The shower curtain of the future?

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Has tech totally invaded our lives? You only need to consider two new items to answer that question: One is a shower curtain that allows you to play music and answer phone calls while you’re sudsing up. Next is a pair of snow gloves that let you make phone calls and listen to your favorite tunes without taking a break from clearing your front walk of last night’s snowfall.

High-tech in the shower

The Huffington Post recently took a look at both products. The first, the $39.95 iPad Musical Shower curtain from retailer Hammacher Schlemmer, lets telemarketers call you even when you’re soaping up in the shower. Yes, the device enables you to connect an iPad or smartphone to the curtain. This way, you can hear your favorite music and take that all important call from your friendly telemarketer while in the middle of a hot shower.

Snow removal, the high-tech way

Shoveling snow has never been a particularly high-tech task. Until now. The $120 Snow Gloves from Beartek let you listen to music, make calls and receive them. That’s because the gloves connect wirelessly to your smartphone. You can chat up your spouse without taking a break from your shoveling work.

Do we need them?

These devices, clever as they are, beg a question: Are we too preoccupied with technology today? Do we really need shower curtains that let us talk on the phone while showering? Can’t we shovel snow without taking a break to chat with someone on our smartphones? These are big questions, ones to consider while calling into the office while you’re rinsing shampoo out of your hair.

Can Samsung’s phones become the choice of business execs?

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No one would argue that Samsung is not a dominant force in the smartphone and tablet industries. Consumers are flocking to these devices. But the word “consumers” is the key one in that last sentence. Despite Samsung’s achievements in selling tablets and smartphones to consumers, it still has a lot of work to do to entice business leaders to consider its phones.

Big business

A recent story in the Wall Street Journal took a look at Samsung’s successes in the consumer world and its struggles in attracting business leaders to offer their smartphones a try. The Wall Street Journal says that, if Samsung wants to see its big growth spurt continue, it will need to change this. The company will have to convince the business world that its smartphones are perfect for both executives and employees.

Security problems

But to accomplish this, Samsung must first boost its mobile security measures, according to the Wall Street Journal. Samsung’s mobile security system, known as Knox, hasn’t earned rave reviews from the business community yet. The system has seen delays and operating issues. This, understandably, has made business execs wary.

Beating BlackBerry

If Samsung can resolve its security issues, the company ought to have a shot at taking control of the business smartphone market from the struggling BlackBerry, the Wall Street Journal reported. BlackBerry’s security features have long been considered the gold standard among business executives, the Journal story says. But as BlackBerry’s troubles continue, it has lost a great deal of its executive-level business. This, according to the Journal, leaves an opening for Samsung.

Healthcare.gov not first government tech failure

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The federal government’s long-awaited Healthcare.gov website was a disaster, with consumers across the country complaining that they couldn’t log onto the site. Is anyone surprised by this? You shouldn’t be. The us govenment has a long history of being inept when it comes to introducing new technology.

A dismal history

The Los Angeles Times recently ran a story displaying some of the problems the federal government has had when it comes to debuting technology. The issues with Healthcare.gov are well-known. But a lesser known, though still embarrassing, disaster came last year when the government’s General Services Administration released its SAM.gov website. This website was designed to combine nine different contracting databases into one website. Not only was SAM.gov’s launch two months behind schedule, the site didn’t work properly once it finally went live. The General Services Administration had to take the site down to fix its many problems.

No surprise

As the examples of SAM.gov and Healthcare.gov show, tech failures are the rule for the government rather then an exception. As the Times story shows, government websites often fail. Government officials find it difficult to modernize outdated systems. And, perhaps most aggravating of all, military systems that cost millions of dollars to develop are then never used.

Shocking numbers

The Times story says that website problems happen in the private sector, also. Government failures, though, seem more egregious. As reported by the story, the federal government will spend more than $76 billion this year on information technology. But a federal report released earlier this year found that 700 government tech projects were experiencing problems. Those tech projects account for a combined $12.5 billion.

Why is the U.S. falling behind in technology?

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Want something to feel depressed about? What about the recent column in InformationWeek from commentator Kevin Coleman? In it, Coleman writes that the United States is slowly falling from its perch as the globe’s technology leader. The United States is becoming a tech laggard, according to Coleman’s remarks.

