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"Zen blockchain hopes to strengthen, broaden Bitcoin | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/commerce/zen-blockchain-hopes-to-strengthen-broaden-bitcoin"
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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 Zen blockchain hopes to strengthen, broaden Bitcoin 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.
Bitcoin may be the original blockchain, but there haven’t been many ICOs built on the platform — the majority of new projects lauch on the Ethereum blockchain instead. While Bitcoin is generally still considered a better store of value than Ethereum’s currency, the Bitcoin blockchain has been less conducive to new, innovative blockchain applications.
The team behind Zen , however, wants to help Bitcoin maintain its dominance as digital gold while enabling it to benefit from new technological advances.
I regularly watch emerging blockchain projects, and Zen (not to be confused with the other Zen behind Zencash) is one that seems to deserve a closer look. It has stayed under the radar until recently and is now onboarding beta testers, which is quite unusual for a project that hasn’t held its token sale yet (Full disclosure: I am not associated with Zen or any other projects I write about).
Zen has spent the last year building a new blockchain to support a “marketplace” that will enable Bitcoin holders to “issue, trade, and invest in stock options, futures, digital currencies, ETFs, exotic derivatives, CFDs, and other financial instruments.” The Zen blockchain runs in parallel to Bitcoin, sort of as a sidechain , and integrates into it. This gives Zen the freedom to develop its platform independently of any changes made to Bitcoin while at the same time being able to adopt and implement any changes it believes would be beneficial.
While Zen is a blockchain for finance, it doesn’t aim to compete as a better form of currency than Bitcoin, the team says, since it considers Bitcoin highly optimized for that role. Rather, Zen’s platform will facilitate complex financial agreements through the use of smart contracts. (Bitcoin doesn’t natively support smart contracts, which is why the majority of blockchain app startups are launching on Ethereum instead.) By running parallel to Bitcoin, Zen channels compensation to Bitcoin miners for executing contracts without competing with Bitcoin for computational resources. So down the road the team sees Zen complementing Bitcoin and helping it scale, taking some of the transactional loads off the Bitcoin chain, which is struggling with long transaction times and high fees (currently on par with the average wire transfer fee).
Reinventing the wheel? So why build a blockchain from the ground up to bring smart contracts to Bitcoin when Ethereum already does them so well? As a blockchain specializing in finance, the Zen team believes it can do better than Ethereum in that arena. On Ethereum, all smart contracts need to spend a bit of “ gas ” to execute. Contracts can run out of gas, too, meaning they stop before they finish running, which is a common cause of frustration for both users and developers. Zen’s smart contracts, however, are guaranteed to always finish without failing. They also never use more resources than they say they will, which eliminates the need for gas entirely. The fact that Zen allows its miners to get to know the amount of computation a contract requires before actually verifying it also makes contracts extremely fast to execute compared to Ethereum’s.
Another area where the Zen team believes it can improve on Ethereum’s capabilities is in how smart contracts interact with real-world events. A limitation of smart contracts is that they live in a walled garden on the blockchain and can’t fetch external data on their own. So to determine the outcome of real-world events, and to resolve disagreements, smart contracts depend on external data feeds, called “oracles,” provided by one or more trusted parties, or a decentralized service.
Say you want to pay some Bitcoin for an insurance policy in case your flight is delayed or cancelled. You set up a smart contract that specifies the date, flight number, and any other conditions, and then select one or more oracles you trust. This could for example be the FlightAware Flight Status API or another similar provider. Next, the smart contract automatically receives information from its oracles and if the conditions are met, it ensures instant payout to you.
There are a couple of other players looking to bring smart contracts to Bitcoin.
Rootstock (RSK) is a Bitcoin sidechain that has gotten quite a lot of media attention. Like Zen, the RSK team wants to help Bitcoin become smarter and scale better. But RSK’s smart contract capabilities are closely based on Ethereum’s, whereas Zen’s platform was built from scratch and more closely resembles Bitcoin’s architecture.
Lightning Network developer Tadge Dryja has also come up with a way of adding smart contracts to Bitcoin, which focuses on privacy and scalability rather than functionality. Dryja released a paper on the solution, named Discreet Log Contracts , back in June, but the project hasn’t progressed much beyond that paper as far as I know.
Zen’s native token The Zen token is required to create smart contracts, but you can use the contracts and pay transaction fees with any asset. Allowing users to transact with their Bitcoins or other assets rather than requiring them to purchase an additional token is a new and welcome approach and demonstrates that the founders aren’t looking for a quick price pump but are playing the long game.
The team is building the appropriate APIs and SDKs to allow third parties to develop on the platform but will also be developing products and user interfaces for a mainstream audience. They have a demo available for and are currently onboarding beta testers. This demo is actually running live on a test net and serves as an interface to the protocol, showing some of the details the tech-heavy team has been working on over the past year.
Zen has received some interest from the Bitcoin community but other than that has gotten little attention so far. The Israel-based team is a mix of developers and crypto veterans, with Doron Somech, cofounder and previously CTO of award-winning technology company Leverate, probably the most notable member. The company hasn’t yet announced a date for its token sale but has said it will be happening in “the near future.” The sale will require Bitcoin to enter.
Trond Vidar Bjorøy is head of product development and implementation – Nordics at travel management company ATPI. He became interested in blockchain due to its applications in the travel industry but now tracks ICOs and emerging blockchain projects across a variety of industries.
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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5,314 | 2,017 |
"What Vitalik Buterin's new ICO proposal gets wrong | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/commerce/what-vitalik-buterins-new-ico-proposal-gets-wrong"
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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 What Vitalik Buterin’s new ICO proposal gets wrong 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.
Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin and TrueBit founder Jason Teusch recently proposed a new way to run an ICO. Does it work? Possibly. Is it made for human beings? Therein lies the rub.
Here’s the problem they’re attacking: If a token sale is capped, say at $10 million, then a wealthy scalper can pre-emptively buy the whole $10 million supply and resell it later for a profit. But if a token sale is uncapped, then you have no idea if you’re purchasing 1 percent or 0.0001 percent of the supply, because that depends on how much money is raised. (Most token sales are uncapped: a little uncertainty is better than being at the mercy of crypto-Madoff.) Buterin and Tuesch’s proposal fixes this dilemma by creating a game. Instead of “here’s $1,000, give me some unknown percentage of ownership,” it becomes “here’s $1,000, maybe, now let’s play 20 rounds of 3-dimensional poker and see where we end up.” It may work in the abstract, but it adds dizzying complexity to an already involved process.
Front-and-center on one high-profile ICO’s website is the warning: “DO NOT USE COINBASE OR ANY OTHER EXCHANGE AS IT’S NOT ERC-20 TOKEN FRIENDLY.” They have to say this, because people lose money every day for no other reason than they contributed to a token sale using the wrong wallet. It’s inane, confusing, and not the investor’s fault. We need to make the basics easier, and adding a casino game takes us in the opposite direction.
The problem the casino game solves sounds worse than it is. Not knowing how much money an uncapped token sale will raise doesn’t matter: Blockchain projects are about 100x returns not 5 percent per year returns. Obsessing over a precise valuation is wasted energy because if the project does well in the distant future, you’ll profit regardless of whether you moderately overpaid or underpaid at the start.
It’s impossible to rationally value a cryptocurrency. Look at how the smartest financial minds in the world value one bitcoin: expert A says $1,000 and expert B says $1,000,000. Now do the same with a derivative of bitcoin with no track record and a vague whitepaper. Investors should focus on the big picture, not whether they’ll own 0.0001 percent or 0.0003 percent of the supply.
If a project raises more money than you anticipate, you get less ownership, but the project has more resources and media attention to execute on its vision. It balances out, and as the saying goes, it’s better to own a slice of a watermelon than all of a grape.
Improving the token sale process is important, but there are simpler ways to do it. For example, Dragonchain’s upcoming token sale has two commendable provisions: Everyone pays the same price. Most token sales tout sliding-scale discounts and flash sales (“Day 1: 20 percent off. Day 2: 18 percent off. Hey, it’s power hour! Everyone gets 30 percent off!”). This creates a frenzy and incentivizes bad behavior like pump-and-dump schemes.
Team members and advisers receive their token disbursements over a two-year period. That signals a long-term commitment to the project and prevents insiders from dumping their supply and disappearing soon after the token sale.
More projects should adopt practices like these. Heck, buried in Buterin and Tuesch’s proposal is a great one: a period of time where investors can withdraw their contribution. If they don’t like how the ICO is shaping up, they can ship out.
These practices take guts to implement because they lead to a smaller raise and less financial payout for the individuals involved. But they’re needed if we’re to build a safe and healthy ecosystem.
One day, when cryptocurrency matures, Buterin and Tuesch’s proposal might make sense. They’re futurist pioneers for a reason. Until then, let’s nail the basics before asking people to learn yet another confusing thing.
Adam Ghahramani is a partner at bison.gg , a cryptocurrency that powers esports live events. He is a frequent contributor to VentureBeat. Find him at adamagb.com.
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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5,315 | 2,017 |
"China's bitcoin market alive and well as traders defy crackdown | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/commerce/chinas-bitcoin-market-alive-and-well-as-traders-defy-crackdown"
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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’s bitcoin market alive and well as traders defy crackdown 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 ) — Weeks after Beijing banned fundraising through token launches and ordered some bitcoin exchanges to shut, casting a chill over the cryptocurrency industry, traders say that the market is far from dead.
While several exchanges have announced that they will close by the end of this month, traders have now moved to buy and sell bitcoin directly with each other on peer-to-peer marketplaces and messenger apps. Industry insiders say some overseas-based initial coin offerings (ICOs) are still being marketed.
Although the crackdown has dissuaded large swathes of less-experienced investors from participating in the trade, market participants point to the limits Chinese regulators ultimately face in controlling the industry, where many users are anonymous and difficult to track.
In the short-run, the crackdown has also created an arbitrage opportunity for investors, with the price of bitcoin in China now trading at a discount to overseas exchanges.
“They can’t set rules to stop me from investing in what I want to invest in. They say you are protecting me, but as long as I think this is good, they have no way to intervene,” said a Chinese bitcoin investor named Victor, who declined to give his full name citing current sensitivities.
“I can do over-the-counter trades or I’ll go offshore…My wallet is my wallet. I’ve never registered my identification card.” The Chinese government on Sept. 4 ordered ICOs to cease and soon after ordered some cryptocurrency exchanges to shut. Over 15 exchanges, including the three largest players OkCoin, Huobi and BTCChina, have since announced that they will close their mainland businesses by the end of September.
While the clampdown caused the bitcoin price in China to tumble as much as 8 percent on the day of the announcement, it has since recovered to 24,101 yuan ($3,615.67) on Chinese exchange Huobi. On U.S. exchange Bitstamp, it BTC=BTSP currently trades at $4,205.
Trading has spiked generally on peer-to-peer marketplaces, according to data website Coindance. On OTC platform LocalBitcoins, China trading volumes more than doubled in the week starting Sept. 16 from the previous week to 74 million yuan. It hit an all-time-high in the week starting Sept. 23, reaching 115 million yuan in trades.
Volumes on Paxful, another smaller marketplace, also jumped to 1.7 million in the week beginning Sept. 23, up from 351,102 in the previous week, Coindance data showed.
Michael Foster, co-founder of localethereum.com, an over-the-counter marketplace for ethereum trading, said mainland China users accounted for a fifth of its 5,000 signups since it opened for registrations on Tuesday.
“The fact that bitcoin is still being traded is an indication that China isn’t looking to eliminate them, but reposition things in a way to have better control over them,” said Marshall Swatt, the founder of New York-based Coinsetter, a bitcoin exchange acquired by larger peer San Francisco-based Kraken in 2016.
Other Chinese cryptocurrency players said traders were also moving away from using Tencent’s WeChat app, to encrypted messenger app Telegram to avoid regulatory scrutiny.
Some said they were still seeing overseas-based ICOs being marketed in China. The Sept. 4 shutdown of ICOs stipulated that Chinese citizens were not allowed to invest in ICOs. Overseas ICOs have been returning money on a voluntary basis.
“The trend of digital currency transactions moving offshore is inevitable,” Zeng Danhua, the co-author of a bitcoin investment guide, told a television program filmed by Chinese financial news outlet Yicai on Wednesday.
“The regulators may have needed to shut the platforms to guard against financial risks, and there may be a bitcoin bubble, but its investment value persists.” 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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5,316 | 2,017 |
"Reverse ICOs may be your best VC portfolio exit | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/reverse-icos-may-be-your-best-vc-portfolio-exit"
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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 Reverse ICOs may be your best VC portfolio exit Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Presented by Pathfinder Equity Systems Depending on who you ask, IPOs have been steadily declining over the years because of regulatory tightening, increased costs, or Wall Street resistance to tech. This means less liquidity for entrepreneurs and less growth for the economy.
ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings) are growing in popularity, but so far virtually all are new ventures that tend to skirt securities law. Luckily there is an entirely different type of ICO — the Reverse ICO — which is fully compliant and ideal for established companies. The first Reverse ICOs are still a few months away, but the process is quite clear.
Reverse ICOs aren’t for startups and they don’t avoid being classified as a security. Quite the opposite, they are intended for existing, successful companies and are assumed to be securities from the start, with some extra innovation sprinkled on top.
They are almost identical to traditional IPOs, following the same regulations, audits, and disclosures, but issuing tokens (electronic equity) instead of traditional stock. Because tokens are a new technology, they are more liquid, more flexible, and open to innovation.
Most important, token-based equity, combined with token economic modifications to company business models, may offer significantly better valuation for the mid-size technology ventures not yet large enough for a traditional IPO. These sorts of companies are the bread and butter of the tech industry…and of VC portfolios.
The cryptocurrency investor profile ICOs are made possible, of course, by ICO investors. They are an entirely new class of investor created by the unprecedented rise of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Seemingly overnight, software developers and Bitcoin enthusiasts have accumulated tens of billions of dollars, their holdings growing thousands of percent per year — so quickly that normal rules of finance don’t seem to apply. These new investors are technologically sophisticated, unimpressed by standard financial institutions, willing to invest millions on a hunch, and willing to give high valuations to firms that adopt next-wave blockchain technology.
Their investing motivations are different from the norm. They don’t care about standard metrics and are risk tolerant. Their primary concern is, of course, to make great returns, but also to extend the reach of the Bitcoin-style ecosystem and to support the technology industry. These investors are eager to convert mainstream tech companies to cryptocurrencies, and Reverse ICOs give them new lands to conquer.
Joining the young cryptocurrency traders are growing crowds of hedge fund and family fund investors, unable to resist thousand-percent gains. These newcomers want to invest in ICOs but they also want the familiar and the defensible. Reverse ICOs give them a new selection of bread-and-butter choices, less risky but still delicious, with which to assemble their portfolio.
How do reverse ICOs work? Reverse ICOs are both familiar and quite different for anyone who has done public offerings. They use the same prescribed pathways, choosing to be full public offerings, Reg A+, Reg D, Reg CF. They follow the same steps as other equity offerings: Planning, audits, disclosures, prospectus, filings, etc.
Where they “fork” is at the marketing and sales phase. Unlike traditional stock offerings, token-based equity is sold via some type of token sale directly to investors (retail or qualified, as appropriate) via web or email-based sales. Secondary trading will be via SEC- certified token exchanges, a few of which are now being prepared for operations, for example t0.com, being tested currently by Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne.
Tokenomics Most important is token economics.
Tokens are used not only as equity but potentially as micropayments for services, as carriers of the technical protocol, and for whatever else token economic inventors can invent or reduce to code.
The wild world of software is set loose in the staid world of finance, leading to disruption of business models and entire industries. For the bread and butter mid-sized tech firm, token economics can gain market share, build networks, create open-source ecosystems, and offer other advantages. Tokens don’t just attract new investors; they can increase sales and confer technological superiority. That’s a potent combination.
Are there risks? Of course. All of this is brand new. The full Reverse ICO infrastructure isn’t quite ready, there is a need for technology and analysts to smooth and accelerate the Reverse ICO process, and there are regulatory details to clarify.
If the venture investment community and entrepreneurs create valuable, legal, and exciting ICOs that unlock funding and boost the national economy, with a process that protects small investors, then we believe the SEC and other regulators will be happy to join in, and a valuable new channel for capital growth will be created.
To learn even more about Reverse ICOs, join us for our webinar: “Reverse ICOs for VC Portfolio Exit” on Wednesday, October 4, 2017 at 11a.m. PST.
Register here.
Tom Benson is CEO of Pathfinder Equity Systems.
Pathfinder helps companies launch Reverse ICOs using artificial intelligence coupled to expert analyst teams, to create the optimal token economic designs and product/market fit, matched to the world’s top ICO investors.
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.
All rights reserved.
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5,317 | 2,017 |
"Google updates Container Engine to help companies run modern apps | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/google-updates-container-engine-to-help-companies-run-modern-apps"
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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 updates Container Engine to help companies run modern apps 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 Container Engine (GKE) , the tech giant’s managed service that’s designed to help businesses run applications that rely on software containers, has been updated today with a number of features that should help companies scale and manage their software.
Companies using GKE will be able to take advantage of new features like aliased IP support, which gives a container a virtual IP address that can be referenced from other applications in the same way a developer would work with a traditional virtual machine. Customers can also sign up for an alpha test of using Nvidia’s new Tesla P100 GPUs inside a containerized application on Google’s cloud.
Google will also be launching a new multi-cluster ingress feature in alpha soon, which will allow companies to spin up multiple Kubernetes clusters in different cloud regions and have the service intelligently route traffic to the one that will provide the best performance for an end user.
GKE as a service is designed to help companies do away with some of the complexity of running multi-container applications with Kubernetes, a piece of open source software that originated at Google.
