Mint.com knows what's up

Targeted email received this week

It's moments like this when using tools like online banking scares you a bit.

Invision: app visualization

My co-worker Lauren and I participated in an internal work competition earlier this summer where we pitched a mobile application. My intern buddy told us about a tool called Invision that he used in an app development competition, and it changed our whole presentation for the better.

Invision lets you upload images or screenshots (think: Powerpoint slides) and add clickability function to allow for an interactive demonstration. You can use it on a computer or mobile device, so when you walk through an idea the audience can understand how it would work live. A significant amount of the features are free, and a one-month and one-year subscriptions are reasonably priced if you plan on using it for more than one project.

Additionally, it lets you send the link to the web app to anyone via email or text, so the app mockup actually downloads to your phone. If you need to visualize your idea or make something interactive, check this out.

Commuting- a time to disconnect?

Everyone commutes. Whether it's to and from work, while traveling or throughout the neighborhood they live in - people commute through car, train, bus and other options all week long. 

Look on any bus or train these days and more than half of individuals are drowning in their smartphones. Hearing "I was lost in the world of Instagram and missed my stop" is normal to hear from people my age. Just on the platform the other day, every single person waiting was on their phone.   

The L platform for the Red Line

On my daily commute to work, I often struggle with whether commuting is a time to enjoy some quiet time to yourself (the L is pretty silent in the morning) or connect with your devices- whether you're reading, on social media or email.

The desire to connect can sometimes dictate a commute. Similar to the New York subway, the red line of the Chicago L is underground, so cell service is minimal. This is different than the brown line, which although slower, is above ground, or the bus which follows the lakefront.

I've found myself guilty of doubling my commute time to take an alternate transit option when I need to make phone calls or be part of a group texting conversation. The amount of times I did this made me stop and think, is it worth it? How bad is it really to DISconnect? 

The next morning, I timed how long you are out of phone service on the red line. There is a whopping total of 10 minutes underground from the work subway stop to the above-ground stop I live at. 

That small number, 10, is in my head every time I'm making a transit decision. Is someone going to die if I wait 10 minutes to send a response to a text? Will this friend freak out if I call them back when I get off the L? Will I survive without checking Facebook, Instagram, Timehop and Twitter on the way to work? Will 10 minutes of silence kill you? The answers: no. A commute, if anything, IS the time of the day to disconnect from devices and ponder to yourself. 

Screensharing tool works wonders

When I started work, one of the department heads often scheduled meetings with a link to a site called Join.me. Without having to worry about the technological woes of call-ins, WebX's and video conference calls, Join.me is a screensharing tool that simply lets you share what's on your screen (the entire thing or just one window) with up to 10 users for free.

It was incredibly useful while working with a remote manager, and continues to be useful today. Whether I am helping a sister with a resume from 1,000 miles away, instant messaging someone within my own building about a presentation or on a conference call, Join.me saves a lot of explanation time by showing someone what you are discussing. Try it out!

A poor example of humanizing the Internet

Sometimes, brands think they're being innovative by adding live chat features to their website. I was naive enough to give in and try one out on Citibank.com after some confusion while paying a bill. 

Below is my "conversation" with Alec. I rate it a 2 out of 10 (some brownie points for minor innovation), particularly because of feeling condescended by the last message. Oh well, it was worth a shot!

Tracking a package in one click

I don't know if this is Gmail, Target or the US Postal Service's creation, but it's a brilliant invention. Kudos to tracking your mail without having to enter millions of codes!

A hilarious parody book

Exploring one of my favorite stores, Paper Source, we found a brilliant spin on one of everyone's favorite nostalgia books.

Goodnight iPad. I still can't figure out if Ann Droyd is the actual author…or if we just laugh at Androids & move on. 

Someone doing wearables right

In the marketing & technology industries right now, all buzz is around wearables - ranging anywhere from wristbands, watches, clip-ons and other devices that can be on our bodies.

What are our motivations for using them? What needs do they fulfill? How can we be advertised on them? How can marketers leverage our location data to be hyper-relevant?

The only way I feel wearables can be successful is if a company uses them to accommodate an existing need rather than create one.

Example 1: Fitness bands
These are incredibly successful for a niche market of those who already care and actively count health metrics, whether it be through pedometers or calorie counters. For the general audience, it's hard to adopt to this because these bands have created the fitness-tracking need. As a person who doesn't typically count my calories & movement, I have no motivation to set up the band, app & continue with it since it's not necessary to my daily life.

