WGST's "The Sully Show" for 3/27/15 - Atlanta Auto Show Tech

The annual Atlanta Auto Show is running this week and weekend at the Georgia World Congress Center....

Rick had his big preview article of the Auto Show in the AJC on Monday.
The show includes new and classic cars, along with the popular concept cars and interactive exhibits.

The show also features the latest in technology for your vehicles..

Let's take a look at some of the tech at the 2015 Atlanta International Auto Show:

listen to ‘My Segment on "The Sully Show" on 640 am WGSt for 3/27/15’ on audioBoom

1.   Dodge Ram Rebel

The Dodge Ram Rebel takes the tried-and-true half-ton pick-up, adds some beefy body work, a new schnoz, uprated tires, and a tweaked air suspension to appeal to buyers wanting to look like they're ready to tackle Mojave but never will.

The cosmetic changes are the obvious upgrades, with no chrome, no cross-hair grille, a Moparized aluminum hood, powder-coated skid plates, and more...

Go with the  5.7-liter HEMI V8 in 4x4 and 4x2 setups. The air suspension rides about an inch higher than the normal 1500 and has been tweaked to include Rebel-spec Bilsteins and a lone off-road setting (versus the normal two), but with the same cruising mode that automatically drops down when trundling along at highway speeds.

All Rebels will have an eight-speed automatic transmission.

Will probably be priced in the mid $30,000 range

 
2. Uconnect Radio

Allows users to listen to not only AM/FM stations, but also personal internet radio and apps like iHeartRadio  right in your car.

Cars are becoming connected in many ways.


3.  Concept Cars

Look for pre-production and concept cars at the show in the Acura ILX, Buick Cascada Convertible, Hyundai Sonata PHEV Plug-in, Kia's Track'ster and with Mercedes bringing their corporate headquarters to Atlanta, look for their new AMG GT on the show floor.

4.  Ford Looking Ahead...

Ford Motor Company will be bringing a mobility discussion to Atlanta as part of the company’s presence at this years Atlanta Auto Show, which opens this week at the Georgia World Congress Center. Leaders from Ford Motor Company, Georgia Tech and the Georgia Department of Transportation held a panel discussion surrounding the Future of Mobility in Atlanta at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center. Ford and it's partners discussed two mobility experiments taking place at Georgia Tech: Parking Spotter and Remote Repositioning, also we heard how the Georgia Department of Transportation is addressing what mobility looks like for Atlanta drivers.
-  Parking Spotter-  This experiment, conducted with Georgia Tech, leverages driver-assist sensors that most Ford vehicles already have, including sonar and radar, by putting them to work for everybody. The sensors search for open parking spaces while the driver looks for spots around the city, and share the information with a cloud database other drivers can access. The system makes it easier for a driver to locate an open spot, reserve it and navigate to the space. It also reduces fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.
 

5.  “CAMP JEEP”

“Camp Jeep” will be operating all five days of the Auto Show. This dynamic outdoor exhibit will give show attendees a chance to experience the extreme off-road capabilities of Jeep vehicles.

March 25                      12:00pm-9:00pm
March 26                       12:00pm-9:00pm
March 27                       12:00pm-10:00pm
March 28                       10:00am-10:00pm
March 29                      11:00am-8:00pm


FEATURED VEHICLES:  Jeep Cherokee, Grand Cherokee, and Wrangler.
 

My Appearance on WGST's "The Sully Show" 3/20/15 - March Madness and the Tech News of the Week

As the NCAA Tournament continues its run..  Rick and Sully take a look at the tech news and happenings of the week.

Rick is also out at the SEC Women's Gymnastics Championships today at the Gwinnett Arena competiton goes through tomorrow

Have a listen:

listen to ‘The Sully Show March 20, 2015’ on audioBoom

1.  Tech for watching and following NCAA Tournament Games costs $1.7 billion in workplace productivity  -  We now have streams and more on our mobile devices

During the first week of the tournament, according to the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas, American companies will lose at least $1.7 billion in work productivity. That's a lot of chatter around the water cooler; to say nothing about those employees who watch the tournament games on their office computer or smartphones.

Of course, March Madness helps build office morale, if you look at it in that way.

 

2. Speaking a Second Language May Change How You See the World - Now there are apps that help you learn another language

Speakers of the two languages put different emphasis on actions and their consequences, influencing the way they think about the world, according to a new study (abstract). The work also finds that bilinguals may get the best of both worldviews, as their thinking can be more flexible.

Apps like Rosetta Stone, Duolingo and Babbel can get you up to speed on a second or third langauge.

 
3. Nintendo Finally Working On Games for Smartphones

More problems for workplace productivity.

Nintendo is finally bringing its games to mobile devices. It's partnering with Japanese game publisher DeNA to develop games for phones and tablets based on Nintendo's popular game IPs.

