Randi Zuckerberg's Blog, page 40

Radio Show Recap: How Tech is Changing the NBA

Professional sports are one of the newest, most successful examples of how the digital landscape has once again used innovation to disrupt the game—the game this time being basketball. From engaging fans through social media to tech execs migrating to the pro-sports arena (pun intended), technology has altered how we watch, learn, and interact with our favorite teams and players in the NBA.

Melissa Brenner, Senior Vice President of Digital Media for the NBA, and Chris Kelly, owner of the Sacramento Kings were the guests for this Dot Complicated tech/sports crossover episode. Check out their musings on the intersection between technology and pro sports.

On hacked celebrity photos: “Folks should feel ashamed if they are seeking them out.” —Chris Kelly

“Use two-factor verification whenever you can. That way a second verification has to be used to get in in the first place.” —Chris Kelly

“It’s outrageous that’s there’s pundits on various media outlets that have the audacity to put the blame back on the victims.”—Melissa Brenner

On Sweden’s McDonalds’ campaign to give free burgers for recycled cans: “One of the largest problems that face our world is hunger and poverty so anyway to combat these issues is beneficial.”—Melissa Brenner

“In terms of NBA sponsorship, if it were Taco Bell it’d be even better.”—Melissa Brenner

“In terms of providing access, in terms of cleaning things up, in terms of recycling, I’m all for it.”—Chris Kelly

On Google Glass’ Human Emotion Detector: “I like this as a piece of progress as to what enhanced reality can offer people trying to understand their world. The idea that you’re using cues from the real world then trying to map them to interesting data that exists otherwise is exciting for the digital world.”—Chris Kelly

“I dislike it because there’s a high creep factor. Whenever you blend computer science and human emotions it becomes a slippery slope for me.”—Melissa Brenner

On Apple’s announcement of a wearable $400 product: “I like experimentation in devices. I think Samsung will match it soon and that competition will be good for everybody.”—Chris Kelly

Pre-2008, the NBA had the paltry cumulative audience on social media platforms under 500,000 people. Since Melissa Brenner took leadership as the SVP of Digital Media, the NBA’s Twitter now boasts more than 11 million followers—that’s more than any other sports league including the NFL which has only 7.7 million.

Here’s Melissa’s assessment on social networking in the NBA:

On pushing the NBA to take risks: “When management push to try new things and are fearless in delivering the best product possible to fans, it makes your job a lot easier.”

On choosing which social media companies to work with: “We try to be democratic. You never know if the next idea is going to come from two college kids or from a Facebook exec.”

“What’s most important is how can it make a fan’s experience to enjoy and an NBA game better.”

On analytics apps in the NBA: “Anything that can help us understand our fans better is something we want to explore.”

On tech codes of conduct: “We have a policy that 45 minutes before tip up to the start of media availability is blacked out. It’s about the game and the NBA represents the highest level of competition in basketball.”

On who are the best NBA role models for brand identity: “Lebron James is the most followed on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. The players that do it best talk about the game and how hard they train but also talk about their family.”

“When Shaquille O’Neal retired he didn’t call a press conference, he announced it on Twitter.”

On fan suggestion helped a new development: ‘We had tune-in information an hour or two before tip but a survey showed an overwhelming number of fans wanted to know what was on tap much earlier in the day. It gives them something to look forward to with the game.”

On brand loyalty: “A survey asked if every player on your team was traded would you still care about your team? 90% said yes. Team loyalty runs deep.”

On dealing with haters: “Whether they’re talking about you in positive or negative light, you can’t buy that sort of press. It’s organic. You have to have sports-selective listening. The sports community self-polices each other.”

On how to get more women in leadership roles in sports: “Mentoring young women.  I get a lot of pride seeing a lot of women I’ve nurtured succeed.”

On apps Melissa can’t live without: “NBA Game Time, Waze, and Heads Up! For when my kids are at a restaurant and they’re going crazy.”

On what’s next from the NBA : “We at the League are focused to not only be the sport of the present but also the sport of the future.”

Follow Melissa Brenner on Twitter @mbrenner or @NBA

Before becoming an owner of the Sacramento Kings, Chris Kelly served as the first Chief Privacy Officer, General Counsel, and Head of Global Public Policy at Facebook.

On how tech will better the sport fan’s experience: “Our group comes almost entirely out of the tech industry. We want to make sure people are completely comfortable sharing and learning on their devices from all different angles.”

