JIRU TECHZ

Scrip, the gadget to end compulsive purchases

The parents of Fitbit wristbands create a device that controls spending

   Credit card payments increased by 2.1% in Spain in 2015, reaching 45.6% of the total number of transactions, according to figures from the European Central Bank. Figures that grow every year, thanks to the momentum of new technologies.

However, the payment facilities are causing family spending to increase without paying attention to future problems. Under this premise, the parents of the Fitbit wristbands have launched Scrip.

Thanks to this small digital payment device allows to control the money spent and the balance available in the user's bank accounts.

   Scrip uses communication as Apple Pay and is linked to users' bank accounts. To make a payment, a person has to swipe his or her thumb over the device in a manner similar to counting bills. Then, the device shows the updated balance of the account.

"A fusion of the digital and physical, allows us to return elements that make transactions in cash more painful.The pain that you feel when you spend a lot and the sense of control you acquire when interacting with cash." Scrip bridges perfection the gap between the convenience of digital technology and the need for physics, bringing fiscal responsibility back into our hands, "explain the fathers of this gadget on their website.

The fraud of Extremaduran smartphones that stuck their logo on Chinese mobiles

The terminal of Zetta is identical to the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3. Consumers associations accuse them of placing their image of the acorn bitten in Chinese mobile phones and selling them at higher prices

   Spanish picaresque has exploded the latest scandal in the world of technology. The 31-year-old Extremadura entrepreneur Unai Nieto and his Chinese partner Eric Cui, launched a mobile phone two years ago with which they dreamed of competing with Apple, but at a much cheaper price.

They had even come to Spanishize the popular brand of the apple and Zetta mobiles wore a bitten acorn in the purest country style. However, behind this history of entrepreneurship and innovation there is a supposed fraud that the Facua consumer association and many Internet users have denounced this weekend through social networks.

Now, two years after launching its Zetta Multiverse 5.5 model and having eight points of sale in Extremadura, fraud has been uncovered. Although the facts are still being investigated, Zetta is accused of selling Xiaomi Chinese mobile phones to those who put a sticker on their brand.

The exterior of the Zetta, which sold for about 300 euros, was identical to the Xiaomi Redmi Note 3, which costs about 150 euros. Inside the phone, a sticker behind the battery hid the logo of the Chinese brand.

On Sunday, the company closed its website alleging that it had been attacked (Our website is under attack, so it can not be visited at this time, sorry for the inconvenience.) And soon after it did the same with its social networks.

Investigation for "massive fraud"

Facua has requested on Monday the Junta de Extremadura the immediate opening of an investigation to determine if there has been a massive fraud by Zetta in the marketing of their smartphone.

The spokesman of Facua, Ruben Sanchez, has justified this request in the complaints that have appeared since yesterday in social networks and media, in which it is indicated that this mobile phone "supposedly manufactured in Extremadura" was nothing more than a device of another brand , manufactured in China, "and to which the casing has been changed".

Sanchez indicates that it is not that the company is unlocalizable, but that it is refusing to make statements, so the question "is quite clear", as well as that there have been irregularities. At the moment, neither in the Civil Guard nor the National Police have reported complaints about this alleged fraud, as reported by the Government Delegation.

If you bought a Zetta mobile, they must return the money. They have closed their website. We hope that the Prosecutor's Office and the Junta de Extremadura act, alerted yesterday from Facua.

The websites specialized in technology were amazed that in just six months they had created a mobile from scratch and with an operating software from Android. The operating system, according to Internet users, has not been developed by the firm, but uses Cyanogen, an open source software.

The president of the Junta de Extremadura, Guillermo Fernández Vara, met with the two young entrepreneurs last November.

Consumption will analyze the case

The Ministry of Health and Social Policy of the Junta de Extremadura has explained today that the open controversy over the so-called 'smartphone Extremadura' will be analyzed by the General Secretariat of Consumer Policy.

There could be a case in which Consumo will initiate an ex officio file, because as of today there is no claim made in this regard. Depending on the nature of the report, if it is carried out, the regional administration would adopt some initiative or proposal, added the same sources, which have ruled out that the Government Council will deal with this matter tomorrow.

Certain sectors could have detected a business niche, although not always legal, in the sale of cheap Asian terminals in the West that seem to have complicated access to certain European markets, added from Internet associations.