Example 2: Disney MagicBand
Last week at DisneyWorld in Orlando, I arrived and was given a "MagicBand." This MagicBand had a credit card attached to it, as well as a hotel room key - so I didn't need to carry anything around at all. This accommodated an existing need through replacement - replacing a wallet and room key with a wearable technology.

Good job, Disney!

The Disney MagicBand, live from the Boardwalk hotel near Epcot

The future of children in America

On the CTA this weekend, I sat across from a mom and her daughter in a stroller. The mom was zoning out in her own world, and the stroller child below was occupying herself perfectly playing games on her mom's smartphone. This is our future! 

A kid playing with her mom's smartphone on the El

Growing up in the information age

A few weeks ago, I wrote about social media anxiety and our need for instant gratification. Recently, I've downloaded Chicago's TransitStop app from the CTA, giving up-to-the-minute updates on when the next train or bus will arrive at your destination. Growing up in the age of constant, accessible information - we have grown to accept and expect these apps to be present, which I've learned is both a blessing and a curse. It's great to know when the next train is coming, but also upsetting to know if it will be a longer wait than was anticipated. 

Recently while headed back home, I was about three stops away from Howard- the station where I transfer to the Purple Line closest to the north suburbs. Out of curiosity, I checked when the next purple line train would arrive, hoping it would be a seamless transfer.

Needless to say, my heart started beating faster when I saw that not only was the train arriving in a minute, but the next one wasn't for 14 minutes. Parts of me felt like it was a race and the train had to make it in time for my transfer, and I actually started to get eager and anxious.

The TransitStop app while waiting for the Purple Line

A different part of me thought, "Would I really have known the wait time was 14 minutes if I just got outside and waited?" Probably not. We have plenty to entertain ourselves these days, with smartphones, reading material and music or audio books right in front of us - that it was going to move right along anyway. 

With the vast amount of data and information available at our fingertips, we can't let information that was once inaccessible stress us out as much as it does. 

Ancient Internet stories

The other day in a training session at work, an executive at my company said, "And in 1996, clients would ask, 'What are we going to do on the Internet? There's nobody there.'" 

That sparked all of the stories from our youth of the Internet being new and exciting. Remember….

• In elementary/middle school when everyone had a dial-up connection? 
• How you could practically do a dance while the computer was connecting to the Internet? 
• When everyone was on AOL Instant Messenger until the wee hours of the night? 
• When your house could have a computer without Internet on it and it wouldn't be a big deal?

There are countless memories. What other ancient Internet stories come to mind? 

#Millennialproblems: Tech overload

An incredibly pathetic "first world problem" photo live from my bedroom. 

Consumer Electronics Show: closing thoughts

At the beginning of this month, technology, advertising and innovation aficionados traveled to Las Vegas for the annual International Consumer Electronics Show. Working at a media agency, many of my co-workers attended to learn about the newest opportunities in ad tech, and I followed the press throughout the conference to learn about products and innovation.

Wrap-ups and reporting covered top trends such as wearable technology, products for smart homes and other new ideas.

Here are three tidbits that caught my eye, as I continue to think about their lasting effect weeks after CES.

1. EyeLock: Myris
This is one of the most exciting devices I have heard about in awhile. This "Myris" device scans your eye, plugs into your computer through a USB port and removes the need for online accounts and passwords by using your eye as the password to everything. How amazing it would be to not have spreadsheets on spreadsheets of passwords!

2. Bended technology

Bended TVs were very popular at CES, and they even introduced curved smartphones. I don't understand the appeal of bended technology, or what value it provides to anyone except the "cool" factor. If you have any insight or opinion as to why a bended TV screen would be useful, please...let me know.

3. Home automation systems

Now that smartphones are the norm, "smart homes" and "smart cars" are next. If one device can be ultra-connected and targeted, why can't every major aspect of your life? Dish Network shared an  automation system in the "smart home" space that will allow you to see video footage of your front door from your TV screen. This could mean incredible things for security.

A brilliant tagline

I recently saw a tagline for the popular app Snapchat - that said:
Snapchat is the fastest way to share a moment.

In a file on Snapchat's website geared toward parents, the website elaborates on this, and writes: 

"Snapchat creates a place to be funny, honest or however else you might feel when you take and share a snap with family and friends. It’s sharing that lives in the moment, and stays in the moment."

For having a 23-year-old CEO that rejected a $3 billion buyout from Facebook, I think they're doing things pretty smart. Positioning themselves as 'momentary' is a unique selling point against sending a photo from any time via a text message, and the tagline is memorable. As one of the app's users, and a photo-texter as well, I find myself sharing comical tidbits or quick moments out with others with the rest of my friends and family members on the app. 

Way to go on doing your research, Snapchat! 