On integrating technology in new arenas: “We have an experience center set up that gives some clues [for the new Kings’ arena slated for 2016] like wireless power-charging stations since the battery life thing is still an open challenge.”

On sports teams having tech know-how: “Fans are demanding deeper connectivity with their teams. If they’re giving their loyalty, they want more information. All media companies are becoming technology companies.”

On watching On-Demand sports: “It makes sports operate at a premium for watching live. The spoiler factor in sports is especially large.”

On owning a sports team: “It’s something you get involved in because you love the sport and the understanding of what the team means to a community. You have to be ready to compete and to win. Our ultimate goal is to win a championship.”

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It’s Time to Update: Three Outdated Home Tech Devices

Things have definitely changed from the days when a state-of-the-art home meant having a stereo system and a microwave. But household technology is advancing so quickly. If you think your house has the latest conveniences, think again. Some surprising home technology standards are fast becoming old news. Check out these brand new updates to some outdated devices.

Standard smoke alarms and carbon monoxide detectors. You probably don’t think much about your safety alarms until one starts chirping in the middle of the night, desperately seeking a new battery. And who hasn’t yelled at the one in the kitchen when it goes crazy after you’ve simply burned some toast? We all know it’s dangerous to mess with your alarm, but the usual ones aren’t very user-friendly. Luckily, there’s a newcomer in this space that’ll help with both your safety and sanity.

The $99 Nest Protect smoke and carbon monoxide alarm uses a human voice to warn you about rising carbon monoxide levels or the location of smoke. If the smoke is from cooking, you can easily silence the Nest Protect. It even monitors its batteries, and when they’re low, it sends a message to your phone or tablet rather than loudly beeping at the worst possible time. And you’ll also get a message if danger is detected when you’re away. However, even the Nest Protect can’t save your stuff when you’re out, so be sure you also have homeowners insurance for when danger or disaster strikes.

Early robotic vacuum cleaners. Robot vacuums have come a long way from the days of bumping around aimlessly. The Neato robot vacuum uses laser technology to create a map of your home, so it knows what has already been cleaned and where it needs to go next. After the entire floor is clean, this smart little vacuum uses GPS to return to its home base. Neato offers a number of models, with prices starting at $379.

Dead bolt door locks. Looking for your house keys can be an unfortunate pastime. And while a combination entry system can be a good alternative, there’s still a risk that you’ll forget the code. Now, there’s a new security option: the Anviz L100 fingerprint door lock.

Fingerprint locks offer the most secure and foolproof way to keep your home safe and never lock yourself out. Your fingerprint becomes the “key” that you can’t forget. The L100 is resistant to break-ins and the elements, and it stores up to 200 fingerprints to accommodate extended families or for use at a small business. It’s also got a battery back-up system, a card swipe option and a hidden traditional key lock for emergency access.

With the newest tech advances, you don’t have to worry about your keys, thermostat or safety at home. If only someone will come up with a device that remembers to take the trash out every week.

By Alexandra Rice, NerdWallet.

 

 

 

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The Power of the Family Meal

A recent TIME.com article warns of the cost too much screen time could be having on our kids’ social skills. In a study by researchers at UCLA, a group of 51 kids who were given a five-day break from screen time were able to recognize non-verbal emotional cues such as “facial expressions, body language and gestures” and scored way higher than another group of 54 kids who did not have the same five-day break from technology and screen times.

Of course, nobody wants their kids to grow up being socially impaired because they’ve grown more accustomed to relating to a flat-screened digital world versus a human one. So how do we offset the effects of modern, high-tech living? One easy way is to commit to a daily shared meal with your family.

Here are a few examples of the social benefits of the shared-meal ritual:

-Your kids will develop table manners (the basics).

-They’ll practice self-expression (asserting themselves, telling someone how they feel).

-They’ll learn how to read others’ emotions (through expressions, gestures, body language).

-They’ll experience live conversation (in real time; thinking on your feet).

-They’ll learn to share (through the give and take of meal activities).

-They’ll build vocabulary and literacy (through storytelling and imagination).

-They’ll interact within a social group (after all, the first one you ever have is your family).

Carol Archambeault is the founder and author of The Shared-Meal Revolution: How to Reclaim Balance and Connection in a Fragmented World through Sharing Meals with Family and Friends. If you’d like to learn about her book and how to keep your digital natives socially-skilled through a shared-meal ritual, please visit her website here.

