Nest

The Nest Thermostat is a learning thermostat that improves over time by observing changes in its surrounding. There are senses built into the thermostat that detect movement, temperature, humidity, and light. Any manual adjustment made to the thermostat is recorded and eventually the thermostat will begin automatically adjusting itself according to the owner's patterns created through their daily routine. It costs $249.

Smart Fabric--What's Not Cool (Jocelyn)

As Kristina pointed out, BMW's design is both innovative and cool; And what happens when a new product is both of those things? The price is through the roof. I could see car makers using this technology as an excuse to inflate the prices of their products, even in cars that don't look as cool as the concept car presented in Geneva.
As much as I would love to drive around in a "Tron car," I can tell you right now that I won't be able to afford it until the technology is old news.

Stroking the seat or dashboard to change the radio station or turn on the wipers might seem like a really cool trick in theory, but put in practice I could see a lot of problems with it. First, because it eliminates the need for buttons, drivers would have to learn all new controls. If you've ever driven a strange car and been confused for a moment when your hand changed the temperature instead of the volume because the controls were different from what you were used to, just imagine how confusing and distracting it would be to have to fiddle with every upholstered surface of the car to find the control you're looking for. And, of course, there won't be any labels to tell you where to touch. That would look weird. Secondly, Kristina pointed out that the smart fabric technology can be just as durable the fabric it is woven into. However, I've never seen anything woven into leather; and even if BMW did manage to weave these plastic wires into the leather seat, can we call it the same quality as traditional leather seats? People who buy luxury cars with leather seats aren't going to be pleased to know that there are bits of plastic under them.
Lastly, I would like to address other uses for this smart fabric. We read an article about how the fabric could be woven into that of a couch or chair and programmed to work like a remote. Well how lazy is our society getting that not only can we not be bothered to use the the buttons on the TV, but now we're too lazy to even look for the remote.

Smart Fabric Introduction

BMW is investigating a new touch-sensitive fabric for use in their upcoming models. The interactive seats and dashboards would be all touch sensitive with controls for air conditioning, the radio, and more. There have been many recent improvements by a research team led by Professor Maksim Skorobogatiy in Montreal, Canada that have made the fabric more marketable. They showed a concept car at the Geneva motor show.

What's Cool about Smart Fabric? -Kristina

The smart fabric looks quite amazing. That is a large draw of any technology now. The sleek screens of nowadays tablets and phones have made touch items the "hip" thing for our generation.

The newest smart fabric technology is able to be cleaned like normal fabric. This is a significant improvement from its previous prototypes. Most retailers realize that people eat, drink, smoke, etc. in their car and they need fabric that can be cleaned without special care and detailing. Instead of using copper wires, they are trying to use conductive plastic that can be sponged clean so the average person could clean it like in current cars.

It is now as durable as any other fabric used for car seats. When woven into a durable fabric, it is just as functional as leather or polyester. It supposedly doesn't feel any different than the fabric with which the technology is interwoven, so there would still be options of feel and look to car seat material.

This fabric has the potential to eliminate buttons on the dashboard. You wouldn’t have to look at the radio or air conditioner buttons and controls which distract drivers. Also, labels can be confusing. In many cars, the label for turning the air flow up looks like a strip of bacon. In the book, "Proust and the Squid," Wolf speaks of “visual feature analysis” and she says it takes a half second after a word appears to actually see it and then another second to comprehend and take action. That second and a half when driving at 70 mph would correlate to approximately one hundred and fifty-four feet. (70 miles per hour = 102.666667 feet per second.) That distance could easily cause a car accident. By eliminating those visual buttons and replacing them with smart fabric that doesn't need to be seen, smart fabric could eliminate a few distractions for drivers and prevent distracted driving accidents.

Amazon Kindle, What's Cool!

