Charlotte Henry

Sony’s latest bid in the smart watch space is the wena range. It includes a smart wrist strap that works with mechanical watches and smart modules too. Smart straps have not been hugely successful thus far, with payments being a potential saving grace for the technology. However,  the price of this particular model could be a hurdle. As a review in Wired noted, the strap alone costs as a much as an Apple Watch Series 4.

The wena wrist pro strap costs £399, which, bafflingly, is the same price as an Apple Watch Series 4 (and way more than a £279 Series 3). The bundles with the watch modules cost from £499 to £849 though Matt Oakley, who handles Sony Europe’s new business development, says that he expects that the majority of sales will be strap only.

When writer James Temperton and his partner found out they were having a child, they resolved to keep it hidden from the internet. It proved even more difficult than you might think. Changes to how the couple used technology were just the start of it, as Mr. Temperton’s story in Wired revealed.

Completely relearning how to use the internet is one thing, but becoming a social pariah is something else entirely. And then, when the baby is born, a new problem arises. How on Earth can you stop anyone who takes a photo of your child from storing that image on Google Photos, thus opening it up to Google’s machine learning algorithms? That’s my child. Why should Google be allowed to sink its algorithmic claws into his beautiful face and use that data to better personalise its products and services?

It is not all that often that Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google founder Eric Schmidt come together on a product. However, they both invested early on in the Nebia luxury shower head. The product launched its second iteration on Kickstarter Tuesday, and Mark Wilson tested it out for Fast Company. The idea of Nebia, as well as being luxurious, is to reduce water consumption in a shower by between 50% and 65%.  Version 2 has received investment from the likes of Joe Gebbia (co-founder, Airbnb), James Park (CEO, Fitbit), and Barry Sternlicht (CEO, Starwood Capital Group).

So what’s new with the Nebia 2.0? For the most part, it’s the same system it always was. Its core is an aluminum tower that slides up and down depending how tall you want your shower to be. It still features a wand that sticks to the shower wall with a powerful magnet, serving as a body sprayer most of the time. And it’s the only shower system on the market that can be installed without screws or drilling.

Ever since retail supremo Angela Ahrendts announced her departure from Apple there has been a lot of discussion about what comes next for the company in the retail space. One of the predominant themes has been improving the customer experience in the stores. Some people advocated Apple opening more stores, to help reduce the waiting times for support. Over on 9to5 Mac, Michael Steeber explained why thinks that might not be the silver bullet solution.

Advocating for a rapid expansion tragically discounts the Goliath effort that goes into opening a modern Apple store. While you might be content with a fleet of the modest mall shops of the iPod era, Apple certainly is not. The company has repeatedly said it thinks of stores as its “largest product.” Just like new iPhone features are implemented with cautious consideration, Apple’s retail development adheres to similar uncompromising scrutiny in site location and building design. Even if Apple decided to double its store count today, the results would not begin to show for another 2-3 years.

LONDON – Mars One, the company that wanted to colonize the red planet, has gone bust.  Its for profit arm has been declared bankrupt. The non-profit foundation is unable to act without further investment, Engadget reported. The company wanted to document the process of colonizing one of the planets nearest to Earth in a reality tv show. Not surprisingly, the finances turned out to be something of a challenge and it looks like the project is no more. In July 2018, an investment deal with Phoenix Enterprises was announced, that was set to inject $12 million into the firm over the coming year.

Mars One was split into two ventures, the non-profit Mars One Foundation and the for-profit Mars One Ventures. The Swiss-based Ventures AG was declared bankrupt by a Basel court on January 15th and was, at the time, valued at almost $100 million. Mars One Ventures PLC, the UK-registered branch, is listed as a dormant company with less than £20,000 in its accounts. There is no data available on the non-profit Mars One Foundation, which funded itself by charging its commercial partner licensing fees. Speaking to Engadget, Bas Lansdorp said that the Foundation is still operating, but won’t be able to act without further investment.

LONDON – David Aguilar was born without a forearm. So the Spaniard decided to build his own one. This would be extraordinary enough, but he did out of Lego. He started aged 9 and, aged 19, is now on his 4th iteration of the prosthetic limb. Reuters spoke to Mr. Aguilar and told his amazing story.

Once his favorite toys, the plastic bricks became the building material for Aguilar’s first, still very rudimentary, artificial arm at the age of nine, and each new version had more movement capability than the one before.“As a child I was very nervous to be in front of other guys, because I was different, but that didn’t stop me believing in my dreams,” Aguilar, who is from Andorra, a tiny principality between Spain and France, told Reuters.