There is a ton of great stuff going on this week in the tech world. Here is my roundup of some of the best.
The folks at Tesla must never sleep. The state of South Australia has had some energy concerns of late. In order to help alleviate them, the crew at Tesla and Neoen Energy have made a wager to create the world’s largest lithium-ion battery. Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, bet that the company could build 100 megawatts of capacity in 100 days or he would give the State its money back. The government of South Australia asked him to prove it. In a collaboration with local energy company Neoen, Tesla built a grid-scale energy storage system to be used in conjunction with the Hornsdale Wind Farm. The storage system will provide power for some 30,000 homes according to Tesla. Musk has also promised to complete the build in 100 days. We should see the final product this December. Whether you like Elon Musk or not, the guy keeps his word.
Amazon Prime Day starts today. If you have a minor Amazon addiction like I do, Prime Day is like Christmas, New Year’s and Black Friday rolled into one bargain-filled circus of consumerism. The difference is that you can sit in the comfort of your home and shop to your heart’s content. All you need is a decent wifi network and a debit card. Some of the best deals are on electronics, including 50% on the Amazon Echo, which is priced at $89.99, and $30 off on the awesome Kindle Paperwhite, making it only $89.99. Whatever your interest, Amazon will have something for you. Even if you don’t have a Prime account, you can get a free trial for a month and take full advantage of the deals.
Laser tag is back, and I for one am really excited. Drone maker Skyrocket has created Recoil, an updated version of the laser tag we all loved in the 80s. The basic idea is the same–you shoot lasers at other players, and if you hit them, they die. Unlike the old game, there is a neat bit of tech added. You use Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and your phone to track players’ positions in real time. The app’s tracking capabilities add the fun of airstrikes and land mines, which means that if one player calls in an airstrike opposing players have to get out of the area immediately or be “killed” in the game.
Commercient has some news, as well. Our SYNC application has two new listings on the Salesforce app exchange. We now have SYNC for SAP and Salesforce and SYNC for NetSuite and Salesforce.
