Posted in Girlfriend's Guide, Great Gadgets, TechNow, Top tech news

Apps, apps, and more apps — tens of thousands of them at our fingertips, and some, like Facebook, YouTube, SitOrSquat — are truly life changing.They help us connect, share, save, and figure out where there’s a clean public restroom nearby. But aside from the obvious go-to’s, what really stands out in the app-universe today? Here are some up-and-comers that may very well be the OMG! apps of tomorrow.

SPRITZ THROUGH A BOOK

I love to read, but when the day is filled with more tasks than I have time for, finding the time to sit down for a chapter or two just isn’t in the the cards. The new speed-reading app Spritz lets you best a book in 90 minutes. The secret behind Spritz is the science of the “Optimal Recognition Point,” where you stare at the same spot while the words flash up in a box on the screen. The apps’ makers say that cuts down time because your eyes don’t have to move around the page.

The app hasn’t launched yet but you can try it at www.spritzinc.com. It makes me feel a bit car sick unless I turn it up to 700 words a minute. At that pace, it really is just a bunch of rapid-fire words blinking before me. Read an academic journal with it — no problem. But try a juicy novel and all of the conversation and nuance get lost. Imaginewhatarobotonspeedwouldsoundlikereadingtoyouandthat’swhatit’slike.

A PHOTO WORTH A THOUSAND CALORIES

I’ve tried to track my food off and on many times over the years. I currently use Lose It!, which is great when I have time to search and type to tell it what I’ve eaten, which is about 50% of the time. Why can’t I just snap a photo of what I’m eating and have it just magically know? I’m not the only one who thinks that —the company behind Siri is now developing an app to count calories and calculate portion size with the snap of your smartphone camera. There’s a lot hidden in our food — but if it cracks the code of figuring out a meal’s “secret ingredients,” it could be amazing — and not just for folks trying to eat better or lose weight, but also as a tool for diabetics or people with severe allergies and intolerances.

While we wait for that magical app, Meal Snap serves a similar purpose by evaluating photos of meals and estimating the caloric value. It’s not totally precise, but the fact that it can offer even a rough guess is still pretty amazing.

STOP STRESSIN’

Need someone to talk to on a rough day sometimes and wish that tech could deliver the perfect pal — like Samantha in the movie Her? The StressManager app is kind of like that. It listens to your voice and measures the frequency, in order to identify up to eight different types of stress, such as nervousness and irritation. The app then rates the intensity of your stress on a scale of one: Dude, chill — to five: Time to walk around the block a few dozen times. It provides you with key details regarding self expression, and then recommends exercises to help you level out.

This one kept telling me my stress level was a one or a two — pretty darn mellow — which makes me a little suspect, since at any given moment I feel more like five or six. But in general, I’m impressed. I think this is way a lot of our connected tech is heading — not just gathering information for us — number of steps, miles travelled, mood we say we’re in — but interpreting that information and communicating with us about it.

THE SHAZAMING OF STYLES

Another wave-of-the-future invention is going to be the “Shazaming” of everything. When you want to know the name of the song playing on the radio you just Shazam it, but what if you see a sexy skirt or snazzy suit on your favorite TV show? Shazam’s working on an app for that, too, telling you who the designer is and giving you a link to buy it on the spot.

Unfortunately, there’s no word on a launch date for Shazam’s digital style assistant, but ASAP54 — which is out right now — pulls off a similar trick. Simply snap a photo of a clothing item you adore and let the app match it up with a catalog of high-fashion items. You can even tap into the vast knowledge of a professional stylist for advice. I think we’ll also see this pop up for everything we see on TV that might be for sale, such as furniture, homes, and cars.

PERFECT HAIR DAY

This one might seem silly, but it could be a biggie. The How’s Your Hair? app puts an end to that daily game of Russian Roulette you play with your ‘do. Show your locks some love by typing your location into the easy-to-use tool and get a real-time forecast to help you prepare your hair for the day ahead. Your “Hairoscope” will tell you what weather to expect when you swing your front door open, including wind and relative humidity, and even give you a preview of tomorrow’s hair forecast.

There are so many more — and we know you’ll have life-changing apps you’ll also want to share — be sure to let us know about your own favorite life-changing apps.

Posted in Great Gadgets, TechNow

Pick a tablet, any tablet, and put it in front of a child. Then, watch the magnetic attraction pull them in and steal all semblance of self-control. Tots, teens and all the screenagers in between can’t resist that tablet temptation.

TABLETS FOR TOTS

Of the 120-million tablets sold in 2013, their owners keep getting younger … and younger … and younger. According to a recent study by San Francisco-based Common Sense Media, 38% of babies under 2 use tablets or smartphones, up from 10% in 2011. What’s more, nearly as many children own tablets today as adults did just two years ago. This enormous growth is thanks in part to the plummeting prices of entry-level devices, which are sometimes even less expensive than the parade of kid-specific devices flooding store shelves. And more and more companies are targeting the kids tablet market, too.

PARENTING IN THE AGE OF IPADS

While some parents are thrilled with this new wired world, others fear the total tablet takeover will turn their precious children’s brains to media-saturated mush. Most of us modern moms and dads are somewhere in between, glad to share tablet time with kids, but also cautious about those sticky fingers and malleable minds.

