Matrix Group International

Tag: Gadgets

  • I’ve Seen the Future and It’s Full of Screens

    I’ve Seen the Future and It’s Full of Screens

    I had the great luck to attend xPotomac, the fabulous conference about the future of the Internet, communications and social media earlier this week. One of the presenters  was Ken Yarmosh and he gave a great talk on how the future will be full of screens. Someone predicted that in the future, cities will be more like Japan, full of mobile devices of all kinds and digital billboards everywhere. Ken talked persuasively about 5 factors that will change how we interact with screens.

    Screen pervasiveness

    We are going to have more screens in our lives, screens of all kinds. Remember when every home had just one TV? Today, many homes have multiple TVs, tablets, smartphones, etc. New screens are coming: screens in our cars; refrigerators with touch screens; screens on our coffee tables for magazines, photos and game;, screens in our conference rooms to see satellite offices; screens in our showers for watching TV. As the technology costs go down, we will have more screens.

    Screen persistence

    I love this prediction. Ken says that screen persistence will allow us to start something on one screen and continue on another. If you read books on the Kindle or Kindle app, you know that you can stop reading on your phone and pick up where you left off on your tablet. In the future, you’ll be able to start a phone call in your car, continue it on your phone when you arrive at your destination, switch seamlessly to video conferencing on the fridge when you get to your kitchen, and switch to your HD TV when you go to your living room or conference room.

    Screens that know about you

    Remember the scene in Minority Report where Tom Cruise, with a surgically transplanted eye from someone else, gets welcome to a department store by name (the other guy’s name) and encouraged to buy something? Ken says that in the future, screens of all kinds (billboards, large and small) will know who we are, our physical characteristics, our interests, our purchasing history, etc., and project a personalize ad or message. Perhaps when you turn on your TV at home, it will let you know which of you favorite shows have new episodes waiting. It’s clear that we’ll need some type of system to grant or deny access to our information by all these screens. It’s going to be a big privacy  mess but marketers will be all over the opportunities.

    Screens will know about themselves and interact with other screens

    Today, screens aren’t aware of other screens. But in the future, your iPad might automatically turn into a controller for a TV when you enter your living room. Or attendees at a conference can share content on their tablets while in the same meeting room. Related to screen persistence above, your device will pass calls and data seamless to each other. You’ll be able to start a game on one TV and then when dad comes home and wants to watch the game on that TV, your controller will let you continue your game on another TV.

    Screen interactions will change

    Today, we can type, swipe and do a little voice. In the future, we’ll be able to use voice commands to ask complicated requests of our devices. An example: “Pull up my 2015 tax return (which is presumably in the cloud somewhere) and tell me my effective tax rate back then.” You will be able to use your body to control screens (kind of like the Kinect, but more sophisticated). And touch commands like in Minority Report will become a reality.

    Project Glass from Google is an example of the new generation screen (it’s going to be a head mounted display, a pair of glasses) that will let us interact with the world in new and different ways.

    I don’t now about you but I am excited about this brave, new world that will be full of screens. Thanks, Ken, for sharing your predictions for the future! What prediction are YOU  most excited about?

  • 2012 Holiday Gift Ideas from Matrix Group for the Techies In Your Life

    It’s 12-12-12, the Mayan Apocalypse Day is a mere 9 days away, and Christmas Eve is 12 days away. Assuming you believe the earth will survive beyond December 21, 2012, you have less than two weeks to finish your holiday shopping. If you celebrate Hannukah, you’re almost out of time.

    So what do you get the techie(s) in your life? As always, I polled my staff and they gave me some great recommendations.

