My wife and I are big fans of the TV show Shark Tank. We enjoy hearing entrepreneurs make their pitch to the panel of potential investors and we’ve seen more than a few get rejected because they doubt the inventors have the necessary leadership skills to make their company successful.
Freddie Achom, the co-founder of Rosemont Group Capital Partners, also looks for leadership qualities when his company chooses companies to invest in. Achom says as much in the video below.
Like the TV investors, Rosemont is looking for the next big idea to invest in. The company focuses on funding for startup companies through equity financing, angel investments and venture capital.
A social media company called JustGo that was launched with financial help from Rosemont was recently sold to a company called Tunecore. Here’s what Rosemont said in a recent news release:
JustGo launched in 2013 by founder Justin Golshir, raising $1.7 million in venture capital led by Freddie Achom’s Rosemont Group Capital Partners. The company quickly positioned itself as a dominant force in social media management in the music industry launching its beta exclusively focused on the fast growing electronic dance music industry.
Rosemont says it invests in “solutions and concepts that address large target markets” and that it is actively seeking “interesting ideas, concepts and businesses to invest in.” Rosemont is based in London with offices in New York and Mumbai.
For several months I kept my iPhone in a folio-style case. The case gave the phone the high level of protection that I wanted but it had a couple of issues.
For instance, I like to use my phone for GPS routing but I couldn’t mount it securely on my car’s dashboard without removing the phone from the case. Also, the folio case made it difficult to use the phone with a selfie stick or tilted correctly for video calls.
Now I’m checking out the Navor iPhone 7 Plus Case, which looks like it will provide everything that I want in a phone case.
The Navor case is a wallet-style case that has one flap to cover and protect the screen and another with slots to keep credit cards, IDs and cash. It also has a hole for a wrist loop and blocking material to shield the credit cards from RFID snoopers.
But this may be the best part: The case holds the phone in place with a magnetic connector. That means the phone can be quickly removed to use with a magnetic car mount or with a spring-loaded selfie stick. The case also functions as a stand and it let the phone swivel to find the best position for video calls or viewing.
The Navor wallet case sells for $16 or less and can be ordered in the Navor Store or on Amazon. The video below shows the wallet case in a version that includes a battery charger.
I’m old enough to remember when people actually sent and received postcards and I always seeing one from some mysterious far-off place like Hawaii or Arizona arrive in our family mailbox.
Postcards were fun to examine and share and they usually got posted on the refrigerator door or inboard for all to see.
So, what happened to postcards? I never see the racks of cards in drugstores or even where tourists shop. Another high-touch casualty of our high-tech life?
It turns out that postcards aren’t extinct. They made the jump to the digital age with a web service and app called MyPostcard. The service lets users select or create real printed postcards and send them through the appropriate postal service.
The service is available to anyone in the world, regardless of where they live or where the card will be delivered. Users can select a photo from their image collections on their mobile phone or desktop computer and write a personal message that will be printed on the card.
In addition to postcards, the MyPostcard also offers variety of greeting cards, including holiday or birthday cards greeting cards, that are delivered in an envelope.
Prices for the cards start at $2.29, which includes shipping. The cards are delivered to recipients in the US or Europe in 3-5 business days and to Australia or Asia in 6-10 days.
What’s the most useful app on a mobile phone? I’m betting that a lot of people who vote for the flashlight app.
Think about how many time it’s helped you find your keys or the money under your car seat. The last time my phone flashlight came in handy was when I was searching for a cat in a closet.
Flashlight apps like the Super Flashlight for Android phones use the light that was initially included to assist the phone’s camera. And those lights have gotten brighter and stronger as new phone models are released.
Super Flashlight says its light has the fastest startup time and “the brightest illuminator ever.” The app includes a strobe mode with a frequency controller and an option to flash an SOS signal.
Super Flashlight is available as a free download in the Google Play Store.
One of the many things I liked about the sorely-missed Vine app was the user interface it presented to viewers. Holding your phone with one hand, you could swipe up and down to find an engaging video and you simply stopped scrolling to watch it. It was an intuitive interface that was clearly designed for the mobile phone generation.
