Smart Phone Stand To Watch Your Videos

When you are out at the coffee shop drinking your hot beverage, it is hard to hold your phone and drink at the same time. That is where a stand comes into play where you can stand up your phone to watch it instead of holding it in your hand or flat on the table. There are a lot of stands on the market, but few are easily transported as they are fixed in position. That creates issues for taking it with you. The goal is to be able to flatten the stand so that it lays flat. Anything else becomes an issue to take with you.

The Rabbit Mini Portable Stand from Cyanics is one which is available and able to be taken with you easily. The stand can support most phones that have an edge which will not slip in the stand, which is available at Amazon right now. It measures 4.25 by 3.6 by 0.2 inch when it is in the flat position. A little thick if you are putting it into your pocket with your smart phone, but is far better than taking a stand which does not lay flat. At a price of $9.99, these look to be a reasonable solution to having a stand for your smart phone which you can take with you.

But, at 0.2 inches thick, it is a little thicker than what we would like to see as being portable. We did find one that is the thickness of a credit card with the Card Stand which was a recent Indiegogo campaign in 2012. While they have just started sending out the first batch to the investors, we cannot find a site where you can go out and purchase one of these. Made of carbon fiber, this credit card size stand fits easily in your wallet and will support most smart phones in the stand. But since there is no where to purchase one of these, it may be a while before they appear in the market. This looks like a great idea and we are surprised there is no web site available for this product.

Apple Cufflinks To Whow Your Love Of Apple

If you are an Apple fan and love all things Apple, you need to show just how much of a follower of their technology you really are. And what better way than to wear that on your sleeve so to speak. To be more specific, you can wear that as a cufflink to showcase your iPhone.

The iPhone cufflink shown here is a great looking one to show off your love of the iPhone. These look like the real thing, but you cannot do anything else with them other than looking at them. Maybe in the future, the iPhone will be small enough to get your phone down to that size. But for now, these will generate some conversations.

If you would rather not have cufflinks of the iPhone, you can take a look at Apple cufflinks to show your appreciation in a more generic way so that it is not a specific product, but rather representing the Apple logo. This one is not as flashy as the iPhone cufflinks, but stills shows your appreciation for all the great Apple products which you use.

And there are so many other jewelry items for both men and women to show your love of everything Apple at Amazon. There is bound to be one that you find intriguing for you to wear. These include cufflinks, charms, earrings and many others for you to chose from.

Solar Battery Charger For Your Smart Phone

Kickstarter Friday - Using the sun to charge up your mobile devices

If you have ever been out in the mountains or at the beach and find that your mobile device needs to be charged, it would be great to have something which could solve that problem for you. Using the power of the sun to replenish your smart phone battery is exactly what you would need and there is such a product coming to market soon and is currently listed on Kickstarter.

The WakaWaka Power Station has already exceeded their funding goal of $50,000 with 13 days to go and it looks like they are going to go over the extended goal of $250,000. The WakaWaka company has previously provided a solar powered light which is small and portable. With this latest product, they are providing a small device which is capable of charging up your smart phone and providing hours light after that.

With claims of being up to 200% better than existing products, this one looks to be an excellent seller when it comes to market. The solar charger contains a battery which can be charged to 75% within 6 hours depending on location which is more than enough to recharge your depleted smart phone battery. At 4.7 by 0.6 by 2 inches, this compact device is a must to be carried around with those away from electrical outlets for charging. They are saying this small device when full charged up will be able to charge up a number of mobile devices from iPhones to most Android devices with battery life left over to provide you with hours of light from the device. And the mobile devices will include tablets.

This latest product is expected to arrive in May 2013 with a possible price of $79 when it is available to the public after the Kickstarter backers are taken care of.

Talking Gloves For Your Bluetooth Smart Phone

If you have been out in the weather recently, you have probably seen some cooler temperatures which may require you to wear gloves to keep your hands warm. And while gloves make you hands warmer, they do not do much more than that function. But a recent discovery has found a pair of multi-functional gloves which you can pair with your smart phone and use as a microphone and hearing in a single glove. They are calling these as talking gloves.

These are from Hi-Fun and seem a rather interesting product. These have bluetooth connectivity built into the gloves where the thumb area contains a speaker that allows you to hear your caller and the pinky finger holds a microphone which you speak into. If you notice the picture above and it shows that symbol that many of us use to say call me without saying anything.

Obviously there is a battery contained in the glove which has a reported 20 hours of talk time and 10 days of standby time according to the company web site. Each glove has 3 buttons on it to control the functions for the glove. And charging is accomplished via a USB connection. This is a brand new product and pricing is not yet available for here in the US. This looks like a great idea when you need to keep your hands warm in cold weather.

Here is a YouTube video of the Hi-Call gloves which we found from Engadget.

E-Bike Sales to Shift into High Gear for 2013

Sales of electric bicycles, or e-bikes, are expected to grow by more than 50% in North America during 2013, as the hot item in consumer green tech is set to breakaway in sales from previous years. Actor William Shatner, who is no stranger to futuristic tech, recently purchased two Pedego Interceptor e-bikes for him and his wife in LA.

The e-bike market is ready to go mainstream in the U.S. The price for e-bikes has come down significantly in recent months. At one time, most e-bikes with decent components and weight were in the $3,000 range. Now you can find reasonable quality e-bikes in the $1,000 range. With gas prices at all-time highs, e-bikes are an attractive, low-cost option to gas efficient vehicles.

E-bike owners are finding that they are great for commuting to work, as traditional bikes can be a problem with office dress and sweat.

People who use e-bikes range from commuters to casual cyclers who like a little help with hills and wind, to those who decided to save money on buying a scooter. These are not for the serious road cycler or hardcore mountain biker.

I've been shopping for an e-bike now for a few weeks, and I've had my eye on the Prodeco Phantom X folding electric bike (pictured). I've had folding bikes in the past and love the convenience of being able to throw my bike in almost any car trunk or hatchback. Because the Phantom X folds up it can ship from the manufacturer fully assembled.

If you’re considering an e-bike, it pays to do some research first. Cheaper e-bikes are going to be heavier and have less battery capacity and power. Higher priced bikes will be made from lighter materials and have better batteries.

Another consideration is local motor vehicle laws. E-bikes could be considered motor vehicles depending on where you live (or where the one you’re buying the bike for lives). For example, according to US federal law, as long as your electric bike is under 750 watts and does not go over 20 MPH (without pedal assist) then it is a bicycle and not a motor vehicle. Most consumer e-bikes in the $1,000 range don’t fit the motorized vehicle description.

These are just the basics of e-bike considerations. You’ll want to browse through bike websites and shops to find out more. Also, read the reviews on the top e-bikes at Amazon.com.

CLIPP: Education App for the Modern Classroom

Education finally has its own, complete app solution designed for today’s classroom: Clipp. With scores of productivity and cloud storage apps crowding the ed-tech landscape, education choices are abundant, yet seem discombobulated. Tom Pargulski and Marty Weber are in the process of raising funding on Indiegogo with an integrated solution. According to them, Clipp manages and performs tasks students and teachers need to do, all from a single connection point. Since Clipp works with other apps, everyone can still use their favorite app to get their work done.

The essence of Clipp is that it allows you to take the entire classroom environment with you, and presents it the way your mind thinks ... in images. An app like this is a major time-saver, making learning much more efficient. Every word, phrase, file name, etc. is searchable and sortable within Clipp, all organized on an infinite, scrollable timeline. All student notes, lecture notes, teacher lesson plans, videos, links, web bookmarks, curricula, etc. are available to anyone with appropriate login credentials. Any item is reviewable and retrievable in real-time. It’s like students and teachers having their own personal Google for their classroom.

But that's not all.

Clipp can also utilize stored files, notes and media to create new learning tools and materials. Clipp can organize information for instant study guides or lesson plans, request live feedback from students via live polling and real-time surveys, and can even automate grading. Clipp does all of this digitally, and all within one application. Think of a wiki for the classroom, evolved to handle computations of its data.

