Will Technology Save Public Education?

There's no doubt that technology is the new "panacea du jour" for public education in America today. Hundreds of millions of dollars (and much more on the way) are being spent on getting iPads and other tablets into the hands of teachers and students all over the country in classes as early as kindergarten. This nationwide effort was described in detail in a recent New York Times Magazine article. Many parents are clamoring for it, the U.S. Department of Education is supporting it, and, of course, many of the so-called education technology companies are profiting handsomely from it.

As I read the article, two questions came to mind. First, is there really a public education crisis in America? The answer to this question seems to be an emphatic "YES!" given the popular interpretation of the results of two international achievement tests (PISA and TIMSS). American students, after being at the top for years, have been in a tailspin and now finish in the middle of the pack in tests of math and science when compared to students in other countries.

But when these data are placed under real scrutiny, their conclusions don't stand up to the definition of "crisis," at least not in the way it is usually presented by the many Chicken Littles in public education these days. When the test scores of American students are separated by income level, the true differences and the real problems with public education in the U.S. become clear.

When the scores of American students are broken down by the percentage of students who receive free or reduced lunches, a generally accepted measure of poverty, a very different picture emerges. In schools with less than 10 percent of students dependent on subsidized lunch programs, American students placed in the top five in both math and science. By contrast, and not surprisingly, in schools with a student body in which 50 percent of the students receive free or reduced lunches, their scores are far down in the international rankings.

Anyone who has ever spent time in affluent public schools knows that there is no public education crisis in their schools because they are, in fact, semi-private schools with district foundations that raise upwards of several million dollars a year that go to enrichment programs. A visit to a school that serves disadvantaged students is an entirely different story.

Here are some inconvenient truths. The poor results on the international achievement tests are due to several factors that some people don't like to admit. For example, America has some of the highest poverty rates, far more income inequity, and poorer health care than most of the other developed countries that participate in the testing.

The U.S. also has far more diversity than other countries, with fully 25 percent of public school students as English as Second Language speakers. Additionally, many other countries engage in cherry-picking, where the best students are selected early and channeled into competitive educational programs who take the international tests while those who don't perform well are placed in trade schools.

So, America doesn't have a public education crisis. Rather, it has a poverty crisis that manifests itself in the self-perpetuating educational vicious cycle in which most poor children, that is to say, black and Hispanic children, are caught and can't escape.

Which brings me to the second question that I think of when the issue of technology as the new, big thing in public education comes up. What makes people think that technology is the solution to our public education woes? Despite all the talk about how technology can transform education by better engaging students and enabling them to go at their own pace, there is no clear scientific evidence that technology produces better educational outcomes such as improved grades, higher graduation rates, or better preparedness for higher education.

What the data do show in the U.S. is that well-trained teachers are the single greatest school-related contributor to academic success. This finding is affirmed in top-ranked countries such as Finland and South Korea, where the best college graduates become teachers and the profession is well-respected and well-compensated. Yet, we are pouring millions upon millions of dollars into an unproven remedy rather than into a solution that has been verified empirically many times over.

By the way, I hope you saw my distinction above of the "single greatest school-related contributor" because the single most influential factor in the success of students in school is their experiences before they arrive at school. As the University of Chicago and Nobel Laureate economist James Heckman has described, children who are raised in disadvantaged homes arrive at elementary school already behind their more affluent peers in academic, cognitive, emotional, and social skill sets and most are unable to catch up. Yet, the amount of money devoted to early childhood education is a pittance compared to what is being thrown at elementary and secondary education by the U.S. Department of Education's Race to the Top program.

Yet, the "faith-based" technology approach to public education reform is moving full steam ahead, particularly for disadvantaged students. There is this fantastical notion that giving poor kids iPads just the rich kids will somehow magically transform them into great students. So, while their schools are crumbling around them, they will have shiny new tablets that will reverse years of physical, psychological, cognitive, and economic neglect.

Speaking of having technology in the lives of children, did you know that young people 8 to 18 years old spend, on average, more than 7.5 hours of their non-school day in front of screens? Moreover, that number is substantially higher for black and Hispanic kids (about 13 hours a day) who, because there isn't affordable child care in America, are often placed in front of a TV or video game console to act as babysitter. Has anyone considered what another, say, five hours of the school day spent in front of a screen is going to do to the development of children's interpersonal, creative, and cognitive skills? Gosh, perhaps the solution to our public education crisis is to remove technology rather than increase its use in children's lives at home and in school.

So who benefits from this rush to get on the technology school bus? Well, the education-technological complex, of course. It is, after all, a $17 billion industry and will only get bigger. Who else? The politicians who push for these "photo-op" solutions because they give the appearance of caring for children and doing something to solve the problem while not actually doing anything to solve the real problem, which is about poverty and income inequity, not public education.

And who loses from this knee-jerk, "technology is the answer to all of public education's problems" reaction? As usual, it's those who deserve it the least, the children who are already behind and are just waiting for someone to come up with a solution to America's education problems that actually works.

Goodreads Tells Reviewers To Play Nice

Originally posted on IndieReader

Recently, The New York Times reported on a crackdown on businesses who review themselves. In the media, this was a shocking revelation, but we in the book community know this happens all the time. The upheaval in the Indie Community about sock-puppets, purchasing reviews and general author shenanigans has undermined some readers' faith in the review system. On the flip-side, readers and reviewers have been displaying some mean-spirited behaviors as well, resulting in one case where the author decided not to publish their book at all thanks to the cruelty of reviews appearing on her book page pre-publication, including actual threats to her person and calls for violence.

In light of both author and reviewer behavior, Goodreads specifically has changed their Wild West style of moderating their site and implemented some new standards. Our question is what does this mean for readers?

Reviews are intended to give a potential buyer insight into the product or service being offered. They are an integral part to how people make decisions on hiring a contractor, picking a restaurant and buying a book. When reading a review, most people are looking for a well rounded and critical opinion. Sometimes a quality three star review will influence more people to go ahead and purchase than over the top praise in a five star review.

Amazon and Goodreads have been cracking down for a while on reviews which were either purchased or created from a sockpuppet account. There's still work to be done in this area but this is good news for readers, because it means reviews are not skewed to the positive. Allowing authors to review their own books (or pay for reviews) allows a kind of bias which could sway a consumer to purchase something based on false information. Authors have also been known to bully reviewers or act out when they receive a negative review demanding it be removed. This undermines the entire Indie Community because it means people will stop believing that actual, quality books exist.

Now, in an effort to continue evening the playing field, Goodreads is removing reviews which are not based on the product, but the author. Some reviewers feel this is inappropriate because they have the right to whatever opinion they would like. I support reviewers in writing honest reviews and being uncensored, unfortunately, what's happened is books are being falsely reviewed to the negative based on personality clashes, rumors and sometimes inaccurate information. Can GoodReads be trusted to walk this fine line between censorship and moderation? To a certain degree we will have to wait and see.

An example of what Goodreads is hoping to curtail is what happened to Kendall Grey's books from The Hard Rock Harlott series. Earlier this summer, Grey wrote an article for a blog intended for authors that was not received well and made some comments on Twitter and other social media which enraged readers. The blog has since been taken down, but the widespread reaction was negative. Authors were upset, readers offended and reviewers hurt. I support people's right to feel this way, express it and talk about it. The problem, however, came when reviewers began rating Grey's books which were not yet available (even as Advance Readers Copies) with 1 star, not based on the content of the product, but on their feelings based on her blog. Many of these reviews even stated that they did not read the book.

For readers, this creates confusion. Those not involved in the Indie Community and not interested in the internal politics of the industry suddenly see a dramatic drop in the star rating of, in Grey's case, a book which had not been released yet. A cursory glance might tell you this is not a good book, but none of the reviews were from people who had actually read it. This skews and manipulates the review system just as much as authors who employ fake review strategies.

Personally, I think including the author's life in a review is fine. It would be difficult to have a conversation about Antonin Artaud without discussing the effects of his childhood meningitis or his relationship with Anais Nin. But in these kinds of historic analysis, rarely are they so hate-filled and vile as to suggest someone be sexually violated, which is precisely the kind of thing which instigated the change on Goodreads. Analysis, critical thinking and relevant issues decidedly have a place in a quality review, be it about the work, the genre or the author. Personal attacks do not.

In the past, readers have been able to rely on reviews by literary critics and industry professionals. This led to some fabulous books being overlooked and an elitist approach to publishing. Self-publishing and the Indie Revolution have blown the top off that old model, opening the doors for authors and reviewers to speak their mind, share their art and discuss, person to person the books they love. But when you open the doors of a previously tightly regulated community you have to let everyone in. Not just the people you like.

Living in the digital age allows a culture of bullying and extremities to flourish on both sides. While not intended to silence anyone in particular or censor reviewers in general, the Goodreads policy update is intended to even the playing field so that readers can rely on reviews to tell them about the product they are interested in. They haven't gone about this perfectly and made an egregious error in not allowing reviewers to revise their reviews and shelves before deleting.

