Shelly Palmer Digital Living - Daily Radio Report

Would a pocket-sized cholesterol monitor keep you from Super Sizing your next meal? Scientists from Cornell University have created the smartCARD, which lets you check your cholesterol through your iPhone. The smartCARD – which stands for smartphone Cholesterol Application for Rapid Diagnostics – clips onto the top of your phone over the camera. It features a slot where you put in a standard test strip with a drop of your blood. After feeding the strip into the device, a built-in flash evenly lights it while your iPhone snaps a picture. A companion app then analyzes the image and provides an exact cholesterol reading. The whole process only takes about a minute. The scientists said the device is ready to market in its current form, but they want to develop it further. It currently only measures total cholesterol, but the team is working to differentiate between “good” and “bad” cholesterol. smartCARD is a great evolution in the Quantified Self movement, and will help us keep our health and wellness goals right on track.

Look out, Costco: Amazon is coming for you. Amazon it working on a new business called Pantry, which will help the company expand further into the consumer packaged goods market. Pantry’s set to launch sometime this year, and will be aimed at existing members of Amazon Prime. Launching with around 2,000 products you can normally find in grocery stores – like cleaning supplies, canned goods and beverages – Pantry will let you put as many items as you can into a set-sized box, up to a specific weight. The consumer packaged goods market is a massive industry in the U.S., and Amazon is looking to mark its territory. Online retailers have struggled to break into the market in the past, because a pack of Coke cans, for example, costs you as much as it costs Amazon to ship them to you. Encouraging you to put multiple items in a single box should help Amazon cover the shipping cost and get you what you need on the cheap.

Ever wonder what your dog is saying when he starts barking wildly in the middle of the night? If a current Indiegogo campaign is successful, you may soon have your answer. A new device called No More Woof is a canine-sized headset, which connects EEG recorders to a Raspberry Pi computer and a loudspeaker. The headset supposedly allows "ionic current flows" into your dog's brain to translate his barks into human speech. ST, the company behind No More Woof, thinks it can get a product to market within a few years. ST has made a $65 model that can supposedly distinguish between three different thoughts, including tiredness and curiosity, with more ambitious and powerful devices to come. While the company has achieved some results, it knows it still has a lot of work to do and is still far away from a massively produced product. You’ll have to wait a few more years to figure out what Fido is saying. Or, you can just guess: it’s probably just a squirrel.

You know that Facebook status you typed up, thought about, then realized wasn’t something you wanted to share with the world? Facebook has the ability to keep track of it, even though you never shared it. The code in your browser that powers Facebook knows what you typed, meaning the stuff you intentionally chose NOT to share isn’t entirely private. This type of technology isn’t unique to Facebook. Gmail automatically saves emails as you type them and stores them in your Drafts folder. Even if you close your browser, you can usually find the email you were typing. That’s very similar to what Facebook is doing – except Google is saving your messages to help you, while Facebook is doing it with no benefit to you. Facebook calls these unposted thoughts “self-censorship” and feels the interaction is covered by its privacy policy. Facebook isn’t currently collecting your self-censored posts – though it very easily could – so the next time you even think to type something into Facebook, think again.

Ultra HD TVs are breathtaking to look at, but there’s a major roadblock when it comes to marketing them to a widespread audience: a lack of content. Amazon is looking to change all that, though, as the site is now shooting all of its original TV shows in 4K. Amazon kicked off its original content last year with shows like Alpha House and Betas, and the company plans to release 11 pilot episodes in the next few months. All shows green-lit for a full series will be shot in 4K, as will pilots for shows Amazon is testing. Neither Amazon Instant Video nor LOVEFiLM, the company’s sister streaming service throughout parts of Europe, currently support 4K streaming. Amazon may switch over to support 4K streaming soon, but the move may also be simply to future-proof its content. Amazon knows its feet are to the fire when it comes to 4K, because Netflix – which also kicked original content into high gear in 2013 – is currently testing 4K video streams.

