Apple of Android?

 I often get this question and it is not about choosing between a piece fruit or robot.  Rather, it deals with selecting a smartphone or tablet.  The issue is not unlike the need to select between a Mac or a PC when looking for a new computer.  With all the hype from the likes of our friends in Cupertino and South Korea, it can be a very confusing purchase decision. 

Last week in New York City, Samsung, a South Korea based electronics manufacturing giant, launched their Galaxy GS4.  This new entry into the smartphone market has several very cool features like eye tracking.  Among other things, this keeps the screen from dimming or going to sleep if you are looking at it.  Like all Samsung phones this one uses the Android operating system.  An operating system is what allows all the apps and functions of the phone to work together.  Apple uses their proprietary operating system.  Again this is like the old Mac vs. Window competition of the last century.

So which should you choose?  In my opinion, if you step back from all the hype and PR, you will find that both Apple and Android based devices are very similar and both have more apps available than any normal human being will need or want in a lifetime.  They both have very intuitive controls.  For me the most important thing is to try to stay in the family.

If you have a Mac and or an iPad or plan to get one, then for sure go with the iPhone.  If you already have or are planning to get a tablet that uses the Android operating system, then for sure go with an Android phone.  Doing so will make you life much easier and allow you to take full advantage of the features of your devices.

The real benefit of using smartphones and tablets comes with their ability to connect all your information.  A picture taken on your phone is available for viewing on your computer or tablet.  The document you wrote on your computer at work is accessible on your iPhone.  Your calendar and contact list are synchronized on all your devices.  All of this is being done automatically.  For all of this to work well and seamlessly your devices should use the same operating system.  Pick one: Apple or Android and stay with it.  You really can’t go wrong with either.

TED Is Still Worth Your Time

There is so much information on the internet.  Unfortunately much of it is plain wrong or just a waste of time.  Even when you find a site with good information, wading through it can seem like drinking from a fire hydrant.  A few years ago in this column I introduced you to TED.  I was not sending you to a weird dating service. TED is not a guy; it is a web site that features videos and discussions that will challenge your brain. After viewing some great material this past week I am prompted to urge you to give TED a try. It will renew your faith in the value of the internet.

TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) began in 1984 as a conference sponsored by the Sapling Foundation.  The foundation’s mission is to disseminate “ideas worth spreading.”  The initial conference invited the very top minds in the fields of technology, entertainment and design to share ideas, discoveries and inventions.  The conferences are still held but videos of the individual presentations are now made available free on the web.

Today there are more than 1000 videos and the subject matter has broadened.  You can find presentations on religion, psychology, astronomy, education, medicine and many other subjects.  The great thing about TED is that it invites the very best and brightest.  Right now you can watch Jane Goodall, Bill Gates and several Nobel laureates.  All you need is a computer and access to a broadband Internet connection.  Point your browser to www.ted.com

The presentations are very fast paced.  TED asks each presenter not to exceed 18 minutes. Some make use of videos and graphics while others stay with a standard lecture format.  Each presentation is translated into several languages.

There are topics and opinions that will challenge you.  All of them will make you think.  I have watched several and each of them has been outstanding.  You will find a new presentation posted most every day and all of them are archived and searchable by topic or presenter.

Perhaps the most jaw dropping talk was by Surgeon AnthonyAtala who demonstrated an early-stage experiment that could someday solve the organ-donor problem: a 3D printer that uses living cells to output a transplantable kidney. Using similar technology, Dr. Atala’s young patient Luke Massella received an engineered bladder 10 years ago; we meet him onstage.

Another recent segment argues that an insect's ability to fly is perhaps one of the greatest feats of evolution. Michael Dickinson looks at how a common housefly takes flight with such delicate wings, thanks to a clever flapping motion and flight muscles that are both powerful and nimble. But the secret ingredient: the incredible fly brain.

The next time you find that the 500 channel cable universe offers little to watch or your Twitter account is less than stimulating, spend some time with TED.   It will be time well spent.

Accessorize Your Spring Outfit

In just a short time it will be spring and with the change in season often comes a change in our wardrobe. Gone are the scarves, sweatshirts and heavy coats as we pull out the shorts, tee shirts and flip flops.  For some digerati their spring clothing may come with some new accessories.

Our friends at Google are offering to a select group of consumers a device that incorporates their new technology called “Google Glass.”   The first iteration will be a pair of eye glasses with video display built into the lens.  Connected wirelessly to your smart phone, the glasses allow you to view anything that would normally be viewed on the phones screen on the actual glass lens.

