Closing out the world’s largest Web3 conference, TOKEN2049, the party will be hosted on the SkyPark Observation Deck of Singapore’s iconic Marina Bay Sands, delivering a night of sensory indulgence and high-calibre entertainment.
The recent partnership between Apple and OpenAI has already made headlines, signaling a significant leap forward in the integration of artificial intelligence into our daily lives. However, the real story isn’t just about the technological advancements. It’s about why this partnership underscores the imperative for everyone—individuals, businesses, and entire industries—to fully embrace AI now. The era of artificial intelligence is here, and it’s as integral to our future as the air we breathe. AI: The New Essential Artificial intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept; it’s a present reality that’s reshaping every aspect of our world. The Apple-OpenAI partnership is a clear indication that AI is now a fundamental component of modern technology. It’s embedded in the devices we use, the services we rely on, and the infrastructure that supports our lives. Ignoring its potential is no longer an option. Why You Need to Embrace AI Now The Role of Organizations Like the Global AI Council In this rapidly evolving landscape, organizations like the Global AI Council play a crucial role. They are not just observers; they are active participants shaping the ethical, responsible, and inclusive development of AI. “The Apple-OpenAI partnership signifies a monumental step forward in the integration of AI into our daily lives,” said Diana Lammerts, Global Director of Communications for the Global AI Council. “By combining their strengths, Apple and OpenAI are not only driving technological progress but also setting new standards for ethical AI deployment and user privacy. Organizations like the Global AI Council are essential in this journey, ensuring that AI development benefits all of humanity while adhering to the highest ethical standards.” Why AI Educational Organizations are Important and How We Benefit Today’s Announcement: Apple Intelligence and OpenAI In their latest announcement, Apple introduced Apple Intelligence, a suite of AI-driven features integrated across their product line. This initiative exemplifies how AI can enhance user experience and device functionality. By leveraging OpenAI’s technologies, Apple is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, making their devices smarter and more intuitive. What’s next? The message is clear: AI is here to stay, and its integration into our lives is inevitable. The time to start working with AI is now. Whether you’re an individual looking to improve your daily life, a business aiming to stay competitive, or an industry leader driving innovation, embracing AI is crucial. As we move forward, it’s essential to engage with AI thoughtfully and responsibly. The Global AI Council and other organizations are committed to guiding this journey, ensuring that the development and deployment of AI are aligned with ethical standards and benefit all of humanity. The future is AI-powered.
By Uchenna MmuoAs we usher in a new year, the tradition of setting goals becomes prevalent among individuals aspiring for personal and professional development. Although the initial enthusiasm for achieving these goals maybe high, but sustaining consistency and staying on the course often prove challenging. Fortunately, technology provides an array of apps tailored to support us in attaining our yearly objectives. So let’s explore six apps designed to help us maintain focus, organization, physical and general wellbeing throughout the entire year. Quit NowQuit Now app, is an app that recognizes the uniqueness of each smoker’s journey by offering a personalized quit plan that considers individual habits, motivations, and triggers, allowing users to set a quit date and receive a customized roadmap with milestones for a structured and achievable path toward a smoke-free life. A standout feature of this app is its real-time health- tracking capabilities which help users monitor the positive change in their health as they progress through their quit journey. The app displays improvements in lung function, blood circulation and other health metrics, serving as a powerful motivator that reinforces quitting smoking. It also offers a financial savings calculator to help users visualize the tangible impact of quitting smoking on their financial well-being. Quit Now fosters a sense of community by connecting users with a network of individuals on similar journey. Through this, users can share their experiences, seek advice, and celebrate milestones with the Quit Now community, creating a supportive environment that reinforces their commitment to a smoke-free life. So if you are onthe path to a smoke-free life, Quit Now serves as an invaluable companion, providing the tools and encouragement needed to turn aspirations into reality. Serial ReaderAt the forefront of