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 feature updates are important as Google faces tough competition in the cloud space from the likes of Microsoft and Amazon, who have their own managed container services. Google has a bit of a leg up in this case, since it’s the progenitor of Kubernetes.
The latest version of Container Engine also includes the changes that were made to Kubernetes with its 1.8 release, which was unveiled last night.
Some of the updates in that release include support for role-based access control and a shift to a new Custom Resource Definition object for creating API resources inside Kubernetes.
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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5,318 | 2,017 |
"Edge now has 70 extensions, up from 13 at launch a year ago | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/edge-now-has-70-extensions-up-from-13-at-launch-a-year-ago"
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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 Edge now has 70 extensions, up from 13 at launch a year ago 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.
Edge first received support for extensions as part of the Windows 10 Anniversary Update released in August 2016. More than a year has passed since then, and Microsoft is now offering an update on the state of Edge extensions.
When it first got the ability to support them, Edge had 13 extensions: AdBlock, Adblock Plus, Amazon Assistant, Evernote Web Clipper, LastPass, Mouse Gestures, Office Online, OneNote Web Clipper, Page Analyzer, Pinterest Save Button, Reddit Enhancement Suite, Save to Pocket, and Translator for Microsoft Edge. Thirteen months later, there are now “over 70 extensions worldwide” in the Windows Store.
I checked this “over 70” number and, at least on my computer, it turned out to be exactly 70. Here they are: VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Ratings range from two stars to a perfect five stars. All of the extensions are either completely free or can at least be installed for free.
Microsoft wants you to know that this slow growth is deliberate. The explanation is worth reproducing in full: We have taken a purposefully metered approach as we onboard new extensions. Extensions are one of the most substantial features in a new browser, and we have a high bar for quality. Because extensions interact so closely with the browser, we have been very attuned to the security, performance, and reliability of Microsoft Edge with these extensions enabled. Starting with a small group of the most popularly requested extensions has allowed us to mature our extension ecosystem as alongside our extension platform, as well as to build a smooth onboarding experience for developers over time.
As we’ve continued to work on the extensions platform, we sometimes get questions asking why the list of extensions isn’t growing faster. What gives? We are extremely sensitive to the potential impact of extensions on your browsing experience and want to make sure that the extensions we do allow are high-quality and trustworthy. We want Microsoft Edge to be your favorite browser, with the fundamentals you expect – speed, power efficiency, reliability, security. Poorly written or even malicious add-ons for browsers remain a potential source of privacy, security, reliability and performance issues, even today. We want users to be confident that they can trust extensions in Microsoft to operate as expected. As such, we continue to evaluate each extension submission to ensure that it will bring value to our users and support our goals for a healthy ecosystem.
While I’m sure Microsoft cares about Edge extension security, the reality is that Microsoft hasn’t managed to get developers excited about its platform. It’s unfortunate the company didn’t have extensions available when Edge launched — that would have been the time to get developers on board.
Still, this is enough for most users.
If you only use one or two popular Chrome extensions of Firefox add-ons , chances are you can use the equivalent extensions on Edge. For anyone that relies on niche extensions or uses a long list, Edge can’t help.
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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5,319 | 2,017 |
"Chicago is becoming a top choice for insurance tech startups | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/chicago-is-becoming-a-top-choice-for-insurance-tech-startups"
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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 Chicago is becoming a top choice for insurance tech startups Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Chicago, Illinois 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.
Over the past year, Chicagoland has seen an uptick in the number of venture-backed insurance tech startups. Some of them provide comprehensive insurance, while others simplify only one part of the process.
But regardless of their niche, insure-tech companies are having a moment in Chicago, and it makes sense. Illinois has a history of being home to some of the nation’s biggest and most powerful insurance companies, like Allstate in Northbrook and State Farm in Bloomington, both of which have sold home, car, and life insurance for more than 80 years.
And consumers are familiar with these companies. How many times have we seen Dennis Haysbert in an Allstate commercial, telling viewers that they’re “in good hands”? But many of these same consumers are much less familiar with Kin Insurance , Clearcover , DataCubes , and Snapsheet , local insure-tech startups that work to simplify insurance. Cumulatively, they have raised $30 million in funding in the past four months.
“[Chicago] is likely to become, if we’re not already, the center of anything going on with technology and insurance,” said Fred Hoch, the founder and general partner at venture capital firm TechNexus and the executive chairman at the Illinois Technology Association.
The insure-tech boom in Chicago can be attributed to the growing and thriving tech community here, but it’s also a breeding ground for insure-tech startups because of the region’s workforce. Many founders of these young startups worked at an insurance company in the area before launching their own venture. Besides Allstate and State Farm, Chicago is home to Zurich, CNA, and Aon. The talent was already here, and much of it has stayed.
“We have a strong talent pool to draw from,” said Harish Neelamana, the chief product officer at DataCubes, who previously worked at both Zurich and Allstate before joining the startup. “And they tend to be folks who have worked in insurance and are coming out of those companies because they feel things can be done differently — that means that most are looking to build in Chicago, versus elsewhere.” The rising talen t “Insurance right now is clearly an industry that needs to be disrupted,” Hoch said. “So, it’s just a natural evolution that as we as a community grow, as we evolve and mature, companies are starting to pop up.” Some of those companies, like Kin and Clearcover, are trying to disrupt and compete with insurance companies as a whole, while others, like DataCubes and Snapsheet, work with insurance companies and depend on their business.
Kin, founded in 2016, has built an insurance software system entirely from scratch that allows them to make underwriting decisions quickly based on data from satellite images, public records, and other sources. This not only makes the entire process much quicker, but also generally cheaper for customers because Kin has eliminated many distribution and overhead costs, said Sean Harper, cofounder and CEO.
“Most insurance companies are running off very old technology,” he said. “But we have a very modern and flexible system. It’s good at ingesting these huge amounts of data and applying an algorithm to it to make good decisions.” Though Kin is based in Chicago, it currently only offers its services in Florida. Harper said that’s because Florida is a riskier market since it’s in a hurricane-heavy region. However, it has plans to expand to most of the country’s population by the end of 2018, Harper said.
Just last month, Kin raised $4 million from investors including Commerce Ventures and Chicago Ventures, and the company employs 18 people in its River North offices. Harper says Kin competes directly with Allstate, State Farm, and Nationwide, because it does what those corporate firms do, but better.
“We compete directly with them for their customers,” Harper said. “We’re a faster, more customer-friendly, more efficient version of them.” Similarly, Clearcover, founded in 2016 by Kyle Nakatsuji, a former VC at American Family Insurance in Madison, Wisconsin, is also trying to compete with insurance providers. The startup, which just raised $11.5 million in mid-September, uses AI to help consumers efficiently buy car insurance. It advertises that it can save people up to 50 percent compared to legacy firms like Allstate and State Farm.
Much like Kin, Clearcover can offer insurance at a cheaper price because it eliminates overhead costs like brick-and-mortar offices, expensive ads, and outdated technology.
Compared to Clearcover and Kin, though, Snapsheet has a slightly different business model, one that depends on existing insurance firms. Snapsheet is also one of the first insure-tech startups in Chicago as it was founded way back in 2010, six years before Kin, Clearcover, and others.
Founded by Brad Weisberg, CEO, and C.J. Przybyl, president, Snapsheet provides a platform to insurance companies that allows their customers to file automobile claims virtually using their smartphone camera.
“We’ve built a whole suite of tech that actually helps the carriers process these claims the way customers want to process them, using any form of technology,” Przybyl said. “Our organization completely helps them change their mindset and their workflows to be able to absorb and handle this virtual channel.” Snapsheet, which has more than 50 clients and about 400 employees, raised $12 million in June, bringing its total funding to more than $43 million.
Like Snapsheet, DataCubes, founded in 2016, also sells its services to insurance companies directly. Neelamana says it isn’t in the business of disrupting the insurance industry, just the underwriting process.
“Our goal is to help the carriers,” Neelamana said. “Our intent is not to go up against them and start selling insurance policies.” DataCubes has only 15 employees right now, but raised $2.5 million this September from Seyen Capital and MK Capital.
With all the funding, personnel expansion, and tech-forward thinking from insure-tech startups, are legacy insurance firms threatened? “No question — they’re threatened by it long-term,” TechNexus’ Hoch said. “Not overnight, because they have huge pools of cash, but long-term — absolutely.” Allstate makes tech moves Back in 2011, Allstate acquired Esurance, one of the first companies to sell insurance over the internet. It was a move that made one thing clear: Allstate knew it had to be proactive in remaining a leading insurance company.
And just last year, Allstate launched Arity , a tech “startup” that operates out of the Merchandise Mart, about an hour away from Allstate’s headquarters in the Chicago suburbs. Arity, which now employs about 300 people, was designed to “revolutionize driver safety” by using big data from smartphones and vehicles to help evaluate the risk of a driver. Allstate, of course, uses Arity for its in-house operations, but Arity also works with external insurance companies.
But was launching Arity part of Allstate’s defense to the insure-tech boom? Not necessarily, according to Arity CEO Gary Hallgren.
“I view it less that and more as an opportunity to help transform transportation,” he said. “Allstate launched Arity because we’re sitting at the forefront of this industry with a new way of pricing and a new way of doing insurance, and have been doing that for seven or eight years.” In addition to Arity, Allstate has made other moves to remain tech-forward. Just this August, Allstate laid off more than 500 people around the country after launching QuickFoto, a program that allows policyholders in car accidents to take their own photos of car damage and submit them through an app. Sound a lot like Snapsheet? That’s because it is.
With Arity and QuickFoto, Allstate is making strides to remain competitive in a marketplace that is becoming more crowded with insure-tech startups, some of which are aiming to take its business. And competition isn’t isolated to Chicago.
On a national scale, insure-tech startups raised $1.7 billion in 2016, according to CB Insights data.
One of them is New York-based Lemonade , which offers renters and home insurance, mainly for those living in cities. The company advertises on its website that 19 percent of its customers switched from Allstate and 16 percent from State Farm.
The startup, which has raised $60 million in funding to date, powers an artificial intelligence-based app that processes claims quickly and cheaply. Renters’ insurance starts at $5 per month and homeowners’ starts at $25 per month. Additionally, Lemonade donates any unused claim money to a charity of the user’s choice, eliminating their conflict of interest with keeping customers’ money as profit. It operates in New York, Illinois, California, Texas, and New Jersey.
“Insurance should and can be different,” said Yael Wissner-Levy, director of strategic communications at Lemonade. “We see a lot of switchers.” Change is inevitable As consumer perceptions of the insurance industry continue to evolve, legacy companies will have to keep up with them if they want to remain in business.
“They’re going to have to adapt,” Kin’s Harper said. “They’re going to have to up their game, and it’s going to be good for the consumer. That’s what capitalism is.” Some of that adapting could be similar to Allstate’s trajectory — launching their own data and tech-based tools for simplifying insurance.
State Farm says it is aware of the innovators entering the industry and that the company is taking steps to retain its competitive advantage.
“As our industry and the needs of our customers continue to change, State Farm strives to be a leading innovator within the insurance marketplace,” said State Farm spokesperson Missy Dundov in a statement to Inno. “We understand our business of managing risks will need to adjust and adapt to this changing landscape. We are focused on the big picture — how we can adapt to these changes and continue to deliver value to our customers.” And representatives from CNA , another Chicago-based insurance firm, say that if nothing else, insure-tech companies have created a new standard for customer experience.
“Insure-tech has given a new focus and talent at the space, and is creating more ideas, more quickly,” said Joel Schneider, the assistant vice president of business process optimization at CNA. “Some of the companies you see out there are really highlighting what they’re doing and creating that new expectation for everybody. It creates more clarity around what the future needs to look like and how we start to build toward it.” Could that mean acquisitions down the line? Schneider said it’s possible. But just like in any staple industry, whether it’s banking, health care, or automotive, acquisitions are a market trend that never seem to stop.
“In order for any company of that size to deal with disruption, they have to look at what’s going on internally, but then also acquire technology,” Hoch said. “If they don’t and just stay with the old model, they’ll live for a long time because they’ve been around for a long time and got a lot of cash, but things will change. Everybody goes out of business at some point.” 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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"Voice search must identify user intent before it can make sales | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/voice-search-must-identify-user-intent-before-it-can-make-sales"
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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 Voice search must identify user intent before it can make sales 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.
Personal digital assistants have taken the world by storm. We have Siri and Google Assistant on our phones, and many of us have Amazon Echo and Google Home, as well. Voice user interfaces, which have been available to consumers since the 1990s, have finally gone mainstream as a way to play music, set timers, and control smart homes.
But voice hasn’t really taken off for ecommerce, despite Amazon’s leadership in the smart speaker market. When asked about this a few months ago, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said “Voice interface is only going to take you so far on shopping. It’s good for reordering consumables, where you don’t have to make a lot of choices, but most online shopping is going to be facilitated by having a display.” Amazon has since released the Echo Show, which does have a display. But even on the Echo Show, the shopping experience is marginal compared to shopping on laptops and phones. The main shopping use case on Echo Show is still reordering, rather than finding something new and buying it.
Nevertheless, given our strong preference for voice as a natural interface, it seems inevitable that we’ll use voice interfaces for shopping. But what will it take to get us there? VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Bezos is right that most online shopping is facilitated by a display. But requiring a display defeats many of the advantages of a voice interface — most significantly, not needing to be close enough to a screen to see or touch it. What will it take to get people to move beyond reordering and shop for everything using voice? What voice does best Voice interfaces work well for products that people describe by brand name, e.g, an iPhone 8. There may still be a few product variations to choose from (e.g., color), but it’s not hard for a voice interface to address these through a simple dialog. Shoppers who use voice interfaces to play music, for example, are already familiar with this kind of interaction.
Beyond brand name merchandise, voice search can work for products shoppers aren’t very particular about, like milk. In fact, some retailers, like Trader Joe’s, have already limited their catalogs so many shopping decisions are already made.
Thus, retailers can apply sensible defaults to category queries, such as assuming the searcher wants the best-selling product in a category. Retailers can also use personalization to limit choices, especially in domains like apparel, using information like the shopper’s gender and size.
Voice recognition is only the first step Voice recognition isn’t perfect, though it has gotten quite good. But while voice may change how we shop, it doesn’t change the goal of shopping or the essential challenge faced by retailers: recognizing the shopper’s intent and connecting them to products that satisfy that intent. Pairing voice recognition with a bad search engine is simply putting lipstick on a pig.
Search engines still often fail to understand the shopper’s intent, but at least a shopper can scroll down the page to find what they want or refine the search query. When it comes to query understanding, voice is a far less forgiving medium. Shoppers can try repeating or rephrasing their search queries, but they quickly become frustrated and give up.
It’s essential that a voice-based shopping interface understands the shopper’s search query. It’s easy to see where this goes wrong today. For example, a search on the Echo Show for “girls’ shoes without laces” returns no-tie shoelaces as a top result. While the result is related to the search query, it’s not what the shopper asked for. Query understanding is essential in order to make shopping by voice successful.
Navigating choices requires a conversation Reproducing an in-store experience for shoppers using a voice interface requires providing a way for them to navigate among choices. Voice interfaces need to support context so that “show me men’s shoes” followed by “show me black ones” refines the original search to men’s black shoes. The same goes for refining by size, style, and other attributes.
A voice interface should offer sensible refinement options when the shopper’s original search query is too broad. That might mean suggesting different categories (e.g., boots, loafers) or prompting the shopper to specify an attribute like price (e.g., “How much were you planning to spend?”) that significantly narrows down the options.
A conversational interface allows shoppers to clarify and refine their intent, much like a conversation with a helpful sales associate.
We’re just entering an age of voice interfaces for mainstream consumer applications. It will take some time to work out the kinks, improve query understanding, and figure out the design of conversational interfaces. But we’ll get there. Someday, our grandchildren will even marvel that anyone ever used a keyboard for shopping. Of course, they’ll only find keyboards in a museum.
Daniel Tunkelang is the chief search evangelist at Twiggle , a company pioneering the use of Artificial Intelligence in online retail 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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"Sphero Mini is a smart rolling robot the size of a Ping-Pong ball | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/sphero-mini-is-a-smart-rolling-robot-the-size-of-a-ping-pong-ball"
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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 Sphero Mini is a smart rolling robot the size of a Ping-Pong ball Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Sphero Mini comes in five colors.
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Sphero has gotten a lot of mileage out of its rolling robot ball, making everything from the orb-like Sphero to the BB-8 droid from Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
And now it is taking the ball and running with it (sorry about the cliché) with the new Sphero Mini.
If Sphero Mini looks like a Ping-Pong ball, that’s because cofounder Adam Wilson instructed one of his engineers to create a version of the larger Sphero Sprk+ robot that could fit inside a table tennis ball. They succeeded, and Sphero Mini is going on sale today for $50.
That’s quite an achievement, and it means people who couldn’t afford Sphero’s more expensive toys — which cost $100 or more — can now get in on the fun, Wilson said.
“We wanted to make it smaller and more affordable so that everybody could play,” Wilson 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! Above: Adam Wilson shows of the Sphero Mini.
You can use your smartphone to control Sphero Mini, moving it around the floor at a high speed. But it has more functionality than an ordinary ball. It can, for instance, be controlled via the smartphone to run over a bunch of cones or bowling pins, which come with it. You can control it using a touchscreen in different ways. You can slingshot it around the room or drive it around with your finger.
You can even use your face to drive it. Just point your smartphone camera at your face, and you can smile to make it go one direction or frown to make it go another way.
“We call it ‘face driving’,” Wilson said.
And it’s quite silly.
Above: Sphero Mini can knock over bowling pins.
The Sphero Mini has Bluetooth sensors. The balls are quite durable, and they are programmable.
“Tell me where you can find another $50 programmable robot that can run JavaScript,” Wilson said. “It’s a like a Gateway personal computer from 1989.” The team worked on Sphero Mini for about a year. It came from something Wilson pitched with another engineer at an internal event where anybody in the company could pitch an idea. Wilson pitched his, and one engineer made it. Now they’ve got a bigger team bringing it to market.
