Technology: Points for Round One Go to Sony in This Fight
A couple of weeks ago we wrote about the release of Microsoft’s Xbox One. If you missed it, you can catch it here.
At the time it was clear to see that although this was Microsoft’s crack at their new gaming console they had a bigger picture in mind. They wanted a say in how your entire home entertainment experience happens. That meant integrating TV and movies within the device.
This angered a lot of ‘gamers’. That is, the people who play video games. They felt the Xbox had lost its soul.
Well they need fear no more. This week the world’s biggest gaming expo (E3) was held in Los Angeles. At E3 Sony released the direct competitor to the Xbox One, the Sony PlayStation 4 (PS4).
Now there are 3 key things that Sony released with the PS4 that were direct shots right at Microsoft.
- The PS4 is a gamer’s console. As such, PS4 users can trade, buy and sell any old games without restriction. This goes completely against Microsoft, who are putting strong restrictions on used games. Sony 1, Microsoft 0.
- Sony will continue to have their basic online service free, but still have a premium service at a significantly lower cost than Microsoft’s Live service. Also you can play your PS4 games offline, but with the Xbox you must be online to play and authenticate your game every 24 hours. Sony 2, Microsoft 0.
- The PS4 will launch to market at $399USD. The Xbox One will launch to market at $499USD. Sony 3, Microsoft 0.
Source: Sony
Sony has no doubt about the market that they’re trying to lock down. After all it’s a US$70 billion market for gamers right now, projected to reach over $100 billion in the next 4 years. This is a big money spinner for Microsoft and Sony both. But typically in the battle for gamers dollars one comes out on top.
In this case, Sony has got off to a flying start with a more powerful system, at a cheaper price, more suited to gamers. Microsoft has gone a bit off track and is now aiming at gamers and non-gamers.
It will play out later in the year when both systems hit the shelves in time for Christmas. Sony’s won the first battle, and it’s looking like they’ll win this war too. But either way both of these releases will add billions to the bottom line of both companies. In that situation, they’re both winning.
Energy: Why Your Next Smartphone Will Love The Sun
Sometimes we have those moments where we say to ourselves, ‘Gee, how did we not think of that before?’
It’s usually when we see a great new invention or technology that just seems so simple it’s hard to figure out why it’s so new. Usually it’s the most obvious solution to a problem.
And a small start-up company based in Aix-en-Provence, a lovely little town in the south of France, has come up with one of these moments.
Put yourself in the picture. You’re at a café, or restaurant, outside. Alfresco style. Something many of us enjoy doing when the sun is out and it’s a nice day.
Inevitably at some stage you’ll reach for your phone, check it, and probably leave it on the table face up so you can still see any messages or notifications. Now as you go about reading the paper or having a coffee your phone just sits there close by gathering some rays…and slowly but surely using battery power.
Now, what if the screen on your phone had little solar cells in it, so that when your phone is out in the open it uses solar power to recharge itself? See what I mean about a ‘how did we not think of that before’ moment.
The SunPartner group have devised a way to put little tiny solar cells into the screens of mobile phones. The beauty of it is the cells are invisible thanks to a tricky little (complicated) optical illusion.
The group hope to have their technology rolling out to smartphone manufacturers within the next 12 months.
The number of smartphones sold per year is about 700 million units. With this in mind you can see there’s a fair bit of upside for the SunPartner Group should their technology get widespread approval.
We think it’s a simple yet problem solving solution. Because if you use any kind of smartphone you’ll know that battery life is vital. With solar screens we can use and drain our batteries to our heart’s content knowing the sun will bring it back to life.
Health: Burn Your Ophthalmology Textbooks, They’re All Wrong
It’s a good assumption to make that science has a fairly good grasp of the human anatomy. A lot of research has gone into the human body over the years. We know how the nervous system works, the circulatory system, even the detail of our DNA and genome.
That makes it pretty unlikely that there’d be too much more scope for new discoveries of the organs in the human body.
Never say never. Just this week researchers at the University of Nottingham have discovered a new organ in the human body. That’s right, an actual organ!
Now it’s only a microscopic, thin layer of the cornea (in the eye) but nonetheless the researchers are officially calling it a new organ. Thanks to new technology and research techniques the researchers were able to manipulate the cornea and view the micron thin layers at a level unseen previously.
This might sound like something small, but it’s not. It’s huge.
Every ophthalmology textbook written about the structure of the eye is now wrong. If you’re a uni student studying ophthalmology, burn your existing textbook. You need a new one as they all need to be re-written.
The long term benefit of this breakthrough discovery is widespread. Eye doctors can diagnose cornea related eye disease and injury with greater accuracy and knowledge. Already doctors are relating certain eye disorders to this new layer and discovering new way of treating patients.
This kind of example illustrates the speed in which medical science advances. Because of curiosity and the application of technologies we are able to achieve things that were simply unknown or impossible before.
As we continue to say, it’s an exciting time to be alive. With discoveries like this and other key medical research projects underway there’s a lot going on. The next few years are exciting as we continue to see leaps and bounds in the fields of Personalised and Regenerative Medicine.
Sam Volkering
Technology Analyst
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