Here’s What You Can Really Do With Apple’s Health App

Many users have complained that Apple’s Health app hasn’t lived up to the hype surrounding its launch with IOS 8. It’s more complex — and less immediately useful — than Apple’s other native apps; getting your datato display can require some experimentation; and you won’t see the benefits of setting it up until you’ve used it for a while. But there are hundreds of good reasons to give it a try: all of the beautiful and capable health, fitness, and medically focused apps that developers are creating to integrate with the platform.

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The Health app is underpinned by a framework called Heathkit, which enables it to act as a hub for all of the health data collected by your apps and wearable devices. Then the Health app enables these other, third-party apps to access your health data and get a clearer picture of your health. On its support page on how to use Health on your iPhone, Apple explains the three most important parts of the app. “The Dashboard in health gives you an overview of your data. Health Data is where you track your body measurements and other data. In Sources, you can control how other apps work with Health. Medical ID can store and display your important information.”

 

Via the Dashboard, you can choose what data Health displays, and choose to display that data by day, week, month, or year. In Health Data, you can track your body measurements, fitness stats, information about yourself, and more. In Sources, you can see the third-party apps and devices that can send data to Health, and control which have access to your health data. And with Medical ID, you can add information such as birthdate, height, weight, blood type, and emergency contacts.

So what apps should you try out if you’re curious about how Health and Heathkit work? Developing health and fitness-related apps is a big business now, and there are more choices than ever before for users looking for apps to experiment with. And in the IOS App Store, there are a number of ways for users to find these apps. You can check out the Health & Fitness category, or perhaps the listing of Medical apps. You can look at a feature on the first crop of apps using Apple’s newly-announced ResearchKit framework (MyHeart Counts, Parkinson mPower, GlucoSuccess, Share the Journey, and Asthma Health), scroll through the App Store’s top Apps for Doctors, Apps for Patients, Apps for the Great Outdoors, or check out one of its many collections of apps: Rest and Relaxation, Working Out, Get in Shape, Apps for Runners, Apps for the Weekend, Yoga, Hiking & Camping, Eat Your Greens, or Apps for Cyclists.

One of the most useful ways to discover the great health and medical apps that developers are creating — and a feature we wish Apple would incorporate as a more prominent collection or filter for App Store users — is the App Store’s collection of apps for the Health app. We’ve gone through Apple’s listing of the best apps for Health, and chosen a few that we think are worth the time it’ll take for you to try them out.

Activity and fitness tracking

Some of the most popular health-related apps on the iPhone — or at least the ones you hear people talking about the most — are fitness apps that help you track your activity and gather data on your workouts, all in pursuit of quantifying how much you’re moving and where you can improve. Most iOS users have heard of apps like RunKeeper, Strava, and Nike+ Fuel. But what if you’re looking to try something different?

Try out Human, an all-day activity tracker that automatically tracks how many minutes you move (without the need for a separate wearable device), measures the intensity of activities to calculate active calories, and reminds you to move at least 30 minutes everyday. Another app to try is Fjuul, which keeps track of the intensity of your movement while you “walk, work, run, dance, jog, shop, or party,” and uses HealthKit to record steps, active calories and resting calories. Or try Argus, which counts your steps and active calories, features GPS mapping of your running or cycling, enables you to create a food diary, and sets goals for steps and hydration.

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iOS apps can also help guide your workouts and other physical activities. Download PEAR Personal Coach for eyes-free, hands-free, interactive audio workouts that you can complete anywhere. PEAR synchronizes the results from your workouts, like time, distance, calories, and heart rate, with the Health app, and can read your weight and birthday from Health to calculate your heart rate zones. Try Fitnet to create a fitness plan and complete yoga, Taiji, strength, and cardio workouts  and share calories burned during exercise with HealthKit. Or, for a change of pace, spend some time with Omvana, which features guided meditations ranging between 3 and 60 minutes, and a HealthKit integration that recognizes your stress levels and recommends a meditation to keep you calm.

Improving your nutrition and sleep

Another major area where Health and integrated apps can add a lot of value is in tracking your nutrition. While Health enables you to manually add a variety of metrics — like your intake of caffeine, fiber, protein, sodium, or sugar — that can get tedious. So a variety of third-party apps can make the task easier (and popular standbys like Weight Watchers aren’t your only option if you’re looking to try something new).

