No towel? No problem!

As I'm researching the web trying to find the latest and most innovative technological advancements, I find myself laughing out loud at most of the inventions when I should be (at some point) talking about more "serious" issues like whether or not investing in an iPhone 6 or 6+ is a smart idea. However, because I can't help but share my findings, something "serious" will have to wait for another blog post down the road. (It will happen, I promise ;) ). Until then, in this post, I will be talking about the several methods to dry yourself off after getting out of the; rain, shower, or pool. 

First method: The standard towel dry. 

Second Method: Air dry 

Third Method: Dyson Body Dryer

Dyson is known for it's blade-less fans but have they gone too far as to create a device that allegedly can dry your body in 30 seconds or less? What you are supposed to do is stand on this scale looking device after the shower and it will then dry you using compressed, ionized air in a cylindrical tunnel of air motion. The Dyson Body Dryer can withstand up to 325 lbs (170 kg) and you are provided with the option for cold or hot air. 

Dyson's motive behind the Body Dryer is to reduce the amount of bacteria we place back on our bodies thus eliminating the body towel in its' entirety and replacing it with a device that performs the same duty. So i wonder...

Well, according to an article in Readers Digest,

 "Do bath towels really ever get dirty? Most towels are made of 100 percent cotton. While it’s true that after a shower you have eliminated most of the germs and dirt from your skin, the process of rubbing a towel against the body rubs off dead skin that sticks to the moist towel. Towels become an ideal nesting place for the mildew endemic to humid bathrooms."

So perhaps Dyson is doing us a favor, but I am still skeptical. 

What do you think? I want to be interactive with this post. What are your thoughts, questions, concerns, pros and cons, etc. Let's talk!

Never lose your car keys again....or even your child

I'm going to ask you a rhetorical question, (so clutch your seats and bite your tongue because I already know the answer) but have you ever lost your keys, phone, TV remote, or wallet? Yes, yes you have. It's as if there really is a monster living behind the couch that collects these items when you aren't looking. 

As I was reading the article that our helpful professor uploaded for us regarding "How to do Research" I broadened my search tactics further than I was before to discover a new and interesting topic to write about this week. (If you haven't noticed already, I am writing about technology. Although my thesis may not have been entirely clear at the beginning, allow me to remind you as to what I am offering readers with my specific blog topic. I am introducing to you new technology that I find creative, helpful, hindering, and useful to the current world we live in. ) As I was using twitter as means to discover a new technological creation, I came upon...drum roll please.. the TILE.

YES

NO

According to the credible TILE website itself:

Tile™ is a small device that you can attach to items that you may misplace and using the Tile iOS application, find.

 Tile™ locations are updated using the Bluetooth radio connection between the Tile and the Tile App running on your iOS device. The Tile App "discovers" the Tile using the Bluetooth signal and then uses the services of the iOS device to update the location information for that Tile. The Tile needs to be within the Bluetooth range of approximately 100 feet of the iOS device to be discovered.

 Although this is not the first concept discovered to track your belongings, it does seem like something that will work better than others created such as;  Fetch My Keys, Just Whistle, and Whistle Key Finder. The only reason why I can say that, and be considered a somewhat credible source, is because I have had one and I went from 

TO

which even all the self medication tactics in this world could not cure. Simply, you whistle and the device you attached to your keys, phone, or even cat (please click if you want to "lol"), and an alarm would sound and you could locate said device (or walking fur ball). 

Now that I have completed my "squirrel" moment, let us dive more into TILE. TILE is a device and app found, only at this time, on the iOs network. After purchasing your tiles and setting them up on your chosen devices you can track hidden or lost items from a 50-150 foot range. What happens if you go out of your range you ask? Easy. All the TILE users around you will be notified from their own apps that a missing or lost item is near them and they can then notify the owner via the TILE network. If you've ever had your bike stolen, or maybe even your car, you can simply track your lost dvices using the TILE app and your lost belongings can be discovered and back in your arms again. 

Can we put them on children? Yes we can. 