The problem

Coleman comments that research-and-development, science and technology investments in the United States are not keeping pace with those by other nations. At the same time, the United States faces an ever-growing threat from smarter and more persistent cyber thieves. These two factors are chipping away at the United States’ long held dominance of the technology world.

A change

There was a time, not long ago, when all countries looked up to the United States when it came to technology and innovation, Coleman writes. And it’s still true that the United States spends more on technology and research-and-development than any other country. Even so the gap between the United States and its closest competitors is shrinking, Coleman writes.

A powerful China

As Coleman writes, the BBC has predicted that by the end of this year China will rank in front of the United States in terms of scientific output. China has recently passed Japan to rank second in the world in this category. Coleman’s column also points to a U.S. Intelligence Community report stating that the United States’ dominance in technology is slowly but steadily fading. What can the United States do to change this trend? As Coleman writes, investing more in high-tech education could help. Only by doing this, will the United States produce the next generation of great scientists and researchers.

The real truth about new tech’s impact

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How excited do we get when a new technology emerges? Very. We immediately think of how this new tech is going to improve our lives, change society and eliminate most of the problems facing the planet. The problem? The vast majority of new technology doesn’t ever do these things. Yes, Pinterest can be fun, but it won’t change the whole world.

Stop the hype

The website Gizmodo recently took a funny look at new technology and its impact, running a chart on its website listing all the possibilities that come with a new technology. Can it make us geniuses? Will make us more empathetic? Could it bring world peace? Will it make us all morons? The answer to all of these questions? According to Gizmodo, it’s “no”.

No big changes

As Gizmodo says, new technologies can have the potential to change the lives of individuals…maybe. But they will not change the entire world, for better or worse. And that is probably a good thing. Do we really want the world to change each time a new technology debuts?

One thing never changes

Of course, there’s something that never changes. As the Gizmodo story says, teens will use new technology to find trouble and aggravate their parents. Just think, after all, of how much trouble teens have gotten into by using Facebook and Twitter. That, Gizmodo says, won’t ever change, regardless of what new technology appears.

Why you shouldn’t invest in a Chromebook

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Does investing your hard earned money into a new Chromebook make sense? Larry Seltzer, a writer with ZDNet, argues that it doesn’t. Seltzer’s main concern with the Chromebook? The device just doesn’t do enough.

Struggling

Sales on Chromebooks have been quite sluggish so far. Seltzer writes that the big problem with Chromebooks — and why consumers haven’t embraced them — is that they simply don’t do enough to warrant the expense. As Seltzer writes, Chromebooks fail to do what most other laptops can. This is something that makes Chromebooks a poor buy.

Laptop/tablet hybrids

Seltzer writes that hybrids are a better buy for consumers. These combinations of tablets and laptops — think Microsoft’s Surface line of products — provides consumers more power for the money. Seltzer writes that there just isn’t anything that consumers can do with a Chromebook that they can’t already do on a Windows laptop that is running Chrome. The question then is, why would anyone want to spend money on a Chromebook?

Just a browser

What can a Chromebook do? According to Seltzer, all they do is run the Chrome Web browser. Sadly for Google, Windows laptop computers already do this. So do MacBooks. And these other devices also perform several other tasks that Chromebooks can’t. Seltzer’s advice then is simple: Don’t waste your dollars by buying a Chromebook.

How Kickstarter is helping to promote private space flight

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Crowdfunding has helped inventors invent, filmmakers bring their visions to the screen and artists create their own comic books. Yet can this technology-driven method of funding provide a boost to the private space race? A recent story by PCMag has a surprising answer: Yes.

Kickstarter in space?

The PCMag story details the efforts of Michael Laine, former NASA engineer and the founder of LiftPort. He’s trying to develop a new, rocket-less way to get to the moon, what he calls a lunar elevator. Will it work? Who knows? But Laine has attracted the eye of investors by way of a Kickstarter campaign. His goal for the campaign had been to raise $8,000. Instead, it produced a remarkable $110,000.

An opening

NASA created an opportunity for private entrepreneurs to get into the space race after it killed its shuttle program and put a temporary hold on its own space plans. Entrepreneurs are now hitting the marketplace with their own plans to explore the cosmos. And, as the PCMag story says, crowdfunding is increasingly supplying the seed funds for these endeavors.

Space-age success

Planetary Resources has turned to crowdfunding, too, using its own Kickstarter campaign with the goal of raising $1 million to produce a low-Earth orbit telescope. As PCMag reports, this campaign was successful, too. The company in just 32 days received $1.5 million from 17,600 supporters.