Clipp was built to be the digital hub for the classroom and has vast potential in education. Finally, the classroom has evolved with technology. Follow the app’s progress on www.indiegogo.com/clipp.

iBuKu Pets Let You Reuse Your Old iPhone

Kickstarter Friday - iBuKu Pets using your old iPhone to teach children
Have you ever wondered what you might be able to do with your existing iPhone when you purchased a newer one? There is always the idea of selling it in advance of getting a new one, but what if you could use that older iPhone to provide a toy to a child which would make learning fun. That is exactly what iBuKu Pets is all about and is a Kickstarter project which was funded last Saturday. With the goal of funding $25,000, they exceeded the goal getting 123 people to pledge $25,585.

iBuKu Pets sells kid safe pets which you can place your old iPhone into. For the moment, each pet will hold an old iPhone, either the iPhone 3GS, 4 or 4S, by plugging it into an included battery. The included battery will increase the time between charges so that your child can get maximum enjoyment. Then you snap it into the iBuKu Pet. But, before you do that, you will need to download the iBuKu Pets app into your iPhone so that it is there ready to be run. Your kids can use your old iPhone as a learning tool.

The pets have a story behind them which you can tell to kids to gain some understanding. Such as the "iBuku Pets love recycling these objects to make machines and other useful gadgets" as an example. And you can even use your old iPod in the iBuKu Pets with the iPod 3g or 4g. If you have kids, you know they all want to play games on your iPhone and sometimes delete something by mistake, but the iBuKu Pets and app will eliminate that when you use your old iPhone or iPod.

The iBuKu Pets are currently for sale on their web site at a price of $24.99. You can expect deliveries to arrive in January as those who have pledged money to the project will be getting their iBuKu Pets first. Here is the video from the Kickstarter page.

Last Minute Gifts That Don’t Require Shipping

If you still have some holiday shopping to do with only a couple days left before the big day, shipping a gift from Amazon or eBay is out unless you want to pay double what the gift is worth to overnight it.

So, what are your options at this point?

Sure, you could go out and buy gift cards card, but didn't you do that last year?

eCards? So you couldn't bother yourself with stepping out of the house to drop a real card in the mail. Instead you email a cheesy, semi-animated eCard surrounded by banner ads.

Don’t be that person.

Here are a few unique and thoughtful gift ideas that won’t require shipping and will make you look like a creative holiday hero.

Create an Xtranormal Video

You could just record a special holiday video message and send that. But this gift idea is much more creative and entertaining. It’s super easy, and depending on the options you choose, it might not cost anything to create.

With Xtranormal, all you need to do is write a short greeting and you can have a 3D animated character present your message. You just type your message into the free software to have it read by your character.

You can choose from a wide range of characters, many based on real-life celebrities. Select a venue and background music for your scene. You can give your digitized celebrity facial expressions as they talk and cue body gestures.

The only flaw with Xtranormal is the selection of voices. With all the characters they offer, the number of voices is comparatively low. The digitized voices aren't the best I've come across in other software either. You can also add your own voiceover to your video.

Upload to YouTube (make it private if you like) and post on the recipient’s Facebook wall or email the link.

I've done this before for some friends and had a lot of fun making my video. My friends absolutely loved it. You can get started on your video production by heading over to Xtranormal.com.

Hire Someone on Fiverr to Create a Unique Holiday Greeting

You can hire people to do almost anything on Fiverr.com for only 5 bucks. You can write a greeting and have it video presented by puppets, in another language, by sexy women in holiday lingerie, sung by country singers, or reported by a news anchorperson.

This gift idea is going to depend on the booking availability of the person offering the gig. If you can find someone with a 24 hour turn around, you might be able to pull it off if you act quickly.

Gift Music, Games or Apps

Many sites that sell digital products also allow you to “gift” items. You pay for the product and your gift recipient receives the all access details. Here are a few example sites that allow gifting:

• Music: Streaming music service Spotify allows you to buy gift subscriptions that will allow access to their impressive library of tunes.


• Apps: Use iTunes to gift one of your favorite apps to a friend or family member. You can also gift music.


• Games: Have a family member who’s a gamer? Gaming platform Steam allows you to gift individual game titles from their online store.


• Courses: Give the gift of learning. Udemy.com has a gift option available for all their online courses.

If you do a quick search on Google you’re sure to turn up more sites that allow gifting.

There you have it: a number of gift ideas that are thoughtful and will make you look like a creative genius. Best of all, you didn't even have to get dressed to finish up your holiday shopping!

Tankbot Robot - Desktop Toys For Fun

We have been looking for something that would be just plan fun to have and use. What we found was a company called Desk Pets and they provide little robots which you can play with on your desk when you want to have some fun. The work day is often too stressful and talking the time to have some fun is always important to clear your mind.

We so often think of robots as something which is serious, but these are just plain fun. The Tankbot from Desk Pets is a small little robot and can be controlled by an iOS device or selected Android devices. You just have to download an app to your smart phone for those which are supported. Or you can set it in the autonomous mode and sensors on the robot will detect obstacles and avoid them. Create your own maze for it to try and get through.

These little devices plug into the USB port of a computer to charge and then you are on your way to having some fun. There is a universal remote that you attach to your smart phone via the standard head phone jack. That is all there is too it for you to have some fun. If you want to have even more fun, have your friends buy one and then you can have some robot wars.

Your Personal Robot From Romotive

Robots are becoming an interesting area in the past few years as technology advancements have made them far more life like. So, what if you want one that you can have at home as something for the kids to get them interested. And we are not talking about a 4 foot robot, but something small. The great thing about this is that it works with your iPhone to control it by mounting on the robot, which can do a number of different things. That includes having it figure out how to navigate through a room and not run into anything. This has so many variations on what it can do and they are growing.

Romo from Romotive can be considered as a personal robot, though it does not have arms. But it is a reasonably priced robot at $149. The current plans have this to begin shipping in March next year and it will probably have inventory issues until they can catch up from the initial demand. Romo the robot measures 4.5 inches wide and 3 inches tall with a length of 5.6 inches. Sounds like a great size to work with. The iPhone slot can tilt 15 degrees forward and up to 45 degrees backward.

With the Romo apps you download onto your iPhone, you can program what you need Romo the robot to do. And Romo can learn, which is what much larger robots can do making this very realistic. You might wonder how technical you have to be to program Romo, but with the graphical user interface, you can do just about anything you need to get this up and running as soon as you get it out of the box.

This runs on batteries and they can be recharged through the use of a USB cable. Take a look at the video they created when this was part of the Kickstarter project.

Wine App For Those Who are Not Connoisseurs

If you are like most people, you enjoy a good glass of wine. But you are not an expert by any stretch to know all the details of a wine like those who live for the next great wine to be found. Most of us just look for a good bottle of wine when shopping and if we do not have any particular recommendation, we buy what looks like a good bottle based on the label. But there are apps which can assist you in that effort based on your own experience.

Like most of us, we do not remember the good bottle of wine that we have a year ago and struggle to try and remember what it was. If you had installed the Vivino app on your smart phone, you would be able to pull that information up and have it at your finger tips. Available for the iPhone and Android smart phones, the app makes it really simple to add information about a wine into it.

If is so simple, that all you have to do is take a picture of the bottle of wine and then you rate it on a scale of 1 to 5 stars. You obviously would not want to add in wines that you did not like, unless you wanted to make sure that you never purchased that one again.

You can keep it simple like this or you can add other notes to your wine addition. What makes this a powerful tool is that the Vivino app matches the picture you have taken against a database the company has built of wines. That process only takes a few seconds to be accomplished. While they cannot match all of them, they are working in that direction.

With the matched lookup, you can get a wealth of information about the wine. The Vivino WIne scanner is available in a free version and a paid Pro version on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Quadcopter Experience Without Paying 100's of Dollars

We have all been hearing about the idea of local law enforcement departments either purchasing or looking into purchasing drones to fly silently around the town. And while you can purchase some quadcopters for hundreds of dollars, there are alternatives where you can purchase one for far less so that you can get a feel for just how maneuverable these types of things can be. Looking around the web, we found one that is rather interesting and fits the bill for flying a much smaller version of what is being considered by law enforcement.