    • The Lego Lord of the Rings game for XBOX, 3DS and PS Vita is simply awesome!
    • i-Ecko makes a bottle opener/USB drive combo device. Who thinks up these combinations?
    • Tired of paying a monthly fee for your DVR? Try Roku, which is a small box that connects to your home Wi-Fi signal and streams over 300 channels to your television set.
    • Need a simple laptop? Try a Google Chromebook. It’s a person computer running the Google Chrome operating system. It comes with Google apps and the Chrome browser. For $200, it’s a nice little machine!
    • Doesn’t every geek in your life need a wooden catapult and trebuchet kit?
    • The Lytro camera lets you change the perspective of a photo, AFTER you’ve taken the photo.
    • The Perplexus Maze Game is a 3D maze game where players must maneuver a small marble around challenging barriers inside a transparent sphere. My 8-year old loves this game!
    • For the coffee addict in your life, the Art. Lebedev Thermal Battery Mug is black until you pour hot liquid into the mug. Then a battery icon appears, charging up and down with green power bars to match the level of your liquid.
    • The Pixel Ruler is a must-have for the web designer in your life. who will use it for responsive screen size sketching.
    • I love this “I had friends on that Death Star” t-shirt featuring a forlorn stormtrooper.
    • The iPad Atari Arcade turns your iPad into an old-fashioned Atari console, complete with joystick. Centipede, anyone?
    • The Oona smartphone base lets you configure the base and turn your smartphone into a GPS, time lapse camera, fridge magnet, and more. Genius!
    • For the teenagers or the audiophiles in your life, try a pair of Beat headphones. You can get them in a vast array of colors, including purple!
    • For the traveler in your life, how about an Ostrich Pillow, which claims to be a soothing cave-like interior shelters and isolates both your head and hands, perfect for a power nap.
    • For the Star Wars fan with a growing family and minivan, how about Star Wars family decals for your car?
    • Baby, it’s cold outside, so why not buy a Dr. Who TARDIS Laplander knit hat?
    • For the new mom, this “My First Year Poster” is so cool! Create a custom poster filled with infographics of a baby’s first year.

    How about you? What are your favorite gift ideas this year? What are you getting the techies in your life?

     

  • The iPad Scales Websites So They All Display at the Same Resolution and Look Great

    The iPad Scales Websites So They All Display at the Same Resolution and Look Great

    I love my iPads (I have an iPad1, iPad 2 and my 3 is on the way). I think most iPad owners feel the same way. I’ve owned an iPad for nearly two years but it wasn’t until recently that I realized just why websites look so good on this device. The iPad automatically scales pages up and down so that they display at the full resolution of the iPad. Let me explain.

    As Web designers, we’re used to thinking in terms of pixels. At Matrix Group, we normally design sites for a 1024 pixel width resolution. This means that on a 1024 resolution monitor, the website fills the screen. On a widescreen or higher resolution monitor, the website is centered and there is space to the right and left of the page. Check out the Matrix Group website on my widescreen monitor.

    In fact, most websites look like this on my widescreen monitor at home and laptop at work. But on an iPad, most sites look like this:

    This is the Matrix Group home page on an iPad in portrait mode.

     

    This is the Matrix Group home page on an iPad in landscape mode.

    What I love about scaling is that I’m making the most of the real estate on the tablet and most sites are fairly readable, without a lot of pinching and zooming.  I’m told that there are ways to prevent this automatic scaling on an iPad but I don’t really see why a web designer would do so.

    Next week, after I get a chance to play with my iPad 3, I’ll blog about how the new version supports high resolution images and how we web designers can start creating images that fit the type and resolution of the device. Very cool stuff!

     

     

  • It Ain’t Easy Being Green – Our Journey to Get an All-Electric Car

    It Ain’t Easy Being Green – Our Journey to Get an All-Electric Car

    For those of you who know me, you know that my husband Maki and I are gadget afficionados, we’re early adopters and we’re doing our best to live a green lifestyle at home and at work. So we were thrilled when Maki finally took delivery of his all-electric Nissan Leaf last November. But let me tell you, getting this car and getting the charging station installed was a journey that showed us it ain’t easy being green (as Kermit the frog would say).

    First of all, Maki was on the Nissan Leaf waiting list for 18 months. 18 months! We kept getting these teaser e-mails and brochures about how the car was coming, but then there would be one delay after another. When Passport Nissan finally started taking orders, Maki was the first in line. Thank goodness we weren’t in a hurry to get a new car.

    Actually buying the car once it became available was a snap. But then again, buying a car these days is pretty easy. You go in, you get financing through the manufacturer, you sign a bunch of paperwork and you’re done.

    This is a photo of Maki during the assessment, which took place in August. The installation finally happened in November.

    Getting the charging station installed so that we can charge the car overnight (using a regular AC outlet would take over 24 hours) turned out to be quite challenging. Nissan gave us a list of contractors, but then they all dropped out of the program. We finally got a company to come out and do the assessment and give us a quote, but they didn’t actually have any installers/contractors available in our area for a month. When we finally got a contractor, the company took forever to file the permit and then they missed their appointment (just never showed up, never even called).  When the contractor finally bothered to come out, actually installing the charging station was a snap because all they did was hook up the equipment to our already-installed 240 volt circuit and mount it on the wall.

