Shelly Palmer Digital Living - Daily Radio Report

After last October’s launch of the Surface RT tablet, Microsoft on Tuesday announced the release date and pricing for its Surface Pro – Microsoft’s full-fledged, fully-powered tablet. Learning from past mistakes, the tablet will be available in the US and Canada on February 9 in all places the RT version is available – including Best Buys and Staples. Featuring an i5 processor and a full version of Windows 8 with no application restrictions, the 64 gig model will cost $899, and an option to double the storage bumps the price up to $999. Neither version comes with the optional – but strongly recommended – keyboard, which will drive the price up another hundred bucks when bundled with the Pro. As we shift into a post-PC world, Microsoft is eager step up to Apple in the tablet world. October’s Surface RT was sluggish and sales were light – Microsoft is going to need the Surface Pro to fare much better than its predecessor if it’s to be considered a success.

2012 may be known as the year that broke the password. We were continually hearing about a website, e-mail server or Twitter account that got hacked and ruined someone’s day. Google’s had enough. In a report that will be published later this month, Google’s security team looks to the future of passwords, and they’re a lot more physical than you might think. The team has designed a USB-based Yubico log-on device that they’re testing now. This device would automatically sign you into Google after you plug it into your computer. Pretty neat. This device opens up a whole world of possibilities, like having your phone near a computer automatically log you into and out of sites, or even a wearable ring that would let log you in by tapping your PC. While these options would make remote hacking far more difficult, a physical password presents other issues. Lose your ring? Get your phone stolen? Better report it stolen or find it quick!

While Hurricane Sandy caused billions of dollars of property damage, for many, the floodwaters also damaged priceless photos.  On February 2nd and 3rd, Operation Photo Rescue, a non-profit that was founded by two photojournalists after Hurricane Katrina, is headed to New York to digitize, restore and reprint photographs damaged by the storm.  Operation Photo Rescue is inviting anyone with photos damaged by Sandy to bring in up to 20 photos to be evaluated and potentially restored. You get to keep your originals, the re-printed ones will be mailed and shipped to you at no cost. This is an awesome idea, and an awesome gesture. With enough time and money, entire homes can be re-built, but things like photographs are seemingly gone forever. Not this time, thanks to Operation Photo Rescue, which will be hosted by the School of Visual Arts Masters in Digital Photography program. Walk-ins are encouraged, but follow me on twitter @shellypalmer or visit ShellyPalmer.com to find out how you can make an appointment.

Look out Apple – Amazon is coming for your music. Yesterday, Amazon announced a newly-designed Web store for its mp3 branch, made specifically for Safari on the iPhone and iPod Touch, which offers bestseller lists, personalized recommendations and Amazon ratings – all the stuff you love from Amazon.com. By keeping purchases on the Web rather than in an app, Amazon avoids Apple’s 30% fee for in-app purchases. Thursday wasn’t altogether bad for Apple’s content, though, so don’t shed a tear for them just yet. After bashing other publications two years ago for rushing to the iPad, Rolling Stone magazine has changed its ways and has finally appeared on Apple’s Newsstand. Individual issues cost $5, while a yearly subscription is 20 bucks. The coolest part – and the one Apple is most excited about – is that issues offer direct links to the iTunes Store for music written about and reviewed in the magazine. That should serve as a nice financial pick-me-up for Apple and its slipping stock prices.

The only thing more powerful and important than a college education and college degree is the level of debt that many college graduates face when heading into the real world: the average four-year graduate leaves school with $26,600 in student debt. MassMutual is doing its part to relieve one grad’s loan burden, as the company launched a “Down With Debt” Facebook campaign on Monday, which will award one Facebook user $20,000 for debt relief. To enter the contest, all you need to do is like the campaign’s page and write a killer 140-character explanation of how you plan to reduce your debt. It’s a win-win-win all around: Mass Mutual gets great advice, the winner gets a nice check, and we all remember tips to stay debt free: paying with cash rather than credit, avoiding luxury items and proper budgeting. The contest runs through Valentine’s Day, so get working on an awesome tip, and good luck!

Imagine all your Facebook friends who have two heads, eat their young on Thursdays and are Martian. Compiling a list of those people is now easier than ever, thanks to Facebook’s Graph Search, which was announced on Tuesday. While only in a limited beta for now, Graph Search is an easier-than-ever-before way to find your friends and put them into lists. You can find all friends who play soccer and communicate with just them. Or maybe you want to find your friend Ben’s friend Kim, who lives in San Francisco but other than that you’re not sure. Facebook has put the power in your hands to search for people the way you want. Privacy is a big concern, but Facebook has said that privacy is of the utmost importance to the company, and will only let people search for you by the information you’ve made available. What this will do for marketing, though, is a whole other realm. Hello, even more specific targeted ads!

Bexar County, Texas, Judge Nelson W. Wolff, is pushing plans for the nation's first bookless public library.  Of course, the Judge doesn't really mean bookless, he's really thinking about an ebook library – but bookless sounds cooler.  Anyway, he envisions a digital library that he's calling BiblioTech and he proposes to make thousands of volumes available for Bexar County residents both online and in a physical library.  County residents with a library card could check out books on their own smartdevices or borrow a take-home ereader. "If you want to get an idea what it looks like, go into an Apple store," Wolff said.  While I applaud the idea, this has been tried before and most public institutions have met with some kind of public outcry.  Of course, Bexar County, Texas has never had a public library before, so there's no legacy system for people to compare it too.  It's digital, it's crazy, but it just might work.

