#555 – A Universal Bye Week

Every year each NFL team gets one week off during the season.  These bye weeks occur on a staggered basis so that on any given Sunday during the middle portion of the schedule there will always be a few teams off.  The schedule is set up this way for obvious reasons.  With games on every Sunday the television ratings are guaranteed to be high every Sunday.

However, this practice of staggering bye weeks creates issues.  First and foremost is the fairness factor.  Take the highly competitive NFC West for example, arguably the NFL’s best division featuring three legitimate Super Bowl contenders.  The Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks had their byes this week.  Meanwhile the San Francisco 49ers don’t have their bye for another month.  That means that the 49ers could be fresher down the stretch when compared to the players on the Cardinals and Seahawks who would be going three straight months with no rest by the time the playoffs roll around.  How is that fair?

The fairness factor extends to the entire schedule as well since it’s a known fact, at least in gambling circles, that teams coming off their bye usually have an advantage over their opponent since they have two weeks to rest up and game plan.  Is it fair that a division title is won or loss because one team plays multiple opponents coming of their bye weeks while another doesn’t play any such teams?

Last but not least is the fantasy football factor, a factor that can no longer be ignored with the popularity of fantasy sports at an all time high.  What factor is that?  It’s the fact that bye weeks wreck havoc with fantasy teams causing good teams to lose to inferior opponents because they have to play without their star players.  Or worse it causes good players to get dropped in leagues with shallow benches.  Or worse it leads to bad decisions on draft day with owners obsessed over how to construct a team with bye weeks in mind.  Basically, bye weeks are a huge pain in the ass for fantasy owners.

So what can be done about it?  Well what I’m envisioning is a standard bye week.  Every team in the league gets the same week off.  A proverbial half time for the season set after week 8.  This would create an even playing field for all teams, remove unfair advantages created by the schedule makers, and make fantasy football more enjoyable.

Of course this would never happen because of the money involved with ratings and advertising on a weekly basis.  But wait just a second.  What if there was a way to turn this into a boon for TV execs and advertisers as well?  Wouldn’t they have to be interested then?  I think they would be because what I’m envisioning is scheduling a major sporting event during that week off.  An event worthy of having the full attention of the entire sporting world for an entire week in late October.  And as fate would have it we already have a worthy event scheduled for that time. THE WORLD SERIES.

Boom.  Lock it up.  Championship.

Would the NFL and fantasy football be better with all teams getting a bye at the same time?

Read Full Post »

#554 – Week In Review

Here’s a look at all the things that caught my eye this past week:

1.  Keyboard Cleaning Slime!

If you’ve ever eaten lunch at your desk at work your keyboard is probably a cesspool of germs.  It may even be home to advanced civilizations on the verge of inventing the wheel.  Wouldn’t it be great then if you had a way to quickly and easily clean your keyboard without banging it upside down over a garbage can or using an expensive high powered air duster?  Well, thankfully we may now have such a way.  Just so long as you don’t mind the idea of touching slime.

According to Psfk, “Cyber Clean is a Swiss made (first of it’s kind?) cleaning slime that can get at hidden dirt no matter where it hides. Roll the goop over your keyboard or any other device and it will slink in and pick up any bit of filth and debris. It cleans and kills germs while binding with dirt due to its special viscosity and elasticity. It can be used repeatedly until it gets filled with junk and will change color to let you know it’s through. When you’re done, just throw it away – it’s also biodegradable.”

2.  Solar Power Saving Liquid Batteries

Solar and wind power have a lot of potential for solving our energy needs.  The only problem is that we can’t save and store all of the energy they create.  For the most part we can only use them when it’s sunny or windy out.  What we need is a battery capable of storing that excess energy for future use.  That battery now exists.  And, oh by the way, the battery is made of liquid!

According to Popular Science, “a team of MIT researchers has built an all-liquid battery prototype that’s designed to store excess energy from solar and wind power plants. When the sun isn’t shining, or the wind isn’t blowing, future versions of this battery could release energy captured during more productive times into nations’ power grids.”