Tile uses Bluetooth technology which the National Institute of Health has studied. There is a lot of information on the internet, but you can start with this page from the NIH: 

If losing your things is a regular thing then perhaps you should consider investing in some TILES yourself. They are reasonably priced at $20.00 + Free Shipping  online and are available now!

Would you find a tracker device such as this one useful or is a gadget for a gadget too much? Let me know what you think in the comments section below!

Introducing Jibo, bound to be my new best friend in the future.

JIBO

Bound to be my new best friend in the future, hands down (heh, pun intended... you will see). I was browsing the book of faces one day and I came across an interesting informative video about the latest home robot to be created. His name, is Jibo. 

Jibo has the ability to:

SEE

HEAR

HELP

LEARN

RELATE

SPEAK

Jibo is bound to be the best home robot thus created (with the exception of Pat from Smart house (a Disney movie for this who do not know)). CLICK ME PLEASE.

This is not going to be like my normal posts where I provide my biased feelings on a certain product and wonder wether technologies such as this will take over the world or not. I would like to inform you of a specific product that has attracted me since the moment I laid eyes on it. 

Cynthia Breazeal is the creator of Jibo and in lamen terms has summarized the purpose of Jibo.

"As a platform for content – Jibo, the world’s first social robot for the family — enters the home bringing high touch engagement to high tech. It’s not just about what it does, it is how it does it.  It plays a role for you, it’s not simply a tool. This enables new use cases and new opportunities for how we experience and incorporate technology in our life — even for apps that we might use on other devices"

Jibo will be far more than just a standard two dimensional device that sits in the home, Jibo will be not only the device that sits on your table at home but he will engage with you. Forget counting calories, Jibo will act as a personal health coach informing you of various nutritional values of the foods you eat. Tired of activating self timers, eliminating one person from the photo to TAKE the photo, using tripods? Jibo is your new photographer. He also serves as an interactive learning tool and not just a computer game to aid in the development of younger children (although that is not his only target in helping learn materials).

Yahoo says that "JIBO'S potential extends far beyond engaging in casual conversation and completing daily tasks".

WIRED says that "This friendly robot could one day be your family's personal assistant"

MASHABLE says that "JIBO isn't an appliance, it's a companion, one that can interact and react with its human owners in ways that delight".

Technological advancement has really done itself this time and I cannot wait until the day that I bring home my own JIBO, because let's face it, he's just so damn cute. 

Robo Stir

If your own two hands aren't enough to stir that pot of boiling noodles, chicken broth, pull apart that chicken then search no more! Finally, a device that will help make some of these tasks a little bit easier has been introduced to the market. His name, is Robo Stir.

  "...In the simplest of terms the RoboStir stirs your food for you and without any assistance...". 

I discovered this crafty invention whilst sitting in bed polluting my brain with infomercials in the middle of the night because my Advil PM had not yet become effective. To some, this technological invention provides great use and can actually be utilized but to most it is a useless tool that actually creates more hardship than rewards. 

Here is an unpleasant review I stumbled upon about a consumer that was less than pleased...

"I don't even give these things "1" star but there is no way to rate it a "0" star. They are cheaply made and do not work! I've been cooking for 47 years so don't tell me I don't know how to work it. I have almost every kitchen gadget imaginable. I would have gotten better use of my $72.00 if I had rolled it up and used the money as a match to light my grill."

My question for products such as these is have we gone too far with our technological advancement power to where we are now inventing gadgets that may appear to make our lives easier, yet hinder us more often than not? For thanksgiving my mother was able to cook the green beans, potatoes, corn casserole, turkey, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, rolls, and mix her gravy alone without the help of such a device that it's claim to fame is to not burn your savory sauce. 

This mom is able to be a #badass and even add two kids to her recipe (not to be mistaken for a Hansel and Gretel reference). Instead of using innovative products we should be teaching ourselves how to manage the ever so dauntless task of becoming to be domesticated because let's face it, there's only so many ways to spice up those ramen noodles and cook those TV dinners. 
I can agree that this product may prove to save some time but as far as the reviews go, I would not be interested in investing one single cent for this Robo Stir. I believe that if I haven't mastered multi-tasking by my age then maybe I just suck at life. 