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The Best Apps to Help You Master Networking

Gone are the days when networking meant intimidating, time-consuming legwork. Thankfully, web and mobile apps now provide more opportunities to establish valuable connections and also make it possible to master this art. To get you started, here are some of our favorite networking apps.

The basics: LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the gold standard in professional networking. Once you create an online profile with your resume and other details, you’ll start receiving job notifications that match your skills, newsfeeds and information about potential prospects if you plan to hire new employees. This free site has apps available for iPhone, iPad, Android and Blackberry. For more features, a premium subscription is available for purchase. LinkedIn can work wonders with job hunting: I’ve made important third-party connections and got my foot in the door where I wouldn’t have otherwise. It still surprises me that prospective employers reach out to me with no effort on my part. Recently, LinkedIn even helped me reconnect with an old friend. We studied abroad together in college, but after losing touch for six years, I came across her name on LinkedIn and discovered that she now works right across the street from me! We met for coffee and definitely plan to keep in touch this time.

Mile-high connections: Planely. Most people don’t associate flights with networking, but the Planely app from TripIt may change your mind. Log in with your LinkedIn or Facebook profile, enter your itinerary and discover who’s on your plane and if they are headed to the same conference or hotel. The app also lets you see if you have common interests with your fellow passengers. With this app, you might end up sharing a cab, a conversation or long-term professional connection. Planely is free and works on a computer or mobile devices.

Connect locally: Meetup. Sometimes it’s hard to find local professionals in your field, especially if you’ve recently relocated. That’s where Meetup comes in. Its international platform lets you find local and online communities with interests, hobbies and topics ranging from technology and entrepreneurship to women in business. By entering your interest and location, Meetup gives you a list of meetings and events in your area. The app works with iOS and Android devices and it is free to download.

Browser networking: Google Hangout and Google Voice. You don’t have to look any farther than your browser to find an easy-to-use and versatile networking tool. Try Google Hangouts for group and video chats and sharing media via the web on a number of platforms including iOS and Android. This app is one of my favorites for staying connected with professional and personal networks. Since moving to the West Coast for work, I can now keep in touch with my family on the opposite coast.

To help manage correspondence on mobile, home and work phones, I turn to Google Voice. It gives you one number that’s linked to you — not a device or location — and lets you decide which devices will receive calls. You’ll also be able to set up conference calls, have voicemail transcribed into text and reply via text message. Google Voice is free and works with Windows, Apple’s OS X and Linux systems.

High-tech business cards: CardMunch. A friend of mine once made an exciting connection at a startup mixer. He offered to introduce her to some valuable contacts and gave her his business card, so she could contact him later. But when she got home, that card was gone and the opportunity was lost. With the free CardMunch app, lost business card worries are a thing of the past. Upload a business card image to your iPhone, then real humans transcribe it and add the contact to your address book and your LinkedIn profile.

Thanks to the rise of apps, networking has become easier, more efficient and a lot less scary. I can’t imagine managing my professional or personal networks without LinkedIn and the rest. Plus, one of the best parts has to be that I can do all this without paying a single penny — apps make networking accessible to everyone.

By Alexandra Rice, NerdWallet.

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Radio Show Recap: Kara Swisher

Tech journalist Kara Swisher has been reporting on the internet since electronic mail and the world wide web weren’t yet abbreviated. Randi recently had the pleasure of spending an entire Dot Complicated Radio Show hour with the Re/Code co-founder and correspondent.

Here are some of Kara’s choicest thoughts on trends, technology, and her favorite platform of all, Twitter:

On Burning Man: “Burning Man has always been a tech mecca. It’s a sexy headline to say they fly in chefs and models from New York. Our city of San Francisco is changing, too. Real estate is up and it’s pricing people out, so there’s justifiable rage, but this is what happens in cities. They go dancing in the desert and take ecstasy.”

On the new tech gadget sans the tech, NoPhone: “I have to tell you my relationship with my Blackberry was one of the best in my life. It was always giving me what I wanted. Information. And mail. It was always happy when I woke up in the morning. No judgment. It never told me anything negative.”

On mock play-date app, Kinder: “You should wait until your kids are at least 9 years old before organizing a serious play date.”