To be fair there are some existing options that store some power for future use but these are solid state batteries and they’re used primarily in one off situations like single homes.  These new liquid batteries, however, would be cheaper to produce and would last longer.  In fact, these first generation batteries may be able to withstand ten years of daily use.

Take that energizer bunny!

3.  Alba Light Bulb

We’re on the verge of a household revolution the like of which has not been seen since the advent of the microwave.  A revolution powered by smart devices that communicate with one another and respond to our every movement.  As it turns out nothing is save from that revolution.  Not even the humble light bulb.  That’s because we may soon be outfitting our homes with smart light bulbs, like the Alba.

According to the Huffington Post, “Created by tech startup Stack Lighting, (the) Alba, will brighten or dim based on your presence (i.e. when you enter and leave a room), and as natural light changes throughout the day.”

Edison would be proud.

 4.  Luna Washing Ball

Why bother transferring your clothes from the laundry hamper to the actual washing machine when you can just wash your clothes while they are still inside your hamper!  That’s the premise behind the Luna Washing Ball, a new device that aims to make doing your laundry easier than ever.

According to the now defunct Dvice, “the Luna Wash is like a miniature dirt-destroying Death Star that uses static electricity and steam to coax your clothes clean. To get the wash going, you first fill the Luna Wash with a small amount of water and plop it down into your laundry. The Luna Wash then produces a cloud of steam. The surrounding clothes relax in the heat, letting go of the dirt on their fibers. Next, it swaps to dirt-magnet mode, emitting an electrostatic charge that sucks that loosened dirt right into its own metal frame.  Vibrating and pulsing its way all the way to the bottom of your hamper, the Luna Wash finishes its cycle by blowing your fresh-cleaned clothes dry with hot air.”

I’ve heard of cutting out the middle man to make a process more efficient but I’ve never heard of making it so that the middle man does all the work!  Now if only they could also figure out a way to get all the clothes folded after drying them…

 

Is a ball that washes your clothes while they are still in the hamper the Greatest Idea Ever?

Read Full Post »

#553 – 3-D Printing Update

3-D printing continues to progress at a rapid rate.  Blink and you may miss something. I do my best to try and stay on top of it but it’s becoming an exercise in futility.  Here’s my latest attempt to stay on top of the latest developments:

1.  3-D Bio Printer:  There’s already been quite a few breakthroughs when it comes to 3-D printing organs.  Now there’s word about a new process that can 3-D print skin in order to quickly aid burn victims.

According to the International Business Times, “In severe burn injuries, both the epidermis (outer layer of the skin) and the dermis (inner layer) are severely damaged, and it usually takes at least two weeks for skin cells to be grown in a laboratory to be grafted on to a patient.  As both layers of skin are made from completely different cells that have different structures, it is very difficult for the body to regenerate itself and burn victims can die if their wounds cannot be closed quickly enough.

So how does it work? IBT explains: “Using the patient’s keratinocytes and fibroblast cells, the bioprinter creates a biopolymer in a 3Dstructure that is able to mimic the epidermal and dermal layers of the patient’s skin, printing out in patterns like spots and stripes, which is faster and requires far less cells than printing out a continuous sheet of skin cells.”

This amazing new process is thanks to the PrintAlive Bioprinter and it may be coming to a hospital near you sooner than you think.

2.  Sand Printing:  Like most people I’m a huge fan of building things with sand namely sand castles.  I’m also a huge fan of 3-D printing.  What do you get when you put them together?  Only pure awesomeness.

That’s because we may soon be on the verge of being able to make things out of sand using the sun!

Tech Crunch sums it up best:

“You know the kid in your old neighborhood that spent his spare time frying ants with a magnifying glass? This is like that — except instead of a magnifying glass, he’s using an big ol’ fresnel lens. And instead of roasting insects, he’s melting freaking sand into stuff.”

Check out this video to see the printer in action:

3.  Printing in Space

If we’ve ever going to colonize space or even just create a permanent base on Mars or the Moon we’re going to need to cut down on our shipping costs.  How do you do that?  By just sending a 3-D printer instead of everything you need! And that’s exactly what happened last week when Space X shipped a 3-D printer to the International Space Station for the very first time!  Despite the fact this is was a mere footnote in your local newspaper I would argue that this is the most significant space related breakthrough since man walked on the moon.

