Loona robot understands gestures, plays fetch and more

Here’s something to compete with Amazon’s $999 Astro robot. It’s a robot pet that acts adorably like a dog.

Loona scratches and sneezes at the start of the day. When she sees you, she gets excited, turning in a circle, stomping her paws and making happy sounds. Stroke her head and she gets even happier. Standing 6.8 inches high, her four wheels give her great flexibility. Her LCD screen face is 2.4 inches.

I was hoping she’d look fluffy like those batteryoperated dogs from days gone by, but she’s definitely robotic. It’s her expressive eyes, her wiggling ears and her enthusiasm that make her seem real. She likes to follow you around, but you can say her name to make her come running.

She obeys gesture commands, like circling your finger to make her turn around, and can play fetch or chase a laser light. Some will use Loona to check on a child or pet remotely since she follows them around and can show you what they’re up to through her webcam.

Order Loona on Indiegogo.com, the crowd-funding site, for $359 for delivery in April.

BITCOIN BLUES

After I wrote about cryptocurrency, a longtime reader shared his experience. When each bitcoin cost only seven cents, he wrote, he was thinking of investing $1,000. “But I had been burned too many times in the past,” he said. “I saw Bitcoin dying by about 2015.”

He figured it was like the old “trade dollars,” which could be used at local restaurants and night clubs. As with bitcoin, their value fluctuated wildly. Or as he put it, “Nothing like being stuck with $500 in trade dollars when you wanted to impress a date with a night

on the town.”

As bitcoin’s value soared, he realized his mistake. “I could have been worth $400 million to $800 million,” he said. “I could have sold off half and still have bitcoins worth $50 million. Like Ralph Kramden, Fred Flintstone and Homer Simpson, I could have been a contender.”

PHOTO APP

Picsart AI Photo Editor, Video is a fun app for iPhone, iPad and Android. It gives you a huge variety of photo projects: cards, posters, flyers, wallpaper and just about anything you can think of. Use them in your texts, Facebook posts, email and printouts.

I made a cartoonish speech bubble for an ape statue I saw in California. It’s a great way to say hi. I also turned a photo into an illustration in a couple of clicks, just by opening a photo, tapping “FX” and choosing “cartoon 2.”

Picsart starts by asking you if you want the beginner’s level. I said yes. Although there’s a seven-day free trial, you have to put in your credit card number. My trick is to cancel immediately. I will still get the free seven days but won’t run the risk of being dinged for the $56 yearly fee.

For instructions on how to cancel, do a Google search on “canceling subscriptions Android,” or “canceling subscriptions iPhone.”

NEW WIRELESS TV

Displace, the first wireless TV, grabs onto your wall with suction cups and adhesive. Just press and stick. It’s getting tremendous buzz. Though you could stick a wireless TV anywhere, even on a window, you might be skeptical about using suction cups and adhesive to put up a 20-pound object. But this thing looks sturdy.

If the adhesive stretches or snaps, a sensor alerts the internal airbags if it’s time to deploy. But there’s no remote control. Changing the channel, the volume or the settings can only be done with gestures. I can picture kids madly waving their arms at the same time, fighting for control. When I tried similar gestures on Microsoft’s Kinect video game controller years ago, I failed more often than I succeeded. But gestures have surely evolved since then.

The $3,000, 55-inch 8K TV can be ordered from the website Displace.TV for delivery in December. But you may also have to spend $300 for a new router if yours isn’t compatible with Wifi 6E.

GET IT ON THE CALENDAR

The problem with putting events on the calendar is that you have to remember to look at the calendar. But Google makes that easy.

Whenever I want to add something to my Google calendar, at calendar.google. com, I start by clicking or tapping on a square. Up pops a window that says “Add title.” After doing that on my computer, I click “more options.” It will already show the default notification for 10 minutes before an event, but you can add another one, by tapping “custom” on your phone or clicking the drop down arrow if you’re on a computer, to set up an email reminder.

I like to get an email 10 hours before an event, but you can set any time interval you want.

PILATES APP

5 Minute Pilates is the best exercise app I’ve ever tried and it’s free. It has 16 levels, starting at beginner. There’s a pause button if you need to review the animated instructions or answer the phone before continuing the countdown. In beginner mode, exercises are 35 seconds long.

INTERNUT

Veganuary.com, or “Vegan January,” gives you a free celebrity cookbook, budget and deluxe menus, low-calorie and high-calorie recipes and lots of guidance for a plantbased diet. New ideas come to your mailbox every day for 31 days.