Keeping up with technology is a lot of work. Luckily, we enjoy wading through the noise just to find the gems of awesomeness sprinkled throughout. Fusion Radar is our gift to you, Current or Potential Client, so that you can enjoy all of the awesome without any of the drudgery. Unwrap it each week, and know that you're loved by the geeks and pixel-pushers at Agency Fusion.
Prior Knowledge
Prior Knowledge's Veritable API is a useful new tool that identifies causal relationships in data and can predict consumer behavior based on previous data developers have collected. Their API “fills in values” that may be missing. The end result is a service that helps people see information that is associated with the data they already have. It’s that information that people may not know. Prior Knowledge is banking that information will be valuable to developers.
https://www.priorknowledge.com/developers
Update: Prior Knowledge has been shutdown due to an acquisition by Salesforce
Teenage Engineering
As 3D printers become more sophisticated and increasingly accurate, the company Teenage Engineering has found a way to utilize this developing technology. Instead of forcing consumers to pay high shipping costs on delicate replacement parts to their products, they have instead made the 3D CAD files available online, so customers can simply download and “print” the damaged piece.
http://now.teenageengineering.com/op-1-accessories-cad-files
Formlabs 3D Printer
And speaking of evolving 3-dimensional printing technology, Formlabs has come out with their new printer, the Form 1, which they say can help usher in a new era of 3D printing – one marked by clarity, high resolution parts, and simplicity. We have to admit, their compare-and-contrast images are impressive:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/formlabs/form-1-an-affordable-professional-3d-printer
Quirky.com
We'll continue our technology motif as we move along to quirky.com, “the easiest way to bring your ideas to life.” Their website is dedicated to facilitating the meeting of brilliant ideas with brilliant engineers who can bring them to life.
Vimeo Creator Services
Ever watched a well-edited or brilliantly-performed video and thought, “That was awesome! I could actually see myself paying to watch a video that good.”? If not, you should probably reevaluate your online video-watching habits. If so, then you're in luck: Vimeo's new Tip Jar allows you to show your appreciation to exceptional videographers through small cash payments on your credit card or PayPal account.
http://vimeo.com/creatorservices
If Hemingway Wrote JavaScript
What if famous authors wrote a function in JavaScript that returned a fibonacci series of a given length? You're about to find out.
http://byfat.xxx/if-hemingway-wrote-javascript
TypeScript
TypeScript starts with the syntax and semantics that JavaScript developers are already familiar with and then allows developers to incorporate popular JavaScript libraries or use existing JavaScript code. It then compiles to clean, simple JavaScript code which runs on any browser, in Node.js, or in any other ES3-compatible environment.
bananatag
bananatag's concept is as simple as it is useful: using their (free) technology, you can track your emails so you know when and where they're opened, as well as which of your included links were clicked on, and more.
Songle
Here's another fun one. Songle is sort of like if you combined Pandora with Google Analytics. It's a web service that utilizes music-understanding technologies that automatically estimate music scene descriptions and enable visualizations such as structural segments, hierarchical beat structure, melody line, and chords.
typecast
typecast is another web service designed to save you time and energy. It brings the design canvas, web fonts and browser together in one convenient tool, so that differences between comps and the live site are eliminated.
cssUpdater
If you're a FireBug user, you've undoubtedly wished you could save the changes you prototyped, rather than having to recreate all of the changes in your source files. cssUpdater lets you do just that. Sync the changes you made in FireBug with your actual source files.
HTML5 Please
With this online tool, you can look up HTML5 or CSS3 features and find out the level of browser support the features currently enjoy.
Trends Spotting Blog
Lastly, here's a good resource for current online trends, market research, news, and predictions.