Wireless Headphones for Remote Collaboration?

With so many options and headphones costing hundreds of dollars, how do Digital Nomads determine which ones are the best fit for their remote work lifestyle?

This report is unique because it compares a full range of headphones, and tests how they perform during web conferencing compared to wired headsets and microphones built into web cameras and USB speakerphones.

This is a neutral, non-bias review. I make no profit nor have any business relationships with the manufactures, however I happen to know individuals at these companies which is how I was able to request and obtain sample headsets for this report.

The evaluation starts by unboxing of the top headsets on the market, demonstrating how the phones sound to the far end during a web conference, and finally provides recommendations for practical use. Noise cancellation is an important consideration that is not covered in this review. That’s because there are lots of product videos on YouTube that demonstrate the noise cancellation abilities of these headsets, but few of those videos that quickly run through a side by side comparison of how these headsets actually sound on a web call. Keep in mind that zoom video call recordings are dependent on many factors including internet bandwidth. Bluetooth connections to PCs are also variable and the pairing results through my laptop were not as good as through the USB Links provided with some models.

The unboxing video is 9 minutes long and covers important features pricing and notable advantages. This is a reference video, and Digital Nomads may want to jump to part 2 and listen to the headphones first and then go back to Step 1 and focus on hardware comparisons for the specific products are most interesting to you.

Part 2 is three minutes long. The tests are performed by recording Zoom video calls.

Part 3 is two minutes long and covers my personal recommendations.

In summary, each headphone used for comparison has certain unique characteristics, such as the number of microphones, USB Links, weight and size of the speaker transducer. Some are better at picking up the talker’s voice than on others. Some are better for using on the road that others. I found the Plantronics/Poly Voyager PLT to be the bet fit for my home office and the Bose 700 UC to be the best wireless headset for the travelling Nomad. If you go wireless, choose headphones that come with a USB Link as that is much more reliable than Bluetooth pairing built into most laptops. For wired headsets, there are tons to choose from. I personally like the Poly Blackwire 8225 for its performance over web conferencing and noise cancellation features.

Photo by Piotr Cichosz on Unsplash

CES 2021 Last Gadget Wrap Up

Here are my personal thoughts on this year’s L-G-S show:

What makes this event a unique CES experience is that the audience gets to vote after five-minute pitches, and this type of interaction adapted well into this year’s virtual platform. Twenty-one years ago, GM’s On-Star was the first technology presented at the Last Gadget Standing, and the Rumba vacuum appeared in 2020. This year’s top finalists do not appear to be in the same league as those inventions, but there are still quite innovative including a tri-folding laptop, a button-free VR controller, a reader for the visually impaired, an augmented reality contact lens and a smart ring that remotely controls mobile devices.

·         The Lenovo X1 Fold is the first laptop that folds in half. It has a 13” display and lists for $2,500.

Yes, laptops already fold, but the X1 Fold has a seam down the middle of the display, and with the detachable keyboard it’s technically a tri-fold. The engineering feet is impressive, and when you get over any concerns about fragility, the opportunities to take advantage of a thicker book-fold versus a thinner tablet seem rather limited, perhaps the convenience of fitting the device into a handbag; but with fewer people commuting to the office these days, the convenience alone was not enough to give this product highest marks on Last Gadget Standing.

·         TG0 makes touch and pressure-sensitive controls for automotive interiors and computer peripherals like the Etee, which is a finger, touch, gesture and pressure sensing controller for VR.  

What makes Etee interface noteworthy is that there are no buttons on the controller to figure out for game play. Using the device is supposed to be intuitive which could be very effective for picking up and manipulating objects in virtural worlds. 

·         Orcam, the makers of MyEye , a voice activated reader that attaches to glasses, presented their next generation of the product called the Orcam Read.

This portable version has optical character recognition that allows greater flexibility. Just point and click to read. The reader is fast, reliable and does not have to connect to the internet, and it’s convenient to pull it out and snap a picture to read anything including a prescription bottle.  The base price is  $2000, with optional features so that the tool can match to specific user requirements.

·         The Arc-X Smart Ring is intended for active sports and allows to control playlists and take split times.

