Monthly Archives: August 2013

Making a Difference

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Pictured above; Max Chafkin, The Author; Matt Mullenweg, Founder, Automattic; and Co-Founder, WordPress; Gebreselassie Berhe, REST Employee; Gebrehiwot, REST Employee; Nathan Hubbard, C.E.O, Ticketmaster; Tom Conrad, Executive Vice President, Pandora; Neil Hutchinson, Founder, Forward Internet Group; Errol Damelin, Founder and C.E.O, Wonga; Oliver Ripley, Founder and C.E.O, Black Ocean; Chandra Jessee, Activist, The InMaat Foundation; Chris Sacca, Founder, Lowercase Capital; Tony Hawk, Skateboarder, Tony Hawk Foundation; Divyank Turakhia, Founder, Media.net; Marissa Sackler, Founder, Beespace; Andy McLoughlin, Co-Founder, Huddle; Gelila Bekele, Model, Activist, and Filmmaker; Maggie Grace, Actor; Abdur Chowdhury, Co-Founder and C.E.O, Pushd; Melody McCloske, C.E.O, StyleSeat; Zaryn Dentzel, Founder, Tuenti; Jared Morgenstern, Entrepreneur and Designer; Damian Kümmelman, Founder and C.E.O, DueDil; David Ulevitch, Founder and C.E.O, OpenDNS; Shaan Puri, C.E.O, The Monkey Inferno; Lauren Miller, Executive Producer; charity: water; Michael Acton Smith, Founder, Mind Candy; Ed Baker, Facebook Executive; Tim Ferriss, Author, “The 4-Hour Workweek”; Paddy Cosgrave, Founder, F.ounders; Dario Muriel, Investor; Jessica Stroup, Actor; Ethan Beard, Entrepreneur; Jimmy Furland, Investor; Court Coursey, Managing Partner, TomorrowVentures; Shakil Khan, Head of Special Projects, Spotify; Troy Carter, Founder, Atom Factory; Sophia Bush, Actor and Activist; Scott Harrison, Founder and C.E.O, charity: water; Erik Lammerding, Co-Founder, N3TWORK; Getachew Kalayu, REST Employee; Brooke Hammerling, Founder, Brew Media Relations; Michael Birch, Founder, The Monkey Inferno and The Battery; and Adam Jackson, Co-Founder and C.E.O, Doctor on Demand.

Since the beginning of my career, I have been involved in charity work: United Jewish Appeal, The Anti-Defamation League, Cabrini Catholic Charities, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, The Temple of Understanding, Cooley’s Anemia, Juvenile Diabetes, The Rett Syndrome Foundation, Human Rights Watch, Samsung’s Four Seasons of Hope and FAITH: The Fashion Accessories Industry Together for Health, of which we were a founding member.

In the last few years, our so called “good work” has tapered off a bit for no particular reason. There is really no excuse for any privileged American not to be involved in some worthwhile cause. Eliot and I have experienced many rewarding moments just from the number of things we have done. Not only did we contribute to the needs of others, but we made great friends and experienced some of the best times along the way.

Strange that we haven’t been involved in many tech charities. I made myself a promise earlier this year that we would.

Coincidentally, the other day, I read a New York Times article about how some of the most successful entrepreneurs from the Internet donate their money as well as their time. The story was quite fascinating because it showed how people who took business risks, are some of the first to step up for good causes.

I don’t know too many people who are willing to travel to Third World countries for the betterment of mankind. Charity: water is one of those tech charities I want to join. Ex-New York nightclub owner, Scott Harrison, founded the organization and somehow had the talent to lure Silicon Valley influencers. That is pretty good considering actor Matt Damon and his business partner Gary White, created Water.org for the same heroic reasons, bringing safe drinking water to under-privileged nations. Harrison’s Charity: water is way in the lead. It probably has something to do with leadership and personalities.

I also plan to get involved with Mike Rowe from the TV Show “Dirty Jobs” and his foundation called Profoundly Disconnected. Mike oversees award scholarships for young men and women who have illustrated both an interest and an aptitude around mastering a specific trade. With so many youngsters out of work, this seems like a good time to help push the agenda.

If you have a favorite charity tell me about it. Good work is contagious

Peekaboo Predictive Search

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We are about to enter a new era of apps. For those of you who are spooked by Big Brother watching you, get ready for apps that will be anticipating your every need. Why should the rich have all the fun?

Behind closed doors, a growing number of startups as well as giant Google are working on the newest advancement called “predictive search.” Simply put, the new technology will be anticipating what you need before you even think of it.

