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"Seebo raises $9 million for AI tools that spot and fix manufacturing inefficiencies | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/14/seebo-raises-9-million-for-ai-tools-that-spot-and-fix-manufacturing-inefficiencies"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Seebo raises $9 million for AI tools that spot and fix manufacturing inefficiencies Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Seebo cofounders Lior and Liran Akavia.
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Seebo , a company designing manufacturing tools that predict and prevent industrial disruptions, has raised $9 million. A spokesperson says the funding will be used to further develop Seebo’s AI technology and expand its roster of clients.
Due to inefficiencies in the production process, large manufacturers suffer tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses each year. Companies lose 20% to 30% in revenue due to inefficiencies alone, according to IDC. Seebo aims to help solve this with predictive algorithms that recommend remediation steps.
Seebo’s platform integrates manufacturing processes with AI and machine learning. Leveraging an enterprise-tailored approach to feature engineering, it translates data from these processes into visual insights delivered to operators and shift managers, quality control and maintenance engineers, and management.
It’s a pivot from Seebo’s business model four years ago, which offered companies an end-to-end platform to design, validate, and launch smart devices using a set of drag-and-drop tools. Although Seebo achieved a measure of success in industries ranging from health and wellness to fashion, it recently broadened its focus to address a greater range of industrial use cases.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Seebo adopts a “digital twin” approach to simulation — an approach that has gained currency in other domains. For instance, London-based SenSat helps clients in construction, mining, energy, and other industries create models of locations for projects they’re working on, translating the real world into a version that can be understood by machines. GE offers technology that allows companies to model digital twins of actual machines and closely track performance. Oracle has services that rely on virtual representations of objects, equipment, and work environments. And Microsoft itself provides Azure Digital Twins and Project Bonsai, both of which model the relationships and interactions between people, places, and devices in simulated environments.
But Seebo claims its customers — which include Barilla, Nestle, Mondelez, PepsiCo, Allnex, and Volkswagen — can create digital twin prototypes in record time, often within two weeks or less. Seebo also says its solutions take a more holistic view than most, aggregating data from the production line (including from automated quality inspection systems) and applying process-based AI to predict and help prevent issues that drive scrap and rework.
Seebo accounts for production flows and raw materials, in addition to the products actually being manufactured. It creates a virtual map of production lines to contextualize predictive alerts, events, and historical data. Employing predictive simulation allows process engineers to simulate how a production process will behave in different scenarios (and whether process inefficiencies will be avoided).
Seebo says that for one manufacturing customer, it was able to trace broken wafers to high oven temperatures and abnormal jumps in conveyor belt speed. Based on this, the company’s operational team used Seebo’s products to create quality alerts to avoid blockages and maintain quality standards.
Ofek Ventures led the $9 million investment in Seebo, with participation from Vertex Ventures and existing investors Viola Ventures and TPY Capital. The round brings the company’s total raised to $31 million.
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16,268 | 2,019 |
"Adjust: Indonesia, Brazil, and South Korea are fastest-growing app markets | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2019/05/14/adjust-indonesia-brazil-and-south-korea-are-fastest-growing-app-markets"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Adjust: Indonesia, Brazil, and South Korea are fastest-growing app markets Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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Adjust , a mobile measurement and fraud prevention company, said that Indonesia, Brazil, and South Korea are the fastest-growing countries when it comes to app market growth. This comes from its annual Global App Trends report , providing a snapshot into the global mobile app economy.
Adjust’s report is based on anonymized data collected over 2018 and across the top 1,000 best-performing apps on the platform. The data set spans over 7 billion installs and 120 billion sessions.
The report marks the debut of Adjust’s new Growth Index, bringing unique context to install numbers and shedding light on the real growth rate for apps across verticals and countries.
App growth trends Above: Adjust identified the fast-growing verticals.
To calculate growth, Adjust used the total number of installs per month and divided them by monthly active users (known as MAU) for each country or vertical in its data set. This showed the rate of growth that apps receive from installs against their monthly active user base.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! The findings showed that: Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, was the fastest-growing country for app marketers, followed by Brazil, Korea, Malaysia, and Turkey.
In terms of verticals, Mid-core games experienced the biggest increase in traffic in 2018. Ride-share, ride-hail, and taxi apps, along with Sports games, also experienced huge increases in traffic in 2018. Video and streaming came in fourth place, followed closely by Dating apps in fifth position.
Do these fast-growing verticals retain users? The data also shed light on retention rates and session data — which helps distinguish if the strongest growing app categories are also the biggest crowd-pleasers.
The report showed that overall, from Day 0 (date of install) to Day 1, apps lose on average, 69% of all their users. From Day 1 to Day 7, overall average retention decreases to 21%. On average, an app loses 79% of users in the first week of install. However, News (31%) and Comics (28%) apps have the highest retention rates by Day 7 of install, each having around 2.2 sessions per day on average.
The trend continues with some gaming apps, which tend to have some of the highest churn rates between Day 1 and Day 7. For instance, Sports lose 18%, and Mid-core Games lose 14% of users. On average, Gaming apps lose 10% of their initial user base between Day 1 and Day 7.
Ad fraud still a thorn in the side of all verticals Above: Adjust identified the types of fraud.
The report also showed that fraud remains a serious issue for mobile marketers — with ecommerce, dating, and banking apps the hardest hit. Data from the report showed that Adjust rejected close to 300 million (269,036,991) fraudulent installs in 2018.
Adjust said Click Injection (a popular type of ad fraud) accounted for almost half of these rejected installs with 48%, followed by Click Spam (26%), SDK Spoofing (17%), and Fake Installs (9%).
Dating, Banking, and Shopping apps topped the list for the verticals most affected by ad fraud.
“Ad fraud continues to be a black mark on the mobile industry the world over. While dating, banking, and shopping apps are most affected, that’s not entirely surprising,” said Paul Müller, chief technology officer at Adjust, in a statement. “These apps have among some of the highest CPAs (Cost per Actions). It’s worth bearing in mind that fraudsters don’t discriminate by vertical, they just simply follow where the money is — and the larger the cost, the bigger the motivation for fraudsters to go after the app.” As a bonus, I have embedded a video of Adjust’s session at GamesBeat Summit 2019. Katie Hutcherson Madding, global product director at Adjust; Yaron Oliker, CEO of Unbotify; and moderator Steve Peterson, CEO of StoryPhorce Entertainment, spoke about distinguishing between bots and humans in app usage.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
Discover our Briefings.
Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more.
VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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16,269 | 2,020 |
"The coronavirus crisis could push the U.S. to adopt online voting by 2024 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/05/30/the-coronavirus-crisis-could-push-us-to-adopt-online-voting-by-2024/amp"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Guest The coronavirus crisis could push the U.S. to adopt online voting by 2024 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden recently suggested that, as the public health emergency deepens, all-mail ballots are “worth looking at, quickly.” Mail-in ballots could be helpful as a stopgap right now, but it’s a slow and inefficient process in a digital age that demands a better answer. In addition, the lack of emergency funding for the United States Postal Service showcases how we cannot depend on this mode of voting for much longer.
Although false starts like Iowa’s Shadow app fiasco appear as setbacks, we indeed have the building blocks for online voting; we just need the determination, focus, and execution to bring it to fruition. It’s much too late to consider a transition to online voting in this year’s elections. But we could make the move in time for 2028, with state-wide beta tests in place as early as 2024. Although we may be eager for implementation sooner rather than later, it will take time for us to do this right.
The most prominent concern is, of course, security. Online voting must overcome several significant hurdles before it can be rolled out widely. These hurdles include voter ID fraud, a learning curve for users to understand the user interface, and attempts by hackers to take down the back-end networks and tamper with mobile apps and data, which could be difficult for election officials to detect.
Federal government, military, and private sector studies have all concluded that internet-based voting is not secure and shouldn’t be used in U.S. elections. The Department of Homeland Security recently released guidelines that point to high security risks for online election voting.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! “Until there is a major technological breakthrough in or fundamental change to the nature of the internet, the best method for securing elections is a tried-and-true one: mailed paper ballots,” democracy watchdog group Common Cause has said.
As the chief technology officer of a cybersecurity company with several government customers, I’ve been watching this issue closely. Truth is, the technological building blocks are available now for online elections, such as that for collecting, storing, and mining data at scale securely.
Here’s what else is needed: For starters, 100% of the source code needs to be open source. The mobile applications and server-side code should be open and shared for everyone to examine and poke holes in. A single organization operating behind closed doors can’t be expected to get this right. A community approach is the way to go.
We also need a process to trust and verify votes. Every American would need Real ID compliant identification, and the voting process would require layers of multi-factor authentication. Once placed, votes would need to be transparent in the sense that the person is anonymized, but certain characteristics about them are known, such as where the individual resides and who they voted for.
A potential problem could be some humans’ lack of trust in the digital process. Mail ballots can be verified, but how would online voters know their ballot was received? This could be remedied by requesting a confirmation that would then require the voter to confirm their identity once again. It could also be an instance in which blockchain serves as confirmation that someone voted but their identity is masked. Concepts of homomorphic encryption could be applied to ensure that voting data is encrypted yet can still be searched.
Then there’s the voting experience itself. The process would have to be so straightforward that everyone from Boomers to Gen Z could easily take part. That means the final product that voters will interact with, via the web or a mobile device, will need to have undergone a significant amount of usability testing. The apps will need to feel natural to users — and will need to support dozens of languages and be accessible to voters with disabilities.
We’ll need a robust system to collect votes. I don’t see scale as a problem, though. These days, one can develop a service on an off-the-shelf laptop that can write hundreds of thousands of events per second. With good architecture and design, and stress testing, a strong system can be deployed.
Finally, we’ll need to think about how we add security in every layer: the network, the app, and the data store. We’ll have to build and implement controls to generate and review system audit logs, limit access, and apply zero-trust concepts. This might sound like a lot, but it really isn’t much different than what regulated organizations in financial services and healthcare already do today.
A final question we will need to address is who puts the pieces together and creates the software required for online voting. Should a government task force take the lead? A public super company like Google or Apple? Some combination of technology leaders? The bottom line is, saying online voting won’t happen seems foolish. Surely, voting will happen digitally eventually; it just needs to be done right. And the coronavirus crisis may provide the push we need to make it happen sooner rather than later.
Kunal Anand is CTO at cyber security company Imperva.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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16,270 | 2,016 |
"Why Apple killed the iPhone headphone jack | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2016/09/07/why-apple-killed-the-iphone-headphone-jack"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Why Apple killed the iPhone headphone jack Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Apple has an adapter for the headphone jack to plug into lightning connectors.
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Headphone jacks seem like something sacred on our mobile devices. But Apple’s Phil Schiller explained why Apple decided to make its iPhone 7 smartphone without it.
Schiller, the senior vice president of worldwide marketing at Apple, said that “courage to move on” was one of those reasons, as Apple engineers decided they could take technology forward if they got rid of the antiquated analog audio connector.
Apple also saw that it could use the digital audio feature of the lightning connector (which you use to charge the smartphone) to deliver better quality.
But Schiller also said that Apple engineers saw that space was at a premium inside the device, with two cameras and other high-end technology vying for room in the packed enclosure. There was no room left for an antiquated connector that takes up a lot of space.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Lastly, Apple introduced its AirPods, which are wireless headphones that take up a lot less space and don’t have wires that get all tangled up.
“We have a vision for how audio should work on mobile devices — wireless,” Schiller said.
And for those who don’t want to move to the new gadgets, you can use an adapter that plugs an old headphone into the lightning connector.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
Discover our Briefings.
Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more.
VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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16,271 | 2,017 |
"A vicious new malware is targeting Mac computers | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2017/01/06/vicious-new-malware-can-freeze-apple-computers"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages A vicious new malware is targeting Mac computers Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Apple Store Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
Learn more.
Apple computer users should be extra diligent when surfing the web.
For the past few weeks, people have been tricked into visiting a phony website embedded with malware that can freeze Apple computers, according to a report this week by the cybersecurity firm Malwarebytes.
When Apple users visit the website via their Safari browser, often by clicking on a link in a bogus email, they inadvertently load malicious code onto their computers. The malware then triggers either two sets of actions depending on the version of the computers’ operating systems, the report said.
In one case, the malware causes the computer’s Apple email client to create a deluge of draft emails that contain the words “Warning! Virus Detected!” in the email subject line. Although the emails don’t get actually get delivered to anyone, the sudden flood of draft emails hogs the computer’s resources, thus causing the computer to freeze.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! In the second case, the malware causes the infected computer’s iTunes program to open multiple times without closing to the point where it crashes.
In both of these instances, the malware essentially causes computers to use up all of their memory, similar to how hackers launch so-called denial-of-service attacks on web sites. In a denial-of-service attack , hackers essentially overload an online service with Internet traffic, thus causing the service to become inaccessible because it can’t keep up.
Complicating matters, the malware targeting Apple computers leaves a dummy message in either the email draft or in the iTunes player that tells people to call a fake Apple support phone number to fix the problem. The report does not describe what happens when a person calls, but it’s likely that criminals will charge a fee to unlock the computer under the false pretense that they are Apple employees.
Tech support scam for iOS with season's colours (safari-get[.]com).
pic.twitter.com/xtTBCISNRp — Jérôme Segura (@jeromesegura) December 24, 2016 Apple’s iPhones and iPads are not impacted by the malware since they run on a different operating system than Apple computers.
The new Apple malware seems similar to a Microsoft Windows-tailored version that hit PCs in November, Malwarebytes said.
The Windows version of the Malware exploited a bug in the software language HTML5, increasingly used to create websites, that caused web browsers like Google Chrome and Firefox to display a fake help-support webpage that can’t be closed. The malware also causes the computer to overload so that no other program can be opened and instead display a fake telephone number to call.
As for the Apple malware, the security firm did not say how many people appear to have been impacted, but it said that those who upgraded their operating systems to the latest versions seemed to be safe from the variant of the attack that creates draft emails. The iTunes variant, however, appears to be triggered regardless of whether a person’s operating system is up to date.
This story originally appeared on Fortune.com.
Copyright 2017 VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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16,272 | 2,018 |
"Apple becomes first U.S. company to hit $1 trillion market cap | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2018/08/02/apple-becomes-first-u-s-company-to-hit-1-trillion-market-cap"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Apple becomes first U.S. company to hit $1 trillion market cap Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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Following its release of record third-quarter 2018 earnings on Tuesday, Apple today became the first U.S. company to hit a $1 trillion market capitalization — a profound achievement for a company that was days away from bankruptcy only 21 years ago. Apple’s stock approached the milestone months ago, leading some to ask whether rival Amazon might surpass it, but a two-day rally after earnings pushed the Cupertino company over the top.
Notwithstanding suggestions that it has become predictable, Apple’s record valuation reflects growing market optimism about the company’s future prospects. The company reported continued strong sales of its flagship iPhones — responsible for roughly 60 percent of its revenues — and marked growth in its wearables and services divisions. Notably, the average selling price of an iPhone rose this quarter to a staggering $724, and iPhone sales have remained stable despite contractions in the broader smartphone market.
According to Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri, even the company’s comparatively small wearables division has become a $10 billion annual business for the company, thanks to relatively recent innovations including the Apple Watch and AirPods earphones. Simultaneously, services such as the App Store, iCloud, Apple Music, and AppleCare are now contributing nearly $10 billion in revenue per quarter. Cook and Maestri said that they expect the same three divisions to show continued strong performance over the next quarter.
In recent years, Apple’s quarterly profit forecasts have been consistently accurate while continuing to set records. Apple now generates around $50 billion in revenue per quarter, in part by maintaining an industry-leading 38 percent profit margin across its offerings. It spends billions of those dollars each quarter on new facilities and technologies, as well as on returning cash to shareholders.
According to the NASDAQ exchange, Apple reached the $1,000,000,000,000 mark at 11:48 or 11:49 a.m. Eastern Time today by hitting a share price of $207.05 across over 4.8 billion outstanding shares, floating up and down around the milestone throughout the trading session. Several publications inaccurately reported that it had hit the $1 trillion mark earlier by reaching a share price in the $203 range, illustrating two challenges in determining Apple’s actual market capitalization.
First, the company has been aggressively buying back blocks of its own stock, cutting the number of outstanding shares by amounts that aren’t necessarily public. On Wednesday afternoon, Apple updated its 10-Q to reflect 4,829,926,000 outstanding shares as of July 20, 2018, providing the most accurate known number. But since Apple’s own Stocks app was using old data from third-party data provider Yahoo, it miscalculated the figure and showed an over $1 trillion valuation earlier in the trading day. Yahoo later updated its data.
Above: After briefly touching the $207.05 mark just before noon, Apple’s stock hit $208.38 per share later in Thursday’s trading session, settling at $207.39 for the day.
Second, stock prices fluctuate throughout the day, and the final share price for the day is computed using a complex “closing cross” system, which is somewhere between the day’s highs and lows. Apple’s initial trillion-dollar valuation came from hitting $207.05, but reached a mid-day high of $208.38 per share before settling at $207.39 at the close of trading.
As a result of these ambiguities, multiplying the current share price by the most recently divulged number of outstanding shares yields only a close estimate, assuming that being around $10 billion off can be considered “close” at this scale. At the end of Thursday’s trading, Yahoo officially listed Apple’s market cap as $1.002 trillion.
It’s worth a brief note that the first publicly traded company to hit $1 trillion in valuation was Chinese company PetroChina, which surged to that level on its first day of Shanghai market trading in November 2007, but subsequently dropped. PetroChina — an arm of China’s state-owned national petroleum company — is now valued at around $210 billion.
Concerns about the potential impact of an ongoing trade war between China and the United States have cast a cloud on Apple , which relies substantially on Chinese facilities to manufacture its products. Apple CEO Cook downplayed the risks on Tuesday, stating that he believes mutually beneficial trade is in both countries’ interests — and the world’s — and hopes that cooler heads will prevail.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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16,273 | 2,018 |
"Apple warns developers to get apps Notarized against malware threats | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2018/10/19/apple-warns-developers-to-get-apps-notarized-against-malware-threats"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Apple warns developers to get apps Notarized against malware threats Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
Learn more.
After announcing Notarized apps at a security-focused session at the 2018 Worldwide Developers Conference , Apple is today telling developers to submit their apps for notarization — a currently optional but soon to be mandatory step for non-App Store software from known developers, designed to protect both users and developers from malware.
As of now, Apple’s Gatekeeper serves as a barrier to app installation, presenting users with a dialog box that flags each app as potentially untrustworthy before allowing users to manually install it. Apps from developers with Apple developer ID certificates are considered more trustworthy by Gatekeeper, but the next stage is app-specific trust verification.
Notarization is exclusive to the recently released macOS Mojave, and provides an assurance that the specific download — not just the developer — has been checked for malware. Developers submit their apps to Apple for notarization, and each specific app release gets notarized to indicate that it’s malware-free. When users first try to open notarized apps, Apple notes that “they’ll see a more streamlined Gatekeeper dialog and have confidence that it is not known malware.” Developers also get another advantage: If a problem is found in a specific app build, Apple can simply pull that build’s notarization rather than yanking the developer’s trust certificate altogether. Apple has said that the notarization process is solely a security check and not an app review, which hopefully means that developers won’t encounter unreasonable delays.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! For now, non-App Store apps don’t require notarization, but that’s going to change. “In an upcoming release of macOS,” Apple says, “Gatekeeper will require Developer ID signed software to be notarized by Apple.” In other words, while this won’t stop unknown developers from trying to slip malware into apps, it will increase the likelihood that non-App Store apps from trusted developers will be safe, and may push more developers to distribute through the App Store instead.
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"Apple keeps telling governments it's pro-consumer, but that's not true | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/01/24/apple-keeps-telling-governments-its-pro-consumer-but-thats-not-true"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Opinion Apple keeps telling governments it’s pro-consumer, but that’s not true Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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I’m a longtime Apple user, but not an Apple apologist. In other words, I’ve spent years separating my love for iPhones from my knowledge that most of them will break if dropped accidentally — and that making beautiful, fragile devices has been Apple’s deliberate design strategy for years. It’s impossible to calculate how much money Apple has made from screen replacements, full device replacements , and AppleCare warranties over the past two decades, but there’s little doubt that it has used designed-in fragility to squeeze billions of additional dollars from its customers’ wallets. Even its latest $249 earphones, AirPods Pro , are designed to be tossed out rather than repaired when their batteries expire.
So whenever I hear Apple suggest it’s doing something for the benefit of consumers, or avoiding doing something because of the potential for consumer harm, I’m skeptical. This isn’t to say that Apple is incapable of aligning its own interests with those of consumers under some circumstances; rather, my view is that Apple generally does what’s best for itself, taking competitors and supplier constraints into account, and then markets the most consumer-friendly spin on that action to the public.
This week, Apple tried to tell European regulators not to mandate a universal charging standard for smartphones because it “would harm consumers in Europe and the economy as a whole.” The damage to consumers, Apple claimed, would include 1.5 billion euros in “innovation harm,” compared with only 13 million euros in environmental benefits. Both estimates were based on an Apple-commissioned Copenhagen Economics report that provided barely any factual basis for those numbers. For instance, the report claimed that consumers attribute 18% of a smartphone’s value to having a “modern device-end connector,” a claim that’s at best specious, if not impossible to prove. Depriving consumers of such a connector for three years would, through some magical calculations, somehow lead to that 1.5 billion euro harm.
My perspective is simple: It’s a good thing for consumers if a single charger can be used to charge your Apple laptop, tablet, and phone. Even better would be if a single charger could be used to charge any brand of laptop, tablet, and phone you may have.
Back in 2009 , European regulators looked at the mess of different chargers based on different device connector standards and said “clean this up.” To the extent that non-Apple devices (and certain Apple tablets and laptops) subsequently coalesced on USB-C, that’s been all to the benefit of consumers, with very few resultant complaints.
Although I don’t believe that Apple’s decision to (largely) go in a different direction with proprietary connectors was pro-consumer, I completely understand it as a business decision that was good for Apple — and it was marketed with consumer benefits. Back when Europe was trying to harmonize chargers around still-evolving USB standards, Apple was preparing to transition from its proprietary 30-pin Dock Connector to a smaller, reversible Lightning connector.
The company used these connectors to profit off iDevice accessories and control the hundreds of companies that made those accessories. Switching to USB would have cut off a source of revenue that was important at that point in the company’s history.
At the time, Apple positioned the move to Lightning as supporting customers’ desires for higher-quality accessories, saying that it could weed out sketchier players by individually approving every developer and keep users safe from unknown safety and security threats. But word spread within the industry that Apple was using its new connector to jack up prices and dictate to third-party developers what they could and couldn’t manufacture, dramatically stifling innovation. Within a matter of years, Apple-specific electronic accessories all but disappeared. And even with proprietary Lightning connectors, iPhones can still be hacked.
Above: An iPhone 11 charges on a Qi wireless accessory made by Totalee.
Many of the alternatives now use common wireless and wired standards such as Bluetooth, NFC, Qi, and USB to achieve the same results, and although Apple was a laggard in supporting some of them, it’s now involved with a wide variety of industry groups , sometimes even contributing its own research to improve their standards. At the same time, it continues to develop proprietary interfaces that go beyond the standards, such that Bluetooth AirPods work a little better with Apple devices, or specifically Apple-customized Qi chargers are supposed to refuel Apple devices a little faster.
Whether this approach is truly pro-consumer or merely pro-Apple is subject to some debate. If Apple’s research enabled safer fast wireless charging that might benefit all Qi users rather than just Qi users with Apple devices, society as a whole might be better off. But as competitors such as Samsung have their own approaches that deliver even faster wireless charging than Apple, there are now Qi chargers that deliver super-fast charging for Samsung phones, fast charging for iPhones, and standard charging for everyone else. From my perspective, consumers universally benefit from a common charging standard (Qi) through which multiple device-specific innovations can be accessed.
Moving to USB-C is basically the same situation. Apple already uses USB-C without issues in its Macs , and has been doing so in iPad Pro models since late 2018.
The company might claim that there’s future “innovation harm” in using this connector, or the potential for a major environmental crisis (mass recycling) if iPhone users suddenly needed to go out and buy new chargers or cables. But Mac and iPad Pro users — say nothing of users of competing products — already have chargers, cables, and accessories that would work with USB-C iPhones. Getting rid of Lightning wouldn’t make that worse; instead, it would merely eliminate a need for different cables and chargers that Apple itself created.
With the Lightning accessory market effectively in shambles, this is as good a time as any for Apple to stop fighting calls for smartphone connector harmonization and get on board. Apple’s attempts to unilaterally control the market for iPhone and iPad accessories didn’t work out well for developers or consumers. So if Apple wants to do something that’s actually pro-consumer, rather than just pro-Apple, moving iPhones fully to the widely liked USB-C standard would be a big step toward improving charging solutions for users inside and outside of Europe.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Everything Apple announced at WWDC 2020 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/22/everything-apple-announced-at-wwdc-2020"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Everything Apple announced at WWDC 2020 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn CEO Tim Cook talking at Apple's first virtual WWDC event Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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Apple’s first virtual developer conference is now well under way, and as usual the Cupertino company kicked things off with a handful of announcements that will impact the developer community in some shape or form, spanning both the software and hardware spheres.
Here’s a brief recap of all the major Apple announcements from day one of WWDC 2020.
Mac transitions to ARM Above: Tim Cook announcing Apple’s transition to ARM-powered Mac computers In what could hardly be described as a well-kept secret , Apple finally confirmed what everyone pretty much already knew: The company is shifting its Mac computers from Intel’s Core-series CPUs to ARM-based processors developed in-house by Apple. Moreover, this transition will allow Macs to run apps that were designed for iPhones and iPads.
Apple said that it expects to ship its first ARM-powered Macs by the end of 2020.
Read more : Apple confirms Mac transition to ARM CPUs macOS Big Sur Above: Big Sur In related news, Apple officially unveiled the next iteration of its desktop operating system. macOS Big Sur, as it’s called, sports a major interface redesign, but perhaps most notably it will be the first to support Apple’s new ARM processors, as well as offer native support for iOS and iPadOS apps.
Read more : Apple debuts macOS Big Sur with all-new design, ARM support iOS 14 Above: Apple’s new widgets in iOS 14 Aside from the big ARM announcement for Macs, iOS 14 was arguably the most eagerly awaited reveal at WWDC 2020. Among the new features coming to iPhones are widgets, similar to what Android has offered for years, which now allow users to tailor how information from apps is displayed on their Home screen.
Additionally, users will now be able to switch their Home screen from the traditional grid layout to a list that can be automatically arranged by the most used apps or suggested apps.
Read more : Apple reveals iOS 14 iPadOS 14 Above: iPadOS 14 One year after first transitioning iPads onto their own iOS variant called iPadOS, Apple today announced the second major release for the tablet’s operating system. Similar to iPhones, iPadOS 14 will also support widgets, and many of the new features coming to iOS 14 will also be landing on its big-screened counterpart. However, iPads will receive some exclusive features and tweaks, including a new sidebar that allows users to more easily navigate to different sections of an app from the side of the screen.
Read more : Apple debuts iPadOS 14 watchOS 7 Above: watchOS 7 As expected, Apple also announced watchOS 7, the latest incarnation of the operating system for the Apple Watch.
Among the new features arriving for Apple Watch users are sleep-tracking, dance-tracking, and the ability to create custom watch face configurations and share them online.
Read more : Apple announces watchOS 7 HomeKit Above: Face recognition is coming to HomeKit cameras HomeKit, Apple’s software framework that allows smart home devices to be controlled by Apple devices, is also getting a number of new features. Among the fresh tidbits are new facial recognition smarts, which will let homeowners with HomeKit-enabled cameras know if someone they know shows up at their front door — it does this using data from previously tagged subjects in Apple’s Photos app.
Elsewhere, another interesting new feature that HomeKit will soon enable is adaptive lighting in compatible smart bulbs, which will now be able to automatically change color throughout the day.
Read more : Apple announces new HomeKit features ARKit Above: The 2020 iPad Pro camera array, which features a built-in lidar sensor.
Apple also unveiled ARKit 4, the latest version of its augmented reality (AR) software development kit (SDK) for iPhones and iPads.
Among the new features is a Depth API that uses the iPad Pro’s lidar scanner to garner more accurate depth information from a scene — according to Apple, this may be useful for taking body measurements when trying on clothes virtually, for example.
Read more : Apple unveils ARKit 4 The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Researcher reveals Mac privacy bug, blasts Apple for 'security theater' | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/30/researcher-reveals-mac-privacy-bug-blasts-apple-for-security-theater"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Researcher reveals Mac privacy bug, blasts Apple for ‘security theater’ Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Safari on the MacBook on MacOS Sierra, using Apple Pay.
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When Apple announced its Security Bounty Program last year , researchers lined up to locate potentially dangerous bugs, keeping them secret in exchange for potentially large payouts. Developer Jeff Johnson promptly told Apple about a zero-day exploit that gives malicious actors access to a Safari browser user’s private files — an issue affecting even the beta version of macOS Big Sur.
But he claims the company left the flaw unpatched for over six months, leading Johnson to give up on the bounty program and describe the company’s efforts as “security theater.” The exploit is troubling: A Safari user tricked into downloading a seemingly innocuous file from a website can allow an attacker to create a dangerously modified clone of Safari, which macOS then treats as the original app. “Any restricted file that is accessible to Safari” then becomes accessible to the attacker, who can automate the sending of what should have been protected files to the attacker’s server.
As Johnson explains, this exploit is possible because Apple’s Transparency, Consent, and Control (TCC) privacy protection system allows exceptions that only look at the app’s identifier, not where the file is being run from, and “only superficially checks the code signature of the app.” Consequently, a modified copy of Safari can be run from the wrong directory without triggering TCC protection, a problem that spans macOS 10.14 (Mojave) , 10.15 (Catalina) , and 11 (Big Sur) , exposing untold millions of consumers and businesses to unauthorized sharing of their supposedly secure private data.
Apart from the exploit, Johnson notes that Apple’s intermittent responses haven’t instilled confidence in either the speed or likelihood of timely payouts from the Security Bounty Program. Having reported the exploit in December 2019, on the day the company opened the Bounty Program, Johnson received a confirmation that Apple was planning to address the issue, but as of the end of June 2020, nothing has happened. That goes “well beyond the bounds” of a 90-day “reasonable disclosure,” Johnson says, and for at least the second time in his personal experience. It’s “becoming obvious that I will never get paid a bounty by Apple for anything I’ve reported to them, or at least not within a reasonable amount of time.” VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Complaints regarding Apple’s slow responses to zero-day bug reports predate the Security Bounty Program and include back-and-forth exchanges between Apple and Google’s Project Zero security teams.
Johnson’s story of delayed responses and problematic payouts certainly isn’t unique, but it arrives with the warning to users that “macOS privacy protections are mainly security theater,” harming legitimate Mac developers while permitting malicious actors to weasel through cracks. “You have the right to know that the systems you rely on for protection are not actually protecting you,” Johnson says, adding that despite claims to the contrary, “Apple’s debilitating lockdown of the Mac is not justified by alleged privacy and security benefits.” Yesterday, Apple told Johnson the company is still investigating the exploit. We’ll update this article if and when Apple patches the bug in the beta version of Big Sur , which focuses a lot of attention on improvements to Safari.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Apple overtakes Saudi Aramco as world's most valuable public company | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/31/apple-overtakes-saudi-aramco-as-worlds-most-valuable-public-company"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Apple overtakes Saudi Aramco as world’s most valuable public company Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Apple's September 10, 2019 introduction of the iPhone 11 Pro.
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(Reuters) — Apple’s stock hit a record high on Friday after reporting blockbuster quarterly results , helping the iPhone maker briefly overtake Saudi Aramco to become the world’s most valuable publicly listed company.
Apple’s stock surged to as high as $412.22 a share, putting its market capitalization at $1.762 trillion, according to the share count provided by Apple in a regulatory filing on Friday.
Saudi Aramco, which has been the most valuable publicly listed company since going public last year, had a market capitalization of $1.760 trillion as of its last close, according to Refinitiv data.
Last up 6.2% at $408.78 in midday trading, Apple’s market capitalization stood at $1.748 trillion. After Apple bought back $16 billion worth of shares in the June quarter, it had 4,275,634,000 outstanding shares, as of July 17, according to the filing.
With Friday’s stock gain, Apple’s has surged about 40% year to date, with investors betting that it and other major U.S. technology companies will emerge from the coronavirus pandemic stronger than smaller rivals.
In its quarterly report, Apple announced a four-for-one stock split, with trading on a split-adjusted basis starting on Aug. 31. It will be Apple’s first share split since 2014.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Apple's antitrust woes stem from its obsessions with control and money | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/08/07/apples-antitrust-woes-stem-from-its-obsessions-with-control-and-money"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Opinion Apple’s antitrust woes stem from its obsessions with control and money Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Apple CEO Tim Cook Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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Apple may now be the world’s largest or second-largest public company by market capitalization, but truly understanding the business requires a flash backwards to a different era: the mid-1990s, when Apple teetered on the edge of bankruptcy. Founder Steve Jobs had no shortage of outside advice after returning to fix the sinking Apple ship, but ultimately focused on several strong values, including helping Apple to control its own destiny and develop fiscal prudence, each with the vigor of someone determined to learn from previous public and embarrassing mistakes.
Initially, Apple restored its financial footing by cutting its product lines and inventories, but its resurrection was fueled by increasingly massive investments in design, unique components, and marketing. Under Jobs, Apple became obsessed with controlling its public messaging, even finding ways to downplay engineering mistakes (see: Antennagate ) and recalls (“exchange and repair programs”) to prevent controversies from seriously impacting the company’s bottom line. As recently disclosed emails revealed , Jobs and his executive team decided to impose anti-competitive iOS store practices by acting unapologetically, as if saying it was doing no wrong would make everything hunky-dory with consumers and developers, while still making sure they were “paying us.” Apple has insisted that it prioritizes customers and — unlike rivals — actively protects them from being turned into “the product.” But Apple’s sense of “right” isn’t always based on what’s best for consumers; in reality, Apple does what’s best for Apple. Over the past two weeks, the company has faced Congressional accusations of anti-competitive App Store practices, and there have been too many examples to count. Major third-party developers have seen apps rejected on questionable or specious grounds, with Apple citing either business-focused App Store guidelines or broader principles that would require C-level (or governmental) intervention to reverse.
In the gaming sphere alone, Apple has rejected efforts to bring Microsoft’s xCloud , Valve’s Steam, Facebook Gaming, and the Epic Games Store to the iOS platform, despite their availability on PCs and/or Android devices. One might argue that that’s akin to preventing most of the world’s major music labels from offering songs through Apple Music unless they’ve been specially “ Mastered for iTunes ” and individually approved by Apple content teams, rather than just being offered in a universal format that works on everything.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Apple has recently framed the controversy as an issue of screening: It can’t approve or deny individual apps if it permits another company to operate its own platform within an iOS app. Put another way, if Facebook Gaming could just offer whatever games Facebook allows on other devices to be shared through its iOS app, third-party developers could sidestep Apple’s privacy and quality protections in favor of whatever lower standards Facebook sets. The same would be true with other players and lead to a downward spiral in content quality — as well as Apple’s 30% cut of sales.
In years past, Apple suggested that the broader issue was about emulation, namely that code optimized for another platform would reduce the battery life, reliability, and security of iOS devices. Jobs’ famous “Thoughts on Flash” open letter explained why Adobe Flash and its thousands of apps wouldn’t be allowed on iPhones, noting that the flaky Flash plug-in was “the number one reason Macs crash,” a problem Adobe failed to fix for years. But there was a deeper issue with control, Jobs explained: We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.
This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor’s platforms.
Superficially, the conflict appears to be simple, placing the consumer’s “right” to see, use, and play whatever they want on a device against Apple’s “right” to control what can and can’t appear on its products. But if there was once a reason to favor Apple’s view, technology advances have tilted the balance in consumers’ favor. Flash is no longer a factor, and some of the services Apple opposes are literally just streaming videos that happen to be interactive (games) rather than passive (movies and TV shows), with little to no difference in battery life, security, or stability. Apple doesn’t get to approve anything Netflix offers as content, so why should it have that “right” with streaming games or apps? My personal sense is that Apple’s user-facing concerns have become increasingly untenable and difficult to defend, particularly as cloud/edge server and wireless technology have advanced. On the technical side, there’s no longer any question that PC-quality interactive content can be virtualized and streamed to almost anything with a screen and a wireless connection — Wi-Fi indoors, 5G devices elsewhere.
From a content standpoint, music and video streaming services poked the first holes in Apple’s screening arguments, to say nothing of social media apps filled with barely filtered, user-generated content. Developers are reasonably questioning why games and other apps should be subject to a different standard.
That leaves Apple’s true issues exposed: money and control. Apple takes a 30% cut of direct iOS/iPadOS app sales, as well as some subscriptions, but makes nothing if the app is “free” or offers add-on content from another onramp (such as a website) that’s out of Apple’s reach. Although Jobs said in 2008 that “we don’t expect this to be a big profit generator” and just hoped to “sell more iPhones because of it,” the App Store actually generated over $50 billion for Apple in 2019 alone, roughly one-fifth of its $260 billion in annual revenues. Apple might act like it’s too large to care about money, but the company has recently sniped at developers who have succeeded on iOS without paying Apple anything, while doing as much as possible to push other developers — and users — into coughing up recurring subscription fees for both apps and games.
Understanding Apple’s penchant for control is at least as important, though it’s not as clear cut. PC and Mac users have assumed for decades that they could choose whatever they wanted to see, hear, and play on their own computers. But with iOS, Apple tried to avoid surrendering that level of openness, at least for content viewed through native apps.
The company previously straddled the line between Disney-style wholesomeness and a more hands-off approach to content, effectively dividing what “Apple offered and approved” from the Wild West of whatever Safari could access on the web. Over time, however, Apple apparently gave up on the Disney-like strategy, such that the App Store now openly hosts sex finder apps and games, Apple TV+ markets the frequently profane Morning Show , and Apple Music’s “New Music,” “Hot Tracks,” and “Top Charts” lists are all regularly dominated by explicit content. If Apple is screening non-app content at all these days, it’s not blocking much more than XXX videos or particularly outrageous violence, and even then, such things are only a browser tap or two away.
Today, the type of control Apple wants isn’t over content, but rather its business relationships with partners — and thus, its future revenue streams. It’s increasingly obvious that Apple wants to be sure that $50 billion in annual App Store revenue doesn’t just devolve into “free” apps with individual or all-you-can-eat subscriptions it can’t profit from. At the same time, Apple also wants to have some say in whether iOS apps violate user privacy in the name of hiding third-party price subsidies. Last but not least, it wants to remain on top of the latest app data analytics so it can continue to know what users are demanding from third-party developers, so it can choose whether or not to offer its own alternatives.
Greg Joswiak’s recent promotion to senior VP of worldwide marketing would have been an easy opportunity for Apple to change course. Joswiak’s former boss Phil Schiller has been running the App Store for years, steering it through multiple controversies over revenue splits and untenable policies. As Schiller exited the Senior VP role, he could have handed the App Store over to Joswiak or someone else for its next era of leadership. Instead, Schiller opted to remain with the company in a reduced role and keep running the App Store for an unspecified period of time. The best informed speculation is that he was planning a proper retirement for some time, but didn’t want to leave the App Store in the midst of antitrust accusations, lest he erode any sense of Apple’s confidence in its policies.
Regardless, now is precisely the right time for a meaningful App Store policy transition to take place, whether or not it’s under new leadership. Everyone agrees that the App Store has been a game changer for software distribution and consumer ease of use; there’s also no doubt that it’s a roaring success financially. But at this point, mobile platforms and their users have evolved to the point where the consumer’s “right” to see and play whatever they want on a pocket device should outweigh Apple’s preference to patrol everything for supposed policy infractions. The lines between native app, web app, or video stream have never been blurrier than they are today. If patrolling just one form of content while giving a free pass to the others isn’t already a fool’s errand, it’s about to be.
This isn’t to say that Apple has no right to guard the App Store’s gate or collect fees, but rather that now’s the time for Apple to ease up on both the obsessive control and large revenue cuts that have created so much controversy. A nearly $2 trillion company can afford to let developers keep bigger shares of the pies they’ve baked and provide more flexibility in what they offer consumers. The alternative is to risk antitrust litigation over little more than numbers and content semantics that should now be beneath a business of Apple’s size.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Epic's antitrust case against Apple's App Store monopoly | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/08/13/epics-antitrust-case-against-apples-app-store-monopoly"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Epic’s antitrust case against Apple’s App Store monopoly Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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In a broad antitrust challenge to the power of one of the tech industry giants, Epic Games has filed a lawsuit against Apple alleging antitrust violations for pulling Fortnite out of the Apple App Store because Epic included a way for players to cut Apple out of its 30% cut on sales.
The suit starts out by hitting Apple at the heart of what it stood for in the past, and Epic Games even created a short cartoon in Fortnite itself to express its point of view.
In the lawsuit, Epic Games said, “In 1984, the fledgling Apple computer company released the Macintosh — the first mass-market, consumer-friendly home computer. The product was announced with a breathtaking advertisement evoking George Orwell’s 1984 that cast Apple as a beneficial, revolutionary force breaking IBM’s monopoly over the computing technology market. Apple’s founder Steve Jobs introduced the first showing of the 1984 advertisement by explaining, ‘It appears IBM wants it all. Apple is perceived to be the only hope to offer IBM a run for its money. … Will Big Blue dominate the entire computer industry? The entire information age? Was George Orwell right about 1984?'” Fast forward to 2020, and Epic said, “Apple has become what it once railed against: the behemoth seeking to control markets, block competition, and stifle innovation. Apple is bigger, more powerful, more entrenched, and more pernicious than the monopolists of yesteryear.” Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! The suit pointed out that Apple’s market capitalization is nearly $2 trillion. Against that, Epic Games’ valuation of $17.3 billion, driven by the success of Fortnite (and its 350 million registered players), looks puny. But it’s certainly enough for Epic Games to set up a rival Epic Games Store to fight against Apple’s App Store and the Google Play store. Epic Games cited eight counts against Apple, including violations of the Sherman Antitrust Act as well as California’s Cartright Act against unreasonable restraint of trade.
What triggered the lawsuit Epic Games fired the first shot in what could be a gigantic App Store war.
Epic Games deliberately violated Apple’s terms of service by adding a direct payment for the popular game, cutting out Apple from sales.
Late in the day, Google also banned Fortnite from the Play Store for a similar reason.
Epic Games announced its Fortnite “mega drop,” a permanent discount on V-bucks (Fortnite’s in-game currency) and other cash purchases in the game of up to 20%. It also introduced a new direct-payment option. If you purchased V-bucks in the game through the iOS app store or Google Play, the cost is the same as it used to be. But under the new direct option, the discount is included.
There’s the full #FreeFortnite video pic.twitter.com/hgK4ySNghn — Jordan Oloman (@JordanOloman) August 13, 2020 Apple responded by deleting the game from the iOS app store. Apple said, “Today, Epic Games took the unfortunate step of violating the App Store guidelines that are applied equally to every developer and designed to keep the store safe for our users. As a result, the Fortnite app has been removed from the store. Epic enabled a feature in its app which was not reviewed or approved by Apple, and they did so with the express intent of violating App Store guidelines regarding in-app payments that apply to every developer who sells digital goods or services.” Apple suggested that Epic Games pushing for a “special arrangement does not change the fact that these guidelines create a level playing field for all developers and make the store safe for all users.” But Apple said it would work with Epic to resolve the violations so Fortnite can return to the app store.
On an iPhone, Fortnite requires an update, and the update says the app has been removed, so players can’t play it. That prompted Game Awards founder Geoff Keighley to tweet, “Free Fortnite.” Measurement firm Sensor Tower said Fortnite saw approximately 2.4 million installs in the last 30 days and generated $43.4 million in consumer spending on the App Store globally. To date, the game has reached 133.2 million installs and seen $1.2 billion in spending worldwide on the App Store alone.
The details of Epic’s case Above: Epic Games satirized Apple’s own 1984 ad in Fortnite.
In the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California, Epic alleges that Apple has used a series of “anticompetitive restraints and monopolistic practices in markets” for the distribution of software apps and the processing of consumer payments for digital content within iOS mobile apps. Epic said in the lawsuit that “Apple imposes unreasonable and unlawful restraints to completely monopolize both markets and prevent software developers from reaching the over 1 billion users of its mobile devices unless they go through a single store controlled by the App Store, where Apple exacts an oppressive 30% tax on the sale of every app.” Ironically, when Apple launched its App Store in 2009 and enabled third-party apps, it said that its 30% fee was liberating developers from having to accept a 70% fee from mobile carriers on third-party apps and games. Apple’s in-app purchases on free-to-play games like Fortnite also require a 30% fee that Apple collects.
Epic Games said Apple’s devices have become an indispensable tool of modern life, and consumers are being hurt directly because they are paying higher prices. That’s one of the basic foundations of any antitrust case. If the result of the anticompetitive behavior is a rise in prices or higher than normal prices for consumers, it could be a violation of antitrust law.
In addition to arguing that its app store is safer without Epic’s own direct payment solution, Apple is sure to argue that it has competition in the form of Google Play, which has more market share than Apple. It’s not clear whether the courts would say that a duopoly is just as harmful as a monopoly.
Epic said it is not just seeking relief for itself. It is seeking monetary compensation for the industry of third-party developers who are also affected.
Epic Games was able to enable side-loading of Fortnite in the Google Play store, though it complained that Google tried to tell users that such side-loading was unsafe and could prompt hackers to exploit users with malware. But Apple doesn’t allow side-loading. Now that Fortnite has been removed from the App Store, users cannot play it on an unlocked iPhone.
Above: Epic Games says Apple’s 30% is unreasonable.
Developers could use Google Play as an alternative, but they face the same “30% tax” as on the Apple App Store. Epic Games said that alternative distributors are harmed by the practices, as well as developers who are denied choice for how to distribute apps if they want to reach the most lucrative part of the mobile game market: Apple’s billion users.
Payment processing complaint On the payment processing side, Apple “coerces” all developers who wish to use its App Store to exclusively use Apple’s own payment processing platform for all in-app purchases. Apple also prohibits developers from even mentioning the option of alternative payments for in-app goods outside of the app.
Other payment processors can’t compete with Apple. It stands as the “sole middleman” between users and a vast array of developers. Those developers don’t get access to Apple’s data on their users. By contrast, Epic Games pointed out that on the Mac, Apple allows third-party payment processing services. One result is lower prices.
“It’s Apple’s way or the highway,” Epic Games said.
Epic Games also complained that Apple gobbles up two-thirds of the profits of the global smartphone industry.
Epic said it approached Apple to negotiate relief that would stop the unlawful practices, and it has publicly called for Apple to change, but Apple has refused to “let go of its stranglehold on the iOS ecosystem.” Epic closed its argument, asking the court to stop Apple from “continuing to impose its anti-competitive restrictions on the iOS ecosystem and ensure 2020 is not like 1984.
” Other possible allies Epic mentioned a couple of other companies that might be sympathetic to its case. Epic Games noted that Microsoft said that its Project xCloud test had expired on the Apple App Store and would not launch on that platform. Apple confirmed that it rejected xCloud for violating its policies — the same policies described above that are designed to protect Apple’s monopoly over the iOS app distribution market, Epic said. Microsoft expressed its discontent, saying Apple is “stand[ing] alone as the only general-purpose platform to deny consumers from cloud gaming and game subscription services like Xbox Game Pass.” On top of that, on August 7, Facebook said it had unsuccessfully attempted for six months to obtain Apple’s approval of a new Facebook Gaming app that would allow users to watch livestreams of online games and then play those games directly within the Facebook Gaming app. As it had done with Microsoft, Apple refused to allow Facebook to distribute its competing game store on the App Store.
https://twitter.com/pucknorris/status/1293992583551574016 Ultimately, Facebook “caved under Apple’s power and removed the ability for users to play games on its app, limiting it to a simple video streaming service,” Epic Games said.
Update, 4:26 p.m. with Google Play also removing Fortnite from the Play Store.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
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"Apple’s response to Epic threatens the future of VR, AR, TV, and films | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/08/18/apples-response-to-epic-threatens-the-future-of-vr-ar-tv-and-films"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Apple’s response to Epic threatens the future of VR, AR, TV, and films Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn "The Mandalorian" production team used Unreal Engine to display many of its environments on set.
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Epic’s lawsuit against Apple was already monumental when it solely focused on the iOS App Store, a walled garden that has grown to an intercontinental size with 1.5 billion supported devices. Yesterday, the battle between the Fortnite creator and platform holder leveled up after Apple explicitly threatened the future of Epic’s Mac and Unreal Engine businesses — a move with direct consequences for virtual reality, augmented reality, TV, and film developers beyond Epic and Apple themselves.
That threat was nestled in a letter from Apple, currently labeled Exhibit B in Epic’s request for a temporary restraining order to protect its business. On pages 52 and 53 of the 197-page filing, Apple says that it plans to terminate Epic’s developer license over the addition of an alternate payment mechanism to the iOS version of Fortnite, and spells out the consequences.
You will also lose access to the following programs, technologies, and capabilities: – All Apple software, SDKs, APIs, and developer tools – Pre-release versions of iOS, iPad OS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS – Pre-release versions of beta tools such as Reality Composer , Create ML, Apple Configurator, etc… – Engineering efforts to improve hardware and software performance of Unreal Engine on Mac and iOS hardware; optimize Unreal Engine on the Mac for creative workflows, virtual sets and their CI/Build Systems; and adoption and support of ARKit features and future VR features into Unreal Engine by their XR team Make sure you read the last part in detail. Apple is threatening not just to keep Fortnite out of the iOS App Store , but also to impede Unreal Engine’s performance on Macs and iOS devices. Even if you want to interpret that language most generously to Apple, it’s saying it won’t try to make Unreal Engine perform well on its devices — notably right in the middle of the Mac’s transition to ARM/Apple chips — or enable Unreal Engine to support Apple’s future AR and VR initiatives.
This letter might be Exhibit B now, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it re-emerge as Exhibit A in a massive antitrust case against Apple. Challenge Apple on iOS payments and it will explicitly threaten to delete your company from not just iOS devices, but also Macs, iPads, Apple TVs, and Apple Watches. That’s not just a bad look for Apple, given that Tim Cook testified under oath to Congress last month that “we do not retaliate or bully people; it’s strongly against our company culture.” The letter is also strong evidence of antitrust practices: Follow all the rules in the walled garden, or we’ll prevent you and everything you make from being used both inside and outside the garden.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! It’s impossible to overstate Unreal Engine’s importance to the next generation of immersive devices. Epic’s software is now being used to generate photorealistic content for holographic 3D displays , giant 3D windows , AR headsets , VR headsets , game consoles , films , serialized TV shows, and even Weather Channel broadcasts.
The company’s latest real-time ray-tracing demos look practically indistinguishable from reality, setting the stage for home computers to deliver cinema-quality 3D visuals. As of yesterday, Epic said that “millions of developers rely on the Unreal Engine to develop software, and hundreds of millions of consumers use that software.” The threat is significant — perhaps greater than Apple’s App Store team realized when it sent that letter. Telling all of these Unreal Engine developers to walk away from the Mac means pushing them to adopt Windows PCs, where Epic’s tools and apps will continue to both work and grow in power. I’d be surprised if there were actually a million (or millions of) Unreal Engine developers, but it’s possible that an Epic-inspired Mac-to-PC development switch could eclipse the exodus Apple caused by stripping down Final Cut Pro X and the Mac Pro , alienating the professional video editors who relied on earlier versions.
To be clear, I don’t believe that Apple losing Unreal Engine developers precludes those developers from continuing and expanding their efforts on other platforms; in other words, they’ll still make immersive content, TV shows, and movies — the content just won’t be created on Apple devices, and AR/VR experiences won’t be playable on them, either. While it would be easy to write that off as Apple’s loss, and consequently a loss for its customers, the reality is that Apple’s iOS devices have enough U.S. and foreign market share to influence the course of content creation. Some developers will therefore opt for lowest common denominator solutions that work across all platforms, Apple and otherwise.
Looking forward, I’m most concerned by Apple’s explicit reference to withholding “support of ARKit features and future VR features into Unreal Engine by their XR team.” It’s an open secret that Apple is working on AR/VR glasses , and Exhibit B suggests that Unreal Engine was going to power at least some of the glasses’ visuals. Killing a relationship that could enable Apple devices to display photorealistic AR/VR content in favor of a second-tier content development solution isn’t smart business. It’s even worse when everything pivots on whether Apple can take a cut of a fraction of Fortnite’s in-app purchases.
Apple ends its letter on a pleasant enough note, telling Epic that it wants to see the company continue to participate in its developer programs — all Epic needs to do, Apple suggests, is remove Fortnite’s alternate in-app payment system. Epic clearly wasn’t interested in doing that before Apple threatened its entire business, and now that Apple has shown its cards, the stakes are higher for both companies than ever before. Just as was the case with Qualcomm, where Apple belatedly backed down and made a deal that kept its iPhones viable, the combination of antitrust investigations and widespread developer anger should be clear signs to Apple’s executives that they’re headed in the wrong direction here. An abrupt reversal of course would go a long way toward improving everyone’s fortunes, and turning the heat down on a situation that will only get worse for Apple over time.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Aclima: Pollution data shows how much San Diego's skies have cleared | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/05/28/aclima-pollution-data-shows-how-much-san-diegos-skies-have-cleared"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Aclima: Pollution data shows how much San Diego’s skies have cleared Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Air pollution has fallen dramatically in San Diego, California in recent weeks, according to data collected by Aclima ‘s fleet of fixed and mobile pollution monitors. Precise measurements show the dramatic effect of work-from-home policies enforced during the pandemic and could prove invaluable in developing strategies to fight pollution on a hyperlocal level, Aclima CEO Davida Herzl said in an interview with VentureBeat.
