Time of the Tech

There comes a time when parents have to decide when is a good age to give your child a phone? For my wife and I, we always knew we would hold off on a fully operational phone with unrestricted internet access until closer to 18. But there are times a phone  is  useful — after school, when they’re with friends, or to have GPS location handy. Luckily, tech companies like  Gabb ,  Troomi , and  Bark  are offering  parent-approved alternatives  — phones built for safety, not social media addiction or risky browsing. So how do these options compare? Here’s a breakdown to help you make the right choice for your family. 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Which One Should You Choose? 🛡️ 1. Gabb Wireless Best For:  Younger kids (ages ~9–14) who need basic connectivity without internet distractions. ✅ Pros: No open Internet, no app store, no social media. Calls, texts, messaging app + GPS tracking. Phones look and feel like basic smartphones, not toys. Encourages limited sc...

In the previous post, I mentioned one benefit of getting rid of your phone addiction is that you'll be able to sleep more. The Link Between Blue Light, Screens & Sleep We all know that screens emit blue-light, which can mess with your natural sleep rhythms. When you stare at your phone/computer/TV in the evening, your brain gets the message “Hey, we’re still awake — daylight mode!” That delays the release of melatonin (the hormone that helps you wind down). By putting devices away early, you’re giving your body a cue: “Okay, time to shift into rest mode.” More Sleep = More of the Good Stuff Here’s what happens when you actually get quality, uninterrupted sleep: Better mental clarity: Your brain consolidates memory, processes what you’ve learned, and sorts through the day. More energy for real life: Gym sessions, creative goals, spending time with loved ones — you’ll show up stronger. Health boost: Adequate sleep helps regulate mood, immune function, and even metab...

If any of you are parents, you will most likely have a child that is addicted to a screen. If you are one of the fortunate parents to have cracked the code of children's screen addictions, good for you. I mean this with zero sarcasm. Please let us know in the comments below what worked for you.  For the rest of us that have been fooled, betrayed and trapped by screens, here is the game plan, part 1. The first part of the game plan is to help yourself. How can you teach your children not to be addicted, when you yourself are addicted to screens. Do you fill in all your free time trying to play a game on your phone, scrolling mindlessly through infinite feeds on social media, get caught up in a YouTube rabbithole or constantly checking news websites?  You don't have to get rid of all your screen time, but it will be easier to implement screen controls starting at zero screen time and gradually building up to a safe zone. At this point, you might feel like you can't do thi...

When I started this blog in 2008, I wanted to help others fall in love with technology. I figured the goal would not be difficult to attain, considering that in our human condition we thirst for technology. It is technology that makes our lives easier, more entertaining and live longer. It was very silly to think people needed convincing and that I could make a contribution to that human desire for technology.  That however was not my most important take away for this reflection. I made an assumption that technology was a net good thing. As of today, I am sure that technology is a net negative for our lives and society. This does not mean that I am against technology, only that we should not embrace all of it and we need training on how to use it.  How a person uses technology is what determines if it is good or bad. Unfortunately, we have used our tech to enslave us. I constantly see people walking outside looking at their phones. Or people looking at their phones while they ...

I can't believe so many years have gone by without a single post about technology. What happened to me? Children, many of them. So I have decided to put a spin on this website. I'll focus on articles about technology that help parents, children and all people in general. 

Many days, weeks, and months have passed since my last post. The main reason I have been away so long is because of the birth of my beautiful daughter. And what a joy she is. On many occasions I started drafting a post, only to never finish it. But finally I was driven to blog again. You see my friends, three and half years ago I left Facebook. I subsequently wrote three articles about how Facebook sucked and how it was going to collapse like Friendster and MySpace. And now I am back on Facebook... Did I miss Facebook? No, life was good without it. Every now and then a site would require a Facebook login, like Spotify. However, there were always ways around it, like using my wife's Facebook account. But then I came across Generation Y 1 . In our Church group, I needed to communicate with them. My preferred method of communication for a group like that is e-mail. To my surprise, not everyone in Generation Y checks their e-mail on a daily basis. So one of the members of our g...

