Where’s My Jetpack?
We were told as children that in the future people would be wearing jetpacks and jumpsuits, but until relatively recently until now the most advanced developments in high tech apparel were those light-up sneakers my son insisted on having for the first day of second grade.
Now with wearable tech entering a boom period with the popularity of the FitBit and its descendents, I’m excited for the future of fashion gadgets. Apparently so is famed clothier Ralph Lauren, who is rolling out a special line of heated jackets for the US Olympic team.
The jackets feature a special “conductive ink” that transmits heat from the smartphone-sized power cell, keeping you warm and toasty on the medal stand or on the way to Whole Foods. Unfortunately they’re sold out for now, but the early success of the technology has encouraged the brand to take a closer look at large scale production, and I’m looking forward to it.
I still want my flying car, but that’s another gripe entirely.
A Zone of Your Own
The world of today is full of distractions…many of them of our own creation, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re there. Noisli is designed to help you disconnect from everything but the task at hand using specially selected soundtracks. If you need increased focus to power through a tedious task or just want to block out the background and escape, this is the tool.
Keyboard Superuser
Oh, I see you’re still using a mouse for most of your input. How quaint. You must not really know how to work that keyboard. That’s right, there are actually a wide range of convenient controls integrated with your keyboard, from switching windows to toggling private browsing mode, even recovering that window you hit the “x” on when you thought you heard your supervisor coming.
Flights of Fancy
I’d like to take just a moment to reminisce about Concorde, Earth’s first supersonic passenger transport.
It’s hard to explain the sense of wonder that came with seeing this sleek and elegant bird appear on the scene for the first time in the early 70s. When I heard Concorde could zip from New York to Paris in under 4 hours, I thought flights to space from the nearest airport were just around the corner.
Of course, Concorde was eventually phased out due to a number of factors (with a triumphant spiritual return slated), but for me, the name itself will forever be linked with the spirit of travel.
Flight finder Concorde is mostly unrelated, but it does allow those who can never have enough passport stamps to search for cheap round trip flights on short notice. None will take you across the Atlantic in three and a half hours, but it’s tough to beat Boston to Shanghai for $500.
The Last Word
Well, that’s about everything I have this week, but as always thanks so much for making time for another exciting installment of “Brad’s Blog.” Believe me, I know you could be watching YouTube’s newest recommended videos or doing a sudoku puzzle right now, and your preference is appreciated. I’ll be back in your inbox on schedule, but until then don’t be shy about shooting me an email!