“The reason that this data is so important is that we’ve never had control data on this scale,” Herzl said. “It’s an unnatural experiment, where you literally turn off the biggest emission sources all at once, in every county, across the state, but also around the world. And so the fact that we are collecting, measuring air quality during this time is an unprecedented experiment.” Aclima has been working with local governments to provide “hyperlocal” air quality insights, first by measuring local air quality data and then by sharing that information publicly so communities can take action to reduce pollution. It is a potentially disruptive approach to fighting climate change and pollution, Herzl said, but she stressed that the gains we are seeing during the pandemic are not permanent.
“There is a temporary reprieve,” Herzl said. “There are a couple of things that we take away from this. I think we now have a personal experience of what clean air feels like and what it smells like. We can feel the visceral experience. I think that has the potential to really inspire people to new actions on emissions reductions.” VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Above: Davida Herzl is CEO of Aclima.
The company puts pollution monitors on a fleet of electric cars that drive through the city, and it also has monitors in fixed places, Herzl said. These monitors catch the pollution on every street at the level where we breathe the air, she said. The government, by contrast, only collects small samples from fixed stations, such as a single monitor for the entire city of San Francisco.
“They have very low-resolution data and they extrapolate to a large region. Aclima has published studies with a number of scientific institutions that show that pollution is actually hyperlocal, and it can vary by 5 to 8 times along the single city block,” Herzl said. “And so if you want to understand how a neighborhood experiences pollution, or how an individual might have higher levels of exposure to pollution, you need to understand what hyperlocal pollution looks like.” The pandemic effect The silver lining of the coronavirus that has killed more than 100,000 people in the U.S. alone is its dramatic impact on pollution, as shelter-in-place orders have taken cars, trucks, planes, and mass transit out of operation. In February and March, reduced travel correlated with a decline in air pollutant levels around the world.
In San Diego, fine particulate matter dropped 29%, carbon monoxide dropped 20%, and ozone dropped 6% in recent weeks, based on regulatory data from previous years for the Air Quality and Meteorological Information System (AQMIS) database. The company observed drops in air pollutant levels in every county in the state, starting from when the shelter-in-place order was issued through the first week in April. You can verify it by looking out the window in normally polluted cities like Los Angeles.
Above: Black carbon is an important type of particle pollution typically arising from diesel fuel combustion.
In mid-April, however, Aclima began to see an increase in air pollutants in parts of California, as measured by both regulatory monitors and Aclima’s mobile sensing network. Changes in air pollutant and greenhouse gas levels can be caused by any number of factors. Many of these overlap — including precipitation, temperature, wind speed and direction, traffic patterns, and changes in human activity — so Aclima is conducting ongoing research to more deeply understand contributing factors during the shelter-in-place order.
The company is looking at the government’s regulatory data going back as far as 2017 to discount any seasonal effects on air pollution. Aclima’s own mobile sensing network has been measuring air pollutant and greenhouse gas levels in regions on a block-by-block basis since the spring of 2019. While average air pollutant levels are still lower than the average of the past three years and are below pre-pandemic levels, the upward trend in parts of San Diego is important to explore further as more people return to work.
Above: Carbon monoxide fell to lows during the lockdown in San Diego.
Looking at the hyperlocal data and border areas in San Diego, you can see fluctuations in pollutant levels week over week.
Broader mission Aclima has been measuring pollutants and greenhouse gases with its mobile sensing network in areas designated as environmental justice communities, as well as along the U.S. border with Mexico. This work supports emissions reduction efforts in parts of San Diego that are disproportionately impacted by air quality issues, including the neighborhoods near the port. “We make it easy to get this kind of environmental data in the hands of more decision makers to accelerate emissions reductions,” Herzl said.
The company said that prior to the shelter-in-place order, major freeways and roads near the coast and the border showed higher levels of the pollutant black carbon than other regions, likely relating to port activity and cross-border trucking traffic. “These front-line communities see much higher levels of pollution, and they have more health impacts,” Herzl said. “During COVID-19, there is an emerging science that shows that communities with more pollution are seeing more impact from COVID-19.” Above: Black carbon levels are inching back up in San Diego after falling during lockdown.
During the shelter-in-place period, black carbon concentrations (often from diesel fuel) fell 33% in San Diego across five weeks. But starting the week of April 12, concentrations of black carbon began to increase with the rise in other pollutants. Ongoing research is required to isolate the impact of combustion emissions versus meteorological influences on black carbon and other air pollutant concentrations.
But Herzl believes the overall message is clear: We need to invest in “decarbonization” efforts now. While such efforts could strain an economy already taxed by the pandemic, she believes we have a new opportunity to create jobs with smart energy investments.
Aclima has 120 employees and has raised $24 million from Social Capital and others.
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"Google to expand AI-powered flood forecasts in India for monsoon season | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2019/09/18/google-to-expand-ai-powered-flood-forecasts-in-india-ahead-of-monsoon-season"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Google to expand AI-powered flood forecasts in India for monsoon season Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Google is growing its flood prediction AI for India to cover more than 11,000 square kilometers along the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers, the company announced today. Approximately 20% of global flood fatalities occur in India.
Monsoon rains have been above average in India for three consecutive weeks, Reuters reported Wednesday.
Since Flood Forecast initiative trials in the Patna region first began about a year ago, 800,000 notifications have been sent to smartphone users. Notifications are also sent to a human network of volunteers with the nonprofit SEEDS who spread emergency warnings to people without phones.
The expansion will be supported by new forecast methodologies — like a recently developed approach to creating Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) — that optimize the inundation model to work with tensor processing units (TPU) and supply predictions 85 times faster than with CPUs alone.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! “Correlating and aligning the images in large batches, we adjust their camera models (and simultaneously solve for a coarse terrain) to make the images mutually consistent. Then we create a depth map for each image. To make the elevation map, we optimally fuse the depth maps together at each location,” Google senior software engineer Sella Nevo said in a blog post.
“For additional efficiency improvements, we’re also looking at using machine learning to replace some of the physics-based algorithms, extending data-driven discretization to two-dimensional hydraulic models, so we can support even larger grids and cover even more people.” In addition to using TPUs to improve the accuracy of flood predictions, Google began to draw on imagery from the European Space Agency Sentinel-1 satellite constellation.
In January, Google said flood predictions had achieved 75% accuracy.
Model prediction levels have remained the same, a company spokesperson told VentureBeat in an email.
Flood prediction systems could become increasingly important as climate change worsens. AI models are being built to protect people and property from all kinds of natural disasters, with researchers this week publishing a paper on machine learning to predict large wildfires.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Researchers use machine learning to predict large wildfires | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2019/09/18/researchers-use-machine-learning-to-predict-large-wildfires"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Researchers use machine learning to predict large wildfires Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
A multidisciplinary group of researchers from the University of California, Irvine created a machine learning model to predict the potential of large wildfires from the time of ignition. The decision classifier model uses a single dataset to predict whether a fire will be large roughly 50% of the time, outperforming more complex models tested by researchers that rely on multiple weather variables.
Researchers trained the AI with air moisture data over the span of the average weather report using data from more than 1,100 fire events in Alaska between 2001 and 2017 from the Alaska Large Fire Database. Each fire was then labeled as small, medium, or large. The model is then able to predict approximately 40% of ignitions that lead to large wildfires that account for 75% of burned area during that time period.
Though the model is trained to predict outcomes of fires in forests primarily made up of boreal trees, the kind found in Alaska and northern Canada, such a model could be used to allocate resources for fire officials in parts of the western United States where wildfires are expected to increase in frequency as a result of climate change.
“This type of simple classification system could offer insight into optimal resource allocation, helping to maintain a historical fire regime and protect Alaskan ecosystems,” the report reads. “The huge fires and their impacts in recent years may warrant a rethinking of fire management; lands that have previously been limited suppression zones could now require increased suppression effort to maintain contemporary burning levels and mitigate impacts to humans and vulnerable ecosystems.” VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! As the report references, fire aerosols account for more than 300,000 premature deaths each year globally and make contributions to the global carbon footprint. One University of New Hampshire study predicts that the size of wildfire burn area could double by 2050 compared to levels seen in the 1990s.
The simpler approach achieved more accurate results than four other more complex machine learning classifiers in the scikit-learn package like multi-layer perceptron and gradient boosting. The findings were published Tuesday in the International Journal of Wildlife Fire.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
All rights reserved.
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"Google Glass hands-on: This isn't and never will be a good device for consumers | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2013/05/09/google-glass-hands-on-review"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Google Glass hands-on: This isn’t and never will be a good device for consumers Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn This post was supposed to be my big hands-on review. Instead, all I have to offer is this: Unless your employer tells you otherwise, don't even think about getting Google Glass.
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As a Google Glass owner, I can immediately see how it will be incredibly useful for so many kinds of people. Doctors, mechanical engineers, any sort of field worker.
But for us layfolk, the device only serves to make us look awfully nerdy, to make us economic targets, to make us less aware of the world around us, and to leave us more disconnected than ever from the real people we encounter every day.
I signed up for Glass the first day of Google I/O last year. The device was (and is) a gift to my now-husband. He loves it.
But even he, the tech-obsessed gadget fiend, admits it’s difficult to wear. The first time he set foot outside the house with it on, he immediately stepped in dog shit because he wasn’t paying attention to the world outside the screen. And he adamantly refuses to wear it on public transportation for fear of being mugged.
In its current form, Glass doesn’t have too many apps or features, and it’s incredibly non-intuitive and buggy — just as you’d exect from a developer prototype. Right now, it can’t do much aside from take really bad pictures and perform Google searches based on your poorly interpreted shouting.
But give it a few months. Soon, it’ll be streaming Netflix queues, taking brilliant long-form blog post dictation, and offering up a wealth of casual social games, a portal into an endless labyrinth of distraction.
In the tech press, we’ll probably be reporting on each app that pops onto the Glass landscape, gushing over the capabilities of the device as they grow with each new day. We’ll report on the novelty use cases, like the first guy who writes a play or a novel using Google Glass, or the girl who shoots a feature film using the device.
Occasionally, we’ll write about someone who runs off the road while wearing Glass, or some university that bans Glass in the classroom, or a babysitter who lets a kid get hurt because she’s playing with her Glass.
And some overzealous Emily Post type (probably at an old-timey print rag) will write a much-mocked op-ed about the slight but growing disconnection between people. The rudeness, amplified from the current norm of iPhones and earbuds, with distraction now appearing right before your eyes in addition to your fingers and ears.
But the cumulative effects won’t amount to a societal change in how we consume information or deal with life away from our desktop screens. It’ll just be the same kind of impact smartphones have had — all the good and bad — but slightly accelerated and accentuated.
On the other hand, for myriad kinds of workers, I can see Glass being an extraordinarily helpful, hands-free tool. Imagine working on an airplane engine and having the manual right in front of you or using it to photograph and catalog new species during a deep-sea diving expedition. Even the first coalition of Glass app investors see its greatest potential in professional use cases, not consumer applications.
It’s up to us as individuals to make moral decisions about the technology we use. For me, I consider technology a tool, a means to an end. Too often, my peers tend to get wrapped up in the joy of tech in and of itself, as an end and a goal to be celebrated rather than a tool to be carefully used.
In my moral universe, Google Glass for consumers can only serve to distract us, not truly help us any more, better, or faster than the other tools we already use. For example, you already have Google Maps to guide you around your city with turn-by-turn audio navigation. That tool doesn’t get any better when it’s smack-dab against your eyeball. Neither does your email or your Instagram feed or your Facebook account.
Glass is a game-changer, sure, but in the worst possible way.
From the first moment I saw it, Glass reminded me of a Star Trek episode called “ The Game.
” The plot was pretty simple: Everyone aboard the Enterprise got hooked on a Glass-like visor running a casual puzzle game — one that addicts its players. This sci-fi is within spitting distance of our current reality. But the unfortunate plot twist was that hostile aliens were able to infiltrate the ship because no one was damn paying attention to the world around them anymore.
Thus, Google Glass. If you’re using it recreationally, not professionally to complete a task, don’t kid yourself — it’s not enhancing your life. It’s robbing you of the joy of actually experiencing your life. You’ll realize it the first time you step in dog shit or have your girlfriend get mad at you for not listening to her or lose your kid in a store.
This post was supposed to be my big, hands-on review. Instead, all I have to offer is this: Unless your employer tells you otherwise, don’t even think about getting Google Glass. And train yourself to rely less on your smartphone, while you’re at it. We can wait for something better, more useful, and more human-friendly to come along.
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"ProBeat: Wearables are gimmicks | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2017/07/21/probeat-wearables-are-gimmicks"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Opinion ProBeat: Wearables are gimmicks Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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It’s been a tough month for wearables. Two weeks ago, The Information revealed that Jawbone is being liquidated.
This week, CNBC reported that Intel had axed its wearables division.
As my colleagues and friends know, I’m one of the biggest skeptics of wearables in the world. As such, neither of these stories shocked me in the slightest.
At the same time, though, I’m also incredibly bullish on what wearables will one day accomplish. The technology just isn’t here yet.
None of today’s wearables excite me (many concepts and prototypes do, but that’s the case for almost any space). I’ve thought about this for a long time, and the reality is that wearables simply don’t do anything that I wish they could.
I want a device that can truly accomplish what my phone can’t. I don’t care for a wearable that can tell the time, make phone calls, send messages, run apps, and count my steps.
I don’t want a shitty phone on my wrist. Nor on my face.
Google Glass Explorer Edition relaunched this week as Enterprise Glass Edition.
I’m happy to see that Google has found a niche for the product, but it’s depressing the company has put the dream of prescription glasses and contact lenses with AR functionality on the back burner.
I want a device that can monitor exactly what I’ve consumed and measure what I have gained (or lost) from it. I want a device that can measure how long I’ve rested and whether it is enough for the life I live. I want a device that can determine what my body really needs based on the information it gathers. That means anything from a recommendation to go for a run today because I’ve been immobile for too long or to eat a specific vegetable because I’m missing a given nutrient.
I strongly believe this is coming. But until the technology arrives, I’m not surprised that startups are folding and tech giants are looking elsewhere.
The good news is that many people do find wearables in their current iteration to be useful. Companies are clearly interested in augmented glasses, while consumers are still buying smartwatches and fitness trackers.
Indeed, IDC estimated last month that wearables grew 17.9 percent in Q1 2017.
The top five companies (Xiaomi, Apple, Fitbit, Samsung, and Garmin) aren’t throwing in the towel.
As long as there is at least some demand, money will be invested in the space. And hopefully, those investments will one day pay off with a device that stands on its own.
Attached to your body, of course.
ProBeat is a column in which Emil rants about whatever crosses him that week.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"ProBeat: Breakthrough or BS, Amazon's Rekognition is dangerous | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/16/probeat-breakthrough-or-bs-amazons-rekognition-is-dangerous"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Opinion ProBeat: Breakthrough or BS, Amazon’s Rekognition is dangerous Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Like all tech giants, Amazon is regularly criticized for various policies and practices. But no issue has been as contentious this year as selling its facial recognition tech Rekognition to law enforcement.
Never mind that a growing chorus of AI experts are calling for facial recognition systems to be regulated.
Amazon is eagerly developing surveillance tech for police.
If it’s legal, Amazon says, any government agency can be a client.
During a keynote last month, protestors interrupted Amazon Web Services CTO Werner Vogels five times demanding the company “cut ties with ICE.” They played recordings of children being separated from their parents at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility.
Are you fucking kidding me? AWS comes under fire for Rekognition sales to the federal government, who in turn is building concentration camps for children, and AWS's response is to improve "age range estimation" and "fear detection" in the service? Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME?! https://t.co/RiQ850uAFq — Corey Quinn (@QuinnyPig) August 12, 2019 So this week, Amazon improved Rekognition’s age range estimation accuracy and added “fear” as the eighth emotion that the facial recognition tech can allegedly detect. Here is the company’s description of the update : VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Amazon Rekognition provides a comprehensive set of face detection, analysis, and recognition features for image and video analysis. Today, we are launching accuracy and functionality improvements to our face analysis features. Face analysis generates metadata about detected faces in the form of gender, age range, emotions, attributes such as ‘Smile’, face pose, face image quality and face landmarks. With this release, we have further improved the accuracy of gender identification. In addition, we have improved accuracy for emotion detection (for all 7 emotions: ‘Happy’, ‘Sad’, ‘Angry’, ‘Surprised’, ‘Disgusted’, ‘Calm’ and ‘Confused’) and added a new emotion: ‘Fear’. Lastly, we have improved age range estimation accuracy; you also get narrower age ranges across most age groups.
Improved face analysis models are now available for both Amazon Rekognition Image and Video, and are the new default for customers in all supported AWS regions. No machine learning experience is required to get started.
Can Amazon be more tone deaf? Facial recognition and emotion detection Amazon doesn’t care about ethics. The company is only interested in what the law dictates. That’s convenient given it often takes years, if not decades, for the law to catch up with bleeding-edge technology.
But how accurate is facial recognition for emotion detection anyway? A study published last month throws into question whether the technology even works. From the abstract: The available scientific evidence suggests that people do sometimes smile when happy, frown when sad, scowl when angry, and so on, as proposed by the common view, more than what would be expected by chance. Yet how people communicate anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise varies substantially across cultures, situations, and even across people within a single situation. Furthermore, similar configurations of facial movements variably express instances of more than one emotion category. In fact, a given configuration of facial movements, such as a scowl, often communicates something other than an emotional state.
Scientists agree that facial movements convey a range of information and are important for social communication, emotional or otherwise. But our review suggests an urgent need for research that examines how people actually move their faces to express emotions and other social information in the variety of contexts that make up everyday life, as well as careful study of the mechanisms by which people perceive instances of emotion in one another.
In short, there is no scientific evidence for the common assumption “that a person’s emotional state can be readily inferred from his or her facial movements.” The same emotions are not always expressed in the same way and the same facial expressions do not reliably indicate the same emotions. Not to mention, humans can experience multiple emotions at the same time, or even fake an emotion by making a face.
Emotion detection There are two possible conclusions. Amazon’s Rekognition cannot detect human emotion because doing so is not technically possible using facial recognition. Or, Rekognition is a breakthrough and can somehow determine human emotion using facial recognition.
Neither option sounds great. The former means that Amazon is selling a product that claims to detect emotion when all it’s really detecting is facial movements that may or may not be related. Clients then make decisions based on this.
The latter means Amazon believes all human emotion can be pigeon-holed into eight categories. This week’s Rekognition update even notes that emotion detection now has “improved accuracy.” Yeah? What was it before? What is it now? Given that no system is 100% accurate, what happens when Rekognition wrongly detects an emotion? Clients then make decisions based on this.
Not sure if either scenario scares you? Standby, Rekognition will confirm.
ProBeat is a column in which Emil rants about whatever crosses him that week.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Echo Show camera can identify items thanks to Alexa's Show and Tell | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2019/09/23/echo-show-camera-can-identify-items-thanks-to-alexas-show-and-tell"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Echo Show camera can identify items thanks to Alexa’s Show and Tell Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
As part of a continued mission to make its Alexa intelligent assistant more accessible for everyone, Amazon today introduced a new feature called Show and Tell, which helps blind and low vision customers with an Echo Show smart display identify common pantry goods (like canned or boxed foods) that can be difficult to distinguish by touch.
Show and Tell is available starting today for Alexa customers in the U.S. on first and second-generation Echo Show devices. To get started, say “Alexa, what am I holding?” or “Alexa, what’s in my hand?,” which will kick off verbal and audio cues that guide you to place the item you’d like to identify in front of the Echo Show’s camera.
“The whole idea for Show and Tell came about from feedback from blind and low vision customers,” said head of Amazon’s Alexa for Everyone team Sarah Caplener in a statement. “We heard that product identification can be a challenge and something customers wanted Alexa’s help with. Whether a customer is sorting through a bag of groceries, or trying to determine what item was left out on the counter, we want to make those moments simpler by helping identify these items and giving customers the information they need in that moment.” Amazon says the feature was developed in close collaboration with blind Amazon employees, and that the development team gathered input and feedback from blind and low vision customers. Additionally, they worked with the Vista Center for the Blind in Santa Cruz and other organizations throughout the process.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! “I get to help create products like Show and Tell, make our Fire tablets and TVs accessible and delightful, and constantly help to imagine new ways for our products and services to improve the lives of our customers, including those with disabilities,” said principal accessibility researcher Josh Miele, who’s blind. He cited statistics from the World Health Organization estimating that 1.3 billion people live with some form of vision impairment, and that 15% of the population live with some sort of disability.
The debut of Show and Tell follows on the heels of accommodating features like an adjustable speech rate and Tap to Alexa, which lets Echo Show owners access weather forecasts, news headlines, timers, and more by tapping rearrangeable shortcuts on the Show’s screen. Amazon Captioning, which launched in the U.S. last year and internationally more recently, provides captions for Alexa’s responses on Echo devices with a screen and transcribes incoming voice messages.
Amazon isn’t the only tech giant investing in accessibility, of course.
Google unveiled three separate accessibility efforts targeting users with speech impairments, deafness, and limited mobility at its I/O 2019 developer conference earlier this year, and in July it detailed an open source AI tool, Parrotron , that aims to help those with atypical speech become better understood by voice assistants. Meanwhile, last September saw the unveiling of Microsoft’s Soundscape , a navigation app that uses binaural audio — sound recorded with two microphones arranged to create a 3D stereo sound sensation — to help visually impaired users build mental maps and make personal route choices in unfamiliar spaces.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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16,288 | 2,019 |
"Google to acquire Fitbit for $2.1 billion | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2019/11/01/google-to-acquire-fitbit-for-2-1-billion"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Google to acquire Fitbit for $2.1 billion Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Fitbit Versa Lite Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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The rumors were true — Google is acquiring fitness wearables company Fitbit in a deal worth $2.1 billion, a 30% premium on Fitbit’s current market cap.
Fitbit’s shares have tumbled since its 2015 IPO , going from a high of nearly $50 to a low of less than $3 this year. In the wake of reports this week that Alphabet was preparing a bid, Fitbit’s shares surged more than 40% to over $6. Google will pay $7.35 per share in an all-cash transaction that is expected to close in 2020, pending both shareholder and regulatory approval.
With Fitbit under its wing, Google said it plans to build wearables that combine “the best hardware, software, and AI.” “Fitbit has been a true pioneer in the industry and has created terrific products, experiences, and a vibrant community of users,” said Rick Osterloh, senior VP for devices and services at Google. “We’re looking forward to working with the incredible talent at Fitbit and bringing together the best hardware, software, and AI to build wearables to help even more people around the world.” The story so far Fitbit was originally known for its fitness-tracking bands, but in 2017 it expanded into smartwatches to keep apace with newer entrants in the wearables space, including Apple. Combined with the growing number of competitors in the fitness tracking space, such as China’s Huawei and Xiaomi, which have brought more affordable trackers to market, Fitbit has for some time been fighting a tough battle in a crowded field. Indeed, earlier this year Fitbit cut its 2019 revenue forecast , blaming disappointing sales of its new (and cheapest) smartwatch, the Versa Lite.
While Google began life as a software maker, it has since expanded into all manner of hardware devices, including laptops and smartphones , but it has yet to bring a smartwatch to market. However, Google has reportedly been working behind the scenes to develop a smartwatch, and it’s also worth noting that Google already offers Wear OS , an operating system for wearable devices.
So in many regards, the Fitbit acquisition should not come as a major surprise, given that wearables were an obvious omission in Google’s product lineup. And despite Fitbit’s recent turmoils, it remains a major recognizable brand in the wearables space, with some 28 million active users around the world — something Google is eager to capitalize on.
From Fitbit’s perspective, growing in the current competitive wearables landscape would have been a challenge, especially with shareholders to appease — so becoming a private entity that operates within the Google ecosystem could give it fertile ground.
“Google is an ideal partner to advance our mission,” added Fitbit CEO and cofounder James Park. “With Google’s resources and global platform, Fitbit will be able to accelerate innovation in the wearables category, scale faster, and make health even more accessible to everyone.” Data grab? While there’s nothing specific to suggest regulators will attempt to block this acquisition, U.K. Labour politician Tom Watson, the shadow digital, culture, media, and sport secretary, called the planned deal “a data grab.” Watson wrote to the U.K. competition regulator on Tuesday after reports first surfaced that Google planned to make a bid for Fitbit, asking it to intervene until a broader investigation into anticompetitive practices in the technology industry had been completed.
“I have long been concerned about the data monopolies that dominate our tech market, including Google,” Watson noted. “These companies hold and gather an unprecedented amount of data on users, which is then monetized through micro-targeting and advertising to amass huge profits and power. Meanwhile, the digital giants themselves remain unaccountable, unregulated, and see themselves as above the law. They have run rings around regulation for far too long.” The ability to monetize fitness data is obviously a major draw for Google, and it will be interesting to see whether this deal attracts the attention of any regulators in its home market. Google is more than aware of how this deal could be perceived and is already outlining some of the ways it plans to manage the newly acquired data — including not using it to sell ads.
“When you use our products, you’re trusting Google with your information,” Osterloh said in a separate blog post.
“We understand this is a big responsibility and we work hard to protect your information, put you in control, and give you transparency about your data. Similar to our other products, with wearables we will be transparent about the data we collect and why. We will never sell personal information to anyone. Fitbit health and wellness data will not be used for Google ads. And we will give Fitbit users the choice to review, move, or delete their data.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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16,289 | 2,020 |
"Google vows not to use Fitbit data to target ads | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/14/google-vows-not-to-use-fitbit-data-to-target-ads"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Google vows not to use Fitbit data to target ads Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
Learn more.
( Reuters ) — Alphabet’s Google has offered not to use health data of fitness tracker company Fitbit to help it target ads in an attempt to address EU antitrust concerns about its proposed $2.1 billion acquisition, the U.S. tech company said late on Monday.
The bid, announced in November last year, would help Google take on market leader Apple and Samsung in the fitness-tracking and smart-watch market, alongside others including Huawei and Xiaomi.
“This deal is about devices, not data. We appreciate the opportunity to work with the European Commission on an approach that safeguards consumers’ expectations that Fitbit device data won’t be used for advertising,” Google said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
Reuters reported last week that such a data pledge may likely help Google secure EU approval for the deal.
With just 3% of the global wearables market as of the first quarter of 2020, Fitbit is far behind Apple’s 29.3% share and also trails Xiaomi, Samsung and Huawei, according to data from market research firm International Data Corp.
While the deal has drawn heavy criticism from privacy advocates on both sides of the Atlantic, on concerns that Google may use Fitbit’s trove of health data to boost its dominance in online advertising and search, privacy issues do not fall under competition rules.
The European Commission is expected to seek feedback from rivals and users before deciding whether to approve the deal, demand more concessions or open a four-month-long investigation if it has serious concerns.
( Reporting by Foo Yun Chee; Editing by Sandra Maler and Leslie Adler ) VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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16,290 | 2,020 |
"Amazon reports $88.9 billion in Q2 2020 revenue: AWS up 29%, subscriptions up 29%, and 'other' up 41% | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/30/amazon-earnings-q2-2020"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Amazon reports $88.9 billion in Q2 2020 revenue: AWS up 29%, subscriptions up 29%, and ‘other’ up 41% Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The logo of Amazon is seen at the company logistics center in Boves, France, September 18, 2019.
Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Amazon today reported earnings for its second fiscal quarter of 2020, including revenue up 40% to $88.9 billion, net income of $5.2 billion, and earnings per share of $10.30 (compared to revenue of $63.4 billion, net income of $2.6 billion, and earnings per share of $5.22 in Q2 2019 ). North American sales were up 43% to $55.4 billion, while international sales grew 38% to $22.7 billion.
The results were highly anticipated since they encompass Amazon’s first full quarter during the coronavirus pandemic, not to mention the company’s leadership position in online retail and the cloud. Last quarter, Amazon’s guidance for Q2 included a note for “$4.0 billion in costs related to COVID-19.” For Q3, Amazon expects another “$2.0 billion of costs related to COVID-19.” The company does not want to be seen as benefiting too much from the pandemic. (Amazon’s $5.2 billion in quarterly profit is the largest ever in its 26-year history.) Analysts had expected Amazon to earn $81.53 billion in revenue and report earnings per share of $1.46. The retail giant thus easily beat on both. The company’s stock was up less than 1% in regular trading and up 5% in after-hours trading. Amazon gave third-quarter revenue guidance in the range of $87.0 billion and $93.0 billion, compared to a consensus of $86 billion from analysts.
COVID-19 impact on the quarter Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who testified during the virtual antitrust hearing yesterday , provided a longer-than-usual statement in Q1. He did the same again in Q2, which is no surprise, given the company’s role during the pandemic and the coronavirus’ impact on its bottom line. Bezos highlighted Amazon’s actions with regards to COVID-19 and talked up the company’s broader impact, including job creation: VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! This was another highly unusual quarter, and I couldn’t be more proud of and grateful to our employees around the globe. As expected, we spent over $4 billion on incremental COVID-19-related costs in the quarter to help keep employees safe and deliver products to customers in this time of high demand — purchasing personal protective equipment, increasing cleaning of our facilities, following new safety process paths, adding new backup family care benefits, and paying a special thank you bonus of over $500 million to front-line employees and delivery partners. We’ve created over 175,000 new jobs since March and are in the process of bringing 125,000 of these employees into regular, full-time positions. And third-party sales again grew faster this quarter than Amazon’s first-party sales. Lastly, even in this unpredictable time, we injected significant money into the economy this quarter, investing over $9 billion in capital projects, including fulfillment, transportation, and AWS.
Amazon said it increased grocery delivery capacity by over 160% and tripled grocery pickup locations in the quarter “to support customers during COVID-19.” Year-over-year, online grocery sales tripled in Q2.
The company’s release also stated it had donated more than $10 million in personal protective equipment, including 4.4 million masks and thousands of contactless thermometers, to Direct Relief and Feeding America. Amazon wants to be seen as spending money, not just making money, in response to the pandemic.
AWS sees sub-30% growth In Q1, Amazon Web Services (AWS) passed the $10 billion milestone, even as growth continued to slow. In Q2, AWS growth fell to 29% — the first sub-30% growth rate since Amazon started breaking out AWS numbers. The growth rate has been falling steadily for the past two years, but COVID-19 looks to be accelerating this trend.
$AMZN AWS revenue growth – Q1 2017: 43% – Q2 2017: 42% – Q3 2017: 42% – Q4 2017: 45% – Q1 2018: 49% – Q2 2018: 49% – Q3 2018: 48% – Q4 2018: 45% – Q1 2019: 41% – Q2 2019: 37% – Q3 2019: 35% – Q4 2019: 34% – Q1 2020: 33% – Q2 2020: 29% https://t.co/r0XghGABL2 — Emil Protalinski (@EPro) July 30, 2020 AWS is the cloud computing market leader, ahead of Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. High-percentage growth cannot continue unabated. For a market leader, growth of 29% in sales to $10.8 billion is still impressive. But it’s certainly not the good news Amazon was hoping for. AWS accounted for about 12.1% of Amazon’s total revenue for the quarter, which is on the lower end. AWS is “a $43 billion annualized run rate business, up nearly $10 billion in run rate in the last 12 months,” CFO Brian Olsavsky said on the Q2 earnings call.
Subscriptions and “other” (ads) Subscription services were up 29% to $6.02 billion. This segment mainly constitutes Amazon Prime and its 150 million paid members.
Amazon had two main talking points for Prime today: Camp Prime and Prime Video. The former is a partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of America to keep kids engaged during the summer. The latter gained features for interacting with friends via desktop chat (Watch Parties) and to manage multiple people on an account (Profiles).
Amazon’s “other” category, which mostly covers the company’s advertising business, was up 41% to $4.22 billion in revenue. The company knows plenty about what its customers want to buy, or don’t want to buy, and so its advertising business continues to pay dividends. On the Q1 earnings call, Olsavsky said Amazon saw “some pullback from advertisers and some downward pressure on price” in March. But he also noted that it wasn’t “as noticeable as maybe some others are seeing, and probably offset a bit by the continued strong traffic we have to the site.” It appears that all is well in ad-land for Amazon. Olsavsky didn’t talk much about ads on the Q2 call.
As always, Alexa was mentioned many times (10, to be exact) in the company’s press release, even though Amazon won’t break out the voice assistant in its earnings reports. In Q1, the company noted that Alexa “can now answer tens of thousands of questions related to COVID-19.” It didn’t say anything similar for Q2.
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"Google's $2.1 billion Fitbit deal faces full EU antitrust probe | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/30/googles-2-1-billion-fitbit-deal-faces-full-eu-antitrust-probe"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Google’s $2.1 billion Fitbit deal faces full EU antitrust probe Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
Learn more.
( Reuters ) — Google’s $2.1 billion bid for fitness tracker maker Fitbit will face a full-scale EU antitrust investigation next week, people familiar with the matter said today.
Alphabet unit Google this month offered not to use Fitbit’s health data to help it target ads in an attempt to address EU antitrust concerns. The opening of a full-scale investigation suggests that this is not sufficient.
The deal, announced last November, would see Google compete with market leader Apple and Samsung in the fitness-tracking and smart-watch market, alongside others, including Huawei and Xiaomi.
The European Commission, which will launch the probe following the end of its preliminary review on August 4, is expected to make use of the four-month-long investigation to explore in depth the use of data in health care, one of the people said.
The Commission declined to comment. Google reiterated previous comments, saying the deal is about devices and not data.
“The wearables space is crowded, and we believe the combination of Google and Fitbit’s hardware efforts will increase competition in the sector, benefiting consumers and making the next generation of devices better and more affordable,” a spokesperson said.
Google’s data pledge has drawn criticism from health care providers, wearables rivals, and privacy advocates for not addressing their concerns that the deal would boost its dominance in the online search market and its trove of data.
News agency MLex was the first to report the imminent EU investigation.
(Reporting by Foo Yun Chee, editing by Jason Neely.) VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Fitbit unveils Sense and Versa 3 smartwatches with Google Assistant | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/08/25/fitbit-sense-versa-3-inspire-2-google"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Fitbit unveils Sense and Versa 3 smartwatches with Google Assistant Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Fitbit Sense (left), Fitbit Versa 3 (center), Fitbit Inspire 2 (right) Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
Learn more.
Even as Google’s $2.1 billion acquisition hangs over Fitbit, the wearables company today announced three new devices. Fitbit Sense replaces Fitbit Ionic to become the company’s most advanced health smartwatch, with an electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor for managing stress, heart rate tracking, a new ECG app, an on-wrist skin temperature sensor, and Google Assistant. Fitbit also introduced Fitbit Versa 3 with GPS and Google Assistant, plus Fitbit Inspire 2 with battery life of up to 10 days. Fitbit claims the Sense and Versa 3 offer over six days of battery life. You can preorder all three today — Fitbit Sense for $330, Fitbit Versa 3 for $230, and Fitbit Inspire 2 for $100. The smartwatches ship in late September.
Although Google has vowed not to use Fitbit data to target ads , the deal is facing a full EU antitrust probe.
Google is one of the four tech giants targeted by increased antitrust investigations — Fitbit is just caught in the middle. However, Fitbit is taking a risk with today’s launch by getting rid of physical buttons on the new devices, something that hasn’t worked well for wearables in the past — small touchscreens suck. Maybe the company is willing to experiment since it doesn’t know what Google will ultimately do with its products.
Every story has a coronavirus angle nowadays, and Fitbit argues that wearables may play an important role in the early detection of infectious diseases. The company last week highlighted its COVID-19 study of over 100,000 Fitbit users, which found its algorithm can detect nearly 50% of COVID-19 cases a day before the onset of symptoms with 70% specificity. Changes in some of the metrics in Fitbit Premium (breathing rate, resting heart rate, and heart rate variability) can be detected simultaneously with the onset of COVID-19 symptoms, and sometimes even before. A Fitbit Premium subscription costs $10 per month. Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Versa 3 come with a six-month trial, while Inspire 2 owners get a 12-month trial.
Alexa or Google Assistant Fitbit first brought Alexa to its devices with the launch of the Fitbit Versa 2 in August 2019. Alexa on Versa 2 lets you start a Fitbit Exercise, find the nearest gym, and ask general questions. Voice commands garner on-screen text responses — press a button, speak into the microphone, and Alexa will silently reply. You can set alarms and timers, check the local weather and news, and even control your smart home devices, right from your wrist.
This year’s addition of Google Assistant means Alexa won’t be the only assistant on Fitbit devices, although you won’t be able to use both. “Users must choose between the two voice assistants (Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa built-in) — they cannot be used at once,” a Fitbit spokesperson told VentureBeat. “To note, users cans opt out of both voice assistants if desired.” Both voice assistants will be available on Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Versa 3, but Google Assistant will only be enabled later this year. Fitbit didn’t provide a specific date — the press release merely says “Google Assistant coming winter 2020.” Is that when Fitbit expects Google’s acquisition to close? “I have confirmation that the merger did not play a role in the addition of the Google Assistant feature,” a Fitbit spokesperson told VentureBeat. “Fitbit added Google Assistant because it was a user-requested feature and many of our users have Google smart home devices, and we wanted to offer a choice between two top voice assistants (Google and Amazon Alexa built-in).” Fitbit Sense As you can tell by the price, Fitbit Sense is the company’s new flagship smartwatch. It has all the features of its predecessors, including onboard GPS, 20+ on-device exercise modes, SmartTrack automatic activity tracking, Cardio Fitness Level and Score, and advanced sleep tools. There’s a built-in speaker and microphone to take calls and reply to texts with voice commands, Alexa, Google Assistant, contactless payments, and thousands of apps and clock faces. The watch is water-resistant up to 50 meters, like last year’s Fitbit Versa 2.
Sense’s AMOLED display features an integrated ambient light sensor to automatically dim the screen and an optional always-on display mode. The Sense has no physical buttons, meaning the user interface had to be revamped accordingly. But what really sets the Sense apart is all its sensors — more than any other Fitbit device.
Fitbit Sense can give you insights into your body’s response to stress, which can contribute to a variety of health problems if left unmanaged, like an increased risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and mental health disorders. The wearable’s EDA sensor measures electrodermal activity responses and the EDA Scan app lets you place your palm over the face of the device to detect small electrical changes in the sweat level of your skin. You can do a quick EDA Scan session to understand your body’s response to stressors or pair it with mindfulness sessions to see how your body responds during meditation or relaxation.
The Fitbit app is also getting a new stress management tile with a Stress Management Score that calculates how your body is responding to stress based on 10 biometric inputs, including exertion balance (impact of activity), responsiveness (heart rate, heart rate variability, and electrodermal activity), and sleep patterns (sleep quality). Ranging from 1-100, a higher score indicates your body is showing fewer physical signs of stress. The app will also make recommendations to help you better manage stress, like breathing exercises and other mindfulness tools. You can set a weekly mindfulness goal, get reminders, reflect on your stress, log your mood after sessions, and meditate.
Fitbit Sense is also the company’s first device with an ECG app to assess your heart rhythm for signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib). All it takes is 30 seconds of holding your fingers on the corners of the stainless steel ring around the watch. The resulting reading can be downloaded to share with your doctor.
Additionally, Fitbit updated its heart rate tech with a new multi-path heart rate sensor and algorithm. PurePulse 2.0, as Fitbit calls it, also powers on-device high and low heart rate notifications on Fitbit Sense that can detect if your heart rate is outside your thresholds and send a notification.
Finally, Fitbit Sense includes a new skin temperature sensor to detect changes that may potentially signal a fever, illness, or the start of a new menstrual phase. If you wear it while asleep each night, it will measure your skin temperature variation to spot trends.
Fitbit Versa 3 The Versa is Fitbit’s most popular smartwatch family, and that’s likely going to continue with the Fitbit Versa 3. The Versa 3 finally adds on-device GPS, which was previously exclusive to the Fitbit Ionic, and an in-app workout intensity map. PurePulse 2.0, Active Zone Minutes, Fitbit Pay, a built-in speaker, and a microphone are all included. As with the Sense, you can take quick phone calls, send calls to voicemail, and adjust call volume — all from your wrist (when paired via Bluetooth with your phone). The Versa 3 is really the Sense minus the aforementioned sensors.
In fact, unlike the Ionic and Versa, the Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Versa 3 use the same magnetic charger. That means if other members of your household use Fitbit devices, you don’t have to worry about dealing with different chargers. (The same charger and design also means accessories are cross-compatible.) Fitbit claims that a 12-minute quick charge provides one full day of use.
Fitbit Inspire 2 If Fitbit’s smartwatches are too expensive, or if you don’t care for all those extra features and just want more battery life, the Fitbit Inspire 2 might be your best bet. Succeeding last year’s Fitbit Inspire and Fitbit Inspire HR trackers, the Fitbit Inspire 2 adds Active Zone Minutes and a brighter vibrant screen. Best of all, battery life is now supposed to be 10 days.
Without smartwatch functionality, the Inspire 2 doubles down on the fitness part of the equation. Features include 20+ goal-based exercise modes, sleep tools, 24/7 heart rate tracking, menstrual health tracking, and logging of food, hydration, and weight.
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"The future we've been waiting for is already here | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2017/09/28/the-future-weve-been-waiting-for-is-already-here"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Sponsored The future we’ve been waiting for is already here Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Presented by VICE Media CBS Interactive and VICE Media have good news for us: The future we’ve all been waiting for – the one we’ve been increasingly impatient for – has already arrived.
The increasingly powerful promises of artificial intelligence, bots, and virtual and augmented reality have been whipping technophiles and pundits alike into something akin to a frenzy, if all those thinkpieces that link current innovations to the magic or sci-fi blockbusters are any indication. And now these companies have paired up to capture that zeitgeist, creating and producing “Dear Future,” a long-form journalism series that promises to bring readers dispatches from the cutting edge.
In an effort to marry Motherboard’s voice with CNET’s tech focus, “Dear Future” will tackle the big, science-fiction-becomes-fact stuff. The pledge is a series of stories that demonstrate how today’s technology is already impacting our present.
The series kicked off on September 11th; later this fall we’ll see a docu-series that will visually explore the future that technology promises.
Here’s a sneak peek at some of the best of the series, available now on both Motherboard and CNET , as well as their various mobile and social platforms.
Mind control and the modern human The first installment of the series, “How We’ll Eventually Control Everything With Our Minds,” kicks off with the story of the brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) that already have SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk on board and launching a whole new startup.
Neuralink is their effort to create what they call “neural lace,” or a commercially applicable brain-computer interface. Neuralink has already raised $27 million.
In the meantime at Stanford, the clinical application of the technology is showing that Musk’s optimism is on track. Neuroscientists have implanted an electrode array into the brain of Dennis Degray, a partially paralyzed man. Monitoring brain activity, translating those complex electrical signals, and then transferring them to a virtual keyboard, the BCI allowed Degray to accurately type a record-breaking 39 characters (or about eight words) a minute using only his mind.
The real promise of BCIs? An environment that can be manipulated with your mind, via the Internet of Things.
Learn more about the technical challenges, the upcoming breakthroughs, and when you’ll be able to toast bread with your brain here.
Are you there, aliens? It’s us, humans.
Forget the enormous radio telescopes sweeping the galaxy for any signs of intelligent life somewhere out there in the dark of space. The Messaging Extraterrestrial Intelligences community is working to hit the fast-forward button when it comes to first contact.
They’re the controversial branch of the SETI astronomer crew – the ones who don’t want to just sit back and simply scan a silent sky. They’re the proactive folks who think we need to be actually reaching out to say hiya.
But not only are there plenty of technical issues to work around, they’re faced with colleagues (including luminaries like Stephen Hawking) who think it’s actually a pretty dangerous idea. A Steven Spielberg-style little E.T. poses no threat; it’s the hostile aliens who are just waiting for us to raise the target over our heads.
Even if some thing it may be riskier to do something than do nothing – should we really be sitting back on our laurels? Find out more about METI International’s plan to start sending messages out into space in 2018 – and the fascinating design challenges they’re tackling – here.
Perchance to dream Nobody wants to think about death. Unfortunately, the elimination of death is not one of those future-fantastic fantasies that seems to be coming true any time soon. But fear of death, that universal human theme, is being tackled by the promise of that super-hyped AI technology, chatbots.
Researchers at Boston Medical Center and Northeastern University are creating bots that offer end-of-life consultations and talk the anxious through their personal and spiritual fears surrounding that big goodnight.
The chatbot is explicitly designed as a palliative care coach that helps you prepare a will, plan a funeral, and even take active interest in your spiritual life. Dialogue is tailored to your religion – currently supporting Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Budaism, and Sikhism – and designed to support you through your fears and help you navigate the emotional complexity surrounding death and dying.
Learn more about the potential pitfalls of computer counseling, the powerful impact the technology is poised to make, and more, here.
The series will continue to trailblaze into the future, says Thobey Campion, Head of Publishing at VICE. “We’ll be producing the most groundbreaking, tech-focused stories around to a global audience,” Campion says, “ultimately waking people up to innovations that will impact all of humanity.” Sponsored posts are content produced by a company that is either paying for the post or has a business relationship with VentureBeat, and they’re always clearly marked. Content produced by our editorial team is never influenced by advertisers or sponsors in any way. For more information, contact [email protected].
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Short-, medium- and long-term strategies for SMB survival (VB Live) | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/04/14/short-medium-and-long-term-strategies-for-smb-survival-vb-live"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages VB Webinar Short-, medium- and long-term strategies for SMB survival (VB Live) Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Presented by DocuSign Digital solutions and business processes are helping SMBs tackle new challenges and ramp up quickly once the economy rebounds. Learn more about how these technologies are helping SMBs better manage the situation now and prepare for the future when you register for this VB Live event.
Register for free right here.
COVID-19 is the elephant in the room, says Laurie McCabe, cofounder and partner at technology research and consulting firm SMB Group.
“We have to acknowledge that every business — I truly believe that every business — is going to be impacted by this,” says McCabe. “The trajectory is astonishing, not only in terms of health, but in terms of unemployment, business closures, and every facet of business ownership.” The results of SMB Group’s March survey were staggering — 75% of all the SMBs surveyed had already reported a negative impact on their business. Among the SMBs that were feeling the negative impact, on average, they believed that revenues will drop by at least 30% or more over the next six months.
But it’s important to keep the big picture in mind, McCabe says — whether it was 9/11 or the Great Recession, so many businesses have always found a way to survive, if not thrive.
“If they plan well, they can weather this,” she says. “It’s about short-term planning, medium-term planning, and long-term planning.” In the short term, it’s all about what you can do now to help your customers, help your suppliers, and do good now for good later.
“The things you do now to help others are not only going to help them stay in business and continue to be your customer, but are going to come back to you in goodwill in the future,” she explains. “Whether that’s your customers, your community, or your suppliers, extend what help and service you can to do good for them as we come together.” In the medium term, it’s essential to think about how to manage this now, knowing that this virus will subside. It’s making strategic decisions about your operations — where you need to maintain, whether that’s employees or spending on goods and services, and where you can cut and try to balance that, so that as you come back, you’re not suddenly trying to go from zero to 60 because you cut everything to the bone.
Some of these government programs should help SMBs do that more effectively, she notes, but it’s important to analyze how your business operates and decide if there are technical or digital solutions that help your company run more efficiently and effectively now, and become a backbone in the future.
As you look at how you’re using the solutions you currently have, consider how you could use them even more effectively to keep your business successful now.
“Spend a little more time figuring out what these things can do for you, whether it’s a document-signing solution or a marketing solution,” she says. “There are probably a lot of things you’re not using as well as you could, and that you can get a lot more value from.” She points to this very upcoming VB Live event, underscoring that now is a good time to take some of those webinars or online courses in order to learn how to use some of these tools that most likely you’re already paying for, and use them more effectively to get more value out of them.
Long-term, the most important thing to know is that we’re all learning from this crisis about what we can do a little differently, and what we can do better , McCabe says.
Online meetings and telecommuting are changing the face of how businesses work — and in the long term, maybe it will help you save money and have happier, more engaged employees by allowing more people to work at home more often, she adds.
“I don’t think any of us can predict yet all the ways businesses are going to be reshaped, but I think we can start to anticipate how things are going to be different, and start thinking about how you may want to adjust your business model for the world after this pandemic has run its course,” she says.
Finally, if your business is not going to be viable through this, what we saw out of the Great Recession was that a lot of people got laid off, a lot of businesses went under, but out of that, a thousand flowers bloomed.
A lot of people said, “What can I start now? Maybe nobody is hiring, but I can start a business.” That’s how SMB Group happened, McCabe says. When she and a business partner got laid off and nobody was hiring, they started their business to do what they love, and do it a little differently.
“There will be a lot of opportunities for entrepreneurs to come in and build a better mousetrap,” she says. “I expect to see some cool businesses come out of this.” Don’t miss out — register here for this VB Live event.
In this webinar, you’ll learn: How technology can help small businesses pivot their strategies Ways digital innovation is evolving business processes now and in the future How to transform the way you prepare, sign, act and manage agreements How the right technology can help grow your business during uncertainty Speakers: Leo Rodriguez , Director, Small Business Partner Marketing, DocuSign Inc.
Laurie McCabe , Cofounder & Partner, SMB Group Inc.
Stewart Rogers , Analyst-at-Large, VentureBeat The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"IBM's tennis AI measures player performance and selects highlights | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/28/ibms-ai-measures-tennis-player-performance-and-highlights-critical-moments"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages IBM’s tennis AI measures player performance and selects highlights Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn IBM's Coach Advisor app.
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Tennis and AI are like peas in a pod, if you ask IBM. The folks at the Armonk, New York-based company today detailed Coach Advisor, a cloud-hosted solution developed in collaboration with the U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) that taps AI to deliver insights to professional coaches. It introduces a metric that attempts to quantify a player’s physical exertion and endurance and a model that makes correlations to match performance.
“Over the nearly 30 years we have partnered with the U.S. Open, we have seen first-hand the enormous amount of tennis data generated over the course of a two-week tournament,” said IBM sports and entertainment partnerships vice president Noah Syken. “With Coach Advisor, we’re proud to now bring these advanced technologies to USTA coaches directly to tap into new data sources so they can drive a deeper analysis of the game and support the growth and development of U.S. tennis players.” Coach Advisor uses what IBM calls the Energy System, a measure of physiological load and mechanical intensity meant to evaluate a tennis player’s exertion over time. It tracks the overall work performed in a match, taking into account the person’s height, weight, average speed, and distance traveled. And it keeps tabs on the cumulative weighted acceleration and deceleration throughout, enabling it to gauge the physical demand on a player’s body.
Within Coach Advisor, Energy System metrics are presented alongside traditional statistic and match video for coaches to review. Algorithms trained to detect the sound of ball strikes, umpire calls, crowd noise, and the sound of sneakers on the court determine the clip’s start and end points, allowing coaches to quickly skip to critical moments post-match.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! IBM says that Coach Advisor is currently being piloted with a select group of players and their coaches and that it plans to roll the suite out over time to “the broader population” of U.S. players and coaches.
“The USTA is dedicated to developing the next generation of world-class American tennis players, and Coach Advisor offers our coaches access to all-new data to drive performance,” wrote USTA general manager Martin Blackman. “We are excited to continue our work with IBM to pair analytics with our coaching expertise and believe IBM Coach Advisor will give us a competitive advantage to help change the paradigm of tennis coaching and development in the U.S.” In related news, IBM today revealed that it will work with the USTA to process hundreds of hours of live video from tournaments with AI.
The company says its improved sound analysis models, delivered via the IBM Cloud and IBM Watson Open Scale, now allow for tighter cropping of highlight clips by recognizing when the ball has been struck. Additionally, it says they’re able to recognize players’ noise and excitement levels, minimizing bias when searching for highlights from particularly popular or animated players.
IBM deployed the same solution at the Wimbledon 2019 tennis championships earlier this year.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Computer vision joins the enterprise mainstream, but it's a hot potato | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/03/03/computer-vision-joins-the-enterprise-mainstream-but-its-a-hot-potato"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages VB Event Computer vision joins the enterprise mainstream, but it’s a hot potato Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Computer vision has been a key driver behind the artificial intelligence boom of the past two years. But it has also come with significant controversy. Businesses need to be aware of the potential risks, while still taking full advantage of the huge benefits it’s providing across many business use cases.
Computer vision technology allows computers to draw meaning from images and videos, which enables a system to analyze such data and take appropriate action. Applications range from rescue robots that can find their way along wilderness trails to autonomous vehicles , where cars are now using advances in computer vision algorithms to approach self-driving capabilities in major cities within the next year or two.
In enterprises, though, computer vision is enjoying pretty much free rein for now. And it’s finding extensive practical business use. Industry experts expect computer vision to remain a key trend in AI, with increasing accuracy in people and object detection. At Transform 2020 on July 15-16 in San Francisco, business leaders will share how they put advanced computer vision to work, with deep dives into trends, technology advancements, and implementation strategies for sectors such as ecommerce, security, and health care.
The global market for computer vision is predicted to be worth anywhere from $17.4 billion to $48.32 billion by 2023.
Deloitte reports that 57% of U.S.-based survey respondents said their company had adopted computer vision.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Manufacturing particularly benefits from computer vision, which can scan for quality assurance and guide robot assembly lines. In ecommerce, Etsy is using computer vision to identify products related to those a shopper might be looking for, so that someone seeking a mid-century cocktail dress online will be presented with related items within the mid-century style family. Ecommerce giants like Amazon and startups alike are using the technology to move into the brick-and-mortar world with cashierless grocery stores that use computer vision to manage shelves, personalize incentives, and calculate a shopper’s bill.
