Yearly Archives: 2012

18-To-55

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One of the most embarrassing things about getting older is that the number of your age doesn’t count anymore.

The first time I got “the sting” was 10 years ago. I was sitting in a meeting with my client, his sales force, my account executives and the company’s ad agency, when they started to talk about the target audience for the new TV set they were introducing. My client stood up and announced that the new product was aimed at the 18-to-55 age bracket.

I wanted to crawl under the table. I felt like the odd-man-out. I was just 55 at the time and within a split second, a dinosaur. My body stiffened up and there was a tingly sensation running through my skin. I felt like everyone was staring at me. I was no longer a respectable member of society. Why should my staff listen to me if I was just put out to pasture? They were still in the targeted age bracket and considered citizens of substance.

I sat there for the next hour of the meeting, but didn’t hear a thing. I thought to myself; I had more money than anyone else in the room, my credit card was always available to buy, and this was the time in my life that I had the disposable income to be selfish. Yet, I was no longer part of the club. Someone else determined that old fogies were not worth their time.

The next day I called my client and told him how I felt. He didn’t know what to say other than this is what focus groups told him and of course, the marketing plan was geared towards me because I was so young at heart. Ouch, ouch, ouch! I decided that it wasn’t worth fighting with this guy, because he was just a suit hired to fill the title on his business card.

I do, however, mention this to every entrepreneur I meet in the tech business, to make them aware that this is no longer acceptable. I warn them that if they continue to treat my age group with disrespect, I was going to put a voodoo spell on them. Whether they agree or not, most of them comply.

I forgot about this issue until I went to buy a gadget that was supposedly going to teach me to play the piano. I was so excited! I always wanted to play the piano, but never had the patience nor the time to learn. iTutor Piano was going to change all that. It touts itself as the ultimate piano teaching tool for iPad, iPod and iPhone. All I had to do was connect one of them to the gadget, download the free iTutor Piano app and start playing immediately.

Wow wee, I could pretend I was Alicia Keyes or Norah Jones. If I was Norah Jones, maybe Steve Jobs would love me. Oh yeah, he is dead. That is not going to happen. Anyway, both gals are pretty spectacular so I could have a lot of fun anyway. I can carry the 25-note keyboard with me anywhere, turn on the app and play away. There is even a Piano Guy who appears on the screen demonstrating how to play while the actual keys on iTutor Piano light up, showing me where to place my hands.

I was taking out my credit card to buy iTutor from an online shopping site that once again gave me that warning that this was not a product for me, 18-55, so I stopped. Who is this scatter-brain that came up with this nonsense?

A Facebook Experience

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Larry Hymes and Ben Stiller–Larry’s Facebook photo

I wrote a blog post months ago about a guy who I always see around New York City but never say hello to because he claims he doesn’t know me. His name is Larry Hymes and he lives in Los Angeles but travels to Manhattan frequently. He used to live near Queens College and I lived in Hilltop Village in Hollis, Queens, maybe five miles apart. I knew him for almost two years, 16 to 18 years old. He was at my Sweet 16 Party the night John F. Kennedy was killed. We were friends (no sweetheart crush) and saw each other once a week and spoke on the telephone to each other practically every night.

Larry was very good looking, the perfect example of tall, dark and handsome. He wasn’t a scholar and neither was I. We were a perfect friend match. Larry dated a few of my girlfriends, but no long term relationships. I don’t remember what happened but we lost touch.

About seven years ago, just after my mother died, I couldn’t sleep and I started searching the Internet for lost friends. This was way before Facebook and LinkedIn. Larry was one of many I was searching out. Somehow, someway, I found him on the Internet because he had a career in men’s clothing and there were a lot of pictures of him.

I researched his email and sent him a message. “Larry, surprise. This is Lois. Wow, I can’t believe I found you. Long time. How are you?” That was all I said. A few days later, I get an email back. “You sound familiar. Tell me something about you.”

I was shocked. “Tell you something about me? Are you crazy?” are the words I told myself. I know a lot of years have passed but how can you be friendly with someone for two years, go to the gal’s Sweet 16, and not remember her? He spent more time talking to me than most other people in his life.

