Shelly Palmer Digital Living - Daily Radio Report

If you haven’t noticed, Nintendo and Amazon don’t play well together. When Nintendo’s newest console, the Wii U, could first be pre-ordered last fall, stores like GameStop and Best Buy jumped at the opportunity to make a quick buck from gamers eager for the first new console in years. But Amazon didn’t, and to this day doesn’t sell the Wii U. Sure, you can buy one of the consoles on Amazon.com, but they’re all sold by third parties. The same thing is mostly true of Nintendo’s newest handheld console, the 3DS: only one of the many colors Nintendo makes is sold by Amazon, while the rest are left to third parties. Even weirder is the product listings for the 3DS suggest you check out Sony’s portable system, the Vita, while the Vita page makes no mention of the 3DS. Why is this? No one knows for sure, but with Nintendo’s Wii U struggling in terms of sales, it isn’t doing the company any favors.

We’re still months away from the general public getting their hands on Google Glass, but that hasn’t slowed efforts to make using the product as safe as can be – or to put limits on where people think it should be used. Gary G. Howell, a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, recently introduced a bill that would make it illegal to wear Google Glass while driving a car. Afraid Glass would cause similar problems as texting and driving, Howell saw it as his duty to protect himself and others from potentially distracted drivers on the road. Howell said it’s unlikely that the bill would pass legislation this year, but this is a battle that Google is eventually going to have to fight down the road. When will wearing Glass be okay? Where will it be prohibited? With the first round of Glass users receiving their units shortly, we’ll be hearing more stories like this in the coming months. I wonder if Mr. Howell actually knows what a heads-up display is?

Barnes & Noble is doing whatever it can to get Nooks and its digital content into the hands of the masses. After running a March promotion where buying a Nook HD tablet got you a Nook Simple Touch e-reader for free, the company is now pushing its presence in Windows 8. Nook Media, a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble that is partially owned by Microsoft, recently announced that people who download the Nook app for Windows 8 will get five books and five magazines for free, chosen from a select list. This is in addition to the over one million free titles already available in the Nook store. Barnes & Noble is also enhancing the apps on its Nook devices by incorporating in-app purchases in the coming months, putting its tablets in line with those from Amazon and Apple. With all of the effort Barnes & Noble is putting into its digital media branch, can it step up and challenge the market’s big dogs?

If you’ve ever thought that going to the bathroom was just too boring and needed some kind of game to make things more interesting, you might want to take a trip to Pennsylvania. The Lehigh Valley IronPigs, a minor league baseball team of the Philadelphia Phillies, recently unveiled plans to bring a pee-controlled video game system to its stadium’s urinals when the season begins this month. The idea is a first in the sports world and comes from a partnership with a local hospital system aiming to promote men’s prostate health. So how’s it work? Without getting too gross, a video monitor at eye level above the urinal detects a fan’s presence. Trivia games will have him answer true/false questions by aiming at the answers, and painting games will ask him to ‘paint’ in broad strokes, according to a press release from the team. His score will then be posted to stadium video boards and accessible online. Going to the bathroom may never be the same again.

The OUYA was one of the most successful Kickstarter campaigns of all-time. A new video game console for your TV, the OUYA is powered by Android and meant to be an open and hackable platform. With the campaign’s backers already getting their consoles and units set to hit store shelves in the near future, what’s next for the little video game company that could? OUYA recently announced a very cool partnership with MakerBot: custom, 3D-printed console cases. If you can play around what’s inside the console, why not be able to do the same thing with the outside? The two companies released 3D design files for the console’s case, so anyone with access to a 3D printer can customize what it looks like. Want a zebra-striped video game console? Maybe one that’s hot pink? Now’s your chance. As OUYA looks to distance itself from its more mainstream gaming competitors, partnerships like this will make all the difference in helping it truly stand out from the crowd.

If you’re running a recent version of OS X, you’re probably familiar with Launchpad. Launchpad displays your Mac’s programs in a grid that resembles an iPad or iPhone. By holding down the Option key when Launchpad is open, you’re able to re-arrange your programs, move them into folders and even delete ones you won’t use again, just like on your iDevice. But what happens if a program doesn’t show up in Launchpad? First, it’s important to know that Launchpad only displays programs found in the default Applications folder in OS X. If you’ve installed a program anywhere else on your Mac, it won’t show up in Launchpad, so moving the program’s icon to the Applications folder should make it show up in Launchpad. Is a program in that folder not showing up correctly? Drag the icon out and back in, and it should appear. As a last resort, you can also rebuild the Launchpad database, which is a bit trickier.

As the millions of Americans who watch NFL games every Sunday know, one the biggest issues facing the league right now is the rise of concussions and head trauma. Last season, the NFL brought in third-party neurological consultants to make sure that coaches don’t let concussed players re-enter the game too soon. Players are tested before the season to establish a baseline, and need to meet certain standards to take the field again after an injury. Starting next season, an app on the iPad will be used to help during that test. The idea is that the iPad app will have the data from the baseline test readily available so that it can be more quickly determined if the player’s answers meet the requirements for him to re-enter the game, based on how well he does on tests like word recall ability. With such sophisticated medical tools available, having the NFL embrace our connected world is great news for the sport and its players’ mental health.

Amazon shopaholic beware – Amazon is planning to use artificial gravity to help you shop ... and you may be drawn to it.  Amazon just received a patent for “gravity-based link assist technology.” That means that when you’re trying to click on something on Amazon’s site, your cursor will be drawn to links and buttons in a virtual gravitational field. The goal is to make Amazon’s site more accessible and easier to navigate if you find yourself clicking all over the place with little success. But it also gives Amazon the ability to magically draw your mouse toward related items you might also want to buy… or ones Amazon wants to sell you. This would be interesting if using a mouse, or your touch screen, was producing sub-optimal results.  But Amazon's links are pretty easy to click.  Oh well, next time you find yourself buying something you don’t really want, you can blame artificial gravity instead of your shopaholic genes.