It’s in medicine, however, that computer vision really shines. Systems can help surgical teams rehearse complicated procedures — or even power robots that can execute telesurgery — and improve the accuracy of tissue testing and CT scans.
Computer vision also underlies the increasing effectiveness of image recognition tools and their use by governments, police, airports, and corporations. In China, this technology has enabled a dystopian state , at least by Western norms — with Chinese authorities tracking millions of minority Uighur ethnic Muslims. In the U.S. there’s ongoing debate about whether facial recognition tools should be banned entirely in some circumstances, particularly for use by state and city governments.
Significant changes are happening as we write, with giants like Google pivoting in how they treat gender bias and other risks related to computer vision. Just last week, Google removed the ability for users of its cloud services to label images with “man” or “woman” while training computer vision models.
Moreover, issues like safety and privacy have taken center stage this year. The deep learning behind computer vision is famous for its black-box decision-making , which this year led Google and OpenAI to open-source software that uses “explainable AI” to keep the machines in check. And consumers are skeptical as well; a recent Pew survey showed that U.S. adults trust the police (56%) to use facial recognition fairly more than they do tech companies (36%) or advertisers (18%). That’s a big hurdle enterprise will need to surmount in order to implement technology that its customers are comfortable with, whether through the threat of regulation or the promise of tools such as siloed sharing.
Join us at VB Transform 2020 as we dig into how computer vision applications — and the other big AI trends, including NLP/NLU, automation, and IoT/AI at the edge — are changing the way businesses of every size are driving value, customer service, and unprecedented returns on investment, right here and now. You can purchase tickets here.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"How machine learning helps companies stay agile in a pandemic (VB Live) | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/08/21/how-machine-learning-helps-companies-stay-agile-in-a-pandemic-vb-live"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages VB Live How machine learning helps companies stay agile in a pandemic (VB Live) Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Sponsored by AWS Machine Learning In a world profoundly impacted by the pandemic, machine learning and AI has offered powerful new ways to adapt and face pressing business challenges. To learn more about the unique opportunities ML offers, best practices for leveraging the technology, and more, don’t miss this VB Live event.
Register here for free.
The ongoing global pandemic means that we’re living in a new normal. But the situation has presented an opportunity to reimagine the customer experience and buying journey, employee experiences, new ways of working, and how we interact as a society, says Michelle K. Lee, Vice President of the Amazon Machine Learning Solutions Lab, AWS.
With the proliferation of data and virtually unlimited quantities of specialized computing power available via the cloud, machine learning can help businesses make faster, more informed decisions, create efficiencies in processes, open up new revenue streams, and usher in a new wave of innovation that wasn’t possible before. Businesses that have embraced new ways to meet the customer where they are will have a significant competitive advantage.
“The pandemic has accelerated the pace of change dramatically,” Lee says. “The customer experience is changing quickly and companies must shift to agile and intelligent ways of serving them just as fast,” Lee says.
Optimizing operations with machine learning Machine learning algorithms’ ability to analyze and self-learn from existing and real-time data is essential for optimizing a wide variety of business processes and procedures – which reduces costs, improves speed, and increases productivity.
Lee points to some customer examples to demonstrate how fundamental ML has been in creating important new efficiencies, such as Domino’s. The restaurant is increasingly digital – more than 70% of sales comes from online orders.
With their investment in ML , they’ve implemented a predictive ordering solution to better anticipate daily demand and have pizzas ready for customers faster.
iFood, the leader in the Latin American food delivery market, uses Amazon SageMaker to optimize its operations.
Since implementing the solution, its delivery service-level agreement has risen from 80% to 95%, route optimization has decreased delivery travel distance by 12%, and delivery personnel downtime has dropped by 50%.
A medical system, another of AWS’s customers, is using machine learning to optimize its digital forms processing as well. Using Amazon Transcribe and Amazon Comprehend, the organization can review medical perception documents and issue payments to pharmacists far more quickly and accurately.
Pivoting with computer vision COVID-19 is having a significant impact on the way that education is being provisioned globally. Educational institutions, and even the internal AWS certifications team, are looking for ways to provide platforms for remote testing, while at the same time monitoring for cheating.
Certipass used Amazon Rekognition for automated candidate identity verification during tests for digital skills. They were able to build the solution in under 30 days to enable all their testing centers to test candidates online during COVID-19.
Companies are also using computer vision to improve workplace safety – which, during a pandemic, now includes adhering to social distancing regulations. In a handful of Amazon buildings, Lee says, they’ve implemented a computer vision solution to help monitor and improve social distancing in real-time.
How ML is boosting agility The pandemic has increased the pressure on CIOs to balance costs while becoming more agile and resilient, Lee says. CIOs can leverage this momentum to educate their leaders on why, and how, AI and machine learning offer significant and very concrete advantages.
“We are seeing a lot more focus on pragmatism over open experimentation,” Lee says. “This means that companies are getting much more rigorous about identifying use cases that produce significant and measurable ROI.” This is often easier said than done, of course, she adds. Her team at the Amazon Machine Learning Solutions Lab focuses on helping customers identify their highest-value ML uses cases by working backwards from business problems. And now is the time to focus on those projects that will have the most business impact.
“Many AWS customers are taking advantage of this moment to accelerate machine learning projects that will significantly impact things like workplace safety, automation, and supply chain forecasting while deprioritizing some of the more experimental projects,” adds Lee.
For more on the impact that machine learning solutions can deliver in these uncertain times, don’t miss this roundtable with leaders from Kabbage and Novetta, as well as Michelle K. Lee, VP of the Amazon Machine Learning Solutions Lab.
Don’t miss out.
Register here for free.
You’ll learn: How to get started on your AI/ML journey during these uncertain times How to adapt and leverage your existing ML expertise as new challenges arise How to avoid common pitfalls and apply lessons learned How to get the most out of AI/ML and the impact it can have on your business, and society, in increasingly uncertain times Speakers: Michelle K. Lee , Vice President of the Amazon Machine Learning Solutions Lab, AWS David Cyprian , Product Owner, Novetta Kathryn Petralia , Co-founder, Kabbage The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"A coronavirus survival strategy for your startup | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/03/18/a-coronavirus-survival-strategy-for-your-startup"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Guest A coronavirus survival strategy for your startup Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
“Winter is coming.” This is the one blog post I hope I’m completely wrong about.
With the Covid-19 virus now a worldwide pandemic, if you’re leading any startup or small business, you have to be asking yourself, “What’s Plan B? And what’s in my lifeboat?” Here are a few thoughts about operating in uncertainty.
Impact Social isolation and a declared national emergency have had an immediate impact on industries that cluster people; conferences, trade shows, airlines/cruise ships and all types of travel , the hospitality industry, sporting events, theater and movies, restaurants and schools. Large companies are telling employees to work at home. Large retail chains are shutting down their stores. While the impact on small businesses and workers in the “gig-economy” hasn’t made the news, it will be worse for them. They have fewer cash reserves and a smaller margin of error for managing sudden downturns. The ripple and feedback effect of all of these closures will have a major impact on our economy, as each industry that gets impacted puts people out of work, and those laid off workers don’t buy products and services.
It’s no longer business as usual for the rest of the economy. In fact, shutting down the economy for a pandemic has never happened. Millions of jobs may be lost in the next few months, as entire industries are devastated, something not seen since the Great Depression of 1929-39. I hope I’m very wrong, but the social and economic impacts of this virus are likely to be profound and will change how we shop, travel, and work for years.
If you’re running a startup or small business, your first priority (after your family) is keeping your employees and customers safe. But the next question is, ‘What happens to my business?” The questions every startup or small business CEO needs to ask now are: What’s my burn rate and runway? What does my new business model look like? Is this a three-month, one-year, or a three-year problem? What will my investors do? Burn rate and runway To answer the first question, take stock of your current gross burn rate: How much cash are you spending each month? How much of that goes toward fixed expenses (those you can’t change, such as rent)? And how much goes toward variable expenses (salaries, consultants, commission, travel, AWS/Azure charges, supplies, etc.)? Next, take a look at your actual revenue each month – not your forecast, but real revenue coming in. If you’re an early stage company, that number may be zero.
Subtract your monthly gross burn rate from your monthly revenue to get your net burn rate. If you’re making more money than you’re spending, you have positive cash flow. If you’re a startup and have less revenue than your expenses, that number is negative and represents the amount of money your company loses (“burns”) each month. Now take a look at your bank account. See how many months your company can survive burning that amount of cash each month. This is your runway – the amount of time your company has before it runs out of money. This math works in a normal market … Unfortunately, it’s no longer a normal market.
All your assumptions about customers, sales cycle and most importantly, revenue, burn rate, and runway are no longer true.
If you’re a startup, you’ve likely calculated your runway to last until you raise your next round of funding. Assuming there was going to be a next round. That may be no longer true.
Your new business model Since the world today is no longer the same as it was a month ago, and likely will be worse a month from now, if your business model today looks the same as it did at the beginning of the month, you’re in denial – and possibly out of business.
It’s the nature of startup CEOs to be optimistic, however you need to quickly test your assumptions about customers and revenue. If you are selling to businesses (a B-to-B market), have your customers’ sales dropped? Are your customers closing for the next few weeks? Laying off people? If so, whatever revenue forecast and sales cycle estimates you had are no longer valid. If you’re selling directly to consumers (a B-to-C market), were you in a multi-sided market (consumers use the product but others pay you for their eyeballs/data)? Are those assumptions about payers still correct? How do you know? What are the new financial metrics? Receivables – get on top of them. Days of cash left? You need to figure out your actual burn rate and runway in this new environment now.
Is this a three-month, one-year, or a three-year problem? Next, you need to take a deep breath and try to gauge how long this problem will last. Are the shutdowns of businesses going to be a temporary blip in the economy, or will they drive the US and Europe into a long recession? If it’s just three months (looking more unlikely by the day), then an immediate freeze on variable spending (hires, marketing, travel, etc.) is in order. But if the effects are going to reverberate in the economy longer, you need to start reconfiguring your business. You need a lifeboat strategy. That’s a fancy phrase for figuring out the minimum your company needs to hold onto to stay alive.
A one-year problem means taking a knife to your burn rate (layoffs and elimination of perks and programs to reduce your variable expenses), renegotiating what previously seemed liked fixed expenses (rent, equipment lease payments, etc.), and putting only the essential elements for survival in the lifeboat.
If you were selling online versus in-person, you may have an advantage (assuming your customers are still there.) Or you change sales strategy.
Whatever your product/market fit was last month, it’s no longer true and needs to change to meet the new normal. Does this open new value propositions and kill others? Do you need to alter the product? And if it’s a three-year problem? Then not only do you need to jettison everything that isn’t essential for survival, you’ll probably require a new business model. In the short term, explore whether some part of your business model can be oriented around the new rules of social isolation. Can your product be sold, delivered, or produced online? Does it have some benefits if delivered that way? (See the advice from Sequoia Capital here.
) If not, can your product/service be positioned as a lifeboat for others to ride out the downturn? As a leader, you need to plan, communicate, and act with compassion.
Revise your sales revenue goals and product timelines, create a new business model and operating plan, and communicate them clearly to your investors and then to your employees. Keep people focused on an achievable plan they clearly understand. From the perspective of having lived through the last three crashes, I’ve observed the biggest mistake CEOs made was not making draconian cuts to expenses quickly enough. They dripped out layoffs and cuts, holding onto favored projects with magical thinking that somehow this was just something that would pass. You need to act now.
If you’re in a large company considering layoffs, the first option should be to cut the salaries of the higher paid exec/employees to try to keep the people who can least afford to lose their jobs employed. (Good things will come to CEOs who first try to save everyone on the ship before they jump in the lifeboat.) If/when people need to be laid off, do it with compassion. Offer extra compensation. If in the worst case you see you’re running out of cash, under no circumstances run it down to zero. Do the right thing and have enough cash on hand to offer everyone at least two weeks or more of pay.
Your investors One of the key elements of survival is access to capital. As a startup or small business you should realize your investors are also asking themselves how this pandemic will affect their business model. The cold hard truth is that, in a crash, VCs are running their own “What do I save in the lifeboat?” exercise. They triage their deals – first worrying about liquidity of their late stage deals, which have the highest valuations. These startups typically have very high burn rates and funding for those could fall off a cliff. You and the survival of your startup may no longer be their priority, and your interests are no longer aligned. (VCs who tell you otherwise are either naïve, lying through their teeth, or not serving the interests of their investors.) In every major downturn inflated valuations disappear and the few VCs still writing new checks find it’s a buyer’s market. (Hence the term “vulture capitalists.”) Some investors have only lived in a booming market when valuations only went up and investment capital was plentiful. But investors with grey hair can remember the nuclear winter after the past recessions of 2000 and 2008 and can offer some historical patterns of crashes and recovery to CEOs running early stage startups. Keep in mind,# that today’s circumstances are different. This isn’t a bear stock market. This is a conscious shutdown of most of our economy, trading jobs for saving hundreds of thousands of lives, that’s causing a bear market and a likely recession.
Data from the last large crash in 2008 had seed rounds recovering early, but later stage funding cratered and took years to recover. (The figure below — part of this post from Tomasz Tunguz — shows quarterly VC investments before and after the 2008 crash.) This time around, the health of the venture business may depend on what hedge funds, investment banks, private equity firms, sovereign wealth funds, and large secondary market groups do. If they pull back, there will be a liquidity crunch for later stage startups (Series B, C…). For all startups in the short term, the deal terms and valuations will get worse, and there will be fewer investors looking at your deal.
As a startup CEO you need to know if your board is going to be screaming at you for not radically cutting burn rate and coming up with a new business model or, will they be yelling at you to stop being distracted and stay the course? And if the latter, I’d want to know what skin they have in the game if they’re wrong. It’s pretty easy for VCs to tell you they’ll be right behind you when you need a next round, until they’re not. Unless your investors are matching their orders for “full speed ahead” with a deposit into your bank, now is not the time to be railroaded into a burn rate that is unrecoverable.
Prepare for a long cold winter. But remember no winter lasts forever, and in it smart founders and VCs will be planting the seeds for the next generation of startups.
Lessons learned This is a conscious shutdown of our economy, trading jobs for saving hundreds of thousands of lives It’s likely going to cause a recession The Covid-19 virus will change how we shop, travel, and work for at least a year and likely three It’s inconceivable that you can have the same business model today as you did 30 days ago Put in place lifeboat plans for three-month, one-year and three-year downturns Recognize that your investors will act in their interests, which may no longer be yours Take action now But act with compassion.
This story originally appeared on Steveblank.com.
Copyright 2020 VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Google taps computer vision to improve robot manipulation performance | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/03/20/googles-taps-computer-vision-to-improve-robot-manipulation-performance"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Google taps computer vision to improve robot manipulation performance Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
In a preprint paper , a Google and MIT team investigate whether pretrained visual representations can be used to improve a robot’s object manipulation performance. They say their proposed technique — affordance-based manipulation — can enable robots to learn to pick and grasp objects in less than 10 minutes of trial and error, which could lay the groundwork for highly adaptable warehouse robots.
Affordance-based manipulation is a way to reframe a manipulation task as a computer vision task. Rather than referencing pixels to object labels, it associates pixels with the value of actions. Since the structure of computer vision models and affordance models are relatively similar, techniques from transfer learning can be applied to computer vision to enable affordance models to learn faster with less data — or so the thinking goes.
To test this, the team injected the “backbones” — i.e., the weights (or variables) responsible for early-stage image processing, like filtering edges, detecting corners, and distinguishing between colors — of various popular computer vision models into affordance-based manipulation models pretrained on vision tasks. They then tasked a real-world robot with learning to grasp a set of objects through trial and error.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Initially, there weren’t significant performance gains compared with training the affordance models from scratch. However, upon transferring weights from both the backbone and the head (which consists of weights used in latter-stage processing, such as recognizing contextual cues and executing spatial reasoning) of a pretrained vision model, there was a substantial improvement in training speed. Grasping success rates reached 73% in just 500 trial and error grasp attempts and jumped to 86% by 1,000 attempts. And on new objects unseen during training, models with the pretrained backbone and head generalized better, with grasping success rates of 83% with the backbone alone and 90% with both the backbone and head.
According to the team, reusing weights from vision tasks that require object localization (e.g., instance segmentation) significantly improved the exploration process when learning manipulation tasks. Pretrained weights from the tasks encouraged the robot to sample actions on things that look more like objects, thereby quickly generating a more balanced data set from which the system could learn the differences between good and bad grasps.
“Many of the methods that we use today for end-to-end robot learning are effectively the same as those being used for computer vision tasks,” wrote the study’s coauthors. “Our work here on visual pretraining illuminates this connection and demonstrates that it is possible to leverage techniques from visual pretraining to improve the learning efficiency of affordance-based manipulation applied to robotic grasping tasks. While our experiments point to a better understanding of deep learning for robots, there are still many interesting questions that have yet to be explored. For example, how do we leverage large-scale pretraining for additional modes of sensing (e.g. force-torque or tactile)? How do we extend these pretraining techniques toward more complex manipulation tasks that may not be as object-centric as grasping? These areas are promising directions for future research.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"How Google is using emerging AI techniques to improve language translation quality | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/03/how-googleis-using-emerging-ai-techniques-to-improve-language-translation-quality"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages How Google is using emerging AI techniques to improve language translation quality Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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Google says it’s made progress toward improving translation quality for languages that don’t have a copious amount of written text. In a forthcoming blog post, the company details new innovations that have enhanced the user experience in the 108 languages (particularly in data-poor languages Yoruba and Malayalam) supported by Google Translate, its service that translates an average of 150 billion words daily.
In the 13 years since the public debut of Google Translate, techniques like neural machine translation , rewriting-based paradigms , and on-device processing have led to quantifiable leaps in the platform’s translation accuracy. But until recently, even the state-of-the-art algorithms underpinning Translate lagged behind human performance. Efforts beyond Google illustrate the magnitude of the problem — the Masakhane project , which aims to render thousands of languages on the African continent automatically translatable, has yet to move beyond the data-gathering and transcription phase. And Common Voice , Mozilla’s effort to build an open source collection of transcribed speech data, has vetted only 40 languages since its June 2017 launch.
Google says its translation breakthroughs weren’t driven by a single technology, but rather a combination of technologies targeting low-resource languages, high-resource languages, general quality, latency, and overall inference speed. Between May 2019 and May 2020, as measured by human evaluations and BLEU, a metric based on the similarity between a system’s translation and human reference translations, Translate improved an average of 5 or more points across all languages and 7 or more across the 50 lowest-resource languages. Moreover, Google says that Translate has become more robust to machine translation hallucination, a phenomenon in which AI models produce strange “translations” when given nonsense input (such as “Shenzhen Shenzhen Shaw International Airport (SSH)” for the Telugu characters “ష ష ష ష ష ష ష ష ష ష ష ష ష ష ష,” which mean “Sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh sh”).
Hybrid models and data miners The first of these technologies is a translation model architecture — a hybrid architecture consisting of a Transformer encoder and a recurrent neural network (RNN) decoder implemented in Lingvo , a TensorFlow framework for sequence modeling.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! In machine translation, encoders generally encode words and phrases as internal representations the decoder then uses to generate text in a desired language. Transformer-based models, which Google-affiliated researchers first proposed in 2017, are demonstrably more effective at this than RNNs, but Google says its work suggests most of the quality gains come from only one component of the Transformer: the encoder. That’s perhaps because while both RNNs and Transformers are designed to handle ordered sequences of data, Transformers don’t require that the sequence be processed in order. In other words, if the data in question is natural language, the Transformer doesn’t need to process the beginning of a sentence before it processes the end.
Still, the RNN decoder remains “much faster” at inference time than the decoder within the Transformer. Cognizant of this, the Google Translate team applied optimizations to the RNN decoder before coupling it with the Transformer encoder to create low-latency, hybrid models higher in quality and more stable than the four-year-old RNN-based neural machine translation models they replace.
Above: The BLEU score of Google Translate models since shortly after its inception in 2006.
Beyond the novel hybrid model architecture, Google upgraded the decades-old crawler it used to compile training corpora from millions of example translations in things like articles, books, documents, and web search results. The new miner — which is embedding-based for 14 large language pairs as opposed to dictionary-based, meaning it uses vectors of real numbers to represent words and phrases — focuses more on precision (the fraction of relevant data among the retrieved data) than recall (the fraction of the total amount of relevant data that was actually retrieved). In production, Google says this increased the number of sentences the miner extracted by 29% on average.
Noisy data and transfer learning Another translation performance boost came from a modeling method that better treats noise in training data. Following from the observation that noisy data (data with a large amount of information that can’t be understood or interpreted correctly) harms translation of languages for which data is plentiful, the Google Translate team deployed a system that assigns scores to examples using models trained on noisy data and tuned on “clean” data. Effectively, the models begin training on all data and then gradually train on smaller and cleaner subsets, an approach known in the AI research community as curriculum learning.
On the low-resource language side of the equation, Google implemented a back-translation scheme in Translate that augments parallel training data, where each sentence in a language is paired with its translation. (Machine translation traditionally relies on the statistics of corpora of paired sentences in both a source and a target language.) In this scheme, training data is automatically aligned with synthetic parallel data, such that the target text is natural language but the source is generated by a neural translation model. The result is that Translate takes advantage of the more abundant monolingual text data for training models, which Google says is especially helpful in increasing fluency.
Above: Google Maps with Translate.
Translate also now makes use of M4 modeling, where a single, giant model — M4 — translates among many languages and English. (M4 was first proposed in a paper last year that demonstrated it improved translation quality for over 30 low-resource languages after training on more than 25 billion sentence pairs from over 100 languages.) M4 modeling enabled transfer learning in Translate, so that insights gleaned through training on high-resource languages including French, German, and Spanish (which have billions of parallel examples) can be applied to the translation of low-resource languages like Yoruba, Sindhi, and Hawaiian (which have only tens of thousands of examples).
Looking ahead Translate has improved by at least 1 BLEU point per year since 2010, according to Google, but automatic machine translation is by no means a solved problem. Google concedes that even its enhanced models fall prey to errors including conflating different dialects of a language, producing overly literal translations, and poor performance on particular genres of subject matter and informal or spoken language.
The tech giant is attempting to address this in various ways, including through its Google Translate Community, a gamified program that recruits volunteers to help improve performance for low-resource languages by translating words and phrases or checking if translations are correct. Just in February, the program, in tandem with emerging machine learning techniques, led to the addition in Translate of five languages spoken by a combined 75 million people: Kinyarwanda, Odia (Oriya), Tatar, Turkmen, and Uyghur (Uighur).
Google isn’t alone in its pursuit of a truly universal translator. In August 2018, Facebook revealed an AI model that uses a combination of word-for-word translations, language models, and back-translations to outperform systems for language pairings. More recently, MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory researchers presented an unsupervised model — i.e., a model that learns from test data that hasn’t been explicitly labeled or categorized — that can translate between texts in two languages without direct translational data between the two.
In a statement, Google diplomatically said it’s “grateful” for the machine translation research in “academia and industry,” some of which informed its own work. “We accomplished [Google Translate’s recent improvements] by synthesizing and expanding a variety of recent advances,” said the company. “With this update, we are proud to provide automatic translations that are relatively coherent, even for the lowest-resource of the 108 supported languages.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Google open-sources its differential privacy library | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2019/09/05/google-open-sources-its-differential-privacy-library"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Google open-sources its differential privacy library Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Google today released the open source version of the differential privacy library used in some its core products, such as Google Maps. Any organization or developer can now check out the library on GitHub.
Differential privacy limits the algorithms used to publish aggregate information about a statistical database. Whether you are a city planner, small business owner, or software developer, chances are you want to gain insights from the data of your citizens, customers, or users. But you don’t want to lose their trust in the process. Differentially private data analysis enables organizations to learn from the majority of their data without allowing any single individual’s data to be distinguished or re-identified.
“If you are a health researcher, you may want to compare the average amount of time patients remain admitted across various hospitals in order to determine if there are differences in care,” Google product manager Miguel Guevara explains. “Differential privacy is a high-assurance, analytic means of ensuring that use cases like this are addressed in a privacy-preserving manner.” Differential privacy library features Google promises its library is easy for developers to deploy. It can help you perform functions that are difficult to execute from scratch, “like automatically calculating bounds on user contributions,” Guevera says. Key features include: VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Statistical functions: Most common data science operations (counts, sums, averages, medians, and percentiles) are supported.
Rigorous testing: Besides an extensive test suite, an extensible “Stochastic Differential Privacy Model Checker library” helps prevent mistakes.
Ready to use: A PostgreSQL extension, along with common recipes, is included.
Modular: The library can be extended to include other functionalities, such as additional mechanisms, aggregation functions, or privacy budget management.
This isn’t Google’s first differential privacy rodeo, but the company has been particularly busy in the space this year. In March, Google released TensorFlow Privacy and TensorFlow Federated.
In June, the company open-sourced Private Join and Compute , which gives companies data insights while preserving privacy. To learn more about Google’s approach, check out the team’s technical paper on arXiv.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Microsoft debuts WhiteNoise, an AI toolkit for differential privacy | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/05/19/microsoft-debuts-whitenoise-an-ai-toolkit-for-differential-privacy"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Microsoft debuts WhiteNoise, an AI toolkit for differential privacy Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Microsoft Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
During its Build 2020 developer conference, which takes place online this week, Microsoft announced the addition of new capabilities to Azure Machine Learning, its cloud-based environment for training, deploying, and managing AI models. WhiteNoise, a toolkit for differential privacy, is now available both through Azure and in open source on GitHub, joining new AI interpretability and fairness tools as well as new access controls for data, models, and experiments; new techniques for fine-grained traceability and lineage; new confidential machine learning products; and new workflow accountability documentation.
The effort is a part of Microsoft’s drive toward more explainable, secure, and “fair” AI systems.
Studies have shown bias in facial recognition systems to be pervasive, for instance, and AI has a privacy problem in that many models can’t use encrypted data. In addition to the Azure Machine Learning features launching today, Microsoft’s attempts at solutions to those and other challenges include AI bias-detecting tools , internal efforts to reduce prejudicial errors, AI ethics checklists, and a committee ( Aether ) that advises on AI pursuits. Separately, Microsoft corporate vice president Eric Boyd says the teams at Xbox, Bing, Azure, and across Microsoft 365 informed the development of — and used themselves — some of the toolkits released this morning.
“Organizations are now looking at how they [can] develop AI applications that are easy to explain and comply with regulations, for example non-discrimination and privacy regulations. They need tools with these AI models that they’re putting together that make it easier to explain, understand, protect, and control the data and the model,” Boyd told VentureBeat in a phone interview. “We think our approach to AI is differentiated by building a strong foundation on deep research and a thoughtful approach and commitment to open source.” VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! The WhiteNoise toolkit, which was developed in collaboration with researchers at the Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science and School of Engineering, leverages differential privacy to make it possible to derive insights from data while protecting private information, such as names or dates of birth. Typically, differential privacy entails injecting a small amount of noise into the raw data before feeding it into a local machine learning model, thus making it difficult for malicious actors to extract the original files from the trained model. An algorithm can be considered differentially private if an observer seeing its output cannot tell if it used a particular individual’s information in the computation.
WhiteNoise provides an extensible library of differentially private algorithms and mechanisms for releasing privacy-preserving queries and statistics, as well as APIs for defining an analysis and a validator for evaluating the analyses and calculating the total privacy loss on a data set. Microsoft says it could enable a group of hospitals to collaborate on building a better predictive model on the efficacy of cancer treatments, for instance, while at the same time helping to adhere to legal requirements to protect the privacy of hospital information and ensuring that no individual patient data leaks out from the model.
A separate toolkit backed by Microsoft’s AI and Ethics in Engineering and Research (Aether) Committee that will be integrated with Azure Machine Learning in June, Fairlearn , aims to assess AI systems’ fairness and mitigate any observed unfairness issues with algorithms. From within a dashboard, Fairlearn defines whether an AI system is behaving unfairly toward people, focusing on two kinds of harms: allocation harms and quality-of-service harms. Allocation harms occur when AI systems extend or withhold opportunities, resources, or information — for example, in hiring, school admissions, and lending. Quality-of-service harms refers to whether a system works as well for one person as it does for another, even if no opportunities, resources, or information are extended or withheld.
Fairlearn follows an approach known as group fairness, which seeks to uncover which groups of individuals are at risk for experiencing harms. A data scientist specifies the relevant groups (e.g., genders, skin tones, and ethnicities) within the toolkit, and they are application-specific; group fairness is formalized by a set of constraints, which requires that some aspect (or aspects) of the AI system’s behavior is comparable across the groups.
According to Microsoft, professional services firm Ernst & Young used Fairlearn to evaluate the fairness of model outputs with respect to biological sex. The toolkit revealed a 15.3% difference between positive loan decisions for males versus females, and Ernst & Young’s modeling team then developed and trained multiple remediated models and visualized the common trade-off between fairness and model accuracy. The team ultimately landed on a final model that optimized and preserved overall accuracy but reduced the difference between males and females to 0.43%.
Last on the list of new toolkits is InterpretML , which debuted last year in alpha but which today became available in Azure Machine Learning. InterpretML incorporates a number of machine learning interpretability techniques, helping to elucidate through visualizations model’s behaviors and the reasoning behind predictions. It can recommend the parameters — or variables — that are most important to a model in any given use case, and it can explain why these parameters are important.
“We want[ed] to make this available to a broad set of our customers through Azure Machine Learning to help them understand and explain what’s going on with their model,” said Boyd. “With all of [these toolkits], we think we’ve given developers a lot of power to really understand their models — they can see the interpretability of them [and the] fairness of them, and begin to understand other parameters they’re not comfortable with making predictions or that are swaying the model in a different way.” The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Cosmose AI raises $12 million to track brick-and-mortar purchasing habits | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2019/12/09/cosmose-ai-raises-12-million-to-track-brick-and-mortar-purchasing-habits"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Cosmose AI raises $12 million to track brick-and-mortar purchasing habits Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
Learn more.
Keeping abreast of shopping trends online is straightforward enough — whole categories of startups achieve this with predictive modeling. But what about when that shopping takes place in-store? Tracking the behaviors of mall, outlet, and department store shoppers is of critical importance to physical store brands, particularly considering that the percentage of brick-and-mortar sales increased by 2% from $2.99 trillion in 2016 to $3.04 trillion in 2017.
To meet this need, Miron Mironiuk founded Cosmose AI , a Shanghai-based analytics software provider that anticipates how people shop offline. Brands like Subway, Samsung, Walmart, Airbnb, Tencent, Burberry, Omnicom, Mercedes-Benz, Anheuser-Busch InBev, LVMH, Kering, L’Oréal, Gucci, Cartier, P&G, Nestle, and Coca-Cola use its tool suite to granularly track offline visitors’ purchasing habits and target them with online ads via WeChat, Weibo, Facebook, Google, and over 100 other internet platforms.
Roughly four years after its founding, Cosmose today announced that it has raised $12 million in a seed funding round co-led by TDJ Pitango and OTB Ventures, which CEO Mironiuk said will bolster the company’s expansion outside its home market of China. The funding comes after a year in which revenue tripled following Cosmose’s graduation from a startup program hosted by venture capital company Founders Factory.
It’s not a new idea. Two years ago, Snapchat acquired Placed, which tracks things like store visits and offline purchases.
Zenreach leverages Wi-Fi hotspots to help brick-and-mortar retailers bring customers back and to build profiles that include age, gender, and visit histories. And Swarm Mobile raised $3.5 million for its brick-and-mortar customer-tracking product several years ago.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Cosmose leverages a combination of machine learning tech and telemetry to deliver a holistic view of in-store shoppers. Using an agentless component that draws on data from over 400,000 social media, ride-sharing, and weather apps installed across more than a billion smartphones, it’s able to pinpoint customers’ locations down to store aisles (about two meters) with up to 73% accuracy. According to Mironiuk, it’s already being used in 300,000 stores in China.
Above: The mobile Cosmose AI app.
An analytics dashboard lets clients compare the performance of stores and analyze shoppers’ behavior through a number of lenses (e.g., brands and categories), with the goal of gleaning insights like the best location for a new store. A predicitve product — Cosmose Brain — anticipates when and where shoppers will go by correlating offline purchasing habits with online advertising and behavioral data, spotlighting customers most likely to convert at any moment. It also segments customers by their visiting behaviors, like those who leave stores before making a purchase versus those who stop in a fitting room but don’t buy anything. And its data informs an advertising orchestration dashboard — Cosmose Media — that shows the impact of online ads on visits and measures conversions for every ad format, for each day and store.
It all sounds a bit invasive, but Cosmose says it doesn’t collect personally identifiable information like phone numbers, email addresses, or serial numbers. Instead, it uses anonymized data from data providers operating under local laws such as the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. Specifically, Cosmose claims it generates a nine-digit number called an OMNIcookie for tracking a minimum of 100 smartphones offline and says that shoppers can opt out of tracking by filling out a form on its website.
In the near term, Cosmose plans to turn its attention to the Japanese market and open a Paris office, which it says will enable it to better serve European luxury brands targeting the Chinese traveler market. Mironiuk cites a survey from the United Nations World Tourism Organization that found spending from Chinese shoppers traveling abroad now makes up 21% of tourism spending globally, and that each Chinese traveler spends on average more per trip than tourists from any other country.
Alongside the funding round, Cosmose revealed that Ohad Finkelstein and Raymond Zage have joined its board. Ohad currently serves as an advisor to the CEO of Walmart and sits on the board of OneWeb, while Zage is the former CEO of Farallon Capital Asia and a member of Go-Jek’s and Toshiba’s boards. “Cosmose is one of the most intriguing companies I know, with a highly differentiated platform and an exceptional team. I was very excited to join the board and to help the company deliver on its visionary promise,” said Finkelstein.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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16,304 | 2,017 |
"Apple gives a glimpse into its artificial intelligence efforts | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2017/07/20/apple-gives-a-glimpse-into-its-artificial-intelligence-efforts"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Apple gives a glimpse into its artificial intelligence efforts Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
Learn more.
Apple is lifting the veil on some of its work in the red-hot field of artificial intelligence.
The consumer technology giant debuted Wednesday a website that highlights the company’s various AI-related research projects. Named the Apple Machine Learning Journal, the tech giant is pitching it as a way for people to read about the work of its various engineers working on cutting-edge AI techniques like deep learning.
Ruslan Salakhutdinov, Apple’s director of AI research, announced the debut of the website via Twitter. Apple hired Salakhutdinov, who is also a Carnegie Mellon University associate professor specializing in machine learning, in October amid an increasing push by big tech companies like Google that are hiring AI experts from academia.
Very excited for the launch of Apple’s Machine Learning blog: https://t.co/SLDpnhwgT5.
Check it out! — Russ Salakhutdinov (@rsalakhu) July 19, 2017 VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Apple currently lists only one research project on the new website, which appears to be a rewritten version of a research paper published in the fall. Unlike the original research paper, Apple has removed the names of the researchers who worked on the paper for the revised version now posted on the Apple Machine Learning Journal.
The website’s first post shows how Apple is researching how to teach computers to recognize faces by “training” them on images of computer-generated faces rather than pictures of actual human faces. Apple, which has stricter user privacy rules than companies like Google and Facebook, could benefit from this research if it could create AI systems that do not require as much personal data for training.
With the new website, Apple joins other big tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft that maintain blogs highlighting how they are researching or using AI technologies in their products. Besides functioning as a way to publicly demonstrate that these companies are using cutting-edge tech, these research blogs also function as recruiting tools for machine-learning specialists.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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16,305 | 2,019 |
"10 ways Siri should become a better assistant in 2019 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2019/04/04/10-ways-siri-should-become-a-better-assistant-in-2019"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages 10 ways Siri should become a better assistant in 2019 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Apple VP and Siri chief Craig Federighi introduces Siri shortcuts onstage at the San Jose Convention Center June 4, 2018 in San Jose, California.
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Artificial intelligence and machine learning now touch our lives in more ways than we can possibly imagine, but if there’s one particularly tangible, ubiquitous example of these technologies, it’s the digital assistant that lives in your smartphone, smart speakers, tablet, and computer. Whether you say “Hey Google,” “Hey Siri,” or “Alexa,” you’re conjuring up an advanced collection of AI and ML tools designed to listen to you, understand you, and do things you ask.
None of these digital assistants is perfect, and even after years of interaction with people, they all have some non-trivial issues to address this year. This week, three VentureBeat writers are spotlighting 10 important issues with the digital assistant they use most. On Wednesday, we focused on Google’s Assistant , with Siri following today and Amazon’s Alexa tomorrow.
We hope you enjoy all three articles.
Siri Apple’s digital assistant Siri had a rough 2018 across almost every possible metric. It was the signature but weakest feature of the HomePod smart speaker , suffered through internal Apple leadership shuffles and exits , and became even more unreliable at performing some of its most basic features. When Apple said it was hiring someone to help executives understand Siri’s problems so the issues could be fixed, my initial thoughts were “Only now? Seriously?” and “Thank god!” Superficially, Siri is such a train wreck right now that I could write this entire article with one sentence: Throw it out and completely replace it with something else. It doesn’t live up to Apple’s it “just works” standards of performance, and if it was a brand new product on the cusp of being announced, it would clearly call for more time in the oven.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! But Apple’s not going to shut Siri down and swap it with something else. Siri’s an actively used service that’s tied into virtually all of Apple’s operating systems and devices. Instead, the assistant’s going to be patched, repaired, and augmented until it works better — a process that already began last year with Siri Shortcuts and that will no doubt continue with additional tweaks this year.
Here’s my list of 10 ways Apple should improve Siri this year, even if I’m not holding my breath for any of them to happen.
1. 99% response accuracy Last July, Loup Ventures published a “ digital assistant IQ test, ” claiming — through seemingly rigorous testing — that Siri on a smartphone understood user inquiries 99% of the time and correctly answered them 78.5% of the time. That was below Google Assistant (85.5% correct answers), but better than Amazon’s Alexa (61.4%) and Microsoft’s Cortana (52.4%). The numbers were similar in a December test of Siri on HomePod : 99.6% understanding and 74.6% correct answers.
Even if Loup’s numbers were generally accurate across real-world Siri usage, the assistant would provide incorrect answers one-fourth of the time. That’s terrible in a world that typically expects Apple (and most non-Apple) devices to work all of the time. After over eight years of development, if Siri understands something, it should be able to answer at least partially, if not fully, and correctly. Counting partial answers as correct, a 99% correct response rate — one incorrect answer in 100 responses — should be achievable.
In my experience, Siri has actually gone in the opposite direction over the past year. Common queries it used to be able to handle are now frequently returning hugely incorrect results, which makes using the “digital assistant” pointless. Take one look at Reddit’s SiriFail discussion group and you’ll know why this is the biggest area Apple needs to address, and right away.
2. Offline Mode Siri desperately needs a capable “offline” mode so it can do things even when it’s struggling with an internet connection. As bad as the issue is for iPads, iPod touches, and Apple Watches when they’re out of wireless data range, it even happens with cellular iPhones, and it’s annoying to completely lose Siri functionality for stretches of time.
The problem is that Siri relies almost entirely on distant servers for its responses, which means it can be slowed down — or ground to a halt — by the internet. At a minimum, every current Apple device has an A8 chip and memory, so it should be able to store a subset of Siri’s features and do some things on its own. That’s actually how the iPhone 3GS’ Voice Control feature started, and it was surprisingly reliable almost a decade ago for playing music, making calls, and other basic device-specific features.
3. Multi-user support via voice-printing Regardless of whether it’s on a speaker that sits in one room or an iPad that gets handed off to family members, Siri is inevitably going to be controlled by multiple people. It goes without saying that, like rival digital assistants, Siri should be able to use voice prints to distinguish between them.
Moreover, Siri should be able to meet users’ individual needs in at least basic ways. If so requested, each user’s voice print should be linked to a separate iCloud account so Siri can provide correct responses based on a person’s email, contacts, and other data. This isn’t to say that the device needs to store everything from a user’s full iCloud account — just that if a person is asking a question, Siri should be able to know who’s asking and temporarily retrieve information pertinent to the request.
4. Alternate Siri names (or gain adjustments) Going beyond its other Siri-capable devices, Apple noted in its Machine Learning Journal that it took impressive measures to let HomePod’s microphones recognize voice commands through almost any kind of ambient interference. In practice, HomePod is legitimately capable of picking up voices from more than a full room away, even when a TV or other sonic source is nearby — conditions that make Echo and Google speakers struggle to hear commands.
Unfortunately, HomePod’s super hearing can make Siri incredibly annoying. If you say “Hey Siri” to an iPhone or iPad in the same room as a HomePod — or even a room away — you may notice that HomePod intercepts the request intended for another device and perhaps fails to properly address it. I wasn’t entirely surprised to encounter this problem frequently when HomePod was sitting on my office desk, but I later found myself slack-jawed when I moved the speaker into my family room and it picked up my voice from two rooms away.
Letting users rename Siri for a given device would fix this, as would allowing the user to adjust Siri’s sensitivity (gain control) on a device so that it didn’t work in an unwanted radius. This has an especially large likelihood of being a problem on HomePods, but it could be tweaked for other devices, too.
Above: Siri on Apple TV.
5. Make Siri a consistent experience across devices A related problem is that HomePod’s Siri can’t do everything Siri can on an iPhone or iPad. Imagine making a request of one Siri device and getting a response from the one that “can’t handle your request.” That’s a thing that happens.
Siri works differently (and barely) on the Apple TV compared with even HomePod and Apple Watch, while macOS and iOS users have a substantially different experience. It’s easy for Apple to say this is in the service of customizing each Siri experience for its host device, but an Apple Watch or Apple TV user may well ask the same question as an iPhone user — and want a good answer rather than a prompt to try the same request on another device. Apart from hardware limitations, such as an Apple TV’s lack of an integrated microphone for phone calls, there shouldn’t be barriers to Siri’s performance.
6. Make Proactive Assistance per-user and useful For years, iOS devices have been able to offer widget-like personalized summaries of weather, calendar appointments, reminders, news, and other details, all available at a glance — features that Apple referred to as making Siri a more proactive assistant, with an eye to rivaling Google Now.
But Siri’s feature has made little progress since it was rolled out. iOS now makes all but useless “Siri App Suggestions” based on … well, it’s hard to know. At one point, the recommendations appeared to be based on device usage patterns at various times, but now they just look random. The most proactive things it does are years-old basics for Google: automatically calculating time and distance to the location of your next calendar events and telling you what’s coming up next.
Apple has long used privacy concerns as a crutch to explain why its personal digital assistant doesn’t get too personal or offer much assistance. It’s time for Siri to start acting like an actual concierge, rather than someone who doesn’t want to do any work — even when asked and given the permissions to do so. If you tell Siri it’s okay to sync certain user-specific details across multiple devices or from your iCloud account so it can provide better services to you, it should be able to do so without further questions.
7. Bring Proactive Assistance to speakers Beyond making Proactive Assistance more useful on screened devices, HomePod should offer an audio version of the feature for any user. This would bring the “digital assistant” concept to life by presenting a summary of key things you should know before starting or ending your day, spoken to you while you’re getting dressed or washing up — rather than forcing you to look at a screen.
8. Give speakers full FaceTime audio capabilities Apple’s Siri speakers should be able to make audio calls of some sort without depending on an iPhone for service. Google offers users a free Voice telephone number; Amazon similarly offers free phone calling. But Apple requires you to have an iPhone nearby to facilitate calls.
Allowing Siri speakers to initiate and end FaceTime Audio calls on their own would be the bare minimum needed to make Apple’s options competitive. Enabling them to serve as a full telephone alternative for the room they sit in would be much better.
9. Create easier onboarding for Siri Shortcuts Apple’s implementation of Siri Shortcuts — its alternative to Alexa Skills — gave Siri devices a real chance to expand their capabilities. But the current process of setting up those Shortcuts is very much manual rather than automatic: Users need to dive into either the Shortcuts app or an iOS Settings menu to start using them.
Above: Siri Shortcuts is based upon Workflow, an app Apple acquired in 2017.
With a user’s consent, a freshly set up Apple device could ask to share a device’s existing “Proactive Assistance” information about recently used apps and use that to surface and set up helpful Siri Shortcuts. There are other ways to do this, such as a “help me set up Shortcuts” voice command, but the end goal should be the same — get more users using more of the existing Shortcuts.
10. Expand Siri to a wider range of speakers and devices Amazon took a proven approach to creating a lineup of Echo speakers: Start affordable, then add cheaper and more expensive options. The strategy proved so popular with customers that late-to-the-party Apple had to choose whether to copy the Echo family outright or do something different. (Google basically mimicked Amazon’s strategy with Home, then more quickly went to very low and very high price points with Mini and Max.) A HomePod lineup with options at $199, $299, and $399 would be totally fine; the just-reduced $299 model could fit in the middle, flanked by “small monaural” and “bigger, true stereo” alternatives. It’s unclear whether Apple will actually release the new devices necessary to do this, but having a lineup rather than one speaker would go a long way toward making HomePods more viable in the marketplace and Siri more useful in homes.
I would also be in favor of an Apple TV revision that had microphones built into the box itself, or perhaps as an element of the HDMI cable (for hidden home theater Apple TV installations), in addition to or instead of the remote control. Depending on how this was implemented, Siri could become as useful on an Apple TV as on HomePods and iOS devices.
Final thoughts For the time being, all of these hardware and software tweaks to improve Siri’s performance can be fairly described as wishful thinking. Even if Apple engineers have been working feverishly behind the scenes, consumer-facing enhancements have been glacial and uneven, more often than not offset by new or deepening problems elsewhere.
Going forward, my biggest hope for Siri is to see it continue to eliminate issues one by one without adding new problems to the list. Regardless of how many people are using the service today, the number who have given up on Siri is much higher than it should be, and it’s a rare example of an Apple offering that’s truly third-rate compared to competitors.
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16,306 | 2,019 |
"Apple's Deep Fusion hands-on: AI sharpens photos like HDR fixes colors | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2019/10/03/apples-deep-fusion-hands-on-ai-sharpens-photos-like-hdr-fixes-colors"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Apple’s Deep Fusion hands-on: AI sharpens photos like HDR fixes colors Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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Digital photographers coined the term “pixel peepers” years ago to denote — mostly with scorn — people who focused on flaws in the individual dots that create photos rather than the entirety of the images. Zooming in to 100%, it was said, is nothing but a recipe for perpetual disappointment; instead, judge each camera by the overall quality of the photo it takes, and don’t get too mired in the details.
Until now, Apple’s approach to digital photography has been defined by its commitment to improving the quality of the big picture without further compromising pixel-level quality. I say “further” because there’s no getting around the fact that tiny phone camera sensors are physically incapable of matching the pixel-level results of full-frame DSLR camera sensors in a fair fight. Bigger sensors can capture more light and almost invariably more actual pixels than the iPhone’s 12-megapixel cameras. Shoot one photo with practically any DSLR against an iPhone, and the DSLR is going to win on pixel-level quality.
Unfortunately for DSLRs, Apple is not interested in a fair fight. After an on-stage preview at a September media event, a new iPhone 11 feature called Deep Fusion arrived in preview form yesterday with the first beta of iOS 13.2.
Deep Fusion is Apple’s name for a new machine learning-aided computational photography trick iPhone 11 models can apply on the fly to enhance detail.
While the DSLR snaps one photo in a split second, A13 Bionic-powered iPhone 11-series cameras will snap three, five, or seven, using tricks like beginning to shoot before the shutter button is pressed and shooting multiple exposures so fast that DSLRs can’t keep up. And while traditional photographers wrestle with questions over the integrity of composite images, Apple AI will pick the best parts from a stack of them and turn them into one idealized “photo” in the time it takes you to blink your eye.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! If you accept high-dynamic range (HDR) images as “photography” rather than art — using three or seven exposures to create one image with idealized shadow, highlight, and color detail — you can’t really object to the use of similar techniques to enhance sharpness. Especially when it works so quickly and automatically that you don’t even know that it’s happening.
How profound is the difference? Well, that depends, but let’s take the two comparison images immediately above and at the top of this page as examples. Both are 100% crops from much larger photos. You can clearly see stronger pixel-level details in the skin and metal. The wood is sharp rather than soft. Without getting into too much technical jargon, Apple suggested that fabrics and other textures would be more crisply rendered with Deep Fusion enabled, and that’s definitely true… …except when you zoom out to look at the entire image. In most of the comparison images I snapped using an iPhone 11 Pro, the overall photos with and without Deep Fusion turned on weren’t night-and-day different. In fact, you’d probably be hard-pressed to tell me which of the following two images used Deep Fusion without assistive captions.
Above: The same wood image, zoomed out for full viewing, with Deep Fusion turned off.
Above: The same wood image, zoomed out for full viewing, with Deep Fusion turned on.
Remember the discussion of pixel peepers? Well, they’re the crowd that may* be most impressed by Deep Fusion. Even without the feature turned on, the overall image is going to look excellent by smartphone standards. Perhaps only detail obsessives will really care that the pores on a person’s skin or threads of a given shirt are now obvious on closer inspection.
The asterisk is there because Apple’s decision to exploit its super-fast A13 processor for AI trickery will surely divide some traditional photographers from the modern masses. Well before there was a #nofilter movement — currently at 261 million posts on the filter-focused app Instagram — many photographers argued that adulterating a photo by compositing, Photoshopping, or even post-processing colors in it was cheating: enough to disqualify potential winners from photo contests and call professionals’ reputations into question.
There have been enough valid examples of abuse that this concern isn’t unfounded. Who can trust a “photo” of a president or a public space that has been doctored to add or subtract additional elements? An image made from splicing together photos and/or adding hand-crafted edits is more art than photography, right? Apple’s use of machine learning and AI for Deep Fusion arguably removes the human element from that equation. You literally flip a switch — in iOS 13.2 beta 1, confusingly labeled “Photos Capture Outside the Frame” — to turn the feature on or off. If the switch is off, Deep Fusion is on, which means you’re giving the iPhone permission to extract maximum detail from a series of immediately related photos and deliver that final image to you as your photograph. If Deep Fusion is off, you get the more conventional “off” results shown above.
Except that even with Deep Fusion “off,” the iPhone is still going to hand you the best results from multiple shots as auto-composited HDR images with properly balanced highlights and shadows. It’s still going to clean up its raw image sensor output for noise, and apply sharpening and/or anti-lens distortion filters to produce cleaner images. Many cameras — even some DSLRs — now do these sorts of things by default, allowing you to manually turn down the sharpening or adjust their punchy color balance if you don’t like them to be so aggressive.
Above: This image snapped with a detailed texture and Deep Fusion turned on looked indistinguishable from one where Deep Fusion was off.
Traditionalists aside, virtually everyone is going to leave Deep Fusion on. Most of the time, it doesn’t noticeably change either the overall quality level of images or the apparent speed of shooting photos — at least, compared against the same phone with Deep Fusion off. When it helps, it helps, and it never seems to hurt. Moreover, the iPhone 11-series phones offer noticeable camera detail improvements over their predecessors even without Deep Fusion, so users are in great shape with or without AI assistance.
As of today, AI-based photo enhancing solutions like Deep Fusion seem a little ahead of their time. But just like Google’s Night Sight , phones that ship without a similarly capable feature next year will be at a disadvantage — at least, for those who care about the finer details in their photos.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Microsoft's Andrew Shuman on the Cortana app's death, natural language, and Alexa | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2019/12/23/microsofts-andrew-shuman-on-the-cortana-apps-death-natural-language-and-alexa"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Microsoft’s Andrew Shuman on the Cortana app’s death, natural language, and Alexa Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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Last month, news broke that Microsoft was killing off Cortana for Android and iOS and was removing Cortana from its Launcher app for Android. On January 31, 2020, Microsoft will end support for the Cortana app in Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Mexico, Spain, and the U.K. This was Microsoft’s statement at the time: Cortana is an integral part of our broader vision to bring the power of conversational computing and productivity to all our platforms and devices. To make Cortana as helpful as possible, we’re integrating Cortana deeper into your Microsoft 365 productivity apps, and part of this evolution involves ending support for the Cortana mobile app on Android and iOS.
Microsoft refocusing Cortana for the enterprise, and specifically for Windows and Office, is not new.
Nonetheless, killing off the Cortana app was a bold move. We sat down with Andrew Shuman, who has been leading the Cortana team since Javier Soltero’s departure last year , to find out why Cortana for Android and iOS is being killed off, what to expect with Cortana for Windows, his thoughts on natural language and typing, what’s going on with the Alexa integration, and more.
Cortana for Android and iOS in the U.S.
Shuman confirmed that the Cortana mobile app (and Cortana integration in Microsoft’s Android launcher) was going away in all countries except for the U.S. Previously, Microsoft listed only eight countries that would lose Cortana for Android and iOS. But other countries, such as Japan, will also be losing it. At this point, why not kill the Cortana app in the U.S. as well? Shuman gave a few reasons. First, he said, the Cortana app is how you configure Cortana and update the firmware on Surface Headphones, which debuted only in the U.S. “We still have people who use their Cortana apps to manage their headphone operation,” said Shuman. “So if you have the Surface Headphones, you can use the Cortana app with those, and we’re still supporting that.” VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! That’s not a great reason. After all, Microsoft started selling Surface Headphones in Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, and Switzerland earlier this year. After January 30, only Surface Headphones users in the U.S. will be able to keep using Cortana for Android and iOS. All other Surface Headphones owners will have to use Cortana for Windows.
We did get some good news for these Surface Headphones owners. In the spring, Microsoft plans to launch the delayed Surface Earbuds.
The accompanying Surface Audio app will not only be available for Android, iOS, and Windows, it will support existing Surface Headphones and the new Surface Earbuds for managing all settings and configuring Cortana.
