Month: July 2016

Over the years, technology has managed to change a little portion of every part of our lives.  We experience these changes when we sleep, when we relax, work, eat, socialize, travel…

You name it, and technology has probably changed it… and only stands to change it more.

One facet of life technology has changed immensely would be the world of sports and fitness.  It’s given us instant access to personalized fitness data.  It’s shown us how to approach exercise in a more effective manner.  And it’s allowed us the opportunity to interact with games on a different level with a different mindset adopting different expectations.

But how is this all happening?  Here are a few examples.

Apps

Smartphone applications have turned the fitness world upside down.  From tracking and monitoring to personalized workout suggestions and ongoing motivation, there’s a fitness app on nearly everyone’s phone.

• The Johnson & Johnson’s Official 7 Minute Workout will start you off at a customized fitness level, give you access to a library full of workouts, and walk you through a perfectly balanced 7-minute session.
• MyFitnessPal won’t just track your workouts and calories burned, but it will also provide you with a database of foods and drinks to help you manage what you eat.
• Pact wants you to track your workouts and food consumption; however, if you don’t reach your daily goals, you’ll be forced to pay up. On the flip side, if you do reach your goals, you’ll get paid.

Wearables

Wearables like Fitbit, Garmin, and Jawbone are well known by the general public.  Many people use wearables like these to track their daily activities, but nowadays, wearables go above and beyond high-tech watches.

• The Welt is a belt made in the name of wellness (hence the term Welt), and it will monitor the steps you take, as well as any overeating that you may partake in.
• The Sensoria smart sock is a sock that can track how fast you run, how far you go, and well you do it.
• A Misfit wearable can be worn like a typical watch to track your swimming, running, and activity levels, but it can also be worn as a necklace, tucked into a diamond encrusted bracelet, slipped inside your pocket, or attached to your sock.

Gadgets

Technology in sports and fitness isn’t all about monitoring how far you go and how much you lose.  Technology also aims to help you become a better player at your game of choice and to help you stay safer in the process.

• FitGuard is an intelligently designed mouth guard that can be used to sense the likelihood of a head-injury from high impact sports like Football.
• VERT is a jump monitor that allows people involved in sports such as basketball and volleyball to understand their jump loads and effectively prevent injuries.
• 94Fifty is a smart basketball that pairs with a smartphone application to show you how to shoot better, dribble harder, and improve follow through.
• SmartMat is designed for a better experience with yoga. It detects alignment and connects with your smartphone to give you real-time feedback.

These aren’t the only adjustments technology has made to the sporting world.  Just take a look at the Levi’s Stadium.  This high-tech stadium combines super modern Wi-Fi technology with smartphone applications and colossal LED TVs.  You can order food from your seat, check on the wait times at any nearby bathroom, and watch live replays right from your phone.  Technology has done some rather exciting and extremely useful things to the world of sports and fitness.  It’ll be interesting to see where it takes us next.

Phones are kind of a big deal these days.  Whether you’re mindlessly swiping away on Tinder, wandering the streets at two in the morning looking for Pokémon, or sending out your 348^th text of the day, your phone is right by your side living life with you.  But your phone isn’t just for building fictional kingdoms and taking selfies from rather unwise locations.

Even more than social media, games, and trivial back-and-forth communication, your mobile device is about working on-the-go, managing personal finances, and tracking family members, purchases, and private information.  It’s like your little black book – but instead of tracking just your love life, it tracks every last piece of your life.

If someone were to snatch this little black book of everything from you, things could end poorly – both professionally and personally.  You could suffer from the likes of identity theft and credit card fraud, as well as data loss from a business perspective (such as client records and private emails).  So to avoid all of that, here’s how you can keep your phone safe (or, at the very least, safer).

Passcode

We’re going to start things off simple here.  Make sure your phone is locked with a passcode at all times.  Think of it as your first line of defense.  If someone does steal your phone, you don’t want this person to have easy access to the contents inside it; therefore, you need to make this as difficult as possible for them – even a 4-digit pin code is better than nothing.  Plus, with Apple’s fingerprint reader, the process of locking and unlocking your phone should only get easier (but only for the rightful owner of the phone).

Passwords

When it comes to apps and websites you visit that have access to personal or financial information, you should always use a strong password and you should always log out of the app or site completely when you’re done with it.  If you allow your passwords to be “remembered,” then it’s like having a phone with no passcode.  Anyone can simply open an app or visit a previously opened tab on your mobile browser and log into your account.  They wouldn’t even have to bother trying to crack your password; it’s already there for them.

