WiFi continues to get serious. Well, its not really free WIFI since you pay for the room...
http://newsroom.hyatt.com/index.php?s=20295&item=123338

HYATT TO LAUNCH FREE WI-FI ACCESS IN ALL LOBBIES AND GUEST ROOMS WORLDWIDE

Responding to Guests’ Feedback, Hyatt Hotels To Offer Free Wi-Fi to All Guests

Watch those Concent pages at WIFI hotspots

See this article. I always use a throw away email when I accept these consent pages.
Consent pages Horror Story

Speed of Light Microwave Oven but also WI-FI

Ok, Labor day. Science is back. 

Watch this video to see how to measure the Speed of Light with a Microwave Oven. Very well done explanation.

By the way the consumer microwave operates in the same spectrum as WI-FI b/g devices. Sometimes people notice that their WI-FI does not work so well if they are close to an operating Microwave (yes some leak, beware) 

Gary 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH5W6xEeY5U#t=211

We are waiting for the new iPhone to come out in September this year. Here is something to think about until then.

How Much do you think an iPhone would have cost in 1991 if it came out.

It was possible but at a price. Maybe not the same size. The iphone has about 13 different independant devices built into that you would have to make in 1991. Can you guess how much.

http://milepoint.com/forums/threads/how-much-would-an-iphone-have-cost-in-1991.80985/

If you have an iphone,  you should read this well written article. Most people I know do not understand what they are consenting to when an app like facebook or linked in have access.
http://www.crn.com/slide-shows/security/300073607/8-ways-iphone-users-give-up-privacy-threaten-security.htm#


Are you one of them?

what do you really think you spend. I cut my cable about 5 years ago and have not looked back. What about the other must haves.
nice article worth the read. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/10/technology/personaltech/cutting-the-high-cost-of-digital-living.html?_r=0

  I have liked Sonos product line (not the price!) adding Soundcloud is clearly focused to savvy music seekers.

SoundCloud on Sonos Platform

Read this great article on how to fit in Silicon Valley.
    Is NY already like this?

http://qz.com/225782

I am not sure if you are following the Aero supreme court case (my guess is you are not) but this decision to not allow streaming of the cable is sad news. 

I am not sure of the future impact on innovation in this area. You will see it affect you (online viewing) in other ways.
Here is the letter from the CEO that he just released.

CEO Letter on the outcome of the Supreme Court Decision

Look carefully at the link. That is a balloon carrying high speed internet to people on the ground.

Google-celebrates-project-loons-birthday-first-lte-experiments-launch-near-equator/

about 15 years ago, I read this could be done for wifi in Africa. Now it looks like it can be possible.
Back then they felt it would stay up for 2 years before replacement was needed.
Just think about this. in the next 15 years (I am sure less) you will be able to be connected to the internet for little or no cost, ANYWHERE, that is truly life changing.

What will happen to our big cities then?
Gary

Amazon Music Launch, now lots of Music for streaming. 

What is the price?

Well Amazon has thrown in with other music options for a “subsidized free” music service. I think it will have a big impact on users in the “Try it, I already have it Market”.

Amazon Adds Ad-Free Music Streaming To Prime SubscriptionsSeattle — Amazon unveiled its Amazon Prime music-streaming service, a million-song-strong service that is both free and ad-free to subscribers of the e-tailer’s $99/year subscription-based Prime shipping service…

I loaded this up on my iPad this morning and the music selection is decent. It was a good idea for them to add this as a service and to include it into the prime account. I wonder what it will cost them. It would appear with the Prime increase in price this looks like they are budgeting only a few dollars of usage per user, per month.The interface is very two years ago. I recently tried out the beats format, you know that service Apple paid 3 Billion dollars for.  Amazing; smooth setup, nice interface on working out what you like or may like and great quality sound playback. I cannot say that for Prime. Beats at an annual cost $99 a year the same amount as Amazon has for free delivery!

I am still a fan of Pandora. There issue is that it is extremely hard to consolidate music stations and they limit you to 100 stations which I feel is just not necessary. If they fixed that and increased their library on the stations then they’ll survive this increased competition.

Now we need an app that can consolidate these services into one interface.

Worth a quick look at this before the games start.  

Thanks Google.

https://www.google.com/maps/views/streetview/brazils-world-cup-stadiums?gl=us

What exactly are the 22 Siri Supported languages revealed 

Apple World Congress yesterday announced Siri support for 22 more languages (24 that will include dictation), I have tried to find a list of what they are going to be.

Here is a list of what I have found out so far.
Finally Apple Siri will support you talking to it.

