Digital Intervention

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2017

Digital Intervention featured on “Ask Pat” podcast

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If you’re interested the podcast/blog/tech or new business world, you certainly should know Pat Flynn and his Smart Passive Income. His podcasts are wildly popular, and he has become a huge success over the past few years. By sharing his experiences, he has helped many begin their new careers.

Recently I asked Pat a question about podcasting vs YouTube on his Ask Pat Podcast, and I’m featured on his latest Podcast!!!  Woot! Hear me Ask Pat a question – I’m awesome – he’s awesome. Or use the player below.

Anyway a small thrill I know, but it means a lot to me. If you don’t know about Pat and your starting a business, a online business, a podcast or just need some inspiration, definitely check hm out.

Digital Intervention

So you may be wondering if I’m in fact going to do a podcast. The answer is maybe. I have done everything up to actually recording a session. My holdback is that I don’t want to start something I cant support long term. So hopefully by the end of the year I will have the content and time to produce a quality podcast.

If you are interested in podcasting check out this article and start there. It is an amazing medium for the geek at heart.

Show notes:

paul on ask pat

 

At the Apple event, Will “X” mark the spot for the new iPhone

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Update:: New iPhone 8 Gold has arrived. Some early pics.

iphone 8

 

apple keynote

Today, the highly anticipated announcements from Apple took place at the Steve Jobs theatre, as they do every year. But this year was inherently different because Apple was in the new magnificent location (see drone footage), and the iPhone, really the first smartphone, was introduced 10 years ago. I’m going to give a few facts and specs below, but Ill let the pictures tell the story. Bottom line is that Apple is great, the iPhone is better than last year’s, and technology is held together by companies like Apple. The iPhone X is here and it looks awesome. “All you need is love” was the message that Apple and Tim Cook opened the conference with, and I believe that is what all their employees put into their products.

If you want to watch the full Apple keynote go here.

apple keynote

On a side note, as it relates to love, Apple literally just donated 5 million dollars to the HandinHand2017 Hurricane relief as I was writing this.

iphone 8
So the quick summary from the event is that there were 3 major announcements.

  1. A New Apple Watch – Series 3 (See more here)
  2. An updated Apple TV 4K (see more info)
  3. And of course the new iPhones – 3 models iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and the iPhone X

 

iphone 8 animationiPhone 8 and 8 Plus specs:

  • Still has a physical Home button
  • 4.7-inch display for iPhone 8;  5.5-inch display for iPhone 8 Plus
  • Glass surface on front and back
  • Wireless charging using Qi standard (can be charged using third party wireless chargers that also use Qi)
  • LTE Advance for faster network connections
  • Water and dust resistant
  • Powered by an A11 Bionic chip, two performance cores
  • 12 mega-pixel camera with two new sensors and optical image stabilizers
  • “Portrait Lighting” feature uses the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus’ dual cameras to sense depth and rework the lighting while you compose the shot
  • Highest quality video ever in a smartphone
  • Shoots video in 4K
  • New gyroscopes and accelerometers for augmented reality
  • Both models available in 64 GB and 256 GB
  • iPhone 8 starts at $699, iPhone 8 Plus starts at $799
  • Comes in silver, space gray, gold finishes
  • Pre-order opens Sept. 15, available Sept. 22

 

iPhone X animationiPhone X

Basically the same as the iPhone 8 with these features.

  • Edge-to-edge display
  • Glass on front and back (same as iPhone 8)
  • Water and dust resistant
  • Comes in space gray and silver finishes
  • Super retina display (5.8-inch screen, 458 pixels per inch)
  • OLED display

No more home button on the “X”

  • Raise the phone or tap on any part of the screen to “wake up” the device, swipe up from bottom to go to home screen
  • Rather than pressing the home button, the phone unlocks by recognizing your face using the TrueDepth Camera System (infrared camera, floor illuminator, dot projector and front camera).
  • It works night and day, and learns your face over time so it cannot be duped by a photo or mask. Every time you glance at iPhone X it detects your face, takes an image, and checks it against a photo you took earlier.
  • When you take the initial ID photo, you move your head around so Face ID recognizes you from different angles. All processing is done on iPhone X and not sent to server to protect face data.
  • Face ID works with apps that use Touch ID, and can be used to verify payments.

