The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Categories
Hardware

How Tesla is Revolutionizing Solar Energy

Unless you live under a rock, the chances are that you’ve come across Tesla technology in your daily life. From their very successful car line consisting of some of the sleekest, fastest, most efficient electric cars on the market, or even their ventures in making renewable rocketry in SpaceX, Tesla is making a name for itself in revolutionizing technology for the next era. But one of their ventures has for the most part flied under the radar, despite its huge advantages. That’s right, I’m talking about Tesla Solar.

Formerly a separate entity under the title SolarCity, Tesla purchased the company and made it one of its premier subsidiaries of Tesla Energy in 2016. The mission of Tesla Energy is to bring the power of solar energy into control of the consumer, whether it be a residential or commercial premises. This is a more cost and space effective means of solar energy that doesn’t transform massive amount of space or forests into giant solar farms. This not only gives people control over their energy production and costs, but can also be beneficial to consumers through energy grid buyback, where the grid pays you for excess energy.

But enough about the company; lets talk about the technology behind it. Tesla Energy’s Solar Panels are thin and sleek, allowing them to seamlessly fit in to any roofing style or shape. None of the mounting hardware is visible, allowing the panels to blend into the roof almost as if they were never there. In fact, Tesla Energy takes it another step further, through their Solar Roof. This is a complete roofing unit that takes the technology of solar panels into interlocking shingles, allowing your entire roof to capture energy from solar rays and power your home. If you thought the slim, sleek design of their panels was impressive, Tesla Energy’s Solar Roof takes it to another level. While most would worry about these energy shingles getting damaged, Tesla prides itself with being much stronger than most other roof tile alternatives.

 

You might be thinking, “Capturing all of this energy is cool and all, but how does it all get stored?” Well, Tesla has that covered. Their own technology, Powerwall, seamlessly connects to your Solar inputs and hooks up to the electrical system in your home or business. Not only does this guarantee that you can use your own power you produce, but allows you to have uninterrupted power even when there’s a grid outage, leaving your life uninterrupted and those Christmas lights in your front yard up and running. According to Tesla, Powerwall can leave you with up to 7+ days of power during an outage. If you happen to own a Walmart or large retail store, the capabilities of Powerwall can be expanded into Tesla Energy’s commercial units, where micro-grids and Powerwalls can be built for your commercial needs.

The future of residential and off-the-grid living is here. Through Tesla Energy, people can independently and reliably power their homes and businesses completely grid free. While the costs may be expensive right now, increased competition in the sector can lead to a bigger market, which will lower costs as Tesla is able to push this out to more consumers. Even with Tesla being known widely as the electric car company, the company is making strides in the renewable energy sector which stemmed off of its work in revolutionizing the electric car battery. The future is bright for renewable energy, and the future is even brighter for Tesla.

For more information on Tesla Energy, visit their website, at https://www.tesla.com/energy

All images used in this blog were obtained from tesla.com, all rights reserved.

Categories
Android iOS Operating System Security

SOS: Emergency Response in the Smartphone Era

By now, we’ve all seen or heard stories about a recent scare in Hawai’i where residents were bombarded (ironically) with an emergency notification warning of a ballistic missile heading towards the isolated island state. Within seconds, the people of Hawai’i panicked, contacting their families, friends, loved ones, and stopping everything that they were doing in their final minutes of their lives.

Of course, this warning turned out to be false.

The chaos that ensued in Hawai’i was the result of an accidental warning fired off by a government employee of the Emergency Management Agency. Not only did this employee send off a massive wave of crisis alert notifications to Hawaiians everywhere. In some cases, it took up to 30+ minutes to signal to people that this was a false flag warning. With the rising tensions between the United States and the trigger-happy North Korea, you could imagine that this could be problematic, to put it simply.

