(CNN) — From Airbnb to GasBuddy to shopkick, lots of apps and websites help consumers save money.

But how do we spend less on technology itself — that digital drug we can’t seem to get enough of? How can we save money on electronic gadgets and services … so that we can buy more gadgets?

Here are 10 ways to stretch your tech budget this year: Continue reading…

Read it here: Life after smartphones—What’s next?

I fell behind in updating my published works section this year (there’s always Google right?). In any case, here are a couple of recent stories I’m proud to have written:

• CNN: How to fix Microsoft
• Fox: New technology makes dental trips even worse
• NBC/KSL: Amid smartphone takeover, Sony aims to prolong gaming handhelds

Since it’s related to my book, I was fascinated by this excerpt from USA Today:

“Our brains are sensitive to stimuli moment to moment, and if you spend a lot of time with a particular mental experience or stimulus, the neural circuits that control that mental experience will strengthen,” he says. “At the same time, if we neglect certain experiences, the circuits that control those will weaken. If we’re not having conversations or looking people in the eye — human contact skills — they will weaken.”

In essence, we’re willingly training ourselves to favor online virtual stimuli more than offline real stimuli, which is madness.

In order of most-used to least-used technology in my house, here’s how I rank ‘em:

1. Running water. Since I suck down water all day, I go to the bathroom a lot. I’m also regular in other ways too, so working plumbing keeps my house and body sanitary and fresh. Love it.
2. Permanent shelter. You know, to keep my family warm, dry, and cozy.
3. Piped in power and gas. Not only does this utility extend our days and heat and cools, it enables my families digital lifestyle. The meter man still gives me a scare in the rare times I spot him near our back door. But other than that, this is nothing but upside.
4. Broadband internet. It’s my office cubicle, research tool, educator, informer, and pipes in much of the on-demand entertainment we bring into our home.
5. Smartphone. Primarily used to communicate with friends and loved ones (voice, SMS, portable email) but also used as my new personal computer, one I largely carry with me. (more…)

According to Vin Cerf, any early pioneer of the internet:

Technology is an enabler of rights, not a right itself. There is a high bar for something to be considered a human right. Loosely put, it must be among the things we as humans need in order to lead healthy, meaningful lives, like freedom from torture or freedom of conscience. It is a mistake to place any particular technology in this exalted category, since over time we will end up valuing the wrong things. For example, at one time if you didn’t have a horse it was hard to make a living. But the important right in that case was the right to make a living, not the right to a horse. Today, if I were granted a right to have a horse, I’m not sure where I would put it. The best way to characterize human rights is to identify the outcomes that we are trying to ensure. These include critical freedoms like freedom of speech and freedom of access to information — and those are not necessarily bound to any particular technology at any particular time.

This is a great piece by Neal Gabler on how original thought has taken a back seat to being informed. Teaser quote to make you click:

It may seem counterintuitive that at a time when we know more than we have ever known, we think about it less… While (Facebook, Twitter, iPhones, etc) may change the way we live, they rarely transform the way we think. They are material, not ideational. It is thinkers who are in short supply, and the situation probably isn’t going to change anytime soon.

It will if we decide to reflect more on our surroundings, noting what we don’t like about them and how we might fix them. To do that, however, we have to regularly remove ourselves from the information trough.

It’s difficult for the brain to think if it’s always capturing data.

I suppose the above is possible, but why might the Earth’s population decline after reaching 9 billion in 2050? Deficit fertility rates?

In any case, check out the follow-up shorts as well: Offsetting low fertility rates, Food: There’s lots of it, and Why poverty isn’t caused by overpopulation.

Pretty convincing thesis.

… on the impending irrelevance of Blackberry. This coming from a six-year Blackberry user (but I’m in the minority, and only use it for texting and voice calls now — no portable apps or Internet for me).

In other words, I use a dumbed down smartphone, so I’m not a target candidate.

If accurate (and I stress accurate, given that the photos are supplied by the company hoping to sell the new camera), this still unreleased camera sounds super cool. Since it reportedly records more information than a normal camera, the user can refocus after the fact. Try it by clicking the image above.