allheart55 Cindy E

By this point, most of us are fully addicted to our smartphones. And when we find ourselves without Wifi or data service, our most direct connection to everything becomes almost useless. That’s where GoTenna comes in. The device is launching into pre-order today, and lets users create their own closed network on which they can communicate. Here’s how it works: Let’s say you’re out in the woods camping with a big group. You keep one GoTenna in your bag or near your person and it connects to your phone via BluetoothLE. Since they’re sold in pairs, you can hand off the other GoTenna to someone else in the group, who also pairs it with their own smartphone. Let’s say this group splits into two, and one is running late. Without ever connecting to a telephony network or Wifi, the GoTennas actually create their own closed network using low-frequency radio waves, offering users the ability to send messages and drop locations to each other. Of course, messages and locations are sent through GoTenna’s own app that offers entirely offline maps and full messaging capabilities. GoTenna users have the option to send private messages to a particular user or group of users, but there’s also a system in place for emergency situations. Let’s say you’re in the middle of the East Coast devastation during Superstorm Sandy (which is where cofounders Daniela and Jorge Perdomo came up with the idea), and you’re hurt or lost. You can send a “shout” to all GoTennas within range that will alert all GoTenna users that you needs help. Depending on location, GoTennas can actually create a fairly sizable network, with ranges up to 50 miles in some places. In the city, however, surrounded by rock and steel and concrete, the GoTenna can only communicate within a few mile radius. Obviously, this can be used when you’re off the grid, at a festival or concert where there’s too much volume on the network, or traveling abroad. According to the company, the GoTenna will last around 72 hours with intermittent use, and around 30 hours if it’s on 24/7. When turned off, it can hold a charge for more than a year. The GoTenna is now available for pre-order in pairs for $149 ($75/each). This is a special pre-order discount as the company tries to reach its $50,000 goal, but after discounted units sell out, the price will jump to $299 per pair. Check out the GoTenna here. goTenna from goTenna on Vimeo. http://techcrunch.com/2014/07/17/the-gotenna-will-let-you-communicate-without-any-connectivity/?ncid=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29

That sounds great! I'm glad you're here. :D

JIBO: The World's First Family Robot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3N1Q8oFpX1Y

NEW YORK—How do you feel about living under the same roof as a robot? Not a robot such as Roomba that will assume your household vacuuming chores. But instead a robot named Jibo, who if Cynthia Breazeal has her way, will become a newly adopted member of your family. Indeed, Jibo, the brainchild or rather robot-child of MIT professor and social robotics pioneer Breazeal, is being called the world's first family robot. Breazeal's long-term vision is to bring robots into our everyday lives. "We're about humanizing technology," she said in an interview. Along those lines, Jibo is no toy robot. The Wi-Fi connected robot stands just under a foot tall tall and carries the weight of a really heavy laptop. My initial thought was that he would feel most comfortable hanging out with WALL-E. Instead Jibo is all about hanging with you and other family members. He can double as an on-demand cameraman—independently capturing videos and still images by tracking the action around him. You can ask Jibo (directly or via an iPhone or Android app) to take voice messages or leave reminders—maybe alerting an elderly grandparent when it's time to take his or her medicine. He can read stories to the kids at bedtime. He can order take-out food on your behalf. The best way to envision Jibo in action is to watch the company's promotional video here, keeping in mind that it's just that, a promotional video. In other words this is all about the promise of Jibo since I haven't seen Jibo in person yet and it remains to be seen how the robot's debut goes. As it turns out that debut is going to take awhile. Jibo's slated arrival isn't until the fall of 2015, more than a year away. Brezeal is trying to get the development and early adopter communities jazzed in advance. The consumer version of the robot will cost $499 under a special inaugural price—you can preorder Jibo here with a deposit of $99. Developers that want to create apps for an upcoming Jibo store can pay $599 for the robot. Robots in every home? Breazeal insists that the personal robot revolution is going to happen, with Jibo leading the charge. http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/baig/2014/07/16/jibo-are-you-ready-to-adopt-a-robot/12703955/?utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=usatoday-techtopstories

I thought it was pretty interesting too.

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A group of filmmakers has decided to put together an interesting new animated web series called "Copy-Me" all about copying and copyright -- and more specifically about culture and sharing, and why that's important. (while also debunking some of the usual myths about copyright). Among the things they've claimed the series will cover are: The importance of the public domain. Artists making money without restricting access to their work. A bit of copyright history. The paradox of originality. The state of the Internet today The impact of copyright on every single part of society today. https://vimeo.com/77356219 While they're just getting started, it looks like it will be quite interesting. They've also put together an IndieGogo campaign for folks interested in supporting this project. Here's the intro video the filmmakers have made about the campaign, explaining a bit more of why they're doing this and what they hope to accomplish: While there have been various other cool projects trying to discuss these issues, from Kirby Ferguson's Everything is a Remix to Nina Paley's , the more the merrier in getting past the myths of copyright that a certain industry has been pushing for decades. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140408/12314926842/new-animated-web-series-about-copying-copyright.shtml

It's not available yet but it will be hopefully by late summer.

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That's great news. If you have anything on there you wish to keep, you should probably copy it to an external hard drive. Lenovo may opt to send out another refurbished unit. You may not get the same one back. In that event, any personal information should be removed as well.

I'm sorry to hear that.