Arabic - Saudi Arabia
Catalan - Spain
Croatian - Croatia
Czech - Czech Republic
Danish - Denmark
Dutch - Netherlands
Finnish - Finland
Greek - Greece
Hebrew - Israel
Hungarian - Hungary
Indonesian - Indonesia
Malay - Malaysia
Norwegian Bokmal - Norway
Polish - Poland
Portuguese - Brazil
- Portugal Romanian
- Romania Russian
- Russia Slovak
- Slovakia Swedish
- Sweden Thai
- Thailand Turkish
- Turkey Ukrainian
- Ukraine Vietnamese
- Vietnam
Source:
http://9to5mac.com/2014/06/03/heres-all-24-new-dictation-languages-arriving-in-ios-8-os-x-yosemite/

An impressive array of hardware announcements are expected over the next few weeks.

I saw this one on the new high end Chromebook as an example.  A Chromebook at over $1,200.00 is excessive but its applications could be interesting.  Chrome, when it is done well does not have the overhead of the operating system etc.      This can lead to more dedicated capability for high end graphics delivery (perhaps medical imaging or search and rescue, satellite image matching).

http://www.google.com/intl/en-US/chrome/devices/chromebook-pixel/

Then this one hits this week.  Nice concept of a laptop with a phone cradled inside.  I would like to see the devices “married” closely so that they sync with the phone and the laptop seamlessly, perhaps where the laptop can share the data. I have a 64 Gb phone and know that if I could get it to 500 Gb, I would put more music and videos on it.

http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/05/19/google-patents-a-laptop-with-a-built-in-smartphone-let-the-chromebook-and-android-speculation-begin/

Today we will see Apple giving us their year’s roadmap. Hopefully with not too many “we are going to do this in 4 months’ time” as they often do.  I prefers when manufactures release products after their announcements within a few weeks.  I understand that they sometimes have to gauge demand first but often we are seeing products take months to get to market.  I do enjoy Kickstarter projects and have sometimes purchased months ahead of the launch, but that is different.  With Kickstarter projects I am also making a statement that the design and Company are worth developing, often potential game changers.

Here are two examples:

https://gigaom.com/2013/11/14/meet-coin-a-startup-creating-a-universal-credit-card/

Coin is really a US only product idea at this point since Europe and other countries have the “Chip and pin” built into each card.This is an interesting wearable monitored T shirt it is designed to be a “full sensor” shirt so the fabric tells the system what you are doing, heart, breathing etc. Watch the video its cool.

http://www.omsignal.com/collections/all

Let’s see what more comes out over the next few weeks. Please feel free to share your game changing products and why deem them as such.
Gary  

  This is an an extremely interesting way to look at the Internet of things as a MAP in old world format.
    It's a 19 Mb file and you can order it at there site. What the Artist did was take the Traffic and popularity over 2013 and mapped it as if it were a real old time map. Let me know your thoughts.
   I like the idea but I am not sure if search engines are truly capturing what is going on in the Internet these days. It is estimated that 50% plus of all traffic is in fact machine to machine (M2M) and growing. Maybe that should be the oceans... Gary
 you can find it here: http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/070/a/5/map_of_the_internet_2_0__by_jaysimons-d781bst.jpg

Two Screens , Yes or No.. or perhaps Know. Read on.

I have not been a big Two Screen fan. When I do have a 2 Screen system I work on, I tend to have a laptop monitor as the second screen which means that I have my concentration naturally focus on the bigger second screen. What about you ? http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/20/technology/personaltech/surviving-and-thriving-in-a-one-monitor-world.html?hpw&rref=technology&_r=1

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/10446025/Scientists-discover-method-of-charging-phones-with-microwaves.html A few years ago a friend asked when can they get rid of the cord (USB power). It's coming 900mhz cell phones should be able to recharge when they are not in use (soon as in years!) The Technical detail if you must read it can be found at : http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/apl/103/16/10.1063/1.4824473 Gary

note the update on your iphone /ipad. This one is important but also update the apps. Read why... The likelihood that you will be hacked is probably higher by the NSA then this simple hack (I saw less then 10 lines of code could do it) but sill this one is worth the update. more here: http://techland.time.com/2014/02/24/critical-security-bug-leaves-apple-devices-vulnerable-to-hacks/ I do not turn the auto feature of IOS 7 App update. Why, you may well ask. Well, for one thing with nearly 300 apps I forget what they do sometimes and this way I can decide to revisit or delete an app once an up update is available. Also you have to then manage which one is able to update on WI-FI or cell. For more info on this feature if you have not used it before: http://9to5mac.com/2013/09/20/ios-7-how-to-set-up-automatic-app-updates/ Gary