How to outsmart smartphone scammers
Your smartphone is your confidante, your hand-held connection to the world — and one of your biggest vulnerabilities. Scammers can take advantage of day-to-day tasks that seem innocuous, such as checking a bank balance or charging a phone at a public USB port, to exploit personal information for their profit. To keep that data safe, start by understanding the threats. Your phone has ... READ MORE
Tech startup aims to bring surveys to life
Allan Horlick enjoyed a whirlwind career as a television producer that had taken him from managing the NBC television station in Washington, D.C., to launching CNBC and NBC Asia from Hong Kong, and then serving as president of CNBC and NBC Europe, based in London. When he turned 50, he decided to retire from all that, and return to America to golf his days away in Florida. “I did... READ MORE
Tracking app aims to help users feel safe
It can be difficult for older adults to continue living on their own if their family members are constantly worried about them. Now there’s an app specifically designed to provide peace of mind to independent older adults and their loved ones: Safe365. Safe365 is a free, downloadable application for mobile phones that tracks the location of other people in real time. It also can notify ... READ MORE
Apple Watch may help ID heart problem
A study suggests the Apple Watch can detect a worrisome irregular heartbeat at least sometimes — but experts say more work is needed to tell if using wearable technology to screen for heart problems really helps. More than 419,000 Apple Watch users signed up for the unusual study, making it the largest ever to explore screening seemingly healthy people for atrial fibrillation, a... READ MORE
Identify fake news; don’t send it to others
Q. I recently read that older adults are the number one purveyor of fake news on the Internet. Is this true, or is it fake news, too? If it’s true, how can we go about spotting fake news? A. Yes, it’s true. According to a recent study published in the journal Science Advances, people 65 and older are almost four times more likely to share fake news on social media than younger... READ MORE
More new cars can monitor their drivers
Would you pay more for a car or SUV that warns you if you’re falling asleep or not paying attention behind the wheel? Auto companies are figuring that, because your life could depend on it, you will. As safety features such as automatic emergency braking and lane-centering make their way from luxury vehicles down to lower-cost rides for the masses, distracted driver alert systems are... READ MORE
Find a laptop that fits you and your needs
For all the convenience and computing power that smartphones and tablets offer, sometimes a full-fledged computer is still the best tool for completing tasks at home or even on the go. Today’s laptops typically have faster processing speeds, more storage capacity and longer battery life than their recent predecessors. Many have also taken cues from tablets to become more versatile,... READ MORE
Share your passwords with your spouse
About a year ago, my friend Susie’s husband of 46 years died unexpectedly. John, a dedicated techie, left Susie with wonderful memories, an estate to settle, and a technology nightmare: an Apple computer, four iPads, four iPhones, a stack of hard drives — and no passwords. That left her unable to get access to critical information (think tax records) and accounts in his name that... READ MORE
Technology changes family doctor role
Lisa Love hasn’t seen her doctor of 25 years since she discovered telemedicine, which lets her communicate remotely with a physician through her computer or phone. Love tried such virtual visits last summer for help with a skin irritation and returned for another minor problem. Now she doesn’t feel a pressing need to seek care the old-fashioned way, especially since she also gets... READ MORE
Walmart using AI to watch the store
Inside one of Walmart’s busiest Neighborhood Market grocery stores, in Levittown, N.Y., high-resolution cameras suspended from the ceiling point to a table of bananas. They can tell how ripe the bananas are from their color. When a banana starts to bruise, the cameras send an alert to a worker. Normally, that task would have relied on the subjective assessment of a human, who likely... READ MORE
Technology 2024