The camera

  • Dual optical image stabilization
  • Larger and faster sensor
  • Quad-LED true tone flash 

Size and price

  • iPhone X available in 64 GB and 256 GB models
  • Starts at $999
  • Preorders available Oct. 27, ships Nov. 3

Full photo gallery here.

 

Video Gallery

Cool Features on Android 8.0 Oreo

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android OAndroid 8 has officially launched with the name OREO. Not a huge surprise, but everyone loves the cookie. Now will we love the Android operating system? I think so. I was a beta tester for the “O” system and I can tell you that the notifications, speed and battery life were greatly improved. I think Google has made some nice refinements to a good operating system.

My first impression is that there are not huge changes but some very nice tweaks to the system. It’s faster, extends the battery life, improves your notifications, WiFi is improved, and it’s already on Verizon for Pixel and XL – that’s the best news. There are a a few features I’d like to highlight but you can check out most of the features in the video below.

New Look for Settings Menu

The most obvious visual change is a revamped Settings menu, which features subtle dark gray text on an all-white background. Strangely, the side navigation menu introduced in Android Nougat is gone, but all of the various menus have been reorganized to make the Settings area as simple and straightforward as possible.

oreo settings

Notifications

Android Oreo will group notifications into channels, giving users greater control over their app notification categories. Google says:

“Users can block or change the behavior of each channel individually, rather than managing all of the apps’ notifications together.”

Another new feature will be notification dots, which are visual indicators on app icons that’ll show if you have any waiting notifications. This is a feature that iPhone users will be familiar with, as it’s been part of Apple’s iOS software for years. This could be the best feature. Being able to see whether you got email or a text or a message, this is a time saver. See the dot on my Gmail below.

dotOf course you can disable the notification badges with a long-press on the home screen, followed by a tap on Settings. Next, slide the switch next to All notification dots to the Off position.

Snooze that Notification

Google is also making it possible to snooze individual notifications, which is seriously useful given the persistence of some Android system notifications. You’ll be able to snooze notifications for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or one whole hour. It hides away from view, but will pop up again at a later time to remind us that we have unfinished business.

Picture-in-Picture mode (PiP) 

One of Android 8.0’s flagship features, this was previously available on Android TV and has made its way to the smartphone. PiP lets you keep watching what you’re doing in a small floating window while you venture into other apps. It’s a pretty cool feature.

picture in picture

You can drag it around the screen and tap it to access playback controls or make it full screen. Of course, you can also disable this feature on an app by app basis if you don’t like it. Just o to the App Info page for the app in question, or visit the Special app access section in Apps and Notifications to see all apps with support for PiP.

picture

Emojis around the house

Yes the emoji has been elevated. The stock Android blob emoji are now officially gone. The good news is that Google also released the new EmojiCompat library, which helps Android phones to “translate” new emoji and read them, instead of displaying an empty box with an X.

emoji

Wi-Fi improvements

Are you always in the habit of disabling Wi-Fi to save battery when you’re away from home? Android Oreo allows your device to automatically turn Wi-Fi back on when it detects you’re home and reconnect to your home network to save on mobile data.

Camera app improvements

Google is spending some time reworking the camera app, offering a new double-tap feature that lets you quickly get to 50% zoom. There’s also a new dedicated button that lets you switch between photo and video modes; previously, users were forced to swipe, which some may have found unintuitive.

