Tag Archives: apps

March Madness Apps 2016: Technology to the Rescue

Basketball bursts through cell phone.As I write this blog entry, the NCAA basketball tournament is just getting underway. My Ducks are a number one seed as the men’s Pac-12 champions so I will be watching their progress closely. This is the time of year that information technology departments send out their obligatory “don’t stream basketball games over the company internet” message. So, what is a die-hard bracket watching basketball fan to do—take a two week vacation from work? Is there another way to keep up on the drama and still be a productive worker?

NCAA March Madness Live

I was at a technical conference last week during the final games of the Pac-12 championship. People were streaming or monitoring the score of the game on tablets and smartphones. I learned that NCAA March Madness Live is a free app that allows users to live-stream games. The added tournament bracket also provides the schedule, scores, and stats, reporting the action via video highlights and photos.

ESPN Tournament Challenge

For bracket-building, this app shows the entire live bracket and lets you make your own picks, which you can then share with your friends. This app provides alerts to keep you updated on the status of your bracket. This is an easy way to build and monitor the office pool.

Fanatic

If you are traveling during the tournament but you want to root for the home team, there is the Fanatic app. This is a free app available for Android or iPhone devices. It can connect you to fans of your team in the area, including information on nearby sports bars loyal to your team. It also lets you invite friends to watch the game with you, and can help you plan a party if you’d rather watch at home.

TuneIn Pro

While not just for March, this app allows you to find and listen to hundreds of radio stations so that you have your ear buds in and still appear to be working although you are listening to the big game. If you can multitask, this may be your best option for getting through March with your job intact. You can configure channels so that you can easily find relevant content for sports or other entertainment.

Television

You can watch games on television with apps available for Chromecast, Roku, Amazon Fire, and Apple TV. Of course, if you are not taking two weeks off to watch the tournament and you are heeding the advice of your friendly IT person about office streaming, you can always record games to watch AFTER work. Technology has given us a lot of options.

Thoughts

In a recent calculation by consulting firm Challenger, Gray, and Christmas, the lost productivity due to March Madness could equal $1.9 billion. I am not encouraging that number to go any higher but I have given you some options for tracking the progress of the NCAA tournaments without using all of the company bandwidth and your time.

Do you know of other apps that keep you connected and informed? Which team do you predict will win the final game on April 4? For me, it’s the Ducks all the way.

Author Kelly BrownAbout Kelly Brown

Kelly Brown is an IT professional and assistant professor of practice for the UO Applied Information Management Master’s Degree Program. He writes about IT and business topics that keep him up at night.

Advances in Wellness: Improving the Quantified Self

Conceptual image of a running man and his heart rate.New medical products and apps introduced at the recent Consumer Electronic Show Digital Health Summit (CES) present a lot of promise for keeping us healthy and safe. Often overshadowed by tech gadgets such as new cars and new artificial intelligence products, it’s time to give the medical developments their day in the sun.

Pathway Genomics OME

The Pathway OME app is powered by IBM Watson and is a comprehensive app that collects personal health information from a variety of sources including electronic health records, data from health monitoring devices, and even a DNA sample. From this data, the app will give you advice or alert you to potential health issues. Through the IBM Watson’s data intelligence power you can receive personalized information on potential interactions with food and drugs or receive a custom diet and exercise regimen.

Wisewear

Who says that health and safety monitoring can’t be fashionable? Wisewear makes a fashion bracelet that monitors vital statistics and acts as an emergency beacon. When you think you are in danger or need help, tap the stylish bracelet three times and it will connect with your phone to send out text alerts, including your location, to friends. This is a great marriage of form and function.

Quell

Neurometrix makes a pain management device that is drug free and monitors and counteracts chronic pain 24/7. This is an electrode that is worn on the upper calf just below the knee and delivers a signal that blocks pain neurotransmitters throughout the body. It counteracts pain from arthritis and other musculoskeletal issues and allows the wearer to enjoy work and activities. It synchs with a smartphone app to deliver a profile of your pain management. It is adjustable and easily rechargeable. My father used to connect leads to a voltage generator to help ease his arthritis pain. I realize now that he was just ahead of his time, although maybe his system was not quite as elegant.

