Friday, Do I Need To Say Anything More?

Today is a joyous day, and I am singing the praises of Friday to the heavens. For one thing it is Friday, and that is hard to beat. This morning the coffee is so good it is almost unbelievable.

Recently my gym closed to move and expand. It was part of the local YMCA. It was small, and lightly equipped, but it was free. It was a benefit of being of my wife's job, and I was pretty happy there.

Since they moved, and expanded spouses are no longer allowed to use it for free, so I had to join the YMCA. Last night we went over and joined. It is huge, filled with weights, and machines and all of those devices that show up so frequently in the Health Whacko. It used to make me think, I need to join a better gym, (when I wasn't seething with envy) now I have. Plus I get three free sessions with a personal trainer. Pictures will come later.

Also, I have a smart watch. Well, it is not really smart, but it tells me the time, month, day and date, and it has a few functions that defy explanation, So, it might be smarter than me. Plus, it is attractive, functional and durable, so that makes it pretty smart for a guy who is hard on watches. Moreover, it is very complimentary, and that is a better than email, or text messages.


And, if that weren't enough, on my way to work this morning, I got stuck in the slow lane. It was rainy, and all the lanes were slow, so it was expected. But, my phone sensed the tension in the car, and played a lot of very appropriate songs.







Here is one of the choices.

To recap, a new gym, hot coffee, a very polite watch, and good music. Fridays are a great way to start the weekend.

New Technology, New Cars.

Apple and Google are locked in a battle for market share.  It can be heated, at least among the users of the respective products.  It is unclear if the companies are as venomously opposed as the fans, but there is plenty of vitriol to go around.  With billions of consumer dollars at stake the gigantic, monolithic corporations are pushing the boundaries of innovation, and creating the barely believable as part of the routine.

From tablets to smart phones to "wearables" (little computers you wear, watches, and bracelets, mostly, that will alert you to incoming calls, emails, text messages and Hellfire missiles, not really, actually I don't know what they do, and I have thought about this a lot, way more than is probably healthy, what can you actually accomplish on a touch screen the size of a watch?  Type out an email, or a text message, watch a YouTube video, read an ebook?  Probably, you could do any of these things, but it would be a terribly restricted experience.

What's the point, just walking around saying "I have a smart watch"

"What time is it?"

"Time?  Oh, time of day time, here let me access that function, just a simple swipe, a little tap, Oh, dammit, maybe if I sweep, no, maybe a sweeping motion, shoot, it's about 11:00.  Want to watch this cat video?  I think it's a cat, it might be a bear, or a car."...  Oops, sorry about that, wearables are the next wave of technology, and are a viable computational device with limitless potential).

Anyway, back to the point of this, I heard that Apple was developing a "Smart Automobile Technology."  Google has been working feverishly, and noisily on their car, and the competition is fierce.  It is a mad dash to driverless cars.

Apple, and Google both imagine a day when people will be free to set behind the wheel of an automobile, and goof around with their phone, enjoy a cup of coffee, or even a donut, or breakfast sandwich on the way to work.   A day when commuters are free to cruise along the freeway with little or no concern for traffic laws, common sense, or the safety of other drivers.

Wait a minute, that already happens, all over the place.  Maybe these companies aren't so innovative after all.  Here is a a video I took while undercover for big oil, and large insurance conglomerates, who would like to keep everybody blind to the realities of monopoly, and wriggling to pay their bills, and terrified of what would happen when...  Oops sorry, that was not supposed to slip.

Don't forget to check out my new blog, as soon as it is written, that is.  It will be about history, a subject that is a lot more interesting than you might imagine.  Plus, there is so much of it, I will never run out of material.

Exciting news from the world of electronics.

As many of you know I am an unabashed iPhone user.  It is a fantastic little device, fun, flexible, and it fits in my pocket.  It is powerful, portable, and filled with potential, it is unique in design, thoughtfully, and carefully developed...  Well, you get the idea, I really like my iPhone (it is an iPhone 5, by the way).  It was exciting reading the releases detailing the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Even Better Version (I can't really remember what the designation was).  Clearly Apple and the iPhone are heading in the correct direction.

Which is to say, it is getting bigger, that is the wave of smart phones, bigger, and bigger.  These companies want us to abandon our puny little devices that fit so comfortably in our pocket, for these ever expanding behemoths.  "Introducing the New Samsung Jumbotron!  Watch television, surf the internet, or stream the game and check the scores with your family, and friends, and a few strangers from the street, with the monstrous, new Samsung Jumbotron."

But, what happened to the day when all of the cool people had tiny cell phones?  When a sure sign of success was the biggest SUV, and the tiniest little cell phone, what of those days?  How do we reconcile that?

Everything Old Is New Again.

With the new Smart Wear, that's how.  Apple, LG, Samsung, Sony and maybe more are introducing watches that will act like phones, I think, and let you perform certain computer functions, Dick Tracy like, right on your watch.  Yes, friends, you will be able to foil the nefarious plans of Sal Monella, Hammer Head, and Nicky the Assassin, all while looking sleek, dapper and trendy, without ever having to remove your cell phone from your pocket.  Well, maybe not that much like Dick Tracy.  But, he could never read his email on his watch, and you probably can't either, but you can do something smart on your watch, maybe, I'm not really sure.

Clearly, the trend is bigger is better, and smaller and wearable is better, too.  I guess, now you can have it all, big, gaudy and extravagant, and small, sleek, expensive, and a little pointless.  No need to choose anymore.  Isn't technology wonderful.