Try Lifesum to log meals and water — plus exercise — and customize your nutritional goals. If you want more guidance, let Nutrino tell you what to eat to achieve your health goals based on your medical profile, goals and culinary preferences. Nutrino will add your meal summaries to the Health app, recording nutrients like carbohydrates, fiber, and protein. Download Foodzy to keep track of everything you eat and drink, and invite friends to share recipes. Or try My Macros+ for a robust diet-tracking tool that includes 40,000 food items — including some from popular fast food restaurants — and lets you set daily goals and track your progress toward them.

You can also Health-integrated apps to track how well you’re sleeping, and make waking up in the mornings easier with a smarter version of an alarm clock. Try Sleep Cycle, which analyzes your sleep and wakes you up in the lightest sleep phase so that you feel rested and relaxed when you wake up. For help in improving your sleep, download Sleepio, which offers a personalized program of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to teach you the cognitive and behavioral techniques that will help you get your sleep schedule into shape.

Fertility tracking

While Apple has said that the Health app on your iPhone will track all of the health data you could possibly want and show you “your whole health picture,” its initial release and even subsequent updates have all made a glaring omission: there’s no way for women to track their periods. As Kashmir Hill notes, writing for Fusion, periods differ from woman to woman in how often they occur and how long they last, and women track them for fertility purposes – either to get pregnant or to avoid pregnancy. While including period-tracking in HealthKit would give women a secure way to track their data right from the Health app’s central hub, there are a few period-tracking and fertility-focused apps that already integrate with Health available on the App Store.

Try Glow, which features a period tracker, ovulation calculator, and fertility calendar. Glow can send data such as temperature and height to Apple’s Health app, and get data like sleep, weight, and workouts from Health. It can also sync with other health apps, like Jawbone, MyFitnessPal, Fitbit, and Misfit. Another app to try is Ovia Fertility, which enables you to track your cycle and predict your exact ovulation and fertile window. It integrates with Health to share blood pressure, weight, steps, and body temperature data, and syncs with FitBit, Jawbone, and Withings fitness trackers.

Taking control of your medical journey

When your doctor or care provider is on board with HealthKit, the apps integrated with the platform can offer you even more benefits than when you’re using health and fitness-tracking apps on your own.

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Steve Lohr recently wrote about “the healing power of your own medical records” for The New York Times, reporting that patents who have access to data on their own health “are more likely to take better care of themselves, comply with prescription drug regimens and even detect early-warning signals of illness.” Some medical centers and groups are leveraging the capabilities of data-tracking technology to allow patients access to their medical records, and iOS apps that integrate with HealthKit can help you take control of your medical data.

Epic’s MyChart lets you manage your health information and communicate with your doctor. With the app, you can review test results, medications, and your immunization history; upload health and fitness data, including data from the Health app; manage your appointments; and stay in touch with your physician. The Mayo Clinicapp enables patients to access their personal medical records and appointment schedules, or contact their care team through secure messaging.

Other apps are specifically designed to keep you in contact with your physician between appointments and through treatments and recovery. HealthLoop lets your doctor check in with you, offers you notifications from your medical team, gives you daily guidance on recovery activities, clinical tasks, and reminders to keep you on track, and shares relevant data with your doctor through HealthKit. Patient IO gives you treatment-specific reminders, information from your healthcare provider and care team, and lets you email or call your care team with one tap. Try onpatient, which lets you share your Health app data with your doctor, schedule appointments, access your medical records, and see your medications and allergies.

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You can also download apps that are designed specifically to help you manage a chronic condition. Qardioconnects with a wireless blood pressure monitor to enable you to track your heart health and monitor your blood pressure to help you understand how it changes based on the time and place. iHealth Gluco-Smart lets you check and track your blood sugar levels, automatically record test results, and review a digital logbook with details of each measurement. And Diabetes Logbook aims to make your data useful in your everyday life with easy logging, clear graphs, challenges and immediate feedback.
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Avoid these 6 dumb retirement savings mistakes

Back when many American workers could count on company-run pension plans, preparing for retirement was something of a no-brainer. Now that many of us are calling the shots when it comes to saving and investing for retirement, things seem a lot more complicated.
Not surprisingly, many of us will make mistakes when it comes to preparing for retirement and managing money during retirement, particularly because greater longevity presents a challenge in terms of making savings last.
Click ahead for a few common traps to avoid.