Reviewers should have the right to say whatever they feel in a review. But GoodReads is a business first and foremost and having the kind of abuse of the system and each other that's been going on needs to stop in order for it to remain viable.

While reviewers certainly have the right to be upset with an author personally and blog about it or discuss it, should it be included in a rated review of a book? Many authors who are lauded in literature could be accused of terrible behavior. From Gore Vidal to Orson Scott Card, authors have made some terrible decisions in their public personas. Should my review of Ender's Game include Card's public denouncement of homosexuality? I think not. I have the choice not to read his book. Honestly, I didn't even know about it when I read the first book and it had no influence on the quality of writing. Do I care? Yes. Does it matter in my analysis of a novel? No.

What I'm hoping is that this new policy is the beginning of a more civilized and intellectual dialogue about books. That both authors and reviewers will be required to hold themselves to a standard appropriate for bibliophiles. Name calling, harassment, and public shaming from either side is unacceptable and has no place on a site about the thing we all came together for - books.

Read more on IndieReader

Sorry, Louis C.K., But My Smartphone Saved Me

To the best of my Rain Man-like assessment abilities, I estimate that about 78% of the people I know own smartphones. An extremely high percentage of those people have also posted at least one link to an anti-smartphone rant, with an accompanying declaration of smug superiority, on some form of social media in the past year.

Either I know the only people who know how to use smartphones "properly," the only population in the entire world who have managed to navigate the tool without letting it influence their old school behaviours and social programming, or this is all part of some strange ritual self-flagellation that a large swath of iPhone and Android devotees have decided that they need to engage in to atone for their own enjoyment of and dependence on technology.

The latest round of reproach and/or half-hearted repentance came this past weekend when links to Louis C.K.'s already legendary anti-smartphone screed started to flood my Facebook timeline along with the kind of self-righteous commentary that I've come to expect from this phenomenon. The only thing that really changed in this particular cycle was that I shared the link as well. Instead of the usual "This is why I love Louis C.K.!" and "He's absolutely right!" commentary, though, I sent it out into my little social media universe with a simple "FUCK THIS SHIT."

Despite what my inarguably articulate and nuanced response might suggest, I'm not mad at Louis C.K. for what he said, or mad at anyone who agrees with him. I'm just disappointed, exasperated and increasingly frustrated by the attitudes and arguments on which the anti-smartphone ethos is based.

I generally like Louis C.K. and even when I don't agree with him, I usually respect his opinions. The same goes for my friends. But their stance on this issue is ignorant. They are making the assumption that the old, pre-smartphone social structure and rules were better for everyone because they happened to work for them. They didn't, though. And this is why I'm not the least bit ambivalent or apologetic about my smartphone. It has genuinely transformed my life for the better. In some small way, it might actually have saved it.

I mostly wasn't joking when I said that I had Rain Man-like qualities in my first sentence. I have an Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asperger's with a possibility of Nonverbal Learning Disability if you want to be old school and pre-DSM V about these things). Symptoms of my disorder include an inability to understand and read "normal" social cues, issues with eye contact, hackish misrepresentation on inexplicably popular CBS sitcoms, and problems with the expression of empathy.

Before the proliferation of the smartphone, in a time that so many people I know are now celebrating as some sort of socially-inclusive and welcoming utopia, I was constantly screwing up even the most basic of social tenets and losing friends, if I ever made them to begin with. I'd forget to make eye contact or blankly stare at the other person's pupils for too long and creep them out. I could never figure out how to read other people's body language, facial expressions and tone, and mine were routinely off and off-putting. I would either say the wrong thing, because my slightly out of synch autistic processing speed could never quite come up with the proper empathic response in the right time frame, or just give up and say nothing for fear of what would come out.

These issues haven't disappeared since I first purchased a smartphone just over two years ago, but they're no longer the absolute deal-breakers they once were. Thanks to texting, photo and video messages, social media apps, and whatever other random doohickeys I might find myself playing with at any given time, I am able to augment the more traditional ways to express and experience relationships with forms of communication that accommodate my social capabilities, quirks, processing speed and comfort levels; I'm able to develop bonds and stay in touch with "normal" or neurotypical people and autistic people in a way that actually works for all of us. And while Louis C.K. and his supporters assert that you need face to face contact and the ability to see another person's expressions to build empathy, I've found that occasionally removing the pressures of that contact has allowed me, for the first time in my life, to express all of the empathy that I have always had for my loved ones and fellow humans. It has allowed me to prove that I am a person.

As for the social ills that this kind of technology is supposed to be spreading in the normal world, I can honestly say that, from my slightly removed vantage point, I haven't really seen any major changes. At worst, it exacerbates the kind of bad habits, self-involvement and cruelty that always existed in our society. The person who spends hours dicking around on their phone instead of talking to you at a restaurant or club is the exact same person who would have been looking over your shoulder and trying to find someone more important to talk to 10 or 20 years ago. The kid who posts "You're fat" on a Facebook wall is the same little shit who would have followed you home and screamed it at your house.

The mean kid learning curve that Louis describes in his Conan bit makes for a snappy little story, but it's an oversimplification if not a complete fiction. Kids don't actually see the hurt they cause in another child's face, feel guilt and then learn to become better human beings. My own childhood bullies certainly didn't. My chronically slumped shoulders, my tears - even my anxious dry heaves in the school bathroom - left little to no impression on them. It didn't make them question the insults they hurled at me, the vicious pranks they pulled on me, or the things they scribbled on my clothing. Some people are just assholes, regardless of the tech they use.

And, after a childhood filled with bullying and an adulthood in which I've watched the people I love face all sorts of the half-surmountable odds and tragedies that come with being alive for any period of time, I'm not even sure I agree with Louis C.K. that the constant distraction that smartphones provide is necessarily a bad thing. I personally enjoy a bit of mindful meditation. I don't take music on my long-distance runs because I have a hippie-ish desire to listen to my own breath and hear the the ground crunch under my shoes and be in touch with all of the rush and sadism that comes from making yourself go through something as dumb as a half-marathon. Music - whether you're running with an iPod or listening to "Jungleland" on the radio in your car - is also a technology-assisted distraction, after all. But I don't begrudge those who don't do want to do anything of those things. I spent large portions of my childhood isolated, sad and believing that Dostoevsky and Ian Curtis held all of the truths to our cursed existence, and I can't say I'm any better off or human for it. And I genuinely can't name a single person in my life who needs to be even more in touch with or aware of the inherent sadness, isolation and existential dread of life.

If you can, then maybe your anti-smartphone stance is far more of a danger to empathy and personhood than my ASD and smartphone-loving ways could ever be.

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How to Avoid the Lines at Starbucks

The worst thing is waiting in line at Starbucks, right? Especially first thing in the morning. The line is always enormous. And there's always that guy in front of you ordering one of those complicated 800 calorie ice-cream/coffee drinks. And all you want is a quick cup. In the company's defense, it's not just Starbucks. It's the restaurant where you're waiting for your check. It's the pharmacy where you're standing in that endless line to pay for a tube of toothpaste. It's your favorite clothes store. Or any retail store.

You will soon be able to avoid those lines. Because a few weeks ago I saw the future. And it was with a guy from PayPal. The guy is Anuj Nayal. He's their fast-talking Director of Global Initiatives. I was in midtown New York doing an unrelated project for them and while there we talked about two major products they've launched that will impact mobile payments. PayPal is not compensating me to write this.

Actually, that's not entirely true. Anju did buy me a coffee and a blueberry muffin for my efforts. He insisted on going to a place all the way down in the Village though. Why? To show me the future of retail. He knows I love this stuff. So as the driver pulled away from the curb Anuj asked me what kind of coffee I wanted. No frappy-wappy-whippacinnos for me. I asked for a simple, plain cup of coffee, a little milk, a little sweetener. Anuj said "no problem," proudly pulled out his smartphone and launched PayPal's new app. And here's how it worked. Pay attention. This affects you.

The app already had a directory of thousands of retailers who had previously signed up for the service. One of those who signed up was a little coffee shop near Washington Square. He chose two cups of coffee from the menu and splurged for a couple of blueberry muffins. The entire order came to $72.35, which was about right for New York City. And then he paid for it. On his phone. From the car. How? He had setup his PayPal account (like everyone sets up their PayPal account) to access money from his bank account (or credit card). With the initial setup done, there was no more need for any more cards or cash. Going forward, all he needed was his phone. And when we arrived at the coffee shop, our two coffees and blueberry muffins were waiting for us to be picked up. Of course they were ice cold by that point because traffic in that city sucks. But at least we didn't have to wait in line!

And neither will you anymore. Because the next generation of mobile payment applications are upon us. It greatly affects you, the small retailer. And you, the consumer.

