The Power Of Compound Interest

http://investor.gov/tools/calculators/compound-interest-calculator#.UsHSz-LNkfk

The power of compound interest (ignoring taxes, such as in an IRA or a life insurance policy, or something like that). is enormous.  That's not really news, but what was news to me is this government page where you can make an easy calculations on "what it".

This website came to me by way of a curious moment today – I found some documents cleaning my files, and realized that I had an opportunity in 1983, when my children were young, to purchase a Gift Trust Fund that was being offered by American Century (under a prior name 20^th, Century Funds). The idea was this Fund would act like a mini trust fund, but the Fund company would do all the paperwork for you, and file any and all tax returns.  The minimum investment was $2,500, and you locked up the money for a minimum of 18 years.  Ideal as a gift for a newborn child for future college money.

The fund has earned 11.5 % average per year, since inception.  So, had I put in $2,500 per child, what would the present value be?   I ran the numbers, it was something like $65,000.  Think if I had put in more, like $10,000 ?  I ran the numbers on putting in $40,000, and that would have yielded $1,000,000.  Of course $40,000 is no small amount to part with, but $1.0 million isn’t a bad payout.  This Fund tracks the market, but invests in all size companies with high growth since it takes a long term perspective, that makes sense.

Of course the on-line calculator is my thrust with this post, not the Fund.  But it is interesting to look back over time and see that some growth mutual funds do perform well, in spite of 2008 type crashes. And surely this Fund is not the most successful of the type.

19 Useful Tips for the iPhone or iPad User

http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/mind-blowing-tricks-every-iphone-and-ipad-user-should-kno

I leaned a few valuable tips here.  Who know these?

1.    That putting your iPhone in “airplane mode” would speed the charging?  Useful in airports and other times when you need the phone back quickly.

2.    That you could hold down the “numbers” key on the keyboard, then slide to a number and release, and be back to the alpha keyboard?  That should be handy.

3.    That holding the “decimal point” key would bring up your choices of .com  .net and so forth?  You wouldn’t have to type those letters in?

I see Buzz Feed a few times a year, it is a cluttered site, and could be a time waster, but once in awhile it has some pretty funny, or useful stuff. 

Apple's Choice for "App of The Year" (In The Free Category)

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/talkingtech/2013/12/17/duolingo-apples-iphone-app-of-the-year/4042469/

Learn a second language, for free.  Not a bad idea.  Shark Tank investors?  Come on quickly, this one might work out well. Basic point, good software to learn a second language is out of the price reach of many people for whom a second language would greatly expand their employment opportunities. 

Public Service Announcement (Junk Phone Calls)

I get several junk-telemarketing calls a month, often from the same companies.  I never answer the phone for them since I have caller ID.  When the caller hears my answering machine pick up, they hang up.  I am sure you have the same.

I discovered doing a reverse phone number look up today for one of the more frequent and irritating callers that there is an FCC website to file an on-line complaint about a particular caller. Here is the link.

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html

I have filed my first complaint.  It was serious stuff, they asked many questions, but they were all sensible.  They also had me authenticate my complaint, much like you do when you sign a tax return.  Then I got a confirmation and a complaint number to print and save for future reference.  Here is what that looked like (with my numbers XXX out).

 ----------------------------------------------------------

FCC Submission Confirmation: 1088B

Acknowledgement of Submission from Lxxxx  Bxxxx on 12/17/2013, reference number 13-xx  2387954w3.

Thank you for your information. The FCC will contact you if additional information is required. Please keep this information for future reference.

 ---------------------------------------------------------------

On their main site www.FCC.gov  , they even have a mobile bandwidth speed check you can use to see if you are getting real 4-G or not. Worth checking out this website.

TurboScan APP for Smart Phone

There are many scanning APP’s for smart phones, but today I will review the one I just discovered by way of my furnace repairman today.  I liked to see APP's in use by people I know, and hear their story, and this was one of those days.  My repairman is a skilled smart phone user ---  for business purposes --- so I trust his judgment. He uses TurboScan ($2.99).  

I have a few other scanner APP's (all scanners use the smart phone camera) but they are not exactly first class in their performance.  The demo I saw today from my friend, the repairman, was amazing.  He took a photo of a full sheet of printed instructions. The APP actually took about 4 photos quickly, and then selected the one that was best quality. Then he cropped it to get out anything that was not "the document" that was in somehow visible in the photo. Then he was given choices:  Email it to Myself  --  Email it to Someone Else --- Print it to a wireless printer, and so on.  It would go out as a PDF file.  On top of that, the APP enhanced the document, making the text black and the background white, very professional looking – and there were choices on the enhancement techniques.  But all this took place very rapidly.

