The Internet-of-Things promises convenience and efficiency, but without security protocols, any connected home could end up the victim of hackers and other cyber-crime. Is your refrigerator running? No, this isn’t some rehash of a preteen prank-call; thanks to Smart Homes, it’s now a legitimate concern. While “the internet of things” promises to liberate us from the toil of monitoring our residential lighting and free us to manage appliances from the comfort of our smart phones, this convenience is not without risk. As a recent article in Wired points out, all those residential Wi-Fi connections have enabled “a new breed of over-the-internet attacks,” and Smart Homes are easy pickings for all manner of cyber-criminals. Connected and Vulnerable The ability of hackers to remotely access internet connected devices has plagued public utilities and healthcare providers quite a bit in recent years. In 2011, Russian hackers accessed the pump system of a Springfield, Illinois water utility, stealing users’ names and destroying a water pump. Earlier this year, ransomware knocked out the internal computer at the Lansing Board of Water and Light after an employee opened an email attachment. And the attacks are only increasing in volume and severity, trigger many security experts to raise the alarm and call for more stringent security systems. As Malwarebytes security researcher Jérôme Segura recently mused when considering the dangers of ransomware, “One can imagine how detrimental it would be if someone was in the middle of a major operation and suddenly all of their health records became unavailable.” In fact, the concern about Smart Home vulnerability is not theoretical. In May of this year, Cybersecurity researchers at the University of Michigan unlocked the front door of a Smart Home using specially developed “lock-pick” malware. By exploiting “over-privilege” – a security loophole...

At the beginning of 2016, iMS GmbH of Mainz, Germany, a software systems provider for real estate management, was acquired by real estate software leader Yardi of Santa Barbara, Calif.. In Germany, iMS is now Yardi Systems GmbH. Yardi’s German operations are now run from Mainz. We spoke to Dr Klaus Grüning, Director at Yardi Systems GmbH, and Richard Gerritsen, Regional Director of Sales Yardi Systems Continental Europe, on the progress of integration. How did iMS employees react to the acquisition news? Grüning: The change from a small German company with 20 employees to an international company with over 5,000 employees certainly requires some reorientation here and there. It is very helpful in this case that Yardi is also a company managed by the owner. CEO Anant Yardi’s visit to Mainz in the week immediately after the takeover dispelled many doubts of employees and restored people’s confidence. How did iMS’ existing customers respond? Grüning: Customers responded differently, as we expected. Firstly, customers are impressed with Yardi’s position as technology leader and its international character. New options such as cloud and mobile computing have met with unanimous approval among iMS customers. On the other hand, they are worried that cuts will affect further development of iMS’ solution and its flexibility. Anant Yardi’s visit and his charisma and trustworthiness vis-à-vis customers was also very helpful. What prompts a global company of over 5,000 employees to have an interest in a German company with a team of just 20? Gerritsen: Yardi, with its Voyager software that was introduced to the German market more than 12 years ago, was already one of the top five companies in the market segment for real estate software. However, in order for an international software company to achieve a large market share...

The world is facing a worker shortage. For the last few years, the World Economic Forum and others have been sounding the alarm on what they call “skills instability,” and many industries are scrambling to find qualified applicants. With women currently making up less than half of the global workforce, tapping into the gender gap could be the solution for the tech industry’s talent shortages. The best way to close the gap? Digital fluency. A new study by Accenture reinforces this idea, declaring, “Because women are underrepresented in the workforce in most countries, they are a significant source of untapped talent.” Digital Fluency Accenture’s study makes it clear that increased access to learning and using digital media results in a smaller gender gap, in both opportunity and advancement. “Our analysis highlights the importance of digital fluency in helping countries progress toward equality in the workplace,” explain the report’s authors. “Higher rates of digital fluency among women have higher rates of gender equality in the workplace.” Defining the Gap Accenture surveyed almost 5,000 women and men in 31 countries to measure their access to digital technologies, including smartphones, wearables, and other devices. Information gleaned from those surveys was cross-checked with data on internet usage gathered from the International Telecommunication Union (the United Nations agency for information and communication technologies). Accenture researchers also looked at three specific areas when creating their template for gender equality. They investigated how women use education in preparation of finding work, how they go about actually looking for a job, and how they advance in their careers. This information was then compared with data from the World Bank and the OECD. The numbers revealed ample evidence that digital fluency can “act as an accelerant in every stage of a person’s career.”...