Bionic lenses for an UltraHD vision

It is introduced into the natural lens of the eye and does not require surgery

   In Spain, 53.4% ​​of the population uses some system to correct their vision. Specifically, almost 25 million Spaniards use contact lenses or glasses.

Some numbers that Ocumetics Technology hopes to reduce with the creation of bionic lenses that will not only improve the vision of those people who need glasses, but will refine it beyond the possibilities of human vision.

These bionic lenses are designed to correct vision deficiencies and problems and to improve it beyond the 20/20 standard, providing the wearer with a kind of 'supervision', up to three times higher than normal in the human eye. Or what is the same, see clearly at any distance.

   It is a small device that is introduced into the natural lens of the eye through a saline solution in a process that does not require surgery and lasts about eight minutes. The bionic lens accompanies the natural movement of the eye.

As explained by its creator, Dr. Garth Webb, the lens has another beneficial effect, since it protects against the formation of cataracts in the future.

This lens that provides supervision is currently a patent, which has been presented at a conference on cataracts and refractive surgery in 2015. Its development has cost up to now about three million dollars, and continues with the tests on patients, although it has redesigned the prototype for mass production.

Paypal, the number one target for hackers

Its popularity is an easy target for the theft of confidential information

   With more than 179 million users worldwide, Paypal is the precious toy for hackers. The large amount of information that the company stores is the main reason it is one of the preferred companies for phishing or identity theft.

This type of threat affects both users and companies, and can cause them to lose sensitive information and large amounts of money, points out Check Point Software Tecnhologies.

   According to data from the OpenPhish website, Paypal is at the top of the 10 most used brands by cybercriminals to carry out their attacks. The main reasons are its popularity and the large amount of personal information of users available.

Paypal never sends attachments, or emails with impersonal greetings, nor does it ask for personal information by email. That is why Check Point experts recommend looking at the sender of the mail.

"Paypal's official emails will always have an email address that ends in @paypal.com, and hackers can use the username" Paypal ", but if the Internet user pays attention he will see that the message comes from a different domain" , they point out in a press release.

Hyperlinks sent by phishing attacks are very suspicious since they do not have the https protocol, which indicates that a website is safe.

In addition to following these guidelines, Check Point encourages companies to train their employees to navigate securely, and recommends that they purchase advanced cybersecurity solutions.

Zetta says its "value" is to adapt an Asian mobile phone to European customers

Extremadura brand affirms that the criticisms "are inaccurate" and that it is a telephone designed and made by the company itself with the support of Chinese production chains

Zetta manifests a day later than expected. The Extremaduran brand, which yesterday announced on its social networks that it was working on the preparation of a note, today sent the awaited statement, where it assures that the criticisms of the last days about the company "are inaccurate".


The company confirms that the first smartphone that was released for sale, the Zetta Multiverse, "was designed and made by the company itself with the support of Chinese production chains."

As they say, the company works so that 'the acorn phone' - with Asian technology - adapts to European customers. As detailed, the components of the terminals "are not practically usable with networks and European use". For this reason, Zetta justifies that "they incorporate the software that supposes the improvement and the possible use".

For the company based in Zafra, "the real added value of this company is the adaptation of software components and cutting-edge technologically so that any citizen from Extremadura, Spain and Europe can use it with full guarantee, since the after-sales service is their main added value ".

Despite the statement, the company's website still does not work .

Without public aid

The Junta de Extremadura yesterday issued a statement announcing that the Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure had confirmed that the regional government has not allocated public subsidies to the business project Zetta Europe.

"In the same way, from the Department of Health and Social Policy has carried out an inspection ex officio to ensure the rights of consumers," says the statement. This inspection work has the purpose of guaranteeing that the mobile phone has the features advertised in the terminal, as well as compliance with the labeling of the parts used in the device.

Facua insists on "cheating"

Facua-Consumidores en Acción has insisted on the "deception" of the mobile phone company Zetta Smartphones, and has demanded that the Extremadura consumer protection administration "proceed to collect the advertising and commercial information launched" by this company and "analyze its equipment , which fraudulently presents as self-manufactured ".