He told me he could photograph a repair bill or anything and email it to a client or his own office, using this system, and he did that often.  It would come into the client’s email in-box as a PDF, and they could print it, forward it to the person who would be paying the bill, or whatever.  I saw the results, and it was very good looking. 

So, if you have tried a few scanning APP’s and not been satisfied, you might want to try this one.  I purchased it and will be testing it shortly.  I love my Evernote as well, which does some similar things, with OCR recognition for searching as well.  And Evernote stores the documents you photograph in their cloud. But they are also stored on all your computing devices as a backup.

Baggage Fees Soar, One Man’s Solution

Recent stories in publications such as Wall Street Journal stress how airlines, particularly Spirit and Allegiant, are adding on so many fees their low prices don’t look quite so low to the untrained traveler.

Brent Hopkins, a 25 years old guy, who has flown Spirit for years decided the time had come to design a bag that could fly free on Spirit – meeting all their size dimensions and fitting under the seat in front.  This meant precise design, and clever features.  He did it, and is now marketing the product via a website.  Here is the address

http://www.carryonfree.com/products/tan-copper-trolley  $69  and has wheels and a collapsing handle. And is good looking.  This good looking color is on back order until June of 2014.  But other bags are available (see website).   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv6fbH8w36A    25,000 people have viewed this video to see how to pack in order to avoid Spirit luggage fees.  The new Carry Free bag above helps solve this problem. The bag being packed in this video might be available at WalMart, or there’s another type of small carry on bag called Kavu Happy Hauler (try Amazon or other) .  It appears to be smaller than the FlyFree bag.

Important New Smart Phone Health Monitoring Tools+Apps

 
Primary Source Material for this Blog Post:  BloombergBusinessweek  -- current issue:

http://www.scanadu.com/

Scout Medical Tricorder might be the big breakthrough we have all been looking for.  Does much of what a doctor would do on an office visit – checks heart rate, temperature, blood pressure and more.  Put it to your head and it picks up all the readings and transmits them to a smart phone for storage and other purposes.  $199,but not available until 2014.  It raised $1.7 million on a crowd funding website, Indiegogo, and that set a record for a new product on that funding site. .

http://www.alivecor.com/home

EKG ECG check, $99.   Cardiac Designs , data can be shared with doctors, like an EKG in your pocket.  Slips over an I Phone for the time you are checking your heart.  

http://cardiacdesigns.com/  It says it is the only FDA approved cardiac checker for this application ! 

 

http://cardiacdesigns.com/

Telcare Blood Glucose Monitoring system, first for full use with telephone, they say.  Check this out.  $150.  Allows remote monitoring by doctors.

http://www.fooducate.com/

Scan food in stores for nutrition information in detail.  Grades the product based on science and took first place in the US Surgeon General’s healthy app competition last year.  Free for basic $4.99 for advanced.

http://propellerhealth.com/

Leading mobile sensor for snapping onto inhalers.  It will track when and how often asthma and other respiratory conditions use their medications and can be shared with a physician.

https://www.getairo.com/

Wrist band for health and fitness monitoring – an entrant in a very crowded field. Tracks sleep, activity and calories. But it is also a heart rate monitor that vibrates whenever the wearer is stressed.  There is also a spectrometer that breaks down the nutritional value of foods.  You will have to wait until 2014 for this one, but watch for it to, perhaps, make a big splash in that crowded wrist monitoring market.  $150, taking pre-orders now.

How Safe Is Digital Media For Long Term Data Storage

Apparently, not so safe. Popular Science Magazine, Dec. 2013 issue, says that odds are low that saving our digital photos on CD’s and hard drives (like backup removable, remote, hard drives) will be safe for the next generation.  The initial thinking was a CD would be good for 100 years, now they are re-thinking it because many fail in 10 years.

Old fashioned paper has done very well by comparison. Early paper (the acid free kind) is still going strong after 100 years.  A typical spinning hard disk drive has a problem I didn’t know about :  If you don’t use it, you lose it. “You’ve got to have it spinning regularly or you are not going to be able to play it”. Says Howard Besser, archivist, NYU.

An even greater problem than the durability of our thumb drives, CD’s, and hard drives, will be the decoding of them sometime in the future, when the software is no longer around that created them. Think Windows 95.  Think Newton. Think CPM.

