Friday, January 30, 2015

Cell Phones A Major Part of Our Lives

Mobile Phones have changed the way we live. Pew Research publishes a page that shows some of the ways these ubiquitous little devices are used. For example, it shows that:

"67% of cell owners find themselves checking their phone for messages, alerts, or calls — even when they don’t notice their phone ringing or vibrating.
44% of cell owners have slept with their phone next to their bed because they wanted to make sure they didn’t miss any calls, text messages, or other updates during the night.

29% of cell owners describe their cell phone as “something they can’t imagine living without.”

When you consider that over 90% of Americans and Canadians own a cell phone, those are pretty impressive statistics.

For more on this check out the Pew Research page.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Making Sense of Big Data

In a world awash in data, finding ways to make sense out of it and actually use it productively is an ongoing challenge. But there are numerous examples of companies that have found new and innovative ways to do just that. This article from the Globe makes the point well.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Online Grocery Orders

Ordering groceries online for delivery has been a service that has been around for several years, mostly in the big cities, but has never taken off big time. Start-up cost has been a major issue, and has slowed the growth of such big services as Googles. The real issue is the business model, which for many has involved the building of warehouses and related infrastructure.

Instacart has a different model, which involves using established retail stores, like Costco, as their warehouse and hiring shoppers to do the shopping and deliveries, So there is little startup cost and almost no infrastructure to develop. The service seems to be taking off. The issue for them is whether they can compete in the long term on price, since they are buying from retailers. That will depend on how successful they are, and how much they are able to develop clout in determining prices they pay to their suppliers. Here's a writeup on Instacart.


Thursday, January 15, 2015

Using Brain Waves to Control Electronic Devices

Researchers are commercializing a new technology that has been undergoing research for over a decade. It is a device that attaches to the skull and communicates with a brain implant that picks up thoughts and transmits them to nearby devices. The result is that the user can control the remote devices with their thoughts.

This technology has major implications for people who are paralyzed, and that is the focus of the first planned implementations. Here's a writeup.

WiGig - A New Faster Wireless Technology

There's a new wireless technology coming into the market this year from a number of vendors. It's called WiGig and works more than 10 times faster than the fastest WiFi. So it will be useful for such functions as transferring Hi Def movies between devices, which it can do in a few short minutes.

Since WiGig can't go through walls, it won't replace WiFi, but it will still be a useful tool for transferring data within a room without wires. For an article on WiGig, click here.

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Email and Internet makes Workers feel more Productive

Pew Research shows that white collar worker usage of the internet, which amounts to over 90% of such workers, appears to improve productivity. Workers say that email facilitates communications with others outside the organization. Internet makes them feel more in charge. For a write-up, check this link.

Monday, January 05, 2015

Smart Wearable Devices Will improve Your Health

Wearable devices - technologies - are going to be used more often, with some predictions that they will be common by 2018. Smart bracelets, watches, rings, pins, implants and other devices are all going to get smarter and be more useful for monitoring and improving health.

We already see several devices being worn now, in many cases for exercise purposes, but also for people with chronic health issues, like heart problems.

But most of the devices in use now are not all that smart. They can do simple jobs, but their range of functionality is limited. The new devices coming along will be much more robust and make use of big data to carry out more sophisticated analysis. They will be used to monitor fitness, chronic health problems, recovery from illness and surgery, effects of diet and so on.

For more on this new trend, check out this article.