I don’t know if the developers at Vuxo, I Corp. had Vine in mind when they created Gfeed, but they were surely traveling down the same highway. Gfeed is an app that brings the same welcome simplicity to the often confusing mail feed generated by Google ubiquitous Gmail service.
Users who download the app for their iOS or Android phone or tablet are immediately presented with this simple instruction for using the program: Keep Calm and Swipe Up. That’s pretty much Gfeed in an nutshell.
After connecting Gfeed to my own Gmail account, my mail was presented in an attractive, page-filling display on my phone. No settings to to wrestle with and no filters to figure out. The app did everything for me in the background.
Each email message reduced to the basics and the the most important elements. A label at the top of each message identifies the sender. If there’s an image in the message, it comes next, resized to fit the screen. Next comes three action icons followed by a summary text, maybe a paragraph or two, in a font and type size that seems to have been selected for fast reading. This is an app that wants to give you a snapshot of your messages and do it quickly.
Junk mail? Swipe up and move on. A photo of your kids? Take a moment to savor it and show the screen to the people around you without tapping or enlarging. A memorandum from your boss? Click the More button to see the entire message.
Those icons in the quick view give you three options: Give the message a star to make it easy to find later, tap an arrow to open a reply window, or send it to the trash can. The full view has arrow to Reply All or Forward.
That’s about all there is to Gfeed and, really, that’s all it needs to be. You surely have other tools to manage a busy mailbox. This isn’t meant to be one of them. Instead, it’s a mail-reading tool for people who have a lot of demands on their time - or maybe just one free hand at a time.
How could Gfeed improve? The full message display sometime shows just a partial view of the message. I encountered that issue when I opened messages that were highly formatted or loaded with graphics. And in one case I got stuck in the reply window and had to close and reopen the app. But those were both minor inconveniences.
And I wouldn’t encourage the developers to add more features. More options and element and user controls would just add weight to an app that already has the best feature: simplicity. If they need to add something, build in support for other email services. Gfeed currently only works with Gmail.
The app is available as a free download - mercifully without ads - in the iTunes App Store and the Google Play Store. Get a closer look at how Gfeed work in my video review below.
They might go by different names like Word Seek, Word Find or Word Search, but the puzzles have the same goal: identify and mark words inside what appears to be a grid of scrambled letters.
Word Search Puzzle, a free game for Android devices, presents the classic puzzle in three levels of difficulty. The Easy level has 36 letters on a 6 x 6 grid, Medium is expands to 8 x 8, and the Hard level has 144 letters arranged 12 x 12.
The words are hidden in the grid. They could be vertical, horizontal, diagonal and even backwards. When you find a word, give it a finger swipe to keep it highlighted.
The games are organized under topics that include Animals, Food, Countries, Sports, Home and Internet. Finding the words is one part of the challenge, but this game also puts you on a time clock. The faster you discover and mark the words, the higher your score.
Word Search Puzzle is free but ad-supported. The app is available in the Google Play Store.
My local newspaper keeps getting smaller and among the casualties of the squeeze is the daily Sudoku puzzle that appeared among the daily comics. The puzzle had been a regular feature in many newspapers since the game hit the US in the early 2000s.
The game has a particular appeal to people who like to work with numbers. The objective is to fill a 9x9 grid with digits so that each column and row, plus each of the nine 3x3 sub-grids, contain all of the digits between 1 and 9 with no duplication.
Today, most puzzle fans are probably playing electronic versions like Sudoku Free, an app designed for Android phones and tablets. Like the printed versions, the app presents a grid that is partially populated with numbers. The challenge for players is to fill in the open squares with the correct digits.
Sudoku Free has three difficulty grades - Easy, Medium and Hard - and multiple levels in each grade. It will check for errors and save unfinished games and it has an auto-fill mode that can be set as on or off.
Sudoku Free is available as a free download in the Google Play Store.
Brian Kane sees a lot of potential in Alexa, the voice-recognition technology inside the Amazon gadgets that exploded in popularity over the Christmas holidays. But he’s no fan of the way Amazon designed those gadgets, the Echo, Tap and Dot.
“It’s so new that it reeks of engineer,” the robotics educator at the Rhode Island School of Design told an audience at The Alexa Conference in Nashville last week. “I love Star Trek as much as anyone but we have to stop making what was in sci-fi movies 50 years ago.”