Wearing the waterproof controller on your finger (even with gloves) means the phone can stay protected in pocket or backpack, so that the focus can stay on the workout.  There are other smart rings on the market, intended to capture heartrate and calorie burn, where is as this is just a controlling device.

 ·         While Mojo Vision Lens appears to be device that someone with serious visual impairment would implant over their eye, it’s actually an augmented reality/heads-up overlay in the form of a contact lens that anyone can wear. 

What makes the Mojo appealing is that there no bulky glassware involved, and it only has to cover one eye. There is lots of potential to partner with wide range of content developers to provide solutions like tracking vitals during sports but may be a challenge to get a product that you stick in your eye approved by the FDA.

·         The Last Gadget team used a real-time survey tool to gather feedback from the audience.

With 60% of the votes, the Mojo Lens was the clear winner of CES Last Gadget Standing 2021. The audience appeared to respond favorably to wearable technology that can help the human condition over tech that simply provides greater convenience. This may be a consumer trend to pay attention to over in the coming years.

Reference: Last Gadget Standing, CES 2021

How Will the Pandemic Bring Innovation into the Sports Arena?

The two key trends in sports brought on by the pandemic are fan safety and immersive experience, and in both cases the COVID response provides an opportunity to address long standing challenges. For example, the attention to sanitation and hygiene even building UVC lighting built into handrails - no one is going to be disappointed with a cleaner and safer stadium.  According to Russ Simons, Chief Listening Officer at Venue Solutions Group, the ability for staff to use mobile devices to gather analytics about how people are moving through the facility is not just addressing the pandemic. Figuring out how to better space people coming in an out stadiums has been a challenge for years, Simply put, fans don’t want to wait in lines.

Technology is now being used to more than just address the long lines and safety-first expectations. Ticket scanners at the gate also allow entrance staff to focus on welcoming instead of frisking. Stadium managers are now thinking about the future and how to improve every aspect of services provided at these large venue, and take advantage of the situation brought about because of Covid-19 to implement innovations.. Any tech that reduces “friction” and provides pathways that speedup transactions is going to be sticking around. According to Simons, assume a line at the concession stand today with a wait time of 60 seconds per transaction; the 9th person is not willing to wait and will turn away, so the addition of cashless and mobile ordering has the potential increasing sales by twenty percent.

In terms of immersive experience, organizations like NFL are looking at technology to help fans show their affinity for the league and express partnership with players. According to Natara Holloway, VP of Business Operations at the NFL, look for technology enhancements that allow fans to enjoy touch downs virtually. Also look for more ways to the league to surprise and delight, such as “home gating” with players.  

For the past 10 years, the NFL has been working on their door to door experience, from inviting fans to come to event, getting game information, buying ticket, communicating the easiest way to get to the event and home again safely. According to Holloway, things started kicking in 2020: A season ticket holder was connected with a food show so they could cook, there were mixology events too. Every time the fan is thinking of the NFL, the organization is following up including using feedback to earn trust back if there any missteps.

For the next World Cup, look for the supplemental content to be more integrated with the broadcasts. According to Ben Stoll, FIFA Director of Strategic Alliance and Technology, anticipate more digital content before, during and after the match. With an audience of 3 billion and everybody sitting at home, expect enhancements like virtual seats for co-watching, and more data from wearable tech on the field, which parallels trend in self-measurement and self-optimization used by athletes and will provide additional opportunities for immersive fan engagement, in the stadium and from the couch.

Reference: Tech-Driven Solutions for Fan Safety and Engagement, CES 2021

Photo by Ryan on Unsplash

Future Classrooms: Instructional Designers Wanted

The great pandemic experiment of educating students remotely has taught us a lot about what worked, what’s working now and what needs to happen next. Despite its short comings, even if we go back to traditional models, fully remote and hybrid learning are now the expected future paths, at least for higher education. Upgrading the class room technology is great, but not many instructors are trained in instructional design capable of transforming elements of in-person pedagogy such as  sequencing, content layout, duration, informative feedback, and methods of affirmation critical to an on-line curriculum.  

 Here’s My Take: The world of education needs to catch up, and the best approach is to increase the interaction between the instructors, the “teaching enterprise” and the technology. The problem has been costs, so we need to establish a new model. We need to build up a community of instructional designers that are accessible virtually to support teachers on ways to use technology to build out their lesson plans and engage their students. We also need to encourage platforms like Engageli integrate with existing learning management (LMS) and student information systems, and can measure the engagement of distance learners in real time to validate the return on investment in the remote learning technology.

