My Appearance on WGST's "The Sully Show" 1/30/15 - Tech News of the Week

Sully and I talk about some of the hot tech topics of the week.

Enjoy:

listen to ‘The Sully Show January 30, 2015’ on audioBoom

1.  Apple has a huge quarter

Apple had another blowout quarter thanks to its new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus smartphones, which helped the company smash sales records for the holiday season. Apple said Tuesday that it sold a record 74.5 million iPhones during the three months that ended Dec. 31. The latest-model iPhones were introduced in September.

The only product where sales slowed down for Apple was the iPad.

The latest versions of the iPhone, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, launched in September 2014. Cook said that the smaller iPhone 6 was the most popular model during the quarter.

Asked by an analyst if he thinks Apple can sustain the iPhone's incredible growth in future quarters, Cook said he is "very bullish" on the device's outlook. The executive went on to say that the iPhone 6 brought on more new Apple customers than any prior iPhone launch, and even led to the most instances of Android users jumping over to iPhone compared to the last three launches.

 

2. Windows 10 is coming

Coming around April 15 - free to Windows 7 and 8 users

Following its huge Windows 10 event last Wednesday, Microsoft released a brand-new preview build to the public, versioned 9926. We were told that it'd give us Cortana, Microsoft's AI assistant, as well as a revamped Start menu and updated notifications pane. But as it turns out, that's not even close to summing up all that's new with this build. In fact, 9926 is easily the most substantial update rolled out so far in the beta program, with some UI elements and integral Windows features seeing their first overhaul in multiple generations.

 

3.  The internet comes to Cuba courtesy of a group of 20-something engineers

Some 20-something engineers in Cuba set up a "mini internet" network to serve a few 1000 people.

Internet connections remain illegal for Cuban households, but many of the country's citizens still want to tap into the power of networked information exchange. A group of tech-savvy young Cubans has set up a network comprising thousands of computers to serve as their own miniature version of the internet. They use chat rooms, play games, and connect to organize real-life activities. Cuban law enforcement seems willing to tolerate it (so far), but the network polices itself so as not to draw undue attention.

One of the engineers who helped build the network said, "We aren't anonymous because the country has to know that this type of network exists. They have to protect the country and they know that 9,000 users can be put to any purpose. We don't mess with anybody. All we want to do is play games, share healthy ideas. We don't try to influence the government or what's happening in Cuba ... We do the right thing and they let us keep at it."

Cuba's status as one of the world's least-wired countries is central to the new relationship Washington is trying to forge with Havana. As part of a new policy seeking broader engagement, the Obama administration hopes that encouraging wider U.S. technology sales to the island will widen Internet access and help increase Cubans' independence from the state and lay the groundwork for political reform.

Cuban officials say Internet access is limited largely because the U.S. trade embargo has prevented advanced U.S. technology from reaching Cuba.

 

4.  Announced this week... Google Fiber is coming to Atlanta

Google Fiber 100 is times faster than today's basic broadband speeds. Instant downloads. TV like no other

Plans run $70 and up per month

Google has announced the next group of cities set to receive gigabit fiber infrastructure. They're concentrating on cities around four metro areas: Atlanta, Charlotte, Nashville, and Raleigh-Durham. "We’ve been working closely with city leaders over the past year on a joint planning process to get their communities ready for Google Fiber—and now the really hard work begins. Our next step is to work with cities to create a detailed map of where we can put our thousands of miles of fiber, using existing infrastructure such as utility poles and underground conduit, and making sure to avoid things like gas and water lines. Then a team of surveyors and engineers will hit the streets to fill in missing details. Once we’re done designing the network (which we expect to wrap up in a few months), we’ll start construction." Google also said they're currently looking into Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, and San Jose.

5.  The American App Economy Is Now "Bigger Than Hollywood"

Technology business analyst Horace Deidu found an interesting nugget while closely examining an Apple press release from earlier this year: "The iOS App Store distributed $10 billion to developers in 2014, which, Deidu points out, is just about as much as Hollywood earned off U.S. box office revenues the same year." That means the American app industry is poised to eclipse the American film industry. Additionally, Apple says its App Store has created 627,000 jobs, which Deidu contrasts with the 374,000 jobs Hollywood creates.