Enter the 6 AXES GYRO from Brando Toys which will give you the enjoyment of flying a quadcopter around and will not break the bank and sells for less than $50. This comes with everything that you need to get it up and running quickly, though it does require some assembly. It comes with a large remote control device and does amazing things while in flight, such as roll overs in flight with a single button press. Just watch the video below showing it being controlled in a store. Imagine what you could do outside.

If you desire to fly a quadcopter and do not want to pay the high dollars for larger ones, this may be just the answer you need to get you up in the air.

iPhone Camera Case With Lenses From iZZi Gadgets

The cameras on most smart phones do a very good job of producing pictures with increasing megapixels. As an example, the iPhone 4 has a 5 megapixel lens, the iPhone 4S has an 8 megapixel lens and the iPhone 5 has an 8 megapixel lens. These rival highly priced cameras of 5 years ago and are included with the price of the phone. But, what if you would like to increase the lens on the iPhone so that you can take better pictures. That is where the iZZi Gadgets camera cases come in to meet the need.

The iZZo Solo camera case and the Orbit camera case are available for the iPhone 4, 4S and iPhone 5. With either of these, you can add to the videos or pictures that you can take with your iPhone. The iZZi Orbit has three lenses, which can orbit to give you 3 options. A 2 times telephoto lens, a wide angle lens and a 180 degree fish eye lens. Each of these gives you some very interesting shots with your iPhone.

If you are not in the need for a 3 lens set up, you can take a look at the iZZi Solo case and it comes with the 180 degree fish eye lens. You can also buy individual lenses for the Solo and swap them out, but it makes more sense to just buy the Orbit. At prices of $239.99 (iPhone 5) and $229.00 (iPhone 4 and 4S), this looks like a great product. If you prefer, the Solo has prices of $139.99 (iPhone 5) and $129.99 (iPhone 4 and 4S). All with a case that has the ability to attach a tripod.

Here is the original video of their products as they were working to get funding for the iZZi Gadgets camera cases.

iPhone EMF Detector By Ghost - Mr. Ghost That Is

Kickstarter Friday - Searching for radiation sources
As many of us are trying to remain healthy and protect ourselves from the environment, there comes a new Kickstarter project which is going to help you identify those Electromagnetic Radiation sources or EMF as it is abbreviated. This is being developed to run as an app on the iPhone and has a detector which will plug directly into the headphone jack of the phone. Sorry Android lovers, the app is not going to be written for the Android OS. I would bet that if this turns out to be as successful as it looks, you will see an Android version in the future.

The Mr. Ghost: iPhone EMF Detector which can be deemed as a success story. With 4 days to go on the funding for the project with a goal of $7,000, they have received pledges of $29,059 which is well over 4 times the amount requested. That means that this will move forward with the initial phase of producing the product and distributing it to all those who help to fund it with $20 or more. Beyond that, they will move into mass production.

This will come in 4 colors as shown above and looks to be a great way to see how much EMF waves you have where you live. Or in other locations as that would generate a lot of conversations. The video below is a great demonstration on how this works in measuring the EMF waves. Look for this to begin shipping in February.

iPhone Cases With Flair And Style

It seems that cases for the iPhone seem to have a very distinctive style to them. There is elegance associated with many of them which is probably due to the feeling of some that the iPhone is a work of art. So, we have been seeing a lot of them recently due to updates for the recently released iPhone 5. One that caught our eye is the T8 Storm wallet case for the iPhone 4/4S and iPhone 5.

The T8 Cases, as shown above, are made from Italian leather and lined on the inside with a nylon material. There are two slots on the outside which can hold credit cards and money, though you will not get too much in there as they are really not meant to be the holder for all your credit cards. But, it does put things in a convenient place when you are out on the town.

One of the unique things about this is that you can purchase a matching lanyard for the phone so that it can hang around your neck. Your iPhone would always be at the ready to take pictures of check your messages. For those who do not have pockets to hold your iPhone, this provides a great solution. This is a great gift idea for that someone special.

Prices for the iPhone Storm wallet cases are currently $60 and come in black and tan leather. The nylon insides vary depending on the one you are purchasing. The Zepher Lanyard is priced at $15 and comes in the colors of blue and red nylon.

Go over and take a look at the T8 Storm iPhone wallet cases.

Flexible And Portable Keyboard For Your Smart Phone

If you have ever been out and about with your smart phone and needed to type something quickly which was far more than than a few sentences, you dreamed for a keyboard you could easily carry around with you. At the moment, those are far larger than we would like to see in our mobile wanderings. But, what if you could have a bluetooth keyboard that was extremely portable and even flexible that would take up very little space to carry around. Something less than the size of a roll of quarters. There is development of exactly that going on right now.

The Indiegogo project for Qii is in the process of building up funding to complete the project for creating just such a thing. A flexible keyboard on a plastic sheet which rolls up for easy travel and transport. It has all the features of a full QWERTY keyboard, including a 10 digit keypad for fast entry of numbers. The endeavor is looking for funding right now to make this a reality. They have gotten things working on a larger package and are looking to get it evolved to the small size shown above. If they can be successful, this will mean a fantastic product for everyday use.

Unfortunately, they are asking for $1,850,000 to be raised by January 6th. That is $1.85 million dollars which is quite an undertaking for getting funding for a project. If they can reach the desired goal, they will be able to finish the work to reduce the size of the Qii flexible keyboard and bring it to market. There are currently black and white models planned and they are open to other colors as they move this towards the marketplace.

If you are interested in helping them reach their goal, head on over to Indiegogo.com/Qii.

Is A Flexible Smart Phone Screen In Your Future?

We have been hearing talk about flexible screens for your smart phone and other devices, but they have always seemed to be somewhere in the future. But with recent developments, we may be seeing them in some form next year. That is at least according to the rumors which are being reported over the past week. Whether these are accurate or not is for you to decide. The bigger issue is that they are coming. The question is when and we believe that time will be in 2013.

In a Wall Street Journal article and video, Samsung is committed to producing smart phones next year with flexible screens. That will mean a screen made of plastic and not the current glass touch screens we are used to. It is reported that these flexible screens will be unbreakable, but we know that as plastic ages, it does tend to become more brittle. But, it will make your smart phone much lighter and even better, it will be flexible. That is the future.

Flexible screens will make your phone smaller as well which is a great benefit. It can then be expanded to a much larger size or larger that we are seeing today. It creates lots of potential. If you thing about the ability to unroll your smart phone for use and then rolling the phone back up to make it compact, you begin to see the potential of flexible screens. The ability to reduce the size of your 4 inch smart phone to half that size when carry it makes things far more portable than they are today. And that is what we want to see. Do you believe we are going to see flexible screens in 2013?

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We have been seeing these for a while and Samsung presented them at CES in 2011, so they are actively working on them.


Much of the speculation is based on an interview which the Wall Street Journal is reporting and we are including it here for you to decide for yourself.

Find Cheaper Gas Prices With This App

During these times of higher gas prices, we are all on the look out for the best possible prices we can find. And driving around in an attempt to find the best prices on gas is not an advisable thing to do as that burns up the precious fuel that cost so much. So, the best thing you can do is find the best prices before you need to fill up your gas tank. So, what you need is an app on your smart phone to accomplish that task.

And that is where GasBuddy.com comes in to provide a great app for your smart phone. It is a simple yet powerful process that makes this invaluable in your efforts to get the best price on gas. You can either enter your location or let the app determine where you are located via the phones GPS. With that, it returns all the gas prices in your general area and it is sortable by lowest prices being displayed first. It is that simple. It can display a map of the area and prices as well. The great thing is that when you are traveling, it can show you gas prices closest to where you are currently located. That is a great tool.

What makes this really valuable is that the prices are maintained by a fleet of volunteers who keep things updated as they see prices changing. And those volunteers are entered into a weekly drawing where they might win $250. That is a lot of incentive to keep updating the prices they see as they travel. That makes this a fantastic app and one that you should have on your smart phone.

The GasBuddy app is available at the Apple App Store, the Android Market (Google Play), Windows Phone Marketplace and Blackberry App World.

