Ken Garen, CPA, Co-Founder and President, UBCC

10 Best Apps for Road Trips July 21, 2015 by   Jason C. Flynn Summer in America means cookouts,   beaches , fireworks, vacation time … and   road trips . Millions of road warriors hit the highways every summer, and if you're among them then you'll want to be prepared for anything. Sure, you'll   pack all the right clothes, books, and supplies   for your destination. But what about preparing for the drive itself? Whether you're heading   across state   or   across the whole country , you should do two things with your   smartphone   or tablet. First,   make sure you have chargers that work ; and second, download these 10   apps   for road trips. They'll keep you covered for just about any situation that comes up while on the road. Google   Maps Does Google Maps feel like the obvious choice? Sure. Are you going to find a better and more accurate map application for your device? Not likely. If you don'...

Google Wants a Piece of Air-Traffic Control for Drones by Alan Levin July 24, 2015 — 2:00 AM PDT Google Inc., the company that brought order to the Internet, has set its sights on doing the same for the flocks of commercial drones expected to someday clog the skies. The search-engine pioneer is joining some of the biggest companies in technology, communications and aviation -- including Amazon.com Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Harris Corp. -- in trying to create an air-traffic control system to prevent mid-air collisions. But don’t expect a big federally operated network of control towers. The government hasn’t said who will run the system or how it will operate, and is asking for ideas. “We think the airspace side of this picture is really not a place where any one entity or any one organization can think of taking charge,” Dave Vos, who heads Google’s secretive Project Wing, told Bloomberg News in his most expansive comments on Google’s vision to date. “T...

Taxi drivers block streets of Rio in protest against Uber Reuters 1 hour ago RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - More than a thousand taxi drivers protested in Rio de Janeiro on Friday against ride-sharing company Uber, blocking roads and stalling traffic during morning rush hour as tensions rise in the city over the mobile app ride service. Uber Technologies Inc responded by offering free rides to customers to help alleviate transport issues on what it called a "difficult day for getting around." The company has come under fire in countries around the world, with local taxi drivers complaining that Uber drivers are not properly regulated and have fewer overhead costs, which makes them unfairly competitive. Lawmakers in Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city, and capital city Brasilia have already voted to ban Uber after protests by local taxi drivers. The bills still require executive approval before taking force. In Rio, cabbies parked their yellow taxis in a ch...

'Your Timeline' in Android Maps: Google shows how much it cares New Android Maps Your Timeline feature Google can't let you out of its sight          Computerworld | Jul 22, 2015 6:51 AM PT snip......... The feature -- provided an Android phone was along for the ride -- allows users to retrace past location data, correlated with other types of pertinent info gathered by Skynet during a journey. Privacy freaks, are well, freaking, but fans and avid users of Google services are already raving about Your Timeline, delighted with its effusive data. So, depending on your creepiness meter readings, Timeline is a feature most users will either love at first sight, or, hate with all-consuming intensity. Today's humble blogwatcher is Stephen Glasskeys. Nathan Ingraham sounds a little creeped out: If you're all-in on Google services...you're likely aware of the fact that Google tracks your location to serve you useful in...

Microsoft, BlackBerry, NetApp among those trimming workforces          By Bob Brown and IDG News Service staff Network World | Jul 22, 2015 10:15 AM PT While the United States unemployment rate has hit a post-recession low, the network and computing industry has not been without significant layoffs so far in 2015. Some companies’ workforce reductions are tricky to calculate, as layoff plans announced by the likes of HP in recent years have been spread across multiple years. But here’s a rundown of this year's big layoffs either formally announced or widely reported on. *Good Technology: The secure mobile technology company, in prepping to go public in the near future, laid off more than 100 people late last year or early this year according to reports in January by Techcrunch and others. Privately-held Good, which employs more than 1,100 people according to its listing on LinkedIn, doesn’t comment on such actions. Though the com...

Jul 22, 12:24 PM EDT ON-DEMAND DOCTOR APPS BRING UBER APPROACH TO MEDICINE BY MATTHEW PERRONE AP HEALTH WRITER WASHINGTON (AP) -- It was 8 o'clock on a weeknight and Brooklyn resident Sarah Sheehan was reeling from a painful earache. She wouldn't be able to see her doctor until the next morning, and that would require a 45-minute subway ride uptown. That's when Sheehan, co-founder of an education technology business, remembered receiving a promotional code for a new company called Pager, an Uber-like service that sends doctors to patients' homes. Pager and similar companies like Heal and Medicast aim to streamline medical care -- cutting out waiting rooms, receptionists and trips to the doctor's office. "It's a completely different experience when you're sick and able to stay in your pajamas," says Sheehan. "Someone comes to your home, they're kind to you, they answer all your questions and give you all the time you ...

New A.I. tech helps you write right The publicly available Watson Tone Analyzer example site shows you how your words will come across on scales about emotion, social propensities and writing style. Credit: Screenshot/Mike Elgan The newest cloud tools (which are online now) can help you fix your writing as you write.          By Mike Elgan  Computerworld | Jul 20, 2015 3:01 AM PT This column is a little cheerful, slightly analytical, both confident and tentative and just a tiny bit angry. But mostly, it's open, agreeable and conscientious. At least that's what IBM's Watson thinks. Last week, IBM revealed that its Jeopardy-winning supercomputer has a new capability. It's called Watson Tone Analyzer. You can use it like spell check, except instead of checking your spelling, it checks the "tone" of your writing. (And, by the way, when I say you can use Watson Tone Analyzer, you can literally use it right now on IBM's exper...