As the much-missed playwright William Goldman once said, where it comes to predicting success, ‘Nobody Knows Anything’. And that certainly holds for technology as well as screenwriting. In fact, it holds for most things in life, but let’s stick with Tech for now.

Highlighting case studies from global brands, breakout innovators and startup companies, shapiro offers an inside look at the emerging technologies that are shaping our world
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One of the stories that Shapiro tells in his new book Ninja Future: Secrets to Success in the New World of Innovation (which Tech Trends got an advance peek at prior to its release at the end of the December) refers to the time he met Donald Rumsfeld – at the time when he was secretary of defence for George W. Bush – during a flight and got to talking about the difference between “known unknowns” and “unknown unknowns” and how they impacted a successful strategy.

In any kind of volatile environment successful people are not the ones who know the most about known factors, but those who can most quickly and dynamically adapt to new ones as they emerge
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I won’t spoil it for you, but the moral of the story here is essentially that in any kind of volatile environment – such as the constant sea of disruption that drives tech innovation – successful people are not the ones who know the most about known factors, but those who can most quickly and dynamically adapt to new ones as they emerge.

It covers a vast array of technologies and attempts to draw connections between them in a broader context, mainly centered on how they will impact the lives of ordinary consumers
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This is something that I have experienced over many years of working and reporting on tech, and fully agree with Shapiro on. In other matters, such as his approach to policy and data regulation, we differ quite considerably. For example, I believe GDPR is broadly a positive move and that Ninja companies will actually benefit from adapting their systems to comply with it rather than lazily and greedily scarifying privacy at the altar or “move fast and break things”. In fact, this is sentiment that has been recently echoed by the likes of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, yet whatever your personal take on it, the book still provides a useful summary of current policy, and leaves room for the reader to make up their own mind on what the future will hold.

As the much-missed playwright William Goldman once said, where it comes to predicting success, ‘Nobody Knows Anything’
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Ninja Future is the sequel to his previous bestselling book Ninja Innovation: The Ten Killer Strategies of the World’s Most Successful Businesses.

“This future will be marked by disruption. But the people and organizations who possess these qualities also view the challenges ahead as opportunities to generate a better future—a ninja future. In the midst of social, political, and physical upheaval, they will create progress. Growth. Integration. Diversity. Resilience.”

Inevitably, those who have more in-depth knowledge of certain technologies will find little new material about them here. A few pages are dedicated to the rise of Immersive Technologies and the role they will play in this Ninja Future for example, which is not nearly enough go into any sort of deep dive.

Shapiro’s combination of deep-dive analysis, access to the world’s leading innovators and years of industry expertise gives readers the confidence, creativity and clarity to thrive in the fast-approaching, high-tech future
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But that is, of course, not to the purpose of the book. It covers a vast array of technologies and attempts to draw connections between them in a broader context, mainly centered on how they will impact the lives of ordinary consumers.

It is an accessible and interesting read for those unfamiliar with how these often-intimidating technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Computing, Mixed Reality, Robotics, Internet of Things and Biometrics actually work, and offers concrete case studies and amusing anecdotes for those who are.

In over 30 years at the helm of CES Shapiro has seen the tech industry transform itself again and again, so he knows what it takes to succeed
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And those case studies come from the “belly of the beast” so to speak. For the past 30 years Shapiro has been in charge of the world’s largest and most famous consumer electronics show – CES which takes place every January in Las Vegas. Hi insights carry weight because they come from simple experience – seeing what works and what doesn’t, recognizing patterns, and embracing the fact that sometimes random luck also plays a part in that success.

“For business or government leaders to stay on the cutting-edge of their fields, they must adapt at lightning speed to evolving trends,” said Shapiro. “Ninja Future takes the key traits of ninja innovators from my first book and applies them to our global future. Ninja innovators will embrace the obstacles and opportunities thrown their way to usher in the ninja future and create value for their world.”

Ninja Future: Secrets to Success in the New World of Innovation will go on sale on December 31st, 2018 and is available now to pre-order on Amazon.

This future will be marked by disruption
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For companies looking for guidance in how to best leverage technology and digital transformation in their own organizations, Tech Trends offers a range of Consultancy services

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Review: Ninja Future by Gary Shapiro appeared first on Tech Trends.