On becoming a journalist: “I liked the feedback. I liked writing. I thought I was going to go into something like the CIA or the State Department but I’m not particularly discreet so it wasn’t something I really wanted to do.”

On her first major writing gig: “The Washington Post had published a story with tons of typos. I called up and started complaining there are all these errors. At the time the publisher was Larry Kramer—now he’s with USA Today. He said, ‘Why don’t you come down here and tell me that to my face?’ I was so obnoxious that he hired me. I was a stringer.”

On her first interactions with the internet: “I went away to the former Soviet Union. There was email then. An editor wrote me asking if I wanted to cover a small startup called America Online. I was immediately drawn to it. It struck me how important this medium was going to be.”

On the possibilities: “The Washington Post had this cell phone in a suitcase. Nobody used it but me. I kept telling everyone this is going to be small, a computer in your hand. This is going to be tiny. Everyone thought I was crazy.”

More possibilities: “I was Duke University for a fellowship and I downloaded a Calvin and Hobbes book. I slowed down the whole school’s computer system! They were pissed but I said, ‘ I downloaded a whole book! Think of what this will do for the publishing industry!”

On other tech reporters at the time: “It was all dudes interested in the finer points of chips. Who cares? You can focus on the engine but what does a car do? Allows us to travel to other places. Who cares what’s inside the telephone? It’s revolutionizing communication. Others thought it was a fad. The [Wall Street] Journal kept calling it a CB radio.“

On the revolutionary All Things D Conferences: “We has Steve Jobs on eight times, and once with Bill Gates! That will go down in history. A hundred years from now people will watch that.  We hit every single person who is critical to the growth of this industry. The CEOs, the founders.”

On inviting Gwyneth Paltrow to an ATD Conference: “She gets attacked on the internet incessantly. I wanted her to talk about that. She’s a celebrity so she can take it but can a teenage girl take that?”

On rebranding All Things Digital to Re/Code: “I call it the Oldest Startup Ever. We wanted to make something separate from the [Wall Street] Journal. The business part is challenging… but if you create quality content no matter where you are, people will be able to find you because it’s a lot easier now.”

On whether their ATD followers would follow Re/Code: “People are dying for high-quality content that doesn’t speak down to them. A little bit of humor and personality, we give them that.”

On tech personalities: “Re/Code brought on a Culture Reporter because we needed people in our stories. What do they like? What do they eat?”

On freedom of speech: “All this information is readily available, it’s hard to imagine regulating against it. Twitter said they would suspend anyone’s account who posted the James Foley video. We [Re/Code] take down comments that are disgusting. You set the rules, it’s up to the different companies to decide… We have a responsibility to think about online speech. Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler have to think hard about what kind of environment they want.”

On SEO traffic: “It’s not the world I want to live in. I was meeting with a guy I was thinking of hiring and he kept telling me all about his SEO for his slideshows. How he’d mash up my stories to get more traffic. He thought this was a positive thing for me. I want to make beautiful things. SEO doesn’t matter to me.”

On making a cameo on HBO’s Silicon Valley: “I like Mike Judge, I like the quality of the show, and I like HBO. I had never acted so I thought, ‘I’m just gonna go for it.’”

Follow Kara @KaraSwisher

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News vs. the Net

The internet has forever altered how journalists acquire information. What was once a soap box became a published periodical. A news broadcast, now a viral video. From blogs to vlogs to Twitter, there’s definitely no shortage of news available, but how accurate is the info you’re receiving? While technology expands the amount of news outlets, the system is concurrently being overloaded with incorrect intelligence. And while it’s becoming more difficult to separate fact from fiction, there are some who still hold journalism up to its code of ethics we all once held so dear.

Here are three types of journalism to help you decipher the fact from the fluff:

Parachute journalism:  This is the process of placing unequipped reporters with little-to-no knowledge of the subject matter directly on the scene. Shoddy investigations, distorted news reports, and inaccurate information are usually the outcome. But sometimes the situation becomes more dire as witnessed with the South Korean ferry disaster.

Citizen Journalism: Giving a whole new meaning to audience participation, citizen journalism is—essentially—Twitter. If you’re getting your news from tweets by @Joe_Mama241 (not a real person), triple check their source before offering your opinion on the matter. Before you thank Captain Obvious, remember how word of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ death was incorrectly tweeted by the usually more-than-reputable news source NPR.

