of the ways to hack a Facebook account or profile, it goes beyond that being capable of infecting Windows executables, destabilising MPLS VPN connectivity, infiltrating FTP servers and even messing with Microsoft Office.

Once again, CES 2012 is upon us and manufacturers descend upon Las Vegas to highlight the latest and greatest products that will forever change the lives of consumers. The Consumer Electronics Show is annually held and allows all the members of the Consumer Electronic Association to display their latest technology in January to distributors and media, whether it’s the latest upright vacuum cleaners or the new ultra thin laptops, called ultrabooks that will be the wow factor at this year’s show is yet to be seen. Whether your craving is to find out which way your 2012 refrigerator will operate on the CES floor, how small and what the new smart phone will be able to do or whether or not you will have images that leap out of your television screens in greater magnitudes than 3D can ever offer. No doubt heads will spin and reporters are already making bold claims about the show from leaked information.