Shelly Palmer Digital Living - Daily Radio Report

So it’s time for you to buy a new computer. You go out, buy a sleek new Ultrabook, come home and power it on. But… wait. Where’s the start button?! It’s going to be okay. You just experienced Windows 8 shock. Very different from previous versions of Windows, Windows 8 is the first operating system to be designed with both computers and tablets in mind. What’s that mean? Your traditional start menu is no longer what it was. But don’t worry! A whole bunch of companies have made programs to emulate the start menu you found in Windows 7 and earlier. Some even let you switch directly to the desktop when you first log in. Applications like Start8, StartIsBack and RetroUI all make up for Windows 8’s lack of a start menu, while Classic Shell sends things way back to make your computer look like it’s running Windows XP. If you still can’t stand Windows 8 and are ready to throw your shiny new laptop out the window, follow me at @ShellyPalmer on Twitter to learn all about how to save your new computer.

Just over a year ago, Nike released its FuelBand line to the public. You’ve probably seen them, even if you’ve never heard its name before. A thin, black electronic wristband, the FuelBand tracks all of your physical activity. It measures your movement in NikeFuel, which is a way to consolidate all your movement into one metric. You start your day by saying how much NikeFuel you want to generate, then go about your business. If you hit your mark, the wristband flashes GOAL so that you and everyone around you knows you’ve moved a lot that day. Well, it turns out that FuelBand users move around a whole lot. Nike just released some stats about how much its user base of over 11 million members work out. The 409 billion NikeFuel points tallied up in the past year are equivalent to 44 million marathons, and the 1 billion NikeFuel points earned every day is enough to power over 6,700 houses. Now… where’s a human-sized hamster wheel when you need one?

We’re right in the middle of award season, where the best movies, albums and TV shows are honored. Netflix wanted in on the action, which is why it announced the Flixies. Rather than stick to boring categories like Best Picture or Best Director, Netflix had a little fun. Got a little one who likes to stomp around the house and make a lot of noise? Honor The Lorax with Best Tantrum Tamer. Had a little bit too much fun at the bar last night? Give the TV series Archer your vote for Best Hangover Cure. Voting is open to Netflix members and non-members alike. We can all vote on our favorite movies and TV shows from Netflix’s catalog at TheFlixies.com until March 10. Netflix is also looking for category ideas for future Flixy awards. The top three winners in each category will be announced next Monday, March 11. I know I’ll check them out and probably add some new flicks to my queue.

The next time you pop into a store to buy something, you might just get rung up on an iPad. Square, the company behind the super simple way of using an iDevice to accept payments, recently announced they’re going to sell what they call the “Business in a Box.” For just under 300 bucks, a company will receive two Square readers, which are little credit card swipers that plug into an iDevice, as well as an iPad stand and a cash drawer. Square will also offer a package that adds in a receipt printer for just under 600 bucks. A few months back, Starbucks made big news when it announced that all credit card transactions in its stores would be run through Square. With iDevices and mobile payment becoming more and more popular, Square’s “Business in a Box” seems like a good opportunity for small business owners to show their customers that they’re ready to succeed in our connected world.

How do you watch your favorite TV show? On your iPad when laying in bed? Streaming it through Netflix on your Xbox 360? Downloading it on iTunes or Amazon for a couple bucks after it airs? Unless you’re watching it through your cable box, Nielsen, the team that publishes TV ratings, isn’t able to track you properly. That might change, though, as a recent report suggests that Nielsen is going to enter the modern age and begin including ratings data for shows watched through steaming services like Netflix and on devices like the iPad and Xbox. Networks have complained for years that their shows’ actual ratings haven’t been properly tallied. This is a step to fix that. The report says that by September, Nielsen will introduce new hardware and software into the homes it uses to gauge ratings. If all goes well, shows with a less traditional viewer base like Community might get a better shot at sticking around for a few years.

It’s a great time to be a baseball fan. Spring Training has begun and opening day is little over a month away. Major League Baseball is helping you stay more connected to your team with its updated At Bat app on Android and iOS. The app will also be ready for BlackBerry 10 by opening day. Android users from last year might remember some issues with video playback, but the app has sorted everything out. Season-long access to the app costs $20 and gives you live audio on all your mobile devices plus your computer, as well as access to video of the free game of the day. New to the app this year is sortable stats and access to a classic games archive, both very cool for hardcore fans. A full MLB.tv subscription gets you all that plus access to video from every game every day, playable in the app. Grabbing the app now means you’ll get access to over 200 Spring Training games, too. Play ball!

If you needed proof that YouTube has become a major part of pop culture, here it is: Billboard’s charts, which have become the gold standard for figuring out what today’s top songs are, just added YouTube streaming data into its metrics. YouTube views join song sales and radio airtime to help determine what songs top the charts. If you’ve ever browsed YouTube – and I’m sure you have – you’ll know that there can be thousands of versions of any given song. To keep things simple, Billboard is only tracking “official videos” and videos with “authorized audio.” Wonder if this new metric will make a difference? YouTube’s latest craze, the Harlem Shake, just debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. With dozens of Harlem Shake videos getting millions of views, that should come as a no-brainer to anyone familiar with internet culture. With how quickly things change on the internet, we’ll have to see if the Billboard charts can keep up with YouTube.

Vine is one of the hottest apps in the App Store. Created by Twitter, Vine lets you create six-second looping videos you can share with your friends through on Twitter and Facebook. But Vine has become more than just a way to send videos of cats and babies to our friends. CodeComputerLove in England has created a series of eight Vine videos that tell a story about an office running out of milk. Presented in traditional comic book form on its site, the 48 second-long story features comic book thought bubbles and even samurai battles. Similarly, Oscilloscope Labs is releasing its newest film, It’s a Disaster, in six-second increments over Vine. With the film not scheduled to be released in full for another three weeks, this is a cool marketing strategy. With so many tools available to content creators, it’s simply a matter of when and where the next inventive ad campaign happens. Vine’s only a few weeks old: its possibilities are nearly endless.

