As spring advances and travelers start to hit the road and airports – we can’t help but wonder what technology would help us make our trip better and keep us connected while on the go.  Let’s walk through some products that do just that!

Let’s stay fit while on the road

The FitBit Flex is Fitbit’s first bracelet that can be worn on the wrist. FitBits are the little stick of gum sized gadget that counts our steps and lets us track our activity on our phones or iPads.  But for guys, the Fitbit gets lost easily – the Flex is $100 and lets us count our steps and track our activity while on the go. It’s a competitor to the Nike Fuelband and is cheaper, more stylish and counts steps and tracks our sleep for a more complete picture of fitness.

Price: $99

Staying connected via 4G LTE

Image cortesty: The Verge

AT&T Unite: it’s a MiFi-like that lets us connect our computer and tablet to..except this one has a touchscreen, much like your iPhone for easy access to settings, active connections and other utilities. It lets up to 10 devices connect to AT&T’s 4G LTE network and has up to 10 hours of battery life!

Price: Free on contract.

Securing your home while away

Image courtesy: Schlage.com

Shlage Touch Screen Deadbolt. This is a deadbolt that has a touch screen – makes you enter in a 4 digit code to open the door. Using Schlage’s Nexia system  – which links the deadbolt to your home’s wifi network, you can set passcodes for visitors or your maid.  You can even set the passcodes for certain days of the week.  So, is a neighbor coming to help water your flowers or feed your cat while you’re away – you can let him/her in and give them their own code for your door!

You can even set text alerts to know when a certain person has entered your home (such as a maid or family member).

Price: $199

Capture the whole image

Image courtesy: Lytro.com

Lytro camera: this amazing camera captures the entire light field when it record an image.  That way, you can change the focus and depth of field on any photo after you’ve snapped the shot. So now you can shoot now..and change the focus whenever. It’s truly a different way of experiencing the photos you capture.

This camera looks different – it’s a rectangular cube that comes in 5 different colors – it’s made of aluminum and has an 8X optical zoom. There’s a touch screen on the back to control shutter speed, ISO and the like.

Price: $399

Featured image credit: Flickr user Kevin Dooley

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Best spring tech for travelers

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AT&T has announced a new subsidiary called AIO Wireless. Pronounced “a-o”, the new brand will sell simple plans that don’t involve a credit check or long-term contract. You can bring your own phone onto the plan (unlocked GSM phones or AT&T phones) or buy one of their mid-ranged smartphone offerings.

AIO Wireless is perfect for someone who wants to use AT&T’s robust nationwide network but do not be tied down to a 24 month contract. Of course, you’ll have to buy your own smartphone to be on the service and have a higher up-front cost, but over time this pre-paid arrangement saves a huge amount of money.

As you can see in the coverage map – AIO customers can fully use AT&T’s network.  Plans start at $35 a month and top out at $75 a month. One interesting thing: the $75 plan allows for HSPA+ data up to 7GB, which is a high number for a US pre-paid data plan.

Battling against competitors

While, AIO Wireless is AT&T’s newest entry into the competitive pre-paid market, there are plenty of existing brands vying for your business. These include Virgin Mobile, Net10 and MetroPCS and the new Simple Plans from T-Moblle.  T-Mobile has MVNO subsidiary brands too including GoSmart and others.

In fact, AIO’s plans and branding are very similar to T-Mobile’s.

Great phone options

Getting a pre-paid phone used to mean settling for a cut-rate phone. This is no longer the case. On AIO Wireless, you can choose from an iPhone 5, a Nokia Lumia 620 (disclosure: Nokia is a client of mine) and numerous Android phones.

Note, on the iPhone 5 – you won’t have access to AT&T’s LTE network as AIO Wireless’ plans only include “4G” access – which means HSPA+.

Will you go prepaid?

Now that we’re seeing fantastic options for pre-paid…would you consider it?  For my family, we’re on Straight Talk and we like it a lot.  We only pay $45 per month and we use AT&T’s network – much like AIO Wireless.

My only criticism of AIO Wireless is the limited rollout – right now the service is only available in a handful of cities including Houston and Orlando and a few others?  I’ve asked AT&T why such a limited rollout and they have yet to get back to me.

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AT&T launches pre-paid subsidiary AIO Wireless

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For some reason, smartphones have made it ok for folks to hate on others.  For some, it’s like religion – what smartphone choice they make.

Microsoft’s latest Windows Phone ad takes advantage of the rivalry between iPhone and Samsung carrying Android owners by placing itself as the alternative choice, for those who do not want to get caught up in the fight between the two sides.

