Erwin Fiebig | Tech toys are great if the children play too

Sunday morning saw me up early to try out an interesting new tech toy. It is called Cubetto, comes from a London start-up and is a beautifully made kit to introduce children from the age of three to computer coding.

“Teach your child to code before they can read,” Cubetto’s publicity proclaims. One of the key investors is Randi Zuckerberg, sister of Mark. Made mostly of wood, Cubetto has already won a top British toy award and follows Montessori’s early learning principles.
I was intrigued to see if Cubetto could, as promised, teach me “a host of programming concepts, including algorithms, the queue, debugging and recursions”. I gave up after 30 minutes. It was instruction number seven, on “subroutines”, that did for me. Perhaps I am stupid but, as far as I could tell, it made no sense at all. That said, I made Cubetto work and I could see the principle behind it. Using coloured blocks, you input a string of commands to send a 10cm by 7cm wheeled cuboid — with a face — trundling ahead, left and right.
I am sure it will stimulate some brilliant three-year-olds but it was one of the dullest toys I have seen.
Worthy, tasteful wooden educational toys rarely impress children and Cubetto is as heart-sinkingly disappointing as any. It is not gaudy enough, not plasticky enough and not loud enough. Read More......

Erwin Fiebig | Google creates new self-driving car company

Google is putting its self-driving car technology into a new company which it will call Waymo, the firm has announced.

The new business, Waymo, will be owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet.
It signals a push to commercialise the technology which Google has been developing for more than 10 years.
At a media event, the company showed the story of a blind man who was able to make a full trip using a prototype self-driving car.
The trip happened in 2015, but the company spoke about it for the first time on Tuesday.

Steve Mahan rode alone in one of our prototype vehicles, cruising through Austin’s suburbs,” wrote Google’s John Krafcik.
"Steve is legally blind, so our sensors and software were his chauffeur."
Speaking about the formation of the new company, Mr Krafcik said: "We believe that this technology can begin to reshape some of the ten trillion miles that motor vehicles travel around the world every year, with safer, more efficient and more accessible forms of transport."
Mr Krafcik will become Waymo’s chief executive. Read More.... 

Erwin Fiebig | The Future of Technology: 2050

Donald Prell is the founder of Datamation magazine – the publication you’re now reading – which he launched in 1957. We invited him to use his long grasp of tech history to predict how today’s technology will impact human life many years from now.

As a futurologist, I have been asked to present my scenarios/predictions for the future of the computer and information industry in 2050. At the age of 92, it isn’t possible that I’ll ever know how it actually plays out.  In 1964, the author of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, was interviewed on the BBC television program Horizon. In addition to forecasting what life would be like in 50 years, he warned the audience:

"Trying to predict the future is a discouraging, hazardous occupation because  the prophet invariably  falls  between  two stools.  If his predictions  sound at  all  reasonable,  you  can be quite sure  that  in 20 or  at most  50 years the progress of science and  technology has made him seem  ridiculously  conservative. On the other hand, if by some miracle a prophet could describe the future  exactly  as it was going to take  place,  his  predictions  would  sound  so absurd,  so far-fetched  that   everyone  would laugh him to scorn. This has proved to be true in  the  past and  it  will undoubtedly  be  even more in  the  century to come. The  only thing we can  be sure  of  about  the future  is that it will  be absolutely fantastic.  So if  what I say now  seems to you to be reasonable then I will have failed completely. Only if what I tell you appears absolutely unbelievable  will we have chance  of  visualizing  the  future as  it  really will happen.” Read More........

Erwin Fiebig | 5 Technologies that Should Make You Money in 2017

Let’s assume that someone gave you $5M to invest in technology start-ups. Pretend for a moment that you’re an Angel investor or a venture capitalist with checks to attract passionate entrepreneurs. How should you spend the money?
There are five technology clusters that should attract your cash. The 5 clusters clamoring for money in 2017 and beyond appear below. Note the $’s: the more the better.

• Intelligent Systems Technology ($$$$$)
• Interaction Technology ($$$$)
• Small Software Technology ($$$)
• Sensor Analytics Technology ($$$)
• Cyber Security Technology ($$$)

Intelligent Systems Technology
Artificial intelligence (AI) is now embedded in a wide array of software applications, infrastructures, business rules, processes and even whole business models. IBM’s Watson is the face of popular “AI,” but intelligent systems technology encompasses so much more including deductive and inductive inference, deep learning, machine learning and the tools and techniques used to represent and process data, information and knowledge (such as neural network modeling) as well as the applications of the technology to a host of problems.   Read More.....,

Erwin Fiebig | Teens love technology, but does it have consequences?

By the 1940s, most Americans had a telephone in their home, but for some, concerns about phones making people rude were huge. When inviting someone to a party, it was etiquette to send a written invite.  With a phone, people found it easier to just call.