COOL APPS: Testing out iOS7

Like a true digital vanguard and constant attempt to be an early adopter, I spent this morning reading technology blogs about the features of iOS7, and specifically, how to save battery life. There is nothing more frustrating than low battery percentages on your phone when it's just sitting in your purse with WiFi, location trackers and other apps sucking it away.

I learned a lot from some reading, like the clock app icon being an actual clock, how to block calls and more. But the third point in this Mashable piece showed me the very exciting news that the Compass iPhone app now has a level.

As the tenant of a new apartment that my roommate and I are currently decorating, this news leaves me dumbfounded as we just hung up all of our frames using our own eyes as level, semi-upset that we didn't own the tool.

So for good measure (pun intended), I went to a few of our frames and put the level on them to see how we did.

Testing out the new iPhone level on the Compass app

And look- it is perfectly straight!

For more iPhone tips, ways to save battery life on iOS7, and detailed directions on how to turn off AirDrop, Bluetooth, background app refresh and other battery suckers, click here. 

Life in 2013

When you walk into a restaurant in the city for lunch and it's aligned with outlets so everyone eating can charge their phones, tablets or computers. 

Taken at Jason's Deli at Dearborn & Lake St. 

A year without technology

I wanted to pass along this article in the Toronto Sun about a family from Guelph, Canada. I have the utmost respect for them: they are living a year "like it's 1986" and parenting their kids like they were parented–without most technology.

After realizing their 2 and 5-year-old boys would not look up from screens and devices, they decided to spend April 2013 through April 2014 living without them just to see what it was like. They gave up things like a DVR, GPS, cell phones, digital cameras, coffee machines and plenty more.

The woman has read 15 books since the experiment, and the man said that in his first few weeks without his cell phone, he could almost feel his pocket vibrating as if it were there. The town seems to be supporting their efforts, with the couple claiming sometimes neighbors will drop off VHS tapes on their doorstep and other gifts with knowledge of the so-called 'experiment.' The article ends with the man stating how their family feels closer and talks a lot more.

As ideal and simple life sounds with such a decision, I don't know if I could do such an experiment after growing up with everything we have. Maybe a month without all of the devices...but a full year? What this taught me is as easy as all of our devices are supposed to make life (GPS instead of looking at a map, smartphone instead of Internet on a computer, etc), they actually make it more difficult. I'm embarrassed at how often I've been on my iPhone and Facebook since moving back home. Hopefully, more families take similar efforts before GenZ doesn't know life without so many screens.

How Apple dictates the world...and why it stinks to be an early adopter

This break, the battery on my Macbook Pro of 3 1/2 years died. Not only would it not hold a charge, but it would not even turn on when plugged into a power source - so it was time for a new computer. When I went to the Apple store, I was presented with two options - a MacBook Pro computer like I have now, or a MacBook Pro with a high definition retina screen that is lightweight and "cool." After a lot of discussion with the Apple salesman, it was clear at the time that the Retina screen would be the better option. Not only was high definition and lighter to carry around, but it launched applications faster and had a quicker operating system than the other MacBook Pro.

This purchase cycle, I was very cynical and not in the mood to pay $2,000 for a computer - so plenty of questions came up. I often sighed at the answers because now that I have gone through this so much, every choice was explained by Apple trying to make more profits or control technology in the US. Here were three differences that automatically made me upset, but that I didn't have a ton of other choices on:

• The retina screen computers (and MacBook airs) have no disc drive. They say it's because "society is moving away from CDs." While this is true, Apple is forcing CDs out by not letting you use them. If you don't even have the option to put a CD or DVD in your computer, they think you're going to buy it from iTunes. 
• There is less gigabyte space on the newer computers because they're trying to make them more portable, so the salesman encourages you to "store big files on an external hard drive" and "keep your computer running fast." The point of computers and their size used to be to hold everything you need, but now - they're just encouraging us to buy more devices and have more things for the same operation. So none of my photos from the past 7 years are on my computer and I'll have to watch file space very carefully. 
• None of the cords- the computer charger, dongle to hook up to projectors, etc are compatible with the MacBook Pro with retina, so you have to buy all new supplies. So not only are my 2 chargers defunct with the new computer, but I have to buy an HDMI cord to hook up my screen to a projector. Another way Apple is trying to make HDMI necessary and get some money on all new devices. 

After jumping through hurdles, the cost and functionality still led to buying the Retina. They make the wait on a regular computer so frustrating with the spinning disc system that they don't leave you a choice. But shortly after getting it and setting everything up, I learned another lesson:

Being an early adopter stinks.

