De-Stress: Now

First things first, there is a need to get rid of bad habits and disorganization. You probably check your emails and voicemails before you even get out of bed. It is important to turn off the technology and write down the goals that need accomplished for the day. The less information you keep in your head, the more productive and creative you will be. You also need to train those creative muscles with things like getting a journal to write down ideas, experiences, or just thoughts. It can actually reduce stress and get more creativity going. Lastly books and music can be game changers. Creating playlists also becomes a creative process. It’s a fun challenge to pick the best songs to keep you motivated throughout the day, and also gives your mind a mental break from your work. Reading books, especially those about things that you do not know very much about can also be inspiring and help you with the creativity.

Have Better Communication

We have gotten to a point in our lives where when we see a friend that we have not seen in a while, we still whip out our phones and check Facebook and other social media and mobile applications instead of focusing on the person in front of us. Set clear expectations for what is acceptable smartphone use and what is not in your family and your social circles. If you turn off ALL your push notifications, all of those familiar little noises will disappear from your life, and so will the urge to constantly pick up your phone! By setting custom ringtones, you can ensure that you only go running when you hear the phone ring if it's someone important. By making a conscious effort to unplug during certain times every day, you're living intentionally and making a positive impact on your smartphone habits every single day.

Hearing Issues

Do you have a hard time hearing? And I am not talking about selective hear which I know that we are all guilty of at one time of another. When people are talking about hearing loss, usually pictures of elderly people come to mind. The truth is that about have of the population that is "hard of hearing" is under 65. Breakthroughs in technology and miniaturization have the potential to reduce hesitation and eliminate remaining stigma around the use of hearing instruments by incorporating high-quality sound with unique capabilities in a tiny package. In addition, corresponding hearing aid apps allow wearers to make adjustments -- to volume or bass & treble levels -- so discreet, in fact, onlookers assume you're just checking email or internet fax. You will be able to even have your device connected to the smartphone to use it for video conferencing. Either way, if you are having a hard time hearing, there is no need to feel embarrassed. Go get your hearing checked out and start living again.

Email Overload

Emails and your inbox can sometimes need spring cleaning. Let's face it: You're not sitting on 1,000 unread emails because you're popular. You're probably subscribed to a dozen useless mailing lists that send you multiple emails a day, or you have the same email threads popping up again and again. One of the best things to do is first of all unsubscribe to those emails which are never going to read and are completely irrelevant to you. Secondly, there is a feature that allows you to mute any Gmail conversation that you are not taking a part in. Stars offer a speedy way to highlight important emails. The default is a yellow star icon. If there are still a ton of emails that you can't filter but are distracting you from what you really need to focus on, try changing up the layout of your inbox. Gmail has a couple options to suit different needs thanks to some some great app development. Now if only these filters and tricks existed in internet fax services.

Constantly Connected Yet Alone

The idea that technology is encouraging us to retreat from the real world, even as we connect elsewhere, does not seem so far-fetched. After all, you can get just about anything from your couch these days, including music and spiritual guidance. All you need is a smartphone and mobile applications. There is no denying that today’s technology-powered hyper-convenience can be a wonderful thing. One of the paradoxes of technology is that it connects us and isolates us at the same time. We get more, faster, but cannot help wondering if that is always better. We have more to read and more to watch, more to learn and more to transact, more friends and more followers — and yet we can somehow feel less satisfied. If you can do everything from your couch and your home, who is to say that in the future that we might not ever leave home? Just as McLuhan said in the previous generation that technology is changing the way we communicate and interact, the stage is changing again. Where do you think that we are headed?

Texting Appliances

How would like to text your fridge or even send an internet fax to the TV? Yes we are one step closer to making our homes smarter. LG Electronics has unveiled a virtual assistant service that lets customers text their wireless home appliances through the messaging service LINE; the appliances made by LG will be enabled with its new, HomeChat technology. The devices including fridges and televisions will use natural language processing to understand commands or status-update requests that owners sent to them through LINE, the one of the world’s biggest messaging platform with more than 310 million registered users and counting. The service rolls out in 2014 with LG’s range of smart vacuums, ovens and fridges and other appliances, LG’s chief technology officer, Scott Ahn, announced the service at the Consumer Electronics Show on Monday. Are these smart appliances really solving a certain problem or just a novelty? For example, Users could also send a text to the HOM-BOT asking “When did you last clean?” to which it might reply, ”10:50 started cleaning with zigzag mode; 11:30 completed cleaning with zigzag mode,” according to LG. Text “What are you doing?” to the LG washing machine and it should reply with details on where it is in the wash cycle. This made me chuckle a bit.

Big Data

Last week in Barcelona, Huffington announced a visionary partnership with Hewlett Packard (HP) called HP Earth Insights. This program will revolutionize the way we monitor, report and understand the health of ecosystems. Environmental scientists across the globe will be able to put their field research findings into mobile HP tablets through communication applications and analyze and share that data in visual, user-friendly dashboards that reveal tropical changes in near real-time. HP Earth Insights will help us link tropical forest data with other data repositories at the Smithsonian Institution and Wildlife Conservation Society, and connect the dots to further populate a measure of tropical forest biodiversity known as the Wildlife Picture Index. Before this program, there was a significant lag between the collection of data and the publication of it where more data is collected. The ability to quickly synthesize the telltale signs of ecosystem decline -- and getting that information into the hands of leaders in time for them to make informed decisions -- has become a priority for CI and its partners. This is why the HP Earth Insights partnership is so ground-breaking.