Popular Science Highlights 16 Innovative New Tech Products

Below are the ones I thought the most of, several would be useful for those in construction.  But the list suggests that “everything has not yet been invented”, and some popular existing products (like the pocket calculator) can still be improved.

Here are links to my selections:

http://www.amazon.com/Ryobi-ES2000-Phone-Infrared-Thermometer/dp/B010MS3PPG/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1451495566&sr=8-3&keywords=ryobi+infrared+thermometer

Ryobi infrared thermometer that in instant, and connects to smart phone through the ear phone jack. $50 -- a decent price

http://www.popsci.com/best-obsessed-2015?image=7

Unique saw that cross cuts or rips and measures

http://www.popsci.com/best-obsessed-2015?image=10

Converts your TV into a Windows Computer, Go ahead and design your PowerPoint in the big screen, comes with memory, windows, and just plugs in simply.

http://www.popsci.com/best-obsessed-2015?image=12

First big improvement in pocket calculators in years, color screen, graphs visible, do all your math homework fast and simple. 

Now if I had only had that calculator in the 60's when I was in engineering !! 

Roach Motel That Works

They check in, but they don’t check out.  In spite of using a professional service, roaches still seem to get in various properties I take care of.  Over the years I have tried several effective sprays on thresholds (Bengal and others) but one that consistently works for me is the Roach Motel TAT  (by Black Flag) – “They check in, but they don’t check out”.  These little boxes are safe, are not bad looking (wood grain disposable cardboard) and you get to see how effective they are by looking in.  Somewhat hard to buy in retail stores, I usually get mine on-line or at an ACE hardware.

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Flag-Roach-2-count-Packages/dp/B007QVRZPE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1451319534&sr=8-1&keywords=TAT+Roach+Motel

$20 gets you 12 motels, less than $2 each, and $20 is only 2/3^rd. of the cost of the monthly professional treatments.  And 12 boxes will last (forme)  6 months or a year.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lot-of-6-Black-Flag-Roach-Motel-Cockroach-Killer-Bait-Glue-Traps-3X2-Pack-/191701073084?hash=item2ca2463cbc:g:tz8AAOSwx~JWFLO6

Or, 6 for $10 on Ebay, about the same price as Amazon.

Buy the way – Ebay’s new checkout with PayPal is amazing, reducing the steps considerably.  Just basically two clicks “I want it”,  “Yes, use Pay Pay to Pay”.  Then a confirmation pops up “Your order was placed”. Whew, free shipping, 2 clicks to pay, no wonder retail store sales were off 8% over the holidays as compared to last year, while internet sales are soaring.

Are You Getting The Internet Speed You Pay For?

There is a way to test it, here are two websites that help you do that

http://www.speedtest.net/

http://www.timewarnercable.com/en/support/speed-test.html

At my primary (wired) location I pay for 16 Mbps coming down, and about 3 Mbps going up (like uploading home movies to YouTube).  The upload is very slow, of course, sometimes an hour for a 8 minute video.  At another location I use, the WiFi is only 6 Mbps coming down, and .6 Mbps going up. Only a fraction of my normal wired set up.  I have tried to get Time Warner to increase my speed to 30 Mbps coming down, and I am paying for 30 Mbps but it is still only 16 Mbps.  More calls and aggravation is in store, I am sure.

Amazone Prime Drone Delivery Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXo_d6tNWuY

Amazon Prime Drone Delivery Video.  This has a slow start, but the balance of the video is very telling – it is the future, perhaps, of home delivery.

1.     The drone is loaded in an Amazon warehouse, more or less automatically with a special looking blue “Amazon Air” box

2.     The drone then flies vertically out of the warehouse through a hole in the roof.

3.     One up in the air, it switches to a horizontal type propulsion and can fly 15 miles (and back).

4.     The customer puts a special piece of rubber in the yard, with the Amazon logo (and I presume much more inside the rubber, to guide the drone to the precise drop zone)

5.     A notice to the customer’s iPhone or iPad tells them the drone is on the way, so “put out the rubber mat for landing”

6.     The drone, being smart, avoids all obstacles on the way, flying rather low, and then lands on the rubber mat and drops the package onto the mat, then flies away and back to the warehouse for another delivery package.

