With mobile technology moving at a fast pace it is becoming ever easier to update your blog on the move.

Just go to Apple’s App Store and see how many apps are available to update blogs.

Wordpress, the number one blogging software and facilities service, have a superb app which they have just upgraded for iPhones and iPads, with new Android and other mobile phone versions also upgraded.

With this app I can easily update many of my blogs from where ever I can get a WiFi or 3G connection.

I can also film some video on my iPhone and post it on the site from the iPhone - fantastic.

Technology advances so fast at times we rarely see where it will take us.

I am not limited now to being stuck in the office to write the blog, I can be out and about and still update Enigin’s blogs, like this one.

An area that used to be the domain of the oily fingered has evolved over the years into the clean fingered brigade’s home. No longer do Enigin’s staff talk about Top Dead Centre’s and Points gaps (the younger ones amongst us think we are talking a foreign language). Everything is diagnosed by computer - at least Harley Davidson offer to sell you the diagnostic software.

No longer does the mechanic have to deal with the intricacies of engines and fuel systems - he runs a check through his computerised, diagnostic tool and then swaps out a small to large black box.

Cheap tweaks and adjustments can no longer be made, just one item pulled-out and a brand new piece of expensive equipment plugged back in.

Like so much u=in this technological world - life is simplified, as whole sections can be unplugged, updated and plugged back in. That is all very well, but also expensive and wasteful, as often it is just a tiny part that is broken or failing, but the whole circuit is ditched and whole new one is installed.

This is progress?

This is just the name given to an electric motoring unit that works like this: inside an electric motor, attracting and repelling forces (like magnets) create rotational motion. The process converts electrical energy into mechanical power, to allow the rotor to turn the machine it is attached to.

These motors are everywhere, in most businesses, such as restaurants, hotels, supermarkets, offices and even in our houses. Not to mention factories.

Despite being used everywhere and by everyone, in direct or indirect ways, motors have a big flaw - they waste a lot of energy! Half of the world’s energy production is consumed by motors!

During the conversion from electrical energy to mechanical movement, losses occur in the system. These losses are transformed into heat, noise an vibrations, and they happen because the motor is sourcing more energy than it needs to do its job.

For instance, when engineers create a machine, they design it with an over-sized motor so as it can handle the worst case scenario, just in case: an escalator going upwards will be conceived so that it can be functional even if two heavy men stand on each of its steps.

Although this scenario almost never happens in real life, the motor powering the escalator is designed to produce enough energy to cater for this eventuality ALL THE TIME. It does not know how to adapt to the load on the escalator, hence sourcing the adequate amount of energy to make the escalator operate. It will therefore always use more energy than it needs, which is how energy is wasted.

Enigin PLC have a clever solution to this energy wasting problem. They have the iMEC - Intelligent Motor Energy Controllers. The iMEC gives a motor an ‘intelligence’, enabling it to analyse the amount of energy that is needed for the machine to perform, adapting to the variations in requirements. Enigin PLC’s iMEC is the most logical way to combat energy inefficiency due to over-working motors, and to save businesses a lot of money at the same time, through a reduction of energy bills (at least 40% savings in costs).

Consuming less energy also means reducing carbon emissions and increasing the life span of a business’ appliances, through eradicating heat, noise and vibrations associated to excess ‘lost’ energy.

Enigin provide businesses with an offer they can’t refuse, as energy bills seriously dent most businesses’ profitability. Implementing Enigin PLC’s high-tech devices is the evident choice for anyone who thinks hard-earned money should not be wasted on ridiculously high energy bills.

For instance how much energy are you using at this very moment?

If you are still on a traditional power meter apart from seeing how fast that wheel spins round and the numbers change you cannot tell how much energy you are using, not until you get your bill, which is either weeks or even months later.

As we get more smart meters things will improve, but still generally there is a delay in getting a reading as to what you are using - it isn’t in real-time.

At Enigin we have something far better than a smart meter - the Eniscope real-time energy monitor, which shows you what energy you are using now, and displaying graphically what savings are made as you switch an appliance off.

Flick the switch and the Eniscope display on your web browser will react, with dials or graphs reacting. Hence you can see what energy is being used, by what and how much.

Once armed with that information you can make decisions and change behaviour, right away as you have the energy use data as it happens - that’s smart.

Now you can’t turn around without banging into someone frantically sliding their fingers across the screen of their cell phones.

Since the launch of the iPhone 2007 touch screens have been the must-have for any cell phone and now all manufacturers have followed Apple’s lead, and exceeded what Apple have done in some instances.

My grandson Seth, just 2 years old, already realises he has to slide his fingers on his mum’s iPhone to change pictures or access a new screen.

It is amazing how quickly such technology becomes the norm - what was science fiction a few years ago is now a reality beyond a predictors ability to see.

At Enigin we see the same development with energy saving.  Several int he Enigin fold have worked on energy efficiency for many years but suddenly it has gone from a fringe industry in to the main stream.

Along with that at Enigin we have seen the technology, such as our Eniscope or other developments, go from strength to strength - with what was revolutionary just a couple of years go now seeming everyday with the next developments sitting there exciting everyone involved.

Like the touch screen - being able to manage your energy use and save money is becoming common place - which is good news for us and the environment.

Often the staid world of rambling is portrayed as tweed coats, stout boots, walking sticks and sad unfashionable people who are more akin to Luddites than us technophiles.

Now I know that is not completely true - I like a good hike myself but again I am an mountaineer which is as far as you can get form rambling. Anyway, back to subject, it is good to see access to technology aiding those who wish to walk, hike, ramble or climb the hills.

I am traveling to my daughter’s home soon in the far North East of England, having a week off form the grind stone at Enigin.