1. Waiting too long to start saving and/or saving too little

Some 36 percent of workers who participated in a 2014 survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute reported that they had less than $1,000 in savings and investments.
As a rule of thumb, we’ll need about 80 percent of our pre-retirement income during retirement. The average person will get about 40 percent of his or her “replacement income” from Social Security retirement benefits, said Joseph Goldberg, director of retirement plan services for Buckingham Asset Management.
Talking about the need to save is one thing, but doing it can be hard, particularly when you are just getting started in your career and you figure that time is on your side. Of course, that’s exactly when you should begin to save, Goldberg said.
Theoretically, the sooner you start to save, the less you’ll have to save, as a percentage of your yearly salary, over the course of your career. By jump-starting your savings in your 20s, you’ll likely benefit from decades of market gains.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 2. Halting or reducing savings during bear markets

It can be unnerving to watch a sizable portfolio drop in value by more than the amount you are contributing to it each month. Many people who find themselves in that situation believe they are “throwing money out the window,” Goldberg said.
As a result, they stop saving “when what they should be doing is increasing their savings because stocks are on sale,” he added. When stock prices are low, explained Goldberg, expected returns are at their highest level.

3. Putting too much emphasis on average life expectancy

It is common for people to use average life-expectancy figures to determine how long their money will need to last in retirement. But if you happen to be lucky (or unlucky) enough to live longer than average, you risk running out of money.
Planning for a longer-than-average retirement, say five to 10 years longer than your average life expectancy, can help you mitigate the risk of outliving your assets.
“By definition, life expectancy tells you only when, out of a large group of people, half will have already died,” said David Mendels, a certified financial planner and director of planning at Creative Financial Concepts. “You have no way of knowing which group you will be in.”

4. Retiring too early

Many people are tempted to retire in their early 60s, but doing that can put considerable strain on a retirement portfolio, particularly for those who live into their 90s. By working a little longer, either at your current full-time job or at a part-time job during retirement, you can put off tapping your nest egg, giving your portfolio more time to compound, or draw down your savings more slowly.
A part-time job during retirement, which may include consulting work or some other type of self-employment, can provide a source of funding for big-ticket items, such as travel.
Whether you retire later in life or work part-time during retirement, “anything you are not spending stays in your portfolio, not just for future use but also compounding into something more,” said J. Christopher Boyd, a CFP and chief investment officer at Asset Management Resources. 

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 5. Failing to spend prudently during retirement

The so-called 4 percent rule is a guideline that many people, advisors included, use to determine how much an investor can safely withdraw from a broadly diversified portfolio in order to make it last three decades. The 4 percent withdrawal rate is typically adjusted for inflation in order to provide a cost-of-living increase.
But there is considerable controversy over whether this long-held belief makes sense, particularly with interest rates still at historical lows. Some experts say the rule is downright dumb because it doesn’t take into account realized—in other words, actual—market returns.
“What you want is a rule that responds to realized market returns,” said Anthony Webb, a senior research economist at the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. “If the market does well, you spend more and vice versa.”
Advisors say one of the biggest mistakes retirees make is not curtailing their spending during bear markets in retirement or spending too freely during bull markets. “The concept of accumulating wealth strategically is very common, but I don’t think people give much thought to the concept of distributing their wealth strategically,” said Goldberg of Buckingham.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); 6. Providing too much help to grown children

Boyd, who works largely with retirees, says many retirees help their grown children financially. Some cosign mortgages or loan their children money to start a business. But such generosity can come back to bite retirees in the long run, according to Boyd at Asset Management Resources.
“Parents want to help their kids and think they have sufficient resources, but if they live long lives, it can come back to hurt them,” said Boyd, adding that parents who loan money shouldn’t count on being repaid.
“If you are lending money to your kids, consider it a gift and don’t expect to get repaid. It is also important to consider whether you have enough money to give to be fair to multiple kids,” he said. 

New 1,080-calorie burger comes topped with hot dogs, chips

Carl’s Jr. began selling a 1,080-calorie burger Wednesday that it hopes appeals to Americans’ patriotic spirit, along with their appetites.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The Most American Thickburger features a beef patty topped with hot dogs and a layer of potato chips, combining three Fourth of July barbecue staples in a creation aimed squarely at the fast-food chain’s core customers: “young, hungry guys.”

