Category Archives: General Information

General Information

Ampy Charges Your Phone As You Move!

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In a world were batteries are becoming the new gold (every electronic device you carry has one). The biggest competition amongst tech giants is to make batteries that last longer and charge even faster.

While we wait for the big kahunas and the geniuses they hire to put together what will literally save us time and energy someday, a company wants to put your own energy into work.  Meet Ampy!

Ampy charges your phone as you move and according to the makers, an hour of exercise will add 5 hours battery life to your phone.

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If you are less active, you can charge Ampy using your old chargers too. Ampy also comes with straps to hold it in place – on your arm or leg, and is sweatproof. The makers are so helpful that they give you a free app and even tell you the best places to strap Ampy to.

We very much wish to see inventions like this in the future that will be powerful enough to charge almost every device you want. e.g your electric car! Kudos!

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General Information

Complicated “Stuffs” Explained!

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Have you ever wondered how smart phones work? Oh! Wait, how about how the earth’s surface move? Oh! Wait, how exactly do rockets work? Well that last one is literally rocket science!

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If you want to know all these things, you can search the library, your little devices, or computers to find answers. However, I bet you wouldn’t understand everything said though, unless you read more on those things you didn’t understand and in that process you get more things you don’t understand. It can seem very tedious and feel as if you are in a learning loop. Fear no more though, some clever person has been kind enough to help out with this headache.

Thing Explainer Cover
Thing Explainer Cover

Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff is a book written by Randall Munroe with one thing in mind – Simplify complicated “stuff”. Quite literally, rocket science amongst other everyday topics is explained with very common words so that anyone can pick up the book and understand how things work in our bizarre and interesting world.

The Smart Phone (Click on )
The Smart Phone (Click on for full image )

Computer Potato prides in simplifying and relating computer and technological advancement to its audience, hence why we give kudos to Mr Munroe for helping us layman understand “complicated stuff”.

General Information

Artificial Skin That Senses!

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We have all wondered – depending on your point of view- how wonderful or disastrous it would be for robots to actually mimic us as emotional and sensitive beings! Whatever your view if it is possible for oil and metal to feel what living creatures feel, there are some advancements in robotics that just draws us a step closer to creating a “sentient” machine.

Korean and American researchers have created a stretchable material covered with electronic sensors so much that it can feed back pressure, temperature, even moisture.

This “skin” can be placed on prosthetic limbs to help the wearer feel and sense! This will take some time yet before it can be applicable in reality, as connecting it to live nerves is still to be fully achieved.

 

General Information

Meet The Futuristic Traveller’s Companion

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We have all been in that situation when travelling and watching movies, playing games or listening to music on our mobile devices and worried about the battery meter. We always wished we didn’t need batteries at all, so we can keep the kids busy or get rid of that long inevitable boredom of sleeping or gawking at the windows.

Well like everything nowadays, some people have given thought to this problem and found us an ingenious solution to this common problem. No, they haven’t got rid of batteries all together, at least not yet, but they have made something innovative.

Meet these futuristic cabin luggage.

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The G-Ro
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The Andiamo IQ

They sure do look like luggage from a sci-fi movie, but they don’t just have the looks. They are also packed with features- pun intended. Yes you guessed right, they are smart, like everything nowadays. They also help charge your devices on the go so you don’t have to worry about saving your battery on your journey!

The IQ even gets you connected with WiFi if you insert a SIM card and has its own inbuilt scale so you don’t have to worry you packed too much.

The G-Ro has a revolutionary wheel system that works on any surface and built in tablet stand.

At the computer potato, we give the minds behind these devices kudos and hope that more innovations like this to make life a little more exciting are birth more often.

 

General Information

This $200 Calculator Is Slick!

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Remember the 90s, everybody had one of these solar powered number crunchers!

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They were very handy and readily available. Today, those calculators are often replaced with our shiny new smart phones.

Casio, you must remember them, have taken this device a step further. Don’t get too excited, its the same old solar powered 12 digit, calculator in a new outfit.

