Keyboard for iPad Air a best bet

Logitech Ultrathink Keyboard Cover for iPad Air ($99.95, AppleStore.com)

It was unfortunate iPad Air owners had to wait so long for keyboard accessories to hit the shelves.

They're not cheap, but Logitech's keyboard is tailor-made for the iPad Air, with a magnetic hinge that allows it to double as a cover.

The good: Though it's not a full-sized keyboard, fast typing is possible on this device once you get the hang of it. The keys feel substantial.

The bad: It may be the thinnest offering around, but that doesn't mean it lives up to its "ultrathin" promise.

This keyboard will nearly double the thickness of your iPad.

You also have to remember to switch the keyboard on and off manually because auto-pairing is not an option here.

The bottom line: If you're looking for a keyboard case that also protects the back of your iPad, try the ZAGGkeys Folio instead.

Otherwise, this is your best bet for an iPad Air keyboard.

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Intravenous nurses make points

Being an intravenous nurse involves a lot more than sticking patients with needles.

This specialty branch of nursing, with teams in most major hospitals, requires specialized training to install complex central catheters and to operate new technology making them safer to implant and less apt to cause infections.

There are 13 nurses on South Shore hospital's IV team, who work 24/7 offering support to 36 departments in the hospital.

Clinical coordinator and team leader Irma Sivieri has 10 years experience as a nurse, eight of them as an IV nurse.

"The IV team is a support team for other nurses in all aspects of vascular access," Sivieri said. "We're like the 'A' team. Nurses call us and we have to come in and help them immediately."

Many hospital patients probably remember a nurse calling in a member of an IV team to put in an intravenous fluid line, finding the right vein in the arm and inserting it on the first try. The regular nurse may not be able to find a vein because a patient is elderly, obese or has had a lot of other infusions.

But often their work is a lot more complicated. They are called in to assess patients who need IVs for long-term antibiotic treatment or for drugs that inflame veins. They put in peripherally inserted central catheters also known as PICC lines, a complicated procedure that involves running a catheter from the arm up and over to the superior vena cava, a vein just above the heart.

"I had a 95-year-old patient who was bleeding and her blood pressure was very low and they couldn't get an IV in her," Sivieri said. "We managed to get a central line in to stabilize her."

The South Shore IV team puts in about 600 PICC lines a year.

To help with the process, IV nurses learn to operate high-tech equipment such as the Site Rite Vision catheter system, which uses ultrasound to locate veins in the arm and to help thread the PICC line 40-50 centimeters from the arm vein to the superior vena cava.

To put in PICC lines, nurses must have the CRNI — Certified Registered Nurse Infusion — credential, which requires 1,600 hours of nurse IV experience and passing a written national exam.

"To be a good IV nurse, you have to have the skills and be passionate about doing it, said Laurie Hayes, a member of South Shore's IV team with 15 years of experience. "People often mistake IV nurses for phlebotomists."

Debra Ayers was a med/surg and ER nurse for seven years before joining South Shore's IV team two years ago.

"You have to command respect and be able to build rapport with patients in less than 10 minutes," said Ayers, who also teaches in the nursing program at Quincy College. "IV nursing is not generally taught in nursing school. You have to learn it on the job. And you have to have your anatomy down cold to know where every vein is."

Randall Barnes, a former IV nurse and president of the New England Chapter of the Infusion Nurses Society, says that IV teams have become critical to many hospitals because those who have them have lower rates of infections from IVs and infusions. Patient satisfaction is also better, which rewards the hospitals with higher Medicare payments.

The Bay State INS chapter is the largest in the United States with 189 members, 60 percent of whom are hospital IV nurses and 40 percent who do home care.

The South Shore Visiting Nurse Association has its own IV team, which serves patients at home in some 39 surrounding communities, said Mary Walsh, who founded the South Shore team and has been an IV nurse since 1984. She said IV nurses help discharged patients continue antibiotic treatments and even some chemotherapy at home.

"You're often working with a whole family, teaching them how to flush lines and keep everything antiseptic," said Walsh, who is now the chief nursing officer at Hebrew Senior Life's NewBridge on the Charles retirement community, where she oversees IV resources in its 48-bed rehabilitation center.

With new technology coming, Walsh adds that IV nurses will be able to place even more complicated catheters such as internal jugular lines.

