The picture of a picture picture

Morning shoot
London, ON
February 2014
For more Thematic, click here. All will be explained.

Warning: I'm feeling philosophical today. Not sure why. Maybe I'm overdue. Either way, I've been wondering about the photographic process. Here goes...

The smartphone era is reshaping how we take and share pictures. On one hand, it means we often feel comfortable leaving our so-called "real" cameras at home because we figure the phone should be good enough to capture whatever we come across when we're out.

While it can mean pictures that trend more toward the casual snapshot instead of the artfully composed or exposed shot, as long as we're shooting, it's a good thing.

Also a good thing: the picture-of-a-picture picture. These days, when I do a still life shoot, when I'm done with the main event I like to grab my phone or tablet and take a picture of the shoot itself. It gives me a chance to step back a bit and remember the meta moment, what it felt like to be there as I fiddled with the camera and tried to tell whatever the story was.

Because this particular shot was taken with my iPad, the highlights are blown, the resolution isn't quite where I'd like it to be, and the colors are, um, a little off. This won't be blown up, framed and mounted. But it still serves an important purpose. A contextual one. 

It's also a reminder that when you're trying to tell the same story from lots of different perspectives, you'll use every tool you've got. Besides, I'm slowly learning that the end result is only part of the journey.

Your turn: A time when you stepped back and took it all in. Please discuss.

Is your Apple product safe?

This morning, I chatted live with Marci Ien on CTV's Canada AM about the security vulnerability that could make it easy for hackers to pick off secure traffic from your iOS device (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch) or Mac computer (OS X operating system).

The video from the interview is here.

During the interview, we talked about how important it is to ensure your computer has been properly updated, and why you need to install all available updates if it hasn't been. Here's a quick rundown:

On your iOS device:

Head to your home screen (double-click the home button if you're not sure) and tap the following, in order

• Settings app
• General (it's on the left)
• Software Update (on the right)

It may take a few seconds to check itself. Once it's done, if your software has been updated, it'll say "iOS 7.0.6 - Your software is up to date" If this is the case, you're protected, and can head back to bed.

If it says an update is available to download and install, select Update and go make some tea. It'll take about 5 minutes do download and install before it reboots your device.

Update from the future (otherwise known as March 10th): Apple has released iOS 7.1. So the whole update process works exactly the same, except now the number has changed. Capish?

On your Mac:

Head to your desktop, then:

• Click the Apple menu at the absolute top, left-hand corner of your screen
• Select Software Update

This opens up the App Store, checks your computer for ALL available updates to the operating system and installed software, then allows you to click Update for each one, or all.

If your operating system is at 10.9.2, you're all up-to-date.

If it's an earlier version (10.9, 10.9.1, 10.8 - Mountain Lion, or 10.7 - Lion), you'll be given the option to update. It'll take between 10 and 15 minutes to download, install and reboot your device.

As an FYI, clicking on the Apple Menu, then About This Mac, then the Software Update button gets you to the same place.

What if your machine or device is a bit older?

Anything with Mac OS X 10.6 or older (Snow Leopard) will NOT be patched. If possible, upgrade the operating system to 10.7 or newer. If that isn’t possible, now may be the time to consider replacing the hardware

The same thing applies to iOS: iOS 5 or earlier will not be patched. Either update to iOS 6 (not all older devices are able to be updated. iOS 7 only runs on the Phone 4 and later models, 5th-generation iPod touches, and iPad 2 and later) or consider replacing the hardware, as it will be increasingly vulnerable to this kind of attack in future.

Don't eat those M&Ms just yet!

Waiting for the inevitable
London, ON
February 2014
Thematic's theme, return to the scene of the crime, is here.

I don't eat this stuff too often - I think it would kill me - but when I do, I have a funny little habit.

I don't eat them first. I can't just rip the bag open and dig in. I have to put them in a bowl, or arrange them just so on the table. I have to wait for the light to be just right - hello, early morning sunshine - and I can't be rushed.

Which means the bag often sits quietly off to the side until the conditions are just right. I get asked when I'm going to open it. And I can't answer the question. I'll know when the stars align. And then we'll take a few pictures to remember the moment.

In the end, it means the family photo album is peppered with semi-regular sets of M&Ms - all types, but usually peanut - as well as Reese's Pieces, or even Smarties. Do I eat the red ones last? I'll never say. But I'll do my best to remember what it all looked like before I made them disappear for good.

Your turn: Shooting the same things over and over, over a period of years. Why?