Facua spokesman, Ruben Sanchez, has considered a "real tease" communication issued on Tuesday by Zetta Smartphones, which admitted that in some models "shares electronic components with some companies in the Asian sector", to which " adds the incorporation of the software that supposes the improvement and the possible use "of the terminal.

"Zetta pretends to pretend that neither the publicity nor the interviews that its members have carried out in numerous media, appear as mobile phone manufacturers," says Facua, who points out that in the "contradictory text" of his statement, the company "It is now presented as a mere software developer, while ensuring that it did design and manufacture the first model launched on the market, but not the rest."

It is "a deception after another deception," says Facua, who expects "speed" in the consumer protection authorities "in the processing of the file on the company."

The technology that will revolutionize 2017

Virtual reality gives way to mixed reality that will go beyond leisure

  In 2016, it has been 5 years since the death of Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, considered one of the technological gurus of recent years. Precisely during these last twelve months, another guru has been born: Elon Musk.

2016 has been the definitive acceleration of the Tesla and its automatic driving. This exercise has also been the beginning of the race of autonomous cars. This start has been in tests and, in many cases, unsuccessful as the Uber experiment in San Francisco .

The software of the autonomous vehicles is still in full development and it is expected that in 2017 they will take off and be able to anticipate accidents on the road. However, beyond technology, the automobile industry is still encountering another new obstacle and it is bureaucracy.

  This exercise will be marked by the emergence of virtual reality and augmented reality. The arrival of Pokemon Go before the summer supposed a revolution in the leisure with the technological devices. But as the song says "the best is yet to come".

We already know some details in the form of a video, a few seconds of the famous mixed reality. If autonomous driving has a name, the mixed reality comes from Magic Leap.

This startup was born in 2015 and with just under 24 months has raised more than 1,400 million dollars, among which Google and Qualcomm are part of its investors. Microsoft expected its product with its Hololens, but Rony Abobitz, founder of the company, affirms that "it is totally different" from the work of the Redmond company.

Unlike other gadgets that mount screens to create the optical illusion, in Magic Leap are light beams that make the virtual is founded with millimeter precision on the real environment.

At first, according to the videos made public by the American, the technology patented by Abobitz would be destined to leisure, although we will only have to wait a few months to know "the great announcement prepared by Magic Leap for 2017".

The great technicians have opted for virtual assistants, the last one to do so has been Facebook with their 'butler' Jarvis. In the field of research, the departments of the big universities have chosen to create assistants and robots inspired by the animal world to help in catastrophes.

"This type of rescue robot can be ready to deploy over the years," says researcher Sangbae Kim, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT. He and his team are working on that aspect, taking principles of biomechanics, human decision making, and mechanical design to build an assistance robot.

The first steps have already been taken and the prototypes of several universities have begun the tests. One of them is Salto , a robot inspired by a gálago, which is capable of entering into the most recondite places.

Printers have gone from printing photographs and texts to giving birth to motorcycles, prosthetics and even food. It is the rise of 3D printers, but during this 2016 the first tests of 3D bioprinting have arrived.

The Institute of Regenerative Medicine Wake Forest, North Carolina (United States), has developed a bioprinting system to create bones, cartilages to life size. For several decades the medical research institutes have tried to create cellular tissues without success and it seems that the end of the road is near.

The chatbots will occupy the call centers in 2020

Half of the tasks currently paid can be automated

  Calls to customer service centers are increasingly occupied in the first instance by automatic answering machines that refer to the operators when they have already known the query that will be made.

In 2020, the 'call center' agents will be replaced by intelligent 'chatbots'. Almost 50% of the tasks paid today could be automated, but in the case of the 'call centers', the percentage would rise to almost 100%.

   The data has been collected in a study conducted by the company specializing in natural language processing and the semantic search INBENTA. The study tells how the 'chatbots' will influence the customer services of the companies and how in 2020 they will have been able to replace the 'call center' agents.

The technological one places in the very near future the extinction of those professional profiles whose work is capable of being carried out by machines with the same efficiency as a human being. The company has highlighted the professional profile of the 'call center' agent, whose replacement and automation is growing exponentially each year, as one of the first protagonists of this extinction.

The competitive advantages of the 'chatbots', Inbenta points out the main human limitations: machines do not need to sleep or eat, they lack feelings, they are faster and their knowledge is much wider than that of men, among many others. However, artificial intelligence is still limited today, says the company.