After years as an IV nurse, Barnes now has a job at Bard Access Systems, developer of the Site Rite 
ultrasound catheter system, educating IV nurses on the new technology.

Barnes said the perception of the specialty has changed. IV nursing used to be more synonymous with infusion nursing, but Barnes said the new skills and technology are being used more for IVs than for chemotherapy infusion.

"It used to be that IV nurses were those nearing retirement who want to ease off a bit," he added. "But today it's a very busy job."

Sivieri said there are multiple calls for IV help at any one time, and that team members must be able to prioritize which ones are the most important.

"To be a good IV nurse, you need to be able to work independently and to work on a teamss," Sivieri said. "And you have to be a 
decision maker. You may be alone on an overnight shift and it's your call."

Patient safety is a big concern in placing advanced catheters, and South Shore's protocol is to have two nurses to install PICC lines.

"You must be 100 percent focused on the job," said Ayers. "It's challenging work for a nurse, but I like the variety of the job. Every day is different."

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Sochi to be 'mobile games'

If the 2012 Olympics in London were the first-ever "social games," then Sochi's festivities will be the first "mobile games."

AT&T, Samsung, NBC and Team USA are just some of the big names that have developed mobile apps for the 2014 Winter Olympics, which begin next week.

The offerings range from cheesy games to useful encyclopedias of Olympic knowledge, allowing spectators to virtually follow the path of the torch, keep tabs on their favorite teams and view exclusive content.

Whether you want to track the multiple Bruins players who will be representing their home countries, stay in the loop on Andover native halfpipe skier Annalisa Drew, Sudbury figure skater Simon Shnapir, Melrose bobsledder Steven Langton, or the many members of the women's ice hockey team who hail from the Bay State — the following apps are your best bets:

• Team USA Road to Sochi app (iOS and Android): The best part about this sleek, well-designed app is the ability to add your favorite players to your own "team."

That makes it so their results, recent videos and more are at your fingertips. Users can also send a virtual "cheer" to athletes.

• The Olympic Athletes' Hub (iOS and Android): This app goes beyond Team USA to include thousands of social media profiles of Olympians.

The Athletes' Hub also tells you what's trending on Twitter so you won't miss any high-profile meltdowns.

• AT&T's #itsOurTime app (iOS and Android): For the patriotic diehards among us, this app invites users to videotape themselves chanting "U-S-A!"

If you can get past the awkwardness, this app is surely one that the athletes will check to get fired up.

• Sochi.ru 2014 (iOS and Android): This app can help you plan that last-minute trip to Sochi. And if a trip isn't in the cards, it also helps you feel like you're there. The Sochi app features information on every event, each mile of the torch's relay through Russia, and an interactive map of the Olympic village.

• NBC Sports Live Extra (iOS and Android): This is the only way to watch each sporting event live while you're on the go, but it was plagued with problems during the 2012 games in London.

Unfortunately, you have to be a paid cable subscriber and will need your user name and password for your account to gain access to live streaming.

The performance of this app is partly responsible for the now-infamous hashtag #NBCFail that was trending two years ago, so here's hoping it has improved.

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Rider’s ‘ghost bike’ spurs safety innovation

The white "ghost bike" at Huntington Avenue and Forsyth Street haunted Amir Farjadian and Qingchao Kong each time they rode past it on their way to Northeastern University.

It had been left there in June 2012 in memory of Kelsey Rennebohm, a Boston College graduate student and fellow bicyclist who died after a collision with a bus. And although the two engineering students didn't know Rennebohm, the ghost bike was enough to make them rethink their focus on stationary bicycles at Northeastern's Biomedical Mechatronics Laboratory.

"We found there were many products out there for exercise but almost nothing for safety, even though almost two people die every day in this country due to cycling accidents," Farjadian said, "and more than 130 people are injured."

Working with a team of undergraduate students led by Professor Constantinos Mavroidis, the two Ph.D. candidates began work last year on an accident-prevention system designed to turn any bicycle into a "smart bike."

Consoles attached to the front and back of the bicycle project lasers onto the road, creating a virtual bike lane that blinks if a car intrudes.

The consoles also contain sensors to determine the bike's proximity to objects moving around it.

"Based on that distance," Farjadian said, "we can calculate the relative speed and predict whether the two are about to collide."

If they are, a speaker on the front console emits a sound similar to that of a car horn to alert both the cyclist and the driver.

LED turn signals are built into the front and rear consoles and automated through a smartphone app and GPS.