On feeling the rain

"Some people feel the rain, others just get wet."
Bob Dylan

So which one are you?

Thematic Photographic 283 - Return to the scene of the crime

Peanuts. Always peanuts.
London, ON
February 2014

I'm somewhat ashamed to admit I haven't been shooting as much lately as I'd like. I think I've been grabbing a lot of snaps with the smartphone or tablet, but that's not the same as making a date with the DSLR, pulling the tripod out and having a little fun through the lens.

So this weekend that's just what I did. With a bunch of M&Ms. Because I knew they wouldn't complain. And when I was done, I knew I could munch on them. Within reason: gotta watch myself, after all.

This long overdue kitchen table photo session got me thinking: How often do we take lots of different pictures of the same thing? And how do we decide which pose, which perspective, wins?

Well, this week, we won't have to. As part of this week's theme, return to the scene of the crime, we'd like you to post a pic of a scene to get things started. Then, later in the week, post another pic of the same thing, only make it a different pose, a different perspective, and different way of looking at the same thing. Two pics, two days, two ways of seeing the same thing.

Got it? I can't wait to see what you come up with.

Your turn: Take TWO pics that evoke this week's shot. Post the first one early in the week, and the second one - same subject, different perspective - later in the week. Leave comments here letting folks know where to find it. Visit other participants and tell your mom, too. For more info on how Thematic works, click here. And thanks!

Talking head on a small screen

As a rule, I can't stand seeing myself on-screen. Likewise, I have a hard time listening to myself on radio. I don't look or sound like I think I look or sound, and the sounds and visuals are usually a little too jarring for comfort.

I realize that sounds funny given how often I do this. Still, I like to review the results on occasion to ensure I'm up to snuff, and to continually figure out better ways to deliver the message. I learned early on that good journalists have thick skin, and aren't afraid to self-critique. Maybe I'll be a good journalist someday. Until then, I'll review my work - with difficulty - and try to raise the bar every time I head into a studio.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, while poking around the Internet, I found this search page on the CTV News website that helpfully tracks my appearances on CTV News Channel and Canada AM. Here's the link. Please don't laugh.

Watching Olympic hockey before dawn

So the sky is still dark here in the Great White North, but like pretty much everyone else in this country, I find myself awake, bathed in the glow of a flat screen TV, waiting for the Canada-Sweden Olympic gold medal hockey game to get underway in Sochi.

It's quite the kick to live in a country where a sport is so revered that it almost becomes religion. Where complete strangers come together to celebrate a common love of a seemingly simple sport that defines a disproportionately large chunk of our national identity.

For the past couple of weeks, we've all watched in awe as Canadian athletes in a bunch of sports we don't much "get" distinguish themselves on the world stage. As proud as we typically reserved Canadians are of the almost-world-leading medal haul, the sad truth remains that we won't pay much attention to sports like half-pipe snowboarding, slopestyle or bobsledding until the next Winter Games roll around. It shouldn't be that way - I'd love to watch this stuff all the time, but for some reason most of these sports will never crack the dominance of the so-called major sports in mainstream news cycles.

But hockey is something else entirely. To a certain extent, it is a part of who we are. Like many kids, I played shinny on an outdoor rink in a half-built park a block away from my house. We'd played until we couldn't feel our toes, then head inside to warm up, then we'd come back out, shovel the ice and play some more.

As a nation, we've stopped our everyday life twice already this week. Our son's grade 8 class livestreamed it on an in-class computer. My wife, a teacher, loaded it up on the computer, as well. Our daughter's high school opened up the auditorium and everyone watched the women's hockey game on the big screen. Smartphones, usually frowned upon during school hours, were front and centre as she and her friends madly tweeted and Facebooked and Instagrammed and Tumblrd the game.

Our hard-studying daughter seemed pleasantly surprised that her school administrators threw caution to the wind and allowed hockey to take precedence over academics. She spoke for hours about what it felt like to be in the stands, surrounded by a buzz that her already-spirit-filled school had never quite felt before. Her voice bubbled with excitement that she had experienced something so memorable.

I told her this experience was something she'd keep with her for a very long time. A touchstone, a warm moment she'd be able to call up anytime she needed a happy. History. And in her young life, being part of something that's bigger than she is, that connects her to a larger whole - students, friends, community, country - is an incredibly powerful learning experience that more than justifies the few hours of classroom instruction that she missed this week.