No external applications (Microsoft Word, Twitter, Firefox, Adobe, Photoshop, InDesign, etc) can be seen clearly on the high definition screen because they haven't made themselves compatible for it yet. FOR REAL. So when I opened up Microsoft Word, the screen was grainy and blurry. And when I asked the Apple technician, she said "Well they don't have an update yet so there's nothing you can do about it."

So not only is Apple trying to get you to use their proprietary applications, but they made it virtually impossible for you to use the other ones "until those companies come out with updates." Overall, I probably should have waited for these bugs to be fixed before getting the computer, but no one at Apple even mentions these issues when you buy the product. I had to search intensely to find a way to make Microsoft Office clear, or even see these listed as an issue by product reviewers. 

And the Apple customer service was absolutely horrible this entire time. They don't acknowledge these as flaws, they just talk about how Safari is a great solution. It's not a solution, it's the only choice.

The conclusion here- Apple is trying to run the world more than we already know, so unless you are SUPER loyal to them, hold off. Or you'll be as frustrated as I am and searching for updates, writing this blog post at the Apple Store at Northbrook Court and anti-high definition screen computers. 

eCommerce

Yesterday, I came across an infographic on Mashable called "Why Mobile Commerce is On the Rise." The first thing that came to my mind was "Ugh. Who in their right mind can't wait enough to shop that they go online- from their cell phone- to buy things? How ridiculous."

Then I realized: I'm the ridiculous one. This was the exact same first thought that sparked in my mind when I learned about online shopping. I remember telling my friends in middle and high school how crazy I thought it was to buy something you could not try on or have a tangible connection with before purchasing, and look at where we are now. It's not about enforcing your own ideology- it's moving where the world is taking us.

Culturelabel.com reports that mobile commerce will see an estimate of a 99 fold increase in six years, and 79 percent of large online retailers still don't have a mobile optimized website. Think back to five to 10 years ago, when big retailers were still creating their websites. The internet revolution is happening all over again, but now with mobile devices.

So although I think M-commerce sounds crazy right now, I just have to accept the fact that it is what's going to be normal in a few years. Thinking eCommerce was crazy, then buying practically everything I could think of on the internet freshman year of college shows what a quick change one can make to follow society with purchasing habits. Change happens fast.

Remember six years ago, when we didn't have YouTube? Now mobile YouTube is the No. 1 most visited website on phones and YouTube is one of the top three sites on the internet. Just a few years ago, tablets, iPads and Kindles were released, and now the iPad 3 is taking over and it's becoming normal to carry a keyboard and an iPad around the School of Journalism. So rather than being intimidated by these statistics, let's be early adopters and keep them going. Radio media didn't rebuttle against TV when it came out, print newspapers still exist regardless of having online as an option, and I won't always be buying commercial items on my phone. But we should be fascinated at how far we truly have come to appreciate how nice it is to have the option.

The phone game

Last week after the amazing win over Kansas, my friends and I went out to dinner to celebrate. Plus, we hadn’t eaten all day from waiting in line so why not grab a bite to eat? One of my pet peeves has always been when people pay more attention to their cell phones than the people they are with. I’m guilty of it myself, especially with the iPhone, but I’ve always had the goal to focus on what’s going on in front of you and not on the screen.

My friend Andrew tweeted an article he found last month about a game some people created. Everyone puts their cell phones in the middle of the table at dinner and isn’t allowed to touch them the entire meal. If someone breaks the rules and uses their phone, they have to pay the entire check. Sounds fun, right? The objective is to get everyone to focus on having a conversation with each other during dinner rather than texting the entire time. So naturally, we tried it!

At Applebees, eight of us put our phones in the center- seven iPhones and 1 Droid (ha). At first, I had turned my volume off and phone facing down, but we really decided to torment ourselves. Everyone’s volume was on and phone was face up so we could see that people were trying to contact us, but realize that it didn’t matter. We were all together, friends hanging out, having a conversation, enjoying each other’s company. What needed to interrupt that? What can’t wait 20-30 minutes?  

Luckily, no one lost the game and everyone got their own check! The game succeeded. We all resisted the temptation to text others and had fun conversations with each other too. Everyone talked about what they were doing for the SuperBowl, what their favorite parts of the weekend were and what was going on in their lives.

Would I do this again? DEFINITELY. It’s upsetting that we have to make a game of it to put our phones away and can’t just do it unconsciously. But it taught us to appreciate the time we have with each other and chill for just a few minutes, rather than constantly thinking about what we were doing next or who we weren’t with. The waitress thought we were incredibly strange, but it didn’t even matter. Give the game a try some time!

Phones in the middle of the table