Month: June 2013

Tech Software

What’s Your Pick for a Google Reader Replacement?

 

Article on Gizmodo.  Outlines the choices we have just 2 days before Google Reader shut down.   One thing nobody is mentioning is Google Takeout, where you can export your feed now in case someone develops something better soon.

I am choosing Feedly, though it’s not GR.  I just tried the new Digg Reader, and it has potential, but not nearly as many sharing options (or IFTTT integration) so I will probably not use it till they get it.  I want my feeds separate now for anything new I might want to try.

Tech Hardware

How To Take Care of Your Smartphone Battery the Right Way

As I am reading this article, I notice 2k others are reading it with me.  Better battery life truly is the holy grail of handhelds – I wonder if it would be worth carriers like AT & T investing in R & D so we would use more data (without fear of battery loss.)  How could I keep from posting something that most of us think about every day – an article about how to make your battery last longer?  On Gizmodo.

Future, New visions

Why the internet of things has to be not too smart and not too dumb, but just right

 

 

“When people begin interacting with hundreds of connected electronics everyday, they will benefit from a personal cloud of information that follows them from place to place.”  Article on GigaOm describes what we now call The Internet of Things – and of course we love the convenience and magical things it means to our lifestyles.  But given recent developments, do we truly like to use that infrastructure to be a part everything, even as simple as turning on a light or setting an alarm clock?  Interesting to think about ……

As the article says, “not too smart and not too dumb but just right.”  Whatever that actually means (very subjective.)

 

Future, New visions, Tech Hardware, Tech Software

WigWag and the future of controlling the connected home

 

“WigWag has created a sensor and hub package that makes automating and playing with your connected devices more fun.  But will its interface be the recipe for consumer adoption of the internet of things?”  Article here at GigaOm.  

I used to think using my iPhone to turn on/off HVAC or dim lights via connected devices was TOO connected, even for me.  Then I noticed a recipe on IFTTT that said “flash my bedroom lights twice when I get a text that says ‘arrived safely'” and I thought about it in a whole new way.

Future, New visions

Don’t Panic, But We’ve Passed Peak Apple. And Google. And Facebook.

First time I’ve read this blog, but a good point is made.  “Apple will never again come out with a product as transformative as the iPhone.  Google will never build anything more useful than its existing search engine, and it will never discover another business model as lucrative as search-based advertising.  And Facebook may keep growing until every person on Earth with a computing device is a member, but it won’t ever be anything more than a place we share photos and links.”

Also, in agreement with his opinion that it is probably the reason many of us listen so carefully to everything Larry Page, Tim Cook, or Mark Zuckerberg say.  What will be the NEXT big thing?  Article here at XConomy.