Category Archives: senior lifestyle

Next Big Playground for Apps

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Remember when your car used to be your great escape? It would be you, the road, and the wide open skies. The alone time used to be so therapeutic. The transition time of getting from here to there was just what you needed to calm your nerves, get a better perspective, and refresh yourself.

All that is about to end with the infiltration of apps in automobiles. Ford has been leading the way for years with digital experiments and now the company is getting more serious than ever. During CES, Ford announced a new expanded app developer program, Sync AppLink, that will now allow you to use your dcar’s voice command and dashboard controls.

· Wall Street Journal
· USA Today
· Kaliki
· Amazon Cloud Player
· Aha Radio
· Rhapsody
· Greater Media
· Glympse
· BeCouply

Existing apps include Pandora, Stitcher, NPR, and Scout navigation.

Ford divides compatible apps into three categories: News and Information, Music and Entertainment, and Navigation and Location. News apps such as the Wall Street Journal will have stories read out loud for the driver. Aha Radio not only plays music and podcasts, but also features location services, finding destinations such as restaurants on the road ahead for the driver.

To use the apps, the driver needs to have them installed on a smartphone, connected to the car by either Bluetooth for Android or a cable for iOS.

Ford announced a new program at CES to make it easier for developers to create apps for Sync AppLink. Ford retains approval over app integration with AppLink, ensuring quality for the automotive environment.

Please watch the video below from CNET, a leading tech news site, which explains how the apps get installed and work.

One of the Most Talked about Products at CES

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CES is very unpredictable. This year, a company no one had ever heard of before was getting an unusual amount of attention It was all the buzz. Whenever a group of writers got together to discuss what they thought was one of the most genius products at the show, the HAPIfork was mentioned.

The HAPIfork is a smart utensil that monitors how fast you eat. The $99 HAPIfork uses sensors to monitor your movement from plate to mouth.

This is very important information to know because it might help you with your digestion, how many calories you eat, and enjoy your food more.

The HAPIfork tracks the number of forkfuls per meal and per minute, and it times the interval between each. The fork lights up and vibrates when you eat too fast, fewer than 10 seconds between forkfuls.

The HAPIfork vibration is similar to the buzz of a vibrating cell phone. Dining data can be tracked but must be downloaded to a computer after each meal. A Bluetooth version is in the works.

Let me know what you think of this idea. The smart utensil will be available in the Spring.

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Scenes from CES

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President Bill Clinton gave one of the keynote speeches. He poses here with CES top executive Gary Shapiro and his wife.

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Jazzed up automobiles were all over CES showing off the newest electronic gear.

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Show goers resting their aching backs on chair massagers.

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DigiDame with robot friend.

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LG Electronics displayed a block long 3D screen.

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Listening to live music through Koss headphones.

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People everywhere

CES Product Scoops

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Here are some innovative products at CES

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Displair is a new visual technology. The image is created in the air. It is physically permeable and interactive. The cleanest water drops, dry and solid due to the ultra fine size, creates the basis of the image.

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Luci is an inflatable, water resistant bright LED solar lantern with three settings, dim, bright, and emergency flashing. It holds a charge for three months.

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Cubelets is a robot construction kit. This was made for children but I want one myself. Cubelets are magnetic blocks that can be snapped together to make an endless variety of robots with no programming and no wires. You can build robots that drive around on a tabletop, respond to light, sound, and temperature, and have surprisingly lifelike behavior. But instead of programming that behavior, you snap the cubelets together and watch the behavior emerge like with a flock of birds or a swarm of bees. Each cubelet in the kit has different equipment on board and a different default behavior.

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Westinghouse Digital’s 110-inch, 4K, LED TV. 4k means 4 times the resolution of current HD. This unit will be available for custom orders. Price tag? $300,000. Can’t wait to find out who is the first taker.

There Are Millions of Me

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When I saw hundreds of bloggers listening to someone talk about video streaming at Blogworld in Las Vegas today, I realized that the competition is so vast that I better turn up the volume on my DigiDame branding initiatives. I have been posting every day for almost a year and I am still not rich and famous.

Blogworld, a conference and exhibition that teaches everything you need to know about being a successful blogger, is at the Rio Conference Center the same days as CES. Since I am here before CES officially opens tomorrow, I decided to scout Blogworld out today.

I was shocked to see the crowds of bloggers in the hallways, in the conference rooms, and walking around the exhibition center. I am not sure how many of these people make any money at being a blogger, but there has to be some potential, otherwise all these people would not exist.

Michael Fields from WordPress, told me the number of bloggers writing about every topic imaginable is growing so fast that it is difficult to keep track of the actual count, but it is in the millions. Bloggers are made up experts, people who think they are experts (me), and folks who work for corporations that are allowed to express themselves on an independent platform. Don’t think bloggers are just unemployed people who have nothing better to do. Most bloggers have lots to share and are becoming as popular as well known journalists. The wonderful thing about blogging is that it gives the writer independent freedom. No one is monitoring the copy.

Blogworld also caters to podcasters, web TV and video creators, and social media pros. No matter if you are well-established in the online world or just starting out, Blogworld is a great networking platform. Bloggers from over 50 countries attend.

One other great piece of advice from Fields is that I have to go to more blog meet ups. These local events will provide me with strategies and know how that will give me a stronger voice in the senior market.

Tomorrow, I will be posting some very interesting finds at CES.

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Appy News

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If you watched the video I posted yesterday from Mashable, the tech blog, about International CES, you would know that smartphone apps are going to have a much stronger presence at the show. I am thrilled because apps make our lives so much easier.

There is even going to be a “appy hour” for everyone to meet each other. How cute is that?

The world of apps is amazing. What did we do before them? Some of them were available in hand-held devices. Now we carry one small unit that does it all.