The Android Oreo Promo Video

Eclipse Mania in 2017

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Unless you have been hiding under a rock, you know that the solar eclipse will be the biggest natural event of 2017. On Aug. 21, the moon will pass between the sun and Earth, and, depending on where you are in the United States, the moon can be seen completely, or partially, blocking the sun. Monday’s solar eclipse is expected to be the most-watched eclipse in history.  Depending where you on the path will determine the kind of view you’ll get.

solar eclpseWHAT’S THE PATH ON AUG. 21?

The path of totality will begin near Lincoln City, Oregon, as the lunar shadow makes its way into the U.S. This path will be 60 to 70 miles wide; the closer to the center, the longer the darkness. Totality will cross from Oregon into Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North Carolina and, finally, South Carolina. It will also pass over tiny slivers of Montana and Iowa. The eclipse will last longest near Carbondale, Illinois: two minutes and 44 seconds. The biggest cities in the path include Nashville; Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina; Salem, Oregon; Casper, Wyoming; and just partially within, St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri.

Click here to enter your zip code and see if the path goes over your head.

 

What on Earth are they doing?

The first known records of humans seeing an eclipse date back more than 3,000 years, but people did not begin to understand that Earth revolved around the sun until the 1600s. The fact that NASA has predicted the time, duration, and exact path of this eclipse shows the some of the regularity of the universe that we have come to understand. Astronomers have predicted other total eclipses for the next 100 years, with the next total solar eclipse visible in North America on April 8, 2024.

The next total solar eclipse is in July of 2019, but it will be better viewed in South America. Here’s a list of solar and lunar eclipses in the future.

 

Weird stuff people do during eclipses

How often do eclipses happen?

A solar eclipse happens, on average, a couple times a year. The moon passes between the Earth and sun every 29 days, a time we call the “new moon” – when the moon is not visible in Earth’s nighttime sky. However, the moon’s orbit and the sun’s path in our sky don’t match up exactly, so at most of those new moon events, the moon appears above or below the sun.

“A solar eclipse happens, on average, a couple times a year”

Twice a year, there is a period where the moon and the sun line up with Earth – astronomers call this an eclipse season. It lasts about 34 days, long enough for the moon to complete a full orbit (and then some) of the Earth. During each eclipse season, there are at least two eclipses visible from some parts of the Earth. At the full moon, there will be a lunar eclipse, when the moon passes directly behind the Earth, resulting in a darker, reddish-colored moon. And at the new moon, there will be a solar eclipse, when the sun is blocked by the moon.

solar eclipseViewing the eclipse

There are 3 basic ways you can view the eeclipse.

  1. Buy the correct glasses
  2. Build your own viewing box
  3. Watch live streaming

If you haven’t purchased eclipse viewers yet, we suggest manufacturers or vendors that have been approved by the American Astronomical Society or International Organization for Standardization. Looking at the sun with substandard glasses may cause permanent damage to your eyes.

Safety standards for glasses

When it comes to solar-eclipse glasses and other solar viewers, it’s important to ensure that the product you’re using is safe and effective at blocking harmful radiation from the sun. Just because something looks like suitable eye protection doesn’t mean it’s safe to use. Even if a product is advertised as a solar viewer, it’s important to look for a label that says ISO, which stands for the International Organization for Standardization.

The ISO is an independent organization that writes safety and quality standards for all kinds of things, including eyewear, health care, food production and more based on a broad consensus of the scientific community. If you find eclipse glasses or other solar viewers that aren’t labeled ISO, then they aren’t guaranteed to protect your eyes the way they should.

ISO-approved solar-eclipse glasses must meet certain safety requirements:

  • No more than 0.00032 percent of the sun’s light may be transmitted through the filters.
  • The filters must be free of any defects, such as scratches, bubbles and dents.
  • Handheld viewers must be large enough to cover both eyes.
  • Labels on the viewers (or packaging) must include the name of the manufacturer, instructions for safe use and warnings of the dangers of improper use.

 

NASA will be live streaming the event – click here.