Answering the phone properly was even up for scrutiny.  In fact, no one should have answered the phone with a simple "hello," but instead it was important to many that one introduced themselves when first speaking.
A lot of things in the world have changed since then.  If calling someone for an invite was rude in the 1940s, we wonder what they would have thought of apps like e-vite.  Sadly, technology has made some people more rude, disrespectful and even careless.

Erwin Fiebig | How technology trends climbing up in 2016

Erwin Fiebig | How technology trends climbing up in 2016 from Erwin Fiebig

Erwin Fiebig | Donald Trump Captures Presidency in Historic and Stunning Upset of Hillary Clinton

**LATEST: Hillary Clinton calls Donald Trump to concede after Trump takes key states. **Trump was projected to win the key states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, two traditionally blue states.
**Full results and projections below.

Donald Trump pulled off a stunning upset Tuesday night after capturing the presidency from Hillary Clinton by grabbing key battleground states and even snatching traditional Democratic strongholds from the former secretary of state.

The victory by the political novice against the experienced stateswoman, who has spent decades in public service, stunned observers and ran contrary to late polling, which showed Clinton with a slight lead going into Election Day.

Clinton, who fought a bruising battle with Trump for months and hoped to be the first female president, called him to concede early Wednesday morning.

"I've just received a call from Secretary Clinton. She congratulated us — it's about us — on our victory, and I congratulated her and her family on a very, very hard-fought campaign," Trump said in his victory speech. Read More...... 

Erwin Fiebig | President-Elect Trump Addresses Crowd: 'It Is Time for America to Bind the Wounds of Division'

 President-elect Donald Trump took the stage at the Hilton Midtown in Manhattan just before 3 a.m. Wednesday to celebrate his victory, telling his supporters that Hillary Clinton had called to congratulate him.

"I congratulated her and her family on a very, very hard-fought campaign. I mean, she fought very hard," he said. "We owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country. I mean that very sincerely."

"Now it is time for America to bind the wounds of division," Trump added. "I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all of Americans, and this is so important to me."

He told the cheering crowd, "Working together, we will begin the urgent task of rebuilding our nation and renewing the American dream."

 Trump thanked his family and supporters, saying, "Ours was not a campaign but rather an incredible and great movement."

He said the movement was "made up of millions of hardworking men and women who love their country and want a better, brighter future for themselves and for their family. It's a movement comprised of Americans from all races, religions, backgrounds and beliefs, who want and expect our government to serve the people, and serve the people it will."

Trump asked for help from those who "have chosen not to support me in the past." Read More..... 

Erwin Fiebig | Election 2016: Voter Trends in Battleground States That Helped Trump Win

Donald Trump's stunning victory last night, despite the majority of pollsters predicting a Clinton win, has many voters wondering how he pulled it off.

A look at four key states –- Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida, and North Carolina –- highlights trends that helped trump clinch 278 electoral votes (and counting).

HOW MEN VOTED

In these states, Trump generally performed well among men.

The brash billionaire outperformed 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney among male voters in Pennsylvania, garnering 57 percent of the male vote to Romney’s 51 percent. In Wisconsin, he earned 54 percent of the male vote to Romney’s 51 percent. And, in North Carolina, he collected 56 percent to Romney’s 54 percent.

Though he fared slightly worse among men in Florida than the former Massachusetts governor in 2012, he still did well.

HOW WOMEN VOTED

Women were a slightly different story.

Across the country, many women cried foul over the filthy language in the Access Hollywood tape, his feud with former Miss Universe, turned Clinton surrogate Alicia Machado, his comments about Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly and his numerous jabs against women on Twitter.

Yet, scandals notwithstanding, Trump actually outperformed Romney among women in Wisconsin, picking up 44 percent of the female vote to Romney’s 42 percent. Among married women, he took 50 percent to Romney's 45 percent. In 2012, married women split evenly in Wisconsin between Obama and Romney.  Read More........... 

Erwin Fiebig | Future Technology Trends

Erwin Fiebig | Best Future Technology Trends from Erwin Fiebig

Erwin Fiebig | iOS Features of Apple's latest Software

Apple announced iOS 9 on Monday, its brand-new operating system for the iPhone and iPad. iOS 9 will offer a ton of new features when it’s deployed as a free update to all iPad and iPhone owners this fall.

And, even better, Apple is going to support every device that’s running on iOS 8 now, which means it’s not going to leave folks on older devices out in the cold.

iOS 9 is going to offer plenty of changes, especially to developers, and we’re sure Apple is going to add some new ones along the way. In the meantime, here are the top 5 features of iOS 9 as announced by Apple on Monday. Read More.......