However, there are some logistical concerns with 3-D printing in space as one might imagine.  Specifically as it relates to using the printer safely.  According to Forbes:

“The safety issue is the simple fact that when a 3D printer creates objects from its plastics, it will “off-gas” – emitting toxic gasses into the local air. This isn’t a problem on Earth, where doors, windows and HVAC systems allow those gases to diffuse safely. On the space station, however, the atmosphere is strictly controlled and this becomes a real problem.  To solve that problem, the company has developed an environmental control unit that filters out harmful gasses and nanoparticles produced during the printing process. It’s so efficient, in fact, that the filter all by itself can purify a room on Earth.”

While there are plans to spin off that technology back here on Earth that’s not the best news to come out of this development.  Rather it’s the fact that we’re soon going to be able to make things in space for use in space.  Conquering the final frontier begins now.

As you can see there’s never any shortage of incredible developments when it comes to 3-D printing.  From new materials to new processes to new uses it’s a constant struggle to keep up with it all.  I will do my best though so be sure to keep checking back for all of the latest news.

For the very first time in history a 3-D printer has made its way into space.

Read Full Post »

#552 – Random Thoughts Edition

Here’s a look at some things I’ve been thinking about over the past week or so:

• In households around the world at this very moment there is somebody wondering what happened to their other sock.  At this point the case of the missing sock is no longer a running joke.  It’s a flat out epidemic.  What happens to them?  Does the monster under the bed get them?  Does the washing machine hoard them for currency in an illicit underground black market of appliances?  Where do they go?! Wouldn’t it be great then if there was a way to guarantee that you never lost another sock ever again?!  Perhaps if we invented some kind of machine washable clip that held them together while they were getting washed that would do the trick.

• Did you know that when you lease a car you only get a certain number of miles to use per year?  If you go over that allotment you have to pay a fee to the dealer presumably something like 10 cents for every mile you go over.  Wouldn’t it be great then if you could buy, sell, or trade your miles as if they were another form of currency?  Let’s say for example that you’re a little old lady who only drives locally.  You might have thousands of unused miles at the end of the year.  Now let’s say you’re a traveling mouse pad salesman.  You might spend half the year on the road.  If you could get some of grannies unused miles in exchange for something of value to that little old lady everybody wins.  Except for the car dealer of course.  Which is exactly why this is never going to work.  But wouldn’t it be great?!

• How come we say bless you when someone sneezes but don’t do anything when someone has the hiccups?  This is an injustice that must be rectified!

• It really bothers me that I couldn’t get in on the largest IPO of all time when Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba went public last week.  Regular investors like me could only get in at the market opening price of $92 not at the original offering price of $68.  On the first day of trading shares went up past $95 and then settled below $90.  That means that the people who got in ahead of time saw their shares raise in value by more than 35%.  Meanwhile people like me would have seen their shares decrease in value by the end of the day.  In other words the rich get richer and everyone else gets screwed.  How is this fair?  How is this legal?

• Speaking of things that aren’t fair or legal how was ESPN allowed to suspend Bill Simmons for three weeks for speaking his mind about NFL commissioner Roger Goodell?  For those of you who don’t know, Simmons, an opinion columnist, was suspended for giving his opinion!!! About something factually true that ESPN itself was reporting!!! And he got suspended for longer than the NFL suspended Ray Rice for domestic abuse!  I know that there are limitations to Freedom of Speech and all but this is absolutely ridiculous.  #FreeSimmons.

• Tinder is addicting.  No surprise there.  But what is surprising is the fact that you can’t go back and change your mind about someone.  I swipe so quickly, as most people probably do, that it’s highly likely that I may accidentally swipe the wrong way in either direction.  Shouldn’t you have the ability to change your mind?

• Because it’s so hot in Arizona during the summer time you don’t even realize that you are sweating since your sweat evaporates so quickly.  This is a dangerous phenomenon that leads to a lot of people, especially hikers, suffering serious, even catastrophic injuries since they don’t realize that they are dehydrated.  Wouldn’t it be great if there was some kind of wearable device that could track your hydration?