Watching the process, which I assume is computer animation – is a good experience, now you know how a drone delivery might look – in your own yard.  Assuming you have a yard.  There are many “what ifs” to think about, but the future is always like that.  Be it air travel, or satellite launch, there are always skeptics who say “we don’t need it”, or “it won’t work”, or “it will be too expensive”.

Verizon Reception Inside Home (or office)

Verizon has a new Samsung/Verizon device that is like a mini-cell-tower to cover your home or office, 5,000 sq. feet of it, with decent cell phone signal (picked up from weak signal at some point in your home).  It is supposed to be superior to prior repeater (signal booster) devices.  I ordered one today after Verizon, due to my longevity and loyalty, plus prompt payment record, gave a sizeable discount on the device.  Will be shipped to my home.  I will have to install it. 

If you are having signal problems, you might want to check this out with Verizon in your area. Verizon has both corporate owned stores and authorized resellers. I prefer the authorized resellers, great people, great service.  I had one full hour with my sales and service representative today, for example, plus 20 minutes on the phone with Verizon high level technical support while in the resellers’ office.

Note:  I was told today that about 75% of their customers now opt for the “breakage and theft/loss” coverage on their new smart phones.  I have it, purchased from the Verizon reseller but it is not a Verizon product. The 3^rd. party protection provider had a better deal from a replacement phone point of view.  Check out both types with your provider next time you get a new phone.

Coupons On-Line – a few Tips

There are many websites that offer up coupons and check-out codes to give customers big discounts. This holiday season I have used these sites several times and saved from 20% to 70%.

www.retailmenot.com  is one of them, but there are many others.  www.coupons.com     http://coupons.walmart.com/    For example, I use Kellog cereal and they have a coupon for $1.00 off on 3 boxes at WalMart.  That’s a sizeable saving and I always buy at least 3 boxes at a time. Just Google up something with the word coupon in it, and the name of the store you would like to use.  Such as "coupons and discounts for Snapfish" .  Many choices of sources for the discounts.

Remember $1.00 saved at checkout is multiplied by the savings of sales tax (6% to 8%) and by the personal income tax and FICA taxes.  You have to earn a good bit more than $1.00 to have $1.00 to spend.  It could be more like this “for every $1.00 saved at checkout, you really saved $1.35 in pre-tax income”.   Where else can you get a 35% extra return on your money? In one day? 

Today I found glossy photo paper, highest quality, for 70% off, I bought two boxes to spread the freight to more product. It was on-line.  Amazon. Obviously a close out, from some seller, but why not get more for less?  I have used the brand before, and love it. 

Final hint -- I have discovered that some on-line vendors have two nearly identical websites, but one has the normal prices struck through and a much lower price printed in red.  I suspect this is because somewhere, they have direct-mailed some print advertising to attract some first-time (new) customers, and the URL printed links to the discounted price page. I accidentally found one of those discount type  pages and saved 50% on some printed product a few months ago.  I book-marked that page for future use.  I might save big money again on a reorder. 

CalenMob now called Tiny Calendar

With some updates and a name change, CalenMob seems to be the same as always.  After trying several calendars I settled on this one 2 years ago, and have not regretted it.  Tiny Calendar is the iPhone or iPad version (or display) of Google Calendar.  On my PC I use Google Calendar to add and change events and then they show up on the iPhone and iPad under Tiny Calendar app.  Of course you can add events on your iPhone app but it is much harder to see and do that kind of detailed work. Always it syncs back to Google Calendar.

Note that this (Google Calendar really) shows all holidays automatically, and you can program one recurring event at the top of each week’s display (or just a few days of it) – such as your assigned time to do something at your church, or vacation time share.  That’s very useful for me, because when I am booking something new on a date, I can see, immediately, that it will be a conflict with some recurring event that week.