this literary revolution is Serial Reader, an innovative app made by MichaelSchmitt which redefines reading experience by breaking down classic books into manageable daily installments. With its ability to deliver books in manageable chunks, Serial Reader is the ideal application for readers on the go. Classic books in a variety of genres are divided into small portions that are easy to read in quick daily time frames. It offers a diverse library of classic literature, and philosophical works, introducing readers to lesser-known literary masterpieces. Serial Reader recognizes that readers have different preferences and time limitations, providing users with the ability to tailor their reading plans by modifying the duration and schedule of daily installments. It also offers a personalized reading experience with adjustable fonts, background colors, and reading reminders, catering for readers of all ages and technological backgrounds. To motivate users and celebrate their literary milestones, Serial Reader includes progress tracking and achievement badges. Readers can witness their progress through a book, stay motivated, and share their achievements with the app’s community. Connected CareThis innovative app goes beyond the traditional boundaries of healthcare, leveraging digital solutions to connect patients with their health information, caregivers, and medical professionals seamlessly. Connected Care serves as a central hub for health information, allowing users to seamlessly integrate and access their medical records, test results, and other vital health data in one secure platform. Connected Care provides secure communication channels for patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals, reducing in-person visits especially for individuals with chronic conditions or those requiring continuous monitoring. The app enhances medication management by offering personalized schedules, reminders, dosage alerts, and prescription refill requests, thereby promoting adherence and reducing errors, thus improving overall health management. Connected Care offers health tracking features beyond medical records, encouraging users to adopt healthier lifestyles and participate in preventive care by logging physical activity, monitoring vital signs, and setting health goals. Fitness BuddyIn the quest for a healthier and more active lifestyle, having a reliable companion can make all the difference. Fitness Buddy is an all-encompassing app designed to be your guiding force on the journey to physical well-being. Its extensive exercise database offers a wide range of workout for various fitness goals, with detailed instructions and video demonstrations to ensure proper form and technique. Fitness Buddy empowers users to create personalized workout plans based on individual fitness levels, preferences, and objectives. With the flexibility to adapt to various fitness goals, including weight loss, muscle gain, or overall fitness improvement, the app becomes a tailored guide for every user. To enhance user convenience, Fitness Buddy seamlessly integrates with popular wearable devices, enabling users to track their workouts and health data effortlessly. Whether you prefer monitoring your progress through a smart watch or another wearable device, Fitness Buddy ensures that your fitness data is readily accessible for a holistic view of your health and wellness. RolaRola stands out as a dynamic crypto community tailored for Web 3.0 and blockchain enthusiasts, offering a unique blend of engaging features that set it apart in the crypto world. Rola integrates artificial intelligence (AI) into its platform, adding a social dimension that facilitates user interaction, idea sharing, and the formation of meaningful connections. The AI is not just a static feature; it evolves based on user interactions and learning from the community to become more intelligent over time. This learning process ensures that the AI evolves alongside the community, leveraging collective experiences to enhance its capabilities. This innovative approach positions Rola as a community with organic growth that is driven by the insights and interactions of its members. Beyond functionality, Rola breaks new ground by incorporating an interactive social aspect, allowing users to engage with each other, share ideas, and witness the collective progress of the community. Adding an exciting dimension to social interaction, Rola introduces a game-based social aspect. This feature enables users to not only connect but also engage in friendly competition. EdsomaWhen it comes to an app that will enhance reading in children, Edsoma is the key. This app transforms reading experience into an enjoyable and educational journey. It uses an advanced technology that supports children in reading, guiding them at an optimal pace, and tailoring their reading preferences through its extensive library of educational resources. Edsoma incorporates Word Identification Technology, leveraging innovative syllable breakdown algorithms. This advanced technology analyzes the words being read by users, adeptly identifying any missed or incorrectly pronounced terms. By doing so, Edsoma provides a personalized and interactive reading experience, helping learners enhance their word recognition skills and overall reading proficiency. Edsoma stands out with its state-of-the-art Voice Detection capabilities, featuring real-time voice identification and speech pattern recognition technology. These patent-pending features contribute to the precision of pronunciation