Games like Mario, Zelda and Pokemon are coming...  some maybe with some 3-D effects.

4.  Facebook Introduces Payment System

Will Sully send some money to Rick?

Facebook announced a new feature for its Messenger services: the ability to send money to friends. The payment system will work by connecting debit cards from Visa or Mastercard — no credit cards, and no bank accounts. The company claims they aren't trying to make money on it, since it'd be such a small business compared to their ad revenue. "Once the $ button is tapped, users simply enter the dollar amount and hit Pay.

The money is instantly taken from their debit account and delivered to the recipient's debit account. Facebook never holds the money, though the receiver's bank will usually take a few days to make the funds available as is standard. Both users see a confirmation message detailing the transfer status and time." Facebook says transaction information is encrypted, and users will protect their cards with a dedicated passcode.

5. Microsoft will make Windows 10 upgrades free to all, including pirates

Microsoft will make Windows 10 available as a free upgrade even to pirated copies of other Windows operating systems in China. Terry Myerson of Microsoft's operating systems unit made the announcement at the WinHEC technology conference in Shenzhen, China, and then told Reuters, "We are upgrading all qualified PCs, genuine and non-genuine, to Windows 10." Microsoft has a history of attempting to tackle massive and rising software piracy rates in Asia and developing countries, and periodically offers low-cost "licence amnesties" to the worst-offending countries, such as Indonesia and Kenya.

My Appearance on WGST's "The Sully Show" 3/13/15 - Tennis and the Tech News of the Week

Rick is in Indian Wells, CA this week as the BNP Paribas Open starts it's tennis run. This is the biggest tennis tournament in the world outside of the majors. It is also the most tech-friendly tournament on the ATP Tour.  - They have their own app, tons of video screens around the grounds, 14 scoreboards alone on Stadium Court.  They even stream the action from 2 of the practice courts.

Have a listen:

listen to ‘The Sully Show March 13, 2015’ on audioBoom

 

Rick has been at the best of the pre tournament events.

1. The Wilson event with world No. 3, Simona Halep.  New Wilson racquets in the Burn and the Blade. New Wilson tennis shoes and partnering with Sony on smart technology for the racquet.  Rick did the tennis obstacle course Wilson has called the #BURNChallenge.

2.  Rick was one of the media participants in the "Tennis With the Stars" event at the Omni Rancho Las Palmas Resort and Spa.  He played with ATP World Tour top-10 players Kei Nishikori and David Ferrer .   How was it?   -  *Spoiler... Rick won

3. Apple Watch Announcement  Apple had an event on Monday to formally introduce the Apple Watch.. Is the Apple watch viable?
 

And now it’s all here and ready to debut on April 24. (Preorders start April 10.) But do you want to pay $17,000 for it?

OK, you don't have to pay that much, but that's the top price of the premium gold option, called the Apple Watch Edition. If you're looking for something on the scale of hundreds of dollars instead of thousands, the company is offering the Apple Watch Sport (starting at $349) and the flagship Apple Watch (starting at $549). All of these watches come in two sizes, 38 mm or 42 mm; have different case colors to choose from; and have swappable bands. Depending on the band you choose, the standard Apple Watch can easily reach $1,000.

Apple claims that the watches will have about 18 hours of battery life, and they'll charge using a special MagSafe cable. As Apple previewed in September, users will navigate through the menus of the watch using a special knob that both physically turns and is touch-sensitive.
You can reply to a text message, browse Instagram, and remotely opened a garage door. The watch lets you know when you've been doing too much sitting, can track heart rate, and is also Apple Pay–enabled, so you can buy many different things.

4. Social Media Reviews Drive E-commerce

E-commerce is a booming market, and its growth is closely tied to social media engagement. This engagement from users is often in the form of posting to their networks about positive or negative experiences, or by posting reviews to ecommerce sites. An infographic from Bazaarvoice highlights how reviews can impact sales and return on social media investment.

The infographic is based on sample data collected from the Bazaarvoice network, and it analyzed 57 million reviews and more than 35 billion product pageviews.

One of the most effective tools for increasing feedback across your site, is to syndicate customer content. Featuring user-generated content across the site, encouraged others to leave reviews, which also improved product coverage compared to native content alone.

For example, featuring reviews next to consumer electronics resulted in a 324 percent increase in review volume, and a 26 percent increase in product coverage. In hardware, it caused a 259 percent increase in review volume, and an 18 percent increase in product coverage.

As the volume of reviews increase, so does the profile of the site. During early stages of growth, conversation in the reviews serves to drive traffic. Once there are more than eight reviews, sites begin to see growth in organic search traffic. When more than 100 reviews have been collected, businesses can see trends in feedback, such as sentiment or product suggestions.