 

Build your own viewer out of a shoebox – see how in this video.

Pink Floyd sang about the eclipse phenomena decades ago.

pink eclipse

Eclipse (Rodger Waters) 2:04 

All that you touch
All that you see
All that you taste
All you feel.
All that you love
All that you hate
All you distrust
All you save.
All that you give
All that you deal
All that you buy,
beg, borrow or steal.
All you create
All you destroy
All that you do
All that you say.
All that you eat
And everyone you meet
All that you slight
And everyone you fight.
All that is now
All that is gone
All that’s to come
and everything under the sun is in tune
but the sun is eclipsed by the moon.

Protect your eyes

Are Virtual Doctors really the future or medicine?

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virtual doctorSo, you come down with a cold and you want to get a prescription for your cough and stuffy nose. You’ve been down this road 100 times in your life and dread going to the doctors office, waiting an hour in the waiting room, getting everyone else sick, only to get the script you normally get. Why can’t you call or FaceTime a doctor for simple illnesses? Actually, you can, but not many are taking advantage of it yet. Insurance companies see it as a supplemental process, but I suspect it will become more popular as price pushes us towards a virtual doctor.

Virtual doctors and telehealth are becoming popular, but not as quickly as you’d think. There are plenty of start-ups in this area but patients have just haven’t latched on yet. Insurance companies need to raise the awareness and support. Telehealth as the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support and promote long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health and health administration. The technologies include; videoconferencing, the internet, streaming media, and wireless – your phone.

“Patients Using Telehealth Services Will Explode to 7 Million by 2018” – HIT

virtual doctor

Top Telehealth players in the game right now

CareClix

Founded in 2010, CareClix coordinates with board-certified physicians around the world to provide a variety of telehealth services, including high-definition video examinations and remote consultations. CareClix also operates a provider care group, allowing physicians to offer their patients general and specialized services on demand around the clock.

On the patient side, the CareClix platform allows you to file and track claims online. You can also schedule telemedicine visits online and update them anytime through the self-scheduling feature. Visit the site here.

virtual doctorDoctor On Demand

Doctor On Demand takes the house call virtual, making it possible for doctors and patients to connect via live video conferences. Patients can be treated for a range of minor medical conditions, including sore throat, sports injuries, rashes and flu symptoms. In June 2015 the company announced a $50 million funding, designed to allow Doctor On Demand to expand its range of services and grow its customer base in the process. Visit the site here.

MyTelemedicine

Recently named as one of the best entrepreneurial companies in America by Entrepreneur magazine’s Entrepreneur 360™, MyTelemedicine has emerged as a front runner in the industry. The platform allows patients to call or go online to schedule a consultation with a physician licensed in their state. A triage nurse takes note of their symptoms and updates the patient’s electronic health record. 

The patient consults with the physician, who recommends a treatment plan. There’s no waiting in line at an urgent care facility or emergency room, and you don’t have to miss work to get medical care. In terms of options, patients can speak to a physician, pediatrician or even a behavioral therapist if needed. Visit the site here.

Teladoc

When time is of the essence, Teladoc connects you to the medical advice you need. Patients can speak to a physician via web, phone or mobile app in less than 10 minutes. The company reportedly has more than 17 million members who are served by over 3,600 licensed healthcare professionals, with 20 years of experience on average. Visit the site here.

iCliniq

If you’re looking for a virtual hospital while you’re away from home, look no further than iCliniq. The company offers online access to over 1,500 doctors in more than 80 specialties, and the platform caters specifically to expatriates and travelers. Patients can consult physicians anytime, day or night, and pay a flat fee to get their health questions answered. Visit the site here.