I have only seen pictures and videos of the glasses.  To me they look like an updated version of the strange head gear featured on The Borg, a group of artificial creatures from the Star Trek series.

The glasses can’t be purchased yet but Google has launched a novel pre-order campaign.  They just finished a contest called "If I Had Glass," where contestants fill out entries explaining all the cool things they would do with Google Glass, if they were someday, maybe, perhaps, allowed to purchase them for $1,500.  Tom Sawyer would be proud.

Not to be outdone, the folks just down the road from Google at Apple may have their own digital accoutrement.  You wear this one on your wrist. While the company has not acknowledged the new product (they seldom do provide advance notice of new offerings), it has been widely reported that they are working on a flexible glass wrist watch-like device that can provide many of the functions as the iPhone.

For some of us older folks we remember Dick Tracy, Inspector Gadget and James Bond  having these devices.  None however had Siri or Angry Birds. 

One of Apple’s partners, Corning Glass, the company that provides the Gorilla Glass for the iPhone, has announced that they have developed a new type of flexible glass.  Industry watchers predict that soon Apple will announce the glass will be used for this wearable new digital “must have.”

These products may not be ready for this year’s Easter Parade, but we may see some cool wearable digital bling on fashion runways sooner than we think.

Who Needs 500 Channels?

There is a new TV service being offered in New York City that has the potential to change the way we receive and, more important, pay for the TV we watch.  Today most of us use either cable or a satellite service to receive our programming.   For sure this has vastly expanded the options we have for viewing but in reality most of us watch a relatively few different channels even if we have access to many more.  Even the most basic cable service provides 50 channels or more.   One of the ways that the cable and satellite providers have been able to offer channels that appeal to a small audience is to bundle them into a package containing very popular services.  So if you want ESPN and CNN, you also have to take and pay for the Wall Paper Channel and the Canadian Curling Network.   The Time Warners of the world have been slow to drop this pricing structure but this new Internet based service might force a change.

Called AereoTV, the new service offered now only in New York City provides access to most of the local over the air broadcast channels like NBC, CBS and PBS as well as some services now only found on cable and satellite.  The difference is that you pay for only the channels that you want.    The price for the service can be as low as $80 per year, well under what many of us pay each month for cable or satellite.

Since the service is distributed via the internet, you can use most any device that can connect to the internet to watch your programs.  So the TV in the family room, the iPad or laptop in the kitchen and even your smartphone can now receive your favorite TV shows.   You can easily watch the Today Show while on the bus riding to work.  A single subscription allows you to authorize up to five devices which should be plenty for even the most digitally adroit among us.

AereoTV enables you to record programs using a “DVR in the cloud” technology.  You can record two programs simultaneously and play them back on any device you have authorized.   You can watch one channel and record another.  No need for any new equipment - the recorder is located at the AereoTV offices.

AereoTV plans to roll out this service in 22 cities nationwide by the end of 2013.  Right now the Cincinnati market is not on the list.  Cleveland, Ohio is.   As you might guess, the cable companies and other providers have filed several legal challenges to AereoTV.   Also the networks are very protective of the local affiliates so if you are a current subscriber living in New York and travel on business to Chicago, presently you can’t watch the local New York City stations while there. 

As has happened often in the past with new technologies, the rules, laws and regulations are not keeping pace.  Back in the 1960s broadcasters did everything in their power through the courts to keep VCRs off the market.  We know how that story ended.  It may take a while but look for services like AereoTV that provide viewer options to gain wide acceptance and become commonplace in the media landscape.  Look for it sooner than many might wish to believe.

Dumping Duke?

It has been a long day but now you’re home and ready to relax and perhaps have a nice dinner and watch some TV.  Your respite from the hectic day is short lived and interrupted by a phone call from Debbie insisting that she needs to speak to the person who pays the Duke bill.  This scenario plays out daily across the tri state as alternative electricity suppliers vie for your business.  With energy prices going up you may be wondering if these options might indeed be worth looking at.  The short answer is yes, but as with any major purchasing decision, buyer beware.  For sure, electricity costs spread over a year do amount to a major purchase for many.

First let’s take a look at what these companies are selling.  Of course they are not going to be running new power lines to your house.  They are selling the actual electrical power.  If you look at your most recent bill from Duke Energy or other electric provider you will see that your total monthly electricity charges are made up of two items; generation and distribution.   Even if you decide to switch providers, Duke will still handle getting the power to your home or business.  That is the distribution part and you will still get a bill, albeit less than what you get now, for that service.