Today, her team - indeed, our country's team, because we all feel this team, this game, belongs to us - will either win or lose. And as we fill our darkened living room with pillows, comforters, a confused dog and a stready stream of coffee, snacks and tension, we aren't just watching a mere game. There's nothing "mere" about it. And we'll hold the powerful memories of this day with us for as long as we're capable of remembering.

Go Canada. And thank you - to the team, to those who've won just as much as those who have lost, to the country cheering from the sidelines and from far away - for teaching my kids how the world is supposed to work.

Update - 9:20 a.m. - It's over. Canada beats Sweden 3-0 to take the gold medal. The rest of the country can now go back to sleep. Well done, team. I think what matters more than the fact that they won is how they won. Consider my kids inspired. Everyone else, too.

One year on...

A year ago tonight, we lost my wife's mom.

Calendars can be cruel in so many ways, as they hang milestones like this one ahead of you, immovable objects that loom ever larger the closer you get to them. At the same time, you struggle to hold onto moments from before all of this happened, and wish you could somehow bend time altogether, to go back, even for just a moment, and have one more...anything.

Reality isn't quite so neat or controllable. And a year on, it feels as unbelievable today as it did then, a strange warp in time that we all know is inevitable for all of us, but still hurts like hell when it actually occurs.

In the past year, my wife has continued to teach me - and everyone around her - the value of family in navigating the darkness. Being surrounded by, and connected to, a tight group of family and friends-who-may-as-well-be-family has been a godsend. Despite living with the surreal reality of loss, she's figured out how to treasure all that we still have.

So as I listen to her speak with her dad - every day - and share memories of Bubby Zelda with our kids, I can't help but think that my mother-in-law would smile at where we are today. Whatever lessons my in-laws taught my wife when she was our kids' age, they're being well applied as we figure out what to do next, and where to go.

As difficult as it is to lose a parent, I'd hate to think what life would be like if we hadn't had them in the first place, or weren't blessed enough to have grown up in a caring household that prepared us for everything life would ultimately throw our way. Against that backdrop, it's a stark reminder that we're lucky to have had what we had. And continue to have now.

Related links:

• From Facebook: My wife's speech from the unveiling
• Blog entry: Even the skies know
• Photo set on Flickr

Just say no to GMO

This one seriously makes me wonder.

On Carl Sagan's imagination

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere."
Carl Sagan

If only dogs never got old

When he was young
London, ON
January 2009

Since we're looking way, way back this week (click here to share your own Thematic oldie) I thought I'd gang up on our dog, Frasier, for a bit. Because as I was sifting through old pictures, he kept showing up at the top of the pile. I guess we really do like him.

Unlike humans, though, he doesn't seem to have changed much in the 5-ish years since this was taken. Visually, at least, he still has the goofy face, with the same silvery-white fur, and the same pathetic look that he gives us when he knows he's done something wrong.

In the overall scheme of things, "wrong" is usually pretty benign, typically involving an adventure in a garbage can, or someone's backpack, or the pantry. His heart is always in the right place, and he's as lovable now as he was then.

Beyond the visuals, though, this picture still takes me back in time. To a time before he was sick - he was diagnosed with insulin-dependent diabetes a little over two years after this was taken. To a time when I looked at him and never had to wonder about his future. To a time when we seemed to have fewer worries, about him, about everything, than we have today. To a time when we still had all our parents with us. If only I could reach through this picture and grab hold of the life we had then.

Alas, time moves in one direction, and at one constant speed, and there's no going back. I keep reminding myself of this often stark truth, but I never quite accept it, either.

Your turn: What's he thinking here?

On really living

"Every man dies. Not every man really lives."
William Wallace

On leading an imperfect life

"Life does not have to be perfect to be wonderful."
Annette Funicello

I'm not entirely sure where folks got the idea that life has to be served up on a bed of roses, but I wish we'd all stop it right about now. The universe is filled with all sorts of chaos, and we will most definitely trip over chunks of it along the way. That we'll get hurt in the process is immaterial: I wasn't born with a guarantee, and I'm guessing you weren't, either.

Besides, there's often more beauty in imperfection than initially meets the eye. And the choice, as it so often is, remains ours. We can either lament the lack of perfection in our own lives, or we can use the time we've got to appreciate the craziness around us. The roller coaster's going to serve up a wild ride whether we like it or not. So we may as well buckle up, open our eyes and drink it all in. Messiness and all.

Watching the Ukraine burn, live

It's a sign of our ultra-connected times that anyone with a computer, tablet or smartphone and enough available bandwidth can click on a link and watch the riots in Kyiv, live and unedited.