The 2013 International CES is in the books. There were over 3,000 exhibitors, over 20,000 new product announcements and I, along with 150,000 of my closest friends, got a chance to play with some truly awesome consumer electronics – so, when will this new crop of gear hit the market? Seeing a 110” Ultra HD TV set at CES is one thing, but seeing it in your living room is something else altogether. Ultimately, all we can do is wait. We'll also wait for quirky little gadgets like the Hapifork, which may be the silliest gadget at this year's show, to make their way to market. We'll wait to see self-driving cars on the road and it may also be a while before some of the most interesting biometric monitoring gadgets hit the market.  One thing you can be sure of, there will be dozens of new smartphones, phablets and tablets coming very soon.  It's a relentless cycle of new products that will lead us right back to CES next year.

We’re in the heart of CES 2013, and we’ve seen tons of awesome things already unveiled with many more still to come. There’s been many tablet-related things here that are really exciting. Corning’s showing off its Gorilla Glass 3, the newest in its line of damage and scratch-proof tablet screens. Gorilla Glass was already the best and strongest type of screen on the market, but Corning’s upped their game even more. This new glass has “Native Damage Resistance,” which makes it 50 percent stronger and 40 percent less prone to scratches. Speaking of tablets, RCA’s showing off a TV tablet. This 8-inch Android device packs in a dual TV tuner that picks up DTV signals and is compatible with mobile TV provider Dyle. Once you sign up for Dyle service, you have access to 130 channels from a variety of providers. This RCA tablet lets you have TV anywhere you go without any hassle. For $299, I’d love to watch TV wherever I am.

Imagine a digital camera. Now imagine that digital camera packed with WiFi and an Android operating system. You’ve got the Samsung Galaxy Camera, right? Yeah… now add in interchangeable lenses. Say what? That’s right: that’s one of the things that Polaroid is showing off this week at CES 2013: an 18.1 megapixel camera with a 3.5 inch touchscreen and Android 4.0 packed inside. It faces competition from other companies in the Android camera market, like Samsung, but Polaroid’s model has a leg up with its collection of interchangeable lenses. The biggest question remains. While this is undoubtedly a killer device, and unlike anything we’ve seen before, are photographers going to pack this with them and carry it around in addition to a smartphone? Are the interchangeable lenses going to be enough of a reason to buy? We’ll find out when consumers start answering the way they know best – with their wallets.

Of all the very cool things I'm seeing at CES this week, one of my favorites is the Huawei Ascend D2. What exactly is it? Oh, it’s not much… it’s simply the most powerful smartphone ever made. It has full 1080p resolution packed onto a five-inch screen, it’s powered by a quad-core 1.5 GHz processor and has a 13-megapixel camera. That’s a ton of power, packed in your pocket. I don’t care what it costs – I want one! Huawei is also showing off the Ascend Mate this week at CES, like Samsung's Galaxy Note II, it’s a “phablet” – half phone, half tablet. It’s got a 6.1” screen and a quad-core 1.8 GHz processor. And for you non-Android users out there, Huawei has you covered with a brand new Windows phone – the Huawei W1. It’s a Windows Phone 8 device that’s powered with a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor and might even come in four colors.

I'm here in Las Vegas at the 2013 International CES.  That's the consumer electronics show and it is one of the largest trade shows in the world.  The show kicks off today with over 20,000 new product announcements.  We're going to see bigger, thinner, higher resolution TV sets, home health care systems, hundreds of devices that George Jetson would love, drive around in smart cars, to see smart TVs that use our smart phones as remote controls.  At the CES show, no matter the product ... yep, there's a companion app for that.  I know you just bought a great flat screen for the holidays, but are you ready for Ultra HD.  These are 84" TV sets with twice the resolution of HDTV.  What will you do with a set that's two times better and 10 times more expensive than your new HDTV?  No much just yet, but Ultra  HD is a sight to behold.

The Consumer Electronics Show starts this weekend.  With 3,000 exhibitors and 150,000 attendees from over 150 countries, it's the biggest tradeshow in America and possibly, the world.  This year the story is going to be big, bigger and biggest.  We'll see new 84" ultra HD sets from Sony and LG, a remarkable 110" ultra HD set from Westinghouse and Samsung and, not to be outdone, Panasonic will be showing an unbelievable 156" Ultra HD set.  In case you're wondering, that's a 13 foot diagonal set – which is bigger than most bedroom walls.  Of course, big, thin, awesome UltraHDTV sets are not the only thing we're going to see at CES, there will be new powerful, ultrabooks and touch-screen all-in-one computers running Windows 8, Microsoft's new operating system.  The rumor mill says that, Polaroid will show a new digital camera with interchangeable lenses that has WiFi and runs Android?  Wonder what it all means?  It means awesome new tech for 2013.

Today on Shelly Palmer Digital Living: Snapchat is the mobile world’s latest craze – it’s a free messaging service that allows users to send one another photos or messages that self-destruct after a set amount of time. Pretty cool, huh? Some of Snapchat’s bolder users have used the app as a means of safer sexting. If you’re going to send naked pictures of yourself, it is best if they self-destruct, right? However, it turns out that pictures and videos sent through Snapchat aren’t as secure as they may have seemed. By connecting your phone to a computer and downloading a free program, you can save any unopened pictures or videos you have received in Snapchat. You’re then able to copy and paste these files like any other on your phone or computer, and the sender is none the wiser. While Snapchat may have seemed like a secure channel to send private messages, this just goes to show that anything that exists in cyberspace will exist forever.

A month after releasing its Surface tablet with Windows RT, Microsoft has unveiled the pricing and specs for its more powerful tablet: the Surface with Windows Pro. Available in January, Microsoft’s higher-end tablet will feature Intel Core i5 processors, 4 gigs of RAM, a full 1080p 10.6” screen, a full-size USB 3.0 port, a pen... Read More