This is a distressing thought, since I think we all are planning for our children’s photos to last forever in a closet somewhere on a never-used hard drive backup device. Personally, I am trying to convert my VHS tapes of my children to DVD format, and sometimes the tapes will not play.  Or break easily.  And now the wisdom seems to be that the DVD isn’t an eternal format either.  With BlueRay and whatever else follows, DVD players might become like Beta-max video recorders.  I still have one, but wouldn’t know where to buy another if it broke.  I have Beta tapes from 1982.  With valuable things on them. History if you will.  Maybe we should have taken Kodak photos instead ?  But wait, where is Kodak? 

Massive Free Shipping Day Coming December 18

1,000 on line merchants are offering one day of free shipping for orders placed on December 18 --- and they guarantee arrival by Christmas if ordered on that date. 

www.FreeShipping.org     search for what you want among the 4,000 listed merchants who offer free shipping and discounts through the site.

Then, use a price comparison site, such as Amazon or PriceGrabber.com to see whether another retailer offers a similar item at a lower price.  Try www.JR.com  or www.BHphotovideo.com or www.tigerdirect.com as but two or three examples of sites I use for price checking and useful information.  These, plus Amazon, EBay, and sometimes WalMart on-line will almost always give you plenty of electronic comparisons and additional useful buying information. 

Then go to  www.freeshippingday.com   that lists the retailers who, on that day only, will ship free, with no minimum order … that’s a deal, for sure (unless they raise prices for that one day).   A Staff Favorites portion of the site will show which merchants they think offer the best discounts in addition to free shipping. 

Mobile version will also be available (check for dates and APP names later).

Will this replace “Black Friday” as the largest on-line shopping day of the year? 

Remember the “tax-free-back-to-school” day (or two) we used to have in SC? No sales tax that day, or those days?  I think they are going to eliminate that in 2014.

Security Threat To Your Phone – in a 7 Day Period

The US has one of the lowest mobile device threat rates in the world, but that is still a rather disturbing 1.7% chance in every 7 day period.  So, the risk is not inconsequential.  Android phones are probably more vulnerable than Apple phones.  The established virus security industry has been slow to react to protecting mobile devices.  But an upstart has come on the scene.  I have Blogged about this company before “Lookout”.  A new story about the company in Fortune Magazine alerts me to both the company as a potential investment and as an APP that is sensible and doesn’t scare you (in order to sell you more services).   See Oct 28 issue of Fortune. Story is not free to read on-line. 

https://www.lookout.com/   “For the Post-PC Era”  What a great tag line.

The risk in Germany to have your mobile device hacked is 4 X more than the US.  Thus Germany's government and corporations are very interested in this software.  The Lookout  website says their software (installed as an APP on your phone) has now scanned 4.8 million APP’s … to ensure they are clean, and won’t harm your device.  Company is not yet public, but is backed by hugely influential private investors.  The founder was playing in the stock market in the 4^th. grade. He is one of the most astute young entrepreneurs around – according to venture capital decision makers.  He is now 36 but founded the company when he was 30.   

With the potential demand, world wide, I would say this company could have a very big future, or will get acquired by a larger entity.  Unfortunately I don't see a way for outsiders to buy any stock. 

Yeti Cooler Revolution

http://www.yeticoolers.com/

Hunters, fishermen, campers, construction sites, and tail-gate fans, all now know about the Yeti Cooler.  The wonder is why it took so long for someone to invent a really long lasting, well insulated cooler, you can stand on, sit on, and expect ice to stay in decent shape for days and days.  Businessweek Magazine just ran a story on the founders of the product, a mom and pop kind of operation started by Roy Seiders in Texas.  He and his older brother created the company and it has advanced well beyond fishermen.  Made of the same materials as Igloo and Coleman, it has more insulation and is much stronger and more durable in sunlight. It is also “bear proof” and has amazing set of extra add-ons like tie-down straps and a well cushioned seat top that snaps on.  Nice videos on the website to instruct you on how to install the tie-down anchors in your boat (or truck).  All accessories are stainless steel, all user friendly.  Now even doctors are using them to transport organs.  This cooler is fast becoming a cult-item for hunters and fishermen, campers too.  Company sales should exceed $100 million this year. Prices range from $220 to $1,300.

A Walk In The Park? Walking and Running APP’s for Smart Phones

There are quite a few walking or running apps for your iPhone (or other brand).  A friend showed me hers last week, and I was fascinated.  We talked for 3.3 miles, it kept track of the distance using GPS.  And showed the route, and time, and calculated the “speed in miles per hour” I suppose. 