Time travelers; table for two

Let us take our minds to a place that we were once familiar with but probably don’t recall much about. Our childhood. I’m sure I can speak for most of us undergrads because odds are we are around the same age (give or take a few years). Can any one of you remember when there was a smoking section in restaurants or when they used to manually record a waiting list on paper and call your name when it was time to be seated? It all must seem so ancient to many of is when in fact it wasn’t too long ago that there things were actually protocol for the food industry. How about when the only form of entertainment for us kids was a blue, yellow, green, and red crayon (purple, black, and brown if you were lucky enough) and a dual sided sheet of paper with several activities on it. As time passes, we must learn to advance and grow in the technology industry with relation to the service industry. Each advancement seems promising and rewarding but with every pro, there is a con. 

I work in the industry so I am able to give my personal observation and opinion of the use of technology in a restaurant. As I said before, there will be pros and cons. For example, these days you can make online reservations and can create a well organized reservation and waiting list. (Although my restaurant does not utilize the portable buzzers like Panera Bread, those are pretty neat too,  in my opinion). With creating these systems in restaurants, we are able to seat guests more timely and it actually seems like we have our sh*t together (on the busiest of nights). Another thing I have noticed with regards to technology in the industry is the customers use to keep their kids quiet. !@$*)!@ WHAT? If i even knew what a tablet was as a youngin’ i’m pretty sure my parents would not even allow me to take it past the front door, much less out to dinner. I have had the honor of observing the absolute ridiculousness of children playing on their iPads at dinner. The only thing I can gather from this is that in order for the parents to keep their children from whining and creating an embarrassing scene while waiting for their meals is to shove a 7” interactive screen in their faces. Which brings me to my next point on the new devices that restaurant chains like Chilis and Applebees have adopted. Nowadays when you are seated you are (freely and against your will) given a tablet device which allows you to do multiple things such as play games, order foods, pay your bill, and call your waiter/waitress. I am really trying not to knock these great inventions but I wonder if it is taking away from the whole dining experience. We are wasting so many of our 99 hard earned american cents (in most places that is the standard price for unlimited games) to distract us from the social experience of dining away from home. I ask myself “what more could they think of to put in our faces” but if I speak too soon they will probably come up with something new before I could finish my sentence. 

I promise you I am not a scrooge against technology seeing as how i own a smart phone, smart tv, smart car (not the actual smart car but a car that is smart), and I have donated plenty of my 99 american cents to the empty stomach distraction foundation. I’m simply making obvious observations on how technology has grown and how it is shaping our social lives.

What are you looking at?

Take a moment to yourself. Shut off your brain, close your eyes, take your headphones out of your ears and for the sake of your technologically inclined brain, put your phone down. I know, pretty demanding right?

Heh, pardon me, I'm way kinder than that. Allow me to back up for a second to explain to you why it is that I have seemingly come off as a controlling asshole. Call me crazy but is it just me when I say that our society has become way too dependent on our technologies? I mean, can YOU walk from destination A to destination B without the use of some sort of technology? Take a look around you and you can see that 90% of everyone that passes by is pre-occupied with some type of electronic from headphones to smart phones. Hell, even the guy who I routinely pass by on my way to school who is cruising on his one-tire no handled mode of transportation has his phone in hand. 

Do i think anything is wrong with this? Well, no, as a matter of fact this blog post is brought to you in part by my iPhone with my laptop in front of me with my headphones in my ears listening to some music App I have downloaded from iTunes so I am one to talk huh? Some may argue that it's just the way things are but are we all becoming too dependent on our smart devices? Have we disconnected ourselves so much that from now until the end of time we will have our phones glued in our hands? 

Technology has definitely enhanced since "way back in the day" when snake on your Nokia phones and dial-up was the bees knees. Not knocking our technological advances, i'm all for it, but what I'm afraid of is that we will soon become far too dependent on our devices that it will sooner or later separate us and change the world (I'm a hyperbolist, I know).