Functionality is reasonably good, but it is small to read on the iPhone (5-S) screen.  Great on the iPad or the PC.  But, it appears that Google lacks interested in adding features or keeping it up to date.  I guess it is not a revenue builder, but --- it is a vital crutch for many of us, and I am sure we, collectively, would like to see Google pay more attention to this program – more and better color for events, ability to change the default color for an event (it is now blue, and can be changed, but all new events are in blue – very hard to read with black text inside a dark blue bar – I change all mine to yellow, manually, one at a time.  They could fix that, but they don’t). 

Of course a great feature is the ability to put in a birthday of a friend and tell the calendar to repeat that date every year for "X" years.  This is probably one the many best reasons to go digital with a calendar -- repetition is easy and accurate. Not so with paper calendars. 

Productivity Apps for Phones--PC's

Wunderlist is one of the best productivity apps for task-management, especially if you don't need every feature under the sun and are hoping to keep your costs to nil.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2491165,00.asp

Recommended by PC Magazine and Dr. Tom Hill, a power tech user, it is worth checking out.  To-do lists that work across platforms (enter something on the PC, but see it on the mobile phone or vice versa) and other features make such products highly useful as compared to just carrying around a handwritten list.  Those with a to-do list at the start of a day tend to accomplish more (per hour) than those who don’t. As a person grows older, they sometimes lose some short-term memory so these productivity apps could help people over 50 years old remember what they went to the store for, or who they need to call.

Personally, I use Evernote as my productivity App.  I use it so extensively, 20 times a day or more, that I have sort of made it into my to-do list helper as well.  I have a code word I put on a memo “Take To”.  After that word is the store name, or the location name.  For example  “Take To Target”  would be my list of things I need to remember to buy at Target – new items or recurring things I prefer to buy there (expendables).  When in such a store, or before I leave for a visit to a vacation property, I look at the “Take To” file for that location to remember to take the keys, certain items I will usually need there, and so on.  If there is something extra to take, I add it at the top of the “normal list” and then delete it after it is no longer necessary.  

Since Evernote searches on word strings, putting in "Take To" before a store or location will bring that up first on the search list.  This does not solve the daily To Do needs, so for that, I have an Evernote file called To Do  -- often followed by a modifier – like Business Item  or Personal Item  or Long Term Solution Needed.

https://evernote.com/  Evernote – the best memo, and address saver program I have found, and I have had several of them over 15 years. All emails in Evernote are “hot” on both PC’s and phone, all phone numbers are “hot” on the phone.  It also can find text in photographs of business cards or photographs of signs, making searching a real pleasure. Out with paper, in with instant access to photos of that paper.

Transferring Photos From a Smart Phone to a PC (for backup or other use)

http://www.phototransferapp.com/

Not a very unique name, but Photo Transfer App is one of my newest (old) App friends.  I had it on some prior Apple devices and thought it was not working correctly and was slow.  But the new version is worth writing a BLOG post about.

First, what is it?  It wirelessly transfers photos from you iPhone (or your Android, I think) to a “save file” on your normal Windows PC (or your Apple iMac).  This assures you both a backup for your phone photos, so now you can delete recklessly, and not worry about losing some favorite.  It is always on your PC for printing, or sharing. 

How does it do it?  It does it by being on the same WiFi signal (router) as your PC .. it flies through the air (the Wi-Fi air) to your PC and into the correct saving file location.  You can then open the photos in Picasa (a free photo organizer and one of my favorites). From there, printing or emailing is very easy.  As is building slide shows to share with friends and family.

What makes it special (and with hundreds of 5-star ratings by users) ?  Here are some of the key things

1.     it moves (copies)  the photos fast – last night I moved 3,000 iPhone photos to my PC in 20 minutes or less.  That seems to be about as fast as a wired connection. AND – photos move at full quality, not diminished for ease of transfer or “bandwidth conservation”.  Not all backup programs save photos at full quality.

2.     it moves the photos and remembers what it moved (copied) , and so next time will not move it again.  You can move all photos, or select the phones one at a time to be moved. Or other options, such as move and delete from the phone.

3.     It is easy, always ready to go to work for you whenever you like, and the phone is in range that that Wi-Fi. 

4.     I think it works better than manual transfers using USB type wire connect which always gave me trouble (Windows 7) by saying it was done, when it was only half done.  And moving folders and keeping up with folder names was a minor nightmare. I will probably never move photos with a wire (manually) again.