Resource: The Classroom of the Future, CES 2021

Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash

Voice Assistance in Education

Voice Assistance (VA) is forecasted to be in 8.4B devices by 2024, and because it is multi-modal, meaning that they function in the home, on mobile device and in the car we need to consider how they will  work inside the school. Can we expect greater use of voice assistance (VA) for interacting with educational content and even built inside dedicated learning devices?

 Today’s consumer expects a high degree of personalization. As VA interaction becomes more conversational and provide intent-based features like Google’s ambient assistance for proactive alerting, students will discover the value of getting school related tasks notifications and thus increase VA’s adoption in educational environments.

 Here’s My Take: In order for VA to be of value in Higher Ed, it needs to provide more than convenience, it needs to provide greater accessibility, such as channel to on-campus events, and support diversity, such different languages. With so much remote learning going on, today’s household VA devices could be used to set class schedule alerts, monitor assignments and connect with teachers. Investments in developing VA in educational environments will continue to have value when students transition from hybrid to returning to the campus full time.

Resource: New Technologies in Accelerating Education, CES 2021

Photo by Alex Knight on Unsplash

Can you Trust AI Data Use in Healthcare?

Artificial Intelligence is transforming the healthcare industry and can lead to improved outcomes such as lower costs, but we need to address the fact that data can fail in ways that biological tissues cannot.  Data is messy but it’s also fundamental to building AI engines for interpretation, such as progress overtime. We know that electronic records don’t tell the whole story. According to Pat Baird, Senior Regulatory Specialist at Philips, data brought into health ecosystems needs to be trustable, interoperable and linkable.

 Here’s My Take: All data is bias, from the way it is captured to the way the data set is represented. The bias factors need to be transparent so that alternative interpretations of the results can be considered. The quality of the data has to be challenged: is it correct, complete or relevant? Too frequently, the priority is on getting the numbers, which results in skipping over the context of the capture and the source. Analytic tools applied to data sets require that the insights are grounded in context, and to be pertinent, the data needs to be interoperable. Algorithms in one patient population may not be applicable to another.

 Reference: Trust and the Impact of AI on Health Care, CES 2021

Impact of the Pandemic on Corporate Culture

Overnight cloud computing became the lifeline for most corporations. The massive acceleration to cloud expected to take a decade, but consumers, students and employees started spending all their time on line, feeding more data to the AI server engines, which improved the on-line experience with better responses to inquiries and predicting demand based on tracking shifts to new behaviors. Companies are to adopting quickly to digital commerce because their businesses are depending on it and consumers are demanding it.

Here’s My Take:

De-Compress the Disruption. What was expected to be a series of technology advances occurred in parallel. From enterprise to healthcare, processes had to transform quickly, at the speed of digital adoption.  The businesses that have been able to capitalize are those with leadership with the courage and willingness to re-think, to pivot and partner to achieve the fastest results. We are seeing companies who were already on board the digitization train are pulling ahead: implemented a standardized Web Conferencing Platform, encouraged Flexible Work, and migrated to Cloud Services. Businesses that are not able participate in on-line commerce will soon be left behind. We need enterprises to reach out and connect these service providers to the digital freight train with the same passion that brought them on board in the first place.

Consume with a Conscious. New rules need to be written that bridge the digital divide and provide foundations of equality and change the fundamental principles of global companies, according to Michael Miebach, CEO Mastercard. Respect to social injustices like BLM have a history of being marketplace relevant, but after George Floyd in 2020 companies are taking a more significant stance and asking “what’s our role?” According to CEO Julie Sweet at Accenture, establishing equality, fighting racism and providing opportunities of advancement are important workplace considerations and companies are looking to  linking with others to achieve a scaled impact that will change the principals of the free market.