Several months ago, my sole daily reader, co-worker, and friend- Matthew- showed me a small green plastic airplane. The green plastic airplane was no bigger than three inches from nose to rudder. He told me that the airplane was created from a 3-D printer. At first, I did not believe him. But then I used some logic, if humans have fission energy, made it to the moon, and created iPhones, then why not 3-D printers? Never doubt the ingenuity of humans. If we can imagine something, it will be a possibility one day. After my internal monologue, which happened in less than three seconds, I must have responded to Matthew with a calm, "Cool". And indeed the 3-D airplane was cool. Some weeks passed by, then Matthew brings me a 3-D printed barrel, pictured above. I begin to ask more questions about this printer. Apparently, the printer is custom made. The limitations of this printer are a length and width of a few inches, the height being more flexible. This particular printer ...

There are many keyboards out there for Android. To name a few, they are: Android Stock HTC Sense Samsung TouchWiz Swipe Swiftkey None of these keyboards are the perfection that is the iPhone keyboard. Hence, if you have an Android phone like me, you are stuck with the second best keyboard experience. The second best experience is not automatically a bad thing. Insane example, would you not like to be world's second richest person? Swiftkey is the best Android keyboard option for the simple reason that it will give you the fastest and most accurate experience. The auto-correction is the best in the business and it only gets better over time as it learns from your past inputs. Here is a comparison of the the previous version of Swiftkey versus the Ice Cream Sandwich stock keyboard. The newest Swiftkey introduced "flow" which is essentially Swipe. But you are not obligated to "flow", since you will still have the best auto-correcting ex...

Let us get two things clear, I am not working on Wall Street and I am not a "douchebag", but I have a Bluetooth earpiece. Do Wall Street people even wear a Bluetooth earpiece? Anyways, while not as popular as in years past, I do believe there is value in these earpieces. I recently got a Plantronics Bluetooth earpiece for $30 at Costco. And by "I got it" that means that I accompanied my dad to Costco and threw the Bluetooth earpiece in the cart. And since I do not have a Costco membership, pops had to pay to for it. Thanks dad. After using the earpiece for 7 days, I firmly believe more people should be using Bluetooth earpieces. The main reason I got the earpiece was to drive and talk on the phone with a peace of mind. With a Bluetooth earpiece you are able to easily answer a call while driving. Making a call is a little tougher because it depends on how good your phone picks up your voice, but it is still better than using the speaker function on your phone o...

The last weeks have been a whirlwind. After patiently waiting for the Samsung Galaxy Note II to come out on Verizon for three months, I snapped. On Friday, November 23, 2012, which is also known as "Black Friday", I bought the HTC Droid DNA. Why would I buy the HTC Droid, if I wanted the Galaxy Note II? Two good reasons at the time. One, I wanted a large screen, the Droid DNA has a large 5 inch display with a stunning 441 pixels per inch. Two, I knew that the Galaxy Note II was coming out in less than a week, so if I had buyer's remorse, I could "easily" exchange the Droid DNA. Since the horrible exchange experience I suffered through is not the topic of this story, I will quickly summarize it: Two phone calls to *611 which is Verizon's customer support Three trips to three different Verizon corporate stores Two long nights of searching for a non-existing paper receipt Unnecessary stress on my sweet wife I will never buy something again, if I h...