A cyclist who's unsure of directions simply enters the destination and follows the turn signals.

If the cyclist is approaching an intersection without slowing down, Kong said, the bike's handlebars vibrate.

The entire system will retail for about $100 and could be on the market by the end of the year, Mavroidis said.

"Cycling has many benefits — for your health, for your wallet, for the environment," Farjadian said.

"If we can do something about the safety, we'll have addressed the one thing that's missing."

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After loss, LG sees lower profit, currency risks

SEOUL, South Korea — LG Electronics Inc. is forecasting lower earnings from its mobile business this quarter and risks from swings in Latin American currencies after posting an unexpected loss in the final three months of 2013.

The latest results from LG Electronics, the world's second-largest TV maker and a major device supplier, underline how it is being squeezed between Japanese competitors and its bigger South Korean rival Samsung Electronics Co.

LG is battling Japanese manufacturers such as Sony and Panasonic that are expanding market share in televisions, helped by the weak yen. The company is struggling to make money from the smartphone market where Samsung and Apple Inc. have grabbed the lion share of the profits.

LG Electronics suffered a loss in the final quarter of 2013 because of the stronger South Korean currency while higher marketing costs and falling smartphone prices continued to batter its mobile business.

The South Korean tech company said Monday its net loss for October-December was 63.4 billion won ($58.5 million). That's far smaller than a 478.2 billion won loss a year earlier. But analysts polled by FactSet expected net income of 147.8 billion won. Sales for the fourth-quarter inched up 1 percent from a year earlier to 14.9 trillion won.

The maker of G flex smartphone said the quarterly loss, the first in four quarters, was mainly due to foreign exchange movements. The company blamed the strong local currency against the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen as well as fluctuations in currency rates that usually mean higher costs. LG manufactures most of its home appliance products in South Korea and ships overseas.

Chief Financial Officer Jung Do-hyun said unstable currency movements in Latin America and other emerging markets would remain a big risk. About 20 percent of LG's mobile phone sales came from Brazil and other South American countries last year. Argentina's peso lost 16 percent over two days last week.

Among LG's consumer electronics businesses, mobile was the only division that lost money during the fourth quarter.

Profit at LG's flagship TV business surged to 174.3 billion won from a mere 800 million won a year earlier. That was thanks to improved sales of LCD TVs in developed countries and efficient marketing spending to promote high-tier televisions, LG said.

But LG's mobile communications business lost 43.4 billion won, staying in red for a second quarter, despite higher sales from increased smartphone shipments. Shipments of its flagship G2 and other smartphones reached 13 million units in the quarter, a record high for the company.

LG attributed the mobile division's loss to increased spending on marketing and declining smartphone prices, an issue that nags other mobile phone vendors as growth in smartphone sales slows in developed countries.

The company said its mobile phone sales will improve when new products are released later this year. But analysts questioned if LG's upcoming devices can compete with the successor to Apple's iPhone 5S.

Jung said the company will likely report lower operating income for the first three months of this year as sales of TVs and mobile phones drop during a typically slow season for the consumer electronics.

For 2014, LG forecast a 7 percent gain in annual revenue and about a 20 percent increase in capital spending. The company said it budgeted 3 trillion won for capital expenditure for this year. The company's guidance for 2013 capital spending was 2.5 trillion won.

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German TV: Snowden says NSA also spies on industry

BERLIN — Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden claims in a new interview that the U.S. agency is involved in industrial espionage.

German public television broadcaster ARD released a written statement before an interview airing Sunday night in which it quotes Snowden as saying that if German engineering company Siemens had information that would benefit the United States — but had nothing to do with national security needs — the National Security Agency would still use it.

ARD did not give any further context and it was not clear what exactly Snowden accused the NSA of doing with such information.

Snowden faces felony charges in the U.S. after revealing the NSA's mass surveillance program. He has temporary asylum in Russia.

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Grocer powers on with idea

State permitting will pave the way for food waste from 213 Stop & Shop supermarkets to be converted into energy to power the grocery chain's Freetown distribution center.

Quincy-based Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. plans to build a multimillion-dollar, 12,000-square-foot, clean-energy processing center — known as a product recovery operation (PRO) — that will use anaerobic digestion to convert food products not suitable for consumption into electricity and heat for the warehouse and produce a fertilizer byproduct.