Google has been mightily struggling with their "Wallet" product. Dependent on Near Field Communication technology, the service requires retailers to buy separate units which need to be integrated with a point of sale system so that consumers can "tap" their phones to pay. But Google Wallet has not been catching on. There have been many reasons given. In my opinion, it's not just the technology. It's because one big thing is missing: we still have to wait in line! We still have to deal with surly store clerks and that one woman with the three toddlers who insists on paying with a check. We are not saving time. Our lives are not made much better by "tapping."

The next generation of mobile payment applications doesn't involve tapping. Instead, like many of the self-service tools you're seeing, these applications will eliminate some people from the process and the plastic credit cards that we are forced to carry. This is one step towards eliminating our wallets altogether. These applications will save us time. They are getting the sales clerks, waitresses, ticket-sellers and baristas out of our way. And they are making the really good sales people even better -- getting them out from behind the cash register and on the shop floor where they belong, assisting customers and taking orders. And in the process they are making retailers and other consumer driven businesses more profitable. They are reducing overheads and cutting payrolls. And it's all happening right now. Is your store doing this?

PayPal will have plenty of competition. Banks and credit card processing companies are developing similar technologies. Square and other mobile payment software developers are creating competing products. Ziosk and similar point of sales vendors are attaching tablets to restaurant tables across the country. All of these applications are slowly, but enormously, changing retail as we know it. Because now we can place our order and pay for it without ever speaking to a human being. We can buy things in advance and pick them up later. The retailer, if they're on their game, can offer coupons for special items and frequent customers. They can collect (with permission) customer data for future marketing and communications. And even the most junior salesperson can be prompted to suggest other accessories or add-ons for the product we're about to buy right there on the floor based on recommendations made by their mobile application.

There's the mobile app. But there's something else happening on your phone. It's called BLE or Bluetooth Low Energy. What's that? As you enter one of your favorite stores a very low energy Bluetooth "beacon" signal emanating from your phone alerts the store's point of sale system that you're there. BLE is now standard issue on the new iPhone and many Android devices.

How does this change your life? You choose and swipe a product's bar codes. Or the items already have embedded Radio Frequency ID chips that are readily scanned. When you go to check out the clerk already has your photo and payment information sent to it by BLE. So gets a verbal confirmation from you or asks for a fingerprint and from this ID-check you're authorized and a payment is made from your phone. Your phone never left your pocket. You have no credit cards. You've already told the application which stores are allowed to "check in" with you.

This is reality today. The just released PayPal Beacon uses BLE and already works with many major point of sale systems. The retailer only needs to purchase an inexpensive plug in device that will sense the BLE signal. PayPal is also offering a programming interface for developers to create more customized in-store solutions. The company is piloting this product in the fourth quarter of this year and plans a full rollout in 2014. And keep an eye out for Apple because they're got their own BLE service called iBeacon and it's included on the newly released iOS 7 operating system. Wait... doesn't Apple already store payment information for their millions of iTunes customers? Hmmm.

This is important stuff if you're in the retail business. And especially if you're a small retailer. You are looking for better ways to make your customers happy. You want to provide the highest level of service at the lowest cost possible. You want your customers to enjoy doing business with you because not only are your products great, but you're efficient and fast. You want to stand out from your competition and offer a better all-around experience. You want an easy way to offer promotions for drawing in new buyers. Will the transaction fees that PayPal, Square, Apple or other leading mobile payment application providers charge be worth all of this?

I hate carrying around a wallet. I hate fumbling with my credit cards. I hate waiting to pay my check at a busy restaurant. But most of all, I hate standing in line Starbucks. So it's worth it to me.

A version of this post previously appeared on Forbes.com.

New Rule: Conservatives Who Love to Brag About American Exceptionalism Must Come Here to California

New Rule: Conservatives who love to brag about American exceptionalism must come here to California, and see it in person. And then they should be afraid -- very afraid. Because while the rest of the country is beset by stories of right-wing takeovers in places like North Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin, California is going in the opposite direction and creating the kind of modern, liberal nation the country as a whole can only dream about. And not only can't the rest of the country stop us -- we're going to drag you along with us.

It wasn't that long ago that pundits were calling California a failed state and saying it was ungovernable. But in 2010, when other states were busy electing whatever Tea Partier claimed to hate government the most, we elected a guy who actually liked it, Jerry Brown.

Since then, everything Republicans say can't or won't work -- gun control, immigration reform, high-speed rail -- California is making work. And everything conservatives claim will unravel the fabric of our society -- universal healthcare, higher taxes on the rich, gay marriage, medical marijuana -- has only made California stronger. And all we had to do to accomplish that was vote out every single Republican. Without a Republican governor and without a legislature being cock-blocked by Republicans, a $27 billion deficit was turned into a surplus, continuing the proud American tradition of Republicans blowing a huge hole in the budget and then Democrats coming in and cleaning it up.

How was Governor Moonbeam able to do this? It's amazing, really. We did something economists call cutting spending AND raising taxes. I know, it sounds like some crazy science fiction story, but you see, here in California, we're not just gluten-free and soy-free and peanut-free, we're Tea Party free! Virginia could do it, too, but they're too busy forcing ultrasounds on women who want abortions. Texas could, but they don't because they're too busy putting Jesus in the science textbooks. Meanwhile their state is so broke they want to replace paved roads with gravel. I thought we had this road-paving thing licked in the 1930s, but not in Texas. But hey, in Dallas you can carry a rifle into a Chuck E. Cheese, cause that's freedom. Which is great, but it wasn't so great when that unregulated fertilizer plant in Waco blew up. In California, when things blow up, it's because we're making a Jason Statham movie.

California isn't perfect, but it is in our nature from being on the new coast to be up for trying new things -- and maybe that's why the right wingers are always hoping we fail. On the campaign trail last year, Mitt Romney warned that if we didn't follow his conservative path, "America is going to become like Greece, or... Spain, or Italy, or... California." And that was a big laugh line with Mormons, because Greece, Spain and Italy have some art and poetry and theatre, but nothing like Salt Lake City. Yes, Mitt sure hates California, which is why he moved to San Diego. To the house with the car elevator.

What conservatives fear about California being a petri dish for the liberal agenda is well-founded. For example, as Obamacare gets implemented here much more successfully than predicted, the movement to just go all the way to a single payer system is gathering steam. It actually passed the legislature twice, but was vetoed by Schwarzenegger, who argued it didn't go far enough to cover the children of that natural, beautiful love between a man and a cleaning lady.

In lots of areas, California seems to have decided not to wait around for the knuckle-draggers and the selfish libertarian states to get on board. They can mock "European style democracies" all they want, we are building one here, and people like it -- the same way when Americans come back from a vacation in Europe they all say the same thing: "Wow, you can see titties on the beach!" But they also remark on the clean air, the modern, first world infrastructure, the functioning social safety net, and bread that doesn't taste like powdered glue. And they wonder, "Why can't we get that here?" Unless they're Republicans, in which case they wonder, "How can people live like that?"

Well, swallow hard, guys, because California is eventually going to make all Americans live like that. Why? Because we're huge. The 12th largest economy in the world, the fifth largest agricultural exporter in the world, and of course number one in laser vaginal rejuvenation. There's 40 million of us -- so, for example, when California set a high mileage standard for any car sold in this state, Detroit had to make more fuel-efficient cars; we're just too big a slice of the market, and it would be too expensive to make one car for us, and another for shit-kickers who want something that runs on coal.

It's so ironic -- the two things conservatives love the most, the free market and states rights -- are the two things that are going to bend this country into California's image as a socialist fagtopia. Maybe our constipated Congress can't pass gun control laws, but we just did. Lots of 'em. Because we don't give a shit about the NRA. Out here that stands for "Nuts, Racists, and Assholes." So while the rest of America is debating whether it's a good idea to allow guns in bars or a great idea to allow guns in bars, California is about to ban lead bullets. Which is a no-brainer, because bullets don't need lead, and lead kills birds and gets into the food supply of people who hunt their own food. Which explains why Ted Nugent is such a raving lunatic.

While other state governments are working with Jesus to make abortion more miserable -- because otherwise women would use it for weight loss -- California is making it easier. We actually have a guy dancing on the street corner dressed as the Statue of Liberty spinning a big arrow that says, "Abortions!" And a new law will even let nurse practitioners perform abortions. And dog groomers can aid assisted suicides by Skype.

California was the first state to legalize medical marijuana, our minimum wage is almost three dollars higher than the national rate, and in 10 years a third of our electricity will come from renewable energy and 15 percent of our cars will be electric.

And while Republicans in the rest of the country are threatening to deport every immigrant not named Ted Cruz, California just OK'd driver's licenses for undocumented aliens. That's right, we're letting them drive cars -- just like white people! You Red Staters may ask, "How come they're lettin' Meskins drive?" Well, it's because they have to get to their jobs. You see, here in California we're embracing the modern world -- we can't be worrying about all the nonsense that keeps Fox News viewers up at night when they should be in bed adjusting their sleep apnea mask. Our state motto is, "We're Too Busy for Your Bullshit."

