The flexible computer

This is one of those things that seems so unnatural it almost make me recoil in horror. There’s a company making a tablet computer that is similar to an e-reader that bends. I don’t know how far you can bend it before it breaks, but the fact that you can bend the thing to begin with is enough to give me goosebumps. I also play saxophone and once had a friend seriously damage his instrument where the top part of the instrument was bent at a very awkward angle. It reminded of looking at someone with a broken arm. When I saw this bending tablet, I had the same reaction.

Wouldn’t you love to see something like this?

As a lover of dogs and owner of two fairly big dogs, waste management is an issue. And when it comes time to walk them, I feel downright ridiculous carrying a brown bag and scooper waiting for one of them to do some business. I do it, though, to avoid the fine. There are plans, however, to implement a system that will eliminate the need for those scoopers and brown bags. It seems there’s a company developing a system that will feed into a town’s sewer system via strategically placed disposal units. I hope this becomes a reality; it will make walking my dogs a much easier task.

Internet addiction

I guess humans can become addicted to anything. There’s a new study today that says some teens are showing signs of addiction withdrawal when they disconnected from anything internet related or even cell phones. They only followed them for a day, but that was enough for the test subjects to display anxiety and a general inability to function. We all know about drug and alcohol addiction, and recently gambling has become more of a discussion topic.  And really, anything done to excess can become an addiction: shopping (I once heard someone call this the “well dressed addiction”), work (“the most acceptable addiction”), sex and food are some more common addictions. So it stands to reason  that if we as a society place too much emphasis on the internet and related technology, it too can become an addiction.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love technology.  Technology allows me to remain connected to my family living in other states and friends from high school and college. But as with all things, there needs to be balance. We need to interact with the reality as much as the virtual reality.

Going green on the go

With the push to be more environmentally friendly, being resourceful and practical needs to be equal.  I think this laptop bag fills both purposes.  It’s got solar energy cells to run your laptop for five hours.  That way you can save on your laptop battery and use less electricity when plugging it in.  I may have to give this a try.

How do you feel about this one?

If you’ve been following the news in the tech world, you probably have heard the name Gray Powell. For the uninitiated, Gray Powell works for Apple, took a device from the R&D department with him one night and left it in a bar accidentally. Someone else picked it up and tech site Gizmodo got their hands on it and did a full review of an unreleased Apple product.  What appears to be a prototype for the iPhone 4G was splattered all over the net and Apple formally requested the device back. Now there is speculation that Powell may lose his job, but to all this I say, “Take Apple down a notch more.” I find it a bit childish that we have such high security for tech devices yet we have a system of airport security that is the epitome of the three stooges. You know why Apple is so secretive? It’s because all these tech presidents and big wigs steal each others ideas all the time. They don’t call them the “Pirates of Silicon Valley” for nothing. I know of no other field that places so much on hoarding ideas for personal gain. So, when something like this happens, I dance a little dance. I hope Verizon and TMobile are taking notes from what they’ve learned via Gizmodo.

The coming trend

There’s a report that says teen texting has doubled during the last four years. It also says that there are more children who own their own cell phone and that the use of email and landline telephone has decreased slightly.  I have to wonder why people seem to feel that spending money on this type of research is necessary. I could have told texting among teens was increasing.  I see 10 year olds with cell phones who complain about their parents not having more texting on the family plan. Younger generations naturally gravitate to newer technology.  If they didn’t, we’d still be using sticks to make fire and drawing pictures on the wall. The fun part is to contemplate what the next big trend is? I see more and more technology starting to come out with video communication technology.  Who knows, in ten years, we might be able to talk to people on the coast by looking at our TV and saying, “On screen.”

Apps, Apps, Everywhere

As Apple continues to push both the iPad and iPhone with more and more apps, the Android is starting to bridge the gap slightly with its own app store. The Android now boasts 38,000 different apps right now and is on pace to have 100,000 by year’s end. The Apple store already 100,000, so it appears at first glance that Apple already has the market beat, but only time will really tell. The problem both phones face is an issue of quality over quantity. While some apps for both phones are very practical and beneficial, there are quite a few that fall into the “almost worthless” category, according to an article by Jared Newman.

I personally think that Android will be able to grab a little more of the market when people realize that the Android is not limited when it comes to apps. What I mean is that Apple makes custom apps that pull info from the internet and then presents it in a way that Apple wants people to see it. The Android does not have that limitation. The biggest example of this is the Flash issue that Apple refuses to accomodate. If a website has Flash anywhere on the site, that portion of the site will not function on the iPhone or iPad. The android again does not have that limitation which I think will ultimately help Android take some of the market from Apple.

This is hilarious

The joke has already been done, but I’ll repeat it for purposes of this post.  You want to govern a country halfway around the world? There’s an app for that. The prime minister of Norway is stuck in New York due to ash from a volcano in Iceland making the air lanes blocked. Well, the business of government must continue, so the prime minister is keeping in contact with his government and nation via his iPad.  This is the kind of thing that Steve Jobs and Apple must dream of at night. Just when a German company introduces a tablet with USB ports and a webcam, Norway comes along to prove the effectiveness of the iPad.

Broadband internet solutions

There’s a story about small cable companies not receiving money from the government with the intention of bringing broadband to rural areas. Larger companies got the lion’s share of the money. Smaller cable companies are worried about being able to compete for customers.  Here’s what I say about this. I live in a rural area and my wife and I run a web design business, so we have to have  cable internet. Fortunately, we do live close enough to a larger town to get a cable company to come out here and provide service.  I’ll tell you this though, if we didn’t need it, we wouldn’t have it.  We would rather run on air cards. Air cards run off of cell phone towers, and depending on the strength of the cell phone signal, you can get just as fast an internet connection as anything else out there. Cell phone towers have a better reach, but the only issue is the data.  The data plan for most air cards is only 5GB each month. After that, you pay through the nose. And running a web business requires a lot of data transfer. So, if you live in a rural area and want good internet, try an air card.

Microsofts next of Kin

Microsoft unveiled its new cell phones Monday, the Kin 1 and the Kin 2. Microsoft is hoping these will catch on with the social networking and texting crowd and recover some of the market from the iPhone and Android. Usually, though, unless there is a major shift in either functionality or price, buyers like to stay with what they know works. And from the sounds of it, some people are not real impressed with the modified Windows software that is one these phones.  That could be a dela breaker. Every smartphone can pretty much access Facebook, and most have a web browser of some kind, so unless Microsoft is able to revolutionize the market in some way similar to the iPhone, this may not be the most successful move by them.