Developers and designers should think about building in emotion and social intelligence when they create modern devices. “Personality is the new ringtone,” he said. “Lose the ‘Assistant’ and ‘Agent.’ Nobody is asking for that. Think companion, friend or pet.”
So how would Kane add some personality to Alexa? Last fall, he took Amazon’s hockey puck-shaped Dot and wired it Big Mouth Billy Bass, an animatronic singing fish that was a popular novelty item in the early 2000s. When Alexa answers a question or command, Billy moves his head and wiggles his tail. It was goofy idea, but Kane said it illustrates his point that high-tech gadgets don’t have to be sterile and bland.
Brian Kane and his Alexa fish hack
Billy was a big hit among the programmers and enthusiasts who came to The Alexa Conference, an event organized by Bradley Metrock. His company, Score Publishing, helps authors who use Apple’s iBooks publishing platform and he sees Alexa and other voice technologies as one more tool to help authors, small publishers and other content creators to expand their audience. Just as ebooks and audiobooks opened new opportunities, Metrock said “Alexa can help self-publishers extend our world into the next generation.”
Metrock included authors and publishers among the speakers at his conference at Vanderbilt University. Jolene Barto, a marketing manager at HarperCollins Christian Publishing, described how the company built Devotionals, an Alexa skill – essentially an app – that delivers a short inspirational reading.
The devotionals are audio segments of about five minutes clipped from audio books read by HarperCollins authors. Each one has an introduction and exit segment that promotes the book and the company’s collection. Users can connect to the publisher through the digital cards that they get in their Alexa app.
Bradley Metrock
“It’s kind of an experiment right now,” Barto said, but Alexa has the potential to expand the company’s connections to its readers and customers.
While HarperCollins used its own technical staff to do most of its Alexa work, other speakers described how users with above average programming abilities and a knowledge of Amazon Web Services can build an Alexa skill.
Tim Moses of Multiply walked through the Alexa API and developer’s platform that Amazon provides for free. Moses showed an application he wrote in one evening that would let people who are registered for an event or meeting check in and out using their voice.
And Kevin Old of LifeWay, a Christian services supply company, showed how he used the Serverless Framework as a alternate route to the functions on Amazon Web Services that support Alexa and skills coding. Old Serverless to build a skill that reads requested Bible verses from an app called MyBible.
“This platform allows me – a single lone developer – to create an engaging user experience using the power of their voice,” he said.
Other speakers included developer Emily Lam, who looked at how Alexa will be integrated into vehicles, and Matt Cybulsky, who discussed applications for Alexa in the health care industry.
The conference also included an Alexathon skills coding competition. The winner was Xander Morrison, the Digital Community Coordinator at Sony Music's Provident Label Group. It took Morrison just 24 hours to create his Nashville Tour Guide as an Alexa skill.
Metrock said he plans to expand The Alexa Conference for 2018. The event will be held Jan. 17-20 and that venue and initial speakers will be announced by the end of February.
Video doorbells have been around for a while now and people appear to appreciate the security measure that they provide. It’s nice to see who is at your door when you are in the basement or 100 miles away.
One issue with make of the devices is they often require hard-wired voltage. The RemoBell is a recent arrival that gets its power from six rechargeable AA batteries. That seemed to be a good option for my house where the doorbell wiring is old and not especially trustworthy.
I met the people who sell the RemoBell at the CES trade show this year and they gave me a sample to try out and write about.
The installation process was straightforward but not without some simmer issues. I loaded the batteries into the doorbell’s case and downloaded the free app for my iPhone from Apple’s app store. Then I set out to connect the bell to my WiFi network by following a procedure that I had seen with other WiFi cameras - you first select the RemoBell WiFi network, then log into your own network.
The first step in that process went just fine, but I got continual notices that the device was not connected to my home WiFi. I eventually closed the app and restated and - surprise! - the RemoBell camera was now on my network. I have no idea why.
Next, I attached a mounting bracket to my door frame using four screws that came with the RemoBell hardware. The bracket has L-shaped pegs in each corner and a hole at the bottom where anchor the camera housing with a tiny screw. Seemed simple enough, except the housing didn’t snap into place until after repeated wrestling and grumbling.
