Today on DT Daily: a new phone that may give you double vision, a car George Jetson would definitely drive, and is Apple setting its sights on GoPro?
So, how many times a day do you take a quick peek at your phone to see notifications, text messages, or just check the time? Studies show it could be over a hundred, and all that screen and backlight activity really hurts battery life.
Euro-based YotaPhone thinks they have the solution. On the Yota Phone 2, the back of the phone features an e-ink touchscreen that’s essentially always on, and shows all those vital bits of info that are constantly popping up. The screen can stay on because e-ink screens aren’t backlit and only draw tiny amounts of power compared to a regular LCD screen. Result? YotaPhone says the 2 can run up to 48 hours on a single charge.
Pretty slick, right? Unfortunately, it’s not cheap, but if you’ve got about $850 to spare, it’s available in the UK now, and the rumor is it should come to the U.S. soon as well.
It doesn’t fold up into a briefcase, but if George Jetson was car shopping, he’d definitely pick this set of wheels, appropriately called the “Cosmotron.”
British car builder Paul Bacon built the Cosmotron on the chassis of a BMW Z3 roadster so it’s no slouch when you hit the gas. He used a lot of recycled materials, including salt and pepper shakers, moisturizer bottle caps and more to create the unique car, which instantly draws a crowd everywhere it goes. Bacon says that in the 1960s, this is what they said cars would look like today, so he was disappointed when that prediction didn’t pan out.
Bacon built the car in a backyard garage, and after a couple of years, sold it to an appreciative collector. He’s onto his next car project now, and we can’t wait to see what he comes up with.
GoPro is the gold standard of action cameras, and the boxy little devices seem to be everywhere now, which often results in some pretty amazing video footage.
Companies like Sony are gunning for part of GoPro’s market share, but recent patent filings show that the biggest tech company in the world, Apple, may also be about to enter the market. Apple acquired action camera patents from Kodak in 2013 – Kodak made a device called the PlaySport – and patents showing a watch-based controller for an action camera have recently come to light. Also, the filings detail perceived shortcomings of GoPro models.
Apple’s ability to take an existing technology and take it to the next level is well-documented, so if they decide to re-invent the action camera, we could see Apple dominate yet another tech product category once again.
Your host today is Jillian Rabe. Miss a day? Watch all the episodes of DT Daily right here. And be sure to catch our latest podcast.
