Austin American-Statesman from Austin, Texas • F4

Page 4 CM F4 AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN I SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2016 Carly Nakayama checks on the 3-D printing process Sept. 12 in the Feetz offices in San Diego, where the high-tech cobbler makes biodegradable footwear. Fashion startups aim to make custom clothing more affordable by using tech. tara pixley new york times objects that can be found within them. Unfortunately, it can take days, or even weeks, for the new Photos apps to scan through libraries of photos.

The Mac version of the app didn't complete its scan of my library, so I don't know how well it will do on facial recognition. But it did pretty well with image recognition, quickly finding among my pictures ones with a carousel in it and others that included a swimming pool. None of the changes that MacOS brings is revolutionary. But many are worthwhile, and some are quite compelling. Assuming it doesn't conflict with any of the software you use something to always be wary of when upgrading your operating system it's certainly worth installing.

Wolverton continued from F3 ing on your iPad. Universal Clipboard works wirelessly and automatically. As long as you are signed into the same iTunes account on both devices and the devices are within 10 feet or so of each other, the feature is just supposed to work. It didn't always just work for me. I sometimes had to try twice to paste a particular item.

And sometimes the menu bar seemed to get stuck as I tried to select paste. But those problems could just be a function of running a beta version of Sierra. When Universal Clipboard did work, it was fun to use, representing an easy way to transfer information directly between devices. MacOS Sierra features another new trick that can help you move items more easily between your Apple devices. iCloud, Apple's cloud storage service, can now be configured to automatically sync files stored on your desktop or in your documents folder on your Mac with your iOS devices and even with other Macs.

So, if you drag a photo to your desktop, it automatically shows up in a "desktop" folder in the iCloud app on your iPhone. In my tests, the feature worked quickly and easily, even syncing files such as program installers that couldn't be opened on my iPhone. With this year's operating system updates, Apple has revamped the Photos app on both the Mac and on iOS devices. Both versions come with some advanced image recognition features that are supposed to recognize individual people in your pictures and group them together. They also allow you to search for images by "In 10 years you won't physically try on a pair of shoes," Beard said.

The promise is making Silicon Valley take notice. "We've been looking for companies that can use advanced technology," said Vijit Sabnis, a venture partner at Khosla Ventures and an investor in Feetz. "And geeks and nerds are developing it. Feetz, for example, can change our experience in buying products." Robots and 3-D printers will eventually make retail goods, he said, and in hubs rather than big plants. "We'll get rid of shipping costs and rethink the supply chain," he said.

"It's really cool." potential for 3-D printing. "You can start producing in America, for America," he said. "Production facilities can be in the same place where you sell products, which creates jobs." Also, the technology improves every month, Becker said. "This is the equivalent of the 1980s cellphone in a briefcase that puts a brick on your ear," he said. "In the future, we'll go into showrooms, select what we want and then order online or print out the product ourselves," he said.

Custom shoemakers like Feetz will also make in-store shoe fittings obsolete, experts say. Printed continued from Fl personalized style. Although disruption is a hot idea in the tech world, not everyone is convinced this type of innovation will revolutionize fashion. Chicago retail consultant James Dion said he views customizable fashion as a "passing fad" with limited appeal. These are still early days for 3-D printing, said Uli Becker, former chief executive of Reebok and an investor in Feetz.

The offerings are not very diversified, and are limited to basic goods. And fabric cannot yet be printed. But he said he sees great Burns continued from Fl lan and investing. One of the reasons I admire supermarkets is that they are miracles of logistics. According to the Food Marketing Institute, for instance, a typical supermarket now offers 42,000 items for sale.

Not all are food, of course, but 42,000 items is enough that we'll have more choices than we can handle. Until I started reading labels I found the bounty of supermarkets exciting and charming. I loved the Employees of Musical.ly, a social media network that offers instant music video, work in the company's Shanghai, China, offices in August. The network's success with users under the age of 13 has raised questions about how children's experiences online can be mediated and supervised, gillessabrie new york times needs to be explained by someone sitting at a lunch table, if it's proprietary, if it's only available from certain companies and if it makes claims about your future financial health, don't buy it. Instead, go to the periphery of the market where all the least processed, least complicated, least expensive financial products can be found, fresh every day.

Scott Bu rns is a national ly syndicated columnist who has been writingabout personal finance since 1977. Send questions to scott scottburns.com. idea that so many companies worked so hard to provide the many foods I loved. Better still, it was all in one big, convenient place. What's not to like? A great deal, it turns out.

