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This post first appeared in the San Jose Mercury News

By Larry Magid

We’re just a few weeks away from school letting out and — for lucky families — a chance to spend a bit of time together on vacation.

Summer also means lots of free time for children and teens — time that can be taken up in outdoor activities like sports or playing in the park, indoor activities like playing video games and going online, or hybrid activities such as hanging out with friends while, at the same time, using their mobile devices for texting, taking and sharing pictures, playing games and social networking. For many kids these days, the lines between being offline and being online are blurry.

Talk but don’t lecture

So for parents, this is a great time to sit down with your kid and have “that talk.” No, not about the birds and the bees but about the bits and the bytes or, more precisely, about the appropriate use of the technology that many kids will have almost unfettered access to while they’re away from school.

The most important thing is to make this a conversation, not a lecture, and to approach it with a bit of humility because — at least in terms of the apps and services they use — they probably know more than you do. Use that to your advantage by getting them to explain what they’re doing on their computer, tablet, phone, iPod touch, game console or whatever devices they’re using to get online.

Engage kids in helping

Have the kids use their tech skills to benefit the entire family. If you’re planning a family trip, have the kids go online to research the history, geography and all the cool things to do at your destination. They can search through mobile app stores to find apps focused on the place you’re going (some cost money, so have them help you figure out if they’re worth the price). Have them read through local newspapers for the area you’re visiting and report back on what’s happening there. If you’re driving to your destination, the kids can be in charge of navigation with your cell phone GPS and by consulting an online map before you go (though with the price of gas today, I recommend you check out the route too).

If your teen or child has a smartphone, ask them to show you all the apps they use and have them explain what they do with them and how they are protecting their privacy. Ask them to explain the privacy features of the app and then do a little research on your own to make sure there aren’t some they’ve missed. Do the same with any social networks they use. You can find links to articles about settings for Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and popular game consoles at SafeKids.com/privacysettings.

Tablets and Toddlers

Very young children are now going online with tablets, iPod touches or their parents or older siblings’ smartphones, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. There are lots of great apps for small children from PBSKids and others but do be aware of how much time they’re spending with the device and what they’re doing.

Don’t assume that an app has to be labeled “educational” to have value. As Hanna Rosin asked in a recent Atlantic cover story, “Would you make your child read a textbook at bedtime? Do you watch only educational television? And why don’t children deserve high-quality fun?” She and experts she quotes make the case that young children can learn from a variety of apps and activities regardless of what “category” they fall under.

Still, and I know you’ve heard this before, never use technology as an electronic baby sitter. Kids of all ages need lots of interaction with family and friends and a wide variety of activities, including plenty of physical activity. Come to think of it, so do adults.

Be a good role model

And speaking of adults, consider how you’re role modeling. You can’t expect your child to moderate his or her use of phones, tablets and computers if they see you constantly using yours. Try to have dinner together as a family and try to ban the use of devices during the meal. Don’t leave your devices on in the bedroom. Consider creating a charging area in the main part of the house where devices can recharge their batteries while family members recharge theirs in bed. And “I use my phone as an alarm clock” isn’t a good excuse. You can buy a stand-alone alarm clock for under $10.

As I look back at my summer vacations as a kid, I remember hanging out with friends, spending a bit more time watching TV, playing games and sometimes being bored. The same can be true today. Kids can hang out with their friends in person and online (sometimes at the same time), they can play with apps on their devices and, instead of TV, many will watch YouTube.

And when it comes to boredom, that too isn’t such a bad thing. It’s a time to slow down, reflect and be left alone with your own thoughts. For that to happen, we need to “unplug” once in awhile — a lesson worth teaching our kids and heeding ourselves.

Read post at SafeKids.com

Read the post on Forbes.com

Instagram today introduced its new “Photos of You” feature that allows users to tag people in photos (read more)

Read this post at Forbes.com

With $7.5 million in start-up funds from Redpoint Ventures and some individual investors, Curious.com is open for business as a marketplace that allows teachers of all kinds to market video lessons to eager learners.  Part YouTube, part Khan Academy and a big part something unique, the service not only enables teachers to post video but to enhance their lessons with exercises, attachments, a discussion board and what the company is calling ”Curious Cards” for students to share their achievements and interact with teachers.

