I wish more of my “community” was on Google+ if for no other reason than I am really digging the experience of their iOS apps.
It’s now available for the iPad.
Google+ app for iPad available now in the App Store | Official Google Blog.
The Pacer
I’m surprised by how many “Life-lessons” I learn when out on the trail.
This weekend, I learned a new one.
A good friend of mine set his sights on running a 100 mile trail race. In the latter parts of a race like this, he is allowed to take on a “Pacer”. The pacer is another runner, with relatively fresh legs, who can help mentally push him to the finish line. I put in 25 miles overnight to help my friend finish this (crazy) test of endurance. Along the way (and I had a LOT of time to think) a few parallels to the REST of my life emerge:
1 – You don’t need to have experienced the pain… to help another through it.
I have never run, nor ever aspire to run, 100 miles. But just being there to watch the highs and the lows encouraged my friend to finish. I couldn’t say “I know what you’re going through”… I really didn’t. When he started running, I was still 300 miles away… in bed. But he mentioned later that just having me there kept him fighting.
2 – Learning when to speak, and when to listen is important
On the trail, we had many wonderful conversations. And we had many long moments of silence. There were times I needed to help my friend by distracting him and telling him a funny story. And there were times we just needed to keep moving forward in silence. There were times when I could say something like “Way to go… you can do this”. And there were times that saying something like that could have earned me a shove into the woods. In many of those times, I just prayed for him.
It’s the same thing as I come along side a friend going through any other struggle. Sometimes I need to send a word of encouragement, and sometimes I need to stand by silently and just pray for them.
3 – Don’t neglect your own needs
My focus for this run was singular. Get my friend to the finish line. But in the context of his 100 mile run, it was easy to forget… I’m going 25 miles and 25 miles is still a very long ways.
I found it easy to focus on his needs and even easier to forget what I needed to do for myself on the run.
As we help others who are going through life struggles, be sure to keep your own tank filled. Take time to talk with God. Take time to examine your own life and your own family. Don’t neglect your own well being to the point that it could become damaging.
These are some lessons I am going to take with me for the rest of my life as I work on coming along side others on this long journey we are all in together.
(Image Source: Flickr)
Growth in Mobile Globally
Great look at global growth in mobile Internet usage and year-to-year growth by country.
More online:
Ice Age Trail 50
My name is Carl… and I’m an Ultra-runner.
This weekend, I ran the Ice Age Trail 50K trail run in La Grange, WI.
The first 14 miles consisted of a single track out-and-back up over some extremely scenic vistas. I really enjoyed getting into a pack of runners and running, single-file, along some single-track trail. We worked hard to avoid rocks/roots/each other.
I felt good and had locked in at what I thought was a fairly conservative pace.
The out-and-back brought me back to the start/finish where I began the first of what would be 2 loops around a nordic ski trail.
The trail was much wider for the rest of the run.
The sun started to break through the clouds around mile 15 and things started to heat up.
The front of the pack runners who were on their 2nd loop were extremely encouraging (the ultra-community in general is made up of some the least pretentious athletes I’ve ever met).
About 15 miles in, the gentle trail gave way to some pretty significant rolling hills that were about as hard to go down as they were to go up. That was unexpected and took a lot out of me. The water bottle was down to vapors as I made it to the next aid station (at just over 5 miles from the previous station, this was the furthest distance between aid stations). I topped off the water, grabbed some potato chips and Heed and took off for the last part of the loop.
The last 4 miles of the loop were significantly more gentle, but the earlier hills had taken a lot out of me. My stomach wasn’t too happy with me either. The aid stations were heavy on sugar, but I’m not sure my gut could handle the sweetness. I still need to figure out the nutrition thing. Time to do some more reading.
When I made it back to the Start/Finish, I stopped at my drop bag to change socks. I also dropped my water bottle and picked up my camelback. I was pretty sure I didn’t want to go another 5 miles on just 30oz of water.
The last loop was slower, but I ended up finishing in just over 7 hours. It was an hour longer than I was targeting, but I’ve learned that trail miles are much different than road miles. The slow pace I started with… should have been a little slower.
