Category Archives: senior lifestyle

Keeping Our Minds From Aging

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A friend of mine recently asked me if I forget things all the time. I get that question from a lot of my friends over 60. Everyone is afraid of losing his or her mind. If you want to keep your brain active and alert, try one of these.

Huffington Post covered some of these apps in a roundup story about giving your brain a good workout.


Lumosity
Luminosity gives your brain a workout. The games featured in this app enhance various aspects of your cognition. This is very important for people of all ages because brain games can help improve memory, attention and other mental skills. Don’t worry about keeping up. The games are tailored to fit your goals. Play the games whenever you have a break. The app is free, and full subscriptions run from $14.99 for one month to $79.99 for one year. A small price to pay for making sure everything upstairs is functioning the best it can.

GPS For The Soul
Huffington Post owns this one. The blog site has been focusing on stress reduction for the last several years, especially for their employees. They claim “controlling your stress levels is step one in increasing attention and efficiency.” GPS for the Soul app (free), helps you detect your stress levels and get back on track when you’re feeling overwhelmed. The app creates personalized “GPS Guides” and offers calming quotes, images and music to totally relax you.

Pomodoro
According to the creators of Pomodoro, taking real breaks during the day can be a good way to fight distractions and get things done faster. I’m all for that. The Pomodoro method breaks activities down into 25-minute time allotments. Those are called “Pomodoros.” You set a timer. After each 25-minute period, a three to five minute break is taken, followed by another pomodoro. After the fourth Pomodoro, a 15-30 minute break is taken. All this is supposed to help you focus and get more done. Pomodoro boasts that this is for folks who have time management issues.

Headspace
They call the Headspace 10-day starter program “meditation for dummies.” The app’s short animated videos break down the basic principles of meditation. Just find a comfortable place for yourself, press play, and you be taught to medicate. The app is free but you have to spend $10 a month to get hundreds of videos and recordings.

MindNode
Did you ever hear of mind mapping? It reportedly creates a visual representation of your thoughts. It also illustrates an idea in a way that feels intuitive. MindNode says it helps you to generate ideas by organizing projects and concepts in a colorful graphic design. Try it . I will too. I want to see the app’s “pictorial networks mirror the way our brains work.” MindNode said we will be able to spot connections and insert new ideas.” Maybe we will figure out a way to live on our own longer. Just a thought.

Turkey Has A Ban On Twitter

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When I was on a business call last Friday, my client told me he would soon be vacationing in Istanbul. Normally I would be pleased for him. This time I got very uncomfortable.

You may have read about this already but for those of you who don’t know, the country of Turkey has put a ban on Twitter. A number of government leaders want to shut it down because the social media platform is supposedly reporting on political corruptions.

Officials in Turkey recently said they were in talks with Twitter about appointing a representative in Turkey that would help to block specific content when requested by Turkish courts. Twitter hadn’t commented on this yet.

Reuters reported that “Tech-savvy Turks quickly found ways to circumvent the ban, with the hashtag #TwitterisblockedinTurkey among the top trending globally on Friday.

“Twitter users called the move a ‘digital coup,’ some comparing Turkey to Iran and North Korea, where social media platforms are tightly controlled. There were also calls for protests.

“Waking up to no Twitter in Turkey feels like waking up to a coup. The modern equivalent of occupying the radio stations,” U.S. author and journalist Andrew Finkel, who has reported from Turkey for more than 20 years, said on his Twitter account.”

Mashable, the tech site, explains how Twitter users in Turkey are circumventing the ban.

Here are some recent tweets about the situation in Turkey.

the swilliest (@swillansky)
3/23/14, 8:36 PM
twitter is blocked in turkey, therefore I can no longer study abroad in Turkey.

Bloomberg News (@BloombergNews)
3/21/14, 4:20 AM
Twitter blocked in Turkey after content related to government corruption scandal is posted.

