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February 2012 Newsletter

1. A January 22, 2012 New York Times article, at the link below, offers a fascinating view of why the manufacture of many products, particularly electronics, has moved from the U.S. to overseas locations. The article centers on the engineering, production and manufacture of the Apple iPhone but provides insight into other companies, with specific examples, that produce supporting components like chipsets, glass screens, processors, etc. used throughout numerous industries. The article offers material to support discussions of not only overseas manufacturing but the shift in the size of the American middle class, unemployment issues, the global economy, and many other subjects. This is a rather lengthy article, but I strongly recommend that you take the time to read it as it is full of information that you can use in future conversations concerning not only technology but numerous other subjects of current interest. Here is the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?_r=1&emc=eta1

2. Over the last ten years, Apple has introduced products and services that have resulted in major changes and impact to several industries, with PC’s, tablet computers, mobile telephones, consumer electronic and music among them. Tim Bajarin, the President of Creative Strategies, Inc., a technology industry analysis and marketing intelligence firm in the Silicon Valley, has written an interesting article projecting the impact of Apple on major industries over the next three to five years. His article was published TIME Techland, an online publication about technology. He proposes that the industries that will be most impacted are Television, Automobile, Watches and Consumer Appliances. You will find the article a very interesting read. It is at this link:

http://techland.time.com/2012/01/02/four-industries-apple-can-disrupt-in-the-near-future/

3. Some mobile phone owners have a mobile telephone only for emergency use and not for everyday communications. Many of these phones are kept in a car glove compartment or a drawer at home to be used only in an emergency. They are rarely turned on or even recharged. Will your emergency cell phone work if you need it? Now a company, Xpal Power, has a new phone called “SpareOne” that is specifically designed to provide such emergency service. SpareOne use a single AA battery, Alkaline, NiMH or Lithium. If the phone is equipped with a lithium battery and stored for emergency use, it will maintain its charge for 15 years. If the SpareOne is used it should provide about ten hours of talk time with a new lithium battery. When used in an emergency, the SpareOne will provide you with voice communication while transmitting your caller ID and your GPS computed position so emergency responders can locate you. The SpareOne was announced at the International Consumer Electronics Show in January 2012, will be available in the first quarter of the year and will cost $49.99. Read about it and where to get one in this engadget article:

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/09/spareone-15-year-cellphone/

4. During the week after Christmas, users of smartphones and tablet computers downloaded 1.2 billion applications (apps) to run on their devices - a record number. Apps are the software programs that allow smartphones and tablets to perform all of the functions that these devices can support. Almost all apps can be downloaded to the device wirelessly and many are free or cost only a dollar or two. There are about a million different apps available today (Apple alone has more than 500,000) and more are available each day. On Christmas day alone, 6.8 million new smartphones and tablet computers were activated and 242 million apps were downloaded. Read about it in this San Francisco Chronicle article:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/03/BU0G1MKAL0.DTL&sk=d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e

5. Now technology is turning to something we all have but rarely think about - our home thermostat - a tool that has had little to no technical update in decades. A former senior Apple engineer, Tony Faddel, has formed a new Silicon Valley start-up, Nest Labs, and their first product is a completely new, high tech, home thermostat called Nest. The Nest will learn about activity in your home, and combined with your preferences, will heat and cool your home while saving you money on energy costs yet keeping you comfortable. Nest also connects to the Internet, wirelessly, so you can control it while away through the Nest website or a free app running on your smartphone or tablet computer. You can easily install the nest yourself with the tools and instructions that come with it, or have the Geek Squad from Best Buy install it for you. Read all about the Nest in this Washington Post article.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ipod-of-thermostats-saves-energy-with-pizzazz-rich-jaroslovsky/2012/01/04/gIQAIep7eP_story.html?wpisrc=emailtoafriend

6. Technology in all forms continues to march forward. 31% of all US warplanes are now unmanned, or drone, vehicles according to a Wired article. The military prefers to call most of these vehicles “remotely piloted” rather than “drone” as most of them are in fact controlled by a human pilot who is not onboard the vehicle. The military now has 7,500 drones but we hear about only a very small number of the most sophisticated and most expensive. Many military drones are very small, like the 5,346 intelligence gathering drones operated by the Army. Read more about these vehicles here: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/01/drone-report/

7. Laptop and desktop computer sales have slowed over the last year with the growth in sales of tablet computers, smartphones and a thin, light laptop introduced by Apple. The January International Consumer Electronics Show saw the introduction of numerous new devices called “Ultrabooks”. An Ultrabook is a very thin, very light laptop computer built with a new low-power chip and solid-state storage that replaces the bulkier mechanical hard drive. Some of these devices have 13 inch screens, are only 0.59 of an inch thick and weigh less than three pounds. An article at the link below reports that some predict more than 70 Ultrabooks to be introduced in 2012 with products from all of the major PC manufacturers. Keep your eye on this market as the entire PC industry is betting that Ultrabooks will be the next hot item. Here is the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/16/technology/ultrabooks-embraced-by-pc-makers-at-ces.html?emc=eta1

8. You know the scenario: You’re fiddling with your cellphone or smartphone near a sink, the toilet, or a swimming pool when you lose your grip and your phone is now worthless. The digital newspaper, The Daily, published an article about a company named Liquipel that will completely waterproof your phone, inside and out, with an invisible coating that is a thousand times thinner than a human hair. The cost is far less than cost of replacing your smartphone. Be sure to watch the video in the article at this link: http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/01/12/011212-tech-video-liquipel/