Imagine that you have a dinner date with a friend who lives fifteen miles away. Unbeknownst to you, the traffic is building up on the highway you need to take to get to your destination. All of a sudden, an alert on your cell phone tells you about the traffic jam even though know one knows about the appointment, not even your personal calendar.

The alert didn’t suddenly appear because of magic. New software is being developed that tracks your every move. Okay, here is the scary part. The apps will be reading your emails, scanning your calendar, and tracking your location, all while checking traffic patterns to figure out if you need extra time to drive to your next appointment.

A lot of the predictions are determined by scouring services you already have such as previous calendar entries, emails, social network activity, purchases, and cell phone tracking.

Google Now, which is available on Android and iOS, features predictive search. Users are alerted about dinner reservations, weather, and shopping for food and clothes, all depending on your location. Google Now also offers book, movie, and music recommendations.

Within a few years, the medical and financial world will be the leaders in this area of technology. I can see it now. “Lois, you spent enough for the week” or “Lois, you ate enough today.” I wonder if I will listen. Only time will tell.

If I Had a Baby

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If I had a baby now, I would name it Google. I can’t think of a better name to exemplify “everything possible.”

That is what Google is about. This is the company that is going to take over where Steve Jobs left off. They just keep innovating all the time.

Their latest invention just got a lot of press. I am concerned that you may have missed it in the tech press, so I promised myself I would cover Chromecast in one of my posts. Walt Mossberg, the ultimate tech writer/reviewer/interviewer, played with the new device for a week and then devoted a review to the pros and cons of Chromecast.

The search giant has built a small, inexpensive device called Chromecast that wirelessly streams video and music from tablets, smartphones, and laptops to the TV screen. Chromecast is a small fob. It looks like a USB flash drive that plugs into a standard HDMI port. Every HDTV has one. I’m sure yours has one too.

Chromecast costs $35. Walt Mossberg is going to give you the final word on it. He has been testing Chromecast for more than a week. Mossberg likes it.

Here is what he says in The Wall Street Journal and AllThingsD.

“On my Android test devices, I was able to beam to the TV video from Netflix, YouTube and the Android video and music players — the only Android mobile apps that work now with Chromecast. On Apple mobile devices, the only Chromecast-compatible apps so far are Netflix and YouTube. Both worked fine.”

Mossberg adds,

“All in all, it was a satisfying and easy experience, especially since setup is so simple and, like many people today, I already have a tablet or smartphone in my hands or nearby while watching TV.”

I sure hope Google has made it easy to stream from the web onto to the TV screen. I don’t want any stumbling blocks. I have been waiting for Google to give me an easy solution.

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A Private Facebook for Two

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Lots of people I know refuse to use Facebook because it’s like being on a world stage. They just don’t want everyone knowing their business. They also feel that once something appears on Facebook, it’s written in stone forever. There is no way to take it back.

I used to wonder what these folks were hiding. Now I realize that some people just want private lives. However, many of them do belong to Facebook. They go on to snoop on everyone else. They just will never write a thing.

For those who want privacy, there is a new closed networking app. It is for people who want to share with only one other person. 2life lets you chat, share, collaborate, and coordinate. The iPhone app also lets you share calendars, web links, lists, and photos.

This is a perfect way for you to engage your children or grandchildren. Have your own private dialogue and share interests. Your online life with offspring can definitely make you much closer when you are face-to-face. A common bond keeps relationships very close.

This networking system is really geared for couples who want to share milestones or those who are doing a project together. It’s also perfect for new parents staying organized, a couple planning a wedding or buying a new home, friends who want to keep in close contact with each other, or two project managers who want a secured communications platform.

The 2life iOS app, which launched worldwide in mid-July in 14 different languages, has 70,000 downloads so far. The basic app is free. It does limit users to three lists, 20 uploaded photos, and two journal entries. The company’s 2life Premium option ($9.99 annually for a joint account) features unlimited lists, photos, and journal entries. 2life works only on iOS but will expand to other platforms — desktop and Android — in the months ahead.

Have fun you two!

Before and After Bezos

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Mackenzie and Jeff Bezos

By now most of you have heard that the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, purchased The Washington Post with his own personal money, $250 million to be exact. He is worth $22 billion according to Bloomberg business press. At 49, Bezos is also politically active, a libertarian who supports gay marriage.

I have been in discussions with the tech writers at The Washington Post recently. I was trying to get them to write about the kind of land mobile radios that first responders like EMS, fire, and police need to properly do their jobs. It wasn’t an easy pitch, so I was on the phone with a few reporters over many recent weeks.

No one told me that Bezos was in negotiations to buy the newspaper, but the usual eager-beaver “scoop” reporters were just not their usual energetic selves. They now claim they didn’t know that anything was going on at the time, but their dispositions have changed in the past few days.