It’s that time again! Tech Trends is off to Berlin for IFA 2018 on 30th August.

I love and hate these huge technology shows, the industry leading speakers and the hands-on time with the latest and greatest devices is fantastic but the sore feet and stampedes between product launch events can be quite scary. All in all, IFA is a must attend show and as the world’s most important trade show for consumer electronics and home appliances is well worth the crowds and weary legs plus you are guaranteed a freebie or two

IFA is a must attend show and as the world's most important trade show for consumer electronics and home appliances
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“From our IFA vantage point, we see the key trends across brands, start-ups, inventors, retailers and consumers. And what’s obvious to us is that we are at the tipping point for a dramatic acceleration of innovation, driven by technology megatrends and ever closer co-operation across the whole industry ecosystem. This will kickstart growth, transform our lives and will soon give the term “consumer electronics” a completely new meaning.” said IFA Executive Director, Jens Heithecker

This year smart and connected devices for the home, powerful AI applications that are deeply integrated in consumer electronics and wellness products, and bigger TVs with ever better screen quality are among the big trendsetters that will probably dominate in Berlin. The event brings together the big brands plus suppliers, component manufacturers, OEMs and ODMs with a broad range of potential customers, all in a huge space at Messe Berlin.

We're at a tipping point for acceleration of innovation, driven by technology megatrends and ever closer co-operation across industry ecosystems
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Tech Trends is excited to see a new kid on the block at IFA this year, Shift AUTOMOTIVE, a biannual convention on the future of mobility
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Apart from the expected new devices and upgrades we all love to check out, Tech Trends is very excited to see the new kid on the block at IFA this year, Shift AUTOMOTIVE, a new biannual convention on the future of mobility, which explores how new automotive technologies are changing the way we think, live, and drive. Shift AUTOMOTIVE is a joint venture of the Geneva International Motor Show, Palexpo, IFA, and Messe Berlin. The first Shift AUTOMOTIVE will take place on 4 and 5 September 2018, alongside IFA in Berlin, followed by the Shift AUTOMOTIVE in Geneva in March 2019.

“Amazing things happen when researchers and experts from two different industries face the same challenge,” says Heithecker. “With Shift AUTOMOTIVE we want to work out how new technologies are changing all our lives, thinking and driving habits.”

The new automotive convention will explore the challenges posed by the mobility disruption and explore and celebrate ideas for the automotive future ahead. Industry keynotes, panels and workshop will cover a broad range of issues, including: when will consumers be ready to trust autonomous cars; cybersecurity in cars; how will the Internet of Things transform the driving experience; and how will disruptive mobility change human transport – and society itself – for the better.

The new automotive convention will explore challenges posed by the mobility disruption and explore ideas for the future
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IFA is the convener for tech innovation, it’s the connecting tissue for the global technology ecosystem
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The conference will look beyond technological breakthroughs and investigate whether consumers are ready for the change ahead. Will drivers and passengers see transport disruption as a threat or an opportunity? Will new technologies make driving more complex, or less? What happens when drivers become passengers? And are people ready to switch from owning a car to subscribing to mobility experiences?

“Technology mega-trends are driving innovation, with components that are ever smaller and ever more powerful, which in turn power emerging technologies like voice control and artificial intelligence. IFA is the convener for all this innovation, it’s the connecting tissue for the global technology ecosystem. That’s because it’s not just one sector innovating, but seven, eight or nine different industries that all try to solve the same problems and push the edge of innovation. Each industry brings its own knowledge, insights and skills to the table. All these industries learn from each other, they inspire each other. That’s co-innovation at its best.” said Dr. Christian Göke, CEO of Messe Berlin

For news on this and everything happening at IFA 2018 follow us @TechTrends_Tech and check back here soon for more articles and updates.

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post Tech Trends @IFA_Berlin 2018 appeared first on Tech Trends.

Welcome to a world of wizardly wonder, where technology is indeed indistinguishable from magic. If you ever dreamed of going to Hogwarts, this course at Full Sail University might just be for you

I hold in my hands what looks and feels like a wand from a Harry Potter film. But this isn’t one of the cheap replicas you can buy in a souvenir shop. It was 3D-printed right here, in the high-tech workshop where I’m standing. And once I put on a HoloLens headset, it’s incredibly effective against the hordes of advancing dementors.