The recent mishap in Hawai’i opens up a conversation about Phone notifications when responding to crisis situations. While Hawaiians, and more broadly Americans, aren’t used to seeing this type of notification appear on their lock screen, this is a common and very effective tool in the middle east, where Israel uses push notifications to warn of nearby short range missiles coming in from Syria and the Gaza Strip/West Bank.

Image result for israel missile defense notification

In a region full hostilities and tense situations, with possible threats from all angles, Israel keeps its land and citizens safe using a very effective system of Red Alert, an element of Israel’s Iron Dome. According to Raytheon, a partner in developing this system, the Iron Dome “works to detect, assess and intercept incoming rockets, artillery and mortars. Raytheon teams with Rafael on the production of Iron Dome’s Tamir interceptor missiles, which strike down incoming threats launched from ranges of 4-70 km.” With this system comes the Red Alert, which notifies Israelis in highly populated areas of incoming attacks, in case the system couldn’t stop the missile in time. Since implementation in 2011 and with more people receiving warnings due to growing cell phone use, Israelis have been kept safe and are notified promptly, leading to a 90% success rate of the system and keeping civilian injuries/casualties at very low levels.

If this Hawaiian missile alert was true, this could have saved many lives. In an instant, everyone was notified and people took their own precautions to be aware of the situation at hand. This crucial muff in the alert system can be worked on in the future, leading to faster, more effective approaches to missile detection, protection, and warnings, saving lives in the process.

In an era of constant complaint about the ubiquity of cell phone use, some of the most positive implications of our connected world have been obscured. Think back to 1940: London bombing raids were almost surprises, with very late warnings and signals that resulted in the destruction of London and many casualties. With more advanced weapons, agencies are designing even more advanced defense notification systems, making sure to reach every possible victim as fast as possible. In an age where just about everyone has a cell phone, saving lives has never been easier.

 

For more reading, check out these articles on Washington Post and Raytheon:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/01/14/hawaii-missile-alert-how-one-employee-pushed-the-wrong-button-and-caused-a-wave-of-panic/?utm_term=.9898f44541cd

https://www.raytheon.com/capabilities/products/irondome/

Categories
Apps

Politweets: The Growing Use of Twitter and Social Media for Politics

Now more than ever, politicians turn to Twitter and other Social Media platforms.

This isn’t anything new. Since the beginning of Twitter, Facebook, and other forms of social media, politicians have increased their presence on the internet to reach out to many potential supporters and keep up with constituents. Today, when running a political campaign, it is almost necessary to have a web presence in order to make your name and positions on certain key issues known to voters. But can there be too much twitter? Too much of a presence online? And could social media be hurting the game of politics for the future?

(Source: New York Observer, 2016)

During the 2016 election cycle, Twitter became the go-to platform for ranting and discussing politics to endless users doing the same exact thing. Politicians noticed this, and ran with it, tweeting non-stop and even directly at their political opponents. Most notably, the three main candidates, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, all used twitter the most to rally support, attack each other, and tweet their stances on many issues. Even our previous president, Barack Obama, has an active web presence, logging 95 million followers and being the most followed notable politician worldwide.

Politicians like President Trump and Hillary Clinton have taken politics on twitter to the next level. Not only would they tweet about the latest story to rile up their respective sides, but they would also use it to directly mud-sling each other on the platform. Whether it takes the form of Trump’s long rants about “Crooked Hillary” or Hillary’s simple but effective “Delete your account” response, these tweets start a flood of supporters from each side going at it in the replies and in the twitter universe in general.

As the British website “The Guardian” points out, Twitter is relatively small in the political sphere, mainly used by politicians’ key and sturdiest supporters that help push an agenda, politicians use twitter to start a discussion and get into the mainstream news on TV, in newspapers, magazines, and even other websites. These sometimes outrageous claims and tweets by politicians make it on all of these platforms, furthering discussion of their agendas and somehow still making it into the minds of people who don’t even use social media at all.

