iPhone | At Home with Tech

Last week, BlackBerry announced an almost billion dollar quarterly loss, fueling speculation that the fat lady has already sung. I’ve been happily using a BlackBerry at work for the past nine years, and I’m not pleased at the prospect of losing my little buddy with its old-school keyboard buttons. But what can one do to sooth the pain of this inevitable loss? Of course… write a poem!

Ode to the End of BlackBerry

A billion dollar loss
Who could guess?
The mighty BlackBerry
What a mess

It’s on my belt
Wherever I go
I’m on the job
It fuels my mojo

I tap away
My message clear
It is so fast
I have no fear

My iPhone’s great
But when I try
To send a text
Quick on the fly

The auto correct
It makes a mess
It sometimes says things
I must confess

When email’s the thing
BlackBerry can’t be beat
Those tactile buttons
They’re such a treat

But a simple machine
You don’t want anymore
It really has to do all
BlackBerry hits the floor

Kicked to the ground
Others are shining
There is no hope
Cause no one’s buying

I’m still a big believer
But this is not contemporary
There’s no denying the odds
You’ll soon see the obituary

The Borg will soon provide
Workers with their new tech
Corporations shall survive
But I’ll simply say ‘bleck’

Life was glorious
BlackBerry years happy
All good things must end
Time to call my Pappy

He tells me how
In the days before time
People just talked
Then had a glass of wine

Life was simpler he says
No tech was needed
Face to face was the way
To sow what you seeded

But I attribute it
To the gloss of the past
Just like his 8-track tapes
They were quickly outcasts

Survival of the fittest
It is not that existential
Evolution transcends all
No tech is forever special

September 1, 2013

Comfort Data to Feed Your Vacation Zen

What’s it going to take to make your next vacation as carefree as a three year old experiences it? Well, you’ll need a little tech at your side to maintain a small but steady stream of ‘Comfort Data.’

As we’ve arrived at the unofficial end of summer, I think it fitting to conclude my season-long investigation on the nexus between:

House
Weather
Home tech
and my blood pressure!

Consider this…
You take one last look at your house as you drive away on your late-summer vacation.
You’ve staged your home for low-occupancy use.
(The cats will hopefully use the time to catch up on some sleep…)

But your castle is essentially on its own.
Who knows what tomorrow will bring…
Natural disaster. Power outage. Alien attack.

As you turn the corner towards your relaxing journey, you smile at your family and secretly wonder if you will ever see your house again… in one piece.
(A slightly catastrophic perspective… but don’t tell me the thought has never crossed your mind.)

Are you enjoying your Vacation Zen yet?

Your Tech Always Comes Along for the Ride
Disconnecting from your daily routine is the foundation of recharging yourself on vacation. And that usually means putting down the work BlackBerry and personal smartphone.
But hey, how many of you spend zero time with your iPhone or Droid while soaking up your summer sun?

Exactly.
You’re not disconnected at all.
And you like it that way…

Send that text
Update your Facebook page
Make the phone call

The digital ‘wish you were here’ moments fly off your digits.

So if you continue to keep in touch with every part of your life, why can’t you use the same tech to monitor your house’s life signs?

Well, of course you can…

Comfort Data
I’m back from more beach R&R, and I’m happy to report my house is still in one piece.
(I know you’d be worried for me.)
More importantly, I didn’t have to wait to get home to arrive at this conclusion. I received enough ‘Comfort Data’ via my iPhone along the way.

I’ve been enjoying the benefits of having made my house a ‘wee bit’ smarter.
Now it shares its vital signs wherever I go.

And this ongoing evolution helped to make this vacation more relaxing than my earlier summer jaunt…

Let’s review my three tech muses that now feed my Comfort Data stream…

Nest – Keeping It Cool
Recently, I installed a Nest Learning Thermostat to give me remote access to my home’s HVAC system.
This vacation was the perfect opportunity to see if my pricey investment was worth it.

Each beach morning, I sat down with my cup of Joe, reflecting a bit while the early sun illuminated the calm water, and then I opened up the Nest app on my iPhone to confirm my house was as temperate as my current surroundings.

(All my windows were closed at home to avoid the possibility of wind-swept rain damage. But that choice also removed the opportunity for my house to breath in all that chilly late-summer night air.
So my Nest really needed to keep things cool without running my AC 24/7.)

The Nest app powered up and showed me the current temperature in my living room. It knew I was away, because it didn’t sense any movement.
(Apparently, its software algorithms can filter out cats.)
Nest was holding the temperature steady just under my ‘Auto-Away’ setting.

Sweet!

Leaving Eyes Behind with Your Foscam
So Nest can make you Lord of the Temperature, but you’re still blind to everything else happening at home.
Well, not exactly…
Remember that Foscam IP baby monitor camera I installed last year…?

I walked it downstairs before the trip, so I could take a remote peek at the homestead while building sandcastles with my son
I also moved a digital thermometer next to the Foscam so the IP camera could visually confirm my Nest was behaving

This back-up temperature check gave me additional peace of mind to know the cats were comfortable and getting their beauty sleep.

One time, as I was having some fun remotely panning the Foscam about the room, I spotted one of my two felines studying the sudden movement.

I immediately froze the camera so as not to incite more interest and a direct encounter.
(My Foscam didn’t have the optional ‘anti-cat force field’ installed.)

Finally, the simple fact I could successfully monitor the happy status of my Foscam confirmed my home was still getting juice from the street.