     The great thing about having an Amazon Kindle is the ability to access millions of books from a small, lightweight device that can be easily read no matter where you are. With the use of its electronic ink, (E-ink) the Kindle's screen is very similar to an actual book page and will not show a glare when used in an outside setting. With the more recent development of the Kindle app, Whispersync, and Amazon Cloud, users can access their entire Kindle library from Android, iPhone, iPad, Blackberry, Mac, and PC devices and have their bookmarks saved no matter where they last view their books. Each Kindle is given its own email address so users can send and save important documents directly to their device with ease. The Kindle can also last over three weeks on a single charge.
     Books available from the Amazon Kindle library are often cheaper than traditional books, and E-book sales surpassed traditional book sales for the first time in December of 2009. Amazon has also started publishing Kindle singles, which are short stories that would usually be rejected by book and magazine publishers because of their non-traditional length. There are also millions of free books available for download, such as those books published before 1923 with expired copyrights. Kindle even offers E-book check-outs from 11,000 local libraries and textbooks for buy or rent.
     The Kindle has added features that enhance the overall reading experience, such as text-to-speech capabilities which will read the text aloud or optional professional readings that can be downloaded. This feature can be extremely helpful for weaker readers or those with poor reading comprehension skills. In Maryanne Wolf's Proust and the Squid, the author states, "...in the first three grades a child 'learns to read,' and in the next grades the child 'reads to learn.'" (Wolf, 135) The use of Kindles in school settings as a replacement for traditional textbooks is becoming more commonplace, and these features can be extremely helpful in developing comprehensive reading skills in children.  Amazon Kindle will define difficult words on the screen allowing the reader to better understand their book quickly and efficiently. Kindle's E-books also include background information on key characters and events in the book that are downloaded automatically to the device, negating the need for an internet access and eliminating search time. 

Amazon Kindle Youtube Channel

 
This is a great technology that is useful for people of all ages, occupations, and interests!

Kindle - What's Not Cool (Anna)

The Kindle is a relatively new technology; it is a device on which people read e-books.  While most people see only the positives of e-reading devices, there are more than a few negatives.  Some of the more basic problems with the Kindle include cost and durability.  An average paperback novel from a bookstore costs between ten and fifteen dollars.  The price of a single e-book may be the same, if not less, than the real book; but this price must be added to the seventy-nine dollars that the Kindle itself costs.  Durability is another issue to think about.  A Kindle is nowhere near as durable as a book.  As Nicholas Carr says in his The Shallows, you don’t have to worry about a book falling off of your bed, whereas a Kindle would most likely break if dropped.

            One problem with the Kindle involves Communities and Connections.  Many people lend books that they enjoy to their friends.  With a kindle, a person can only lend “eligible” books to friends.  Eligible books can be lent once for a period of fourteen days.  If this person does not finish the book within the fourteen days, or if another friend would like to borrow the book, the whole Kindle would have to be borrowed. 

            There are many more negative consequences of the Kindle, and these are less trivial.  In Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows, he quotes Jacob Weisberg, who said that, “printed books, the most important artifacts of human civilization, are going to join newspapers and magazines on the road to obsolescence.”  This is a problem related to Human Development.  Historians have learned invaluable information about the past from the records that past peoples left behind.  If written books become obsolete, this will rob future generations of the important artifacts that can show how people today live their

lives.   

            Another problem arises from the use of the Kindle, and this one falls under the Education and Learning category.  This problem is also addressed in Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows.  He mentions that it is very easy to become restless and distracted when reading an e-book on the Kindle.  Many e-reading devices can now hold hyperlinks, making it easy to forget the task at hand.  With the increasing popularity of buying textbooks and other class materials on the e-reader, serious problems arise.  Students today have an increasing problem with ADD and ADHD, which may make it hard to focus on things like reading a chapter of the textbook.  Partner ADD or ADHD with the increased restlessness and difficulty concentrating that comes with reading on a Kindle or other e-reader, and many students will have a huge problem.

Kindle

The Kindle is Amazon’s e-reading device.  The Kindle can hold 1,400 e-books and has a battery life of one month.  Newer Kindles can also hold movies, television shows, magazines, music, and games.  They range in price from $79 to $379.
Amazon Kindle