Ever wonder what your neighbors are tweeting about? A new feature that Twitter is testing with some iPhone users may help answer that question. If you let Twitter see and use your location, you may have access to a new timeline called ‘Nearby,’ which shows recent nearby tweets, whether you follow the tweeter or not. ‘Nearby’ shows a map with a blue dot marking your location, along with a timeline of recent nearby tweets that pair with icons on the map noting their locations. Tapping an icon pulls that tweet to the front of the screen. Twitter is always looking for new ways to improve discovery, and ‘Nearby’ looks like a new way to do so – while also keeping tabs on where you are. Twitter began letting you add your location to your tweets in 2010, but the feature disabled by default and must be manually turned on. If you want no part of this, disable location sharing in the “Location Services” tab under the “Privacy” section of the phone’s Settings.

The 2014 International CES kicks off next week. With more than 3,200 exhibitors launching and showcasing thousands of products, it’s one of the biggest trade shows in the world, and this year’s show will be better than ever. We’ll see the physical and digital worlds blended like never before, thanks to gadgets like the Galaxy Gear and Google Glass. But what are those gadgets without content? Content is king at CES this year, and we’re going to see exactly what the future holds for streaming content. Some of what we saw last year is set to be even bigger this year; between driverless cars, consumer health care and robots, we got a first-hand glimpse at the future of the industry last year. Next week, we’ll see it in full e ffect. To keep up in the world of tech, you must be diligent. You need to think about what new tech really means and how it will change consumer behavior. That’s what CES is about. I’ll see you there.

Facebook is a great way to stay in contact with family and friends, and to kill some time by playing a few levels in Candy Crush. But if you’ve come to the point where Facebook is more of a burden than a blessing, permanently deleting your account is pretty easy. Here’s how to get rid of it for good. Search for “delete account” in the Facebook Help Center, which is at Facebook.com/Help. Facebook will warn you that once your profile is deleted, the information you had on there will be inaccessible. Click “Delete My Account.” You’re then asked if you’re really sure you want to get rid of your account. Click yes, enter your password, complete the “captcha” code and click okay. An e-mail from Facebook will confirm that you’ve successfully deleted your account. If you have a sudden change of heart, don’t worry: Facebook gives you a two week grace period. Log back into your account and click the “Cancel Deletion” button.

Now that our calendars read 2014, it’s a good time to look back at the world of tech from 2013. Last year was all about wearables – from Google Glass to Galaxy Gear and beyond, we’re now interacting with technology in more ways than ever. That’s also led to a massive rise in the Quantified Self movement, as we now use technology every day to track what we eat, how well we sleep and how much we exercise. 2013 was a big year for screens, too, with smartphones getting bigger – like the awesomely massive Galaxy Note 3 – and tablets getting smaller and better – like the iPad mini with Retina display. It was also the biggest year for new video games in nearly a decade; Microsoft and Sony launched systems to compete with Nintendo’s Wii U, and companies like OUYA and Steam gave us consoles for our living rooms, too. With CES right around the corner, we’re about to get a big dose of what to look forward to this year. Buckle up.

It’s never too soon for your child to play with a tablet, and if you think they’re ready for a tablet of their very own, here are some of my favorites available today. LeapFrog’s LeapPad 2 costs less than a hundred bucks and works with all cartridge apps and games from the first LeapPad, giving you access to a massive catalog. LeapFrog also makes the LeapPad Ultra, which is a little more expensive but worth it for older kids, because the Ultra feels like more of a “real tablet” thanks to media apps and other features. The Tabeo e2 from Toys R Us is a great Android device designed for kids aged 6 to 11. The e2 features parental controls and educational applications to make sure you know exactly what your kids are doing with the device. You can manage which apps are installed and limit usage by time or day. All of these tablets are great – if you match the features and benefits to the intended user, you can’t go wrong.