Leveraging years of building health and fitness applications, including the world’s leading back pain app, digital therapeutics pioneer Kaia Health is now launching Kaia Personal Trainer, the world’s first full-body virtual personal trainer which tracks exercises, creates personalized fitness plans, counts reps and provides real-time audio feedback. The app is powered by patent pending AI-powered motion tracking technology and uses just a smartphone (no additional hardware is required). It is like having a personal trainer at home – without having to go to the gym – and is democratizing access to professional physical training and wellness feedback worldwide. The Kaia Personal Trainer app has been developed with physiotherapists and fitness experts. It combines AI-powered motion tracking technology and personalized training to offer a customized full-body workout featuring a variety of exercises, including the side plank, bridge and reverse crunch. To activate Kaia Personal Trainer, users stand seven feet away from their smartphone camera and begin exercising with video instructions. The app tracks physical activity with a 16-point system that compares the metrics of actual movement against ideal movement, including the relative positions of limbs and joints, and the angles between them. Kaia Personal Trainer counts the number of reps and provides users with instant, personalized real-time audio feedback, advice and encouragement to improve fitness and performance. Kaia Personal Trainer covers all relevant body parts and muscle groups, including the lower back, core, glutes and hamstrings. The AI-powered motion tracking technology adjusts the difficulty level and exercise based on the user’s feedback – and is particularly suited to those with little experience or training who want to integrate exercise into their lives in a mindful way. Maximilian Strobel, Head of AI Lab at Kaia Health says: “Kaia Personal Trainer is a full-body workout in your pocket. It uses tech to offer you the experience of a personal trainer anywhere, with real-time performance metrics – without the expensive personal trainer fees. The app puts users in control of their exercise performance with a virtual personal trainer which accompanies their every step. This fosters more intimate connections, establishing a relationship by becoming a part of their everyday routine and integrating with their fitness goals. We’re incredibly excited by our patent pending AI-powered motion tracking technology and virtual personal trainer as it has the potential to democratize access to a sustainable wellness feedback and fitness training worldwide.” Commenting on the unique technology behind the Kaia Personal Trainer, Achilleas Georgiadis, Principle Deep Learning Engineer at Kaia Health, says: “Up until now, specialized hardware like a Microsoft Kinect was required to track the human body. We remove the need for costly hardware using advanced Deep Learning and Machine Learning algorithms and optimized them for mobile. This enables us to track the human body in real time using only the hardware of the smartphone – hence democratizing access at no additional cost.”
A good night sleep is essential to health. So what to blame, if you are not getting the satisfying great rest you deserve? If we believe the latest wave of commercials and articles on that topic: Blame it on your pillow! Sadly the pillow industry is a jungle full of false claims that often shatters the consumers’ high hopes. We sat down with top board certified neurologist and sleeping expert Dr. Adam Zuber. MSM: Finding the right pillow seems to be a big deal these days … Does the right pillow really make such a big difference? AZ: The right pillow makes all the difference in the world, as sleeping is the major part of our life and is where our mind, body and soul rests and recuperates. Without the right pillow one can have restless sleep, restless sleep makes us cranky, less productive and ineffective during the day. People who snore are restless sleepers no matter how much time they spend in bed, their sleep is non restorative. Pillows are what make sleep better and the proper positioning provides optimal sleeping position. MSM: Can the wrong pillow cause harm? AZ: For the longest time we used to have thin one inch high pillows, as once seen in President Lincoln’s bedroom in the White house. Then once we got TV and computers in our