Since we reconnected, every once in a while we send Facebook messages to each other but nothing serious. A” Happy Birthday” and a “Like” for a comment. Larry is a Facebook friend now but he still doesn’t remember me from way back when. The really weird thing is how I keep seeing him all over the city. The first time I spotted him was on 58th and Sixth. He was walking west. I was in a taxi and I was flabbergasted. I passed him right by. This happens two or three times a year for the last seven years. One time Eliot was driving our car right near our office and he quickly turned the corner (something Eliot is infamous for) and almost knocked a guy over. When I looked out the passenger window to see if the guy was all right, it was Larry. I just slid down in the seat.

About three years ago, Larry started showing up in the same restaurants I frequented. At first I would duck and then I realized he said he didn’t know me so I stopped doing that. A few months ago, I had his name on Four Square, a location-based app that tells you where people are located at a particular time. When I “checked in” with Four Square I saw he was at the same restaurant as me. I looked around the room and spotted Larry. I went over to the table on purpose to ask him and his friend if they knew the time. They answered politely. I stood there long enough to see if Larry recognized me. Nothing.

When I told Eliot and my girlfriend Ruth about the encounter, I got accused of exaggerating. I am not stalking Larry, but it’s very funny that I bump in to him more than most people I know.

Last night, Eliot and I went to a Broadway Show, Chaplin. We were waiting for the show to start and I once again saw Larry. I said to Eliot, “There’s Larry.” Eliot said that was not him. Eliot said it didn’t look at all like the pictures I showed him. “Eliot, that is him,” I insisted. Eliot quipped, “Sorry, different nose.” I kept insisting that it was him but then the show started.

At intermission, Eliot and I stayed in our seats but Larry walked by. I didn’t yell out his name but after the show Eliot and I looked for him. He must have rushed out. Once again, Eliot said it wasn’t him. So late last night I sent Larry a Facebook message:

Lois: Are you in NY right now ? Thought I saw you
Like • • 15 hours ago •

Larry Hymes: Yes, where did you see me? Why didn’t you say hello? I am going back to L.A. Today.
8 hours ago via mobile • Like
o
Lois: At Chaplin, the broadway show. Were you there?
7 hours ago via mobile • Like
o
Larry Hymes Yes I was.
3 hours ago via mobile • Like

The saga continues.

Presidential Debate Generated 10 Million Tweets

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The difference between the senior generation and those in their 20s, 30s and even 40s, is that by the time the Presidential debate was over, the under 50-crowd knew exactly how well each candidate did. I didn’t, because I wasn’t on Twitter. I had to wait for the analysts and news reporters to tell me how the entire debate played out. I had my own ideas but i was clueless what others thought.

Not the Twitter crowd. They were tweeting away within their own Twitter circles making remarks about everything from the color of the candidate’s ties, to their haircuts, body posture, eyeball action, and of course, remarks. President Barack Obama and former Governor Mitt Romney generated 10 million tweets, which made it the most tweeted political event ever.  CNET, a tech blog, reported that the issues and the fact-checking as each candidate made his statement, got the most tweets.  The two biggies were Obamacare and Medicare. Many gave their disapproval of Jim Lehrer. Some tweets where cheering Jim on to close down the debates until the candidates stuck to the rules.

The wonderful thing about Twitter is that it got the younger crowd very involved in the Presidential race, something that was never a draw before. Twitter allowed them to micro blog, so they could actually report the news. They also gave their opinions as the comments were being made. A lot of educators believe that interaction on Twitter  engages and teaches more than sitting idly by in a classroom.

It comes as no surprise that the biggest Twitter star was Big Bird from “Sesame Street.” CNET reports that  there were more than a quarter of a million Tweets calling out the Bird after Governor Romney said that he would cut Federal Funding for PBS.

Mashable, another major online tech newsletter, reported that even teens got in on the act through their mobile devices. Some tweeted, but a lot were texting. Yesteryear, most young folks didn’t even know who was running for office. Now half of young adults, 18 to 24, said they have been involved in Presidential discussions. That is good news considering 16.8 million teens become eligible to vote in this election.

