#TwitterFiction Festival

Here at Decoded we love a good read, whether it’s via a Kindle or good old fashioned paperback. So we were more than a little curious about the #TwitterFiction Festival, which took place from 12 – 16th March, searching for authors from across the world to tell stories in 140-character bursts. 

Highlights included bestselling author of The Rosie Project, Graeme Simpson bringing to life two of his characters by creating a Twitter conversation, incorporating feedback from followers into the dialogue. Maybe it’s never going to set the literary world alight, but it’s a super way of giving readers a chance to experience fiction in a brand new digital way: #novel.

Spritz

Speaking of novels, we’ve been pretty wowed by mighty new app Spritz, which could increase reading speeds by up to 1000 words per minute. In other words, it could be possible to speed read a Harry Potter novel in an hour, phew! 

According to the Boston startup company, when reading, only around 20% of your time is spent processing content. The remaining 80% is spent physically moving your eyes from word to word and scanning for the next ORP. With Spritz’s unique compact text streaming, your brain can focus solely on the task at hand. 

Billed by some as treadmill for your eyes, concentration is key to Spritzing. It may not be our app of choice for enjoying a good novel  but it could certainly have its uses for emails and social media. Spritz plans to license the technology to online newspapers and e-readers. And we’re intrigued by what this could mean for producing more accurate analytics data, whereby the streamed content could show what people are actually reading on websites.

There is no stand-alone Spritz app yet, but Samsung’s latest Galaxy S5 smartphone andGear 2 smartwatch come with Spritz’ technology pre-installed to read emails. Give Spritzing a whirl here: http://www.spritzinc.com/#

Flipagram

With showbiz awards ceremonies aplenty in March, we kind of got the bug for making our own movies. Little frivolous ones that no one but us will ever be interested in seeing, but we had fun all the same thanks to the niftiness of Flipagram. 

Available on Android and iOS, the free app lets you create memorable video stories using your Facebook, Instagram and Camera Roll photos and set to your favourite soundtrack of choice. These days we tend to take more photos with our trusty phones than an actual camera and never get round to printing them. With Flipagram, we can say goodbye to boring old photo albums. 

So this year we can expect relatives to actually stay awake whilst we show off our holiday snaps, and even if we were duped by a last minute bargain getaway, we can make it look picture perfect. 

Expensify

Part of the beauty of technology for us is its ability to make life a little easier. That’s why we’ve been intrigued by Expensify, a simplified expense reporting app. Saving employees time is what we like about this tool, which uses smart scan technology to encourage simplified expense reporting for remote and traveling employees by letting them record expenses on the go, photograph receipts on their smartphone and use its GPS to determine travel miles. 

Expensify can also import transactions from online bank or credit card data and automatically categorize most expenses to save employees the effort. It may have been around for a good few years now, but Expensify is constantly upgrading its capabilities and integration with other finance systems, which has the facility to make us one step closer to a paperless office.

Anki Drive

Racing cars with artificial intelligence versus us and our iPhones sounds like our kind of challenge. Named as one of Time’s best inventions of 2013, Anki Drive platform is a race game with artificial intelligence; robotic cars running on a 3.5’ x 8.5’ mat imprinted with code. 

While it’s a physical game, Anki plays more like a video game. Using your iPhone as the controller, you can use turbo boosts, weapons, and other virtual accessories to get the advantage over your opponent. Any of the four cars can be controlled by humans or the AI, and they know not only where they are, but where the other cars are too. Fast, fun, and challenging, Anki Drive makes us wish we were kids growing up in the digital age. It’s a good job we’re in touch with our inner child then!

DJI Phantom Quadcopter

We all gawped in amazement when we watched this Surf video: http://vimeo.com/83187924. Our jaws dropped even further, when we discovered that this amazing footage was captured on a DJI Phantom Quadcopter. It may look like a toy, but the DJI Phantom 2 Quadcopter is a small size camera-equipped aerial drone that packs a powerful punch. 