I searching for that exact app, I ran into some others worth a look   Walk Tracker Pro ($2.99 in the iTunes store) has a fabulous user rating.  265 reviews and still has 4.8 stars out of 5.  That’s heavy duty.  It appears to be a very complete APP, telling you, perhaps verbally, what landmarks you are passing – and allows you to listen to radio at the same time. 

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/walk-tracker-pro/id423400390?mt=8

Walk with Map, My Walk appears to be another good one.  Free.  It pulls up a map of where you are walking and you can see it plot your walk in red, down the sidewalks or streets.  It says it is a GPS pedometer.  Nice touch.

Sports Tracker app has less reviews, but the quality rating is still 4.5 star, and it is free.  It certainly has a nice home screen, very informative and big numbers for those with poor eyesight. Appears to put a satellite map on the home screen – the exact place where you are walking -- of course. 

There are 130 APP’s in the iTunes store for walking or running.  So there is no shortage of choices.  Let me know which ones you are using (just hit the comment button below) and tell me if you like it (or the opposite). 

Innovation From Annoyance

A recent story in WSJ about how annoyance drives some household innovation was worth a read.  It re-describes the Nest Thermostat, which I have blogged about before.  And talks about other worthy items to remove stress from life (if you are a techie, and have spendable cash):

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304500404579125131894144044

The next annoyance remover product is a smoke detector, with museum good looks, innovative working ideas, and, sadly, a $129 price tag.  But here is what it does better:

1.      probably has a 10 year battery

2.      looks pretty good

3.      if you put 4 in your house, they can talk to one another and so if one goes off in one room, the other 3 will also go off.

4.      false alarm?  You wave your hand and it sees that, and stops the alarm sound.  No finding a ladder and so on.

5.      if the battery is low, it tells you, maybe in plain English

6.      if there is a fire in one room, perhaps the other 3 units will speak something like  “fire in bedroom” – I am not sure.

The article mentions paying for things with smart phones (see my post earlier today) and I see that coming rapidly.  Why?  Because for the first time ever, most everyone has a $600 (list price) phone-computer in their pocket and thus can communicate with their money and vice versa. Think about paying small bills, like a food-truck meal (no land line in the truck) or other vendor wirelessly.  Credit cards might someday look as obsolete as the “pagers” of the 1970’s and 80’s .  And to think I was impressed with my first pager and used it a good bit. Same with my first bag phone. 

Money In The (e) Mail

WSJ ‘s Walter Mossberg reviews "Square Cash" today.  A new and unique system to transfer cash from your bank account to a friend or family member (but not to a business).

http://allthingsd.com/20131015/the-money-is-in-the-email/

This could be the dreamed-about breakthrough because it hits all the buttons on the wish list.

1.      any debit card to any debit card, any bank

2.      no log in

3.      no password to remember

4.      no special hardware required

5.      no special software required

6.      just uses e-mail

7.      works on both ends, using any e-mail service

8.      any device, smart phone, tablet or a desktop computer

9.      did I mention it is FREE ?

Up to $2,500 per week can be moved.  In several transactions, or all at once.

Think of how easy this would make “splitting a check at a restaurant” ?  But, of course, just giving the server two or more credit cards does something similar (but with more risk of ID theft or card compromise).  This seems to trump the more complicated PayPal transfer solution, and the screens it uses are elegantly simple.  Walter Mossberg had it work rather flawlessly in his tests.  So I think this one is definitely worth looking into.  Think of transferring money as a graduation gift, or birthday gift?  

Tell The Waiter You Will Just Walk Out

Without paying.   

Yes, there is a new app on the way called “Cover”.  Cover lets you check in to a restaurant on arrival, and they will know your game plan, and so when the time comes to leave, you just walk out.   A few minutes after you leave you will get an email telling you that the restaurant was paid “$ X “ and the waitress was tipped 20 %. 

See details in link below.  Restaurants and others say that people who pay by charge card tip better than those tipping with cash.  Also 18% is the least Cover will let you tip, as the industry thinks that’s about the least the wait-staff can survive on. It also costs the restaurant less commission than charge card companies would have charged them to process the same payment.

http://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/10/01/cover-launches-its-dining-out-ios-app-to-eliminate-waiting-for-the-check/

Right now it is limited to NYC, and , after beta testing for a year, 200 restaurants have signed on.  But the hopes are it will spread.  Venture capitalists are circling. Is this the next Groupon? Or restaurant PayPal? You saw it here first !