• The other day I tried calling Pottery Barn’s customer service to check on the status of a delivery.  I was told that I had to speak with the furniture delivery department.  Problem was I couldn’t get through to anyone as I was on hold for more than half an hour on three different occasions.  I then called back to customer service, expressed my frustration with this process, and requested another way to get in contact with them.  An email address.  A direct line.  Something.  Anything.  Apparently no other form of communication existed.  Just one line that no one picks up.  I then said that I wanted to cancel my order.  Well to do that I had to speak to the furniture delivery department!  What the what!  To either find out the status of my item or cancel it I have to speak to the same person that I can’t reach!  That is a horribly inefficient way to run a business!  I bring this up because waiting on the phone to speak to a customer service agent that can’t help you is a horrific experience.  There should be a service that exists where you tell someone your issue and they deal with customer service on your behalf until the issue is resolved!! Sounds like the perfect part time job for an unused Uber driver

It really bothers me that ordinary people couldn’t benefit from Alibaba’s IPO.

 

Read Full Post »

#551 – Blackholes Don’t Exist!!!

Here’s something that will blow your mind while your watching Thursday Night Football: Black Holes don’t exist!  That’s right.  Those staples of science fiction movies, those portals to other dimensions and parallel universes, those awe-inspiring awesome entities at the center of our galaxy and every other known galaxy don’t exist!! No wonder information can’t escape them.  Information can’t escape something that’s not real!

This means that we have to rethink everything we know about physics, quantum mechanics, relativity, the Big Bang, multiple universes and string theory.  Everything we think we know about everything may be wrong.

Phys.org does a great job of explaining what this all means:

“For decades, black holes were thought to form when a massive star collapses under its own gravity to a single point in space – imagine the Earth being squished into a ball the size of a peanut – called a singularity. So the story went, an invisible membrane known as the event horizon surrounds the singularity and crossing this horizon means that you could never cross back. It’s the point where a black hole’s gravitational pull is so strong that nothing can escape it.

The reason black holes are so bizarre is that it pits two fundamental theories of the universe against each other. Einstein’s theory of gravity predicts the formation of black holes but a fundamental law of quantum theory states that no information from the universe can ever disappear. Efforts to combine these two theories lead to mathematical nonsense, and became known as the information loss paradox.

In 1974, Stephen Hawking used quantum mechanics to show that black holes emit radiation. Since then, scientists have detected fingerprints in the cosmos that are consistent with this radiation, identifying an ever-increasing list of the universe’s black holes.

But now Mersini-Houghton describes an entirely new scenario. She and Hawking both agree that as a star collapses under its own gravity, it produces Hawking radiation. However, in her new work, Mersini-Houghton shows that by giving off this radiation, the star also sheds mass. So much so that as it shrinks it no longer has the density to become a black hole.

Before a black hole can form, the dying star swells one last time and then explodes. A singularity never forms and neither does an event horizon. The take home message of her work is clear: there is no such thing as a black hole.”

The take home message for me is also clear: if something sounds like non-sense it probably is!  The idea that there was a some kind of magical invisible membrane creating a point of no return sounds so silly now.  When it comes to matters of physics there are no magical powers.  No short cuts.  Dark matter isn’t a magical entity that we can’t detect.  We just haven’t detected it yet.  Dark energy isn’t a magical force that is speeding up the expansion of the universe.  It’s a definition in a physics textbook that hasn’t been written yet.  When it comes to physics there is no room for guess work.  There is only room for the truth.

According to new research black holes don’t exist!

Read Full Post »

#550 – News Butler

Bill Simmons just got suspended by ESPN.  The Situation from the Jersey Shore just got indicted.  John Malkovich just pretended to be Marilyn Monroe.  An iPhone 6 just bent inside of someone’s skinny jeans.  Emma Watson just became a United Nations ambassador and then became the target of cyber bullies.

