APE by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch
How to publish a book. Artisanal Publishing Entrepreneur. Does it seem like more books are being published by your colleagues these days? If you are getting a ‘publish or perish’ twinge or just want to get that novel that’s waiting inside you on to paper – this book is for you. Guy Kawasaki takes you through all the steps you need to effectively self-publish and market an e-book. APE was written with the intention of providing a continuing resource. There are 400 reference links and tips on essential publishing topics such as covers, pricing and uploading your book, and how to navigate Amazon. Guy brings his perspective as a prolific author and expert on the field of entrepreneurship and Shawn has technical expertise for interfacing with e-readers publishing. Available as an e-book now, with paperback coming Jan 7.

Likeonomics by Rohit Bhargava
The unexpected truth behind earning trust, influencing behavior, and inspiring action. Rohit employs a principles framework called TRUST, standing for Truth, Relevance, Unselfishness, Simplicity, and Timing. The book contains extensive examples including a regional team of financial advisors that went from being ranked 173rd out of 176 branches to first, staying there for thirteen of the next fifteen years. We are not talking about the Facebook like here. Rohit cleverly provides bonus materials for readers of the book at Likeonomics.com. While Rohit is a professor at Georgetown University, he avoids an academic style of writing and uses an easy reading, likable conversational tone. Available in hard cover, e-book and audio.

Think Like Zuck by Ekaterina Walter
The five business secrets of Facebook’s improbably brilliant CEO Mark Zuckerberg
The five keys in this book are: passion, purpose, people, product, and partnerships. Ekaterina begins by explaining the significant impact of Facebook on the world. Did you realize that the Facebook “like” was introduced as recently as April 2010? Though Ekaterina leads with Facebook, she also brings in examples like Threadless, College Humor, TOMS, Dyson, XPLANE, JESS3 and Zappos to explain why some entrepreneurs are successful. I liked Ekaterina’s checklist for partnership: clear expectations, shared values and vision, mutual trust, fair exchange of value, complementary strengths, commitment and mutual respect. If you pre-order at ThinkLikeZuck.com, you get a free download of her Social DNA: Becoming a Social Business: a Practical Guide to Social Media Adoption Within any Organization. Available in e-book now and hard cover January 15

Socialized! by Mark Fidelman
How the most successful businesses harness the power of social. To compete today you must understand Social Business. Mark’s book is a good introduction that explains what Social Business is and what your company needs to do to make it happen. My full review here. Available in hard cover, e-book, and Kindle (including audio/video.)

Creating a Done Done Culture by Chris Lema
The 12 habits of high performers and what it means for you as a leader. Chris Lema is a generous writer. I have found that everything he writes has value. Done Done Culture is from another of Chris’s themes, tips to help you succeed in business. Done Done delivers the twelve habits of high performers. Personal accountability and ownership are featured in these tips that will help you attract other high performers to you and your team. I enjoy Chris’s daily blogs at ChrisLema.com, where he provides Leadership, WordPress and Presentation tips. A quick read, Done Done Culture is available in e-book and PDF.

Laughing at Wall Street by Chris Camillo
How I beat the pro’s at investing (by reading tabloids, shopping at the mall, and connecting on Facebook) and how you can too. I’ve included this book because financial security allows you to spend time doing all those things you should be doing to build your personal brand. This is a fun, practical guide for the novice investor. Available in hard cover and e-book.

Social Media Analytics by Marshall Sponder
Effective tools for building, interpreting, and using metrics
A book on this topic goes out of date by the time it is published. Yet Social Media Analytics will give you a good base for understanding the developing field of social media analytics. You will realize that none of the tools currently available can completely answer your needs. However, you will learn who the players are, how to build a requirements list and customization possibilities for your organization. Available in e-book and hard cover.

Guy Kawasaki with Linda Sherman at NMX (BlogWorld)

Linda Sherman with Rohit Bhargava at NMX (BlogWorld)

Ekaterina Walter with Linda Sherman at NMX (BlogWorld) NYC

Chris Camillo with Linda Sherman and Ray Gordon at NMX (BlogWorld)

These four author photos were taken at New Media Expo (NMX – formerly BlogWorld). If you enjoy meeting great thinkers like those listed here, I recommend that you attend. The next New Media Expo, BusinessNext Social conference is January 6 – 8 in Las Vegas. There is still time to get your ticket. Hope to see you there.

Please let me know how your investment in yourself is going this holiday season.

Social Business strategy and implementation should be functions inside your company, well-connected to your company’s top decision makers.

Social Business is broader than social media marketing. Effective social marketing programs are engaging and encourage a two way conversation with potential customers. Companies that are successful Social Businesses have created “Digital Villages” where employees collaborate internally to share information with each other as well as with customers, partners and suppliers.

The “must-have” employee of the future is a master of both internal social business and external social business. If they are representing the voice of the company externally, they must be trust-worthy. If they are interpreting the voice of the customer and bringing recommendations back to the company, they should have a strategic, knowledgeable perspective. That is why I propose that Boomers who effectively combine their company know-how with social business skills can make the best leaders.

If your company has implemented a social intranet*, you can establish yourself as a valuable contributor and expert on that platform. Like external social networks, you build influence by being helpful.

You don’t need to be in the marketing department to be Social Business savvy. An engineer can contribute and support ideas cross-department within the company and build a following as an expert in his field externally.

Are you in the right place? Does your company have a culture that could create a successful Social Business? If you own the company, are you building the type of culture that can succeed in today’s rapidly changing competitive environment while attracting the best employees?

Early in Socialized! How the Most Successful Businesses Harness the Power of Social, author Mark Fidelman presents a survey with a set of revealing traits about organizations that determine whether the company has the cultural infrastructure to be a Social Business. This survey can apply to any size of company.

1. What is our company’s management style?
2. What are our primary cultural attributes?
3. What are our criteria for success?
4. What philosophy dominates our quality strategies?
5. What is our cultural approach to strategy?

Based on Fidelman’s research, there are five primary company culture types. When you take the survey in the book, you will see which of these categories your organization fits into:

1. Innovative
2. Community
3. Execution
4. Command-and-Control
5. Adolescent

Culture types 1 and 2 are most likely to be able to execute a successful Social Business. Fidelman provides example companies for each culture type and says,”The companies that are leading in today’s world recognize the benefits of an empowered workforce that feels connected to the organization.” Interestingly, type 5, Adolescent describes most start-ups and some large family businesses.

It is not impossible to shift a company culture towards one that supports Social Business. Here are Fidelman’s tips to accomplish that goal:

1. Let employees know it is OK to fail
2. Reinforce social media guidelines
3. Encourage transparency (discourage information hoarding)
4. Hire great people, look for a good cultural fit
5. Create a cultural ambassador program to help employees embrace Social Business
6. Let ideas float from the bottom to the top
7. Eliminate the “not invented here” mentality
8. Think globally, act locally
9. Have a clear vision of social business
10.Build in incentives for information sharing

I loved Fidelman’s suggestion to use a Trojan Horse approach to stealthily introduce internal Social Business to a company. This type of change will most certainly meet with resistance from some. (In particular, middle managers are threatened by the Social Business model.) Fidelman recommends starting with one project with a group likely to succeed.

I recommend that you read Socialized! for the full playbook, many concrete examples and illustrations, and a guide to being a social executive.

Though Dell and Starbucks have very different products, they are good examples of companies already taking advantage of Social Business both internally and externally.

I wrote earlier about how Starbucks is a company that has taken Social Business to heart.

Back in March 2010, I had the pleasure of interviewing Lionel Machaca, chief blogger for Dell. We discussed how they manage their Social Business efforts. Dell’s enthusiasm to connect employees to customers has become more formalized but remains an important part of their culture. Susan Beebe, Dell’s chief listener more recently told Fidelman “We’ve got 10,000 people trained and certified in social media that can engage Dell customers.