“People love these big, juicy, indulgent burgers,” said Andy Puzder, the chief executive officer of closely held CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Carl’s Jr. and its companion chain Hardee’s. “We know who we are and we know how to appeal to our customers.”

The idea for the burger has been percolating inside the Carpinteria, California-based company for almost five years, Puzder said. The chain toyed with including french fries on the burger, but found they wouldn’t hold up against the moisture inside the sandwich. They got too soggy. The same was true of regular potato chips, so Carl’s Jr. settled on kettle-cooked chips that are a bit hardier.

chips, so Carl’s Jr. settled on kettle-cooked chips that are a bit hardier.

The fast-food chain, which is controlled by the private- equity firm Roark Capital, has about 3,500 restaurants worldwide, including approximately 2,900 in the U.S.

Hot-Tub Ad

As part of its strategy of going after 18- to 34-year-old men, the company’s ads feature scantily clad models and actresses, including Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian and Charlotte McKinney. The new commercials for the American burger star Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Samantha Hoopes, who appears in a hot tub wearing an American flag bikini.

“It really emphasizes the all-American nature of this burger and the taste sensation when you bit into it,” Puzder said.

The 64-year-old CEO said he has killed previous ads that he found too suggestive. He also shows each one to his wife before giving the greenlight. The commercials generate some complaints, but the attention — whether good or bad — ultimately helps the brand, Puzder said.

“Beautiful women eating burgers and washing cars — what could be more American than that? I’m OK with it,” he said. “We don’t want to offend anyone, but the complaints seem to drive sales.”

‘Petting Zoo’

In the spirit of all publicity being good publicity, the Carl’s Jr. Twitter account promoted a video clip of comedian Jimmy Kimmel saying the burger was “like eating a petting zoo.” Kimmel then showed a mock Carl’s Jr. commercial ending with the tagline, “It’s time to die.”

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Carl’s Jr.’s best performing restaurant over the last two years is in Williston, North Dakota, where sales topped $4 million in 2014, almost four times the national average. Puzder attributed the performance to the male workers who have swarmed North Dakota looking for jobs in the oil and gas industry.

And what about health concerns? With Chipotle promoting natural ingredients and McDonald’s dabbling with kale, Americans are probably more focused on nutrition than ever before. The Carl’s Jr. burger has about half the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s daily recommendation for calories. Do diners really want a burger topped with chips and hot dogs that packs 64 grams of fat?

Yes, Puzder said. Carl’s Jr. offers turkey burgers and has an all-natural patty made with beef raised without antibiotics, but those items don’t sell as well as the more indulgent burgers.

“I’m not the food police,” Puzder said. “My job isn’t to dictate to people what to eat. My job is to figure out what people want and sell it to them.”

Taylor Swift: Watch Her Explosive New ‘Bad Blood’ Video

Could Taylor Swift secretly be a futuristic assassin?

In the pop star’s new video for her single “Bad Blood,” which premiered on the Billboard Music Awards Sunday night, she rounded up a who’s who of women and Kendrick Lamar to take on some evil and do some general butt-kicking in the process. Arms and windows are broken. MMA fight scenes go down. And to cap it off, a bunch of fiery explosions douse the screen with flames.

Joining Swift in “Bad Blood” is Lena Dunham, Jessica Alba, Selena Gomez, Ellen Pompeo, Cindy Crawford, Mariska Hargitay, and more. You’ll have to watch closely, because they tend to breeze by the screen with catchy codenames.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/QcIy9NiNbmo?feature=player_embedded

“Bad Blood” is the fourth single from Swift’s chart-topping “1989.” She kicks off the U.S. portion of her “1989″ world tour on May 20 in Bossier City, La. 

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Kim Jong Un Points Rhetorical Gun at Terrapin Farmers

An undated picture released by the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North Korean ruling Workers Party, on May 19, 2015 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in the center, speaking during a visit to a terrapin farm, at an uknown location, North Korea. According to the newspaper Kim reproached the farm’s officials for its poor management.

Watch out, North Korean terrapin farmers.

