The NFC Forum announced last week a technology protocol that allows NFC to be able to work in two directions synchronously. The press release touted the flexibility of two-way communication and the standards established at the outset to ensure universal access: The extension of the NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF) to peer-to-peer use in SNEP […]
#ProAging: iPad Technology Can Draw Out Memories And Skills For Elderly
One stereotype of the elderly and long retired is that they fear new technology. Yet many of the GI Generation and Silent Generation were, in fact, the ones who started the phenomenal research and development in the middle of the twentieth century that give us our hybrid cars and smart phones today. A recent report […]
#Tech: Pew Internet Project Breaks Down Use Of Communications Tech Across Generations
The contours of the findings of the Pew Internet and American Life Project report on ‘Generations and their Gadgets’ you probably already know: Younger Americans use more mobile devices than older Americans. Older Americans generally access the internet from a desktop computer, whereas those under 35 tend to do so with a laptop/netbook. Etc. But […]
#Tech: Near-Field Communication (NFC) Could Turn Smartphones Into Donation Engines
Near-Field Technology (NFC) allows short-range communications between an NFC antenna or engineered SIM card and a receiver. The communication is good only up to a couple of feet, which might help make it a secure connection because eavesdroppers need to be next to the users. It is a technology that first appeared in Taiwan in 2007, […]
#Aging: Nielsen’s Latest Survey Of Social-Media Use Shows Continued Expansion Among Those Over 55
It may not be news to any of us that the use of social media continues to grow. Nor is the fact that mobile acces to social media via cell phones and tablets grows faster still. What the Nielsen survey for the third quarter of 2011 demonstrates, though, is that the most interesting statistics of growth […]
#Philanthropy: Could Text Messages Circumvent Apple’s Restrictions On Donation Apps?
Apple Inc. has been unwilling to allow fundraising/donation-soliciting software for the iPhone to be developed and sold through The App Store because Apple’s contract expects a cut of the profit and expects some control of the money flow. Apple claims (not without cause) that its iTunes/iPhone success is built on consistent user experience and unified expectations […]
#Aging: Social Networks Bring The World To Seniors
The phenomenal growth of social network sites over the last decade or so is beyond repute. But for most of those years the growth came from those of Generation X (late 20s through 40s) and Millennials (born after about 1975) – both of whose members helped build as well as use the technologies of the […]
#Philanthropy: As Steve Jobs The CEO Retires, Will Steve Jobs The Philanthropist Step Forward?
The Carnegies, the Mellons, the Rockafellers, the Buffetts… They all made scads of money in their chosen careers. They all founded foundations and gave away scads of money in their later years. Nowadays, Carnegie (to pick one example) is probably better known for his libraries and university endowments than he is for how he made […]