So should you switch?  There is no one right answer.  By switching, you are locking into a price per kilowatt hour for a long term.  That term is usually three or more years.  In most cases the alternate energy supplier will have a price less than what you are now paying to Duke.  You can check that by looking on your bill and seeing what you pay for generation and compare it with the quote from the new provider. 

The issue is that distribution costs are not covered and these can rise.  For example Duke petitioned the PUCO recently to recoup the expenses from the windstorm of a few years back resulting in increased charges for all of us.

If you use a lot of electricity, in most cases going to an alternate provider will save you money.  But do your homework and do not agree to a new contract on the phone.  Do not give your Duke account number to someone on the phone or on your front porch as unethical commission-based sales people can switch your account without your OK.  Instead ask for materials to be sent to you so you can do the calculations and make a studied decision.  If the company is on the up and up, they should have no issue with you taking some time to review the decision.  After all, if it is a good deal today, it should be a good deal next week.

Will Netflix Change TV...Again?

From the very beginning of broadcasting, radio and TV audiences consumed programming based on what the broadcaster decided.  This model has been in place for almost 100 years but a recent announcement by Netflix may usher in a new model.  For most people, even if they have a DVR (digital video recorder) or subscribe to an online video service, if they are watching a series like Downton Abbeyor the Sopranos, they must wait for the individual episodes to be released before they can watch.  Netflix is betting that this model needs to change.

Netflix announced in late January that it will make the political thriller, House of Cards starring Kevin Spacey, available to its 33 million streaming subscribers worldwide.  All 13 episodes will be available at the same time to all Netflix subscribers.  They can watch in any order, at any time.  The company used this formula once before with a series called Lilyhammer,but this new series, with a price tag reported to be about $100 million, shows that Netflix is placing big financial bets to secure its future as the dominant video player as more viewers move online.  But will the financial model hold up?

The old TV broadcast model is based on bringing eyeballs to the screen and doing so often.  These eyeballs not only watch the program but also watch the advertising.  Making the programs serial in nature, i.e. one program epidode setting up the next, hooks the audience to come back.  The soap company in downtown Cincinnati wrote the book on this business model.

Today’s digital technologies provide the platforms that allow for “appointment viewing” to join the one hour photo finishing shop and video store on the list of anachonisims. For sure, the new Netflix offering will be mimicked by Hulu and other online services.  The unknown is if the economics work.

Using the reported production costs for House of Cards, some simple math shows that with Netflix subscribers now reported at some 33 million, the company spent just over $3 for each of the subscribers to produce this single program.  This would indicate that in order for this model to work it will require either a significant increase in subscribers or in the monthly subscription fee or, more likely, both.

Netflix and others are betting that society’s “I want it now” mantra will make the traditonal broadcast model obsolete and their new service a success.

Many OIptions for Video Calling

In 1964 AT&T tested Picturephone.  The public was invited to place calls between special exhibits at Disneyland and the New York World's Fair. It is interesting to note that for the most part AT&T and the phone companies really have not exploited this technology but with the explosion of Internet connectivity many other companies have.

Most of us have heard of Skype as it has become a generic term for all video calling.  The company, now owned by Microsoft, was one of the first to offer an easy, free or inexpensive service to the masses.  With a computer, webcam and internet connection, even the most digitally challenged computer user could chat with and see friends and family across town or accoss the oceans.  Once the only game in town, there are now several options available that take video calling to new levels.

For those who want not only to communicate but to collaborate, a company called OOVOO.com provides a service that not only allows you to see and hear the person you are calling but to share documents, pictures, maps and anything you can display on your computer screen.  So a custom home builder might be able to show his client the blue prints of the new house and, using his computer cursor, highlight various features he is discussing with them.  The builder’s computer screen is displayed on the remote computer.  A lawyer could highlight parts of contracts or other legal documents for his client.

OOVOO also provides the capacity to conference with 12 locations simultaneously.  So if you have a big family, you can have an online reunion.   All OOVOO sessions can be recorded.  OOVOO has a free service that limits some of these features and has display advertisements on the screen.  It also has a mobile app.

Google provides a similar service with many of the OOVOO features.  The number of simultaneous participants is set at 10. The Google service has a “broadcast” feature that allows you to share the video session with an unlimited number of people although they can only watch and listen but not join in the conversation.

For those who use an iPhone or an iPad, the Apple “Facetime” app provides easy audio and video communication between any two Apple devices.  Once “Facetime” required a wifi connection but now works over the cell network as well.

It has never been easier to keep track of friends and relatives living far away.  The features today go well beyond the Picturephone of the 1964 World’s Fair.  How long will it be before we can transport ourselves electronically?  “Beam me up Scotty!”