Mark Fidelman writes for Forbes and is the Conference Director for BusinessNext Social in Las Vegas January 6-8. I am pleased to be included as a speaker at the conference. Please join us or purchase a virtual ticket to dive further into the Social Business discussion.

*Boomer Tech Talk Guide to Technical Words Used in this Article:
Social Intranet: Fidelman mentions: IBM (Connections), Salesforce Chatter, Microsoft (SharePoint with News-Gator), Yammer (now part of Microsoft), Jive Software, ThoughtFarmer, and PBworks. I would add to that Cisco WebEx Social.
Social Business: Social Business is more than social media marketing for business. Sandy Carter of IBM says, “A Social Business is one who embeds social in all their processes, connecting people to people, people to information, and data to insight…Social Media primarily focuses on marketing and public relations.”

Are your retirement goals slipping away?

Baby Boomers were the first generation affected by that major change in how retirement plans are administered. 

Most of you reading this article already know that covers far less than traditional employer health plans. However, most don’t realize that over a typical Boomer’s lifetime, non-covered medical costs can add up to a huge number. The Employee Benefit Research Institute estimates that the cost to a couple currently over the age of 65 will total $240,000 over their 17-20 year remaining lifetime. Medicare premiums are on a sliding scale, so if you have a substantial income, you’ll pay much more than if you’re under the limit.

Health premiums today often exceed the entire amount couples receive from their Social Security benefits. Very few Baby Boomers were thinking about this issue, and thus did not plan in their 40′s to save nearly enough towards their retirement. Your expected expenses should account for these and other costs. You should also have enough to ensure that you can get into a good care facility if you ever need to. While no one likes to think of themselves as becoming frail, it’s good to plan for the unexpected.

If you have been fortunate and have $1 million saved, this would put you in the top 1% of all people over 40 years old. Yet that amount is hardly enough to reach even a modest retirement goal given that more and more healthy people are living into their 80′s and 90′s.
 
According to Robert Reynolds, President and Chief Executive Officer of Putnam – the firm that developed the lifetime income analysis tool, 99% of those over 40 year old are not even halfway towards meeting their retirement goals. 

If your family is now spending $150,000 annually and believe that you want to maintain that lifestyle after you retire, you might be very surprised to discover how much is needed to withstand the occasional shocks to one’s portfolio that we have all seen. Coupled with the fact that earned income today on any passive investment yields a very limited return, you would need a minimum of $10,000,000 in retirement savings to maintain your current lifestyle. 

By now you are recognizing that it is highly unlikely that you’ll make this objective. Well fine, what objective can you attain?  Is it realistic that you can live on 50% of the amount you now earn and remain comfortable?

Studies show that most retired couples that attempt to reduce expenses can only make marginal adjustments. In fact, most financial advisers suggest 80% as a reasonable reduction in lifestyle expenses. That means that the couple in my example would require $120,000 a year (in 2012 dollars), reducing the amount you need to save for retirement to $8,000,000.  That would still apply to only the top 1%.  Unfortunately, those of us in the 99% who don’t have $8,000,000 saved have a very serious issue confronting us for the 15 years or more after retirement. What you do right now will make all the difference to you and your family as to how your retirement will turn out.

Note the message above is not focused on income nor the rate of return one assumes as reasonable but the level of savings needed to maintain the burn rate of your lifestyle. If you think you can earn 7% on savings year in and year out without any losses then it will only take $5m. But the reality is that everyone has losses.

With a defined contribution plan, the responsibility is on you and your family – no one else is really watching out for you. The financial services industry keeps telling you to “play it safe” and save as much as you can but in the end you need to understand how to meet your retirement goals. Unfortunately, most of us are not going to have “comfortable” retirements. You should start today with a plan. For instance, when in your 40′s you should be saving 25% of your earned income. Typically, the 40′s is your best decade to earn income, and thus it needs to be the decade where you save the most for your retirement. 

Given this scenario, I would like to recommend to you a company that I have invested with myself over many years and can vouch for their integrity and performance.

Three Arch Investors are not financial nor retirement planners, nor do they act in the role of an advisor.  However, they do currently offer two investment funds that would be classified as alternative investments possibly suitable in meeting your goals and objectives.  Most of their investors have found it necessary to look beyond the traditional stock market and bond market in seeking other forms of income to build up their retirement portfolios – while attempting to have uncorrelated results outside of the typical financial services industry. 
 
Current retirees enjoy getting monthly checks. The first fund, Three Arch Investors Fund 1, has been distributing 5% monthly since 2010 – with that current income coming exclusively from rentals. The fund is managed with the goal to diversify the locations of the homes, the maturity dates of the leases, and the segments of the market. The plan is to maintain the 5% distributions as a priority to the sponsors before receiving any fees. Their inventory of single family homes are located on the west coast of the United States and are rented to families seeking quality housing for time periods of 3 – 5 years. The second fund, the Three Arch Securities program, is for those that don’t require current income. This fund flips homes bought from the banks and other agencies that have been foreclosed on. Both funds have exceptional returns.

Investors today are facing very tough choices and I am not suggesting that your retirement goals can be met with just these two funds. However in the current environment of low interest rates, where you are “rewarded” with 1% yields for five year investments, or 1.7% for ten years, the likelihood that your retirement goals will be met are virtually nonexistent. Today one can find highly confident experts predicting a clear path to housing recovery, as indicated in an October 3, 2012 article by CNN Money and many others. Most experts believe that early in 2012 most markets in the US began to stabilize and take the first steps toward recovery. On the Three Arch Investors web site, they have posted numerous articles and video that support this belief.  

If you recognize that passive income from bonds, CD’s, dividends, mutual bond funds and high yield bond funds will not come close to meeting your objectives, I suggest you visit their web site and learn about investing in professionally managed single-family homes, with the objective of realizing returns that far exceed traditional investments. David Michelson of Three Arch Investors has more than 40 years experience in residential housing and has made his focus providing investments that can produce high yet safe returns on a current basis.  

As you ponder your retirement, here is a tech tool that can help you in cutting expenses:
The PocketMoney App for the Apple iPhone/iPad/iPodTouch costs $4.99, but Retirement Calculator attests that it is well worth it. PocketMoney lets you watch multiple accounts, such as checking, savings and credit cards. You can sync the app to your desktop for convenient access. Even more importantly, it shows your spending trends. Their colorful graphs should help you to see where you are spending money and areas where you can cut your expenses.

I hope that my article has opened your eyes to the challenges of planning for retirement. I believe this should be useful for baby boomers and those young enough to plan better than we did as a generation. If you are a boomer or senior, it might serve as ammunition in your attempts to warn your younger friends and relatives that the time to get started for retirement planning is now.

I was always a doting granddaughter to my very kind grandparents so they probably didn’t notice the extra love missing on the holiday that I hadn’t heard about then. I worked in Japan, for 20+ years beginning in 1981, where elders are well taken care of by their families and the holiday would be superfluous.

Some people long for grandchildren. Linda Bernstein wrote about her grandparent yearnings today for PBS.

I have never borne children myself. My stepdaughter, Ariana, has been very generous in allowing me to share in the process of her pregnancy and spend time with my new grandson. It has been my first opportunity to learn about babies. I’m still not crazy about the “G” word. Working in tech, I don’t want to create a mistaken impression that I’m not completely on top of my game. I haven’t been able to resist a pattern of sharing the occasional oh so adorable photo on Facebook. But I still prefer to be referred to by “tutu,” the Hawaiian word for grandparent.

How do you feel about being a grandparent?

Since this IS a gifting holiday, here are some suggested last minute tech gifts for the grandparents in your life.