    Okay, so now we have the car. It’s pretty, it’s quiet and we feel super hip and green. But first generation products come with a price.  The Leaf’s range is less than 100 miles on a full charge. A few days before Thanksgiving, after driving our son around town for some errands in the afternoon, Maki headed out to Dulles airport to pick up my brother. According to the gauge, he had enough charge to get there and back. But he didn’t count on the gauge not being super accurate because range is affected by driving conditions, e.g., going fast on the highway lowers your range. So Maki is at Dulles and he realizes he can’t make it home. Remember all those TV ads about charging stations up and down the East Coast? Those charging stations don’t exist. Period. End of story. I called the dealer, I googled, I made calls. No charging stations. Maki even left a message with a woman who has a home charging station to see if she would help out. No answer.  I finally found a My Organic Market in Herndon that has 2 free charging stations. They’re not quick charge stations, but they’re charging stations nevertheless. So Maki, my brother and his girlfriend shopped at MOM and went to dinner. After an hour and a half, the Leaf had enough charge to get home. Phew. I guess we’re keeping my Honda Civic Hybrid for a while.

    Do we expect to save a lot of money by driving the Leaf? Eh, not really. Our commute to work is short and we can’t exactly go on long road trips with this car. Do we think we’re saving the planet? Eh, not really. We know it took a lot of energy to make the car, especially the gigantic battery. But we do think that if we keep the car long enough, it will be a net gain for the environment because the Leaf does not pollute. We also know that companies rely on early adopters like us to lead the way, share our experiences with others, and pave the way for greener cars.

    So far, we LOVE our Nissan Leaf.  If you’re in the DC area and you’re dying to get a ride or learn more, contact me or Maki at work. Maki is always happy to talk about his new car. 🙂

  • 2011 Top Holiday Gift Ideas from Matrix Group

    2011 Top Holiday Gift Ideas from Matrix Group

    My son’s Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar reminds me that we’re about three weeks away from Christmas, which means scant time to find the perfect gift for family and friends. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, you’re probably shopping for some people in your life. As always, I polled the Matrix Group staff for their top holiday gift ideas.

    • For the gamers in your life, a Playstation Move or an Xbox Kinect will let them interact with games in a whole new way. With these accessories, your body becomes the controller and you can run, jump, punch and dance to a new generation of games. My favorite Move game is Everybody Dance, which teaches you cool dance moves and provides quite the workout. I’m dancing every morning to try to lose the last of the baby weight. Hey, if Kirstie Alley can dance her way to a new figure, so can I!
    • If you’re looking for cool game titles, check out Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, the Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and Batman: Arkham City.
    • In my office, we’re all about the techie toys and all things Star Wars are cool. James thinks the Lego Super Star Destroyer is super cool.
    • For a different type of game experience, Tanya recommends Dominion Card Game. This game is so geeky, it won a MENSA award!
    • If you want to shop for unique gifts that give back, Jessica likes The Greater Good Network Store. For example, shopping in their Hunger site raises money to fight world hunger and promote peace on earth.
    • Jenny loves to hop on Etsy.com, which features mostly handmade items from individuals.  I especially like the reusable paper towels and storage box and wallets made from duct tape of different colors!
    • Since zombies are all the rage, it’s important to be equipped with the proper zombie gear. Kelly has some great suggestions: a tactical vest, a zombie survival guide, and survival tools.
    • For the kids in your life, a Nintendo 3DS will endear you forever (well, a few months at least), and a Mindflex Duel Game will let them test their powers of concentration and use their brainwaves to levitate a foam ball (no kidding!).
    • For the movie lover in your life, we love the Roku LT streaming media box.
    • And finally, since we all mostly have everything we need and want in our lives, how about making a donation to a local charity? There are so many good ones in every community, we hope you’ll think of them during this holiday season. Maria likes Oxfam USA and Heifer International.

    How about you? What’s at the top of your list this year? What are you gifting and what are you hoping to receive?

