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My life with the Fitbit Flex activity tracker

My series on living with four different activity trackers returns to the Fitbit because there's a new Fitbit in town, the Fitbit Flex. The new wristband version of the Fitbit corrects some of the deficiencies I found with the Fitbit One, such as tracking my standup paddleboarding better and making me feel more motivated to hit my daily activity goal.

The Flex sells for $100, just like its clip-on sibling, the One. It weighs about half-an-ounce, and never felt heavy or uncomfortable around my wrist. But getting the clasp to close takes a little practice. Like Brian Bennett in … Read more

Beer drone? Festival goers may see booze fall from the sky

Keep an eye on the sky the next time you're at a concert -- a cold beer might be coming your way. It's been announced that attendees of South Africa's OppiKoppi music festival will be able to order beer that comes delivered on an octocopter drone.

Called the OppiKoppi beer drone, the device is an 8-propeller helicopter that can be loaded with beer and flown over the festival, arriving at the GPS location of any person who orders a cold brew from a mobile app. Once the drone arrives at its location, it drops its cargo and a single beer attached to a parachute will make its way down to a designated campsite called District 9.

With beer intentionally flying in the air, there's some concern about a cold brew randomly hitting festival goers in the head. Darkwing Aerials, the South African company that's providing the beer drone for the festival, says it is taking safety precautions. … Read more

Sole female, minor coder wins hackathon with anti-spoiler app

As the father of a 5-year-old girl who adores all things princess but also digs stars and comets and mastered the user interface for both Android and iOS in about half a day, I'm always on the look out for Geek Grrl role models. So the new hero in my household is Jennie Lamere.

This 17-year-old grrl loves both reality television and hackathons and tapped into those two passions to win the grand prize at the TVnext hack event in Boston last month. Her brilliantly simple hack, first detailed on evolver.fm, is designed to prevent spoilers on Twitter while watching live TV.

Surely we've all shaken our fists in the air when a fellow "Walking Dead" or "Game of Thrones" fan in a different time zone tweets about the latest character to get eliminated while you're still popping popcorn and getting the couch ready for the evening's gore-fest.

Lamere's Google Chrome app, Twivo, allows users to block any tweets related to a certain keyword or words for a specified period of time, allowing you to keep up with the rest of the Twitterverse during commercial breaks without ruining the show you're watching.

… Read more

RunKeeper for Pebble (hands-on): What the Pebble should have been all along

When the Pebble watch unveiled its first Kickstarter videos, it seemed like a magic device. Some features, like health-tracking apps, played a major role in that perception. They haven't been available, however, until today, when RunKeeper finally updated its iOS and Android apps to support the little wearable device. It's a small moment for RunKeeper, but a big moment for Pebble.

I reviewed the Pebble smartwatch about a month ago. I was a little hard on it. Why? Because, for all the hype the Pebble watch had received, the actual device couldn't really do all that much. … Read more

Two Spocks go where many men have gone before: the golf club

It's hard being an old Vulcan.

Younger beings come along and just want to vulcanize you.

Old Vulcans have it so bad they drive Mercedes. Young ones, quite naturally, drive an Audi.

These aren't the musings of an addled mind; it's the premise of a new Audi ad. Here we have old Spock, Leonard Nimoy, and young Spock, Zachary Quinto, challenging each other. Yes, they will race each other to the golf club -- loser buys lunch. (Do not attempt.)

Quinto has a very fancy Audi S7. Spock is slumming it in an old guy's Mercedes. … Read more

Glasses and Glass: How Google Glass changed my face

I had two transformative yet very minor optical experiences last week, both kicking off in the space of 2 hours: I got contact lenses, and I began experimenting with Google Glass.

The two are interlinked, because I couldn't use Google's bleeding-edge wearable tech with my comfy Ray-Ban eyeglasses.

If I was going to use Glass, I'd need contacts.… Read more

My life with the Jawbone Up activity tracker

Next in my series on living with four different activity trackers, the Jawbone Up.

It gains high-marks from me for having an attractive design, a great app, and fun social integration. But it surprised me in not tracking one of my "non-step" activities as well as I expected.

The Up sells for $130, comes in eight colors and is worn around your wrist. It's available in three sizes and weighs just under 1 oz. I've never found it uncomfortable or heavy to have on. It's also water-resistant, like the Nike FuelBand, so there's no … Read more

Hooked Up: Check out the set of NCIS with Pauley Perrette and her tech toys

In this week's episode of Hooked Up, Kevin Frazier hangs out on the set of "NCIS" with actress Pauley Perrette, who plays Abby Sciuto, the show's fan-favorite quirky forensic scientist. She talks about her role as the social media ambassador for CBS during "Tweet Week" and how she used Twitter to help keep the Hope Gardens shelter for families open.

Pauley bring hers own tech on set, including the dirtiest Macbook you've probably ever seen, and she shows us some of the fun set pieces in Abby's lab. She also talks about … Read more