 Shrink the Digital Divide. In the United States today, one third of all black families do not have access to the internet (Simama, 2020), and it’s time to move from witness to re-writing what is needed. Advocate for opportunities for enterprises to partner with the government and non-profits in response to systemic racism. Fill the pay gaps and offer the same level of opportunities. While attention on inequality has been building, this needs to feel different. According to Daniel Roth, Editor in Chief at Linkedin, it needs to be more like a transition from commitment to action, privately and publicly. From a practical perspective, it makes good business sense to achieve a diverse consumer base, growing incomes, and for businesses to become an engaged force in improving lives and tapping into broader talent pools. Diversity and innovation should be working hand in hand to rebuild the marketplace in the coming years.

Reference: Future Reimagined, CTS 2021

Simama, J. (2020). It’s 2020. Why is the Digital Divide Still with Us? Governing.com. Retrieved from https://www.governing.com/now/Its-2020-Why-Is-the-Digital-Divide-Still-with-Us.html

Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash

Perfect Timing for Next Gen TVs

Consumers are leaning heavily on home entertainment during COVID, and manufacturers are rapidly rolling out Next Gen TVs ( ATSC 3.0).  The awareness campaign is big. Audience expectations are high. Pandemic delayed initial availability but 3.0 is available now. The timing is good. TVs are ready.

The  ATSC 3.0 platform was designed to evolve over time, providing broadcasters five years to transition by 2022. When HDR and wide color gamut start popping off the screen consumers get addicted. The scoring for immersive TV is high, but still many consumers are content with the televisions they have. Fortunately, the ATSC 3.0 platform designed for the ability to upscale content using today’s codecs to 4K, and the more data that you give a TV the better the display is going to look. We can expect the next advancements in ATSC to provide higher frame rate for live content, as well as the first IP-based content delivered over internet that can be seamlessly combined with over the air content.

ATSC 3.0 Roll Out (Balderston, 2020)

At a time when consumers are heavily relying on the screens in their home, improving the experience as much as possible is responsibility of the industry. We have the pipe and the technology, now we need the content. According to Madeline Noland, President of the Advanced Television Systems Committee  (ATSC), expect the unlock to occur with a growth of non-traditional content and creator communities partnering to amplify the experience. Michael Davies of Fox Sports expects betting and free to play video gaming will accelerate the next gen content development, and the way consumers view concurrent content is going to improve. Rather than jerry-rigging adjacent mobile devices, with Next Gen TVs consumers can pull in multiple sources and frame them on a single pane of glass. Next Generation audio provides Volume Balancing between sources and Voice Plus which enhances the dialog, because apparently many people without hearing impairments have been enabling captions.

Reference:

CTA (2021) Next Generation Television in Focus, CES 2021

Balderston, M. (2020). ATSC 3.0 Deployments: Where and When Will NextGen TV be Available? TVTech.

THE CURRENT STATE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

AI In Motion: From The Robot’s Point of View

HOW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOUND IN TODAY’S SMART APPLIANCES WILL MAKE YOU HAPPIER AND HEALTHIER (PART THREE)

The third video in this series summarizes the level of intelligence found when a robotic vacuum cleaner is put to task. Today, these devices are only as smart as you program them. Level Two AI devices are supposed to have the ability to learn from their mistakes. Through this discovery process we learn today’s robots are not learning, their more like at level 1.5.

THE CURRENT STATE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

Unpacking Your First Robot

HOW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOUND IN TODAY’S SMART APPLIANCES WILL MAKE YOU HAPPIER AND HEALTHIER (Part Two)

This video examines the steps required by the consumer to set up today’s most intelligent device in their home. There are technology dependencies like Smart Phones and WiFi to consider. We’re not quite plug & play yet, but in terms of feeling confident that a robot to doing the chores while you are away, we’re almost there.

THE CURRENT STATE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN CONSUMER ELECTRONICS

What is AI Anyway and Why Should I Care?

how Artificial intelligence found in today’s smart appliances will make you HAPPIER and healthier (Part One)

The level of smarts found in today’s state-of-the-art Robotic Vacuum Cleaners provides valuable insight into what to anticipate from the consumer electronics industry over the next five years. The following three-part video series sets the stage for how we define artificial intelligence in consumer products, where smarts makes sense and where improvements are needed.

The Current State of Artificial Intelligence in Consumer Electronics

Introduction

The level of smarts found in today’s state-of-the-art home electronics provides valuable insight into to the ADVANCEMENTS we can EXPECT from the consumer electronics industry and how aI will influence our daily lives in just a few years.