bedrooms pillows turned from two to four to king size and extra puffed pillows, but these are effective only to use for leaning on and watching TV, using computers and facetiming not particularly for sleep. The wrong pillow can cause you to snore, aggravate sleep apnea, cause neck pain, make headaches worse, make your blood pressure high, increase chances of stroke and heart attack and complications of pregnancy. Wrong pillows can lead you to have crooked faces and wrinkle and age faster. MSM: Is that why so many people feel compelled to invent a new one? AZ: The pillows in the market have not been working and we as humans have been making use of whats available. None of the pillows have had any medically proven science behind them. Till this point, pillows have only been there for us to lean on and provide a soft place to rest our head but not provide all the benefits that the Sona Pillow® Classic and the Sona Pillow® O model provide. The first time a pillow was shown to be beneficial for us was when I invented and propagated the Sona Pillow® which uses Sona Positioning® and prevents snoring and sleep apnea. Since then a lot of pillows have made claims but with no real credible science behind it. MSM: You are a top neurologist and sleep expert, what made you invent your own pillow? AZ: As a fellowship trained Board Certified Neurologist and Sleep Specialist working at Neurology Associates of Scottsdale Arizona my expertise and experience in the field lead me to design the Super pillow the only pillow to be ever approved by the FDA for use in snoring and sleep apnea and proven medically effective for the same. After the ongoing success of the Sona Pillow® I designed the remarkable Sona Pillows® which are perfectly comfortable and instantly effective and usable. I am the director of multiple sleep labs and I saw first hand the struggles of people suffering from poor sleep, lack of sleep, sleep apnea, stroke, heart diseases and snoring. I did sleep studies everyday to check what was wrong with people while sleeping and frequently started them on the horrid CPAP. I wanted to make a pillow that not only helped peoples sleep issues but had multiple other benefits. The Sona Pillow® Classic and Sona Pillow® O model helps with side sleeping, wrinkle prevention, consolidating sleep, neck pain, snoring and having restful sleep. MSM: What sets it apart from the competition? What are the benefits? Both the Pillows, the Sona Pillow® Classic and the Sona Pillow® O model, are unique, patented and contain breakthrough technology which remarkably improve sleep. I feel this needs to be shouted from the top of the highest mountain to get the word out there about these revolutionary pillows. These pillows position the user in a side sleeping position with the head facing downwards, this is a trademarked position used only by these pillows. This patented position moves the jaw forward because of gravity, as you are using the pillow on your side with the head in a downwards facing inclined position thus preventing the jaw from moving backwards and avoiding the obstruction of the throat that causes snoring, sleep apnea and related consequences. The Sona Pillow® was made specifically to deal with sleep apnea, snoring and the sleep disturbances that happen when one is sleeping. The Sona Pillow® Classic consists of a triangular top for placing the head on either inclined side and moves the jaw forward. The lower part of the inclines has recess for your arms to extend easily under your head. This not only helps you to sleep better and prevent snoring and sleep apnea but also avoids the arm from falling asleep under your head. The pillow is high grade cotton with polyfiberfill and both the pillow and the case is washable, hypoallergenic and mold resistant. The Sona Pillow® O model, is the updated iteration of the Sona Pillow® and is circular in shape with a mushroom top and a raised base. The pillow is instantly comfortable and can be used on your side or on your back. This pillow has all the benefits of the Sona Pillow® and more. The pillow is made of specialized memory foam with a patented shape and cover which prevents wrinkles and creases on the face, this is the only pillow which prevents wrinkles and is an age defying pillow. This is achieved because normal pillows have covers which crease and leaves marks on the users face, also the fillings of crushed memory foam and lumpy materials cause the creases on users faces. This is prevented by using the patented Sona Pillow® O model. This pillow also has
