In Sunday’s segment on Sky News Australia (Weekend Edition with Tim Gilbert) we were hands on with Motorola’s rollable screen concept phone at Mobile World Congress in Spain. It drew big crowds along with Lenovo’s rollable laptop screen.
I TRIED TCL’S REAL TIME TRANSLATION AR GLASSES
TCL had some really interesting tech that’s already on the market or coming soon. One of those products we hope to see soon is the RayNeo X2 – AR Glasses. They can translate Chinese now – with other languages in the future.
OPPO AIR GLASS 2
OPPO’s Air Glass 2 are just 38 grams. They use a monochromatic display to show directions and other information. The working demo I tried was a teleprompter application. Pretty cool. These are most comfortable smart-glasses I’ve tested to date and they look normal.
OPPO’S BATTERY FREE VERSION OF AIRTAGS ARE WILD
It really does sound like magic but they were right there for everyone to see. The ZERO POWER TAG is a working prototype made by OPPO that doesn’t require a battery. It’s like an Apple AirTag without a battery. Using a phone you can track where it is or determine the local temperature. It’s still early days but this has massive potential for sensors. It’s been a long held dream to harvest energy from radio waves around us and it looks like we have arrived.
ONEPLUS LIQUID COOLER
OnePlus – a sub brand of OPPO has a 45W Liquid Cooler that can reduce a smartphone’s temperature by up to 20°C. This means phones can run faster while batteries last longer. A great use case would be in the Aussie summer – the phone is on the dash while using GPS. Also good for hangovers.
5G AND 6G TELSTRA CUTS THROUGH THE HYPE
The marketing of 5G has changed. In 2019 it was all about an amazing future – cars talking to each other – remote surgery – very futuristic. Now, the marketing is more pragmatic. Solutions are realistic because 5G millimetre wave is nowhere near mainstream yet. Almost no one is promoting mmWave phones. The public don’t really care – they just want a solid connection with adequate speed. There was some 6G chat but even the experts don’t know what that is.
Telstra announced the successful completion of a 100km long-range 5G data call on a mid-band. This world-first achievement was conducted at Burra in South Australia and made possible through a new software feature that extends the maximum cell range from 15km out to 100km. The extended range feature will enable Telstra to broaden the benefits of 5G Massive MIMO AAS radios to even more rural and regional areas, delivering 5G capacity and downlink speeds to more customers. This is what we need from our telcos!
DJI DRONES MAKING PEST CONTROL MORE ACCURATE AND ECO-FRIENDLY
Interesting story out of the Maldives with clear applications for Australian agriculture. There’s a big debate about pesticide use in Australia. In the Maldives, the infestation of the hairy caterpillar (Euproctis fraterna) is threatening local life and ecosystem. It feeds on the Indian almond tree, whose roots are essential to prevent coastal erosion. It also is covered in toxin-covered hairs that leave severe rashes and blisters upon skin contact, as well as respiratory distress when inhaled, causing closures of schools and businesses. The traditional pesticide method of on-ground pole spraying is inefficient and ineffective, so a team led by entomologist Dr. Bart Knols is finding a new solution with the DJI Agras T30. Following his team’s success in battling Malaria in Tanzania, Dr. Knols is working with local professionals in the Maldives to use the T30 to spray the Indian almond trees with maximum effectiveness to protect the local ecosystem and economy.