They are now acting like they have something to prove. If they write a startling story about a certain topic, they may get noticed for breaking news. All of a sudden, I am important. I knew that my news was worthy of page one, but I couldn’t get them to focus. Now I am getting calls several times a day requesting further information or additional contacts.

If and when the story gets picked up, I will let you know. It’s an interesting one that should have been told a long time ago. Of course, bureaucracy kept it on the back burner. Hopefully, that all will be history soon.

Meanwhile, I truly believe Bezos bought The Washington Post because he understands that he needs content for his current and future businesses. There is lots of other speculation going around, like maybe his political aspirations, but I don’t think that has anything to do with it.

I do think that the editorial staff at The Washington Post will see changes over the next year or two. Those changes will help them survive and then prosper. There is nothing to fear. The changes Bezos will make will not have anything to do with the stories the reporters write, but rather the way they are delivered.

The fast pace of the Internet will dictate the changes, and if I were a journalist today I would be thrilled to be a part of his regime rather than work for a publisher who refuses to change with the times.

Here are some of the ways I think newspapers will change.

1) No more print. The Washington Post folks better get used to it. Print is a waste of money and everyone should read everything electronically. Those who are balking now will love the performance of digital once they give it a chance.

2) Layouts will not look like the newspaper of today. Stories will appear in capsule forms. If you want more information, you just click for additional coverage.

3) Every story will have suggestions and cross references to similar or related articles.

4) The newspaper will alert you to the most popular stories, which ones were the most emailed and posted on Twitter and Facebook, and suggested articles based on your previous preferences.

5) Articles will be much more current. New ones will appear every half hour if not sooner.

6) Relevant stories will be pushed out to you via email or alerts. You will check off what topics you want to know about firsthand.

7) Readers will contribute to the news and feature pages with any pertinent information they are privy to, much like a Twitter feed.

8) Readers will be able to access all the former stories that were previously written on the same topic. This will serve as a great reference. No one is left in the dark.

I will let Bezos surprise you with the rest. I gave you my best guesses

Check for Daily DigiDame Posts

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I just found out that the daily email blast for DigiDame did not go out until later yesterday. There may have been a glitch since I am posting from Portugal. If you don’t receive a 3:00 am EST email notification, please visit http://www.digidame.com on your own.

Don’t miss yesterday’s post about the possibility that solar energy could power your cellphone in the future. Today, I am giving my thoughts about Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, purchasing The Washington Post.

Talk later.

And thank you for reading DigiDame!

We All Need More Energy

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SolarCellYang2013

If I have one complaint about my iPhone it’s that I am always worried about running out of power. I go nowhere without my charger so that I can power up whenever possible.

I think we can all agree that any remedy to get a longer lasting charge would be a good thing. You can image my delight when I learned that researchers at UCLA are working a new way to use solar energy for our smartphones. They have developed a two-layer, see-through solar film that one day can be placed on the glass window of our smartphones to harvest energy from the sun.

In fact, the film is so strong that it will be able to work on any glass surface.

UCLA explains:

“The thin device uses two polymer solar cells to collect sunlight and then converts it into useable power.”

The film has the potential to be used on every surface that has a window. Imagine using this film for your home, the sunroof of your car, and all mobile devices. The researchers also explained they can produce twice the energy using two layers of film on glass than previously achieved with just one cell in a solar panel.

“A single cell device is only capable of capturing 40 percent of the infrared light that passes through it. The new two-layer device is able to absorb up to 80 percent of the infrared light that passes through it as well as some of the available visible light thanks in part to an infrared-sensitive polymer on the film.”

MIT and other schools are working on this technology as well. I sure hope this happens soon. It would be nice to be a part of this development.

I don’t know anyone living in a solar-powered home but I would love to know more about the pros and cons.

This Is Not a Mahjong Tile

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If I misplace my iPhone one more time, Eliot is going to have me committed. I neatly place it in the pocket of my handbag every time I use it. Somehow, some way, it falls out into the major portion of my handbag or it slides deeper into the pocket. Either way, I go into a complete panic looking for it. If I lose it, my life gets interrupted in ways I don’t even want to think about. Yes, I have everything backed up. I even have an iPad Mini with all of the same information. That’s not the point.

The last time this happened to me was just last Friday. Eliot and I were getting out of the taxi at the Delta terminal at JFK. Before the cab pulled away, I double checked to make sure I had my iPhone. I asked Eliot not to let the driver move the cab until I found it. Just the opposite happened. The driver quickly pulled away and, of course, my iPhone was no where to be found.