So while the suits in Motorola are chewing bubble gum, checking for updates on their Facebook page, and holding meetings, Samsung is preparing to host a big event on October 24, 2012. The Samsung event will be about their upcoming Galaxy Note II phone. Samsung is going to do what Motorola cannot do, they are going to give their formally announced product a release date. The Samsung Galaxy Note II will be another monstrous phone much like the original Galaxy Note. The original Galaxy Note has a 5.5 inch display, the Galaxy Note II has a 5.55 inch display. For reference, all iPhones (except the iPhone 5) have a 3.5 inch display and most Android phones have between 4 to 4.8 inch display. Bottom line, the Galaxy Note line of phones is gigantic. The tech blogs refer to these phones as "phablets". The offspring of a phone and a tablet. Yesterday, while at Costco on an errand to pick up some garlic french bread, my wife wandered over to the jewelry section. At the speed of lig...

I mentioned in my previous post that there are a lot of great phones coming soon. Of all the upcoming phones, the one that catches my eye the most is the Motorola Razr HD Maxx (pictured above). The problem is... there is no release date for the Razr HD Maxx. And I will not twiddle my thumbs and patiently wait for Motorola to release the phone. The wait could be months! Motorola announced the phone and we deserve to know when it will be released. Motorola forgets that we have options. So last Saturday on September 22, 2012, I sent Motorola an e-mail regarding the unknown release date of the Razr HD Maxx. Here was my e-mail: Hello Motorola, I ask that you please give us the consumers a release date for the Razr HD/ Maxx. There are too many good phones out on the market (e.g., SGIII, iPhone 5) for those like me that would like the new Razr HD Maxx, but don't want to wait for an unspecified amount of time. Soon our patience will fade. Thank you, Enrique Esparza And h...

What an exciting month September 2012 has been for smartphones! We truly are spoiled. We got three major announcements in the span of a week, they were: Nokia announced the Lumia 920, their first Windows Mobile 8 phone, it will be a thing of beauty. Motorola announed the Razr HD, also a thing of beauty. Then Apple announced the iPhone 5. As part of the announcement for the iPhone 5, iOS 6 was introduced. iOS 6 is now the operating system for Apple gadgets (i.e., iPad, iPod, and iPhone) including some older generations. The biggest change in iOS 6 was the addition of Apple's own Maps app. Since there is only room for one native Maps app that meant, goodbye to Google Maps. After using Apple Maps for two days here are three quick thoughts. Thought 1: Overall this is a better mapping experience simply because of the addition of turn-by-turn navigation and its integration with Siri. The first thing I did to test out the new Maps app was to ask Siri, "Directions to the nearest Ta...

When I buy a product I do not just look at its price and function, I take into account the culture of the company that made the product. How does the company treat its employees and customers? Are they like AT&T where they only care about quarterly profits? What is their CEO like? Does he jump the line for liver transplants just because he has a personal jet, like Steve Jobs? These are all important factors when I purchase a product. The Apple v. Samsung lawsuits should be illuminating to all of us regarding Apple's character. Recently, Samsung was found guilty of infringing on several of Apple's utility and design patents. Samsung was ordered to pay Apple US $1 billion. Now Apple wants to ban the Samsung Galaxy SIII. Will Apple ever be satisfied, they are already the most valuable company to exist? Apple is acting like an entitled monopoly. Moreover, the US patent system is failing us, and helping to create Apple's monopoly. There is no doubt that for innovation to...

On January 2011, I predicted that Facebook would become irrelevant much like of fate of Friendster and MySpace. I gave Facebook two more years of relevancy (i.e., January 2013). First prediction link. Clearly, that first prediction is not going to come true. I realized my error three months later and wrote about a special variable "K" which extended the life of Facebook, but I did not predict a time period for the end of Facebook's relevancy. Second prediction link. Thanks to CEO Mark Zuckerberg making Facebook a public company, their demise has been accelerated. The main motivation behind making a company public is the desire to make more money, a.k.a. greed. Now, Zuckerberg must answer to his investors every three months. Investors, who will never be as patient as the owner of a private company. An early lesson one learns in life is that evil defeats itself. Greed is an evil. While greed can give "good" results, the results do not last. Eventually the b...