The latest target of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un’s ire appears to be the management of a terrapin farm, which he said has some “serious shortcomings” after he stopped by, according to the state media report released early Tuesday.

(For those unfamiliar with the animal, a terrapin is a type of freshwater turtle eaten in Asia and considered an health tonic by some in the region.)

The visit to the Taedonggang Terrapin Farm likely took place on Monday but the dispatch didn’t include a date. North Korea often omits dates on reports about Mr. Kim’s activities. Reports of so-called field guidance trips by Mr. Kim are usually upbeat accounts of his satisfaction with how construction projects are proceeding or completed facilities are being run.

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But the report on the trip to the terrapin farm is uncharacteristically critical of various aspects of the farm management. The first problem appears to be that the farm doesn’t have a room specifically set aside to laud the feats of Mr. Kim’s family, particularly his father, Kim Jong Il, who visited the farm when it was completed in 2011.

“The employees who failed to bear deep in their minds his leadership exploits could hardly perform their role as masters in production,” the junior Mr. Kim is quoted as saying in the report.

Mr. Kim appeared happier during a visit to the Sinchang fish farm earlier this year.

Mr. Kim is also critical of an apparent failure to breed lobsters at the plant after the ruling party sent baby crustaceans to the farm. He gets into details about this flaw, noting that the farm has yet to set up a system to properly measure water quality automatically.

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The leader “strongly criticized the shortcoming of its officials as a manifestation of incompetence, outmoded way of thinking and irresponsible work style,” according to the report.

Ominously, he warns that the farm “may bring such grave consequences as impairing the prestige of the party.”

It’s not unprecedented for Mr. Kim to make complaints on his field guidance trips, although the criticism of the terrapin farmers is some of the strongest reported in official media.

In May 2012, he reportedly became irritated at the poor appearance of a funfair and scolded officials for the presence of weeds growing in the pavement and paint peeling on the amusement park rides. He also expressed dissatisfaction with a new airport terminal last year.

What the harsh reproach means for the terrapin farm managers is unclear, but it will no doubt prompt speculation that those held responsible for the failings might be the subject of a purge similar to the alleged recent execution of North Korea’s defense minister.

Whoever is now running the farm, it’s a safe bet they are following up on Mr. Kim’s guidance on “tasks and ways for drastically improving the work on the farm,” as stated at the end of the report.

The One Key Thing Parents Should Know About Children and Technology

JENNIFER DEAL: All of my friends who are parents want to know what the right answer is for their children’s technology use. I’m in that boat too–I have a six-year-old son whom I want to support in being a happy, healthy child, and growing into a happy, healthy adult. To this end, I read whatever I can find about the effects of technology on learning and development, talk with my friends who have older children about what they have seen and done, and talk with other parents about what their strategies are.

From all of this inquiry, I’ve learned one thing (which is either frightening or freeing, depending on your perspective): There isn’t one right answer. What is best for one child isn’t necessarily best for another (even another in the same family), and what is best at one stage of a child’s development doesn’t always work in the next.

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For example, while the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than two hours of recreational screen time for a child 3-18 years of age, that time has different implications for different children. What is the purpose of the technology use? Is it to relax alone or to bond with friends or to have family time? What effect does it have on the child? For one child, 10 minutes of video gaming is enough to get them completely hyper and unable to focus, while for another it provides an excellent stress release after school so they can focus on homework. For one child, watching a show results in many days’ worth of imaginative play, while another becomes mesmerized and is solely focused on what they can watch next. Children are not all the same and don’t have identical reactions to different types of technology, so any one approach won’t work the same way for all of them.

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According to the friends I’ve talked with, each individual child’s reactions–and what you can do about them–are likely to change as they grow and as technology changes. While I’m worrying about (the relatively simple issue of) content of games and shows for a six-year-old, my friends with older children have moved on to managing the social dynamics of technology use, including contact with others during multiplayer games, Instagram nastiness, and other social media interaction with the outside world. The solutions they developed when their children were eight that dealt primarily with time on devices are no longer as relevant when they are 14 and a substantial portion of their social and school-related interaction is through technology.