Pollan's most masterful solution is simple. In his book "Food Rules: An Eater's Manual," he tells us to "shop the periphery of the market and stay out of the middle." The fewer labeled and packaged products you come home with, the healthier you will be. The same applies to financial products. If it is complicated, if it Troy Wolverton is a technology columnist for the SanJose Mercury News. sively addressed by regulations or by broader cultural conventions.

Alex Hofmann, president of Musical.ly, said the company tries to be mindful of its popularity with younger users. "One of the differences to other apps," he said, "is that we don't only talk to the musers" the company's term for users "we talk to the parents." He keeps close counsel with a network of a few dozen top users, and some of their families, and frequently asks for feedback from both regarding everything from user safety to new features. Ultimately, Hofmann said, he expects the app to diversify its audience. "We really see ourselves as a real social network, and as a network for different age groups," he said. For now, the company will have to navigate a peculiar if widely envied situation -capitalizing on its apparent popularity with an audience that it cannot fully acknowledge, watched over by wary but increasingly complicit parents.

"A year ago, there was basically nobody who was 40 years old on Snapchat," Vaynerchuk said. "If Musical.ly can hold on, they will age up." in outside sounds and one with no opening so it creates a seal. The tips are easy to remove and install. The Volt does have a 45-day return policy, but only after you've given it a 21-day trial run. So if you give up after a week and want a refund, you'll get 90 percent back, but if you wait until day 21 and decide the Volt is not right for you, you'll get 100 percent back.

There are no refunds after 45 days. So how well does it work? This is where the review ends and the explanation begins. I can't tell you. What works for me might not work for you. I can tell you that it does work and that cycling through the four programs made the world sound distinctly different.

Everyone should get their hearing checked by a professional. But if you're inclined to try a hearing aid, this is an option that is small and light and does what it says it'll do. Musical.ly continued from F3 est social network we've ever seen," said Gary Vaynerchuk, chief executive of VaynerMe-dia, an advertising agency that focuses on social media. "I would say that Snap-chat and Instagram, they skew a little bit young," he said. But with Musical.ly, "you're talking about first, second, third grade." This puts Musical.ly in a strange position.

Websites and online service operators that target users under 13 must meet federal requirements regarding the collection and sharing of personal information, which is denned broadly to include names, photos or videos, or persistent identifiers, such as usernames. The restrictions are part of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule, often called COPPA, enacted by the Federal Trade Commission. Services that are more openly marketed toward children often stringently adhere to COPPA's privacy rules. Vine Kids, for example, is a limited and largely passive service with no user-names or video posting capabilities; similarly, YouTube Kids is essentially an app full of streaming children's programming, walled off from Volt continued from F3 els) for $549.99 or a pair for $1,049.99. I was sent one for my left ear.

The Volt's behind-the-ear portion is about 1.5 inches long and weighs almost nothing. It really disappears when you're wearing it, and I wore it for hours at a time with ease. I'd have no trouble wearing it all day. The Volt is a digital hearing aid, meaning the sound is not merely amplified, it's run through one of four digital programs that filter it to highlight specific types of sounds for different situations. There are programs for everyday use, high-frequency or high-volume situations, one-on-one conversation and group conversation with background noise.

You cycle through the programs by pressing a button on the Volt. You'll hear beeps corresponding with the num- the rest of YouTube's ecosystem. In contrast, Musical.ly, like Snapchat or Instagram, is a full-functioning social network. Such discussions about privacy can feel strained against the backdrop of technological change. The first version of COPPA became law in 1998, almost a decade before the iPhone was introduced.

Last year, the research firm Influence Central said that, on average, parents who give their children smartphones do so at age 12. And once they have a phone, they get apps. In a study of the law published in 2011 by the academic journal First Monday, researchers suggested that COPPA created intractable issues. To remain compliant, tech companies either cut off young users or claimed ignorance of their presence, while parents, for whom the law is meant to provide guidance and comfort, often ended up helping their children circumvent sign-up rules. Increasing the current style of enforcement, the report concluded, would only encourage firms to "focus on denying access rather than providing privacy protection or cooperating with parents." In short, children are using their smartphones much like the rest of us, whether or not they are comprehen- ber of the program in use.

The Volt does not remember your program choice if you power it off. Each time it is turned on, you start back at Program 1. Above the program button is a tiny dial to adjust the Volt's volume. Beware that feedback screeching can occur when you adjust the volume too high or place your ear too close to the source of sound. The charging port is on the bottom of the Volt, and there is a light in the program button that will be blue during charging and turn green when the battery is fully charged.

The light is off when the Volt is in your ear. If you need more of a boost in sound, the Volt comes with a larger-diameter tube that runs between your ear tip and the Volt called the 13Plus tube. It's easily installed and does make the sound louder overall. There are also two ear tips, one with an opening to let APR Annual Percentage Rate. Limited time offer.

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