By Gisel Habibnejad Now in its third year, eMerge Americas is a two-day event hosting technological innovations through EXPO space experiences, networking interactions, and conferences. The EXPO floor included exhibitor booths, through which the latest innovations were displayed; a “Launchpad” of entrepreneurs who shared their experiences and inventions; a Hackathon where about 125 coders had 24 hours to decode complex challenges built by API sponsors for a chance to win more than $50,000 in cash and prizes; and a hiring fair. The summit talks incorporated various topics fit to inspire innovators of all journeys in technology. The Government Innovation Forum (eGOV) brought together leaders of government and business to discuss “how public-private partnerships leveraging disruptive technologies are transforming our communities” and to deliberate on transforming our communities into smart cities. Made up of over 100 startups from around the world, the eMerge Americas Startup Showcase provided a point for these companies to interact with hundreds of investors and partners. The Women, Innovation, and Technology Summit (WIT) is a one-day summit that united powerful women of the industry to inspire and motivate event goers by presenting leaders “who are bridging the gap between the creative and tech industries” and also featured a Technology and Innovation fashion show. Other conferences consisted of the Textpert Stage, which allowed visitors to engage with experts who discussed the latest innovations and trailblazing technologies. This year’s keynote speakers were comprised of General Colin L. Powell, Monica Lewinsky, Tony Hawk, Pitbull, Chairman of CNBC Mark Hoffman, Chairman of NBCUniversal International Group and NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises Cesar Conde, Co-Founder of America Online Steve Case, CEO of AT&T Ralph de la Vega, Co-Founder of Netflix Marc Randolph, and many more. Of course, we can’t forget the VIP parties, live entertainment shows, and cocktail soirees. Each offered special ways to interact and network with peers who are involved and enjoy the same technological industry. These events were hosted at Lincoln Road, the Paris Theater in South Beach, and the Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM). eMerge Americas takes place in the growing tech community of Miami hosting industry leaders, government officials, and investors from North America, Latin America, and Europe. The year’s biggest B2B event of the Americas was aired nationwide courtesy of CNBC and Telemundo, and was also broadcasted live to other countries such as Europe, Africa, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.emergeamericas.org
By Gisel Habibnejad If you’re looking for all-access to personalized workout programs instantly, TRN has a solution for you. Now available in Miami, this health and fitness app covers four disciplines: general training, yoga, Pilates, and swimming. The app offers all functionalities to meet the needs of busy lives that understand the importance of fitting a workout into their schedules. Through TRN, you can review, choose, and get to know the qualified trainer of your choice before booking your in-person training session. All training Specialists are handpicked by TRN and hold a high level of expertise in their fields. Each Specialist takes the time to learn about their client’s medical history, capacity, and goals in order to personalize each workout catered to the client’s needs. With these qualities, clients should be seeing results in no time. Founders Pat Manocchia and Greg Peters sought to bring health and fitness accessible to all and have succeeded. Manocchia is also the founder of the premier health and fitness provider in the U.S. known as LA PALESTRA Center for Preventative Medicine and, Peters is a well-known fitness expert. “Miami has evolved into a place of high end, quality and luxury services; this audience demands convenience and personal service whenever they want, which is what we do,” shared Peters. TRN IOS is available for download at the app store For more information, please visit www.TRNME.com
Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have completely customized our ways of living. It is now easier for people to pick and choose the content they like and incorporate it into their own profiles, allowing for them to comment and curate as they see necessary. The outcome? The demand for bloggers to seek new and innovative ways to keep tech savvy visitors interested in both content and visual graphics. Bloggers have begun to document events, places, items and tutorials in order to form more personal relationships with their audiences and create an open form for communication with their followers. Smartphone cameras have played a key role in this rapidly growing digital era. It has revolutionized the way photos are viewed and taken and has allowed for bloggers to stay up to date with the news hungry and visually orientated culture we have become. Recent technology has allowed people to capture some impressive shots, but the built-in camera lens is quite limited and not capable of capturing professional quality images. However, the creators at AppBanc, LLC, a Silicon Valley company, have found a way to enhance the photographic capability of mobile devices by creating a smart lens case for phones that can rival the performance of professional cameras and allow bloggers to appeal