Custom Home-Made Tech Gifts

Create a Blog For A Grandparent
I did one for my father for his poetry. If you have the skills to do this, I recommend it. You can also commission a website for a grandparent to be produced by a professional.

Deliver Photos They Will Appreciate
If they have refused to get on Facebook where it is easy to share your photos with them, here are some quick catch up ideas you can deliver at low cost. You can bring over a flash drive with photos, load them on their computer and show them how to view them. This does assume they have a computer to view them on. But these days, pretty much everyone at least does email so they should have some kind of computer for this. Promise to print 3 of the photos of their choice. You could also do this by emailing photos with the same promise. Although you could send them to a link with an online photo album the flash drive or email alternatives make them feel more like they own the photos.

Collect Lyrics for Songs to Sing to New Grandchildren
I found myself digging up show tunes to sing to baby Ethan. I have the computer skills to go find the lyrics to songs I only half remember but a collection of lyrics is a possible gift for a new grandparent.

Order Online and Send With a Gift Card Tech Gifts

Apple iPhone
My senior father adores his iPhone. Of the smart phones, this is the easiest one to use. One advantage is the large number keypad. At first he thought he wouldn’t want apps, now he loves them and continues to add new ones. If the grandparent in your life doesn’t have a smart phone yet, it’s time. If your grandparent is on your family cell phone plan, of course, you will also pick up their data costs.

New grandparents love taking photos of their grandchildren. Ray is a professional photographer and taken many photos of baby Ethan with his Nikon but the iPhone is easily available for special photo opps. (I captured this photo of Ray taking a photo with my iPhone.)

Ray shooting Ethan at six months in June this year

Here’s a shot Ray got helping his daughter, Ariana with Ethan’s bath.

Ray captured this photo the same day with his iPhone just after 6 month old Ethan’s bath.

Apple iPad
If you can afford this more extravagant gift, there is no one who wouldn’t love to get one.

eBook Reader
Please check out all the details in our article about eReaders.

NonTech But Wonderful

North Star Say Anything Game
I was introduced to this great game at a tech conference called SheCon. The best part is the next time you see the grandparent in your life you can play this game together. Ideal for 5 or more players, this game is very entertaining. Inexpensive. From North Star Games.

Some of the Say Anything Game Pieces. High quality, sturdy, easy to wipe clean answer boards, voting chips and score pad. Markers included.

Sample game card from Say Anything. When it’s your turn, you select a question. Your friends and family guess what answer you liked best. Be sure to be close to a bathroom. Whenever, we play this, there is so much laughter that frequent trips to the powder room become essential.

Sample Say Anything question card, sturdy and laminated, high quality like all of the pieces

Plant Something Edible in Their Garden and Take Care of It
Have a green thumb? Share it.

What’s your homemade gift idea for Grandparents Day?

Changing retirement plans is not as bad as it sounds, and this is what a small business owner client of mine found out. Marion Speidel operates a residential construction business and I recently went to help her plan her own home space for retirement. I ended up helping her redesign her lifestyle so that she could work until 90! “Oh no” you say; I want to retire at 65. That was Marion’s idea too, until we had our discussion.

Marion started the conversation with “I am very good at what I do, I have a marvelous network of architects & designers I work with, I have a competent construction crew, so do I really have to retire in 3 years at 65?” So we decided to look at how she could continue doing and enjoying what she does well. First putting more focus on using technology & “smarts” rather than relying on the physical part of being a hands-on contractor. Hands-on via technology tools, not hands-on swinging the hammer as Marion does, often working alongside her crew.

Typical of the homes Marion builds. This is a summer home for an architect client himself; with a decidedly green focus. Photo by CASUDI

Several years ago I helped Marion upgrade her computer skills; she learned to bid and manage projects on her computer, and use email for efficient client approval/communication throughout a construction project. It has really paid off for her, saving her time and giving her fast access to everything she needs to know. Her foreman manager can take & send her work update images from his camera phone. All this will allow Marion to manage an entire project from her home office. Clients need a lot of hand holding, and she can do this well via email, phone calls, and occasional in-person meetings.

“I love what I do Marion continued, it’s my life’s passion making peoples dream homes into a reality they love, live and enjoy. I‘ve done it for 29 years, and I’ve learned by making every mistake in the book, so why should I change?” Marion is lucky because simply by adopting new technologies it’s relatively easy for her to continue in her career path. When you’ve had a 9-5 job, this transition to a working retirement is not so clear, and needs more thought on how to direct your expertise and what you love to do into new channels and focus.

What if you’ve been in bricks & mortar retail all these years, and your skills are related to customer experience. Consider working in a “remote” customer service group. Since many more companies are realizing that customer service is the tipping point to success for their company, these skills will be greatly sought after. One key here will be your ability to learn the required technology a company uses for their customer service focus.

Look around and see how your current skills and expertise can be re-purposed, and then work on adding the tech ingredient.

“I can’t afford to maintain my lifestyle if I give up working. I don’t see myself giving up my house, garden and property and moving into a small retirement condo”, Marion told me reluctantly. Well that’s true for many of us; we want to continue with the lifestyle we are accustomed to, and considering inflation, and the slowing economy, many of us don’t have the nest egg we thought or hoped we would have to enable us to live the quality of life we now have without working. This is not all bad, and I say this as someone in this same situation. Not all bad, because it gives us the incentive to reinvent our lives using our “work-life” or “hobby” expertise, plus todays technology, in order to remain active and productive; and of course have some fun and a great sense of accomplishment.

“I don’t want to grow old and boring…..I want to keep learning new things; that’s what will keep me young” Marion went on to describe how many of her peers are “boring” and how on a recent group hike she found a 30‘s-something hiker the most interesting person to talk to, and how they exchanged ideas the entire 10 mile walk! Part of that is attributable to Marion having embraced technology (with some difficulty I might add) but she has continued to expand her horizons.

Many years ago I read an article, which truly inspired me. It was about a sect of nuns in a remote settlement, who routinely lived to a healthy 110 or more. Much research was done about the “why”, including diet, water, climate, exercise, stress and so on. The conclusion was that it was because they were always learning. In fact many would learn a new language every year and some spoke more than 12 languages fluently! Spoken languages are not my forte, however since then I have made a point of learning one new computer program (or new complex aspect of a program I routinely use) every year, and every week I work on learning some new computer skill. I read about new computer tools, then try them out; often needing help and support along the way. I think this is time well spent and a valuable investment in myself.

Summary on why I should continue working:
1) I am very good at what I do
2) I love what I do
3) I can’t afford to maintain my lifestyle if I give up working
4) Making the effort will keep me feeling young and (hopefully) being interesting

I did give Marion some design advice on her house too! This included upgrading to LED lighting in her office for a better working environment, extending the upper floor balconies to make a more pleasing first impression of the house exterior, and site planning advice for a new barn, so the many little sheds she currently uses for construction materials can be deleted and the contents consolidated into one easily accessed area away from the house and convenient for her crew to use. With everything in place she can continue to manage things using technology “smarts” until she is 90 or beyond.

About the Author
CASUDI
Caroline Di Diego (CASUDI) is a multi-faceted entrepreneur with two parallel careers. In the one she focuses on Architectural Design solutions and the other (where most of you know her) she helps small business, start up & early-stage companies, building effective start-up teams, creating workable business models, and bringing new technologies to market.

An ereader is so light-weight you can hold it in one hand.

There in front of my eyes was proof of Affinity’s American Magazine Study that revealed Baby Boomers are the primary users of ereaders. In fact, Boomers are 19 percent more likely to own a Kindle or Nook than members of any other adult generational cohort. Of the 58.6 million Baby Boomers around, more than 18.2 million of them already have an ereader. At the time of the study (July 2011), another 10 percent said they planned to buy one within the next six months. The latest research by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project showed that ownership ebook ownership increased 8 to 15 percent among Americans age 50 to 64 between December of last year and January 2012.