BIG thanks to Keri and Brian Peterson for the photos!
Geoloqi and Cyborgs
Amber Case has the coolest job title ever.
The self-proclaimed “Cyborg Anthropologist” is an experience designer who focuses on the mobile environment and the augmented reality concepts we use to extend our capabilities. Case argues that, because we have all become cyborgs. Not in the Robocop/Terminator sense of the word, but we all inserted devices into our lives in a significant way, that seek to greatly extend our capacity in a non-physical way.
Geolocation beyond the Check-in
In her March 11 keynote at the 2012 South by Southwest Interactive Festival, Amber indirectly encouraged location based technology to begin looking beyond the concept of ‘Check in’, to the use of location based systems to enhance our existing interactions with our surroundings.
Current geo-location apps (think Foursquare), allow us to check in and push our behaviors out to our digital world. Case encouraged the attendees to think beyond that and to consider using location data to enhance more passive activities. From narrative Wikipedia information on a historic building you passed, to the new location based reminders; how can we use our location aware devices to pull rather than push.
Dissatisfied with the current location based platforms, Amber founded Geoloqi. The Geoloqi platform allows app developers to layer location data, analytics and messaging onto their apps in a powerful way. At the tail end of the keynote, Case took a moment to highlight new partnerships with Appcelerator, Factual and Locaid that would extend the platform.
One of the most intriguing features of the Geoloqi platform, is a “geofence” algorithm that seeks to preserve battery life and provide more control over the interaction by allowing the developer to limit spacial and temporal conditions for the app interaction. Beyond a space based geofence, developers can use other information such as time of day, speed, altitude and address location information to trigger app events.
More on the Web:
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Facebook Timelines for Brands
AdAge reports that Facebook is expected to release the Timeline profile concept for brands later this month.
It will be interesting to see how brands take advantage of a feature that seems to be intensely personal.
Panasonic Tough Pad
Sure… Justin Timberlake closed the Panasonic Press Event at CES today.
And sure… Panasonic announced a partnership with NBC to bring the 2012 Summer Olympic Games to us in 3D
But I was just excited to see the follow up to the Panasonic Tough Book…
The Tough Pad
Taking the tablet industrial could just be so cool!
LG 4mm Flat Screen
A STUNNING 4mm thin OLED screen from LG.
Wireless Baby Scale
The French company Withings, who has had a fairly successful wireless connected body scale, is showing off a similarly connected baby and toddler scale at this week’s CES show in Las Vegas, NV.
With WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, the device allows Mom and Dad to progress over time, and even share it with others.
Parents can use their iOS devices or an Internet connected computer to access information or history on their baby’s growth, and even send it via email to a doctor or family member. OR for the parent who has to share every detail of their child’s development, the device can even allow you to post Facebook and Twitter updates.
The product is expected to be available in the 2nd quarter of 2012.
2012 – The Year of the Interface
If the last decade was about transitioning our lives from analog to digital, the next few years will about refining the experiences in that digital landscape.
In a Pre-CES press conference, on trends to watch in 2012, Shawn Dubravac Chief Economist and Director of Research for the Consumer Electronics Association pointed out that we are beginning to see a natural progression of the digital experience as devices move along a continuem from their birth, to complexity, to simplicity. Dubravac explained that the next movement will be from the simple to the natural.
To illustrate his point, Dubravac showed a picture of an early Television Remote control. The clunky device had 4 buttons
that could undertake a small set of features. Another photo illustrated the shift from simple to complex with a television remote with a paralyzing number of buttons. The following images showed sleek forms that emphasized the shift towards a simple user interface.
That next step, it was explained, is going to be seeing these devices and the interactions with them, becoming more natural. Dubravac declared 2012 “The Year of the Interface”
As technology becomes more omnipresent and ubiquitous, the evolutionary pressures push yesterday’s innovation to the background – providing room for an increasingly natural interaction
While technological innovation will continue, the technology itself could now be considered fairly ubiquitous. This ubiquity is going to need to lead to more natural interaction with our devices.
This shift is likely to pull the focus away from pure computing power, towards interaction design.