Bring Stars Wars To Your Next Party

If you are like a large group of people, you are a follower of the Force and all things related to Star Wars. And when you have a party, you may be one of those who like to put out things showing that you are a follower. Whether you are on the Dark Side or a true Jedi, you want people to know that. And what better way to show that spirit than to provide ice cubes for drinks at your gathering which have a Star Wars Theme. And that is especially true if your are a true Star Wars fan and even better if you think you are part of the Dark Side. And if that is the case, you certainly need to take a look at these as part of your next gathering.

We have gone out to ThinkGeek.com see look at some of the products they are offering which will give you that Star Wars theme with the ice cubes. These come in a few different types and there is sure to be one that you will like. The depiction of the Death Star is a great one which will have people talking about Stars Wars and where you got the Ice Cube tray for this one. Unfortunately, as the picture above shows, this only freezes 1 at a time. Since that is the case, you really should pick up more than one of these so that you can meet the needs for your next gathering and discussion of all things Star Wars. And, this is not the only one on the market which has a Star Wars theme to it. There are many other types of Star Wars themed ice cube trays available for you to pick up.

The next one is the Millennium Falcon and can freeze 2 cubes at a time. These will have to be placed in wider glasses due to the size of them.The Falcon is a very important part of the development of Luke Skywalker and one that is worth considering. Though there are a number of different ships that can come in ice cubes trays.

The X Wing ice cubes like you create 6 at a time and being of a smaller size will fit in most glasses without a problem. If you are a Darth Vader fan, you can have Darth Vader helmet ice cubes. These are sure to satisfy those of the Dark Side. And if that is the case, these are just for you.

There are even ice cube trays which can freeze different sizes. There is the R2D2 which creates 1 larger cube and 4 smaller cube which will provide for a variety of glass sizes. R2D2 is a great part of Star Wars. The same applies to the Hans Solo Carbonite ice cube tray with 1 large and 6 smaller ones. And for many, he is the real star of the early Star Wars movies.

There are a variety of ice cube trays here to satisfy the Stars Wars desires inside you. All from ThinkGeek.com.

Toolbox In An iPhone Case From TaskOne

Have you ever been out and needed a tool to fix something quickly? If you are like most of us, you have encountered a situation where having a screw driver handy or some other tool would have given you what you need to fix something. Most of use travel with one sure thing. Our cell phone. If you are the owner of an iPhone, you may soon have the ability to carry around some tools to help you out in those situations where you need to fix something. Enter the TaskOne iPhone Case. This is a product under development with crowdsourcing as the funding to get it off the ground.

The TaskOne case is on indoegogo.com which is a funding source similar to KickStarter. While they are not quite yet at the half way mark in their goal of getting $32,000 for funding, it does seem likely that they will make it. The TaskOne case will fit the iPhone 4 or 4S and the iPhone 5 when released. And is expected to be delivered some time in April for those who are investing in the start up. As you can see from the picture above, it has a wide variety of tools built into the case. 16 tools to be exact and there is a video showing off a number of features of the TaskOne case.

The first TaskOne cases to be delivered by April will be black with additional colors of Slate Grey, Cherry Red or a limited edition Orange Flame coming after that. It is too bad that this is not already a product on the market as it would make for a great gift during the holiday selling season. Watch for this one to come to market.

This future product needs support to get it off the ground and you can participate in the funding by making a pledge at indiegogo.com for TaskOne.

Startup Turns iPhone Into Personal Protection Device

Coyote Case is turning the iPhone into a personal protection safety device.

The Coyote Case is an ingenious smartphone case that contains a powerful panic alarm system. But that’s not all. In addition to the piercing 100+ decibel siren is a Bluetooth-enabled security app. When the button on the exterior of the case is pushed, the siren is activated and the app invokes an emergency text message that includes the user’s GPS location. The message is sent immediately to their pre-selected contacts. It deters would-be attackers while alerting others for help in the immediate area and remotely.

Coyote Case is user-friendly and ideal for children, college students, young professionals, and joggers. The case system has already attracted some attention and has been named an International CES Innovations Design and Engineering Awards Honoree.

The Coyote Case is not in full production just yet, but you can pre-order cases starting at $60 from their website: www.coyotecase.com

Coyote Case is one of 20 gift ideas featured in our 2012 Holiday Gift Guide, along with accessories for the latest tablets and phones, plus green tech items. Check it out: Gadget and Accessories Holiday Gift Guide

iPhone Needs An LED Light - Here It Is

We periodically follow KickStarter projects which are interesting. And today, we noticed one from myLED which will give your iPhone or iPad with an LED light to provide indication of a missed call or email. You might ask yourself why and the simple answer is that Apple has not provided one on their popular products. I have a Galaxy S3 and really appreciate the flashing LED letting me know of alerts, missed calls, emails, etc. This is missing for all the Apple fans out there.

The myLED Kickstarter project is one that has a great chance at success and they are closing in on the 50% mark for the $18,000 they are asking for to fund the project. The idea is a simple one. When you iPhone or iPad is turned to silent, there simply is no notification mechanism other than looking at the face of the phone. There is no flashing LED to instantly tell you there is something to look at and myLED will provide that notification.

The little myLED plugs into the headphone jack of your iPhone and can respond to any iOS notification that has been issued. There is an myLED app which is download to your iPhone which is used to configure the items you would like to be notified about. Then the myLED device is plugged into the iPhone and turned on. And that is it. You iPhone will now notify you when there is some activity which you need to respond to. Pretty simple concept.

The myLED has a project schedule on KickStarter with plans to begin shipping activities on March 13th. If you want to be one of those who support the project, you can pledge money towards their goal and get the myLED device when it ships. Delivery of the myLED for those who pledge is set for April next year.

Twitter - Your Followers vs. Who You Are Following

In the continuing goal of getting quality followers, there is always the challenge of wanting everyone that you are following to follow you back. That is the way that you build up your list of those who are following you. And if you are promoting yourself or a product, the more people you have following you, the bigger the audience who is listening to what you are saying. If you do not pay attention to the number of people you are following versus the number who are following you, you will notice very quickly that there are more that you are following than following you.

So,it is important to clean things up periodically by removing those who are not following you back. One of reasons to do that is that Twitter will stop you from following more people if the difference between following and follower is too great. While Twitter does not post specifics on this, it is talked about a lot. And the goal is always to make sure that you have more people following you than those you are following. This is especially true as you approach the magically number of 2,000 followers. It seems that Twitter has chosen that number as the point where they limit what you can do if you are following more people than are following you.

Having more people following you than you are following should be the goal of everyone. But as you build up your following, there are going to be times where you are following people with the goal of them following you back. When Twitter stops letting you continue to follow more people, it is time to clean things up. This is where you want to identify and unfollow those people who are not following you back.

You can try and do this using the Twitter interface, but you will quickly see just how tedious this can become. But, there are a number of free solutions to aid in this area and I am going to pass on two that I work with and like. The first is JustUnfollow.com and the other is ManageFlitter.com. Each has its strengths depending on what it is that you need to accomplish.

JustUnfollow is a simple service and when you sign up, you can unfollow up to 25 people per 24 hour period. You can double that to 50 when you try to exceed your limit by Tweeting the message in the pop up window when you exceed the limit. I use this one first whenever I have hit limits in Twitter as a simple way to reduce the number of people I am following so I can continue. You click the unfollow button for each one that you want to unfollow. It is a very simple interface and gets the job done simply and quickly.

ManageFlitter is a more complicated process and allows you to delete much larger numbers of people who are not following you up to 2,000 per day. It starts at 100 per 24 hour period. Once you are signed up, the first thing you will want to do is change the order of those who are not following. By default, it displays the most recent person you are following first. Click the order button and then click on "Follow Order" which will display the oldest person you are following who is not following you. Then you click on the "Fast Select button which will display up to 100 small icons of those you follow who are not following you. To unfollow those who are not following you, you can drag the cursor over the entire list of icons which will highlight them. Then click the Unfollow Selected line to the right. That is all there is to it to remove large numbers. They display up to 100 small icons at a time and for doing bulk removals of those who are not following you, this is a great tool.