Considering that Baby Boomers have been continually cartooned as tech-phobic, our ereader-love is a stand-up-and-take-notice kind of thing. But, without even thinking too hard, it’s easy to understand the full-swing affair between Boomers and the electronic book.

Adjustable Type-Size
To begin with, you can adjust the size of the print on an ereader. That “you” doesn’t include me because I read my iPad with my reading glasses on, the way I would a book. But now that I’ve written those words, I realize that I can’t believe it that when I use my iPad on a bus, I go through the bother of pulling out my glasses from my pocketbook to read and then stashing them away before my stop. Never again. I shall now use the handy little buttons that easily enlarge the print SO I CAN READ WITHOUT MY GLASSES.

That’s one thing that makes ereaders a terrific tool for our senior parents, too. They don’t need to buy large-print books. Any book, newspaper or magazine can become a large-print book with a simple press of the button.

Screenwriter Tracey Jackson Loves Her Kindle Fire.

Easy to Stow
Yeah, so I have the iPad, which makes me cool in some circles. Because it’s a “tablet” and not an “ebook” per se (I’ll explain this later), it’s also great for at-home mini-computing. But it’s just slightly too big for me to throw into my pocketbook without thinking twice. I mean, I do it, but my pocket book then becomes heavy on my shoulder and I worry I’m going to damage the strap. Ereaders sold by Barnes and Noble (the Nook series) and Amazon (the Kindle series) are, on the other hand, truly lightweight, at most 16 ounces. Simple, monochrome models weigh in at less than half a pound. A friend of mine, who already owns an iPad, bought a Kindle Fire (the newest Kindle model that has several features of a tablet) before a recent trip to Europe. She downloaded dozens of travel guides and maps so that all she had to do was make sure that her Fire was fully charged each morning before a day of sightseeing. No more schlepping heavy guidebooks for her. No more running back to the newsstand on the Boulevard St. Germain because she left her street map on the Metro. Everything she needed to know about the three countries and nine cities she and her family visited was on a device that went in and out of her pocketbook as if it were her wallet. (In fact, she claimed that it weighed less than her wallet because by the end of the trip she had so many coins.)

Easy to Load Up
I love my library, the St. Agnes Branch on 81st and Columbus Ave. I am a big believer in libraries, and I think it’s fantastic that some libraries are now lending books on ereaders. I also love bookstores, independents mostly but big chain ones too. Even the Barnes & Noble that kicked out the ballet school where I took class several times a week (this was a while back, when I was in my 20s) – I adore that store. My nose crinkles happily at the smell of fresh paper and ink. I get goose bumps when I take in all the shelves packed with books I can browse. I think it’s fantastic that this store sponsors readings by writers several times a week. But there are times when I don’t feel like going to the bookstore. It’s raining. Or snowing. Or I’m just feeling lazy. So I simply download a book. The iTunes store has my credit card information (encrypted and safe); I just need to type in my really clever password (YES YOU NEED GOOD PASSWORDS) and the book is mine. Instant gratification. Yes, I do feel bad that my ebook purchases are slowly eating away at the brick and mortar bookstore, and even though I put my legs where my mouth is when I advocate boomer fitness by running at least 15 miles a week – still, I’m a baby boomer, and some days I deserve a break from one less errand. Downloading is easy. And for all you boomers who need to drive to bookstores, ebooks save you gas! And time!

Other Ereader Tricks:
Here’s what you can do on most ereaders:

• Look a word up in the dictionary.
• Save your place
• Take notes
• Clip and save favorite quotations
• Highlight passages you want to find again.

A few offer:

• Text to speech.
• Internet access.

Ebook readers have a small keyboard you can call up, the same way you do on a smart phone, or built in at the bottom of the reader. To highlight text, you just run your finger across it. Ebooks give you all this added stuff that’s easy to use.

So that’s why Baby Boomers love ereaders. Still, there’s a lot you need to understand before you buy one.

Ereaders Explained

Ereader: A device or computer program used for reading any kind of printed material on a screen.

Ebook: The electronic book that can be downloaded to the ereader.

Downloading: You go to an Internet site that sells (or gives away free books) on your computer, manipulate your mouse and click on “buy,” and the book goes onto your computer. Then you can sync with your ebook reader. Or – and this is what happens mostly – you download the book directly from the seller to your ereader.

Tablet or Reader: A tablet is larger than a regular ereader and gives you more options. You can use and iPad for email, Twitter and Facebook, as well as a whole lot of apps (applications). An ereader generally has a single function – storing books.

Apps: Think of an app as kind of like a computer program, except it doesn’t integrate itself with the computer system software. For instance, I can write on my computer because I have Microsoft Word installed. I do not need access to the Internet to use the program. However, on my iPad (and iPhone) I downloaded an app that enables me to identify what stars are in the sky no matter where I am. This app depends on GPS – global positioning system – which means that the signal that comes from my location has to be sent out and picked up by a satellite or cell tower.

Tablet or Reader, redux: Apps are cool. But if all you want is a book in your hands, then you don’t need to spend a lot of money on a tablet. (By the way, both ereaders and tablets let you read a book you’ve downloaded as long as your battery lasts.)

Battery length: The battery in the Nook Simple Ink reader supposedly lasts for 75 hours; the one in the Sony Reader Daily Edition supposedly lasts for 12,000 hours. That really must be a misprint, but I keep seeing it everywhere. So whatever reader you get, make sure you have it charged so you can read your books and magazines.

Space: The more memory an ereader has, the more books you’ll be able to store. Forever. Or until the device wears out. But you should be backing your ereader up to your computer anyway, or to a “cloud.” On any of the devices, you’ll be able to store hundreds of books.

Cloud: The great big Internet in the sky. These days, some people keep all their programs and data in a “cloud.” An example: You can get to your Google Docs, which is the Google version of Microsoft Office, from any computer, anywhere, anytime – as long as there is Internet access. But there’s the rub. Internet access. Most often you don’t need Internet access to read what you’ve downloaded. The cloud is there, but even if you can’t get to it, you still have your content.

Note the "keyboard" buttons on the bottom of this ebook reader.

Content: Ah, here’s another biggie. There are currently three main ebook stores available to US customers: Amazon (Kindle), Barnes & Noble (Nook) and iPad (iTunes). New books published by traditional printers (even small publishing houses) will generally be available on all three. HOWEVER, a book bought on Amazon will not be compatible with a Nook reader. In other words, there’s no single standard for the ebook. It’s not like renting a DVD from Netflix and knowing it will play on your Sony or Panasonic or no-name DVD or Blueray player. There are apps that simulate the Nook or Kindle readers that you can download for other readers or tablets, but it gets to be a tremendous bother. And if Kindle doesn’t like it that you have a particular book – they can make it disappear from your reader. (This actually happened in 2009 when overnight George Orwell’s Animal Farm mysteriously disappeared from people’s Kindle libraries. Kindle did not have the proper rights and just deleted the book.)

Cost of Books: All the big ebook stores charge about $12.99 for a new book. Some books, however, are free. Project Gutenberg aims to make everything out of copyright available online at not cost. So if you want a bible – it’s free. Shakespeare’s plays, too. But, note, sometimes Gutenberg books lack pagination or the zip and zing of a newer edition (for which you have to pay). Also, lots of people are publishing on their on their own now, often through the Kindle store, and some of these books are free, or $2.49 because the author is running a sale. People who love certain genres – romance, mystery, science fiction, fantasy, steam punk – can get a good bang for their buck, or even better, a free download of a book by an unknown writer, and there’s a good chance the book will be fun. (I am personally suspicious of free self-published cookbooks. I want to know there’s been a test kitchen. I also would not set out to fix the electrical wiring in my house based on instructions in a self-published book. Just sayin’.)