The bottom line is that we are moving the country's largest economy into a place where we can all be health-insured, clean air-breathin', gay-married, immigrant-friendly citizens who don't get shot all the time. And my message to the rest of America is: do not resist. Kneel before Zod! California has been setting the trends in America for decades, from Silicon Valley to silicone tits, and it's not going to stop now. We say jump -- you say, "Please sell me new exercise clothes for jumping." We said put cilantro in food, and dammit, you did, you put cilantro in food, even though neither one of us knows what it is. Almond milk? We just had some extra almonds and thought we'd fuck with you. The enormous earlobe hole? You're welcome. We also invented the genius bar, where the kid with the enormous earlobe hole takes your MacBook in the back and fills it with animal pornography.

- Bill Maher, host of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher

From Beam to Jetman at Bloomberg Link Next Big Thing Summit

The crossroads of technology is coming to a convergence. Call that point smart software meets useful hardware.

In Bloomberg Link Next Big Thing Summit's afternoon panel, Show & Tell: Art Meets Technology, Bloomberg News Editor-as-Large Cory Johnson moderated the panel that featured Juan Montes, CTO of the Museum of Modern Art, Adobe's Michael Gough, VP of Experience Design, Eyebeam, and Solidoodle.

The crux of the talk centered on how technology is dramatically shifting the paradigm from the professional to the amateur. The speakers discussed how Instagram effect has mashed art and technology in a very simple way -- "Filters," as Cory Johnson noted -- that no one had thought of before. That basic design innovation also shifted the competitive landscape that drives competition and fuels further innovation.

Two products jumped out at the Summit. One semi-old, the other new.

Beam is a mobile, remote video-conferencing platform, a newcomer born out of robotics of Willow Garage. The other is a high profile, high-flying winged-man that sparked attention by jetting over the Swiss Alps a few years ago. In the latter, Cory Johnson interviewed Yves Rossy, CEO and the "pilot" of Jetman in a one-on-one discussion, Adventures in Aviation.

Catching up with Jetman

In meeting Yves Rossy of Jetman, this author saw a seasoned, middle-aged man dripping with experience, but filled with a twinkle in his eye. Under his warm, gregarious persona is a man filled with the passion to fly.

"My past experience is mainly as a professional aviator," Yves Rossy told me. "First, as a fighter pilot flying Mirage 3 jets and then as a commercial captain flying 747's and various airbus passenger aircraft for Swiss Air."

It was during Rossy's early 30's that he discovered free-fall skydiving.

"I loved the feeling of free-fall. But the vector was always just down," he said. "My challenge was to change the vector to maintain straight, level flight, then climb and perfect the performance of my Jetwing to achieve the total freedom of flight. Now I can climb, do standard aerobatics. I can loop. I can roll. And I can fly in formation with Jets and other aircraft." Pretty amazing. "I feel the freedom of the third dimension using just my body to pitch, steer, ascend or descend as simple as a boy playing with an aircraft in the playground."


Yves Rossy at Bloomberg Link Next Big Thing Summit (credit: James Grundvig)



On taking the Jetwing idea to commercialization.

"The next step of progress will focus on more powerful engines. Double the power I have now with the focus to climb absolutely vertical and see how far I can improve my flight performance with this extra power. I am also exploring the possibilities to takeoff from the ground. First, with a catapult from a cliff, and then we see where we can go from there. I am instructing a second Jetman -- my first student with 13,000 jumps as a skydiver and multiple as world champion. When we achieve that, we will try flying in formation. And why not just try for a Jetman squadron!"

Yves Rossy has worked on the Jetman project for 18 years with, "15 versions of the Jetwing to get to this point."

The evolution of the Jetwing:

• Small fixed wing


• Larger Inflatable wing


• Larger rigid wing with folding tips


• With 2 engines to a delta wing with four engines

All of that culminated into, "improved wing with aerodynamics and four engines to achieve what I have today," he said, concluding, "Each of my current wings cost $125,000 plus. All these years and I dread to think how many millions of euros, manhours and number of friends and people participating, helping and assisting to make the project possible. I thank them all and I wouldn't be here without them."

What is 'Beam?'

Experiencing Beam demoed live, I connected with the PR rep from Suitabletech, Inc., the company that invented Beam.

Sitting in the press area at the Apella Theater on the east side of Manhattan, I looked up and saw this tall, slender, mobile robot zoom over to me, very Jetson-like. But it was a robot without arms or legs. Beam's twin poles rise up from what looks like a hose-less vacuum cleaner with big wheels on the bottom and a beautiful tablet interface on top. And like a laptop, it has a large camera lens that can zoom in and out.


Beam Remote Presence Product (credit: Suitabletech, Inc.)



What does that do? It allows for a seamless communication between the person on screen in her office and another sitting at a different location. The best part of Beam is its easy navigation. Beam's joystick is actually the page arrows on the laptop keyboard. So moving Beam requires little training, is intuitive, and works off of WiFi signals on both ends of the live interface conversation -- or what Scott Hassan, CEO and President of Suitabletech calls "remote presence."

Better than Skype, more personal with better video quality than a Web-stream, Beam is durable on top of being easy to use. In test-driving the 100-lb Beam, I drove it through Suitabletech's Palo Alto, CA, office, 3,000 miles away, down a hall to the supply room in the back where a fleet of Beams are fine-tuned and tested, and have a brief conversation with a technician.

Scott Hassan, together with his PR rep on Beam, discussed his past as founder of Willow Garage, eGroups (now Yahoo! Groups), and as the "key software architect and developer of Google, Alexa Internet, and Stanford University Digital Library," his alma mater.

Personable, warm, with realistic expectations that Beam will catch on to vastly improve meetings for enterprises and their vendors, Hassan explained that Beam was born out of frustration. "In 2011, we were developing autonomous robotics, automated cars, solar-power autonomous boats, and then switched to personal robotics," he said.

"We called out first prototype PR2, for Personal Robot 2," he said. "In order to get traction, I had to look outside the Bay Area for talent. I hired an onshore engineer in Indiana to work for us. But between the phone, emails and Skype, no one knew who the engineer was... until he decided to do something about it."

Building a single, 450-lb PR2 robot cost "$400,000, with a huge team of sixty engineers. But it was that one electrical engineer from Indiana, who had to talk over the phone, who knew no one and know one of knew him. Well, he cobbled together a pre-Beam running on Skype... and he went from the least known employee to the most known," Hassan explained. "He had a presence. A distraction became a pivot... We stopped making PR2s. We will ship the last one in October, after making 60 of them."

Mr. Hassan never really saw mass-producing PR2. But Beam is a different matter: "At $16,000 with an annual maintenance fee of $2,400, which includes support, software upgrades, and customer service," Beam seems affordable for the enterprise.

Today, IBM, HP, Microsoft, and Intel use Beam with their division heads and their clients and vendors around the world, whether in the intimate setting of the office or in the conference room with many people live on many Beams."

In his view, Beam is a personal, natural way to communicate. It also doesn't record as a matter of policy, so it doesn't leave a digital footprint. So if people argue on Beam, it's the same as they do it in person. When it's over, nothing is recorded that can be used against any person.

"It's bi-directional. If I can see you, you can see me... If one user disconnects one side of Beam, then the conversation turns off on both sides. The idea is to make people feel comfortable," he said.

Now Scott Hassan and his team are building Beam for outdoor use.

"Beam me up, Scotty!" Not quite. But Beam is taking us a step into the Jetson Age, pre Star Trek.

ShopTrotter Plans Your Route to Shopping Success

Bogumila Sobiczewska (So-bee-che-vska) is a driven, enthusiastic mother of three who wanted to add a career to the rewarding tasks of raising her children. Having been a radio journalist in her native Wroclaw (Vrots-love), Poland, Sobiczewska longed to connect her family life with something in the business world.




She tried finding a job but with the gap in her resume due to her time with children and uncertainty around what it was she wanted to do, she had hit a brick wall of sorts. Her husband sensing her restlessness and disappointment, wisely suggested, "You should do something for yourself."

Now being the big believer in and supporter of entrepreneurship that I am, Bogumila Sobiczewska embodies the increasingly obvious answer to our country's economic and jobs crisis: people who used to work for others starting their own businesses which eventually begin to employ others. Creating an economic and jobs snowball is clearly one answer.

But crucial to this process of the mental and economic stimulation of an entrepreneurial idea is what I call "The Aha Moment" -- that catalytic epiphany split-second when need meets fulfilling idea. "Poland doesn't have all the big fashion brands yet," Sobiczewska recalled, "and when I went to Berlin or Paris, I didn't know where all the stores are or how to get there; I could ask the hotel concierge but then I would find out I missed a great little store right around the corner. This was very frustrating"

So quite naturally, Sobiczewska's mind turned to the development (her 'project,' she calls it) of an automated online process for arranging shopping trips both beforehand (when planning travel) and serendipitously when one finds themselves in a particular city.