Now that the bell was in place, it was time to test it. I pushed the button below the camera and heard a pleasant “ding-dong” chime. After about 10 seconds, my Apple Watch told me someone was at my door - that seemed like a nice feature - but there was no alert showing on my phone.
When I swiped across the phone screen, I saw a similar notification and pressing it took me to the login screen for the RemoBell app. By the time I logged in and had a nice clear view of my front porch, I would have expected my visitor to have given up and gone away.
The people who answer RemoBell’s customer service line helped me correct the problems. First, I learned that I needed to check a pair of tine boxes in the email and password windows to avoid having to log in every time I get an alert. That was news to me. There’s nothing on the login screen or in the installation booklet that identifies the boxes or tells you why you should click on them.
Second, I learned that ring notifications will come to my watch or pop up on my darkened phone screen but not both. I opted for the phone alerts and turned off RemoBell notifications in my Apple Watch app. Now when I get a ding dong, I’m informed fairly promptly and can go directly to the video screen. And now a 10-second delay doesn’t seem like a big deal.
When I launched the camera, I got a wide-angle view that was clear and bright in the daylight and surprisingly good after dark, even when our porch light was off. A pair of option buttons let me accept or decline the visit. If accepted, an audio link is activated and I could have a conversation with my visitor.
Choosing the decline option closes the video connection but also snaps a still image that can be stored on the phone or forwarded through the usual channels. If I do nothing, RemoBell captures a video clip of my visitor. That's a handy feature for security purposes.
Overall, the RemoBell performed just as I expected, once I got all the right options selected and boxes checked. I was a little disappointed that I could not activate the camera by remote just to take a peek at the street in front of the house. That’s a feature RemoBell might want to consider for a future version.
With a price tag of $195 on Amazon, the RemoBell is competitive with other video doorbells and it offers the advantage of not needing a live wire power connection. That makes it attractive for mounting in unwired locations such as a back door or entry gate. RemoBell says the device will withstand temperature extremes (0 to 122 degrees) and that batteries will last up to six months. It also offers and option to save videos in the cloud for a monthly fee.
To get a closer look at RemoBell, visit the RemoBell website and check out the video below.
I’ve worn a beard since my college days and, believe me, that was more than a few years ago. Back then, I didn’t pay much attention to it, except for an occasional comb and snip with a pair of scissors.
Today, beards are back in style and I’ve outgrown the scraggly look that I favored back then. Along with more beards, a new lineup of powered trimmer have also arrived. But which one would be right for me?
My research took me to a website called Wise Beards, which lists specs, features and reviews for many of the popular brands of beard trimmers such as Wahl, Remmington and others.
For example, the site offers a comparison guide for five different models of Wall trimmers, from the Peanut, which looks like a good choice for travel, to the Color Pro, which looks like the type of trimmer that professional hair stylists use.
The reviews list pros and cons for each model and posts out features that set it apart from the competition. If you’re also tired comb-and-scissors grooming, Wire Beards is worth a click.
Like any doting grandparent, I often wonder what’s going on in their little rug rat brains. What are they thinking when they hod up a favored toy or spit out their mom’s ravioli?
They’re not yet ready to tell me, at least using words that adults can understand. But they don’t have to. Now I can put words in their heads using an an app I discovered lets me add thought bubbles to my photos.
BubbleChat, created by CaptionMagic, is an iOS app that lets you add thought bubbles to photos of people or animals, even if you have no artistic or graphic design skills.
The app is made specifically to to work with iMessage and once you download the app, it can be called from the app store icon on the iMessage screen.
Start by opening a new message screen in iMessage, then take a photo or open one stored on your device. Then click the App Store icon and BubbleChat will automatically open a bubble next to a face in the photo.
From there, you can type in your clever text and pinch or pull the bubble to adjust its size, drag it to another face or tap on a face to add a second bubble.
The iMessage library of emoticons are also available too add to the text in a bubble. When you’re finished, tap Send to share your creation or Save to to put a copy in your photo gallery.
To see a full walk-through, watch the video below. There’s more information on the BubbleChat website and the app can be downloaded for free in the iTunes App Store.
