Technology is concerned with improvements in a variety of human and organizational problem-solving endeavors, through the design, development and use of technologically based systems and processes that enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of information in a variety of strategic, tactical and operational situations.
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Friday, May 22, 2020
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Thursday, May 21, 2020
These superb pictures of retro tech will show you how far we've come
There's nothing like an advert for a spurious technological product in black and white to make you realise just how much progress we've made as a tech society. Whether it's bizarre contraptions for making phone calls or lighting products that barely look safe, it's fair to say that we've all got a heck of a lot more access to reliable tech now.
Still, there's a lot of fun and interest to be found in surveying images of old tech and reminding ourselves of how things used to be. That's where Concept Talk's Instagram feed comes in - it's full of amazing photos from days gone by. We've combed through it to find some amazing photographs for your browsing pleasure.
Future aesthetics
Cars reflect our times more than we sometimes realise - their designs and looks are generally tied to the sort of tech that we as a society are purchasing and hankering for. No wonder, then, that this Ford model looks so funky - it's from the 70s and we just can't get enough of that colourful stripe.
Pimp my ride
Bikes, compared to cars at least, haven't changed nearly so much - after all, the core technology can only come on so far. That said, it's been a while since we saw a lighting option for a bicycle quite like this one, which straps a frankly astonishing number of bulbs to your bike. If people were concerned about being seen when it was dark, this certainly would have solved the problem.
Social isolation
People's imagined versions of the future always make for fascinating comparisons after the fact, and this painting from Italy is a perfect example. Its vision of isolated individuals zipping around in personal vehicles that seal them off from the rest of society is, on the one hand, far-fetched, but also bears at least a passing resemblance to some aspects of how we live now.
Green skies
People also liked to imagine what our cities would look like decades into the future, and these predictions seem, for whatever reason, to often skew towards the optimistic. Hence you get ideas like this one, which posited that the skyscrapers shooting up in cities around the globe would all be topped by gardens to lessen their environmental and visual impact. Sadly, this hasn't really proven true.
Neon demon
Going all the way back to 1930, this neon salesman's case is a great example of how futuristic some real retro technology can be - the way these tubes are powered is so low-fi that most of us would struggle to comprehend it. What's obvious, though, is that it has a gorgeous look and feel to it, sure to be a collector's item nowadays.
Gaming rig
Fast-forwarding rapidly into this century, we love this image, because of how well we know that it was, in its day, the height of sophistication. This is someone's amazing rig to play flight simulators on, even if a modern PC gamer would snort at the idea. Compare those chunky monitors to modern ultra-wide options and you'll see the definition of progress.
Operator, please
This is a photo so farfetched as to look amusing, but this idea of how people might look if fashion changed drastically, while telecommunications technology stayed bafflingly static, makes for an amusing collage of concepts.
Space commander
Similarly, this isn't an actual design or prototype of a spacesuit, as we'd hope would be obvious, but even as an exploration of what suits could one day look like, it's amusing how far off-base it is.
Nap pods
Meanwhile, this concept for a nap pod now looks mighty prescient. It might not be right in design terms, with the bulbous looks no longer in vogue at all, but ever since Google famously added napping stations to its huge campus in Silicon Valley, nap pods have become, if not popular, at least accepted.
Sleek
Setting aside Elon Musk's folly in the form of the Cybertruck, we think it's fair to say that car design has got a heck of a lot less interesting over the last few decades, as this gorgeous model demonstrates. While it might not have been a bestseller, we can't see such a radical design getting made now.
Quite a den
This artist's idea of what an ideal den would look like, meanwhile, has us drooling in envy. If you mentally upgrade its pinball table to a games console, this really isn't that far off what people aspire to nowadays, as much as its aesthetics are wild. Who wouldn't want a pool-room?!
Flowery
By contrast, this simple image of a phone from the 70s is a useful reminder that actual, physical tech from decades gone by can often be underwhelming or even openly a bit ugly. We're not saying that floral prints and patterns are always grim, but we're also not sure we'd want this telephone in our house.
Clash of cultures
We like this image for how dated different elements of it are - in particular, the contrast between the futuristic TV set (for the time) and the dolls sat on the shelves to its right - showcasing how quickly tech marched on in the 20th Century.