This trend isn’t limited to twitter, as this carries over to Facebook and even YouTube as well. Facebook has also become a hot-bed for political debates and agenda-pushing. Despite the negative stigma around social media and politics, it seems to be working. According to the Pew Research Center, “one-in-five social media users have changed their minds about a political issue or about a candidate for office, because of something they saw on social media”. 

That number is astounding. A simple post supporting one candidate, one policy, and movement could have a huge adverse effect. Theoretically, if someone has 500 facebook friends/twitter followers and they make posts concerning on topic of political discussion or supporting a candidate, a good amount of those followers would see that post. Say 100 people see that post out of 500 friends, 20 people of that 100 would be change their mind on an issue or candidate.

Whether you like it or not, Politicians using social media to further the political discussion is working, and is here to stay. President Trump will continue to push his agenda; his opponents/supporters will continue to spread their beliefs across the platform, and tweets by any politician will filter through the world of social media into everyday news outlets. This is a trend that is only expected to grow in the next coming elections and years, and a trend that could potentially either help or hurt the political sphere as a whole.

For more reading, you could visit either of these sources based around the political discussion that I used to research this article:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/jul/31/trash-talk-how-twitter-is-shaping-the-new-politics

http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/10/25/the-tone-of-social-media-discussions-around-politics/

Categories
Operating System

Apple Expands Reach on USB-C: What’s Next for Future Devices?

The USB Type C port on the new 2015 Macbook
The USB Type C port on the new 2015 Macbook

In 2015, we saw Apple relaunch what was the complete overhaul of their former flagship laptop line before making the switch to the Pro/Air series. The new Macbook, which included many new features that were relatively brand new to the laptop world, hit the shelves with its new Intel Atom processor, butterfly keyboard, and beautiful Retina display. This product was praised for its innovation in many areas, but what took the technological world by storm wasn’t any of those features, the display, or even debuting in 3 different finishes. Yes, the big discussion were its ports, or lack thereof.

This Macbook featured a single port, a USB type C port, opposite of the 3.5mm headphone jack on the other side of the computer. This notebook, the smallest and thinnest among its family in the Macbook line, left any other port besides these two off of the case and into the world of adapters. While many were left scratching their heads, Apple was not only selling many of these devices but also was praised for product innovation and debuting the next new type of USB to its devices.

Fast forward to Fall of 2016. Apple’s newest line of Macbook Pro’s are just announced, featured, and released. Amidst the new keyboard previously seen by the lower level Macbook and even the Touch ID touch bar sitting atop the keyboard, again the question brought up is this: What about it’s ports?

The new Macbook Pro w/ USB-C ports
The new Macbook Pro w/ USB-C ports

Now that Apple has brought the USB type C port to its higher end of Laptops (all of the Macbook Pro line), what can we expect from future devices? Will Apple learn from the likes of Google and Motorola and integrate the newest port to its iPhone and iPad (and iPod?) lines?

What’s next in line for an overhaul among Apple’s core devices is in fact the Macbook Air. Praised as the perfect everyday computer, it really isn’t needed for heavy usage and professional applications, but it is perfect for the average user and student for its longevity on the battery side of things and ease of use and efficiency fit into a small form factor. Featured already are its Magsafe 2 charging port, two USB 3.0 ports and a headphone jack.

We have already seen Magsafe 2, which was the hyped-up successor to the original charging port of the older Macbook Pros/Airs in the Magsafe 1 port, is now phased out on two of three Macbook lines. What is due up next is removing this port on the Air. This would be paving the way for the Air to upgrade to the next level of innovation and include a Type-C port for charging, fitting right in with its brothers in the line-up. While introducing this next port for charging, it is also lightning fast for data, so remove the other USB ports and you got yourself a Macbook Air, with multiple Type C ports and a headphone jack, along with the improvements in display and keyboard that should come with it.