Artificial Intelligence was the hottest topic on display at Consumer Electronics Show in January 2020. The President of Bosch Electronics, one of the most advanced technology companies in the world, said in his CES 2020 keynote that AI will be a 125-billion-dollar industry within five years. Bosch is not the only company paying a great deal of attention to this space. AI is also expected to be the central focus this century for Samsung and LG, according to their presidential keynotes.

A similar investment in AI is starting to occur inside every corporate enterprise, and the rate of adoption to AI will be more rapid than what we we witnessed when companies shifted from being product-suppliers with IT departments to becoming full-fledged IT companies that also happened to manufacture products.

The transition to IT Infrastructure will become the most critical investment of a any enterprise, more so even than the products that a company produces, took approximately twenty years. For reference, ten years ago the largest financial investment companies in the world reported that they had more servers deployed across the globe than they had employees - with over 10,000 employees at the time. It’s my firm belief that competitive markets forces will drive companies across all industries to massively invest in AI, re-tool their IT architecture, hire (or retrain) an entirely new workforce. In just a few short years, these companies will be leverage more artificial intelligence than human intelligence. The rise of AI will surely be met with resistance, but the investment in AI will be absolutely essential for businesses to stay competitive.

The giants in the consumer electronic industry made it very clear at CES 2020 that consumers need to be willing to provide access to their data in order for these companies to turn a profit by providing AI-enabled technology . Thus, you will see their marketing message change from touting products that increase efficiency, like mowing the lawn faster, to products that make our lives “better”. These companies are betting that consumers will willingly share their private habits and daily routines so long as the technology they buy is supposed to make them healthier and happier; from what we should stock in our refrigerators to how we should brush our teeth.

So, what exactly is artificial intelligence? How smart is technology today, and how advanced will it get in just five years? To answer these questions, let’s start by examining one of the most sophisticated gadgets in the home, that performs a much more mundane task than its second-cousin Alexa: the humble vacuum cleaner.

The Future of Collaboration Just Got Real

““…You know what kind of plan never fails? No plan at all. No plan! You know why? If you make a plan, life never works out that way. With no plan, nothing can go wrong and if something spins out of control, it doesn’t matter. Got it?””

— - Parasite (the movie)

Ironically, this quote from Kang-Ho Song, the protagonist in the 2019 Best Picture of the Year, reflects the prevalent attitude of paralysis-by-analysis for many companies trying to figure out their collaboration strategy for maintaining business continuity  just before the virus outbreak at the end of 2019. It used to be considered an advantage to debate the pros and cons on implementing a strategy that could be wrong even if it has the potential to be the right. Now we have learned that it’s more important to have some type of plan in place, even it’s not exactly the best solution, because you never know how soon you are going to need to rely on it.  

The new reality unfolding due to the pandemic provides us an opportunity to disrupt the misconceptions around remote work and unleash a dramatic fresh start on the design of collaboration spaces in the workplace of the future. Exercising physical distancing and emphasizing virtual connectivity should result in remote attendees finally being treated as equals to the participants seated around the table in the conference room. Including a video link in the calendar invite will no longer be an after-thought for meeting organizers. We shouldn’t have to convince clients to spend the money on acoustics, lighting and cameras; investments previously considered secondary to the quality of the furniture and the physical fit-out out of meeting spaces. This will be the new normal.

Before the Covid-19 Pandemic (BCP), I would have asked you the dear reader to please keep an open mind about positive changes coming to the workplace. I would have had used the three-pointer revolution in NBA to remind you that there is change on the way; that threes have always been worth more that twos, and that a team can miss more shots and still score more points. Before the outbreak, millions of fans watched Steff Curry make a dramatic change to the game of basketball in just short five years, to a sport that has been around for 128 years.  It’s not like he figured out the physics for shooting 3 pointers any better. Simply put, players started shooting more and making more.

I don’t have convince you that dramatic change is inevitable, considering our new remote-work reality came about in less than three weeks. We can all appreciate this will lead to fundamental change to the future of collaboration and the design of office meeting spaces.  There are millions of new expert collaborators turned workplace planners and there are an infinite number of opportunities to make a difference. With this much brain power, the building out of effective tools for collaboration and applying these to physical meetings spaces should emerge like wheels on luggage: solutions may be plain sight.