Next, Shuman surprisingly mentioned the only Cortana smart speaker that saw the light of day — a device Microsoft executives typically avoid discussing. “Also, people who have Invokes in market can still use the Cortana app to configure their Invokes, so those markets are all still going,” said Shuman.
This explanation does have some legs — the Harmon Kardon Invoke was only ever sold in the U.S. But that’s because sales were so low — Microsoft was selling it at 50% off just a month after launch.
Shuman gave two more reasons for why the Cortana app is being killed in all countries except the U.S. First, Cortana for Android and iOS didn’t receive much traction outside the U.S. “The markets we turned off had much lower usage and engagement,” he said.
And finally, Cortana for Android and iOS is sticking around in the U.S. because Microsoft wants to keep experimenting. “We also think that there may be some roles for standalone assistants as an experimentation place for us to try out new ideas still. I think this point has been made a lot, but … the assistant landscape is rich with opportunity, and very not rich with actual results, sometimes. And so the opportunity to continue to try things quickly is important to us as well.” Cortana for Windows, Office, and beyond The latest Cortana for Windows improvements are slated for the next major Windows 10 update, likely to arrive in April or May of next year. If Cortana for Android and iOS didn’t do well in some markets outside the U.S., how is Cortana on Windows doing? “Cortana on Windows does really well in those eight markets, and that’s part of the reason we had started to bring the mobile app there,” said Shuman. “Given our focus on the productivity users, we think that … it makes much more sense to be where our users are: inside of Office and inside of Windows.” In other words, rival assistants have won on the phone. So Microsoft is focusing on the enterprise.
Where else can we expect Cortana to show up? Shuman noted that it’s coming to Microsoft Teams next year, but there’s no release date for that yet.
“Obviously, there’s strength in enterprises, but the kind of problems we have are very universal,” he continued. “It’s about helping people get time back. The previous apps that we were showing before were really great when we were in startup mode and trying to sort out what an assistant could be. But they were not directly aligning with those Microsoft 365 users who really don’t want to go to another experience to do their stuff. They want to be able to do it in the apps they’re using every day, like Outlook and like Teams. That’s really been our push now — over a year now of work that we’ve had underway.” Windows and Office aside, you should expect Cortana in every Microsoft app Microsoft can think of.
“The analogy that I like to use is both Microsoft Search or Microsoft Account, which are really across all of our applications,” said Shuman. “We think of Cortana in a very similar way, where it really is a horizontal surface area that’s very person-centric. It very much knows a lot about me, and then it experiences itself across all of these apps and suites. So that’s the way that we characterize the investment moving forward. And partially, that’s just the reality of wanting to be in the experiences you’re using every day and not [having] to switch over to another one to get the experience.” Natural language and typing Currently, you can talk, but not type, to Cortana. Not everyone wants to talk to their phone or computer, so some assistants let you type instead. Shuman confirmed that’s in the works for Cortana, too.
“I’m really glad you’re asking that, because I think there is [an] equivalence that people do with voice and assistants, when I think it really should be broadened to be about natural language and assistants,” said Shuman. “There are two or three places where I think this is really powerful. In the Play My Emails experience , for example, we had to do a lot of work on natural language understanding just to help read out emails to you intelligently. You can imagine if you just flipped open an Outlook pane and started to read everything on the screen how awful that would be.” “There are all these labels and all these things that your brain doesn’t read when you’re scanning it,” he continued. “You just scan through the subjects. And then you scan through who sent it. And we had to do a lot of natural language processing work so that we can read them intelligently and summarize the state of affairs.” Unlike screen readers, which simply read out every single piece of text on the screen, Outlook’s voice mode and the Play My Emails feature can give you a summary of your inbox. It can say things like, “John just replied and added you to a conversation about this week’s budget.” Cortana in Outlook skips the header between email replies, as well as the signature file at the bottom, links, attachments, and so on.
Shuman confirmed we can expect to be able to type to Cortana next year.
“One of the things that we’re investing in Windows is this idea of being a quicker experience for people who are good typists. Those of us who’ve been around computers for a while don’t need to talk to them. But still, the power of natural language is really great. I’ll give you one example that I use now all the time on the builds I’m running, which is just managing my time in my calendar. It’s a lot easier to type in ‘dentist appointment next Friday’ than to alt-tab to Outlook, new file, tab, tab, tab, type in ‘dentist,’ type in ‘Friday,’ and find a free time. So that’s a great example, where just getting data into and out of my digital calendar is really simplified by natural language understanding.” Alexa and privacy We haven’t heard much about the Alexa-Cortana tie-up since the assistants crossed over to Echo speakers and Windows 10 PCs in August 2018, but Shuman talked about some of the companies’ future plans.
“We still have a great aspiration to do a lot more … kind of across the two companies,” he said. “It started really tops down. I don’t know if you remember that, but Satya [Nadella] and Jeff [Bezos] actually cooked this plan up.
You can still invoke Cortana from Alexa, and vice versa. I think it will be a great area for us to lean into. We really believe in a multi-assistant world.
Just like in the real world where I might have a doctor, and a lawyer, maybe a trainer, you’re going to have multiple assistants that are good at what they’re good at. We’re not going to become an ecommerce company anytime soon, but assistants are great at helping you buy things.” (Alexa isn’t a great shopping assistant, but that’s another story.
) One would think that the Alexa-Cortana crossover could be in jeopardy, but Shuman said all is well. “We are still invested in it, for sure,” said Shuman. He was also positive when questioned whether anyone actually used it. “Yeah, we have a reasonable amount of usage. It’s still a very new experience, but it’s okay.” Part of the problem is that it’s a pain to set up the two assistants. You need Alexa set up with an Amazon account, Cortana set up with a Microsoft account, and then you have to link them together. “We certainly would like to make it easier and easier to connect the two accounts, but we also want to be very clear to the user about when they’re using personalized data in an Amazon service or in a Microsoft service,” said Shuman.
Where your data goes Logging in is necessary so each company can disclose what the assistant has collected from you. Conversely, there’s little reason you would want to launch the other assistant without being logged in. Any general question you may want to ask the second assistant, you can presumably just ask the first.
Shuman says Microsoft is becoming more conscious of users’ data “especially as we move out of the more pure consumer space into the enterprise and office productivity space.” (In August, Microsoft updated its privacy policy to say employees or contractors may listen to recordings from Cortana and Skype Translator, after a Vice report revealed the practice.
) “That definitely brings its own challenges and also its own opportunities,” said Shuman. “We do complete eyes-off AI models, which means that no one in my team or in any of the teams at Microsoft looks at your email. We do it through sophisticated sampling of public datasets and employee-donated data, and then we generalize it. Which is a huge amount of work and a huge technical breakthrough for us to really be truly eyes-off in how we build these models.” “If you are using Office 365 services, we have a very strict compliant data storage model that ensures that no one can look at your data except you. As we want to bring that to other experiences and other platforms, we have to be very cognizant of that promise,” he added.
Good assistants have to know you Microsoft is still in the process of pivoting Cortana to be a productivity assistant. This productivity focus is what killed the mobile app outside of the U.S., where it still has traction and can be used for experimentation. The productivity angle also explains work on natural language, typing, and knowing its users.
“For us to be a really good digital assistant, we have to know you and know you well,” Shuman said. “If you go after a user like an Office user, those are the people that we can help the most. We understand the projects they’re working on. We understand the people they communicate with the most.” Shuman launched into an example: Say you tell Cortana to “call Jon.” There are many Jons at a company like Microsoft, but, he said, “Anyone who knows me knows there’s one Jon that I work with all the time — Jon Hamaker, he’s right down the hall. And so in my experience, I want to ‘call Jon’ to be Jon Hamaker.” “That’s the kind of thing that’s truly important about an assistant. An assistant has to really know you. And that’s absolutely core to why we’re having this renewed focus on these users that we think we can offer the most value to.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Facebook cancels its 2020-2021 AI Residency program due to coronavirus | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/05/06/facebook-cancels-its-2020-2021-ai-residency-program-due-to-coronavirus"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Facebook cancels its 2020-2021 AI Residency program due to coronavirus Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Facebook today announced that it plans to cancel its 2020-2021 in-person AI Residency program as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic. In a statement provided to VentureBeat via email, Facebook vice president of AI Jerome Pesenti said that the decision was motivated by health and safety concerns.
“We continue to put the health and safety of our community first as we respond to changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, we have decided not to move forward with the 2020-2021 AI Residency Program,” Pesenti said. “An optimal and consistent hands-on residency experience is critically important to the program’s success, and this isn’t possible in a remote format. We look forward to keeping in touch with this year’s candidates for future opportunities.” When asked why the program was canceled outright rather than delayed, a Facebook spokesperson said this could have created timing conflicts with students’ graduation dates, Ph.D. applications, and academic conference deadlines. They added that current residents’ programs will be extended to help give them additional time to finish their research, and that Facebook remains committed to offering residencies where and when it’s possible to do so.
Facebook’s AI Residency program is a paid one-year position that pairs applicants with a Facebook AI researcher and an engineer. With the team, residents pick a research problem of mutual interest and devise new machine learning techniques to solve it. Facebook encourages collaborations beyond the assigned mentors and ensures the research is communicated to the academic community, chiefly by submitting papers to academic venues like NeurIPS, ICLR, and CVPR as well as open source code releases and/or Facebook products.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Facebook isn’t alone in offering an AI residency program, though it’s one of the few that prohibits remote participation. OpenAI, Google, IBM, and Microsoft, among others, provide opportunities for students and professionals to conduct research alongside programmers, data scientists, and product managers.
The pandemic has impacted a number of Facebook’s operations, including physical events and work out of its offices globally. In April, the company said it would refrain from hosting conferences with 50 or more people through at least June 2021, and it continues to allow full-time employees to work from home.
In a blog post published in March, Facebook Research director Daron Green said the company was “planning new ways” to foster its online research community and support remote collaboration and networking, for example through Q&As with researchers and facilitated virtual networking. “We are dedicated to continuing our research activities and specifically our external academic investments, despite the challenges we are all facing,” he wrote. “These investments include conference sponsorships, requests for proposals, our fellowship program, university lab investments, and sponsored research.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Apple’s watchOS 7 may beat Google’s latest Wear OS, but both need help | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/08/20/apples-watchos-7-may-beat-googles-latest-wear-os-but-both-need-help"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Opinion Apple’s watchOS 7 may beat Google’s latest Wear OS, but both need help Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn An Apple Watch Series 4 running watchOS 7 next to a Fossil Gen 5 watch running the latest version of Wear OS.
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Smartwatches have become a huge business over the past several years, evolving past the “Why do people need these?” phase to become trusted health monitors and secondary communication devices for millions of people. Apple currently dominates the global market with watchOS-powered Apple Watches , but Google’s Wear OS is at the core of numerous competing devices, notably including smartwatches from Fossil Group and its many fashion-focused sub-labels. These companies continue to update their hardware and software on an annual or semi-annual basis, seeking to satisfy existing users and win new smartwatch adopters.
As we move into the traditional fall upgrade period for these watches, both platforms feel somewhat stagnant. Apple’s preview of the upcoming watchOS 7 was decidedly underwhelming, following last year’s disappointingly modest tweaks to the Apple Watch Series 5.
Google has revealed even smaller improvements for Wear OS, and its simultaneous failure to release a self-developed Pixel Watch has led to speculation that it’s preparing to abandon the smartwatch business. That appears to be unfounded — key hardware partner Qualcomm just announced new Wear OS-ready chips , and Google acquired a watch engineering team from Fossil — but even so, neither platform appears likely to make a truly big leap forward in the immediate future.
I’ve had the chance to use the latest versions of both watchOS and Wear OS, as well as covering Qualcomm’s next-generation Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform launch, so I have some thoughts on where these wearables are and aren’t headed over the next year or two. The good news is that they’ll both keep getting better, if slowly, but the bad news is that one of the biggest potential game changers for business and consumer smartwatch apps — higher-speed 5G connectivity — is likely still at least a year away. Here’s what you can expect this fall, and thereafter.
watchOS 7 for Apple Watch Series 3, 4, 5, and 6 I’ve been testing beta versions of watchOS 7 for nearly two months, and the best thing I can say about the upcoming release is that it’s stable. It adds only a small handful of features , none a game changer, and unless something big happens over the next two months, most users will hardly notice the difference from last year’s watchOS 6. Apple appears to be either unsure about taking big steps forward or limited by the constraints of current-generation hardware.
This is the first year Apple is offering public betas of watchOS ahead of its fall release, and so far the betas have been about as solid as final releases — except for hiccups I’ve experienced in one of the new features. A COVID-19-inspired automatic hand washing timer supposedly uses machine learning to detect the sounds and motion of hand washing, but it has remained uselessly buggy on my otherwise great Apple Watch Series 4.
Even in the latest beta, it rarely triggers at all when I’m using a sink and has never in two months completed a single 20-second countdown. (A friend with a Series 5 watch has experienced intermittently better results, so I’m not sure how this will play out in the final watchOS 7 release.) Apple’s new Sleep app has remained decidedly underwhelming since the earliest beta, using motion and device usage data to guesstimate time spent in bed and asleep. In post-reveal interviews, Apple executives suggested they deliberately kept the metrics basic to avoid freaking people out about their sleep patterns, which might be true — or might be a convenient excuse. In either case, the only impressive element of the feature is that the Watch and iPhone work together to convince you to stop using them as you settle down to sleep, which is handled more gracefully than the iPhone’s oddly laggy, low-detail sleep reporting.
Curiously, while watchOS 7 is only introducing a single new watch face, Chronograph Pro, Apple has added a feature that lets users publicly share the Apple-permitted customizations they’ve made to faces, such as color changes and complication selections. My best guess is that this is a prelude to offering third-party watch faces — a glaring omission in watchOS — but Apple has disappointed those of us waiting for this feature time and time again, so I’m not holding my breath for it to magically happen with the Apple Watch Series 6. As I’ll explain below, however, it’s a possibility.
Apple is also tweaking the Workouts app with additional types of fitness activities, including dance tracking, ahead of what might be two major fall developments. According to a recent report, Apple will debut a subscription fitness video service that ties into the Apple TV and Apple Watch, potentially using motion data, and may also add blood oxygen level monitoring to the Watch if it can win FDA clearance for the feature. While neither of these features would be legitimately huge, each would tick off a “nice to have” box for some users.
Comparing watchOS 7 directly against the latest release of Wear OS on a Fossil Gen 5 device, two things really stand out about Apple’s implementation: speed and polish. Even on a two-year-old Apple Watch Series 4, literally everything (except the hand washing feature) is faster and smoother than on Wear OS, including Home Screen responsiveness, timepiece-to-Home and timepiece-to-app transitions, and in-app interactions. Bugs that Apple eliminated years ago, such as continued flashing of the heart rate sensor after removal from a wrist, are still obvious in Wear OS, while random full device resets are similarly super rare on the Apple Watch but pervasive on Wear OS. Whatever watchOS lacks in innovation it makes up for in system-level smoothness, and that counts for a lot in something you want to use quickly rather than plodding through.
Wear OS (fall 2020) If I had to sum up the latest version of Wear OS on Fossil’s Gen 5 watches in two words, it would be “modestly confusing.” Unlike the Apple Watch, which feels almost feature-complete but too limited, Wear OS feels like a work in progress that has the potential for greater functionality — if you’re willing to suffer through some janky issues to get there.
Take, for example, how Google numbers Wear OS versions. After Fossil’s mid-August software update, the “core OS” remained at version 2.17 — originally released in April — with separate version numbers listed for the Home app (2.35), Google Play Services (20.30.19), system (H MR1), and Android security patch level (July 1, 2020). By contrast, Apple’s watchOS is just version 7.0 and will only get a digit more complicated (such as 7.0.1 or 7.1.1) with future updates. With Wear OS, most users are better off ignoring those mind-numbing details.
Like watchOS 7, Wear OS feels more or less feature-complete, with the expected timepiece, health monitoring, NFC payment, music, and communication tools, plus calendar, contacts, and reminder apps. Google includes translation and Assistant features, such as smartphone-tethered capabilities that surpass what watchOS offers. That said, Wear OS apps too often feel underdesigned and unloved compared with watchOS versions — Google uses a flat red heart for heartbeat monitoring, while Apple animates a line tracing the edge of a heart for the same feature and uses a sophisticated 3D pixel model to begin EKG measurement. Google makes features work but rarely makes them pretty.
Last week, the company announced so few user-facing improvements in the upcoming Wear OS fall update that we didn’t think them worthy of a news story. Prominent on the list of “new” features was an already-released hand washing timer. Despite looking much less impressive than Apple’s version and lacking machine learning “auto-activation,” the Wear OS timer actually works, since you can manually turn it on. Unfortunately, the only other announced app change is a redesigned weather experience, which isn’t yet available. It looks nice in screenshots but isn’t exactly a big deal.
Google is also working on under-the-hood performance improvements. Wear OS is supposed to be getting up to 20% faster when starting apps on current processors — while setting the stage for further improvements with future Snapdragon Wear 4100 watches. There’s also the promise of “more intuitive controls for managing different watch modes and workouts,” which Wear OS currently stumbles through. Thanks to Fossil’s just-released Wear OS update, Gen 5 users now have a Wellness app with activity, sleep, and cardio fitness tracking, in addition to Google’s Fit Workout app, with its own pages of workout tracking options. Users are also supposed to manually switch between multiple battery modes to conserve power. Simplifying all of this would be great.
The flip side of Wear OS’ less streamlined approach is greater choice. As just one watchmaker, Fossil ships Gen 5 with around 50 legitimately different watch faces, while third-party apps such as Facer enable thousands of additional free and paid faces. Facer caused crashes and slowdowns on my Gen 5 watch, but a smaller app — Pear Watch Face — has been more stable and includes a handful of Apple Watch-like faces, even one inspired by the Nike+ variant of the Apple Watch.
These two apps perfectly distill Wear OS’ strengths and weaknesses compared with watchOS. You can make a Gen 5 watch’s timepiece look exactly like you want, which is a massive attraction, but you may compromise stability in the process and wind up falling back to a simpler — and Apple-caliber neutral — option just to get something that fully works. Offering broad user customization while guaranteeing a smooth, stable experience is arguably the most pressing challenge Google and Apple face going forward.
The future Qualcomm’s briefing on the Snapdragon Wear 4100 platform was critically important because it clarifies where flagship smartwatches are headed over the next year. Wear OS will require a version called the 4100+, which includes both a quad-core CPU and a separate coprocessor capable of handling persistent but smaller tasks without consuming CPU-class power. The goal is to eventually evolve smartwatches into miniature smartphones with the ability to independently run phone-class apps over Wi-Fi or cellular connections. In the more immediate future, 4100+ watches will be able to display more sophisticated maps, run Google Assistant and Google Translate natively rather than needing a companion phone, and use up to two integrated cameras for video calls and photography.
Some OEMs are going to embrace almost the full range of these capabilities fairly quickly, bringing video calling and more powerful apps to Wear OS watches within the next six months. Others will upgrade current Wear OS designs to make them faster and smoother while making better use of their screens with more complex and colorful graphics. Wear 4100+ will enable an always-on watch display to show a wider range of colors and features than before without waking up the power-hungry CPU. Though Apple creates its own S series chips that compete with the Snapdragon Wear series, I would be extremely surprised if new Apple Watches failed to match or exceed these enhanced always-on screen features in the near future.
One big omission is 5G. It appears Qualcomm’s watch-based 5G modem plans are awaiting NR-Light , a future update to the 5G standard focused on devices with lower power consumption, including watches. NR-Light is expected to enable small devices to handle 100Mbps downloads and 50Mbps 5G uploads, on par with common 4G smartphones, without destroying their batteries. Since Apple and Google both depend on Qualcomm’s watch modems, it’s safe to assume they won’t be releasing 5G wearables until 2022, when the 5G Release 17 specification is expected to go final after COVID-19-related delays.
It’s also worth noting that Apple and Google aren’t the only players in smartwatches, though their challenges are representative of the segment’s broader issues. Samsung just released its Galaxy Watch 3, which barely seemed like an advance over its predecessors, and Huawei is just one of many Chinese manufacturers with mostly me-too designs and features. No one is currently proposing a big leap forward, and that general sense of sameness seems to be what forced Fossil to create its own new features to appeal to users, beyond whatever Google was offering.
Keep your eyes open for the Apple Watch Series 6 over the next month and a half, as well as whether Apple moves the Series 4 or 5 to a lower price point, as it did with the Series 3, to great success. As boring as it sounds, it’s entirely possible that this fall’s smartwatch story will be less about innovation than the greater affordability and ubiquity of established technologies. But I’m pretty sure early Snapdragon Wear 4100 OEMs will try to lure new customers in by leveraging camera hardware and Wear OS to deliver “beyond Apple” experiences. We’ll have to see whether mainstream users are willing to bite.
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"Google launches TensorBoard.dev and TensorFlow Enterprise | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2019/10/30/google-cloud-launches-tensorboard-dev-and-tensorflow-enterprise"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Google launches TensorBoard.dev and TensorFlow Enterprise Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Google today announced the preview launch of TensorBoard.dev for sharing TensorBoard machine learning visualizations and TensorFlow Enterprise, a cloud service produced through a collaboration between Google’s TensorFlow and cloud teams.
“You’ll now be able to host and track your ML experiments and share them publicly, no setup required. Simply upload your logs and share the URL so that others can see the experiments and what you’re doing with TensorBoard,” Google VP of engineering Megan Kacholia said onstage today at TensorFlow World in Santa Clara, California.
TensorFlow Enterprise is made to deliver an optimized version of its open source machine learning framework TensorFlow for large businesses. It works with Google’s AI Platform and Kubernetes Engine as well as optimized versions of Deep Learning VMs and Deep Learning Containers. The service is made to supply up to 3x improvements in data reading — the result of changes to how TensorFlow reads and caches files — and up to 3 years of support for security patches and select bug fixes.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! “These versions will be supported on Google Cloud, and all patches and bug fixes will be available in the mainline TensorFlow code repository,” Google Cloud AI Platform director of product management Craig Wiley told VentureBeat in an email.
It can also come with direct support from Google Cloud and TensorFlow engineers for businesses to train and deploy AI systems.
“For customers on the cutting edge of AI, we offer a white-glove service. This includes engineer to engineer from both the Google Cloud and TensorFlow team to help with their challenges,” Wiley said.
In related news, last week, Google Cloud Platform introduced updates for AI Platform , a cloud-based software for collaboration between data scientists making AI models such as backend support for Nvidia GPUs to speed workflows. Last month, Google launched TensorFlow 2.0 with tighter Keras integration and eager execution by default.
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"Why Y Combinator's Sam Altman thinks AI needs regulation | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2015/03/02/why-y-combinators-sam-altman-thinks-ai-needs-regulation"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Why Y Combinator’s Sam Altman thinks AI needs regulation Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The Atlas robot, by Boston Dynamics.
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Generally speaking, Sam Altman, president of Silicon Valley incubator Y Combinator , thinks technology gets regulated too much. But it’s different when it comes to superhuman machine intelligence (SMI) — machines that can get smarter on their own and have greater computing power than humans in many capacities.
“The U.S. government, and all other governments, should regulate the development of SMI,” Altman declared in a blog post today. “In an ideal world, regulation would slow down the bad guys and speed up the good guys — it seems like what happens with the first SMI to be developed will be very important.” The remarks follow recent comments on AI from public figures like Elon Musk and Bill Gates.
Altman’s perspective stems from the possibility of artificially intelligent machines becoming capable of killing people. So today he is setting forth some guidelines for regulation.
“I think it’s definitely a good thing when the survival of humanity is in question,” Altman wrote of regulation.
For one thing, Altman wants regulations to have a system for measuring the benefit of use or training of machine intelligence. And perhaps there should also be standards for disclosing research.
“The companies shouldn’t have to disclose how they’re doing what they’re doing (though when governments gets serious about SMI they are likely to out-resource any private company), but periodically showing regulators their current capabilities seems like a smart idea,” Altman wrote.
Altman also would like regulations to impose some sort of external review for the development of AI systems.
“For example, beyond a certain checkpoint, we could require development [to] happen only on airgapped computers, require that self-improving software require human intervention to move forward on each iteration, require that certain parts of the software be subject to third-party code reviews, etc.,” Altman wrote.
What’s more, the regulations should mandate that the first SMI system can’t harm people, but it should be able to sense other systems becoming operational, Altman wrote.
Further, he’d like to see funding for research and development flowing to organizations groups that agree to these rules.
And finally, Altman seeks “a longer-term framework for how we figure out a safe and happy future for coexisting with SMI — the most optimistic version seems like some version of ‘the human/machine merge.'” Altman doesn’t say he’d like these regulations to be implemented by a certain date. But it’s clear he feels a sense of urgency.
“Many people seem to believe that SMI would be very dangerous if it were developed, but think that it’s either never going to happen or definitely very far off,” he wrote in a a blog post on a similar subject last week. “This is sloppy, dangerous thinking.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"IBM unveils Policy Lab, advocates 'precision regulation' of AI | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/01/21/ibm-unveils-policy-lab-advocates-precision-regulation-of-ai"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages IBM unveils Policy Lab, advocates ‘precision regulation’ of AI Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
IBM formally announced the IBM Policy Lab — an initiative aimed at providing policymakers with recommendations for emerging problems in technology — ahead of a panel discussion to be held tomorrow at the World Economic Forum in Davos. The panel will be hosted by IBM CEO Ginni Rometty, with Siemens CEO Joe Kaeser, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Coordination Chris Liddell, and OECD Secretary General Angel Gurría. IBM also outlined a set of priorities for AI regulation, including several aimed at compliance and explainability.
The Policy Lab — which soft-launched in November 2019 — serves as a forum for establishing a “vision” and actionable suggestions to “harness the benefits of innovation while ensuring trust,” according to press materials published this morning. It is under the leadership of codirectors Ryan Hagemann, a former senior policy fellow at the International Center for Law and Economics at the Niskanen Center, and Jean-Marc Leclerc, who currently vice-chairs the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union’s Digital Economy Committee and chairs the Software Alliance’s Europe, Middle East, and Africa Policy Committee. To execute its mandate, the think tank convenes stakeholders and leaders in public policy, academia, civil society, and tech to formulate ideas to help tackle global challenges.
The IBM Policy Lab will publish studies and research that buoy industry and state decision-making processes. It also plans to develop “bold” policy positions that “look forward to the opportunities of tomorrow” but are intended to be implemented relatively quickly. “Our approach is grounded in the belief that tech can continue to disrupt and improve civil society while protecting individual privacy ,” wrote Hagemann and Leclerc in a joint statement. “As technological innovation races ahead, our mission to raise the bar for a trustworthy digital future could not be more urgent.” On the subject of AI, the IBM Policy Lab calls for what it describes as “precision regulation” of AI, or laws that require companies to develop and operate “trustworthy” systems. IBM’s proposed framework takes into account whether companies are providers or owners of AI systems (or both), in addition to addressing the level of risk presented by particular products as determined by the potential for harm associated with the intended use, the level of automation and human involvement, and whether an end user is substantially reliant on the AI system.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! IBM advocates for the appointment of AI ethics officials to guarantee compliance with providers’ and owners’ expectations. These watchdogs would be accountable for internal guidance and compliance mechanisms like AI ethics boards, which would oversee risk assessments and harm mitigation strategies, and for improving public acceptance and trust of systems while driving commitments to responsible development, deployment, and stewardship of AI.
The IBM Policy Lab also posits specific rules for different levels of system risk, to the extent that companies conduct high-level assessments of their AI’s potential for harm followed by in-depth tests for high-risk applications. In the latter case, IBM says evaluations should be documented in auditable formats and retained for agreed-upon minimum periods of time.
IBM recommends policies of transparency — that is, making the purpose of AI systems clear to consumers and businesses — while acknowledging that low-risk systems might not require exhaustive disclosures. That said, the company asserts that any AI system on the market making determinations or recommendations with “potentially significant implications” for individuals should be able to explain and contextualize how and why it arrived at a particular conclusion.
Providers and owners of AI systems should maintain audit trails for their input and training data, according to the IBM Policy Lab, and operators of those systems should make available documentation that details essential information for consumers to be aware of (e.g., confidence measures, levels of procedural regularity, and error analysis). IBM also says companies should test their AI for fairness, bias, robustness, and security and take remedial actions before deployment and after their systems are operationalized. In addition, companies should retain responsibility for ensuring use of their systems is aligned with anti-discrimination laws, as well as statutes addressing safety, privacy, financial disclosure, consumer protection, employment, and other sensitive contexts.
IBM suggests this might be achieved at the government level by designating existing co-regulatory mechanisms, like the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the U.S., to identify definitions, frameworks, and benchmarks for standards in AI systems. Supporting minority-serving organizations and impacted communities in efforts to engage with academia and industry could accelerate the development of these criteria, and providing various levels of liability safe harbor protections could incentivize the adoption of new standards and validation regimes.
Finally, IBM says any action or practice prohibited by anti-discrimination laws should likewise be prohibited when automated decision-making system are involved. “Among companies building and deploying artificial intelligence, and the consumers making use of this technology, trust is of paramount importance,” continued Hagemann and Leclerc. “Companies want the comfort of knowing how their AI systems are making determinations, and that they are in compliance with any relevant regulations, and consumers want to know when the technology is being used and how (or whether) it will impact their lives.” IBM’s announcements come a day after Google and parent company Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai called for AI to be regulated with “international alignment,” and a week after it was revealed that the European Commission is considering a five-year ban on facial recognition technologies. The White House earlier this month published its own proposed regulatory principles and urged Europe to “avoid heavy-handed innovation-killing models.” In a comment to a reporter last September, Jeff Bezos said Amazon is drafting facial recognition regulation to pitch to lawmakers. Separately, Microsoft executives have called on lawmakers to investigate facial recognition and craft policies guiding its usage.
State-level regulation of AI systems around the world is at best piecemeal, and companies have struggled to adopt lasting policies around development of the technology. Notably, Google dissolved an external ethics board designed to monitor its use of AI after just one week.
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"ProBeat: Why Google is really calling for AI regulation | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/01/24/probeat-why-google-is-really-calling-for-ai-regulation"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Opinion ProBeat: Why Google is really calling for AI regulation Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
On Sunday, the Financial Times published an op-ed penned by Sundar Pichai titled “ Why Google thinks we need to regulate AI.
” Whether he wrote it himself or merely signed off on it, Pichai clearly wants the world to know that as the CEO of Alphabet and Google , he believes AI is too important not to be regulated. He has concerns about the potential negative consequences of AI, and like any technology, he believes there needs to be some ground rules.
I simply don’t believe that’s the full story.
“Companies such as ours cannot just build promising new technology and let market forces decide how it will be used,” writes Pichai. “It is equally incumbent on us to make sure that technology is harnessed for good and available to everyone. Now there is no question in my mind that artificial intelligence needs to be regulated. It is too important not to. The only question is how to approach it.” On Monday, I still had not bought into the idea that Pichai believed “artificial intelligence needs to be regulated.” Surely if his team thought so, they could get more done by deploying the lobbyists? VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Imagine if @sundarpichai deployed Alphabet/Google lobbyists for AI regulation rather than penning a feel-good op-ed https://t.co/Z22DRhtqEL — Emil Protalinski (@EPro) January 20, 2020 By Tuesday, I had concluded the two were not mutually exclusive. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time a corporation made a selfless appeal in the press while making selfish moves with its pocketbook.
On Wednesday, The Washington Post published an overview of the nearly half a billion dollars that tech companies spent on U.S. lobbying over the past decade. Guess which company led the way? Google, of course, spending roughly $150 million. In fact, the $150 million figure is likely conservative, since disclosed lobbying doesn’t account for all the many ways tech giants buy influence.
By Thursday, I had connected the dots. Yes, Google wants “AI regulation.” But it’s not for the same reasons you or I might. Pichai’s motivations are the same as any CEO of a large corporation: He simply wants what is best for his company. And AI regulation, which many see as inevitable anyway, is what’s best for Googlebet.
Or at least, it certainly can be shaped to be.
It’s telling that the only example Pichai offers in his op-ed is that Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation ( GDPR ) “can serve as a strong foundation.” Remember, while privacy advocates don’t scoff at what GDPR has achieved, many also point out that it has been a boon for Google and Facebook.
In tech, rules and regulations can help market leaders. In AI, Google is undoubtedly a market leader.
Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely do believe that we need ground rules for AI, some parts of it more urgently than for others. Everything from algorithm bias in financial loan agreements to facial recognition deserves a closer look.
But the definition of AI is so broad that a government will struggle to effectively regulate its various forms. Pichai knows that. Whether governments can pull it off remains to be seen, but what they will almost certainly succeed at is creating barriers to entry for competition. Indeed, that’s exactly where I suspect Google’s lobbying dollars will go next — ensuring any upcoming “AI regulation” helps Google more than anything else.
What if Google spent its lobbying money educating the U.S. government about the pros and cons of AI instead? I doubt the Financial Times op-ed cost much, all things considered. But if Google did the work, it wouldn’t need to try to convince the public with the power of the pen. Plus, journalists would spend their Fridays writing about Google’s efforts to outline what “AI regulation” might look like rather than critiquing an op-ed.
ProBeat is a column in which Emil rants about whatever crosses him that week.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Pope Francis joins IBM and Microsoft in call for AI regulation | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/02/28/pope-francis-joins-ibm-and-microsoft-in-call-for-ai-regulation"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Pope Francis joins IBM and Microsoft in call for AI regulation Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
( Reuters ) — The Vatican joined forces with tech giants Microsoft and IBM on Friday to promote the ethical development of artificial intelligence (AI) and call for regulation of intrusive technologies such as facial recognition.
The three said AI should respect privacy, work reliably and without bias, consider human rights, and operate transparently.
Pope Francis, who has raised concerns about the uncontrolled spread of AI technologies , gave his backing in a speech read on his behalf at a conference attended by Microsoft president Brad Smith and IBM VP John Kelly. The pope is ill and could not deliver the address himself.
Calling for the ethical development of algorithms, known as “algor-ethics,” Francis warned about the dangers of AI being used to extract data for commercial or political ends, often without the knowledge of individuals.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! “This asymmetry, by which a select few know everything about us while we know nothing about them, dulls critical thought and the conscious exercise of freedom,” he said in his message.
“Inequalities expand enormously; knowledge and wealth accumulate in a few hands with grave risks for democratic societies,” he said.
The joint document made a specific reference to the potential abuse of facial recognition technology.
“New forms of regulation must be encouraged to promote transparency and compliance with ethical principles, especially for advanced technologies that have a higher risk of impacting human rights, such as facial recognition,” the document said.
Police have used facial recognition systems to investigate crimes , and Fortune 500 companies have used AI to vet job applicants — both examples of high-stakes tasks where deploying inaccurate or biased software could lead to harm.
It was not immediately clear whether other technology companies might sign the document, or how signatories would implement the principles.
IBM, for example, wants a doctor to be in the loop when its AI technology makes health care recommendations — something that may increase over time following a deal with the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital in Rome.
That partnership will focus on developing technology to speed up diagnosis and treatment of brain tumor patients.
Both IBM and Microsoft have said they turned down business when they felt uncomfortable with how a customer wanted to use their technology.
The Rome conference was the latest example of the Vatican trying to stay ahead of the curve on technology and social issues in order to influence the pioneers of the future, regardless of their religion.
Vatican officials have said they could provide material for a possible papal document on AI, much as meetings with scientists helped shape the pope’s landmark 2015 encyclical “Laudato Si” on the protection of the environment.
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"Apple unveils iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus with wireless charging | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2017/09/12/apple-unveils-iphone-8-and-iphone-8-plus"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Apple unveils iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus with wireless charging Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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At an event at the brand new Apple headquarters in Cupertino today, the company announced the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.
The new models support wireless charging through their new glass backs.
This is the first time Apple is unveiling three new iPhones — the two iPhone 8 models will join the new flagship iPhone X (which has an OLED screen) to round out the product offerings. The company has used an iterative process before, releasing budget iPhone models and updating the iPhone 6 to the 6s, for example. This marks the first time two existing models were given the typical upgrade treatment but join a high-end model.
Partnerships with companies like Mophie, Ikea, iHome, and others means the charging will be far easier than using a cable. You will be able to set the phone down on a mat to charge, even in your car and at the office.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! The 4.7-inch iPhone 8 and 5.5-inch iPhone 8 Plus are exactly what you’d expect, even though they’re not called the iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus. The smaller model features 2GB of RAM and the larger has 3GB of RAM, just like their predecessors. They now use the faster A11 Bionic processor and have better cameras.
A new photo sensor gives faster auto-focus and pixel processing, and uses multi-band noise reduction.
A new lighting feature might appeal to photo experts. In the 8 Plus, you can compose a photo and the cameras sense the scene. Machine learning reads the subject and changes the lighting contour over the portrait subject’s face. You can swipe to select different lighting effects to add dramatic impact.
For video, the new phones divide frames into tiles and use predictive tech to optimize the image. You can shoot in 1080p at 240 frames per second.
The iPhone 8 Plus retains the dual-camera design that made that larger model worth the extra price, especially if you like taking portrait photos or switching from a telephoto to a wide angle lens. For the hardcore fans who like the power and keeping things the same, the iPhone 8 Plus is a solid new phone that iterates on the iPhone 7 Plus with minor design changes.
The phones are water resistant like the previous models. New augmented reality support means a whole new boatload of apps that can let you experience real-time overlays.
The new models ship with iOS 11.
Price is $699 for the iPhone 8 and $799 for the iPhone 8 Plus.
You can preorder them on September 15. They will start shipping on September 22.
Which one do you buy? As usual, the decision about which model to buy comes down to what you want to compromise (and retain).
Here’s where things get murky. The biggest change on the iPhone X is that the screen extends to the edges, and there’s a new virtual Home button and a curvature on the top of the screen. For those of us who don’t like to upset the Apple cart too much, the iPhone X is a fairly radical departure from the norm, and it will take some time to adjust. For example, many iPhone users can find the Home button in the dark. That won’t be as easy with the iPhone X.
Another important “missing feature” on the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus: They use the older LCD screen technology instead of the noticeable brighter OLED tech common on Samsung phones and now the iPhone X. There’s a decision to make here as well. This is the first phone Apple has made that uses OLED, and while it’s a good bet that they lined up their suppliers and manufacturing process to avoid any major snafus, the safer bet is sticking with what has worked in the past.
The iPhone 8 and 8 Plus do offer wireless charging, so you gain that feature.
The iPhone X lasts two hours longer than the iPhone 7 — and without Apple offering any details, it’s certain this phone’s battery will last longer than the iPhone 8’s. More importantly, the wireless charging on the iPhone X works on the new AirPower wireless charging pad the same as the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus (shipping next year).
The iPhone X ships on November 3 and costs $999.
Changing the product offerings like this — with older budget models, the iterative models like the 8/8 Plus that mainly provide more power and the new iOS, and then a “pro” model like the iPhone X — is a radical new direction for Apple that makes it harder to make a decision.
That said, it’s always good to have more options for an even wider group of users.
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"Apple's bizarre iPhone X launch | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2017/11/01/apples-bizarre-iphone-x-launch"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Apple’s bizarre iPhone X launch Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn iPhone X Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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We’re still a couple of days away from delivery of the first iPhone X. But in the five days since Apple began accepting preorders, a number of breaks with tradition have some long-time observers scratching their heads.
The first anomaly began with preorders last Friday. The iPhone X is only available in the U.S. in conjunction with a carrier. Presumably, since one must still pay full price, these phones are unlocked. But the company doesn’t give you the option of simply buying an unlocked iPhone, which means you get a SIM card with the iPhone X, whether you want one or not.
That led to the second oddity, courtesy of one of Apple’s most critical retail partners, Best Buy. The retail giant did allow users to buy an unlocked iPhone without being linked to a carrier but charged an extra $100 for that option. Unurprisingly, users were pissed and let Best Buy hear about it on social media.
As a result, Best Buy apologized and said it was ending the unlocked option, according to Bloomberg.
The company said it doesn’t make money on such purchases but rather on the contracts signed with carriers. In a blog post, Best Buy execs clearly felt they were getting dumped on for trying to do customers a favor: “We tried something designed to offer choice but instead created confusion,” says the blog post. “We may try again at some point, only this time with better execution. In the meantime, we are still selling the iPhone X on the traditional installment billing plans at market price.” Meanwhile, iPhone X reviews have started appearing. And not only is the mix of people who got review units odd, some of the more experienced reviewers only got their units 24 hours before a publishing embargo was lifted. That led to some apologetic (though generally positive) reviews in which the reviewer emphasized that they hadn’t had sufficient time to really test the phone.
“Because I’ve only had about 24 hours with the iPhone X, I’m in no position to write a review yet,” wrote Daring Fireball ‘s John Gruber.
The odd review strategy prompted a story by the Wall Street Journal : “Apple departed from its traditional preview strategy for what it bills as its most important new iPhone in years, prioritizing early access to the iPhone X for YouTube personalities and celebrities over most technology columnists who traditionally review its new products.” YouTube folks like Highsnobiety got a unit: In another unusual move, Apple then issued a press release rounding up some of the most glowing reviews and even making a Hollywood poster-like graphic of the most favorable blurbs.
Of course, none of this will matter if Apple sells a gazillion units of the iPhone X. Analysts are betting that the huge demand and high price tag could generate record revenues for Apple in this current holiday quarter — if, that is, the company can make enough of them to satisfy demand. Current wait times are estimated at between five and six weeks.
With Apple scheduled to report earnings November 2, executives may be able to shed a bit more light on this shift in strategy.
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"Apple debuts iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max with A12, 512GB, and new cameras | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2018/09/12/apple-debuts-iphone-xs-and-iphone-xs-max-with-a12-512gb-and-new-cameras"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Apple debuts iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max with A12, 512GB, and new cameras Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Apple iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Max Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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After months of component and specification leaks, Apple officially unveiled its 2018 flagship phones today: the 5.8-inch iPhone XS and 6.5-inch iPhone XS Max. Cosmetically, the devices are virtually identical to 2017’s flagship iPhone X, but include the collection of external and internal tweaks that have come to characterize Apple’s “s” models.
As the direct sequel to the iPhone X, the iPhone XS retains its predecessor’s marquee features: a stainless steel frame and 5.8-inch, edge-to-edge Super Retina display, interrupted by a depth-sensing Face ID camera inside a black “notch.” Dimensions are 5.65 inches by 2.79 inches by 0.30 inches, with a 6.24-ounce weight. But the Xs now comes in three colors rather than two, adding the option of a golden frame and matching back.
The new version promises the best cover glass and liquid resistance of any iPhone, designed to protect a screen that’s now HDR10 and Dolby Vision-certified. In addition to testing with other liquids, certified IP68 water resistance promises two-meter depth submersion for up to 30 minutes.
As expected, Apple also introduced a larger version of the iPhone XS called the iPhone XS Max. While the iPhone XS packs a 5.8-inch OLED screen into a footprint roughly the size of its former 4.7-inch iPhone 6, 6s, 7, and 8 models, the Max version includes a 6.5-inch screen within a chassis sized like the 5.5-inch-screened iPhone 6 Plus and its successors. It measures 6.2 inches tall by 3.05 inches wide by 0.3 inch deep, and weighs 7.34 ounces.
Both because it’s larger and uses OLED technology with more pixels per inch than before, the new screen features a higher resolution than iPhone Plus models. In horizontal orientation, it can split into two panes — a feature that was included in all 5.5-inch Plus phones, but notably omitted from the 5.8-inch iPhone X.
The iPhone XS has a 2436 by 1125 screen, while the Xs Max’s 6.5-inch screen runs at 2688 by 1242, the largest and highest resolution ever in an iPhone. Apple explained that it’s being called “Max” because it’s bigger than the iPhones’ past Plus-sized displays. Apple also says that the new phones have wider stereo sound fields than before.
A second-generation Face ID front-facing camera system is promised to be faster than last year’s, aided with faster algorithms and a faster secure enclave. The front camera has been updated with a faster sensor, and the lens is at f/2.2 speed. Additionally, Apple says the iPhone XS rear cameras have been calibrated for AR, including low-light and 60fps support. It’s all powered by Apple’s new A12 Bionic processor — the first 7-nanometer chip to be commercially available, with 6.9 billion transistors.
The A12 Bionic is a 6-core CPU with 2 performance cores deliver up to 15 percent speeds and 40 percent lower power, with 4 efficiency cores running at up to 50 percent lower power. Apple is touting a 50 percent GPU performance improvement over the A11 Bionic, as well. It also has a second-generation Neural Engine, and can process 5 trillion operations per second, up from 600 billion the year before; this is said to unlock the potential of machine learning for the iPhones.
As expected, the Xs models’ dual-lensed rear camera system has been improved over the iPhone X. The rear cameras are 12-Megapixel with new sensors and an improved true tone flash; the wide-angle camera is f/1.8, with an all-new sensor that’s deeper for improved photos, while the telephoto camera is f/2.4 for 2X optical zoom. This time, the processor is able to better segment hair for depth-mapping in portrait mode — a major problem in prior iPhones with the feature — and can do better at red-eye reduction.
Smart HDR is an improved version of HDR that can capture shadow, highlight, and midrange details, with superb color range — all visible on the HDR-supported screens of the new iPhones. Improved bokeh (background blurring) has been added to the portrait mode, mimicking professional DSLRs, with a slider that lets users adjust the simulated depth of field from f/1.4 to f/16 in realtime.
The Xs is able to record videos with stereo sound, using the iPhone X’s four built-in microphones, and benefits from a 2X faster sensor during video mode. Low-light, autofocus, and autoexposure features all make sample videos looks great.
Battery life has taken a small step forward. The iPhone X promised “up to 21 hours” of talk time, 12 hours of internet use, and 13 hours of wireless video playback time, with the ability to recharge 50 percent of its battery in 30 minutes. On stage, Apple promised 30 minutes more of Xs battery life, and up to 90 minutes longer than the X on the Max model, which uses the largest battery yet found in an iPhone.
However, Apple’s specs page tell a somewhat different story. The Xs is shown with “up to 20 hours” of talk time, 12 hours of internet use, and 14 hours of video playback time, so its performance varies from measure to measure. Xs Max promises 25 hours of talk time, 13 hours of internet use, and 15 hours of video playback time.
On the cellular front, both phones are getting dual SIM capabilities, using Dual SIM Dual Standby mode, so both phone numbers can be awaiting a call — most models will use eSIM technology for one of the SIMs, but in China, dual physical SIMs will be employed to comply with Chinese law. The iPhone XS also adds support for gigabit-class LTE and Bluetooth 5.0.
The iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max will both be available in 64GB, 256GB, and 512GB storage configurations, adding an upper third tier to the iPhone X, which was available only in 64GB and 256GB models.
Alongside the new iPhones, Apple is introducing matching silicone cases and two different leather cases (case and folio), each in multiple colors. AppleCare will carry the same price for both iPhone XS models, and come in two versions — basic AppleCare, and AppleCare “with theft and loss” coverage.
The iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max are expected to be released on September 21 across the world. Preorders will open on September 14, with a $999 starting price for the Xs, and $1,099 price for the Xs Max. Each model jumps $150 in price to hit 256GB, then $200 for 512GB in capacity, topping out at $1,449 for the 512GB iPhone XS Max. iOS 12 will launch on September 17 for earlier iPhones.
VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"TSMC reportedly readies 5-nanometer chips for 2020, led by Apple A14 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2019/02/22/tsmc-reportedly-readies-5-nanometer-chips-for-2020-led-by-apple-a14"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages TSMC reportedly readies 5-nanometer chips for 2020, led by Apple A14 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Apple's latest A-series chips contain CPU and GPU cores designed by Apple but don't have cellular modems inside.
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Taiwanese chip manufacturer TSMC has spent years working to commercialize a breakthrough 5-nanometer (nm) etching process and is currently “well on track” with its plan to deliver the first commercial 5nm chips in 2020, according to a new report today from DigiTimes.
The first customer for those chips will reportedly be Apple, which is seeking bleeding-edge processors for its 2020 iPhones, while other companies continue to roll out larger 7nm chips to power early 5G smartphones and AI applications.
While today’s news is expected, it’s significant in that steady advances in chip manufacturing can’t be taken for granted. The processor industry is still in the midst of transitioning from making larger 14nm and 10nm chips to smaller 7nm processes, with some noteworthy speed bumps.
As chips shrink, the next-generation manufacturing processes required to make them have become more expensive and challenging, leading some manufacturers to give up — with TSMC and Samsung gaining larger shares of the fabrication business.
Huawei, MediaTek, and Qualcomm have all announced that they will be showing 7nm processors for 5G smartphones at this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, while key component suppliers, such as security chipmaker NXP and camera designer OmniVision, are moving to TSMC’s 7nm technology. The change will result in their parts either delivering better performance at the same sizes as before or occupying less space while consuming less power than prior versions.
By contrast, TSMC has said it will begin early production of 5nm chips in the second half of this year, using a higher-precision etching process known as extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. Initially introduced in second-generation 7nm chips, EUV will be used “for more critical layers” of 5nm chips to improve the accuracy of transistor designs and achieve “aggressive” scaling down of designs. TSMC has previously said it hopes to produce 3-nanometer chips by 2022 , assuming there are no hiccups in the development process.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! In the interim, second-generation 7nm chips will offer performance superior to that of their predecessors, which first debuted in the iPhone XS and XS Max last year.
Apple’s A12 Bionic was the first commercial 7nm processor and was soon followed by the A12X Bionic in new iPad Pro models.
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16,319 | 2,023 |
"Apple and Broadcom sign $15 billion wireless parts deal through 2023 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/01/23/apple-and-broadcom-sign-15-billion-wireless-parts-deal-through-2023"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Apple and Broadcom sign $15 billion wireless parts deal through 2023 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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While Apple famously cut a last-minute deal last year with Qualcomm for the 5G modem components it will need for future iPhones and iPads, it indicated that it wouldn’t depend exclusively on the San Diego-based chipmaker for its wireless needs. Today, wireless antenna and power amplifier maker Broadcom announced that it has signed two new agreements with Apple to source wireless parts for future devices, a deal that could generate $15 billion — and keep Broadcom’s RF division viable.
According to a Broadcom 8-K filing , the two 2020 statements of work and a previous 2019 agreement cover Apple products that will launch during the three-and-a-half-year period starting in January 2020, which is to say ending in June or July of 2023. Based on Apple’s standard release cadence, that would include its first three generations of 5G iPhones, and anywhere from two to four upcoming generations of iPads. Collectively, the agreements all cover Broadcom’s “supply of a range of specified high-performance wireless components and modules,” though the particular items aren’t enumerated.
Last year, Broadcom was tipped to assist with at least some of Apple’s antenna and power amplifier needs for upcoming 5G iPhones, bypassing Qualcomm’s fully integrated 5G antenna and modem solutions. The decision to split the business between rival component makers may well be an effort by Apple to keep multiple 5G supply chain competitors hungry and viable at a time when Qualcomm is becoming increasingly dominant in the wireless market.
Broadcom was reportedly exploring the outright sale of its RF business for $10 billion at the end of 2019, and Apple was said at the time to be a leading contender to buy the unit following its acquisition of Intel’s 5G modem team.
While that deal didn’t happen, today’s agreement between Apple and Broadcom could either signal that it’s unlikely, or provide the broad valuation for an Apple buyout at some point in the future.
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"If Apple's 5G iPhone plans are still fluid, it's in for quite a ride | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/02/14/if-apples-5g-iphone-plans-are-still-fluid-its-in-for-quite-a-ride"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Analysis If Apple’s 5G iPhone plans are still fluid, it’s in for quite a ride Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn A conceptual rendering of the iPhone 12 Pro by Ben Geskin and Aziz Ghaus.
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If you believe most of the evidence out there, Apple’s iPhone designs are typically finished well in advance of their release, enabling the company to focus its final months on manufacturing the massive quantities users around the world will demand on Day One. Due to problems with Intel’s 5G modem and an eleventh hour settlement between Apple and Qualcomm , this year’s iPhones were expected to deviate from the norm, as the company reportedly put all hands on deck to redesign and launch its flagship device for release this year.
According to a report today from Fast Company , which twice broke the news that Intel’s 5G modems were missing key Apple milestone deadlines , Apple is allegedly designing its own antenna for 5G iPhones — a process, the publication correctly suggests, that would be fraught with huge risks. Everyone still remembers Antennagate , when the iPhone 4 became incapable of receiving cellular signals if held in certain ways , as well as Apple’s infamous “you’re holding it wrong” defense, firing of a key responsible executive , and subsequent redesign of the iPhone 4S’ antenna system. (Even so, apologists prefer not to acknowledge that the undeniably beautiful iPhone 4 had a real issue.) It’s well established that 5G millimeter wave antennas can suffer from an even more pronounced version of the same problem. That’s the reason Qualcomm generally recommends the strategic mounting of multiple antennas at a phone’s edges, guaranteeing that at least one will be exposed during normal use. As of today, the smallest antenna module Qualcomm sells is the QTM525 , which promises to work in devices in the 8mm thickness range — a point that was on display with Samsung’s announcement of the 7.8mm thick Galaxy S20+ , which is just barely large enough to use that antenna. Samsung conspicuously left millimeter wave out of the slightly smaller Galaxy S20, possibly awaiting a smaller antenna.
The report suggests Apple is back on an iPhone thinness kick, so the QTM525 is too big. Meanwhile, the number of consumers who think iPhones are too thick is somewhere in the neighborhood of zero people outside of Cupertino, and many users have spent years opining that battery life and performance matter more than further shrinking the smartphone. Apple has even listened to them , occasionally.
