Smartphones in summer are far from perfect. The screens are hard to see when you’re out of doors, they tend to run out of batteries at inopportune moments, and it seems you’re always in a no-cell area when you need one. Still, your smartphone can be your summer companion on the road or in your [...]

A recent study from NPD shows that one in five consumers want a fitness device that they can hook up to their PC. Today’s question is “will people have more incentive to actually buy these devices if they can use them with friends”. Striiv, a smart pedometer that caters to casual exercisers who like rewards, [...]

Arianna Huffington gets stressed out too! I don’t know why, but I take great comfort when people who look pressed and pretty all the time confess that they need to deal with stress just like the rest of us. But unlike the rest of us who keep our stress to teeth grinding or lip biting, [...]

There was a time when the only tax time jitter you had was getting things done in time and coughing up your dough.  Now, the problems are compounded digitally. Between now and April 15, approximately 155 million people are filing tax form, making identity theft  a larger concern, if only by the numbers.  Add to [...]

As a teen my mom gave me one wall to stick up those torn out pages from teen mags like Tiger Beat, pin up my “I love George” button, and build my wall of aspiration. Fast forward a few decades and meet Pinterest—a collective wall where people share photos of whatever gets them through the day. [...]

These days I found myself lost in Thomas Hardy’s opening poem by Thomas Gray (thank you Wikipedia). Far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strifeTheir sober wishes never learn’d to stray;Along the cool sequester’d vale of lifeThey kept the noiseless tenor of their way. The poem is a bittersweet lament at the new industrial world invading [...]

I know it’s geeky, and my brothers and sister are convinced that geeks create these “inventions” to give you the illusion of some control in your life.  But I’m determined to put tech on my side and have my parents start wearing personal information response system (PERS). Of course my parents are already walking/talking Personal Emergency Response [...]

Clinically tested Dakim BrainFitness has been awarded a U.S. patent for its breakthrough NuroLogic Technology. According to Dakim, the technology optimizes the benefits of brain training by employing a highly complex series of sophisticated algorithms. It selects the appropriate exercise from among thousands, in each of six essential cognitive domains, while simultaneously self-adjusting the difficulty, [...]

According to a Canadian site, The Spec, some of the biggest opportunities that await the boomer population are a bit, unorthodox, but quite obvious.

I am not a newbie – I’ve been at CES for an eternity, as the emcee and creative force behind the Last Gadget Standing and the Mobile Apps Showdown – two events at CES that both rely heavily on the people’s vote to decide on a winner. There was a time when the people’s vote [...]

Celebrity Alert: Gary “Baba Booey” Dell’Abate and Jon Hein to co-host Last Gadget Standing and Mobile Apps Showdown at CES 2012.

Industry watchers like nothing better than to observe as trends come and go. A site that I love, The Crystal Ball Society, started by Jesse Schell, lets you record these predictions for posterity. A good thing,  since most of us will forget our own predictions  in matter of days. Sometimes predications are a matter of [...]

Arnet offers up a nice gift list of digital health gadgets for the holidays. You’ll see many of them at the Sports & Fitness Tech Summit at CES this January.

As you age exercise takes it’s toll on the body. Many turn to non-weight bearing exercises, swimming being the most popular. But listening to the voice in your head can get tedious after a dozen laps. And quite a few older adults would rather not spend their days DJing their playlists for the pool. That’s where Fitness [...]

It’s not easy to get excited about a thermostat. But when you get an eyeful of Nest, billed as the first learning thermostat, your blood will warm. Thermostats, says the company, control about half of your homes’ energy – more than your fridge, electronics and lighting combined. The Nest will learn your preferred temperature routines [...]

They used to say “be careful what you wish for”. Now it’s be careful what you “tap” for. Shopping is quickly becoming as easy as tapping your phone at the checkout counter. Imagine this scenario:  You’re walking past Bloomingdales.  They know you love DKNY because of your previous purchases at the store; they know you’re [...]

In a wide-ranging interview on technology for boomers, Raskin talks to the hosts of Ageless Media about all things digital including fitness and tech solutions that would be useful for an older population. Listen here: Podcast Powered By Podbean Podcast Powered By Podbean

Some fun new data from Qumu, the internet business video platform provider, indicates that Americans think that the release of a new smartphone matters to anyone – 88% of Americans, to be precise.  Who do they think a new smartphone release – say, the amped-up new iPhone 4s being released October 14 – would matter [...]

The only time I usually get to the LA Convention Center is for E3 – a gaming conference, geared to the youth videogame crowd, it’s like Chucky Cheese meets Chucky (the murderous life-sized doll). So you can only imagine the pleasant serenity of an AARP Conference in its place this past week. But don’t underestimate [...]

Grandparents.com has gone through a number of incarnations. Its roots were as a community website where grandparents were encouraged to buy stuff for the grandkids. The newest iteration is more of a family affair, and encourages the entire family to be members of its Grandparents.com Benefits Club. Club members get exclusive savings on everything from [...]

No doubt, I should have been a product torture tester. Or maybe I already am…Here are two of my latest “how the heck” issues. First, there’s my laptop. HP’s glossy case finish is on my arms, my linens, my clothing. I’m starting to look like I was doused in glitter at a rave. At the [...]

There isn’t a generation that hasn’t blamed their parents for something or other, but the Baby Boomer generation seems to have fallen so far from the “greatest generation mark” that we’re seeing a boomer backlash. Boomers have been lambasted for their self-centered greed, destroying the environment, focusing on the nuclear family, not saving for a [...]

Social networking is not just for kids.  Sherri Snelling, of Caregivers Club talks to Robin Raskin about how social networks can help the elderly keep connected to everything from their hobbies to their families, to their doctors. Watch the video

Hammurabi chiseled stone and now Millenniata believes that they have a way to chisel a disk so that it, like Hammurabi’s, will endure in perpetuity. It’s a way cool idea that by the very nature of the process may prove to be a complicated sell. The Problem:  All of those disks that you write – [...]

We normally don’t pass old folks jokes around the website but this 2007 animation from Walt Handlesman at Newsday is such a bit of nostalgia meets reality we just had to share.