The DHL delivery drone in action.
A look at gadget happenings, as the Apple Watch makes its first public appearance at Paris Fashion Week, HP shows off its latest ‘skinny’ Stream laptops and tablets, and DHL makes delivery drones a reality.
Apple Watch at Paris Fashion Week
Since first being shown to the public at Apple’s keynote conference last September, amidst the launch of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, tech fanatics have been wanting to get their hands on, and try out, the Apple Watch as the company’s first entry into the wearables market.
For Apple they felt there was no better place to showcase their upcoming watch than at one of the most fashion-conscious crowds imaginable to gauge their reaction, Paris Fashion Week.
The Apple Watch
However, it didn’t dawn any catwalks, but rather the shop window of French fashion retailer, Colette, who decided to tease Apple lovers with it being on display for one day only.
For everyone else, the watch is still not due for release until early next year.
Irish people spend almost €490m per year on repairing phones
While a cracked phone screen is becoming an increasingly common site among Irish phone owners, seemingly a large proportion of you can’t stand the site of it as new research shows that since the iPhone was first launched back in 2007, we have spent just over €490m on mobile phone repairs.
This makes us one of the clumsiest phone owners in Europe, according to the survey undertaken by SquareTrade, who also show that over a third of iPhone users have damaged their device in some way.
Given people treat the toilet as their main location for reading nowadays, the fact that 20pc of those surveyed dropped their phone in the toilet might not come as a surprise.
Although a simple case could in many cases protect their phone, over half of people surveyed felt they were too image conscious to put a rugged case on to their phone, while 28pc say they were going to get one at some stage.
HP Stream ‘skinny’ laptops and tablets incoming
In preparation for the upcoming Christmas panic, HP have launched a rather stylish line of ‘skinny’ laptops and tablets which they’re calling the HP Stream.
According to VentureBeat, all models will be heavily pushed towards using Microsoft’s cloud storage services as they will come with free cloud storage and the option of signing up for 1TB of storage on Microsoft’s OneDrive and access to Microsoft’s Office 365 Personal edition.
The HP Stream series.
The two laptops due for release will come with a 11.6in screen or 13.3in screen, the later of which can come with the option of turning it into a touchscreen as well as the option of receiving 200MB free of 4G data each month.
The tablets meanwhile come in two sizes also, with the Stream 7 coming in at 7in while the Stream 8, unsurprisingly, comes in at 8in.
Launched in November, the only price available for Europe so far is €179 for the Stream 7.
DHL delivery drones
Amazon made headlines earlier this year with a clever viral campaign claiming they were soon to bring in a drone delivery system that would bring people’s parcels soon after they brought them to their door within the day.
While fanciful, DHL in Germany have actually gone and head and made it a reality, at least for people living on the small German island of Juist whose location is sometimes a bit of a problem to get to and from in cases of emergency.
Now, if there’s to be an urgent need for medical supplies and other ‘urgently needed goods’, the Parcelcopter 2.0 can speed to the island at a speed of 64km/h and can carry a weight of just over 1kg.
The service is almost entirely automated, until it reaches Juist where it’s delivered by a human courier.
Sadly, DHL have said the idea of drone deliveries spreading nationwide for the time being will not be happening.
Will.i.am makes a camera that’s also a car
Considering himself a designer first and foremost these days, former Black Eyed Peas singer Will.i.am has teamed up with Lexus to create a special NX SUV that features four 180 degree lenses to capture the world around you as you drive.
The photos taken are then synced with the person’s phone via Bluetooth which according to The Verge can be charged wirelessly through a special tray.
Unsurprisingly, a car that would no-doubt raise a number of privacy concerns is only a one time model designed by Will.i.am.
Here to explain what exactly his reasoning behind it is the man himself doing it the only way he knows how, that is through a highly-stylised music video.
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