Buying an Ebook Reader: So, this is a major decision, and it may be a good idea to pay a visit to an electronics or big box store that carries a number of ebook reader brands. If you really like the idea of having access to apps and want something that qualifies as a tablet and don’t mind having only Wifi access (instead of the 3G that’s available with the iPad or Sony Reader Daily Edition), then you might love the Kindle Fire, which at $199 is about $400 to $500 dollars cheaper than an iPad. If you want something really basic – after all, regular books are in black and white – The Nook Simple Touch Reader costs $99. If you’re a magazine reader, though, keep in mind that magazines use color, so you might be happier with an ereader that will reproduce the great pictures of O or Esquire. There are brands I haven’t even mentioned, like the Kobo, which Wired Magazine liked a lot but doesn’t to have a dedicated store. Read the reviews, like this one from PC World: Nook vs Kindle Fire. Then physically handle the various models. Insist the sales staff turn each one on so that you know what books, magazines or anything else will look like on the screen. Sit with it. See how it feels in your hands.

In the end, though, all my baby boomer friends are fine with whatever they have. Very few have “upgraded.” You see, the book is the thing, and any ebook will put a world of reading in your grasp. Or purse. Or nightstand. Or briefcase. Or pocket.

Linda Bernstein, a strong voice for the Baby Boomer generation, blogs at www.generationbsquared.com. She has a Ph.D. in English from Columbia University and has written hundreds of articles for dozens of nationally known magazines and newspapers. She is currently teaching social media at Columbia University’s School of Journalism Continuing Education Program. An editor, writer and public speaker, Linda is currently working on a novel.

I have attended the last four BlogWorld’s and benefitted from each one. BlogWorld is just the right size for meeting people, enjoying sessions and learning. Even if you plan to attend, it is a great idea to buy the virtual ticket which gives you online access to recorded conference sessions with slide presentations and audio. That is because it is impossible to attend every one of the 100 plus sessions as they run simultaneously.

BlogWorld features sessions on content creation, distribution, monetization, mobile, digital broadcasting, tools and technology, and social media. There are community tracks for specific areas of content including: cause,food, music and entertainment, real estate, health, sports, tourism and travel.

I presented a content creation session at BlogWorld NYC in May 2011 called How to Write For and Engage the 50 Plus Marketplace Online. If 50 plus consumers are of interest to your business, cause or study, you should find the slides here of value.

When I write for Boomer Tech Talk, my focus is on providing easy to understand tips on social media and technology that boomers can use for themselves, their business and their parents or other significant seniors in their lives.

To prepare for my presentation, the first step was to provide an educated overview of that marketplace, including why it is valuable to attract these readers and what interests and concerns them. Following is a list of acknowledgements for interviews and books that were kindly provided to support my preparation, as well as resources that I accessed.

Interviews:
Vinton Cerf, Google
Shelli Snelling, CareGivingClub.com
Dr. Sandra Timmerman, Mature Market Institute, MetLife.com/mmi
Michelle Robson, EmpowHer.com

Useful Books:
They’re Your Parents Too! – Francine Russo
Turning Silver into Gold – Mary Furlong
Vibrant Nation, What Boomer Women Know, Think and Buy – Stephen Reily

Special thanks:
Rosa Mangiardi, Continuum Crew, public relations

Additional Resources:
AARP
BoomersinTheWild.com – Lori Bitter
Internet Retailer
Osher Foundation
Pew Research
Purdue University Center on Aging
Scarborough Research
SeniorNet.org

I co-presented with Eva Abreu. You will see in the slides that I presented part one and Eva presented part two which focused on case studies. It was a pleasure creating this presentation with her.

Although, there is a message on this presentation frame saying “view on slideshare”, you can see these slides right here by clicking on the arrows at the bottom of the show.

While I love my iPhone 4, the fact is that for many applications the screen is just too darn small. Sure, I watch these teens furiously typing away on phones that I can barely see and wonder if they’ve ever even seen a full-sized keyboard. I, on the other hand, cringe whenever I think about diving into email, Twitter or Facebook on my phone. I have this recurring nightmare that mobile devices continue to shrink until I need a jeweler’s magnifying loupe and pointy finger extensions to use them. I’m sorry, but I just can’t seem to adapt to teeny-tiny screens and keyboards.

If you’re like me (or even if you’re not), there’s hope for us yet. With the introduction of the Galaxy Tab 10.1, Samsung has come remarkably close to revealing the “missing link” in the desktop / laptop / smartphone range of products. For those of us who are just a little too…um…mature…to rely exclusively on a 4″ x 2″ (or smaller) smartphone screen as their primary window into the digital world, the new Galaxy Tab may be just what you’ve been waiting for…and unlike the iPad, it supports Flash!

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 featuring the newest version of Android (3.1, aka Honeycomb) is an impressive new addition to the mobile marketplace. Overall, it compares quite favorably to the iPad 2, and is roughly equivalent in size, weight, battery life, and price.

Those who favor Google’s Android OS will likely prefer the Samsung Galaxy Tab, while fans of Apple (and its iOS) will undoubtedly lean toward the iPad. The good news for Android lovers is that finally there’s an alternative to the iPad that doesn’t require making sacrifices in form, function, or even sexiness.

The mobile market is currently at a point in its development where the number of Android apps, while still lagging in some respects, are rapidly gaining on those for iOS. I found that most of the apps I looked for (ranging from productivity to utilities to games) were either available on both platforms or had reasonable equivalents.

Web Browsing
Now that we all understand my feelings about smartphone screens, I have to say that it’s pretty nice having the option of choosing between mobile and full websites on a single device…and did I mention you have access to Flash? Although many websites correctly identify the Galaxy as a mobile device—and therefore offer up their mobile versions—with a 10.1″ diagonal screen you’re really not in the same class as a smartphone.

Unlike a full-sized computer or smartphone, the web browser on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 offers the best of both worlds: a large, high-resolution display as well as a touch screen convenience.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 makes it a joy to surf the web, pretty much exactly as you would on any full-sized computer (with the possible exception of opening up 50 different browser windows as I often do, but let’s not get crazy here). Hey, maybe even better than a computer, because with a touch screen and Android’s “pinch to zoom” and “tilt to zoom” features, you have a lot more control than with a mouse and keyboard.

There’s even a new Google Labs feature called “Quick Controls” (see my Tech Notes section at the end of this article) that lets you operate exclusively in full-screen mode, for those of us who will always take all the screen real estate we can get.

Front and Rear Cameras
One area in which the Galaxy 10.1 excels is in its front and rear facing cameras. While I can’t honestly say that the size and shape of any large-format tablet is ideally suited to serious photography, once you get past the initial awkwardness of shooting photos and videos with something reminiscent of a small cooking skillet, it’s really not so bad. In fact, it’s downright addicting! (And this is coming from a photographer who has shot with just about every type of camera you can imagine.)

Whereas the iPad 2 has both a front 0.3 Mega-Pixel (MP) and a back 0.7MP fixed focus cameras, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 boasts 2MP (front) and 3MP auto-focus with LED flash Both devices are capable of shooting 720p HD video. I was actually quite impressed with the flash photos I was able to take with the Galaxy’s rear camera.

