Good Friday - Easter Sunday

In honor of Christians everywhere we are clolsing our offices until next week. Have a blessed weekend all. 

He Is Risen!!

Apple vs. Google

Apple Inc. is going head-to-head with Google in

education, a market the iPhone maker helped pioneer

but has let languish.

For the first time in several years, Apple released

hardware specific to education: a new iPad that squares

up against Google’s cheap Chromebook laptops, which

have become popular in schools. Apple also introduced

a new education service called Schoolwork, which will

compete with Google’s Classroom software.

The new iPad has a 9.7 inch screen and costs $299 for

students and schools, and $329 for other users. It supports

the Apple Pencil accessory, a first for a non-Pro iPad model.

New versions of its iWork productivity apps will work with

the stylus, which costs $89 for students, $10 below the

regular price.

Apple executive Greg Joswiak called the new iPad "faster

than virtually any Chromebook," during an event at a

Chicago school on Tuesday. This was the first time Apple

held a product launch geared toward education since 2012

when it unveiled a tool for designing e-books for the iPad.

Yesterday, ahead of Apple’s announcement, Google and

partner AsusTek Computer Inc. announced a $329 tablet

powered by the same Chrome operating system that runs

Chromebooks. Most non-Apple tablets run Google’s Android

mobile operating system.

Apple new iPad

Apple on Tuesday rolled out a new iPad and

classroom software aimed at grabbing more of the U.S.

education market, but did not cut the price of its entry-

level tablet despite schools flocking to laptops costing a

third less.

Apple is looking to reassert dominance in U.S. schools,

where inexpensive laptops running software from Alphabet

Inc’s Google and Microsoft Corp now top iPad by sales,

offering a cheap way to get to cloud-based productivity

tools.

The new iPad has a more powerful computing chip and an

extensive set of new, free software for teachers to manage

students and schoolwork. But the unchanged starting price

of $299 for students and $329 for the general public, without

a keyboard or case, compares with less than $200 for some

Windows and Google Chrome models.

Apple shares were down 1.4 percent to $170.26 after the

event, slightly better than the NASDAQ Composite, which

was down 1.6 percent in midday trading.

Some analysts had believed Apple might cut prices, but the

company stuck with its more traditional approach of packing

more features into a device.

Despite the new software, Apple faces a tough battle in the

educational market given the popularity of Google and

Microsoft’s productivity suites, said Carolina Milanesi of Creative

Strategies. Google’s G Suite fueled Chromebook sales because

it was seen as easy to use to manage assignments.

“Most teachers don’t look past G Suite for education,” she said.

GIF ads

Imagine an ad playing on an endless loop—a short

narrative crafted to seamlessly, infinitely repeat. Taken

at face value, that’s the stuff of nightmares. But you’ve

likely already seen dozens of ads made to do just that

for brands like Amazon, Bubly, Converse and Gatorade

—and you may have already unknowingly shared them.

That’s the magic of GIFs. At least, that’s what some of

the marketers who see the use of GIFs as ads as a

growing creative trend believe.

“Clever marketers are creating GIFs to help consumers

express themselves through these humorous, snackable

videos which make them a shareable utility versus an ad,”

explained Quynh Mai, founder of digital shop Moving Image

and Content. “GIFs are an economical way for consumers

to express their moods, and smart brands are creating GIFs

as a utility for that purpose, making these shareable personal

expressions and not just a six-second video.”

That difference between the six-second ad—which has also

become a favorite for marketers in recent years—and GIFs

is important to understanding the burgeoning trend of GIFs

as ads. While brands are certainly creating more short-form

ads to fit into YouTube’s bumper format or various apps that

are seeking shorter and shorter spots, making GIFs requires

a different kind of creative approach.

Apple Game Apps

If you build it, they will come. For years, it seemed didn’t

really embrace the game developers who flocked to the

iPhone and filled the App Store with games that consumers

downloaded by the billions. After all, Apple’s aim was to get

all consumers, not just gamers.

But during this week’s Game Developers Conference in

San Francisco, Apple wanted to make it clear that it cares.

Games are a lifeblood on any platform.

In 2017, games made up a larger share of Google Play’s

consumer spending compared to iOS, but consumers

spent nearly two times more on iOS games than on Google

Play games, according to a year-end report by market

researcher App Annie. Games represented nearly 80 percent

of total worldwide consumer spending for the combined iOS

and Google Play app stores in 2017, but games only

accounted for 35 percent of total worldwide downloads.

That means that gamers spend a lot more money than non-

Gamers.

Greg Joswiak, vice president of iOS, iPad, iPhone product

marketing at Apple, reinforced the importance of games in

a rare interview with GamesBeat. He also recently talked

about games at a recent Pokemon Go augmented reality

event with Niantic Labs.

Korean 5G

Top South Korean phone company Korea Telecom (KT)

announced today that it will offer 5G cellular service in

March 2019, Yonhap reports, while downplaying U.S.

carrier Verizon’s plan to launch 5G in 2018 as “a step

backward.” KT’s prickly comments come after it

collaborated with Verizon on 5G video calling tests during

last month’s Super Bowl, illustrating the fierce international

competition to bring 5G to market first.

Like U.S. carriers T-Mobile and Sprint, KT is justifying

its later 5G launch by promising broader, faster coverage,

which it alternately calls “true 5G” and “perfect 5G” service.

“It is true 5G only when coverage is guaranteed,” said KT

executive Oh Seong-Mok, explaining that “KT will launch

the 5G service for the first time in the world that combines

true mobility, excellent service, and nationwide coverage.”