While there are lots of free lessons on the site, teachers have the option of charging — typically between $1 and $3 per lesson. Teachers keep 70% of the revenue with the rest going to support the site.

Topics vary widely from beer making to photosynthesis. There are even classes on how to apply makeup.

Justin Kitch plays guitar when he’s not starting companies (image: ceounplugged)

Co-founder Justin Kitch calls Curious.com “a marketplace for lifelong learning” and in a recorded interview for CBS News and CNET (click here and scroll to bottom to listen) he said the company built its own “lesson player” to empower teachers to create full featured lessons rather than just videos.

Part of the inspiration for Curious.com came from Kitch’s own (apparently successful  efforts to learn to play guitar. Kitch performs at company events and local bars and venues in the San Francisco area.

More:

Justin Kitch launches ‘Curious’ learning network (podcast)

A 1993 advertisement from CERN announcing the World Wide Web

On April 30th, 1993, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced that it was creating the World Wide Web “to make an easy but powerful global information system” that  ”consists of documents referring to each other by links.”  The source code from the “web” was made available on a royalty free basis.  CERN has re-posted what is believed to be one of the first websites and is sharing a copy of an early advertisement about the web.  The web itself was invented by British physicist Tim Berners-Lee.

Continue reading at Forbes.com

Listen to Larry’s 1-minute CBS News/CNET Tech Talk segment on the Web’s birthday

Credit: T-Mobile and Samsung

Instead of Galaxy S4, Samsung should have called its new phone the KS 4, for “kitchen sink,” because when designing this phone, Samsung threw in “everything but the kitchen sink.”

It has its strengths. I came away with a pretty positive first impression when I attended the press conference announcing the phone in March. And now that I’ve had a chance to use the phone in real world settings, I can say that I am impressed with the overall phone though not so dazzled with all of its “gee whiz” features.

You name it, this phone can do it.  Air Gestures let you wave your hand in front of the screen to scroll through pictures or web pages. Air View lets you hover your finger over the screen to read a message or preview a story. You can use the phone as a universal remote control and personalized TV guide and there are tons of things you can do with the camera including inserting a little picture of yourself into a photo you’re taking of others or removing someone who’s “photo bombing” you. You can animate objects in photos and you can use “drama mode” to shoot up to 100 frames in a single burst to capture moving objects.

Impressive hardware

Before focusing on all the features, lets just review the basics. This is a very impressive piece of hardware with a fast quad core processor, a stunning 5-inch high resolution  (1,920×1,080 screen, at 441 pixels per inch) screen and a microSD slot that allows you to easily expand the 16 or 32 GB of built in storage by up to 64 additional GB.  And it runs Google’s lastest “Jelly Bean” (Android 4.22) software.

Some reviewers have complained about the plastic body but I think it’s fine. Sure, the iPhone’s anodized aluminum and glass may be better and more durable, but does anyone really care what their phone is made of? I don’t once I stick a case on it.

It’s definitely among the larger phones on the market (but far from the largest) and there are those who might prefer a smaller phone. Still, it’s thin and light and even with my small hands, I was comfortable using it.  If you want details, here’s a CNET chart with all the specs on this phone compared to the Apple iPhone 5, the HTC One and the Blackberry Z10.

So, as Android phones go, this one is really nice. It’s fast, it has the latest software and it does everything a smartphone is supposed to do with relative ease. And speaking of easy, I really like its Easy Mode feature that simplifies the home screen. Samsung says that its intended for “first time smartphone owners,” but I think it will also appeal to some smartphone veterans who like simplicity and large icons.

And as per those features…

If I were to elaborate on all of the phone’s features it would take days to write this post and hours to read it. Let’s just say that there is a lot here which means there is a lot to learn if you want to take full advantage of what this phone can do.  And, at least based on my experience, not everything works out-of-the-box as advertised.  I couldn’t, for example, get the phone to pause a video by looking away from the screen.  I was able to get Air Gestures to let me scroll through web pages and flip through photos in the gallery but, aside from avoiding smudge marks on the screen, I can’t figure out why in the world anyone would want to do this. It’s actually a lot easier to just swipe the phone with your finger.

I actually liked using Air View in the message app because it allowed me to preview a message without opening it just by hovering a finger over the closed message.

