Fingerprint and Eye-Scanning Drones to Make Deliveries in UAE

Amazon drones may make quick deliveries to your house in the future, but the United Arab Emirates government is looking to add similar technology to its skies much sooner — within a year.

The UAE government detailed a prototype of a drone that would deliver official packages and personal documents such as driver's licenses and ID cards right to citizen doorsteps, per a Reuters report on Monday. To keep the cargo secure, the drones would be equipped with fingerprint and retina scanners to make sure they are delivering to the correct recipients.

“The UAE will try to deliver its government services through drones. This is the first project of its kind in the world,” said Mohammed Abdullah Al Gergawi, the Minister of Cabinet Affairs in the UAE government, according to Reuters.

Gergawi said the drones are battery-operated and measure about 1.5 feet. The casing is white and features a UAE emblem.

Drones have been tested in Dubai for the past six months and will likely roll out in the next year, the report said. Eventually, the government plans to make the service available across the country.

But the initiative faces a few challenges. In addition to safety and tech issues, it also must withstand the dessert's summer hear and dust storms.

In December, Amazon announced that it would send a million flying drones into the air to deliver purchases through an initiative called Amazon Prime Air. Although the company said it is anticipating a 2015 rollout, it is still awaiting FAA approval, which could take years.

IMAGE: WOLFGANG VON BRAUCHITSCH/BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES

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7 Tools for Creating an Optimized Mobile Website

Come on, be honest with yourself. Is your website really giving your visitors an optimized, intuitive experience? Or are you still serving mobile visitors a site that was designed for desktop?

If you feel like you're behind the eight ball, there's hope. Here are seven great solutions to help you quickly and cost-effectively develop a mobile version of your site.

MobDis

MobDis is a service that lets you build websites with a mobile-first approach. Rather than starting from a template or from an experience that originated from your desktop website, the application makes creating a mobile site feel like you are editing a Word or Illustrator document, starting from a plain white page. It literally breaks the constraints that many people feel when they look at their full site and wonder "how will we ever shrink this down to mobile size?" It encourages you to build from the ground up, thinking about the optimal content, functionality, and conversion actions for a mobile audience.

Once you've created your mobile site, MobDis gives you every possible option on how to display it. You can host it with MobDis on your own domain or on a subdomain on their website. You can also export your mobile site and move it to your own hosting environment. You can even publish it as an app and submit it to the Apple or Android app stores. Cost is $28 per month.

DudaMobile

DudaMobile gives you two options for creating your mobile site, both of which are super simple. If you're looking for a jump-start on your mobile design, DudaMobile can scan your site and pull content, images, and other information into a template that you can then customize or edit to best fit your goals. Once the content has been converted you can use their drag-and-drop editor to remove site elements that might not be necessary and move around page elements to make an optimal experience for mobile visitors.

On the other hand, if you want to take a more thoughtful, ground-up approach, choose one of DudaMobile's templates and build your mobile site from there. Their advanced site editor allows you to configure template settings, navigation, HTML, CSS, and more. But even users without tech skills can easily make edits with their simple drag-and-drop tool. Cost is just $9 per month.

goMobi

Like variety? GoMobi gives you a selection of 40 site templates to get you started — each of them totally customizable. Create your own menu, build forms, add and optimize video, and display reviews, all with simple click and go integration. And unlike many of its competitors, goMobi also supports e-commerce sites, allowing visitors to purchase directly from your mobile site.

The team at goMobi really seems to understand mobile interactions, and have integrated a ton of features that go way beyond click-to-call and basic mapping functions. You can create special offers, let people leave you a message or request a call back, and translate your site into their language with a single click. GoMobi is available through hosting partners and other Internet service providers.

Landr

Landr is specifically designed to help marketers capture more leads from mobile devices by creating mobile landing pages. That's right: landing pages. It seems to be the only tool available that allows you to build single pages that are focused on getting the conversion. It's built to simplify the mobile experience out of the box so visitors see exactly what they are looking for and nothing more. Landr's "less is more" strategy is a particularly good option for marketers who need the flexibility of creating campaign landing pages without the involvement of IT. You can even run A/B tests with multiple Landr pages. Cost is $12 per month.

MoFuse

MoFuse is another monthly subscription tool that allows you to easily build and host your mobile site. But one option that distinguishes it from the others is that you can hire their team to completely build your mobile site for you. Custom features include a range of design tools, m-commerce functionality, mobile analytics, mobile advertising, GPS-guided store locator, and more. If you are looking for mobile marketing services in addition to a site build, you'll like MoFuse's SMS text marketing package and its search and SEO support.

SproutMobi

Few people would dispute the fact that building a successful mobile site is not just about the tools. You have to have the right strategy, and that's where SproutMobi really shines. For $99 you'll get a dedicated developer/consultant who will help you develop your strategy, identify the right features and functionality for your audience, and build up to 10 customized pages for you. They'll even set up the code to reroute mobile traffic to your mobile-friendly site. Once they build your site, you'll be charged $10 per month for unlimited hosting, support, and access to make your own edits via their content management system.

