Sprayable Energy

With the school semester nearing its end, students are busy completing assignments and taking final exams. In order to help them be more productive and stay awake, students resort to drinking a lot of coffee and maybe even energy drinks. A new product, called Sprayable Energy, can help reduce the consumption while still giving an individual the energy they need. Ben Yu, the creator of Sprayable Energy, discovered that caffeine permeates the skin, and if sprayed on the neck area, it will get into [the] bloodstream more steadily", compared to drinking a large cup of coffee where you have a high and then crash. This product will retail for $15 and includes about 40 doses. The dose recommended is 4 sprays which is the equivalent of a cup of coffee.

I would give Sprayable Energy a 9/10. Students will only have to spend $15 on the product and will get 40 doses or 'cups of coffee' out of it, which is much cheaper than purchasing 40 cups of coffee from a shop which would cost anywhere from $150 to $200. Students who only drink coffee to stay awake and not for leisure may find this product more useful because all they are really looking for is the energy fix. I, personally, do not like drinking coffee and only drink it when I need a boost. When I have coffee, I also put a lot of milk and sugar in it to make it taste better which isn't exactly that healthy. With Sprayable Energy, I can get the caffeine fix without the calories. I would give this product a try because I think it would be a nice pick me up when I hit a low throughout the day and make it easier to focus on school.

Password Ring

In my last blog post, I talked about the password pill that Motorola has developed in order to eliminate the need to manually enter passwords. Recently, Google has been trying to accomplish the same thing except instead of swallowing a pill to remember passwords, a ring will be used. Google is still in the funding and developing stages but the product seems promising. The ring will have a built in USB drive that can be inserted into the computer. In order to register passwords on the ring, you must first insert it into the computer and go to the website you wish to log on to. You then manually enter your password and follow the authentication steps. The technology in the ring will then send the information to the website as well as the ring. After the information has been saved on the ring, the next time you go on the website you will be able to skip the log on process completely.

This product seems to be more promising than the password pill. When I learnt that the pill allows you to emit signals in order to log on to certain devices, I was concerned about the effects it would have on the body. With the password ring, you no longer have to worry about that. However, one problem with having to wear the ring is the possibility of losing it and having others access your personal information. With the password pill, the pill is consumed, eliminating the risk of others stealing your passwords. 

I would give the Google password ring a 7/10. It is much more comforting for me to wear a ring than to ingest chemicals. It also seems like less of a hassle because you only input the password once and it is saved on the ring forever, whereas with the pill, you need to take it everyday in order for the passwords to work. I would definitely try the ring over the pill any day.

The Future of Passwords

What if you no longer had to use typed authentication for logging into your phone or an online website? Now you can with password pills. Motorola has developed a pill you can swallow that turns you into a "human authentication token". The pills are taken daily and when the pill reaches your stomach, the stomach acid will turn a small chip in the pill on or off. When the chip is activated, it creates an "18-bit ECG-like signal" that allows you to log into your accounts just by touching the devices. Essentially, your body becomes the password. This pill has been approved for use by the FDA, but is not going to be sold for awhile according to the CEO Dennis Woodside.

This product would be the most beneficial to those people who have a hard time remembering their passwords or do not like the hassle of signing into each and every website they go on. I agree that this product would definitely save time but it also makes me uneasy. The reason being is that it makes a person become almost like a WiFi signal and since this is a newer technology, we are unaware of the effects this could have on our bodies. I would give this product a 3/10. It would save you time from having to remember passwords, but it is not a necessity as you could just write them down or use the 'remember me' function on websites. I, personally, do not think I will try this product when it comes on the market because I don't mind manually typing in my passwords and I do not want to face the possibility of harming my body.