““Work is not where you go, it’s what you do””

— David Danto, IMCCA Director of Emerging Technologies

I am appealing to everyone who is remotely collaborating from their living room or den, and those family members watching these virtual meetings take place. Now is the time to think about the tools and processes that are making it possible for you and your team to be effective at home (or not effective) and figuring out how to translate that knowledge into making a difference in the design of future collaboration spaces when you get back to work.

““78% of the world is completely impractical; 78% of the world is uncomfortable. You feel it…you sit in chairs that are very uncomfortable and it’s crazy. You imagine, if you design a million chairs to date, or how many chairs have been done in the world, why on Earth would we have an uncomfortable chair?””

— Objectified (documentary) – Karim Rashid, Designer

The same over-due expectation for comfortable chairs applies to designing effective collaboration spaces. How do we take the lessons we are learning right now and make real change? What factors are contributing to you being able to get more work done remotely than you previously did  sitting around a table in conference room? Please share your thoughts in the comments section. What scenarios are you not able to creatively address remotely that otherwise require face-to-face meetings?

Granted, we’re all going to appreciate in-person meetings when we finally get back to the office, but I’m certain we’re all going to make sure these meetings are as effective as possible. I also expect the focus will be on the processes, such as the methods for preparing for the meeting and the ability to access to content during the meeting and after it over, and less emphasis on the physical technology or even the web collaboration platforms.

Consider that when first notebook computer came about in the 1980s, the focus was on at physical design elements like the way the lid flipped open. The designers soon realized the whole experience was actually occurring between the user and what’s behind the screen, not with the physical device itself.  I feel the same unfolding reality occurring as I collaborate today with my teammates from our homes instead of huddle rooms. The challenge isn’t about designing the physical thing, it’s figuring out and implementing the most effective processes.

We are all now suddenly finding ourselves “living” through the remote collaboration design process. What we are experiencing goes beyond having the right camera or being on the right web platform. When we apply what we’ve learned to getting it right in the design of meeting spaces, it will feel inevitable.  

““Of course, that’s the way it should be. Why would it be any other way?”

— Karim Rashid, Designer, Objectified.

Mark Peterson leads the audiovisual practice for Shen, Milsom & Wilke. Our goal is to help clients amplify creativity, increase collaboration and revolutionize how they work.

Zoom vs. Skype vs. Teams: Which one is the best match for your business?

Remote Collaboration Web Conferencing Product Comparison

This presentation covers the following topics:

• User Experience & Hierarchy of Needs

• Scheduling and Finding a Meeting

• Launch & Join

• See, Hear & be Heard

• Asynchronous vs Synchronous

• Solving the Collaboration Equation

Skype vs Teams vs Zoom Comparison Spreadsheet

Nomadic Computing Set-up

This is my current mobile computing kit for long trips. For greater mobility, I ditch the external web cam, secondary display and Poly Elara. For home computing, I close the lid and use a larger display and wireless keyboard.

Laptop: Lenovo ThinkPad T460s i7, touch screen, $1,200

Pros: Keyboard, Light weight, Touch screen, Plenty of processing power for routine tasks, Bluetooth. Cons: No USB-C, O\one-to-few USB Ports, Not great battery power

Mouse: Logitech MX Anywhere 2S $60

Pros: Portable, Long battery life. Logi Unifying Device (takes up one USB slot for multiple peripherals) , Cons: Expensive, no case. Where to buy

USB Wired Headset: Logitech Mono Headset H570e, $45

Pros: Reliable, Durable, Drivers “work every time”. Cons: Not very pack-able.