Yesterday, I was surprised by the use of an "old" technology, the e-mail, used in a new way. This started when I accompanied my wife to Macy's so that she could get some Origins lotion. Why women have to shop is beyond me, why women have to buy expensive lotion is also beyond me. Men, just know that is how they are, you can only hope to contain their appetite to shop, good luck! It is funny how they always "need" something. Makes you wonder if women understand the meaning of the word "need"... Either way, I love my wife. Anyways, back to the expensive lotion. After doing some asking at the Origins section of Macy's, my wife has the lotion she wants, Ginger Souffle. We take the lotion to the counter to pay. After I hand the young lady helping us at the counter my credit card, she asks me if I want a paper receipt or an electronic receipt. I am confused. I have never been given this option before. I ponder, "Well a paper receipt is nice, ...

About two weeks ago Google released Chrome for iOS (i.e., the operating system for the iPad, iPhone,and iPod Touch). For those that are not tech savy, know that Chrome is a web browser much like: Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. While Apple's Safari is a decent option to use as a web browser on my iPhone and iPad, I have always longed for Chrome. For almost three years Chrome has been my main web browser on my desktop. Thought 1: Chrome for iOS is a much better option than Safari for iOS. You should definitely download it if you have an iOS device. Tabbing and opening up a new window is smoother and more efficient with Chrome. For example when you open a new window in Chrome, all your favorite sites show up as large icons, which allows you to get to the sites you like in the shortest possible time. Chrome also has incognito browsing, which allows you to browse the web without leaving any tracks. Do not abuse it! Lastly, Chrome for iOS has the unibar , which allows for the use of...

Radiation has a big problem. The problem being that the public has a negative perception of it. The negative public perception of radiation is fueled by misinformation which leads to fear. Fear not, but instead respect radiation. Radiation is just a type of energy, much like heat and electricity are a type of energy. As with any energy form, too much going through our bodies can harm us. To feel safe and be safe around radiation, you must understand it. Radiation is either elementary particles (i.e., photons, electrons) or a composite of elementary particles (i.e., neutrons, protons) or a composite of atomic particles (i.e., alpha particles) traversing through space. Here are some key points about radiation: Some radiation (i.e., photons) is mass-less. Photons (i.e., light) are electro-magnetic waves that range from large wavelengths (radio wave, micro wave) to small wavelengths (x-ray and gamma ray). In the middle of the spectrum are infrared, visible light, and UV photo...

First off, let me give credit to whom it is due. I have gloriously modeled (or blatantly copied) the design of this blog entry, "three thoughts on ...", from Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl. Now back to my three thoughts. Google unveiled their first official tablet earlier this week, which is the Nexus 7 tablet. The device will debut for $200 and the hardware is manufactured by Asus. Thought 1: At 7 inches and $200 this is meant to compete with the Amazon Kindle Fire which is also 7 inches and $200. Amazon, Google, Apple, and Microsoft are all staking claims into different segments of the tablet market. Amazon and Google are competing for the smaller screen, E-reader, more affordable sector. Apple is dominating the higher end tablet sector. And the upcoming Microsoft Surface is vying for the tablet/netbook sector. Thought 2: The Nexus 7 will be a perfect device for anyone looking for an E-reader that can also function as a web browser. The Nexus 7 is clearly ...

The much anticipated Blizzard game, Diablo III, was released in May 2012. I did not have a chance to pick up a copy until this month. Let me begin by acknowledging that the game is very good. But there is an aspect of the game which worries me. Diablo III has an auction house where you can sell the items you get from the game. These auction houses have been around for some time in video games. The difference with Diablo III is that not only can you bid with the in-game "gold" money, but you can bid using real money. So if your character manages to "loot" a unique item, maybe you can sell it for US dollars. I have already heard stories around my gamer friends of an item selling for $50. The real money auction house in Diablo III, brings me back to a discussion I had with a friend, Claude. We talked about how the only thing stopping hardcore gamers from immersing themselves in games and losing track of reality was if they found a way to make money from playing th...