The company hopes to bring the facility online early next year. It's the first of its kind in Massachusetts, and a first for the chain, which now sends food waste from its stores to composting and animal feed facilities.

"The PRO will convert these spoiled food products into a clean, odorless gas to fuel a generator that will produce electricity (and heat) to help operate the Freetown distribution center," spokesman Greg O'Brien said.

The 1.1-million-square-foot distribution center operates around the clock. The PRO will process an average of 95 tons of food waste per day and will be able to produce 1.137 megawatts of power for up to 40 percent of the center's electrical needs and backup power in case of an outage.

The state Department of Environmental Protection issued permits for the project Thursday.

"This is really an innovative approach," DEP spokesman Joseph Ferson said. "It dovetails with the Patrick administration's goal of diverting organic waste out of landfills and incinerators to anaerobic digesters to really turn trash into a valuable resource for renewable energy."

Food and other organics account for 25 percent of the state's solid waste stream, and the DEP has a goal to reduce organics disposal by 450,000 tons per year by 2020. It's now finalizing regulations that will require institutions that generate one ton or more of food waste per week to donate or repurpose what's usable and ship what's remaining to an anaerobic, composting or animal-feed operation.

Stop & Shop, which will apply for a 10 percent federal investment tax credit for the project, does not yet have a firm handle on total costs, according to O'Brien.

He stressed that Stop & Shop will continue to donate to food banks. "This is spoiled food that cannot be consumed," he said. It will include unsold food including produce, bakery and deli items, products past expiration dates, and rejected food products from the distribution center.

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Smoking out the rough idle and stalling of Expedition

I have a 2001 Ford Expedition with the 5.4-liter V8 and 103,000 miles. At 98,000 miles it developed a rough idle and began stalling at stop signs.

My local mechanic noticed low fuel pressure and replaced the fuel filter and fuel pump. It ran good but then the "Check engine" light came on and the rough idle and stalling returned. The mechanic could not find anything wrong but a scan found codes P0171 and P0174. Another mechanic came up with the same codes and checked for vacuum leaks but could not find any. I have continued to drive the vehicle and the "Check engine" light is still on. Any suggestions?

My Alldata automotive database confirmed that the P0171 and P0174 codes indicate a lean fuel/air condition from both cylinder banks. Since technicians have checked for but not found the problem, I'd suggest a "smoke" test to help identify any vacuum leaks. This simple test involves introducing a non-toxic smoke into the crankcase under low pressure and then watching for any smoke escaping from the engine, induction system or vacuum lines.

Also, a ruptured diaphragm in the fuel pressure regulator, located on the fuel rail downstream of the fuel injectors, could cause low fuel pressure as well as fuel leakage directly into the intake manifold. If there's
liquid fuel in the vacuum line at the regulator, the diaphragm is ruptured. Rough idle and stalling at stops are often symptoms of a failed fuel pressure regulator.

I own a 2008 2.4-liter four-cylinder Toyota Camry with 98,000 miles that I service every 5,000 miles. For the past 15,000, miles I have had to add 2 to 2 1⁄2 quarts of engine oil between changes. The service writer at the Toyota dealership tells me that 1 to 1  1⁄2 quarts every 5,000 miles is normal for these aluminum engines. I have not noticed a decrease in engine power or any smoke from the tailpipe. I bought this car new expecting to get 200,000 miles out of it. I think this is a lot of oil for a car to burn.

One quart per 2,000 miles is completely within Toyota's "normal" oil consumption guidelines of one quart per 1,200 miles. Your concern is due to the change in oil consumption. Has oil use continued to increase? Or is it stable at this rate? Unless or until the consumption rate increases to excess, I would not be particularly concerned.

Unless oil use is being caused by a clogged PCV system or "sticky" piston rings, there's no easy "fix." You could try de-carbonizing the rings/grooves to free any sticking rings that could increase the amount of oil reaching the combustion chambers. Remove the spark plugs after shutting down the hot engine and pour an ounce or so of SeaFoam directly into each cylinder. After an hour or overnight, temporarily disable the ignition and fuel injection and crank the engine to expel any liquid in the cylinders. Reinstall the plugs, re-enable the ignition and injection, then start and drive the vehicle for at least 20 minutes.

I use "high-mileage" oil and change it every 3,000 miles on my two high-mileage cars. What kind of oil should I use when topping up the oil between changes during this very cold weather? Would 0W-20 full synthetic be the best bet? What is your opinion on using 0W-20 full synthetic for the regular oil changes during the cold months?