telehealth5 examples of where virtual doctors/telehealth is working

  1. Through a program at Boston-based Partners Healthcare, more than 3,000 congestive heart failure patients used at-home monitoring devices to send updates of their weight, blood pressure and other metrics to Partners. Clinical decision support software then helped identify the patients that needed interventions. The program allowed a panel of three or four nurses to provide care for 250 patients, and ultimately reduced readmissions among the participating patient population by 44 percent while generating cost savings of more than $10 million.
  2. A four-year program run by the Veterans Health Administration combined remote patient monitoring, health informatics and disease management technology to improve care for patients with six chronic conditions ranging from depression to diabetes. In addition to high patient satisfaction scores, the program also achieved a 25 percent drop in bed-days of care and a 19 percent reduction in hospital admissions as compared to traditional care.
  3. Kaiser Permanente dermatologists in San Diego are able to treat more patients by reviewing images and patient information uploaded and sent to them over a secure server by referring physicians, rather than seeing every patient in person. The practice’s physicians now handle 800 cases per month, 50 percent more than if they relied on face-to-face visits.
  4. About 13 percent of all intensive care unit beds in the country are supported by tele-ICU technology. At the University of Massachusetts Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, having trained intensivists provide ICU care remotely resulted in a 20 percent decrease in mortality, a 30 percent drop in lengths of stay and reductions in care costs.
  5. Telemedicine can also help patients adhere to their medication regimes. A randomized trial at the Center for Connected Health, part of Partners Healthcare, showed the use of a wireless pill bottle that reminded patients to take their blood pressure medication increased adherence by 68 percent.

The Bottom Line

These are just a few telemedicine companies out there. The technology is in place and needs more educated consumer/patients to take advantage. Your doctors are already using technology to diagnose. Once the patient population adopts this process a little more, I really think this will be used for 50% of our visits. Frankly, I think it makes sense when used with proper follow-ups. And it’s quite possible the that quality might be better, with a doctor that’s able to give a patient more time. Ask your insurance provider if they offer this service ( I do not get paid for this).

Apple says end of an era for the iPod

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Apple announced that the iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle would be discontinued and were halted from sales last Thursday. The end of an era for some popular gadgets. But have no fear, Apple plans to continue selling its internet-connected iPod Touch. It should be no surprise to anyone since smartphones are mainly used for listening to music, videos, and taking pictures, with an occasional phone call.

nano shuffleThe Nano and Shuffle came out in 2005 as less expensive and smaller alternatives to Apple’s standard iPod, but the company stopped updating the Nano and Shuffle several years ago. Knowing that many may be nervous buying a iPod Touch, Apple doubled the storage capacity of its top-of-line model to 128 gigabytes. That version costs $300. An iPod Touch with 32 gigabytes of storage sells for $200. The company’s sales of iPods peaked in its fiscal year 2008 when the devices generated revenue of $9.2 billion. The iPhone at that time accounted for $1.8 billion in revenue that same year.

touch
The current iPod Touch

End of an era for Apple

It truly is the end of an era for Apple, as the iPod was a treasured gadget by Steve Jobs. The iPod introduced by Steve was one of the most innovative gadgets if all time. And not just for the hardware, but he changed the music industry and how we listen to music. For me it seems like yesterday he introduced the iPod in 2001.

Steve knew how to sell Apple products especially when he liked the product, and he believed in this product. By the time he was done on stage, it seemed perfectly natural for Apple to make a music player. Its design blew everything else out of the water. It was beautiful and it was well engineered.  

“A thousand songs in your pocket,” he said.

ipod shuffle era

The iPod name isn’t being totally phased out — Apple’s newest audio products are AirPods and HomePod. And the iPod Touch was recently by far the best-selling iPod. One reason Apple may be phasing the iPod Shuffle out is that it doesn’t have Bluetooth, which means it won’t work with Apple’s latest wireless headphones, AirPods. Neither iPod supports Apple Music, Apple’s online streaming service for audio and video.

Why it’s always sad to see a good gadget phased out, it has great replacements and they had a good run. It’s time to move onto the iPhone 8! Another historic Steve Jobs gadget.

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