While I wouldn’t put it past Apple to source certain 5G parts from someone other than Qualcomm, and there’s evidence that it’s doing so with rival Broadcom , I’m skeptical that it’s actually in a position right now to make its own antennas for 5G iPhones — or that it’s still wrestling at this very late stage with substantially different design alternatives. That would leave the company with half a year to finalize and manufacture all the hardware it needs for what’s been predicted to be a supercycle iPhone launch, feeding pent-up global demand for substantial cosmetic and internal hardware redesigns.
Half a year isn’t nothing, but it would be cutting things close: If manufacturing started late, that might be enough to restrict initial supplies of the affected iPhones and possibly create the sort of regional and model-specific availability challenges we haven’t seen in some time. And that’s assuming there’s no last-minute or post-launch snafu with antenna performance. As today’s report points out, all it would take is some undiscovered glitch in design or manufacturing to mess up 5G performance, seriously undercutting the iPhone’s speed and parity compared with Android rivals.
Given what a mess things could become, the easier and arguably better solution is to use more of Qualcomm’s 5G stack — its Snapdragon X55 modem, along with the QTM525 antenna — to guarantee there aren’t any hiccups in iPhone 5G cellular performance this year. The system is tested, works, and delivers great performance. Apple’s reliance on dual vendor solutions didn’t do it many favors during the Qualcomm/Intel modem battles in the past, and actually held iPhones back from transferring cellular data at peak speeds. As Apple moves toward creating its own 5G modems for future iPhones, it would be well advised to start on a solid foundation of 5G performance rather than unnecessarily risking another debacle.
My hope is that we’ll get some sense Apple has fully locked down the 2020 iPhones soon. If not, this year is going to be a wild and unpredictable ride for both the company and consumers. That could be exciting to watch but somewhat concerning up until the very end, when the devices get into users’ hands for real-world testing and show whether Apple’s late 5G adoption was really worth waiting for.
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16,321 | 2,020 |
"Apple's virtual WWDC20 will begin on June 22 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/05/05/apples-virtual-wwdc20-will-begin-on-june-22"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Apple’s virtual WWDC20 will begin on June 22 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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Following its decision to move its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) entirely online due to the coronavirus pandemic, Apple today announced that the event — now known as WWDC20 — will kick off on June 22, 2020. As contrasted with prior ticketed in-person events, the conference will be made available for free to all developers through two channels: the Apple Developer app and the Apple Developer website.
Despite Apple’s opportunity to push off any or all of the next major releases of its operating systems based on pandemic-related internal delays, the company is promising that WWDC20 will indeed offer “early access to the future of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS.” However, the event is kicking off a little later in the month than most WWDCs in recent years , here in the fourth week of June rather than the first or second.
For both end users and 23 million registered Apple developers, WWDC is an opportunity to see what major new software features are coming to Apple’s devices, and often a chance to learn about a small number of new hardware releases as well. Developers will continue to get a week of access to sessions and labs during WWDC20, Apple suggests, though additional details on how that will be accomplished may not be released this month. The company historically uses the event to immediately seed the first developer betas of its new operating systems ahead of September “final” releases to the public.
Apple is encouraging developers to download the Apple Developer app (formerly WWDC) to receive early details on the keynote and “platforms state of the union” videos that will likely air on June 22, as well as session and lab schedules for the full week. It will also release information via emails and the Apple Developer website.
Additionally, student developers interested in participating in a new Swift programming language competition — the Swift Student Challenge — are encouraged to submit three-minute interactive scenes within Apple’s free Swift Playgrounds app.
The Challenge is open now through 11:59 p.m. Pacific time on May 17, and gives younger coders an opportunity to participate in WWDC20 despite the lack of a physical gathering. Winners will be announced on June 16, with up to 350 people scoring a WWDC20 jacket and pin set as a prize, plus one year of free Apple Developer membership.
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"Amazon reports $63.4 billion in Q2 2019 revenue: AWS up 37%, subscriptions up 37%, and 'other' up 37% | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2019/07/25/amazon-earnings-q2-2019"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Amazon reports $63.4 billion in Q2 2019 revenue: AWS up 37%, subscriptions up 37%, and ‘other’ up 37% Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The Amazon logo is seen at the Young Entrepreneurs fair in Paris Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Amazon today reported earnings for its second fiscal quarter of 2019, including revenue of $63.4 billion, net income of $2.6 billion, and earnings per share of $5.22 (compared to revenue of $52.9 billion, net income of $2.5 billion, and earnings per share of $5.07 in Q2 2018 ). North American sales were up 20% to $38.7 billion, while international sales grew 12% to $14.9 billion.
Analysts had expected Amazon to earn $62.48 billion in revenue and report earnings per share of $5.57. The retail giant thus only slightly beat on revenue but fell short on earnings per share. The company’s stock was down about 1% in regular trading, and down 2% in after-hours trading. Amazon gave third quarter revenue guidance in the range of $66.0 billion and $70.0 billion, compared to a consensus of $67.27 billion from analysts.
AWS, subscriptions, and ‘other’ Amazon Web Services (AWS) continued to be the star of the show, growing 37% in sales to $8.4 billion. That growth figure is the first sub-40% growth rate since Amazon started breaking out AWS numbers. Nonetheless, AWS still accounted for about 13% of Amazon’s total revenue for the quarter. AWS is the cloud computing market leader, ahead of Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
Subscription services were up 37% to $4.7 billion. That would mainly constitute Amazon Prime , which the company is expanding to offer deals at places like Whole Foods.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Amazon’s “other” category, which mostly covers the company’s advertising business, was coincidentally also up 37% to $3 billion in revenue. The company knows plenty about what its customers want to buy, or even don’t want to buy, and it’s increasingly leveraging that for its advertising business.
Prime Day, re:MARS, and the Echo Show 5 “Customers are responding to Prime’s move to one-day delivery — we’ve received a lot of positive feedback and seen accelerating sales growth,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement. “Free one-day delivery is now available to Prime members on more than 10 million items, and we’re just getting started. A big thank you to the team for continuing to make life easier for customers.” Bezos unsurprisingly wanted to focus on Prime Day, which has been a massive success for the company. Prime Day, which actually falls in Amazon’s third quarter, was once again the largest shopping event in Amazon history, and this year sales from the two-day event (July 15 and July 16) surpassed the previous Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. The two days were also the biggest ever for member signups.
Arguably more important was Amazon’s re:MARS event, its AI conference held from June 4 to June 7. The event featured everything from Robert Downey Jr.
to telerobotic hands.
In its earnings release, Amazon talked up the launch of its Echo Show 5 ( our review ). The company also highlighted other devices that launched this past quarter, including the Kindle Oasis , Fire 7, and Fire 7 Kids Edition.
And of course, Alexa was mentioned many times, though Amazon is nowhere near ready to break out the voice assistant in its earnings reports.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos 'can't guarantee' policy against using seller specific data hasn't been violated | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/29/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-cant-guarantee-policy-seller-data-violated"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos ‘can’t guarantee’ policy against using seller specific data hasn’t been violated Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
At the “Online Platforms and Market Power” virtual antitrust hearing today, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos spoke about a policy intended to prevent the company from using seller-specific data to help determine what products it should manufacture and sell itself. “What I can tell you is, we have a policy against using seller-specific data to aid our private label business,” Bezos said. “But I can’t guarantee you that that policy has never been violated.” Antitrust investigations matter to the companies being scrutinized, of course, but also to all the businesses that depend on them. In this case, that includes any business that sells physical goods online. The question of whether Amazon uses data from merchants on its platform to help launch competing products is a contentious one. In July 2019, an Amazon lawyer told the subcommittee that the company didn’t tap data from individual third-party merchants to determine what new products to create. In April, the Wall Street Journal reported Amazon did just that. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), who was the first to question Bezos at the hearing, cited the article.
“I’m familiar with the Wall Street Journal article that you’re talking about,” Bezos said. “And we continue to look into that very carefully. I’m not yet satisfied that we’ve gotten to the bottom of it, and we’re going to keep looking at it. It’s not as easy as you would think because some of the sources in the article are anonymous, but we continue to look into it.” Bezos then tried to play up the fact that Amazon didn’t have to have such a policy. “The fact that we have such a policy is voluntary,” Bezos said. “I think no other retailer even has such a policy. We would treat that like any internal policy, and if we found that someone violated it, we would take action against them.” “Well, there’s numerous reports, and the committee has conducted interviews with former employees who confirm that there are employees who do have access to that data and are using it,” Jayapal responded. “So my next question was going to be: If you thought you were actually enforcing these rules, do you think that that’s working? And again, I would just say that there’s credible reporting that’s documented breaches of these rules that you have put into place. And the committee has interviewed employees that typically say that these breaches typically occur.” Later in the hearing, Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND) asked whether Amazon allows the use of aggregate data to inform its private label brands when there are only three sellers for a product and then again when there are only two competitors. Bezos answered “Yes, sir” to both. Armstrong then asked about Amazon’s internal investigation on the use of third-party data. “We’re basically trying to understand some of the anecdotes that we saw in the Wall Street Journal article,” Bezos responded. He made a commitment to inform the committee of the outcome of that investigation.
Bezos today also answered questions about whether Amazon prices Echo devices below cost (yes, if they’re on promotion), whether HBO Max is coming to Fire TV (eventually, Warner Bros. and Amazon are negotiating the details), and whether Amazon has monopolistic power (no, he rejects “the premise of the questions”). But the main topic was about merchants trying to sell their products on Amazon.
Bezos was joined by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, and Apple CEO Tim Cook today on Webex. That in and of itself is a rare sight. But it was a particularly rare appearance for Bezos, who is the least likely to speak publicly of the four CEOs (he does not even participate in Amazon’s quarterly earnings calls) and unlike the other three has never sat before Congress.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Open banking in the U.S.: What it is and how to prepare (VB Live) | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/14/open-banking-in-the-u-s-what-it-is-and-how-to-prepare-vb-live"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages VB Live Open banking in the U.S.: What it is and how to prepare (VB Live) Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Presented by Envestnet | Yodlee The open banking global trend is about to change the way financial data is accessed and shared. And it will offer numerous benefits if you’re positioned to leverage it to create innovative apps and solutions. For an overview of the trend, best practices and more, don’t miss this VB Live event! Register here for free.
Across the globe, regulatory mandates are forcing some banks to adopt the open banking model, but along the way it has become one of most transformative trends in the banking world today. It’s the idea that banks can no longer zealously guard their customers’ financial data. Customers should have full control over their data and how it’s used, and be able to voluntarily share that data with other entities.
The trend is buoyed by the boom in new open application programming interfaces (APIs) that connect banks with other institutions, and the global political and social trends concerning privacy and customer data. While adoption is still in the early stages, financial industry pundits are predicting that it is going to accelerate, and along the way, reshape the banking industry entirely.
In the United States, open banking is going to be an industry-driven initiative, unlike the countries where consumer privacy regulations kicked off the change. But U.S. banks should pay sharp attention as these early banks are leading the way in establishing open banking practices and strategies. The shift is going to permanently alter the relationships consumers have with their financial institutions, as well as rock the traditional banking business model.
The benefits of open banking Shifting from a product mindset to a complete focus on serving customer needs is going to be a key driver of innovation and competitive advantage. If it’s done correctly, U.S. banks can reap some major strategic benefits, such as consumer confidence, more sophisticated digital transformation, and new, more profitable business models that benefit the customer as well.
By giving customers complete control over their data, and being a partner in developing relationships with third parties for other financial products and services, U.S. banks can completely recalibrate their customer relationships in a positive way. While it means opening the field to a larger ecosystem of providers as partners, banks will remain firmly at the center of customers’ financial lives by remaining trusted advisers.
Going all in, or lying in wait? While the benefits of open banking appear to be great, the stakes are high.
But American consumers have a lot of data privacy concerns, and it’s a particularly sensitive topic, especially among older generations. Millennials and Gen Z are likely to lead the way in flocking to open banking initiatives, but there’s also an opportunity for banks to educate consumers about the benefits of open banking.
Banks gain the advantage of being leaders in the space, if they go all in from the start. But implementing the open banking model for the whole business, from products and customer categories to the third parties it’s necessary to partner with will increase some risks. An aggressive move into the world of open banking could scare some customers away, particularly if they’re not properly educated about their own benefits.
And not being fully prepared on the tech side will sink an open banking strategy entirely, since it relies on the seamless transfer of customer data where and when the customer requests it. Being unable to respond to thousands or hundreds of thousands of customer requests seamlessly could mean major customer attrition. Technical glitches, especially around consumer data, can be an unforgivable sin to consumers in the financial service sector.
Not having a fully realized partner strategy could also be a sticking point. Financial institutions need to develop relationships across a broad spectrum of third parties, as well as ensure that when customers share their financial information, the bank receives something in return, such as shared revenues or customer referrals. Otherwise, this jeopardizes customer relationships and threatens long-term profitability.
Rejecting the status quo It’s easy to stick with what works now and wait until the open banking trend becomes more firmly established as other institutions take the lead. But that is likely to result in lost opportunities – it is likely that customers will prefer to do business with a bank that offers open banking, and will flock to those institutions.
But it’s possible to selectively implement open banking practices, and take the lead from a position of strength, leaving behind the old product-centric mindset and embrace the customer-centric focus that wins new customers and keeps current customers loyal. Open banking is a major opportunity to consciously and conspicuously insert customers at the heart or a bank’s strategy, build trust, and embrace the new digital strategies that are the future of banking.
To learn more about the open banking model, discover best practices for digital transformation, and hear from thought leaders in the financial services space, don’t miss this VB Live event! Don’t miss out! Register here for free.
Attendees will learn about: The current open banking movement in the U.S.
How open banking enables innovation Ways to manage data security, privacy, and risk The benefits of API-based data-sharing How to assess your technology for open banking-readiness Panelists: David Nohe , CEO, FinGoal Susan French , SVP, Head of Product and Client Operations, BBVA Open Platform Brian Costello , VP, Data Strategy and Strategic Initiatives, Envestnet | Yodlee Evan Schuman , VentureBeat (moderator) The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"The Leisure Economy: How to make money playing games in 2020 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/05/17/the-leisure-economy-version-2020"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages The Leisure Economy: How to make money playing games in 2020 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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The Leisure Economy is the embodiment of the hope that someday we could all get paid to play games. It has been a common topic at our GamesBeat Summit events, and came up again at our GamesBeat Summit 2020 in a fireside chat with John Linden, the CEO of Mythical Games.
As so many people struggle with joblessness now, games are creating a new economy of people who can make a living by getting paid to play games. These people include esports athletes, cosplayers, influencers, YouTubers, livestreamers, modders, and many other people getting paid to play. Many of these careers didn’t exist a decade ago.
The talk on the Leisure Economy at our GamesBeat Summit 2020 event was moderated by Harold Goldberg , founder of the New York Game Critics Circle.
He writes about games for the Washington Post and New York magazine. And he is also the author of All Your Base Are Belong to Us: How 50 years of video games conquered pop culture.
Goldberg also recently started a podcast series with Reggie Fils-Aime, former president of Nintendo of America, about how games can positively impact young people facing poverty and homelessness.
The big question is whether game companies can create a long tail for these people who are inventing careers that didn’t exist five or ten years ago so that more than just celebrities can cash in. We previously talked about this at our 2018 event.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Linden is a veteran of Seismic Games (maker of Marvel Strike Force) and Activision Blizzard (Call of Duty, Skylanders). He started Mythical Games in 2018 with chief creative officer Jamie Jackson and vice president Rudy Koch. The company announced it raised $19 million in November. The idea is to enable players to make money through digital ownership and player-owned economies.
“It’s the concept that we can eventually make money in games,” Linden said. “A player could end up being in these virtual worlds and making a living in these virtual worlds. There have been a lot of examples of this in the last 10 years but we still haven’t quite nailed it to the mass adoption point.” To get funding for his own company, Linden assembled a team that had experience as studio heads. But he also promoted the idea of player-owned economies, where you can wind up with a bigger total addressable market. If the game industry is $150 billion today, you could expand the size of that industry by expanding the number of stakeholders involved, Linden said.
The pandemic economy needs this Above: John Linden of Mythical Games talks about the Leisure Economy with Harold Goldberg (right) of the New York Critics Game Circle.
Linden believes that gaming is growing during the pandemic, and that usage will stay high for a while. That enthusiasm for gaming will be a catalyst for what Linden is talking about.
“We also look at it in the context of esports teams, influencers, brands themselves, in addition to players,” Linden said. “We think there are two new player archetypes that come out of this economic change. One is the trader or speculator. We have seen some of that. People buy assets that could be rare and hold on to them until they are worth more in the future. The other is the game entrepreneur, the one who figures out how they can be really good at something and there is a financial aspect to that.” If you look at streaming, what’s interesting is that those people are making billions of dollars this year.
“And they’re not in the game itself,” he said. “That’s a separate industry that sits on top of the gaming industry.” Goldberg asked for examples, like people wearing masks in Animal Crossing: New Horizons or other signs of do-it-yourself (DIY) income.
Linden pointed to the 27.7 million people who watched the Travis Scott concert inside Fortnite, the big battle royale game with more than 350 million users.
“You brought a major artist into a major game and you see the effect of that,” Linden said. “And now most of his albums are in the top 100 again.” Linden also said he liked the 100 Thieves esports team, which gave out their virtual items for free in Animal Crossing. As a result, the team has gotten a lot of exposure for themselves. There have also been 100,000 transactions on the gray market of eBay where players for Animal Crossing goods.
Mythical Games is working on an open-source solution dubbed Goods (short for digital goods) to create a commercially endorsed benchmark for creating, managing, and distributing in-game assets using blockchain, the decentralized, transparent, and secure ledger technology. That technology makes it possible to track transactions and make it easy to audit things. Mythical Games is making a title dubbed Blankos , a sandbox world where players can create their own toys in the game.
Players can sell their creations to other players, and those players can take the creations and use them in new items. If the new item gets sold again, the original creator can get paid a piece of the overall payment. You can buy characters and mix their parts together to create new characters. This, in turn, eventually fuels a loyalty for the game, just like the frequent flyer programs built loyalty for airlines.
“People can make up their own rules and bring out new game patterns,” Linden said. “The creator is in for the ride. They have the ability to make money long term off of these assets. We think this is a staple of where games are going to go. We start bringing these stakeholders into the economy.” GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
Discover our Briefings.
Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more.
VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"The DeanBeat: It's time to hurry up and build the Metaverse | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/05/22/the-deanbeat-its-time-to-hurry-up-and-build-the-metaverse"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages The DeanBeat: It’s time to hurry up and build the Metaverse Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
Learn more.
During this pandemic , I can’t think of anything more exciting for us to do from the comfort of our own homes than to explore the Metaverse , the universe of virtual worlds that are all interconnected, like in novels such as Snow Crash and Ready Player One.
It’s the same goal that Epic Games , maker of Fortnite, is reportedly chasing after as well, as are numerous other companies who spoke at our recent GamesBeat Summit event. I’ve been thinking about this, and I’m getting impatient for somebody to do this. So much so that I’d like to do a dedicated GamesBeat Summit event dedicated to just the idea of building the Metaverse. (Ping me about that.) The only trouble is that nobody shares the exact same idea of what the Metaverse is.
At our event, Matthew Ball of Epyllion Industries said that opinions vary and the fullest version of it isn’t technically achievable today. Those that are saying they are doing it haven’t quite supplied all of the substance yet. Yet it should be a persistent, live, synchronous, living universe that makes you feel like you are someplace else.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! An evolved version of Fortnite might not be too far from the early version of the Metaverse. Epic Games recently hosted Travis Scott’s concert in Fortnite, and that drew 27.7 million viewers. And last night, Epic held a premier in Fortnite where Christopher Nolan showed a trailer of his new film, Tenet , and said that he will premier the entire film in Fortnite this summer. While other companies are still debating the Metaverse, Epic is just going out and building it, one big event at a time.
This makes us feel so tantalizingly close to the Metaverse. Yet it’s been coming forever. I just wonder if we’ll get it sooner because the pandemic is going to drive us, game developers included, to the edges of boredom. I mean, wouldn’t it be disappointing if Zoom turns out to be the only practical Metaverse? Something has to be better than Zoom, right? I don’t think this newfound hope for the Metaverse is just my own fantasy. In an interview, I asked Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang if he thought the Metaverse would come soon — and perhaps sooner because of the coronavirus — and what form it would take.
“The answer is absolutely, yes,” he said. “I think that it’s time, and it won’t be one. We’re going to have a whole bunch of metaverses. Each one is going to be based on the stories you like. There will be some based on Minecraft, Fortnite, Battlefield, or based on Call of Duty. There are all kinds of styles and personalities. You’ll see one based on The Witcher, one based on Warcraft, and all kinds of genres. There will be hundreds of metaverses. That’s the exciting part of it.” Sam Englebardt, a managing partner of Galaxy Interactive, agreed at the summit that he thinks we’ll see a “multiverse,” or a collection of many different worlds or universes.
What has to happen Above: Matt Curtis is vice president of developer relations at Roblox.
Roblox has its own view of building the Metaverse, as expressed by Matt Curtis , vice president of developer relations, speaking at our summit.
That gets to one of the important prerequisites for the Metaverse. You have to have a big audience that you can lead across the desert into the promised land of the Metaverse. Roblox has more than 115 million monthly active players who enjoy more than 2 billion hours a month of UGC gameplay. Roblox was able to raise $150 million in February on the strength of its user base in a round that venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz led. They can lead a lot of users into their version of the Metaverse, and Curtis’ talk showed they are serious about it.
As he said in his speech , Curtis noted a bunch of things have to happen. First, it has to be a persistent world, or a place where you can visit it over and over and it’s the same world. You need a sense of identity. You need an underlying social fabric. It has to be vast and diverse. The experiences have to be immersive, and they have to be frictionless. The economy has to be integrated, and the places have to run on rules and order.
To get there, Roblox is working on platform technology, developer tools, and developer economics. Curtis said that immersive 3D experiences have to be dynamic, where the worlds, while persistent, can change. These should run on any platform, like the consoles or the PC or mobile, he said. Anything you create in these works should seamlessly work with those platforms. It’s hard to solve this problem, but it is key, Curtis said.
Above: A haptic suit enables Wade to feel touch in the Ready Player One trailer.
Identity is a foundational element of the Metaverse as well. You should be able to create a high-fidelity avatar without too much difficulty. That avatar should be able to express real emotions, which is a requirement of really being immersed in a world. The developer tools have to enable players to build worlds fast and easily. Large teams should be able to work on things together, even if they are in different locations.
1 2 View All Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more.
VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Roblox: How teens are using games to cope with the pandemic | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/29/roblox-how-teens-are-using-games-to-cope-with-the-pandemic"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Roblox: How teens are using games to cope with the pandemic Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Roblox found that 52% of teens spend the same or more time with real-life friends in Roblox and other online games.
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Teenagers who use the virtual gaming world of Roblox say they’re using games to stay in touch with their real-life friends, according to a survey by the company. They’re also playing online games a lot more, and they’re going online with their parents’ permission.
Roblox found that 52% of teens spend the same or more time with real-life friends in Roblox, other online games, or voice/chat programs during the pandemic. The San Mateo, California-based Roblox has more than 120 million monthly active users, and the company said 69% of those surveyed are playing more on Roblox because they’re spending more time at home and have parental approval for online learning.
Roblox surveyed 2,926 teens ages 13-18 via Reach3 Insights from May 8 to May 11, as part of the company’s Digital Civility Initiative. The majority of respondents say they like to play their favorite games (79%), try out new games (64%), and also have conversations (62%), emphasizing the importance of social interactions as part of their experience on the platform.
Laura Higgins, the director of community safety and digital civility at Roblox, said in an interview with GamesBeat that 40% of teens say that they have improved their online friendships during the pandemic. “We definitely saw an uplift in the platform,” Higgins said. “Screen time has gone up for all families. Adults have more understanding now. People are socializing online.” Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Why online life is better Above: Roblox says teens say friendships are easier online.
During COVID-19, teens surveyed are currently hanging out more with their online Roblox friends (56%) compared to their real-life friends (44%). Among the top advantages of online friendships, they list acceptance without regard for appearance (35%) and the ease of making friends quickly (32%). Teens also note they can lean on their online friends to discuss difficult topics such as COVID-19 (25%).
“They’re choosing spaces online where they can sit and socialize and hang out with their friends,” Higgins said. “Teens love being able to talk to people from different countries and from different cultures and sharing that and even to the point of learning languages from each other. They are going out of their way to hang out with their real-life friends in online platforms.” Teens said they don’t worry as much about how they look anymore, and that is one less reason they might be bullied, Higgins said. Teens are also experiencing the Roblox community at large as more helpful (44%), friendly (34%), and patient (26%).
“The relationship changes were surprising,” Higgins said. “Online relationships are getting better. There is less pressure on how you should act. The young people are finding others are more patient or more helpful and it felt a bit more positive.” Stay-at-home time sparked interest in trying new things. While the vast majority of teens surveyed (79%) continued playing their favorite games together with their real-life friends, when asked whether they were doing anything different on Roblox during stay-at-home orders, over half (62%) said they were trying new games, and 41% tried new game genres.
Over a quarter (29%) of teens reported that they started building their own games or learning how to code during this time.
“That’s obviously fantastic that they are willing to try new things and learn new skills,” Higgins said. “Increasingly we’re seeing teens take up everything that we have to offer. So people are streaming live events within Roblox, and people are hosting events and parties and things like that. We want to continue building on that.” Parents are chilling out Above: Roblox says kids and teens are experimenting more online.
Social distancing has caused an increase in time spent online: 44% of teens report getting more screen time because their parents aren’t being as strict.
While it’s expected that parents would be less concerned about screen time during physical distancing, the survey also reflected a very positive trend in parent-teen relationships. Nearly a third of respondents (30%) say parents are showing more interest in their online lives, including learning about and playing Roblox with them.
“The lovely thing that came out is that parents are just less worried now, and we’re spending more time collectively, online,” Higgins said. “I think we’ve demonstrated that young people are still really resilient. We need to keep supporting that we’re helping them to stay safe, but also to be part of this really healthy community.” Parents are getting involved with their kids’ online lives Above: Teens get upset when parents limit their screen time.
In an earlier Roblox study (4,499 teens ages 13-19 conducted by Reach3 Insights in March 20-23), 68% of teens said they wanted their parents to be more involved in their online lives. One in five teens (21%) say their parents also trust them more when it comes to who they speak with online.
Jordan Shapiro, a researcher on game-based learning, said that this points to the notion that kids want joint-media engagement. That is, they want their parents to take an interest in what the kids are doing online. This is a way for parents to be more empathetic, supportive, and responsive as parents.
Higgins said that the usual approach from parents is to stay distant from the online play and restrict online time. But 53% of teens say they feel annoyed or frustrated or angry when their tech is restricted. Further, 29% say they are depressed, 19% say they feel hopeless, and 18% feel betrayed when parents prevent them from going online.
“Parents were used to taking devices away and turning Wi-Fi off,” Higgins said. “In the recent survey, they weren’t doing that. In another survey last year, young people were very clearly saying to us they want to keep their parents more involved in their online life. And actually, what came out in this survey is that over 30% said their parents are now more involved. Now, maybe that’s circumstances because we’re all thrown together in the same space. But actually, parents are now starting to play the games with their kids and teens, which is what those children wanted. So I really hope that that’s one of those things that will continue. When we get used to the new normal, whatever that might look like, I really hope that parents continue that relationship because you can only be a positive thing for them if you are interested and involved.” Back in the March study, 65% of teens said they experienced having their devices taken away or Wi-Fi turned off by their parents to combat online usage. The vast majority (75%) of teens surveyed identified a range of emotions: anger, betrayal, depression, and even hopelessness.
As parents become more lenient about screen time during COVID-19, additional research is needed to understand how it’s affecting family life and teens’ emotional well-being, Higgins said.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
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"ESA CEO: 64% of U.S. adults are gamers, 41% of players are women, older people are playing more | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/15/esa-ceo-64-of-u-s-adults-are-gamers-46-of-players-are-women-older-people-are-playing-more"
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Sixty-four percent of American adults, or 214.4 million people, play video games, according to a report by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which represents the game industry.
ESA CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis said in a speech at the Games For Change Festival on Tuesday that 41% of gamers are women. And the average age of gamers is now 35 to 44 years old. Forty-six million gamers have disabilities, according to the AbleGamers Charity.
And a survey by the American Association of Retired Persons in 2019 found 44% of Americans over age 50 enjoy games at least once a month, up from 38% in 2016.
Those numbers — updated today for 2020 — indicate that gaming is becoming more mainstream than ever. But the numbers also tell us how vital video games have become to our mental health and peace of mind. Pierre-Louis talked about how COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on society and said games have helped alleviate some of the pain of self-isolation and social distancing. Games are spreading not only through consoles and PCs, but through smartphones, as 61% of adult gamers play on smartphones, while 52% play on consoles and 49% on PCs.
In his speech, Pierre-Louis brought up events that have rocked the nation in recent weeks — the death of George Floyd and the sexual harassment problems within the video game industry.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Above: The ESA shared some positive facts about video games for 2020.
“Near the end of May, we added ‘8 minutes and 46 seconds’ to our lexicon. The brutal killing of George Floyd sparked a renewed dialogue on racial inequality — its history, its ongoing impact, and what ‘Black Lives Matter’ means beyond a hashtag,” Pierre-Louis said. “More recently, another hashtag — ‘MeToo’ — has resurfaced to remind us that the world our industry seeks to build needs to respect every member of our community and empower the voices that need to be heard.” He added, “All of these events are reminders that our industry does not operate in a vacuum. And neither do our games. We are all impacted by these events, but our response will be the most critical thing we leave behind. What we do now will shape the narrative of our industry for the next generation of game developers, players, and leaders.” While acknowledging the seriousness of the issues at hand, he found a silver lining in the industry.
“The good news is that we have a lot to celebrate in where we are as a community today. Amid all of this sobering news — amid a health crisis, amid an economic crisis, and amid moral crises that will define a generation — video games have emerged as an important respite for so many people around the world. In many ways, there has probably never been a better time to celebrate what games mean to us or to enjoy how they bring us together.” Above: Girls who play games are 3 times more likely to get a STEM degree in college.
He said the nation is at an “inflection point,” adding “you might call it a game-changing moment [for video games].” The World Health Organization, which last year categorized gaming addiction as a medical condition, welcomed the game industry’s participation in Play Apart Together, which encouraged people to stay home, wash their hands, and practice social distancing. Pierre-Louis said several medical studies released over the past year tell us that video game play can increase emotional intelligence among adolescents and lead to positive emotional outcomes for players overall. That is becoming anecdotally clear during the pandemic, he said.
The game industry also raised tens of millions of dollars for COVID-19 relief. If you factor in gifts by related corporate entities, that amount exceeds $100 million.
Above: ESA stats on gamers show the average age is going up.
U.S. game sales rose by 73% in April and 52% in May, compared to the same periods a year earlier. Those numbers are expected to come back to Earth, but Pierre-Louis predicted some gains will be permanent as new players join the ranks of dedicated gamers. As for social contact, 65% of players surveyed said they play games with someone else, either in person or online.
The survey was conducted online by Ipsos in December, and nearly 4,000 adults participated.
Among other benefits Pierre-Louis highlighted, video games are inspiring new generations of learners to consider STEM careers. In fact, girls who play video games are 3 times as likely to earn a college degree in a STEM field. Video games are also increasingly used in physical rehab, which is particularly useful in the age of social distancing. And in June, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of a video game as a treatment for kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
“Now, that’s progress,” Pierre-Louis said.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
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"Microsoft reports $38 billion in Q4 2020 revenue: Azure up 47%, Surface up 28%, and LinkedIn up 10% | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/22/microsoft-earnings-q4-2020"
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Microsoft today reported earnings for its fourth fiscal quarter of 2020, including revenue up 13% to $38.0 billion, net income of $11.2 billion, and earnings per share of $1.46 (compared to revenue of $33.7 billion, net income of $13.2 billion, and earnings per share of $1.71 in Q4 2019). All three of the company’s operating groups saw year-over-year growth.
Microsoft is the first of the tech giants to report results for a full quarter during the coronavirus pandemic. In the previous quarter, Microsoft said that “COVID-19 had minimal net impact on the total company revenue.” In Q4 2020, “similar business trends to the previous quarter continued,” Microsoft said. Given its prominent role in the software and cloud industries, the company is worth watching. Unlike tech giants Google and Facebook , Microsoft does not generate the majority of its revenue from advertising and thus may weather the pandemic better. Those two, along with Apple and Amazon, report their respective quarterly earnings next week.
Analysts had expected Microsoft to earn $36.5 billion in revenue and report earnings per share of $1.37. The company thus easily beat expectations, suggesting some (but not all) units are benefiting from the effects of the pandemic. The company’s stock was up 1% in regular trading but down 2% in after-hours trading. Microsoft returned $8.9 billion to shareholders in the form of share repurchases and dividends during the quarter.
COVID-19 impact on the quarter “The last five months have made it clear that tech intensity is the key to business resilience. Organizations that build their own digital capability will recover faster and emerge from this crisis stronger,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement. “We are the only company with an integrated, modern technology stack — powered by cloud and AI and underpinned by security and compliance — to help every organization transform and reimagine how they meet customer needs.” Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! A 47% revenue increase for Azure is bad news even though cloud growth was already slowing for the company. The figure has been falling steadily: 76% in Q2 2019, 73% in Q3 2019, 64% in Q4 2019, and 59% in Q1 2020. It rebounded slightly to 62% in Q2 2020 but returned to 59% in Q3 2020. Slowing growth is normal at Azure size, but the pandemic appears to be accelerating the trend.
$MSFT Azure revenue growth – Q1 2018: 90% – Q2 2018: 98% – Q3 2018: 93% – Q4 2018: 89% – Q1 2019: 76% – Q2 2019: 76% – Q3 2019: 73% – Q4 2019: 64% – Q1 2020: 59% – Q2 2020: 62% – Q3 2020: 59% – Q4 2020: 47% https://t.co/wJNRYep9CB — Emil Protalinski (@EPro) July 22, 2020 Microsoft’s release noted that “cloud usage and demand increased as customers continued to work and learn from home. Transactional license purchasing continued to slow, particularly in small and medium businesses, and LinkedIn was negatively impacted by the weak job market and reductions in advertising spend.” More cloud usage but slower revenue growth means signing on new customers isn’t so easy during the pandemic. It may also suggest Microsoft is willing to delay or waive bills and fees for Azure customers in hopes of keeping them in the long run. Microsoft does not break out exact Azure revenue numbers, likely to avoid comparisons with industry leader AWS.
Cloud was not the only area that suffered. Yesterday, LinkedIn announced it would cut about 960 jobs , or 6% of its global workforce. Microsoft also noted in its release that “Search was negatively impacted by reductions in advertising spend.” On the flipside, Microsoft said that Windows OEM, Surface, and Gaming “benefited from increased demand to support work-, play-, and learn-from-home scenarios.” This is in line with PC shipments spiking for the quarter as supply chain issues in China (the world’s largest supplier of PCs) were resolved.
Operating group highlights Here are the highlights across Microsoft’s three operating groups: Productivity and Business Processes: Up 6% to $11.8 billion. Office commercial revenue grew 5%, Office consumer and cloud revenue was up 6%, and Dynamics revenue increased 13%. LinkedIn revenue increased 10%, and Office 365 consumer subscribers hit 42.7 million.
Intelligent Cloud: Up 17% to $13.4 billion. Server products and cloud services revenue grew 19%, while Enterprise Services revenue was flat. The number to watch as always was Azure revenue, which was up 47%.
More Personal Computing: Up 14% to $12.9 billion. Windows OEM revenue was up 7% while Windows commercial revenue increased 9%. Search advertising revenue minus traffic acquisition costs fell 18%. Surface revenue increased 28%, and Xbox content and services revenue increased 65%.
Microsoft Office continues to be a cash cow for the company thanks to its Office 365 subscription. Having over 40 million consumer subscribers of Office 365 is significant, but it still pales in comparison to the enterprise side. In Q3 2020, Microsoft passed 258 million paid Office 365 business seats (up from 200 million) and 75 million daily active users for Teams.
On the Q4 2020 earnings call, Nadella said 69 organizations now have more than 100,000 users on Teams and over 1,800 organizations have over 10,000 users on Teams.
Meanwhile, on the Windows side, things are looking up. In Q3 2020, Microsoft warned that “the effects of COVID-19 may not be fully reflected in the financial results until future periods.” But thanks to remote work and remote learning trends, Windows OEM and Windows Commercial revenue were both up in Q4 2020. It’s unclear which is most likely to continue seeing gains: the former as consumers keep buying computers or the latter as businesses invest in new devices.
LinkedIn, Surface, and Gaming Microsoft’s LinkedIn was doing well right up until the pandemic. Ever since the December 2016 close of the acquisition , Microsoft had seen double-digit revenue growth from LinkedIn. But in Q3, Microsoft issued a warning: “In the final weeks of the quarter, there was a slowdown in transactional licensing, particularly in small and medium businesses, and a reduction in advertising spend in LinkedIn.” And now we’re seeing the results of that slowdown: gone are the quarters of 20%+ growth.
Surface continues to bring in $1 billion each quarter. Q1 2020 ($1.35 billion) and Q2 2020 ($1.98 billion) followed the usual pattern, in that the former is the company’s worst quarter for Surface, while the latter is the best. Q3 2020 ($1.34 billion) was flat, which was good news for Microsoft, given that PC shipments were down overall. Q4 2020 ($1.72 billion) was excellent as Microsoft rode the wave of increased PC demand. In May, Microsoft started shipping the Surface Book 3 , Surface Go 2, Surface Headphones 2, and Surface Earbuds.
We’ll have to wait for a full quarter of sales to gauge how they fared, though Microsoft doesn’t break out individual devices.
For gaming, Q1 2020 and Q2 2020 were disappointments for Microsoft. Q3 2020 was a little better, and Q4 2020 was a home run. Xbox content and services revenue increased 65%, and gaming revenue as a whole increased 64%. Microsoft stopped breaking out Xbox Live monthly active users a few quarters ago. But given that games are performing well during the pandemic , the company has plenty to be happy about ahead of the Xbox Series X debut this holiday season.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
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"Alphabet revenue dropped in Q2 2020, the first decline since going public | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/30/alphabet-revenue-dropped-in-q2-2020-the-first-decline-since-going-public"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Alphabet revenue dropped in Q2 2020, the first decline since going public Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
( Reuters ) — Google parent Alphabet’s quarterly sales fell for the first time in its 16 years as a public company, but the decline was less than expected as many advertisers stuck with the most popular online search engine during the pandemic.
Shares of Alphabet fell 1.2% to $1,518.85 after it released the second-quarter results. The stock had rebounded early Thursday to this year’s prepandemic high of about $1,525.
With its mostly free tools for web browsing, video watching, and teleconferencing, Google has become a larger part of many consumers’ lives during the pandemic as lockdown orders force people to rely on the internet for work and entertainment.
But advertisers on Google have suffered mass layoffs and other cutbacks during the pandemic, and marketing budgets are often the first to get slashed, especially by big clients like travel search engines, airlines, and hotels.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Google’s ads business has long trended with the broader economy, and the U.S. economy contracted at its steepest pace since the Great Depression in the second quarter, the Commerce Department said on Thursday.
Google appeared to weather the slowdown better than before, as the pandemic has made the internet more attractive to advertisers than TV, radio, and other avenues.
“This quarter, we saw the early signs of stabilization as users returned to commercial activity online,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai told analysts on Thursday. “Of course, the economic climate remains fragile.” Alphabet’s overall second-quarter revenue was $38.3 billion, down 2% from the year-ago period. Analysts tracked by Refinitiv, on average, had estimated a 4% decline to $37.367 billion.
The sales decline was the first since the company went public in 2004 and the worst performance since its 2.9% growth during the Great Recession in 2009.
About 66% of Alphabet’s revenue came from Google search and YouTube ads, 12% from ads sold on partner properties online, 8% from its cloud business, and 14% from its mobile app store and about a dozen other smaller businesses.
The company has adjusted by slowing expense growth. Alphabet’s total costs and expenses rose about 7% from a year ago to $31.9 billion in the second quarter, compared with a 12% jump a quarter ago.
Alphabet’s quarterly profit was $6.96 billion, or $10.13 per share, compared with the analysts’ average estimate of $5.645 billion, or $8.29 per share.
New data privacy laws, including one that went into effect this month in Google’s home state of California, are also depressing ad prices.
Antitrust regulators in countries across the Americas, Europe, and Asia are weighing whether Google has stifled competition on its way to dominating search, mobile software, and other businesses, with some bodies even considering forcing it to divest parts of its ad operations.
About 2,000 employees last month petitioned Google’s emerging cloud business to scuttle deals with some police agencies, citing racial discrimination concerns. Whether a massive hiring spree will win other cloud clients is uncertain.
Investors may be shifting toward less ad-reliant rivals. Entering Thursday, Amazon and Microsoft , which have smaller ad businesses than Google but bigger cloud units, were trading at 145 times and 35 times their respective earnings over the last 12 months. Alphabet shares were at 30 times earnings over the last year.
(Reporting by Paresh Dave in Oakland, California and Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru. Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Richard Chang.) VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Riot Games unveils LoL Esports brand, unifying its regional events | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/21/riot-games-unveils-lol-esports-brand-unifying-its-regional-events"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Riot Games unveils LoL Esports brand, unifying its regional events Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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Riot Games today announced its official League of Legends esports brand will be known as LoL Esports.
The move will tie all of the company’s different regional tournaments under one umbrella in the moment of online-only esports. The brand will serve as the platform and voice for global competition for all regions, said Riot’s David Higdon in an interview with GamesBeat.
As League of Legends heads into its second decade, the new LoL Esports brand will embody the values that reinforce gaming as a meaningful life pursuit, Higdon said. LoL Esports will for the first time debut its own distinct logo and visuals, inspired by the aesthetics of Summoner’s Rift.
“In the past, we didn’t have the digital hub,” said Higdon, the head of esports communications at Riot. “Now it will have more ability to connect to what is going on in the regions. Even if you are in the U.S., you can follow what is going on in Japan and vice versa.” Since its launch in 2010, League of Legends Esports has become the most popular global esport, hitting a record-breaking viewership of 21.8 million AMA (average minute audience, or the average number of individuals viewing a channel per minute) during the 2019 World Championship Final, Higdon said.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Above: LoL Esports unites 12 different regional events.
“We felt like we kind of hit a high-water mark last year, and we really started evaluating what’s next,” Higdon said. “How do we move into our second decade as an esport? We are creating an umbrella brand that really reflects the overall global nature of our sport, and I use that term carefully because it’s really more than an esport. It has a traditional sports background, but the entertainment value goes to our opening ceremonies, our videos, our virtual band with K/DA , which has been wildly successful, and last year with the Louis Vuitton partnership.” He added, “We’ve been focusing on how do we take it to the next level. Then we hit COVID-19. We’ve had to do quite a bit of pivoting this year. Because while the game is showcasing incredible resilience, the sport itself obviously is facing some challenges.” During the ongoing 2020 Summer Split, regional leagues have experienced significant year-over-year growth and commanded a larger online viewing audience as measured by AMA. A recent report from Stream Hatchet revealed a 129% increase in AMA among LoL Esports’ four largest leagues — LPL (China), LCK (South Korea), LEC (Europe) and LCS (North America) — on Twitch and YouTube.
Above: League of Legends events have moved to digital forums.
Starting this week, LoL Esports will begin delivering additional entertainment through its enhanced digital channel — LoLEsports.com — along with three new video series, each with a different angle on global competition. Riot is launching LoL Esports video shows including: Weekly Rundown: A weekly summary of competitive highlights and new developments from teams and players. (Airing July 21st, then weekly) The Penta: Five of the best plays from around the world from each week of competition. (It debuts July 22 and then broadcasts weekly) Champ Select: A biweekly show that features a variety of guests who will advocate for standout players from their regional league. (It debuts July 23 and then broadcasts bi-weekly).
The LoLEsports.com hub will cover gameplay across 12 regional leagues and global events. Riot said it has over 800 professional players on more than 100 professional League of Legends esports teams competing globally. Each regional league is comprised of approximately 10 teams that compete against one another year-round over the course of two seasonal splits. Teams earn championship points in order to qualify for the two major international competitions: the Mid-Season Invitational and the World Championship.
During the pandemic, Riot Games canceled its midseason invitational and replaced it with a 48-hour Streamathon. The viewership for the Streamathon was 38% higher than the year-earlier event. The viewership across regions has remained strong, Higdon said.
Right now, the League of Legends Championship Series (LCS) in China is scheduled for the fall, but the company hasn’t said whether it will be held in person or digital only. The company is planning a public announcement in August.
“We’re going to have a slew of different content series, dedicated to a mission of building a global ecosystem,” Higdon said. “As a global esport, we could elevate the regions beyond what we’ve ever done in the past.” Riot Games has 2,500 employees. The company launched League of Legends in 2009 and held the first League of Legends esports event in Sweden in 2010.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
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"15,000 games removed from Apple's App Store in China ahead of registration deadline | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/30/15000-games-removed-from-apples-app-store-in-china-ahead-of-registration-deadline"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages 15,000 games removed from Apple’s App Store in China ahead of registration deadline Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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Unlicensed mobile games are dropping like flies from the Apple App Store as China’s deadline for registration approaches on Friday.
At the request of the Chinese government, Apple has removed nearly 15,000 games since July 1, with more likely to disappear when the August 1 requirement for registration arrives, said Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad over email. “We expect thousands of games to be removed from the China App Store this year,” he said. For years, China has been the No. 1 mobile game market in the world, and it generated the highest revenue of any country on Apple’s App Store, with 2019 revenues of $12.6 billion, according to measurement firm Sensor Tower.
Niko Partners analysts reviewed the top iOS games in China when the announcement was first made by Apple and found that 97 of the top 100 grossing games on the China App Store have legal ISBNs (International Standard Book Number). Foreign companies have to have a Chinese game publisher apply to get an ISBN from the Chinese National Press and Publication Administration. That process takes about 80 business days, according to publisher Cocos. The NPPA approves or denies games based on its censorship laws.
As a result of the removals, Niko Partners does not expect the enforcement of the regulation to have a significant impact on overall revenue. On the other hand, 50 of the top 100 downloaded games on the China App Store are unlicensed, which means there could be a notable impact on lower grossing casual games and those from small and medium sized developers. These developers will no longer be able to distribute and operate paid games or games with in-app purchases on the China App Store without a license, Ahmad said.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Cocos describes how to register a game in this video: Earlier this month, Sensor Tower noted that 2,500 games disappeared in the first week of July, including the likes of Supercell’s farming game Hay Day, launched in 2012, as well as Nonstop Chuck Norris from Flaregames, Contract Killer Zombies 2 from Glu, ASMR Slicing from Crazy Labs, and Solitaire from Zynga.
Apple announced in February that it would begin to comply with China’s regulations and is no longer allowing new game launches or game updates without a license number.
Separately, geopolitics is affecting games that are made in China as well. On July 27, India started investigating a number of Chinese apps such as TikTok because of the recent clash on the border between the two countries. The Indian government is reviewing 275 apps for national security or user privacy violations. Among the apps that face bans are Tencent’s PUBG Mobile and other games such as those NetEase and Yoozoo Globa publish.
PUBG Mobile is the most successful mobile game in India, with over 175 million downloads and gross revenue of between $2 million to $3 million each month, Niko said.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
Discover our Briefings.
Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more.
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"Windows Phone's Problem Isn't a Lack of Apps"
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"https://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2013/09/14/windows-phone"
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"Toggle Navigation News Events TNW Conference 2024 June 20 & 21, 2024 TNW Vision: 2024 All events Spaces Programs Newsletters Partner with us Jobs Contact News news news news Latest Deep tech Sustainability Ecosystems Data and security Fintech and ecommerce Future of work More Startups and technology Investors and funding Government and policy Corporates and innovation Gadgets & apps Early bird Business passes are 90% SOLD OUT 🎟️ Buy now before they are gone → This article was published on September 14, 2013 Microsoft Windows Phone’s big problem isn’t a lack of apps So, the iPhone event came and went , people argued on Apple’s innovation credentials , the Android vs. iOS debate reared its head again. Another week in this bubble we call ‘tech’.
Given that the Android and iOS stranglehold on the smartphone market exceeds 90% , it’s understandable why they tend to dominate the headlines from a mobile perspective. And with BlackBerry looking set to go the way of the dodo – as a smartphone manufacturer, at least – that pretty much leaves Microsoft’s Windows Phone as the only real contender to the status quo out there (Firefox OS, yeah yeah), though admittedly it languishes far behind in third place.
But a lot of change is afoot at Microsoft Towers: Ballmer is making way for a new CEO , and it finally caved in and snapped up Nokia’s Devices and Services division.
One last big throw of the dice for Windows Phone, guided by a new visionary. Perhaps.
However, the one giant stick in the mud is apps. Or ‘lack’ thereof. The issue has been a perennial pain in the posterior for Windows Phone, as it looks to play catch-up with iOS and Android.
The <3 of EU tech The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now! Few people question the quality of the Windows Phone 8-hosting devices – Nokia’s flagship Lumia handsets are solid and beautiful, offering arguably the best camera functionality of any smartphone. We called the Lumia 1020 a camera that makes calls.
And Windows Phone 8 with its Live Tiles is a refreshing departure from the square-icon-laden interfaces of Android and iOS.
There’s no question that Windows Phone is a compelling proposition, but it’s all about the apps, right? The state of play We took a quick peruse through some of the top Android and iOS apps , and checked which were available on Windows Phone, and which aren’t. And we’re talking ‘official’ here, meaning that it’s produced either by the company itself or by Microsoft/Nokia. As you’d expect, many are missing in action.
What there isn’t There’s no Google Maps, but there is the home-grown Maps and Here Maps , and while there’s no official Gmail app there are some reasonable third-party efforts , plus you can set up native Google Sync support with your Windows Phone. There’s no Chrome either, though there is a bizarre pseudo-Chrome app that redirects to Internet Explorer.
There’s no Instagram app yet, but there’s a decent third-party effort , plus there is an official Hipstamatic app. And because Google’s attention lies elsewhere, YouTube has arrived on the scene via Microsoft’s own developers…but due to a series of squabbles , Google is currently blocking access.
They may be coming soon , but still no sign of Vine, Path or Flipboard. Dropbox is missing too, as is SoundCloud, RunKeeper and Yahoo Mail, though a reasonable third-party incarnation exists for that. Throw into the mix no Firefox, Airbnb, Snapchat, Uber, Wikipedia and Pinterest, and it’s clear that many companies have yet to embrace Windows Phone.
The point to all this, of course, is that yes, there are many apps missing from Windows Phone. But you knew that already. On the flip side, however, there are probably more first-party native Windows Phone apps than you thought, and Microsoft has the financial clout to try and push for more.
What there is The likes of Skype (naturally), Twitter , WhatsApp , BBC iPlayer (UK), Amazon , Amazon Kindle , Angry Birds , TuneIn Radio , Shazam , Spotify , Netflix , Evernote , PayPal , LinkedIn , Tumblr , WordPress , Foursquare , LivingSocial , and Runtastic are all present and correct. So is eBay , though it’s lacking a little functionality.
IMDb , too, has an app but it hasn’t had much in the way of updates for a while, similar to Google Search , while Rdio lacks some basic functionality compared to its iOS and Android brethren. But there is a fully functional Words With Friends courtesy of Zynga, which will please many would-be defectors. The less said about Fart Machine , the better.
What…no Facebook? Actually, there is – Microsoft has taken the trouble to develop an incarnation off its own steam, given that Zuck & Co. haven’t bothered. As for Groupon, well, Nokia sorted that one out.
There are are many, many more little ditties on the Windows Phone Store too, from calculators to flight search engines.
And when you consider that all you really need is an Internet connection and a mobile browser, there’s no real reason why Windows Phone shouldn’t appeal to large segments of the smartphone-buying population.
So why doesn’t it? Self-fulfilling prophecy For me and many reading this, the lack of so many native apps is of course a problem. But I’d go as far to say that many – if not most – people don’t really care about a large percentage of these apps.
My mum, girlfriend, buddies, postman… they would all get by absolutely fine on Windows Phone. They don’t use Vine, Uber or Snapchat on their iPhones and Androids. Working in the technology industry, be it as a programmer, marketer or journalist, this can blind us to what people actually want from their smartphones.
“Windows Phone’s big problem is a lack of apps”… AAANND repeat. We seem to have repeated it so many times that it’s become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I’d posit that a good browser, Facebook, Twitter, Kindle, YouTube, Spotify, email, maps and directions, camera and perhaps a few others are ample for many people. But the fact remains people aren’t ditching Android and iOS for Windows Phone, so I’m not convinced it’s entirely down to a lack of native apps. Not directly, at least.
Word-of-mouth plays a big part in the gadgets that non-techies buy, and Microsoft can’t quite get that mindshare among the general smartphone-buying populace because the message that’s trickling down from those ‘in the know’ (developers, techies, journalists and so on) is that Android and iOS are the only worthwhile mobile platforms – because of their app-count. And thus, in a roundabout sort of way, a lack of apps does indeed become one of Windows Phone’s biggest problems. Just not for the reason everyone cites.
It’s understandable why more developers don’t pay a lot of attention to Windows Phone – it doesn’t have the user base to justify it. But Microsoft could conceivably get all the ‘missing in action’ apps we mention above and it wouldn’t make a difference – what it has to really do is get inside the minds of the general public, and keeping things simple is key.