Some of these stories interest me but others do not.  Why do I bring this up?  Well it’s because I think it would be great if there was a service that would send you an email alert every time there’s a story of interest to you.  I know that some people already complain about getting too many emails but this service wouldn’t be sending you a random link to a Buzz Feed article of cats that look like Game of Thrones characters.  On the contrary this service would be sending you highly relevant information that you find useful, helpful, and down right essential to your way of life.  Although, it could be argued that the aforementioned Buzz Feed cat article is essential!

But that’s beside the point.  The point is that I have a serious case of FOMO and I need someone or some thing to help me keep up with everything that is happening in the world.  For me that means links to UFO sightings, news stories about novel ideas and inventions, and breaking sports news about players on my fantasy team.  For you that may mean a story about a stock your own, a TMZ post about your favorite celebrity, or a press release about who just got cast for Season 2 of True Detective.  (Spoiler Alert: you’re probably not going to like it)

Whatever your interests are from mainstream topics to obscure niches there are likely dozens of stories that could be of interest to you on a daily basis.  Stories that you may not be aware of or may become aware of after the fact, after it’s too late, after the buzz has already died down.

What you need, what we all need, is a news discovery and delivery service that works for us around the clock.  The kind of service that I wish I had but know is probably impossible to create.  Or is it?

What I’m envisioning is a hybrid system featuring humans and artificial intelligence working side by side.  The first part of the system will be an algorithm that scans various data points such as your credit card history, social media profiles, browsing history, a questionnaire that you fill out, etc. to build a very detailed profile about you.

The problem is that even the most advanced artificial intelligence program isn’t going to be able to sort out exactly what somebody may or may not like.  For example, just because I love 3-D printing doesn’t mean I want to be inundated with every new 3-D printing story.  But if there’s a new breakthrough regarding 3-D printing then yea I would want to know about that.  How do you get around this?  With the human element of course as a team of “butlers” review the results before they get distributed ensuring that only the best, most relevant content gets distributed.  These “butlers” could also conduct in person interviews to get to know customers even better.

With a service like this around you wouldn’t have to spend countless hours scrolling through Twitter or hoping from one web site to another in search of something interesting.  Rather, you’d have your very own hand picked collection of articles waiting for you to browse at your convenience.

I realize that some people out there may think this concept is far-fetched and if there was five years ago I probably would agree with you.  But I think we’re headed towards a future where work is geared towards doing tasks that robots and artificial intelligence programs can’t do.  Work like looking for patterns in data.  Which if you think about it is exactly what a news butler would be doing.

Now if you’ll excuse me I have to go surf the web in case I missed anything…

Wouldn’t you want to know right away if this man got suspended!?!?!? Wouldn’t you want a News Butler to deliver that information directly to your inbox!?!!

Read Full Post »

#549 – Antiquing Is Here To Stay!!!!

This past Saturday I woke up at 5:30 am in order to go antiquing at the Junk in the Trunk Vintage Market in Scottsdale, Arizona!  I figured I would be one of a handful of people crazy enough to brave the elements at the crack of dawn to get first crack at a bunch of things that are, well, cracked.  And yet that was hardly the case.  There were thousands of people queued up in 100 degree heat in a line stretching more than a mile!  All for the right to rummage through junk!

I know that one man’s junk could be another man’s treasure but that still doesn’t explain the size of the crowd.  This was the kind of crowd that you would expect to see awaiting the Next Big Thing and yet there it was gathered for the Oldest Big Thing.  It’s the kind of line that you would expect to find at a One Direction meet and greet and yet there it was in a place dedicated to things you find on the street.

This would be a pretty remarkable occurrence if it were an anomaly.  But here’s the thing: I think we’re dealing with the start of a full blown global phenomenon.  The start of a trend in which people care more about the appearance of their homes than of anything else.  It may just be starting to gain traction now but think about where we’re headed as a society.  In the future in which everybody gets around in the same driverless car, with the same robots to do all the housework, with the same drones to follow us around, how would one stand out from the crowd?  By decorating their homes as uniquely as possible of course.  Accent tables are the new status symbols of the 21st Century!

So how did we get here?  How did we get to a place where I would willingly rather go shopping for pieces of scrap metal than watch football?  Well I think there’s there main factors.  First off, I think that the specialization of cable TV has been a factor.  With shows like American Pickers, Antique Roadshow, Pawn Stars, etc. becoming popular it’s easy to see how the general public could want to get into this lifestyle.  Who wouldn’t want to be Mike Wolfe, traveling the back roads of the country, telling the history of America one piece at a time?!