My Appearance on WGST's "The Sully Show" 1/23/15 - PGA Show

Rick is at the PGA Merchandise Show all this week in Orlando.

Looking at all the new golf tech and products

Rick is also staying at the Reunion Resort in Orlando, home of the Annika Academy... Annika Sorenstam's academy, where they use use high tech traning techniques and fitness technique to make batter golfers.

www.reunionresort.com
www.theannikaacademy.com

Have a listen:

listen to ‘The Sully Show January 23, 2015’ on audioBoom

1.  Virtual Green by Golf Scene

A dynamic, shifting putting green designed to revolutionize the putting experience in golf simulators. Virtual Green is a moving putting green and software that changes the landscape and contour of flat turf via thousands of pinpoints beneath the surface to mimic an actual golf green.

"As the premiere event for golf professionals, the PGA Merchandise Show is the perfect platform to debut our patented innovation. Debuting Virtual Green in front of thousands of enthusiasts is very exciting, we look forward to enhancing the future of putting in golf simulators," stated Sean Coffman of Virtual Green.
 
 
2. Robogolfpro

The RoboGolfPro develops a customized swing for each player. You can discover the swing that works best for your body and store it in RGP’s computer for future reference! The robot works so well because it relies on motor learning to train the golfer to automatically remember the correct swing form.

The robotic swing trainer has been grabbing the attention of professional golfers like Vaughn Taylor, who has found quick success from his training. He has even purchased one for his home. Scot W.R. Nei, founder of RoboGolfPro, who has partnered with Lori Heller, Heller Events, to distribute and sell the robot and events across North America and Europe, says, “Vaughn texts me all the time with comments like, ‘I had my best round ever in over 6 years' and says that his swing is better than ever!”

 
3.  Soxxy  

www.soxxy.com

The coolest non-slip sox on the planet. From stripes, spots and metallics in a variety of colors – Soxxy is changing-up this once dull category by combining high fashion with utilitarian function.
Perfect for golfers, travelers, athletes.  Keeps the blod flowing while playing and great for recovery.

 

4. Knuth's "High Heat: Driver

A new driver based on Anti-Submarine Warfare
The club is the brainchild of Dean Knuth. Why does that name sound familiar? For 16 years, he was in charge of monitoring handicaps for the United States Golf Association and was dubbed "the Pope of Slope" because he was the primary inventor of the USGA Course Rating and Slope System. Knuth, who turned 60 this year, retired from the USGA a few years ago to move to San Diego, where he ran a software company. Now he's an engineer for Northrup-Grumman, which took over the software company, and he has pursued an inventor's dream — making a better driver.

Knuth got the idea for the High Heat at a World Scientific Golf Congress at St. Andrews in the '90s when he heard a visiting professor theorize that there should be a way to significantly decrease the loss of energy from the driver to the ball. Knuth, who has a masters degree in computer systems technology, had done research on energy passing through different mediums (such as metals, air and water) while in the Navy's postgraduate school, which he attended from 1975 to 1978. His postgrad program focused on anti-submarine warfare.

He needed a tough-but-thin metal to achieve that optimal frequency, but the Chinese titanium typically used in golf clubs broke down in his design. Knuth found a Russian titanium called ET 22 that was strong enough — after he made it into sheet metal instead of forging it, used a laser to cut it and pressed it into a die at 70 tons per square inch.
 

5.  Yamaha with new golf carts with an AC charge

Just plug them in to get them charged up.

Yamaha now has golf carts with a DC charge, gas, and AC charge.

The AC charge carts have 7 horse power in them, great for climbing hills on the course

My Appearance on WGST's "The Sully Show" 1/16/15 - Tech News of the Week

The Tech News of the Week with Rick and Sully....

Have a listen:

listen to ‘The Sully Show January 16, 2015’ on audioBoom

1.   Technology Doesn't Make Our Life More Stressful After All...

A recent study has found the opposite: Frequent Internet and social media users do not have higher stress levels than those who use technology less often. “The fear of missing out and jealousy of high-living friends with better vacations and happier kids than everybody else turned out to be not true,” says Lee Rainie.