Communal listening
We'd like to say that easy headphone splitting has become way easier since this image, but it amusingly hasn't really, at least not if you still want eight kids to listen to the same source of audio. Still, whatever solution exist are probably a damn sight smaller, at least.
Spin the decks
Speaking of record players, this might be the most ostentatious one we've ever seen - a set of decks embedded in what can only be described as a giant marble egg, it's just about one of the ugliest bits of interior decor on record, we think.
Floral again
This phone is a good contrast to the floral print option we featured earlier - it might be using daisies to advertise itself, but the actual design of the telephone is, dare we say it, really nice. It's elegant and timeless, and we'd happily use it now.
Food magic
The cover of this book is a great reminder of how microwaves changed the game when they first became widely available and affordable - speeding up some types of food preparation to the point where young people might genuinely need reminders that the technology isn't just magic.
Videospheres
Spherical televisions are a law unto themselves. We know they don't make sense ergonomically or for viewing angles, yet we can't help ourselves when we say that they just look ace. Would we watch a movie on one now? Of course not. Would we have one as an interesting bit of art? Quite possibly.
Interesting marketing
The audio mixer itself might be front and centre, but that doesn't stop us from thinking that we can't see any modern companies marketing their product with an image of someone enjoying a joint in the background - maybe that's just us!
Loud enough?
This photo from the Mitsubishi archive is a fun look at how big a speaker can get if you're pushing the boundaries of the sensible - we're not sure what it would sound like turned on, but we can imagine the pain of any sort of interference feeding into it.
Razzle-dazzle
What better way to market your hi-fi like Philips has done here, with a ruddy great lightning bolt. Marketing copy? No thanks - just give us a stormy sky and huge pink glints on the speakers to show that this thing is built for rock and roll.
Rolling out
This might just be the coolest vehicle of any type that we've seen in quite some time, but the fact that it was built in the 1930s makes it almost jaw-dropping. We can see the reasons why this didn't spread to become a normal sort of thing to own, but that's still a crying shame.
Why not?
A burger-shaped phone would later be made iconic by the film Juno, but why not have a portable games console in the same shape? This concept piece is hilarious to look at, and you don't the sense that its two buttons and a D-pad would be much fun to play, but it's certainly memorable.
Chunky chic
Our final picture is a final phone, too, and we're honestly torn on it. Is it a great bit of knowingly kitsch design with huge buttons that are unique and fun, or an ugly monstrosity with buttons that should never be replicated anywhere, ever. At the end of the day, we might just have to leave that to you.
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Huawei P50 could be first to have an innovative liquid lens camera
A patent filed with the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) could result in Huawei being the first to market with a phone sporting a "liquid lens" camera.
Indeed, we might even see the technology debut on the Huawei P50 next year.
Liquid lens technology uses optical grade liquid inside a cell structure rather than optical glass. This is more fluid, so when adjusted mechanically or electronically, it can completely change its shape, and therefore alter focal distance more effectively and speedily.
Modules that use liquid lens tech can therefore greatly shorten the response time when focusing, when compared to those using conventional lenses. It is also a more effective technology for optical image stabilisation.
It's not a new technology, having been used in manufacturing machinery, microscopes and even the camera systems on professional-grade drones before, but its not yet appeared in a phone camera.
Huawei's patent shows a camera module made up of several parts, including a liquid lens. It states that the adoption of the tech will indeed improve the camera's autofocus and image stabilisation properties.
It is also more stable: "This structure [is] used to move the liquid lens to achieve autofocus and optical image stabilization. Moreover, the solution also improves the stability and reliability of the motor under conditions such as impact or drop," it says in the patent document, as reposted by Huawei Central.
The patent was initially filed on Christmas Day 2019, and approved on 7 April 2020.
Hopefully that means we'll see the tech used in a product in the next year.
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Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Enter another world with these amazingly dreamlike photo edits
Photoshop is a marvellous tool, and while it may have become synonymous for a time with airbrushing and touch-ups, the reality is that it's a program that lets people achieve wonderful things visually.
Take Justin Peters, whose Instagram profile is here, for example, a visual artist who's been working for some time on beautifully altered images that evoke a sense of wonder and otherworldliness. We've gathered a superb selection of his images right here - check them out!