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 dissonance will end when we ask the right questions in the boardroom | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/ai-dissonance-will-end-when-we-ask-the-right-questions-in-the-boardroom"
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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 AI dissonance will end when we ask the right questions in the boardroom 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.
There is a disturbing movement among technology companies today. Many claim to be using artificial intelligence in one way or another, but more often than not, these claims are a massive exaggeration.
This may be hard to believe, especially in the age of the Elon Musk’s warnings about a potential global apocalypse caused by AI. While Musk’s warnings may be justified, they’re hardly relevant — AI is still playing around in the wading pool of what is and isn’t possible.
There are a few companies that are actually working with real AI — but they’re the exception, not the rule. According to Gartner, many technology vendors are now “AI washing” by applying the AI label a little too liberally. Jim Hare, vice president of research at Gartner, said , “As AI accelerates up the hype cycle, many software providers are looking to stake their claim in the biggest gold rush in recent years.” This means that if there’s even a remote opportunity to (ab)use the term “AI” to promote a product or service to a client, most companies would do so.
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 could explain why it seemed like everyone started using AI in their offerings overnight. How can this be justified? In practice, it can’t. In theory, it might hold up.
Think about the companies using well-known statistical methods such as linear regression, clustering algorithms, or any other method derived from mathematical operations on a matrix. They have used these methods for a long time, and the techniques have almost nothing to do with AI — except that AI today includes machine learning as a special case, which by extension includes almost any statistical method you can imagine.
Thus, if a product or service includes any statistical operation more complex than a simple average, many companies would claim it’s AI by proxy and pursue advanced marketing efforts to be associated with it. This might be “good business,” but in the end, it confuses a potential client far more than the small additional buzz it might provide.
Why do we consider statistics to be a part of AI? To answer that question, I’ll point to the logistic regression method developed in 1958 by David Cox. This was related to the work done by Frank Rosenblatt in 1957, which led to the Perceptron algorithm.
Perceptron is the founding father of deep neural networks, which today is the first thing a person might think of when they hear the term AI.
One of the issues with the term AI is that non-experts tend to think about it in terms of general AI, which is a fundamentally different beast from narrow AI. Every single application, service, method, and procedure you hear of today claiming to use AI is at best an attempt at achieving narrow AI. Basically, narrow AI solves a very specific problem with a specific set of requirements, but it does not generalize its problem-solving abilities to other domains. That’s why beating the human grandmaster Lee Sedol at Go is an impressive engineering achievement, but hardly a step forward in the pursuit of general AI.
If I can leave you with one piece of advice, it would be to consider this: Just because a company does not have “real AI,” but instead uses the normal statistical methods that we all know, does not invalidate its product or service offering.
Simultaneously, even if a company claims to be using real AI, that doesn’t necessarily mean that its product or service is useful. Thus, it always pays to ask a few extra questions in a business meeting where the term AI is being shot off like a fiery arrow across the table. However, the company that does eventually crack “general AI” will set the course for the rest of us operating in this space, and possibly for the future of mankind as a whole.
Dr. Michael Green is the chief analytics officer at Blackwood Seven , an AI-powered marketing agency.
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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"Feasibility of the futuristic predictions in 'Blade Runner' | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/a-game-of-true-or-false-with-blade-runners-futuristic-predictions"
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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 Feasibility of the futuristic predictions in ‘Blade Runner’ Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Atari logo in Blade Runner 2019.
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Blade Runner 2049 , the sequel to the classic Blade Runner , will be in theaters soon. I can’t wait, because the original was not only a technological tour de force when it was released in 1982, it also offered a critical perspective on the future of robots, artificial intelligence, and our possibly dystopian future.
Blade Runner explored our fascination with — and fear of — futuristic worlds where AI dominates and it is impossible to tell who’s who in the battle between good and evil. Because I’m in the AI business, I often ponder how realistic these cinematic worlds really are and what the media depictions get right and wrong.
All AI is not created equal The original movie’s dark vision is startling, but it does get a few things right. The “replicants” depicted in the film are an example of “strong AI,” or artificial general intelligence (AGI) that allows a machine to perform virtually any human task. These characteristics include the ability to make advanced, independent decisions and makes the replicants faster and stronger than humans. “Strong AI” also implies that robots could have super-human intelligence, though there is a debate as to whether this sort of AI-powered autonomy and intelligence constitute true consciousness.
The “humanizing” of AI is a big task. Applied AI, or narrow artificial intelligence (NAI), is able to solve specific problems and make a more limited set of decisions. NAI doesn’t seek to simulate full human cognitive abilities, but it can do things like recognize faces, play chess, and effectively carry on certain types of conversations. These narrow AIs — though highly developed — are currently unable to operate outside their focused area of expertise and often need structured methods for receiving data, as opposed to using traditional “human” senses for input.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Blending multiple AI technologies can enable a bot to solve specific problems and achieve conversational objectives. In the marketing world, natural language processing (NLP) and natural language understanding (NLU) can also be combined to interpret free-form text received from customers’ leads and contacts. Because people who send these messages typically don’t realize they’re conversing with an AI, they make no extra effort to limit their vocabulary or structure their messages. Finally, natural language generation (NLG) can be used to craft helpful and human-like messages that advance the conversation while achieving conversational objectives.
Fact or fiction? When it comes to AIs, robots, and replicants, however, films get a number of things wrong — mostly to scare us. A brief examination of what’s actually plausible might allay some of those fears.
Despite all of our advances in AI technology, it is truly difficult to make an android indistinguishable from a human — in terms of both appearance and behavior. And even if androids achieved super intelligence, it doesn’t follow that they would necessarily experience the same range and types of human emotion and emotional intelligence that replicants in Blade Runner seem to display. It also seems unlikely that androids would be able to feel love for other androids or even interact socially with each other. Any sort of advanced emotional intelligence would likely require a separate and different programming approach, and such capabilities would only arrive in a later technological evolution.
Most importantly, any synthetic human/android would almost certainly include fail-safe programming, preventing it from directly or indirectly harming humans, as described in Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics.
I see a future where AI can never replace humans. In fact, responsible AI and humans are stronger together than alone. AI assistants will continue to evolve quite rapidly, becoming more helpful in ways we can’t easily predict. Narrow AI will continue to advance and will probably be aggregated into meta-bots, like Amazon Echo, Apple’s Siri, and Google Home, or used in more general-purpose AI assistants that attempt to solve a growing set of problems. Predicting the future is hard, but movies like Blade Runner make it fun to try, ultimately helping us think about how AI can improve quality of life for everyone.
Alex Terry is the chief executive officer at Conversica , a company that creates conversational AI software for marketing and sales.
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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"5 Alexa skills to try this week - 9/30/17 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/5-alexa-skills-to-try-this-week-30-sept-2017"
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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 5 Alexa skills to try this week – 9/30/17 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The new Amazon Echo 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.
Here’s a hand-picked selection of five popular, new, or noteworthy Alexa skills worth trying. There are now more than 25,000 voice apps in the Alexa Skills Store , Amazon announced earlier this week.
This was perhaps the most prolific week of developments for Alexa device owners since the launch of the Echo in 2014.
On Wednesday, six new Amazon devices made their debut : a second-generation Echo, the Echo Plus, the Echo Spot alarm clock, Echo Connect for phone calls, Echo Buttons for games, and Fire TV 4K.
Among the features recently made available, Alexa devices can now make free calls to the United States, Canada, and Mexico, and footage from smart cameras can now be tracked with Fire TV or an Echo Show.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Proactive notifications for Alexa-enabled devices were made available for the first time Thursday and offer updates on shopping, Alexa skills, and flash news briefings, starting with skills from Washington Post , AccuWeather, and Life360.
Routines are new to the Smart Home Skills API and allow Alexa to accomplish multiple tasks at once.
Alexa is also available now in the Amazon Music app on iOS and Android. You can do plenty of searches by artist, genre, or lyrics, as well as based on your activity, such as a road trip, cardio session, and more.
Sesame Street Gadgets and Routines are the new kids on the block, but last month Amazon debuted a new class of skills made especially for children , including this one from Sesame Workshop.
The Sesame Street skill lets you call Elmo about letters or play hide-and-seek. Elmo picks up the phone and plays hide-and-seek in the real Elmo voice.
Skills made for kids must be activated using Verified Parental Consent , which can be granted via text message or the Alexa app. The child’s name, age, and birthday must be shared to complete the process.
Star Trek This new skill from CBS Interactive can quiz your Star Trek knowledge with regular trivia questions, but that’s just the tip of the Trekkie geek iceberg.
The team at Amazon really likes Star Trek, so much so that Alexa was made in the image of the AI assistant on Star Trek (“Computer”) and is still part of the initiation process for new engineers charged with improving and expanding the Alexa universe.
To celebrate Trekkies everywhere and the debut of the Star Trek: Discovery series, Amazon built some fun commands directly into Alexa, among them: Alexa, red alert Alexa, beam me up Alexa, fire photon torpedoes Alexa, speak Klingon Alexa, what is your mission? Alexa, state your Starfleet rank and class.
Separate from the skill, you can speak directly to Alexa about Star Trek, or even rename Alexa “Computer” in your Alexa app settings.
Beat The Intro Games are pretty important to Amazon, so much so that earlier this year, starting with games, the company began to pay Alexa developers based on engagement their skills can generate among users.
Some of the games that are the most fun to play with Alexa might be those related to music. For the Beat The Intro skill, your host is Foxy, and you guess the word bleeped out of pop songs.
To get answers, say “Alexa, ask Beat the Intro for today’s answers” or “Alexa, ask Beat the Intro to play it again” to repeat.
A quiz with six new songs is shared every day.
Cook Reference The top-enabled skills in the Alexa Skills Store are a pretty consistent group. Jeopardy, This Day in History, flash briefings from ESPN, and Fox News are skills that pretty much never leave the top 10, but Cook Reference recently made its way into these prestigious rankings.
Cook Reference can tell you some basic things needed for cooking, like conversion of measurement units or proper cooking temperatures for pork, beef, chicken, lamb, turkey, and some fish.
Earlier this month, the skill gained wine and beer pairings so you can say something like “Alexa, ask Cook Reference what goes well with chicken?” Life360 Life360, which keeps tabs on the location of important people in your life, is one of a very few skills (only three were shared by Amazon when this feature launched Thursday) that are now available with proactive notifications via a blinking LED atop an Alexa-enabled devices or a one-second auditory notification.
With notifications, if you tell the skill about places — like home, work, or school — the skill will share a notification when, say, your kids get to school or walk in the door after school.
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"Samsung secures self-driving car permit in California | VentureBeat"
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( Reuters ) — Samsung Electronics Co Ltd said on Thursday it has received a permit to test self-driving vehicles in California, marking the entry of the world’s largest smart phone maker four months after iPhone maker and arch rival Apple Inc received a permit.
Its parent company in May secured permission from South Korean authorities to test a self-driving car fitted with its own sensors and software systems. At that time, South Korean officials said the company planned to use the car to develop a self-driving car algorithm that could drive in adverse weather.
In a statement to Reuters, Samsung did not say what precisely what it planned to test in the United States but said it secured the permit “in pursuit of a smarter, safer transportation future.” The company, part of a massive conglomerate that makes everything from washing machines to heavy machinery, said it has “no plans to enter the car-manufacturing business.” VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! With the foray into the U.S. self-driving car landscape, Samsung will jostle with its friends and foes. Besides Apple, it will join Waymo, a division of Alphabet Inc, which supplies the Android operating system that runs on Samsung’s phones.
Samsung has a range of other opportunities for growth in the self-driving car business. Earlier this year, the company closed its $8 billion purchase of car audio maker Harman International Industries, giving it a wide foot print in so-called connected car technologies.
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"DJI reveals a new drone, a facelift, and 'sphere mode' at IFA 2017 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/transportation/dji-reveals-a-new-drone-a-facelift-and-sphere-mode-at-ifa-2017"
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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 DJI reveals a new drone, a facelift, and ‘sphere mode’ at IFA 2017 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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High-end drone company DJI has revealed two products at IFA 2017 in Berlin today. But it is the addition of a new “sphere mode” for the current Spark drone that has (ahem) sparked interest.
First up is a new and improved Mavic Pro Platinum, which DJI says is quieter than the previous model, as well as offering a longer flight time. Eleven percent longer, in fact, which takes it up to 30 minutes per flight.
The increased flight time comes courtesy of new electronic speed controllers and redesigned propellers. Otherwise, it is very much the same Mavic Pro you’ve seen flying above your back yard.
The Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian is less exciting since it is effectively the Phantom 4 Pro in a different livery. DJI describes this as “a sleek matte-gray Obsidian color shell featuring a magnesium, electroplated and anti-fingerprint coated gimbal, which requires a higher standard manufacturing technique.” I call it “gray.” The new “sphere mode” announced today — coming to the Spark drone — is set to offer a new way of sharing drone-created content. Spark pilots (yes — I called them pilots) can now produce a panoramic photo that features a fisheye lens effect. The resulting “sphere” can be shared directly to social media sites, where viewers can interact with the output — assuming the social network supports interactive images.
While the new mode isn’t necessarily groundbreaking, it is — by definition — revolutionary. Just not that kind of revolution.
You can soon expect your Facebook timeline to be chock-full of interactive panoramas, thanks to your DJI-toting friends. The new feature will be included in the forthcoming DJI GO 4 mobile app and via Spark firmware updates.
With a retail price of £1,119/€1,299/$1,099 the Mavic Pro Platinum is available for preorder immediately at DJI’s website and will begin shipping in September. The Phantom 4 Pro Obsidian will retail for £1,589/€1,699/$1,499 and will also be available in September at DJI’s website and at DJI Flagship Stores, as well as through authorized dealers worldwide.
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"WhatsApp is down in parts of Brazil, Europe, and the U.S. (update: it's back) | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/social/whatsapp-is-down-in-parts-of-brazil-europe-and-the-u-s"
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WhatsApp went down for some of its users around the world today, leaving some unable to send or receive messages.
Users reportedly experienced the worst outages in parts of western Europe, southern Brazil, and in the eastern United States, according to website DownDetector.com.
Above: Outage map as of 8:40 a.m.
Reports of outages began around 8 a.m. Pacific Time.
“Earlier today, WhatsApp users in parts of the world had trouble accessing the app for a couple hours. This issue has been fixed and we apologize for the inconvenience,” a WhatsApp spokesperson told VentureBeat in an email statement.
Updated 1:30 p.m. to include a statement from a WhatsApp spokesperson.
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"Stupid patent of the month: JP Morgan patents inter-app permissions | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/security/stupid-patent-of-the-month-jp-morgan-patents-inter-app-permissions"
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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 Stupid patent of the month: JP Morgan patents inter-app permissions 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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We have often criticized the Patent Office for issuing broad software patents that cover obvious processes. Instead of promoting innovation in software, the patent system places landmines for developers who wish to use basic and fundamental tools. This month’s stupid patent, which covers user permissions for mobile applications, is a classic example.
On August 29, 2017, the Patent Office issued U.S. Patent No. 9,747,468 (the ’468 patent) to JP Morgan Chase Bank, titled “System and Method for Communication Among Mobile Applications.” The patent covers the simple idea of a user giving a mobile application permission to communicate with another application. This idea was obvious when JP Morgan applied for the patent in June 2013. Even worse, it had already been implemented by numerous mobile applications. The Patent Office handed out a broad software monopoly while ignoring both common sense and the real world.
The full text of Claim 1 of the ’468 patent is as follows: A method for a first mobile application and a second mobile application on a mobile device to share information, comprising: the first mobile application executed by a computer processor on a mobile device determining that the second mobile application is present on the mobile device; receiving, from a user, permission for the first mobile application to access data from the second mobile application; the first mobile application executed by the computer processor requesting data from the second mobile application; and the first mobile application receiving the requested data from the second mobile application.
That’s it. The claim simply covers having an app check to see if another app is on the phone, getting the user’s permission to access data from the second app, then accessing that data.
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 ’468 patent goes out of its way to make clear that this supposed invention can be practiced on any kind of mobile device. The specification helpfully explains that “the invention or portions of the system of the invention may be in the form of a ‘processing machine,’ such as a general purpose computer, for example.” The patent also emphasizes that the invention can be practiced on any kind of mobile operating system and using applications written in any programming language.
How was such a broad and obvious idea allowed to be patented? As we have explained many times before , the Patent Office seems to operate in an alternate universe where the only evidence of the state of the art in software is found in patents. Indeed, the examiner considered only patents and patent applications when reviewing JP Morgan’s application. It’s no wonder the office gets it so wrong.
What would the examiner have found if he had looked beyond patents? It’s true that in mid-2013, when the application was originally filed, mobile systems generally asked for permissions up front when installing applications rather than interposing more fine-grained requests. But having more specific requests was a straightforward security and user-interface decision , not an invention.
Structures for inter-app communication and permissions had been discussed for years (such as here , here , and here ). No person working in application development in 2013 would have looked at Claim 1 of the ’468 patent and think it was non-obvious to a person of ordinary skill.
JP Morgan’s “invention” was not just obvious, it had been implemented in practice. At least some mobile applications already followed the basic system claimed by the ’468 patent. In early 2012, after Apple was criticized for allowing apps to access contact data on the iPhone, some apps began requesting user permission before accessing that data. Similarly, Twitter asked for user permission as early as 2011, including on “feature phones” , before allowing other apps access to its data. Since it didn’t consider any real world software, the Patent Office missed these examples.
The Patent Office does a terrible job reviewing software patent applications. Meanwhile, some in the patent lobby are pushing to make it even easier to get broad and abstract software patents. We need real reform that reduces the flood of bad software patents that fuels patent trolling.