This blended approach is embraced by industry players like Microsoft
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The game—and the wand—were developed by Pat Starace, director of the digital fabrication course at Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. Over a 20-year career, Starace has produced a huge range of models, special effects, and animations for motion pictures and television, including the iconic 1979 title sequence from 60 Minutes. At Full Sail, he teaches students the rapid prototyping techniques needed to convert 3-D drawings into objects like magic wands, while also working on his own projects (like an animatronic toucan and a 3D-printed prosthetic hand modeled after Iron Man’s glove).

The Dementor game switches between AR and virtual reality VR seamlessly within the same experience
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The Dementor game was built to explore switching between augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR) within the same experience: Players can either blast Dementors rushing at them from all sides of their living room, or be transported to what looks like a room at Hogwarts. In the industry, this type of game is still considered blue-sky thinking—experiences tend to be segmented into AR or VR—but students vying for Full Sail’s Simulation and Visualization bachelor degree, launched in 2016, are encouraged to think big. Already, this blended approach is being embraced by industry players like Microsoft.

“We talk about VR and AR as their own separate industries, but they are in fact simply screens into a virtual world,” says Full Sail program director Rob Catto. “The difference is that the screens actually put you into that world. VR is about much more than just putting on a headset; it’s about all of your senses.”

As in Hogwarts wizards, training AR/VR wizards is a complicated business. Full Sail’s workshop is packed with 3D printers, laser cutters, and milling machines. Students learn everything from basic carpentry and spray-painting to how to make their own circuit boards. They study artificial intelligence, physics, data modeling, and human-computer interaction, and learn a diverse range of technical skills that includes using engines like Unity and Unreal, and coding in C Sharp and C++. The program is not for the faint of heart, and more suited to your average Hermione than your average Ron.

Early on, students at Full Sail University are given a project that requires them to use skills like laser-cutting and circuit-board construction
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Early on, students are given a project that requires them to use skills like laser-cutting and circuit-board construction. They then go on to assemble and program devices like one Catto shows me in the Full Sail lab. Called a Stewart Platform, it’s a miniature version of what most theme park rides sit on top of, except this one fits in the palm of my hand. It’s engrossing to watch the platform perform a wide range of dynamic movements—heaving, surging, swaying, rolling, hitching, and dropping—especially when those movements are synced to a character’s on-screen movements.

When Full Sail student Carolyn Smith was tasked with building a Stewart Platform, she too turned to J. K. Rowling for inspiration. Smith designed her own version of Quidditch—sort of like football, if football were played on flying broomsticks—complete with a Harry Potter figurine riding a broom. That got Smith thinking bigger: Why not make a broom you could actually ride while experiencing Quidditch in immersive VR?

When Full Sail student Carolyn Smith was tasked with building a Stewart Platform, she too turned to J. K. Rowling for inspiration
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Smith started by crafting a life-size Nimbus 2000—a high-end broom model featured in the Harry Potter books
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Smith started by crafting a life-size Nimbus 2000—a high-end broom model featured in the books—using tools and materials from the Full Sail lab. She also found resources online: Being a keen cosplayer meant Smith was familiar with a community that enjoyed building realistic props, and various tutors offered help and advice. (One of them even lent her his personal power chisel.) After a lot of hard graft—she stayed up until 2am spray-painting and hand-layering broom bristles —the model came together, and Smith turned her attention to making it “fly.”

“Two instructors helped me with wiring it and… doing thing like fitting in an accelerometer and connecting it to an Arduino computer,” Smith says. “Two buttons are placed just below the accelerometer [to accelerate and to grab the snitch, if you’re close enough], which also connect to the Arduino, making complex adjustments that link the movements of the platform to those of the character generated on the screen.”

A huge Harry Potter fan, Smith plans to visit Universal Studios Harry Potter ride to see how it compares to her efforts, and it’s not unlikely that she’ll stay in Orlando after graduation: The city has more than 100 companies working in the simulation sector, and the VR boom is continuing to gain momentum. But for now, Smith’s only regret is how the project deadline prevented her from researching all the proper Quidditch lore. “I wanted to try to make the game as accurate as possible,” she says, “but I ran out of time.” Looking at what she’s managed to build, I feel that Rowling herself might let a few inaccuracies slide.