Thanks to an integrated GPS module, the drone is able to actively keep its position and if you happen to move it out of range, it will come flying right back to you. With a built-in anti-vibration camera, the DJI Phantom 2 is also smartphone compatibile, allowing you to view in real time what the camera’s capturing as it soars above you. Install the app on either iOS or Android, and you’ll be able to play Speilberg from the ground, improving the quality of the picture whilst keeping your feet firmly on dry land. 

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2 (13-inch)

As hybrid laptops go, the Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga 2 has the art of multi-tasking all figured out. True to its predecessor, the Yoga 2 Ultrabook features a fully folding screen letting you switch from an intuitive touchscreen tablet to a familiar laptop style layout in seconds. Like any Yoga expert, the multi-touch display flips back 360 degrees to offer four different usage modes: Laptop, Tablet, Stand, and Tent. And this time round, the Yoga 2 is body beautiful with a thinner and lighter chassis than the older model.

Lenovo have also surpassed themselves in the innovation stakes with the stunning 3,200 x 1,800 resolution of its 13.3in IPS touchscreen display. The Yoga 2 embraces top of the range technology, including a fourth generation Intel Core Processor and a QHD+ touch screen to produce a truly powerful Ultrabook with the versatility of a tablet and an affordable price tag. If we were a device, we would have serious flipping envy. 

Titanfall

Since we welcomed Xbox One into our lives last November, we’ve been counting down to the release of its flagship title, Titanfall. Developed by Respawn, the core team that created Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Titanfall is the next generation of FPS (that’s first player shooters for all you non-gamers out there). With advanced combat techniques, the fast-paced multi-player action is a thrill a minute. Much of which can be attributed to Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure, and our trusty friend, Azure. All of Titanfall’s AI is reportedly handled by the Azure servers, freeing up processing power of the Xbox One to “achieve more detailed graphics and the game’s silky-smooth frame rate.”

Whilst the graphics aren’t as breathtaking as we were expecting and the lack of customisation modes are a little disappointing, the choice of 15 maps, smooth movements and precise aiming certainly puts our controller to good use. Whether you’re an XBox One devotee or not, there is no doubting that superhero feeling you’ll get from operating the x-ray radar pulse, dodging missiles and becoming a giant robot. Don’t believe us? Ask Titanfall player Ray Cox, better known online as Stallion83, who has just become the first person to crack an Xbox Live Gamerscore of one million points. Now, that’s impressive. 

Google Chromecast

We love giggling away at silly cat videos on our tablets and smartphones as much as any other animal lover. But with the arrival of Google Chromecast, a little dongle with an HDMI port, we can stream our favourite clips from YouTube and share the laughter. Billed as the easiest way to enjoy online video and music on your TV, the Chromecast acts as a remote between your device and your telly, only without the fuss and the masses of buttons. 

Simply plug your Chromecast adaptor into any HDMI-equipped television, connect to your WiFi network, and your little old telly box becomes an app-driven smart TV. From the comfort of your tablet, smartphone or computer and without draining their batteries, you can tell your clever dongle the content to cast on your TV, for the whole family to enjoy together. 

Other than YouTube, BBC iPlayer, Chrome and Google Play, there are currently only a limited selection of apps and games available across Android and iOS for the Chromecast. But at only £30, we reckon Google is giving Apple TV and Roku a serious run for their money. 

Samsung Case for Visually Impaired

Those clever minds at Samsung have announced a line of accessories for Galaxy Core Advance smartphone users with disabilities and visual impairments.

Firstly and most remarkably, is the Ultrasonic Cover for its Galaxy Core Advance which helps owners sense the presence of people and objects up to two meters away, by sending an alert when an object is detected either by vibration in the handset or text-to-speech notification.  

Then there’s the Voice Label tool, which uses near field technology, and is designed to assist users in distinguishing objects by allowing them to make notes and tag voice labels easily on-the-go. 

Completing the trio is the Optical Scan Stand, an easy-to-position stand where you can place documents underneath the device, automatically activating the scan app, which will read the page content aloud to the user.

Using technology to make smartphones enjoyable and useful for all? That’s our kind of innovative thinking.