  • How Steve Jobs and Apple Changed My Life as a Mom

    How Steve Jobs and Apple Changed My Life as a Mom

    I was driving home from dinner tonight when I heard on the radio that Steve Jobs had died. This blog post will be one of zillions proclaiming how Apple, under Steve Jobs’ leadership, changed lives.

    My story is simple. My many Apple products made it easy to share the wonders I call my sons and made technology easy at home. I’ve been an Apple fan for a long time and have slowly accumulated a collection of Apple products.

    Apple Should Have a Campaign About How Macs are for Moms

    My Mac is my mommy machine. I use iPhoto to store and manage my over 30,000 photos, mostly of my sons and photos from our travels around the world. And when I want to share photos with my family, I select the photos I want and then ask iPhoto to send lower resolution versions, so I don’t clog e-mail inboxes with photos that are 4MEG each — no need to resize the images first, which means my mom gets photos nearly every week!

    At the end of each year, I made video slideshows of my children’s activities using iDVD. The themes make it easy to put together a great looking DVD and I get a terrific keepsake from the year.

    My older son learned how to use a computer on our Mac (the baby isn’t old enough but he’s definitely interested). He immediately understood the intuitive user interface and can play games, watch videos and surf the web.

    iChat and now FaceTime make it easy to stay in touch with Grandma, who lives in California. She loves that she can see the boys, although she often frets about how she looks (as if the boys care, they love her!).

    Apple Devices Make Home Networking Easy(ier)

    I joke with my techie husband that setting up a home wireless network is not for mere mortals, although I have to admit that Apple has made it easy. We have Airport base stations around the house to ensure that have a good wi-fi signal thoughout our 4-story townhome.

    We’ve set up speakers in the different parts of the house and downloaded an app that lets me control the Mac and send music or radio programs to different parts of the house.

    We’ve owned an Apple TV for many years. We use it to watch movies, watch YouTube videos on the big screen, and enjoy our photos. We were worried that Apple would discontinue the Apple TV for lack of sales but it looks like this device will be around for a while. Thank goodness!

    I don’t think I could live without my iPad at this point. My husband, older son and I were vying for iPad time so much time that we now have 2 of these tablets at home. I use my iPad to check my schedule, check weather, check e-mail, surf the web, find recipes, play games, manage my user manuals, listen to music, watch movies on Netflix, and so on and so forth.

    Finally, I love how all my Apple purchases (music, apps, games, movies and shows) are done through my one iTunes account. And I absolutely adore how synching my devices regularly means I can enjoy these purchases on all (or most) of our devices — PC, iPad, iPod Touch and Apple TV.

    Thank you, Steve Jobs. Thank you, Apple

    If you haven’t already noticed, I’m a huge Apple fan and a big consumer of Apple products. I’m passionate about Apple products because the products clearly were developed with end users like me in mind. I love the form factor of the devices, I love the easy user interface, I love the diversity of the apps and functions, and I love how all the products work together.

    Thank you, Steve Jobs for making my life as a mom better.

  • Another Killer iPad Use: Storing My User Manuals

    Another Killer iPad Use: Storing My User Manuals

    I have a giant stack of user manuals in my house. Manuals for the stove, the microwave, the gas fireplace, the digital camera, the DVR, the game consoles, yada, yada. Yes, I’m the type of person who actually reads user manuals so I can use my devices better and do my own troubleshooting when there’s a problem. When I don’t have a user manual for a device, I look for it online and bookmark or download the PDF.

    Well, I’m going paperless with my user manuals because they’re all going into my iPad.

    Just imagine this: all (or most) of my manuals in one portable device, searchable, and including a dictionary and ability to write notes. Here’s how to do it:

    • Download the PDF to the computer that you use to synch and back up your iPad.
    • Drag the PDF to your Books collection in iTunes
    • The next time you synch your iPad, voila!, the user manual is now on your iPad

    This means I can get rid of the ugly stacks in my house and I never have to worry that a manufacturer will remove a user manual for an aging device.  Want to learn more? This article from MakeUseOf shows you how to paginate, bookmark and annotate in iBooks. Love it!

