Shelly Palmer Digital Living - Daily Radio Report

After the most Twitter-heavy election ever, the Obama administration is continuing its strong social media presence. If you only watched last night’s State of the Union on TV, you missed a data-enriched version of the speech that the White House streamed on its YouTube, Facebook and Google Plus pages. Last night’s address was also accompanied by something called Citizen Response, which lets you share parts of the speech on your social networks, or let the Obama administration know what you thought of the speech. President Obama will be doing even more social media work tomorrow, when he’ll host a virtual town hall meeting on Google Plus. Google will select citizens’ questions for the President to answer about his State of the Union priorities. Sound familiar? Vice President Biden took to Google Plus in January to talk about gun control. Whether or not you agree with its policies, you have to admit that this administration is on top of its social media game.

Have you ever been out for the afternoon, fire up Fruit Ninja to kill a few minutes and suddenly find your phone at low battery? You’re not alone. While Verizon may have shut down its own app store, the cell phone carrier began rating, reviewing and recommending Android and iPhone apps for its customers on Monday. Rather than a list of the most fun games and most useful cookbook apps, Verizon’s lists show which apps drain your battery, use up your data plan and tinker with your security and privacy the most. While some of Verizon’s own apps – like AppLuvr – can be found on these lists, these rankings offer a different perspective from most “Best Of” compilations. The next time you’re checking your phone bill and are wondering how you managed to eat up so much data, you’ll have a much better sense of how it happened. It might just be time to close your Facebook app and stop its constant stream of information, data charges and battery drain.

Starting in May, Kindle Fire users are going to have a new way to purchase content. Amazon Coins, announced last week, are a new virtual currency for U.S. customers to use to buy apps, games and in-app items on Kindle Fires. The Coins system seems to be bucking a trend, as similar payment methods in the tech world are being eliminated, not created. Facebook introduced Facebook Credits in 2011, only to eliminate the system a year and a half later. Microsoft seems to be doing the same thing with its Microsoft Points on the Xbox 360. But for Amazon, it hopes the Coins system will get Kindle owners excited about buying more apps.  As an incentive, Amazon will give away tens of millions of dollars in Coins to existing Kindle Fire owners when the program launches. Are Coins really going to make you a loyal Amazon customer, or will they just annoy you?

A recent study found out that the internet is the first stop for many sick people. Why not poke around a bit before we head to the doctor’s office? The Pew study found that 35 percent of U.S. adults say they’ve used the internet to diagnose themselves or someone else, with about half of those people taking a follow-up trip to the doctor’s office. 59 percent of U.S. adults have looked online for health information in the past year, yet only 2 percent of all those surveyed paid for the help they sought online. The internet is revolutionizing how we do many things, and the medical field is no exception. With sites like ZocDoc letting you find and schedule doctors’ appointments from the comfort of your own home, to companies like HealthSpot offering remote check-ups and diagnoses by doctors around the world, medical information – both amateur and professional – has never been more accessible to us than it is today, and that’s a great thing.

Google Maps is on a roll. After completing its trek across the Grand Canyon last week, the world’s best map service added 38 additional ski resorts to its mapped areas. Google kicked off this off in November when they mapped about 90 resorts around the world. The newly added maps are mostly located in the United States, and can be viewed online as well as in its apps for Android and iPhone. If you love the slopes like I do, you know that adding ski resorts like Squaw Valley, Big Sky and Whistler Blackcomb is a big deal. If you haven’t used Google Maps to check out resorts before, it’s really simple to navigate. Ski runs are marked in blue, green and black lines show how tough the terrain is, and lifts are marked as red dotted lines. As always, Google is never satisfied, and promised that “more ski resort maps [are] on the way.” Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a mountain… or 38… calling my name.

Dell is on its way to becoming a private company, after a $24.4 billion buyout by company founder Michael Dell and partners, including $2 billion chipped in by Microsoft. In a post-PC world, where every manufacturer is trying its hardest to be and stay relevant -- as a public company, Dell simply would not have the fiscal flexibility it needs to effectively compete.  By going private, the company will be far more agile and be able to make long-term strategic decisions without worrying about its share price. Michael Dell is a very smart guy with a great team, so the right people are in place. Can Dell proper in a post-PC world?  Sure they can -- it’s just a matter of creating products that are so awesome that instead of an buying iPad or a Galaxy tablet customers will say, “Dude! You’re getting a Dell… tablet!”

The numbers are in, and it turns out that the Ravens weren’t Sunday’s big winners. As in most major televised events, viewers took to Twitter in droves, sending over 24.1 million tweets during Sunday night’s game. For comparison’s sake, when Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney in November, that six-hour window generated 23 million tweets. This year’s Super Bowl exceeded that number by over one million. Beyonce’s halftime show generated 5.5 million of those tweets, averaging 268,000 per minute at the end of her performance. The other big moment, the #Blackout, generated over 230,000 tweets per minute. Advertisers were smart and capitalized on the trend. Twitter was mentioned in just about half of the 52 national commercials aired during the game. But the best Twitter moment of the night belonged to Oreo, who tweeted “You can still dunk in the dark” with an accompanying graphic shortly after the lights went out. So Baltimore, you can keep the Lombardi Trophy, but we should all remember who the true champ was.

While watching the Super Bowl, I realized that the year’s biggest television event is not what it once was. Don’t get me wrong: the game was exciting, the commercials were funny and the presentation was top notch. What’s different is us. Surveys estimated that 36 percent of us used a second screen last night while watching the game. We also used those screens leading up to the game, too, to watch all the ads that these companies paying $4 million for 30 seconds of screentime have made. YouTube said that Super Bowl commercials posted online before the game get 600 percent more views. Keeping your commercial a secret until kickoff builds excitement, but it’s hard to argue with those extra viewers. CBS streamed the entire game, commercials and all, on its site, and NFL Gamepass did the same for customers outside the country. As we move into future Super Bowls, it’s hard to imagine these trends will stop: even sports can’t escape technology’s long reach.

