Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio broadcasting out of Montreal (home base). It’s not a long segment – about 5 to 10 minutes every week – about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly to SoundCloud, if you’re interested in hearing more of me blathering away. I’m really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up on listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry and Heather B. morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.

This week we discussed:

• I was one of the fortunate few to attend the TED conference this year in Vancouver. I have been a TEDster since 2008. The headlines were stacked because of Monica Lewinsky’s speech on cyberbullying. TED stands for Technology Entertainment and Design. It’s not uncommon to be sitting – side-by-side – watching the talks with luminaries from every industry. What makes it most interesting isn’t just what happens on stage, but the banter before, during and after the talks have gone viral. That being said, it was fascinating to see a 3D printer based on Terminator (not joking).
• While we were busy thinking about future at TED, Jeff Bezos (who was in attendance) got the green light from the FAA that will allow Amazon to conduct test flights of drones to deliver packages. For now, these tests will conducted outside of daylight hours, and the drones must remain in sight of trained pilots. All data will need to be reported back to the FAA, but this is huge step forward. Autonomous cars… drone deliveries… Apple Watch… hello, Jetsons!
• According to eMarketer, US adults spend over 20 minutes every day on Facebook. This accounts for 6% of their time spent online (which is incredible enough). Facebook made a big move by announcing that users will soon be ablate pay their friends through Facebook Messenger. The feature will be rolled out in the US over the next few months, with countries like Canada to follow suit. This is huge. Not only will push those usage numbers higher up, but also could help them become a fundamental backbone of the mobile payment space.
• App of the week: Do Button.

Listen here…