Quarantine Connectivity – Building Community Using Discord

I Can’t Show You What’s on My Discord Screen, I Just Can’t

Each week, I’ll share a new way for you to stay connected with your friends and family. This Friday, I talk about Discord. Discord is an online platform that allows you to setup your own channel with chat and voice communications. I was turned on to Discord by a friend who operates an FB group who wants to expand the type of content he can post.

[Read more…] about Quarantine Connectivity – Building Community Using Discord

Tracing Apps Rise as Jurisdictions Try to Flatten the Curve

If it’s Thursday, it’s time for Tech Talk with Mark Starling on First News 570. COVID-19 has been a focus of our stories lately, and this week we report on a possible breakthrough for ventilators and COVID-19 tracing apps. You can listen to Mark and I talk about tech every Thursday morning at 6:43 am Easter, LIVE. Be safe out there and stay healthy. Heed the words of the CDC and only go out for essentials.

Image Courtesy of Ars Technica

TRACING APPS ON THE RISE AS JURISDICTIONS TRY TO FLATTEN THE CURVE

Last week Apple and El Goog announced a cooperative plan to implement tracing technology to help curb the spread of COVID-19. Both companies are planning to include the ability to self-report if you are infected, and to notify you if you’re within a certain proximity of infected carriers of COVID-19. Apple and Google intend to de-identify any data and make the system opt-in only. We also reported on Pinterest releasing the How We Feel app for consumers to self-report as well. Apple and Google’s partnership makes sense as baking any tracing tech inside the operating system reduces barriers to smartphone users.

[Read more…] about Tracing Apps Rise as Jurisdictions Try to Flatten the Curve

#CopingWithCovid19 – Rave with KORG’s iKaossillator

Get Your Rave On

For many, the forced quarantine has given creators and makers time to complete projects they’ve had on the shelf. Every week, I’ll feature some things to do during the COVID-19 quarantine. It may be an app, tool, game, or something techie you can use to be more productive or be entertained during the quarantine.

Sometimes you’re sitting around the house during quarantine, and you get the urge to make some dope beats. Yesterday, it’s been a month since we’ve been cloistered in the Mapp household, and we’ve been doing a bunch of things to stay entertained and saned while in close quarters.

[Read more…] about #CopingWithCovid19 – Rave with KORG’s iKaossillator

Quarantine Connectivity – Video Chatting Using Marco Polo

These days, many of us are trying out new ways of staying connected with. Even though we’re stationery these days, mobile convenience is hard to pass up. Also, we might be quarantined, but we may not be quarantined with bae, and sometimes you just want to see someone’s face.

She is a Cool Ass Chick

Each week, I’ll share a new way for you to stay connected with your friends and family. On this Good Friday, I present to you, Marco Polo, a video instant messaging platform that was shared with me by someone I was once close with.

[Read more…] about Quarantine Connectivity – Video Chatting Using Marco Polo

Samsung and Facebook Donate Devices, Tesla Makes Ventilators, and Zoom Hires Ex-FB-Exec After El Goog Bans Service

Samsung XCover 4S & Facebook Portal (Image linked via bbc.com)

It’s another Thursday, and it’s time for this week’s top news stories in the wonderful, wide world of technology with Mark Starling on First News 570. You can listen to Mark and I point, laugh, and pontificate about the goods technology delivers to the world every Thursday morning at 6:43 am, Eastern. You can to us LIVE online or using the iHeartRadio app.

TECH TITANS DONATE DEVICES

Yesterday, Facebook and Samsung announced plans to donate more than 2,000 devices to the British National Health Service for us in Nightingale hospitals. Samsung will delivering Galaxy XCover 4S devices to the service since they are sturdier and can be used while wearing gloves. NHS had already planned to order 20,000 devices (at cost!) during the coronavirus pandemic. Facebook is donating 2,050 of its Portal video conferencing device to NHS hospitals. The Portals will be sent to hospitals and care homes in London, Essex, Manchester, Newcastle, and Surrey. In addition to the phones, Samsung has also pledged sanitation units and other hardware in England.

[Read more…] about Samsung and Facebook Donate Devices, Tesla Makes Ventilators, and Zoom Hires Ex-FB-Exec After El Goog Bans Service