Lifestyle posts

It proved that it could beat the best Jeopardy! champions in the world at their own game. Now, IBM’s Watson will try to help doctors make better medical decisions for their patients. WellPoint, Inc. and IBM announced an agreement today to develop and launch Watson-based medical solutions. It will be the first commercial applications of the IBM Watson technology. The program, which is scheduled to roll out next year, will begin by assisting nurses who manage complex patient cases. It will help the insurer to review treatment requests from medical providers. Stage two will put the technology…

If you’re into extreme sports, you’ll dig this. If you’re into watching insane people doing insane things from the safety of their webcam, you’ll love this. Welcome to Valparaiso Cerro Abajo, the premier downhill bike race of the year. It doesn’t necessarily get as much press as others because the entrants are normally fewer than other downhill races. Once you see the videos, you’ll understand why. Unlike most races, this is on a very “loose” track. The streets and sidewalks of Valparaiso, Chile, are not conducive to normal biking and are made more treacherous by the narrowing of the course, poorly-built…

Many believe that email is dying. Apparently, it isn’t. We’re communicating more through other means such as SMS, social media, and IM, but despite being clunky and having and “old-tech” feel, people still rely on email and read it every day. In fact, it’s estimated that there will be 3.8 billion email users worldwide by 2014. According to information collected by Litmus, the iPad and iPhone account for 13% of all emails opened. That’s not to say that 13% of email users have iDevices — it’s more likely less than 1%. It simply means that Apple device users receive and read more of their emails on their…

The Netflix Android app was updated to support mobile devices running Android 2.2 Froyo and Android 2.3 Gingerbread. Users who have a Netflix unlimited membership will be able to watch television shows and movies streaming directly from Netflix on their Android devices. Being unlimited, the only limitations would be data plans from the ISPs. The app also allows users to continue watching where they left off on their television or computer. Check out this infographic that compares Netflix vs Redbox….

The art of the transaction is one of the first things that made us truly human. We started with bartering, often exchanging cattle and other goods for items that we didn’t have. Over the centuries, it evolved into the use of currencies. Today, money is still there, but the way it is tracked and delivered has changed dramatically. As our friends at Flowtown put it, “For decades it has been theorized that one day we would pay for items by swiping our computer chip-implanted hand over a scanner that is directly tied to our back or credit account. Will this ever be a reality? We’ll have to wait to find out.”…

The digital age has been upon us for a while, but there are certain things that people simply prefer to do the old fashioned way. For many, holding an actual book in their hands is the key to their reading enjoyment. Have we reached a tipping point where e-readers are becoming more popular? Perhaps it’s not a tipping point yet, but it has achieved double-digits. 10% of American adults use some variation of electronic readers with another 12% saying they are likely to buy one in next 6 months. What does all of this say about our reading habits? GOOD tackles the question in this infographic. Click to enlarge….

When Yelp denied Google’s $500 million bid to buy them in 2009, many believed that the location/reviews company was positioned to fight the search giant in their niche and win. That has been the case so far, but Google is making strides to change that, including today’s announcement that they had purchased the venerable restaurant resource and ratings company Zagat. Restaurant reviews have always been the cornerstone of Yelp’s service. Most major restaurants are loaded with Yelp reviews and consumers tend to trust them more than they trust other online services. Zagat has been the exception,…

It’s no secret that mobile devices like smartphones and tablets have exploded in popularity over the last 3 years. Apple has sold nearly 30 million tablets in the last year and a half alone. As users get more accustomed to using the devices to make purchases, the promise of a strong mobile commerce system is finally starting to take form. Despite the speed in which it is growing, the industry was supposed to be moving faster. The release of the iPhone and Android phones marked a new venture for companies wanting to cash in on the technology by creating apps that could be universally used. Big dreams…

Bill Gates and Microsoft had the right idea a decade ago when they first started releasing tablet PCs to the market. They were clunky, too expensive, and the company didn’t improve them over the years. As a result, they missed the flood when Apple turned the tablet valve to full blast a year and a half ago. Microsoft is ready to jump in, but is it too late? Next week, Steven Sinofsky, President of the Windows Division for Microsoft, is expected to show an early version of a tablet-enabled operating system code-named (wait for it) Windows 8. There was a lot of excitement when the first of a series of videos…

The promise of the internet that many of us started looking towards a decade or two ago is starting to get realized. When we think back and look at what the potential of the internet held, one of the biggest elements that we imagined was the expansion of communication through direct video chat. Today, there are iPads with Facetime, Skype, Rounds, and other variations of video chat that take our initial dreams and perspectives and enhance them. Our horizons have expanded. This infographic takes a look at 11 of the ways that video chat is being used today to enhance and empower real-world relationships….