I have an HP “instant ink” printer that will take photos wirelessly from the iPhone and so now printing 8x10 photos from the phone is so easy I do 40 or more a week (no charge for the ink, HP replaces it by mail .. I don’t even have to order it). Now with the transfer/save problem solved, and printing made easy, my phone is just so much more useful as a camera.  

SmartWater A New Way To Protect / Prevent Theft

The age-old method to discourage theft and or recover stolen items was to inscribe the object with engraved names or ID numbers. But this new concept involves a chemical that evaporates and is invisible.  But leaves behind a DNA that identifies the rightful owner. Called SmartWater I recently read about it in Professional Builder magazine. The story is about using an invisible chemical for marking tools and other equipment on jobsites as both a deterrent to theft and for possible recovery of the equipment and identification of persons who removed it from the jobsite.

If you are interested, here are the links to the article, and to the company that makes SmartWater.  

http://www.probuilder.com/liquid-deterrent-helps-prevent-theft

SmartWater to mark theftable construction equipment

http://www.smartwater.com/

SmartWater  video describing how it works

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SmartWater

Smart water, a traceable liquid  Wikipedia

YouTube RED Goes Live on Oct 28

http://digiwonk.wonderhowto.com/inspiration/ad-free-videos-offline-playback-more-youtube-red-goes-live-october-28th-0165579/

For $10 a month, you can have ad free YouTube and watch YouTube videos off line (but perhaps only on mobile devices ?) And listen to programs in the background (think streaming music).  I think you can do all of this free now, if you know the correct add-on programs to download or add to your browser. 

A good reason to join might be access to Google Music, 30 million songs that you can listen to for free (with subscription). If you are already a Google Music member, you will be ‘rolled free” into the new YouTube Red.

I figured this would eventually come, offering unlimited free space to upload your videos couldn’t last forever, Google was forced to find a strong reason to continue adding storage space, and subscription revenue from subscribers would be just that. And YouTube would need some sort of location for new and original content to compete with the likes of NetFlix, and others are slowly choking the reasons to have so-called “cable TV" in one's home. 

In some future age, I predict a super high speed Wi-Fi, perhaps broadcast from existing cell towers, will be supplied to households for $20 a month and thus end most people’s need for cable at all. They will be able to use this super-speed Wi-Fi for everything (with some sub-subscriptions like YouTube Red and NetFlix, and sports channels).  Progressive nations, like Great Britain and others, will probably offer this new high speed Wi-Fi for free, buying it in bulk for all 60 million of their citizens at a much lower price than selling it one person (or household) at a time. Free Wi-Fi is already cropping up in some American city centers, maybe someday all will have to have to be competitive in attracting new industries (i.e. jobs). The question is which government or commercial business will end up paying for it. 

Wal-Mart Steps Up On Line Business

News reports in business magazines said last week that Wal-Mart will be spending massive money next year to update and modernize stores and beef up their on line ordering to compete more with Amazon.

Tonight, by accident, I stumbled into Wal-Mart's improved on line ordering and found it greatly improved. I needed to get a special young girl’s bike helmet for my granddaughter’s birthday.  I wanted a special color but no logos of movie characters. Amazon only had 2 that came anywhere close to the specifications I needed.  Wal-Mart’s website had 240 different bike helmets, and many were for children.  They blew Amazon away in that category for me tonight. I found one that fit the ideal specification.

Then, ordering was almost easier than Amazon.  I had a 2003 email and password in my password book, and tried it, Wal-Mart still had it in their computer and connected me to check out right away.  That’s rarely true for 12 year old log-ins and passwords on other websites. Then, WM charged no freight if I would pick it up at my very-near-by Wal-Mart in 48 hours (which I could do very easily and WM mailing it would miss the party date).  Then, WM took PayPal for payment, that was fast.  On top of that, they offered to text me when it hit the store for pickup if I would share by cell phone number.  But, fortunately, that was not a requirement, and I didn’t give it to them for fear of future advertising text messages?  I was checked out with no information other than PayPal and which Wal-Mart I wanted to use for the pickup.  That’s slick.