"I thought, wouldn't it be great," Sobiczewska recalled vividly, "if there was a website that had filters for price, of course location, product type, brands and everything else? I was searching and searching and couldn't find anything like this." This was her moment.

Looking at how her end-user might find directions to multiple retail stores in a city they were visiting, Sobiczewska looked first for any websites that did that and not finding any, went to Google Maps. When Google Maps returned directions to Izod Lacoste retail stores located in the middle of the Arabian Ocean, Sobiczewska knew she had something.


A floating Lacoste shop? No, but not a bad idea


In 2011, Sobiczewska then set about building ShopTrotter, which she said "was the obvious choice for a name combining 'shopping' and 'globetrotting' after sitting in bed at night thinking, 'What should its name be?'"

Using the omnipresent GPS on everyone's smartphones, Sobiczewska envisioned connecting that location fix with a powerful database containing all the retail store logistics with the shopping and smartphone end-user.

One of the first orders of business for Sobiczewska was to make sure and double-check the addresses of the onslaught of retail shops in different cities and to ensure that "it wasn't located in a forest or the sea" Sobiczewska opined smiling.


The correct location of the Lacoste shop NOT in the middle of the ocean as the screenshot above this one shows


"I'm not an IT person," the young mother-turned-entrepreneur declared forcefully, "I'm focused on the user experience." But she would have to quickly develop these crucial IT skills or find somebody good to satisfy the role of start-up CTO. "I did know that this was going to involve a powerful database to find so many directions to so many stores, in so many cities," she told me. "So I found a website company in Poland and have been working closely with them since to build this web site and develop the database and software." One year ago, ShopTrotter had 28,000 stores in their database; now they have 72,000 retail store details.

She recalled thinking, "The service should be big from the start; not beginning with one or two cities. If a user goes to a city and isn't able to find the stores they want to visit and all their information, they won't come back to our site." Sobiczewska is continuously putting herself in her users' shoes.

A video tour of ShopTrotter clearly shows the value proposition which is to get hungry consumers to the stores which will slake their desires quickly, efficiently and with the least route deviation possible.


Sobiczewska's desired user result: an easy-to-reach, clear, store destination


Sobiczewska is firmly convinced that making it in the USA is crucial to ShopTrotter's success. "Americans are great shoppers," Sobiczewska told me happily, "it was my great discovery that shopping is a fun activity here. Also shops in United States are more accessible than in Europe -- you can browse in high-end boutiques and nobody will ask you if you can afford it. OK, let's forget that 'Pretty Woman' moment -- it never happened to me. Every year more people travel abroad, so I think they definitely need some tool to ease their shopping experience in foreign countries. ShopTrotter.com currently covers 6 cities in the U.S. Please remember that Americans also travel within the country and would appreciate some help to guide them where they want to shop."

With regard to her capital acquisition strategy, Sobiczewska has a truly unique plan. She doesn't want any outside investors much less a VC -- which puts her at odds with the 95 percent of other CEOs/founders I've encountered who seem to be stuck on a VC-dominated treadmill of investor attraction and wooing. "I'm afraid that any outside investor would push me to compromise the primary idea just to monetize the website. I know what I wanted to create, I do it with passion, but also I'm a hard executor. I'm working on a great web-tool and don't want to be distracted or put under pressure by somebody who is interested only in revenues. My motto is: great product first. The money will follow." Amen sister.

And while Sobiczewska sees the future opportunities for ShopTrotter such as offering other deeper functionalities for the application--like discounts, promotions, etc. -- once it guides shoppers to their retail destination, she's focused on the basics for now. When I asked the Polish entrepreneur about this, she responded "I have too many ideas! I've decided now to concentrate on the core functionality -- making customized shopping routes -- because I believe it's something really useful and unique. I'm going to listen carefully what our user's would like me to implement. Now we are focused on perfecting the shops database."

"What I love about idea of ShopTrotter.com is the fact, that it will never be finished. There is a constant movement in this business and I would love to catch up! I truly believe that customer-oriented business must be flexible and follow what market says. In the short term, I'm focused on building an excessive database and fair relations with my users. Of course the launch of an iOS and Android app in next month will be big thing and hopefully will take ShopTrotter to the next level."

A few of the early screenshots from the Shoptrotter smartphone app:













"I strongly believe offline shopping has a future," Sobiczewska responded when I asked her if there might not be any bricks and mortar stores in the future, "online shoppers frequently get the wrong sizes. They have to really know what they want and there can be no helpful interaction with salespeople who can tell you how you look in a particular dress and make suggestions." She finished strong, "My product began from my personal need. It's our mission to promote shopping offline."

What will ShopTrotter be like in five years? "In five years... who knows? Would you say what would your kid would be like in couple of years? I'm just going to invest in it so it's growing, healthy and happy. It's my baby and I don't want to sell it," Sobiczewska told me smiling broadly.

The Writers Workbench: IFA Berlin 2013

For the first time last year, I attended the IFA Berlin tech trade show. It was quite an experience -- I expected it to be very similar to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas but, while it definitely has its overlap, they're worlds apart in structure and layout.

This year, I made the trek back.

Be forewarned. Like any trek, this article is a long one. After all, there was a lot to see. And telling about what was there is the whole point. So, if long articles are not for you, then go running away now to safety while you can. But for those who are up for it, put on your pith helmet and come along.

IFA Berlin has been around far longer than CES -- almost 90 years, in fact, (that was when they were centered around radios, not tablets...) and they have their set way of doing things. For starters, it's spread out across a huge tract of land among 27 building on the ICC Messe Berlin Fairgrounds. While that can get numbingly confusing at times (messy, as it's pronounced, seems a most-appropriate word), it also adds to the sense of adventure.



I'm not exaggerating about the confusion, by the way. There was a Samsung press conference in Hall 7.3 -- that's on the third floor. The thing is, Hall 7 actually has three separate buildings. (Why in the world would you think it merely has just one?) Another reporter and I were wandering through, lost, when happily we saw a couple of guys with Samsung badges. Relieved, I went up to them and asked where the Samsung press conference was. With a look of bewilderment on their faces they said, "We have no idea." After a while, my friend and I eventually tracked down where to go, and we led the appreciative Samsung executives over to their own press conference...

But with the tents and booths and music and food carts and folderol, the getting around was merely part of the extremely entertaining spirit of the event.

Part of that too is the oddity that, unlike CES, the IFA Berlin show opens its doors to the general public for a small fee. (It's a law in Germany if public grounds are used.) As such, this makes the way you attend the show quite a bit different, meaning (for me) going to press conferences before the floodgates open. Generally I avoid press conferences, finding them as meaningful as watching Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, but if you try hard and listen between the cracks, there's definitely information to glean. Provided it's in English. (IFA is caught between two worlds: its past as just a local show and, starting about 10 years ago, its international present and future. A good deal is still presented in German, though the English-speaking international marketplace has largely pushed its way in...)



Then, the bulk of the press conferences behind you, on the first day the show is officially open you rush around to as many booths as you can when there's still room to do so, and when the PR representatives are still around to answer questions.

That's because once the public starts arriving en masse on the first day, IFA Berlin turns into sort of like a giant Macy's. Most press reps leave, and men with umbrellas knock you out of the way to see to the latest tech, families come to make it a day excursion, and kids mass around it all to record their video podcasts. It was a bit of a shock my first time, and not my own ideal way to cover a tech show, but this time I knew and was prepared and, as I said, it was an adventure and fun. Most especially once you've figured out how to sneak your way around before the doors officially open, to get an advance look at the tech.



And getting to the latest tech is what IFA Berlin is all about. Last year, I described the difference between it and CES as, "While January's CES tends to show the direction the tech industry is heading for the year, IFA Berlin gives a greater sense of innovation, providing a focus on what's developing and could be next." As such, you tend to see a great deal more home consumer electronics. Or "Unterhaltungselektronik," as we like to say.

Indeed, throughout IFA you see the words and think you might need an eye exam, or are having a stroke. A display for "Kaffeevollautomaten" stops you for a moment, until you more comfortingly see all the high-tech coffemakers.

(And there are a LOT of coffeemakers. Or to be more accurate: espresso machines. This is a big deal here. You don't mess around with espresso. Not only is there an ocean of them, but they've become so high-tech advanced it would impress Captain Kirk.)



There are 1,500 exhibitors here, from 70 countries. What I found intriguing is that -- at least this year -- the innovation was far more in the home appliance end rather than with what usually gets the attention, computer-related products. In computerworld, with a few exceptions (more on that latter), it seemed more status quo -- impressive products, to be sure, but not as much taking you to the next level.