Mimo

The Mimo Smart Baby Monitor uses very low voltage sensors built into a baby sleeper to deliver information about breathing, movement, and sleep/wake patterns to a smartphone app. This, in theory, lowers stress for new parents and allows them to sleep better. The same information is also available to other smartphones if a parent has to be out of town but still wants to track their baby. Definitely a quantified life right from day one.

Resound

Enzo hearing aids from Resound combine advanced technology with a sophisticated smartphone app that lets you fine tune your hearing to different conditions. Whether you find yourself in a crowded noisy room or in a quiet place trying to hear a soft voice, the app lets you discreetly adjust your hearing aids. You can also couple them to your smartphone to listen to music or voice directly through your hearing aids.

Thoughts

The health technologies displayed at CES this year are designed to help us be active, healthy, and safe and provide the capability to monitor and assist those we love.

Did you see any extraordinary products at CES this year? Let me know what caught your eye.

Author Kelly BrownAbout Kelly Brown

Kelly Brown is an IT professional and assistant professor of practice for the UO Applied Information Management Master’s Degree Program. He writes about IT and business topics that keep him up at night.

The Gamification of Nature

Two people find a cache in the forest.I recently helped judge a graduate poster session and was intrigued by a couple of posters highlighting research on how to use technology to engage youth and adults with nature. One of the research findings suggested that youth who use tablets to identify different plant species interact more deeply with nature. Another poster highlighted how creating games and challenges encouraged adults to get more involved with nature. This is the gamification of nature, as odd as that sounds. These got me to thinking about other ways that we can entice people to get outdoors for exercise and to discover nature.

Geocaching

The mild winter here in the Pacific Northwest has allowed me to get out and do more geocaching. This is an activity that started in Oregon and has spread worldwide. It is essentially hide and seek using geospatial coordinates and handheld GPS devices or smartphones. A cache can be as small as a button or as big as an ammunition box or larger. When someone places a cache, they publish the geographic location on geocaching.com for others to see. They may also publish clues, in case it is hidden in an obscure place. People seeking the cache can then pick up the coordinates from the web site and find it using their GPS device. This is an excellent way to get people outside—in urban areas and wilderness—to enjoy the sights and sounds of nature. I tried to find two just this morning and one was quick and easy, the other eludes me. Even in the attempt I got in a good hike, so I still came out a winner.

There’s An App For That

Author Richard Louv coined the term “nature deficit disorder” in his 2005 book Last Child In The Woods to describe our disconnect with nature. Louv argued that some behavioral issues may be caused by a decline in how much time youth spend outdoors. Others, rightly or wrongly, conclude that youth spend so much time with technology that there is no time to explore the outdoors. I am suggesting that the same technology that is blamed for creating “nature deficit disorder” can help draw youth and adults back into nature. The graduate students at the University of Oregon are working to make that a reality. One organization promoting this shift is Agents of Nature. In partnership with various schools and public lands agencies, they have created an app that requires players to identify things in nature in order to move ahead and gain points and position. This requires them to get outside and discover things and places they otherwise might never experience.

Thoughts

I am excited about the possibility of introducing people to nature through technology. This is a way to blend our need to connect with each other and with nature. What do you think? Do people need a reason to get outdoors? Is technology a barrier or can it be a catalyst? Let me know your thoughts.

Author Kelly BrownAbout Kelly Brown

Kelly Brown is an IT professional and assistant professor of practice for the UO Applied Information Management Master’s Degree Program. He writes about IT and business topics that keep him up at night.

How Safe is the Cloud?

padlocked cloudA lot of attention lately has been paid to the security of the cloud, particularly Apple’s iCloud service. There have been recent high profile celebrity hacks resulting in the sharing of photos that were thought to be private. The question I have been reading in the last couple of weeks, even in my local newspaper, is this: Is the cloud safe? The answer, maddeningly, is yes and no. This blog post will cover the definition of the cloud and how you can make the answer to that question “yes.”

Defining the Cloud

The cloud is really just a term for offsite storage. It is a convenient place to store files, whether they are photos, contact lists, or e-mails, so that you can access them from multiple devices in multiple locations. Say, for example, you take a picture from your smartphone and wish to view those same pictures from your tablet or your laptop or share them with friends. Rather than carrying those pictures around on a hard drive to view them on different devices or show friends, those pictures are stored in a common place, in the cloud storage. The cloud goes by different names such as iCloud, Google Drive, Google+, and Microsoft OneDrive. It also goes by names such as Pinterest, Tumblr, Facebook, and Twitter. Basically it is a common place to store, retrieve, and manipulate your files. The question then becomes: What if you want to take a picture but NOT store it in the cloud?