Ethical Journalism: In 2008 the International Federation of Journalists launched the Ethical Journalism Initiative focused on the accuracy and standards for factual reporting. So if the source you’re reading from is without an ethics code or is simply regurgitated news (i.e. linked from another source, littered with libel, or written without attribution), you may want to find a more reliable authority. (Read tech journalist Kara Swisher’s code of ethics here).

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Chalk, the Online Preschool

Preschool in the United States can cost anywhere from $4,000 to $15,000 per year—figures that can be prohibitive to many families. But every child deserves access to an early education. That’s why we’re so excited about CHALK Online Preschool.

The CHALK program began in actual preschools—they have brick and mortar locations in Chicago and Los Angeles—but the mission is to offer preschool education for free. CHALK uses songs and activities to teach basic concepts about weather, literacy, math, and art. View samples of the videos on YouTube.

The program comes with a password-protected Parent Portal that gives you access to every resource. Your child will be placed in an online “room” (learning zone) based on his or her birth date, with lessons geared to that age group. Preschoolers in the program hone their creative skills through art projects, and perfect motor skills through music and dance activities. Children typically require a guided introductory lesson, but CHALK reports that they’re usually ready to dive in on their own after that. Moreover, CHALK’s simple explanations of natural phenomena (clouds, or why the sky is blue, for example), come in handy when your kids stump you with questions.

Whether you homeschool or are looking for supplemental education, CHALK seems like a fantastic learning tool, that also lets kids use technology in a productive way.

 

 

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Parenting in the Age of Social Media

With social media on just about every device, parents have new fears to keep them awake at night. Around 95% of teens between the ages of 12 and 17 are online, and 81% of them use social media sites regularly, according to a recent study from the Pew Research institution. Younger children are also logging on, and with frequent use of social media come a host of concerns such as cyberbullying, online reputations and “Facebook depression.” Thankfully, parents have the power to help their kids create a safe and positive online experience.

Getting started: Privacy and safety. Before allowing your kids to start their own profiles, talk to them about social media etiquette and the risks they could face online. A special lunch or an ice cream sundae date can make the discussion more causal and helpful rather than leading to an argument. Be sure to discuss:

Online reputation. Everything posted online remains there forever, whether it’s stored on website archives or company databases, and can affect college admission and even whether or not you get a job. Your kids need to make sure photos and posts are appropriate and not likely to come back to haunt them years later.

Identity protection. Avoid online questionnaires, contests and giveaways, since they’re generally designed for data mining. Even more importantly, kids shouldn’t post photos, status updates or profile descriptions with geotags, the active location settings or identifiable features that allow strangers to pinpoint their location. Ensure that privacy settings on their social media sites are up to date to prevent identity theft.

Stranger danger. Your kids probably will roll their eyes when you advise them not to accept friend requests from people they don’t know, but this is the safest option. Despite this warning, chances are, at some point, your kids will communicate with someone they’ve never met. They need to know what not to disclose. Be sure your kids understand that they should never give their full name or location to those they’ve connected with online and that they should never arrange face-to-face meetings.

Keep sites age-appropriate. Facebook was not designed for young kids, and to sign up, you have to be at least 13 years old. Don’t let younger kids lie about their birthdays to create accounts, especially with so many alternatives for those in elementary and middle school. A few to consider are Jabbersmack, Club Penguin, Yoursphere and Sweety High.

Kindness matters. Be sure your kids know not to post anything online that isn’t kind enough to say face to face. Posts in anonymous “honesty boxes” or on “bathroom walls” tend to encourage mean and inappropriate behavior, so it’s important to steer clear of them, along with aggressive online arguments and uncomfortable questions.

Keep things honest and open. When I was growing up, the computer was always in a central location: the living room or my dad’s office. The fact that my online activity could be seen by anyone passing by helped keep me honest. A central location is a great starting point, but remember that some kids may need more supervision than others.

Depending on your relationship with your kids, you may want to “friend” them on Facebook so you have access to their online posts or activities. If you go this route, though, be sure to show respect by not posting anything on their walls that would embarrass them.

When my cousin first joined Facebook, my aunt came up with a wonderful idea to monitor her activity in a more subtle way. As a condition of joining Facebook, my cousin had to “friend” me, her cool older cousin. I kept an eye on her, and if I saw something questionable, I let my aunt know.

Be aware that some kids create alternate social media accounts in secret to post everything you wouldn’t approve of. Watch for accounts with your child’s name spelled backward or with their middle name as a surname.