The week of big tech announcements keeps on coming. Yesterday was Google's turn to make us drool when it announced a new Chromebook laptop: the Pixel. Available now in the Google Play store for $1,299, the Pixel has a 12.85 inch touchscreen that packs a 2560x1700 resolution, the same as the 13” MacBook Air. The Pixel also has 4 gigs of RAM, a 32 gig solid state drive and a three year subscription for 1 terrabyte of Google Drive cloud storage. Steve Jobs said that the MacBook Air would never have a touchscreen as they weren't meant to be used vertically. Think about it: How long can you use your iPad vertically before you want to put it down? But Google is very confident in the Pixel's touchscreen in regards to comfort. Chromebooks have been marketed as a home's second or third computer. But with LTE, the Pixel can also be a great computer on the go and help you stay connected anywhere you may be.

Sony has officially announced the PlayStation 4. While no price or exact release date was announced, we do know it will come out later this year. Sony didn’t show what the console will look like, but instead, showed off the system’s new controller. It looks sort of like the PlayStation 3 controller with a touchscreen in the middle of it. The controller also has a share button, which is one of the PlayStation 4’s most hyped features. You can upload game clips and even broadcast live to your friends around the world, who can watch or take remote control of your game to get you through a tough spot. Sony also announced new entries in the Infamous and Killzone franchises and said that Diablo III and Bungie’s new game Destiny will come to the system. Sony said it wants to win the war against reality by offering the best gaming experience in the world. While it’s still very early, it looks like the PlayStation 4 is off to a good start.

Look out, Apple and Samsung. There’s a new horse in the smartphone race. HTC just unveiled the HTC One, the company’s new flagship phone. When you turn on the HTC One, you’re brought to BlinkFeed, which shows stories, pictures and videos from the sources you care most about. Can’t live without Twitter, Facebook or Flickr? Add those streams into BlinkFeed and you’re more connected than ever. The One has a gorgeous 4.7 inch 1080p screen with 50 percent more pixels per inch than the iPhone 5. This means the One’s images are more beautiful and eye-popping than on the iPhone. Speaking of gorgeous images, HTC says that the 4-Ultrapixel HTC Zoe Camera is better than other companies' 8-megapixel cameras? Why? UltraPixels are really big pixels. Because they are larger, HTC insists that Ultrapixels will produce a superior image in low light conditions. AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile will all have the One for sale starting in March. It's Ultrapixels vs. Megapixels. Apple? Samsung? Game on!

eBay just got a major makeover. Starting today, a new eBay homepage is available to everyone. What can you expect? Well, for one thing, bigger pictures, more pictures and a clearer sense of what you're looking at. If you're familiar with Pinterest, you’ll know how nice it is to be able to look at large pictures when poking around online. With less of an emphasis on text, you’ll be able to see exactly what you want to buy. eBay’s new homepage also caters to you, showing a personalized feed of products based on what you like and what you’ve bought. You can list your favorite interests and brands and eBay will show you what you might like to buy. It’s more than just search. It’s about discovery. And the coolest part? Every time you visit the eBay homepage, you’ll have some new items to sort through. Keep an eye on your wallet, because you’ll soon be seeing a lot more stuff you want to buy.

It’s late at night, and you’ve spent most of your weekend working on a presentation you have to give your boss tomorrow morning. Just as you go to save your work, your computer locks up. You smash your keys and hope for a miracle. Nothing happens. You realize your worst nightmare is true: your computer crashed and your work is gone. Now, imagine how much more devastating that crash would be if your computer was controlling military drones or was involved in a medical procedure. Two computer scientists at University College London are working on this problem and have designed a computer that never crashes. Rather than doing just one thing at a time like “normal” computers, their computer responds to random and unpredictable events and was made to instantly recover corrupted data. That means less frustration, more productivity and no more smashing of keys. Drones stay on course and your presentation is back, saved and all is right with the world.

We’ve all killed a few minutes here and there playing Angry Birds on our phone. But do you remember kids carrying around a different time-killer before they all had smartphones? If you’re under 30 – or raised a kid during the 90s – you’ll remember the Tamagatchi, that egg-shaped time suck of a game that gave you a virtual pet that needed your constant attention to make sure it didn’t die. Get ready for a blast of nostalgia, because a Tamagatchi app was released to Google Play yesterday and is coming soon to iOS. The app makes you feed, heal and clean up after your pet, just like you did 15 years ago. But the app also gives the Tamagatchi some new games to play as well as a face-lift, bringing that pixeled, black-and-white monster to life in full color. Uh oh… I think my granddaughter just killed her creature. Time to see if Dr. Palmer can bring another one back from the dead.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Oh no… forget to get your significant other a gift? No problem ... you can just 3D print something at Staples! Well… not yet, but one day soon, you'll be able to 3D print Valentine's Day gifts or anything else you can save as a CAD/CAM file with “Staples Easy 3D.”  It's a brand new program that will pilot in Belgium and the Netherlands.  3D printers read special computer design files and print objects one layer at a time.  The tech is sometimes referred to as additive manufacturing and it's the same technology President Obama mentioned last night in his State of The Union Address.  3D printing has the power to significantly change manufacturing the same way laser printers changed the paper printing business.  This seems like a natural for Staples and I can't wait until it hits the United States.  I want to go to Staples, print a 3D object and say, "That was easy."