With its user-friendly interface and advanced health and safety features, the Apple Watch Series 2 may be the perfect wearable for senior citizens. While wireless earbuds, dual cameras and the death of the audio jack dominated the post-game analysis of Apple’s 2016 Keynote, the Apple Watch updates demonstrate the genuine potential of today’s wearable technology, especially for senior citizens. While the first Apple Watch proved a bit of a disappointment, the Series 2 raises the bar with enhanced functionality and modern design. Combined with an updated watchOS and a slew of new apps, the Apple Watch Series 2 provides health and safety options perfectly attuned to the needs of today’s aging population. Safe and Sound The original Apple Watch arrived with plenty of choices for security-minded users. Over the last year, developers have been hard at work designing emergency alert apps. Dialing 911 during an emergency may seem relatively straightforward, but apps like HelpAround provide a sort of panic button that notifies authorities and a list of designated contacts when activated. Now the watch itself makes it even easier to reach out during a catastrophe. Pressing and holding the side button activates the watch’s SOS function, placing an immediate call to 911. The watch then automatically sends a message to designated contacts with location information and a map. After the call, the watch itself will display medical ID information, including age and allergies and other important information. The flashiest Apple Watch upgrades announced at the keynote include waterproofing and a new ceramic body almost impervious to the dents and scratches that plague most wearable devices. In terms of safety and security, but the device’s built-in GPS is what really shines. By incorporating the watchOS maps, the Series 2 can also display routes and maps...

With the presidential election only a few weeks away, questions swirl about the vulnerability of electronic voting machines. Today’s voting systems run the gamut from punch cards to touchscreens. This November, three-quarters of U.S. voters will cast a paper ballot, but the other 25% are triggering concern. As electronic voting machines get older and less secure, the question becomes: just how safe is our vote? Over at Wired, Brian Barrett investigates the vulnerabilities of America’s electronic voting machines. Though he makes sure to emphasize there’s “no evidence of direct voting machine interference to date,” he concedes the research is grim. Susceptibility to malware and denial of service attacks has repeatedly been demonstrated. In some cases, compromising an electronic voting machine could be as easy as jumping onto an unsecured Wi-Fi network. Just last year Virginia decertified 3000 WINVote touchscreen voting machines when serious security problems were exposed, including “a poorly secured Wi-Fi feature for tallying votes.” At the time, Jeremy Epstein, a computer scientist with SRI International, noted, ““anyone with even a modicum of training could have succeeded,” including someone within a half-mile of a polling pace outfitted with “a rudimentary antenna built using a Pringles can.” Hacking the Vote Aging operating systems provide the biggest opportunity for would-be hackers. As Barrett explains, most electronic voting machines use some variation of Windows XP, which hasn’t received a security patch in over two years. Unfortunately, most of the voting computers are at least a decade old, and just not equipped to deal with a sophisticated attack. “People weren’t thinking about voting system security or all the additional challenges that come with electronic voting systems,” Brennan Center’s Lawrence Norden tells Wired. “Moving to electronic voting systems solved a lot of problems, but created a lot of...

It’s not easy to believe that tech-savvy Apple uses a file system that was developed more than 30 years ago. That’s right, 30 years ago, when floppy disks and spinning hard drives were considered cutting-edge technology. The good news is that this cycle is coming to an end. Apple announced that 2017 comes with the new Apple File System or APFS. What does it mean? The current file systems used by Apple are HFS & HFS+. These were never actually built for storage devices storing data measuring Gigabytes. HFS was introduced in 1985 when the Mac 512K (yes, that represents memory storage) was the company’s flagship. HFS+, shipped in 1998 on the G3 PowerMacs with 4GB hard drives, represented a serious iteration. However, since 1998, the typical storage capacity of a home computer has increased by a factor of over 1,000. Something needed to change. APFS has been developed from scratch to scale uniformity across all their devices. From the Apple Watch to the Mac, all Apple devices will use APFS as their default file system in the coming years. Encryption One of the most important and useful features is encryption. The new file system will offer three options for how to encrypt their data: Unencrypted—a user can choose to not encrypt their data at all. Of course, this is not at all advisable, especially if you have any sensitive data on your laptop; Single Key Encryption—has the exact same functionality as the FileVault does on a Mac at the moment. It will encrypt the data, requiring a key to access it. Multi-Key Encryption—is a thing of beauty. This feature will enable users to create multiple keys for different files, or even parts of files. In other words, your entire disk will be encrypted,...