Years ago when I was working for a large national corporation, the sales staff was just getting to know a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) program called Salesforce. The software turned out to be a top-drawer application but with a price tag to match.
Now that I’m the head of my own operation, I’ve been looking for a CRM package that fits my size and budget and doesn’t anchor me to a desktop PC.
One of the packages that’s on my list is FyNCRM, a management tool that has been built for today’s mobile world.
FyNCRM integrates with a mobile app called SuiteCRM that works both online and when you don’t have an Internet connection.
Users can take either route - from the app or the desktop - to access daily activities, log calls, SMS, emails and customer data. The two platforms keep data in sync whenever an online connection is available.
The program also includes GPS features to help automate expense tracking and ease the reimbursement process while users are working away from their office.
The FyNCRM mobile app can be downloaded for free and used for 30 days without charge. An Android version is available in the Google Play Store and the company says an iOS version is coming soon.
Like Sheldon on the TV Show The Big Bang Theory, I have claimed one end of our sofa as my personal domain. It has a direct view of the TV screen, a place store my reading materials and put my feet up and a lamp that’s easy to reach.
And now it’s also a good spot to charge my mobile phone and tablet.
In Las Vegas for CES, I met the folks from Mega Tiny Corp. at the Showstoppers event. They are the people who had the bright idea of adding a USB charging plug to an LED lightbulb and they gave me one of their PowerBulb’s to take home and check out.
The PowerBulb is longer, wider and heavier than a typical LCD bulb. It’s lower base contains two USB ports, each of which provides enough charging power to refuel a mobile phone or a full-sized tablet.
The light that sits on the top of the bulb puts out 608 lumens. Although the PowerBulb fits in any standard socket, it doesn’t work with a dimmer and it was too heavy and too long for the adjustable lamp that sits next to my bed.
In my house, the table lamp with a vertical socket and a shade proved to be the best location. Both the light and the chargers turned on or off using the room’s wall switch or the switch in the lamp’s socket.
The PowerBulb also has its own switch built into the base. I could use it to turn off the light without turning off the charger.
With the PowerBulb installed, I don’t have to rummage around on the floor to find the wall outlet and I have foiled our cat who has decided that think charging cables are great to chew on. Others have used the bulb in guest rooms or rental homes and packed them along on their travels. Hotel rooms never seem to have enough accessible outlets for chargers.
How often do you find that your phone needs a charge, but you don’t have a cable, or a plug or both?
The people at Kado have developed a device that keeps those two essential items always close by. The Kado Wallet, shown here at CES, is a a charger that’s not much bigger than a credit card.
The device has a pair of folding prongs for plugging into an electric outlet and a two-foot cable that tucks away inside the Kade Wallet’s school. The cable tip can have a Lightning tip for charging iPhones or a mini USB tip for Androids.
The larger Kado Sleeve is designed to deliver enough current to power a laptop while also charging a mobile phone.
The Tel Aviv-based company plans to release the chargers in mid-2017. You can sign up top be notified when they are available on the Kado website.
Amazon did not have a booth or any public visibility at CES,
yet Alexa, its always-listening Siri-like digital assistant, was widely viewed as the star of the show.
Check out these headlines:
Yahoo Finance: CES 2017’s breakout star: Amazon’s Alexa Business Insider: Amazon’s Echo is building a coffin that’s custom-made for Google Wired: Alexa just conquered CES. The World is next
Dozens of exhibitors jumped on the Alexa bandwagon with
announcements of plans to incorporate Alexa into their products. The
technologies ranged from kitchen appliances to cars to home automation and
entertainment devices. A few samples:
Autos: Ford and VW said they would integrate Alexa
for weather, navigation and other information. Hyundai had already connected its
Blue Link system to Alexa.
Wearables: Martian is putting Alexa in a smartwatch. Sensory
will put Alexa and other AI assistants in Bluetooth headphones.
Home security: ADT is adding Alexa control to its
Pulse security system. Array and Brinks will make smart locks that that will
lock with a voice command. Somfy showed a hub that uses Alexa to manage sensors
and cameras.
Phones: Huawei will put a default Alexa app on its
Mate 9 smartphone. Existing phones can download the Alexa app today.