Here's a link to CTV News coverage of the event.

As I watch the surreal scenes play out on my screen, I'm reminded that what we have here in Canada - relative peace, relative freedom, relative trust in government - is still a distant dream in many parts of the world. Sadly, it looks like nothing is going to change anytime soon.

Related links:

• The Independent: What exactly is going on in Kiev?

Thematic Photographic 282 - Go way back

When they were young
London, ON
Summer 2001

We're going to shake things up a bit with this week's Thematic theme, go way back. Instead of shooting something new, I'd like us to dig into our archives and pull out old stuff. Or scan something - a photo, an artifact, anything - from way back and share it here.

If you haven't looked at it in a while, if it's gathering dust, if it's a look back at a part of your life you thought you had forgotten, we want to see it.

As far as this pic goes, it's a reminder that our kids - all now teenagers - grow too quickly for words. And I need to do a better job remembering what each stage was like.

Your turn: Grab a photo that evokes this week's theme - go way back - and post it to your blog or website. Leave a comment here letting everyone know where to find it. Visit other participants and feel free to share more snippets through the week. For more info on how Thematic works, click here. If you tweet, feel free to use the #ThematicPhotographic hashtag. And have fun with it, because photography should be fun, and that's what Thematic is all about, too.

Please don't steal the shopping carts

No shopping here
London, ON
January 2014

I wanted to round out this week's emptiness theme - head here if you'd like to share yours - with this rather sad-looking scene from a local parking lot. As much as we complain about this year's winter that will not end, it's been a boon for anyone who revels in melancholy weather photos.

And this is as melancholy as it gets, a reminder that as miserable as we may be when the storms roll in, the person who's got to corral these stolen and/or abandoned shopping carts has it far worse.

Whoever ultimately collected this steel chariot, I hope he/she paused for a moment to appreciate the aesthetic of the scene. Okay, probably not.

Empty? Maybe not.

Blue mountains in the distance
Laval, QC
August 2013
Thematic. Emptiness. Here.

The Mars Curiosity rover got some global headlines last week when it snapped a picture of Earth from its perch on the surface of the Red Planet.

Like Voyager 1's Pale Blue Dot picture before it, I spent more time than I should have staring at it and wondering about its meaning. At first glance, both pictures may look fairly simple. There's no detail to speak of, little more than a single pixel of light. No sign of activity, humanity, or life.

But if we could look more closely, we'd see every human alive on that day. We've see the sum total of life on our very isolated, very fragile planet. We'd see it all. Only the limitations of technology keep us from having that visibility.

And so it goes with this shot of Laval's western tip. That's Deux-Montagnes (aka Two Mountains) in the distance, and as much as this scene seems empty of life or activity, a deeper dive into the limited-pixel perspective here would bear out countless lives playing out in real-time. It's a reminder that not everything is ever as it initially seems, and an inspiration to keep shooting stuff like this.

Your turn: Who lives here?

Shattered riverside windows

How much longer?
Thamesford, ON
May 2013
Thematic. Emptiness. Here.

There's a mill beside the river on the east side of this small town in the middle of some of the most fertile agricultural land on the planet.

I don't know how long this place has been abandoned, but from the looks of it the elements are slowly and inevitably winning the battle to reclaim this once-thriving structure. The back half of the property has already been demolished, and every time I drive by and see vehicles in the muddy parking lot in the remaining building's shadow, I wonder how much longer it can hold out.

Which is kind of sad, because they don't make landmarks like this anymore. And once they're gone, they're gone.

As empty as this place is, though, it still exerts an influence on the area around it, still stakes its place at the edge of town, still manages to touch those who are just passing through. It may be empty of people, but certainly not of spirit.

What's the point of technology?

It's budget season here in London, and like many municipalities across the country, civic governments find themselves trying to rein in costs for the next year while still delivering a reasonable level of services to taxpayers.

It's a delicate balancing act that ultimately pleases no one. And I have a huge degree of admiration for both the elected officials who look for opportunities to eliminate waste, and the city staff members who bring years of expertise to the table, as well.

One of the dangers of the process revolves around the propensity, as things wind down to the final, critical chapters and everyone's frantically looking for Hail Mary savings, to pull out the wrong knife and cut the wrong thing for the wrong reason. So when I saw a councillor, Paul Van Meerbergen, call the city's information technology spending into question, my antennae immediately went up.