When adding oil between oil changes, use the same brand/viscosity already in the crankcase. Adding a different oil isn't harmful but the additive package and viscosity are likely not the same. I don't think 0W-20 would be a good choice in high-mileage vehicles unless the carmaker suggests it in the service recommendations. For most modern engines a full synthetic 5W-30 would be a good choice in cold temperatures.

Paul Brand, author of "How to Repair Your Car," is an automotive troubleshooter, driving instructor and former race-car driver. Readers may write to him at: Star Tribune, 425 Portland Ave. S., Minneapolis, Minn., 55488 or via email at paulbrand@startribune.com. Please explain the problem in detail and include a daytime phone number.

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Perks entice top engineers

As Boston's tech scene explodes and successful companies continue to grow at a breakneck pace, firms are stepping up to make sure top engineers end up at their desks and not at the business next door.

"If you want access to the best talent, you have to compete," said Andy Palmer, CEO and co-founder of Data-Tamer. Data-Tamer offers $5,000 referral bonuses, 16 weeks of parental leave, and lunch daily, part of an effort to sell the Cambridge company as an attractive place to work.

"These are the kinds of things that people sort of expect," Palmer said. "The best people have options, always have options."

"Everyone is trying to pitch the angle that makes them sexier than the guy next door," said Steve Conine, co-founder, chairman and CTO of e-commerce company Wayfair. "It's an employee's market."

Eliot Knudsen, a field engineer at Data-Tamer, said he is routinely approached about possible job opportunities. "I'm sent messages by recruiters maybe every couple days, several times a week," Knudsen said.

Knudsen said many of the messages are from recruiting companies, but some are internal recruiters at major companies, who reach out directly to gauge interest in a job.

Companies that are on the cusp of rapid growth are making sure they have the talent they need for the next step.

"People we're trying to hire are all actively recruited by other people," said John Nagro, director of engineering for HubSpot.

HubSpot gives $10,000 referral bonuses for successful hires, and offered a $30,000 referral bonus — paid twice — for hired candidates last summer. As companies such as Wayfair, HubSpot and newly public Care.com grow in market share and value, they are hiring engineers to keep pace.

"It's always competitive to hire engineers in Boston. That will only continue to be a challenge," said Sarah Hodges, vice president of marketing for Smarterer, which helps companies make smarter hires, and co-founder of Intelligent.ly, a professional development firm for start-ups.

Still, it is not all about the money.

"Money's not enough to attract great talent," Hodges said. "It's more important than ever to think about cultivating talent from within and building a really great culture."

Knudsen said he chose 
Data-Tamer not for the benefits or daily lunch, but because he saw an opportunity to grow as an engineer.

"The best people have the opportunity to work for companies that are not only interesting to work for and have competitive compensation, but are companies that have an inspiring mission," Palmer said.

Nagro cites the culture and opportunity to ship code daily as some reasons why engineers choose HubSpot.

"It's a very competitive market," Nagro said.

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Police arrest man in Japan tainted food scandal

TOKYO — Japanese police arrested a factory worker at a plant that churned out food laced with pesticide, which led to massive poisoning and a recall of more than 6 million packages of frozen food.

Police on Sunday identified the suspect as Toshiki Abe, 49, a worker at the subsidiary of Maruha Nichiro Holdings Inc., where the tainted food was found. Abe was arrested Saturday and has denied the charges, police said.

As many as 2,800 people across Japan may have been sickened by the tainted food, including pizzas, croquettes and pancakes manufactured at the plant in Gunma prefecture, north of Tokyo.

Abe is suspected of lacing the food with poison four times in October, and malathion, the pesticide used, was found in his possessions, according to Kyodo News service. Other details were not immediately available.

Maruha Nichiro has announced executive pay cuts and said that President Toshio Kushiro and the president of the subsidiary were resigning in March to take responsibility for the food poisoning.

The Tokyo-based manufacturer has repeatedly apologized and bought full-page ads in major newspapers to apologize and warn people not to eat any of the possibly tainted food.

Malathion, used in farming and gardening, can cause death in high concentrations, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

No life-threatening illnesses from Maruha's products have been reported, but public trust in food safety has been badly shaken.

Late last year, a slew of top-notch hotels and department stores acknowledged the food they were serving or selling weren't what they were billed to be, but cheaper substitutes.

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