The survey of 1,801 adults asked participants about the extent to which they felt their lives were stressful, using an established scale of stress called the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). One unexpected result of the study is that women who frequently use Twitter, email and photo-sharing apps scored 21 percent lower on the stress scale than those who did not. That could be because sharing life events enhances well-being, social scientists say, and women tend to do it more than men both online and off. Technology seems to provide “a low-demand and easily accessible coping mechanism that is not experienced or taken advantage of by men,” the report said. "Just as the telephone made it easier to maintain in-person relationships but neither replaced nor ruined them," concludes Miller, "this recent research suggests that digital technology can become a tool to augment the relationships humans already have.""

 2. Super Bowl ads not yet sold out   and website Wix.com decides to buy a Super Bowl ad

- NBC says Super Bowl ads are now 95% sold out

- First-time Super Bowl advertiser Wix.com will debut a 30-second ad during the game that stars five former NFL players each trying to launch their own quirky small business. As part of the “#ItsThatEasy” campaign, the web development company is also releasing online videos featuring the campaign’s athletes and has created websites dedicated to the football stars’ fictional ventures. Wix said it’s already starting to see a return on investment for some of the teaser videos it has released so far. A video of Emmitt Smith teaching line dancing released earlier this week, for example, generated 1.6 million views on Facebook in the first 24 hours after the video was posted and shared by the company and Mr. Smith, Wix said.

“We have a great 30-second narrative but an even better longer narrative to tell about each of the trials and tribulations and humorous moments they go through as small business owners,” said Eric Mason, Wix’s director of strategic marketing and communications.  
 


3.   Solar Power Industry Now Accounts for Nearly 2% of All New Jobs in U.S.

Solar energy usage is finally growing...  

"Over the past five years, the solar power industry has grown the number of jobs it offers, by 20% year over year for the past three years. According to the fifth installment of the Solar Jobs Census released today, solar power industry created 31,000 new jobs last year, bringing the total number of directly-related industry jobs to 173,000. When components the materials supply chain is added in, there are more than 705,000 jobs related to the solar power industry. The job growth has been so substantial that within a few months, the solar industry will be providing twice as many living wage jobs compared to the declining coal mining industry."

4.  Radio Shack Reported To Be Ready for Bankruptcy Filing

RadioShack (RSH) shares plummeted more than 30% Thursday on a report that the company could file for bankruptcy protection reportedly as soon as next month.

The embattled consumer electronics retailer is in talks with a private-equity firm that could buy its assets out of bankruptcy, according to The Wall Street Journal, which cited sources familiar with the people familiar with the matter.

Last month, the Fort Worth, Tex.-based chain reiterated that bankruptcy proceedings could result if its own revitalition plan proved unsuccessful.

On Thursday, RadioShack said that it had no comment other than to say that the company has not confirmed any of the information being reported.

The company had mentioned bankruptcy back in September.

RadioShack has faced losses over the last two years and has closed 175 underperforming stores already in its current fiscal year, which ends Jan. 31. It had announced plans to close a total of about 200 of its roughly 4,000 U.S. stores.

 

5.  The Mainframe Computer is not Dead!  IBM releases a new Mainframe..

The death of the mainframe has been predicted many times over the years but it has prevailed because it has been overhauled time and again. Now Steve Lohr reports that IBM has just released the z13, a new mainframe engineered to cope with the huge volume of data and transactions generated by people using smartphones and tablets. "This is a mainframe for the mobile digital economy," says Tom Rosamilia. "It's a computer for the bow wave of mobile transactions coming our way." IBM claims the z13 mainframe is the first system able to process 2.5 billion transactions a day and has a host of technical improvements over its predecessor, including three times the memory, faster processing and greater data-handling capability. IBM spent $1 billion to develop the z13, and that research generated 500 new patents, including some for encryption intended to improve the security of mobile computing. Much of the new technology is designed for real-time analysis in business. For example, the mainframe system can allow automated fraud prevention while a purchase is being made on a smartphone. Another example would be providing shoppers with personalized offers while they are in a store, by tracking their locations and tapping data on their preferences, mainly from their previous buying patterns at that retailer.

** Up next week... Rick will be in Orlando at the annual PGA Golf Merchandise Show....  similar to CES, but all golf...

My Appearance on WGST's "The Sully Show" 1/9/15 - CES

Rick has been at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.  He's back to talk about what he did and saw...

