Tech in Daily Life

Topics relating to technology developed for everyday consumer use, such as mobile phones, banking, and more.


 

In Our Pursuit of Tech-Everything Are We Forgetting Someone?

More and more retailers are turning towards a cashless model by accepting cards and other electronic payments...and nothing else.  This is done to speed convenience - surely tapping your phone on a reader to get your morning bagel sandwich is faster than digging a $5 bill out of your wallet, getting change, and oh, make sure to leave a buck in the tip jar.  Some retailers also claim that cashless business is safer and more economical because there's nothing to steal, no armored truck deliveries, no taking an employee off the line to check cash in under dual custody, and no bank runs for cha

Wearable Tech Making Cruising More Convenient

Carnival Cruise Lines recently introduced its Ocean Medallion wearable tech, which adds convenience, information, and fun to cruises.  Though it is small (only about the size of a quarter), it connects passengers to shipwide systems.  For the best results passengers should pair the device with a smartphone app, though the tech will work without it.  This connectivity enables passengers to access their cabins, locate members of their party, check their onboard schedule on ship screens, as well as order a poolside beverage without having to get up.  Thanks to NFC and Bluetooth technology, pas

Who Owns the Data Your Car Has About You?

Take a look at just about any new car these days and it'll be filled with tech - lane departure warning systems, cameras everywhere, and even self-driving cars.  But new concern is developing about the infotainment systems now found in cars, their integration with owners' mobile phones, and what happens with the data generated.

Mobile Apps Improving the Lives of the Visually Impaired

Those of us who've had the opportunity to know the deaf or blind/visually impaired have had a small glimpse into an entirely new world where connectively tools must work differently.  The deaf "hear" with their eyes and the blind "see" with their ears.  As a consequence, mobile phones that rely on both audio and visual functions rarely serve their needs straight out of the box.  To address this a variety of helpful mobile apps have entered the market and are revolutionizing communications for the deaf and blind.

Drones May Be a Crucial Chain in the Organ Transplant Network

Recently, a human kidney took its own way to the hospital - by way of drone.  The organ, destined for transplant in an ill 44 year old from Baltimore, found itself as part of a larger project organized by doctors, researchers, aviation experts, and engineers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.  The project has also been supported by The Living Legacy Foundation of Maryland, a nonprofit that helps to enable organ and tissue donation and their needed transportation steps.

Happy 20th Birthday to the Optical Mouse

Remember the days of your computer mouse getting a little squirrely and the remedy being to partially disassemble the mouse and do away with all of the lint, dirt, and general desk gunk that had found its way onto the roller ball and its sensors?  (Which were also the days where a mousepad was mandatory.  And the roller ball made a pretty great toy too.) Thanks to Microsoft, that is fortunately a distant memory as on April 14, 1999 their first optical computer mouse was introduced at a tech convention in Las Vegas and eventually revolutionized our mousing habits.

Pandora Music Entrusts Streaming Advertising to OpenText Digital Asset Management Platform

Pandora, the largest streaming audio service in the United States, recently selected OpenText Media Management as the storage solution for its audio and display advertising assets.  Pandora, as many are familiar, is powered by the Music Genome Project and intelligently selects music based on a users' thumbs up or down of various streamed tracks.  It also offers a great advertising opportunity with this detailed information on user preferences.  With that information, Pandora can serve targeted, scalable ads to help advertisers hit their mark.  OpenText Media Management will serve the entire

Looking for Love? Try Your Fridge

Have you heard of Refrigerdating?  It's like Tinder, only instead of using your favorite selfie as a profile picture you use a picture of what's going on in your fridge (a "fridgefie"?) for potential matches to swipe through.  The app comes by way of Samsung, best known for phones and TVs, but they're also in the kitchen appliance game and their Family Hub Refrigerator sports a camera that checks fridge inventory for you.  To promote this camera feature Samsung crafted the dating app that automatically loads a picture of your fridge contents to y