But what does this mean? Is the adapter life going to consume us for the rest of time? That answer we do not know yet, but it is worth thinking about. For Apple and many companies that should follow suit, this is a huge market to breach in customers purchasing different dongles and adapters to hang like winding branches off their laptops. For the likes of HDMI, Thunderbolt, Ethernet, and many other ports very much still necessary in this day and age, will companies phase them out and stick to adapters forever, or will Apple learn from the adapter game and start to integrate these ports back into their devices, using these next models as sort of a “testing phase”?

For now, we’ll see where this brings us for the product releases in the spring and fall of 2017, but something to know is this: USB Type C among Apple devices is here to stay, and there’s no getting around it. Maybe we will see this dominate every device from the iPhone, iPad, Macbooks, and even maybe into desktop computers.

Categories
iOS

Finally Making the Switch: Android to iPhone

By now, as you’re reading this, I have made a life altering decision.

A decision not about school, work, stupid purchases, etc., but for the single thing I use everyday when I stumble out of bed in the morning and crash into the same bed at night. That’s right; I switched my brand of cellphone. Yes, I caved into an Apple technology dominated landscape and now own an iPhone.

I should premise this by saying that I am not anti-Apple or anti-Android. Not only have I owned at least 4 other Android phones before I got myself an iPhone (ranging from Samsung to LG to HTC), I also have a PC, Macbook Pro, iPad… you get the picture. So its safe to say I have been a mixed-technology kind of guy my whole life, I just (used to) prefer my phones be Android, sort of like how people prefer their eggs scrambled, shirts tucked in, black cars, how ever you compare it.

On to the good stuff…

The iPhone 6S Plus (source: three.co.uk)

This sexy piece of technology now sits snug in the pocket of my jeans or the pouch in my jacket every day, and follows me wherever I travel to. Being an owner of this device for the past two months, having never personally owned an iPhone, this device has completely blown my expectations out of the water. On the outside, a sleek design is highlighted by its large display, curvaceous edges, brushed aluminum that’s cold to the touch, and yes, that seemingly annoying camera bump.

I count on this thing to do EVERYTHING for me. My whole day is logged in to it. From schedules to work out plans to messages to health logging, this phone does it all for me. [Unpopular opinion trigger warning]: The iPhone is the better device. Over any Android phone, give me the S7, Note 7 (RIP), LG V20, G5, anything you name and I will surely be impressed with the function of my iPhone over them all.

Apple has done something right. For the past ten years, Apple has shown why they are the top dog in the smartphone department. People keep coming back to buy their newer iPhones and continue to be impressed. And this isn’t an opinion guys; this is fact.

U.S. Smartphone brand marketshare for 2015 (source: statisa)
U.S. Smartphone brand market share for 2015 (source: statisa)

According to statisa, the iPhone dominates the current smartphone market littered with many different brands, devices, and companies. Why has Apple, a company with one line of smartphone that comes out continue to have this much of a share over companies cranking out multiple smartphone lines every year? The answer is simple: Apple has perfected the smartphone.

The design, the operating system, the hardware inside, the features of the phone, you name it. All of these aspects continue to make the iPhone great (making iPhones great again). Yes, some Android devices may have stronger components, bigger storages, better cameras etc., but its the perfect blend of all the pieces together that makes the iPhone tower over the weaker competition. All of this, and I leave out the most important thing: functionality.

Functionality in an iPhone is much better than any Android phone I’ve ever used and owned. The iPhone is simply a smoother operating experience in its transitions, animations, multitasking, battery life. Its like upgrading to a brand new Audi, what a smooth ride, every time you hop in the driver’s seat and take it for a spin. After weeks of ownership, you can start to see a weakening in operation and delays in use on an Android phone. A couple months in, my iPhone shows now signs of slowing down.

Let’s face it folks, the iPhone is the best device you could buy. Sure, I’ll miss my expandable storage of my G4 (which is getting phased out of Android phones too), but for the best experience of a phone your money can buy, I’ll take it.