This article originally appeared in Quartz

A Florida university is making Quidditch a (virtual) reality https://t.co/iLIFeskRUm

— Quartz (@qz) June 17, 2017

For companies looking to gain a competitive edge through technology, Tech Trends offers strategic Virtual Reality and Digital Transformation Consultancy services tailored to your brand.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Being a Wizard at Virtual Reality University appeared first on Tech Trends.

I never really had a problem with traditional headphones until recently, when I started listening to music on my phone much more often (blame Amazon’s 80s radio) and dropped my handset several times by getting the cable tangled.

I never really had a problem with traditional headphones until recently
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If Apple has its way, we soon won't have any choice but to use Bluetooth
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So I thought it was time to give the latest generation of Bluetooth headsets a try, especially since – if Apple’s latest release is anything to go by – we soon won’t have much of a choice. Unless you want to try out this clever hack, that is*

Don't try this hilarious hack at home
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Ashley Chloe is Fashion Tech start-up base in San Francisco that makes fashionable wearables, and the Helix Cuff is their first flagship product. It’s a Bluetooth headset that slots into a magnetic bracelet, providing a sleek and stylish way of carrying your headphones around. When not in use, the connecting cord wraps into a groove in the wrist cuff, while the headphones go into a little cache covered by a mirror-polished stainless steel cap and the wireless receiver slots onto the other side. It takes a few tries to get the hang of it, but once you do it’s a matter of seconds to tuck away your headset in the cuff.

The Helix Cuff is a Bluetooth headset that slots into a magnetic bracelet
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“Fundamentally, the marriage of fashion and functional design to create a storage element for headphones simply didn’t exist,” said Mika Nenonen, chief designer of the Helix Cuff.

To tackle that problem, Founder and CEO Angela Pan assembled a team of top designers and engineers from Nokia, Google/Nest, and GoPro, and launched a crowdfunding campaign through Kickstaster. They raised 250% of the funding goal (over $260,000) from 2000 backers in 150 countries, and in September this year launched a consumer version of the Helix Cuff.

The Helix Cuff raised over 250% of its funding target on Kickstarter
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Their award-winning design is unisex and comes in various colours and finishes (white, black and bright red with metal embellishments in 18K plated-gold, champagne gold, or silver aluminium). It retails for $199  –  or $299 for the gold-plated edition.

The Helix allows you to connect up to two devices simultaneously, so that you can, for example, listen to streaming media content on your laptop or tablet while still being able to take hands-free calls on your phone. The battery on the headset lasts around 3 hours in use, and 200 hours in standby.

You can listen to music on your laptop or tablet and switch seamlessly to taking calls on your mobile.
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The headset worked brilliantly with older phones
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But as cool as it is to test-drive the latest fashion wearables straight from San Francisco (yes I love my job, although it doesn’t quite make me want to dance around in the street like the protagonists of this video), what really sells this to me is the fact that my in-laws – both in their 60s and not easily impressed by gadgets – ended up “stealing” it. The headset worked really well with both their phones – which weren’t exactly the latest models – and they loved the fact that they could listen to their music, audiobooks and radio plays without being tangled in endless cables.

Their only criticism was that the cord for the headphones was a bit too short, but I explained that this was probably because it’s designed to keep the microphone relatively close to your mouth. I then reassured them that it was unlikely that microphone would be used to spy on them (but, then again…) They are most definitely not Siri users (and to be honest neither am I) but for fans of that sort of thing the Helix Cuff is voice-command enabled.

Here are some of the key features and technical specs. It does come with full instructions of course, although I flatter myself that I didn’t quite need all of those…

• Bluetooth 4.1 powered by CSR and Qualcomm chipset.
• Up to 30 feet working distance.
• aptX® technology: provides CD-like high-quality stereo audio.
• Smart multipoint connectivity: simultaneous paired with two devices, i.e. stream music from the laptop/tablet, and take calls from the smartphone. Memorize up to 8 devices at a time.
• cVc® noise reduction technology: increase voice quality, reduce background noise.
• Powerful speakers:
  • Frequency response: 50Hz-20kHz
  • Impedance: 16 ohms
  • Total harmonic distortion (THD): <1%
• Battery life: up to 3 hours

*DON’T actually try this hack, it’s a prank in case you haven’t figured that one out.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Product Review: Helix Cuff appeared first on Tech Trends.