I don't mean to sound like a know-it-all, but this was no studied call to understand the value of IT. Instead it was little more than a simplistic grab for headlines, an easy-way-out attempt to get the masses to rise up and fight Big Bad IT managers with their Big Bad Budget Requests. By that logic, IT folks spend their time paying top dollar for tech toys that citizens don't want or need.

So I called hogwash, and was quoted in Chip Martin's piece in today's London Free Press: Expert warns against cutting tech spending. My take: IT is an investment in the city's future. And we've been deficient in this regard for so long that other cities in our region - hello, Waterloo - have been eating our lunch. As an example, Mr. Martin and I spoke about the city's website, london.ca, that until its long-delayed upgrade last year had languished in circa-1997 mediocrity for so long that I'm sure potential investors laughed out loud when they first saw it. A city that penny-pinches on tech is hardly a city that understands how to function - and compete - in today's digital economy.

Cool factor: Mr. Martin also interviewed Matt Brown for the article. He's currently the councillor for London's Ward 7 (coincidentally, the ward where I live) and is running for Mayor of our burg. It was an honour to be quoted alongside him, and an honour to add some perspective to a debate that, if mismanaged, promises to hold London even further back in the municipal competitiveness sweepstakes than it already is.

I'm not sure if Mr. Van Meerbergen reads this, but in case he does, I invite him to share his detailed assessment of why current levels of IT spend are "heavy" (his words), and how he plans to ensure London keeps pace with an even lighter allocation of resources to this critical pillar of civic strategy. In fact, while we're at it, I'll invite our Mayor, Joe Fontana, to share his thoughts, as well. Because digital era discussions should take place within a digital context. Over to you, gentlemen...

Update: I was going to tweet the link to this entry directly to both Mr. Van Meerbergen and Mr. Fontana. Unfortunately, Mr. Van Meerbergen doesn't seem to have a working Twitter account, while Mr. Fontana's account - @joefontana_pc - was created in 2010 to support his previous mayoralty campaign, and has one tweet to its credit. They're similarly absent from Facebook, or any other reasonably current online platform where citizens gather. I could email them (pvanmeer@london.ca and jfontana@london.ca), but that doesn't seem to be in the spirit of public discussion. Likewise, I'm welcome to send a fax (the Mayor's # is 519.661.5308, while Mr. Van Meerbergen's is 519.661.5933) but I never bothered setting it up on my multifunction printer because, well, who the heck faxes anymore?

It's somewhat difficult to have a digital-era discussion when your elected officials haven't yet joined the digital era to begin with. In the end, maybe it's a sign we aren't spending enough on IT. And maybe we have the wrong people calling the shots on what constitutes proper spending and proper prioritization (we'll leave the $97,000 lawyer's bill for the Billy T affair for discussion another day.)

All told, it's something to keep in mind as the campaign for the November 2014 municipal election gathers speed.

#TechSeven - Google shows the love, and diapers get wired

If you tuned into my weekly segment with Barry Morgan on Montreal's CJAD 800, here's a quick rundown of some of the things we chatted about. If you weren't able to tune in, we'll be back at it next week at 2:00 p.m. Eastern. Hope you can join us.

Here goes...

ONE - Google's Valentine's Day present

Did you forget about Valentine's Day? Don't have time to hit up the florist before sundown? Don't worry, Google has you covered with its Valentine's Day doodle.

If you're new to the doodle thing, Google often marks special occasions and holidays - Albert Einstein's birthday, the anniversary of the first moon landing, the Olympics, etc. - with Doodles, where it replaces the Google logo on its main search page with either a graphic, or an interactive app. You might remember the Pac Man game or playable Fender guitar, both examples of doodle-dom at its best.


Go to google.com or google.ca to find today's doodle. Click on the dancing chocolate box where the Google logo would usually be. Using your mouse or touchscreen, create a customized chocolatey creation - including your choice of dark or milk chocolate, strawberries, sprinkles and even ants (ew!) - and then share your creation on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

TWO - Tinder - the new online breakfast of Olympic champions

Speaking of the Olympics, if our Olympians aren't tweeting, they may be doing, ah, something else.

If you're single, you may already have used an online service to find a mate. eHarmony and Match.com are the 800 pound gorillas of the online dating space, and Facebook has also become a popular choice for this kind of thing. Tinder is newer, having been introduced in October 2012. It's an iOS app - for iPhones and iPads - and it's billed as a simpler way to find someone.

Because it's mobile-based, it also makes it easy to connect with people nearby. And now comes a report that Olympic athletes are doing just that in Sochi - so when they're not competing for gold, they're apparently pulling out their iPhones and hooking up.