Where to buy

USB Camera: Logitech Brio, $200

Pros: Best image quality for the size. Drivers “work every time”. Cons: Cost, mounting clip not great for thin displays. Where to buy

Secondary Display (USB): Asus MB 169B+ 15.6” Full HD 1920 x 1080 $173

Pros: USB (no power outlet required), light weight. Cons: Travel case serves as stand is temperamental, not easily pack-able. Where to buy

Mobile Phone Charging and Headset: Poly Elara 60 Series 5A

Pros: Charging station, Flip-up base puts phone in position for video calls, Comfortable headset with noise isolation, Built-in speakerphone, Bluetooth headset works without base station, Connects via Bluetooth to laptop. Cons: Base does not fold, thus not packable. No USB to laptop, requires power outlet. Teams enablement button and auto-launch app not necessary. Where to buy

Additional Considerations:

• Power Strip

• Large Desk Surface

• Acoustic quality of the room

• View out the window

• Heat & ventilation

• Coffee

Portable Podcasting: Shure MV88 video Kit, $270

Pros: Versatile microphone: Three elements support different interview set-ups, Adjustable pickup pattern, Packable kit, Excellent and free audio and video software (Motiv). Cons: Price, relies on mobile phone’s camera, where self-facing camera may not be high quality.   Where to buy

Remote Desktop Alternatives

Image from: Ravepubs.com

Engineers, architects, designers and similar power-users depend on processor-intensive applications, and likely going to struggle to be productive working remotely. Staff that are not issued laptop are expected to use their home computer and “remote” into the office machine. Most companies rely on Citrix Virtual Desktop for these employees, and it’s the only way they can get to in-house, custom and applications not supported through the web (i.e. not Microsoft Office 365 or Google Suite). The remote desktop experience gets slow sluggish it becomes practically unusable when there are lots of graphics and processing going on Mechdyne’s TGX is a less familiar alternative remote desktop solution that could provide a comparative price/feature to Citrix. While these remote desktop applications can provide a local-like experience, you’ll still need a high bandwidth internet connection and suitably sized monitor(s) that support higher resolution content.

If you are manager, struggling to meet project deadlines with workforce that is now remote and without access to tools and technology, there are technical global cloud recruitment companies like Nigle Frank International, that offer an  alternative to getting IT work done remotely:. This short-term contractor approach may help alleviate extended sick-leave situations by using 100% remote freelance workforce on a subscription basis.

Unlimited Data Plans for 60 Days

Image from: https://www.businessinsider.com/visible-party-pay-unlimited-data-plan-cheap-theres-one-catch-2019-10

If you consider yourself a Digital Nomad, likely you’re already on an unlimited data plan, but there may be family and friends who soon will realize they are going to need a lot more data in order to work (and play) remotely. Fortunately, carriers are responding, but not necessarily all promotions apply to current subscribers. T-Mobile is giving current subscribers unlimited data for 60 days, and free international calling to level-3 virus impacted countries. 

 Spectrum/Charter Communications is offering free broadband and Wi-Fi for 60 days to households with K-12 and college students. Installation fees will be waived. Households must not already have a Spectrum subscription and regular pricing will take effect after the 60 day period. Spectrum also plans to offer free Wi-Fi hotspots for public use across the United States. To enroll in the free broadband and wifi program, you can call 1-844-488-8395.​

Video Game: Massive and Absolutely Free (For Now)

Image from: https://www.callofduty.com/warzone

Extra time from school and work cancellations? If your house is filled with teenagers and adults looking for somewhere to burn pent up anxiety: Call of Duty: Warzone free download. And if you are huddled down alone in your “bunker”, feel comfort playing alongside 15 million others in this battle rolyale. Just one week after launch, CoD Warzone adds a solo mode so you don’t have to round up a three-person squad.

“In “Warzone,” when you die, you’re not really dead. Just like in normal “Call of Duty” multiplayer, death can come quickly.”

— Ben Gilbert, Business Insider

Fight COVID-19: Donate Your Unused Compute Power

Image from: www.linkedin.com/school/stanford-university

When you are off- line, put your computer to use finding a cure for Covid-19. You may be reluctant about sharing your computer with complete strangers, but this is an appeal from Stanford University. You won’t be alone when you join the PC Master Race (PCMR)/ Folding@home and what better cause donating unused GPU and CPU computing power to fight against Coronavirus (and several other illnesses, like Cancer, Parkinson's, etc). Scientists need the processing power to help researchers study protein folding. To jump right in, CLICK HERE. To learn more about the project, and instructions on how to run the program, CLICK HERE.

““Everyone, no matter the hardware they possess, has a chance to help the research for, and, perhaps, make a big difference in the life of other people. Who knows if we ourselves, or our children won’t benefit from these researches? Every little bit can help! It’s effectively making it so scientists get faster access to information” ”

— Folding@Home Website