 

We say it’s pure craftsmanship!

General Information

Hover To Possibilities (Lexus Hoverboard)

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Lexus, the giant car maker found a revolutionary way to make a hoverboard. Yes, a working hoverboard and with unlikely components nonetheless. It uses liquid nitrogen and magnets in a revolutionary way to slide.

At the Computer Potato, we take pride in keeping technology news simple, therefore we can’t detail how the technology works exactly. However, this video shows the hoverboard in action. Enjoy!

If you are curious on how the technology works, please watch the video below.

 

General Information

Fancy Using Your Phone As A Microscope?

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Forget spending over a £100 on buying a telescope. Three young inventors have found a way to make your phone act as a microscope with just £1.

Yes these 3 guys have found a simple way for you to make your own microscopic lenses with a kit that is so simple to use that is takes you back to the days of elementary science. Please see video below

Simple and quick yes? Well, it is a shame these 3 geniuses have fallen out on the basis of the vision for this project as posted by one of them on their Kickstarter page.

We at the Computer Potato give posthumous kudos to this project and hope this idea reaches out to other inventors that will further the idea and make it available in the nearest future!

 

 

General Information

You Can Now Take Selfies With Honor In A Flash!

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Smartphones have definitely brought about change in the way we interact with each other and the environment. We should also acknowledge that many companies are now raking in on our love for these little devices destined to take over and control our day to day activities.

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One big use of smartphones is taking pictures! it is estimated billions of pictures are taken a day all around the world, helping us to document our world as we know it. Hence,  smartphones are vying to be the best in recording our lives.

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Most smartphone users will agree selfies have always been dull because of the low end camera on the face of these phones used to record or take our self-taken pictures. Many phones have tried to up the front facing camera to increase the quality of these pictures but this is not easy as they need to strike a balance between price and functionality to sell more!

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Meet the Honor 7i by Huawei. Huawei, a communication giant has finally got the balance right. With the swivel camera, your selfies can finally come to light with flash and a high quality camera to impress even you yourself and your social media site profile readers. This innovation definitely gets a thumbs up from us at the Computer Potato

 

General Information

Student Invents GPS Rape Alarm

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In these days of Tech! Everyone is busy inventing devices to make themselves richer under the guise of helping us do more every day! Now and again however, there comes a an idea born from a genuine need to help the people next door.

A student Rebecca Pick was so concerned when a woman in her apartment block was attacked that she brainstormed to come up with an ingeniuos idea.

The tiny GPS Rape Alarm  called the Personal Guardian uses your phone to send a distressed signal with the exact location to the Police when activated.

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The Personal Guardian Compared To Coins

The website claims “The Personal Guardian can be worn discreetly on a bra strap and concealed under clothes, on a trouser belt loop or clipped to a workers lanyard. When activated, the alarm will send the Police to the exact location of the incident. It will also send a text to pre-determined phone contacts (friends and family) alerting them and also providing the location. Simultaneously, when the alarm is activated, an internal microphone and the microphone on the user’s smart phone will record. This will record all dialogue which can then be used in court to get a conviction.

This alarm can not only stop an attack but also gather evidence to get a conviction”

We still have to wait a while before this becomes a commercial reality. However, we at The Computer Potato think this is another great invention and hope to see more of ideas that will actually make the world safer!

General Information

Meet The Weather Box

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We all like to know what the weather holds in store for us so as to plan how we go about the day. So there is no surprise there are many ways of checking the weather forecast. However, a company has gone beyond the box to bring the rendering of tomorrow’s weather in your living space.

Meet the Tempescope!

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The dedicated website  claims “The tempescope is an ambient physical display that visualizes various weather conditions like rain, clouds, and lightning.  By receiving weather forecasts from the internet, it can reproduce tomorrow’s sky in your living room.”

While many people might not buy into the idea of spending extra money just to get a box that tells you the weather forecast by representing it with some few tricks, we at The Computer Potato think this idea is cute and is true to bring life to any living space!