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New Windows Phone ad is clever and funny!

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My family and I have an issue when it comes to TV.  We’re bored. There are so many shows out there but none of them really capture our interest. For both kids’ TV aimed at my 5 and 2 year olds and for my wife and I who want to laugh and be entertained in the evenings, we’re bored.

Then something happened.  Online TV is now really interesting with unique and original series coming to the likes of Netflix, Amazon and Hulu Plus.

In fact, Back in February, Netflix brought its customers House of Cards, an amazingly entertaining and fascinating series based in Washington  DC.  Many folks say it’s Kevin Spacey’s best work, and I would agree.

Image courtesy: ABCNews.com

So, it appears that online content providers such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu Plus are willing seek out, fund and bring to market new content, which is perfect for cord cutters.

For households like mine that have traditional TV, Netflix and Amazon Instant Video – these are exciting times.

In the latest experiment, Amazon Instant Video has put up 12 pilots for our viewing and voting pleasure. The project is called Amazon Originals and at the website you can watch pilots and then give detailed feedback to the Amazon team. According to the site, the top shows will get produced into full-fledged series, available exclusively to Amazon Instant Video customers. If you have Amazon Prime, streaming of these shows (and tons of ‘normal’ TV and movie content) will be free.

Trying on the original pilots

My family fired up our Samsung Smart TV on Sunday night in order to watch some of the Amazon Originals kids shows. We watched 4 of the pilots, including Annebots, Tumbleaf, Teeny Tiny Dogs and Positively Ozitively.  

The pilots for the kids’ shows are short – only 12 minutes long. The animation is  odd in parts – for example Tumbleaf goes between stop motion animation to hand-drawn animation.  This is because these pilots are a work in progress. They’ve been put up for the public to weigh in on these ‘beta’ shows. With the pilots as is, you can get a sense for the story line, animation style and character development.

My 5-year-old and 2-year-old watched all of the shows – and my 5-year-old worked with me on the computer to provide the feedback to Amazon. She loved Positively Ozitively and Tumbleaf. Annebots shows potential but needs more polish to the writing to make it appealing to a mass audience.  Teeny Tiny Dogs was the worst of the bunch – it was boring and not engaging for either of my daughters.

While I was without my kids, I watched Alpha House, a funny Washington, DC-focused comedy featuring John Goodman. The preview looked really good and actually I was a little let down by the pilot episode – I thought it could be sharper and crisper in the dialogue.  However, I’d likely watch the series if it was produced..and I told Amazon that.

Kudos to Amazon

I’m impressed at Amazon’s effort to bring interactive public feedback into the series selection process. This shows the potential that tech companies such as Amazon and Netflix can bring to consumers by using their existing web properties to quickly solicit feedback.  The Amazon Originals model also shows the disruption that can happen when web development methods are applied to the TV industry!

Kudos to Amazon for putting these shows up for vote!

Have you watched any of the Amazon Originals shows..what are your thoughts?

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Help shape the future of these TV series on Amazon Originals

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I’m a huge fan of wireless charging. With my Nokia Lumia 920, I’ve been able to experience wireless charging via a simple pad that sits on a desk and even better: the JBL PowerUp that charges my Lumia while playing music.

I spotted this video over the weekend, in which a person took an IKEA end table and modded it to place wireless charging inside the table..so that you can place your phone in a certain spot on the end table and voila – charges!

Check it out:

Disclaimer: Nokia is a client of mine.

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[Video] Would you mod wireless charging into your furniture?

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You likely have usernames and passwords all over the ‘net. For your email, Facebook, your online bank – everywhere!

There have been numerous security breaches online as of late. One of the more recent ones was as an online service I use daily, called Evernote. In this news story, hackers compromised Evernote servers a few weeks back. To deal with the issue, Evernote forced everyone who uses the service to reset their passwords.

This breach and all the other events underly a huge problem online, traditional usernames and passwords are insecure. Mainly, because as humans, we online citizens use the same passwords across services.

Thankfully, we do have a fantastic solution, called two-factor authentication. This solution uses two ways to make sure you are, well, you.  In most cases, this includes a traditional password and an added step – a six digit code that is delivered to you via text messaging.

Evernote plans on deploying two factor authentication later this year. If you’re a Gmail or Facebook user, they already offer two-factor authentication, which makes your account much more secure.

What we need now is for *every* service online to implement two factor authentication.  We as users should demand it – as it makes all of our data far more secure than the present situation we’re in. Without added security, our data is at risk.

If you need help in setting up two-factor authentication for your Google account, see this article.

Are you worried about your data?  Do you use a secure password?

