Tag: family tech

  • The Family Tech CES2020 Preview

    The Family Tech CES2020 Preview

    Every year at CES, tens of thousands of people gather to see the latest that technology has to offer. Every tech media outlet covers CES. They’ll be talking about everything from virtual reality to massage chairs. This is your Family Tech CES2020 preview. There are a lot of interesting topics being covered at CES this year. Here are some that I think are the most interesting and some that are specifically important for families like yours.



    TV Talk

    Welcome to the age of the 8K television. That’s right, we’ve skipped from 4k resolution to the mind bendingly clear 8k quality. Some say that the human eye can’t even discern that kind of clarity but it sure would be fun to find our for ourselves. The 8k tvs from LG, Samsung, and Sony tout such amazing tech that you need a screen larger that 65 inches to even get the full benefit.

    Voice-Enabled Digital Assistants on Everything

    Voice assistants are in everything. It’s in your car, your TV remote, even your toilet and shower. That is going to continue at CES 2020. Look to find voice activated technology in more and more gadgets this year. Even our kids are being offered toys and gadgets with voice command tech built in. Voice Assistants aren’t new but seeing them integrated into everything else only proves that this concept is here to stay.

    foldable phones family tech ces2020 preview

    Crazy New Gadgets

    There is always some crazy stuff at CES. Some is pretty unimportant but interesting. Some things are said to be the new face of technology but just seem strange to me. Foldable phones fit into that category, so do many of the robot offerings at the conference. Either way I’ll be looking for the most amusing and interesting gadgets to show you at this year’s CES.

    5G Technology

    5G is a bit of a buzz phrase these days but there is some actual technology behind the term. This fast, “over the air,” data connection is finally starting to spread for real. Many major cities are adding 5G to their infrastructure. It’s expensive and coverage is spotty but wherever it works, it’s lightning fast. The reason 5G is so critical is the role it will play in the roll out of self driving car technology. The connection speed that 5G offers is critical to the success of the self driving revolution.

    Self Driving Car Technology

    Self Driving Cars are always the bell of the ball at CES. This year will be no different with more and more companies finding ways to implement the improving technology. Not only are the cars themselves a big deal but the tech around mapping, connection speed, and entertainment inside your self driving car is becoming a major reality as well. It isn’t easy to hitch a ride in one of these vehicles at CES but I’m going to try my hardest this year.


    What Parents Should Know

    The future of technology is always going to include products to entice our children. Coding toys, games, gadgets, and safety tech are all being highlighted at CES2020 and I’ll be there to show you what to look out for and what to look forward to. As I look toward this year’s conference, here is a family tech preview of CES2020.

    Ed-Tech

    As highlighted last year, education technology is a going to be all over the show floor at CES. I’ll show your new coding games and toys as well as virtual and augmented reality classrooms. Robots will play a major role in training students for future technology jobs as well. Keep your browser open to the Family Tech Blog to see more as the conference starts up next week.

    pet tech family tech ces2020 preview

    Pet-Tech

    The furry members of our family have a place at CES as well. Dog toilets, cat toys that move across the ground, connected leashes, and even fenceless boundaries highlight the pet tech industry at CES. You’d be surprised how much tech can help people care for their pets and help pets care for their people. You probably wouldn’t be surprised, however, at some of the goofy pet tech that shows up at CES as well.

    Smart-home/ Home Security

    Everyone’s homes are becoming smarter and smarter, even if the way we use the technology isn’t so wise. Technology that can keep our home network and connected devices safe is crucial and thus, a major factor at CES. I’ll be spending quite a bit of time chatting with developers about their products intended to keep your data secure. Some even offer new parental control solutions as well.

    Connected Toys

    So many of our toys are connected to the internet now. Games, robots, even racetracks are finding ways to connect your tablet or smartphone. You are given an online account in order to fully play with these toys. This is introducing our kids to use of the internet earlier and earlier. What products are coming up that feature connected toys? I’ll gave updated information for you from CES next week.

    Avast All-in-One Security and Safety – Omni

    I’m very excited to test out one specific piece of family safety technology. Avast’s Omni device is an all-in-one way to protect your network from hackers, malware, spyware, viruses, and even set up parental controls and GPS alerts. I’m excited to have a hands on look at Omni while I visit their booth at CES. I’ll also be able to hear from their VP of Product Deliver as she shares at the Family Tech Summit on Thursday of the conference.