Considering the depth and potential of Wal-Mart’s distribution, which probably rivals that of Amazon, and Wal-Mart’s vast product selection (much more than in stores) they might become a serious player in the new world of “retailing”.

Flu Shots Don’t Forget To Get Yours

I Blog on this every year.  Normally I get my flu shot at Walgreens, in middle October, but now is a good time as well.

Medicare covers all costs, or maybe they are free, I don’t know for sure.  This year I got one today as part of my annual physical exam, so I didn’t have to make a special trip anywhere or wait in line for it.

In 2014 the shot was not as effective as in other years, but my Internist said he hoped this year’s would be better, but getting the shot is not optional.  It is a must. 

I believe it also helps with the spreading of flu.  The more people who get the shots, the less chance of spreading the virus. As always, older people are even more vulnerable than younger people.  There are two strengths, I believe, normal, and a high strength for older persons.  Check your Pharmacy or MD’s office.   Mayo Clinic link on Senior Dose  

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/flu/expert-answers/fluzone/faq-20058032

I had the full blown flu once -- it is much worse than a bad cold.  I was in bed for 10 days it seemed, and miserable. Also had a fever much of the time. 

Iodine A New Website For Drug Information

www.iodine.com is a new concept website, I read about this web site and the founding company in INC Magazine, October 2015 issue. It is a start up, but it looks like a winner to me. 

It allows a person (after sign up) to participate and share their experience with various drugs they might be taking. It organizes the experience by age and gender.  I signed up and have posted reviews of my two drugs already.  As more people review, the site will be more valuable.  Even for non-registered persons, it shows warnings, and side effects of most all drugs, and what explains what each is used for, even if there are no user reviews yet. The founder hopes this concept will spread real user information to potential users (or present users) of each drug, so they can benefit from hearing of other person’s side effects, general effectiveness, or warnings.  This will add to what they might have learned from their prescribing MD. The company is also building a mobile APP that might bring an even higher level of information and service to users.

Green Mountain Grill - Davey Crocket Model

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5huHfS5cHA&list=PL94Onbf7D5F0Hnzd2HWzZOVmen4eRhym_

Nice video .. Green Mountain Grill.  With Wi-Fi to your phone, high tech for an outdoor grill.  And very easy to use, self starting, pellets run it, temperature is very accurate, internal thermometer, perfect for camping or football tail gating. Pellets are 10% water, so it is a steamy system, and has other advantages.  Cooking with tech ?  folksy guy in the video owns it, but it must be a very high tech product for its category – "outdoor grilling".

A friend on Facebook tried his tonight for the first time, he said it did a wonderful job, so I took a look at the product video.  Not a cheap grill, however. 

Flight Tracking Apps

I have long used Flightrack Pro, but it seems to have been reduced in quality by some recent updates (based on on-line reviews), and may no longer be supported in the format I presently have on my iPhone. Therefore I started a search for the perfect replacement APP for some upcoming trips. I think I found it.

MacWorld magazine recommended (Dec 2014) FlightView – which has 3 options, free with ads, $1.00 without ads, and pro for $4 showing the complete airport flight arrival and departure boards.  I chose the recommended $1 version.

I put in my two upcoming flights, and so far, I love it.  It has easy to use features, and of course does all the good stuff, keeping the departure times updated, and arrival times, and tracks the flights on maps if needed (suppose you are picking someone up and wanted to see that).

If you touch a flight you have entered, it will give you the 7 day weather forecast at that location, and I was impressed with how it did that, and the nice detailed information it gave.  Other options upon touching a flight will tell you the arrival gate (closer to the time you take off) and so forth. It is cosmetically good as well, pleasant to view.

There are other apps more specifically designed for those who mostly (or only) use them to pickup passengers at the airport.  Think Uber services, or taxi cabs, or family members who pickup other family members.  These apps use large fonts so they are easy to read while driving. And send email sounds and alerts for delayed flights.  The FlightView does something similar (if you allow it)… pushing information to your smart phone about flight delays or gate changes with sounds to alert you to the change. Soon the boards on the wall of airports will be obsolete?  Maybe.