An example of a low-light flash photo taken with the Samsung Galaxy Tab's rear camera

In addition to the Galaxy’s superior hardware, its built-in photo software was a pleasant surprise. Aside from all the basics you’d expect from a modern digital camera (self-timer delay, auto-focus / macro mode, scene mode, white balance, special effects, metering, and even GPS tagging), the Galaxy’s rear camera even includes a pretty slick panorama feature. Set panorama mode, press the shutter button, and then simply move the camera in any direction while the Galaxy tab automatically snaps off up to 8 shots, which are then stitched together and displayed as a panoramic image. The Galaxy’s screen even displays guides in the form of arrows and lines that make it ridiculously easy to create a clean panoramic image. And not surprisingly, the Galaxy integrates seamlessly with Google Picasa software to easily transfer your photos to a computer.

With the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, you can capture those unexpected candid shots even when you don't have your regular camera. And let's face it—it's just more fun having your picture taken with a tablet.

Entertainment (Music, Movies, Video, Gaming….)
Let’s face it. You’re probably not going to rush out and buy a Galaxy Tab 10.1 because you’re looking for a great portable music player. This is not to say that the Galaxy is not a great portable music player but, for instance, I can’t imagine running a marathon with one strapped to my arm.

And unlike many of the more portable music and video players out there, the Galaxy does have a large, high resolution screen, the ability to easily obtain media from almost unlimited resources across wireless networks and the Internet, and let’s not forget about the built-in stereo speakers. Granted, the speakers have limitations and are not likely to be mistaken for those in your local movie theater, but they produce surprisingly good output for their size and even emulate surround sound. Besides, if you want to watch a movie or listen to music without having to worry about headphones, it’s nice to have that option.

But put on the included ear buds, turn off the lights, and it’s a whole new ballgame. Watching movies suddenly becomes an immersive experience that’s perfect for viewing in bed, on a plane, or just about anywhere else. And unlike a laptop computer, the Galaxy doesn’t generate much heat at all, so it’s comfortable to hold while you enjoy the show.

Video game aficionados shouldn’t be disappointed with the Galaxy Tab 10.1 either. The Galaxy’s NVIDIA Tegra dual-core processor can handle some of the more advanced games available on the Android platform quite nicely. Animation is smooth and vivid, and the large screen ensures that gamers won’t miss any of the action.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab provides plenty of power and a nice big display for maximum enjoyment of video, movies, and most Android-based games you're likely to encounter.

Speech Recognition and Dictation
Speech recognition has finally come into its own as a usable technology, and here Google’s Android seems to have the upper hand, at least in terms of OS integration.

What I find especially cool about the Android interface is that you have a microphone icon in the upper left-hand corner of the home screen (it’s also easily accessible from the virtual keyboard as well as other places). Tap the icon and the Galaxy Tab goes into speech recognition mode. Quickly and easily get directions, send a note to yourself, find nearby businesses, set an alarm, listen to music, or open a website using your voice. They also have a nice little tutorial that walks you through using some of the apps that support speech.

You can even send an email, although I found that attempting extensive dictation using speech recognition alone can be a bit challenging. At least for me, the Galaxy Tab had trouble understanding complete sentences (it got them mostly correct, but usually missed a word or two). However, it worked extremely well when giving simple commands. “Set alarm for 2:45″ or “navigate to airport” worked quite nicely, for example.

GPS Navigation
This last example brings up another nice built-in feature, Google Maps Navigation (Beta), which takes advantage of the Galaxy’s GPS. Unlike previous versions of Google Maps, this GPS-based navigation software behaves much like a stand-alone GPS. It even talks to you, providing turn-by-turn directions.

Although I cover this topic in more detail in the “Portability” section below, I should mention here that not having a 3G or 4G data connection can seriously limit your ability to use the GPS features. After all, how often do you need a GPS while you also have access to Wi-Fi? And while in theory the GPS shouldn’t need an Internet connection to work, the mapping programs it relies on to give directions do.

Battery Life & Charging
All this GPS talk leads nicely into the issue of battery life, which overall I consider to be quite good. As with any mobile device, battery life is going to depend heavily on what you’re doing with it, so for me to tell you “You’re going to get 10 hours on a single charge” would be ridiculous, as I have no idea what you’ll be doing during that time.

If you are using the Galaxy Tab as a GPS, Google warns us that “We recommend the use of a power adapter while using Google Maps Navigation (Beta), especially when your trip will take 30 minutes or longer.” They go on to add, “To conserve your device’s battery power, you can turn off the display by pressing the power button…. Google Maps Navigation (Beta) will still track you along your route and provide audio instructions through your [device’s] speaker.”

So there you have it: “It just depends.”  If you’re doing nothing but listening to music, you might get the full 72 hours listed in Samsung’s specs.

And if you’re just watching movies, say, on a trans-continental flight, you’ll probably get around the listed 9 hours (maybe even a bit more)…but then again, don’t those flights all have Wi-Fi now? So maybe you’re streaming movies from the Internet, and of course that changes everything. I think you get my point.

My findings were that battery life is generally long enough so that an “average” user doing “average” things should be able to get through the day on one charge. If you’re anything like me, you’ll want the ability to charge your battery in the car, and you may want to plug in whenever you happen to be sitting near an outlet (just to play it safe…).

The thing is, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 does take a while to fully charge…as in several hours if you let it drain all the way down. So in my experience, you either will want to charge it overnight, or whenever it’s convenient throughout the day as mentioned in the previous paragraph.

The bottom line is that the battery lasted long enough so as not to be a serious concern in any of the varied uses I came up with for the Galaxy Tab. I give it 2 thumbs up.

Just one other observation regarding the charger included in the package. Samsung gives you a nice wall charger with a detachable USB jack, so it doubles as a data transfer cable with which you can connect the Galaxy Tab to any USB port. Although I did not perform extensive testing on this, I did plug the Galaxy directly into a desktop computer’s USB 2.0 port. This is the same port I use to charge my iPhone 4 with no issues, but to my surprise, the Galaxy Tab does not show a charging symbol, but instead an “X” over the battery indicator when connected to this port. Basically, in this state, the battery sort of trickle charges very, very slowly. At least in my limited testing, the USB port seemed to provide just enough power to prevent the Galaxy from discharging, but not enough to actually charge it.

Accessories & Add-ons
While my intention here is not to give a comprehensive listing of all possible accessories available for the Galaxy Tab 10.1, there are a few that I think are worth mentioning. At the very least, you’ll probably want to spring for a protective case. As slick and streamlined as the naked Galaxy is, I found myself in constant fear of dropping it whenever I had to carry it somewhere. For around $30 or $40 I was able to find several suitable options online; some even doubled as multi-angle stands, which would come in handy for watching movies, video chatting, etc.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 provides a nice big virtual keyboard that's great for most basic text input operations such as web surfing, text-messaging, email composition, or note-taking.

If you plan to write your next novel on a Galaxy Tab 10.1, an external keyboard is another must-have. Not that the virtual keyboard isn’t great for the kind of casual typing most people do on a daily basis. And I imagine with enough practice you could probably become fairly proficient on it. It’s plenty big to type comfortably on, but for touch typists the lack of tactile feedback will undoubtedly take some getting used to.

In external keyboards, I’d probably go with the full size keyboard dock that lets you charge while you type (no surprise there—we’ve already established that I’m something of a charging freak), but don’t forget that any Bluetooth keyboard should work. I found several online sellers offering keyboard docks in the $50-80 price range. Bluetooth options were even less.

Oh, and a car charger. I found a cool universal mini USB car charger adapter on Amazon for less than a dollar that should work with the Galaxy. Since I haven’t actually tried charging the Galaxy from a car charger, I can’t say with certainty how well it will work. But if a standard or USB car charger turns out not to be sufficient for your needs, another option would be a DC to AC inverter. These can be purchased at Radio Shack and many other retail outlets fairly inexpensively, and – in my experience – seem to provide a faster charge than just an old-fashioned “cigarette lighter” style charger.