FireFox Browser – Securing Bookmarks

I have always used FireFox, which I like much better than other browsers. Assuming you also use FireFox, you might be interested in this.  Several times, as a result of upgrading my computer or a computer crash, I have lost my bookmarks.   That is a big loss, since I probably have 200 or more over 10 years time. And I use them all the time (via the little search box, which finds them quickly).

There is an easy way to build a bookmarks backup on your computer – or backup to a thumb drive or flash drive, or whatever you like outside your computer box.  Here’s the answer

1.      Push “control”, “shift”, and “B”  at the same time on your keyboard and up pops a little pop-up in the middle of your screen.

2.      There is a little menu at the top that says “import and backup”

3.      Choose “backup”

4.      Prefix suggested name with drive letter for thumb drive, i.e.
f:\bookmarks-2011-07-31.json   Where “F” is your thumb drive  it will automatically put the strange extension .json  onto your file.   You just have to choose “F” or whatever letter you need for your backup drive.  Or, you could let it go to the desktop, or some file in My Documents.  But safer to have it “off site”. 

This would be the file to restore on a new Firefox profile, it will replace all bookmarks. That is, when you are ready to bring the file back into use.  I just saved my bookmarks today for both of my computers, as a safety measure.  While I do back up the entire computer, finding just that one thing in a zip drive might not be handy (and in the past I don’t think it even worked due to loading a fresh copy of FireFox browser on the new system).  I think it is best to have it in a clean file, on a thumb drive or backup hard drive.  Your thoughts or tips?  Add as comment.

Advanced Computing Tool Built 2,000 Years Ago

A Greek shipwreck (2,000 years ago)  holds the remains of an intricate bronze machine that turns out to be the world's first computer. Show aired April 3, 2013 on PBS 

 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/ancient-computer.html 
 Click on "Watch The Video" to see the show.
  
PBS NOVA Program Description:

In 1900, a storm blew a boatload of sponge divers off course and forced them to take shelter by the tiny Mediterranean island of Antikythera. Diving the next day, they discovered a 2,000 year-old Greek shipwreck. Among the ship's cargo they hauled up was an unimpressive green lump of corroded bronze. Rusted remnants of gear wheels could be seen on its surface, suggesting some kind of intricate mechanism. The first X-ray studies confirmed that idea, but how it worked and what it was for puzzled scientists for decades. Recently, hi-tech imaging has revealed the extraordinary truth: this unique clockwork machine was the world's first computer. An array of 30 intricate bronze gear wheels, originally housed in a shoebox-size wooden case, was designed to predict the dates of lunar and solar eclipses, track the Moon's subtle motions through the sky, and calculate the dates of significant events such as the Olympic Games. No device of comparable technological sophistication is known from anywhere in the world for at least another 1,000 years. So who was the genius inventor behind it? And what happened to the advanced astronomical and engineering knowledge of its makers? NOVA follows the ingenious sleuthing that finally decoded the truth behind the amazing ancient Greek computer.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/ancient-computer.html

Click on “watch the video”  what a story.  

Using Costco More Effectively

There is a couple who have a website called Costco Couple.  They photograph items in the store, and post them for others to see.  They discuss the products if they have actually purchased them, but their descriptions are quite good either way.  This could make your time at Costco more productive, as you might see something you wouldn’t see just pushing a cart through the store.  Like an on-line catalog, perhaps, but better.  You can scroll back to see their posts prior to the current page.  I have already found an item to buy --- that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise.  A sound-bar for a flat screen TV.  However, searching for web reviews of the Costco item, I found a better product (slightly higher priced), reviewed at PC Magazine on-line.  Since it was  better performing and highly recommended, I went searching for it on line. At Amazon  it was not much higher in price than the Costco sound bar.  And it has a blue-tooth sub woofer and better sound. So – indirectly I found a great product at a great price from my first use of Costco Couple. .

http://costcocouple.com/

They also have a link to the coupon book for Costco – more savings.  I didn’t know Costco had a coupon book.  Here is a link to that.

http://costcocouple.com/costco-september-2013-coupon-book-090513-to-092913/

The Costco Couple are not affiliated with Costco and are not paid anything or given anything by Costco, it is purely a fun operation for them to help others (I presume).  I believe it anyway.