But with home appliances -- that boring land of white -- it was fascinating to see how technology has invaded that land.

Companies like Siemens, Miele, Philips, and Bosch for starters took this once-perfunctory world and turned it into a lesson on creativity. I know that talk of dishwashers and refrigerators tend to make one's eyes glaze over, unless you're an anal-retentive clean freak, but wandering amongst them at IFA often seemed like you were in a modern art museum. Combine that with high tech, and it could seem otherworldly.

Consider, after all:

Miele had, of all things, a solar dryer and dishwasher. No, don't worry, it wasn't something that had solar panels on the top and needed to be used outdoor during the daytime, but rather the unit is connected to your central heating system and provides 80% energy savings.



Bosch had an incredibly stylish electric stovetop with no knobs or dials, but merely touch pads on the top. It was all an impressively clean look, unobtrusive, like just a flat panel, but I was wary since your fingers appeared dangerously close to the burners. However, it turns out that those burners only conduct heat when touching metal, so your fingers are safe, what they call "flexInduction."



Bosch also has what they call a "super silent" active air dryer -- and though hype abounds at all trade shows it was indeed remarkably silent. I almost wistfully missed the thump-thumping of gym shoes being thrown around inside the drum. The front LED panel provided another information for any tech geek.

Years ago, I asked my grandmother what was the greatest invention she'd seen during her lifetime. I thought perhaps she'd say rocket ships or cars or the telephone. Instead she said, "The electric iron." Before then, she explained, she'd had to stick the heavy, metal flatiron in a fireplace until it got red hot enough, and then one always risked burning yourself to take it out. (This was a great lesson to me about technology. What's "coolest" to people turns out to be what most impacts their personal life.) So, with that in mind, you'd still think that something as simple as an iron wasn't a product that would enter the space age, but Siemens had an entire line of Smart Irons. (Mind you, if they were really smart, they wouldn't be irons.) Some of them looked so much less like a traditional iron that I dare say my grandmother wouldn't recognize them.



Sometimes, features did seem to get a bit ahead of themselves, doing things that likely sounded impressive on the drawing board but are somewhat headscratching in the real world. Like Miele's "Knock 2 Open" dishwasher. I suppose there are occasions when knocking on the door of your dishwasher is easier and more preferable than just...well, pulling it open, but I'm hard-pressed to see how this would be much of a big selling point. Likewise, its "intensive drenching" washer offers 10% improvement in cleaning performance. You'd think that once something is drenched then it's pretty-enough wet at that point. Apparently not.

But high-tech will have its way, and the cloud has entered the world of home appliances, as well. For instance, Panasonic uses the cloud and voice-control to allow you to access your washer, dryer and stove from anywhere. (Husbands around the world are likely cheering at this point, for all those times they promised their wives, "Yes, dear, I'll do the dishes and laundry while you're out. I promise I won't forget...")

And even the lowly vacuum cleaner had its innovations. Philips and Bosch both had vacuums that took those devices into new, clever directions, able to vacuum up liquids or clean on any wide range of "all floor" surfaces. (Quiet was big here, too. As part of their display, Bosch was running the company's very funny TV ad, which centered on a test scientist who had to try out the vacuum next to a sleeping tiger.) And demonstrations abound, too -- the most popular of which are the kitchen appliances where food is given away (one tech-writer friend planned his lunch that way.) Alas, I planned poorly, and this instead is the Philips vacuum, with no food in sight, except on the floor.



Fascinating as all these advances in home appliances where (and really, they were fascinating), I know that it's not what most people think of when it comes to high tech -- nor want to think about. These are commodities. People want to know about The Fun Things.

And there were plenty o' fun things at IFA. Just surprisingly not as innovative, to my eye, as the appliances. But a treat, nonetheless.

But still, for all this innovation, it's the personal-use "stuff" (the technical term) that gets all the interest. And among some of the more interesting innovation, two devices seemed to leap out from the pack.

One in particular got most of the buzz, and that was the Samsung Galaxy Gear Smartwatch. To be clear, they don't call it a Smartwatch -- rather, a "wrist device," but everyone else does. So, that's the convention we'll go with here.



Smartwatches are a big, new product field that had everyone running agog with Samsung getting into the fray, expected to join with Apple and Google, and some lesser-known folks. (And lost in the hype is that Sony already has its own Smartwatch.) As I've written before I don't dismiss the technology, but I do scratch my head about what they see as the big market for this. Indeed, I've seen Smartwatches demonstrated in the past, and they've struck me as a big yawn. (MyKronz was at CES, and also here at IFA, with three models: its Ze Bracelot, Ze Watch and Ze Nano, that provide ze time and music, while connecting to phones via Bluetooth. And there's another company that sells one called the Pebble.)



But this is Samsung. And this was the World Stage. So, it behooves one to take a closer look and give it its full due.

First of all, there are a couple of technical matters to address. Iit's important to know, that Samsung or whoever, everything a Smartwatch does, cell phones do already, and do far better, and most people have a cell phone -- which, mind you, have far bigger 4" screens than the 1.6" Galaxy Gear. And significantly better cameras. (The Galaxy Gear camera is a paltry 1.9 megapixels, compared to the massive 42 megpixels of the new Nokia Lumia 1020.) And secondly (and perhaps most importantly, when it comes to "Who is the market??") -- how many people do you know who actually use watches much anymore?? Clearly, yes, many do -- but that number is going in the opposite direction..

Also, before still addressing technology, there's real-world practicality to consider, which often gets overlooked yet is critical for any new technology to be adopted. The Glaxy Gear is thick (about a half-inch), and heavy at 2.6 ounces. That's bulky for guys, and I don't know a lot of women who'd wear such things. So, there goes half your market. Its battery life is reported to be one day -- though one wonders if heavy use will drain that more quickly. And then there's how you actually operate the phone: you stick your inside wrist up to your ear. Forget for a moment how silly this makes you look (try it for just 10 seconds), consider doing this for a simple five-minute phonecall with a heavy "wrist device" attached.



Further, the retail price is $300. That will eventually drop, though it's not the only cost. That's because the Galaxy Gear requires that you have a separate device to operate it with -- and right now there is only one that is compatible, the $300 Galaxy Note 3. Three others are upcoming (like the Galaxy 4 phone), but that's still few and all are Samsung. So, eliminate from your potential market people with every other cell phones.).



There's another practical issue: The wrist band is really ugly, like something plastic you'd find on a Swatch. So, you're asking high-end people willing to pay $600 for two devices to wear a cheesy-looking wrist band. By the way, it's not like a third-market party can develop new accessories: you need to use this wrist band -- because the camera is built into it.

But even without those question marks, there remains that initial question that started things: who is the market for this? This has nothing to do with the technology. To be clear, the technology is extremely interesting. And this is just the first generation, so it will get better. And there's a growing fitness market that uses wrist devices. Obviously, a lot of big companies think there is a market for Smartwatches. And sometimes they're right. But sometimes they make 3D TVs with glasses. So...while perhaps there's a big market for this -- at the moment until convinced otherwise, I wait to be convinced who that is. For Smartwatches to blossom, it almost suggests that Smartphones and tablets and all their features and productivity will go away. Yes, Dick Tracy had his cool, 2-way wrist radio -- but he didn't have a world with Smartphones. And tablets. They might go away someday. And someday we will have later generations of this. But right now, it seems a long horizon looking that far.

The other intriguing product was Sony's high-end Cybershot QX10 (and 100) -- an attachment onto your Smartphone that turns it into a high-end camera lens system. The cameras on Smartphones have developed so much that they've largely crushed the small point-and-shoot camera market, which is disappearing. However, people still buy a second, high-end camera to carry around for important pictures. But they're bulky. The Cybershot QX series is about the size of a big golf ball that fits conveniently in your pocket. And its optics are seriously high-end impressive. It connects to your Smartphone with a clamp, direct Wi-Fi and an app. (While made for the new Sony Xperia Smartphone, an adapter will allow it to work on most Smartphones.)



The DSLR-quality photos it takes are wonderful , as is the 1080p MPEG-4 video. The higher-end QX100 takes 20.2-megapixel pictures with a 28mm-100mm optical zoom lens. (The QX10 is 18.2-megapixels with a 25-250mm optical zoom.) Being a first generation device, though, it has two notable issues. The Wi-Fi connection can be a little dicey and get temporarily lost. And importantly there's no flash -- and it can't use the flash off your Smartphone. So, low-light photos are problematic. That might make the $250 and $500 prices a question mark for people who want to take more than daytime pictures. Both of these issues would be seem reasonable to address in later updates. For now though they seem hurdles.