Finding a parking space in big cities can be a nightmare. Whether you’re in a crowded area or find yourself surrounded by people who park with no regard for others, it’s almost never fun or easy. One service in San Francisco is trying to change things. A program called CurbTXT lets people text you by using your license plate number to get in touch. A sticker on the car gives them an anonymous way to contact you through your car’s license plate. Whether it’s to give a heads-up that your meter is about to run out or just to let you know you’re blocking their driveway, it has the possibility to really shake up parking in the Bay Area. Worried about spam or pranks? CurbTXT lets users report inappropriate messages, and abusers will be blocked from the service. While CurbTXT is still in its infancy, it’s another example of how we can use technology to make our lives easier and less frustrating.

After being seemingly knocked down for the count, Research in Motion – now re-branded as BlackBerry – re-vitalized its brand on Wednesday with the launch of BlackBerry 10. The company launched two new smartphones. The Q10 is keyboard-equipped, keeping it true to the essence of what BlackBerry has been. But it also features a 3.1” touchscreen and LTE. The Z10, meanwhile, rocks a 4.2” touchscreen, LTE and will be available for $199 when it hits shelves. The area where BlackBerry can really re-vitalize its brand is in software, and one of the first things BlackBerry showed off was the inclusion of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Foursquare apps, all seamlessly integrated into the OS through the BB Hub. BlackBerry Messaging also got an overhaul, and now features reliable messaging, free calls over Wi-Fi, video chat and even a screen-sharing feature. If you live in the UK and Canada, the phones can be yours in just a few days. US customers? Sorry, but you’ll have to wait until mid-March.

After rumors late last week, Apple confirmed yesterday that an iPad with 128 gigabytes of storage with hit shelves on February 5. Following traditional iPad pricing, the new Wi-Fi model will cost $799, while the Wi-Fi plus 4G model will cost $929. Unlike previous Apple releases, however, this is a new product that you can almost assuredly ignore. More and more content providers – Apple very much included – are distributing digital content by streaming it or letting you store it in the cloud. Traditionally, that’s the only reason you’d need tons of room on an entertainment device: to store tons of movies, music and pictures. As Apple pushes services like iCloud and iTunes Match, most consumers have no need for this much storage. So who’s this iPad for? Businesses with deep pockets who want their employees to carry around huge files, like AutoCAD designs, RAW photo files or HD video. For now, keep your money in your pocket and wait for the iPad 5, which is rumored to arrive this October.

If you own a Windows computer, listen carefully. Microsoft is finally making Office 2013 widely available to the masses today. This release is radically different from previous versions of Office, as Microsoft is offering the software pack in subscription form, named Office 365 Home Premium. This subscription charges users a monthly or annual “rental” fee and gives you the right to install Office 2013 or Office For Mac 2011 on up to five computers. Microsoft will also offer traditional single-user installs of their different packages – like Home and Student or Home and Business – though as of last night they had yet to unveil exact pricing. Industry experts believe it to be about $139 for the Home and Student and $219 for Home and Business per installation. This week also marks the final chance to purchase a Windows 8 upgrade for its ultra-low cost of $39. Beginning on Friday, February 1, the price jumps to its full cost: $119 for the regular edition and $199 for Pro.

After adding a “Just for Kids” late last year, Netflix is continuing to provide content for younger viewers. The media streaming giant recently signed a multi-year licensing agreement with Turner Broadcasting and Warner Bros. television, which features animated and live-action programming from Cartoon Network, Warner Bros. Animation and Adult Swim. This move goes live on March 30 also provides tons of content for us non-kids, as shows like TNT’s Dallas will come to the service early in 2014. This is another major signing for Netflix, which was already King of the media streaming marketplace. With Hulu focusing on new TV and Redbox Instant by Verizon stumbling out of the gate, Netflix’s only major competition at the moment is from Amazon Instant Video, and this move is sure to make Amazon sweat a bit beneath the collar. If $8/month wasn’t already a great bargain for the 60,000+ titles Netflix had available, adding hits like Childrens Hospital might be enough to put you over the edge.

You’re probably familiar with the saying that a monkey smashing keys on a keyboard for an infinite amount of time will produce the works of William Shakespeare. While we haven’t hit that point in the infinite monkey theorem yet, the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington D.C. is doing something similar through the Apps for Apes program. With success seen at 12 other zoos around the world, Apps for Apes lets orangutans use iPads as a way to stimulate their lives. According to the Orangutan Outreach group, the program has three goals: to provide stimulating enrichment and gratification for the orangutans, to raise awareness among zoo visitors of the need to protect orangutans in the wild and to promote the conservation efforts of Orangutan Outreach. The National Zoo offers more than 10 iPad apps that the orangutans can use, including musical instrument apps, drawing programs and cognitive games. These orangutans may not be penning Shakespeare, but they’re more connected than any of us were ten years ago.

There are more movies to see, books to read and albums to hear today than ever before. How do we keep on top of it all? One new website (and iOS companion app) is here to help. Done Not Done is a to-do list for the things you want to do, not the things you have to do. After creating an account, you’re asked to bring in friends from Facebook and Twitter. You then place movies, books or albums into the done or not done category. If you’ve finished it, mark it as done, review it and rate it! If you haven’t gotten to it yet, mark it as not done. Once you bring in friends from your social media circles, you can see where your interests overlap. You and a friend both want to see Zero Dark Thirty? I was really disappointed by it, but, hey – it’s your money. Done Not Done lets you and your friends plan an outing to see the Oscar nominee. Pretty cool!