Phone Finding App

If someone does steal your phone (or if you simply lose it somewhere), the sooner you can find it, the better off you’ll be.  There are a handful of phone-finding apps available that can help you do this rather efficiently.  With these apps, you can log into your account from any desktop or another person’s phone and track down your phone via step-by-step GPS directions.  If you feel it’s been stolen, you can even turn on your phones peripheral features (like the camera) to scare the thief into ditching your phone.  A few options for phone-finding apps would include Lookout, Find My iPhone, and Where’s My Droid.

Internal Threats

It is possible to access the contents of your phone without anyone ever physically touching your phone.  All it takes is one malicious app or one corrupt link inside an email, and – bam – your phone is hacked, infiltrated, toast, gone baby gone.  To avoid this, always confirm the legitimacy of any links and apps prior to any clicking or downloading.  For links, you should verify the giver of the link.  For apps, you should research the maker and read any available reviews.

Wi-Fi Connections

You need to be careful with public Wi-Fi connections.  Yes, these are life-savers.  But at the same time, they can do some serious damage if you aren’t cautious of which ones you’re connecting to.  There’s such a thing as fake Wi-Fi hotspots.  These connections are established by cyber-criminals, and once you connect to it, a hacker can easily tap into your phone and view everything and anything you do.  A good rule of thumb is to stay away from private and financial information when you’re on-the-go and connected to public Wi-Fi.  So even if someone does tap into your phone, all they will see is you on your quest to become the ultimate Pokémon Master.

Everyone is always so worried about shopping online… that one innocent purchase on the wrong site will lead to your eventual financial downfall.  A hacker will spin his web, and swing from the darkest corners of the web – bigger and better than Spiderman ever could.  He’ll swoop up your data, and use it to travel the world.  He’ll buy a fancy car and an even fancier house.  And meanwhile, you’re left to squat on some dark, dank corner in the middle of nothing good and no one nice.

And unfortunately, you should be worried about all of that.  Not that anyone will be able to buy a house or travel the world equipped with nothing but your credit card data – but they might buy a really fancy pair of shoes.  But things get more unfortunate because that’s not the only thing you should be worried about.  In fact, some identity theft experts say there’s something else you should worry about more than online identity theft…

Credit card skimmers.

It takes a skilled criminal less than 60 seconds to install a nearly undetectable credit card skimmer on an ATM machine.  Once this minute is up, anyone who swipes their card on this machine will be placed on a one-way path headed straight towards identity theft.  Not only can a thief swipe your credit card number, but they can swipe your pin number, as well, making this data fully operational and incredibly valuable.

But if you caught it earlier, a credit card skimmer is nearly undetectable.  In other words, if you pay close enough attention to the machine itself, you have the opportunity to sniff out a credit card skimmer before it ever has the chance to skim your credit card.  You just have to know what to look for.

Loose Parts

Many sources say it’s a useful habit to pull and prod at any ATM machine you visit.  Yes.  You’re going to look really strange doing this.  But looking strange for a few minutes is a whole lot better than dealing with credit card fraud.

Most credit card skimmers are attached to the top or front of an ATM machine.  It might be glued on, but most likely, it’s simply clipped onto the device or attached to the card reader.  For this reason, you should pull on the pin pad and tug at the card reader (or any other parts that stick out).  Make sure nothing wiggles or looks like it could potentially come off.  If anything does appear to move, do not use that machine.

Strange Colors

Take a look at the entire machine and consider the colors.  If you’re around multiple ATM machines or if you’re at the gas station using the pump, compare your machine to the other ones.  This can be a dead giveaway – for example, your card reader has red material surrounding it but none of the other ones do.  That’s a sign your machine has been messed with.

However, if there’s only one ATM machine, you’ll have to use your best judgement.  Say there is red material surrounding the card reader, and you can’t tell for certain if it goes with the machine or not.  This is when you should pull at the card reader and see if the red casing moves.  And keep in mind, just because it doesn’t move, doesn’t mean it’s supposed to be there.  If you’re at all hesitant, then find another ATM machine at a different location.

Hidden Graphics

If someone affixes something to an ATM machine, there’s a chance that certain graphics on the machine might be partially hidden because of it.  This is good, because it can help you identify ATMs that have been tampered with.

Oftentimes, ATM manufacturers will put graphics on the machine to serve as directions – arrows, dots, text, images.  If any of these graphics are concealed by parts of the machine, then these “parts” might not belong there.