Gear for the well-wired student

LiveScribe Smartpen

When I packed off to college - and that was more than a few years ago - my collection of high-tech gadgets was pretty small. I had a portable typewriter, a reel-to-reel tape recorder and a transistor radio.

Students today are better equipped than the Apollo astronauts. In my area, even some middle school students are getting outfitted with laptop computers. Instead of lugging heavy backpacks stuffed with hardback text books, they carry a svelte little Chromebook and go online to read digital versions of textbooks and study aids.

I got to thinking about what I would take along if I were going back to campus today.Of course, there would be a portable computer, one that would work just as well in my dorm room, at the library or my favorite coffee stop. 

What else? Maybe the Livescribe Sky Wi-Fi Smartpen that captures audio and turns my scribbled notes into text. 

To see what else is on my list of gadgets for the well-wired student, check out my column at MyWell-Being.com.

 

By: Ric Manning On 8/22/2013

Continue Reading

What's brewing in Google's secret lab?

An integrated circuit on a contact lens.

Love 'em or hate 'em, you have to admit that Google has done some pretty remarkable things. I mean, who doesn't love the idea of a driverless car? I saw that in Popular Science magazine in the 1950s -- and in a lot of science fiction movies ever since. I'm also impressed by Google's Loon project. It would use a fleet of high-altitude balloons to bring Internet access to remote areas. 

And then there's Google Glass, the high-tech specs that incorporate a computer, a digital camera and a floating heads-up display. It's Glass that's getting lots of media coverage - and cranking up a public debate over privacy and safety issues. Reports last week said Britain is about to outlaw driving while wearing Glass.

I was thinking about how difficult it could be for the Brits to determine who is wearing the glasses. After all, they don't look big and clunky like the eyewear LeVar Burton wore in "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Then I ran across a column by Louisville consultant (and a long-time friend) Stephen Arnold. It suggests that, at some point, Google's wearable computer might close to invisible. Here's what Arnold wrote about Google's long-term goal for a website called CitizenTekk:  

"The goal is not glasses. Glasses, clearly, are just a bridge to the goal. And that goal may be to embed a computer in your eyeball."

Well, beam me up, Scotty. That's a warp-speed jump from today's Glassholes. I started picturing a world where the London coppers would be equipped with a Voight-Kampff machine, the eyeball scanner Harrison Ford used in "Blade Runner" to detect replicants.

How did Arnold come to that conclusion? The trail he followed started with some of the scientists and engineers that Google has hired to work at the R&D lab Google calls Google X - or sometimes Google[x]. The head of the Glass project is (or was) a scientist named Babak Amirparviz who wrote a paper for a scientific conference that described how electronic devices might be embedded in a contact lens.

He also quoted a newspaper article that said one of the other X scientists met Google co-founder Larry Page in 1998 "and they talked about how cool it would be to have a computer in your eyeball."

Those are intriguing connections, but they don't exactly prove that Google is working on an eyeball computer. I'm hoping Arnold keep digging and find out more about what's going on behind the X.
 
    

By: Ric Manning On 8/07/2013

Continue Reading

What do you need to disconnect from cable?

We’ve always been of two minds about cable. We love its convenience and variety but we hate the ever-increasing cost and all those channels that we never watch. 

And we're not alone. A recent survey of U.S. cable subscribers conducted by CouponCabin.com and Harris Interactive found that almost half of the adults polled believe cable TV is a waste of time. More than half said they would cancel their subscription if they had a suitable alternative.

So, what do you need to disconnect? Start with a simple "rabbit ears" antenna. The airwaves are filled with digital channels, many of them in high-definition. 

Digital broadcasting and it works just like the TV we had before cable arrived. In fact, with digital broadcasts, it now works much better. If you have a digital TV, as most flat-screen TVs are, just plug in an inexpensive "rabbit ears" antenna and you can pull in pristine high-definition signals from the major network stations in your area.

That's fine for live sports, local news, and current shows on the broadcast networks. But what about "Mad Men," "Duck Dynasty" and your other cable favorites? I have some tips in my current column at MyWell-Being.com.

By: Ric Manning On 8/06/2013

Continue Reading