Adoption of electronic health records in assisted living is a disruptive change worth implementing declares Senior Housing Business magazine.  As Eric Taub points out in a recent article for Senior Business News, assisted living communities have dragged their feet for too long, many still stubbornly relying on paper notes and other “low-fi.” record keeping. While these facilities have been able to limp along so far, Taub argues that “going high-tech is no longer an option. It’s not a case of simply providing a perk for residents but rather becoming a necessity to stay financially viable.” “That’s because the model of the assisted living industry is changing,” he writes, “Moving from a social framework with a medical conscience to a medical model with a social conscience.” The first step, according to Taub, involves adopting EHR and EMR systems, but implementation should follow a thorough understanding of the processes, procedures and costs. “While EMRs may be an obvious solution to more accurately tracking resident health and coordinating care with other providers, the implementation of such a systems is not,” explains Taub. “Assisted living communities face significant obstacles in switching their pen-and-paper based medical records to an electronic version.” “Change is hard,” admits Taub, “especially one as fundamental as introducing technology to a formerly analog world.” Tom McDermott, Vice President of Sales for Yardi Senior Living agrees, telling Taub that for many senior living communities, technology is not a priority. “Most people would rather get a root canal than change software,” he says, pointing out that facility managers and administrators often juggle many duties and  struggle to prioritize their strategies. Nevertheless, Taub believes resistance is futile – soon assisted living communities will have no choice. “Baby boomers will demand it,” Life Care Services’ EMR director for Life Care Services Susan Adams, tells Taub. “I...

NEW YORK (Sept. 7, 2016) – Real estate technology provider Yardi is part of the first-ever Forbes 2016 Cloud 100, the definitive list of the top 100 private cloud companies in the world, developed in partnership with Bessemer Venture Partners. To view the list, please visit www.forbes.com/cloud100. The list will appear in the October 4, 2016 issue of Forbes magazine. “We’re honored that Forbes chose to recognize our efforts to provide industry-leading cloud solutions for our clients,” said Anant Yardi, founder and president of Yardi. “This is a tremendous acknowledgement of the work we have done over the last decade to transition our products and clients to the cloud.” “Cloud companies are revolutionizing how businesses reach their customers today from digitizing painful old processes to allowing them more time to focus on what they really care about—what makes their products unique,” said Forbes editor of the Cloud 100 list Alex Konrad. “Inclusion in the Forbes 2016 Cloud 100 list recognizes a company for its financial growth and excellence as recognized by customers and peers.” “These are the companies to watch!” said Byron Deeter, a leading cloud investor and partner at Bessemer Venture Partners. “The Forbes Cloud 100 companies represent the very best private companies in cloud computing. We will see category killers emerge from this list as the cloud computing continues to propel the trillion-dollar software industry.” The first-ever Forbes 2016 Cloud 100 list profiles the world’s top-tier private companies leading the cloud technology revolution, plus twenty rising stars within the field. With advancements in software, cloud security, or platform development, these companies are redefining the future for all industries and sectors. Yardi is No. 27 on the list, which includes companies like Slack, SurveyMonkey, MailChimp and Squarespace. Forbes, in partnership with Bessemer Venture...

If you think cybersecurity is “just an IT issue,” better think again. Experts agree that cyber risk in the multifamily industry is largely underestimated, given the volume of personal and financial data multifamily companies collect and maintain about their prospects, residents and employees. And the fact that many real estate organizations rely on third-party service providers to collect and protect data further increases exposure to damaging cyber incidents. What are some of the common risk factors? Using disparate software solutions and multiple vendors with various interfaces and logins elevates exposure to breaches. To further complicate matters, information security programs in the multifamily industry tend to be relatively less sophisticated compared to more heavily regulated sectors such as banking and retail. Since cyber criminals will always take the path of least resistance, this poses a major threat to the industry as a whole, which maintains information about tens of millions of Americans. And after a well-publicized breach in 2014, the multifamily industry is — or should be — on high alert. To not only reduce risk but also to increase operational efficiencies, many companies have made the move to a single platform — and now consider it a best practice to consolidate core property management and accounting along with ancillary products in one database supported by a single vendor. And while no business can expect to achieve perfect security, in the current cyber threat landscape with so much at stake a comprehensive plan — and one point of contact for software and services — can mean a direct line to better peace of mind. At the NMHC 2016 spring board meeting, panelists emphasized that cybersecurity is not simply an IT problem, but rather an enterprise risk management issue. Developing a strong cybersecurity program is not...

