Life Is Not Fair

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From the NY Times–Carter starts his work day with yogurt, fruit and cereal.

All men are not created equal when it comes to getting a story in the New York Times. A perfect example is the Internet story that appeared in the Monday, October 8th, edition about Art.sy, an online start up that just went live this week. Art.sy is a free repository of fine art images and an art appreciation guide. The reason why this company was profiled, is because of its pedigree. The investors read like a Who’s Who in the world of art, Internet, and finance.

The father of the 25-year old founder, Carter Cleveland, is an art writer and his mother is a financier. Both were cleverly not identified. Investors are gallerist Larry Gagosian, art-world figure Dasha Zhukova, Rupert Murdoch’s wife Wendi, Eric Schmidt of Google, and Jack Dorsey of Twitter. John Elderfield, the former chief curator of painting and sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art, is an adviser.

Now you can accuse me of being cynical and jealous, but I’ve been around long enough to know that a three-day old company does not get profiled in the NY Times, much less a sizeable story. This was a clear case of connections, connections, connections. I have been repeatedly told by the Times that they only write about tech companies that attract record breaking crowds or have proven to be financially successful.

Which category does this fit into?

What is so glaring is the caption below Carter Cleveland’s picture. “Carter starts his work day with yogurt, fruit and cereal.” Who wrote this story, his fairy godmother? In all honesty, I love art and I think a company like this is something I would frequent. However, I must say there have been other companies like it and similar ones still exist. Anyone who has been in the business as long as I have knows that the chances for a company like Art.sy to make it, is going to take a lot of money, more than any of these deep pockets will be willing to part with.

The worse thing that mom and dad could have done for little Carter was helping him get this story planted. He is now going to believe his own PR and will not be able to tough it out against the street kids of the Internet who are prepared to sweat.

Still, I wish Art.sy the best of luck. I truly do.

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I Can’t, I Won’t, I Refuse

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Every time I try to convert someone our age to a smartphone from their ordinary cell, I get a litany of reasons why they can’t type on a keyboard that doesn’t have three dimensional keys. I get startled by their remarks, because quite frankly, I can’t believe there are sophisticated people out there who still use traditional cells. Sort of like meeting a very sophisticated CEO who calls his mother, “Mommy”. Whoa! What the heck is going on here?

The same thing happens with a tablet or even an e-book. People will make all kinds of excuses why they can’t operate these units. I don’t know if they are afraid or just want to annoy me. I find it frustrating that I am willing to help them, or get someone else to help them, and they still put up a wall.

I want to convert them because I know they will love the smartphone or tablet once they get over the hurdle. Most of the time, they start teaching me things after a few months of using these units themselves. I think I have a solution. I am buying a virtual keyboard that will get them one step closer to getting comfortabe. The laser projection keyboard, housed in a compact, keychain design, lets you type on flat surfaces. It really is awesome and a lot of fun.

When I first heard about this technology I thought it was magic. Simply put, the advanced optics track your fingers so when you type on the virtual keyboard, it is registering through a Bluetooth wireless transmitter. The keyboard works with a smartphone, tablet and even a laptop.

I can’t wait to start. Send a few neophytes my way.

Become An Investor For The Fun Of It

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I get calls every week from tech start-ups asking me to either help them with a public relations program or to secure funding. I try to do my best, but lately they are coming to me fast and furious. Call it a sign of the times, but an increasing number of college graduates or working folks are leaving their careers to become entrepreneurs. I spend countless non-billable hours helping where I can. I write pro-bono press releases, distribute them to targeted press, and make calls to see if we can secure editorial placement. I also spend endless hours working on strategy and business plans.

Eliot often asks me if HWH is really a non-profit. I tell him it is a form of new business. One of these guys/gals are going to make us rich. It hasn’t happened yet, but there is always tomorrow. There are so many great ideas out there that need the support of seasoned professionals like you. I don’t care if you are a fireman, housewife, doctor, teacher, writer, salesperson or CEO, you have something the under 50 crowd needs—a lifetime of experience. Intuitively, you may have a better sense of judgment than the idea person.

Start small. Take a look at www.kickstarter.com. I talked about the company before in generalities but now I want to get specific.

“Kickstarter is a funding platform for creative projects which include films, games, music, art, design, and technology. Some projects only require a dollar to show you support them. Anyone can join in. Most of the supporters are much younger than us, but that is because they knew about Kickstarter before us. The site launched on April 28, 2009 and to date has raised over $350 million by more than 2.5 million people, funding more than 30,000 creative projects. People who fund Kickstarter projects do not get equity. The Project creators keep 100 per cent ownership of their work. The only gratification you get is identifying a good idea and giving a little bit of yourself towards it.”

Take a look at this Kickstarter project. I bet my ocean loving friends can dig this.

Autonomous sailing robots to study the oceans. Each boat can sail itself anywhere and send data back to shore. Funding ends next Friday. Each robotboat is fully autonomous, needs no fuel, and will bring to bear myriad sensors at remote points on the surface of oceans, lakes, and rivers. Think of it as a satellite for the seas. It studies the health of the world’s water.

Click on the arrow in the video. If you are getting this post via email, you may have to go to http://www.digidame.com to see the video. It is worth it. I couldn’t get the video on Kickstarter to embed here so I used Mashable’s coverage. If you want to know more about the project, go to Kickstarter.

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).