Friday, March 30, 2018

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!!

Thursday, March 29, 2018

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.

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

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.

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

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
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.

Monday, March 26, 2018

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.

Friday, March 23, 2018

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.

Thursday, March 22, 2018

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
presumably furthers the mission of truly last mile
deliveries. Late last year, Amazon also acquired
security startup Blink for a reported $90 million.

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

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.

Tuesday, March 20, 2018

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
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.

Monday, March 19, 2018

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.