According to the Consumer Technology Association, technology for the active aging presents a $24 billion market opportunity that could reach $42 billion by 2020. Most Americans over 40 probably remember the old Life Alert commercials featuring a kindly grandmother who suddenly – and quite dramatically – falls to the ground, writhing in pain. Unable to reach the phone, she uses her life alert necklace to call for help. Her line, “I’ve fallen, and I can’t get up!”, became a key catchphrase of the 1980s. In the past, equipping senior citizens with wearable emergency devices provided a sense of safety and security. But while those old ads featured frail adults prone to all manner of calamity, today’s senior citizen are healthier, more active, and increasingly tech savvy. Over the last decade, older adults and their families rely more and more on technology to stay connected and improve quality of life. As the authors of the March 2016 Consumer Technology Association (CTA) Report on Active Aging explain, “The world is aging, and so is America. Beneath the seismic shift in the U.S.’s demographics lies the aging population’s desire to live healthier and happier, stay active and independent, and pursue longevity and quality of life.” The New Retiree The modern senior citizen pursues an active lifestyle with time devoted to physical activity and social and community participation. There is also collective rejection of traditional assisted living within this demographic. As Health Populi explains in their analysis of the CTA report, these new senior citizens are committed to a “resiliently stubborn wish to age comfortably at home.” “This population rejects passive aging,” states the report. For today’s older adults, retirement goal revolve less around leisurely days of rest and relaxation and more on “a proactive way of living that...

Property fund management, by its very nature, is a complicated undertaking. Fund managers can avoid the more egregious pitfalls of the business by following a few ground rules, according to Terry Gowan, regional director of Australia and New Zealand sales for Yardi®. “With a little planning, you can save staff time, ensure data reliability, meet compliance requirements, satisfy investors and tenants.  And making effective use of technology that delivers real-time visibility into investors, funds, investments, properties, opportunities and clients is another good strategy,” says Gowan, who works closely with almost half of Australia’s top performing real estate investment trusts and presents at property fund management industry events. Here are Terry’s top tips for successful fund management: Invest in an industry-specific system. “Get your fundamental accounting, processes and procedures correct from the start.  Custom-made software systems are never cheaper than off-the-shelf systems designed for your industry.  Use what the most successful of your peers are using and duplicate it with a provider that can stand the test of time.” Don’t go cheap. “Make sure the system you choose can deal with intercompany transactions, fees, ownership structures, foreign exchange, and properties.  Avoid low-end options that aren’t efficient for these and other aspects of property and real estate investment management.” Establish an audit trail for financials. “Capturing low-level transactional data that reconciles every month is crucial to being auditable for compliance purposes.” Put everything into your database that you possibly can, while limiting disparate systems. “When the central source of truth for your data resides in a single database, you’ll have visibility from the fund through to the tenant, any time you need it.  This approach avoids the manual labor and potential data loss associated with using interfaces and/or data warehouses or multiple custom reports to piece...

With thirty years of experience in nursing and senior care, Rhonda Knisley understands the power of ditching paper records for digital data. For the last three decades, Rhonda Knisley has watched healthcare change from paper archives and prescription pads to digital data and mobile record keeping. All along, she’s focused on providing senior living residents with personalized care while being at the forefront of some the industry’s newest technologies and services. Rough and Rewarding “When I started my job 30 years ago, I walked into the building and down the longest hall. There were 35 residents all lined up on one side of the hallway in their wheelchairs. I looked at them and thought to myself, ‘This may be the worst job I’ll ever have,’” she admits. “But then I absolutely loved it! I walked in as a floor nurse and within six months, I was the director of nursing. Within a year, I was the executive director of nursing. In the end, I became a consultant. Overall, it’s been very rewarding.” As Director of Nursing for First Community Village, Rhonda Knisley has done everything from coordinating software implementations to running multi-facility nursing operations. “I loved working in the continuing care arena,” she says. “I’d see people come into the healthcare center and then transition back into the community, and I can see how they are able to stay connected with their friends and family.” A Multifaceted Population Headquartered Ohio, National Church Residences is the nation’s largest not-for-profit provider of affordable senior housing and services with 340 communities in 28 states and Puerto Rico. At First Community Village, a National Church Residence property located in Arlington, OH, the community residents encompass a varied demographic. “We have a very affluent population, and because it’s Upper Arlington,...