Not sure whether to buy Apple’s new iPad mini or Amazon’s Kindle Fire HDX? Both are awesome, but here’s why you should go with the Fire. Amazon’s newest 7” tablet starts at $229, a whopping $170 less than the cheapest iPad mini. The Fire is built around an awesome first-party media experience with access to plenty of great third-party apps. From Kindle to Instant Video to Amazon mp3, Amazon’s media is built into the tablet’s core experience. Tech newbie? No problem! The Kindle Fire has a built-in feature called Mayday that connects you with an Amazon tech-support employee through the tablet to help you navigate or troubleshoot any problem you have. The Fire is also great if you have young kids: Kindle FreeTime lets you create a personalized experience for them, and also lets you limit how much time they spend watching videos or playing games in a day. Apple’s new iPad mini may be great, but the Kindle Fire packs awesome features and specs at nearly half the price. Go with the Fire.

Alcohoot, a smartphone-powered breathalyzer, is now available to help you gauge your BAC and slow you down before things get out of hand. Alcohoot, shipping now for $119, is more expensive than most other smartphone breathalyzers on the market – the Breathometer, for example, only costs $49. But Alcohoot features "police-grade accuracy" and plugs directly into your handset's headphone jack, making it more accurate and more convenient than most competing products. To preserve the device’s accuracy, Alcohoot encourages you to keep up with the required annual calibration; each year, you’ll get a new device along with a shipping label to return your current one for a $30 fee. Alcohoot works on both Android and iOS, and its bundled companion app shows restaurants within walking distance, a link to Uber and even a tool to track your consumption throughout the night. So the next time you go out to dinner and have a few drinks, remember to pull out your smartphone before getting behind the wheel.

Two tablets stand out above the rest of the mid-sized mobile market: Apple’s iPad mini with Retina display and Amazon’s Kindle Fire HDX. Both are awesome, but you need to pick the right device for you. Here’s why you choose the iPad mini. If you’re invested in Apple’s ecosystem, no other device will make you happy. iPad gives you access to the best App Store on the planet – from productivity to media to games, the App Store is king of the mobile realm, and no one else is close. That means that if you want to play all the best games that the mobile world has to offer, no other tablet on the market will do. The iPad mini is also incredibly intuitive to use. It features the same comfortable experience you’ve come to know and love from Apple, and even if you’re new to iOS, you’ll feel right at home. When it comes to mobile apps, Apple is still king, and the iPad mini is the device you’ll want to buy.

Instagram recently unveiled Instagram Direct: a new feature that lets you privately share your photos and videos in chat-like messages. But what happens if you sent someone the wrong photo… or a photo to the wrong person? Don’t worry – there’s a way to take back that direct photo message you didn’t mean to send, but you have to think fast. If you want to take back a photo or video you sent someone, click the ellipses next to the box where you can add comments. That tap pops up a prompt to take back the message. Click “Delete this post,” then click “Delete” again to confirm you want to get rid of it. After doing this, the photo will disappear from your outbox, but it will still stay on your phone. You can take back a message as long as the recipient hasn’t opened it yet. If you see a green check mark on the photo, that means they saw the message – and it’s too late to do anything.

It’s Christmas Eve, which means many of us are scrambling for last-minute holiday gift ideas for our family and friends. If you’re stuck in this position, you’re either a major procrastinator or just not sure what to buy for that last person on your list. If you’re like me, a lot of your friends are heavy into technology, but already have everything they could ever want. So what are you supposed to buy them? Think digital. They may already have the latest tablet or smartphone, but it’s always a great idea to give them content for that portable media player. Gifts like Netflix or Hulu Plus subscriptions, or even a year of Amazon Prime give them all the video content they could ever ask for. Even if they already subscribe to these services, these gifts will save them money down the road as they can add your gift onto their current plan. For the techie who has everything, it’s a matter of helping them plan for the future.