Keeping your lists of those you follow clean of those who are not following you back is something that you should be taking a look at on a regular basis. If you are adding those you are following every day, this may become a daily process to go through. And with the goal of having fewer people you are following than those who are following you, these tools will get the job done for you.

Bad Advice

The Internet is an extraordinary resource. Any subject you want to know about or understand is right at your fingertips. We can rely on the miracle that is the Internet for all of our informational needs.

Or can we?

More and more I’m seeing bad advice given to others in forums and in online groups. And thanks to social media, which makes it so easy to have public conversations, the problem is getting worse.

Here are some recent examples:

From a popular Facebook group: “Just download pictures from Google Images and you’ll be fine.” -A response to someone asking where they can legally get free images for their site. This is terrible advice that could get you into legal trouble with image owners.

From “A-list” blogs: “Never use pop-ups on your site…” –I’ve seen this one stressed by several “expert” bloggers. Though annoying to some (I don’t care for them either), pop-ups can increase conversions. To say “never” is awful advice that could cost you sales. Pop-ups should at least be tested if you’re thinking of using them.

Posted on LinkedIn: “WordPress is bad for business…” –I’m not going to get into this one, that’s just a big bowl of wrong right there.

Needless to say, you should not trust information you find on the Internet. “Well, duh!” you might be saying. But judging by the amount of bogus “interesting facts” forwarded to my inbox, and poor advice perpetuated by Facebook Likes, I really don’t think people have a clue that the “helpful” information they are passing around is, in reality, garbage.

So what to do about this problem? Here are a couple tips:

1. Question all online content, unless it’s from a trusted source that consistently provides accurate information. How to know if info is accurate to begin with? Read the next tip.


2. If you want to verify something as fact, you can crosscheck the info with other sources, or if it’s how to do something, you can test to see if it works.

It might seem like a pain having to crosscheck or test information. And it can be. But here’s what makes it worthwhile: by taking time to double-check a fact or see if a tip really works, you’ll discover the truth.

Armed with truthful information, now YOU become a trusted source. An expert.

You are the expert others will rely on for trusted information. And who do people do business with? Those they Know, Like and TRUST.

We’re heading into an era where online presence, that’s websites and people, are measured by trust. Online trust is behind the whole “content curation” trend. Google even has a “TrustRank” they assign to websites.

Without trust, it’s going to be hard to be successful online. And as time goes on, it’s just going to get tougher to make it online without that trust. By simply protecting yourself from bad information, you can become an expert and start building that foundation of trust that’s going to be critical for success in tomorrow’s online world.

Gifts Ideas That Enhance the Hottest Gadgets This Season

This fall has seen a steady stream of exciting new devices hitting the market. Apple led the way with the iPhone 5, followed by the announcement of the iPad 4 and iPad Mini. LG recently released the Nexus 4 and the HTC Droid DNA. And don’t forget about the Galaxy Note 2 with its S Pen stylus. There are just too many great new devices to list.

Many people are going to need accessories for their new gadgets this season. Our 2012 Gadget and Accessories Holiday Gift Guide arrives just in time with great gift ideas for those learning how to get the most out of their new gizmos.

Furthermore, several of the phone and tablet accessories highlighted in the guide allow for new ways of enjoying these devices that many people haven’t thought of before.

The guide features gift ideas that are thoughtful and practical, and with prices at around $50 you can be a hero without burning through your holiday budget.

Our holiday guide is free for our tech newsletter subscribers, to sign up, just visit this page for instant download:

Gadget and Accessories Holiday Gift Guide 2012

Black Friday Deals On Game Consoles

Tis the season as they say and with the holiday season preparing to kick off with Black Friday, now is the time to see what kind of deals you can find. And if there are gamers in your household, then you really need to prepare to take advantage of those deals and map out your plans to be in the right place at the right time to grab one. It seems like some of the stores have staggered their opening times for deals and you can go from store to store and not have to be in two places at once.

Target
Pick up the Xbox 360 in the Kinect bundle this year at a price of $199.99. This bundle comes with a 4 GB Xbox 360, the great Kinect sensor box, 2 games, a wireless controller and a 1 month free subscription to Xbox Live. What more could you want. This one will be in limited quantity.

Or you can get the PlayStation 3 at a price of $199.99 which includes the PS3 console, a wireless controller and 2 games included. There are limited quantities of this one as well.

Doors open at 9:00 PM on Thanksgiving evening.

Walmart
The Xbox 360 bundle is on sale for $149.00 and comes with a 4 GB console and the wireless controller. The games which are included in this are the Skylanders Spyro's Adventure Starter Pack. Expect limited quantities on this.

They have the same PS3 bundle on sale for $199.99 including the 250 GB console, wireless controller and 2 games included (Uncharted Dual Pack and Infamous Collection), Expected limited quantities available.


These are on sale starting at 8:00 PM on Thanksgiving evening.

KMart
The Nintendo Wii console in black will be on sale at $129.99. This will include Wii Sports and Wii Sports resort. Limited quantities as expected. This one will be available at 3:00 AM.

The Nintendo 3DS console will be on sale for $169.99. It is in the Flame Red color and includes the Super Mario 3D Land Game. In limited quantities, this one will be available at 11:00 AM on Friday.

Toys R US
You can pick up the Xbox Kinect bundle for the price of $249.99. This is the 4 GB console which includes the Kinect unit. Included in this is a Free Air Flow controller. They are also adding in a 50% off price for a 3 month subscription to Xbox Live. They must have a decent amount of units available as this is on sale starting Thursday evening through Saturday night.

They have the PS3 250 GB bundle and includes the Air Flow Controller for the price of $199.99. As with the previous item, this is on sale from Thursday evening through Saturday night.

Or you can pick up the Nintendo Wii for the price of $129.99.This includes the black console and the Sports Resort games. They have also added in a LEGO Remote and at $10 Toys R Us gift card. As with the other two, this is available beginning Thursday evening through Saturday night.

Toys R Us begins the selling season on Thursday evening at 8:00 PM.

There are many other stores with Black Friday sales which will include game consoles, so you need to start looking for them now. The holiday shopping season is coming quickly and we have collected information from the many sites which are showing Black Friday Ads. Now is the time to plan out your plan to get around to all the sales which will be going in.

Drying Out Your Wet Cell Phone

If you have ever had the horror of your cell phone getting wet or dunked, you know that sinking feeling that you receive as you try and figure out what to do. Water is the enemy of your cell phone and can render it a worthless piece of technology. So, we all know that you do not use a hair dryer and that the very first action you should do is to remove the battery. Do not touch any of the keys or power button. Once the battery has been removed, dry off the phone as much as possible to remove moisture from it. Then place your cell phone in a bowl of dry uncooked rice, completely covering it. The rice will absorb the moisture from the phone. This will take a few days or longer to remove all the moisture from the phone.

There are actual products on the market which do an even better job of recovering a wet cell phone. We ran across another one recently called the BHEESTIE Bag and the secret ingredient is the BHEESTIE Molecular Beads. These beads absorb moisture from a wet cell phone far better than rice will do. And the beads absorb twice as much water as when compared to using uncooked rice according to the company.

The BHEESTIE Bag is not going to save your phone if it is in water for too long. At that point, it is a dead cell phone. Having one of these on hand might not be a bad idea in the event that your cell phone takes a dive into water and you are able to quickly pull it out. There are other options out there, but this one seems like one of the better ones to help save the day. You can pick one up from Amazon.com for under $20 so that could even be a great gift.

There are others on the market such as Dry-All bags which come as a Wet Cellular Phone or Wet Smartphone Emergency Kit. There does not appear to be any difference between the two and Amazon only carries the cellular phone product. They have Blue Bead Technology beads which are supposed to pull the moisture out very quickly which they claim to be in as little as 6 hours. The time difference could be a factor if you need to get your phone back in working order quickly.

This one was reviewed by CNet over a year ago and worked well in the tests. And this one has a claim of being able to be reused up to 5 times, which can be considered a real cost saver. But, if you are dunking your phone that often, there are other issues. This one comes in under $20 as well and should be considered as a great gift.