Olympic hookup culture isn't anything new. Every games, winter and summer, stories of, um, unpublishable and airable activity abound (here's a summary from 2012, and a timeline from Time magazine). Combine thousands of young people in incredible shape in a limited geographic area and something's bound to happen. Now, mobile technology makes the process even easier.

Alas, I don't think this will get much TV coverage.

THREE - Netflix - the new king of the Internet

House of Cards is arguably the first truly successful TV series produced not by a major television network, but by an Internet streaming service: Netflix. Well, the series is so popular - and so acclaimed, with Emmy and Golden Globe awards to its credit - that you might notice its impact after Netflix posted all 13 new episodes of its second season online at 3:01 this morning. That's because studies of Internet data use show that so many people watch streaming movies and TV shows from Netflix at night that EVERYONE'S Internet speeds slow down by about one-third. Today's Netflix crush is expected to have an even bigger impact, with some experts saying the TV show alone will consume 40% of ALL available Internet bandwidth.

It's like someone using all the water in the firehose, leaving precious little water and pressure for everyone else.

This comes after Netflix fans launched an online petition to convince the company to release the episodes early. Why? With a giant snowstorm bearing down on the U.S. East Coast, they wanted to hunker down and watch their favourite TV show available when they were stuck at home to weather out the storm. Did it work? No. But it's another sign that the Internet is profoundly changing how we watch television.

So if your Internet is slow, blame Netflix. Stubborn Netflix. And if your House of Cards doesn't play smoothly tonight or this weekend, it's because everyone else is trying to watch it at the same time.

FOUR - Federal budget fallout - Rural Internet users lose out, again

This week's get-rid-of-the-deficit federal budget held the line on spending, but still included a few goodies to keep voters happy in advance of the next federal election in 2015. One such goodie was $305 million over the next 5 years to bring high-speed Internet access to 280,000 Canadian households in rural or remote areas of the country.

Rural Internet speeds are a critical indicator of national competitiveness. People living outside urban areas have traditionally been underserved in this regard, and have had to put up with either slow Internet connections or no Internet connections at all - and in all cases they've had to pay through the nose for the privilege. In the digital age, it forces rural citizens into a disadvantaged state, and ultimately compromises national competitiveness compared to countries that get it.

So the money from the feds is nice in theory, but not in reality. I wrote an article for Yahoo Canada that outlines why this is a terrible deal: Federal budget 2014: Rural Internet boost is nowhere near enough

Why? Because other countries are vastly outspending us, and we're falling further behind. The U.S. is spending upwards of $350 billion on its national broadband plan. Australia, which is geographically similar to Canada - population concentrated in cities, with lots of open space in between - spent $43 billion. Our pitiful "investment" actually replaces two programs that were cancelled in 2012, and the level of spending is now LESS than it was beforehand.

What's worse,  the feds promised in 2001 to bring high-speed Internet to every Canadian household by 2004. We're still waiting. This either needs to be our next Manhattan Plan, or our leaders should stop pretending they get it. Because this week's announcement shows they don't.

FIVE- Wearables update - behold the electronic diaper

Lately, we've been talking a lot about wearable computing. Smartwatches like the Pebble and Galaxy Gear, glasses like Google's Glass and those increasingly popular fitness bracelets could be joined this year by an Apple iWatch. But wearables don't stop there. Sensor- and processor-laden hats, helmets, shoes and even jackets are on the horizon.

But diapers? A Japanese university professor has demonstrated an inexpensive sensor that detects wetness and signals the caregiver when a change is needed. Why is this notable? The sensor itself is cheap - important in a disposable product - because it's printed using an inkjet printer. Printable technology is an increasingly popular and cost-effective way of turning even mundane objects - like diapers - into smart ones. Expect the printable revolution to continue.

SIX - BlackBerry BBM updated - now iOS and Android users get free calling

BlackBerry continues to release updates to its BlackBerry Messenger software. This week, it updated the iOS and Android versions to (finally) include free BBM-to-BBM voice calling using either Wi-Fi or cell networks (no need to use your minutes if you don't want to.) It also adds support for the BBM Channels social media feature. The Apple and Google apps now match the capabilities that BlackBerry device-users have had all along.

If you have an old BlackBerry, BBM's been updated, as well. So hit up the App World and get your free upgrade.

The bad news? The guy who headed the BBM division, Andrew Bocking, has left the company as part of an ongoing stream of executive departures in the wake of CEO John Chen's arrival. Don't expect the changes to slow down anytime soon.