Not sure about you, but change and singles are non-existent in my plastic laden wallet. This proves to be a problem when I want to purchase a drink or snack from a vending machine. The company ShelfX is proposing applying new RFID technology to allow for quick and easy purchasing at the vending machine electronically.

A customer purchasing from a "Vending Fridge" can do so by scanning a QR code using the ShelfX Mobile App which links to their bank account. Another option is to use an RFID-enabled XCard, which active users can receive through the mail.

Once the Vending Fridge recognizes a registered user is attempting to buy something, it simply unlocks the door and the customer is allowed to take whatever they want. Once the purchase is made, the ShelfX technology recognizes what the person took and automatically charges their account. The payment is processed through ShelfX, who takes a small percentage of each purchase. It does not account for items taken out during the decision process, but there is no word as to whether there are weight sensors to make sure the item is not returned empty.

ShelfX is also releasing the Vending Fridge Kit which allows do-it-yourself retrofitting of your own fridge. As with the Vending Fridge, this kit allows you to keep track of all the different items in the fridge and alerts you when any needs to be restocked. Office mico-managers are rejoicing.

The Vending Fridge is available for $600 and the do-it-yourself kit can be yours for $300 and can be purchased from ShelfX.

Cabe

http://twitter.com/Cabe_e14

(via TechNet study)

Some say the mobile device "app gold rush" is over. Both the iOS and Android markets have the better part of a million applications each, how can there be room for more? I disagree. I think the field is flush with possibilities. So far, 466,000 jobs have been created in the "app economy" business. There is room for more.

The App Economy generated $20 billion USD in 2011 alone, according to the TechNet study on the industry. The revenue includes app sales, in app advertising gains, virtual and physical goods sold due to apps. The major contributors to the app markets are not surprising: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Facebook site apps, and Windows Mobile/Phone. (I would say Blackberry may be a dwindling market for the developer, beware.)

(Left) App jobs per state  (Right) App jobs per city (via TechNet study)

Geographical location was also obvious in the report. California state, USA, takes the crown having 23.8% of the jobs. New York, Washington, Texas, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, Georgia, Virginia, and Florida round out the top 10 in order. Being close to the OS company in Silicon Valley is a popular choice for app developers, while others want to be near advertising/media concentration in New York.

Growth is predicted, by the report, to be significant in the coming years. Between 2010 and 2011, an increase of 45% was seen in the job want ads. If you have the skill, the jobs are plentiful.

App career growth chart (via TechNet study)

With feature phones (dumb-phones) outnumbering Smartphones 4:1, globally, as of 2011, the app market has the potential to grow 400%. Take $20 billion and make it $80 billion to give another perspective. There are 82.2 million Smartphone users in the USA(2011), those numbers will only grow over time. I liken this to the adoption of computers in the home. At first slow, now every home has several.

Want to get started? Try the Goolge/MIT App Inventor. No coding needed.

Cabe

http://twitter.com/Cabe_e14

See the full TechNet study, attached to this post

It was only a matter of time. A real-time language translation service was demonstrated by the Japan company Docomo at "Wireless Japan 2011." The service is simple, one person speaks into their phone, a cloud based system translates the spoken words to which-ever language, and the correct language is spoken at the other end. However, the person at either end may never hear what the other's voice may sounds like, since the cloud system reads the words back in a pleasant "computer voice." Inflections, verbal suggestions, and pauses for effect are completely filtered out. Docomo reports that the system is not at 100% yet, but the R&D team vows to increase accuracy over time. Meanwhile, they are considering level of inaccuracy that consumers would be willing to take.

Demonstrated on Android based smartphones and tablets, when either side speaks, text of what is said is displayed in both languages on both user's screens. This will enable further corrections after seeing what the other would hear or understand. I would like to have this just for speaking in the same language to other people. Sometimes people are misunderstood, and having it in writing solves that problem.

Only a hand full of times did I have to communicate with people who did not speak a language I know. Almost every time it was for business. So, I would allow for a large margin of error just to be able to speak in real-time.

Eavesdropper