Month: February 2016

There’s plenty of room for innovative new designs to come out in the market of digital technology, both as far as the consumer market and the business market are concerned. If you have an idea of a product that makes the lives of either type of customer more convenient, then it’s worth exploring. However, without the proper approach to developing and launching that device, you could run into some hurdles right from the beginning that make the chances of profiting very slim indeed.

Make sure it has a place on the market

All products have to be driven by demand. There are no two ways about it. If you haven’t been able to identify a market that is lacking for your product, or at least a way that you’re able to position yourself competitively against them, it can be hard to get the product off the ground entirely. People won’t pay attention to the marketing and they won’t see the value for them. Make sure your device is supported by proper research on the digital devices and technologies market. Only once you can find that demand should you be ready to go ahead with the development and the launch.

Prototype, prototype, prototype

There are a lot of demands on tech devices these days. One of the ways you can give yours a competitive edge is by looking a lot deeper into the physical design of the device itself. Not only can rapid prototyping through 3D printers allow you a great understanding of how the device’s dimensions operate in the physical world, providing important information on how convenient it is whether in a consumer’s hand or in a production line. Prototyping is also a good way to better understand the methods you might need to use to manufacture the product. That way, you can also spot the ways that you could cut down on manufacturing costs, increasing the potential return on investment for the device.

Make sure it’s market ready

Convenience and cost-effectiveness aren’t all that matter, however. It needs to actually work when it gets on the market. Certain bugs can be fixed post-launch in a lot of devices, but you need to make sure there are no huge problems waiting for it when the customers get their hands on it. If it’s a product that uses Modbus or other protocols to work together with other networks, then you need to make sure you’ve done compatibility testing to ensure that it can reliably communicate with them. The levels of specific testing your device needs are going to be down to the kind of device. The simple fact is that this is one area of development you cannot skimp on investing in. The tech industry is littered with buggy, broken releases that crashed a product’s potential.

A product needs to have demand to sustain its creation. Then it needs to be market ready, both in terms of its physical composition and the lack of bugs that could otherwise lead to disastrous launch and some very unhappy customers. Make sure that you’re spending the time and effort you need on development.

3D printing is one of those technologies that has been around for several decades but has only just begun to make waves in consumer interest. After all, most of these major technologies get their start by having business or industry applications before being watered down for consumers to use. 3D printing, however, isn’t just a fad or a dumbed-down toy for consumers to play with—it’s a serious technology.

3D printing offers something that many other technologies haven’t; creativity. The last major breakthrough in technology that allowed creators and hobbyists to design new things to help our lives is the introduction of the smartphone. With so many useful and silly apps being put on app stores across both the iOS and Android platforms, we tend to forget that many of these applications never used to exist and that someone somewhere thought up those ideas. In other words, it was an emerging technology that could be capitalised on and the same is happening for 3D printing.

A Growing Industry for Creative Individuals

It’s easy to see why inventors and creative people are getting excited over 3D printing businesses such as this company. The cost of a 3D printing has drastically fallen over the past few years and it’s expected that within a few more years, the cost of a 3D printing is going to be affordable enough to make it household appliance much like a regular printer. The sheer amount of possibilities it offers opens up a whole new world for creative DIY enthusiasts that just love to fix, create and improve on things.

Inventors are experimental and there’s nothing quite like logging onto a 3D printing community to find hundreds of new ideas, pictures and discussions. You could create simple things such as a phone or tablet holder, something to prop up your keyboard and make a standing desk, or even cable tidies to manage a web of wires.

As a result of this experimentation, there’s an emerging industry that can be taken advantage of by anyone with a 3D printer. Since you can mass-produce custom made figures and models, you could sell your creative and practical works on the internet on communities such as Etsy. You could even request a business or individual to create something specific for you and commission work, or you could make your own 3D models can give them to a professional company or hobbyist to print out.

3D Printing at Home

3D printers are also great to have in the home because they’re versatile and have the ability to create anything from basic household objects such as coat hangers and storage containers to customised objects that fit specific uses.