You know how sometimes you have a friend connect their laptop to your wireless network and the whole thing overloads and shuts down? Annoying, right? Imagine having 68,500 friends over and knowing they’d all be able to be online at once with no issue. That’s exactly what the San Francisco 49ers are planning to do when their next stadium opens for the 2014 NFL season. Two of the 49ers’ head tech guys are former Facebook employees, having spent their time creating the most efficient networks possible for that site. The 49ers’ goal is to give fans speeds comparable to LTE, so somewhere between 20 to 40 megabits per second. While this year’s Super Bowl in New Orleans saw only a few more than 8,000 Wi-Fi connections at its peak, 49ers brass envisions a future where everyone will want to see alternate angles and instant replays. We’ll have to wait and see if San Francisco scores a touchdown with its Wi-Fi idea… or is forced to punt.

Look out, Amazon Prime: Google is coming for you. Google recently announced a program it’s working on called Google Shopping Express, with the main selling point being same-day delivery. That means you could order a new frying pan from Walmart.com on your lunch hour and have it delivered in time to use it for dinner that night. Rumor has it that the service will cost 64 to 69 dollars per year.  That's 10 to 15 bucks less than Amazon Prime.  But ... unlike Amazon, Google isn't going to sell the stuff you buy. Instead, it would coordinate the delivery from brick and mortar stores like Walmart, Target and Walgreens. Google Shopping Express will join Google Wallet and Google Shopping – Google's suite of connected shopping tools.  Will same day shipping change the way you shop? Why stop at the store on your way home, when you can order something online at lunch and have it sitting on your doorstep when you get there?

If you’re tired of Google, Apple and Nokia Maps and are looking for a new GPS solution, look no further than Waze (WAZE). Recently hitting 40 million users, Waze is a social GPS navigation system. What makes it so special? Any user with Waze can report an accident, speed trap or hazard on their route. Waze then takes this information and incorporates it into your route to make sure you get where you’re going as quickly and safely as possible. In 2012, Waze users reported over 90 million events on the roadways, including 30 million in the U.S. With Waze’s most recent update, users can now say that a road is closed or impassible and give a reason and estimated time of closure – is there a downed wire, construction or maybe a parade?  Remember: Distracted driving is one of the most dangerous things you can do.  Use Waze and other in-car applications responsibly, please keep you eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel.

If you can’t beat ‘em, copy ‘em. That seems to be the plan Verizon followed when creating the new version of its text messaging system, which now strongly resembles Apple’s iMessage system. Like iMessage, Verizon now lets you receive text messages not only on your phone but on your computer and tablet as well, making sure that you’ll never miss another late-night text from the boss or a lunchtime reminder from your spouse ever again. Verizon Messages runs through a web browser on your computer and is fully supported by Chrome, Firefox and Safari. On mobile devices, both Android and iOS, you’ll need to download the Verizon Messages app, which can be used alongside or instead of your regular texting app. This newest version is now available in Google Play and the iOS App Store, and is a significant upgrade over previous versions of the app, which sported only minimal features. Regardless of where you are, the new Verizon Messages helps you succeed in a connected world.

T-Mobile recently announced it would no longer force customers into two-year contracts, instead offering monthly plans starting at $50. That price point includes unlimited talking and texting and 500 MB of 4G data and unlimited 2G data after that. For $70 a month, just $20 more, you get unlimited 4G data for a single phone. But no more contracts also means a change in the way T-Mobile subsidizes phone prices. You can get an iPhone from Verizon for $199 instead of $649 because Verizon knows you’re paying them monthly for the next two years. With no contracts, T-Mobile is charging an up-front cost plus a monthly fee to make up the difference. An iPhone 5 on T-Mobile will cost you $99 up front and $20 a month for 24 months, which certainly sounds like a contract to me – nope, you don't get to keep the phone if you stop paying your monthly bill – compare prices carefully – remember, there's no free lunch and no free phones!

Is Grandma feeling a little sad? Hand her an Xbox controller and things just might get better. A recent study done by a team at North Carolina State University found out that seniors who play video games have a healthier sense of well-being and are generally less depressed than those who don’t game at all. The study split seniors into three groups: seniors who played video games at least once a week, those who played video games less frequently than that, and those who don’t game at all. It turns out that the first two groups had higher levels of well-being and social functioning, while the third group was more negative and more depressed. The study was relatively small and only looked at 140 seniors, but researchers say it suggests there’s a link between gaming and well-being. The next time you think Grandpa might be feeling a little lonely, invite him to help you kill some zombies in Call of Duty. It might just cheer him up.

Who knew liking curly fries was a hint that you had a high IQ? A recent study by Cambridge University determined that based on what a person ‘likes’ on Facebook, a lot can be said about who that person is. Based on data available to the public, researchers showed they could figure out a person’s gender, political views, sexual orientation and personality type based on the Facebook pages they liked. Researchers also said they could correctly guess man’s sexual orientation 88 percent of the time, they were 65 percent accurate in figuring out if a Facebook user also used drugs and could even figure out if a person’s parents split up when they were young. That’s kind of scary. While the study proved that targeted marketing is definitely effective, it also makes you realize how much information we’re sharing about ourselves online. The next time you go to like a new page on Facebook, think about what that page might say about you and your curly fry preferences.