    A Long Six Days

    Hope you enjoyed this family tech CES2020 preview. This event is a lot of work and makes for long days. It is, however, some of the most useful and rewarding work I do all year. The new tech, updates on the latest trends, and marketing strategy research gives me such great information to pass along to you, parents. Thank you to those who have partnered with BecauseFamily for this trip to Las Vegas. If you would like to partner with our organization just visit our Partnership page. You can follow every detail of my adventure to CES2020 on our Facebook Page, our Instagram, and on YouTube. Thank you again, see you soon, from Vegas!

  • PODCAST: Does Your Kid Even Need a Phone?

    PODCAST: Does Your Kid Even Need a Phone?

    Family Tech Update:

    Snapchat’s new message delete feature, new video games going to mobile for free, and John Wilkerson joins me to discuss getting your kids started with screen time and when (or if) thet need their own phone.

    Links Mentioned:

    Accountable2You.com (Promo Code: BecauseFamily)

    Dumb Phones for Your Kids

    John Wilkerson

    The Wired Homeschool

    Project Movie Time

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    Tech Blog:: https://safe.becausefamily.org
    Michael’s Speaking Info:: http://kmichaelprince.org

    Donate and Affiliate Links

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  • CES 2018: Family Tech Product Rollouts and Predictions for 2018 Tech

    CES 2018: Family Tech Product Rollouts and Predictions for 2018 Tech

    My first day at CES 2018 was kind of split into two categories. I spent the first half of my time at a press conference and a market research report. This may not sound fun to you but this information is why I’m here. There’s lots of information being shared and learned here that can benefit parents as we work to raise healthy kids in this digital culture. Along with a couple of videos, I wanted to present a simple list that will show you a little bit of what I learned here at CES on media day one.

    Day One Takeaways

    • Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality are being used for diagnosis and treatment by doctors and other healthcare providers.
    • Voice Controlled speakers were the name of the tech industry game in 2017 with a 279% increase in purchases with another 60% of growth expected in 2018.
    • 715 million connected devices are expected to be sold in 2018 to the tune of $351 billion.
    • Augmented reality will be making its way into our everyday lives with uses like shopping, gaming, and health tech.
    • Companion robots are bursting onto the scene. Used as a “family companion,” photos and video, security, speaker, entertainment, and even sleep and home health management.
    • People are more aware of how artificial intelligence (how websites and connected devices collect our data) works and getting acclimated to using it.
    • Virtual reality is becoming a real tool for the fitness and home gym industry.

    Family Tech Product Releases

    • Alexa ready baby monitor. By Project Nursery (More in videos)
    • In device augmented and virtual reality toy gun with 6 depths of field. By MERGEVR (More in videos.)
    • Jimu build and code robot. (Also in video)

    Final Thoughts

    Technology is continuing to move forward faster tthanwe can imagine. The biggest talk at this year’s CES is about voice command technology like Alexa and Google home, self-driving cars, and augmented reality content. As parents, our we should understand that our kids are going to be some of the first adopters of much of this technology and so it is important that we understand it. Kids aren’t watching content just on their televisions anymore, they aren’t having to type search terms into Google, and they are always always connected. That is what was said at day one the most, we are moving from the digital age to the connected age. You’re connected, your kids are connected, and so is everyone else so be sure to stay in the loop so that you can keep every connection safer.

    Stay tuned tomorrow for my report on day 2 of CES Media Days where I’ll talk about teen market research and more about the future of connectivity. Share this article with your friends and let them know that you’re keeping track of the latest tech trends by following FamilyTechBlog.com’s reporting on CES2018.

     

     

  • YouTube’s Restricted Mode to Allow Non-Graphic LGBTQ Content

    YouTube’s Restricted Mode to Allow Non-Graphic LGBTQ Content

    Restricted Mode Guidelines for YouTube have been updated to allow for content from the LGBTQ community as long as it doesn’t contain content deemed graphic. YouTube restated their firm support for those in the LGBTQ community and apologized for content from that community being blocked by their previous restriction guidelines. The update has specifically unblocked over 12 million videos that were previously blocked by the restrictions for some reason. The statement says that the goal was never to keep the voices of those in the LGBTQ community silent but only to provide an option to institutions that would prefer to keep the “adult” side of YouTube off their screens.

    Restricted Mode was originally designed as an optional feature for public institutions like libraries and schools to prevent the viewing of mature content on YouTube. But in looking more closely at the feature, we found that there was LGBTQ (and other) content that should have been included in Restricted Mode but was not, like kissing at weddings, personal accounts of difficult events, and speaking out against discrimination. – YouTube Creator Blog

    You can read YouTube’s full statement here. 

    What Parents Should Know

    These different guidelines have taken effect immediately and some previously blocked content will already be available. Parents should know what their kids are watching. This is the only way to uphold the values you have decided your family should live by. YouTube and other companies have an obligation to provide content for every member of their audience. It is not their obligation to keep any message from your child’s ears and mind. Depending on your stance, you should be the one making the decisions for what your children are allowed to watch, whether you use monitoring software or keep your eyes on the content with them.

  • Fake News and Selfie Smiles

    Fake News and Selfie Smiles

    Your kids’ brains are developing, you MUST learn to tell fake news from real news, your pictures need more sprinkles, and SURPRISE!! Instagram is full of narcissists.

    FAMILY TECH WEEKLY EPISODE 2

    Social Media Links

    Facebook: http://facebook.com/4pointfamilies
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    Newsletter Signup

    Ministry Updates:: http://eepurl.com/R7Btr
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    Websites

    Ministry Site:: http://becausefamily.org
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    Michael’s Speaking Info:: http://kmichaelprince.org

    Donate and Affiliate Links

    http://BecauseFamily.org/partnership
    Music by Kevin MacLeod at http://Incompetech.com

  • The Risks of a Fully Connected Home Part 3

    The Risks of a Fully Connected Home Part 3

    Security and advertising are the most obvious concerns when it comes to connecting your appliances and devices via smarthome technology. We must take precautions to protect our identity and our privacy. We should also be careful in our new wifi connected homes with the content that can come across these connections. In this final part of our Connected Home series we’ll talk about the content available on our smarthome devices and what we can do to filter that content.

    Unsupervised Content

    After a recent Setting Digital Boundaries workshop a  mother asked me what I knew about the parental controls on Amazon Echo. I hadn’t ever set one up and hadn’t really looked into them so I didn’t have many answers for her at the time. She told me why she had asked: her daughter likes to ask Echo to play songs that she likes but she’s young and her words don’t always come out sounding like they should. This causes the Echo to mis-hear what is said and the devices has, more than once, played a song that is not from any playlist they’ve set up and is not at all appropriate for a young toddler. With the increasing popularity of the Amazon Alexa and Google Home parental controls are becoming a major topic on tech forums and blogs. The reason it’s such a major part of the discussion is because there aren’t (yet) any real parental controls.

    On the Amazon products you can set a pin to make purchases. This will keep your child from making an order and you being shocked to find a two hundred dollar doll house at your door. That’s about it, though. There aren’t any music or video rating limits that you can set. There aren’t any separate voice commands that will let Alexa know the child is in the room. So far, there isn’t much. Google only has the filter settings you’ve given YouTube to protect from inappropriate content. These filters are strictly for video content though and won’t block explicit lyrics.

    It’s likely that more effective parental controls will become a reality on these popular products sooner rather than later but until then you should take precautions to keep your children from encountering more of the internet then you’re ready for them to connect to. 

    What Parents Should Know

    My advice is to hold off on extensive use of Alexa, Echo, or Google Home until real parental control options are made available. If you have already been using these devices or you’ve decided you can’t live without them I recommend setting up what restrictions are available. Protect yourself from surprise purchases with a pin on your Alexa or Echo and set your YouTube filter to protect your children from videos you wouldn’t want them to see. Other apps or web video and audio services that have parental controls may protect your family when connected through your smarthome device as well. Right now this is about all you can do but if you’re going to use these devices then something is better than nothing.

    Should Your Home Be Connected?

    The level of connectivity in your home is obviously a choice your family has to make. There are absolute benefits to having your house connected to a network and working together to make your life easier. The reality, though, is that these conveniences could come at a cost. Some may feel the cost isn’t that high and some may say it’s unfounded fear or foil hat conspiracy theory. My advice is to just stay informed. No matter your decision become a student of the way your connected home works. Reset passwords often, and don’t store your personal data somewhere that is easily accessible through your smart home device network. If you just use common sense and think ahead of the potential risks you may be able to be wired up like it’s the year 2025. Just do it with wisdom.