Vending Machine For Cars

Brooklyn is about to get a 697 car underground parking lot, where the cars are delivered to their spaces by a robotic system, and put in slots like post office boxes while you are away from the car (see video below).  Popular Mechanics Magazine has the story in the October 2013 issue, but it is not yet on-line.   It is a miracle of ingenuity, and is a proven system as well.  It stores several times the number of cars in the same cubic footage that a conventional garage does.  And – the big news – the garage industry averages “one insurable incident per 100 cars”.   This automated garage, in testing elsewhere, has parked 300,000 cars without a single “insurable incident”.  It will be ready in 2016 (why so long was not explained).

It will save or improve the following:   Just this one garage !!!

1.      250,000 cars in and out are projected – per year

2.      will eliminate 250,000 miles of driving, annually

3.      will save 152 metric tons of CO-2 emissions annually

4.      will save 17,000 gallons of fuel annually

5.      reduce “insurable incidents” from 2,500 a year to zero  compared to conventional underground garages.

6.      save many hours of time that patrons would otherwise spend walking and riding elevators to get out of conventional underground parking  -- with this, they exit very close to when they pull in the garage.

Motion sensors and other devices make sure no humans are in the cars when they are “parked” in their post-office type boxes.

“It’s very much like a vending machine for cars” says Ari Milstein, Executive director of AutoMotion.

http://www.automotionparking.com/  watch the video , choose full screen option. 

Flu Shots for 2013 Updated Information

The WSJ today recommends flu shows now – not later.  The shots take several weeks to build the immunity to the maximum, so one should not wait until flu season arrives to get the shot.

1.      shots in many areas are available at pharmacies and are fast and inexpensive, or free with Medicare or supplemental Medicare policies

2.      children over 6 months should get their flu shots as well

3.      trivalent shot is the one used by most in the past

4.      quadrivalent shot picks up a 4^th type and is recommended for children

5.      fluzone  shot – a more powerful shot, recommended for people over 62

6.      flublock shot  -- a new one, this is the first year, for people with egg allergies but only for ages 18 to 49

Personally, I had the fluzone shot last year, and didn’t get the flu of course.  I have had the shots for years, no side effects whatsoever.  I get mine at Walgreens.

WSJ article says 20% of the US population get the flu every year, with type B being the most common.  So this is not something any of us can ignore.  Last year only 42% of adults got the shot, and only half the children from age 6 to 17.  My recommendation:  get your flu shot in the next week or so.

HUE -- A Really Smart Light Bulb -- Watch The Video

https://www.meethue.com/

HUE, a great new idea, a very smart light bulb  -- watch the video  $100 for 3 of them according to TIME magazine story on Sept 2, 2013.   I think it would be a fun thing to have and apparently is a really, really, smart light bulb. 

Scandisk Produces Another Winner -- A Portable 64 GB Unit, Feature Filled

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323407104579038942334577058.html

Story worth a read in this weeks WSJ.  The device is called Scandisk and costs $100 for the 64 GB version.  It will accept photos and files from your PC or Mac, and it is no bigger than a stack of post-it notes.   Nice.   It will wirelessly make all those files available to your iPad or iPhone (or Android phone) – up to 100 feet away.  No matter where you go, it can stream video and give file and photo access to 8 devices simultaneously.

The good news is

1.      the battery life is quite long, 6 hours or more streaming, and longer with other files

2.      doesn’t need an internet connection or wi-fi to work, it has the files stored internal

3.      it appears just like a wi-fi connection in your settings, you select it, and it connects like any other wi-fi source.  A special app then lets you access everything on your screen.

4.      you hook it to your PC or Mac with a USB cable and drag and drop what you want in it – pretty straight forward

5.      you can load photos and other things off your iPad or iPhone into it to clean up space

6.      essentially, it could act like you just increased your storage on your iPhone or android by 64 GB.  Until they are able to put more GB’s of storage into phones this might be a stop gap.  Or useful for accessing files for business on the road or in the car, particular where there is no internet signal, like in a submarine, or walking in a forest or in an office building with poor internet and or wi-fi access

7.      couple this with the great Anker battery boost devices (see other post in my blog) and you really have a great total solution for an overseas flight or a few days in the wilderness

I noticed that in just a few months I am bumping the storage limits of my iPad and iPhone and I really don’t want to lose immediate access to all my photos and videos by downloading it to a PC that is in only one “fixed” location.  This could allow the photos to travel and be accessed only when needed.  Nice.

PS--- I still recommend my Anker battery supply (see prior Blog Post) it continues to please.