I heard from a pilot that these flight apps are so accurate they use them in the cockpit, as sometimes they tell about delayed departure before the pilot’s more secure system of communication gets that information to the pilot.  One pilot in Albany NY (while we were delayed on the ramp) told the passengers to download the app and it would tell us when we were leaving and the new late arrival times so we could call our friends picking us up.  He assured us it would be accurate and he would not need to give us verbal announcements every 5 minutes.  Which were annoying. And that was 5 years ago.

Turbo Scan APP for Smart Phones

I have had this APP for a long time, but never used it much until today.  It has improved with upgrades and now it is quite functional. What does it do better that a mere photo?

1.     it has a camera to allow you to photograph a print document, such as an 8.5 x 11 document. Such as instructions for a device of some sort.  Or a newspaper article.

2.     if turboscan feels color is needed, it will make the output in color

3.     if turboscan sees it is purely black and white, it will make it that

4.     it allows the user to easily darken the blacks or vice versa to get a better image

5.     it then allows an easy cropping option

6.     then, the important thing, it converts whatever was photographed into a PDF file, not Jpeg.  But, if you prefer Jpeg, it will do that at the last minute instead

7.     then it offers fast option to email it to yourself – a great feature, because when you get to your desktop PC with printer, you can then print the PDF for filing and/or mailing to a client or something.  Or electronically filing it.

8.     it offers an instant option to send it to Drop Box, or Evernote or something like that instead of emailing it

This APP was introduced to me by my air conditioning service man.  He used it to scan installation diagrams, hand written or other billing notices he prepared on the jobsite and even took photos of the equipment serial numbers and made it into a PDF as well.  Saving much time.  He then sent them off to his office, a pre-programmed email address. 

Bottom line, by the time he left the jobsite, his office had all the data on the equipment, a signed receipt by the customer, and original photo-pdf of the equipment numbers and vital data to put in the customers drop box (or other storage location)_

Pdf’s are better for many things than photos, and this system enhances black print on white paper, the most common, for easy readability in pdf format.I think the APP is free, or nearly free.

Distance From One City To Another

We have all used MapQuest for years, but today I discovered a new way to get quick answers to the question “How far is it from X to Y ?”  

www.distancesonline.com/   Distance On Line is a neat little website that will tell you just that, and more.  It shows you the travel time in hours and minutes, and the average speed you can expect to make (less than you would hope for, probably).  It also allows you to enter the price of gasoline, and it will compute your fuel cost to go from A to B.  It also shows a step by step driving sequence, just as Map Quest does.  Maybe not as good, hard to say.  But for quickness, this website beats them all.  I used it twice tonight to get my bearings on an upcoming trip to a place I have never been before. 

I like the Satellite mode as well, it shows a nice real estate view of where you are going, and you can easily scroll down (with the mouse wheel) onto individual homes (as I did on some homes on Sunset Beach, for example).  

First Alert Atom Micro Smoke & Fire Alarm

First Alert Atom Micro Photoelectric Smoke and Fire Alarm, this tiny alarm detects smoke and fire, and is vastly smaller than other such alarms and of a better design (they say).  It was about time some company modernized the ugly smoke detector we all have in our homes.  I tried one of these a year ago and like it very much.  I ordered 2 more tonight for other areas of my home (from Amazon). Amazon has a good price on a 2-pack about, $32.  The two pack would be $8 more at local big box stores. If you shop locally, shoot for about $16 each

1.     they detect in a new way, running invisible waves or steams out to look for trouble (per  video on some websites)

2.     the battery is odd, 3 volt, but lasts 10 years, time to replace anyway

3.     comes with the battery

4.     very easy to install

5.     is very loud, 30% louder than the big, ugly ones

6.     has far fewer false alarms it has ways to figure out some burning item in the stove from a “real” fire  I have never had a false alarm from my first unit

Here is a photo of a pair of them, of course only one per room or location is needed.  Buying in pairs saves a little money. 