With over 7 million downloads and counting, Pokémon Go fever has gripped the nation, but what does this latest fad tells us about life in the modern age? It’s solving crimes, causing accidents and ruining relationships. It’s pushing couch potatoes onto city streets and careening across highways. Installed on 10% of all Android phones (15% internationally) and downloaded on more than 15 million iPhones and iPads, Pokémon Go now resides on more homescreens than Candy Crush, LinkedIn and Tinder. There’s no denying the popularity and reach of Pokémon Go. Within 13 hours of launching, the app grabbed the No. 1 spot in iPhone app store. Even more astounding, Pokémon Go has already generated $14 million in revenue within its first week of existence, pushing Nintendo’s stock up 24%. There’s no doubt Pokémon Go is a phenomenon. All that’s left is a deal with McDonalds (done), a cover on Rolling Stone and a skit on Saturday Night Live. But what exactly is Pokémon GO, and how does the mania reflect the increasing influence of mobile technology and the millennial bottleneck on modern society? Snapshot of Trend Pokémon Go plays upon the legacy of Nintendo’s original Pokémon franchise, which debuted in the late 1990s as a game designed for the Nintendo Gameboy. The basic premise involves collecting various Pokémon creatures and pitting them against each other in battle. Pokémon eventually evolved into a several spin-off games, movies and even a television show. While the original Pokémon restricted play to the gaming console, Pokémon Go users must now leave their house in order to play. The app uses an augmented reality via a gadget’s camera to combine gameplay with the real world, tracking user locations to reveal designated Pokéstops, Poké Balls and Pokémons ready for capture. Once...

With a friendly little beep and a versatile design, the TUG robot provides reliable, cost-effective task automation for hospitals and healthcare providers. It’s a challenge faced by many working in the healthcare industry: tedious tasks stealing time better spent interacting with patients. Thankfully, that’s all beginning to change thanks to whole host of new software platforms and interactive devices specifically designed for the healthcare industry. The latest addition to the fray, TUG, promises to transform internal logistics and free staff from drudgery. Friendly and Helpful White, boxy and mobile, the TUG robot is designed to shoulder some of the essential but time-consuming labor hospitals depend upon to run smoothly and efficiently. With a gentle beep, beep, beep, the TUG announces its presence as it glides down hallways and waits for elevators. Voice-enabled, the TUG can interact with patients and hospitals staff through mobile devices, call boxes and touch screens. A lot of work went into the TUG’s pleasant persona. As Wired’s Matt Simon explains, “The affection is no accident. Aethon, Tug’s manufacturer, designed it to be comforting. It may have an adult voice, but Tug has a childlike air, even though in this hospital you’re supposed to treat it like a wheelchair-bound old lady. It’s just so innocent, so earnest, and at times, a bit helpless.” No More Drudgery TUG proficiently performs its various jobs without complaint, but unlike other industries casting a wary eye on automation, healthcare workers don’t need to fear a robot uprising. While some hospitals admit to holding off on extra hiring thanks to TUG, the robot primarily functions to release caregivers from petty chores. Free from time-consuming but inessential duties, caregivers can spend more time focused on patient care. Ultimately, TUGs work well as a supplement to a hospital’s...

Note: the following piece by Richard Gerritsen, Regional Director for Yardi European sales, was originally published in Property Week of Great Britain in June 2016. Reprinted with permission. It seems that almost anything is available to us now at the click of a mouse – or more often a tap on the screen of our phone. What is the population of Botswana? How do I get to my next meeting? Does the restaurant that I want to go to take bookings? Does it have good reviews? And where is best for a drink afterwards? It has become commonplace now to have all these questions answered almost instantly via mobile technology to the extent we now take it for granted. I may be showing my age, but I can remember a time when I used a physical map to find my way around; my daughter has never used one and wouldn’t know what to do with it. That makes me feel very old, but we must remember that this generation – which has grown up in a world that is contantly connected, where everything, it sometimes seems, has an app – is the one that is about to take over. Is the business world in general – and the property sector in particular – ready for this sea change? I’m not sure it is. Yes, there is innovation and a burgeoning proptech sector, but overwhelmingly the world of property remains firmly rooted in the old ways of doing things. If I want to buy a book or tickets to the theatre, all the information I need is just a few clicks away. Paper chase But if I’m an investor and I want to buy a £100m building, it is hard to get the information I...