Senior Adopters

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I am happy to report that recent surveys indicate that folks 50-plus are really starting to use digital products. That is great news for people like me who use technology all the time and want the company of my contemporaries. There is probably much more to learn from you than the 20-year-olds who stare at me in horror when I ask questions. As more and more of my friends start using smartphones and tablets, I hope we will have much more to talk about other than new restaurant openings, the sales at Bloomingdale’s, and the last time they took a poop.

I am not kidding! There is a whole world out there that I want to share with others my age. It is now easily accessible through this new thing called apps (applications). Yes, we can get a lot of information over the Internet from our home computers, but the world is once again changing. Seniors have to be a part of it. Most of the information we are going to want to quickly access in the future will be through apps on your mobile devices. That means you will be using your smartphones and tablets much more. You may not understand this now but wait and see. A year from now you will be making doctor appointments, reading a novel, ordering food, and buying products through dedicated apps.

Be ready, be prepared. Learn how to use and navigate apps. Call me or email me if you are having technical difficulties. I can help you and if I don’t know how, I can get others. Don’t be left behind.

According to Pew Research Center, seniors are on their way. Pew Research just revealed that half of all adult Americans now own either a tablet computer or a smartphone, and one-third use their mobile devices to view news stories and video clips at least once a week. Pew polled more than 9,500 adults from late June to early August to get this information.

About 20 percent of the mobile news users surveyed said they paid for an online subscription in the last year. That doesn’t mean they are cutting back on viewing news on PCs or in newspapers. About half of the tablet news users say their tablets spur them to spend more time consuming news, and about one-third say they get news from new sources they didn’t use before. Nearly one-third of the mobile users also have print-only subscriptions, and most have no plans to give them up.

Another interesting fact is that devices based on Google Inc.’s Android platform are gaining momentum. Over half of tablet owners reported owning Apple’s iPad, compared with 81 percent a year ago. Forty-eight percent now own an Android-based device, including Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle Fire.

To be honest, I thought it was going to take a lot longer for seniors to adopt to all of the available technology. I was starting to lose faith until I read the Pew report. I look forward to the day when I get a call from one of my friends who tells me about a new app that I knew nothing about, but could use. That is the type of bonding I want.
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Looking For The Next Steve Jobs

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Will.i.am

Simon Cowell

Steve Jobs

It was only a matter of time. I am surprised it took this long. I even thought of it myself, but I don’t have millions of dollars to make it happen. It takes the likes of Simon Cowell and Will.i.am to back this sort of a thing. Looking for The Next Steve Jobs is like Looking for Mr. Goodbar. Does he really exist?

The duo of Simon and Will.i.am are working on a project called the ”X Factor for Tech.” The details are very sketchy at this point but basically it will be the same kind of format that has proven to be successful for singers and dancers: teams of producers screen the entries, the on-screen TV judges select the ones they want to present on stage, the audience then decides on the finalists and then the grand prize winner.

The big question for ”X Factor for Tech” is their particular format. Will there be a final winner for each show that gets a sum of money for a startup, or will it take a year to get to the grand finale? How serious are they in finding the next Steve Jobs? Personally, I think that is just a euphemism for finding inventors who are game changers like Jack Dorsey of Twitter and Four Square, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Steve Case of AOL, and Jeff Bezos of Amazon.

Unlike the entertainment business, there is just a limited number of geniuses. Most of the time when you hear a new and interesting concept, it first sounds like a winner. Then as time goes by, the concept starts developing warts that the money people don’t want to address and the inventor doesn’t know how to cure on his or her own.

If you ever watch Shark Tank, a TV show format with a similar objective as what I think “X Factor for Tech” will be about, you start to understand why the Sharks only give money to those who can stand on their own. They can’t be nursemaids to the idea people. Too many inventors/creators need money but they also need guidance. They know nothing about marketing, accounting, legal requirements, hiring, firing, meeting deadlines, or even sales. The minute the Sharks find out that the person standing before them is an empty suit, he or she gets turned down.