It’s true, handing your kids an all-access pass to the land of iPads and Galaxy Tabs is a bit like handing over the keys to your car. Are they ready for it? How much tablet time is the right amount for their budding brains? Will they run up a fortune in apps, or stumble across content they shouldn’t see? What the heck are they actually doing on there?

These are just a few of the questions researchers have been working hard to answer, and a topic we’ll tackle over the next few installments of Tech Now. We’ll take a look at the rules of the road when it comes to giving your kids a tablet, see which specific tablets might be the best fit for your particular brood, and walk you through the tips and tricks to keep kids of all ages safe on their slates.

WHY IS THIS SO IMPORTANT?

Researchers find that kids today play more with touch-screens than traditional toys. As a mom myself, I want to know what that shift means for our future generation, and for those of us doing our best to raise healthy, well-rounded kids. We’ve heard debates over the effects of TV, video games and even certain types of music, and — surprise! — that same battle has now turned to tablets.

There’s no question that screens and technology can open the door to intellectually stimulating content, but they could also close doors to physical activity. They help kids keep in touch with Grandma and Grandpa across the miles and let them check in with Mom or Dad after school, yet they set up barriers when kids don’t interact with the people and situations around them. What’s a modern mom or dad to do?

That’s where we pick back up tomorrow, with part two of this series, when we look at how much screen time is the “right” amount, what impact slates are having on kids, and what you need to consider before giving your child a tablet. I call this rules of the road, because I’ve so often craved an easy to follow “map” of sorts that covers the basics — the how-to’s and what-for’s — when it comes to dealing with this somewhat hot-button parenting issue.

Be sure to weigh in with your own questions, comments, concerns, and check back here tomorrow for part two of this series; kids and tablets, rules of the road.

Posted in Connected Kids, Cyber Safety, Great Gadgets, TechNow

If you think about it, your car really is just one giant gadget, so it’s no surprise that the rush for dashboard dominance is shifting into high gear. While automakers are working to turn your next vehicle into an extension of your smartphone, consumer tech giants like Apple and Google are racing over which company will end up in the driver’s seat.

Apple recently unveiled CarPlay to mirror specific iPhone functions onto the dashboard of certain cars, just a few months after Google called “shotgun” to make Android the in-car platform of choice with Automotive Link. There’s also MirrorLink, a one-size-fits-all multimedia interface in development thanks to a collaboration of certain automakers and mobile companies.

But the path General Motors is taking could be a more direct route. Rather than turning your car into something that simply syncs with your mobile device, GM’s latest take is that your car is your mobile device. New models coming out this summer can be equipped with new connected-car technology that transforms your car into a giant Wi-Fi hotspot with high-speed 4G LTE, and an AppShop built-in.

At this week’s SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas, I went for the first hands-on test-drive of a 2014 Chevrolet Impala with a beta version of the new tech embedded in the dash. Over two days time, I zoomed, dodged, braked, and idled in the infamous festival traffic. While the final version of the technology is still being ironed out, the experience felt like something right out of a scene from that old 80’s show, Knight Rider. Remember Kitt — the talking, thinking, almost human robot car? That’s what this is like, minus the snarky attitude.

When you get in, there’s a tablet-sized center console with a vivid touchscreen front and center. Just like your iPad, a king-sized mobile gadget is nothing without the apps that make it cool. When the first cars sporting this new tech roll out, drivers will have access to built-in apps like Priceline to find a bargain on a hotel, Weather.com for the all-important road trip forecast, and the just-announced streaming music service from Beats.

Navigating this display is both intuitive and easy to master — specifically designed for safe use while on the road — so you needn’t worry about tapping through complicated menus at a stop light. In fact, you can use your voice to work all of the commands, or tap the OnStar button to talk with a real person for help on the go.

One safety feature of note; you can’t use the keyboard when the car’s in gear. After all, the whole idea is to take smartphones out of people’s hands when they’re driving, and keep their eyes on the road. That doesn’t mean that a driver couldn’t still text and drive with their smartphone, but it’s a step in the right direction. This roving Wi-Fi on wheels also allows passengers to connect up to seven devices at one time.

It looks like Chevy will launch with about a dozen native apps, which is a far cry from the thousands that you access through iTunes or the Google Play stores. Chevy says that they will continue to update their AppShop with downloadable programs that people can install just as they would on their iPhone or Android device. The GM platform is open to developers, and as we’ve seen with smartphones and tablets, there’s a seemingly neverending flow of possibilities. At launch, all apps are free, but as the selection grows, I’m sure we’ll see premium and paid apps pop up as well.

According to Chevy, the AppShop and 4G LTE will be available on select new 2015 vehicles sporting the MyLink infotainment system. This means that new Impala, Malibu Volt, Silverado, and Corvette owners will be the first to experience this version of the future of connected cars. There’s no word on pricing just yet, though we’re told that if the car comes equipped with 4G LTE, you can activate a data plan and have an always-on connection that also doubles as a mobile hotspot. If you use AT&T, you’ll be able to add a vehicle as an additional device on a MobileShare plan. Or, you’ll be able to choose your own data plan.

So what do you think? Are you ready for your car to be as intelligent as your smartphone? Be sure to let us know.

Posted in In The Press, TechNow, Top tech news