Kozminski Techblog

There are many things in life that we don’t like doing. There are many household duties that we don’t like doing. Technology already helps us in different aspects of our life and now time has come that it will relief us from one of the worst ones – ironing.

Last year two smart guys in London came with an idea of the ironing machine. Actually they invented many prototypes before the one that is presented here but they didn’t think that the previous ones were good enough.

This miracle takes 12 pieces of clothing inside, each at a separate hanger and irons and dries all of them. You just need to take wet clothes out of the washing machine and hang them separately on Effie’s rail. The machine takes clothes inside one by one and it takes about 3 minutes for each piece to be ironed, dried and ready to be hung in the closet.

Below on the video you can see how the whole process looks like.

Important fact is that the machine can deal with all of the different fabrics, even the very sensitive ones.

Obviously this is not so pretty story as it might seem.. the “early bird” price is 699 British pounds. But who would not want Effie in their home?

References:

Never iron again – meet Effie, the machine that dries and presses all your clothes for you

Home

https://www.which.co.uk/news/2017/10/effie-the-machine-that-does-the-ironing-for-you/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4945536/Robotic-ironing-machine-Effie-smooths-crumpled-clothes.html

People nowadays often want to get their shopping done from their sofa while watching Netflix instead of going to the supermarket and frustrate theselfs in the crowds. Instead they choose online shopping for grocery, clothes or many other things they need. They seek for the solution that is most suitable for them. They want to get their shopping done in the easiest and fastest way.

There are many delivery options offered by online retailers for their customers. They try to have a wide range of deliveries to choose from because their clients want that. They don’t want to be limited. But as the times are changing customers also want their deliveries to be more elastic than for example couriers or post. With courier delivery you have to be home when he comes with your package or instead wait another day or go to the parcel that the delivery company points you to pick it up. We as customers don’t like that. The parcels are not always in convenient places for us, we have to drive additional kilometers to pick up the package and that frustrates us. This way few year ago the click&collect services appeared on the market. In Poland the most popular are Paczkomaty, but they also operate abroad as InPost services. They are a network of parcel lockers located around the country in convenient places like by the gas stations or train stations for the customers to get their orders quickly and do not have to put too much effort in that. They operate 24/7 and usually are a cheaper option than a regular courier delivery. They are also very quick. You don’t have to wait in line on the post to get your package anymore, you also don’t have to fit your day schedule to the courier delivery.

Another way to get your shopping by click & collect services is to get it from the offline shop in your nearest shopping center but with certainty that the product you want will be waiting for your in your size, packed, paid online and ready to be picked up. You don’t have to wait in line for that but usually it is enough to just talk to any employee of the shop, show the order number and QR code and they will get it to you. Some people prefer this instead of going to the parcel locker because they have the shopping center on their way from work for example and this way the “delivery” is free of charge as well as possible return.

This pick up option is actually great for the retailers because it lowers the cost of deliveries by courier services, they may sell more products this way because if the consumer comes to pick up their package he or she might as well buy something additional while they are in the store and the package is faster ready for pick up than with the use of outside delivery service.

These kind of services are predicted to be used even more often by customers in coming years and to be even better suited for their needs.

From the moment I discovered Paczkomaty in Poland I use it every time there is this kind of delivery option. It is most suitable for me as I am at work during the day and the courier comes always during my working hours.

What about you Guys? Do you use this delivery services? Or maybe you stick with the classic courier deliveries? Let me knowJ

References:

https://inpost.co.uk/en/about-us

https://inpost.pl/en/about-the-company/integer-sa-group

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9785532/Click-and-collect-the-new-way-to-go-shopping.html

https://www.econsultancy.com/blog/68739-how-has-click-collect-evolved-and-is-it-still-in-high-demand

https://econsultancy.com/blog/66389-what-does-the-ideal-click-and-collect-service-look-like/

https://www.idealo.co.uk/press/660-5-click-collect-services-that-will-make-your-life-easier-in-2015.html

https://www.raconteur.net/business/the-uks-largest-click-and-collect-network

For a long time Apple customers suspected that the company slowed down older devices to force consumers to upgrade. There was this theory going around that Apple is doing it on purpose and that they are engaged in a scheme of “planned obsolescence “ and partially they admitted to it. They say that starting from last year they started the process of slowing down older iPhones that had lower capacity batteries to avoid the problem with unexpected shut downs of the devices. Apple phones are equipped in lithium ion batteries that with age no longer can handle and process demands at the same capacity and it causes the phones to shut down.  They released an update to fix the shut downs but as a consequence it makes the system slower.