And as the number of reviews ticks even higher, businesses start to see increases in the conversion rate. Just one review can increase the conversion rate by 10 percent. At 100 reviews the conversion rate can be boosted by up to 37 percent, and by the time there are 200 reviews, the rate can be boosted as much as 44 percent.

5.  "March Madness" apps

- Thuuz Sports - Provides your personalized guide to navigate through all these sports and insure that you never miss a great game or match. Make sure you have your alerts turned on so that you get the full impact of the service!

We only send you one alert per game, and only if it's truly exciting from your perspective, so you'll never be overwhelmed with notifications.

With your preferences set appropriately, you can govern which sports to follow, which teams to get heightened excitement alerts for, and how often to get alerted within a given league, from the "I don't want to miss any great game" fanatic to the "only if its the best of the best" casual fan.

- NCAA March Madness Live -
 

NCAA March Madness Live to present all 67 games across digital platforms
Completely redesigned for this year’s NCAA Tournament, the NCAA March Madness Live app – developed in partnership with the NCAA, Turner Sports and CBS Sports – will feature a sleeker design, improved navigation, an all-new GameCenter experience, a new “run” game and new sections focused on providing fans with more content than ever before.

From Selection Sunday to the cutting of the nets in Indianapolis, fans will be able to watch all of the action via March Madness Live accessible from www.ncaa.com/marchmadness, www.CBSSports.com, www.bleacherreport.com, CBS Sports App, Bleacher Report’s Team Stream, the App Store, the Amazon App Store, Windows Store and Google Play on Thursday, March 12.

As part of the industry-wide TV Everywhere initiative, pay-tv subscribers will have unlimited live streaming coverage and on-the-go access to the tournament across all screens, including online, mobile and tablets, throughout the entire championship. Fans will have access to all games airing live on TNT, TBS and truTV by logging in with their TV service provider information, and all games broadcast on CBS with no registration required.

NCAA March Madness Live will offer a temporary preview period giving users access to live game streaming before login is required.  Additionally, fans can watch games via live streaming on TNT, TBS and truTV’s digital platforms, as well as participating TV provider websites.

New for the 2015 NCAA March Madness Live:

• “Teams” Section – The new teams section allows fans to follow their favorite team throughout the tournament with stats, video content, a season recap/snapshot, team roster and information outlining upcoming tournament match-ups.

• “Featured” Section – For the first time, fans will be able to view content that captures the storylines, classic tournament moments, match-up analysis, top plays, press conference coverage, featured video content and more.

• GameCenter – The epicenter of NCAA March Madness Live has been reengineered to give fans more ways to watch live games on smartphones - allowing video viewing in both portrait and landscape orientations.  In addition, companion content on smartphones and tablets, such as team and player stats and social content from the Coke Zero NCAA March Madness Social Arena, is more dynamic and more discoverable than ever before.

• Capital One NCAA Tournament Run – A new game available at ncaa.com/tournamentrun that allows fans to stay competitive in the tournament after a busted bracket. To play, users must answer questions about each game match-up throughout the tournament to accumulate points and create the longest “run.”

• Capital One NCAA March Madness Bracket Challenge – This year, the official bracket game of March Madness – available via desktop, smartphones and tablets – is upgrading with new game features and more tools to help fans make their bracket picks.  In addition, this is the only bracket game to integrate access to the live video stream of every match-up during the tournament.

My Appearance on WGST's "The Sully Show" 3/6/15 - Printer Tips

Rick and Sully look at printers and printing this week...

It’s relatively easy to take your printers for granted. Did you know that there is often a significant opportunity to reduce costs and make your workload by making simple changes to your home or office printing environment?
 
Have a listen:

listen to ‘The Sully Show March 6, 2015’ on audioBoom

 
Here are five ways your business can start reducing printing costs today:
 
1. See things from both sides

Saving on printing costs doesn’t mean you should stop printing altogether—it just means being strategic about hitting “print.” According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the average office worker in the U.S. prints 10,000 sheets of paper each year. By taking advantage of your printer’s duplex printing function, you instantly cut your paper usage. Coupled with other smart printing habits, the savings add up quickly. In other words, print on both sides.
 

2. Control the color

Color printing has its place, but it isn’t always necessary. Implementing color access control allows you to enable or disable the option to print in color by individual users or groups, as well as by specific applications like email. This can help prevent users from wasting more expensive color toner on jobs that should be printed in black and white. Print in Black and White when necessary.
 
3. Trim the fat

Poorly controlled print environments result in unnecessary print costs. Businesses of all sizes can realize tremendous cost savings by reducing the total number of devices they currently use and replacing them with higher-capacity, higher-speed devices. This includes helping to eliminate cost-inefficient or underutilized printers, and replacing collections of printers, scanners, copiers, and fax machines with more efficient multifunction devices. In addition, this can save time and money on the associated supplies. Consolidating the ink and toner supplies orders allows for even greater efficiencies.
 