On Portability & Not Being Tied Down
My biggest issue with the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was that the model I tested lacked 3G/4G capabilities, which can be quite frustrating when no Wi-Fi or Bluetooth signal is available. This, however, can be easily—if not inexpensively—resolved by purchasing a data plan to accompany the Galaxy Tab with HSPA+.

Features such as Internet-based applications (most notably browsers and social media apps), mapping and navigation software, communication utilities, and online games, are unavailable outside of Wi-Fi coverage unless a data plan is included. The increase in availability of personal Wi-Fi hotspots (quite possibly from your very own cell phone) may eventually reduce the need for a dedicated data plan, but regardless of how this issue is addressed, it’s probably worth considering before making an investment in any tablet device. Some data providers may even offer a discount if a data plan is purchased along with a tablet, so planning ahead might literally pay off.

At the time of this writing, Verizon offers 4G LTE coverage in many metropolitan areas throughout the US, which the HSPA+ Galaxy can access, with 3G available in many more locations. T-Mobile, Vodafone (UK), and Telus (Canada) are among the other carriers that support or plan to support the Galaxy Tab 10.1 on their 3G and/or 4G networks.

One Final Tech Note (Techie Warning:  Geeky Stuff Ahead)
Toward the end of my testing of the Galaxy Tab 10.1, I did some poking around under the hood and made some interesting discoveries. One thing is for sure about Google:  they are always pushing the envelope when it comes to R&D, and they always have a whole slew of products in beta that are often made available to the public via Google Labs. It takes some digging, but adventurous users of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 will find some powerful and surprising features—some helpful, some not so much—but if you’re anything like me you won’t be able to resist looking and trying them out.

I won’t take away all the fun of discovering these hidden delights for yourself, but I will share one noteworthy example. While studying the browser, in the “Settings” section, I found there are four categories to choose from: “General,” “Privacy and Security,” “Advanced,” and “Labs.” Under “Labs” is a setting titled “Quick Controls” that reads, “Swipe thumb from left or right edge to access quick controls and hide Application and URL bars.”

To be honest, I skimmed this so quickly that I didn’t really understand what it meant, but assumed that swiping a finger across the screen would hide or display some sort of menu. I selected this option, closed the “Settings” window, and was presented with a lovely full-screen browser window…that had absolutely no menus, options, address bar, or any other type of control icons. I began swiping my finger across the screen, but alas, no menus appeared. I tried swiping at the top of the screen. I tried swiping the bottom of the screen. I tried swiping horizontally and vertically and every way I could think of. Nothing.

The full-screen browser display (accessed by activating the Quick Controls option) maximizes screen real estate and allows you to view web pages in their full-sized glory, without wasting any space on menus or toolbars. But wait...without menus or toolbars, how do you control it?

Just as I was entering panic mode, I happened to notice something pop out from the side of the screen as I casually passed my thumb over it. Like a drowning man grabbing for a life raft, I swiped my thumbs around the edge of the screen, and voila! A little blue semi-circle thingy popped out under my thumb (see image). It took some studying, but I managed to figure out what all the symbols meant, and now that I understand it, I think these “Quick Controls” might just catch on!

Close-up of the Quick Controls Menu: Simply swipe a thumb over the edge of the Galaxy's screen, and voila! This handy little blue menu pops out to offer all the features normally found in a traditional browser. What could be easier? Well, okay, you do have to figure out what all those little symbols mean. But hey—if you weren't adventurous, you wouldn't have found it in the first place, now would you?

Final Words
Overall, I found the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and its strong array of features to be a fine new addition to the tablet class of mobile devices. The Galaxy’s combination of power, portability, multimedia muscle and battery life go a long way toward filling the gap between the smartphone and the notebook computer.

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Bob Kurtz, in reality, is not as old as this article makes him seem. He is semi-retired from the technology world, and now runs a bed and breakfast and helps visitors plan adventures on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. He is also a photographer and offers photographic workshops and Hawaii photo tours. You can find him online at www.KauaiBeachInn.com and at www.dotNetHed.com

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GLOSSARY

Flash:  Flash is a popular standard for delivering video over the Internet. It allows visitors to a website to view animated content on their computer. Developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated, it is supported by most modern web browsers. Recently, however, Apple has discontinued support for Flash in their iOS, thereby encouraging software developers to explore other options for video presentation.

Apps:  Short for “Applications” (software programs). Most commonly used for programs that run on a portable device such as a smartphone or tablet.

Mega-Pixel (MP):  A unit of measure commonly used to specify the resolution, or pixel density, of a digital image. Digital cameras are typically given MP designations based on the size of the image they are capable of producing. Generally speaking, the larger the number of mega-pixels, the better the image quality. For example, all else being equal, a 12MP camera can produce images of a higher quality than a 3MP camera.

LED Flash:  A acronym for “Light Emitting Diode Flash.” This refers to the light source used in digital flash photography on many smartphones and tablet computing devices.

White Balance:  A setting available on many digital cameras that allows the user to define what the camera will render as pure white. It is typically used to adjust for various lighting sources and/or conditions (flourescent, daylight, flash, etc.)

GPS Tagging:  Marking a digital photograph or other data object with Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates indicating the physical location in which the object was created. In other words, in photography, GPS Tagging identifies where the photograph was taken.

GPS Navigation:  Using a Global Positioning System (GPS) for guidance in traveling from one location to another.

4G/LTE Coverage:  An acronym for “Fourth Generation / Long Term Evolution,” used to describe a wireless standard for transmitting data at very high speeds over a cellular network. One significant aspect of this technology is that smartphones and tablet computing devices supporting this standard can theoretically access websites and other Internet-based data at speeds equal to or greater than those of high-speed home Internet connections.

Wi-Fi Hotspot:  An area in which a wireless data signal is available to which a supported device can be connected to a larger network, typically the Internet. A coffee shop or other business offering wireless Internet would be an example of a Wi-Fi hotspot. A “personal” Wi-Fi hotspot can also be created by some smartphones. A person using such a phone can create a hotspot that can be accessed by nearby devices to access the Internet.

Within hours, there were already thousands of tributes that described his life, his achievements, his very public failures, and his ultimate successes in bringing products to consumers that even they didn’t know they needed until the items appeared on the shelves.

Passionate.  Brilliant.  Visionary.  Hard-driving.  High-energy.  Innovator.  Historical figure.  Mercurial.  Transformative.  Just  few of the terms used to describe Steve Jobs.  He was all those things and more to his many fans.  Steve transcended the usual role of a CEO – he became a cult figure, a guru, a hero and a rock star – and a lightning rod for criticism as well.  Yet he never shied away from controversy and did not compromise in pursuing his goals of making the products he wanted to make, in the form factors that he insisted would be best.

Steve may be best remembered as a showman in every sense of the word.  Those who were in his presence during a presentation found themselves quickly drawn into his famous “Reality Distortion Field,” which usually caused even the most hardened critic to praise the latest Apple innovation… or just say “wow” when a new product was introduced.

The following Steve Jobs speech is probably his most famous (and certainly the most quoted).  Delivered in 2005 at a Stanford University graduation ceremony, it had a profound effect on me and so many others.  Steve speaks about living each day as if it were your last, and gives the young people in the audience valuable advice about how to succeed in the world while staying true to your values and goals. For a full transcript of this speech, please see my article on Kauai Marketing.

You can read more about his life in any number of sources on the web.  Our goal in this article is highlight two important areas in which Steve had the greatest impact on the Boomer generation: the introduction of game-changing technologies to the masses, and the way those products enhanced the way we work and play.