This story originally appeared on the EFF’s blog.
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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"Watch Final Fantasy XV running at 4K and 60 FPS on PC | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/pc-gaming/watch-final-fantasy-xv-running-at-4k-and-60-fps-on-pc"
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Final Fantasy XV is coming to the PC, and it looks even more gorgeous than it does on consoles.
Publisher Square Enix announced that it is porting the latest entry in its long-running role-playing franchise to Windows. The company has also partnered with Nvidia for a marketing deal that has the graphics-hardware manufacturer rolling out videos of the new Final Fantasy running at max settings at a 4K resolution and a solid 60 frames per second. You can see that 105-second clip above.
Square Enix is launching Final Fantasy XV on PC next year (it hasn’t provided a specific date). This comes after it hit PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in late 2016. But PC gamers likely won’t mind the wait since this is a relatively quick turnaround for a Final Fantasy game, which can often take more than three years to hit the PC … if it ever comes to that platform at all. On top of that, the publisher has promised to support mods in Final Fantasy XV. This will enable community creators to add new experiences and content to the game that aren’t possible on PS4 or Xbox One.
But while having mods and access to the core game are great, the biggest draw is perhaps the visual fidelity that is only possible on PC. With help from Nvidia, Square Enix can assure that Final Fantasy XV is optimized to run at 4K and 60 FPS. That’s something we’ve seen recently with the Destiny 2 beta, which Nvidia has helped developer Bungie out with.
Players are already hailing that game for its excellent performance , and it’s possible that Square Enix’s RPG could see something similar.
“With the help of Nvidia, we are creating a stunning visual experience in Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition, one worthy of this beloved franchise,” Square Enix director Hajime Tabata said. “Nvidia pushes the pace of innovation in our industry, and that benefits gamers and developers alike.” 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 GameWorks arcade chain is about to get an esports makeover | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/pc-gaming/the-gameworks-arcade-chain-is-about-to-get-an-esports-makeover"
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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 GameWorks arcade chain is about to get an esports makeover Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn GameWorks.
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That old GameWorks arcade center in the mall in your town will host esports soon.
Oomba, an online tournament-management system , has acquired GameWorks from the group of investors that bought the company in 2011. The new ownership plans to refocus the existing GameWorks locations into local miniature esports arenas.
Competitive gaming has grown into a massive force on livestreaming platforms like Twitch, but it hasn’t established itself as a local or regional attraction quite yet. Oomba wants to change that by using the existing GameWorks facilities in cities like Seattle and Denver. As of today, seven GameWorks locations are still in operation, and they are all in the United States. Michael Williams, Oomba chief executive, says that the large arcade venues are ideal for not just esports but VR experiences and “game nights” as well. The Las Vegas location has even already introduced a massive LAN room with connected PC computers for esports tournaments.
“We plan to transform GameWorks into the experiential anchor for triple-A locations all across America and beyond,” said Williams.
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! Oomba is making this move on a wave of growth for esports. That market is on the cusp of generating $696 million in revenue this year, according to industry-intelligence firm Newzoo.
That’s up 41 percent from 2016, and that trend could see competitive gaming hit as high as $1.5 billion by 2020. As of today, most of that money comes from sponsorships and advertising during tournaments, but fans are also spending money to attend live events. Oomba is betting that the enthusiasm for esports could filter down to the local level for fans who want to participate in tournaments in their home towns.
And Oomba is planning to introduce GameWorks into new regions.
“The financial strength and vision of Oomba combined with the operating strength and team at GameWorks will revolutionize location based entertainment,” Oomba chief financial officer Edmund Har said. “We will continue to build on the positive historical performance of these stores while aggressively expanding into markets we are excited to enter”.
This is the biggest pivot for GameWorks since its inception in the ’90s. Game publisher Sega and Steve Spielberg’s DreamWorks movie studio started the venture as a series of entertainment venues focused on arcade games. DreamWorks sold its half of the company in 2001 before GameWorks filed for bankruptcy in 2004 and then again in 2010. Sega eventually sold off the company in full in 2011 to a group of investors. With the sale to Oomba, the investment group has now made its exit for an undisclosed amount.
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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"PC Gaming Weekly: Where will you meet your Destiny? | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/pc-gaming/pc-gaming-weekly-where-will-you-meet-your-destiny"
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The biggest showdown this fall may not involve Call of Duty or Battlefield. No, this faceoff is between Destiny 2 PC and … Destiny 2 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Bungie (you know, that little studio known for creating Halo) is conducting a beta test on its highly anticipated online shooter, and GamesBeat PC Gaming editor Jeff Grubb is convinced that it looks, runs, and plays best on a personal computer, not a PS4 or Xbox One. How strong is this opinion? He even wants all of you — and your friends — to sit out the console launch next week and wait for it to hit Blizzard Entertainment’s Battle.net on October 24.
That’s a long time to wait, but he believes Destiny 2 is a special game. Activision built a tremendous amount of hype behind the original’s September 2014 release date, and its lack of stuff to do (among other issues) became a problem for players, and this intensified at the endgame. The first expansion addressed many of its biggest warts, and Activision and Bungie promise that the sequel will launch without those problems.
Of course, another question looms: Will folks stop playing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds long enough to even notice Destiny? 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! For PC gaming coverage, send news tips to Jeff Grubb and guest post submissions to Rowan Kaiser.
Please be sure to visit our PC Gaming Channel.
You can also enter our Intel-sponsored contest for an iBuyPower Snowblind gaming rig here.
–Jason Wilson, GamesBeat managing editor P.S. Jeff begs you: Wait for Destiny 2 on PC. See why you should consider his plea.
From GamesBeat Orwell: Ignorance is Strength takes on fake news in Season Two PREVIEW: The designers of Orwell: Ignorance is Strength are pulling their story about surveillance and fake news straight from the headlines from U.S. President Donald Trump’s attacks on the media. These have put the spotlight on fake news, and Osmotic Studios is turning this reality show into a computer game. The original Orwell: Keeping an Eye […] Game boss interview: Epic’s Tim Sweeney on blockchain, digital humans, and Fortnite Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games and one of the game industry’s tech savants, has traveled the world to speak about his vision for a world of connected games with massive simulations and realistic digital humans who look and behave like real people. Sweeney gave a talk at the recent Devcom event in Germany. […] 7 arguments to convince your Destiny 2 friends to skip the console launch Destiny 2 isn’t really coming out next week. I mean, sure — it’s launching on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on September 6, but that’s not the real Destiny 2. After playing it on PC, I consider the console versions a cheap imitation of the legitimate article. The problem is that Bungie’s latest sci-fi shooter won’t hit […] Overwatch’s Deathmatch mode is a great way to practice “Git gud.” This is often the snarky reply to any Overwatch player who asks another how to get better at Blizzard‘s team-based shooter. But how, exactly, does one get good? Well, like in anything else, you practice. But practicing is hard to do in Overwatch. Enter the new Deathmatch mode, which gives players a place […] Game Boss interview: Grand Theft Auto creator wants to bring realism to massive online games Ever since releasing the original Grand Theft Auto in 1997, Dave Jones has been obsessed with making believable worlds. He worked on more recent online game worlds like the one in All Points Bulletin (APB), and at each point along the way, he ran into huge obstacles on a technological front. Now, he serves as president […] PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds just beat Dota 2 for concurrent players PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds just did the impossible. It had more simultaneous players online through the Steam PC gaming service than Dota 2, according to data-tracking site Steam Spy. This is an incredible achievement because few releases have ever come close to threatening Dota 2’s concurrent player number. And that makes sense because Dota 2 is a […] Beyond GamesBeat How (and why) we ported SHENZHEN SOLITAIRE to MS-DOS Can two programmers who are accustomed to making games for modern computers with gigabytes of RAM and high-color HD displays port one of their games to MS-DOS? Neither of us had any experience developing on such old hardware, but since working within artificially limited systems is something of a Zachtronics game design specialty, we felt compelled to try! (via Gamasutra) PCIe 4.0 Will Be Here in 2017 Following by PCIe 5.0 in 2019 PCI-SIG which is the organization that designs the PCIe express standard has released a roadmap to the public showing off the blueprints for when the next PCIe standard will be upgraded.
(via Dark Side of Gaming) HP stuffed the best gaming desktop perks into the 10-pound Omen X laptop HP gave its Omen gaming line a big boost before this year’s E3 with the launch of new gaming PCs, peripherals, a GPU accelerator, and a VR backpack. While the company wants to provide devices for all kinds of gamers, its newest launch targets enthusiasts who don’t want to compromise power when choosing a portable device.
(via Ars Technica) PUBG players are farming for $300 skirts by going AFK Big games like World of Warcraft and Team Fortress 2 helped popularize the practice of idling: logging into a game without playing it in the hope of passively receiving in-game rewards. In these games and others, players would join custom ‘idle servers,’ or use macros to automate their character movement, allowing them to literally and figuratively sidestep getting kicked for being AFK.
(via PC Gamer) 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.
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"NewTek wants game broadcasters to adopt its video-over-ethernet tech | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/pc-gaming/newtek-wants-game-broadcasters-to-adopt-its-video-over-ethernet-tech"
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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 NewTek wants game broadcasters to adopt its video-over-ethernet tech Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Setting up an NDI feed to send to another computer.
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The audience on the livestreaming site Twitch have countless content creators to choose from these days, and that has created an arms race between channels all trying to boost their production quality to capture more viewers than anyone else. Now, video software firm NewTek is targeting those livestreamers with its NDI technology.
That’s a new video signal that broadcasts from one computer to another over a local network.
NDI is something that Twitch already uses for its own in-house productions. It enables that company’s on-screen personalities to play games in one room while the producers edit the live feed in another room without having to run any extra cables beyond the existing Cat6 Ethernet in the walls.
“Before we got the Newtek hardware, we were running SDI cables through the ceilings and over the walls in order to just get video feeds from the computer gaming room we had down the hall,” Twitch video production manager Adam Contini told GamesBeat. “Now that we no longer need all that stuff, we’re just plugging those computers into the network using the Ethernet jacks in the wall. Our control room is on that same network. We get the signal feeds without running additional cabling anymore.” For people like Contini, NewTek has established itself as the go-to vendor for television-quality broadcasting equipment.
It hasn’t, however, made the same inroads with consumers or prosumers who are using tools like XSplit or OBS Studio to send their live feeds to Twitch, YouTube, or Mixer. But the company sees an opportunity to do exactly that.
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! “What this allows for is an evolution of storytelling,” NewTek NDI strategy boss Will Waters told GamesBeat. “We’ve been talking about gaming here. One of the things about this method is that you don’t want to impact gameplay. The gamer doesn’t want the frustration of having to deal with his or her environment to deliver that out, to be able to tell their story through video. What NDI does is it allows for an evolution that extends the storytelling, and in many ways increases the connection with the community. We’re all communicating through video.
“Obviously, Newtek, we’re a manufacturer and vendor of products. We see a big opportunity to be able to service people within that market space. But it’s more than just a transport mechanism. As we look at the way people consume media, they’re looking for quality as far as how that video content is received.” Waters is likely onto something with the emphasis on quality. One trend that suggests more broadcasters are concerned about quality is the prevalence of two-computer streaming setups even for small channels. With two PCs, a game can run on one rig, and all of the broadcasting and streaming tools can run on the other. This ensures that OBS and XSplit, which are sometimes hungry for CPU and GPU bandwidth, don’t interfere with the quality of the game.
“The last thing you want to do is impact the game itself,” said Waters. “You can start out with a single PC, but you’re competing for resources. Usually the next step from that is to then buy another rig or maybe use a laptop. You have a separate machine that handles the streaming aspect and runs XSplit to send out. To get your video out of the main gaming machine and into that machine running XSplit, that’s where you end up running into using some type of capture card, some type of device, and you’re changing that video format. That’s where you get into these frustrations sometimes.” Those capture cards include something like the Elgato HD60 S or the Razer Ripsaw. Those work well, but they do create complications. For one, they require cables to run from one computer to the other. That also means that the streaming rig can only get so far away from your microphone and gaming rig, which could mean a lot more background noise and tangled wires.
“And oftentimes consumer hardware, especially gaming hardware, will start to do things that don’t conform to standard video standards,” said Contini. “If you have to use conventional video conversion hardware, if you’re a streamer, in order to convert to get a console or a PC into your streaming PC, then converting from those standards can become more difficult than you need it to be. You might have to change what kind of input you’re using, what kind of input device you’re using. You might have to consider getting some kind of standards converter, something like that, and all of that is just to get it into XSplit.” For Newtek, this is where it wants NDI to come in and help.
“With NDI, it still remains just an Ethernet cable,” said Contini. “If they’re both on the network, the conversion to your stream resolution and framerate just happens in XSplit or OBS. It’s all you need. You don’t have to start worrying about, ‘is my HDMI input card capable of accepting this 1440p 144 signal that I’m sending out from my 3D card?'” Waters echoed that sentiment.
“NDI allows video to use the network with IP, since that’s the native way that all this software talks to each other anyway,” said Waters. “Using that methodology to be able to then transport a high quality video along with audio signal into the application that then encodes it for delivery out to a platform such as Twitch.” Setting up NDI is simple. On the source computer where you’re playing the game, you just need to install NewTek’s NDI Tools.
That comes with a suite of apps including NDI Stream Converter. Opening that will add a new icon to your toolbar in Windows, and it will also begin creating a constant video feed of your desktop or any window you select over your network.
On the streaming rig, all you need to do is to open XSplit or OBS and make sure you’re on the same network as the gaming PC. Open a new source and select NDI.
That’s it.
This setup gives broadcasters the benefits of a two-PC setup without sharing the same room or a complicated cable rigging. I’ve tried it, and I’m surprised at how well it works. I even tried it with one of my PCs on Wi-Fi. NewTek doesn’t explicitly recommend this, but it seemed like my wireless-AC connection was robust enough to handle the signal. But I would have to do more testing before I’d recommend that.
But I do want to incorporate NDI into my livestreaming workflow, and I think this is something a lot of people will want ot take advantage of. That’s exactly what NewTek is going for.
“The real opportunity is in how people use that and how the disruption,” said Waters. “And that really comes in the way that people adopt and can take advantage and evolve their particular space, as opposed to being locked into particular silos of technology for the sake of being in a particular ecosystem.” 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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"Lenovo unveils Windows Mixed Reality headset and Yoga 920 laptop with Cortana support from 4 meters away | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/lenovo-unveils-windows-mixed-reality-headset-and-yoga-920-laptop-with-cortana-support-from-4-meters-away"
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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 Lenovo unveils Windows Mixed Reality headset and Yoga 920 laptop with Cortana support from 4 meters away 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 its IFA 2017 event today, Lenovo took the wraps off three refreshed laptops, its new Windows Mixed Reality headset, a Home Assistant Pack for its tablets, and a Star Wars augmented reality experience. The message was clear: Lenovo wants to be a part of the voice assistant and augmented reality trends.
The Chinese computer maker, which recently lost the top PC spot to HP , isn’t doing this all on its own. Lenovo is leaning on Amazon, Disney, and Microsoft to make sure it isn’t left behind. Competition is fierce in these new spaces, and Lenovo is smartly taking a multi-pronged approach to see what works best.
Cortana for laptops, Alexa for tablets For Lenovo’s latest laptops, touch is standard.
Having embraced the touch input trend, the company is now looking at voice input for its laptops and tablets.
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 Yoga 920 , coming exactly 12 months after the Yoga 910 , puts a big emphasis on voice recognition. Cortana support in a Windows 10 laptop is nothing new, but the Yoga 920 takes it a step further by being able to recognize voice commands in standby mode and from up to 4 meters away. As for specs, you can expect Intel’s eighth-generation processors (up to the Quad Core i7), a nearly bezel-less 4K IPS touchscreen in a 13.9-inch frame, a weight starting at 1.37 kg (3.02 lbs), 8GB/12GB/16GB RAM options, 256GB/512GB/1TB SSD storage options, two USB Type-C ports, and one USB 3.0 port. Like other Yogas, the 920 can switch into four modes: laptop, stand, tent, and tablet.
The Yoga 920 starts at $1,329.99 and ships in October. Europeans can get it in September, but starting at €1,599.
Next up is a 12-inch version of the Yoga 720 , which the company describes as its “most portable and compact Yoga 720 model yet” at 0.62 inches thin and 2.53 pounds. Unfortunately it’s still stuck on Intel’s seventh-generation processors.
The 12-inch Yoga 720 starts at $649 and ships in October.
The detachable Miix 520 has been blessed with Intel’s eighth-generation processors as well. This is Lenovo’s latest Surface Pro competitor, and just like Microsoft, Lenovo is happy to offer optional LTE for those who want to pay more.
The Miix 520 starts at $999.99 (keyboard and Lenovo Active Pen 2 included) and ships in October. Europeans can get it in November starting at €899.
The Home Assistant Pack brings Amazon’s Alexa to Lenovo’s Tab 4 Series tablets. You can use your voice to access the news and weather, check your calendar, shop online, play a song, or control your smart home. The pack, which basically turns your tablet into a smart speaker, consists of a Home Assistant app, a three-watt speaker, and far-field voice detection with two microphones (search and hear your results from up to three meters from any direction, Lenovo promises). All you have to do is insert your Tab 4 into the Home Assistant Pack, and the tablet’s screen will switch to the Home Assistant Interface.
The Home Assistant Pack starts at $79.99 and ships in October.
AR/VR Back in October 2016, Microsoft revealed that its partners Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo will be shipping Windows 10 VR headsets, starting at $299 , in 2017. They’re now starting to trickle out at IFA 2017.