As I am trying to save as much money as I can, to spend on new gadgets and technology, plus blowing any money I did have on three one TB hard drives for my Mac I going to stay at my daughters as it is far less (free) than a hotel, unless she catches on!

I surfed around the web for some walking routes, as walking is also cheap, and I found on a North East England tourist site, not only detailed descriptions and maps but also downloadble podcasts of the walks to take with you on your phone or mobile device.

Great news - although the earbuds leading from an iPod do not quite fit the picture of the rambler I am sure many others will want to join in with some physical activity if they can hear the route while enjoying the scenary - not only that I have a compass on my iPhone, let alone the maps.

A part form gadgets of course we have the heavy weights like Apple’s iPad and all the gizmos that Google seem to be producing.

On one trawl across the web I kept on seeing predictive technology, what we are supposed to have in the future - all these amazing things that we look at in wonder but are often forgotten about or laughed at in the future.

In the past they reckoned that by the time we hit the 21st Century we would hardly work, Robots would do that for us, and we would spend our time just playing.

It was partially right, with a worldwide recession a lot of people were not working but they weren’t playing! For the ones that do work, it hasn’t got easier but often it has involved longer hours and more stress! How come nobody predicted that.

Of course in the past the year 2000 was the pivotal point - in the year 2000 people will have this or that, and people would point to imagined technology and forecast all the things we would have, few of them came true.

As we are now at least a decade into the 21st Century what do we point to to as the next pivotal time, it seems by consensus to be 2020.

Lots of inventors and forecasters are stating that by 2020 we will have or do this or that.

For instance Sony have recently predicted they will have their wrist computer, the Nextep (is that Japanese for Next Step?), will be the sort of personal device we will have in 2020 - with a pull out keyboard and a OLED screen plus projecting holographs.

Here at Enigin, as we scour the internet for energy efficiency news we find that many targets are set for 2020 or 2030. The same thought process I guess - the future which seems so far away will bring untold possibilities and solutions.

In reality of course not much will change - yes technology will be better but will it make life better? We will have to wait and see.

At Enigin we are pleased to be on the edge of much of the energy saving technology around today and at the same time through our Eniscope real-time energy management solution ahead of the present with our emerging software.

Yes in 2020 the Eniscope Hub system will no doubt project energy usage and efficiency readings to individual wrist worn computers, while displaying a huge public holograph - oh of course all in 3D with a live video feed of the last wild Polar Bear struggling to survive!

When I was a kid I was constantly told by my parents that I would get square eyes from watching too much television.

As a small child I took this warning seriously - realising that this warning from my caring parents was very serious as I tried to imagine what life would be like with cubes eyes instead of eyeballs. I would be painful if not impossible to turn you eyes, you would look very strange and if you ever needed glasses you would never be able to obtain square ones!

All these worries over what would have been at most a few hours of telly watching a week.

Of course that was many years ago and as I realised as grew a little older, the “square eyes” was an idle threat but with the best of intentions - my parents knew that sat in front of the telly all the time rather than getting out there and playing was not a good way to go.

Any, now as a parent, and grandparent, I realise in fact that my mum and dad were accurate in what they were saying, in every detail!

Their threat would never have been realised back in the 60s when they made it - but now it has come true, I do have square eyes.

I look at screens all day long. My computer, my iPhone, my iPad, Enigin PLC’s Eniscope read outs and to relax I watch a little bit of telly. What has happened through this over indulgence in screen watching? My eyes have turned square and cubed.

My eyes are saw, will not turn and hurt - they must have turned square!

SO BE WARNED - before it is too late, limit your screen viewing, which is very hard in the 21st century.

So here is the second of technology that didn’t change the world.

Hence this series of posts - after the picture phone, whatever next? Here is number 8:

8. Amphicar - 1962

Probably the strangest automobile ever manufactured was the Amphicar.  It was street legal as an automobile, with a top spped of 70mph, but could be driven right into the water, where it could move along at 7mph.  That’s not very fast, but it’s certainly faster than many urban highways during rush hour.

The Amphicar was built in Germany from 1961 to 1968, so a fair number of them were made, but they caught on as a major form of transportation.  Even so, they were distinctive.  I remember seeing one drive right out of the Potomac River just outside Washington D.C., and pull right onto a local road.

Imagine if the concept had really caught on, though.  Perhaps the ability to drive on water might have limited the expansion of the highway system, since travel would also take place along waterways.  Major cities would be full of canals rather than freeways, more like Venice than Los Angeles.

The Amphicar Video

At Enigin we love our gadgets, as we know many Enigin Distributors also do.

So here is the seventh of technology that didn’t change the world.

7. Picture Phone - 1963

Now that nearly every phone has a Webcam, sexting, online conferencing, and viral phone videos are all the rage.  Even so, the idea of a video phone is actually quite ancient.

Developed at Bell Labs was back in 1956, the PicturePhone was released as an actual product in the Chicago area in 1963. Unlike smartphones and webcams, the PicturePhone operated over regular telephone lines.  Unfortunately, when operating over long distances, it consumed as much bandwidth as 300 regular telephone calls, making them prohibitively expensive.  However, Bell Labs hoped to make the technology more efficient over time.

The PicturePhone never caught on, though, because people were afraid that the device would be used for spying on them.  But what if it had? The PicturePhone was expected to reach three million homes and offices by the mid-1980s, generating $5 billion a year in 1965 dollars — roughly $30 billion today, adjusted for inflation.

The AT&T monopoly, strengthened with all that extra revenue, would have won the anti-trust lawsuit that led to its breakup and ended up as the universal Internet service provider in the United States, pushing smaller companies (like IBM) into the margins.

Sorry I couldn’t find a video of an AT&T PicturePhone.