Many teenage boys are hot on what's coming up with new technology. Well, this year keep one step ahead of them and read the lowdown of what is coming up in the category of tech toys and gadgets. All will make perfect gifts for birthdays and of course Christmas 2016 if you can get your hands on them when they are released. Occulus riftThe occulus rift is the next step in virtual reality technology. According to Wikiepedia Oculus has described it as "the first really professional PC-based VR headset". It is a virtual reality headset which will allow you to be transported to a different world. When wearing them the headphones will allow you hear 360 sound. You virtual self will be able to pick up virtual objects and move them around. You will be able to use it to attend events like concerts and movies. It will be great to use for gaming technology. There is the free app Oculus cinema which will allow you to watch movies inside a virtual cinema environment giving the user the perception of watching the film on a cinema sized screen. It will be an amazint tech gadget for teenagers to use and experiment with but it's also interesting to know that the rift has lots of potential practical uses as well. For example, architecture firms have expressed interest of how it could be used to get experience buildings that haven't been built yet and are still being designed. It's due to be released in March 2016 for consumers. Pepper the RobotThe Japanese humanoid robot is designed to live with humans. It is a social robot who can talk to you and recognise and react to your emotions. It reads emotions such as joy, surprise, anger and sadness by Pepper is currently on sale to customers in Japan. Pepper should be available to buy in the rest of the world sometime this year. Parrot DiscoDrones, especially those with cameras have been popular in 2015 and have been featured on our toys for teen boys page. However, the Parrot disco drone is something else. It's a lightweight fixed wing drone with a 45 minute flight time . it features automatic take off and landing and can automatically return home. It has an 8 inch propellor with a high speed engine. The wings are removable and it's easy to pilot. It has a 14 megapixel front end camera. It's compatible with r/c controller or the flight plan app. There are some very cool ways you can play with it including programming a flight plan. It's also compatible with immersive glasses. iPhone 7The new iphone 7 is likely to be released in September 2016 and it will make a fantastic gift for any teenager looking to upgrade their smartphone. At the moment, there are just rumours as to what the iphone 7 will feature but it looks like it could be a very important step in smart phone development. Apple tend to really revamp their phones every 2 years, and the release of the iphone 7 is one of those years, so expect to see some drastic changes. It's likely to be the thinnest iphone yet but this may come with the removal of the headphone jack. If this is the case, you would need some bluetooth headphones to listen to your music or sound. It could also feature Touch ID, a bezeless screen, wireless charging and lots more. Ziro Hand Gestured Controlled RobotHand gesture control is the future and Ziro the hand gestured controlled robot is one of the first robotics kit to make use of that. It's a robotics kit which is educational as well as fun. Out of the box it can be configured in 3 different ways but you can also use household objects to construct the robot the way you want to be. It's simple there are 4 modules out of the box that are controlled by a smart glove which is configured by a mobile app. Then use the smart glove to control it. Force Band - to Work With Sphero's BB8 RobotSo robots have been popular in 2015, but in 2016 it's all about how you control the robots. Above we've seen how hand controlled gestures work with a smart glove and robot. Not to be outdone, Sphero have designed the Force Band which will enable you to control their BB-8 robot (from Star Wars - the Force Awakens). To control the BB-8 robot, you move your hand. So pointing your palm out will move BB-8 forward, flipping your palm to face you will make BB-8 drive in the opposite direction and waving your hand left or right will make the droid turn. The band will be released in Fall, 2016 and will be available to purchase separately from the robot. The band will also work with a battle worn version of BB-8 which Sphero also plans on releasing later this year too. Fitness BlazeIf you're looking for the lastest fitness watch for the fitness fanatic this year, then the fitness blaze has just been released.
Although it has fitness as it's main focus, it's been dubbed a smart fitness watch as it has other features as well. The face can click in and out of different watch bands, so you can wear one band for fitness and more stylish bands for occasions and everyday wear.. It has features include a silent alarm and sleep tracking, It tracks a wide variety of workouts including running, cycling and sports. It has multi sport modes and will connect to GPS so you can see the route you took and get real time stats. There are on screen workouts, a heart rate monitor and it can control your music. There are activity stats at a glance and notifications from your smart phone such as notification of text message, call and calandar alerts. Track your activity throughout the day, during workouts and when you sleep.
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