How To Break Your Smartphone Addiction - Without Going Cold Turkey

via readwrite.com

I’ve spent more than a decade building a business around creating mobile apps that help families stay safe and connected. Though my livelihood depends on everyone’s continued use of mobile phones, several recent statistics about our relationships with phones have alarmed me.

58% of kids 13-17 have smartphones.
More than 60% of teens text during class and after bedtime.
Most students can stay on task for only three minutes before “needing” to interact with technology.
Giving up phones completely isn’t the answer, of course. But the alarm these issues raise in me is insistent. I began to understand it better one recent evening when I noticed how nuts it made me to see my 12-year-old daughter hunched over her smartphone, texting like crazy. I wanted to grab it and say, “Go outside! Read a book! Climb a tree!” And then I realized: all this had gone through my mind during a brief moment… when I’d looked up from my own phone.

Posted via email from Create | Inspire - DM2 Studios

How To Break Your Smartphone Addiction - Without Going Cold Turkey

via readwrite.com

I’ve spent more than a decade building a business around creating mobile apps that help families stay safe and connected. Though my livelihood depends on everyone’s continued use of mobile phones, several recent statistics about our relationships with phones have alarmed me.

58% of kids 13-17 have smartphones.
More than 60% of teens text during class and after bedtime.
Most students can stay on task for only three minutes before “needing” to interact with technology.
Giving up phones completely isn’t the answer, of course. But the alarm these issues raise in me is insistent. I began to understand it better one recent evening when I noticed how nuts it made me to see my 12-year-old daughter hunched over her smartphone, texting like crazy. I wanted to grab it and say, “Go outside! Read a book! Climb a tree!” And then I realized: all this had gone through my mind during a brief moment… when I’d looked up from my own phone.

Posted via email from Create | Inspire - DM2 Studios

How to Stop Apple From Tracking You Again in iOS 6

via gizmodo.com

Business Insider is reporting that Apple's launch of iOS 6 brings with it not just Passbook and bad maps, but a new means of tracking user activity, too. That's right; your iPhone tracks your every activity by default. Here's how to stop it.

The report suggests that Apple has started tracking users again so advertisers can target them, using a new technology called "identifier for advertisers " (IFA). A random, anonymous number assigned to a user and their device, IFAs are temporary and can be blocked like cookies.

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Stop Advertisers Tracking iPhone - Video

via businessinsider.com

It's no surprise that advertisers can track your every move on your iPhone. But if you have an iPhone 5 or an Apple gadget running iOS 6, you can prevent advertisers from gaining access to your personal information.

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How To Stop Facebook From Tracking You

via businessinsider.com

Most people don't realize that Facebook can continue to monitor their internet activity, even if they are no longer logged into the site.

Using "Facebook Connect," and other social pulg-ins, Facebook is able to set up a cookie on any site that has a "Like" or "share" button, giving Facebook access to a startling amount of user information. Technically, the purpose of these plug-ins is to authenticate users, but it still has the ability to collect personal information such as the IP address of your computer, browsing data, outside login information, phone numbers, etc.

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Technology is Making You Sick. Here's the Cure.

via openforum.com

When the power went out this summer in Chicago, my first thought was not “Will the food spoil in the freezer?” It was to check and see whether my iPad was fully charged. I immediately obsessed about how I could access the Internet if the blackout lasted for an extended period of time.

These are not unusual thoughts in the age of the “always-on” technology. Through the Internet, we can access information almost anywhere and anytime we want. But, Professor Larry Rosen, who studies the psychology of technology, explains in his new book, iDisorder: Understanding Our Obsession with Technology and Overcoming Its Hold on Us, that this has become an increasing psychological disorder among the general population.

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Syria Deleted Itself from the Internet Today

via gizmodo.com

For 40 minutes this afternoon, Syria didn't exist on the Internet—its (currently) ruling government completely unplugged itself. All's fair in war and more war.

Although 40 minutes isn't so long, it had serious effects, explains Internet monitoring firm Renesys:

For about 40 minutes today, all networks routed through the Syrian incumbent, Syrian Telecommunications Establishment (AS29256 and AS29386), were withdrawn from the global routing table, effectively cutting off most of Syria from the Internet.

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Why The Internet Died Last Night...Again

via gizmodo.com

On Friday night, the internet fell victim to a thunderstorm outside of Washington D.C., taking out a chunk of Amazon's servers, which plays host to sites and services such as Instagram and Netflix. Last night, the internet died again, taking down sites such as Yelp, Reddit, and even the Gawker network. But it wasn't because of the elements. This time it was because of a leap second.

Long story short, at 12:00a Greenwich Mean Time, all of the atomic clocks across the world inserted a leap second (or in simpler terms, paused for a second) so that they could remain in unison with the rotation of the planet (this is something that has occurred 24 times since 1972). As it happens, many pieces of technology, ranging from servers, to networks, to laptops, sync up their clocks with the atomic clocks. Problem is, they don't know how to handle things when a leap second gets thrown in to the mix because they see the same second twice in a row.

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[Video] Incredible Stop Motion Video Inspired by Ernest Hemingway

via fstoppers.com

I’m kind of obsessed with stop motion, and have dabbled in it from time to time. But this particular stop motion video is top notch. Watch as a pair of hands (belonging to an artist named Hagen Reiling) draw the story of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea. The camera work and edit were done by Marcel Schindler. He shot with a Canon 5d Mark II and the 24-70mm 2.8 L-series lens. It’s so simple and beautiful, and I’m jealous that I didn’t create it. I watched it three times.

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The End of Mac

via gizmodo.com

The latest Mac OS X is now just OS X. The "Mac" is now gone. It's a clear declaration of intentions. The end of Macintosh—the desktop metaphor that reigned supreme for more than two decades—is near.

Posted via email from Inspiration

Blacklisting Provisions Remain in Stop Online Piracy Act

via wired.com

The House Judiciary Committee debated the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act for hours Thursday — and about five hours into the 11-hour hearing voted 22-12 to reject an amendment that would do away with its most controversial provision that would force changes to core internet infrastructure in order to stop copyright infringement.

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