The Lenovo Explorer headset features inside-out positional tracking, like all Windows Mixed Reality devices, meaning no external sensors are needed. Just connect the built-in Y-cable to your computer USB port and HDMI output. The headset is adjustable with cushioning and fitted with a flip-up visor. It lets you move around in an area of up to 3.5 by 3.5 meters, where you can “hop, lunge, or crouch” without worrying about having to “continually reorient yourself as you move around.” There are four different types of input options: Motion controllers, an Xbox controller, keyboard and mouse, or voice commands through Cortana.
Lenovo Explorer and Motion Controllers will start at $449, while the Lenovo Explorer alone will go for $349. Global availability is expected “in the coming weeks.” Disney’s Star Wars: Jedi Challenges is a new augmented reality Star Wars experience consisting of a smartphone-powered Lenovo Mirage AR headset, Lightsaber Controller, Tracking Beacon, and hours of Star Wars gameplay. The Star Wars: Jedi Challenges app is available for Android phones and Apple’s iPhone. Lenovo promises the headset will provide “full gaming immersion over uninterrupted stretches of time with an optimal level of comfort.” The included Tracking Beacon consists of cameras to track the user’s location, unlike the aforementioned Lenovo Explorer. The Mirage headset pairs with the Lightsaber Controller, which acts as both a controller and pointer in augmented reality.
Star Wars: Jedi Challenges will be sold for $199.99 only at Best Buy in the U.S. come November.
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! 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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"IDC: Wearables grew 10.3% in Q2 2017, Xiaomi leads Apple and Fitbit as Samsung drops out of top 5 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/idc-wearables-grew-10-3-in-q2-2017-xiaomi-leads-apple-and-fitbit-as-samsung-drops-out-of-top-5"
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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 IDC: Wearables grew 10.3% in Q2 2017, Xiaomi leads Apple and Fitbit as Samsung drops out of top 5 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn A wearable fitness band made by Xiaomi 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 the start of the year, Xiaomi took the wearables crown from Fitbit. In Q2 2017, the Chinese company isn’t letting go, and its two biggest competitors also maintained their close positions: Apple in second and Fitbit in third. (Until 2017, Fitbit was first every single quarter.) Mobile companies shipped a total of 26.3 million wearables worldwide last quarter. That number is up 10.3 percent from the 23.8 million units shipped in Q2 2016. The latest figures come from IDC, which found that all five of the top companies managed to ship at least a million units. Samsung is notably missing from the list: As you can see above, Xiaomi gained 0.4 percentage points, thanks to shipping 400,000 more units. IDC noted that the company’s expertise in driving low-cost devices remains unmatched, with the Mi Band lineup being the most popular.
Apple saw the biggest growth year-over-year, up 3.4 points, thanks to shipping an additional 1.1 million units. The Apple Watch Series 1 and Series 2 are now mature products, and the fact the company is still selling more of them ahead of the expected Watch Series 3 debut this quarter bodes well.
Fitbit’s market share meanwhile dropped 11.1 percentage points (from 24.1 percent to 12.9 percent), as the company shipped 2.3 million fewer devices (but still 3.4 million total). The company is in a period of transition with the debut of its first smartwatch.
Garmin slipped 1.0 points to 5.4 percent, while Fossil jumped 2.6 points to 4.0 percent. Both are a far cry from the double-digit percentage shares of their competitors.
Samsung dropped out of the top five this past quarter. The company yesterday unveiled a new smartwatch, fitness tracker, and earbuds at IFA 2017, so it will likely make a comeback next quarter. Still, while the South Korean company dominates smartphones , it has not been able to replicate that track record in wearables.
“Market growth favored new and emerging products in the second quarter,” IDC research manager Ramon Llamas said in a statement. “Smartwatches recorded double-digit year-over-year growth, with much of that increase attributable to a growing number of models aimed at specific market segments, like the fashion-conscious and outdoor enthusiasts in addition to the technophile crowd, lower price points, and a slowly warming reception from consumers and enterprise users alike. Factor in how smartwatches are taking steps to become standalone devices, and more applications are becoming available, and the smartwatch slowly becomes a more suitable mass market product. Meanwhile, we also saw triple-digit growth from clothing and earwear.” The wearables market remains very small, and companies are still trying to figure out where it’s headed. Vendors are pushing a wide variety of offerings, from fashion accessories to smartphone replacements. The huge amount of data collected behind the scenes is what gives the category immense potential, but is also why consumers remain cautious.
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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"Duolingo launches Tinycards memory-boosting app on Android | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/duolingo-brings-standalone-tinycards-flashcards-memorization-app-to-android"
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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 Duolingo launches Tinycards memory-boosting app on Android Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Duolingo's Tinycards app (iOS version) 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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Duolingo , the heavily funded startup best known for its range of online language-learning courses, has launched its standalone memorization app on Android.
The Pittsburgh-based company first introduced its Tinycards app to iOS last summer, but now the company is making the app available to millions more people with the Android launch.
Tinycards is essentially a flashcard app that uses spaced repetition to help users memorize things. Yes, this could be a language — Duolingo’s raison d’être — but it could equally be the periodic table or muscles of the body. Users can choose from existing flashcard decks or create their own.
Above: Tinycards Founded in 2011, Duolingo has emerged as one of the leading online learning platforms, though with a specific focus on language — it uses gamification to help people read, listen to, and speak more than 20 languages. The company has raised north of $100 million in funding and is now valued at $700 million, with backing from big-name VC firms such as Google Capital. It now claims more than 200 million users globally.
Available through the web and mobile app, Tinycards is the first standalone app released by Duolingo, and the company said that since the app’s inception more than 200,000 flashcard decks have been created, covering everything from art history and anatomy to geography and Pokémon.
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 schedules iPhone 8 event for September 12 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/apple-schedules-iphone-8-event-for-september-12"
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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 schedules iPhone 8 event for September 12 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Apple chief executive Tim Cook onstage at Apple's event in San Francisco on September 7, 2016.
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Apple’s iPhone 8 will be unveiled on September 12. The company today sent out invites to the event, which starts at 10:00 a.m. Pacific and will be held in the Steve Jobs Theater on the new Apple Park campus in Cupertino. “Let’s meet at our place,” reads the invitation to press. This will be Apple’s sixth consecutive product event held in September since the introduction of the iPhone 5 in 2012.
While the latest iPhone presentation is Apple’s most important event of the year, this one is particularly significant as this year marks the device’s 10-year anniversary (the original iPhone was unveiled in January 2007 and released in June 2007). The past year was also the first time Apple saw iPhone sales fall , and this push is expected to help counter that trend.
In terms of hardware, Apple is widely expected to introduce three new phones at the event (iPhone 7s, iPhone 7s Plus, and iPhone 8), Apple Watch Series 3 models with LTE support, and a new Apple TV with 4K support. The iPhone 8 is supposed to feature an OLED edge-to-edge display, wireless charging, and facial recognition — all features that exist in Android smartphones, but not in iOS devices.
In terms of software, Apple will share the release dates for iOS 11, macOS High Sierra, watchOS 4, and tvOS 11. The new operating system versions were all first announced at Apple’s WWDC conference in June and have been in beta testing ever since.
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! Apple will naturally also reveal when the first new iPhones will start to ship. The most likely date, based on past events, is September 22, 2017.
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's original programming debuts to fill massive reality TV void | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/media/facebooks-original-programming-debuts-to-fill-massive-reality-tv-void"
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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’s original programming debuts to fill massive reality TV void 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.
If you wake up every morning believing the world would be a better place with more reality TV shows, then Facebook has wonderful news for you.
The social networking company has released its first two original video programs: Ball in the Family and Virtually Dating.
“I like the way my hand goes through your entire neck,” says Bachelor Number One to open the creepy Virtually Dating.
“This is like porn music. What are you guys trying to make us do here?” Later, he adds, “This is kinda creepy.” 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 like a sad dance,” his date replies.
The fork you will need to stab your eyes out after watching is apparently sold separately.
I am old enough to remember when a company like Netflix launched its original programming by creating actual original programming that was actually great, with House of Cards.
Though after five seasons, frankly, I am now wishing someone would do to the series what Claire Underwood did to Tom Yates this season.
But we live in a reality TV world, with a reality TV president. So it seems otherwise sane companies like Apple feel totally okay investing their money in nausea-inducing reality programming.
And so cometh Facebook.
Following the debut of Virtually Dating on Wednesday, today we have the first two episodes of Ball in the Family.
The drama, such as it is, follows the story of former NBA player LaVar Ball, who has three extremely talented sons aiming to follow in dad’s footsteps to play pro ball. Oldest, Lonzo, is a rookie with the Los Angeles Lakers. The second, LiAngelo, is a UCLA freshman. The third, LaMelo, is still in high school.
Ball also owns an apparel company called Big Baller. The first episode opens with the three sons wearing Big Baller clothing. So, basically, the series can be seen as a gigantic ad campaign paid for by Facebook.
Shameless marketing aside, the first two episodes follow the reality TV series template. Lots of fast cuts. People talking to the camera. Attempts at provocative statements. Patriarch Ball yelling about how great he is and how hot his wife is, and the sons telling us that we don’t really know their dad. Etc., etc., etc.
The most notable thing about it appears to be the fact that it only appears on Facebook, which hopes to use this to drive interest in its video-watching service, Watch, which is currently in limited rollout. The big question will be whether the platform drives more discovery and sharing of such shows.
For instance, we can embed an episode like this to give it even more free exposure: So, the circle is complete. After this, you can go back to watching adorable dog and cat videos, because this is who we are now.
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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"Wil Reynolds, VR chicken, and our most R-rated episode ever - VB Engage | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/marketing/wil-reynolds-vr-chicken-and-our-most-r-rated-episode-ever-vb-engage"
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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 Wil Reynolds, VR chicken, and our most R-rated episode ever – VB Engage 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.
This week, Travis and Stewart discuss the bizarre, weird, and wonderful world of KFC’s VR “chicken mastery program” and Google’s attempts to catch up with Amazon in conversational UI (bolstered by a partnership with Walmart).
And in an interview recorded at Unbounce’s excellent CTAConf event in Vancouver, they interview the brilliant Wil Reynolds , one of the leading digital marketing strategy experts. As well as dropping a few F-bombs, Wil reveals the secrets of how to win in today’s marketing environments.
Also, Travis and Stewart recorded this podcast live on the VentureBeat Facebook page! Tune in this Friday morning to watch the VB Engage duo rock the mics.
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! By listening to this episode of VB Engage, you will hear: Welcome to VB Engage episode 66! [0:10] This week, we chat with Wil Reynolds, but first the news! [00:35] KFC has a frightening new VR training program , where you can’t leave the room until you can successfully fry chicken! [01:35] This is another example of interesting VR content, but it’s strange. [02:15] VR content like this is part of KFC’s “chicken mastery” program! [02:35] The conversational UI space is heating up. [03:00] Google is reportedly working on a smaller smart speaker to take on Amazon’s Echo Dot.
[03:55] Also in Conversational UI, Walmart taps Google to challenge Amazon’s hold on voice-assisted shopping.
[04:40] Amazon owns, through its app, over 50% of first product searches. [05:15] Echo devices account for 72.2% of the conversational UI gadgets. [05:35] Bezos got the idea for Amazon Prime through chatting with Walmart VPs and talking about how they charged for a membership at Sam’s Club. [06:15] Amazon has a history of releasing products in the U.S. and taking its time rolling them out internationally. [07:00] Also in the news, it’s 2017, and LinkedIn FINALLY has video.
[08:10] Speaking of old technologies, let’s chat about email. [09:30] Sigstr raises $5 million to turn email signatures into ads.
[10:00] This is an employee email personalization tool to promote jobs, events, webinars, and sales and marketing messages that will be auto-updated. [10:35] Elon Musk leads 116 experts in calling for the outright ban of killer robots.
[11:25] Stewart and Travis are for banning all killing, in general. [12:05] If you live long enough, life kills you. So maybe we should ban that too? [12:35] Next up is Wil Reynolds , CEO of Seer Interactive.
[13:45] There is no quick fix in marketing. The computer doesn’t interview people. Getting inside the mind of the customer is key. [14:35] SEO is all about “How can I rank better?” Content is all about “How do I solve your problems?” [15:15] Wil has been interviewing customers of his clients and watching how they weave through search results. [15:45] It’s crucial to not bias the research. [16:05] We ask questions like, “Let’s say you started with Google, how would you search for this?” [16:35] Stewart asks how conversational UI plays into search in the future. [17:05] Wil is conflicted about conversational UI, right now. People from ComScore make wild statements about how 50% of search will be via voice by 2020. [17:25] Ask a room full of top marketers how many voice searches they did today and they’ll say 1 or 2. But with regular text searches, that might be 300 to 400 a week. [17:40] So in the next 2.5 years, are we going to make a significant shift? [17:50] Seer saw bumps in two areas in their research around conversational UI. [18:20] The more complicated the search phrase, the less likely people will be to use voice search. [18:30] It’s more case by case and query by query. [18:50] Voice recognition isn’t clear enough to gain mass adoption. It’s too frustrating today. It needs a “Did you mean?” voice feature. [19:45] The smartphone is still number one. What do marketers need to think about with this right now? [21:55] Locations sometimes have different intents, for example, “rims” vs. “wheels” [22:15] How can I use all of the clues that Google is leaving in plain sight? [23:05] If someone is searching for something on mobile, a lot of the time their intent is different than it would be on desktop. [24:25] Remaining curious is so important in any marketing career. [24:50] Wil is focusing more on pay-per-click advertising, as that’s where all of the money is. [25:10] He uses tools like Tableau or Power BI tools and imports all of his paid search campaigns and compares that to search rankings… and does it at scale. [26:15] A paid search landing page and an organic search landing page are very different. How different are they? [26:35] Flag discrepancies on your landing pages versus organic pages. [27:05] Google’s AI has been trained to know what people want. [27:35] Why are nine out of 10 ranked pages ecommerce? [28:45] This was a fantastic chat with Wil Reynolds. He killed it. [29:20] Connect with him on Twitter @wilreynolds and @seerinteractive [30:00] Next week on episode 67, we chat with the cofounder and CTO of TradingView , Stan Bokov ! We discuss how they built such a dynamic community that is highly engaged. Blockchain and crypto currencies pop up, as well.
If you missed last week’s episode, we interviewed Scott Stratten , the man behind “unmarketing.” Scott reveals some of his greatest engagement tips and tells us how AI will affect the marketer’s life.
As always, thanks for tuning into VB Engage.
If you enjoy the show, please give it a quick rating or review it on your favorite podcast platform. Just search for VB Engage and make magic happen.
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"Sonic Forces is out for Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC on November 7 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/sonic-forces-is-out-for-switch-ps4-xbox-one-and-pc-on-november-7"
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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 Sonic Forces is out for Switch, PS4, Xbox One and PC on November 7 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Classic Sega characters and a Persona star make for a nice bonus.
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Sega announced today that Sonic Forces is coming out for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC on November 7. Sega also revealed a special physical version of the game that will cost $40 and come with a controller skin and in-game character costumes based on some of Sega and Atlus ‘s most famous stars (including the hero from Persona 5 ).
Sonic has already had one major release this year, but Sonic Mania wasn’t actually made by the studio — Sonic Team — that usually works on the franchise. While Mania took inspiration from the Blue Blur’s earlier days, Forces is more similar to recent games like Sonic Generations.
Forces could help continue Sonic’s great year … or it could leave us running back to Mania. Either way, Sega is surely looking at the numbers for both games as it plans Sonic’s future.
As with Generations, Forces will switch between levels for a Modern Sonic and a Classic Sonic. The Modern Sonic stages will be faster and feature 3D sections, while the Classic Sonic levels focus more on traditional 2D platforming. Forces also adds a new series of stages for a character that players create. This is the first time an official Sonic game has let fans make their heroes.
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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"Sims pioneer Rod Humble takes over Jam City's TinyCo studio | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/sims-pioneer-rod-humble-takes-over-jam-citys-tinyco-studio"
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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 Exclusive Sims pioneer Rod Humble takes over Jam City’s TinyCo studio Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Rod Humble is the new head of TinyCo at Jam City.
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Mobile game publisher Jam City announced it has appointed Rod Humble, a former Electronic Arts executive, to run its TinyCo Studio in San Francisco.
Humble replaces TinyCo founder Suleman (Suli) Ali, TinyCo’s founder and CEO, who is leaving the company to pursue entrepreneurial ventures. Humble will work with the leaders and centralized services of Los Angeles-based Jam City to run TinyCo. Ali will remain an adviser to Jam City.
Humble previously served as an executive at EA in charge of hits such as The Sims 2 and The Sims 3. He also served as CEO of Second Life creator Linden Lab.
Humble has been managing Jam City’s San Francisco studio for the past year. Matt Gaiser will now run that outfit; he’s a longtime Jam City executive and game producer. The combined San Francisco operations will have more than 250 people, which is about half the company.
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 centralized Jam City games studio in San Francisco will include technical operations, design, storytelling, visual arts, marketing, data analytics, growth, communications, and sales. As part of this centralization, Jam City will consolidate local recruiting efforts in San Francisco. Jam City is hiring for open positions in San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles. Jam City’s centralized services include publishing and marketing efforts.
Jam City will continue to publish under the TinyCo brand for select games. Humble and Gaiser will continue to report to Josh Yguado, cofounder, president and chief operating officer of Jam City.
Above: Family Guy: Another Freakin’ Mobile Game.
“As Jam City continues to rapidly grow and set new revenue and profit records, we are organizing our studio operations for maximum scale,” said Josh Yguado, in a statement. “Rod Humble and Matt Gaiser have done an outstanding job managing the Jam City San Francisco studio, and we are excited to see what these leaders will bring to the centralized Jam City and TinyCo operations.” Yguado added, “We are grateful for having had the opportunity to work closely with Suleman (Suli) Ali to successfully complete the TinyCo integration. We wish Suli all the best with his future projects.” I asked Humble why he joined Jam City and TinyCo. He responded in an email: I love growing businesses, and I love working with creative talent to make games which have mass market appeal. It has been a very fun and successful year at my current studio where we are currently hitting all-time highs both financially as well as in terms of game popularity. TinyCo has a strong track record of successful narrative and character based experiences which has been an interest of mine for some time. The opportunity to help grow another one is very exciting to me.
