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July 13, 2016

Pokemon Go - The new summer hit!

Rolling Pebbles playing Pokémon Go
If you’ve been on the internet — or, um, outside — lately, you may have noticed that a game called Pokémon Go is suddenly taking the world by storm. It may have you wondering, especially if you were born before 1984, just what the hell is going on.
Pokémon is a Nintendo franchise that launched in the 1990s. In its world, "trainers" travel the world to catch varied monsters called Pokémon — rats, dragons, swordlike creatures, and more — and use these critters to fight each other. The trainer’s goal is to "catch ’em all," as the franchise’s slogan suggests, and become a Pokémon master by defeating prestigious trainers known as gym leaders and Elite Four.
So what is Pokémon Go? Unlike previous Pokémon games, it’s not for Nintendo’s handheld consoles; it’s a free download for Android and iOS devices. It also doesn’t play at all like previous Pokémon games: Although the goal is still to catch ’em all, Pokémon Go is an augmented reality game — it mixes real-world elements with the game. It was released on July 6 2016 in USA and Australia  and it is available for download thru Google play and Apple store. As of today it is available to play it outside the official release countries by installing offline apk package available on various wed sites. Be aware that using non trusted sources may open a door to your device  for malicious components.
July 15,2016 update : As of Friday morning, Pokemon Go was out in Australia, the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and Portugal, according to Tech Crunch. John Hanke, an executive with developer Niantic, told Reuters Friday he planned to roll out the game in about 200 countries and regions. 

June 21, 2016

Human trials of a Zika vaccine just approved

21-June-2016
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first human tests of an experimental Zika virus vaccine, the makers of the drug announced on Monday.
Called GLS–5700, the medication will be used in a clinical trial involving 40 healthy people, and represents the first major step towards ultimately immunizing people against Zika – which was declared a global public health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) in February.
GLS–5700 works by stimulating the body's immune system to defend itself against Zika. Synthetic fragments of viral DNA are injected into the skin, prompting the immune system's T cells to generate antibodies to fight the infection.
It's worth pointing out that just because GLS–5700 has reached human testing, there's no guarantee it will turn out to safely immunize people against Zika. The vaccine has been tested successfully in small and large animal models, but clinical trials in humans could take several years to demonstrate that the treatment is safe, and there's no guarantee it will ultimately prove effective or make it through subsequent testing phases.
GLS–5700 isn't the only Zika vaccine candidate currently in development.It has been reported that at least one company in India and one in France are expected to begin human trials later this year.

April 14, 2016

Latest on Zika virus

Zika Virus Infographic
Courtesy of chatchai_stocker at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
We continue to cover the emerging Zika virus threat. Visit our initial  article about Zika here About-1-in-5-people-infected-with-zika become ill

The more researchers learn about the Zika virus, the scarier it appears, In USA federal health officials say, as they urge more money for mosquito control and development of vaccines and treatments. Scientists increasingly believe the Zika virus sweeping through Latin America and the Caribbean causes devastating defects in fetal brains if women become infected during pregnancy
  • Researchers also have linked Zika to stillbirths, miscarriages, eye problems and other complications, with problems not only in the first trimester but throughout pregnancy.
  • Brazilian researchers reported on April 10 2016  that Zika preferentially targets developing brain cells. They used stem cells to study embryonic brain development in lab dish, and reported in the journal Science that virus taken from a Brazilian patient destroyed the growing neural cells in a few days.
  • There’s also evidence that some adults occasionally may suffer serious effects from Zika. Researchers already were studying whether Guillain-Barre syndrome, a nerve condition that can cause paralysis, is linked to Zika. And Sunday, another Brazilian research team reported two Zika patients who suffered yet another problem, a brain inflammation that damages the coating of nerve cells in a way similar to multiple sclerosis.
  • The CDC has warned women who are pregnant or attempting to conceive to avoid travel to Zika-affected areas. Because Zika sometimes spreads through sexual intercourse, the CDC also says men who’ve travelled to Zika-affected areas either should use condoms with their pregnant partners or avoid sex until the baby’s born.
    More than 300 travel-associated cases of Zika have been reported in the U.S. so far( April 14 2016), and the CDC also wants travelers to take extra steps to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes when they come home — so local insects won’t pick up the virus and spread it. While CDC does expect some clusters of homegrown Zika to occur, it is working with state and local governments to boost mosquito control.
     

April 13, 2016

Comparison Chart of latest high end fitness trackers


Picking out the best fitness tracker is a mind-bogglingly difficult prospect. It's not just about Fitbit and Jawbone anymore. Now everyone wants a piece of the action.The right  tracker for you will be based on your individual needs; whether that's accurate step counting, reliable sleep tracking or 24/7 heart rate tracking. There's definitely something for everyone out there. We believe that the heart rate feature is essential and should be considered always regardless of the premium paid. Another important feature is the ingress protection or popularly known as weather proof or water proof. Below you can find a list of five trackers which picked our interest and we had experience with. Let us know if there are other trackers you like. It is constantly evolving market and new features are constantly added such as oxygen levels and other vital markers.

Comparison Chart of latest high end fitness trackers 

 

Comparison Chart of latest high end fitness trackers

January 27, 2016

About 1 in 5 people infected with Zika virus become ill

What is Zika Virus disease (Zika)?

A transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of Zika virus
Zika is a disease caused by Zika virus that is spread to people primarily through the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito. The most common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain, and conjunctivitis (red eyes). The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting for several days to a week.