@ (WashingtonPoint)
3/22/14, 3:08 PM
#Reminder: @twitter is still blocked in Turkey. Many use various programs to circumvent #ban. And many more ordinary users can’t use twitter

Lara (@mccormicklara)
3/23/14, 7:30 PM
Twittet in turkey is being blocked cuz of the president im connecting from england to twitter.

michael ramirez (@radical_michael)
3/23/14, 7:18 PM
Twitter Blocked in Turkey as Prime Minister Pledges to ‘Eradicate”

Petr Gašparík (@PetrGasparik)
3/23/14, 8:59 AM
“Twitter is blocked in Turkey. On the streets of Istanbul, the action against censorship is graffiti DNS… plus.google.com/11025935092836…

Elijah Wood (@woodelijah)
3/20/14, 7:29 PM
Is Twitter genuinely blocked in Turkey? If so, this is shameful and scary.

A New Jet Without Windows

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I hate it when the person sitting next to the window pulls down the shade while we are flying. I want to see what is going on outside, especially when we hit the slightest bit of turbulence. I don’t think the person in the window seat has the right to decide if the entire row flies with the shade up or down.

You are probably asking yourself why I just don’t sit next to the window? I would but I feel too claustrophobic. I started to wonder if most people feel like like I do when I heard that Spike Aerospace, a private airline, is launching a windowless supersonic business jet that will feature video displays rather than windows.

Spike thinks its new idea is going to be a big draw. The airline is going to have an array of cameras outside the aircraft that will send a live video feed to the interior wall screens.

Passengers will feel like they are riding right on top of clouds. Spike has acknowledged that there are people like me who would be uncomfortable with this innovation, but they feel many others will jump at the chance to get a never-before-possible window-seat view of the clouds.

I hope those folks enjoy the ride. It’s not for me.
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Jimmy Fallon, Billy Joel And An iPad

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If you didn’t see “The Tonight Show” on Thursday night, then you missed an incredible moment in digital history. Don’t fret. I included it here. Jimmy Fallon used an iPad app, named Loopy HD to sing “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” with Billy Joel.

Loopy HD costs $7.99 and allows users to layer recordings of singing, beatboxing, or instruments.

Business Insider explained that Fallon used the app to create a four-part background vocal harmony of the duo singing “aweema-wep, aweema-wep, aweema-wep, aweema-wep” before proceeding singing the song.

Congrats Loopy HD. That was a PR happening.

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I Would Know That Face Anywhere, Almost Anywhere

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A few of my friends recently admitted to me that they can’t identify certain people who were photographed with them just a few years ago. They are totally clueless who these folks might be. They know they were friends of friends, but which friends were they?

All this may be moot by the end of this year when Facebook will reportedly be introducing a new facial recognition program that will be as good as human identification. In the case of some of my senior friends, this innovative technology may even be better.

I heard about it today from a guy who has a new startup which showcases the most innovative products available at retail. The minute I got back to my office I googled “Facebook facial recognition” only to discover a number of recent stories saying that the social network was indeed working on such a technology.

Facebook has been going in this direction for years. Presently, they have a “prompt” on their site that helps you tag a friend who is in a photograph with you, I think this has much more to do with the words being spelled out in a sentence. Now, Facebook is developing a piece of software, called DeepFace, which they say “maps 3D facial features and creates a colorless model to narrow in on specific characterizations. The accuracy of the method is 97.25%, which is just under the 97.5% accuracy that a human can identify, according to the group.”

The new technology deserves a better source to explain it a little more deeply. Get it? Click here.

Phone Exercise

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I just found another major use for the iPhone. After I tell you what it is, you will look for reasons to constantly pick up your iPhone.

The iPhone can be turned into a dumbbell. Every time you pick up the iPhone, you will be giving yourself a good workout. This is all made possible by ToneFone, a product of the UK-based company DesirableBody. It’s the world’s heaviest iPhone case. It is available for the 5 and 5S in a 2.2 pound and a 3.3 pound version. It’s rubber-coated and constructed of 100 percent British steel.

Priced around $38 and $42 respectively, the ToneFone can be shipped to the U.S. for around $11.50.