There are other potential products on the market you can purchase and use with great results. But will you have to have already purchased the product and have it with you at the time that you get your cell phone wet. That becomes the real question to ask yourself. If you are not at home, your best bet in that situation is the remove the battery and remove as much moisture with a cloth. Then go and purchase some uncooked rice and completely cover your phone. In these situations, time is of the essential in trying to save the investment that you made in your smart phone.

Twitter Followers – Quantity vs. Quality

We all want to have Twitter followers and the more the better. We can achieve this through a variety of methods to grow your followers. sometimes very quickly. But if you are in business or are trying to promote something, the quality of those followers becomes ever important. There are the usual methods of putting out good, helpful content that people will be interested in and as a result follow you. That is very important and you should continue to focus on that. But it will not grow your followers as quickly and may not get you the high quality followers your desire. There is also the need to follow back anyone who follows you. That is just plain good courtesy. But there is another area where you can get good quality followers simply by looking at who others are following.

As an example, if you look for SEO in the search bar in Twitter, you will find a number of people who are influential in that area. If you look at the people who are following one of them, you can then follow those individuals. And they are far more likely to then follow you back. If you find someone in the list who looks like they are an even closer fit for the type of people you want, then look at the people who are following that person. You can continue to drill down like that, all the while following those people. Your email will start getting notices of all those who follow you back.

As these people start to follow you, reviewing who is following each of them and “Follow” those that are a close fit to the kind of people you are looking for. This will continue to add to your list of high quality followers for you as you do this process. If you do this activity 3 or 4 times a day, you can easily add 50 to 100 new high quality followers a day using this method. Though, this does take some effort to accomplish this activity. And with those that are related to the area you are promoting, the more likely they will be to follow you back and add to you over all numbers.

If you are promoting a product on Twitter, high quality followers will add to the responses you receive from a target audience that is already closely related to your interests. Follow the followers of those with like interests and you will get followed back in large numbers.

With growing a high quality list of followers, they are more likely to look at your Tweets. And if you want them to click on a link and go somewhere else, they are the ones that you want to reach out to.

Going after a high quality list of Twitter followers takes some extra effort, but the payoff is well worth it.

Apple Impacting The Future Of Android

We have been seeing Apple attacking the Google Android OS which is running on a majority of smart phones around the world. These attacks have not been directly against Google, but instead against the companies which are using the Android OS. And these continuing lawsuits for patent infringements are going to begin to have a chilling affect on the future for Android and smart phones. Up until a few months ago, we would have considered that Android was going to outlast all the Apple lawsuits, but it now appears that phone manufacturers are going to be getting other options presented to them. And one of those other options will come from Microsoft and Windows Phone 8.

The continuing lawsuits being filed from Apple are going to alter the long term future for the Android OS. There are a lot of you who would not agree with that statement, but given the legal costs and the reoccurring license fees when a company is forced to settle, it makes Android less attractive. Android gives away its Android OS and that is what has made it so attractive to handset manufacturers. The result is global market share for Android. But it is not really free as there are costs associated with defending your use of it. And those instances are growing.

We know that Microsoft charges license fees for the use of their Windows Phone OS. And with those fees, there is an expectation that you will not have to face the same situation which has come down on Samsung, HTC and others. We all know about the lawsuits around the world between Samsung and Apple. And the legal feeds for that alone is draining money from Samsung. We know that Apple offered Samsung a licensing deal at one point of $30 per phone and then be able to use all the iPhone patents. That is a healthy cost to put out there from Apple.

And Samsung is not the only one. HTC has also been involved with a patent lawsuit with Apple and agreed to a settlement paying a fee of between $6 to $8 per Android phone sold. That will cut into what HTC can charge for their phones. These numbers are coming from unnamed sources and is not directly from Apple or HTC. HTC has been seeing declining sales over the past few years and with the lawsuits, it places a drain on the company. And these are not the only ones.

With all of this going on, companies are going to begin to look elsewhere for an OS to drive their smart phones. One is to develop their own, but that puts you out there by yourself in offering new features. Microsoft may be the wave of the future for phone as manufacturers look for an alternative to the Android OS. And with Windows Phone 8, the timing may fit well when making plans for next year. We are starting to hear of more companies looking to sell Windows Phone OS handsets next year.

There have been predictions for Microsoft to have a good foothold in market share by 2015, but it did not sound that reasonable. Looking at where things are at with Apple suing manufacturers, we might see a shift away from Android OS phones to Windows 8 OS phones. Apple may well be pushing manufacturers in that direction.

So much of this is speculation, but one has to wonder how long phone manufacturers can continue to defend themselves against lawsuits.

RIM Loses US Government Contract - Can They Survive?

It seems like an eternity since RIM released a new and exciting smart phone for all those who love their products. The last really big release was the Blackberry PlayBook and it came with the associated problems of a device released before it had everything lined up and working. Since that time, we have been waiting to see a smart phone from RIM which can compete with the likes of Apple and Samsung in the market place. But that has not been forthcoming from them and we continue to wait. The wait for the arrival of the Blackberry 10 OS continues as well. And now the US Government is getting phones from Apple.

It is really starting to look like it may be too late for RIM to recover from the continuing slide downward in sales. It is going to be next year before we see the new line of phones from them. We have been seeing leaked pictures for over a year, but those only go so far before you actually have to deliver something. And time looks like it is beginning to run out for them.

In a public release, the Immigration & Customs Enforcement known as ICE has chosen the Apple iPhone to equip their personnel with. The primary reason given for not choosing the Blackberry is that the technology being used by the Blackberry phones of today does not match up with the mobile technology needs of the agency. And this action may well be the start of other decisions by US agencies to select either the iPhone or Android devices. RIM has just not kept up.

Their next generation phones will more than likely meet the needs, but they are not available and it is at least 3 months before they will be. And that is at the earliest because RIM continues to push out the arrival dates for their new generation of phones. They can no longer afford to do that with continuing slipping sales where they have an extremely low share of the market.

A few months back, we talked about RIM fighting a losing battle in their efforts to become relevant again. At that time, it was expected we would see the new Blackberry 10 OS and smart phones before the end of the year. That is obviously not going to happen and they need to figure out how to turn things around this year. For next year, they are going to be that much further behind. Too many things are happening to push them to the side.

Microsoft is working hard to have their Mobile OS be the one that businesses use. This is mainly because of the integration between the Mobile OS and networks. In the growing area of security, Microsoft is going to make it very tough for RIM to compete. RIM must come out with their new phones and OS in January or it will be too late for them to recover. The competition continues to grow along with ever improving technology advances.

RIM seems to be moving very slowly towards their next phones. But in the world of mobile technology, you have to reinvent things every 6 months to stay current. Just look at what Samsung has done in a few years with their Galaxy phones. They are now competing directly with Apple which is where RIM should be.

The door is closing on RIM and their Blackberry line of phones. They look like they have missed several opportunities to get back into the game, but now they are being left behind.

Do you think they will still exist in 2013?

Microsoft Becomes Hardware Company With Surface

Entry into the tablet market at a high price.

Microsoft's core business has long been software. And the focus of that software has been the desktop. Microsoft for most of its life has believed that the desktop is king and in may respects that has been correct until recently. A shift is moving away from desktop computers and even laptop computers towards tablet computers. Microsoft has made the coming Windows 8 to be the OS for tablets. But that is not enough for Microsoft. They have decided they need to be a hardware company as well. They have really been a hardware company for almost as long as the company has existed.

You just do not think of Microsoft as a hardware company. They have been producing the Microsoft Mouse for so many years along with their Microsoft keyboards. They have manufactured cards that go into PCs and so much more. It seems that they have been in the hardware business for 32 years out of the 37 years they have been in business. So, they are a hardware company, but we just do not view them as such. The reality is they have been involved in hardware for years. And that includes the xBox and Kinect which have been extremely popular for them. But, they have not really been considered a hardware company because they do not build computers.

Building a desktop computer or laptop would have moved them into being seen as a hardware maker. Given the shift to tablets, Microsoft has made the decision to move into what most would consider as being a hardware company with their Surface tablet. This is entering them into a highly competitive market with the likes of Apple and Amazon. Those two companies basically control the tablet market making the entry of a new comer somewhat difficult.