On the management side this will be the seventh studio of significant scale I have run. They have all been different and I have learned something new from each one. From my experience as the CEO if Linden Labs working on Second Life, to my work at EA releasing multiple successful Sims titles, I hope my accumulated skills can also be of help to my new colleagues. Each new org is also a new adventure with a different audience and in the case of TinyCo I think there is an opportunity to become the world’s best mobile story- and character-based games studio.
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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5,341 | 2,017 |
"Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is an abomination of UI design | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/dissidia-final-fantasy-nt-is-an-abomination-of-ui-design"
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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 Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is an abomination of UI design Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Got em? 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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A Final Fantasy fighting game is a great idea. The series has had tons of memorable characters. Putting them together in a brawler should be great fan service. And in some ways, Dissidia Final Fantasy NT is just that. But as I learned by playing the fighter’s beta on PlayStation 4 , it’s also a disaster of poor design decisions.
NT, which comes out for the PlayStation 4 on January 30, is the third game in the Dissidia series. The other two came out for the PSP, Sony’s first portable system. The gameplay in NT, which is based on an arcade version of the series that only came out in Japan, is similar to its PSP predecessors … which were themselves confusing.
Attacking isn’t as simple as attacking In most fighting games, characters have health (or HP, meaning hit points). You attack them to deplete it. In Dissida, characters have health and another resource, Bravery. You have HP Attacks and Bravery Attacks. Bravery Attacks increase your Bravery while depleting the gauge of whoever you hit. What exactly is Bravery? It’s a number that indicates how much damage your HP Attack will do.
Above: Things are happening here, I think.
So, you need to hit people with Bravery Attacks to increase your Bravery so that your HP Attack can kill them. It’s … a little convoluted. But, you know what? That’s fine. The fighting game genre is crowded. You need to do something to stand out, and introducing new mechanics and ideas is one way to separate yourself from all of the Street Fighter and Tekken clones.
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! And that’s why the PSP Dissidia games were fun despite being so unorthodox. But NT takes things further. Instead of 1-on-1 bouts, it features 3-vs.-3 fights. This means that the user interface has to display a ton of information at any time.
The UI nightmare How do you gracefully present so much info — health, Bravery, cooldowns, player positions, and more — without cluttering up the screen? You don’t. Just look at this screenshot from NT’s own video tutorial.
Above: My god … .
It’s terrifying. I want to scream. It is an abomination. If a game needs to display this much information to the player at all times, something has gone wrong with its fundamental design. Remember, you need to keep track of all of this while fighting three people alongside two other players.
And this isn’t some kind of strategy game or deep simulator. It’s a fighting game. You might think that Square Enix has added all of these systems to make it feel more like a role-playing game. You know, like Final Fantasy. But Dissida doesn’t feel like an RPG. It’s still a fighting game, just one overburdened by nonsense.
Hope versus first impressions I do like some aspects of Dissida. It’s awesome seeing so many Final Fantasy characters in HD glory, such as older ones like Firion from Final Fantasy II or Zidane from Final Fantasy IX. Just like the roster, the stages and music come from the franchise’s history.
But I wish that Dissidia NT was either simpler or found a more eloquent way of displaying all of its information. Again, this is the third installment in the series. The experience should feel refined, not more convoluted than ever.
Maybe after extended practice, getting a firmer grasp on NT’s mechanics will offer a rich and rewarding fighter experience. But I’m worried that this mayhem of numbers and meters will become overwhelmed by its own attempts to stand out. It’s easy to imagine that most PlayStation 4 owners who try NT will become frustrated long before they learn how to properly play it.
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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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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"St. Louis forms $5 million seed fund to keep its startups in town | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/st-louis-forms-5-million-seed-fund-to-keep-its-startups-in-town"
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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 St. Louis forms $5 million seed fund to keep its startups in town 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.
Paul Heirendt, a principal at True Bearing Advisors and co-founder of multiple startups, has first-hand experience with how hard it can be for entrepreneurs to find seed funding in St. Louis.
“Of the nine startups I’ve been involved with in St. Louis in the last few years, four had to relocate to find adequate seed-stage funding,” said Heirendt.
Relocation is far from the worst thing that can happen to startups that fail to find seed funding. More often they end up folding — which is precisely why the phase between capital formation and Series A funding is referred to as “The Valley of Death.” Recognizing a clear need, the St. Louis region has launched a fund designed to help startups make it out of the “Valley of Death” alive. The St. Louis Regional Chamber of Commerce , Cultivation Capital , Twain Financial Partners , and several of the region’s banks have created the $5 million Spirit of St. Louis Fund 1.
The fund will specifically address the seed-funding gap identified through research conducted by Dane Stengler, former head of policy for the Kansas City-based Kauffman Foundation.
“St. Louis has done a tremendous job of generating activity at the top of the startup funnel,” said Andrew G. Smith, Vice President of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the St. Louis Regional Chamber. “But the truth is that capital markets are at their least efficient when it comes to early-stage companies. That’s when proximity to capital matters most, and cities like St. Louis are at a significant disadvantage compared to coastal innovation hubs. We have to be strategic and deliberate about overcoming that disadvantage.” The Spirit of St. Louis Fund isn’t the first investment the Regional Chamber has made directly into the St. Louis startup ecosystem. The organization has put more than $1 million in capital into several area funds and accelerators, including SixThirty, 630 Cyber, Stadia Ventures, Prosper Women Entrepreneurs, and the Yield Lab.
According to Smith, those investments have resulted in nearly $100 million in follow-up capital, and the creation of more than 600 high-paying jobs.
Those jobs are a big reason why the region has invested so heavily in the startup ecosystem.
In their announcement, Regional Chamber CEO Joe Reagan identified the need for the new fund by saying that, “Crossing the ‘valley of death’ doubles the chance of success for entrepreneurs and the substantial net new jobs they create. This is an urgent need for St. Louis.” Reagan’s comment stands out for an important reason.
Identifying the connection between entrepreneurship and job connection is relatively rare. More often the emphasis is on disruption, innovation, and creating billion-dollar “unicorns.” However, the Chamber’s fund seems to overtly recognize two realities.
The first of those realities is that large companies rarely — if eve — relocate. This week, former White House Entrepreneur-In-Residence and 500 Startups partner Paul Singh was in St. Louis on his Results Junkies North American Tech Tour. At a presentation given at OPO Startups in St. Charles, Missouri, Singh noted that companies with seven or more people are “rooted.” In other words, they aren’t relocating to a different city just for a tax incentive.
The second reality is that the United States isn’t going to suddenly re-employ a large manufacturing-based workforce. Manufacturing as a sector might be healthy, but large-scale employment from factory work is becoming rarer all the time.
That means good companies and good jobs will ultimately come from homegrown startups.
Which means that the Spirit of St. Louis Fund 1 and its planned successor fund are about more than just getting new companies through the Valley of Death.
These funds are about changing how communities approach job creation and economic development in a way that recognizes the realities of the modern economy.
And that’s a great thing.
This story first appeared on Silicon Prairie News.
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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"IVP leads $40 million investment in Qadium’s ‘beyond the firewall’ security solution | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/ivp-leads-40-million-investment-in-qadiums-beyond-the-firewall-security-solution"
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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 IVP leads $40 million investment in Qadium’s ‘beyond the firewall’ security solution Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Screenshot of Qadium platform 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.
Qadium wants to help large organizations better define and defend their network boundaries and today announced it has secured an additional $40 million in a round led by IVP. New investor TPG Growth joined, as did returning investors NEA, Founders Fund, and Susa Ventures.
Based in San Francisco, the startup indexes every device on the public internet — a set of devices with publicly routable IP addresses assigned to them at a given time — every hour. It uses this data to flag risks and security breaches an organization may face.
“There is a great amount of growing interest in ‘beyond the firewall’ solutions, as companies are coming to realize that an enclave model, of making perimeter security better, is insufficient,” wrote Qadium cofounder and CEO Tim Junio, in an email to VentureBeat. “Every large organization now has porous and interdependent networks — think managed services, cloud hosting, employees bringing their own devices, regional offices around the world with local internet service, etc.” Junio, who is a former analyst at the CIA, founded Qadium in 2012 to provide a software as a service (SaaS) cybersecurity model. Today, customers include PayPal, CVS, Fluor, Capital One, and Allergan, and the service is also deployed at such government agencies as the U.S. Cyber Command, the cyber operations arm of the U.S. military.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Customers log in from a common web browser to view all web assets and connected devices from their networks that have been on the public internet in the last three years. “It’s kind of like a digital video recorder (DVR) for their true network surface area,” wrote Junio. Qadium then prioritizes results, offers relevant context, filters by time, provides industry comparisons, and more. Customers are billed on an annual basis, with prices ranging from $500,000 to $1 million.
To date, Qadium has raised a total of approximately $60 million. It will use the new money to grow its product and engineering team of 60 and to increase sales and marketing. “We have spent $0 on marketing and need to change that to reach a broader audience of organizations,” wrote Junio.
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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"Female founders are spearheading Atlanta's transformation into a tech hub | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/female-founders-are-spearheading-atlantas-transformation-into-a-tech-hub"
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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 Female founders are spearheading Atlanta’s transformation into a tech hub Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Atlanta, Georgia 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.
Earlier this year, Dell released their third annual report ranking cities on their ability to attract and support High Potential Women Entrepreneurs, defined as female entrepreneurs that are growing businesses with the potential to break $1 million or more in annual revenue. Out of 50 cities around the world, Atlanta ranked 18th overall, ahead of cities like Portland, OR; Tel Aviv, Israel; and Miami, FL.
In fact, if you don’t count Miami (and most southerners likely wouldn’t), Atlanta was the only city in the southern U.S. to even rank on the list.
The growth rate for Atlanta’s female entrepreneurs continues to trend upwards as well — the Center for an Urban Future shows the city as a top five (number three, to be exact) highest-growth city for women-owned businesses, with a 65 percent growth rate between 2007 and 2012.
And with Atlanta’s confirmed position as a tech capital, a growing recognition as a startup hub, and a pool of tech talent that recently landed a top five spot on CBRE’s Scoring Tech Talent Report, it’s safe to say many of these female entrepreneurs are building high-growth technology companies.
Much of this talent comes out of Georgia Tech, the top 10 engineering school that produces the most female engineers in the country. The 2015 class of engineers had a 32 percent female enrollment, compared to a national average of 17 percent. Females are well-represented in the College of Computing and other undergraduate schools.
While many of these grads go to Fortune 500s or Silicon Valley, plenty are starting their own tech companies — sometimes as students. Candace Mitchell began her startup journey as an undergraduate at Georgia Tech — she conceived of an idea for personalized haircare software and pitched in a university-run competition.
Along with three other female Georgia Tech co-founders, Mitchell created Techturized , a beauty technology company that specializes in hair care science. The company analyzes data points about each user’s hair, which they say is “as unique as a fingerprint,” to recommend tailored hair care solutions. Their consumer brand Myavana employs a monthly membership model to provide subscribers with personalized scientific hair analysis.
After graduating and receiving funding and education from a Georgia Tech-based startup accelerator, Flashpoint, Mitchell continues to lead the five-year-old company to make their mark on a $500 billion hair care industry.
These female student entrepreneurs have a set of role models in their professors. Robotics expert and engineering professor Dr. Ayanna Howard was studying how to use robots to teach children with disabilities. Along with a co-founder, she utilized the technology to start a company called Zyrobotics , spun out of the Georgia Tech VentureLab startup incubator.
One of their first products was a small robot designed to complement physical therapy for children with motor skills disabilities. Zyrobotics now develops mobile-accessible technologies for children with conditions like cerebral palsy, autism, and learning disabilities; for example, a Bluetooth switch interface to help motor-limited children use tablets without having to touch the screen. They also have a suite of STEM-focused educational apps.
ATL’s female entrepreneurs abound outside of academia as well. A recent success story is Jewel Burks, the 28-year-old founder of Partpic (now operating under A9.com ), which was acquired by Amazon in 2016. A9 oversees all search system operations on Amazon sites in North America, Europe, and Asia, including visual search.
Partpic started when 24-year-old Burks was working in sales for a major parts distributor and became frustrated by how many customers would call without actually knowing what part they needed. She set out to build a system based on computer vision technology that makes it easier to identify and buy repair parts by simply taking a picture of the broken part with a mobile phone or tablet.
The startup scaled within the Advanced Technology Development Center ( ATDC ), the longest-running startup incubator in the country. Burks slayed at pitch competitions across the country, winning the 2015 SXSW Accelerator Showcase and a $100,000 prize from Steve Case’s Rise of the Rest tour.
While building Partpic, Burks also served as an entrepreneur in residence for diversity markets at Google. She says her biggest focus today is to continue to mentor female founders, particularly those of color.
Mitchell also continues to serve as a mentor to Atlanta’s women tech entrepreneurs.
“Genius comes in all walks of life, all races, and genders. We’re not here to fit the mold, we’re disrupting the mold,” says Mitchell. “I hope to see an increase in the number of tech products launched and scaled by minorities and women, as well as the amount of capital going into our companies after mastering the basics of revenue growth and profitability.” “I want to see the first minority-led billion-dollar tech company founded and grown in Atlanta.” While Burks and Mitchell were both able to raise funding, access to capital is still a challenge — likely the biggest — for Atlanta’s female tech founders. In the Dell report, Atlanta’s lowest data point out of five measured pillars (Capital, Markets, Talent, Culture, Technology) was Capital, where the city ranked at #32 overall.
Capital was identified as the biggest constraint to female entrepreneurs globally — no surprise, given the documented gender gap in venture funding. In a region like the South, where VC money is less plentiful overall than a Silicon Valley or Boston, lack of funding can seem an insurmountable obstacle.
There are programs at work trying to combat this by providing resources specifically to female entrepreneurs. The Women’s Entrepreneurship Initiative (WEI) is a City of Atlanta-supported incubator dedicated to female founders.
Ascend 2020 Atlanta is part of a national program financed by JP Morgan Chase to support minority and women-owned tech companies and small businesses.
Eventually, those leading these programs hope that by building a generation of female tech founders like Mitchell, Dr. Howard, and Burks, they will turn around and educate, mentor, and possibly even help fund the next group of female founders.
And for Atlanta, that could be a game changer. The Dell study found that there is a “ dramatic uplift ” in a city’s economic prospects once impediments to female entrepreneurship are removed.
For the second-tier tech cities competing with established hubs of Silicon Valley and New York for capital, talent, and Fortune 500s, female tech entrepreneurs may make all the difference.
Holly Beilin is the editor-in-chief of Hypepotamus , a publication that covers the southern innovation ecosystem.
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"Y Combinator startup Dharma promises to bring more users into blockchain apps | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/commerce/y-combinator-startup-dharma-promises-to-bring-users-into-blockchain-apps"
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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 Y Combinator startup Dharma promises to bring more users into blockchain apps 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 dabbled a bit in the blockchain world already — bought a few dollars’ worth of cyrptocurrency or even run a node on your PC — you’ve been through that rather complex process of having to transfer fiat money into a crypto wallet, then wait for your currency to convert. It can take days, and it’s not a super intuitive process.
If we’re going to see mass adoption of blockchain applications and cryptocurrencies, this onboarding process will need to be much simpler and much quicker. Users who show up to try out a blockchain-based decentralized app — or “dApp” — aren’t going to want to go through a days-long hassle of acquiring currency.
A Y Combinator startup called Dharma thinks it can solve that problem. The company, which launched in beta two months ago, lets dApp makers give blockchain newcomers a small, quick cryptocurrency loan to help them get started.
“With a few lines of code, blockchain developers can easily integrate a DharmaCredit button into their application [to give users a quick loan in the necessary token currency] rather than forcing customers to buy cryptocurrency in order to even get their foot in the door,” the company said in a statement. The loan takes “under 5 minutes.” We should see other, similar solutions emerge over the next few months to tackle this onboarding issue. It will be an interesting space to watch.
Dharma is launching publicly today.
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"Garmin follows Fitbit into contactless payments with the launch of Garmin Pay | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/commerce/garmin-follows-fitbit-into-contactless-payments-with-the-launch-of-garmin-pay"
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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 Garmin follows Fitbit into contactless payments with the launch of Garmin Pay Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Garmin Vívoactive 3 features Garmin Pay 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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Garmin has become the latest tech giant to embrace mobile payments, as the GPS navigation and wearables company today announced the launch of Garmin Pay.
The contactless payments service arrives first on the company’s new $300 Vívoactive 3 smartwatch.
Powered by FitPay , a white-label contactless payments platform aimed at the burgeoning wearables and IoT realms, Garmin Pay supports both Mastercard and Visa cards from “major issuing banks.” After manually adding your card to the Garmin Pay wallet, you can pay for goods in stores by scanning your wrist at checkout.
By building both GPS and contactless payments into the device, Garmin is looking to solve a problem familiar to millions of fitness enthusiasts around the world. Why carry your phone and wallet with you on a long run when you can pack your every need into a wrist-worn contraption? “Anyone who is out and about being active can relate to the struggle of where to stash a credit card or cash, and has had to forgo a post-workout snack or coffee as a result,” explained Garmin’s vice president of worldwide sales, Dan Bartel, in a press release.
“We’re solving that dilemma with Garmin Pay, an exciting feature on the new Vívoactive 3. Use it pretty much wherever contactless payments are accepted, and give yourself one less thing to remember when you’re leaving the house.” 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: Garmin Vívoactive 3 features Garmin Pay One point worth noting here is that the Vívoactive 3 doesn’t have music capabilities built in, so if you do like to listen to tunes while pounding the pavement (or the trails), you will still have to carry a secondary device with you. With that in mind, Garmin’s latest watch is capable of controlling music on your smartphone, but it is a shame you’re not able to pack some tracks onto the watch itself.