Secondly, I think that the rise in popularity of websites like Pinterest and Etsy has probably contributed as well.  Nowadays it’s all about creating things and showing them off.  Whether that’s a virtual pin board or a hand crafted napkin holder doesn’t matter.  All that matters is that you’re proud of your creation and want to show it off to the world.  Which brings me to my last factor: the DIY movement.

From 3-D printing to low cost robotics built on arduino boards it’s easier than ever to build and create new things including replicas of older things.  In the future when robots have taken away the majority of jobs from us lowly humans it’s going to be these skilled craftsmen and artisans who will reap the benefits of a society built around creativity not labor.  And if the rise in popularity of the Maker Faire is any indication there’s no shortage of people who fit this mold.

All in all, it’s clear to me that antiquing is back in style!  Which is amazing considering that it’s all about things that have long gone out of style.

 

Perhaps my eye for finding treasures is not as good as I thought.

Read Full Post »

#548 – Lego Fusion

When I think about my niece and nephew and their future childhoods I have conflicting thoughts.  One the one hand I worry about their video screen saturated lives and wonder if they will lose their creativity as they trade in their imaginations for iPhones and other gadgets.  On the other hand I’m envious of all the incredible tech infused games that they are going to have at their disposal.  Whether we’re talking about virtual reality, augmented reality, or a real life filled with robots and 3-D printers there’s going to be an unlimited number of incredible toys for them to play with.  Toys that I’m inevitably going to be extremely jealous of.

Well, that jealousy starts today.  That’s because Lego has recently announced the creation of a hybrid real life/augmented reality game called Lego Fusion!! As if Legos needed another reason to be cool!

Essentially, the way that it works is that you build something in real life, say the front facade of a house, and then you scan that object into an app that turns your two dimensional creation into a three dimensional object in a virtual game.   For purposes of this example that game would be a virtual town where you may be tasked with building additional items in order to appease the people living in your town.  It’s basically a more hands on version of the Sims.  There are also games that enable you to build a car and then race them against your friends or build a castle and then fight off invaders.  In other words it’s only the greatest thing ever created.

Engadget sums it up best in a post from June 19th:

“If your child is constantly glued to a tablet swiping away at birds or fruit, you’re probably wistfully wishing for the days when kids liked playing with actual toys. Well, Lego just might have the perfect solution for you and your offspring. Today, the maker of the beloved construction bricks announced Lego Fusion, a system that combines the flexibility and fun of app-based games with the good ol’ fashioned activity of creative Lego building.”

The best part about this new game is that it sounds like the start of a trend.  One in which games blend the best parts of the analogue and digital worlds together.  If that’s true then I have nothing to worry about.  Our youth are going to be just fine after all.

Is Lego Fusion the Greatest Idea Ever?

Read Full Post »

#547 – Movers and Shakers Trading Cards

It’s official.  I’m obsessed with American Pickers.  The evidence?  The fact that I stayed up to 4 am last night binge watching episodes from season one, the fact that I just ordered merchandise from their official website, the fact that I recently tried to haggle with a waitress to see if she would sell something hanging on the wall of her restaurant, and the fact that I’ve decided that going forward instead of using a pickup line when talking to girls I’m just going to try to buy something off of them to break the ice.  I have a disease.  I know.

With my mind squarely focused on collectibles now I couldn’t help but reminisce about the one and only thing that I had ever collected up to this point: baseball cards.  Like most kids I spent the majority of my childhood eating stale pieces of bubble gum while collecting, trading, and organizing them.  Some of the best memories of my formative years revolve around those tiny pieces of cardboard.

Unfortunately though the fanfare surrounding baseball cards has died down considerably in recent years.  Perhaps the internet and video games are to blame as young sports fans now have a plethora of options to occupy their time.  Or perhaps even fantasy sports are to blame.  Why live in the past and trade cards based on old statistics when you can trade the rights to players in real time.