One of the best lessons to teach kids about social media is perspective. Limit screen time and offer real-life activities in sports, the arts and face-to-face visits with friends. When you add balance to the mix of education, communication and respect, your kids will be on track to maintain safe and fun social media connections. And, as my friends have discovered, if you take the time to talk to your kids about social media, it is one less thing for a parent to worry about.

This post was submitted by the authors at NerdWallet.

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So You’ve Taken the Ice Bucket Challenge. Now What?

Unless you’re living under an Internet rock, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge has probably monopolized your Facebook feed over the past few weeks. Everyone from Justin Bieber to Ben Affleck to Anna Wintour has taken a cold shower to raise money for research on Lou Gehrig’s disease. But how can other charities compete? Will copycat programs be successful? What are some fun—and maybe warmer—ways to raise money and gain recognition for an organization you’re passionate about?

The Ice Bucket challenge is hardly the first philanthropic endeavor to go viral. Movember was one of the first fundraising campaigns to make waves online, encouraging men to grow mustaches for the month of November to support donations towards prostate cancer and men’s health research. Like the Ice Bucket Challenge, its combination of a real- life action with online activism worked to increase accountability and visibility for an issue. It also takes a “guy thing,” growing a mustache, to raise money for, well, more serious guy things. The best campaigns not only are fun, they are also related in some way to the cause they support. An organization that I work with, the national writing and tutoring centers of 826.org, has hosted a number of local events that combine a fun, word-related activity with raising money. We’ve hosted a Scrabble for Cheaters event and a Spelling Bee for Cheaters—events that combine a love of words with support for an organization that nurtures young writers.

In the wake of the Ice Bucket Challenge, many organizations are trying to come up with their own unique ways to go viral and take advantage of the Ice Bucket Bump (apologies to Stephen Colbert). A Wall Street Journal article this week mentions the Doubtfire Face for Suicide Prevention, which asks its Facebook fans to don whipped cream a la Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire and share photos to raise money, and the Eat Pie for HI campaign, which supports people coping with congenital hyperinsulinism. Certainly there are only more similar campaigns to come. Copycat ideas aren’t a bad thing – any way to be more creative around fundraising and help worthy organizations should be welcomed online with open arms – it’s all about trying different things and seeing what sticks.

Raising money isn’t the only way to help a cause. Getting a Twitter hashtag to catch on can spark conversations around hot button issues in new ways and bring awareness to topics that in an earlier era might have fallen on deaf ears in the back pages of the newspaper. The #BringBackOurGirls campaign earlier this year increased awareness of the Boko Haram kidnappings in Nigeria and brought worldwide attention to crisis there, prompting a response from the White House. One.org has also had success raising awareness for poverty issues by posting ways to get involved in emerging issues in a timely way. Around the recent U.S.-Africa leaders conference, they provided sample tweets, a live “blanket of hope” that anyone could add a photo to, and provided information about global health that was easy to share with your network.

While participating in a viral campaign is fun, finding a cause you’re passionate about and discovering your own way to get involved is even more rewarding in the long run. So keep watching Jennifer Garner get thrown in the pool, but consider looking around your community for ways to get involved for longer than the length of a 30-second video. Participate in a voluntourism trip as part of your next vacation or brainstorm the next viral idea for a cause you care about.

By Laura Hertzfeld

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Elevate, An App Made for Your Brain

It’s no joke that smartphones have made us chronically unfocused (hi, Candy Crush), so we’re making room for a feature that can do something good for our minds.

Elevate is a free app that’s designed to improve your cognitive abilities (speaking, writing, reading, and listening) through a series of sharply-designed brain exercises.

To get started, download the app and pick the skills you’d like to improve. You can choose things like “articulate thoughts more clearly” and “improve writing abilities.” Each day, Elevate will present three tests to get your brain moving. You might be tasked with removing redundant words from a string of sentences, or tackle a reading comprehension game that’s reminiscent of the SATs. (Don’t worry—none of the exercises take longer than a few minutes to finish.)

The app is free for iOS and Android devices, and users can access up to 15 games that are available with a “Pro” subscription that costs $7.99 per month or $49.99 a year. The more you play, the better Elevate can gauge your strengths and weaknesses, and adjust accordingly.

Finally, you’ll have a good excuse for being glued to the phone.

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