Oceanic
This first image is a good sample of Peters' style, which is to blend two different worlds and create an entirely new paradigm. Here you've got the ethereal float of a jellyfish transformed into a new sort of mermaid entirely.
Life's a beach
Beaches are lovely, we think most people will agree - and rock formations are pretty nice, too. That said, they don't tend to naturally occur like this, embedded in trees. It's a delightful image, though, and creates a beach we'd love to visit ourselves.
Quite a view
Talking about lovely, imaginary beaches, though, this one's a stormer. Imagine having a local seaside spot where you could not just swim and play in the waves but also lay back and survey the globe like this. Phwoar.
Morphing
We love how seamlessly the jellyfish in this image blends into the carousel top - it makes an amalgam that reminds us of boss-battles from Japanese videogames, but the blurring effects make it seem incredibly real.
Cold times
We might be coming into summer now, but we can all remember the colder months all too easily. This image forms almost a story in our minds, as this man walking through a city remembers the wilderness he's been in recently.
Imagination
If the last image told a story, this one looks like it's about telling stories, with the blank page taking one's imagination on a journey, in this case to the white peaks and slopes of a ski resort.
Animal planet
This isn't the last time you'll see butterfly wings in this gallery - there's something perfect about them when edited onto other animals, as in the case of this proud penguin, whose little wings are a lot more beautiful than normal.
Supermoon
We're all used to the idea that every so often the moon will do something absolutely nuts, whether it's an eclipse, a red moon or a supermoon, but sadly most of us are unlikely to ever see one quite so enormous as this stunner, let alone catch a stag perfectly posed in front of it.
Dreamscape
We love the ripples spreading out from around this swan in the sky, a sort of dream-pond that makes it feel like the manifestation of an ancient god or something, while the hot air balloon adds a human touch.
Diving utopia
We're sure that any experienced divers would be absolutely thrilled to discover a reef or ecosystem as interesting as this one so close to the surface, and indeed so close to land - it sure would be convenient!
Melting away
Old buildings can sometimes feel like, unless they're taken care of with great attention, they could melt away like a candle, so to speak, after having burned so brightly in their heyday.
Quite the jogging route
If you thought one hot air balloon looked scenic, check out this composition with loads of the things. It makes us absolutely yearn for the days when we can pick our own running routes with total freedom again, even if they're unlikely to match this beachside spot.
Perfect timing?
This is the sort of shot that might once have passed for real, before people got wise. It's one thing to nail the conditions and lighting for this moody bridge shot, but quite another to also get a passing bird in focus and looking right at the camera.
Space aquarium
Jellyfish return, for possibly the most magic-realist image in this collection, with the man's head-torch illuminating an impossible scene of skybound water creatures frolicking beneath the stars.
When I see an elephant butterfly
If you think we're not proud of that Dumbo pun, you're dead wrong, but either way we love this image of an elephant in their home turf, but with one key, and very eye-catching detail changed.
Giraffe graffiti
We love this image of another African mammal changed in an immediately obvious way, not least because it reminds us of how we used to colour in these gentle giants when we were kids - with every crayon colour we could lay our grubby mitts on.
The giant peach
This image has an obvious inspiration from a certain Roald Dahl story, if you're asking us, and it shares that author's love of whimsy and far-fetched situations. Frankly, it even looks quite attractive.
Too good to be true
Another day, another giraffe, although this one's much closer to looking normal. In fact, it's the animal's surroundings that have had a touch-up of the more subtle variety, lending the picture a colour palette that would sadly be unlikely in real life.
Leaves like a cloud
Another lovely scene is offered up by this shot of a dry landscape at sunset, and you might not even notice what's odd about it at first glance, until you pay more attention to that tree's cloudy foliage.
Foreboding
This dust twister and desery combo is more than a little off-putting, though it doesn't seem to be stopping the 4x4 approaching it - more than enough evidence to make us suspect that the twister has been added in entirely, as has the storm in the background.
Wet wings
Our penultimate photo brings the last outing for butterfly wings, this time replacing the tailfin of this huge whale, and we are serious fans of the contrast between the royal blue of the ocean and the bright orange of those wings.
Diving in
Last but not least, we're so on board with the vibe of this final image. Its subject, that little turtle, seems to be diving, flying through the air towards that lovely blue sea - truly joyful.
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