4. Protect document confidentiality - especially at work

Only print what you need to print. Abandoned printouts—ones that people simply forget to pick up from the printer—can not only be wasteful, they also represent a potential security risk when confidential documents are left on the printer. A solution like HP JetAdvantage Private Print enables you to print via secure authentication—right at the device [2]. This new cloud-based printing feature can help reduce wasted and misplaced prints, keep information more secure, and store documents until you are ready to print them.
 
5. Look at your workflow

Maybe you can save paper. Giant office filing cabinets are quickly becoming relics. Of course they take up valuable office space, but as the files become crowded it also becomes increasingly difficult to locate documents when you need them. Document-capture solutions take electronic and paper-based documents, integrate them into front- or back-end business applications, automate workflows, and enable instant access to data stored in a secure and centrally managed repository.
 
HP printers can save you money, help save the environment and more.

Try the free online HP Managed Print Analysis for a custom evaluation of your printing environment. In less than five minutes you will have a customized report that pinpoints inefficiencies in your office printing and outlines actionable steps you can take to help reduce your costs and streamline your printing environment.
 
Get your free HP Managed Print Analysis
 
True business value
Servicing a mixed print environment can cost a business money and time. HP Managed Print Services (HP MPS) can help by evaluating your current environment and assessing future requirements. This information is used to tailor an imaging and printing infrastructure to your needs.

 

My Appearance on WGST's "The Sully Show" 2/27/15 - 2XU Compression Apparel

Rick was in New York City this week....
 

For the 2 X U #HeartNotHype Summit about compression gear.  So we are going to spend the segment talking about compression gear and how everyone can benefit from it - including NASCAR drivers, since it is NASCAR week here in Atlanta.

Have a listen:

listen to ‘Rick on The Sully Show February 27, 2015’ on audioBoom

 

This week: 2XU, the world’s most advanced engineer of compression apparel, hosted its first Heart of Performance Summit in New York City, streamed live via www.2xu.com/heart.

Chaired by Jonathan Coachman, Anchor for ESPN Sportscenter, the 2XU Summit featured a panel of elite international sports experts including; Dr Shona Halson, Senior Physiologist, Australian Institute of Sport, Dr John Sullivan, Sports Psychologist, Jeff Nichols, Sports Physiologist and Former Navy Seal, Jeremy McGhee, Adventurer and Aidan Clarke, 2XU Co-founder.

About 2XU

Founded and based in Melbourne, Australia; 2XU’s philosophy is to create products which will advance human performance. 2XU employs fabric and construction technology to take you beyond what you previously thought possible. 2XU is fast becoming the most technical performance sports brand on the planet. Worn by multiple world champions, endorsed by sports institutions the world over and praised by professional athletes from all disciplines, 2XU understands what is needed to be the best. Developed by athletes for athletes.

www.2XU.com

Please watch:

60 second 2XU “Heart Not Hype” video

https://www.youtube.com/user/2xuaustralia

1.  Should athletes be wearing compression gear?  

Yes, for performance and recovery

⦁    2XU Compression – a cutting-edge apparel technology - is developed to enhance sports performance and recovery.
⦁    2XU’s products are renowned for their technical quality and are used by numerous elite athletes around the world including athletes from 43 NBA and NFL teams and the US Marine Corps.

2.   Should everyday people wear compression wear?

Yes, especially while traveling. 2XU compression socks can make a big difference on long flights. Blood circulation is key.

3.  With NASCAR making it's appearance in Atlanta this weekend, could drivers benefit from wearing compression gear?

The age old debate... are NASCAR drivers athletes?

4.  When a former Navy Seal like Jeff Nichols swears by 2XU compression wear, who are you to argue.

- He must be ready at a moments notice.  2XU compression gear is used by the Navy Seals as they have to possibly recover from a long flight and then perform....

5.  2XU's slogan.... #HeartNotHype  -  what does it mean?

The 2XU Heart of Performance Summit also served as the launching pad for 2XU’s first truly global brand campaign, #HEARTNOTHYPE. In addition to the panel debate, the Summit also included the world premiere of 2XU’s anticipated 5 minute #HEARTNOTHYPE film, which tells the story of athletes who put absolutely everything into their training, both physically and emotionally. The film captures the athletes’ journey as they train in 2XU compression clothing, demonstrating that by cloaking themselves in seriously intelligent equipment, and putting their heart into a workout, they can train smarter, perform stronger and recover faster than ever before.

The fully integrated 2XU #HEARTNOTHYPE campaign is designed to highlight how technical compression apparel supports the key driver of human performance – the heart. By heightening circulation and venous blood flow to the heart, compression garments enable athletes to train smarter, perform stronger and recover faster.