Keep it simple, stupid Despite Android being the most dominant mobile operating system, it still plays second fiddle to iOS from an apps perspective.
It’s very unusual for any app to hit Android before iOS, and some apps can take their time to make it to Android at all. Vine took six months to hit Android after iPhone, while Instagram took more than a year.
Nike+ Fuelband? 18 months on , we’re still waiting. And there are many little non-big-brand independent apps that are fantastic , but will never see the light of day on Android. It’s also worth adding that Google is far less stringent on the quality of apps that pass through its gates compared to Apple.
Yes, Android has app problems of its own. Much of this has been put down to the fragmentation of Android devices – a myriad of form factors and OS versions are difficult to cater for, with iOS there’s really just the iPhone and iPad. So why does Android flourish? The answer is simple – Google.
The Internet giant had already emerged as a dominant online player while Microsoft was still resting on its Office and Windows laurels. As such, it was well-positioned to embrace the cloud, with Google Docs, Maps, Earth, Search and an innovative new email service called Gmail. It also saw the future of mobile and acquired Android way back in 2005. Throw everything together into a giant melting pot, make it open source so any OEM can use it, add a pinch of Google+, and you have one mighty mobile giant.
Microsoft has elements of this too – it has taken Office to the cloud, given Hotmail the elbow for Outlook, introduced Bing Maps and Search and has Windows Phone. But it all just feels a little too late – Google had gained the mindshare of the mobile online masses establishing a firm foothold and, well, that’s difficult to budge. As for Apple, well, the quality of its hardware was ahead of the competition from the start, and it pretty much kickstarted the app ecosystem we all see today.
But now that Microsoft owns Nokia’s mobile business, it has to start simplifying its device-range. I started losing track of the number of handsets Nokia sent to market this year alone, some featuring Windows Phone, some not.
Under Microsoft’s stewardship, it should phase out many of these devices – at least from a marketing perspective. It should also lose the S40 operating system. It needs to keep things simple, focus on a handful of low-, mid- and high-end phones. If it can strike the right balance between the singularity of iOS and fragmentation of Android with 3 or 4 really notable devices, it can simplify its marketing message and hopefully see some growth. This may even mean restricting Windows Phone to Nokia devices, letting HTC, Huawei and Samsung put all their eggs in Android’s basket.
Also, if there’s one thing Microsoft has, it’s money. Armed with a few flagship phones, it can strike more partnerships with high street retailers to position its handset(s) front-and-center when people walk in-store.
So yes, Windows Phone needs to get more quality native apps, but that isn’t the root of its problems. It’s merely a symptom of the overarching problem, which is this perception that everybody needs tonnes of apps on their smartphone. If all those people who are content with just a few of the big-name apps, Internet Explorer and a good mobile camera got on board with Windows Phone, the native apps would take care of themselves in due course, once developers realized it was a viable platform.
But over and above all this, there’s one thing Microsoft certainly should not do. It shouldn’t mock its competitors in such a crass manner , because it smacks of desperation and doesn’t reflect well on the company. Does it really believe that by bad-mouthing Apple it will tempt people on board with Windows Phone? It’s crazy, and whoever takes over the reins from Ballmer should put their foot down fast.
Photo credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images Story by Paul Sawers Paul Sawers was a reporter with The Next Web in various roles from May 2011 to November 2014. Follow Paul on Twitter: @psawers or check h (show all) Paul Sawers was a reporter with The Next Web in various roles from May 2011 to November 2014. Follow Paul on Twitter: @psawers or check him out on Google+.
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Also tagged with Windows Story by Paul Sawers Popular articles 1 UK won’t regulate AI anytime soon, minister says 2 World-first CRISPR gene-editing therapy approved in UK 3 AI is transforming the English dictionary 4 This new EV supercharger on wheels recharges in just 6 minutes 5 VP of UK’s top generative AI firm resigns over ‘fair use’ controversy Related Articles plugged Does your USB-C cable transfer data AND power? Your OS should tell you basics How to mute yourself in any video call app Join TNW All Access Watch videos of our inspiring talks for free → plugged Could Android apps finally make Windows tablets a thing? basics How to prevent apps from running at startup in Windows 11 The heart of tech More TNW Media Events Programs Spaces Newsletters Jobs in tech About TNW Partner with us Jobs Terms & Conditions Cookie Statement Privacy Statement Editorial Policy Masthead Copyright © 2006—2023, The Next Web B.V. Made with <3 in Amsterdam.
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"Windows Phone Apps: The State of Play"
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"https://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2013/12/14/windows-phone-apps"
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"Toggle Navigation News Events TNW Conference 2024 June 20 & 21, 2024 TNW Vision: 2024 All events Spaces Programs Newsletters Partner with us Jobs Contact News news news news Latest Deep tech Sustainability Ecosystems Data and security Fintech and ecommerce Future of work More Startups and technology Investors and funding Government and policy Corporates and innovation Gadgets & apps Early bird Business passes are 90% SOLD OUT 🎟️ Buy now before they are gone → This article was published on December 14, 2013 Microsoft Windows Phone apps: The state of play It may have some way to go, but Windows Phone is making small strides in some key markets as it looks to chip away at the dominance of iOS and Android.
Recent figures suggest Windows Phone 7 and 8 constitute more than 10% of UK smartphone sales, while across other major European markets Windows Phone 8 represents around 1 in 10 of all smartphone sales. Some data even suggests it overtook iOS in Italy between July and September.
However significant this data prove in the long term remains to be seen, but a lot of change is afoot at Microsoft: Ballmer is making way for a new CEO , while it also snapped up Nokia’s Devices and Services division.
Possibly one large throw of the dice for Windows Phone, guided by a new visionary.
It’s worth stopping and taking a look at the health of the Windows Phone platform as thing stand, given there has been a lot of activity over the past month in terms of apps.
The <3 of EU tech The latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now! We’ve previously argued that Windows Phone’s big problem isn’t a lack of apps – it’s merely opinion-formers perpetuating a myth that native apps are pivotal to a mobile platform, and this filters down through to those looking to buy a shiny new phone. Except many, if not most, of the consumer market would get by absolutely fine with a good browser, Facebook, Twitter, Spotify, Instagram, Angry Birds and maybe one or two others.
However, a lack of native apps is a problem for some, and Microsoft has been working its butt off to lure the big-name brands on board. In the last month alone we’ve seen a slew of hit apps finally arrive on Windows Phone 8 – Instagram , Vine , Waze and Mint.com , to name just a few.
But launching an app is one thing – you can simply pay someone to replicate the app for Windows Phone, stick it online for anyone to download and, well, voila. But maintaining the app and ensuring it’s up to scratch with its counterparts on iOS and Android is another thing altogether. It’s just as important.
So we thought we’d give you a quick snapshot of the current state of play, looking at whether ‘having an app’ in the Windows Phone Store aligns with ‘having a great, fully-featured up-to-date app’ in the Windows Phone Store. You may actually be surprised as to how many of the biggies are already on Windows Phone.
What better place to start than with the recently launched ones? Instagram Instagram took around 18 months to hit Android after launching on iOS, and it took about the same time again to finally arrive on Windows Phone.
Instagram for Windows Phone remains a beta product for now, and only caters for photos – so you can’t do fancy things with video for the time-being. Plus, it doesn’t let you take a photo in-app, it guides you temporarily out of the app and into the main camera application to take your photo, then takes you back to Instagram. Not a big deal really, but a quirky deviation from what we’ve come to expect from the other Instagram apps.
Just this week, the Facebook-owned service got a big new update for iOS and Android called Instagram Direct, which lets you share photos and videos privately with set individuals and groups. But there’s no word yet on this feature hitting Windows Phone.
So less than a month after launch, Instagram for Windows Phone is already playing catch-up to a degree, but it is just a Beta product for now, and an official Instagram app is better than no official Instagram app, right? If you’re still not entirely happy, you can also check out 6tag.
It’s too early to know for sure how swiftly Instagram for Windows Phone will receive bug-fixes and platform updates, so the jury’s still out on this one.
➤ Instagram | Windows Phone Vine Yes.
Vine for Windows Phone.
Happy days, right? Twitter’s GIF-like looping video app has proven to be a major hit since it launched first on iOS back in January , so there’s no reason why it wouldn’t on Windows Phone too. Indeed, the app is pretty much fully-featured and based on our tests, it works absolutely great.
There haven’t been any major tweaks or updates since launch, but that was only a month ago. So far so good, and definitely better late than never.
➤ Vine | Windows Phone Waze Google acquired community-powered mapping and navigation startup Waze a few months back, so this launch (which arrived at the same time as Instagram) perhaps held a little extra significance.
So far so good though, the Waze Windows Phone app is pretty much fully-featured and, as with Vine and Instagram, it’s perhaps too early to judge whether or not this app will suffer at the hands of delayed updates and omitted features.
➤ Waze | Windows Phone Mint.com Though it is a US-only service, Mint.com has long-proven its worth as a personal finance service on other platforms. So its recent arrival for Windows Phone was certainly welcome.
At launch, which also saw the service arrive as a native Windows 8 app, Vince Maniago, Group Product Manager for Mint, said that their goal was to be at “feature-parity” from the start, with thousands of beta testers giving the app a thorough road test en-route to launch.
Good work. So far.
➤ Mint.com | Windows Phone Angry Birds Go While we knew it was coming, Rovio finally launched its Mario Kart-style Angry Birds racing game a few days back , hitting Windows Phone, Android, iOS, AND BlackBerry in one fell swoop.
The Angry Birds franchise is really growing arms and legs now, and based on our initial tinkerings with this game on Microsoft’s mobile platform, it should have another hit on its hands. Here’s hoping it maintains parity with other operating systems.
As with this free-to-play game on the other systems, you’re best password-protecting this baby, as your kid could run up a fairly hefty bill through in-app purchases.
➤ Angry Birds Go | Windows Phone Blippar Blippar may not be as instantly recognizable as the Instagrams and Vines of the world, but the UK-headquartered company has been filling a sizable niche over the past few years, as an augmented reality app for brands to engage with consumers. Point your phone at a product to unlock new content – boom.
We were there right at the very beginning , so it’s good seeing it finally arrive on Windows Phone.
There are a few features missing from the Windows Phone app, for example social sharing and the catalog UI which lets you discover more live ‘blipps’. But we’re told they’ll be added shortly.
➤ Blippar | Windows Phone So that’s some of the recently launched apps, now let’s take a look at some of the other big-name applications that have been on Windows Phone for a while already. This should give us a better idea as to how reliable the app ecosystem really is beyond the initial launch.
Skype Microsoft owns Skype , so Skype must be absolutely top-notch on Windows Phone, right? You would think so. But alas, the computing giant has sometimes been slow to roll out new features to its own platforms.
Remember when Skype received a neat new video-messaging feature on Mac, iPhone and Android earlier this year? Yup, no Windows or Windows Phone love at first – it took until September for this feature to arrive on Windows Phone.
Both the iOS and Android incarnations have received updates in the last couple of weeks, with ‘general fixes and improvements’ in there. Skype for Windows Phone was last updated in early October.
However, Skype for Windows Phone works perfectly well, and the feature-set is largely identical across the various platforms, though there are navigational nuances that vary by OS. Plus, you do encounter little annoyances from time to time – for example, you can’t remove contacts from within the Windows Phone app as you can on Android or iOS.
➤ Skype | Windows Phone Twitter Twitter for Windows Phone is typically behind on getting the updates that are rolled out to its mobile brethren, but that’s not always a bad thing.
While the iOS and Android apps are gaining more tabs and features, shifting (unwanted?) sections front-and-center (yes, we’re talking to you ‘Discover’ and ‘Activity’), the Windows Phone version remains a simple and beautiful thing. No clutter.
But given we’re talking here about speed of updates rather than interface preferences which are entirely subjective, Twitter could be better. For example, while iOS and Android was enabled with photos in direct messages this week , Windows Phone is still waiting.
However, the key point here is that Twitter for Windows Phone is great, it’s perfectly usable for the average social media nut and it’s certainly enough to tempt any would-be Android/iOS defector on board.
➤ Twitter | Windows Phone WhatsApp Broadly speaking, WhatsApp’s perennially popular group messenger app is up to scratch with its mobile counterparts, and it’s certainly good enough to not deter fans of the service from signing up to Windows Phone. However, it can be a little buggy from time-to-time, closing unexpectedly and so on.
But WhatsApp released its last update just a few weeks back, and there has been reasonably regular roll outs for bug fixes. Plus the company often launches new features on all platforms simultaneously – as we saw with the push-to-talk voice messaging update back in August.
➤ WhatsApp | Windows Phone Amazon Mobile With its sticky fingers in just about every retail orifice, Amazon is a lynchpin of e-commerce. So you’ll be pleased to know that the Amazon app is good, receives fairly regular updates and is generally on a par with its counterparts in terms of features.
Not a lot more to say really, it works as described.
➤ Amazon Mobile | Windows Phone Amazon Kindle While a dedicated e-reader is certainly more enjoyable than an app, being able to access all your synced, cloud-stored books from your mobile phone can come in handy. And Amazon Kindle for Windows Phone works pretty much flawlessly.
The app received its last update just a couple of weeks back, reeling in a new book-progress feature for Live Tiles and a number of other fixes and features. It’s a shame there isn’t a Kobo app for Windows Phone too.
➤ Amazon Kindle | Windows Phone TuneIn Radio TuneIn has emerged as one of the top radio-based apps for mobile and the Web, and thankfully it’s available on Windows Phone too.
The TuneIn app for Windows Phone works flawlessly, lets you sign-in to access all your saved stations and generally performs as you expect.
Moreover, it received a reasonably big update just a couple of months back, featuring a nice new UI and support for 512MB devices – so lower-end Lumia devices can once again access the service.
A really great app.
➤ TuneIn Radio | Windows Phone Shazam Shazam officially unveiled its music tagging app for Windows Phone 8 earlier this year and it’s a goodie – but is slightly different to the other mobile versions.
While the iOS and Android incarnations link through to the likes of Spotify, Rdio, and iTunes, the Windows Phone version guides users towards Xbox Music or, if you’re using a Nokia handset, Nokia Music. YouTube integration is also included.
Another nice touch that sets this apart from other platforms, is the ability to add a Shazam button to the Live Tiles – so basically you can tag tracks directly from your home-screen without having to pre-load the app.
It has also received fairly regular updates since launch back in April.
➤ Shazam | Windows Phone Spotify This perhaps could be a deal-breaker for some. Generally speaking, Spotify for Windows Phone works, and it works well…if you have a Premium account.
Earlier this week, Android and iOS users welcomed the news that free, ad-supported streaming was arriving on the scene.
Windows Phone users received no such news, meaning that to use this app you must be on a ten-bucks-a-month subscription.
Moreover, the Spotify app hasn’t had much in the way of updates of late, with the last refresh happening way back in July. There are some big features missing too – including Spotify Radio.
To summarize, Spotify for Windows Phone works fine, but it’ll need some serious updates soon and really needs free streaming to be brought into line with other platforms.
➤ Spotify | Windows Phone Netflix Netflix has done a good job of making itself cross-platform, and with Windows Phone we have another decent app from the video-streaming company.
Netflix optimized the app for Windows Phone earlier this year, and feature-wise it’s pretty much in line with iOS and Android, though a glaring omission is support for different user profiles. But it has had a handful of updates this year, including tweaks and bug fixes.
➤ Netflix | Windows Phone Evernote Evernote will rank as one of the more ‘essential’ apps for many mobile users, and the Windows Phone version doesn’t disappoint.
Back in August, Evernote finally optimized the app for Windows Phone 8 , and received a new camera, speech-to-text, smart titles, among other updates. It’s also received a few fixes and minor updates since then.However, there’s still no Skitch for Windows Phone, which is a shame.
➤ Evernote | Windows Phone eBay As with the likes of Amazon, eBay is an e-commerce stalwart and one of the oldest Internet brands. But alas, its Windows Phone app leaves a lot to be desired.
Yes, it’s functional and lets you bid, buy and sell items, but the interface is fairly awful. Why it’s gone for an all-black affair, when white is its norm, is a mystery. And red text against a black background for alerts is, well, difficult to decipher.
General usability isn’t good and it seems this has been cobbled together by an intern. Using this after having become accustomed to the Android and iOS incarnation feels like a massive step back. But it works, which is something.
➤ eBay | Windows Phone PayPal PayPal is a different story to the eBay app – it looks like it has been professionally designed for starters. You can send and request money, view your transactions and more.
It has most of the functionality you’d hope for, but you can’t withdraw funds through the app which will be a deal-breaker for many. And it hasn’t received any updates for nine months – its iOS and Android brethren are regularly given tweaks, bug-fixes and updates.
➤ PayPal | Windows Phone LinkedIn Generally speaking, LinkedIn’s Windows Phone app offers a solid interpretation of its social network, and it looks and feels decidedly different to the iOS and Android version.
The app adopts a familiar Windows Phone-centric tile-based interface, with ‘LinkedIn Today’, ‘Groups’, ‘Inbox’ and more having their own dedicated space.
LinkedIn for Windows Phone received its first update in a while just a couple of days ago, and now lets you add and edit your profile picture, link up with potential contacts based on those in your address book, and see who’s viewed your profile more easily. However, you still can’t edit your main profile, which is a bummer.
Still, it’s a decent effort, even if it does lack the depth of features available on other platforms.
➤ LinkedIn | Windows Phone Tumblr Tumblr finally arrived for Windows Phone back in April, which was a relief – we were starting to think it would never happen. And maybe that’s what made Yahoo finally consider it a serious acquisition candidate (joking).
The app is functional on a basic level, but it is missing some key features. For example, it only seems to let you upload a single photograph for a new blog post, and you can’t do much networking to speak of – there’s no way to view accounts you’re following, or see who’s following you. You can’t read messages either, or download images to your device.
If all you want to do is post a quick blog post, it’s fine. But the overall experience could be better.
➤ Tumblr | Windows Phone WordPress If WordPress is your mobile CMS of choice, well, you’re reasonably well covered on Windows Phone. You can add new posts, view your stats, add a new page to your site, fiddle with your blog settings and manage comments.
Certainly, it’s been beautifully designed and it will suffice for most people. But it can be fiddly adding media files to a new post, and you can’t view your top post and pages, or view by country in the Stats.
Plus, Automattic seems to lean towards Android and iOS when considering rolling out updates and bug fixes. The Windows Phone version hasn’t been given any love now for the best part of six months.
➤ WordPress | Windows Phone Foursquare A big Foursquare app update is a rare thing, but it does seem to roll out tweaks and bug-fixes every few months or so – so it’s not ignored.
The app itself lets you do many things, and it probably won’t disappoint the casual user. But for hardcore Foursquare aficionados, there are missing features – for example you’re not able to tag friends from Foursquare or Facebook when you check-in somewhere.
However, the app is completely usable and shouldn’t irk too many people.
➤ Foursquare | Windows Phone Runtastic There’s no shortage of GPS fitness-tracking apps for iOS and Android , but there’s not quite so many available for Windows Phone.
RunKeeper dropped support for the Windows mobile platform last year, though founder Jason Jacobs tells us he’s open to being on any platform with mass appeal and hasn’t ruled out establishing a presence there again in the future. For now, Endomondo and Runtastic definitely save the day with a couple of splendid Windows Phone apps.
I’m going to single out Runtastic here, simply because it’s what I use most often and, well, it is a very popular fitness-tracking app. The free version for Windows Phone is fantastic, but lacks music integration – so you can’t access your tunes directly from within the app. The $1.99 Pro version brings this though, as well as route-planning, voice feedback and live tracking.
One particularly annoying omission is that it doesn’t seem to be able to access your activity history if you’ve been using the app on another device. None of my runs and cycles for the past 2 or so years show up here. It’s basically a blank slate.
However, there are some Windows Phone-specific features such as Nokia Music integration, as well as a Live Tile that displays your monthly statistics.
All-in-all it’s a good app that’s regularly updated and quite well loved.
➤ Runtastic | Windows Phone Google Search Many of Google’s flagship services are missing from Windows Phone, but you’ll be pleased to know that a fairly full-featured search app is available.
It has voice search, location-based search to automatically surface things near where you are, and auto-complete. And you can sign-in to your Google account through the app too, which basically gives you access to other Google services through the browser without needing to sign in again – including Gmail and YouTube.
For those reliant on Google’s services on their mobile, this app does a reasonable job of side-stepping the need for native apps. But it’s far from perfect, and you will miss a lot if you jump over from another platform – the Gmail experience here is pretty shoddy once you’re used to the Android or iOS app.
However, Google does give this app some attention, and it works well. It’s better than a kick in the teeth, right? ➤ Google Search | Windows Phone IMDb Amazon-owned IMDb is a pretty indispensable service for movie-lovers. The Android version is fantastic, the Windows Phone version is…good enough.
Unfortunately, it hasn’t been updated in 18 months, and it seems like it’s pretty much been forgotten about. However, it’s still plugged into the gargantuan movie database, and it will serve you reasonably well.
The colors seem just a little bit garish to me though – I’m not sure if it’s the shade or the brightness or what. But you can drill down on everyone involved in a movie, and go off on tangents the more you click.
The one major drawback for me, however, is the lack of accounts – you cannot sign in and access your history, watchlist, or reviews. As such, you can’t write reviews either.
So it’s not great, but it’s not awful either. I hope someone at Amazon and IMDb remembers this app exists and gives it a massive lick of paint and some fresh features soon.
➤ IMDb | Windows Phone Facebook If you were thinking we’d forgotten about Facebook, well, we haven’t. There is an app, it’s just that Microsoft has had to build the thing itself, given Zuck & Co. clearly don’t see too much value in it. So this isn’t an official app per se , but we’re including it anyway because it’s built by the folk behind the mobile platform it appears on. That’s close enough.
The general design and layout is faithful to the iOS and Android app, and you shouldn’t have too much difficulty getting to grips with it. You can upload photos, check-in, browse your feed, see what’s happening nearby, and view events.
As of a very recent update, you can also now unfriend folk and unlike things you’ve previously chosen to ‘like’.
Indeed, for most people, Microsoft’s effort will be more than enough. But for those who only ever access the Internet on their phone, there are some key omissions. For example, you can’t edit your profile, and you can’t tag people in photographs. Also, it can be a little slow at times.
Overall, it gets pass marks though and will be good enough for most people.
➤ Facebook | Windows Phone YouTube This is another annoying one. Given that Google’s attention lies elsewhere, YouTube arrived on the scene via Microsoft’s own developers…but due to a series of squabbles involving a violation of terms and conditions, Google blocked access to the app for a while.
As of October , Microsoft reverted the YouTube Windows Phone app to its former state – which is basically a shortcut to a mobile Web version of the service. While it did end Google’s eight-week block, the existing ‘app’ isn’t really any different to what you could already access via the Google search app or good ol’ Internet Explorer.
Videos do play, you can sign-in to your account, post comments and so on. But it lacks the finesse and full-functionality of the native apps available for iOS and Android. This isn’t even really an app.
➤ YouTube | Windows Phone Windows Phone does have a decent selection of the big apps available, and for the most part they’re all pretty good and receive regular updates, even if they lack some of the features of their iOS and Android counterparts.
There are also many, many more little ditties, from calculators to flight search engines , so there’s plenty to tempt would-be defectors onto the platform if native apps is what they want – but there are still some big ones missing.
Here’s a look at some of these.
Missing in action For many, the lack of a fully-integrated Google experience, replete with native apps, is a deal-breaker in itself.
There’s no Google Maps, but there is the home-grown Maps and Here Maps ; and while there’s no official Gmail app, there is a decent third-party effort.
You used to be able to set up native Google Sync support with Windows Phone, but as of January this year it’s now restricted to Google Apps for Business, Education, and Government customers only. There’s also no Chrome or Firefox browsers available, but the baked-in Internet Explorer app is good.
They’ve been promised and should be arriving soon , but there’s still no sign of Path or Flipboard. Dropbox is missing too which will disappoint many, and there’s no SoundCloud, Yahoo Mail, Airbnb, Snapchat, Uber, Hailo, Wikipedia (there is a decent third-party one ), Pinterest, Pocket or Any.do.
Some real biggies missing in there, so there’s still some work to be done.
The Windows Phone appeal Some smaller companies see Windows Phone as a viable platform, while some with masses of cash don’t – just look at Google and Facebook. I thought I’d ask a couple of the startups that have native Windows Phone apps why they made the move, and what kind of treatment they’ll give it moving forward.
As we noted earlier, Blippar took its augmented reality app to Windows Phone last month, around two years after its product first launched. So what was the tipping point here – why now for Windows Phone? “From the start our intention was to launch across all platforms, so we always had an eye on Windows Phone,” explains Rish Mitra, CEO and co-founder of Blippar. “Having received a few requests from clients to have the app available on that platform, we decided to give it the final push and release it. Lately, the share of voice on Twitter has gone up too, with users demanding a Windows Phone version of popular apps.” So will Blippar for Windows Phone now be given equal priority to the iOS and Android app? “Most of our users are on iOS and Android, therefore they are given a higher priority,” adds Mitra. “Having said that, we have built our platform in a scalable way with a unified codebase which leads to minimum impact in change management of features. The UI layer is unique to Windows and required separate work and is marginally behind the mothership product.” However, Blippar does have a dedicated in-house team working on Windows Phone which is a good sign – often if an app is outsourced to an agency or third-party developer, this doesn’t bode well for future updates.
“It’s (Windows Phone is) a clear ‘number three’ player in the market, and doing well in emerging economies where Nokia is still dominant,” continues Rish. “All I can say right now is that it’s not make or break for any business model, but a source for acquiring content-hungry Windows Phone users. Their vision (Microsoft’s) to unify and create a consistent experience across all platforms might help them become a stronger force. We plan to support Windows Phone indefinitely from where we see it today.” With tens of millions of downloads across all platforms since its launch in 2009, Runtastic has become something of a behemoth in the fitness-tracking space. It’s actually had a Windows Phone app since early 2011, and has generally given it regular updates, even though less than 5% of its total users access the app.
“To be honest, we recognized this (a need to be on Windows Phone) very early on,” says Florian Gschwandtner, CEO & co-founder of Runtastic. “We’d like to offer our users the same exceptional experience on each platform and it doesn’t matter whether they’re a Windows Phone, Android or iPhone user.” And what about priority and parity of features across all platforms? “We try to offer a similar feature set across all platforms, but sometimes it’s not entirely possible due to technical obstacles like Bluetooth Smart support,” continues Gschwandtner. “Furthermore, we’re trying to implement special features, specific and unique to each platform. For example, this past year we did a Nokia Music integration exclusively for Windows Phone.” As with Blippar, Runtastic has a dedicated in-house team of developers, which I guess is to be expected given it’s been catering for the platform for nearly three years.
Runtastic actually has a slew of other fitness-related apps – such as ones for homebodies and one that focuses on getting you a six-pack.
With that in mind, Gschwandtner says we can expect a release of several new apps from Runtastic on Microsoft’s mobile platform in the new year.
“We experienced growth on Windows Phone within the past year, and we definitely believe in the platform for the future,” he says. “In January, we’re already planning to release several new apps for Windows Phone.” The future of Windows Phone Hearing upbeat comments such as this certainly gives a lot of hope for Windows Phone. Sure, there still isn’t the level of support for native apps that many would like (though I still insist a lack of native apps isn’t the major problem ), but there is enough going on to suggest there’s much more to come. And these kinds of things tend to snowball – the more activity there is, the more buzz is created, the more people get excited about this third platform, and things accelerate.
The next year or two will be crucial for Windows Phone. With the might of Microsoft behind it, which will now have full control of Nokia’s hardware moving forward – including the impressive line of Lumia handsets – it’ll be interesting to see how much market share it can garner.
Story by Paul Sawers Paul Sawers was a reporter with The Next Web in various roles from May 2011 to November 2014. Follow Paul on Twitter: @psawers or check h (show all) Paul Sawers was a reporter with The Next Web in various roles from May 2011 to November 2014. Follow Paul on Twitter: @psawers or check him out on Google+.
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"Nokia’s Lumia 1020: the best smartphone camera ever -- too bad it’s wasted on Windows Phone (review) | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2013/08/04/nokias-lumia-1020-the-best-smartphone-camera-ever-made-too-bad-its-wasted-on-windows-phone"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Nokia’s Lumia 1020: the best smartphone camera ever — too bad it’s wasted on Windows Phone (review) Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Nokia's Lumia 1020 Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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Nokia’s Lumia 1020 is the culmination of everything the Finnish phone maker has been working towards over the past few years.
It sports the best smartphone camera I’ve ever seen — something that every other smartphone owner, even iPhone fanatics, will be jealous of — and manages to look unique in a sea of boxy phone designs.
But with everything that Nokia is bringing to the table, it’s a shame the Lumia 1020 ($300 with a two-year AT&T contract) is clearly being held back by Microsoft’s inability to bring Windows Phone into the modern smartphone era.
There’s no built-in way to upload to YouTube (Nokia has released its own YouTube uploading app for the 1020, but you need to download that separately), and there’s still no official Instagram app.
In my time with the Lumia 1020, I vacillated from loving the camera to completely hating Windows Phone — a platform I used to admire but now just find endlessly frustrating. It’s a phone I want to recommend to every gadget fanatic, yet can’t in good conscience.
The Lumia 1020 is a reminder of why Nokia used to rule the mobile world, and why Microsoft still doesn’t get it.
The good: The smartphone camera you’ve always dreamed of A year and a half after announcing the 41-megapixel PureView camera to an awed crowd at Mobile World Congress, Nokia is finally bringing the full power of its innovative camera technology to Windows Phone. (We’ve seen some PureView elements in the Lumia 920 and other recent models, but those didn’t offer the full 41 MP monty.) Today, there still isn’t anything else on the market approaching Nokia’s PureView. Apple and Samsung opted for slight megapixel improvements in their most recent flagship phone cameras, while HTC went completely in the opposite direction with its Ultrapixel camera , which offers better low-light performance but only 4 megapixel images.
Why would you need a 41 megapixel camera? Because the last thing you want on your smartphone is a massive zoom lens (see Samsung’s clunky Galaxy Zoom as an example ). With an insanely high-resolution sensor, the Lumia 1020 lets you crop in closely to images without sacrificing much quality. It’s basically digital zoom that doesn’t stink.
And, yes, the Lumia 1020’s camera lives up to all the hype. It takes astoundingly clear photos that could easily be mistaken for something from an expensive point and shoot camera. In some cases, you could easily mistake them for DSLR shots. In low light, it is miles ahead of every other smartphone camera (though HTC’s One camera comes close).
Below, check out some shots from the Lumia 1020’s camera (downsampled to a lower resolution).
Best of all, Nokia’s seemingly far-fetched deep cropping claims actually held true (see below). The 1020 gives you a shocking level of freedom when it comes to cropping, which can often be the difference between a truly memorable picture and a waste of a shot. At times, it almost feels like you have the power of a telephoto lens hidden in a smartphone.
To make it easier to share your photos wirelessly, the 1020 also downsamples its 41 MP images to a more manageable 5 MP. Unfortunately, to share the massive 41 MP files you’ll have to hook up the phone to your computer via a USB cable. The downscaled images were typically around 2 to 3 megabytes big, while the high-res shots were around 10MB.
Not surprisingly, the 1020 also shoots the best video I’ve seen on a smartphone. That’s mostly due to the powerful PureView sensor, but Nokia’s advanced optical image stabilization is also a big help for people who can’t keep their hands steady while taking video (read: everyone).
In the video I shot below, pay particular attention to the movement of water from a dancing fountain.
Tying all of the phone’s photo prowess together is Nokia’s Pro Camera app, which is exclusive to its Lumia lineup (older models will get access to it soon). The 1020 does a fine job of shooting in auto mode, but more advanced photographers will appreciate Pro Camera’s ability to tweak just about every photo setting you can imagine. It also sports the best interface I’ve seen yet for advanced photo settings.
When it comes to overall build quality, the Lumia 1020 is Nokia’s most refined Windows Phone model yet. It’s light and easy to hold, unlike the chunky Lumia 920 (which could easily be used as a weapon). And even though its innovative camera tech gives it a massive bump sticking out on the back, the 1020’s shape comes across as charming rather than annoying.
It doesn’t look like any other phone on the market, but that’s a good thing.
The bad: Windows Phone isn’t evolving fast enough When Microsoft launched Windows Phone in late 2010, I had nothing but high hopes. But every Windows Phone device I’ve tested since then just makes me more frustrated with Microsoft’s inability to innovate. Where it needs massive leaps, Microsoft is taking baby steps.
For example, with the Windows Phone 8 update last year (which powers the Lumia 1020), the platform finally got true multitasking and support for multicore processor phones. But by that point, multitasking was old hat for iOS and Android, and quad core Android phones weren’t far off. Now we’re left waiting for the Windows Phone 8.1 update, which will support high 1080p screen resolutions and a notifications center (but may not arrive until early next year ).
Using the Lumia 1020 almost feels like being thrown back in time a few years. Simple integration with web services, like the ability to upload a video to YouTube, are noticeably absent. To make up for Microsoft’s deficiencies, Nokia released a YouTube uploader app of its own (though it’s only available for the Lumia 1020 as a separate download, and for some reason it refused to install on my phone).
Microsoft must have been thinking: Who needs YouTube when you can upload videos to your SkyDrive? Well, Microsoft, how about the one billion people who use YouTube every month ? And for a device centered on high-quality photos, it’s a shame there still isn’t an official Instagram app for Windows Phone. Microsoft had to build its own Facebook app for the platform, but when it comes to Instagram it has so far relied on third-party apps.
That’s led to some trouble: Instance , the most popular third-party Instagram app on Windows Phone, recently had its photo submissions deleted by Facebook as soon as they go up. (The developer admits he had to figure out a workaround to access the service, and Facebook likely doesn’t appreciate that he also charges for Instance.) At this point, it looks like Instance uploads are working once again, but there’s no telling how long it will actually work.
Competing photo social network Hipstamatic’s Windows Phone app also lets you upload to Instagram, but not browse or like photos from your Instagram friends. (It also doesn’t help that the Hipstamatic app is terribly buggy).
Also not helping things is the Lumia 1020’s high $300 price tag (with contract). I understand why Nokia may need to charge a bit more for its next-generation camera technology, but in a sea of phones on other smartphone platforms for $200 (with contract) and under, it’s tough to convince anyone to shell out more for a lesser experience.
Microsoft recently announced that Windows Phone now sports more than 160,000 apps, but there are still plenty of key apps that Windows Phone doesn’t have, such as the latest mobile game craze, Candy Crush Saga. Heck, the platform didn’t even have Pandora, a staple of just about every mobile platform, until this past March. That’s also when Windows Phone got the original Temple Run (a year and a half after its release on other platforms, while everyone else was playing Temple Run 2).
There’s no mystery about why app developers are slow to adopt Windows Phone: There just isn’t that much of a demand. But, in a classic chicken and egg problem, Microsoft will have a hard time convincing users to adopt Windows Phone without the apps they love on other platforms. Microsoft managed to claim the No. 3 spot in the global smartphone market, but that’s mostly because BlackBerry has completely dropped the ball. All Microsoft had to do was show up to take BlackBerry’s place.
I’ve long defended Nokia’s choice to adopt Windows Phone.
Nokia recognized early on that the Android ecosystem doesn’t have much room for competition (Samsung is really the only company making bank from Android), and with Microsoft, it would be seen as more of a premier partner.
Yet I can’t deny the fact that if the Lumia 1020 ran Android, it would now be one of the best phones on the market. With Windows Phone, it’s simply a curiosity.
Above: The Lumia 1020 is on the left, while the larger Lumia 920 is on the right.
The verdict: An amazing camera, but Windows Phone just isn’t worth it As much as I wanted to love the Lumia 1020, Windows Phone’s limitations are simply inexcusable today. A mobile platform is more than just a spiffy design and a few personalization options. It’s about the ecosystem of apps and things you can actually do.
In the years since Windows Phone launched, Google learned how to infuse Android with a strong design sensibility, and Apple is exploring an entirely new design in iOS 7. Microsoft, meanwhile, is still trying to conquer the smartphone world from 2010.
It’s like the opposite of that popular Wayne Gretsky hockey parable — instead of skating to where the puck will be, Microsoft is constantly aiming for where the puck used to be.
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"Huawei P30 Pro review: 3 camera upgrades that yield staggering photos | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2019/05/06/huawei-p30-pro-review-3-camera-upgrades-that-yield-staggering-photos"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Huawei P30 Pro review: 3 camera upgrades that yield staggering photos Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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When Huawei released its P20 series of phones last year, I spent several weeks testing the P20 Pro and found the three-camera system to be “mind-blowingly awesome.” I offered the asterisk, however, that I was reviewing it as someone whose main phone was an iPhone 5, built in the digital paleolithic era. So a cardboard Kodak camera might arguably have felt like an upgrade to me.
Having already driven the P20 Pro around the block, my response after a few weeks using the Huawei P30 Pro that was unveiled in March is enthusiastic, even if it didn’t make my head explode this time. (And it turns out I wasn’t alone last year in raving about the P20 Pro’s breakthrough camera prowess.
) In comparison to the P20 Pro, the P30 Pro is not such a radical leap forward. But Huawei still managed to pack in some improvements that resulted in even more staggering photos. The phone is not available for direct sale in the U.S. from carriers. But where I live in France, the 128GB version retails online for €999.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! The camera array is once again designed in partnership with Leica. Huawei also counts a fourth camera, with the addition of the “Time of Flight” depth sensor.
Above: Huawei’s flagship smartphone event in Paris back in March.
First, some notes about the camera improvements. You can read the spec breakdowns in greater detail here.
But it’s worth highlighting that Huawei changed the color capture mode from the industry standard RGB to RYYB, replacing the green with two types of yellow.
The company also came up with a clever hardware workaround involving placing an image sensor vertically within the phone and then using a mirror to reflect additional light into the lens.
The result of these changes, plus Huawei’s improved AI-driven software, is the ability to capture far more light and zoom to much greater distances. So while the P20 Pro has a max ISO of 102400, the P30 Pro boasts an ISO of 409600.
The result? Photography site DxOMark, which does detailed technical breakdowns of cameras, rated the Huawei P30 Pro the best smartphone camera in the world.
I wouldn’t argue. If not exactly a revolution, the P30 Pro still left me in awe, largely thanks to three key factors.
Night Mode For my money, this is still the biggest deal on these phones, as it dramatically improves photos in extremely low light. But I found myself using it frequently even in daytime settings, when the angle of the sun cast shadows that the phone simply erased.
Here is a photo taken inside a Gascony church in France using just the basic photo setting: Here is the same photo taken using Night mode: Huawei was able to demonstrate some almost-no-lighting examples on stage when it unveiled the phones. I wasn’t quite able to replicate that. But for me, these results yielded dozens of photos I could have never otherwise captured without lugging around a huge amount of lighting equipment.
Here is an example of the outdoor impact of Night mode. This is the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Bayeux, France shot with normal setting. It’s pretty decent: Here is the cathedral from the same spot taken in Night mode. The shadows are almost, though not entirely, gone: Zoom and Wide Angle I’m cheating a bit by putting features two and three in the same section. But they are indeed related. The wide-angle option let me get a number of shots when I simply couldn’t move far enough away from the object.
At the same time, the zoom is also improved. While the P20 Pro offered clear resolution up to 3x zoom, the P30 Pro manages clear shots at 5x. Here’s an example of all of this at work in a series of photos I took of Notre Dame of Paris from a friend’s rooftop a few days after the fire: Wide: Normal: Zoom x 5: Zoom x 10: That last one is still pretty sharp, if not 100%. In any case, the resolution leaves me feeling like I can get a decent picture out of almost any situation. It’s nice to have that confidence and to be able to get this level of quality without feeling like I need to enroll in a degree program and start messing with the “Pro” settings.
And Huawei’s investment in R&D seems to be paying off.
According to research firm IHT Markit, the company shipped 59.1 million smartphones in Q1 of this year, up 50% year-over-year. It’s pulling away from Apple to become the solid number two brand, and closing the gap with Samsung while being one of the few to show growth. Not bad for a company still shut out of the U.S. market.
How much further Huawei can take this down the road will be interesting to see. But for now the company can certainly boast of being at the head of the pack when it comes smartphone photography, a feature that has been a consistent winner with consumers.
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"Huawei details AI chips for training and inference | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/23/huawei-details-ai-chips-for-training-and-inference"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Huawei details AI chips for training and inference Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Huawei signage is pictured at their store at Vina del Mar, Chile, July 14, 2019.
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In a bid to establish a foothold in an AI chip market that’s anticipated to be worth $91.18 billion by 2025, Huawei today brought to market the Ascend 910, a new chipset in its Ascend-Max family optimized for AI model training, and the Ascend 310, an Ascend-Mini series inferencing chip designed to tackle tasks like image analysis, optical character recognition, and object recognition. It also announced MindSpore, a computing framework intended to support AI app development.
Both chips were first detailed in October 2018, but this week marks their commercial debut. The Ascend 910 is aimed principally at datacenter workloads, while the Ascend 310 targets internet-connected devices like smartphones, smartwatches, and other internet of things (IoT) devices.
“Ascend 910 [in particular] performs much better than we expected,” said Huawei rotating chair Eric Xu at a press conference this morning in Shenzhen, China. “Without a doubt, it has more computing power than any other AI processor in the world.” According to Huawei, the Ascend 910 delivers 256 teraflops of computing power for half-precision (FP16) floating-point operations and 512 TOPS (tera-operations per second) in integer precision (INT8) calculations while consuming about 310 watts of power. Huawei says that in a typical training session with ResNet-50, a popular image recognition benchmark, it’s about twice as fast as rival AI accelerator chips.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! For the sake of comparison, Baidu’s Kunlun 818-300 AI chip, which was announced last July, can achieve 260 TOPS, while Amazon’s Inferentia machine learning processor offers scalable performance from 32 TOPS to 512 TOPS at INT8.
As for the Ascend 310, it packs a 16-channel FHD video decoder and is capable of 16 TOPS in integer precision (INT8) and 8 teraflops in half-precision (FP16). Huawei says it’s already being used by “leading” automakers in shuttle buses, new-energy vehicles, and autonomous driving, and it notes that its Ascend 310-touting Atlas series acceleration card and server are now a part of “dozens” of industry solutions developed by dozens of partners.
The Ascend 310’s performance puts it slightly behind startup Hailo’s recently announced Hailo-8, which is capable of 26 tera operations per second (TOPs) — more than double that of chips like Gyrfalcon’s Lightspeeur 2801, which maxes out at 9.3 TOPs, and CEVA’s NeuPro, which can reach 12.5 TOPs. And it’s leagues slower than Nvidia’s test chip, dubbed RC-18, which can hit 128 TOPs at 10 TOPs per watt.
MindSpore Alongside the Ascend 910 and the Ascend 310, Huawei detailed MindSpore, an extensible end-to-end AI computing framework akin to Google’s TensorFlow and Facebook’s PyTorch. It scales across all devices, edge, and cloud environments, and it’s designed to be lightweight. MindSpore results in 20% fewer lines of core code than “leading” frameworks when dealing with a typical AI model for natural language processing, leading to a boost in efficiency of 50%, on average.
On the privacy side of the equation, Huawei says MindSpore doesn’t process data itself but instead taps model protection tech to ingest only gradient and model information that has already been processed. In this way, it ostensibly preserves sensitive data even in “cross-scenario” environments while ensuring that AI algorithms remain secure and trustworthy.
MindSpore will be made available in open source in the first quarter of 2020, with support for GPUs, CPUs, and other types of processors, in addition to Huawei’s Ascend chips. It’ll complement Huawei’s fully managed ModelArts platform, which provides full-pipeline model production services, including data collection and model development.
“Everything is moving forward according to plan. We promised a full-stack, all-scenario AI portfolio. And today we delivered,” said Xu. This launch is a new milestone in Huawei’s AI roadmap; it’s also a new beginning … We want to drive broader AI adoption and help developers do what they do best.” The unveiling comes several weeks after the announcement of HarmonyOS , Huawei’s in-house operating system (OS) for mobile devices, in-vehicle systems, smart speakers, and wearables, and as the U.S. contemplates easing trade restrictions on the company and its subsidiaries as early as this year. But escalating tensions with China threaten to put the kibosh on those plans in the near term — Bloomberg reported yesterday that the White House will delay a decision about granting licenses that would allow U.S. companies (including Google and Intel) to restart business with Huawei, in light of China’s decision to halt purchases of U.S. farming goods.
Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei said in June that the U.S. ban would cost Huawei in the neighborhood of $30 billion in lost revenue.
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"Xsolla's Game Developers Carnival is a virtual event for developers | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/03/12/xsollas-game-developers-carnival-is-a-virtual-event-for-developers"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Xsolla’s Game Developers Carnival is a virtual event for developers Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Your World Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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Xsolla announced that it will hold a virtual gaming experience dubbed the Game Developers Carnival as a way to help small game developers connect and conduct business. The event will take place in the sandbox PC game Your World on April 20 and April 21, with the goal of providing a fun, interactive setting for individuals and companies to connect and conduct business.
An optional early adopter GDC Relief Fund pack will also be offered, with all proceeds going to the effort that was set up to offset costs lost by indie developers with the postponement of the Game Developers Conference, which was original set for March 16 to March 20 in San Francisco. The GDC, as well as the wider game event E3 , has been canceled due to the coronavirus.
“With the numerous industry event cancellations, Xsolla wanted to help the developer/publisher community by creating the first Game Developers Carnival as a technology-driven alternative to empower individuals and companies to safely and effectively do business, in the most meta way possible,” said Alexander Agapitov, CEO of Xsolla, in a statement. “We invite all video game professionals worldwide to be a part of the Carnival, whether you’re an artist, programmer, in marketing or business development … come one, come all.” Game Developer Carnival will take place in Your World. With it, you can build 3D booths to show off things like games and products. You can also make minigames and theme park simulations. Participating developers can construct virtual booths from premade templates or enlist digital artists to create custom booth designs.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Booths will be loaded into a virtual world where developers can engage attendees as exhibitors, host meetings, answer questions, collect resumes and more. Xsolla is partnering with matchmaking service MeetToMatch to enable participants to set up meetings using their expert scheduling tools.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
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Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more.
VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Google releases experimental TensorFlow module that tests the privacy of AI models | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/24/google-releases-experimental-tensorflow-module-that-tests-the-privacy-of-ai-models"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Google releases experimental TensorFlow module that tests the privacy of AI models Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Google today released an experimental module for TensorFlow Privacy , its privacy-preserving TensorFlow toolkit, that enables assessments of the privacy properties of various machine learning classifiers. The company says it’s intended to be the foundation of a privacy testing suite that can be used by any AI developer regardless of skill level.
The merits of various AI privacy techniques remain a topic of debate within the community. There are no canonical guidelines to produce a private model, but a growing body of research suggests AI models can leak sensitive information of training data sets, creating a privacy risk. The mitigation approach favored by TensorFlow privacy is differential privacy, which adds noise to hide individual examples in the training data. But this noise is designed for academic worst-case scenarios and can significantly affect model accuracy.
This motivated researchers at Google to pursue an alternative in membership inference attacks. The membership inference attacks method, which the new TensorFlow Privacy module supports, builds classifiers that infer whether a particular sample was present in the training data set. The more accurate the classifier is, the more memorization is present and thus the less privacy-preserving the model is — the intuition being that attackers who make predictions with high accuracy will succeed in figuring out which data was used in the training set.
The tests provided by the new module are black-box, meaning they only use the outputs of models rather than the internals (weights) or input samples. They produce a vulnerability score that determines whether the model leaks information from the training set, and they don’t require any retraining, making them relatively easy to perform.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! “After using membership inference tests internally, we’re sharing them with developers to help them build more private models, explore better architecture choices, use regularization techniques such as early stopping, dropout, weight decay, and input augmentation, or collect more data,” Google Brain’s Shuang Song and Google software engineer David Marn wrote in a post on the TensorFlow blog.
“Ultimately, these tests can help the developer community identify more architectures that incorporate privacy design principles and data processing choices.” Google says that moving forward, it will explore the feasibility of extending membership inference attacks beyond classifiers and develop new tests. It also plans to explore adding the new test to the TensorFlow ecosystem by integrating it with TensorFlow Extended (TFX), an end-to-end platform for deploying production machine learning pipelines.
In related news, Google today added support for Go and Java to the foundational differential privacy library it open-sourced last summer.
It also made available Privacy on Beam , an end-to-end differential privacy solution built on Apache Beam (a model and set of language-specific SDKs) that relies on the lower-level building blocks from the differential privacy library and combines them into an “out-of-the-box” solution that takes care of the steps essential to differential privacy. In addition, Google launched a new Privacy Loss Distribution tool for tracking privacy budgets that allows developers to maintain an estimate of the total cost to user privacy for collections of differentially private queries and to better evaluate the overall impact of their pipelines.
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"Facebook ad boycott campaign goes global | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/29/facebook-ad-boycott-campaign-goes-global"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Facebook ad boycott campaign goes global Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn A woman looks at the Facebook logo on an iPad in this photo illustration.
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( Reuters ) — Organizers of a Facebook advertising boycott campaign that has drawn support from a rapidly expanding list of major companies are now preparing to take the battle global to increase pressure on the social media company to remove hate speech.
The “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign will begin calling on major companies in Europe to join the boycott, Jim Steyer, CEO of Common Sense Media, said in an interview with Reuters on Saturday. Since the campaign launched earlier this month , more than 160 companies, including Verizon Communications and Unilever, have signed on to stop buying ads on the world’s largest social media platform for the month of July.
Free Press and Common Sense, along with U.S. civil rights groups Color of Change and the Anti-Defamation League, launched the campaign following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man killed by Minneapolis police.
“The next frontier is global pressure,” Steyer said, adding the campaign hopes to embolden regulators in Europe to take a harder stance on Facebook. The European Commission in June announced new guidelines for tech companies — including Facebook — to submit monthly reports on how they are handling coronavirus misinformation.
The outrage in the United States over the death of Floyd has led to an unprecedented reaction from corporations around the world. Its impact has been felt beyond U.S. borders. Unilever, for example, changed the name of a skin-lightening product popular in India called Fair and Lovely.
The global campaign will proceed as organizers continue to urge more U.S. companies to participate. Jessica Gonzalez, co-CEO of Free Press, said she has contacted major U.S. telecommunications and media companies to ask them to join the campaign.
Responding to demands for more action, Facebook on Sunday acknowledged it has more work to do and is teaming up with civil rights groups and experts to develop more tools to fight hate speech. Facebook said its investments in artificial intelligence have allowed it to find 90% of hate speech before users report it.
Expanding the campaign outside the United States will take a bigger slice off Facebook’s advertising revenue but is not likely to have a major financial impact. Unilever, for instance, on Friday committed to pausing its U.S. spending on Facebook for the rest of the year. That only accounts for about 10% of the overall estimated $250 million it spends on Facebook advertising annually, according to Richard Greenfield of LightShed Partners, a media and tech research firm.
Steyer said the campaign will urge global advertisers like Unilever and Honda, which have only committed to pausing U.S. ads, to pull their Facebook ads globally.
Annually, Facebook generates $70 billion in advertising sales, and about a quarter of it comes from big companies such as Unilever, with the vast majority of its revenue derived from small businesses.
But the publicity around its hate speech policies have hurt its perception and stock. On Friday, Facebook’s 8.3% decline in stock price wiped out $56 billion in market capitalization.
The renewed push to urge more companies outside of the United States to join demonstrates the level of frustration felt by social justice groups and the companies that support them over Facebook’s lack of action on misinformation and hate speech, Steyer said.
He and Gonzalez said Facebook’s efforts on Friday to introduce new measures to ban ads and label hate speech from politicians to appease boycotters fell short of the campaign’s demands.
“If they think they are done based on Friday, they are sorely mistaken,” Gonzalez said. “We don’t need a one-off policy here and there. We need comprehensive policy.” Stop Hate for Profit has outlined a set of demands, which include a separate moderation process to help users who are targeted by race and other identifiers, more transparency on how many incidents of hate speech are reported, and a halt to generating ad revenue from harmful content.
Moreover, Facebook did not address demands that it refund companies whose ads are displayed next to content that is later removed for policy violations, said Ian Orekondy, CEO of AdComplyRx, an advertising tech company that helps pharmaceutical brands with their digital ads and which has joined the boycott.
The boycott has accelerated to include other digital advertising platforms, including Twitter. Starbucks said Sunday it would pause advertising on all social media platforms while it works with civil rights organizations to “stop the spread of hate speech.” ( Reporting by Sheila Dang, editing by Kenneth Li and Lisa Shumaker.
) VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Quantifying our lives will be a top trend of 2012 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2012/01/21/quantifying-our-lives-will-be-a-top-trend-of-2012"
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"Game Development View All Programming OS and Hosting Platforms Metaverse View All Virtual Environments and Technologies VR Headsets and Gadgets Virtual Reality Games Gaming Hardware View All Chipsets & Processing Units Headsets & Controllers Gaming PCs and Displays Consoles Gaming Business View All Game Publishing Game Monetization Mergers and Acquisitions Games Releases and Special Events Gaming Workplace Latest Games & Reviews View All PC/Console Games Mobile Games Gaming Events Game Culture Quantifying our lives will be a top trend of 2012 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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The Quantified Self is one of the big trends of 2012, as we noted in our recent summary of the Consumer Electronics Show.
As everything analog shifts to digital, we can collect a huge amount of data about ourselves. As I noted in our earlier story, the trend was spearheaded by researchers who wanted a “ quantified self ,” or self-knowledge through numbers that measure things such as how long we sleep or how many stairs we can climb in a day. Most people don’t have the patience to sift through all the data that they could collect about themselves. But a number of new devices are making it easier to do, bringing us the opportunity both to improve our lives, have more fun, and think more about privacy issues.