to their audience. WoW Lens, the slim yet protective phone case that allows you to switch between lenses has been introduced to the digital world. The carousel technology allows you to choose from five specialty lenses. The Original iPhone Camera Lens uses the built-in camera while still carrying your phone in the protective case. The Macro Lens extends the depth of field of the iPhone’s macro range, which enables the phone to capture amazingly close subject photography. WoW Lens’ Wide-Angle Lens increases the iPhone’s camera view by 30º not just horizontally, but also vertically, providing users with 180º camera view increase. The fun Cameo function isolates the subject of the photograph and adds a smooth vignette around the subject. This feature heightens skin tones, colors and adds an alluring composure to facial features. Lastly the Polarized Neutral Density Lens is extremely high quality. This lens helps tone down bright daytime lighting, reduces glares and adds a blur effect to motion pictures. WoW Lens is also extremely practical. The carousel is approximately the height of two quarters stacked on top of each other and the case is only a few millimeters taller and wider than the actual phone. The polycarbonate plastic shell ensures that the phone will continue to be lightweight, meaning the phone can still easily fit in your pocket and the days of having to carry cumbersome camera bags and switch between bulky lenses are long gone. The nifty little case is bundled with an innovative app called eZoom. EZoom brings the new concept of lossless zooming to both live image shots and images that are already stored in your library. When you crop and enlarge a photo on eZoom, the clarity remains crisp. This patented technology adds more pixels to the image you cropped. In fact, you can choose how many pixels you want. This means that any photo taken with the WoW Lens and then cropped on eZoom can be enlarged and printed without the fear of an image becoming too pixilated. Most smartphone users tend to employ their phones as their principal photo gallery, and would therefore benefit from eZoom’s made-for-smartphone software. Inventions such as WoW Lens can help bloggers maintain a steady following. The WoW Lens’ portability allows for bloggers to document events as they are on the go. The high quality and professional looking images captures the attention of readers, who will want to continue to explore and read further into the blog. For Miami bloggers, WoW Lens can prove to be an essential tool. With so many cultural events and nightlife happenings occurring almost daily, bloggers can engage their readers on an article that is to come by simply snapping a photo and posting it along with a tagline on all social outlets. A simple snapshot could encourage a reader to attend an event, share the post or even start a conversation. The possibilities and challenges with the always evolving technology era we live in are endless, and WoW Lens is one tool that will help us not fall behind. Compatible with iPhone 5/5s and iPhone 6 (coming soon) Available in black, white, magenta, and copper For more information, please visit wow-lens.com
Dating App Advice from the Founders of MiCrush: Sonya Kreizman & Natasha Nova Dear men, if you are looking for that perfect girl to crush you on MiCrush, then follow these 5 tips to create the most swipe-worthy profile! DON’T post a picture of you and another girl. Is that your girlfriend? Was it your girlfriend? We get it, you have pretty girl friends. DO post a picture with your mom, this makes us want to swipe to the right fast! DON’T post a picture of you with other guys. Which one are you? Your friend is hot, can you introduce me to him instead? DO post an action shot! It’s sexy to see a guy doing sports! DON’T post mirror selfies, especially shirtless in a bathroom. That’s just creepy. Dear ladies, we’ve seen way too many bad dating profile pictures! Follow these 5 tips to get the right guy to swipe your profile to the right! Remember, your profile pictures should be all about showing the best you! DON’T post a picture of you and a group of girlfriends. You wouldn’t want a guy to swipe right just so you can introduce him to your beautiful friend, now would you? DO post a full-body image! Guys are onto you if all you upload is pictures from the waist up and of your face. Be proud of your body and show it off! DON’T post pictures with your ex-boyfriend or some random guy. If those pictures get automatically imported from Facebook, remove and replace immediately! DO post pictures of your radiant and beautiful smile! Look happy and positive, Mr. Right is going to crush you soon! DON’T post pictures of you with too many drinks at a party or looking scantily clad. You might attract the wrong type if he suspects you are a party girl! For more information on MiCrush, please visit www.MiCrushApp.com Click here to view this post in the July/August digital issue. Click here to view our online issue.