Symptoms

  • About 1 in 5 people infected with Zika virus become ill (i.e., develop Zika).
  • The most common symptoms of Zika are fever, rash, joint pain, or conjunctivitis (red eyes). Other common symptoms include muscle pain and headache. The incubation period (the time from exposure to symptoms) for Zika virus disease is not known, but is likely to be a few days to a week.
  • The illness is usually mild with symptoms lasting for several days to a week.
  • Zika virus usually remains in the blood of an infected person for a few days but it can be found longer in some people.
  • Severe disease requiring hospitalization is uncommon.
  • Deaths are rare.

Diagnosis

  • The symptoms of Zika are similar to those of dengue and chikungunya, diseases spread through the same mosquitoes that transmit Zika.
  • See your healthcare provider if you develop the symptoms described above and have visited an area where Zika is found.
  • If you have recently traveled, tell your healthcare provider when and where you traveled.
  • Your healthcare provider may order blood tests to look for Zika or other similar viruses like dengue or chikungunya.

Treatment

  • No vaccine or medications are available to prevent or treat Zika infections.
  • Treat the symptoms:
    • Get plenty of rest
    • Drink fluids to prevent dehydration
    • Take medicines, such as acetaminophen or paracetamol, to relieve fever and pain
    • Do not take aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), like ibuprofen and naproxen. Aspirin and NSAIDs should be avoided until dengue can be ruled out to reduce the risk of hemorrhage (bleeding). If you are taking medicine for another medical condition, talk to your healthcare provider before taking additional medication.
  • If you have Zika, avoid mosquito bites for the first week of your illness.
    • During the first week of infection, Zika virus can be found in the blood and passed from an infected person to another mosquito through mosquito bites.
    • An infected mosquito can then spread the virus to other people.

January 22, 2016

Some thoughts about the reusable brewing cup for Keurig®

Almost one in three American homes now has a pod-based coffee machine. K-Cup® single serve users can now enjoy any ground coffee of their choice with the Ekobrew Stainless Steel Elite Reusable Cup. Easy to use and clean, it fits into any Keurig® K-Cup single serve brewer without making any adjustments to the machine. This would solve the recycling problem which the empty pods create. It is another question how convenient is for the consumer to switch from ready made pods to the reusable one but at least the alternative is out there.

January 17, 2016

Does browsing ticket sites in incognito mode and/or from different IPs result in cheaper ticket prices?

Image courtesy of samuiblue at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Holiday season is over but most of us like traveling and are planing for new adventures.
The world’s airlines are set to post a collective record net profit of $33 billion for 2015 and are forecast to post another record net profit of $36.3 billion in 2016, according to IATA.  In order to maximize our hard earned dollars we, the travelers, always try to find the best deal either online or thru travel agents. When purchasing items on the internet (especially airline tickets), use incognito mode on your browser. Here's why: your own cookies* may be used against you: raising the price on tickets the more times you check, as you shop around for better deals. That way you'll think the price is going up or that seats are being actively sold - thus increasing your urgency to buy, and punishing you for trying to get a good deal.
The point is that it's not enough to just shop around to different websites on your own computer anymore. You have to shop around with a clean browser, different browsers, different computers, change of IP, maybe try from work then remotely connect  to your home computer or somebody on the other side of the country, etc. Also, always call the airline directly and check on the price - sometimes it's much cheaper!
You can try it easily. Just open a flight website twice (with a few hours of interval), and ask a friend that never did that to do the same at his place, at the same hour the second time. You can also simulate "a friend" testing with a different browser but you will have the same IP address. Be careful not to open the website too many times. A new effect can happen. If a flight has a lot of interest, specially if you take the reservation process a few steps further, prices can also raise for that (it's the law of the market, the fewer sits, more valuable they are)
Did you try doing the same search in Incognito mode and did it return the previous, lower price? Just because the price went up coincidentally when you were about to book doesn't mean something nefarious is happening; seats on a flight are a limited resource and they do sell out. Also, the price may appear to fluctuate if someone is part way through booking a seat (placing a hold on it and making it unavailable) and then cancels

*Cookie -  also called web cookie, Internet cookie, browser cookie or simply cookie, a small piece of data sent from a website and stored in a user's web browser while the user is browsing that website.

January 05, 2016

You doubled the time spent on a Smartphone or Tablet in 2015

Image courtesy of patrisyu at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
It is time for one of these statistics comparing this to that.
Time spent on mobile devices was up 117% in the year compared to 2014, Flurry, a Yahoo-owned analytics company, said in a report on Tuesday. The data, which looks at worldwide smartphone and tablet use, found that usage among “phablet” owners, or those who have a large-screen smartphone, was up 334% year-over-year. In comparison, usage time was up 81% for small-screen slates and 26% for larger tablets.
By 2017, Flurry said that phablets will top smaller smartphones be the most-used mobile device type.
Phablets are a category of smartphones with large screens (generally in excess of five inches). While the devices have been available for a few years, phablet usage started to explode in 2014 following to premiere of Apple’s big-screen iPhone 6 Plus. Apple has since introduced an updated (and similarly popular) phablet in the iPhone 6s Plus. Meanwhile, competitors, including Samsung, LG, and others, have also found a welcoming marketplace for their own phablets.
Phablet popularity has translated to a significant growth rate in the way people access apps on those devices. For instance, Flurry found that between 2014 and 2015, use of news and magazine apps on phablets was up 721% year-over-year, compared to 135% across all mobile devices, including phablets. Use of sports apps was up 274% on phablets during the same period.
Flurry, which bases its information by tracking app usage on 2.1 billion smart devices around the world, found that total mobile device usage was up 58% in the last year. Although the rate was up, it was down from the 76% growth rate the mobile industry tallied in 2014.

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