 

 

WalMart Experimental Truck, A Technological Marvel

https://www.youtube.com/embed/NER9X4_gtYk?feature=player_detailpage

WalMart’s  super new concept truck (experimental). With a carbon fiber trailer, lower weight, very exciting stuff.  Watch the video to see what might be the future.  A 20% increase in aerodynamics makes for 10% fuel use improvement.  Lower emissions, air bearing, no oil to change.  No radiator. Many new ideas.

Stainless Steel Cleaner by Hope

Picked up a bottle of this spray at Home Depot the other day, a friend had something similar, only another brand and said it worked well.  The products I have purchased in the past for Stainless cleaning were not terribly good at the job.  This one was a surprising success. 

A note:  if you don’t clean it all off, no problem, in a day or so it turns to a white color which is easily visible for a quick wipe off.

New Wearable Called The CuffLinc

CUFF is a brand of jewelry. Some tech news outlets have disclosed that CUFF is going to soon off for sale (ship this Fall) a little blue-tooth transmitter that you can hide inside existing (or newly designed) jewelry which works much like those life-line devices popularized by TV ads “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up”.

The uniqueness of this new device is

1.    it doesn’t have to be charged

2.    it lasts one year, then you get a new one – a disposable device (but at $100 maybe not an inexpensive one, some versions will be much less, perhaps $25)

3.    it appears to transmit your touch, via blue tooth, to your smart phone, which then must be in range, that is, fairly close, probably in your pocket or purse

4.    the phone then kicks into action and sends a message to the persons you have designated to get the distress signal – your children (assuming you are an older person) or spouse , or friend, or maybe a baby sitter, or police.

5.    the uniqueness is this new device is that : if the designated helper has the App on their phone, it can vibrate, alerting them to a problem, and give the precise location (GPS) of the person in distress.

6.    This last feature greatly improves the mobility of an older person who might need help, since they don’t have to be near their in-home receiver, it works anywhere there is a call signal

https://cuff.io/products/lisa

one version goes around your neck

http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/18/cuff-blends-jewelry-with-a-wearable-alert-system/

I could see this device catching on if it works well. It would be less difficult to touch this button than it would be to find your phone, and find the correct app to push.  Especially if you are inside a home or office where your smart phone was in Bluetooth range.  And it would be more fashionable and easy to carry (perhaps) than the "fallen and can't get up" device.

Faster Customer Service By Phone

 http://www.lucyphone.com/

Lucy Phone is a free service, an app for iPhone or Android device.  You enter the name of the company you are trying to contact, and it will call that company's customer service, and then call you back when the customer service representative is actually on the line. Saving you many minutes on hold or having to find the customer service phone number. I don't believe the company you are calling gets your number, only Lucy Phone.  Lucy Phone was recommended by a neutral source I trust, so I feel sure Lucy Phone does not use the information you give them (your phone number) to call you or sell you anything.  They take no advertising. 

If you have any comments on using the service, please leave them below. 

Computer Battery Backup

http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=BE550G-LM   APC Back-UPS 550VA, 8 outlet, 120V LAM  330 Watt.

APC is a popular battery backup manufacturer, and I use 4 of their backup units in my home, one for the TV and cable-box , one on home security system, and two on computers and monitors. One of the backups on a computer failed this week, and I ordered the model above after seeing it had 3,000 outstanding customer reviews on Amazon (retained 4.5 stars after that many reviews), and it qualifies for prime shipping. At a price of $56 it was hardly more expensive than a replacement battery for the failing unit.

It has many advantages in powering technology items.  For example it has many outlets and thus replaces the need for a power strip. And it adds surge protection in addition to the battery backup to save wear and tear on equipment or loss of data and stability. It is a nice size, I think, but if you have another favorite style or brand please comment below.  

Beach Music Sound In A Drinks Cooler

Kube  is a small cooler that doubles as a Bluetooth boom box.  Holds up to 48 cans of beverage and has a 110 decibel sound system (battery powered).  Heat up the play list while you cool down your drinks? 

www.kubesound.com

Shipping in 2015, the website says, now taking deposits for those who want to be first.  Oh, the price?  $1,099.  $100 off for early payment.