Beyond committing to mobile 5G coverage — the same

strategy announced by AT&T for its 2018 U.S. rollout of 5G

— KT explicitly ruled out commercializing so-called “fixed 5G”

service like Verizon, which will offer 5G as a replacement for

home and office broadband cable service. Yonhap reports

that Oh dismissed Verizon’s fixed 5G service as “a step

backward, as the technology has already been seen before.”

KT and leading local rival SK Telecom have offered 5G

demo areas at major events, using prototype Samsung and

Intel hardware to show off the faster, more responsive

networking technology. According to reports, KT

demonstrated 5G to visitors at the PyeongChang Winter

Olympics last month to a mixed reception, as some attendees

couldn’t understand why their existing phones weren’t working

faster in “5G zones.” New 5G-capable chips and phones will

be required, and KT now expects them to ship between the

end of 2018 and first half of 2019.

Amazon Innovates (Again!)

Building technology is all about learning as you go.

Amazon  knows this, and has today added fingerprint

ID to the new Amazon Key app, which enables in-home

delivery of goods.

The Key app was announced in October, alongside

the Cloud Cam, which lets users watch goings on in

their homes as delivery professionals come in and out

of their space.

Given that the app essentially controls who gets in

and out of your home, it would be problematic if your

phone got into the hands of someone malicious. So

Amazon has added an additional layer of security, your

fingerprint, to the Android version of the app.

An Amazon spokesperson told TechCrunch that

fingerprint authentication is coming soon to iOS.

Amazon recently acquired smart doorbell maker Ring

in a deal reportedly valued at $1.1 billion, which

presumably furthers the mission of truly last mile

deliveries. Late last year, Amazon also acquired

security startup Blink for a reported $90 million.

IBM Watson

IBM is today launching Watson Assistant, a new service

aimed at companies looking to build voice-activated

virtual assistants for their own products. Want your hotel’s

rooms to remember a guest’s preferences for air-con? Or

your car’s dashboard to be controllable via voice interface?

IBM’s message to companies is: we can help you build that.

It’s an interesting pitch, especially as voice assistants like

Amazon’s Alexa are being integrated into new arenas.

(See, for example, the Wynn Las Vegas’s decision to install

Echoes in every room.) IBM says this shows the popularity

of conversational interfaces, and believes companies should

choose Watson Assistant over Alexa or Siri for a number of

reasons — namely: branding, personalization, and privacy.

First, Watson Assistant is a white label product. There’s no

Watson animated globe, or “OK Watson” wake-word —

companies can add their own flair rather than ceding

territory to Amazon or Apple. Second, clients can train their

assistants using their own datasets, and IBM says it’s easier

to add relevant actions and commands than with other

assistant tech. And third, each integration of Watson Assistant

keep its data to itself, meaning big tech companies aren’t

pooling information on users’ activities across multiple domains.

“If you start running the entire world through Alexa it’s an

enormous amount of data and control to give to one company,”

IBM’s vice president of Watson IoT, Bret Greenstein, tells The

Verge. Looking at this week’s Cambridge Analytica and Facebook

scandal, it’s easy to see the benefits of keeping data out of the

hands of powerful intermediaries.

IBM has already secured a couple of small partnerships for

Watson Assistant. One with Harman, building a voice assistant

for a Maserati concept car; another at Munich airport, where

Watson Assistant is powering a Pepper robot that offers visitors

directions; and a third with smart home company Chameleon

Technologies, where the voice tech powers its smart home meter.

HEIC pics

A photo format called HEIC means images take half

the storage space as with JPEG. But you'll need a

smartphone processor that can handle it.

The good news is that the next version of Google's

Android smartphone software, Android P, has a feature

to shrink your photos to half the size of an ordinary

JPEG. The bad news is there's no guarantee that every

phone will actually be able to use it.

That's because of hardware and patent licensing limits

on the technology used, called High Efficiency Image

Format (HEIF). To get full benefits, phone makers will

have to pay for high-end hardware and license patents

to use it.

You may have heard the term last year, when Apple was

championing the technology in iOS 11 and its latest iPhones.

Now Google's coming around to it.

Halving the amount of storage space that photo files

consume -- and the amount of data they siphon off your

monthly network plan when you're sharing or syncing --

is a great benefit. But it's still not clear how well HEIF will

deliver that benefit for Android users.

On iPhones, Apple made sure its chips can handle HEIF

and resolved the patent hassles. But all bets are off in the

world of Android, where there are thousands of different

phone models from hundreds of manufacturers.

Wear OS

The Android Wear brand introduced in 2014 is going

away and being replaced with a new name: Wear OS.

A new area of Google’s website has officially confirmed

the change. Wear OS even has a new slogan: “Make

every minute matter.” For now, that’s really all the news

there is; since it works on both Android and iOS, Google’s

smartwatch platform is being given a more flexible moniker

that doesn’t tie it to a specific mobile operating system.

Apple’s software platform on the Apple Watch is called

watchOS.

And even though Wear OS doesn’t give iPhone users

all the same features as Android users, some iPhone

owners are actually picking watches with Google’s

software over the Apple Watch. “In 2017, one out of

three new Android Wear watch owners also used an

Phone,” claims Google. Android users still make up

the majority of customers, but it’s not as lopsided as

you might think. Over 50 Wear OS watches have hit

the market so far, and fashion brands have really

gravitated to the platform. It can be a bit hard to tell

some of their offerings apart at this point.

“We’re announcing a new name that better reflects our

technology, vision, and most important of all — the people

who wear our watches. We’re now Wear OS by Google,

a wearables operating system for everyone,” Google’s

Dennis Tropper said in a blog post. “You’ll begin to see

the new name on your watch and phone app over the

next few weeks.