Zone’s Matt Blackwell handpicks and shares the five best stories on new digital trends, experiences and technologies…
1. New kind of smartphone to enter the fold
Folding phones took one step closer to becoming A Thing this week thanks to Chinese electronics company Xiaomi. Far from grainy photographs and leaked technical plans, the minute-long teaser video includes footage of a working prototype that looks, by all accounts, pretty damn cool.
Xiaomi joins Samsung and Huawei in the race to get a fully functioning folding phone to market. More than a gimmick, folding devices bridge the gap between smartphone and tablet by giving users more screen space when needed, which can only be a good thing. No intel on price just yet, but you can bet it’ll make your eyes water.
2. Wave goodbye to driving distractions
Most cars offer hands-free phone integration these days, but Chris, an AI-based driving assistant from German Auto Labs, takes things to the next level. Ditching the need to press buttons or cycle through menus, Chris can control messaging, navigation and music through voice commands and simple hand gestures.
In the video, the CEO of the start-up, Holger Weiss, shows off his creation, which sticks to your windscreen and is less intrusive than your traditional sat nav, allowing you to keep 100% of your attention on the road at all times. It’s smartly designed, it’s safe and I want one, please.
3. WhatsApp cap to fight fake news
Have you tried to spread an amusing meme or video clip among your WhatsApp network this week, only to find you’re restricted to just five people? Then you’ll have fallen foul of a new feature that caps the amount of users a message can be forwarded to at five (down from 256) in a bid to combat the spread of misinformation.
Fake news has been responsible for everything from influencing elections to mob violence around the world, so obviously anything that aims to tackle this should be applauded. However, does limiting the means of communication of more than a billion people give anyone else a slight Big Brother vibe?
4. Watch this (parking) space
Whether it’s waiting for a shuttle bus in the cold at 4am or forgetting where you left your car two weeks ago, there’s little doubt that airport parking is a pain. But the frustration could soon be over, if trials to introduce a robo-valet system that parks and retrieves your car are successful at Gatwick Airport.
Aside from saving passengers the aforementioned faff, having a robot conduct a large-scale, real-life game of Tetris also has benefits for the business, as it will allow for a third more cars to be parked in the same area. And similar trials are being held in both France and Germany, so robotic parking could well be the future of flying.
5. Who says print is dead?
Printing in 3D has been around for more than 35 years in one form or another, but I feel like it’s yet to burst into the mainstream with a use that is truly, well, useful. The PR campaign is in full swing though, with two high-profile pieces in the news this week.
First up is Kalamsat, the world’s lightest satellite at 1.26kg, which was printed in six days and successfully launched into orbit by the Indian Space and Research Organisation last night. And then there’s the Pakistani start-up aiming to print human skin tissue and organs to reduce dependency on donors and aid the ageing population. Perhaps the 3D printing revolution is just around the corner after all.