Where does real estate technology go from here? The answer lies in the development pipelines of innovative companies like Yardi, but the journey so far has been inspiring. A thought leadership video presented at the recent Realcomm/IBcon Conference includes clips from tech pioneers like Steve Jobs (Apple), Larry Ellison (Oracle) and Larry Page (Google), as well as real estate leaders like Andrew Florance (CoStar) and Lew Horne (CBRE). Bridging the two industries is none other than Anant Yardi, CEO and Founder of Yardi Systems, who offers perspective on the app-based economy that has become the modern norm. “Let me suggest two things that have really taken all of us by surprise: Uber and Airbnb,” Yardi says. “Both of them are interesting because of the technology and what they bring to all of us is quite unique. But the transactions and the functions that they perform are commonplace – a way to get from A to B and a way to rent a room. The question that we puzzle over is this: Does this apply to the real estate industry? And, what message should we be taking away from these companies?” Watch the video here – and prepare to be inspired about technology and real...

For the Shelter Group’s LaTonya Lawson-Jones, Yardi’s suite of products provides enhanced operational efficiency and a personalized customer experience. “Time is money.” It’s an old saying, but for LaTonya Lawson-Jones, effective time management is key to a robust bottom line. As Business Systems Manager for the Shelter Group, LaTonya helps oversee a robust portfolio of 50 affordable housing properties, including 35 senior housing communities. LaTonya supervises a team tasked with tracking expenditures and providing support for a variety of electronic medication administration ad electronic health records applications. Multiple Tasks, One Solution With a roster of multifamily and senior living communities valued at $2 billion, the Shelter Group’s affordable and senior living properties cover a vast swath of the eastern seaboard, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia. In order to coordinate its multi-state operations, the Shelter Group relies on a whole host of Yardi products. “On the affordable side we use Yardi for our entire workload, from the prospect to resident screening to move in,” explains LaTonya. “On the senior housing side, we also use Yardi for marketing and in the business office for billing, managing services, and for all of our reporting needs.” With Yardi Voyager Affordable Housing doing a majority of the heavy lifting, LaTonya is eager to incorporate CRM, EHR, and EMR. “We are looking forward to using these products,” admits LaTonya. “We are working towards getting all of our employees on eLearning, and I found out that will be out soon, so I’m excited. We really can’t wait for the implementation to start.” No More Paperwork Most business managers agree the invoice process can be time-consuming and fraught with error. Submittals and approvals create lag, and hours are wasted tracking expenses and waiting for the right signature. Three...

Institutions and regular citizens are transitioning from a fossil-fueled past to a cleaner energy future. The cost of installation for such systems has dropped considerably in recent years, making them more affordable for general use. Currently, one of the biggest wrinkles in this still young industry is storage. A study by EuPD Research shows that just 34 percent of photovoltaic installers in the U.S. offer storage solutions to customers. The company’s latest PV Installer Survey revealed that current pricing of batteries impedes demand, meaning margins are too low for installers and the “technological maturity” of the systems on the market is not currently convincing. But things are gradually changing—26 percent of survey participants say they are working on adding storage products sometime this year. However, across all sectors there is a growing trend for more storage globally—IHS forecasts as much as 900 MW of storage projects will come online in 2016, meaning a doubling of the current cumulative installed storage capacity globally. GTM found that in the U.S., the storage market more than tripled in 2015, growing 241 percent for the year, spurred by pro-storage policies in many solar states, as well as incremental price decreases for leading battery technologies like lithium-ion. The leader in the field is  Tesla’s Powerwall; the product scored top marks for “unaided brand awareness” in the EuPD Research survey, as installers discovered they had very little marketing to do to consumers. Another very popular battery brand is Trojan (solar & storage installations), but we want to talk about the new Orison home battery, the product of a San Diego-based startup. Launched on Kickstarter this year, Orison is going up against the biggest names in energy storage, an emerging area of technology of great importance. Orison’s stylish new product has...

