The Trunkster, a bag with built-in smart features might just challenge the standard roller bag. The main security feature: It’s zipperless (无拉链). A sliding roll top-door design allows for easy 【小题1】by the owner, but reduces the risk of theft or accidental opening during baggage

【小题2】. If airport security has to search the bag, there is a TSA-approved combination lock. Need to juice up your phone? A 【小题3】battery can charge portable devices through a USB connection. Perhaps the coolest part — especially if your holiday shopping habits put you at risk of going beyond baggage weight 【小题4】— is a built-in digital scale. Want to know how much stuff you’re pulling? Lift the bag and the display on the handle shows weight in pounds or kilograms.

Trunkster co-founder Jesse Potash said he and his co-founder, based in New York, created the luggage in 2014, after finding nothing they believed prioritized accessibility. They wanted to “completely 【小题5】” the classic case — with zippers — for “the modern’ minimal (极简的) traveler,” Polash says. He adds that they didn’t want to 【小题6】the user with “as many features as possible” because that would not be required.

One more feature you can add on? Tracking. Airlines are 【小题7】 doing a better job these days of not losing bags. But for those who want to 【小题8】 their cases there are stand-alone gadgets (精巧的装置) like the Trakdot or Pocket-Finder Luggage Tracker. For an extra $40, you can add a subscription-free, removable GPS to the Trunksler.

But smarting up a 【小题9】 object comes with a problem. “When you have this much technology in a suitcase ... there are more things to break,” says George Hobica, a world traveler. Besides, the Trunkster is all black, and we all know that finding a black-colored bag in a sea of suitcases is like searching for a blade of grass on a football field. Attention, luggage manufacturers looking to 【小题10】 the typical pattern: Go bolder with unusual colors and designs.

There are many【小题1】 about what the future will be like, but no one really knows for sure. We do know that there will be many new 【小题2】in technology, though. These new advances will make thousands of new products【小题3】 that no one has yet even thought about. With this, however, there is a 【小题4】new problem which we do not have now: the gap between the technologically rich and the technologically poor. Not everyone may have the money to【小题5】 new technology into their lives, and some people living in【小题6】 areas may not have access to 【小题7】new technology. In light of such【小题8】, many people are already working hard to make new technology cheaper and easier to buy so that everyone might benefit from it.

Why This Could Be Critical Year For Electric Cars

Booming in a depressed market, battery-powered vehicles are a plus for the climate but pose a big threat to carmakers and parts suppliers that are slow to change.

Sales of cars powered solely by batteries greatly increased in the United Sates, Europe and China last year, while 【小题1】of fossil fuel vehicles showed little growth. Demand for electric cars is so strong that manufacturers are requiring buyers to put down【小题2】months in advance. And some models are effectively sold out for the next two years.

Battery-powered cars are having a 【小题3】moment and will enter the mainstream this years as automakers begin selling electric versions of one of Americans’ favorite vehicle type: pickup trucks. Their arrival 【小题4】the biggest disruption, in the auto industry since Henry Ford introduced the Model T in 1908 and could have 【小题5】consequences for factory workers, businesses and the environment. Tailpipe (排气管) emissions are among the largest 【小题6】to climate change.

The auto industry is on 【小题7】to invest half a trillion dollars in the next five years to make the transition to electric vehicles, Wed-bush Securities, an investment firm, estimate. That money will be spent to refit and build factories, train workers, write software, upgrade dealerships and more. Companies are planning more than a dozen new electric car and battery factories just in the United Sates.

“It’s one of the biggest industrial transformations probably in the history of capitalism,” Scott Keogh, chief 【小题8】of Volkswagen Group of America, said in an interview. “The investments are massive, and the mission is massive.”

Over time, battery ingredients like lithium (哩), nickel (镍) and cobalt (钴) could become more 【小题9】after than oil. Prices for these materials are already skyrocketing, which could limit sales in the short term by driving up the cost electric cars.

The transition could also be limited by the lack of places plug in electric cars, which has made the vehicles less 【小题10】to people who drive long distances or apartment residents who can’t charge at home. There are fewer than 50,000 public charging stations in the United States. The infrastructure bill than Congress passed in November-includes $7.5 billion for 500,000 new chargers, although experts say even than number is too small.