By Gisel Habibnejad Delivery service has reached a whole new level thanks to Postmates. Already launched in 13 cities across the country, this 24 hour delivery service has expanded to Miami. Through the Postmates app, restaurants and stores that do not offer a delivery option are now more accessible to consumers. Once the customer has made their purchase through the app, a courier will pick-up the items and have them delivered within the hour. Suddenly, picking up food, prescriptions, buying groceries, and going shopping has never been so appealing! Initially, the delivery zone covers South Beach, Coral Gables, Downtown, Midtown, Brickell, Coconut Grove, Wynwood, and the Design District. Delivery fees begin at $5. Postmates launched in Miami on September 12, 2014 and will be featuring promotions such as free Cuban coffee delivered to consumers who download the app, $50 delivery credit to the first 500 customers, and free delivery through September 28. For more information please visit: https://postmates.com/ To download the iOS app please visit: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/postmates-get-it-now/id512393983?ls=1&mt=8 To download the Android app please visit: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.postmates.android&hl=en
By Jacqueline Whitmore Last night while I was having dinner at a nice restaurant with my husband, I couldn’t help but notice the young, attractive couple sitting at the table next to us. They were clearly having a romantic dinner —with their smart phones. The woman was checking her Facebook page and the man was texting someone. This went on periodically throughout the evening. It’s not surprising that 86% of singles polled by the online dating site Zoosk said the worst cell-phone related behavior during a date is “constantly glancing at a cell phone.” Technology is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, talking, texting, and tweeting keeps us informed and entertained. On the other hand, our smart phones keeps us disengaged from friends, co-workers and family members. The best way to avoid alienating or offending others is to think before you act. July is National Cell Phone Courtesy Month, an event I founded in 2002, with the intent of making cell phone users more respectful of their surroundings. Here are 10 tips to observe while you’re out on a date or having dinner with friends or family: 1.) Put people first, technology second. When you’re on a date, especially a first date, the person you are with should always take precedence over social media as well as calls you want to make or receive. 2) Keep it out of sight. Remember not to place your phone on the table while you’re having dinner. This signals that a potential caller is more important than the person you’re with. 3) Silence your phone. Keep your phone on silent mode in your pocket or in your handbag. Keep it on your lap, underneath your napkin, if you’re waiting for a very important call. 4) Excuse yourself. If you have to take an important call, alert your dining companion ahead of time. Excuse yourself from the table and find a quiet place to carry on your conversation. 5) Avoid “cell yell.” If you do take the call at the dinner table, keep it as brief as possible. Use your regular conversational tone when speaking on your phone. 6) Avoid ridiculous and loud ringtones: If you forget to put your phone on silent and it happens to ring or ping, don’t ignore it. Apologize and silence it immediately. 7) Keep it private. Avoid discussing private matters or confidential information in public places, especially a public restroom. 8) Use discretion. It’s permissible to pull out your phone on a date on three occasions: to take a picture with your date, to show your date pictures of a family baby or pet, and to find the answer to a perplexing trivia question that comes up in conversation. If on a date with multiple couples, show the photo to everybody at the table so no one feels excluded. 9) Ask permission. If you must take out your smartphone while on a date, always ask permission first. Something like, “Do you mind if I take out my phone to…?” If taking photos with your date, always ask for permission before posting them to Facebook, Flickr, Twitter or Instagram to respect his or her privacy. 10) Take a break. Challenge yourself to leave your smart phone at home or in your car while you’re out on a date. Unless you’re a doctor on call, most of us can live without our phones and social media updates for a couple of hours. Jacqueline Whitmore has established herself as a prominent presence in the etiquette industry and is a frequent guest on television and radio talk shows. In addition to being the author of Poised for Success: Mastering the Four Qualities That Distinguish Outstanding Professionals (St. Martin’s Press, 2011), Jacqueline is the Founder of National Cell Phone Courtesy Month in July. You can learn more about Jacqueline by visiting her website. Click here to view post on the July/August 2014 issue.