Event

Jumping Into January – What I’m Missing & What I’m Not and Why It’s Relevant

by Michael Sheehan on January 7, 2013

in Apple, Book, CES, Consumer Electronics, Event, Gadgets, General, Opinion, Parenting, Tech News

Post image for Jumping Into January – What I’m Missing & What I’m Not and Why It’s Relevant

Who would have believed what a busy month January 2013 would be. As is customary for me, I can barely see the end of my nose, the end of the day or the end of an article. How the heck can I look through a month and plan ahead? Honestly, I wish that I had actually planned ahead a bit more as January is looking to be one of those really important months. But “focus” is a key word for me in 2013 so planning will be crucial.

I have to make choices, just like everyone else. While I wish that I could focus 100% of my work brain on HighTechDad, I actually have a day job which pays the bills, ensures my family has health care and provides me with a professional career. (Well, I could say that my writing with HighTechDad is another professional career.) But I digress.

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January has several events that I truly wish that I could have attended but due to budget, work and time limitations, I will be covering, analyzing and observing these remotely. Here are the events that I feel to be particularly relevant to the tech and family world that I inhabit. If you have a chance, try to check them out.

NMX (BlogWorld)

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Hands-on with the Nintendo Wii U

by Michael Sheehan on October 5, 2012

in Consumer Electronics, Event, Family, Gadgets, General, Hardware, Opinion, Review

Post image for Hands-on with the Nintendo Wii U

This past weekend, my kids and I were invited to a private event hosted by Nintendo to get some hands-on game play with the new Nintendo Wii U, due out on November 18, 2012. When the Nintendo Wii first came out, it was revolutionary. It got gamers out of their seats and active when playing games. You could create your own persona within the game via the Mii profile and characters. It was fun. But over the years, it has started to show its age. It has been moved out of my own entertainment center, replaced with the more powerful and better graphics in the Microsoft Xbox 360 and the Sony PS3. But, I think I may be shifting some of my gaming consoles around once again when the Wii U hits the market.

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The Wii U event was quite well organized. There were a couple hundred people there, families and gamers alike. The space was nicely laid out with individual kiosks with different games and in the center of the room were couches for additional gameplay. There were also rooms around the outside for dance, singing and other new game showcases.

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This event was all about showing off both the new hardware and the games that you can get with it. And I must say, Nintendo seems to be really trying to re-enter the market with a strong statement. Just the same way the original Wii was different by getting people out of their seats and jumping around to play games, the new Wii U brings some new innovations. And let’s think a second about the name. Wii made sense, even if it was a bit odd. Wii = “we” – a multiplayer experience, doing things together and also plays on the sound of “weeeee” – having fun. The new Wii U adds to this with the “U” which can be referred to as “you”. Here’s why I think so.

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Energy Conservation & Caring for the Elderly – 2 Topics of Today with Huge Impacts for Tomorrow

by Michael Sheehan on July 27, 2011

in Cast of Dads, Consumer Electronics, Event, Gadgets, General, Hardware, Intel, Opinion, Tech News, Video

Post image for Energy Conservation & Caring for the Elderly – 2 Topics of Today with Huge Impacts for Tomorrow

A few weeks ago, I participated in the Intel “Upgrade Your Life” 2011 summit in Intel’s Santa Clara, CA campus. This was the second year I attended and after both summits, I always managed to walk away with a headache. But, not a “bad” headache by that definition, but a “good” one. Think about when you go for a very hard run or work out for a long time and your muscles hurt and are sore when you are done…it was THAT type of a headache. In about 8 hours, my mind had sucked in so much new information, that it literally hurt from all of the exercise.

Now THAT'S a chip! Intel Upgrade Your Life 2011

The participants of the “Upgrade Your Life” 2011 event all seemed to have something in common, we were all bloggers and most of us were parents as well and many of us, like me, also write about technology. There were only 2 males/dads in the group, me and Jeff Sass (Jeff and I are 2/5ths of the Cast of Dads podcast), and we did a video recap of some of the things that impressed us about this event in this video “2/5ths of the Cast of Dads Get Their Brains Upgraded at Intel’s ‘Upgrade Your Life’ 2011 Event”. But I thought that I would dive into two other important topics that came from the Intel Labs group: Energy Conservation and Caring for the Elderly.

First off, I have always expressed how much I like the Labs division of companies and Intel’s is no exception. As part of the Intel Advisors program (another group I actively participate in with Intel), some of our best informational conference calls and presentations in my opinion were the ones where people from the Intel Labs group would present us with some new projects that they are working on. So, the two topics of this post and the videos below (from the “Upgrade Your Life” event) are from the Labs groups. There were other quite interesting demonstrations, but I found these two to be timely and critical to think about in this day and age.

I actually got a bit scared when listening to the presentations on these two topics: Energy Conservation and Caring for the Elderly. These are two topics that we need to be not only thinking about, but acting on NOW. And this is exactly what Intel is doing. [click to continue…]

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2/5ths of the Cast of Dads Get Their Brains Upgraded at Intel’s “Upgrade Your Life” 2011 Event

by Michael Sheehan on July 18, 2011

in Cast of Dads, Consumer Electronics, Event, Gadgets, General, Hardware, Intel, Opinion, PodCast, Tech News, Video

Post image for 2/5ths of the Cast of Dads Get Their Brains Upgraded at Intel’s “Upgrade Your Life” 2011 Event

Last week, 2 of the Cast of Dads had the opportunity to visit Intel in Santa Clara, CA to participate in an annual event called “Upgrade Your Life.” This day-long summit was an opportunity for a variety of influential technology and parenting bloggers to convene to understand some of the initiatives that Intel participates in or drives – something beyond just “the manufacturing of chips.” Last Wednesday, Jeff Sass (Dadomatic.com) and I got to flip the saying from “Intel Inside” to “Inside Intel” as we learned more from the thought leaders within Intel.

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Both Jeff and I are part of the Intel Advisors program as well and participated in last year’s Upgrade Your Life event in Portland, OR. Both of us will be providing addition insight, commentary and media from this event and will be posting it over the coming weeks. However, we recorded a quick overview of the event and a few things that we learned which we wanted to share (this video is also available here on YouTube):

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It’s always a pleasure and a privilege to be invited to events, summits or meetings sponsored by large brands and industry leaders. If your brand or company is interested in sponsoring a trip for the Cast of Dads, please let us know! You can email us at: castofdads@gmail.com.

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My Brain was Upgraded at Intel’s “Upgrade Your Life” 2010 Summit

June 30, 2010

A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of attending the Intel “Upgrade Your Life” 2010 Summit (my announcement) which was a gathering of a variety of technology influencers and bloggers. At this summit, we were introduced to a number of different individuals representing different initiatives within Intel. There were 10 of us invited to [...]

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I’m Participating in Intel’s “Upgrade Your Life” Digital Influencers Summit

May 26, 2010

A few months or so ago, I saw an interesting phrase from Intel fly by on Twitter. It was the line “Upgrade Your Life” which I thought was a very creative melding of technology and real life. I was definitely intrigued. To my surprise and pleasure, a few weeks ago, I was invited to attend [...]

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