So while I don’t think baseball cards will be making a comeback anytime soon I do think there’s a market out there for trading cards albeit with subject matter that’s more dynamic, appealing to a wider cross section of the public.  Subject matter that’s buzz worthy, viral, and attention grabbing.  Nowadays that means one thing: technology.

Just think about it.  Who are the most popular people in today’s society?  The trend setters?  The news makers?  The pop culture icons?  It’s not athletes.  Nor is it actors or rock stars.  Rather, it’s tech luminaries.  People like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page, Jack Dorsey, etc.  These are the people making headlines.  These are the people gracing the covers of magazines.  These are the people generating water cooler buzz.

Doesn’t it stand to reason then that these are the people that we should be celebrating?  The people that we should be promoting?  I think it does.  That’s why I want to propose that we create movers and shakers trading cards!  From the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies to influential venture capitalists there’s no shortage of interesting people worth celebrating.  And just like baseball cards the value of these tech leader cards will rise and fall based on real life events.  Think Uber is going to take over the world?  Then you better trade for the Travis Kalanick rookie card!  Think Microsoft is done innovating?  Then you better sell your mint condition limited edition Satya Nadella card!

After extensive internet research (typing a few words into Google) I can find no evidence that such cards currently exist.  There was a set of internet stars over fifteen years ago and a few historical figure trading cards but nothing featuring contemporary stars.  But all that’s about to change!  Movers and Shakers cards are on the way!

Now where can I find thousands of pieces of stale bubble gum?

Surely I can’t be the only one who would be interested in collecting Movers and Shakers cards!!!!!!!

Read Full Post »

#546 – Apple Pay

Earlier this week Apple dominated the headlines when they finally unveiled their long awaited smart watch as well as a larger iPhone to rival Samsung’s signature product.  If you’re a fan of Apple’s phones you’re probably really excited about these products.  If you’re a fan of innovation though, like me, then you’re probably disappointed.  As far as real breakthroughs are concerned there really weren’t any.  There was no Apple TV.  No secret product that would be a real game changer.  Nothing that we hadn’t already seen before.  Nothing at all.

However, if you dig a little bit deeper there was one real revolutionary new product to emerge from the event: Apple Pay, a whole new way to pay for items quickly and easily using your phone instead of a credit card.  Or rather using your phone as a credit card.

Technically this really isn’t a revolutionary new product either as the technology has actually been around for several years.  What’s revolutionary though is the fact that Apple has already gotten a ton of retailers and credit card companies to drink their Kool-Aid, creating a unified system that could change the way we shop both in brick and mortar stores and online.

For example, when you pay for something in a physical store you won’t have to sign your name anymore after swiping your card.  Just tap your phone to the register and you’re done.  When it comes to online shopping you’ll save even more time as you won’t have to type in your credit card info or billing address.  Just one click and you’re done.

So how does it work?  According to CNN, “Apple Pay works by sending payment information via short-range radio waves. The message goes from a special chip inside the iPhone 6 to the register. It’s called NFC, short for Near Field Communication. That neat feature is already on lots of Android, Windows Phone and BlackBerry devices and works with Google Wallet, Softcard, PayPal and other services. An estimated 220,000 retail stores already have NFC devices at the register.”

To find out more check out this video below from CNET:

One of the other key benefits of this technology is that it’s secure since you’re using your fingerprint protected iPhone to execute the transactions.  Not only that but it’s also anonymous as Apple claims that they will have no idea what you’re buying, where you are buying it, or how much you’re spending.

On the surface this sounds like an intriguing service that probably will take off since it has Apple’s infrastructure and backing behind it.  There are however, numerous roadblocks that would need to be overcome before it truly becomes widespread.  Such as the fact that it’s not going to be compatible with all retailers right away and the fact that there is a lot of other competition in the mobile payments space.  In fact, all it would take to make Apple Pay a foot note in history is a revolutionary new way to pay that’s even easier.  Perhaps something that utilizes bio-metrics instead.

For now though it’s clear that Apple Pay is here to stay.  As for the Apple Watch?  Well, that remains to be seen.

Apple has created a whole new way to pay that could change the way we shop.

Read Full Post »