Microsoft has their new Windows 8 OS to run their Surface tablet and that may make a difference for them. Microsoft has their great marketing arm which knows how to promote products. But that may not be enough for them to be successful. The one big thing that Microsoft has going for them is the integration of their Windows 8 OS. It is immediately ready to integrate tablets into a Windows environment within companies. Its built in security within their server OS makes it an immediate success for businesses.

Whether Microsoft can achieve a level of success is an unknown. Part of the problem is the pricing they are putting out with their newest hardware product. Starting at $500, this may be a tough sell when compared to other tablets, such as the Apple iPad. If they were to come in with a price less than the Apple iPad, it would give them a sales boost. The market for tablet prices is currently facing a lot of downward pressures for price. This is especially true for the 7 inch models. At 10.6 inches, it looks to be one that is a little less portable, but could do well.

Just how well Microsoft is going to do with their Surface tablet will depend on exactly who they are targeting for this. It does not look like it is a good fit for small businesses.

Tablet Computers Move To Common Place In Stores

Seems that just about everyone is selling small tablet computers

We have been seeing so many tablets showing up this year, that we can make the statement that 2012 is the Year of the Tablet. There have been so many tablets coming out that they have become common place. And they are no longer just for the tech minded people as the prices and availability are now available for everyone. You just have to look at the impact to the market when Amazon came out with the Kindle Fire. And even Barnes & Noble came out with their Nook Tablet. These two forced the market prices lower than they had ever been before.

These 7 inch tablets altered the market. This all followed the HP TouchPad fire sale which wet the appetite for lower priced tablets at $99. While there were few to be had, this clearly showed that people wanted cheaper prices for tablets and the current price model was not going to meet the needs of the current masses of people. The Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet have shown the popularity for 7 inch tablets. But just how popular are tablets becoming?

It seems they are coming mainstream as stores such as Kohls are selling them. The picture above is from their online store and there are periodic ads for them selling 7 inch tablets. Sears, Kmart and Target have pages of tablets for sale in their stores. The number of stores where you can pick up a tablet computer continues to grow. Even Toys R Us has a pretty good selection of tablets. And if a department store does not carry tablets, they are carrying accessories for tablet computers. We are seeing tablets becoming common place just about everywhere that we go and that is a good thing.

This holiday season there are going to be a growing number of tablets on sale at some very good prices. Some will be name brands that you will recognize and others will be of less quality at some very low prices as compared to others. We are starting to see brands from just about everyone, such as Polaroid, the camera and film company. Tablet computers are being made by well known companies as well as those we have never heard of. And that is going to continue.

It seems that tablets are becoming very popular for gamers as well. A recent survey shows that 23% of app gamers are using smart phones and tablets to play games. Given that number, the gamer community is going to be looking for tablets to play games on in increasing numbers. All of this is looking very good for tablet sales. The result of all this is we are going to be seeing tablets being carried around by everyone in the same way as smart phones were 5 or more years ago. It is going to be very commonplace.

The recently released Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7 show there is a large market for tablets out there. Microsoft is talking about their Windows 8 OS for tablets and we should know more about tablets for the holiday season running Windows 8. There are growing rumors of Apple releasing the Apple iPad Mini some time this month, so it is obvious that tablet computers are going to be the holiday big seller. Much of this can be attributed to the lower price point and better products in the market.

If you have not been paying attention to the tablet market, now may be the time to take a look. Tablet computers are extremely portable for you mobile usage.

Android Fragmentation Will Never End

Gingerbread remains majority share holder for Android OS

Another report of the state of Android Fragmentation has come out and Ice Cream Sandwich is now at 23.7% and Jelly Bean is at 1.8%. The two combined have finally broken the 25% barrier and are going to continue to rise. But that rise is dependent on new devices being purchased to make that shift. The Galaxy S3 has done a lot to move the percentages higher with its great sales. But that is only one device among the large number of phones and manufacturers in the market. While we are now approaching the 1 year mark for Ice Cream Sandwich being available, being at only 23.7% is not speaking volumes for the version of Android. Even the recent Jelly Bean seems to be growing faster an Ice Cream Sandwich did.

Android Fragmentation has been a topic of conversation for the past few years. And it is not going to go away. It will continue to be discussed for many years, primarily because of the market place that it supplies the Android OS to. Unlike Apple, which controls both the hardware and the OS, Google must handle many different layers in order to provide their Ice Cream Sandwich and of late Jelly Bean to new phones. Apple is in control of the process and can chose to bypass wireless carriers in order to maintain a level of control not achieved by Google or even Microsoft with the Windows Phone OS. For Google, there are just plain too many layers they have to go through to get a phone updated with the latest OS.

One of the other big problems is that many of the phones which are able to support Gingerbread cannot support Ice Cream Sandwich, limiting the ability to reduce the fragmentation which is going on. And that is going to continue to be a problem until those phones limited to Gingerbread are retired. But that is not going to happen any time soon. Gingerbread OS phones are still being sold today and that does not look like it is going to be altered. Cheaper mobile devices will not support Ice Cream Sandwich and that is a fact.



Is there a solution for Google to try and resolve the adoption of Ice Cream Sandwich? There may be, but it will take far more effort that Google is probably willing to do. The current process works with Google releasing a new version, such as Jelly Bean. That version is then released to manufacturers who then test it on their mobile phones and add their pieces to it. Once that is done, the manufacturers turn it over to the wireless carriers who then add their pieces to the OS until it is finally ready to be released to owners of a particular phone. It is not in the best interests of wireless carriers to keep putting out updates. I have been with Verizon for a number of year and can expect to see only 1 significant update to the OS. For the Galaxy S3, that will be Jelly Bean. I would like to see what comes after Jelly Bean, but past history says that will probably not happen.

The solution for some of this may be to cut out the addition of all the pieces to the Android OS. The Nexus phone is pretty much a pure Android OS and Google could go down the path of trying to implement the idea of a pure OS being distributed to the owners of mobile phones. But doing that is going to take a lot of effort from Google to get those agreements from manufacturers and wireless carriers. That entails a lot of discussions and negotiations.

It is doubtful that we are going to ever see the Android Fragmentation issues ever be resolved as some hardware is never going to support the current Android OS, what ever it is. The goal should be to see a majority of the Android devices being on the latest OS within 1 year of its release. For Ice Cream Sandwich, that is not going to happen. And for Jelly Bean, it does not look likely right now.

Until Google alters the current working model for distribution of updates, Android Fragmentation will continue.

Online News Viewers Surpasses Newspapers

Advertising for print media continues to slide as well

We have been seeing how newspapers have been declining in readership for many years. This pretty much goes for all print media as the quickly changing world of technology has been providing easier and better options for getting your news. With Yahoo and then Google, the idea of getting your news on a computer screen has shown the coming change. And while it took longer than I would have expected, the primary source for getting news has now changed from newspapers to online. And even more interesting is that online news has even surpassed that of news on the radio.

In the chart above from Statista.com, it shows how this trend has been changing over the past 6 years as online news has been steadily increasing. For printed news, it has been seeing a steady decline since the mid-1990s. And with the growing number of tablets in the market, this trend is going to continue to see changes. And the future for printed media is facing unprecedented challenges from the ability to get your news online instantly. And you do not have to wait for it to be printed and then delivered.

While this may be a change in readership, the bigger issue is revenue for printed media. As people move away from newspapers, it has a big impact on the ability to get revenue for newspaper owners. As readership declines, the amount they can charge for advertising is going to be strained. And advertising online continues to see increases that do not look like they are going to be slowing down at all. And it is not just the advertising for businesses that is making it tough for newspapers.

All of the advertising for selling cars, garage sales and jobs is seeing big shifts as well. And it is especially true in the area of job advertising. Over the past 20 years, the web has been providing more and more options in trying to find a job. And the listings for jobs in newspapers has been seeing significant declines. Online job sites have exploded over the past 10 years and there is nothing on the horizon which is going to change that.