Today’s news comes just a few days after Fitbit announced its first-ever smartwatch , the $300 Ionic, which promises water resistance, GPS, heart rate monitoring… and a brand new contactless payments service called Fitbit Pay.
To say that the mobile payments space is heating up is something of an understatement, with Samsung Pay , Android Pay , and Apple Pay already vying for consumers’ attentions.
The wearables market grew 18 percent in Q1 2017, according to a recent IDC report , with Xiaomi and Apple nudging Fitbit into third place in terms of market share. Garmin remains one of the top five wearables companies in the world, however, sitting behind the three aforementioned companies and Samsung.
The Vívoactive 3 is available in three colors — black/stainless and white/stainless, which cost $300; and black/slate, which has a suggested retail price of $330. Garmin also announced today the Vívomove HR , which the company calls its first touchscreen hybrid smartwatch.
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"Amazon faces possible class action lawsuit over defective eclipse glasses | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/commerce/amazon-faces-class-action-lawsuit-over-defective-eclipse-glasses"
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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 faces possible class action lawsuit over defective eclipse glasses 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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( Reuters ) — Amazon has been hit with a proposed class action lawsuit by a couple who claims defective eclipse glasses purchased through the online retailer damaged their eyes.
In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in South Carolina on Tuesday evening, Corey Payne and his fiancée, Kayla Harris, said they purchased a three-pack of eclipse glasses on Amazon in early August, assuming that the glasses would allow them to safely view the United States’ first coast-to-coast total solar eclipse in a century on Aug. 21.
Later that day, Payne and Harris began to experience headaches and eye watering. In the following days, they developed vision impairment, including blurriness and distorted vision, their lawsuit said.
Amazon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
The couple said they did not look into the sky without wearing the glasses when they viewed the eclipse.
Starting on August 10, Amazon said it began to email customers to issue a recall of potentially hazardous solar eclipse glasses it was unable to verify as having been manufactured by reputable companies. Amazon did not disclose the scale of the recall or a list of affected vendors.
Payne and Harris said they did not receive notice of the recall. They are seeking to represent other customers who never received a warning from Amazon and suffered similar injuries from the company’s alleged negligence.
Experts cautioned the public to steer clear of unsafe counterfeits flooding the United States in the runup to the event. While no data exists for how many eclipse glasses were in circulation overall, shady distributors of purportedly solar-safe shades abound on the Internet, experts said.
( Reporting by Tina Bellon; Editing by Anthony Lin and Cynthia Osterma n) 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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"Netflix employees created a vending machine concept for developing markets | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/netflix-employees-built-a-vending-machine-at-hackathon-for-developing-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 Netflix employees created a vending machine concept for developing markets Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn In the upper left is the prototype of the Netflix Kiosk built at the company's Hack Day.
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During a recent Hack Day at Netflix , one group of employees designed something that sounds totally counterintuitive, but actually could be genius.
The Netflix Kiosk was built to address the challenge of users in developing markets where credit cards and high-speed bandwidth can be in limited supply. The machine would allow prospective users to sample Netflix content, create an account, and pay using cash.
Most impressively, the group actually built a working prototype, supposedly within the confines of the 24-hour challenge. We tip our hats to you.
The company notes that most of the ideas generated at the hackathon are unlikely to ever become real products. Certainly, the system that lets people access Netflix using an ancient telegraph machine or a tool that makes Netflix’s user interface creepier by adding eye movement to static images are not great bets.
But we’re intrigued by the vending machine. Why not Netflix machines for cafés? Or other public spaces? Check it out: 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 releases first Windows 10 preview that succeeds the Fall Creators Update | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/microsoft-releases-first-windows-10-preview-that-succeeds-the-fall-creators-update"
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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 releases first Windows 10 preview that succeeds the Fall Creators Update Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Windows 10 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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Microsoft today released a new Windows 10 preview for PCs with improvements and bug fixes. This is the first build of the Windows 10 version coming after the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.
Windows 10 is a service , meaning it was built in a very different way from its predecessors so it can be regularly updated with not just fixes, but new features, too. Microsoft has released many such updates, including three major ones: November Update , Anniversary Update , and Creators Update.
Microsoft is simultaneously finalizing the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update and working on what comes next. This build is for Windows Insiders who have chosen to “Skip Ahead,” meaning they continue to receive builds from the RS_PRERELEASE branch. That branch has transitioned to RS4, which is the release that will come after the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (RS3), and the build numbers have jumped ahead to 1635x.
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! If you didn’t opt into Skip Ahead, you will keep getting Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (RS3) builds, and you won’t be served today’s build. Once the Fall Creators Update is out, you will get Windows 10 (RS4) builds. If you did opt into Skip Ahead, you’re now receiving early builds for the next feature update of Windows 10 (RS4), including today’s build.
This desktop build includes the following general bug fixes and improvements: When the Action Center is black (the default option), the “clear all,” “expand”/”collapse,” and “see more” link text will now all use your accent color — making them pop more and improving discoverability.
The Action Center now supports a two finger touch gesture to dismiss all notifications. Place two fingers vertically within the Action Center near the edge opposite to the side of your screen. Then slide these fingers toward the side of the screen. You will notice all notification groups following your fingers and then dismissing as you slide your fingers off the side of the screen.
Fixed an issue in XAML resulting in text animations appearing slightly blurry in the last flight until the animation had stopped (for example, when loading the main page of Settings).
Fixed an issue resulting in the taskbar being unexpectedly thick if you booted up the PC while plugged into an external monitor with a different DPI.
Fixed an issue that caused minimized per-monitor DPI aware windows to miss DPI changes and end up with a mix of DPI scaling upon restoring.
Fixed an issue from recent flights where when Slideshow was enabled resuming from sleep a second time might place the Lock screen in a state where it couldn’t be dismissed without pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del.
Fixed an issue resulting in an unexpected change in mouse sensitivity in the last flight for PCs using non-default display scaling.
Fixed an issue resulting in Asphalt 8 not accepting input in recent flights.
Fixed an issue resulting in progress wheels on certain websites in Microsoft Edge unexpectedly moving out of place during their rotation.
Fixed an issue where the Windows Hello strings would appear on top of the page when performing a pin reset from the login screen.
Today’s update bumps the Windows 10 build number for PCs from 16278 (made available to testers on August 29) to build 16353. Again, the big build number jump is due to this build being part of a new branch for whatever comes after the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.
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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"elium Raises 4M€ from Serena Capital and S.R.I.W. | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/elium-raises-4me-from-serena-capital-and-s-r-i-w-to-digitize-knowledge-sharing-among-employees-in-the-consulting-firms-and-industries-of-tomorrow"
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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 Press Release elium Raises 4M€ from Serena Capital and S.R.I.W.
Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn PARIS & BRUSSELS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–August 31, 2017– elium, the collaborative platform for knowledge-based organisations, announces the closing of a Series A funding round for €4 million. This fundraising effort is being led by Serena Capital in collaboration with S.R.I.W, a historical investor who has renewed its trust in elium (formerly known as Knowledge Plaza).
elium aims to become a leader in the new “Knowledge Sharing Platforms” market, a new category of Enterprise Social Networks that complement teams-centred productivity platforms such as Slack and Facebook Workplace. The market size was around 4.5 billion $ in 2016 according to IDC (considered a conservative view) and estimated to double within 5 years. Artificial intelligence coming into the enterprise will be able to take full advantage of this inherently shareable and critical knowledge.
From 2012 onwards, elium relied on a 100% Saas offer by subscription. It gradually conquered a few large French actors who took advantage of its resolutely cross-platform architecture, allowing advanced re-use of existing knowledge as well as very dynamic capture of new knowledge. This strength of the application naturally attracts not only companies whose competitiveness rests on sound knowledge management, but also organizations facing major processes transformation. With elium, these companies see the impact of information flows increase tenfold.
Today, elium holds a stable market position thanks to international projects such as the ones carried out with Capgemini Consulting, Lafarge Holcim, MSL Group, the International Committee of the Red Cross, BNP Paribas, Oréal. European companies such as Touring Club Switzerland, Bouygues, InExtenso, EDF, Derbigum, SNCF have also been acquired and retained. These customers have enabled elium to clearly stand out from the competition by demonstrating that its solution can also grow in power on large corporate networks by avoiding the frictions encountered by traditional document management systems, paralyzed by governance constraints affecting individual files.
This round of financing will provide elium with the opportunity to grow from 20 to 40 employees by the end of 2018, to increase the platform connectors, to have a UX/AI/data applied research structure, and to accelerate the platform deployment in Europe on three strategic vertical markets: service companies, transforming industries (electricity, transport, engineering) as well as administrations and NGOs. Indeed, they are all facing an acceleration of change covering economy and innovation at both global and local levels. elium gives them the capacity to facilitate critical information sharing (from internal and external sources) and to increase their overall performance through re-use of good business practices. In other words, reduce physical and digital silos for an accelerated change.
For the past couple of years the Lecko consulting firm has analysed about thirty collaborative tools to put together the most complete benchmark in France. It positions elium in pole position on its “social knowledge” quadrant which brings critical legitimacy to elium. The platform’s new version is scheduled for autumn this year and will offer both simplicity for users and full functional coverage. It should comfort its customers along with Lecko that elium is keeping the right balance between the circulating information dynamism and stability.
elium is preparing for GDPR and ISO 27000 certification. It is also getting ready to migrate to the excellent ENGIE datacentre based in Belgium. The entire user interface has been completely revised to be based on React, opening the door to excellent use in native mode. The API is now based on GraphQL which facilitates complete and sustainable integration. All these changes will accelerate innovation, as well as with the major market integrators and will bring a complete experience for users now connected in real-time.
elium has found in Serena a strong partner for a lasting relationship. The operational support offered by the investment fund is already bearing fruit on commercial and marketing structuring. For Antoine Perdaens, CEO of elium: “Serena is a calm and responsive force. They have helped us to place even greater emphasis on our core markets, leverage our internal talents and give us key advice to increase our revenues.” For Marc Fournier, Serena Capital partner: “We were seduced not only by their offer success but also by the team composition, it was a decisive factor in our investment choice. We are convinced that elium has its place among the world’s key actors, the relevance of their architecture proving critical and inevitable in the face of the current digital transformation. ” For the S.R.I.W.: “We have developed a true relationship of trust with the team. We are delighted to take part in this financing round, which will certainly contribute to the regional economic development, but especially to the start-up’s international reach. ” About elium Founded by Antoine Perdaens, CEO, and three other co-founders in 2008, elium (formerly known as Knowledge Plaza) has succeeded in creating its own collaborative platform market centred on knowledge sharing, gaining large internal corporate networks deployment projects (intranets) against competitors such as Microsoft SharePoint, IBM Connections, and Jive Software.
In 2013, elium acquired the Swiss competitor HyperWeek, positioned on corporate social networks and led by Raphaël Briner, now elium CMO and co-founder. The platform is used by global and distributed companies (BNP Paribas, Capgemini Consulting, CICR, EDF, MSLGroup, SNCF) as well as small and medium-sized service companies (Finaxim, JointheDots, Euranova, Siltea, etc.) About Serena Capital Created in 2008 by Marc Fournier, Philippe Hayat and Xavier Lorphelin, Serena Capital is a recognized investment structure in France and Europe with more than 250 million euros under management. Highly active in the innovation and digital market (Internet & Media, Mobile & Telecom, Software, Big Data, Electronics), the company invests up to 15 million euros in innovative and rapidly growing companies (AramisAuto, Augure, Lafourchette, Melty Group, Prestashop, SanteVet, Worldstores, etc.).
About S.R.I.W S.R.I.W. Group (Société Régionale d’Investissement de Wallonie) contributes to the Belgian economy development by helping to finance Walloon companies development (Odoo, Bone Therapeutics, Acapela, Clue points, Proxistore). It takes part in their growth, alongside private investors, via loans as well as equity investments.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170831005102/en/ elium Press Alexandra André, + 33 6 13 45 5 135 Head of Communication Serena Capital [email protected] 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 stock hits record high following iPhone 8 event announcement | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/apple-stock-hits-record-high-following-iphone-8-event-announcement"
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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 stock hits record high following iPhone 8 event announcement 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’s stock posted the highest closing price in its 36-year history Thursday following its announcement that it will unveil the iPhone 8 on September 12.
Apple closed at $164.00 a share, up 0.7 percent on the day after rising as high as $164.52, which also marks a record intraday high point for the stock.
The iPhone 8 event has been widely expected to take place in September, the month when the company traditionally holds a product event to unveil iPhones and other products. While the September 12 date had been rumored for a couple of weeks, the official announcement seems to have ratcheted up expectations for the product’s unveiling. The event may also include updates on Apple TV, Watch, and the HomePod, but most investors regard the iPhone 8 as the main attraction.
Apple’s stock has risen 42 percent so far in 2017, beating the Nasdaq Composite’s 19 percent gain, amid investor anticipation that Apple would deliver a strong upgrade of its iPhone, a product that accounts for nearly two-thirds of its operating profit. This year also marks the 10-year anniversary of the iPhone’s introduction.
Apple’s revenue declined 7.7 percent in 2016, partly because the company didn’t release a major upgrade to the iPhone last fall. Leaked details and rumors indicate the iPhone 8 will include an edge-to-edge, 5.8 inch OLED display screen; facial recognition technology; wireless charging; and capability for AR apps.
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"Sesame Street and SpongeBob among first Alexa skills for kids | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/sesame-street-and-spongebob-among-first-alexa-skills-for-kids"
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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 Sesame Street and SpongeBob among first Alexa skills for kids Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Elmo and Cookie Monster on the 41st season of Sesame Street 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 announced the launch of the first Alexa skills made especially for kids, with skills from Sesame Street, SpongeBob SquarePants, and others.
Geared toward children six and older, the SpongeBob Challenge is a memory game that invites kids to take orders from customers at the Krusty Krab restaurant in Bikini Bottom. Made by Nickelodeon, this skill features the voices of actual SpongeBob characters.
The Sesame Street skill lets kids call Elmo to do activities like learning letters and playing hide-and-go-seek.
There’s also Amazon Storytime , which features stories read by Aidy Bryant from Saturday Night Live and Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob. Additional story readers will be added in the future. The stories are designed for kids 5-12 and were created by the Amazon Education Consumer Team.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Other skills for kids due out soon include Old McDonald, Silly Things, Animal Sounds Quiz, and Zoo Walk.
These aren’t the first Alexa skills made for kids — in fact, Short Bedtime Story was one of the most popular skills of 2016. They are, however, the first to use Verified Parental Consent, a one-time request through the Alexa app that verifies a kid has permission to use the skill. Permission can be granted through text message authentication or by providing credit card information. The child’s name, age, and birthday are required to complete the process. Also announced today, Alexa skills developers are now free to create skills that require parental consent.
The Alexa Skills Store now has more than 18,000 skills made by Amazon, businesses, and third-party developers.
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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"Sanbot Nano is a $2,800 domestic robot powered by Amazon’s Alexa | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/sanbot-nano-is-a-2800-robot-powered-by-amazons-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 Sanbot Nano is a $2,800 domestic robot powered by Amazon’s Alexa Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Sanbot Nano 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.
Amazon’s Alexa is perhaps best known as the attentive ears and dulcet tones inside the company’s range of products, from the Echo smart speaker to the Fire TV. But courtesy of the Alexa Voice Service (AVS), which launched for developers back in 2015, the voice-activated digital assistant has shown up in a number of third-party devices, too.
With domestic robots striving to emerge from the pages of science fiction and take their place in our daily lives, it’s perhaps no surprise to learn that Alexa is finding its feet, so to speak, in the form of humanoids. At the IFA consumer electronics trade show in Berlin this week, China-based Qihan is debuting the Sanbot Nano , a 2.7-foot tall home assistant robot with Alexa serving as its ears and brain.
Founded out of Shenzhen in 2006, Qihan works on a range of products across robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), data analysis, and other related services. The company already offers the Sanbot Elf , which has seen some traction in retail, hospitality, and other public service positions, and the enterprise-focused Sanbot King Kong (here’s hoping it has passed trademark-related scrutiny…). But with the Nano, Qihan is pushing its Sanbot sub-brand into the smart home with a range of Alexa-enabled integrations, including home stereo systems, thermostats, and connected fans.
Above: Sanbot Nano Through the accompanying mobile app, users can see what the Nano is seeing remotely, and they can also monitor all devices they have connected to the Qihan cloud.
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 Nano has 50 sensors installed to help it circumvent obstacles in its path and can recognize voices and detect when a person enters the room. Through its connection with Alexa, consumers can order a pizza, ask for their fitness stats, and maybe even turn on the TV or play some music.
Above: Sanbot Nano The Nano also has some of the same features offered by previous Sanbot machines, including automatic charging — rather than the owner having to physically plug the robot in to boost its juice, it can find its own way to its charging dock.
“The world is captivated by the emergence of robotic developments and we’re constantly challenging ourselves to make the most amazing robot experiences possible,” explained Qihan CMO Ryan Wu. “With Sanbot Elf’s breakthrough growth in the retail, hospitality, public service, and government industries, we are excited to introduce a robot for the home.” It’s worth noting that this isn’t the first time someone’s attempted an Alex-powered voice-activated robot. The Omate Yumi was announced last November , but nothing seems to have come of that, with the accompanying Indiegogo funding campaign seemingly pulled.
UBTech also unveiled the charming little Alexa-enabled Lynx humanoid at CES this year, with an anticipated launch of spring 2017 — but the $800 robot is still not on the market.
With a number of companies raising big money to make domestic social companion robots a reality, Qihan could be one of the first to introduce one that’s powered by Amazon’s AI voice smarts. The Sanbot Nano only supports English (U.S. and U.K.) and German at present — limitations imposed by Alexa’s linguistic capabilities — and it will be available to purchase from October for $2,800.