What are we as parents to do if there’s no right answer about technology use that will last longer than the current development stage of the child or the technology? It seems to me that we should pay attention to the child as an individual as much as to the recommendations. Realize that no two children are the same, and don’t be surprised if what worked perfectly for one child doesn’t work at all for another. We as parents set the guidelines for technology use, and provide the example–which means if we want our children to put their devices away during family time or want them to watch fewer shows, we need to be willing to do so as well. And mostly just do our best to provide an environment that helps them grow in the most productive way possible…with (or without) technology.

Jennifer Deal is a senior research scientist at the Center for Creative Leadership and an affiliated research scientist at the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California. She is co-author of the forthcoming “What Millennials Want from Work.”

The Case for Corporate Partnerships with Academia

JAY HOOLEY: Coping with the relentless pace of technological change is challenging organizations more than ever. One way companies can keep up with advances in technology and data science is by creating partnerships with academia.

Universities are expanding their computer-science and data-management curricula, with new majors popping up in data science, information security, applied analytics and more. With a rigor for problem solving and innovative thinking, academia can provide an outside-in view of the challenges businesses are working to solve. Tapping into this knowledge base offers immense benefits for companies looking to identify practical applications for technology.

From the student perspective, businesses can contribute real-world problems that don’t come with clear instructions or boundaries. Students learn that formulating a problem correctly is sometimes tougher than developing the mechanics of a solution.

The tangible benefits of these partnerships for businesses include increased access to the limited pool of highly skilled talent. The search for talent presents companies across industries with an increasingly tough hurdle. By creating partnerships with academic institutions, businesses can place themselves in front of the next generation of technology workers. By working with faculty and students across different fields of study, companies expand awareness of their business and skill requirements–and help students build the right capabilities to meet those needs.

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Companies also gain valuable perspectives from beyond their organization or industry–perspectives that help them question existing assumptions and explore new solutions.

Innovation, by definition, requires creative thinking. Working with the academic community provides fresh perspectives that help push companies to explore solutions to difficult problems they might not discover on their own. That’s a great way to unlock new potential that can speed technological innovation.

Why Investors Need a Technology Scorecard for Companies

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); BRUCE NOLOP: “We are now a technology company” is often proclaimed by CEOs in a variety of industries, with the implication that their companies deserve higher valuations from the investment community.

However, being characterized as a technology company is becoming less the exception and more the rule; it’s hard to think of any industries or companies whose fortunes are not indelibly interwoven with technology. Therefore, rather than classifying some companies as technology-driven and others not, we should assume that virtually every company is profoundly affected by technology–for better or worse–and to assess whether its technology capabilities and strategies are a net plus or a net minus.

To that end, a technology scorecard could be instructive for investors, who would benefit from an objective, knowledgeable analysis of a company’s technological strengths and weaknesses–akin to the scorecards that are currently being used to evaluate companies’ corporate citizenship and sustainability programs.

The scorecards should incorporate a broad definition of technology and focus qualitatively, as well as quantitatively, on the opportunities and risks from an investor’s perspective—emphasizing high level assessments rather than detailed operational metrics.

Here are five categories of questions that might be included:

1. Investments: How much is the company investing in technologies that improve its infrastructure, create new products, enhance the customer experience, expand the customer base, lower labor costs, or increase production? To what extent does the company rely on its in-house technology organization versus outsourcing or the cloud?

2. Competition: How do the company’s technology strategies compare with its peer group? Does it obtain sustainable competitive advantages from existing or projected technologies? Is the company vulnerable to disruptive technologies and does the management team have the mind-set and capabilities to adapt its strategies– including a willingness to cannibalize its current business model?

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3. Information: Is the company employing data mining and other analytics to tailor its marketing strategies? Does it have the systems and skill sets to compile and communicate valuable management information throughout the company? Does it possess sophisticated processes for managing its supply chain and vendors on a global basis?

4. Track Record: Does the company have a history of successfully implementing new technologies – such as adding software systems, introducing enhanced products, retrofitting production facilities, or altering go-to-market strategies? Is its corporate culture conducive to adaptation and continuous change? Has the company experienced material write-offs of technology assets?

5. Security: Does the company have adequate safeguards to protect its sensitive and proprietary information, especially against cyberthreats? Does it encrypt all personally identifiable information? Has the company been victim to a material data breach? Does it have robust contingency plans for potential incidents?