Printed newspapers are going to continue to see declines over the next 5 years in readership. The future for newspapers is to make sure they are providing online news. And most are. But the bigger issue is how the generate revenue from that operation. While it is far cheaper online, the costs for printing and delivering printed news continue to increase. Online, there are no printing and delivery costs as with printed news.

Some online newspapers are attempting to employ paywalls to force people to pay for the privilege of reading their news. Others employ schemes of letting you read so many free each month before they attempt to charge you. Others just let you have the news free and hope to offset that with online advertising. The last option is the best way to go. When I hit a news site that wants to charge me, I just move on to another site to get the news. And I am not alone in that.

Printed news is at a point where changes to the operations are going to have to happen to insure their survival.

Apple iPad On The Verge Of Losing Tablet Market Control

Recent survey shows Android tablets growing to majority

The Apple iPad is a desirable device that has set the bar very high for all the other competitors in the tablet market. There current screen resolution is what everyone else is trying to achieve. And it is because of the quality of the product, Apple has pretty much controlled the market. But there are glimpses that there is a change afoot where Apple may be losing their leadership position in the world of tablets. And it is all because of Android and the 7 inch market segment.

Based on a very recent market study by Pew Internet & American Life Project, things are changing. They were measuring ownership and usage of tablets by adults in the US. In the comparison between 2011 and 2012, there are some obvious shifts in the information. One of the startling numbers produced is that 68% of those surveyed purchased their tablet in the last year. That number tells you just how fast things are changing. And they are going to continue to change.

In the Pew Internet & American Life Project survey, the startling number is the difference in market share between 2011 and 2012. In 2011, Apple pretty much controlled the market with a share of 81% in July. That shows the power that the iPad had. Android had a 15% share and everyone else had a 4% share. The Blackberry PlayBook is lost in that 4% share. Things looked very good for Apple.

But then things seem to be looking different for the future. Amazon announced and then released their 7 inch Kindle Fire before the holidays. And the sales took off. Barnes and Noble release their Nook Tablet which has been doing a decent job with sales. All of this after the previous survey results. Now we come forward to the July 2012 results and see a shift in the share. The iPad has dropped from 81% to 52% and that does not look good for Apple retaining control. The Android tablets grew from 15% to 48% and that is likely to increase significantly with the next survey. All the other tablets, such as the Blackberry PlayBook are not even showing up in the results.

This does not look good for Apple. And to make the situation even worse for them, these results were provided before 2 key events. The first was the release of the Nexus 7 from Google. The other was the announcement of the Kindle Fire HD. Both of these tablets are going to have an impact on the market share that Apple has. And they are both a 7 inch tablet, which is smaller than the current iPad.

The only potential to slow the slide would be for Apple to release the iPad Mini, At the moment, that is only a rumored device with no confirmation from Apple. The most current rumor has Apple sending out invites on October 10th with the official announcement happening on October 17th. If the rumored pricing is correct in the range of $249 to $299, Apple could retain some of what we expect them to lose. If they hit the $200 price point, they could make a big splash in the market and take back the majority share.

All of this looks to be inevitable for Apple and even with the release of the 7.85 iPad Mini, there are just too many competitors out there for them to keep up. It is like the iPhone as compared to Android smart phones. There is just no way they can stop the growing tide from over taking them.

Whether you prefer Apple's iPad to the Android tablets, the Android tablets probably have already taken the majority share. That is unless the iPad Mini comes out as rumored.

Thailand Disk Drive Manufacturing Recovers From Flooding

Thailand ready to provide drives for Windows 8

[caption id="attachment_3542" align="aligncenter" width="578"] Credit: Bangkok Post[/caption]
Since the flooding last year in Thailand, there has been concerns about the disk drive manufacturing industry in Thailand. They were supplying 40 to 50% of the worlds disk drives. And the picture about shows the impact to all industry in the county. Knowing someone there has caused an increased interest in the problems associated with all the flooding. It has been a year since the flooding and it is starting to look like Thailand is set to resume their role as a primary hard drive supplier for the world. They have many large companies using the city of Bangkok to produce a variety of drives.

All of this is looking good for Bangkok, though some recent reports about a drop in exports could be seen as a problem, in the disk drive sector, that is going to be changing soon. Tablets have been the rage for the past few quarters and laptops along with desktop computers have suffered in their sales. That weakened demand looks like it will be ending at the same time as Bangkok is completely recovered from the devastating floods of last year.

And the time could not be better. With Microsoft preparing to release Windows 8, their latest OS, there is going to be holiday demand for computers this year. Windows 8 is new and very different from anything that Microsoft has released in the past. While it may seem like an experiment, it is bound to create a lot of demand for computers this holiday season. And with that demand, there will be a need to provide a lot of disk drives for those laptop and desktop computers.

The predictions from iHS shows continuing increases in disk drive demand for the next 5 years. While there are the needs of laptops and desktop computers, there is also the need for solid state drives (SSD) for all the tablets which are expected to roll out, including Microsoft's Surface tablet. And that one is expected to sell very well. With rumors of an Apple iPad Mini and other rumored tablets, demand looks good for the 4th quarter and well into next year.

All of this means that Thailand is going to be able to put the problems with the flooding in 2011 behind them and return to their leadership roll in providing drives to the world. But, there are still concerns about possible flooding this year. Not all the repairs to the flood channeling systems have been completed and if they have another heavy rainy season again this year, there could be more flooding problems in the industrial districts. Much of the work done has been to raise the walls of the flood channel to 5.5 meters. That is 1 meter higher than the maximum water level last year. And they are continuing to work on other areas to complete the work. It is a very large undertaking.

It is hoped that the demand for computer drives grows as expected as it will put Thailand's manufacturing back into high gear and help the recovery in their economy.

Self Driving Cars May Lead To Unemployment For Some

What human jobs can be replaced?

The future for technology is always just out there a ways and for it to become the present does not require as much as you think. Just 3 or 4 years ago, the idea of a car which could drive itself was still a dream which many fantasized about. It seemed that it would be too many years away before we would see come into being. That was before Google embarked on their self driving car experiment which has turned out to be a technology changing experience for the world. And in California, legislation has been signed which will require the state to prepare for their eventuality which is going to require the rules and laws to go along with that.

But, there is a nagging question which has just now started to be raised. It sure seems like we are our own worst enemy at times. The question is whether self driving cars will start a new wave of unemployment? And it is a very valid question coming from The Guardian. While they talk about economic conditions, this is a very real issue and something most are not thinking too much about. While the article says that people are driving less and the car has peaked, they may be missing some things. People are driving less because of the rising cost of gas. But what if you could find another mode of transportation which required less gas. We know that all electric vehicles with sufficient mileage ranges are only a few years away.

With that, car costs for fuel are going to be altered. But, how does that relate to self driving cars? Let's take for example the idea of getting a cab in any major city. Today, cabs drive around looking for passengers which burns up fuel and has to be factored into the cost of the cab ride. In the near future, all of that is going to change. With self driving cars, you will not need to have a driver at some point. So, you now have cabs that can be requested and one would show up at your location. You would request your destination and pay before you start the trip. On arrival, you depart and the cab goes to the next request pickup. Computers would determine the most efficient next pickup for the cab.

All of this has eliminated the need for a driver. And that is going to impact a large group of people who depend on driving a cab for a living. It is not going to happen overnight, but it is going to happen. The same can be said for any of our mass transportation. The buses that drive around the cities is another prime candidate for this change and when implemented would eliminate the jobs of all those who drive buses. While technology for the future is what improves our lives, those who are put out of work because of the new technology will add to the unemployment.

You do not have to look back in time to find another situation like this. The ATM machine was a new technology in the 1970's and it has altered how things are done significantly. Before that, there were a large number of banks and people working in the banks. As the ATM machines started rolling out, banks started letting people go because they no longer needed them. Today, you see ATMs everywhere and there are a lot fewer banks as well. You walk into a bank today as compared to 20 years ago and they are pretty much empty. That is the impact of some technology improvements.

How long it is going to take before the public can accept vehicles traveling without drivers remains to be seen. We know it is coming and have seen it demonstrated. Are you prepared for the new tomorrow?