Thinking Different

The most striking thing about Steve Jobs’ legacy is the breadth of technologies that Apple brought to the average consumer.  Before Steve and his partner Steve Wosniak built their first computer (the Apple I) in 1976, there were very few pre-assembled personal computer available to consumers.  Think about that for a minute.  We are surrounded by computers in all shapes and sizes: our cars house hundreds of them, our smartphones are sophisticated miniature computers, our appliances depend on microprocessors… yet the world before Apple had none of these.  The “aha!” moment was when Steve decided that the average person should have access to low-cost computing – and that there was indeed a market for such a device.  And this was not the only innovation Apple would promote… it was just the beginning.

Mass-Produced Personal Computers
In 1977, the Apple II was introduced as the first truly mass-produced personal computer. I remember using an Apple II-plus (with a whopping 64K of memory) for project management and cost estimating in 1982. A real computer! with its own green-phosphor 10 inch screen and dual 5.25″ floppy drives. I was in office heaven! Since there was no word processing software, you had to type one line at a time into a spreadsheet… but it magically crunched numbers and gave you answers in real time!

The Graphic User Interface (GUI) and the Mouse
Apple, using technology first developed at Xerox, created the Lisa computer in 1983 and later the first Macintosh in 1984. These were the first consumer personal computers that used a graphic interface coupled with a mouse to select on-screen commands. My office purchased a Lisa computer in 1983, one of the first Lisa computers in NYC. The 9 inch black and white screen displayed graphics that could actually be manipulated by a mouse… at the time, the best way to interface with a computer without typing in every command.

Desktop Publishing: the Laserwriter
The importance of this innovation is often overlooked, but was a monumental step in bringing publishing capability to graphic designers and small businesses. In 1985, for the first time, professionally produced documents could be designed and produced without having the text typeset by professionals, and the design manually created by layout artists. Businesses, schools, and other organizations could now publish their own flyers, newsletters and brochures in-house.

The PowerBook Laptop
In 1991, Apple introduced the first truly portable laptop computer, complete with a gray-scale screen, palm rest, and trackball pointing device. It even had space for a telephone modem to connect with the early online data services. The success of the early Powerbook 170/180 line prompted other manufacturers to enter into the growing portable computing field. I remember the joy of being able to carry my 180 into meetings and use a computer wherever there was an electric outlet (battery life was limited in those days).

The iMac to the Rescue
Soon after Steve Jobs returned to Apple, the company introduced the iMac in 1998. This popular all-in-one computer brought Apple back from the brink of bankruptcy. The iMac was a low-priced, well designed, full-featured computer. One thing it didn’t have was a floppy disk – an omission that critics panned but was proven to be prescient, as CDs, DVDs, and the web itself replaced floppies as the preferred method of transferring files.

The Apple Store
Pundits thought Steve was crazy to open stand-alone Apple stores. But it was a stroke of genius. Retailers in the late 1990s were notorious for pushing PCs at the expense of Apple products. In response, Apple Stores were introduced in 2001, The stores not only provided opportunities for hands-on experience with Apple products, but also were well-designed, amazingly high-profile marketing tools. With over 300 stores worldwide, the strategy has proven to be a huge success.

The iPod and iTunes
The year 2001 brought the introduction of a portable music player that radically changed the way people listened to music. The companion iTunes Store changed the music industry itself. Apple later used the same platform to sell many millions of e-books, video programs, movies and games that could be enjoyed on various models of iPods.

The iPhone
Before the iPhone was introduced in 2007, tiny keyboards and a button of stylus were the means of operating and inputting data into a phone. The iPhone ushered in the age of touch-screen smart phones. Within a short time, the iPhone became a preferred method of surfing the web, sending messages, sharing photos, and communicating with social media. Because of this one device, phones evolved from simple phones with a few additional functions into multi-featured powerful computers – that also happened to be phones.

The iPad Tablet
Several manufacturers had introduced tablet computers with little success. In 2010 Apple introduced the iPad – a tablet so revolutionary in execution that it actually created a new product category – the portable, touch-screen, multi-media device.

How Apple Changed Our Lives

Products and services that Steve Jobs and his team introduced have had significant positive effects on our daily lives. In fact, the Boomer generation spans a time period that began when these technologies were not even on the horizon, to the present where these technologies have become virtually indispensable. There are several paradigms that Steve Jobs helped change dramatically over the past 35 years.

Provide Tools for Small Business Growth
Steve helped introduce affordable personal computers, desktop publishing, and systems that did not requires significant investment in information technology (IT) support. These allowed small businesses to thrive and, in many cases, compete head-to-head with much larger corporations. The efficiencies inherent in computerized billing, bookkeeping, report preparation and other formerly labor-intensive tasks allowed small companies to do more with limited staff resources. To a great extent, the business playing field had been leveled.

The Growth of Home Offices
Personal computers, low-cost printers, modems, and relatively inexpensive software allowed many people to work from home. This supported a huge growth in the number of free-lance professionals, stay at home parents, and individual service providers who could work from home offices or start a new career without taking a position in a more traditional company. The number of start-ups exploded, and more importantly, the barrier to entry had been significantly lowered for millions of people.

Connecting with Others
Apple was among the first companies to provide an audio and visual chat system that was closely integrated with the personal computer. The iChat program was part of every computer for the past ten years, as were built-in high quality video cameras. Teleconferencing was no longer an expensive proposition, available only to large organizations. People could correspond more easily, and face-to-face contact could be accomplished remotely from any location with an internet connection. With FaceTime on the latest mobile devices, this connectivity has been extended to everyone with an iPhone, iPad or Apple computer. The world got even smaller.

Our Elderly Parents Go Online
The combination of ease of use, value pricing, and close integration of hardware and software has allowed many people to easily train their parents to use computers – often for the first time. In addition, speech recognition software that converts speech to text, programs that speak written documents, and audio books allow individuals with visual or physical difficulties to access computing technology. The barriers elderly people had faced when attempting to use computers have been eliminated, and for most, the experience as a whole was much more enjoyable.

When you look at all the lives that Steve Jobs has touched in some way, he truly was an innovator without peer. He was one of the lucky few who did indeed leave this world a better place for everyone. Steve will be missed by millions, but his legacy will surely continue to make our lives better and more fulfilling.

I believe technology provides some really fun activities for techie kids and parents, grandparents or even teachers to bond. In my book Do I Get My Allowance Before or After I’m Grounded? I talk about all the ways that technology can be positive and how parents can use this to their advantage.

Here are some of my favorite high-tech activities that are also great bonding opportunities:

1) Geo-Caching

Geo-caching is a really fun way to integrate online and offline activities because you use technology to do a real world scavenger hunt. Geocaching is an outdoor activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System receiver (GPS)—like one in a car or on your smart phone to hide and seek containers, called “geocaches” or “caches”.  A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook where each finder puts their name and a fun fact for the next person. Have your techie kid show you how to use a GPS system from a car or on the phone to scavenger hunt.

Wikipedia explains the history of geo-caching.

2) Start an Online Book Club
Love Eragon? Harry Potter? Twilight anyone? Have them start a discussion forum with other kids or start an online book group together.

3) Start Your Own Social Network
Young athletes? Chess? You can start their own network on Wetpaint.com and keep it private just to their friends or open it up.

4) Do a Family History

Interview grandparents and family members and record an oral history of the family. You can think of questions with your child and build a story—like a plot for your family’s history.

5) Start a Podcast On A Favorite Topic

Do a sports podcast once per month or a funny show that you put on together and put on iTunes.

6) Videotape Local Landmarks or Do a Virtual City Tour

Make a video of your family’s favorite spots and restaurants around your hometown. When guests come into town you can send them the video tour.

I believe technology is a great way to bond and we can think of creative ways to use computers, camera’s, phones and the Internet to connect with our family members. If you liked these tips and are interested in learning more about the non-verbal cues of kids, tweens and teens, please check out my book: