Blogging the Aloha State and Beyond
This week’s “Geek Beat” segment was a mixed plate of tech news, including Amazon’s new brick-and-mortar “Go” concept store, Twitter’s live video offering, and the latest batch of new emoji… and I don’t care what the Unicode standard says, it’s a “shaka.”
It’s Computer Science Education Week! This international celebration of computers and technology and STEM education brings a lot of great events to schools around the world, and in Hawaii. The “Hour of Code” brought me and my coworkers out to an elementary school in Kaneohe.
Once again, we were able to join the bleary-eyed Hawaii News Now “Sunrise” morning crew on their annual pilgrimage to Honolulu’s retail hotspots for “Black Friday.” Our shopping picks included the best Android smartphone on the market, the newest portable drone, and battery packs… if you can get them shipped.
With many still reeling from the results of the U.S. presidential election, our friends at Hawaii News Now called an audible, setting aside the gadgets to tackle the intersection of tech and politics. After a quick mannequin challenge. There’s “fake news” on Facebook, real harassment on Twitter, and big question marks under a Trump administration.
Microsoft staked its claim to the high-end hardware market with the announcement of its new Surface Book and its giant Surface Studio, both big upgrades (including in price). The company is clearly positioning itself against Apple, which announced a new MacBook Pro that I crave, but that has left some Apple fans wanting.
With the World Drone Racing Championships taking place this weekend on the North Shore, it seemed like a good time to revisit drones. Kualoa Ranch will host pilots from 18 countries for a FPV UAV competition, while the rest of us shop for more stable airships to take great aerial photos and videos.
Google announced a number of new hardware releases, which we covered in the latest Geek Beat. There’s the new Pixel smartphone, a flagship device aimed at (and priced like) the iPhone, the Daydream View virtual reality headset, and the Google Home, Google’s entry into the smart home market in the wake of the surprise success of the Amazon Echo.
My last “Civil Geeks” column is a continuation of the previous piece addressing the practical and positive reasons why Hawaii startups often make the leap to the West Coast. In part two, I talk to entrepreneurs about why they decided to head across the ocean. Once settled in San Francisco,...
On the latest Geek Beat, we cover a couple of new apps from Google: Allo, a “smart messaging app,” and Trips, a travel guide that helps track your itinerary and even works offline. Finally, a small update from Twitter, allowing more media (photos, videos, quoted tweets) without burning valuable characters.
My latest (and penultimate) column for Civil Beat addresses comments I’ve constantly heard throughout the growth of Hawaii’s nascent innovation economy. When a local startup announces that it’s relocating to Silicon Valley, there are a lot of congratulations but also a few complaints. A startup’s ability to succeed outside Hawaii...
Relying entirely on news leaks and rumors, today’s Geek Beat covers what Apple was announcing as we spoke at its September 2016 keynote. We also touch on problems with Samsung’s flagship smartphone, the Galaxy Note 7.
My latest “Civil Geeks” column features a new website designed to help Hawaii residents cope with life downwind of an active volcano. The website — along with a booklet of frequently asked questions, a brochure and poster about protecting yourself during vog episodes — came together following a 2015 study by Horwell, which looked at how...
The latest Geek Beat segment is inspired by the World Conservation Congress, held in Hawaii and the U.S. for the first time in more than 60 years. In addition to the IUCN event, we talk about a new app out of the University of Hawaii called Landscape M.D., and a...
I got to interview one of my favorite scientists for my latest “Civil Geeks” column. Christie Wilcox is a beloved and respective science blogger and communicator who recently published her first book. “Venomous: How Earth’s Deadliest Creatures Mastered Biochemistry“: “The book gave me the chance to share the awesomeness of...
On the latest Geek Beat, we cover the introduction of Instagram Stories (a shot across the bow of Snapchat), the expanding of Twitter Moments, and an update to Pokemon Go to help players find the Pokemon they seek.
Astronomers in Hawaii play a critical role in the search for planets orbiting stars beyond our own solar system. My latest “Civil Geeks” column explores a recent sky survey that identified over 100 new exoplanets. Although the existence of alien life will be hard to prove, it’s becoming increasingly probable....
For this morning’s “Geek Beat” segment on the Hawaii News Now Sunrise morning news show, we tackled a trio of tech stories: The ability to applied for “Verified” status on Twitter: I’ve coveted the “blue checkmark” since they first showed up, but up until now there was no way to...
As much as I love the latest and greatest technology, I appreciate the classics. After spending time with a bunch of local ham radio operators at an early Hawaii Geek Meet, my friend Burt and I were inspired to get our ham radio licenses. (I’m KH6WEB, nice to meet you.) Amateur...
There was no way to avoid talking about Pokemon Go this morning, considering how massively popular the newly launched game has become in just a few days. But this morning’s Sunrise “Geek Beat” segment allowed me to spend a little time giving credit where credit is due. Before there was...
Though touched on in last week’s “Geek Beat” morning news segment, I devoted today’s Civil Beat “Civil Geeks” column to a deeper dive into the opportunities available to local businesses now that the FAA has finally announced its new rules for the commercial operation of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASes), or...
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