A long history of console wars

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Think this holiday season is the first time that big-name video-game makers have fought for the dollars and hearts of buyers? Not a chance. Yes, Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4 are set to battle each other this holiday season. But, as a recent story by PCMag.com shows, video-game console wars are nothing uncommon. Here’s a brief history of the battles between video-game companies.

Atari vs. nobody?

The PCMag story traces the history of console wars to the late 1970s. This is when the Atari 2600 exploded on the scene. The console didn’t feature nifty graphics. And its games tended to be simple point-and-shoot affairs. But the console dominated its time period. Its main challenger was probably Mattel’s Intellivision. But the Intellivision, despite better graphics, never really mounted a serious challenge to the 2600’s dominance.

Sega takes on Nintendo

From 1989 through 1994, Nintendo was the number-one video-game maker in the us with its NES and Super Nintendo. The company, though, had a honest challenger with the Sega Genesis, which used the famed attack ad “Genesis does what Nintendon’t” to take on its rival. Sega never did catch Nintendo, but it sure made an interesting challenger.

The modern age

The Microsoft vs. Sony battles started much earlier than now, hitting a high point from 2005 through 2012. Sony’s PS3 introduced Blu-ray but came in at an amazingly high price point of $599. Microsoft took on the Sony with its Xbox 360, which it introduced just four years after the original Xbox. The big debate during this period? Which of the consoles was more powerful? Which had the better online network? And which one broke more frequently? Nintendo entered this fight with its first Wii, a device that hardcore gamers sneered at but which families and casual gamers loved, sending it to huge success.

That executive on LinkedIn might not be real

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Assume your staff can detect the most devious types of spear phishing, when cyber criminals claim to be a legitimate business person in an attempt to gain access to your company’s computer network? If you aren’t sure, you need to train your employees to identify these attacks. As a recent story by PCWorld shows, phishing attacks remain a serious threat to businesses. And today’s cyber criminals are utilizing social networks like LinkedIn to stage their attacks.

Sneaky attack

The PCWorld story highlighted a phishing incident that Websense Security Labs uses as an example: In this attack, a cybercriminal made a fake LinkedIn profile of a woman named Jessica Reinsch, who was said to be an employee of a real dating Web site. Jessica Reinsch, though, does not exist. And the criminal behind the fake ID used it to acquire important information from a number of businesses. The concern? That the criminal could have used this data to break into business’ networks.

Not prepared

It’s not surprising that this criminal was able to gather a great deal of information. The PCWorld story cites a survey from ThreatSim. The survey learned that nearly 60 percent of 300 IT executives, administrators and professionals in U.S. organizations considered phishing to be only a minimal threat. This means that too many businesses don’t take any time to train their workers to spot and repel phishing attacks.

Attacks

The reality, though, is phishing is an extremely real threat. The PCWorld story cited the same survey that stated that more than one in four respondents reported a phishing attack that did lead to a material breach in their company networks during the last year. The message? Business owners need to take phishing seriously. And they also need to take real measures to make sure that their employees don’t fall for these scams.

Surface 2 no game changer

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Is the Microsoft Surface 2 a tablet worth buying? Not based on a recent review by PCWorld writer Jon Phillips. The reviewer claims that Microsoft’s second attempt to create an entry-level Surface tablet is far too cautious to give the struggling tablet relevance.

Too much competition?

Surface tablet sales have long been sluggish. It’s no mystery why. The tablet market is crowded. Consumers can choose from cutting edge products from companies such as Google, Microsoft and Samsung. The Surface 2 from Microsoft doesn’t jump out among this competition.

Missed Opportunity

This, Phillips writes, is Microsoft’s fault. The company really should have produced bigger changes for its Surface tablet. Instead, Microsoft settled for making relatively minor tweaks. The changes do improve the tablet. Nonetheless they don’t improve it enough to really make it a top option in the crowded tablet marketplace.

Tweaks

The main benefit of the Surface 2, when compared to its immediate predecessor, is increased speed. The tablet works adequately and is fast. It has a bright, vivid display. But, as Phillips writes, so do other tablets in the marketplace. And these other tablets also feature more apps. Surface 2 users have to shop for apps in the Windows store, and the pickings there are simply to slim. Until this changes, Phillips writes, don’t expect consumers to reach for the Surface 2.