The same thing will happen on “X Factor for Tech.” Simon and Will.i.am are not about to give money for an idea that will go no place fast, so it is going to be interesting to see how they cultivate the inventor. The same thing holds true with American Idol, The X Factor and all of the other entertainment shows. Half of the grand winners cut a record or two but you never hear from them again.

That is show business. This is the tech business. The ultimate Steve Jobs didn’t just appear one day. He was created after decades of trying to make things happen and then deciding that he had enough substance to lead. Very few on earth ever feel like that other than the impostors. There are tons of them. It is going to be interesting to see if these two music moguls will be able to spot that.

Taking Advantage Of Photo Opps When You Are Not Behind The Lens

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If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Experts say, “If no one is around to hear the tree fall, then it didn’t make a sound. The definition of sound is “something that you hear.”

You can ask the same thing about photography. If a photo opp presents itself, and a photographer is not around to shoot it, does that mean it never happened?

OMG Life, a British tech firm, is addressing that question with a new groundbreaking camera that will never allow the perfect picture to be missed again. The new automatic camera, called the Autographer, is going to “change the way we think about photography.” It takes the photographer out of the process.

I first heard about this game changer a few months ago when an English friend of mine showed me pictures he took at a party he attended. I asked him who took the pictures because there was something special about what was captured. I was looking at free-spirited, candid shots that I just felt my friend had no ability to take. I didn’t tell him that but he could sense it from me. I am not saying that my friend is not a good photographer, but his photos are always very staged. The photos before me were a slice of life that only a voyeur or a risk-taker would snap. They were very interesting and made me feel that these kind of candids were a new twist to his usual photo stories.

He then told me about the Autographer and I just had to share it with you. The camera is a hands-free, digital unit that automatically takes thousands of photographs a day and stores them for review on a smartphone app. The software was developed by Microsoft. You can hang the camera on a wall but it was really designed to be worn constantly. The camera repeatedly takes pictures as the owner/user goes through his or her daily life.

Here is what the company says about Autographer.

“Housed in a relatively small, discreet black case, the camera is designed to be worn on a necklace lanyard, or on the strap of a bag. It has five on-board sensors to detect changes in temperature, light, motion, direction and color, and uses those cues to take shots with its wide-angle lens. The camera has a 136-degree field of view, meaning it can capture more of a scene than a typical camera phone. It also features 8GB of memory and takes 5-megapixel images, allowing it to store many days’ worth of pictures. Thanks to a Bluetooth chip on board the device can interact with your smartphone via a bespoke app, letting users manage their photos, export video files and GIFs and delete specific images if an unwitting subject objects.”

The Autographer is being formally debuted in the UK next month. It will cost around $300. It should arrive in the United States a few weeks or months later depending on OMG distribution deals.

The big question for Americans will be if they want to be in the company of someone wearing the Autographer camera that is forever shooting? It could present a new “take” on the world.

(Eliot just previewed my blog post. He said “no one will buy this camera. No one wants to go through thousands of photographs.” I couldn’t disagree with him more. He is a photographer that likes to carefully examine each photo. Not me. I can flip through hundreds, thousands of photos and pick something that appeals to me pretty quickly. I am looking for something different. He is looking for something perfect).

Your Smart TV Is Only Smart For A Short Period Of Time

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Years ago, I used to get questions about which TV brand to buy. Today, I get questions about the capabilities of the TV, Smart Vs. Not So Smart. There is a big debate going on in the hardware TV business. There are manufacturers who want to sell you $6,000 TV sets with all of the bells and whistles built-in and then there are others who just want to offer affordable priced flat panels that accept software attachments.

The one thing I know for sure, is that most of the expensive Smart TV’s that have been built so far are only good for a few years, in some cases only two. Software developments are accelerating so fast that the hardware manufacturers can’t possibly keep up. I have friends who claim that the pricey TV sets that they bought two or three years ago are not up-to-date with Netflix. Hulu Plus, or Vudu. It is driving them crazy!

To complicate matters, many more seniors want to watch content from the web. All they really need is a simple flat TV panel that accepts an Internet connection. Even more exciting, are the new gizmos called streaming sticks. They look like cigarette lighters or jump drives if you know what that means. All of your programming will be built-into these sticks so you don’t need the intelligence to be built into the TV. The streaming sticks will easily plug in to your flat panel TV’s. Not more complicated than plugging a USB thumb drive in to your computer.