I know you think this product sounds ridiculous but several tech reporters actually bought the ToneFone. They say they love it because they are always in workout mode. That’s good news for people who make their living sitting on their tush.

Happy Birthday Gary

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Today we celebrated Gary Greenberg’s birthday at Lucky Strike bowling on Miami Beach. I haven’t been bowling in 30-plus years. I’m sure many of you know this already but bowling alleys have gone totally digital. All the scoring is done for you and details of the game are posted on displays right above your lane. You even get instructions on how to strike the remaining pins. All you have to do is aim, shoot and pray.

Happy birthday Gary. Thank you for the trip down memory lane and proving to us that even at our age, we are still in the game.
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The birthday boy
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Our bowling league

Eliot bowling

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The digital scoreboard

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The digital entry form.

Retail Stores Aim To Make Comeback

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A year ago, I wrote a post about how shopping centers across the United States were dying because of the significant increase in e-commerce sales. Just when I was getting used to the fact that some of my social hours in the future were not going to be spent at a mall, I find out that retail stores are reinventing themselves to be a part of the digital revolution. Bravo to them.

It turns out that while Americans love to buy online (the e-commerce industry is $1.2 trillion) traditional retailers now feel that many still desire to physically shop. Why not give them what they want?

A number of retail chains are already experimenting with Bluetooth low energy applications (Beacons) that allows them to interact with customers as they enter their establishments.

This is all spelled at in a Re/Codei story but, here is the short version of what you can expect in the future.

Many stores will provide companion apps using Beacon technology so they can accurately suggest items to the consumer. All a customer will have to do is download companion apps so they can learn about new daily choices and get discount coupons on some of their favorite items.

I know that this sounds like science fiction but customers will also be able to stand in front of a smart mirror and try things on using a digital changing-room app or get personalized recommendations based on previously purchases.

This holds true for grocery stores as well. A grocer’s app can potentially provide preset shopping lists especially for dieters, weight lifters, barbecue hosts and other profiles. Google Glass will also get in on the act by providing augmented-reality direction arrows that will lead the shopper around the store. What will they think of next?

Funny how things work out. We thought bricks and mortar retail was dead. We may have been dead wrong.

Would You Buy This App?

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I don’t understand why anyone would want the app I’m about to describe to you. Perhaps you can give me a reason? I don’t want to be negative because this could be the start of something big. I am just having a difficult time figuring it out. Take it seriously. The app received a lot of press and was funded by major angel investors and venture capitalists,

Called Rooster, the app provides novels in short installments. This is designed for busy people who often claim they don’t have enough time to read even though they would love to.

Rooster delivers a book in a few paragraphs at a time so the reader finds it easy to digest. It’s just like reading someone’s blog. For $4.99 per month, Rooster sends subscribers two books. They are divided into sections that can be read as little as 15 minutes at a time. Users can set their own schedule and are free to continue reading the next section if they have extra time.

Readers do not own the books but can access them from their library for as long as they are a member of the service. Each month’s picks are chosen by Rooster’s editorial.

Rooster is part of the San Francisco-based media technology startup Plympton. It raised less than $1 million in angel funding. Investors include Albert Wenger (partner at Union Square Ventures) and his wife, Susan Danzinger; Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit; Garry Tan, co-founder of Posterous and partner at Y Combinator; and others.

Sex For Success

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I couldn’t resist not showing you what a viral sensation looks like. I’m sure you heard the expression “It went viral.” Here is a perfect example of what that means.

A three-and-a-half minute video showing 10 pairs of strangers kissing for the first time recently racked up 42 million views in less than four days. That’s what the Internet world calls going viral.

No one can ever truly explain why one particular video becomes so popular. This one was pretty obvious to me. Sex sells.

Called “The First Kiss,” the video was actually created for the clothing company Wren. Viewers do not realize the video was made for a commercial venture. When word got out, there was some negative reaction but not enough to hurt the exposure for the brand. Industry sources said the Wren video did better then fashion lines that were shown on the runway during Fashion Week.

That is all pretty amazing