Image credit: ToniVC

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Can we admit traditional passwords are broken now?

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I’m a corporate community manager and I enjoy using a Twitter client that helps me manage multiple Twitter accounts – my various personal and professional ones.

I used to use TweetDeck, but since the AIR app was shut down months ago, the web app just doesn’t do it for me.  Recently, I switched to HootSuite and was very happy, until recently.

You see, to enhance my Twitter usage, I use bit.ly to shorten and track clicks on links I tweet out.  Also, for images, I really like using pic.twitter.com or Flickr – because I want to control where my images go – I don’t like them going to some third-party service.

HootSuite is too proprietary

So, for sharing links on Twitter – when I go to HootSuite, they force me to use their ow.ly shortener.  I’ve tried to find a way to use my bit.ly profile, but no such option exists.  Other third-party services do, such as Tweetdeck and Buffer – so I’m not sure why HootSuite forces me to use Ow.ly.  I can shorten the link in bit.ly and then insert it into HootSuite, but that’s a lot of work.

Let’s switch gears to images.  I like to tweet images with my tweets for my corporate client..images make the tweets more engaging. However, again, HootSuite forces me to use Ow.ly for image embedding.  When I go to ‘Promote’ the tweet in my clients’ Twitter profile, the image doesn’t get expanded from ow.ly because they don’t support Twitter Cards…again..annoying.

Let me use my own Twitter image host and let me use my own URL shortener!  If HootSuites wants to make this a premium feature, so be it.

So, for now, I’m searching for a new Twitter client – what do you suggest?

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HootSuite is too restrictive, here’s why

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Recently – I got burned by my Mac.  I wrote a blog post in Word and then shipped it off to someone for some feedback.  Then, when I received the revised version, I went to open it in Word.

Word on my Mac opened the last window I had open, which included the OLD version of the blog post.  Then I pasted into WordPress and published the WRONG version of the blog post. It mattered because changes were made that needed to be reflected in the blog post.

So, how do you disable this annoying feature?

Go to Settings -> then to General.  Then, click a box – check out the illustration above.
I hope you find this useful.

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How to make your Mac not open the last document when launching an application

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I’m fortunate enough to be a regular technology contributor to Rudy Maxa’s World, the US’ most popular radio show devoted to travel.

As a part of my CES trip last week, I was on both of Rudy’s shows – the KFWB show and the nationally syndicated show.

If you want the full list of my top CES gadgets for travelers, see my post with full descriptions and images.

To hear my interview – check out the audio below.

Jason Harris on Rudy Maxa – January 13, 2013

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Jason on Radio: CES Roundup Show

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Las Vegas, NV, United States – The Consumer Electronics, the largest conference and trade show dedicated to consumer electronics and technology, just wrapped in Las Vegas. I attended the show, keeping an eye out for this years’ trends in technology.

First, about the show. This years’ CES had fewer big companies involve. Industry stalwarts such as Microsoft, Blackberry, Nokia and HP didn’t have booths. With many announcements happening outside of CES, it didn’t make sense for these huge companies to have a booth and the costs associated with it.

This was welcome news for smaller companies – who had the opportunity to show off the wares and products being developed and unveiled at CES.

Let’s take a look at some interesting devices for travelers – along with some quirkly new offerings trying to make waves in the tech world.

HAPIfork

HAPIfork - Who doesn’t love eating? It should be a joy to sit down with your friends and family to enjoy a meal, however, some eat to fast and as a result, we gain weight. HAPIfork is a buzzing utiensil that senses how fast you’re eating and buzzes to let you know so. Sync it with your smartphone or computer via a cable and it gives you intelligence on how to eat smarter and in time, lose weight.

The product counts each bite you take and tracks your average meal time, the number of bites per serving, and the number of bites per meal where you were “overspeeding,” or bringing the fork to your mouth too quickly.

Pricing is unknown at this point – along when the product will be available for sale.  Another unknown – how HAPIfork will tell you if you’re eating pizza or french fies too fast – maybe there’s a HAPIFinger product in the making

Trakdot is a kit that goes in your luggage and tells you where it is, at all times. It’s cellular enabled and reports which city your luggage is in – perfect for when your bags arrive when you don’t.

The Trakdot Luggage device costs $49.95, one-time activation is $8.99, and there’s an annual service fee of $12.99.

Otterbox – a company we’ve discussed before, make protective iPhone cases. They now have an Armor case that makes it waterproof for up to 30 minutes and able to withstand 2,000 pounds of force. Pretty cool if you want your phone to withstand the stress of travel, even extreme travel!

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Travelers’ favorite gadgets from CES 2013

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