Somewhat related to this is a product available from Olloclip. These are add-on lenses that fit over the camera of your iPhone or iPod touch. It won't improve their optics (like the Sony QX does), but it lets you have a telephoto zoom, or a 3-in-1 wide-angle, macro and fisheye lnes. They also have just added a very smart twist. As noted with these kinds of lens add-ons, they often won't work when a camera is in a case. And so, it can be cumbersome to remove your phone case every time you want to use the camera lenses. What Olloclip developed is a case for your iPhone or iPod touch that has a slot for any one of their three lenses.



By the way, having mentioned above how the Sony Cybershot QX cameras are made for the new Sony Xperia Z1 Smartphone, it's worth a quick mention of that phone, since it looked fairly intriguing. Most of what was impressive focused (no pun intended) on its camera features. Even without the QX add-on, its camera was high quality with a fast processor and 3X zoom. And lots of interesting little features. FastSnap can take 60 images in 2 seconds. Social Live will stream your photos live to Facebook over broadband. And Info-eye lets you snap a picture, and the viewfinder will display information about the image. (For instance, a picture of food may display what wine can be paired with it.) Don't ask me how it works. I think there's a little man inside, probably a know-it-all who has been ostracized by the rest of society and this is the best job he can get. Additionally, it saves your pictures two ways: low-resolution images are saved on the camera, while the high-resolution versions are stored in the cloud.

Okay, I think this is probably a good spot for a brief intermission. We're well-past the halfway point, but you might want to stretch your legs, rest your eyes, get a snack or take a bathroom break. Go ahead, I'll wait...

Fine, are we all back? Great, the end is in sight. To continue -

IFA is also the show were 4K televisions made their big introduction en masse. That's the new standard (also known as 2180p) for incredibly high-resolution sets. Four times the resolution of current high-definition TVs. The problem with 4K sets, though, is that there's almost no native content that can run on them. (Think of it like having the world's greatest Blu-Ray player, but only VHS tapes have been invented.) Some of the better sets, though, have built-in technology that allows for converting standard high-def content to 4K in real time.

Panasonic made a big splash with their 65" 4K set, the WT600. It has a decoder built-in that can convert online video from sites like Netflix and YouTube, and convert your photos, as well. Sony and Samsung also introduced their own 65" 4K sets. Samsung however gave some price information, marking theirs at $8,000. (The 55" model was $5,300.) Samsung also featured a "curved" screen 4K 65" set which they claimed gave a better sense of scope. While the picture did look impressive, that's largely because of the 4K, and one wonders if a curved screen defeats the purpose of having a thin flat-screen.



For all the questions about 4K television sets and content, one of the more intriguing announcements came from Panasonic about a deal they had with NHK, Japan's largest TV network. NHK will begin broadcasting in, of all things, 8K (!) by 2020.

Though I wasn't as interested in standard HD sets -- which are nonetheless seriously impressive, like Toshiba's Smart TVs (pictured below), with their intricate blending of TV with the Internet, Skype, Facebook and such (something the AMPTP insisted during the last WGA strike was sooo far away), Samsung had one particular model that was intriguing. Their Multi-View allows two people to watch different programs simultaneously. If my notes are correct, it's a 3D set that requires glasses, and sells for $10,500.



There wasn't as much a presence of 3D sets with glasses at IFA as in the past. Toshiba had a very good one, but I didn't see many others compared to before. But then, 3D still has an impressive life with glassless 3D and 4K. The company Stream TV Networks has developed its Ultra-D technology that converts such content in real time. I didn't come across them at the show (though they were here last year), and I wrote about their upcoming breakthrough set last month here

Conversely, a technology that had a very small presence last year had an impressively bigger one this year, and that was tablets running Windows 8. (As well as laptops and, to me, the more interesting product of "convertibles" -- laptops that can switch to become a tablet.)

Two of the thinnest and lightest convertibles were from Sony, with their Vaio Duo Slider Hybrid, and Lenovo's Yoga 2 Pro, both which are 13" and come with the new, long-battery life Haswell chip. They treat their conversion quite differently. The Sony screen rests on a hinge and slides down to lay flat over the keyboard. The Lenovo swivels 360-degrees, and the monitor twists underneath. Both are approximately three pounds.



The Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga is a touch thicker and heavier than its cousin by about a half pound, though still small, but fully-featured for business use. And it should retail for about $800, which is $500 less than the Yoga 2 Pro.



Toshiba also had two models that handle the conversion totally differently -- in fact, you can actually remove the screen from the laptop and have a separate, standalone tablet. The Portege Z10t was the smaller of the two (11" and 3.3 pounds). It splits its battery life -- 10 hours when fully connected, but five hours for the tablet alone. It retails for about $1,200. The "Click" is the business-centric model, slightly bigger, with a 500 GB hard disk , but a hefty 4.8 pounds. (Though the tablet when removed is far lighter, of course.) It retails for $800.

Among pure Windows 8 tablets, two models stood out. Samsung's Ativ Tab 3 was especially small and came with a very good touch-keyboard cover. (Last year, this was an added accessory.) And the Sony Vaio Tap 11 was an extremely nice Windows tablet PC that has a magnetic cover that doubles as a full-pitch keyboard. Note that the new Surface tablets from Microsoft hadn't been introduced by the time of IFA.

By the way, it's worth mentioning that Panasonic announced a 4K tablet that was quite massive at 20". Not necessarily something you'd grab and go.

For all the high-tend tech, though, there are always things at tech shows that are impressive for being almost retro in their innovative utter simplicity. The kind of things referred to earlier as "cool" not for being whiz-bang, but for making one's life easier doing things you do regularly.

A few products come to mind.

Qooqoon is a new company (how new? When I asked how long the product has been on sale, the boss looked at his watch. "One hour," he laughed) that makes a very simple protective screen for Smartphones. But the challenge of those protectors is applying them to the screen properly. Qooqoon developed a system that cleverly lets you place it correctly before stripping away the adhesive to apply it.



Beyerdynamic came up with an idea so brain-dead simple that it's brilliant. Their DX 120 and 160 earbuds have detachable cords, allowing you to exchange a short cord for a long one when you need it.

Also in audio, one of my favorite companies, X-Mini, displayed its two newest tiny, powerful portable speakers, the Uno (about the size of a golf ball) and the stereo Max. Both now comes with ceramic drivers for surprisingly wonderful sound. They retail for about $35 and $55.



And the company GGMM had one of my favorite kind of things: multi-purpose devices. Theirs was a small desk lamp, the iLight that doubles as a tablet stand, and now has a speaker in the base connected via Bluetooth.



One last area of tech innovation to keep an eye open for: new model cars are now building a great many features and apps into dashboards for greater SmartIntegration and cloud services. Just remember to keep your eyes on the road.

And so, after wandering the massive grounds of IFA Berlin, after making one's way through the huge crowds, after being pounded by new technology, sights, sounds and unending sensory overload, there remains -- as always -- my favorite spot at the show.

Auf wiedersehen.



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Robert J. Elisberg's new novel The Wild Roses, a comic adventure in the spirit of The Three Musketeers but with three women, recently reached the Top 50 in three Amazon Kindle bestseller categories. His other writing can be found at Elisberg Industries.

Privacy Is Getting Old-Fashioned Faster Than We Can Opt In!

First our friends. Then our photos. And now our fingerprints. Got privacy?

I finally did it this week. I gave up my BlackBerry. Seems like what an early adapter should have done by now? The iPhone has always just been my back-up plan and second number. Never seemed to compare to my world traveled and always reliable BlackBerry. I took the leap last week and gave it up for a Samsung Galaxy S4. Primetime. No more BlackBerry.

So I basically spent the weekend opting in, to... well... everything? Seems like opting in makes everything work better? If you got a new smartphone anytime recently, you may notice opting in makes the world go round. Easy. And if you didn't get a new gadget of any sort recently, you already opted in. You might not know it?

Of the new iPhone models released just this past Friday, the 5S is already the far more popular choice.

It makes perfect sense that early adopters would invest in the model that showcases the most cutting-edge technology. The 5S has been benchmarked to be leaps and bounds faster than the iPhone 5, and it features a better camera, improved battery life, a motion co-processing chip and a highly vaunted fingerprint sensor embedded within the Home button.

Meanwhile, the iPhone 5C is just a plasticky, multi-hued version of the iPhone 5. As brilliant as that phone was when initially released, in just a year it's become ancient tech. Early adopters have not been salivating for months to buy an old phone in a new case.

Naturally the iPhone launch is big news, especially since consumers have already purchased 9 million new iPhones within the first three days of release. With this much money being made, the media has no choice but to report more stories about Apple's unyielding success, whether they are about which color choice is more popular (the gold-colored 5S, which is selling for up to $1,800 on eBay, seems to be the early winner) or how iOS 7 keeps setting new records for fastest adoption on existing devices. Surely, millions will download apps that take advantage of the new software and hardware capabilities.

Lost in this bevy of self-congratulatory news is the pivotal discussion about where this technology is taking us. Should we be more concerned for our privacy? Do we care? Sleep with the blinds open? Exactly how much privacy is our society willing to cede for the sake of additional convenience?

