“Consumers want a better world, not just better widgets.”–Simon Mainwaring
The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2018) recently concluded. Some of the news coming out of it suggests there are still product marketers who think consumers do just want better widgets. Let’s hope that doesn’t lead to major investment in The Internet of Stuff.
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CES 2018–IEEE Spectrum notes 5 important takeaways on the future of 5G wireless technology from CES 2018. Most notably, it may gear up sooner than some think.
—Nissan shared its vision for autonomous electrical vehicles at the show. They suggested doing the other automakers one better, by adding a machine/brain interface. Methinks Elon Musk, via Tesla and Neuralink might already be looking into that.
—As for those crazy widgets, Futurism.com reported on the most ridiculous ideas to come out of CES 2018. These include robot strippers and a $6,000 smart toilet. What will they waste their time thinking of next?
But we can have robodogs…this one will set you back $1,700.00
—Don’t expect a personal robot butler anytime soon. Based on Popular Science’s assessment of robotics and automation at the show, the robots won’t serve us, or take us over, any time soon.
—Business insider reports that voice assistant integration was the top smart-home trend at CES. Q. Hey Google, can you verify that? A. Ask Alexa.
Space travel/exploration–China has unveiled a plan to zap space junk with orbiting lasers. Now if only somebody could figure out how to zap robocalls.
Smart Cars–Elon Musk says that Tesla model 3 owners will be able to do just about anything with voice control. He still needs to figure out how to build them fast enough to supply order backlog before the technology becomes obsolete.
Bitcoin/Cryptocurrencies–Bitcoin price dropped sharply this week, amid reports that the EU may place restrictions on cryptocurrencies. This chart published by Mother Jones makes many historic investment bubbles look cheap by comparison to Bitcoin–even those infamous tulip bulbs.
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