By systematically answering these types of questions, technology scorecards from a credible third party could serve as helpful building blocks for investors–much as credit ratings provide snapshots of a company’s financial strength. Moreover, they could further incentivize companies to adopt best practices and execute long-term technology plans.

The Wrong Lesson Companies Learn From Silicon Valley

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); MARK MURO: Too often, companies—and places—think the great lesson of Silicon Valley is to pile onto the consumer Internet. And it’s true, as venture capitalist Marc Andreessen says, that “software is eating the world.” Given the ascendancy of Google GOOGL +0.36% and Facebook, it’s no wonder companies tend to distill the point of Silicon Valley down to the power of Internet-information offerings.

And yet, it’s a mistake. The true point of Silicon Valley is instead about convergence—about the emergence of a new interdependency of software and hardware, bytes and atoms. Software has been entangled with hardware since the beginning; all along, technology has been an onrushing tango of software built on top of and around a hardware platform comprised of ever faster, smaller, and cheaper microprocessors embedded in devices. And so the crucial lesson of Silicon Valley is not about the centrality of consumer-Internet services but about the power of deep, synergistic and interdisciplinary industrial know-how–the kind responsible for Google’s driverless car, the Apple universe of devices and services, and the extraordinary hybrid experiment of Tesla Motors.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); I call this convergence economy the advanced industry sector in a recent Brookings Institution report, and not surprisingly, Silicon Valley epitomizes it, with 30% of all of its jobs residing in one of the 50 designated research and development- and STEM-worker intensive advanced industries. But here again it’s clear that the true Silicon Valley formula is not software alone but a balanced, diverse interaction of software and hardware pursuits. Today, in fact, manufacturing industries employ nearly half (46%) of Silicon Valley advanced workers. For that matter, the semiconductor manufacturing and computer equipment making industries are significantly larger than the web search/Internet publishing and software products industries.

And so I would say that the key takeaway from Silicon Valley is not the rule of the consumer Internet but the advantage to be gained of putting it all together in an inimitable way—software and hardware, online services and cool devices.

This is the American edge.

Avoiding the Pitfalls of the Internet of Me

More Personal Customer Interactions Raise the Stakes for Companies

The Internet of Me is here. From search results tailored to individuals to wearable technology that tracks users’ every move, an increasingly personalized Internet presents the opportunity to build brand loyalty and deepen customer satisfaction.

In the Internet of Me era, companies that are not constantly gathering data to gain intelligence will not only miss out on additional ways to connect with their customers, but also on new revenue opportunities.

This new paradigm also brings new challenges. Outlined below are three common pitfalls and recommendations for the steps companies can take to avoid them:

Missing Big Data opportunities
Experts predict that more than 30 billion devices will be wirelessly connected to the Internet by 2020.1 In the Internet of Me era, companies that are not constantly gathering and leveraging data will miss out not only on additional ways to connect with their customers, but ultimately on new revenue opportunities.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); With ubiquitous data collection at this level, it’s possible to build an entirely transparent and automatic service with a degree of personalization we’ve never experienced. Imagine the advantage of local businesses that are able to deliver on-demand products and services, like TaskRabbit, which makes on-demand scheduling for just about any request possible.2

Failing to meet increased expectations
Consumers expect their wired devices and related platforms to not only work together seamlessly, but to provide them with personalized services. At a minimum, they assume data stored on a wearable device will easily sync with a program stored on a laptop, and that coupons stored in a grocery chain’s app will automatically be applied at the register.

Increasingly, they expect that they will receive personalized recommendations and offers based on their shopping behaviors. Companies that fail to deliver on these expectations will lose business. To counter that possibility, products must be designed and tested to ensure they work intuitively and in all circumstances, and must apply insights from data to deliver an individualized experience.

Losing customer trust
Customers share very personal information with the companies that serve them—everything from the places they visit to the time they go to sleep. As with any relationship, a deeper connection is possible only with trust.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); As companies gather more data from users, they need to establish strict protocols to ensure that sensitive information won’t fall into the wrong hands. These include maintaining back-end firewalls in products and in the cloud to keep all data secure, enabling privacy choices during product set up and offering options that allow consumers to balance personalized service with their need for privacy.3

Every new technological era presents both opportunities and risks, and the Internet of Me is no exception. The enterprises that thrive will be the ones that pursue the possibilities while staying mindful of the pitfalls.