I had a total panic attack on the sidewalk. Surrounded by all of our luggage, we started ripping my handbag apart. Eliot said, “I know it’s in there.” I was doubtful. We finally found it on its side, deeper into the seam than ever before. We were both relieved and couldn’t wait to get a drink. I decided right then and there that I was buying several tracker Tiles when they finally make their debut.

Tile is a new product that combines tiny plastic tags with a companion smartphone app and locates lost stuff. The Tile itself is a little larger than a postage stamp. It costs $19 for one, or $50 for a set of four. The Tile will locate anything I don’t want to lose. It can be affixed with a two-sided adhesive strip to a computer or a TV remote, or, using a built-in loop, it can be fastened to a key chain. If any item is lost, the Tile iPhone app will give visual “warmer, warmer” directions to the object within a 50-to-150-foot range. A tiny speaker inside each Tile emits a little beep, helping me zero in once I am close.

Tiles last a year on a single battery after which they must be replaced. The company raised more than $2.5 million in pre-orders. I guess I’m not the only one losing things.

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Open Table Aims to Give You Control of the Check

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Open Table, the online website that lets you book tables at most restaurants, must be reading the minds of many diners. They are working diligently on a software program that will allow patrons to pay for their checks within an Android or iPhone app. I also found out, from some business friends close to the San Francisco company, that Open Table is also experimenting with a new software program that may even allow us to order our food from our smartphones in order to bypass the waitstaff.

Personally, I am not sure how I feel about that. There are pros and cons. There is no question that a good waiter or waitress can enhance the dining experience immensely. However, lately I have seen the reverse. Many times over the last few years, I have been totally frustrated when three people out of a foursome are brought their plates leaving one person hanging and feeling victimized, or when the waiter serves me my friend’s meal and gives her mine, or when you ask for milk for your coffee and he delivers it ten minutes too late.

Maybe I am just getting older and have less tolerance. I remember fine dining being fine. Today, I recommend a restaurant to folks and I worry more about whether the service will be good than the taste of the food. I am hopeful that Open Table’s new program is a decent remedy, although I am also concerned about people losing their jobs.

So far, Open Table’s software will focus on allowing diners to pay for the meal on their phone. At the end of the meal, they will be able to review the check, add a tip, and then pay for it with a touch of a button.

OpenTable has 28,000 restaurants and 450 million diners worldwide. It generates most of its revenues from monthly subscription fees from restaurants.

OpenTable will be adding convenient features more and more as a result of its $11 million acquisition in June of Just Chalo, a mobile payments processor specializing in restaurants.

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Let Your Email Do the Walking

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20130803-182113.jpgHoward Margolis.

I am writing you from Lisbon, Portugal. We flew here last night with a stopover in Madrid. We are on a two-week holiday. We stay in Lisbon for four days, then start an AMA Waterways River Cruise for seven nights on the Douro River. We finish up in Madrid for a few days.

I was rushing around like crazy to get certain work done so I didn’t have a lot of tedious work to attend to while we were traveling. We have complimentary wireless Internet everywhere we are staying, so I can keep an eye on my work.

Just when I thought I had everything wrapped up before the trip, I received a call in the middle of last week from my El Paso, TX, client saying they wanted to do a press party in late September in NYC for their new line of Revlon hair appliances. They needed us to secure a location ASAP and draft a proposal along with budgets.

I didn’t want to assign this task to anyone else at HWH because they are all loaded up with other deadline work. I am a big believer in blasting out emails to lots of potential sources to ask for help. My idea this time was to get one of the big name real estate brokers in Manhattan to provide us with an extraordinary apartment to hold the event. I wanted to find a very alluring place that would attract the press.

It took a few hours to target the right brokers, another 15 minutes to write the pitch, and then seconds to blast the email request. Within a half hour, I had positive replies from some of the most successful agents in the city including several from TV shows “Million Dollar Listing” and “Selling New York.”

There was one location that intrigued me the most. I immediately answered the email from that power broker who responded. It took a few emails back and forth on Wednesday afternoon to seal the deal followed by a confirmation phone call. Howard Margolis from Douglas Elliman agreed to meet me at the penthouse apartment on Friday seven hours before my flight for Lisbon took off.

I fell in love with the site, we schmoozed for a half hour, agreed to do other projects like this one in the future, and established what I believe will be a long working relationship.

Before email, this task would have taken me days to do and miles of pavement to pound. I may not be a lot of things, but I certainly am the master of email.

Here is the penthouse with terrace I secured, Be sure to click on the arrow below the picture to see the entire extravaganza.

Meet the broker I am working with Howard Margolis.

Broker Margolis also flies his own plane.

Views from our hotel room.

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