A few days ago I saw a former client at the Miami International Airport when I was about to board my flight back to New York. Shane Samole, CEO of Excalibur Electronics, used to produce hand-held gadgets that did a lot of what we get now right on our smartphones apps, like word and sports games, dictionaries, mind teasers, and children’s activities. We never thought back then that all these little devices would be replaced by software on our cells.

Samole is now involved in the next evolution of consumer products but he wouldn’t reveal any details. Once an entrepreneur, always an entrepreneur.

Meanwhile, thanks to Mashable, here is a preview of some of the apps we are going to see at International CES. Read the list and then click here to find out more about each app. Some of these are mindblowers. Most of them are available on all mobile phone formats.

1. Match Paint Colors

2. Use Your Phone as a Level

3. Start Your Car

4. Measure Stuff Using Your Camera Lens

5. Create Blueprints (or Design Your Dream Room)

6. Visualize Your Home Using Augmented Reality

7. Monitor Your Heart Rate

8. Use Your Phone as a Remote Control

9. Change the Color of Your Lightbulbs

10. Program Your DVR Remotely

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What To Expect From International CES

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Every year when I attend International CES, family and friends ask me what I think will be the hottest trends at the show. There is no easy answer to that because the show is no longer just about consumer electronics. It’s about innovation. The show is attracting automobile manufacturers, health companies, smartphone apps, home automation and accessories that hit every category imaginable.

Gary Shapiro, CEO, of the CEA, the Consumer Electronics Association, tells everyone to call the show the International CES and not the Consumer Electronics Show, because many new product categories are becoming increasingly innovative and everyone is welcomed to exhibit.

The video below is a real treat for anyone who is not attending the International CES this year because Shapiro outlines what the show is all about. Produced by Mashable, a tech blog, the video is a great look at behind the scenes.

Hide and Seek

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I don’t know about you but I have been losing a lot of things lately. I don’t think it is old age. I think I am so pre-occupied with projects that I do things absentmindedly. I can put my iPhone in my handbag one minute and a few seconds later freak out because I can’t find it.

That’s why I was thrilled to learn about StickNFind, a tiny Bluetooth-enabled, coin-sized disc that attaches to objects so you can track them through the StickNFind app. The StickNFind app turns your smartphone into a private eye so you can track the location of your cell phone, keys, remote controls, luggage, children and pets.The range is 100 feet. StickNFind can handle up to 20 discs at one time so users can protect many valuable items.

Watch the video below to see how the discs work. I am so excited because StinkNFind is going to exhibit at CES in Las Vegas so I will see a live demonstration.

StickNFind runs on watch batteries and will retail for about $25 each, sold in packages of two and four. The company expects to ship product in March.

Mohr or Less

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mohr storiesIf you like to talk, then you should be listening to more podcasts. Or in some cases, creating them yourself. Simply speaking, a podcast is the audio version of a video, much like a radio talk show. What is so wonderful, is that there are millions of podcasts for you to download right from the iTunes store. There is a podcast on virtually every topic. Most of the podcasts are created by experts in their respective fields. Yes, there are hundreds of podcasts that are being produced by people who just like to express their opinions or do interviews. There is no true criteria. If you want to learn about something specific, simply go to iTunes, type in the topic and download the podcast. After it downloads (easier than a video), just click on the link and listen away. You do not have to be a subscriber to iTunes to download a podcast. You can listen to podcasts on your smartphone, tablet, and computer.

I can’t wait for you to discover all of the meaningful and enjoyable podcast topics: health, music, history, current events, pop culture, tech, fashion, food, business, education, publishing, beauty, real estate, gossip and comedy. Speaking of comedy, and the real reason I wrote this blog post, I wanted to spread the word that Jay Mohr, the actor/comedian, has started his own podcast and it is, in my opinion, pretty (imagine Larry David saying that word) funny. You know Morr from “Jerry McGuire,” and “Saturday Night Live.”

He started podcasting because he wanted to have something of quality to do between gigs. He doesn’t like to “golf” or “knit”, part of his humor so he decided to occupy his time with a podcast. His Mohr Stories (his podcasts) include interviews with Charlie Sheen, Jay Leno, and Rufus Wainwright. He must be doing something right because he averages 1 million downloads a month.

He recently did a terrific interview with Jefferson Graham, the technology columnist for USA TODAY and host/producer of the Talking Your Tech and Talking Tech video series. If you click here you can either watch the video of the interview or read the script. Mohr admits he is technically-challenged. His admission will make many people feel good about themselves and it almost sounds stylish to succeed in the digital world when you really know nothing about it. That’s me!

Interesting Facts from Gary Shapiro

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I am only halfway through Gary Shapiro’s book, “Ninja Innovation,” so I really shouldn’t be talking about it at this point but there are so many interesting tidbits that I have to start somewhere. Gary Shapiro is the President and CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association, producers of the Consumer Electronics Show. He wrote this book to underscore the importance of “innovation.”

1. The first Consumer Electronics Show was held in New York City in June, 1967 at the Americana and Hilton Hotels. Attendance was 15,000 manufacturers, distributors, and retailers looking at 100 exhibits occupying a 100,000 square feet.

2. The 2012 International CES in Las Vegas attracted 156,000 attendees and 3,100 exhibits.

3. U.S. factory sales of consumer electronics exceeded $200 billion annually and worldwide sales topped $1 trillion for the first time.

4. The Internet was developed in 1969 by ARPANET, the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network which was founded by the United States Department of Defense in 1958 and charged with advanced technology research in the wake of the Russians launching Sputnik. The idea was to provide a decentralized communications network that would not be disrupted by potential global war. Academia became the biggest user of the net with researchers linking up their computers to share data.

5. Thirty-five years passed from the
invention of the Internet to when the
first American heard the famous
words “You’ve got mail.”