Dark Sky Looks for Trouble Overhead
So if you were wondering… no, I wasn’t continuously preoccupied with my offsite tech throughout my vacation.

There was plenty of room left to apply the power of tech to my present environment…

I was forced to navigate a dodgy weather day at the beach, and I really needed some hyper-local weather forecasting.

My friend suggested I try a weather app called Dark Sky, which was created by a couple of cool-looking dudes via
a successful Kickstarter campaign.
(The name sounds like a bad sci-fi movie on late night TV.)

This app’s trick is to take real-time data from the National Weather Service, pair it with your specific location and offer you an accurate rain report for the next hour right where you are.

I downloaded Dark Sky from iTunes for $3.99 and gave it its first test drive the final morning of our trip as I was packing up the car with all our family gear.

The clouds looked a little ominous, and of course, I was curious to see if I’d be schlepping out all our gear in the rain…

I asked Dark Sky…
‘All clear for the next hour!’

So I took my time.

Ten minutes later, the droplets began bouncing off my head.
D’oh!

To be fair, it only rained for the next five minutes, and then it stopped.
The rest of the day’s precipitation held off till later that afternoon as per the forecast.
(An errant rain cloud in need of a diaper change?)

Clearly this rain predictor app wasn’t completely infallible, but it wasn’t entirely wrong either.

I gave it another try last week during lunch at work. I needed to run an errand, and it was pouring out. Dark Sky displayed there was no end to the storm for the next hour.
So I dashed out after waiting as long as I could.

As I made my return protected by my trusty Tumi umbrella, the heavy rain subsided to a drizzle.
While waiting for a red light on Sixth Avenue to change, I felt curious what Dark Sky had to say…

It was ready to impress and let me know we were in a window of drizzle for the next ten minutes.
(eerily accurate)

Okay, this app wasn’t so bad after all…

It’s Getting Chilly Already
So there you have it… my summer… made a bit more relaxing through the power of home tech.

Yes, it’s always a little sad when you have to say hello to September.

But the good news is you can keep some of that summer glow with you
year round with all your Comfort Data.

You’re going to need it…
Old Man Winter isn’t that far off!

April 7, 2013

My Toddler, the Photographer!

“Say Cheese!” My son works the moment in his crib photographing his favorite animals!

It’s official.
My son is a chip off the old block.

He’s been at home with tech for some time now.
But yesterday, it was like watching him walk again for the first time…

New Life for an old iPhone
My toddler is a month away from becoming a preschooler, but it’s been almost a year since he mastered the intuitive interface of my old iPhone 3GS, which I repurposed into a garden-variety iPod after I upgraded to the 4S.

It was great giving the 3GS a new challenge instead of simply retiring it or slapping into a speaker dock as a music conduit.

I was also less concerned about placing expensive tech in the hands of my major minor, because it was now old tech.

Not that I want him to flush the iPhone down the toilet, but if it drops a few times, I won’t have heart palpitations.

And he’s been remarkably careful handling the device.
(so far!)

I originally downloaded a few age appropriate games for him to enjoy…

His current favorite is Tozzle, which is a great little puzzle game I highly recommend.

Unlocking the Wonders of an iPhone… All Over Again
He usually prefers the interactive multimedia experience over old-fashioned passive television or a Disney Junior video streamed off their website.

He’s also figured out how to access the camera functionality of the iPhone.
Over the past few months, he’s mostly enjoyed just listening to the camera click away, as he presses the record icon, taking countless blobby pictures.

Separately, he’s also been watching me take thousands of family photos over the past couple of years.
(I’m not exaggerating)

As parents know, there’s plenty of brain development going on in toddlers that you don’t immediately see.
Their eyes and ears are absorbing and categorizing everything!
And then one day, they do something remarkable which demonstrates their massive cognitive processing.

Yesterday was one of those days.

The Next Ansel Adams?
My boy was happily sitting on the rug playing with the iPhone.

I was nearby, listening to the telltale audio cues as he meandered from game to game.

Then, I heard the distinct clicking sounds of the iPhone in camera mode.
Nothing unusual…

Then, I heard a new sequence of sounds:

“Click.”
“Giggle. Giggle.”
(Little feet shuffling.)

“Click.”
“Giggle. Giggle. Giggle.”
(Little more feet shuffling.)

Hmmm…
I walked over to check things out.

He was taking pictures.
Pictures of objects and toys.
Photos of images that were clearly pleasing him.
Images that held ‘meaning.’
And they were good photos!

What?!
My son was suddenly a photographer!!

Then he turned to me and said,
“Dada, would you take picture of me?”

He handed me the iPhone, and I snapped a shot.
He stared at the camera with the most natural expression he’s ever intentionally offered a lens.

Click.

His hand reached out.
“Can I see?”

I turned the screen around.

It was a super picture.
He looked quite pleased.

But it was more than just the pleasure of him reviewing his own picture.

Our little artist…

Did the fact I’ve been taking pictures around him for three years influence the development of his newly found interest?
I hope so.

The Photo Gallery is Open
I’m so proud of him.
So impressed that I’m devoting this post to sharing this early work of his.
It’s always cool to be reminded of perspective from a young mind…

Now, I know he’s not the first toddler in the world to snap a photo.
And I’m not pretending he’s some kind of photographic prodigy.
Well… you can be the judge. Let me know what you think!

First, a little disclaimer-
I came up with the accompanying captions, though they were ‘inspired’ by him.
And I added in a little color enhancement of my own, trying not to affect the artistic integrity of my son’s work.

So let’s begin!