Camera features

The camera modes are certainly interesting but I question whether they’ll be all that useful for all that many people.  I tried the Dual Camera feature and got a shot of myself photographing my dog Yuri but as can tell from this picture, it’s not a very flattering photo of me and that’s partially because I, of course, am looking at my subject and not directly into the camera when I took the picture.

My dog Yuri looks OK but I look pretty bad in this insert photo using Dual mode (Photo by Larry Magid)

Some techies will love this phone while others might like it

There are lots of great phones on the market and this is certainly one of them.  Personally, I’m not about to trade in my iPhone 5 for the Galaxy S5 because I neither need nor even want most of features.  If you’re the type of techie who loves to play around with a myriad of features, you will no doubt have fun figuring out all that you can do with this phone.  If you’re not a techie, you can still use this phone and you actually might find it easy to use if you turn on Easy Mode.

My verdict, while positive, is that it’s not for everyone. A worthy phone but — for most people — nothing to get too excited about.

As always, my advice is to try before you buy by checking out the phone and its competitors at an AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile or Verizon store.

A report from Independent Security Evaluators (ISE) found “critical security vulnerabilities in numerous small office/home office (SOHO) routers and wireless access points.”

The report categorized these remote locally accessible vulnerabilities as follows:

• Trivial attacks can be launched directly against the router with no human interaction or access to credentials.
• Unauthenticated attacks require some form of human interaction, such as following a malicious link or browsing to an unsafe page, but do not require an active session or access to credentials.
• Authenticated attacks require that the attacker have access to credentials (or that default router credentials are used—an all-too-common situation) or that a victim is logged in with an active session at the time of the attack

Click here for more from CNET

Frances Moore Lappé (Photo: smallplanet.org)

I happend to be in New York on Earth Day and so was Frances Moore Lappé, the author of the 1971 environmental classic Diet for a Small Planet and the recent book  EcoMind: Changing the Way We Think to Create the World We Want.  

We spoke for about 20 minutes. Click below to listen to the entire interview or scroll down for my 1-minutes CBS News/CNET Tech Talk segment with Lappé

Entire 20-minute interview

1-minute CBS News/CNET Tech Talk segment

HAPIFork is now available for pre-order on Kickstarer

I usually do things quickly and, for some things, that works out great.  But when it comes to eating, slower is better.

So, on Sunday night, I spent three hours with colleagues over a three course dinner at Cafe Claude in San Francisco.  Normally I would have scarfed the food down in almost no time, but this was one of the most relaxed meals I’ve had in years.  Whenever I failed to wait at least 10 seconds between bites, the HAPIFork I was eating with would vibrate to remind me to slow down.

By the time I was finished with the second course, I was almost full, so I slowed down even more. I wound up leaving food on my plate which — while perhaps wasteful — is nevertheless a good thing in my case.  Better to go to waste, or into a “doggy bag,” than to my waist.

The first 2,500 people who pre-order this electronic fork on Kickstarter get it for $89. After that it will cost $99.  The fork was designed by French entrepreneur and inventor Jacques Lépine whose idea, according to the company “was based on research which shows that by eating slower, people can improve the way they feel, improve their digestion and lose weight.” The product aims to modify eating behavior by “ slowing down how fast people eat and being more present with when and how long it takes to eat, leading to an overall healthier state of being and living,” according to the developers.

I’m not only a prime candidate for this device  but a bit of an expert on dieting considering that I’ve lost hundreds of pounds over my lifetime. Of course, I’ve also gained a lot of them back partially because I do eat too fast. The theory behind this fork is that by forcing you to eat slowly, your brain and your stomach remain in sync so you are less likely to overeat.

When we eat there is a lag between the time we put something into our mouth and when the brain gets the message that you’re no longer hungry. If you eat too fast, you don’t get the message in time so you wind up stuffing yourself and by the time your brain tells you to stop, you’ve eaten far too much.

But even if you don’t have a weight problem, there is an advantage to slowing down — eating more slowly helps digestion and helps reduce stress.

The company hopes to raise $100,000 with its Kickstarter campaign. The fork comes in three colors (blue, green and pink) and will be released to Kickstarter funders before its made available to the general public.