Now when you have to upgrade, it will only cost you a $100 for a new stick as opposed to thousands of dollars for a so called Smart TV.

I suggest you read the following two stories to get an idea of your future choices.

This is what a streaming stick looks like. Click here.

More Are Watching Internet Video on Actual TVs, Research Shows. Click here to read more on this.

The Other Side Of Twitter

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Most older folks often question the validity of Twitter. Many of my friends think it is a place where everyone goes to post what they ate for dinner, what movie they saw, and who their favorite rock star is. Au contraire! Twitter continues to be a social media platform where users report information as it develops and voice their opinions on current events

I want to show you what I mean. Crimson Hexagon, a social media research company, recently surveyed Twitter to see what Americans thought of Apple Maps Vs Google. Their results really give you the nitty gritty. Crimson Hexagon grabbed more than 50,000 tweets that mentioned the Maps app, which comes standard on the iPhone 5, over the last six days. Just 10% of those expressed interest, approval or excitement, such as this review from pastor Charlie Campbell: “I was a little nervous about losing Google maps but I must say I like Apple’s maps even better.”

Then Crimson Hexagon dug up 22% of the tweets expressing an outright hatred of the Apple app. But another 30% cracked jokes at the expense of Maps, such as this from entrepreneur Chris Eh Young: “If you ordered an iPhone 5, shipments are being delayed. Apple is forcing the delivery guys to use Apple Maps.”

Click on the Mashable story here written by Chris Taylor to learn more. It is quite fascinating.

Saving Private Brian, Part Two

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Mother Lois to the rescue. No time for caressing and soft-peddling. My friend Brian needs to grow some “Brass” as Bill Clinton coined it in his recent speech at the Democratic National Convention. He needs to grow them fast, before he sinks into that self-pity hole that could beome his comfort zone.

I quickly reversed his thinking, because I have been down this road before with many clients over the years. Brian was not capable of seeing his great achievement. This lawsuit was filed a while ago, but the agency he worked for didn’t acknowledge it. His lawyer, who he has great faith in, couldn’t get the opposing lawyer to respond.

Within an hour of the story appearing, the ad agency’s counsel called Brian’s lawyer to apologize for the delay. They claim they had a hectic workload. They set up a meeting to discuss the suit. No one knows for sure, but there is a good possibility that the suit will be settled for a big chunk of change.

Brian was ignoring all of that in our midnight conversation. The article humiliated him and he was embarrassed to go to work. Everyone now knows he was dismissed. People will now look at him as a loser.

“No Brian,” I answered. “Just the opposite. Smart and accomplished people will understand that you had the constitution to stand up for what is right. The story just stated the facts. You couldn’t have asked for a better outcome. The agency didn’t offer any quotes that were disparaging to you. They are not going to play a legal matter out in the press. This article brought them to the table. They are probably going to offer you a settlement that is going to make this problem go away for them. They deal with matters like this all the time.”

The truth is that high profile personalities pay people like me, to get stories like this, in the press so their opponents fold quickly. I have done this kind of work for big Hollywood names. My friend Brian was clueless about his big score.

All he was concerned about was his privacy and what others would think. In the age of the Internet (and even before which is another discussion) nothing is private. If you are going to play in the big league, you have to be prepared to be thick-skinned.

Do you think that Mark Zuckerberg or Tim Cook, Google their names several times a day to see what people are saying about them? They both are confident about their work and rest their reputations on that.

Which is exactly what I told my pal Brian to do. “Hold your head high and continue to focus on your work. If anyone says anything negative to you, just say you are not allowed to comment on legal matters. That speaks volumes to the dummies who will start to understand that you are a strong, self-confidant business person, smart enough to make all the right moves.”

Brian was amazed. He never looked at his situation that way. He was influenced earlier by others who probably wanted him to suffer. I made him promise that he would not talk to the press or even to his friends, because one wrong word could hurt his case.

I heard from Brian the next morning. He sounded like a new man. It takes a while to understand the ruboff that you get from Internet.