  • 2011 Top Holiday Gifts Ideas from Matrix Group

    2011 Top Holiday Gifts Ideas from Matrix Group

    I have a Christmas app on my iPad. When I checked it today, it reminded me that there are 23 days until Christmas Eve. Yikes! Even though I did a bunch of shopping on Black Friday, I still have a lot of buying to do! As always, I polled my staff and asked for their top gift ideas of the season. Here’s what I got back:

    • Everyone who doesn’t have an Apple iPad wants one. At least a couple of staff members want an Android tablet.
    • A bunch of staff want the new Amazon Kindle, while a few are getting or giving the Nook Color e-reader.
    • The gamers in the office are getting the Kinect for Xbox 360 and/or the Playstation Move. Both devices take gaming to the next level because your body becomes the controller. Watch out, Wii!
    • For the PS3 gamers who get the Move, we like Sports Champions and R.U.S.E.
    • The L5 Universal Remote turns your iPhone or iPod Touch into a universal remote. Very slick.
    • The Roku Player lets you stream Netflix to your TV, for a lot less money than an Apple TV, PS3 or TiVo.
    • The Parrot AR. Drone Quadricopter powered by your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad is ridiculously cool. There’s even a live camera feed from the quadricopter to your Apple device so you can see the view from above.
    • Is it possible to have a cool vacuum? Yes if it’s a Dyson. I want the hand vac but it’s always out of stock!
    • The Flip UltraHD video camera can record high def video and surround sound with the press of a button and automatically convert your video to be YouTube compatible.
    • The Logitech Google TV lets you stream videos from various providers and run Android apps.
    • We like this USB car charger for when your devices run out of power and you need to charge them on the fly.
    • You’ll love this Spy Net secret mission video watch. Very James Bond.
    • I recently got a Panasonic Lumix G2 DSLR camera. Love the touch screen, the smaller form factor and of course, the gorgeous photos I’m now taking.
    • If you’ve got a Lego lover in the family, the Lego set of the Death Star from Star Wars will make them happy. It’s got over 3,800 pieces so someone will be busy for a while!
    • If you want a non-techie gift idea, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust lets you adopt orphaned animals and receive e-mail updates throughout the year. Kids will love this one!

    If you want more ideas for geek gifts, visit Ars Technica’s holiday wish list of gizmos, gadgets and gear.

    How about you? What are your top gifts ideas this season? What is on your Santa list?

  • My GPS Is Making Me Stupid!

    My GPS Is Making Me Stupid!

    I had an early meeting in Hyattsville this morning.  I was armed with my Garmin GPS and printed directions from Google Maps — I still got lost. I had to call my husband for extra navigational assistance.  He was incredulous on the phone: “Don’t you have Jane (the GPS) with you?  Did you follow the directions from Google?”  Yes and yes, but I was still lost.

    How is this even possible?  For the last nearly 20 years (how did I get so old?), I have been in sales in the DC area.  I feel like I have driven to most corners of the region.  I know this region and I do not get lost!!!  How on earth did I get lost this morning?  And how did I get lost when I had so many tools at my disposal?

    I have a hunch that all of these digital assistants are making me stupid. How and why?

    Well, long before cell phones, GPS systems and Google/Mapquest maps, I would get directions the old fashioned way.  I would call the prospect or client and get detailed directions. Mr. client would ask me where I was coming from and he would give me directions that included navigational clues like:” go 4 lights then turn right; if you see the Giant, you’ve gone to far; or go about 3 miles and then get on 95 on your right.”  I would also get really helpful suggestions, like “don’t go through the City at that time of day, take the Beltway.”  I would heed these directions and almost never get lost.  And if I did get lost, I would find a gas station and ask the always-friendly attendant for help. Oh yeah, I also used to carry around maps with me, but I tossed those when I got my GPS; silly me!
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  • Matrix Group’s Gift List for the Techies In Your Life

    Matrix Group’s Gift List for the Techies In Your Life

    Techie opening a giftIt’s the holiday season and if you’re looking for the perfect gift for the techie in your life, have no fear. I polled the Matrix Group staff and they came through with these terrific suggestions:

    • Mini USB Monitor – Need a little more real estate on your monitor? You’ll love these mini monitors.
    • Lego Death Star – If you have a little one who loves Legos and you love Star Wars, you’ll enjoy making the Death Star together.
    • Our Network Administrators say that NetBooks are super hot this season.  NetBooks are a class of laptops that are super small, lightweight and inexpensive.  You can get them from Dell, Acer, HP and Sony.
    • WikiReader – This little device puts the 3 million+ articles from Wikipedia in the palm of your hand, along with regular updates.

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