This shift to quantified self gadgets is also coming with a change in attitudes about privacy, or at least it seems that way. The technology is racing ahead, before we really decide whether we prefer personalization over privacy.
Webcams, camera phones, and motion-sensing systems are just the beginning of this technological explosion. Used in conjunction with the cloud, or web-connected data centers, the quantified self movement promises to capture a huge amount of information about ourselves and contribute considerably to the Big Data infrastructure that enterprises are creating to safely store all of this information. In that sense, the Quantified Self really enlists just about every technology company imaginable in the service of recording our daily lives.
For the narcissists among us, this is like heaven. WordPress.com, which hosts our VentureBeat blog, reported that in 2011, I wrote 1,787 posts consisting of 1,097,692 words. Now I know my goal for this year is to do 1,788 posts with 1,097,692 words. However, it was worth noting that I was the least efficient writer at VentureBeat, with 614 words per post and the least traffic per post compared to my fellow writers, who were less wordy and had higher average traffic per post.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! A lot of this trend started in video games, which have taken it to an extreme. In Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, for instance, I know everything about my performance in multiplayer combat since the game launched on Nov. 8. I have played the game for 27 hours and 39 minutes and achieved a multiplayer rank of Lieutenant Colonel II, or 58. I’m about 72 percent of the way through the multiplayer ladder and have 80 wins and 120 losses. In the multiplayer combat matches, I have 1,375 kills and 3,213 deaths, for a 0.427 kill/death ratio. I’ve had 93 headshots and 366 assists with a 9 percent accuracy rate.
To my non-gaming friends, my dedication is impressive. Of course, other players know just how bad I am. My total score is 162,490, which places me at No. 5,518,786 in the overall Call of Duty multiplayer universe. On average, I score 826 points a match, which is kind of pathetic compared to my performance in Call of Duty Black Ops from last year. But that game had some much easier ways to kill, such as the remote-controlled exploding car, rewarded after I could get just two kills in a row.
In the virtual world of the game, it’s easy to record digital stats. But with the proliferation of new devices that measure non-computer activities, we can measure so much more. The history of this behavior goes as far back as 1955 to Jerry Davidson , who has obsessively recorded his life. Kevin Kelly blogs about The Quantified Self and all things related to self-surveillance.
“Unless something can be measured, it cannot be improved,” Kelly wrote.
“So we are on a quest to collect as many personal tools that will assist us in quantifiable measurement of ourselves. We welcome tools that help us see and understand bodies and minds so that we can figure out what humans are here for.” Alexandra Carmichael , co-founder of CureTogether, records 40 things about her daily life, including “sleep, morning weight, daily caloric intake, mealtimes, mood, day of menstrual cycle, sex, exercise, and other things.
Now I can move on to more important measurements such as how much activity I engage in during the day. The Striiv “personal trainer in my pocket” tells me I am walking an average of 9,968 steps in a day, or about 4.7 miles. I burn 1,053 calories in a day for about 106 minutes in the day. That earns me 40,425 points in a day which I can use to play the Striiv game and motivate myself. My personal best was 17,983 steps in a day, or 7.8 miles, walked at CES. I burned 1,806 calories that day. I can compete against other Striiv users through daily challenges, which “gamifies” the exercise activity by making it into a social competition.
You can get more information back from the Basis Band from Basis Science.
Basis gives you a wrist band that tracks your heart rate, skin temperature, ambient temperature, and your galvanic skin response (GSR, or how much you are sweating). The sweat and the heart rate gives the added information about how stressed out you are. If you match this up to your Google Calendar, you could figure out which person stresses you out the most or how much your heart rate leaps when you are stuck in a traffic jam.
Basis also has a web site that you can use to see the results of your daily activities, such as calories burned, the number of steps you have taken, the hours of sleep, and the points you have earned. All of that data can be quantified and analyzed over time on the Basis web site. You get positive reinforcement in the form of points for your activities.
“There is a lot of interesting stuff happening in the quantified-self movement,” said Jeff Holove, chief executive of Basis Science, in an interview. “It is understanding ourselves better and measuring ourselves better and, in the case of health, using that data to inform our decisions on how we live our lives. We are gathering scientifically meaningful data and then translating it to a much broader audience than the people who have the knowledge and stamina to deal with lots of data.” Basis boils the metrics down to things that can be easily understood, though “quantified selfers” can dig into the data further if they wish. Nike, FitBit, Jawbone and a number of other companies have similar devices. As far as self-measurement goes, Microsoft’s Kinect motion-sensing system is pretty good at capturing your whole body.
Bodymetrics (pictured above) uses Kinect to understand your body shape so it can tell you where clothes will be tight or loose on your form as you go virtual shopping.
With sleep monitors like Gear4’s upcoming Sleep Clock (pictured left) , you don’t even have to wear a wrist band to get more information about yourself. The Sleep Clock will use a Doppler radar to detect your breathing and movement during the night.
It can calculate the exact number of minutes you slept in a night, how many minutes it took to fall asleep, and when is the ideal time to wake you up. It can tell the difference between when you are in a deep sleep, when it isn’t good to wake you up, to a light sleep. After a year of such data, it will be much easier to wake up at exactly the lightest point in your sleep cycle.
There are downsides to knowing so much about ourselves. The problem is very similar to people “oversharing” information about themselves on social networks such as Facebook or Twitter. If the federal authorities got hold of your GSR data, they could figure out if you were lying during an interview, since GSR can be used in lie detector tests.
George Orwell, the author of 1984 , the seminal novel about Big Brother watching you, couldn’t have planned a better way to capture everything that we do in a day. But because of the potential benefits, many people seem eager to be measured, as long as their privacy is protected. The space where you can operate privately is becoming more and more constrained.
If you want to fly, for instance, the Transportation Security Adminstration airport scanners can now collect extremely detailed imagery of what you look like under your clothes. The full-body scanner data is supposed to be used for safety purposes only, but it’s certainly spooky. But wouldn’t it be great if the TSA could tell you, “you’re thinner this time.” Steve Jobs, the former chief of Apple, created some of the key technology for monitoring our lives with the iPhone and the iPad, which can measure our location, our movements, our cell phone usage, and other deeply personal kinds of data. Yet he railed against reporters who invaded his privacy by disclosing information about his deteriorating health.
Will Wright, the world famous game designer who created The Sims and SimCity, believes that all of the Big Data collected about our personal lives can be used to create new kinds of mobile-based games which he calls “ personal gaming.
” Personal gaming is a game that is customized for each individual player, taking into account real-life situations surrounding the player that make the game more interesting to that player.
“How can we make a system that understands enough about you and gives you situational awareness?” Wright said in a recent interview. “It could take into account what time of day it is, where you are, how much money is in your pocket. Imagine if you could open Google Maps and it shows you things that are interesting to you on the map.” Although he realizes many people are guarded about privacy, he notes that the younger generation is more comfortable sharing information about themselves. And they will willingly share it if they could be virtually guaranteed a great deal of entertainment in return. If you entice people with enough game-oriented entertainment, they won’t mind sharing that information, he said.
Wright has created a company called HiveMind to execute on this vision.
“It blurs entertainment, lifestyle, and personal tools,” Wright said. “With that data, the world and the opportunities for entertainment within it become more visible to you.” “If we can learn enough about the player, we can create games about their real life,” Wright said. “How do we get you more engaged in reality rather than distract you from it?” [body map image credit: thegood ; TSA image credit: Palm Beach Post ] GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! Games Beat Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Here's the Star Trek Tricorder that won the $3 million Qualcomm Xprize | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2017/04/22/heres-the-star-trek-tricorder-that-won-the-3-million-qualcomm-xprize"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Here’s the Star Trek Tricorder that won the $3 million Qualcomm Xprize Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Basil Harris shows elements of the DxtER tricorder.
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Basil Harris is like a real-world Dr. McCoy. He and his small team at Final Frontier Medical Devices have created a Star Trek Tricorder, like the fictional one that Bones McCoy carried around in the TV series decades ago. And they did such a good job in their five-year journey that they recently won a total of $3 million in prizes in the Qualcomm Tricorder Xprize contest.
I interviewed Harris at an event at Silicon Valley Comic-Con , which takes place Friday through Sunday at the San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, Calif. With its blend of fictional entertainment and real-world technology, the Tricorder is just the kind of gadget that fits well at the show.
“I still can’t believe it,” Harris said about winning the prize, which included milestone money and a $2.6 million final award.
Harris showed off DxtER (pronounced Dexter), which is a collection of devices that measure your vital signs. When Harris demoed it to me, I could tell he was a little nervous, as his blood pressure was high. I could see it on the iPad tablet that was receiving a signal from the sensor attached to Harris’ body.
The devices — such as sensors you strap to your side — are meant to empower patients.
Above: The Qualcomm Xprize Tricorder contest.
“We wanted to put Dr. McCoy in the device, so that you don’t have to rely on the medical doctor for everything,” Harris said. “The Xprize foundation said you not only have to give the information, but you also have to program Dr. McCoy into it so someone with no medical knowledge can operate it.” The Xprize contest required contestants to be able to diagnose 13 conditions and monitor five vital signs. Harris, who is an emergency room doctor, and his brother George led a team of seven at the company (also known as Basil Leaf Technologies ) that worked on nights and weekends to create DxtER. The prototype can now detect 34 conditions, but before bringing it into the world Harris said it will need to detect more than 100 conditions to be really useful.
It currently detects conditions such as stroke, anemia, diabetes, tuberculosis, Hepatitis A, and others. If your vital signs reach dangerous levels, it could give you a warning about the risk of an imminent stroke or heart attack. Harris is targeting a price of around $200. That’s not a bad deal.
But Harris adds, “We’re not trying to replace the doctor. We want you to have this information so you can interface with the doctor.” The device has a couple of sensors that attach directly to your fingertips. Over time, Harris wants to shrink that down into the form factor of a watch. That part of the device shines infrared light into your finger and detects your blood flow. From that, it gets data on your white blood cell count and your heart rate. It also has sensors strapped to your side that measure your EKG details. It sends that data via Bluetooth to your smartphone.
“We do it all non-invasively, getting a reading on glucose, hemoglobin count, and white cell count without drawing any blood,” Harris said.
Harris’ Pennsylvania-based team managed to beat out 28 other teams, including runner up Dynamical Biomarkers Group, a team from Taiwan led by Harvard’s Chung-Kang Peng. Dynamical Biomarkers won $1 million.
Above: Elements of the DxtER tricorder.
The nonprofit XPrize Foundation was started in 1995, and it organizes contests designed to spark big leaps in innovation.
The Harris brothers grew up watching Star Trek. While Basil Harris was interested in medicine, George Harris became a network engineer. The combination of their skills helped them create the tricorder.
The team has built 65 devices so far, and these have all gone through testing at the University of California at San Diego. The device is now going through testing with the Food and Drug Administration, but it might be about three years before all of the tech comes to the market, Harris said.
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"Intel CEO: We're confident in the future, we generated $3.8 billion in AI revenue in 2019 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/01/23/intel-ceo-were-confident-in-the-future-generated-3-8-billion-in-ai-revenue-in-2019"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Intel CEO: We’re confident in the future, we generated $3.8 billion in AI revenue in 2019 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Bob Swan is the 7th CEO of Intel.
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Intel reported strong fourth-quarter earnings and revenues that beat Wall Street’s expectations today. And Bob Swan, CEO of the biggest maker of PC and datacenter processors, said in an analyst call today that the company had gained market share and was confident in its future.
In 2019, Swan said Intel generated $3.8 billion in AI-based revenue. The AI market opportunity is expected to be $25 billion by 2024.
This comes after some rocky moments for Intel in the past couple of years. It changed CEOs, ran into delays in developing its critical 10-nanometer (nm) manufacturing process, wasn’t able to produce as many chips as its customers wanted, and faced serious competition from rival Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia in datacenter and AI chips.
But Intel reported that its PC business grew 10% and overall revenues were up 8% to $20.2 billion in Q4. It also beat analysts’ earnings estimates. Intel’s stock price rose 5% in after-hours trading to $66.64 a share.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Meanwhile, separately, Intel confirmed that it is reorganizing its datacenter products group and laying off some employees. It did not say how many, except that it was less than 1% of the workforce, which means it is less than 1,100 employees.
In a statement, an Intel spokesperson said, “Changes in our workforce are driven by the priorities of our business, which we continually evaluate. As we move into 2020, our business units are focusing their resources on areas where we have the greatest opportunity for growth and, as part of that, some are planning to eliminate roles associated with projects that are no longer priorities. Wherever possible, we’ve transitioned employees or teams within the company to areas of business need, and we expect this to impact less than 1% of our global workforce, subject to local requirements. We are committed to treating all impacted employees with professionalism and respect, and we continue to hire for critical skills, with more than 1,300 positions open in our key locations in the U.S. and globally.” Above: Intel CEO Bob Swan at CES 2020.
Swan said more than 50% of Intel’s revenue is defined as “data-centric,” meaning it focuses on processing, managing, and storing the massive amount of data being produced from our social media, smartphones, cars, internet of things, and computers.
“Our journey is just beginning,” Swan said. “To reach our multi-year goals, we will continuously focus on three key priorities: accelerating growth, improving execution, and deploying our capital for attractive returns.” He said demand for the second generation of Intel Xeon Scalable processors is very strong as customers continue to make Xeon the foundation for their AI-infused datacenter workloads. Intel’s fastest-growing processor is the Cascade Lake family, which focuses on AI performance, and that will get a boost in the first half of 2020 with the launch of the third-generation Xeon Scalable processor, Cooper Lake, Swan said.
He said that in the PC market, Intel saw “excellent momentum” for its 10-nm mobile CPU, Ice Lake, with 44 systems already shipping.
At the CES 2020 tech trade show, Intel also showed customer momentum for the Project Athena innovation program, including the first Project Athena-verified Chromebooks. Twenty-six Project Athena designs have been certified, and 50 more are expected to be verified this year.
Intel generated $5 billion in 2019 revenue, and Swan said the opportunity for growth is good as networks converge on 5G wireless connectivity.
Swan said that Intel plans to spend $17 billion on capital expenditures in 2020, following record investments in capex for the past two years. The added capacity allowed Intel to expand its PC CPU supply in the second half of 2019 by double digits relative to the first half.
Above: Intel CEO Bob Swan speaks with reporters in Palo Alto, California.
However, he acknowledged that demand has continued to outpace PC supply, and supply remains tight in the PC business. Intel continues to add capacity at both the 14nm and 10nm manufacturing nodes.
“We continue to make real good progress on yields on 10nm,” he said.
The investment should help increase PC unit volumes by high single-digit percentages. Intel has also begun work on its 5nm process technology. The intention is to get to two-year intervals between each generation of process technology, Swan said.
“This will enable us to meet market demand, deliver our 2020 financial plan, and increase inventory to more normalized levels,” he said. “Our near-term challenge is working with our customers to support their desired product mix.” He said yields are improving on 10nm production, which has bedeviled Intel for a while. He said Intel is planning nine new 10nm product releases this year, including Intel’s first standalone graphics processing unit (GPU). Intel will bump up the production with 10nm+, and he said 7nm production is on schedule for the end of 2021.
Above: Bob Swan is CEO of Intel.
Intel closed the year with 110,800 employees, compared to 107,400 a year ago. For the full year, Intel expects to grow revenue from $72 billion in 2019 to $73.5 billion in 2020.
“We feel great about how we wrapped up the year with the best quarter in the company’s history. 2019 was the best year in our company’s history and our outlook,” Swan said. “In 2020, we’ll do it again. We expect it to be another record year. And our ambitions have just never been greater.” Asked how the company would deal with increased competition, Swan said that Intel would likely address shortages in 2020 and that should result in market share gains, particularly as it goes after a much larger market for its chips.
[ Updated 5:07 p.m. Pacific 1/23/20: Intel confirmed layoff information for us after the call, which did not mention the layoffs.] VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"OpenSpace uses AI to bring Street View to construction sites | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2018/06/05/openspace-uses-ai-to-bring-street-view-to-construction-sites"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages OpenSpace uses AI to bring Street View to construction sites Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn OpenSpace's AI-powered, 360-degree construction site viewer.
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Most people don’t think of construction sites as a breeding ground for cutting-edge technology. But Jeevan Kalanithi, cofounder and CEO of San Francisco-based OpenSpace , thinks they could be.
One of the biggest managerial problems plaguing the construction industry is record keeping, Kalanithi said. Contractors working on different schedules don’t always communicate with each other, making it difficult, if not impossible, to keep on top of individual projects as they progress. “[There’s a need] to establish a ground truth,” he told VentureBeat in a phone interview, “a set of facts about what is happening when facts are in short supply … [and] when you don’t have a shared set of facts. Memories are pretty fallible.” Kalanithi and OpenSpace’s two other cofounders, Michael Fleischman and Philip DeCamp, brainstormed a solution: a sort of Google Street View for construction sites, or what Kalanithi likes to call a “time machine for people who work in the physical world.” OpenSpace’s hardware is about as simple as it gets: a 360-degree Garmin camera mounted to a hard hat. Construction site foremen and safety managers charge the camera via a USB cable (Kalanithi says it lasts about 10 hours on battery with an extender pack), plop the helmet on their heads, and go about their daily routine as it scans their surroundings from all angles. When it comes time to clock out, they plug the camera into a PC before heading on their merry way.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! That is when the magic happens. Hours of 360-degree footage from the previous day upload to OpenSpace’s servers, which apply machine intelligence to stitch the frames together. Using sensor fusion, algorithms are able to chart the course of the camera wearer’s inspection and identify objects like windows and molding.
“We collect so much data every day, and we build exciting things on top of that,” Kalanithi said. “Office workers have had the ability to create, edit, share, and revisit their work for a long time, but that has never truly existed in the construction industry.” In a demonstration via Google Hangouts, he showed me OpenSpace’s UI: A web-based viewer for the 360-degree camera footage with a blueprint sketch of the job site in the upper right-hand corner. Users navigate with the help of a line overlayed on the blueprint representing the contractor’s route, and with arrow keys that shift the viewing perspective forward or backward. The key feature, though, is the chronological viewer: a calendar that lets users “travel back in time,” as Kalanithi puts it, by clicking on an older recording and comparing progress over the past few weeks and months.
He brought up historical footage that showed piping behind yet-to-be-hung drywall. “With this, you know what’s behind the wall,” he explained. “You don’t have to knock it down.” Kalanithi thinks his solution could increase productivity, too. There were 250,000 unfilled construction jobs at the beginning on the year, according to the National Association of Home Builders, and some workers are feeling the pinch. “Safety managers spend half of their time in the car … trying to cover all of these [construction] jobs,” he said. “Now they don’t have to physically be there.” I asked him about privacy. Wouldn’t construction workers object to being surveilled every day? “It’s one thing to [record] people in public, but in a professional work environment, there’s no expectation [of privacy],” he said. “It’s not been a problem.” OpenSpace isn’t the only company bringing AI to hard hat zones. Doxel, a startup that came out of stealth in January, uses a lidar-equipped robot that scans construction sites , tracking progress by sending data to algorithms in the cloud that determine if components have been installed correctly.
But Kalanithi says OpenSpace’s ease of use sets it apart. “Because the cameras are so easy to pop on and pop off, general contractors [don’t even think about it],” he said.
OpenSpace, which was founded in September 2017, has secured funding from Lux Capital, Foundation Capital, the National Science Foundation, and others, and the startup is working with Turner Construction, one of the largest construction management companies in the United States, to deploy its technology on active sites.
Construction is a lucrative market. The industry saw $1.7 trillion in revenue in 2016, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, during a year when 700,000 construction companies employed over 7.3 million people.
“We’re working with lots of early customers,” Kalanithi said. “We’ve already recorded millions of square feet, [and we] feel we’re building something of real value.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Apple flees from transparency as it stops reporting unit sales of iPhones, iPads, and Macs | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2018/11/02/apple-flees-from-transparency-as-it-stops-reporting-unit-sales-of-iphones-ipads-and-macs"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Opinion Apple flees from transparency as it stops reporting unit sales of iPhones, iPads, and Macs Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Apple CEO Tim Cook delivers a keynote during the European Union's privacy conference at the EU Parliament in Brussels, Belgium October 24, 2018.
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As part of an otherwise strong earnings report , Apple announced what amounted to a bombshell for anyone who has followed the company closely over the past decade. Apple said it would no longer break out unit sales of its iPhones, iPads, and Macs when it reports quarterly earnings.
For the average consumer, this probably doesn’t even warrant a shrug. But for investment analysts and reporters, it’s the latest example of behavior that has become a pattern for Apple: When it doesn’t like metrics, it buries them.
In this case, the metric involves hardware sales, but above all, sales of its flagship product, the iPhone.
For the fiscal year 2018 that ended September 30, Apple sold 217.7 million iPhones. That is up slightly from the 216.76 million sold in 2017, and the 211.88 million in 2016. But it is still well below the 231.22 million sold in FY 2015. Looked at generously, this was the third straight year that iPhone sales were essentially flat.
Apple has responded to this trend in three ways. First, to appease investors, it’s spent billions on stock buybacks and dividends. Second, it has focused on growing its Services and “Others” business (App downloads, Apple Music, Apple Watch, etc.).
And finally, it has masterfully introduced far more expensive versions of the iPhones and convinced customers to shell out big bucks for them. That’s why for Q4, even though iPhone unit sales were flat, revenue from sales was up 29 percent. Other companies can only look at statistics like that and seethe with envy.
Investors love this combination — which is why they have made Apple the world’s most valuable company and the first trillion-dollar company in U.S. history.
But that adulation is apparently not enough if there is a possible chink in the armor. And so Apple decided to remove any blemish of negativity that might be inferred from this stalling out of unit sales.
The company did something similar in September 2016 when it announced it would stop sharing first weekend sales of new iPhones as the iPhone 7 went on sale. Such statistics were always a bit fuzzy , but for many years Apple was only too happy to trumpet annual new sales records and bask in the mounds of free publicity that followed. Until, of course, it stopped setting new records.
Likewise, Apple has always loved to tout the success of Apple’s retail stores, disclosing in filings an “average revenue per store” figure. But that number hit a rut between 2012 and 2014, and people began to talk about challenges the company faced in this realm.
And so in the 2015 annual filing , that particular metric disappeared. The same year, Apple also stopped providing a breakdown of its full-time employees versus retail workers.
This move away from transparency is continuing. On Apple’s most recent earnings call , CFO Luca Maestri tried to pretend otherwise: First, given the increased importance of our services business, and in order to provide additional transparency to our financial results, we will start reporting revenue as well as cost of sales for both total products and total services beginning this December quarter.
Apple will be more transparent by telling you less, including ending unit sales reporting.
Maestri said: As demonstrated by our financial performance in recent years, the number of units sold in any 90-day period is not necessarily representative of the underlying strength of our business. Furthermore, a unit of sale is less relevant for us today than it was in the past, given the breadth of our portfolio and the wider sales price dispersion within any given product line.
Translation: We will continue to tell you how to measure our business in a way we find suitable. But the less you know about the details, the better.
Maestri added: As I know you’re aware, by the way, our top competitors in smartphones, in tablets, in computers, do not provide quarterly unit sales information either.
As rationalizations go, that is playground logic. He started it! One final justification: To give you an example, the unit sales of iPhone at the top end of the line have been very strong during the September quarter, and that’s very important because we’re attracting customers to the most recent technologies and features and innovation that we bring into the lineup, but you don’t necessarily see that in the number that is reported.
Now, one could solve this problem by providing more transparency. Why not break out iPhone sales by model? But, haha, nope. Instead, Maestri said Apple will provide “qualitative” information when the company believes it is warranted. Put another way, it will spin what limited data it offers to its advantage.
The result of this move is that Apple’s business will become even more opaque and muddled. Want to know how its Apple Music service is doing these days? Well, the company will tell you that it was part of a group of services that set “new revenue records” in the quarter and that total subscriptions across all products are 300 million. But Apple Music itself? We have no idea.
By the same measure, we learn that “wearables” revenue was up 50 percent. That includes Apple Watch, AirPods, and Beats. But how any of the products are doing individually, well, that will remain a guessing game.
Now iPhones, iPads, and Macs will tumble into the same impenetrable pit. Analysts and journalists will grumble. Investors will temporarily send the stock down. But Apple knows all this will pass eventually — because Apple is a publicly traded company.
And as Maestri helpfully reminded the world, there is only one metric upon which such a company should be judged: its ability to make money.
“We’ll provide qualitative commentary when it is important and relevant,” he said. “But at the end of the day, we make our decisions from a financial standpoint to try and optimize our revenue and our gross margin dollars, and that we think is the focus that is in the best interest of our investors.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Apple will miss Q2 2020 revenue projection due to coronavirus impacts | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/02/17/apple-will-miss-q2-2020-revenue-projection-due-to-coronavirus-impacts"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Apple will miss Q2 2020 revenue projection due to coronavirus impacts Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Totalee is one of many companies now offering attractively minimalist Qi wireless chargers that work with iPhones.
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Less than a month ago, Apple reported a record first quarter with revenues of $91.8 billion for the holiday season, and predicted second fiscal quarter revenues in the $63 billion to $67 billion range. Today, the company warned investors that it will fall short of that guidance due to impacts of the COVID-19 coronavirus on both iPhone manufacturing and overall Apple sales in China.
According to Apple, “worldwide iPhone supply will be temporarily constrained” due to a slower than expected resumption of manufacturing following the Lunar New Year holiday. Additionally, the company says that its own and partner retail locations in China have been either closed or operating in limited fashion, including “very low customer traffic.” This is the second China-related revenue downgrade warning Apple has issued to investors during the first calendar quarter of a year. In January 2019, the company slashed estimates for the 2018 holiday quarter following a dramatic decline in Chinese sales and slower-than-expected iPhone upgrades.
Unlike the prior announcement, however, Apple declined to offer a revised projection for its Q2 2020 revenues. The January 2019 announcement cut an $89-$93 billion projection down to $84 billion, jolting the company’s stock. More recently, Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri characterized the upcoming quarter’s $63-$67 billion range as atypically wide to take the coronavirus’ potential impact into account , but hinted that the health situation might have deeper impacts.
Nearly 1,800 people have died from the coronavirus, which has infected over 71,000 people, largely centered in and around Wuhan, China. Prior to today’s Apple announcement, the pandemic has already had multiple impacts on the tech industry, ranging from the cancellation of the mobile trade show MWC 2020 to announcements of reduced revenue projections from component makers.
Apple says that it is more than doubling its previously announced donations to support public health initiatives against the disease, and remains primarily concerned for the health and well-being of its employees, contractors, and customers. The company says that the rest of its demand outside of China has been “strong to date and in line with our expectations,” characterizing the disruption as an “only temporary” speed bump for a “fundamentally strong” company.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Apple closes nearly all retail stores until March 27 over coronavirus | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/03/14/apple-closes-nearly-all-retail-stores-until-march-27-over-coronavirus"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Apple closes nearly all retail stores until March 27 over coronavirus Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Apple Store UTC in San Diego, California.
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(Reuters) — Apple said late on Friday it will close all its retail stores, except those in Greater China, for the next two weeks to minimize the risk of coronavirus transmission.
“We will be closing all of our retail stores outside of Greater China until March 27,” Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote in a letter posted on the company’s website.
“In all of our offices, we are moving to flexible work arrangements worldwide outside of Greater China,” he added. “That means team members should work remotely if their job allows.” Apple reopened all 42 of its branded stores in China on Friday.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! The company’s donations to the global coronavirus response, to help treat those who are sick and to help lessen the economic and community impacts, reached $15 million on Friday, Cook wrote in the letter.
More than 138,000 people have been infected worldwide and over 5,000 have died , according to a Reuters tally of government announcements.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Apple debuts iPad Pro with lidar scanner, Magic Keyboard with trackpad | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/03/18/apple-debuts-ipad-pro-with-lidar-scanner-magic-keyboard-with-trackpad"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Apple debuts iPad Pro with lidar scanner, Magic Keyboard with trackpad Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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When iPadOS 13 introduced tentative support for trackpads and mice within the tablet’s Accessibility settings , the next obvious steps forward were full OS-level support for apps with cursors and iPad-specific accessories to increase their convenience. Today, Apple took both of those steps by debuting a new iPad Pro alongside an all-in-one solution that combines a keyboard and trackpad — the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro.
The new iPad Pro resembles its 11-inch and 12.9-inch predecessors from the outside, but it includes substantial internal changes — ranging from five studio-quality microphones to an all-new camera array on the back. In addition to a 10-megapixel ultrawide camera that offers 0.5X zoom, the new iPad includes a 12MP wide 1X camera akin to its predecessor and a lidar sensor capable of depth sensing.
Lidar will enable the iPad Pro to scan depth in objects, including distance measurements from up to five meters away at nano-second speeds to create superior real-time awareness of scenes — a benefit for augmented reality. A new Scene Geometry API will let developers access the new scanner, and existing ARKit apps will gain instant AR object placement, better motion capture, and people occlusion features.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! The addition of a depth sensor to the new tablet has been rumored for quite some time , but the specifics of its functionality have remained ambiguous until now. Beyond AR, Apple also claims lidar will help with Pro workflows, including support for Pro photo and video apps.
One surprise in the iPad Pro is its move to an “A12Z Bionic” CPU, an eight-core processor that promises “the highest performance ever in an iPad” but without Apple’s typical specific promises of double-digit improvements in various categories. The A12Z Bionic includes Apple’s Neural Engine, similarly unspecced, suggesting that the jump from the prior A12X Bionic won’t be gigantic. Regardless, Apple says “iPad Pro is faster and more powerful than most Windows PC laptops,” thanks to the chip, a claim benchmarks will need to establish. The A12X already rivaled Intel Core i7 MacBook Pros when it was released in late 2018.
Another small surprise is the addition of Wi-Fi 6 support for faster 802.11ax wireless connectivity, along with expanded LTE band support. The new iPad Pro doesn’t have 5G cellular connectivity, but it has gigabit-class LTE, compatible with virtually all 4G network bands.
Somewhat like a previously announced accessory from Brydge , Apple’s combined Magic Keyboard is significantly different from prior iPad Smart Keyboard Folios. In addition to a backlit five-row keyboard that only lacks function keys, the surface has a trackpad that’s smaller than on Mac laptops but still several times the footprint of the space key above it. Apple says full trackpad support will arrive in iPadOS 13.4 on March 24, but the accessory won’t be available until May.
The new Magic Keyboard relies on a new cantilevered hinge system to keep the tablet vertical while the typing and trackpad input are handled horizontally. It also retains the folding case design of Apple’s earlier “Smart” folios but elevates the iPad above the typing surface with angle adjustment abilities, supporting up to 130 degrees of positioning.
Like its Mac predecessors, the Magic Keyboard uses scissor mechanisms to deliver 1mm of travel, improving upon the prior rubber dome keys used in earlier iPad keyboard accessories. It also has its own USB-C pass-through charging system and attaches magnetically to the iPad.
Apple’s introduction of this accessory enables the iPad Pro family to compete more effectively against Microsoft’s Surface Pro tablets , which have offered trackpad and cursor support for some time. These solutions enable “pro” users to achieve the level of input precision they need without physically touching the screen for everything.
The new accessory costs $299 (11-inch) or $349 (12.9-inch). By comparison, updated versions of the prior-generation iPad Pro Smart Keyboard Folios will sell for $179 to $199, and Apple’s standalone Magic Keyboards — built for Macs, but compatible with iPads — start at $99. Apple will begin delivering the new iPad Pro on March 25, with $799 and $999 base prices for 128GB of storage capacity. Jumping to 256GB is now only $100 more, with 512GB a $300 step up and 1TB at a $500 premium. Cellular models remain available for $150 over base prices.
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"Apple updates MacBook Air with Magic Keyboard, drops price to $999 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/03/18/apple-updates-macbook-air-with-magic-keyboard-drops-price-to-999"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Apple updates MacBook Air with Magic Keyboard, drops price to $999 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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Apple has announced an updated version of the entry-level MacBook Air laptop, a thin and light notebook computer that previously started at $1,099. The new version starts at only $999 and has been internally updated with new components, but it looks substantially like its predecessor.
Most significantly, the new machine includes Apple’s Magic Keyboard, which replaces the prior-generation model’s troubled butterfly keys with scissor-style keys. The butterfly keyboards have experienced unprecedented reliability issues, requiring the company to offer extended warranties.
Apple says the new machine offers up to 80% faster graphics performance and twice the CPU performance of its predecessor, while starting with 256GB of SSD storage — all major improvements, especially given its lower starting price. Educational customers can purchase the new model for $899, a discount of $100.
CPU performance in the new machine is somewhat different this time. Apple has switched to 10th-generation Intel Core CPUs, but the entry-level model is a dual-core Core i3 with a 1.1GHz base speed and 3.2GHz Turbo Boost mode — the improved performance of this version relative to its predecessor isn’t as pronounced. Regardless of the CPU specs, each new MacBook Air’s GPU is now an Intel Iris Plus chip, and RAM has been upgraded to LPDDR4X, running at 3733MHz. Users get 8GB to start but can upgrade to 16GB of RAM for $200 more.
To get the major speed boost Apple promises, however, you need to opt for a quad-core i7 chip at 1.2GHz, with Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz, at a $250 premium over the base model. A lower-end 1.1GHz quad-core i5 is only $100, with Turbo Boost up to 3.8GHz. Apple uses this chip in a $1,299 stock configuration that includes a 512GB SSD as well, with the option to customize to the highest-end i7 for $1,449. Users can also opt for 1TB or 2TB SSDs at $400 to $800 premiums.
By comparison, the prior-generation MacBook Air included an 8th-generation Intel Core i5 running at 1.6GHz with the ability to Turbo Boost to 3.6GHz, plus an Intel UHD Graphics 617 GPU. At $1,099, it included a 128GB SSD and 8GB of LPDDR3 RAM. A model with a 256GB SSD version went for $1,299, with 512GB (+$200) and 1TB (+$400) options, along with a 16GB RAM (+$200) upgrade.
The new MacBook Air includes support for the 6K resolution of Apple’s Pro Display XDR, “advanced stereo speakers” with wide stereo sound and Dolby Atmos support, a three-mic array for FaceTime call voice clarity, and two Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports with USB 3.1 Gen 2 support. Wireless remains at Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0.
Apple continues to sell the new MacBook in three colors: silver, gold, and space gray. Each comes with a USB-C charging cable and 30-Watt USB-C power adapter. They’ll be available for delivery from Apple’s website between March 23 and 25.
In smaller news, the company has also doubled the storage capacity of the late 2018 Mac mini , offering 256GB of SSD storage for $799, and 512GB at $1,099, with up to 2TB of storage as a customization option. The machines appear otherwise unchanged.
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"Apple yanks app used to share coronavirus information in China | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/03/20/apple-yanks-app-used-to-share-coronavirus-information-in-china"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Apple yanks app used to share coronavirus information in China Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to worsen elsewhere the world, reports from initially afflicted China have improved — seemingly thanks to a coordinated medical response, but possibly also because of a government censorship campaign. Once again, and perhaps unsurprisingly at this point, Apple finds itself in the middle of a Chinese censorship controversy, this time for pulling an app citizens were using to share coronavirus news within the country.
Still available outside of China, Huiyu Wang’s Boom – Text Encryption Keyboard app was specifically designed to encrypt text messages, chats, and articles and to decrypt received texts. It employs tricks such as emoji replacement and word jumbles that people can understand despite errors. Users discovered that Boom enabled content to avoid Chinese government filters that screen data for specific key words as it passes through the network, thus preventing the free flow of information about COVID-19.
Boom arrived in the iOS App Store on February 15, as COVID-19 infections raged in mainland China, but it was pulled from distribution in the country this week, Wang said in a tweet , with Apple explaining in an email that it included “content that is illegal in China.” Wang told Quartz that the app likely attracted government attention when it was used to share a COVID-19-related interview Chinese censors were attempting to delete from the internet. The New York-based Chinese developer also noted that his “multiple social media accounts [have] been removed,” as well as an unrelated wallpaper app he developed, seemingly as a punitive measure.
Apple has cooperated with Chinese government app takedown requests on multiple occasions, removing VPNs , software used to track police activity related to Hong Kong protests , a virus-related game , and apps on various other topics.
Despite the company’s public stance that privacy is a human right and its promises to protect user privacy through strong on-device encryption, it has been widely criticized for bowing to Chinese pressure to enable government surveillance and storage of user data — a decision that has enabled it to continue manufacturing and selling devices within the country.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Hands-on: Apple's $300+ Magic Keyboards turn iPad Pros into business laptops | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/04/21/hands-on-apples-300-magic-keyboards-turn-ipad-pros-into-business-laptops"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Hands-on: Apple’s $300+ Magic Keyboards turn iPad Pros into business laptops Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Is that a MacBook? No, it's an iPad Pro that converts into a laptop using Apple's new Magic Keyboard.
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When the iPad launched 10 years ago, no one was sure whether tablets would replace laptops — a legitimate business concern for Apple, since cheap iPads might cannibalize and cut into profits from its expensive Macs. Over the years, Apple addressed the issue by releasing “professional” $799 and $999 models, using overpriced accessories to ensure that iPad Pro tablets would deliver MacBook Pro-level profits.
Apple currently sells roughly 3 times as many iPads as Macs, but despite their greater popularity, the tablets have struggled to hold their own as business computers due to missing software and hardware support. Last month, Apple addressed the software side by adding more Mac-like features to iPadOS 13.4, including trackpad and mouse support that will let iPads run enterprise- and small business-class productivity applications. Now it’s tackling the hardware side with the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, available in 11-inch and 12.9-inch sizes. (I purchased and tested the 12.9-inch version.) Thanks to Microsoft’s Surface lineup, the appeal of a tablet that can switch hit as a laptop is as obvious to C-suite executives as to frontline workers. A single device can serve as your business PC during the day and bedside video player at night, and you can add a trackpad and keyboard whenever necessary. Apple may be late to this party, but it’s finally ready to cater to the large group of customers who wanted the iPad to be more Mac-like for work.
Unfortunately, the iPad Pro versions of the Magic Keyboard don’t come cheap. The 11-inch version sells for $299, with the 12.9-inch model priced at $349, which means you’ll pay either $1,098 or $1,348 for a 128GB iPad Pro with Apple’s trackpad-keyboard solution. In other words, Apple wants you to really think about whether you value a tablet’s versatility over a 128GB $999 MacBook Air or $1,299 MacBook Pro, and if so, pay a premium for it.
If you’re considering turning an iPad into a laptop, here are the seven key things you need to know.
1. Magic Keyboard looks sort of cheap for its price Microsoft chose a premium automotive fabric called alcantara to give its Type Covers a suede-like texture and greater durability, but Apple has largely leaned on vinyl for its portable keyboard accessories. Just like Apple’s trackpad-less Smart Keyboard, the Magic Keyboard has a vinyl body rather than metal (or Apple’s other iPad accessory material option, leather), so it’s highly likely to show signs of wear after a year or so of typical use. My unit’s exterior showed smudges within seconds of sitting on my dining room table.
It looked nice straight out of the box, though. Matching the black vinyl, the keys are jet black and internally backlit, automatically illuminating to a level based on ambient room brightness. You can further adjust that level (and a few other settings) in the iPad’s Settings app under Keyboard > Hardware Keyboard.
Apple only uses metal in one obvious place: the hinge system located behind the iPad. On a positive note, both the top and bottom of the case appear to be reinforced internally with sturdy metal plates, However, the parts of the Magic Keyboard that are exposed to air will likely wear like plastic, including the entirely plastic palmrest area, which will probably become shiny over time as it rubs against your hands.
Bear in mind that Apple originally sold an iPad Keyboard Dock framed in thick aluminum for only $69. It’s not like the company couldn’t have done better here for $299 or $349.
2. It gives the iPad a second USB-C port One somewhat underappreciated element of the Magic Keyboard is hidden in the new hinge: an additional USB-C port. Initial testing suggests that this port delivers power (at a reduced speed) to both the iPad Pro and keyboard, but Apple makes no guarantees about its data performance. In other words, the iPad Pro’s own USB-C port is now free for any type of accessory you might want to connect, while the keyboard port can be reliably used for charging.
Apple enables this port by tapping into the iPad’s Smart Connector — the three metal dots on the Pro’s back, which connect to the Magic Keyboard to provide seamless, low-latency trackpad and keyboard input. This means that there’s no battery inside the Magic Keyboard and no need for a Bluetooth connection between the accessory and iPad.
3. The keyboard is mechanically sound but lacks keys Several years ago, Apple laptops adopted “butterfly” keyboard mechanisms that were easily damaged — a huge problem for lots of users, particularly workers and students who couldn’t give their machines up for multi-day keyboard repairs. This was an unforced error: Apple already offered a wholly viable alternative in its Magic Keyboard Mac accessories, which were superior to both butterfly keys and the squishier rubber dome keys it used in iPad Smart Keyboards.
The iPad Pro Magic Keyboard finally brings that caliber of keyboard back to iPad accessories for the first time since Apple’s aforementioned iPad Keyboard Dock. Individual keys have a satisfying level of travel from normal to fully depressed states, plus enough size and spacing that even big adult fingers won’t accidentally hit the wrong keys.
Above: Apple’s Magic Keyboard has fewer keys than Logitech’s Combo Touch keyboard, shown at left.
On the other hand, you don’t get the same number of keys found on a standard Mac Magic Keyboard. While the iPad Pro version includes a full set of number, symbol, letter, and arrow keys, it doesn’t have the top row of either full- or half-height function keys found on Mac keyboards. It also doesn’t have an escape key, which might be an issue for some programmers.
It’s been claimed, wrongly, that omitting function keys on the iPad was an intentional choice for “philosophical” reasons. But the original iPad Keyboard Dock (personally overseen by Steve Jobs) included a complete row of half-height function keys. They strike me as a particularly sad omission for such an expensive keyboard accessory, and unlike other options, limit the Magic Keyboard’s ability to quickly change brightness, volume, music, or other settings without using the trackpad.
4. The multi-touch trackpad is small but solid When Apple picked the name “Magic Trackpad” for its $99 Mac wireless trackpad, it underscored both the abnormally large multi-touch surface and the hidden buttons underneath: How could a big silver piece of glass eclipse a laptop trackpad without obvious buttons? Then the $129 Magic Trackpad 2 went even further, expanding the touch surface beyond the size of a full adult hand, hiding a full rechargeable battery underneath, and eliminating buttons entirely in favor of a haptic system. It doesn’t actually move when you click it; you just think it does because of haptic vibrations.
The iPad Pro’s Magic Keyboard is not as impressive as either the Mac’s Magic Trackpad 2 or Magic Trackpad. It’s much smaller — almost identical to the size of a business card, just a little wider — and it’s fully mechanical rather than haptic, so you actually press it down rather than just feeling click vibrations. Apple’s only remaining “magic” here is its thinness, which is aided by this Magic Keyboard’s lack of any internal battery.
Above: The trackpad on the 12.9-inch Magic Keyboard is only a little wider than a standard business card.
That said, the presence of a bona fide Apple trackpad is a major step forward for the iPad Pro. Thanks to iPadOS 13.4, you can swipe with three fingers to switch Safari tabs. With two fingers, you can pull down the Spotlight search menu in iPadOS and pinch to zoom in or out in apps. You can also use a single finger to move the iPad’s new circular cursor around, pressing down for a left-click, or use two fingers for a right-click.
As always, Apple’s glass tracking surface feels smooth, with just a hint of matte resistance on your fingers. I found the trackpad surface just big enough for four adult fingers to rest comfortably — almost the same dimensions as a business card, but a pinky finger wider. Cursor responsiveness from iPadOS was zippy, and you can calibrate it to your personal liking.
5. The case offers weak edge protection and limited but decent angle adjustability I’ve never been a fan of Apple’s approach to “folio” case design. In the name of simplicity, Apple’s latest cases cover the iPad’s back, front, and left sides but expose the top, right, and bottom edges. If you accidentally drop the iPad on the ground, expect a dent or shattered glass, perhaps both.
At Apple’s $79-$99 folio prices, this was a nonstarter for me, but after trying $20 clones on Amazon, I’ve come to appreciate the originals’ elegance — while handling them gingerly to avoid damage. With the Magic Keyboard, which reuses the same basic design, you have to decide whether to assume the even greater risk of damaging both a $799+ tablet and a $299+ trackpad-keyboard case.
That said, the Magic Keyboard feels a lot more solid than Apple’s folios. It weighs more than the iPad Pro on its own, coming together for a weight that’s roughly comparable to an all-in-one MacBook Pro laptop. The 12.9-inch Pro can still be held in one hand, and the case is capable of holding your chosen position rigidly as you move it around. It just doesn’t do anything around the iPad’s edges.
The single biggest differentiator between the Magic Keyboard and other alternatives is Apple’s latest elaborate hinge system. As with its folios, the Magic Keyboard case’s rear surface attaches magnetically to the iPad Pro’s backside, here bonding with the Smart Connector, enabling the keyboard and trackpad to rest on your desk or lap.
Using a cantilevered hinge system, you can independently adjust the iPad’s screen angle across a range of 40 total degrees, starting at 90 degrees relative to the typing surface and reclining to a depth of 130 degrees. That’s a 5-degree smaller recline than a MacBook laptop at its most open, but 25 degrees more than Apple’s Smart Keyboard, which only offers fixed 110- or 125-degree positions.
I found the included angles to be largely sufficient for actual lap use and desk use, and I suspect most people will feel the same way. But if you’re the sort of person who opens your laptop to the maximum extent, you’ll find the Magic Keyboard to be limiting.
6. You have other options There are other ways to turn an iPad into a laptop, but none is exactly like the Magic Keyboard.
Logitech’s $149 Combo Touch just became available for the seventh-generation iPad, iPad Air 3, and discontinued 10.5-inch iPad Pro, giving budget-conscious users a very nice all-in-one case, keyboard, and trackpad. Combo Touch looks and works much like Microsoft’s $99-$129 Type Covers for $399 Surface Go tablets, enabling iPads to compete in the sub-$500 convertible tablet space without forcing Apple to produce low-margin accessories. Critically, Combo Touch has the full row of shortcut keys Magic Keyboard lacks and may also have some multi-touch trackpad advantages, as well.
iPad Pro owners can also consider Logitech’s $179-$199 Slim Folio Pro keyboard case, which lacks the trackpad and therefore doesn’t deliver anything different in experience from what iPad Pro users had two years ago. This is a very nice accessory in terms of build quality and features, but if you’re looking to use your iPad for work, the lack of a trackpad will be a major limiting factor.
Another alternative is buying three separate accessories from Apple: A $99 Mac version of the Magic Keyboard, a $129 Mac accessory called the Magic Trackpad 2, and a $79 to $99 iPad Smart Folio. Collectively, they’ll cost roughly the same amount as the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro — and twice the price of a Combo Touch. They’re also better and more versatile accessories individually, but many business users won’t find them as convenient for work purposes as carrying around an all-in-one solution.
7. You pay a premium for that Apple logo The last thing the Magic Keyboard has that Logitech’s Combo Touch doesn’t is something that matters a lot to some people and little to others: Apple’s logo. Some people have made a big deal about the fact that it’s been rotated on the Magic Keyboard for the first time so that it’s right side up when the iPad is in landscape orientation, like any MacBook (and unlike the portrait orientation logo on the iPad’s own backside). On my unit, it was so subtly embossed in the casing as to be nearly invisible, as shown above.
If you’re the sort of person who cares about either that change or the implication that the Magic Keyboard is the beginning of a new convertible age for Apple’s tablets, this accessory might be right for you despite its pricing. There’s no question that it is a lot more convenient than trying to carry around an iPad Pro with separate Mac Magic Keyboard and Trackpad 2 accessories. If you plan to travel a lot with your iPad, or use it as a laptop in your lap, an all-in-one solution is almost certainly the right way to go.
As of this moment — and I still have some testing left to do — I can’t tell you that I think the Magic Keyboard is worth the sum of its individual parts. Apple has priced a trackpad-keyboard case at only $50 less than a new iPhone SE, which is almost as crazy as charging as much for four Mac Pro wheels as a set of four full-sized car tires. At least one Apple-backed reviewer who got the Magic Keyboard for free suggested that users should just suck up a $300-$350 accessory as the cost of admission to the iPad Pro. From where I stand, that’s bad advice, given that there are already really good $150 options out there, and likely more on the way.
A $300 to $350 price tag might be justifiable if the Magic Keyboard was both substantially better than rivals and close to perfect in every way, yet almost every element leaves room for improvement. If you can, I’d suggest saving your money until Logitech offers a Combo Touch-caliber trackpad-keyboard case option for the iPad Pro. At that point, both iPadOS and business apps may well have advanced over their current state, as well. But if you absolutely can’t wait to turn your iPad Pro into a business laptop, the Magic Keyboard is a solid starting point at a steep price.
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"Apple's Q2 2020 revenue hits $58.3 billion despite retail shutdown | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/04/30/apples-q2-2020-revenue-hits-58-3-billion-despite-retail-shutdown"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Apple’s Q2 2020 revenue hits $58.3 billion despite retail shutdown Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn U.S. President Donald Trump and Apple CEO Tim Cook visit an Austin, Texas factory where Mac Pros are assembled, on November 20, 2019.
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If it wasn’t clear from Apple’s prior promise of a second-quarter 2020 revenue projection miss , the global coronavirus pandemic has weakened the company’s strong recovery from a shaky 2019, but the hit wasn’t as bad as analysts expected. Apple reported $58.3 billion in revenue for the quarter — a modest increase compared with the $58 billion generated one year ago, when it suffered a 5% year-over-year decline compared with the second fiscal quarter of 2018. Prior to the U.S. outbreak, but with awareness of its continuing growth in China, the company originally said earnings would fall in the $63 billion to $67 billion range.
On average, analysts predicted earnings per share of $2.26 and revenues of roughly $54.5 billion — a drop of 6% to 8% for the second quarter — owing in part to closures of the company’s retail stores and COVID-19-related interruptions in its production facilities. However, Apple’s revenues were actually up roughly 1% over the year-ago quarter, even though the overall U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 4.8% during the same period, with mounting virus death tolls and massive job losses raising the prospect of a prolonged recession or depression.
“Despite COVID-19’s unprecedented global impact, we’re proud to report that Apple grew for the quarter, driven by an all-time record in services and a quarterly record for wearables,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook. “In this difficult environment, our users are depending on Apple products in renewed ways to stay connected, informed, creative, and productive.” Down in three major segments but up in two, Apple sold $28.962 billion in iPhones, $5.351 billion in Macs, $4.368 billion in iPads, $13.348 billion from services, and $6.284 billion in wearables and accessories. Year over year, those numbers contrast with prior quarterly sales of $31.05 billion in iPhones, $5.5 billion in Macs, $4.87 billion in iPads, $11.5 billion in services, and just under $5.13 billion in wearables and accessories. Except for major milestones, the company no longer discloses unit sales for any of its product lines.
International sales constituted 62% of the quarter’s revenue, and Apple saw revenues grow in two key territories while declining in three others. Year over year, revenues fell from $25.596 billion to $25.473 billion in the Americas, from $10.218 billion to $9.455 billion in Greater China, and from $5.532 billion to $5.206 billion in Japan. However, sales grew from $13.054 billion to $14.294 billion in Europe and from $3.615 billion to $3.885 billion in the Asia Pacific region.
Last quarter, Apple blew past both its projections and analysts’ expectations by posting $91.8 billion in revenue, up nearly 9% from the year-ago quarter, thanks to a strong holiday season. While sales of the Mac and iPad dipped, wearables, services, and iPhones each posted billion-plus-dollar gains, continuing the prior quarter’s record-breaking reversal of fortunes. As Cook noted, wearables and services continued to fuel revenue growth, but all other segments slowed down — though not as much as might have been expected.
Although Apple recently released the second-generation iPhone SE , 2020 iPad Pros , and iPad Pro Magic Keyboard , all with potential to help its smartphone, tablet, and accessories categories, the company is not providing guidance for the third fiscal quarter of 2020, due to continued uncertainty wrought by the pandemic. Apple plans to restart brick-and-mortar retail operations in several U.S. states following reopenings of some stores in China and South Korea, where it has limited sales-specific foot traffic but has resumed device service operations. The company delayed an earlier plan to begin some U.S. reopenings earlier in April.
Apple is issuing an atypically large cash dividend of $0.82 per share — an increase of 6% — payable on May 14, 2020 to shareholders on record as of May 11, 2020. It is also increasing its share repurchase program by another $50 billion, a measure that should drive up the value of remaining shares.
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"Apple's 13-inch MacBook Pro adds Magic Keyboard, 10th-gen Intel CPUs | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/05/04/apples-13-inch-macbook-pro-adds-magic-keyboard-10th-gen-intel-cpus"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Pro adds Magic Keyboard, 10th-gen Intel CPUs Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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If you’ve been following the saga of Apple’s troubled butterfly keyboards , you know that the failure-prone typing surface has been the weakest link across all of the company’s laptops since 2016 — including its most popular 13-inch models.
Today, Apple is finally addressing that issue by updating the 13-inch MacBook Pro with its “Magic Keyboard” design, a change that will hopefully improve the machine’s reliability going forward, as well as bumping the Intel chip specs inside.
The 13-inch MacBook Pro is in Apple’s sweet spot, sitting in the upper-middle tier of both performance and pricing. Starting at $1,299 — or $1,199 for educational customers — the Pro traditionally delivers markedly superior CPU and GPU throughput compared with lower-end MacBooks, such as the MacBook Air, while falling short of the higher-end 16-inch MacBook Pro.