How this even happened that Apple released a statement about the problem? Last week on Reddit appeared a post saying that the cause of the popular problem with iPhones being slow might be the battery, and the post was intensively commented and shared. Also the developer of Geekbench- popular software that measures your system’s power- analyzed the data from user’s performance testing their iPhones and the results confirmed that after the update that was meant to fix the existing shutdown problem processors actually slowed down. He even suggested that this slow down might get worse with the phone’s age.

Apple had to finally say something and this was their statement:

Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components.

Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.

The company seems to be happy with how they fixed the problem and they say they will introduce it for next devices. On the one hand they admitted to slowing down our phones and on the other hand they seem to have a good reason to do it. They claim that they want customers to be able to use their phones longer instead of getting a new one instantly after it’s being released and that is why they try to extend their lifespan. A good solution could be replacing the old battery with a brand new one but it is costly if you do it at Apple and if you do it somewhere else you will loose you warranty and have to deal with next break downs on your own.

I have the same issue with my phone and the battery is a disaster, at the moment I have to charge my phone 2 to 3 times a day, it is very slow and it doesn’t seem to be normal. Do you agree with what the company says? Or maybe you think that they should find another solution because this isn’t enough and you don’t want your device to be slower? On the other hand we have to consider that we want our phones to be as thin as possible, as light as they can and very handy. Maybe this is the price for that, we get a slim, pretty, light device but after some time the small battery can no longer be as great as it was at the beginning. What do you guys think about it?

References:
http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/21/technology/apple-slows-down-old-iphones/index.html

https://www.vox.com/2017/12/22/16807056/apple-slow-iphone-batteries

https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/21/16806582/apple-battery-slowdown-science

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/apple-iphones-slow-down-old-models-smartphone-speed-ios-updates-a8121906.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-explains-why-older-iphones-appear-to-be-slowing-down-2017-12?IR=T

https://pastebin.com/JergYngQ

Spectacles are a new product from Snapchat, these are special glasses equipped in camera that records 10 second long(or more) videos with sound from our eyes perspective. This product is now widely available to buy through their website, but when they first introduced them, only US based customers could buy them and it was also not so easy. They could be purchased in special Snapbots and people could check their actual location on special website. Now Snapbots were placed also in London and Barcelona, more locations are to be announced.

Spectacles are sold in three different colors, the package includes case that is also a charger and portable powerbank. The glasses are trendy with rounded frames. Once you record videos with them, they are stored in the glasses, then if you connect your Spectacles with Snapchat app via Bluetooth the videos are imported to app’s memories. The battery is said to last for about 100 snaps and the case can recharge your device up to four times. Glasses can work even if your phone battery dies, they save the videos and you can just import them to your phone later.

The device was created especially for Snapchat users, but there is a possibility to import the videos to your camera roll so theoretically you could use them also for other apps or to upload to Youtube, but there is a small catch. Spectacles record circular videos so if you rotate your phone you can see more but the same way it does not make sense to upload such round video anywhere else because it looks weird.

What is great about this glasses is that you can take videos from your own eyes perspective without holding your phone, so you are phone-free and also your hands are free, this way you can save spectacular views and share your experience with others. This is first gadget of this type that is actually trendy, good quality product (with not great quality videos), very user friendly and for such tech innovation also affordable with price tag of 130 US dollars.

For people who use Snapchat often it might be a really cool device to record even better content to their profiles. For sure it is fun to use them, but the big disadvantage is that they are basically for Snapchat users only.

So what do you guys think? Would you buy such product or you think it is complete waste of money?

References:
https://www.spectacles.com/pl/features/

http://www.benchmark.pl/aktualnosci/okulary-snapchat-spectacles-gdzie-je-kupic.html

http://metro.co.uk/2017/09/19/how-to-use-snapchat-glasses-are-they-worth-the-money-6929461/

http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-spectacles-glasses-review-2016-11?IR=T