YoMobi

While many of the tools and services listed here offer free trials, YoMobi takes that a step further with a free standard plan that includes hosting, unlimited pages, and all the bells and whistles. The only catch: your site will display a discrete mobile ad. But for those on a really tight (as in nonexistent) budget, this just might be the best way to get your dedicated mobile site up and running. Have a little money? Spend $6 per month on a custom plan and you get all the YoMobi features without the pesky ads. This plan also allows you more customization options as well as a custom m.domain name. Both plans come with free SMS and email blast capability, click-to-call, and GPS-guided location finder.

Bonus Tool: Conversion Ninja Toolbox

All the tools above can help you quickly build a mobile version of your website. But if you're the kind of person who always wants more, check out Conversion Ninja Toolbox, a free online directory of conversion rate optimization resources for every step of the conversion optimization process, from wireframing to testing, and everything in between. Some of the tools are free and all listings are unpaid and include user ratings and comments.

This article originally published at ClickZ.

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Flying Beer Drone Is Intoxicating, FAA Delivers Immediate Hangover

Although Amazon's drone delivery system isn't expected to launch until 2015, one enterprising businessman is trying to speed up the program's debut by offering something that might inspire a bit more urgency: beer.

Jack Supple, president of Lakemaid Beer, unveiled the idea last week on YouTube, showing off exactly how easy it could be for fishermen on Minnesota’s Mille Lacs Lake to get a frosty brew via flying robot.

Set to dreamy music, the video spot begins with a store clerk receiving a delivery order and writing down coordinates. Soon after, the clerk attaches a 12-pack of beer to a drone, which then flies off and successfully delivers the goods to a snow-covered fishing shack.

During initial testing of Lakemaid’s drone-delivery system, its robot failed to pick up a fully stocked 12-pack of beer. But after removing two bottles, bringing the overall weight down to 15 pounds and nine ounces, the drone was able to successfully take off, and land with its alcoholic cargo intact.

"We figured that we were smarter [delivering] on frozen lakes rather than in big cities like Amazon," Supple said in a recent television interview.

But don’t get too excited. It turns out that the Federal Aviation Administration has already grounded Lakemaid’s ambitious plans. The FAA contacted the company, and instructed it to stop the flights because they were deemed a commercial enterprise, according to Supple.

Supple added that the FAA also referenced a comprehensive document entitled "Integration of Civil Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) in the National Airspace System (NAS) Roadmap," which outlines the current restrictions on commercial drones.

In the document, the FAA says:

"For a person wishing to design, manufacture, market, or operate a UAS for a commercial mission and seeking FAA approval for that aircraft, its pilot and the operations, existing rules have not been fully tailored to the unique features of UAS."

New rules that will be in place by 2015 could allow for some commercial uses of drones in the U.S., according to document. But until the law catches up with current technology, you’ll still have to hop in a car or walk yourself over to the nearest beer store to get your fix.

VIDEO: YOUTUBE, LAKEMAID BEER

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For First Time Ever, 1 Billion Smartphones Shipped in One Year

For the first time ever, one billion smartphones have been shipped in one year, marking a huge milestone for mobile.

According to data from the International Data Corporation (IDC), vendors shipped more than a billion smartphones in 2013, up 38.4% from the 725.3 million devices shipped in 2012.

"It's hard to find any other industry growing at such dramatic increases — the fact that we are seeing this heavy growth shows there is still a huge demand for smartphones," Ramon T. Llamas, research manager of mobile phones at IDC, told Mashable. "Only two years ago, we had half a billion units, so it's a testament to how popular smartphones are and how competitive the market is right now."

The top driving trends in smartphones are the growth of large screen size and cost.

"The phablet market — smartphones with screens that are five inches in size of greater — is only going to get bigger," Llamas said. "At the end of the last year, about 18% of smartphones were phablets, up from 7% from the year before, and this year it could hit 25%. That reveals it's still a niche market — large screens are not for everyone — but there is clearly a market for these things."

Llamas said the smartphone industry will likely continue to grow in the next year, but will slow down in the years to follow.

"Growth will plateau at some point. Probably not this year, but in the next five or six years," he said. "We've already reached saturation in the U.S., so there will be slower growth in the future."

Samsung was the clear leader in global smartphone shipments in 2013, thanks to demand related to the Galaxy S III, S4 and Note. Although Apple experienced record shipment volume in the fourth quarter, due largely to bringing its iPhone 5S and 5C devices to new international markets, the company had the lowest year-over-year increase of all leading vendors. Huawei ranked third for the year, followed by LG and Lenovo, despite not having a presence in North America or Western Europe.

Image: PHILIPPE HUGUEN/GETTY IMAGES

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