This is the annual Consumer Electronics Show and is attended by nearly 160,000 people.  It runs through Friday.

Let's talk about CES

Have a listen:

listen to ‘The Sully Show January 9, 2015’ on audioBoom

1.  What is CES and what is it really like?
160,000 people. Long lines, expensive hotel rooms, for the most part. It takes over the city of Las Vegas each January.
Multiple convention centers. All the latest gadgets...

2.  CES Pre Show events

Officially, CES didn't kick off until Tuesday, but Rick already attended two pre show events- "Unveiled" and Pepcom's Digital Experience. These are "media only" events, where the press gets to see many of the new products ahead of time.
Rick went to both and both were crowded with new products and media.

3. Show floor is open Tues - Friday.
Miles and miles of aisles at LVCC< Sands Expo, and some of the convention centers in hotels.

4. Monday's Press Conferences

Many of the big companies have "press conferences" on Monday where they make new product announcements.  LG announced their new LG G Flex 2 phone and new washing machines and dryers.
Shaq was there for Monster audio and other celebs will be throughout the show...

What's Hot???

1. Wearable tech
2. Tech for the home
3. New Phones, laptops, micro chips, appliances and more..

My Appearance on WGST's "The Sully Show" 12/19/14 - Last Minute Tech Stocking Stuffers

Rick and Sully talk about some last-minute gadget gift ideas... stocking stuffers, if you will

Have a listen:

listen to ‘The Sully Show December 19, 2014’ on audioBoom

1.  Tile
www.thetileapp.com

Tile tethers with your mobile phone to help you find lost items, and Osmo is a great interactive imaginative game for kids on the ipad -

Tile, with a $25 price point is a great as a stocking stuffer.

When you attach Tile to an item (like your keys), you're really tethering them both to your phone. So when your stuff gets lost, it has a buddy that knows what to do.

Tile casts a Bluetooth signal up to 100 feet, making short work of any haystacks you lose your needles in. And since every phone with Tile helps find your stuff, your search range is potentially limitless.

The app supports up to 8 Tiles.

Tile Works on iOS and Android Devices

 
2.  Polaroid Cube - $99

http://www.polaroid.com/cube

A tiny HD action camera that goes anywhere.

Splash-resistant, shockproof, mountable, and built to handle everything you can imagine. Packed with fun including 1080p HD video, 124° wide-angle lens, and built-in battery that records up to 90 minutes.

 
3.  Moov  -  Fitness tracker and fitness coach

Moov doesn't place calories or steps at the forefront of its tracking abilities; rather, it's a "wearable coach" that tries to make you better at exercising. The device is made of three sensors that form a nine-axis motion-sensing system that tracks not only the type of movement you're doing, but how you're doing it. The tracker's accelerometer and gyroscope detect movement in space and force of motion, while its magnetometer measures rotation.

It looks like a smartwatch. but Moov is only for exercise. This gadget doesn't pretend to be an all-day, everyday tracking device; it's meant to monitor your workout and help you get better at physical activity. This approach is limiting but also refreshing.

Moov goes on your body, be that around your ankle or on your wrist.

Moov's coaching voice kis cool. She leads you through the workout, monitoring and relaying your progress to you as you go. The Moov will tell you if your form is correct, or if you should, for example, slow down to meet you cadence goals or hit the ground with less force to avoid injuring yourself. Moov's voice coach is clear and direct with its instructions, and I could my coach while working out with my headphones in. I could also listen to music like I normally would while exercising; Moov's voice coach would lower the music volume automatically when it needed to update me on progress.
 
Download one or both of the available companion apps for iOS/Android to pair the device to your smartphone. Upon opening the app, you will be asked to make a Moov account, which you can do by connecting to your Facebook account or signing up with an email address. Then, you're asked to input basic information, including your age, gender, height and weight, and you can upload a photo of yourself to your profile.

Cost: $79.95 for one unit $149.95 for two

4. Esorun products...  www.esorun.com

Chinese manufacturer of cool smartphone and gadget accessories

Esorun provides Power banks,wireless hard drives,wireless chargers,iPhone battery case,portable chargers and keychain cable.
Their new product is the iStand - iPhone stand, battery case, etc

But the Bendy cable and Cute Key Cable are very useful.

 

And a look ahead to 2015....