It’s All in the Sync

The key is to understand when your device is synchronizing with the cloud or with another device. In Android, for example, there is a Google Drive app that is an interface to help you download and sync files between your Android device and the cloud. You can also swap files between Android and your Google+ account or between Android and your Dropbox or Box account using a simple app.

Developers have done their best to make these apps intuitive and user friendly, but they have also masked the complexity of moving files back and forth to the cloud or to another device. As a result, some smartphone users just push the “sync all” button, which duplicates all files to the cloud. This is great for backup, but it also means that your files are now in a less secure area than just your phone. As recent events show, there are still some vulnerabilities in the cloud, and occasionally a cloud service is breached and personal data is compromised. One answer to this is to employ an application such as Encdroid for the Android OS, which encrypts your files and makes them more difficult to hack. Another solution is to understand where your files are and how they are getting there.

Thoughts

My challenge to you this week is to review your files and take an inventory of where you are storing everything. You may have signed up for a Google+ account and forgotten about it. When you get that new Android phone, however, you can bet the good folks at Google have a record of that account and would be happy to send all of your files to be backed up there. Be a savvy technology user and make sure you understand whether you are vulnerable and in what areas. In the end, that knowledge will make you and your data safer.

Author Kelly BrownAbout Kelly Brown

Kelly Brown is an IT professional, adjunct faculty for the University of Oregon, and academic director of the UO Applied Information Management Master’s Degree Program. He writes about IT and business topics that keep him up at night.

Tech Fueled Vacations

shutterstock_133219739In April, my wife and I spent a few days in New Jersey and New York. I reflected recently on how much technology I used to plan and execute the few days there. I booked our flights online, secured a place to stay through Airbnb, and downloaded apps, which gave me maps and schedules of the New Jersey and New York Metro system. I secured Broadway tickets online and got recommendations for places to eat. When we got lost, I just asked my phone to guide us to our destination. This doesn’t include the countless hours spent on Google Maps ahead of time trying to memorize the landscape. Here are some other tech solutions that may help you with your vacation this summer.

Route Planning

A friend recently turned me on to the Waze app, which is a community-powered mapping and navigation app that gives you real-time traffic information and road alerts. Waze was acquired by Google last year and is available as a free smart phone app. It can help you in planning and executing your road trip by alerting you to traffic delays, road closures, speed traps, and changes in traffic patterns. It is a great way to get real-time alerts from other Waze users.

The Nearest Gas

One of the largest costs of an automobile trip is gasoline. While Waze provides gas station locations and prices, I have relied on the GasBuddy app, which is available for the iPhone, Android, or Blackberry platforms. This is a community-based app that relies on user input to locate gas stations and post their prices. People who input gas prices are eligible for possible prizes.

Price Comparisons

There are many travel sites on the web, but Kayak searches those sites to determine the lowest price airlines, car rentals, hotels, and more. This is available as a web app for planning your vacation ahead of time or a mobile app for planning on the fly. Kayak is a good way to make your vacation bargain hunting more efficient.

Where to Eat

At the end of the day, we all need to eat, but when you are on an adventure, you may not know what is available or where. For some it may be as easy as looking up to see the ubiquitous golden arches. For others, however, it may not be that easy. For example, if you are gluten intolerant and you are traveling in a strange town or country, how do you find a place that will accommodate your dietary restrictions?  Not to worry. There is an app for you! Findmeglutenfree is a web and mobile app that will search by location for local gluten free options. Other apps cater to needs such as a kosher diet. There are so many options available that it is a matter of finding the right one for you.

Thoughts

With all of these options available, I wonder if vacation planning or the actual vacation itself is more stressful or less stressful. The ability to secure every last detail ahead of time or on the road takes an incredible amount of time. Is the payoff worth it? Whatever happened to a spontaneous road trip? Do those exist anymore? Tell me about your vacation this summer and the tech that you use. I would love to hear about it.

Author Kelly BrownAbout Kelly Brown

Kelly Brown is an IT professional, adjunct faculty for the University of Oregon, and academic director of the UO Applied Information Management Master’s Degree Program. He writes about IT and business topics that keep him up at nigh