Added 18 February, 2014
OK, this is weird. There has been a lot of talk about wearable computing lately, which for most industry-watchers has meant things like watches that double as phones and bracelets that monitor your heartbeat. Now a maker of electronic cigarettes is jumping on the "smart" trend by incorporating phone and audio functions into the e-smokes themselves...
Added 14 February, 2014
Trend gurus like us have been speaking about the coming of mobile payments for a few years now. The promise is a future in which credit cards are obsolete. When you want to pay for something, just pull out your mobile device and click an app. Several major companies are fighting to own this space, including Apple, Google and various credit card...
Added 13 February, 2014
Remember the days when hotels rooms had real keys? Often connected to large and heavy key chains meant to remind guests to return them to the front desk, these old school metal keys are hard to find these days. Now it's all about key cards with magnetic strips – or sometimes with embedded RFID chips. But the days of disposable plastic cards are...
Added 11 February, 2014
What if you walked into an airport, were greeted by name and instantly updated on your itinerary and helped with whatever other information you needed? That is the promise Virgin Atlantic airlines is making to their Upper Class passengers, now that their employees are wearing Google Glass. Debuting this week at Heathrow Airport, the technology...
Added 3 February, 2014
What are personal drones good for? Like the iPad before it, this technology is of the "if you build it they will come" variety. Put it out on the marketplace and customers will come up with all kinds of good uses that the technology's inventers never imagined. This is the situation with unmanned aerial vehicles as we enter the Drone Decade....
Added 30 January, 2014
A new technology is being installed in stores, streets and stadiums all around the world. Designed to locate mobile devices within a few feet, these beacons beam local information and advertisements that are relevant to your exact place in the world at this moment. The beacon technology is getting a high-profile launch in New York City this week...
Added 28 January, 2014
We have featured quite a number of 3D technologies on WikiTrend, but few are more fun than the various fingernail designs created by a New York City-based digital artists collaborative. Known as TheLaserGirls, this dynamic duo produces fun finger art made of dyed nylon. One of the best things about 3D printed objects is that lots of them are made...
Added 27 January, 2014
Trends can be recognized when many types of the same thing start happening at the same time. So it is with Web-enabled devices that invite pet owners to interact with their dogs and cats via video, even from the office or around the world. Some devices we have identified and written about that are part of this recent trend include PetCube and...
Added 23 January, 2014
Augmented reality is the ability to add digital images to a live video screen, so that you can see what the world would look like if it were, well, augmented slightly. Ikea, the home furnishings giant, has a cool app that let you point your iPad camera at an empty corner of your living room and see on the screen what it would look like with a...
Added 22 January, 2014
Many social media watchers have noted that Facebook reached its peak user base in early 2013 and is now losing customers. Anecdotal evidence has shown us that the many Facebook users are losing interest and becoming disenchanted with the website. Now a new study called "Epidemiological modeling of online social network dynamics" published by the...