Appliances: Whirlpool showed washers, dryers,
refrigerators and ovens that can be controlled with Alexa. Samsung and Neato
are putting Alexa into it robot vacuum cleaners. LG put it in a refrigerator
and a home robot. Conway announced a smart air purifier with Alexa inside.
Video: Dish will add Alexa to the Hopper DVR. Westinghouse
and at least two other TV makers will put Amazon’s Fire TV with Alexa-remotes
in new models.
Home control: Alexa is coming to a GE LED lamp, a
Belkin smart plug, smart switches from iDevices, and a smart power strip from
Incipio.
Toys: Lynx, a dancing robot from Ubtech, and Hugo were among the robots at CES that respond to
Alexa. (You can see Lynx bust a move in the video below.) Aristotle is an Alexa speaker programmed specifically for kids.
Gadgets: Alexa will be included in a bedside clock
and speaker, the Dok Talk charger that charges five portable devices, the Nightingale
smart sleep-aid system, and Bixi, a gesture-control device.
The Gizmo Editor is back home after a week-long safari in the wilds of Gadgetland. As always, the Las Vegas trade show for the digital industry was teeming with new products that you may or may not see in the stores this year.
The hot topics this year included drones, personal vehicles, virtual reality, ever-thinner TVs and an amazing variety of connected devices.
Along with lights and switches I saw a connected toaster, teapot, coffeemaker, walking cane and even a connected bikini that warns the wearer when she's in danger of getting sunburned.
The short video below includes some of the clips and images I collected as I walked the floors of the display halls. As always, your comments are welcome.
To see the rest of my reports from CES, click here.
What to do with those 3D printers? Laurent Bernadec used one to make a violin. Not just any violin, but one designed to copy the legendary Stradivarius violin.
Last week he was giving short performances at his company’s booth at CES. Bernadec, an engineer and musician, said his violin mimics the weight and feel of a classic Strad, which was scanned to provide the basis for the plastic version.
One advantage of a printed violin is it the consistency that comes from having a body made from a single piece of material. In this case, plastic.
The violins have been selling in Europe since 3DVarius completed a Kickstarter funding campaign last summer. The price is bit $8,000.
You can get more information about the printing process, see videos of the violin in action, and place an order on the 3DVarius website.
I started reporting on gadgets and gear when Atari ruled electronic games and computers used floppy disks. My weekly column ran in the The Louisville Courier-Journal and online at USAToday.com and ABC News.com. I was a regular at tech trade shows including COMDEX, CES and the CEDIA show for home theater. Follow @GizmoEditor on Twitter and on Facebook. Contact me at ricman@iglou.comI also create short videos for vendors to use on Amazon and YouTube. Click here to see a portfolio of my recent videos.
Video by Gizmo
Need a video to promote your app or product? Check out my gig at Fiverr.com and browse my video portfolio here.
My wife and I are big fans of the TV show Shark Tank. We enjoy hearing entrepreneurs make their pitch to the panel of potential investors and we’ve seen more than a few get rejected because they doubt the inventors have the necessary leadership skills to make their company successful.
Rosemont says it invests in “solutions and concepts that address large target markets” and that it is actively seeking “interesting ideas, concepts and businesses to invest in.” Rosemont is based in London with offices in New York and Mumbai.
, the RemoBell is competitive with other video doorbells and it offers the advantage of not needing a live wire power connection. That makes it attractive for mounting in unwired locations such as a back door or entry gate. RemoBell says the device will withstand temperature extremes (0 to 122 degrees) and that batteries will last up to six months. It also offers and option to save videos in the cloud for a monthly fee.
.
Video: Dish will add Alexa to the Hopper DVR. Westinghouse
and at least two other TV makers will put Amazon’s Fire TV with Alexa-remotes
in new models. 
I started reporting on gadgets and gear when Atari ruled electronic games and computers used floppy disks. My weekly column ran in the The Louisville Courier-Journal and online at USAToday.com and ABC News.com. I was a regular at tech trade shows including COMDEX, CES and the CEDIA show for home theater. Follow @GizmoEditor on Twitter and on Facebook. Contact me at ricman@iglou.com I also create short videos for vendors to use on Amazon and YouTube. Click here to see a portfolio of my recent videos.
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