Residents in California have been using drones to document flooding and coastal erosion

Residents in California have been using drones to document flooding and coastal erosion that has been caused by El Nino. The idea is to capture photos and videos of storm surges and flooded beaches, which could possibly give scientists a brief estimation of what could happen in the future as sea levels continue to rise due to global warming. “Sort of like a crystal ball for climate change.” Images from the latest drones has provided high-resolution 3D maps that will help spread public awareness. http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/california-residents-turn-drones-document-coastal-erosion-n50407

Uber- they new taxi!

Uber is an app, to get you rides places. Very similar to a taxi, but there are some things that set them apart! For example, uber is an app, you request rides on the app, not by calling. Basically you open up the app, you say where you are (for example- South Portland High School) and then you say where you want to go, (50 Herford ave) and then you click "Set Pick Up Location" for about one minute it searches, until a driver accepts! Usually uber drivers are 10-20 minutes away, and they show up to get you! The cars are much more nice, and clean. All the cars have to be 2012 or later, so they are all fairly new. Payment method is via credit / debit card, or Paypal. You can tip them with cash as well. The minimum fair for one ride is $5.15, the base fare is $1.00

Will today's kids be stumped by the technology of the future?

At the rate we are going right now Apple believes that they could release IPhone 24 by 2050. People are wondering if kids will be able to understand the new technology that will be coming out. "Chris Lucas, a fellow at the university of Edinburgh, says kids' willingness to try new things comes from a fundamental fearlessness. Adults, Lucas says, are encumbered with years and years of experience that has taught them that failure is painful and potentially dangerous; kids, on the other hand, have a safety net in the form of their parents, and few preconceptions about the world." Chris has even lead an experiement to see if adults and kids could turn on a strange machine with different objects. You would put an object on the machine and see if it would start playing music. I think that people are stepping to far ahead of themselves because they are trying to figure out if children will be able to understand new technology that isn't even around yet. They need to slow down and use the technology they have now before they start to try and figure out if kids can use brand new technology.

 http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/01/will-todays-kids-be-stumped-by-the-technology-of-the-future/425082/

This supersized drone will fly you to work (or anywhere)

Ehang has recently created a jumbo drone that carried humans- The Ehong 184. They chose 184 because this drone carries 1 person, has 8 propellors, and has 4 arms. When you get into this drone, you are a passenger. Not a pilot. You simply enter in your destination and the drone brings you. Every drone is pre-plotted so you never have to worry about crashing into anything while flying through the air. Each propellor also has a back-up system, so if any propellor is somehow damaged of malfuncions, it will slowly decent to the ground. The Ehong 184 has all electric motors, and can fly around for a maximum of 23 minutes. It also only takes about 25 minutes to charge. Retail price at the moment is anywhere between $200,000 and $300,000. http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/06/184-delivery-drone-for-people/

Google Chrome is about to get much faster

Google has recently announced that it has created an update to Chrome that will boost the speed of your internet browser. This update contains a new data compression algorithm called Brotli. This update helps squish the size of a website down by 26% more than the previous compression tool, making your browsing way faster. Google also made this code open-source, which means it can be used by any browser. Not just chrome. http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/21/technology/google-chrome-faster/index.html

Hoverboards that actually hover? They're here

Canadian entrepreneur, Philippe Maalouf, is working his way to create a real life Hoverboard. He had seen all of the so-called “hoverboards” that have become popular lately and was astounded that people were actually calling them hoverboards, considering they have wheels and touch the ground. So Maalouf, as CEO at Omni Hoverboards, decided he would lead a small team and work towards developing a real overboard. One that actually flies. He says that he not only wants these inventions to be accessible, but he also wants them to be designed by engineers looking to move forwards in the worlds sports, recreation, policing, military and urban transportation. Though at this time it’s estimated retail price would be from $25,000 to $50,000, they are coming up with ideas from small, cheaper, more accessible models. http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/20/tech/future-of-adventure-flying-hoverboards/index.html

phones in your body

We have smart watches, smart phones and tablets and next we could have phones implanted into our bodies. We could have smart phones in out hands, literally. People expect to have this technology
Avalible  commercially around 2023. They also to have predict that 1 in every 10 cars in the U.S will be driverless by 2016. People are expecting technology to keep improving and to have more advanced technology within the next decade

Seeking Gun Safety Technology

     Obama wants the United States to star making smart guns which is a type of gun that uses technology to stop the gun from being fired. This smart gun is supposed to stop accidental shootings by toddlers, supposed to lead to less teen suicides, and is supposed to cut down illegal trading of weapons. "In each of the three categories of gun deaths — accidental, suicide, and homicide — there would be a reduction in the number of personalized guns were widely available," Stephen Teret, founding director of the Johns Hopkins Center of Gun Policy and Research, said. See I think that these smart guns can help out a little bit but people also have to think what if something goes wrong with the gun? What if the gun doesn't work when I need it to? People need to think of those things because it could still hurt people. If parents have them teenagers can find away and use it still. Stephen Teret also said " No one can tell you any precision exactly how many lives are going to be saved" He noted there were 33,000 gun deaths in the U.S. in 2013. "But it would be a substantial enough number. Enough to make it well worth it to put smart guns on the market." I think it is a good idea to have smart guns but there are some negatives to having them. 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/barack-obama-praised-seeking-gun-safety-technology-article-1.2488134

5G cellphones

Cell phone developers are working on bringing 5G cellphones to the market helpfully as soon as 2017. So what's 5G even mean, so the G stands for generation, so 5th generation. 5g will be 40 times faster than 4g, which will allow it to stream 8k video or download a 3-D movie in six seconds compared the six minutes on 4G.