More than 95 percent of trade worldwide is moved via water. Though the share of maritime trade has not decreased in recent years, its sluggish growth has shipping lines competing for network efficiency. Current growth lingers between 2-3 percent, compared with 10-12 percent before 2008. Kim Fejfer, CEO of APM Terminals, explains, “The need for change has been more pronounced in the past two years than in the past 20 years,” he says.  “Changes in shipping require not only investment and increased efficiency at the individual port level, but the configuration of port complexes needs to adapt to cope with current trade flows, increased ship sizes and demands for lowest possible costs. There will be clear winners and losers in the coming years.” To emerge as victors, best practices suggest packing more products onto fewer, larger ships. This method decreases transportation and personnel costs on one end. On the other, ports must now undergo costly renovations and technological upgrades to accommodate the larger vessels and greater loads: Updates to Ports In the Port of Oakland, Ben E. Nutter Terminal recently reconfigured entrance gates, added more than 100 units of equipment to expedite cargo handling, and upgrading the terminal operating system. Upon reopening this spring, the terminal receives empty containers and export cargo with the inbound call of the 1,100 TEU vessel, Ever Liberal. At Port of Baltimore, Ports America Chesapeake and CSX Intermodal signed an agreement that gives the former company operational responsibility for the intermodal container service. This agreement will promote smoother operations for direct on-dock access to rail service. It will also improve the port’s appeal as one of only three East Coast ports capable of accommodating super-post-Panamax ships. The Port of Houston Authority receives 67 percent of all containerized cargo in...

While the benefits of introducing computers and other digital devices to seniors seems clear, it can be difficult for senior living facilities to convince residents to take that leap. Could computers be the next fountain of youth? Studies have shown seniors exposed to modern technology demonstrate less cognitive decline overall compared to their less computer-savvy counterparts. Thankfully, there’s a whole slew of apps and programs designed to make it easier than ever for even the most gadget-phobic user to navigate the online world like a pro. In Like Flynn Data collected on intelligence quotients over the last 80 years indicate a clear upswing. Called the Flynn effect, this sustained upsurge of IQ scores can mostly be traced to improvements in education, nutrition and healthcare, but a recent study from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis reveals another surprising possibility: smart phones and tablets Published in the journal Intelligence, the study – lead by Valeria Bordone – tested two different groups of seniors over 50: one group in 2006 and the second group in 2012. When comparing the results, Bordone’s team saw a marked improvement in cognitive function. The second group performed better on a series of tests, demonstrating superior abilities in verbal fluency and recall. While not definitive, Bordone and her team attribute this result to increased access to mobile devices and other technologies. “We show for the first time that although compositional changes of the older population in terms of education partly explain the Flynn effect, the increasing use of modern technology (i.e., computers and mobile phones) in the first decade of the 2000s also contributes to its explanation,” concludes the report. Diving Into Digital A 2015 report clearly shows a rise in technological knowledge amongst adults over 50. For example, in...

A laptop doesn’t have to be bulky to be powerful. It doesn’t have to be ugly for that matter, either. Slowly more attention is invested in the appearance of the devices in our life. Apple’s inclination towards attractive designs has proved to be a win and an example to follow. So things are changing. HP prepared a stunning surprise launching its latest ultra-portable laptop, Spectre. It has an aluminum, carbon fiber and copper body that’s only 0.41 inches thin with a 13.3-inch, edge-to-edge display covered by Corning Gorilla Glass 4 and Bang & Olufsen audio with lace-like speakers. The laptop comes in a smoky gray color with gold accents—the entire hinge is a bright, jeweled gold which was moved in from the rear edge, inset by a bit. HP packed a beautiful surprise under the hood: instead of powering Spectre with Intel’s lower-power Core M line of processors—like the 12-inch MacBook and Samsung Galaxy TabPro S did—they’ve used the current-generation mainstream Intel Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs combined with 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. This amount of power needs cooling—the fans are much smaller (and quite silent) and pull the air in and through the laptop, rather than exclusively pushing hot air out. It’s a version of a cooling scheme from Intel which they call hyperbaric cooling. To better power the laptop, HP found inspiration in Apple and used a set of four differently sized internal battery packs flattened down into multiple separate thin cells, to fit across most of the bottom footprint. The company claims the battery life goes up to 9 hours and 45 minutes. The HP used a standard island-style keyboard that’s backlit. They feel a bit shallow with a shorter key travel due to the base’s thin...