Already, millions of people volunteer a comprehensive record of their daily lives. It is common to share self-taken photos and videos of one's family and friends on Facebook, to check-in with one's location on FourSquare, and to share opinions on Reddit. More privately (but only comparatively), the most personal messages are transmitted through SMS-type services. Most of one's private details, from a medical history to banking transactions, could be found embedded within the average person's email archive. The rest could probably be found in the ISP's logs, if not a laptop's browser history.

It has already been confirmed, due to Edward Snowden's leaks over the summer, that none of this is private. Zip. In fact, every word, every pixel and every bit of it is mined for data on a continuous and automatic basis. It's all part the American government's ubiquitous digital spying to keep us all out of harms way. The NSA has paid cloud, email and mobile providers like Apple, Verizon, AT&T, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Facebook and others millions of dollars to become their not so secret anymore surveillance operation of unprecedented scale. Now that we can measure more personal data than ever before, how dare we hand over our most intimate details -- even those more personal than a love letter or more important than an insurance document -- to the same mega-corporations who have already proven to be incapable or unwilling to keep them private?

Up to five individual fingerprints can be tracked and stored by the iPhone 5S to be used as a literally digital key for the iPhone's lockscreen. From all accounts, the "TouchID" fingerprint sensor is incredibly accurate; it only takes a few moments for the phone to instantly and always recognize a fingerprint, a biological unique identifier that has been used to track individuals since 1880. Apple claims that this data is never transmitted to their servers. Further, they tell us that the fingerprint is securely stored within a partition within the iPhone 5S chipset. Even if this is true -- and Apple's track record may be questionable -- it only took a matter of hours before hackers found a workaround to the TouchID security system. Moreover, other companies, perhaps with lower security standards than Apple, will surely premiere their very own fingerprint sensors on Android smartphones.

The iPhone's M7 co-processor is the best integrated-chipset yet for motion tracking. New apps like Nike's Move+ app will be able to take advantage of the M7, which can process motion data from the iPhone's accelerometer, gyroscope and compass. Never before has it been so easy to track how, where, and to what extent we move. Together with smart GPS and user inputs in fitness apps, the iPhone and the clouds of servers supplying it will hold a complete collection of data about a person's condition and location.

Apple's chief competitor in mobile space, Samsung, added facial tracking to their flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone in a feature they dub "SmartScroll." The integrated camera watches a users face to help scroll text at the same rate that one reads what's on the screen. It's a convenience that will only get better as time goes on: eye-tracking has been a technology in development for years, much to the chagrin of privacy advocates. The Kinect technology accompanying Microsoft's soon-to-be-released Xbox One features a camera so precise that it can see in the dark and through human skin. It is always on. For years, Facebook has had the ability to automatically identify who is who in your uploaded photo collection. As wonderful as this technology is for gaming or for reading or for automatically tagging image databases, what going to happen when everything is mashed together in a searchable, sortable database?

So much of our data is already available online to the government, mega-corporations and determined hackers. There is no reason to believe that our biometric data, including our unique faces, our voices, our fingerprints, our movements and heart rates will be left alone. Without meaningful protections and a public outcry, perhaps nothing will stop privacy from becoming an outdated and archaic concept -- but at least we'll have shiny new iPhones.

Opt in. It's easy. I have to wonder if it's worth the price.

Smartphone Apps for a Healthier Heart

The number of apps over the past five years has exploded for both health care professionals and patients alike. We are talking exponential growth. A recent count of the iTunes app store identified nearly 20,000 health care and wellness apps! To help control this influx of apps, the FDA has actually inserted itself and defined a difference between a "health" app and a "wellness" app.

A health app is categorized by the FDA as mobile software that diagnoses, tracks or treats disease.

A wellness app is mobile software that enhances or tracks the overall health of the user.

That said, there is a ton of crossover between the two classes -- e.g., a calorie counter that can then make recommendations about how to adjust your intake, or a BP tracker that alerts you to call your physician when there are too many consecutive high numbers.

A relatively quick and easy way to identify successful patient apps is to check out which patient-centered apps have the most downloads in the iTunes store and peruse the reviews written by patients (often the younger set). Here are some apps that I feel have transcended the niche medical category and gone into the widely used and useful category:

The Encyclopedic Health App

WebMD -- This is the one of the major categories of patient apps -- education (the other categories would be data recording/tracking and the last category would be management). It's easy to use, full of reliable information, has a trusted brand and offers side tools like a pill identifier. Oh yeah, and it's free and available for iPhone and Android.

The Doctor in Your Mobile Phone App

iTriage -- A cool and rather progressive app that allows patients to find the nearest emergency rooms and can often provide estimated waiting times (although the accuracy on that is questionable). It also serves as a crude diagnostic tool when you provide symptoms and gives a ton of reference information on medications, procedures, conditions, etc. It is free and available for both platforms.

"Your Doctor's Best Friend" Apps

BP Monitor or BP Tracker by HeartWise -- Probably the most success I've had (from a personal standpoint) in getting my patients to use mobile apps. While there are blood pressure cuffs available at Walgreens and the Apple Store that hook into the iPhone directly or wirelessly, the most common BP apps just serve as a substitute for the yellow legal pad on which most people record their daily blood-pressure reading. The benefit of these BP trackers is that they can be exported rather easily in graphic or tabular form to the doctor by email or printed out in a presentable fashion. My patients that use them love them. And on a personal note, the printouts are displayed in a clear and easy way.

Glucose Companion -- Or one of the numerous other glucose/calorie-tracking apps. There are several and they serve a similar purpose to the hypertension apps listed above. Recently, apps like WellDoc are attempting to integrate their data with existing electronic health records (EHR) -- and have been successful, improving the management of patients while physically seeing them less!

The Fully Engaged Patient Apps

Gazelle -- For specialists, i.e., non-general practitioners, keeping track of patients' labs is a chronic issue and patients are often inconvenienced of the fact that we do not do labs in our offices and inconsistently receive copies of their recent bloodwork. This app by Quest Diagnostics allows patients to make appointments online and track their lab data and keep it on their phone. To me, this is one of the most obvious and logical utilizations of mobile apps, and will likely be the standard in the near future.

Pill Reminder -- Medication adherence has been identified by the mobile medical community (and Big Pharma) as the low-hanging fruit of this sector. This app by Drugs.com attempts to achieve success in this space. Logically, it sends reminders when to take meds, as well as reminders about when you might need a refill and provides a drug reference geared toward patients. It takes a user manually entering their individual meds and the instructions for administration, which will exclude a large group of patients, but it's a start. In the future (and it does exist already to some extent), one could imagine that the pharmacy would electronically input your medical regimen into their own app that you would have on your phone and all you would have to do is log in and your meds would automatically populate.

The Get-in-Shape Apps

My Fitness Pal or Calorie Counter -- There are numerous apps in this space and I have not had time (or exercise tolerance) to sort through all of them, but they all attempt to acheive the same goal -- provide the patient with info so that he or she may make healthful changes. Some even make recommendations. They vary is their ease of use, and some will interface with a wearable device (such as Fitbit or the Nike FuelBand) that count your steps and monitor your breathing while you sleep giving you biofeedback info as well.

C25K (Couch to 5K) -- If you are the type of exerciser who requires structure, this is a great one. Apps like RunTracker primarily log your distance run and then post it (somewhat annoyingly) to social media outlets to inform all your acquaintances that you ran 4.7 miles. This one actually starts you slow and gradually increases your run-walk ratio as you progress through a four-week program, culminating in you running a 5K. From personal use, I can attest to its benefits. The best part is it can run behind any other app you have running, so that if you want to listen to music or a radio app while you run, this will politely work in the background and alert you when to walk/run.


The Panacea Apps


Google App -- Still, and likely always, the most common resource for health information. The results sometimes may be muddled, but overall it often serves as a wonderful resource for information. According to the Pew Research Center, nearly 70 percent of the web-surfing population have looked up a health topic in the last year -- the most commonly sought topics are specific diseases and conditions. More interestingly, almost half of online health searches are on behalf of someone else. Perhaps even more impressive, 52 percent of smartphone owners have used their phone to look up health or medical information. We are increasingly becoming a wireless, laptop-less, mobile society and before too long we will be coordinating medical care, receiving test results, and perhaps even seeing our health care providers all on our phones.

ZocDoc -- The above brings us to our last app, perhaps the most paradigm shifting one of the bunch -- until there's one that does video-conference medical evaluations on your phone (coming soon I'm sure). As medicine continues its evolution towards a more patient-centered, service-oriented approach, ZocDoc and several others that have followed suit, now permit patients to input their insurance info and make appointments immediately with a doctor in their desired location. Why shouldn't medicine be more like every other service industry? That's a debate for another time.

For more by Jordan Safirstein, MD, click here.

For more on personal health, click here.