For instance, if you have some cables that have frayed ends, you could protect them by printing out cable sleeves. If you need a handle for a pot or a frying pan, you could 3D print something that slips over the handle to create your own. There are countless uses and a 3D printing is going to be a must-have for DIY enthusiasts in the future who love to create their own home “hacks”.

Back in the days when we were at school computers were pretty basic. ICT tended to focus on microsoft word and there were very few programs you could access easily to understand the world of computer aided design or image editing.

Our children though? Well they can create perfectly edited photographs on their phones and navigate their way through any new technology that is thrown at them. They laugh at our inability to send text messages, eye roll at our use of text speak or emoji and have to educate us on how to take a photo which doesn’t have a thumb in the way. If you are struggling to keep up with the youngsters then it’s time to make a change!

First things first, let’s start with the old school technology. The computer. Laptops are now a common item in most households but are you making the most out of your laptop or do you just use it for emails and surfing the web? Did you know there is almost nothing you can’t do if you have a computer. Granted some programs may require extra tech or cost a fair whack of money, but it is still possible to do anything if you have an internet connection, a few wires (although we hardly need those anymore) and a little bit of knowledge.

Here’s a great example. Remember your old holiday films taken either on a cinecam or as the years went by, a camcorder. Today you don’t need any of that. Providing you have your mobile phone or, better still, a HD camera such as a Go Pro you can shoot high definition footage which can be downloaded (wirelessly) to your computer. Once on their you can create your raw files into amazing films. If you want to create a really professional finish you could try a Premiere Pro Training course. This will teach you the art of video editing so when you get back from your recent holiday, it’s you impressing the youngsters with your awesome films.

Photo editing is even simpler. With sites such as Instagram you can tweak any snap you take on your phone, crop it, add a filter and then post your work of art for the world to see. No longer are we getting a simple photo of your evening meal, Generation X are actually taking wall worthy images and adding definition and mood straight from their mobile device. You can now give the impression you live a far cooler life than you actually do. The selfie craze went mad and is still going strong. Apps such as Facetune give you all the tools of a professional photo editor. You can slim your face down, smooth your skin, make you eyes bigger and even change the background of your photo. With technology like this available it’s no wonder the photographic industry is taking a bit of a hit. We are all mini professionals!

Keeping your eye on the latest wireless tech isn’t just about making you look cool in front of the younger generation. Knowing what products are out there and understanding how they work can help you reduce the costs of your monthly outgoings. You can also keep your family safer.

Amazon released the incredible Alexa this year. This small wireless device can be hooked up to any electrical products you have in your home and give you the power of turning them on or off with just your voice or the integrated app software. You can ensure your lights are never left on by simply asking Alexa to turn all the lights off. Or you can ask Alexa to order your shopping for you. She can’t go and let the delivery man in for you but we probably aren’t too far off that happening. You can also control your heating from Alexa or your phone too. Switching it on and setting the temperature so you can work the system around you, not the other way around.

CCTV has been available on the market for years, but with the development of tiny HD cameras we now have incredible quality and even night vision or thermal vision. The camera can be left running all day and set to record when movement is sensed. The recording can be delivered straight to your computer or your mobile phone. Obviously this is brilliant for home security but is also useful if you are out and want to check on the babysitter. Or to see how your pets cope when you aren’t around. Not that we recommend spying on your children, but when you start leaving them on their own, it’s quite reassuring to know you can check what they are up to from your tablet. That’s if they haven’t gone one step ahead of you and worked out where all the spy cams are hidden. Kids are smarter than you, remember?

We are even using tech to pay for our dinner now. Contactless payments mean you can use a chip in your card to tap the merchant device and instantly make payments without having to use your pin. Reducing the time we queue and making checkouts a little less congested. There is currently a strict limit on what you can spend, whilst the technology becomes more secure this will increase.

Finally, the smart 3D TV. Can you imagine if someone told you 20 years ago that your TV was not only going to be able to access all information in the whole world at the touch of a button, but that you could stream live video from your laptop without any wire connections or that 3D was going to be available in every home that had the money to afford it? What our TV’s can do now is nothing short of a miracle. From the size, to the picture quality to the sound. We might still need to ask the teenagers for a little help navigating the system but we’re pretty sure if you come home with a TV like this you are going to earn loads of tech spec brownie points.