However, the latest models appear to bring the new 13-inch Pro closer to the latest MacBook Air on the entry-level side and the higher-end Pro closer to the 16-inch MacBook Pro, though actual performance will become apparent in benchmarks.
Business users will especially appreciate the Magic Keyboard, which uses scissor-style keys like those in Apple’s standalone Magic Keyboard accessories.
These mechanisms have slightly more travel (or key depth) than the prior butterfly keys and are believed to be less susceptible to sticking or otherwise failing — a major issue impacting the prior Pro’s usability for work over time. The new “Magic” keys are augmented by an OLED Touch Bar that replaces mechanical function keys with a digital display, notably now leaving both a dedicated physical Escape key to the left and a Touch ID fingerprint scanner to the right.
Apple differentiates entry-level 13-inch models from higher-end versions by leaving cheaper ones with only two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports instead of four, using much slower CPUs, and offering less SSD storage space. That’s once again the case here. While customers can choose from four-core Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, they’re considerably different on the lower and higher ends. On the low end, customers can choose between an 8th-generation 1.4GHz (3.9GHz Turbo Boost) Core i5 default and an upgraded 1.7GHz (4.5GHz Turbo Boost) Core i7 CPU. Higher-end models have 10th-generation 2.0GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) Core i5 or optional 2.3GHz (4.1GHz Turbo Boost) Core i7 chips.
Unlike the 16-inch Pro, which includes 16GB of 2666MHz DDR4 memory and a 512GB SSD standard, the 13-inch model starts at 8GB of 2133MHz LPDDR3 RAM and has 256GB of SSD storage, with the option to upgrade to 16GB plus a 2TB SSD. The higher-end 13-inch Pros have 16GB of 3733MHz LPDDR4X RAM and can upgrade to 32GB with up to 4TB of SSD storage.
Apple claims graphics performance is up to 80% faster in the new models, but the specifics are somewhat fuzzy. The company says the 1.4GHz and 1.7GHz models have Intel’s Iris Plus Graphics 645 chip, while the 2.0 and 2.3GHz models are listed as just the Iris Plus Graphics chip, with no part number. The higher-end models promise 80% better performance in Total War: Three Kingdoms, 60% faster 3D title rendering speed in Final Cut Pro X, and 25% faster image processing in Affinity Photo.
All of the new 13-inch Pros appear to be stuck on the same Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) and Bluetooth 5.0 as the 16-inch MacBook Pro, plus the same low-resolution 720p FaceTime HD camera. The 13-inch model again promises 10 hours of battery life from a roughly 58-watt-hour battery, versus the 16-inch model’s 11 hours from a 100-watt-hour cell.
The new MacBook Pro is available to order today on Apple.com.
It will begin arriving later this week for online orders; pickup from stores is not yet available in the United States.
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"Apple CEO: $1 trillion market cap is a 'significant milestone', but not a focus | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2018/08/02/apple-ceo-1-trillion-market-cap-is-a-significant-milestone-but-not-a-focus"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Apple CEO: $1 trillion market cap is a ‘significant milestone’, but not a focus Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Tim Cook at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) 2018 Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
Learn more.
( Reuters ) — Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said on Thursday that the iPhone maker’s $1 trillion market capitalization was “not the most important measure” of the company’s success but was instead a result of its focus on its products, customers and company values.
In a memo to Apple’s more than 120,000 employees that was seen by Reuters, Cook called the valuation a “significant milestone” that gave the company “much to be proud of.” But he said it should not be the Cupertino, California, company’s focus.
“Financial returns are simply the result of Apple’s innovation, putting our products and customers first, and always staying true to our values,” Cook said in the memo.
With a closing price of $207.39 on Thursday, Apple became the first publicly listed U.S. company to ever reach $1 trillion in market capitalization. Apple’s stock market value is greater than the combined capitalization of Exxon Mobil, Procter & Gamble and AT&T. It now accounts for 4 percent of the S&P 500.
Cook had not previously publicly commented on the company’s $1 trillion valuation.
Apple was founded in the late 1970s by Steve Jobs and went public in 1980 after helping usher in the era of the personal computer. One of three founders, Jobs was driven out of Apple in the mid-1980s, only to return a decade later and rescue the computer company from near bankruptcy.
In the two decades since, Apple has risen to become the most valuable company in the world by helping popularize yet another era in computing, the smart phone. The iPhone, introduced by Jobs in 2007, has sold more than one billion units. In his memo, Cook referred back to Jobs, who died in 2011.
“Steve founded Apple on the belief that the power of human creativity can solve even the biggest challenges — and that the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do,” Cook wrote in the memo.
“Just as Steve always did in moments like this, we should all look forward to Apple’s bright future and the great work we’ll do together.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Tech CEOs will survive antitrust hearings but can't stop investigations | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/29/tech-ceos-will-survive-antitrust-hearings-but-cant-stop-investigations"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Opinion Tech CEOs will survive antitrust hearings but can’t stop investigations Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
Learn more.
Given my background as a political science major, lawyer, and journalist, I shouldn’t be dispassionate about today’s Congressional antitrust hearing on the market power of online platforms, which will bring the CEOs of Amazon , Apple , Facebook , and Google into a single (virtual) space for questioning. This is the sort of feat that only a governmental body can pull off, and if nothing else, I’m glad that the House Judiciary Committee was able to compel these key executives to face public questions regarding their business activities.
The obvious problem is that this hearing is unlikely to accomplish anything meaningful in the near term. Less than 100 days remain before the entire House of Representatives faces elections, which means that any or all of the people questioning the tech CEOs today could be replaced in the months to come. In theory, that means there’s precious little time for the House to take legislative action against any of these companies, and even if it did, there’s roughly zero chance the Senate and president would follow suit. This is why many people have assumed that the hearing will be a circus — a muddled photo op with little end goal beyond crystallizing public anger against the increasing power of “big tech.” My view is that today’s group hearing is a waypoint toward antitrust proceedings that now appear to be inevitable against at least some of these companies. Although legislators (read: Congress) can force executives to show up for hearings, the executive and judiciary branches will ultimately be the ones who pursue and adjudicate antitrust cases against the companies. Critically, these branches don’t operate on the same two-year election cycle as the House, and many of the civil servants who work on antitrust matters never face election at all. They toil anonymously over the course of years and sometimes multiple administrations to develop cases, providing the backbone for massive federal lawsuits — think United States v. Microsoft — that permanently change an anticompetitive company’s future.
It’s no surprise that the tech CEOs will begin their testimony today with prepared statements that their companies are good actors that haven’t done anything anticompetitive, or at least illegally anticompetitive. They’ll likely maintain that position regardless of whether hard questions and solid examples suggest otherwise, dodging as much as they can by pointing to the positive outcomes of their companies’ actions. Unless there’s a real curveball, all of the CEOs will emerge largely unscathed from the event, with an even greater chance of remaining in their positions than the legislators who questioned them.
But the real question isn’t whether Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google have made positive contributions. Each company certainly has accomplished amazing feats over the past two decades, and society wouldn’t be the same without even one of them, to say nothing of all of them. Rather, today’s issue is whether they’ve also hurt consumers, leveraging their power to restrain competition or become monopolies. And no matter how much you may love any or all of the services these companies provide, each one of them has hurt competition and used its market strength to force smaller players to comply with uncomfortable rules. Only time and further investigations will firmly establish whether they crossed the lines of legality with their actions, or rode as close to the edge as they could. Those investigations will continue past this Congress and shadow each company for the foreseeable future.
So treat today’s hearing as a preview of what will likely become a bigger topic in the years to come. You can watch a livestream of the event, titled “ Examining the Dominance of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google ,” here.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Researchers find AI is bad at predicting GPA, grit, eviction, job training, layoffs, and material hardship | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/03/30/ai-is-bad-at-predicting-gpa-grit-eviction-job-training-layoffs-and-material-hardship"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Researchers find AI is bad at predicting GPA, grit, eviction, job training, layoffs, and material hardship Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
A paper coauthored by over 112 researchers across 160 data and social science teams found that AI and statistical models, when used to predict six life outcomes for children, parents, and households, weren’t very accurate even when trained on 13,000 data points from over 4,000 families. They assert that the work is a cautionary tale on the use of predictive modeling, especially in the criminal justice system and social support programs.
“Here’s a setting where we have hundreds of participants and a rich data set, and even the best AI results are still not accurate,” said study co-lead author Matt Salganik, a professor of sociology at Princeton and interim director of the Center for Information Technology Policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. “These results show us that machine learning isn’t magic; there are clearly other factors at play when it comes to predicting the life course.” Fragile Families Study The study, which was published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , is the fruit of the Fragile Families Challenge, a multi-year collaboration that sought to recruit researchers to complete a predictive task by predicting the same outcomes using the same data. Over 457 groups applied, of which 160 were selected to participate, and their predictions were evaluated with an error metric that assessed their ability to predict held-out data (i.e., data held by the organizer and not available to the participants).
The Challenge was an outgrowth of the Fragile Families Study (formerly Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study) based at Princeton, Columbia University, and the University of Michigan, which has been studying a cohort of about 5,000 children born in 20 large American cities between 1998 and 2000. It’s designed to oversample births to unmarried couples in those cities, and to address four questions of interest to researchers and policymakers: VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! The conditions and capabilities of unmarried parents The nature of the relationships between unmarried parents How the children born into these families fare How policies and environmental conditions affect families and children “When we began, I really didn’t know what a mass collaboration was, but I knew it would be a good idea to introduce our data to a new group of researchers: data scientists,” said Sara McLanahan, the William S. Tod Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton. “The results were eye-opening.” The Fragile Families Study data set consists of modules, each of which is made up of roughly 10 sections, where each section includes questions about a topic asked of the children’s parents, caregivers, teachers, and the children themselves. For example, a mother who recently gave birth might be asked about relationships with extended kin, government programs, and marriage attitudes, while a 9-year-old child might be asked about parental supervision, sibling relationships, and school. In addition to the surveys, the corpus contains the results of in-home assessments, including psychometric testing, biometric measurements, and observations of neighborhoods and homes.
The goal of the Challenge was to predict the social outcomes of children aged 15 years, which encompasses 1,617 variables. From the variables, six were selected to be the focus: Grade point average Grit Household eviction Material hardship Primary caregiver layoff Primary caregiver participation in job training Contributing researchers were provided anonymized background data from 4,242 families and 12,942 variables about each family, as well as training data incorporating the six outcomes for half of the families. Once the Challenge was completed, all 160 submissions were scored using the holdout data.
In the end, even the best of the over 3,000 models submitted — which often used complex AI methods and had access to thousands of predictor variables — weren’t spot on. In fact, they were only marginally better than linear regression and logistic regression, which don’t rely on any form of machine learning.
“Either luck plays a major role in people’s lives, or our theories as social scientists are missing some important variable,” added McLanahan. “It’s too early at this point to know for sure.” Measured by the coefficient of determination, or the correlation of the best model’s predictions with the ground truth data, “material hardship” — i.e., whether 15-year-old children’s parents suffered financial issues — was .23, or 23% accuracy. GPA predictions were 0.19 (19%), while grit, eviction, job training, and layoffs were 0.06 (6%), 0.05 (5%), and 0.03 (3%), respectively.
“The results raise questions about the relative performance of complex machine-learning models compared with simple benchmark models. In the … Challenge, the simple benchmark model with only a few predictors was only slightly worse than the most accurate submission, and it actually outperformed many of the submissions,” concluded the study’s coauthors. “Therefore, before using complex predictive models, we recommend that policymakers determine whether the achievable level of predictive accuracy is appropriate for the setting where the predictions will be used, whether complex models are more accurate than simple models or domain experts in their setting, and whether possible improvement in predictive performance is worth the additional costs to create, test, and understand the more complex model.” The research team is currently applying for grants to continue studies in this area, and they’ve also published 12 of the teams’ results in a special issue of a journal called Socius , a new open-access journal from the American Sociological Association. In order to support additional research, all the submissions to the Challenge — including the code, predictions, and narrative explanations — will be made publicly available.
Algorithmic bias The Challenge isn’t the first to expose the predictive shortcomings of AI and machine learning models. The Partnership on AI, a nonprofit coalition committed to the responsible use of AI, concluded in its first-ever report last year that algorithms are unfit to automate the pre-trial bail process or label some people as high-risk and detain them. The use of algorithms in decision making for judges has been known to produce race-based unfair results that are more likely to label African-American inmates as at risk of recidivism.
It’s well-understood that AI has a bias problem. For instance, word embedding, a common algorithmic training technique that involves linking words to vectors, unavoidably picks up — and at worst amplifies — prejudices implicit in source text and dialogue. A recent study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) found that many facial recognition systems misidentify people of color more often than Caucasian faces. And Amazon’s internal recruitment tool — which was trained on resumes submitted over a 10-year period — was reportedly scrapped because it showed bias against women.
A number of solutions have been proposed, from algorithmic tools to services that detect bias by crowdsourcing large training data sets.
In June 2019, working with experts in AI fairness, Microsoft revised and expanded the data sets it uses to train Face API , a Microsoft Azure API that provides algorithms for detecting, recognizing, and analyzing human faces in images. Last May, Facebook announced Fairness Flow, which automatically sends a warning if an algorithm is making an unfair judgment about a person based on their race, gender, or age. Google recently released the What-If Tool, a bias-detecting feature of the TensorBoard web dashboard for its TensorFlow machine learning framework. Not to be outdone, IBM last fall released AI Fairness 360 , a cloud-based, fully automated suite that “continually provides [insights]” into how AI systems are making their decisions and recommends adjustments — such as algorithmic tweaks or counterbalancing data — that might lessen the impact of prejudice.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Some essential reading and research on race and technology | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/02/some-essential-reading-and-research-on-race-and-technology"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Some essential reading and research on race and technology Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn At this extraordinary moment in U.S. history, the evils of racism are on full display. It’s no secret that technology has played a role in enabling racism to foment and spread. This is an ideal time to read, listen, and learn. Below are many resources — research, articles, and books — that speak to the intersection of race and bias in technology, particularly in the field of AI. These are a starting point for the education that all responsible citizens should acquire.
Gender Shades — Landmark work from Joy Buolamwini, Dr. Timnit Gebru, Dr. Helen Raynham, and Deborah Raji that examines how facial recognition systems perform on different genders and races.
Voicing Erasure — A spoken word piece inspired by research led by Allison Koenecke that demonstrates how five popular speech recognition systems perform worst on African American Vernacular English speakers.
AI Now’s Algorithmic Accountability Policy Toolkit — A resource from the AI Now Institute “geared toward advocates interested in understanding government use of algorithmic systems,” per the organization’s website.
NIST study evaluates effects of race, age, sex on face recognition software — A report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
StereoSet: A measure of bias in language models — Work from MIT that “measures racism, sexism, and otherwise discriminatory behavior in a model, while also ensuring that the underlying language model performance remains strong.” Discriminating systems: Gender, race, and power in AI — Research from the AI Now Institute that examines the scope and scale of the diversity crisis in AI.
The future of work in black America — A report from McKinsey that looks at how automation may be widening the wealth gap between black families and white families in the United States.
Advancing racial literacy in tech — Work from the Data & Society project by Dr. Jessie Daniels, Mutale Nkonde, and Dr. Darakhshan Mir explains why “ethics, diversity in hiring, and implicit bias training aren’t enough” to establish real racial literacy in the tech world.
Machine bias — A Pro Publica article that exposes how predictive algorithms in the criminal justice system are biased against black people.
Technological elites, the meritocracy, and postracial myths in Silicon Valley — A book chapter in which Dr. Safiya Noble and Dr. Sarah Roberts explore “some of the ways in which discourses of Silicon Valley technocratic elites bolster investments in post-racialism as a pretext for reconsolidations of capital, in opposition to public policy commitments to end discriminatory labor practices,” per the abstract.
Some key books to read on the subject of race and technology include Algorithms of Oppression by Dr. Safiya Noble; Race After Technology by Ruha Benjamin; Technicolor: Race, Technology, and Everyday Life by Alondra Nelson; Race, Rhetoric, and Technology by Dr. Adam J. Banks; and Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World by Meredith Broussard.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"AI Weekly: AI phrenology is racist nonsense, so of course it doesn't work | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/12/ai-weekly-ai-phrenology-is-racist-nonsense-so-of-course-it-doesnt-work"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages AI Weekly: AI phrenology is racist nonsense, so of course it doesn’t work Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn People walk past a poster simulating facial recognition software at the Security China 2018 exhibition on public safety and security in Beijing, China October 24, 2018.
Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
In a paper titled “ The ‘Criminality From Face’ Illusion ” posted this week on Arxiv.org, a trio of researchers surgically debunked recent research that claims to be able to use AI to determine criminality from people’s faces. Their primary target is a paper in which researchers claim they can do just that, boasting some results with accuracy as high as 97%.
But the authors representing the IEEE — Kevin Bowyer and Walter Scheirer of the University of Notre Dame and Michael King of the Florida Institute of Technology — argue that this sort of facial recognition technology is “necessarily doomed to fail,” and that the strong claims are primarily an illusory result of poor experimental design.
In their rebuttal, the authors show the math, so to speak, but you don’t have to comb through their arguments to know that claims about being able to detect a person’s criminality from their facial features is bogus. It’s just modern-day phrenology and physiognomy.
Phrenology is an old idea that the bumps on a person’s skull indicate what sort of person they are and what type and level of intelligence they can attain. Physiognomy is essentially the same idea, but it’s even older and is more about inferring who a person is by their physical appearance rather than the shape of their skull. Both are inherently deeply racist ideas, used for “scientific racism” and clear-eyed justification for atrocities such as slavery.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! And both ideas have been widely and soundly debunked and condemned, yet they’re not dead. They were just waiting for some sheep’s clothing, which they found in facial recognition technology.
The problems with accuracy and bias in facial recognition are well documented. The landmark Gender Shades work by Joy Buolamwini, Dr. Timnit Gebru, Dr. Helen Raynham, and Deborah Raji showed how major facial recognition systems performed worse on women and people with darker skin. Dr. Ruha Benjamin, author, Princeton University associate professor of African American Studies, and director of the Just Data Lab said in a talk earlier this year that those who create AI models must take into consideration social and historical contexts.
Her assertion is echoed and unpacked by cognitive science researcher Abeba Birhane in her paper “ Algorithmic Injustices: Towards a Relational Ethics ,” for which she won the Best Paper Award at NeurIPS 2019. Birhane wrote in the paper that “concerns surrounding algorithmic decision making and algorithmic injustice require fundamental rethinking above and beyond technical solutions.” This week, as protests continue all around the country, the social and historic contexts of white supremacy and racial inequality are on full display. And the dangers of facial recognition use by law enforcement is front and center. In a trio of articles, VentureBeat senior AI writer Khari Johnson detailed how IBM walked away from its facial recognition tech , Amazon put a one-year moratorium on police use of its facial recognition tech , and Microsoft pledged not to sell its facial recognition tech to police until there’s a national law in place around its use.
Which brings us back to the IEEE paper. Like the work done by the aforementioned researchers in exposing broken and biased AI, these authors are performing the commendable and unfortunately necessary task of picking apart bad research. In addition to some historical context, they explain in detail why and how the data sets and research design are flawed.
Though they do discuss it in their conclusion, the authors do not engage directly in the fundamental moral problem of criminality-by-face research. In taking a technological and research methodology approach to debunking the claims, they leave room for someone to make the argument that future technological or scientific advancements could make this phrenology and physiognomy nonsense possible. Ironically, in their approach, there’s a danger of legitimizing these ideas.
This is not a criticism of Bowyer, Scheirer, and King. They’re fighting (and winning) a battle here. There will always be battles, because there will always be charlatans who claim to know a person from their outward appearance, and you have to debunk them in that moment in time with the tools and language available.
But the long-running war is about that question itself. It’s a flawed question, because the very notion of phrenology comes from a place of white supremacy. Which is to say, it’s an illegitimate question to begin with.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Apple faces European antitrust investigations into App Store and Apple Pay | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/16/apple-faces-european-antitrust-investigation-into-app-store-rules"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Apple faces European antitrust investigations into App Store and Apple Pay Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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The European Commission (EC) has formally opened an antitrust investigation into Apple over rules that force developers to use Apple’s in-app purchasing technology and prohibit them from notifying customers of alternative ways to purchase or subscribe to content.
The EC has also opened a separate antitrust investigation into Apple Pay over concerns Apple has restricted how Apple Pay is integrated into merchant apps and websites, as well as limiting rival payment services’ ability to access near field communication (NFC) technology for in-store payments.
App Store The EC has been building its App Store case for more than a year , following a complaint made by music streaming giant Spotify in March 2019. Spotify alleged Apple’s business model gives it an “unfair advantage” in the music streaming market. The EC notes that an “ebook and audiobook distributor” filed a similar complaint in March of this year. The party’s name was not revealed, but the Financial Times reported that it was Kobo, a subsidiary of Japanese tech titan Rakuten, which rivals Amazon’s Kindle in the ereader space.
The EC says its investigation centers on how Apple applies its rules to third-party apps that compete with its own services in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Spotify’s beef with Apple goes back many years and is largely targeted at the way Apple controls the iOS platform. Spotify relies on the App Store to distribute its mobile app to iPhone and iPad users. For those using Spotify’s ad-supported free service, things are relatively straightforward. But when someone tries to subscribe to Spotify for $10 per month, Apple would historically take a cut of up to 30%. Spotify initially raised its subscription fee on the App Store to offset those costs but removed the premium subscription option altogether back in 2016. Netflix has ditched App Store billing for similar reasons.
The upshot of all this is that iPhone and iPad users wishing to sign up for a premium subscription on Spotify need to do so through a web browser (or Android), bypassing Apple’s payment system. To rub salt in the wounds, Apple prohibits app makers from telling customers how to sign up for a premium plan outside of its ecosystem — they can’t mention anything about it in the App Store notes, for example.
The EC said that following its preliminary investigation it has concerns Apple’s restrictions “may distort competition for music streaming services on Apple’s devices,” adding: Apple’s competitors have either decided to disable the in-app subscription possibility altogether or have raised their subscription prices in the app and passed on Apple’s fee to consumers. In both cases, they were not allowed to inform users about alternative subscription possibilities outside of the app. The IAP [in-app purchase] obligation also appears to give Apple full control over the relationship with customers of its competitors subscribing in the app, thus dis-intermediating its competitors from important customer data while Apple may obtain valuable data about the activities and offers of its competitors.
While Apple has countered Spotify’s complaints in the past, arguing its rival wants to reap all the benefits conferred on free apps without being free , Apple has largely failed to address the gargantuan elephant in the room, which is Apple Music. Apple’s move to charge rivals such as Spotify a 30% commission for in-app payments has forced them down two potential paths: adding a 30% premium to their subscriptions to offset the fee, or removing the subscription option altogether. Apple Music, meanwhile, faces no such dilemmas.
Kobo’s complaint is almost identical to Spotify’s, according to the EC — Apple also operates an ebook reading service, while Kobo sells books through Apple’s mobile app with a fee of up to 30% attached.
Apple Pay European regulators have been threatening action over Apple Pay and NFC since at least 2018, so a formal investigation is no surprise. The crux of the issue is that Apple’s devices only allow contactless NFC payments to be made with Apple Pay, thus cutting off competing payment services from Apple’s devices.
The EC also expressed concerns over terms and conditions relating to Apple Pay’s integration into apps and websites, which “may distort competition and reduce choice and innovation.” Moreover, the investigation will focus on Apple’s “alleged restrictions” on rival products’ access to Apple Pay on iOS and iPadOS devices.
Apple issued the following statement in response to the EC’s announcement.
Throughout our history, Apple has created groundbreaking new products and services in some of the most fiercely competitive markets in the world. We follow the law in everything we do and we embrace competition at every stage because we believe it pushes us to deliver even better results.
We developed the App Store with two goals in mind: that it be a safe and trusted place for customers to discover and download apps, and a great business opportunity for entrepreneurs and developers. We’re deeply proud of the countless developers who’ve innovated and found success through our platform. And as we’ve grown together, we’ve continued to deliver innovative new services — like Apple Pay — that provide the very best customer experience while meeting industry-leading standards for privacy and security.
It’s disappointing the European Commission is advancing baseless complaints from a handful of companies who simply want a free ride, and don’t want to play by the same rules as everyone else. We don’t think that’s right — we want to maintain a level playing field where anyone with determination and a great idea can succeed.
At the end of the day, our goal is simple: for our customers to have access to the best app or service of their choice, in a safe and secure environment. We welcome the opportunity to show the European Commission all we’ve done to make that goal a reality.
The EC did not offer a timeline for the investigations but said it would carry them out “as a matter of priority.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Letter decrying predictive criminality AI research paper passes 1,000 signatures | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/23/letter-decrying-predictive-criminality-ai-research-paper-passes-1000-signatures"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Letter decrying predictive criminality AI research paper passes 1,000 signatures Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Face / Facial Recognition Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
The Coalition for Critical Technology (CCT) penned a letter opposing the publication of research called “A Deep Neural Network Model to Predict Criminality Using Image Processing.” At the time of publication the letter has more than 1,000 signatures from researchers, practitioners, academics, and others. According to a press release from Harrisburg University , the paper is slated for publication in a book series from Springer Publishing, and the letter urges readers to demand that Springer pull the paper and condemn the use of criminal justice statistics to predict criminality.
The use of algorithms in predictive policing is a fraught subject. As the CCT letter elaborates, criminal justice data is notoriously flawed. “Countless studies have shown that people of color are treated more harshly than similarly situated white people at every stage of the legal system, which results in serious distortions in the data,” the letter reads. One of the primary researchers on the Harrisburg University paper, Jonathan Korn, is a former NYPD officer.
According to Harrisburg University’s press release, the paper promises, “With 80% accuracy and with no racial bias, the software can predict if someone is a criminal based solely on a picture of their face. The software is intended to help law enforcement prevent crime.” The notion of determining criminality from a person’s face is fundamentally racist and has deep roots in historical pseudoscience; using facial recognition technology is just a modern means of attempting to answer the same flawed question.
The CCT’s letter begins by condemning the very idea of the researcher’s question: “Such claims are based on unsound scientific premises, research, and methods, which numerous studies spanning our respective disciplines have debunked over the years.” VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! This is not the first time the paper in question has appeared. In early May, Harrisburg University pushed out the same press release, only to take it down after harsh criticism. Motherboard kept an archived version of the release and reported that one of the researchers , Nathaniel J.S. Ashby, said in an email, “The post/tweet was taken down until we have time to draft a release with details about the research which will address the concerns raised.” But it’s unclear what has changed since May. The “new” press release is identical to the first one, and Ashby declined to respond to VentureBeat’s questions about how they’ve changed the paper. VentureBeat asked Springer if it will accede to the CCT’s demands, but the publisher has not responded at this time. (Updates: On June 23, although Springer had not yet responded to VentureBeat, the company confirmed on Twitter that it will not publish the article. The company did not expound on its plans for any of the group’s other demands. On June 25, Springer did respond to VentureBeat stating that the paper was earlier rejected for publication.) Here is Springer’s June 25 response to VentureBeat: “We acknowledge the concern regarding this paper and would like to clarify at no time was this accepted for publication. It was submitted to a forthcoming conference for which Springer will publish the proceedings of in the book series Transactions on Computational Science and Computational Intelligence and went through a thorough peer review process. The series editor’s decision to reject the final paper was made on Tuesday 16th June and was officially communicated to the authors on Monday 22nd June. The details of the review process and conclusions drawn remain confidential between the editor, peer reviewers and authors.” An overarching issue is the inability of technology to determine things that are fundamentally socially constructed and defined. “Machine learning does not have a built-in mechanism for investigating or discussing the social and political merits of its outputs,” the letter asserts. This reflects Dr. Ruha Benjamin’s statement from a talk earlier this year in which she explained that “computational depth without historic or sociological depth is superficial learning.” Researcher Abeba Birhane further unpacks this notion in her award-winning paper “ Algorithmic Injustices: Towards a Relational Ethics.
” The CCT’s letter is a rich resource for prior research on the topics of criminality, predictive policing, facial recognition, and related issues.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"AI needs systemic solutions to systemic bias, injustice, and inequality | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/18/ai-needs-systemic-solutions-to-systemic-bias-injustice-and-inequality"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages AI needs systemic solutions to systemic bias, injustice, and inequality Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
At the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion breakfast at VentureBeat’s AI-focused Transform 2020 event , a panel of AI practitioners, leaders, and academics discussed the changes that need to happen in the industry to make AI safer, more equitable, and more representative of the people to whom AI is applied.
The wide-ranging conversation was hosted by Krystal Maughan, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Vermont, who focuses on machine learning, differential privacy, and provable fairness. The group discussed the need for higher accountability from tech companies, inclusion of multiple stakeholders and domain experts in AI decision making, practical ways to adjust AI project workflows, and representation at all stages of AI development and at all levels — especially where the power brokers meet. In other words, although there are systemic problems, there are systemic solutions as well.
Tech company accountability The old Silicon Valley mantra “move fast and break things” has not aged well in the era of AI. It presupposes that tech companies exist in some sort of amoral liminal space, apart from the rest of the world where everything exists in social and historical contexts.
“We can see all around the world that tech is being deployed in a way that’s pulling apart the fabric of our society. And I think the reason why is because … tech companies historically don’t see that they’re part of that social compact that holds society together,” said Will Griffin, chief ethics officer at Hypergiant.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Justin Norman, vice president of data science at Yelp, agreed, pointing out the power that tech companies wield because they possess tools that can be incredibly dangerous. “And so not only do they have an ethical responsibility, which is something they should do before they’ve done anything wrong, they also have a responsibility to hold themselves accountable when things go wrong.” But, Norman added, we — all of us, the global community — have a responsibility here as well. “We don’t want to simply accept that any kind of corporation has unlimited power against us, any government has unlimited power over us,” he said, asserting that people need to educate themselves about these technologies so when they encounter something dubious, they know when to push back.
Both Griffin and Ayodele Odubela, a data scientist at SambaSafety, pointed out the strength of the accountability that communities can bring to bear on seemingly immovable institutions. Griffin called Black Lives Matter activists “amazing.” He said, “Those kids are right now the leaders in AI as well, because they’re the ones who identified that law enforcement was using facial recognition, and through that pressure on institutional investors — who were the equity holders of these large corporations — it forced IBM to pull back on facial recognition, and that forced Microsoft and Amazon to follow suit.” That pressure, which surged in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, has apparently also begun to topple the institution of law enforcement as we know it by amplifying the movement to defund the police.
Odubela sees the specter of law enforcement’s waning power as an opportunity for good. Defunding the police actually means funding things like social services, she argues. “One of the ideas I really like is trying to take some of these biased algorithms and really repurpose them to understand the problems that we may be putting on the wrong kind of institutions,” she said. “Look at the problems we’re putting on police forces, like mental illness. We know that police officers are not trained to deal with people who have mental illnesses.” These social and political victories should ideally lead to policy changes. In response to Maughan’s question about what policy changes could encourage tech companies to get serious about addressing bias in AI, Norman pulled it right back to the responsibility of citizens in communities. “Policy and law tell us what we must do,” he said. “But community governance tells us what we should do, and that’s largely an ethical practice.” “I think that when people approach issues of diversity, or they approach issues of ethics in the discipline, they don’t appreciate the challenge that we’re up against, because … engineering and computer science is the only discipline that has this much impact on so many people that does not have any ethical reasoning, any ethical requirements,” Griffin added. He contrasted tech with fields like medicine and law, which have made ethics a core part of their educational training for centuries, and where practitioners are required to hold a license issued by a governing body.
Where it hurts Odubela took these thoughts a step beyond the need for policy work by saying, “Policy is part of it, but a lot of what will really force these companies into caring about this is if they see financial damages.” For businesses, their bottom line is where it hurts. One could argue that it’s almost crass to think about effecting change through capitalist means. On the other hand, if companies are profiting from questionable or unjust artificial intelligence products, services, or tools, it follows that justice could come by eliminating that incentive.
Griffin illustrated this point by talking about facial recognition systems that big tech companies have sold, especially to law enforcement agencies — how none of them were vetted, and now the companies are pulling them back. “If you worked on computer vision at IBM for the last 10 years, you just watched your work go up in smoke ,” he said. “Same at Amazon , same at Microsoft.
” Another example Griffin gave: A company called Practice Fusion digitizes electronic health records (EHR) for smaller doctors’ offices and medical practices and runs machine learning on those records, as well as other outside data, and helps provide prescription recommendations to caregivers.
AllScripts bought Practice Fusion for $100 million in January 2018. But a Department of Justice (DoJ) investigation discovered that Practice Fusion was getting kickbacks from a major opioid company in exchange for recommending those opioids to patients. In January 2020, the DoJ levied a $145 million fine in the case.
On top of that, as a result of the scandal, “AllScripts’ market cap dropped in half,” Griffin said.
“They walked themselves straight into the opioid crisis. They used AI really in the worst way you can use AI,” he added.
He said that although that’s one specific case that was fully litigated, there are more out there. “Most companies are not vetting their technologies in any way. There are land mines — AI land mines — in use cases that are currently available in the marketplace, inside companies, that are ticking time bombs waiting to go off.” There’s a reckoning growing on the research side, too, as in recent weeks both the ImageNet and 80 Million Tiny Images data sets have been called to account over bias concerns.
It takes time, thought, and expense to ensure that your company is building AI that is just, accurate, and as free of bias as possible, but the “bottom line” argument for doing so is salient. Any AI system failures, especially around bias, “cost a lot more than implementing this process, I promise you,” Norman said.
Practical solutions: workflows and domain experts These problems are not intractable, much as they may seem. There are practical solutions companies can employ, right now, to radically improve the equity and safety in the ideation, design, development, testing, and deployment of AI systems.
A first step is bringing in more stakeholders to projects, like domain experts. “We have a pretty strong responsibility to incorporate learnings from multiple fields,” Norman said, noting that adding social science experts is a great complement to the skill sets that practitioners and developers possess. “What we can do as a part of our own power as people who are in the field is incorporate that input into our designs, into our code reviews,” he said. At Yelp, they require that a project passes an ethics and diversity check at all levels of the process. Norman said that as they go, they’ll pull in a data expert, someone from user research, statisticians, and those who work on the actual algorithms to add some interpretability. If they don’t have the right expertise in-house, they’ll work with a consultancy.
“From a developer standpoint, there actually are tools available for model interpretability, and they’ve been around for a long time. The challenge isn’t necessarily always that there isn’t the ability to do this work — it’s that it’s not emphasized, invested in, or part of the design development process,” Norman said. He added that it’s important to make space for the researchers who are studying the algorithms themselves and are the leading voices in the next generation of design.
Griffin said that Hypergiant has a heuristic for its AI projects called “TOME,” for “top of mind ethics,” which they break down by use case. “With this use case, is there a positive intent behind the way we intend to use the technology? Step two is where we challenge our designers, our developers, [our] data scientists … to broaden their imaginations. And that is the categorical imperative,” he said. They ask what the world would look like if everyone in their company, the industry, and in the world used the technology for this use case — and they ask if that is desirable. “Step three requires people to step up hardcore in their citizenship role, which is [asking the question]: Are people being used as a means to an end, or is this use case designed to benefit people?” Yakaira Núñez, a senior director at Salesforce, said there’s an opportunity right now to change the way we do software development. “That change needs to consider the fact that anything that involves AI is now a systems design problem,” she said. “And when you’re embarking upon a systems design problem, then you have to think of all of the vectors that are going to be impacted by that. So that might be health care. That might be access to financial assistance. That might be impacts from a legal perspective, and so on and so forth.” She advocates to “increase the discovery and the design time that’s allocated to these projects and these initiatives to integrate things like consequence scanning, like model cards , and actually hold yourself accountable to the findings … during your discovery and your design time. And to mitigate the risks that are uncovered when you’re doing the systems design work.” Odubela brought up the issue of how to uncover the blind spots we all have. “Sometimes it does take consulting with people who aren’t like us to point these [blind spots] out,” she said. “That’s something that I’ve personally had to do in the past, but taking that extra time to make sure we’re not excluding groups of people, and we’re not baking these prejudices that already exist in society straight into our models — it really does come [down] to relying on other people, because there are some things we just can’t see.” Núñez echoed Odubela, noting that “As a leader you’re responsible for understanding and reflecting, and being self aware enough to know that you have your biases. It’s also your responsibility to build a board of advisors that keeps you in check.” “The key is getting it into the workflows,” Griffin noted. “If it doesn’t get into the workflow, it doesn’t get into the technology; if it doesn’t get into the technology, it won’t change the culture.” Representation Not much of this is possible, though, without improved representation of underrepresented groups in critical positions. As Griffin pointed out, this particular panel comprises leaders who have the decision-making power to implement practical changes in workflows right away. “Assuming that [the people on this panel] are in a position to flat-out stop a use case, and say ‘Listen, nope, this doesn’t pass muster, not happening’ — when developers, designers, data scientists know that they can’t run you over, they think differently,” he said. “All of a sudden everyone becomes a brilliant philosopher. Everybody’s a social scientist. They figure out how to think about people when they know their work will not go forward.” But that’s not the case within enough companies, even though it’s critically important. “The subtext here is that in order to execute against this, this also means that you have to have a very diverse team applying the lens of the end user, the lens of those impacted into that development lifecycle. Checks and balances have to be built in from the start,” Núñez said.
Griffin offered an easy-to-understand benchmark to aim for: “For diversity and inclusion, when you have African Americans who have equity stakes in your company — and that can come in the form of founders, founding teams, C-suite, board seats, allowed to be investors — when you have diversity at the cap table, you have success.” And that needs to happen fast. Griffin said that although he’s seeing lots of good programs and initiatives coming out of the companies whose boards he sits on, like boot camps, college internships, and mentorship programs, they’re not going to be immediately transformative. “Those are marathons,” he said. “But nobody on these boards I’m with got into tech to run a marathon — they got in to run a sprint. … They want to raise money, build value, and get rewarded for it.” But we are in a unique moment that portends a wave of change. Griffin said, “I have never in my lifetime seen a time like the last 45 days, where you can actually come out, use your voice, have it be amplified, without the fear that you’re going to be beaten back by another voice saying, ‘We’re not thinking about that right now.’ Now everybody’s thinking about it.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Antitrust hearing: Amazon, Facebook, and Google were questioned 2x more than Apple | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/29/antitrust-hearing-amazon-facebook-google-questioned-more-than-apple"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Antitrust hearing: Amazon, Facebook, and Google were questioned 2x more than Apple Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Apple CEO Tim Cook compared to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai testify virtually on Webex.
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At the “Online Platforms and Market Power” virtual antitrust hearing today, the House Judiciary Committee questioned Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai over Webex. But they weren’t all questioned equally. Most of the questions were directed at Bezos, Zuckerberg, and Pichai — each of them was in the hot seat for at least 50 minutes, by our measure. Cook, on the other hand, was only asked a handful of questions for about 25 minutes. This breakdown of how many times each CEO was questioned by a congressperson today shows where the antitrust focus is, and isn’t: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos: 13 times Apple CEO Tim Cook: 7 times Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg: 16 times Google CEO Sundar Pichai: 16 times Antitrust investigations matter to the companies being scrutinized but also to the businesses that depend on them. In this case, that includes, but is not limited to, any business that sells goods on Amazon; wants its website to show up in Google search results; offers an iOS app on Apple’s App Store; or uses ads to target potential customers via Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission are pursuing antitrust investigations into all four companies.
One of the many problems with asking the four CEOs to appear on the same day is that some will inevitably get more screen time than others. The committee clearly focused on Amazon, Facebook, and Google for their anti-competitive behaviors. Bezos was taken to task over Amazon using seller-specific data to determine what products to manufacture and sell itself. Pichai was repeatedly criticized for Google’s decision to prioritize its own products and services in its search results. Zuckerberg was frequently questioned about Facebook acquiring competing social networks, especially Instagram. Cook, meanwhile, talked about Apple’s App Store a handful of times, and that was that.
Above: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Apple CEO Tim Cook being sworn in virtually on Webex Compared to Cook, the other three CEOs each spent 3 times longer representing their respective companies. That’s good news for Apple. It’s not such good news for businesses that build on Apple’s platforms.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! While today’s hearing is a significant public event, it is a small part of the larger series of antitrust investigations into Big Tech. We will hear more about those over the next few months, especially following the U.S. elections in November.
All four companies report their latest quarterly earnings tomorrow. The respective earnings calls may be less yawn-inducing than usual. The results will encompass the first full quarter during the coronavirus pandemic. Investors may also have follow-up questions regarding today’s hearing.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"China removes Supercell's Hay Day and 2,500 other games from iOS app store | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/07/14/china-removes-supercells-hay-day-and-2500-other-games-from-ios-app-store"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages China removes Supercell’s Hay Day and 2,500 other games from iOS app store Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Hay Day hit the market in 2012 and beat FarmVille.
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The Chinese government has cracked down on unlicensed mobile games in China’s Apple App Store, removing more than 2,500 in the first week of July, according to measurement firm Sensor Tower.
Among those removed are Hay Day from Supercell, which launched the farming game back in 2012. Also gone are Nonstop Chuck Norris from Flaregames, Contract Killer Zombies 2 from Glu, ASMR Slicing from Crazy Labs, and Solitaire from Zynga. Apple is removing the games at the request of the Chinese government.
For years, China has been the No. 1 mobile game market in the world, and it generated the highest revenue of any country on Apple’s App Store, with 2019 revenues of $12.6 billion. So far, the games removed have been a small part of that revenue. But Sensor Tower expects China to order more removals in the coming weeks.
Sensor Tower said the games are being removed in advance of a July 31 deadline for all games to have licenses from the Chinese government. In the meantime, 660 games have received licenses and have been approved. Sensor Tower said there were four times more removals in the first week of July and than in the first week in June, and five times more removals than in the first week of May.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! China’s mobile game regulations require that all titles receive a license from the country’s National Press and Publication Administration before release to ensure the apps meet the country’s strict rules on content. In the past, games were able to get on the iOS app store without approval. But Apple is now adhering to the regulations. The game makers have until July 31 to enter their approval number and supporting documentation to their game’s page in the app store. After July 31, games without an ISBN will be removed until a license number is provided, Sensor Tower said.
Above: China’s game removals are increasing in the China Apple App Store.
The games removed in the first seven days of July had generated a combined $34.7 million in lifetime gross revenue in China, and had accumulated more than 133 million downloads in the country.
Sensor Tower said its 2,500 game figure is only capturing those games that were large enough to rank in the App Store’s game subcategories at some point. Of the games removed, nearly 2,000 titles had generated less than 10,000 downloads since 2012.
“Apple is following through on enforcing an existing regulation that prohibits publishing and distributing games without a government-issued ISBN,” Niko Partners president Lisa Cosmas Hanson said in an email. “The overall impact on the China derived mobile games market revenue will be minimal, as 97 of the top 100 games have the requisite license. The emotional impact on the removal of thousands of games is significant. The law isn’t new.” Cosmas Hanson said the application fee is negligible. But she said it is a tedious process and a developer will need to know what to do and submit the forms in Chinese.
Sensor Tower said that the Chinese government has a list of requirements for obtaining a license to release mobile games there, and each title requires its own license. Third-party Android stores there have enforced the requirement for several years and Apple has recently needed to do so as well in order to continue operating the App Store within China. We’ve heard varying estimates for the amount of the fee.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
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"AI Foundation raises $10 million to launch products that benefit humanity | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2018/09/18/ai-foundation-raises-10-million-to-launch-products-that-benefit-humanity"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages AI Foundation raises $10 million to launch products that benefit humanity Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
The AI Foundation today announced the closure of a $10 million funding round to commercialize products that benefit humanity.
AI Foundation declined to go into details about the kinds of products it plans to commercialize, but said they will be aligned with the company’s mission to democratize and decentralize artificial intelligence, CEO Lars Buttler told VentureBeat in a phone interview.
The AI Foundation’s first product, released recently, called Reality Defender, combines human moderation and machine learning to identify malicious content meant to deceive people such as deepfakes.
“We think this is going to be a huge problem going forward,” Buttler said.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Created in 2017 and operated in stealth until recently, the AI Foundation attempts to be both a commercial and social venture with a mission to create personalized AI that can be used by all people.
To this end, the AI Foundation created its own Global AI Council that attempts to anticipate and counteract the negative effects of AI.
“What can go wrong in the short term? Meaning literally in the next year, five years, existing AI technology — not talking about general AI where the world might end, it’s all about existing technology,” he said. “How can it be used to improve people’s lives in a dramatic way and what tools and products can we develop in the short term that can actually work and counteract things?” Founders Fund partner Cyan Banister and You & Mr. Jones founder David Jones will join the AI Foundation’s board of directors, while Twitter cofounder Biz Stone has joined the Global AI Council.
The $10 million round was led by You & Mr. Jones and Founders Fund with participation from Endeavor and Biz Stone, among others.
The AI Foundation is based in San Francisco and currently has 25 employees.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Wave raises $30 million for superstars to stage virtual concerts | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/10/wave-raises-30-million-for-superstars-to-stage-virtual-concerts"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Wave raises $30 million for superstars to stage virtual concerts Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
Learn more.
Wave , the virtual concert company that facilitates live music in virtual settings, has raised $30 million in funding. Wave uses broadcast and gaming technology to create motion-captured performances of artists and turn them into animated characters in virtual worlds. The company also works with music labels, management companies, and independent artists to connect their rosters of talent with concertgoers.
Wave recently announced its “One Wave” series of virtual concerts featuring John Legend, Tinashe, and others.
The upcoming virtual experiences will provide Wave artists with a platform to create digital avatars and environments that represent their artistic vision in real time.
The funding news comes just after Epic Games announced that its live concerts for Travis Scott in Fortnite drew more than 27 million viewers to his Astronomical show.
Wave CEO Adam Arrigo said in an interview with GamesBeat that he believes the virtual concert space is gaining momentum, particularly as people are shut in their homes and unable to go to concerts. “The whole space started to really pick up, and it was less about us going out and pitching for the next thing and more about just finding the right partners that would kind of help us take it to the next level,” said Arrigo.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Most of the investors for this round were already on board in January. Then the coronavirus hit and the value of virtual concerts became a lot more obvious. Phil Sanderson, managing director at Griffin Gaming Partners, said in an interview with GamesBeat that he thinks simply watching music online is boring compared to the real thing.
“You can put on a headset and listen to Coachella live, but no one wants to do that,” Sanderson said. “The only way to do this is to capture the emotion of the crowd, which is effectively what Wave does by creating an interactive experience. It’s so much better — if you were watching Travis Scott in Fortnite , it would be so much better if you could see his facial expressions and interact with him in real time.” Sanderson was the first investor in Pandora and also invested in Song Pop. He goes to a number of music festivals every year and was instantly attracted to Wave.
“What we are building is very well-timed. And we’ve seen since the cancellations of live concerts; we don’t know when they’re going to come back and in what form. It’s bittersweet,” Arrigo said. “It’s taken our business to a completely new level, like we booked some of the biggest artists in the world for our next slate of shows. People understand what our value proposition is. Artists are looking for new forms of distribution, monetization, and innovation. They are more open to the conversation than before. It takes us a step closer to the Metaverse, or whatever you want it to be.” Big funding Above: Tinashe is part of Wave’s new animated concerts.
The funding is pretty good for a company that was founded as a music VR startup in 2016 by Arrigo and Adam Lemke.
“I worked on the Rock Band games back in the day, and I’ve always been about finding new ways for artists to express themselves through these [mediums], like virtual reality, where we started,” Arrigo said. “About a year and a half ago, before the Marshmello show in Fortnite, we pivoted beyond VR and started doing deals with gaming platforms and livestreaming services to take the core experience for VR into broader distribution.” “We have so much demand from artists to do these shows that we’re not capable of producing them ourselves,” Arrigo said. “We want to get to the point where we can facilitate the democratization of the creation of content for artists of all levels. We’re currently now working with lots of megastars. But that’s not the whole industry.” Maveron led the new round, with a big chunk of the funding provided by Griffin Gaming Partners. Additional investors in the round include NTT DoCoMo Ventures, Avex, Superfly Ventures, Convivialite Ventures, and Raised in Space. Entrepreneurs Scooter Braun, Alex Rodriguez, Superfly cofounder Rick Farman, and Twitch cofounder Kevin Lin also participated in the round.
Wave’s existing investors include RRE Ventures, Upfront Ventures, the Venture Reality Fund, GFR Fund, and GC Tracker Fund. The company has raised $40 million to date.
The fresh funding will fuel Wave’s ability to go beyond traditional livestreaming and serve the next generation of concertgoers. Specifically, it will allow Wave to focus on the creation of personalized artist avatars, new virtual environments and formats, and interactive experiences — including in-game activations and social experiences. The round will also expedite expansion into global markets like Japan and China.
A big pivot Above: Tinashe in Wave While Wave started in VR, its latest concerts and events are distributed across all major platforms, including YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, digital and gaming channels, and through the Wave app available for Steam and Oculus.
“I looked at Wave when it was in the VR space and did not invest,” Sanderson said. “When they refocused on the broader audience of all platforms, that’s when I got involved.” Wave’s reach is now potentially enormous, which is what has drawn bigger music stars.
“When we made that pivot out of VR, we also changed our core distribution strategy, which at first was [to] download our VR app and join these concerts,” Arrigo said. “But we also realized the concept of the virtual concert is so futuristic. Our current strategy is to partner with as many gaming platforms and streaming platforms as possible. We can window our experiences across all those spaces. So you can almost think of it as a virtual concert promoter, as opposed to a single platform. We’re going to where the people are.” Maveron general partner David Wu and Sanderson are joining Wave’s board of directors, alongside RRE Ventures partner Will Porteous.
The coming of the Metaverse Above: Lindsey Stirling performs Artemis in Wave.
Arrigo likes the idea of bringing music to the Metaverse , or the kind of universe of virtual worlds described in science fiction books like Snow Crash or Ready Player One.
(We’re planning on doing a conference on the Metaverse this fall.) “The idea of the Metaverse … we had tied it so tightly to that idea of virtual reality, but clearly the universe is going to start in these spaces like Fortnite or even Animal Crossing.” But he also wants to expand the virtual gatherings beyond gaming into larger entertainment spaces that nongamers will embrace as well.
“Our approach should be cross-platform because our goal is to create the biggest concert of all time and serve musicians and artists,” Arrigo said. “It makes sense for us right now to go to where the audiences are and not limit ourselves because gaming platforms rise and fall, but music is not going away. We’re not going to tie ourselves to Fortnite. That’s doing a disservice to our artists, who have tons of different demographics anyway. John Legend is completely different from Lindsey Stirling from Kenosha.” Bigger than Fortnite? Above: Violinist Lindsey Stirling gave a concert to 400,000 attendees in Wave.
Wave may take off in places like Fortnite first, but Arrigo hopes it will grow well beyond that.
“I also like onboarding people who are nongamers into gaming, using adjacent experiences,” he said. “You can use familiar platforms to make people feel comfortable. My mom is not going to download Fortnite.” And he hopes the VR part will take off.
“I am still a firm believer in the future of VR and AR, and we still support our VR app,” Arrigo said. “And we actually have seen a threefold increase in engagement since shelter-in-place started. Every night, there’s someone throwing parties in VR. But we built the core experience so that people could engage with it anywhere, whether it’s in places like Fortnite or Minecraft or Roblox or even Animal Crossing.” The Los Angeles company has 50 employees and is currently hiring.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
Discover our Briefings.
Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more.
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"Google Brain, Intel, and UC Berkeley train robotic surgery AI with videos | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/2020/06/09/google-brain-intel-and-uc-berkeley-train-robotic-surgery-ai-with-videos"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Google Brain, Intel, and UC Berkeley train robotic surgery AI with videos Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Researchers from Google Brain, Intel AI Lab, and UC Berkeley have created Motion2Vec , an AI model capable of learning how to do tasks associated with robotic surgery — such as suturing, needle-passing, needle insertion, and tying knots — from training with surgery videos. To test results, the model was applied with a two-armed da Vinci robot passing needle through cloth in a lab.
Motion2Vec is a representation learning algorithm trained using semi-supervised learning, and it follows in the tradition of similarly named models like Word2Vec and Grasp2Vec, trained with knowledge found in an embedding space. UC Berkeley researchers previously used YouTube videos to train agents to dance, do backflips, and perform a range of acrobatics , and Google has used video to train algorithms to do things like generate realistic video or predict depth using mannequin challenge videos from YouTube.
The researchers say their work shows that video robotics used in surgery can be improved by feeding them expert demonstration videos to teach new robotic manipulation skills. “Results suggest performance improvement in segmentation over state-of-the-art baselines, while introducing pose imitation on this dataset with cm error 0:94 in position per observation respectively,” the paper reads.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Details about Motion2Vec were published last week on preprint repository arXiv and presented at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA). Videos of just eight human surgeons controlling da Vinci robots from the JIGSAWS data set taught the algorithm motion-centric representations of manipulation skills via imitation learning. JIGSAWS, which stands for the JHU-ISI Gesture and Skill Assessment Working Set, brings together video from Johns Hopkins University (JHU) and Intuitive Surgery, Inc (ISI).
“We use a total of 78 demonstrations from the suturing dataset,” the paper reads. “The suturing style, however, is significantly different across each surgeon.” Other notable works from ICRA, which took place online instead of in-person in Paris, include gait optimization for lower body exoskeletons and a Stanford lab that envisions using AI to leverage public transportation to extend delivery routes for hundreds of drones.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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Subsets and Splits
Wired Articles Filtered
Retrieves up to 100 entries from the train dataset where the URL contains 'wired' but the text does not contain 'Menu', providing basic filtering of the data.