In related news, Amazon just announced a tie-up with Microsoft that will bundle the Alexa and Cortana digital assistants together. This should go some way toward boosting the appeal of AI assistants by enabling a wider range of integrations.
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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"Oracle launches drag-and-drop AI for smart factories | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/oracle-launches-drag-and-drop-ai-for-smart-factories"
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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 Oracle launches drag-and-drop AI for smart factories 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 Oracle Internet of Things Cloud got new features today that give industrial companies the ability to implement pre-built AI algorithms. Using historic and live sensor data, the AI can do things like detect anomalies, predict when a machine will stop working, and help with supply chain management.
Previous applications of AI with Oracle’s IoT Cloud required technical coding knowledge. Now it’s drag and drop, Bhagat Nainani, global VP of IoT applications development at Oracle, told VentureBeat in an interview at Oracle headquarters in Redwood City.
“The machine learning, AI are fully built in. You don’t need to be an expert in data science and having done that for years. You can use pre-built in algorithms that have been optimized for an IoT stream that are being applied to each of these different applications,” he said.
The new features follow the launch of Oracle IoT applications in February. Oracle is one of a range of companies — including IBM and Microsoft — that now offer industrial IoT solutions augmented by AI for training, safety, or machine maintenance.
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! Also making its debut today is Digital Field Service, which was made to predict equipment failure and augmented reality to help remotely guide equipment repairs.
There’s also a new Digital Fleet Management service for real-time shipment tracking and supply chain management and Smart Connected Factory, which performs root cause analysis and incident detection in industrial settings.
Sensor tracking can be used internally at a company to put IoT data to practical use or sold as a product and service for other businesses.
“If a company is selling a pump or an HVAC or an elevator and they want to monitor those and offer a product as a service, the monitoring applications are focused on both the B2B and the B2C use cases for products,” VP of industry and IoT solutions Lionel Chocron told VentureBeat.
Some of the new services rely on what Oracle calls Digital Twins , which offer virtual representations of an object, equipment, or work environment. These are created with partners in the virtual world in order to supply VR for training and AR for guiding an employee remotely to conduct repairs or carry out tasks.
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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"Facebook is using AI to ensure 360 degree photos look their best | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/facebook-is-using-ai-to-ensure-360-degree-photos-look-their-best"
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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 is using AI to ensure 360 degree photos look their best Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Facebook app & website 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 announced today that it is using artificial intelligence to make sure that 360-degree photos uploaded to the social network look their best when other people view them. The company laid out a system at its @Scale conference today that uses deep neural networks to try to correct for common orientation errors with the photos that are uploaded.
If someone taking a 360 degree photo doesn’t hold the camera perfectly in line with the horizon, the resulting image can be tilted, which makes it harder to read and breaks the sense of immersion if the image is being viewed in virtual reality.
Facebook’s system takes in a photo and outputs a pair of values for the tilt and roll correction needed to bring the horizon of the photo in line. That way, it doesn’t feel like users are viewing a crooked image when they look around a scene. It’s based on AlexNet , an image recognition system that has been used to tackle other problems like determining the contents of images. Right now, that system isn’t in production, but the company’s research shows promise.
Making 360 degree photos look good on Facebook is key for the social networking company, which is investing heavily in virtual reality. For example, Facebook’s Rooms social VR app lets avatars hang out with 360 degree photos as their backdrops. If those images don’t look their best, it would degrade the entire experience of using the app.
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! In addition to the automatic rotation issue, Facebook also had to contend with the massive size of the 360 degree photos that were being uploaded to its service. While that may not be a huge problem on super fast networks and devices, it could be an issue on mobile devices on cellular networks.
Facebook converts the photos into cubes, and then stores those cubes at different resolutions. Those images are then broken up into a set of 512×512 pixel squares. When a user pulls up a photo, Facebook will calculate which resolution and what position within the image needs to be loaded. In the event it’s not possible to get a high enough resolution right away, the social network will render a lower-res version until the correct quality is available.
Update 10:45 Pacific: Facebook’s auto-orientation system is not in production yet. The story has been updated to clarify that.
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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"Alexa and Cortana's marriage brings risks and rewards for Amazon and Microsoft | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/alexa-and-cortanas-marriage-brings-risks-and-rewards-for-amazon-and-microsoft"
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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 Alexa and Cortana’s marriage brings risks and rewards for Amazon and Microsoft Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Alexa, meet Cortana 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 what could prove to be a seminal moment, Amazon and Microsoft — two major combatants in the war being waged by tech giants who want their AI assistants in electronics of all kinds — have joined forces.
Later this year, Alexa will be available on Windows 10 PCs and Cortana will be available on the most popular Alexa-enabled devices from Amazon, like the Echo, Echo Dot, and Echo Show.
To be clear, this isn’t a merger of the two AI assistants. It’s an integration that grants guest access. By saying “Cortana, open Alexa,” you can launch one of more than 18,000 Alexa skills or buy groceries, and by saying “Alexa, open Cortana,” you can sift through your emails.
The two companies have been working behind the scenes on a partnership since May 2016, according to the New York Times.
This suggests that they could introduce further integrations and cross-pollination in future.
This upcoming integration, and the challenge it presents to competitors like Google, Apple, and Samsung, could reshape the AI assistant landscape and what consumers expect from devices with AI inside. We don’t yet know to what extent Microsoft and Amazon will work together on this, or how competitors will respond to calls for interoperability made by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, but here are some potential risks and rewards of the current deal.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Rewards Both Cortana and Alexa will soon be available on tens of millions of devices The most important reward may be the simple fact that this deal brings together the leader in smart speaker sales with the leader in AI assistants on personal computers.
As of this spring, Windows 10 with Cortana had been installed on more than 500 million devices.
Amazon, meanwhile, had the most popular smart speaker, though the company famously doesn’t share sales numbers. By comparison, in the same time period, Google Assistant was on 100 million devices and Apple’s Siri was on 375 million devices.
Amazon has said “millions” of Alexa devices were sold last holiday season and that Echo Dot was the most popular item sold on Prime Day last month.
Estimates by voice analytics company VoiceLabs say Amazon will sell nearly 25 million Alexa-enabled devices in 2017 , while this spring eMarketer predicted Amazon would account for roughly 70 percent of all U.S. smart speaker sales.
Making Alexa and Cortana available together could be a potential selling point for both Echo smart speakers and Windows PCs.
If you’ve got a Windows PC and an Alexa smart speaker already, this probably doesn’t matter a whole lot to you, but it has the potential to change the way hundreds of millions of people interact with AI assistants.
Business partners can be in two places at once As Amazon and Microsoft work with businesses or make digital services available through their AI assistants, partners know they can potentially move onto tens of millions of additional devices, creating more incentive to work with Amazon or Microsoft as opposed to their competitors.
Microsoft and Amazon can focus on what they know best As Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said in a statement , “There are going to be multiple successful intelligent agents, each with access to different sets of data and with different specialized skill areas. Together, their strengths will complement each other and provide customers with a richer and even more helpful experience.” A deeper integration of the two bots could allow Microsoft and Amazon to focus on their strengths and core businesses. Both assistants can do a lot today, from telling jokes and creating calendar events to letting you make purchases with your voice, but should they choose to do so, they can stop being generalists.
Microsoft can go deeper into areas like helping with emails, business and enterprise services, and the kinds of things you may be more likely to do on a personal computer. And Amazon can get better at shopping and growing its third-party voice app ecosystem.
You can imagine Cortana soon delivering meeting and email summaries or entering the workplace in a bigger way, while Alexa could act as an in-store Whole Foods shopping assistant or the voice of personal or delivery drones.
Seattle could become ‘Voice City’ Ahead of the launch of the Alexa startup accelerator earlier this year , managing director Aviel Ginzburg said he wanted to make Seattle “Voice City,” a place that attracts leading minds in the field and startups looking to create amazing or practical, valuable experiences.
Right now, Amazon and Microsoft are only talking about working together by making Cortana and Alexa each other’s guests, but should the two companies decide to partner on some of their initiatives to support the development of voice computing, like the $100 million Alexa Fund or the Alexa Accelerator, Microsoft and Amazon could well make Seattle the center of conversational computing.
More engaging conversational AI Amazon and Microsoft have demonstrated an outsized interest in bots that can carry on a conversation, not just connect with some cool SaaS integration or tell you jokes. Amazon has initiatives like the Alexa Prize, which entices developers to create more friendly bots, and while it’s not quite Scarlett Johansson in Her , you can test bots that try to maintain 20 minutes of conversation by saying “Alexa, let’s chat.” Microsoft, meanwhile, has built its own talkative bots, including Zo, Tay, and Xiaoice.
The two assistants already have a rapport going, although it seems a bit one-sided. When you ask your Amazon device “Alexa, do you know Cortana?,” it coyly answers with a statement such as “We’ve been hanging out more lately.” But when you ask Cortana, “Hey Cortana, do you know Alexa?,” it responds, “I don’t know Alexa, but I’ve heard of Alexa. If you have Alexa, I may have just triggered Alexa. If so, sorry Alexa.” To which your Echo might respond, “No worries.” If the two chose to together create AI assistants that are both powerful and chatty, they could decide to make conversational prowess their distinction, not for novelty but for results.
Microsoft insists that conversational bots maintain higher levels of engagement than bots that just respond to voice commands, and more than 90 percent of Alexa skills fail to attract return visitors after their first week of activity. This lack of engagement may be why Amazon just started paying Alexa developers that create the most engaging skills.
Siri, Google Assistant, and other competitors step their game up Apple and Google have not yet said whether they would consider a similar partnership. But when two of your biggest competitors team up, you’ve got to respond in some fashion.
Everyone who likes voice-powered AI assistants should be excited to see how Alexa and Cortana’s rivals respond, not just those available today but also those to come. Facebook, for example, is reportedly working on a smart speaker and video chat device that may rival Amazon’s Echo Show.
“It’s all good news for end-users because it shows how the giants of Intelligent Assistance will continue to up the ante when defining the capabilities of popular assistants. Amazon and Microsoft contend directly with Google, Apple, Facebook, and Samsung, and each of them has the wherewithal to fund continuous improvement,” wrote Dan Miller of Opus Research, a conversational commerce and AI assistant analysis firm. “A precedent has been set for individuals to pick their preferred interface without limiting their access to the wide world of information, services, and social graphs that are vital to their lives.” Risks Potentially limits the possibility that both companies will branch out Does making a partnership like the kind Microsoft did today limit or increase the potential that Microsoft will sign deals with companies like Walmart, as Google Assistant did a few weeks ago? We don’t yet know to what extent this partnership will shape the business dealings of either company.
Stifle the growth of the Cortana third-party skills ecosystem for Microsoft Amazon has a big head start on Microsoft when it comes to voice apps, now counting more than 18,000. Microsoft, on the other hand, has released no official stats on the growth of Cortana’s third-party ecosystem. Why bother with Cortana skills if there’s so much more available in the Alexa Skills Store? Sorry, Harman Not a risk so much as a result. The Harman Kardon Invoke smart speaker was slated to be the first with Cortana inside. It may technically be the first out since Harman’s speaker is expected to arrive in the coming weeks and the Alexa-Microsoft partnership may not begin until the end of the year, but the news today ensures that anyone who was considering the purchase of an Invoke smart speaker would just buy an Echo device instead. Consumers’ motivation to buy any Cortana-powered smart speaker could be forfeited with this deal.
Bad pet names Depending on who you are, you may think of this as a good or bad thing. I’m going to go with bad. Like JLo and Ben Affleck became Bennifer and Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were referred to as Brangelina, AI assistants can get bad pet names, too. The partnership news was only a few hours old before MSPowerUser began referring to the pair as AlexTana.
Of course, it’s not the end of the world if your device gets a silly pet name like a celebrity power couple, but Alexa and Cortana are as much a marketing tactic for tech companies and their proprietary services as they are personal assistants. Muddying the waters around that name probably isn’t what either of these companies wants.
This partnership seems rather unique, at once a call to bring AI assistants together, an endorsement for specialization, and a challenge to Google and Apple by two companies that missed the mobile revolution. Cortana and Alexa apps are available on iOS and Android phones, but the idea of interoperability between AI assistants at this scale is new. Not enough is known yet about how or even if this partnership will extend beyond guest access, but however it turns out, it’s a pact that will almost certainly change the way we think about what an AI assistant can do.
Correction: The original version of this article stated that the Alexa Fund is $150 million, however the fund for seeding the Alexa ecosystem and the advancement of voice computing is actually $100 million.
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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"AI: The key to creating a next-gen banking experience (VB Live) | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/ai-the-key-to-creating-a-next-gen-banking-experience-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 AI: The key to creating a next-gen banking experience (VB Live) Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The better you understand your users, the more relevant your financial wellness and chatbot solutions will be and the more meaningful your engagement. Learn how AI helps you detect financial and transactional patterns, predict future events, and become your users’ biggest ally when you join this VB Live event.
Register now for free.
One of the biggest advantages that banks have, aside from their long-established brands and physical ubiquity, is the ability to tap into customer financial data. Now pair that treasure trove of financial data with with artificial intelligence, and you unlock more personalized, predictive, and prescriptive solutions for your customer.
From payments to online retail banking, AI powers things like intelligent assistant chatbots that help customers manage their accounts as well as lending and financial wellness solutions that actually help users budget, spend wisely, and save money.
In fact, four in five bankers are betting on AI to revolutionize customer interaction. Artificial intelligence — which includes sophisticated machine learning, natural language processing, and cognitive computing — doesn’t eliminate the human touch though. Rather, it powerfully amplifies it with access to a broader data set and machine learning algorithms which detect patterns, analyze habits and let you deliver actionable insight. Not only will you more deeply understand your users, but you’ll have the power to make them feel understood, supported, and in good hands.
With their expectation of completely personalized, one to one experiences in every digital arena, Millennials in particular are turning to these services in droves. In a recent survey examining millennial disruption , more than half are counting on the fintech start ups to come in and transform the way that banks work. Tech giants like Google, Amazon, Apple, PayPal and Square, which have long integrated artificial intelligence into their strategies and services, are rumored to be rolling out financial services.
To gain a competitive edge, banks are turning to AI to create fully personalized, next-gen banking experiences.
Bank of America has Erica, a virtual assistant integrated into the BoA mobile banking app and designed to help customers improve their financial lives. Swiss Bank uses AI to identify behavioral patterns and make a love connection with wealth management solutions. SEB, one of Sweden’s largest banks, has Amelia, an interactive cognitive agent that provides human-like customer service at scale. ANZ Bank began using customer experience analysis to help financial advisors understand their clients. Goldman Sachs invested in an AI-based financial research platform and Wells Fargo created an AI team to provide more personalized services and boost digital offerings.
These new tools and services, leveraging personalized and predictive algorithms along with some innovative artificial intelligence, are delivering more meaningful experiences to customers and driving a new age of financial wellness — and becoming the essential differentiator for financial institutions hoping to build new customer relationships and solidify those relationships already in place.
The tools and insight you need to launch your AI strategy are at your fingertips. Join our latest VB Live event with a powerhouse panel to find out more about delivering value to your customers, driving engagement and loyalty, and discover which AI-based financial wellness solutions are right for you.
Don’t miss out! Register now for free.
In this VB Live webinar, you’ll find out how to: Drive customer engagement and loyalty with the next wave of financial wellness solutions Use predictive analytics and AI to deliver more personalized and engaging apps and chatbots Provide users with intelligent financial guidance based on past behavior Extract valuable insight from a wealth of data to measure users’ financial health Partner with vendors to develop the machine-learning based systems that constantly analyze data and derive insights to drive more meaningful conversations with your end users Speakers: Dion F. Lisle , VP Head of FinTech, Capgemini America Inc.
John Vars , Chief Product Officer, Varo Money Keith Armstrong , Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, Abe.ai Katy Gibson , VP of Application Products, Envestnet | Yodlee Evan Schuman , Moderator, VentureBeat Sponsored by Envestnet | Yodlee 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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"Uber's internal politics are an even bigger disaster than you thought | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/transportation/ubers-internal-politics-are-an-even-bigger-disaster-than-you-thought"
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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 Uber’s internal politics are an even bigger disaster than you thought Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn A man arrives at the Uber offices in Queens, New York, on February 2, 2017. (File photo) 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.
Internal bickering among Uber board members was so bad that it sent HP CEO Meg Whitman running for the hills and appears to have stymied the company’s attempts to find a replacement for disgraced founder Travis Kalanick, according to a pair of reports over the weekend.
While each story offered some nuance and unique details, they agreed on a few major points. First, the board is split into factions, with some still loyal to Kalanick. A possible stock sale to SoftBank has complicated the board dynamics. And finally, Kalanick, who was pushed out of his company following a wave of sexual harassment issues, is angling to weasel his way back in some fashion.
There may not be enough popcorn on the planet to last out this saga.
One story came from the New York Times, which, hilariously, reported that after weeks of in-fighting and leaks, Uber’s board had “agreed to a truce in hopes of avoiding another negative round of media coverage.” The Times reported that the “backbiting” and discord among board members has led to a flood of leaks, which in turn prompted Whitman to publicly announce last week that she was taking herself out of the running to become the next Uber CEO.
More details emerged in a story from Recode, which reported that Whitman had given the board a 48-hour deadline to decide if it wanted to seriously consider her. She was scheduled to meet with several board members in coming days. But when she got no response, she pulled the plug, according to Recode.
While both stories noted that Kalanick was trying to plot a strategy that would allow him to return to Uber in some fashion, Recode went a bit further by suggesting he was making a play to become CEO again. Specifically, Recode reported: “Since he left, Kalanick has told numerous people, including at least one job candidate, that he was ‘Steve Jobs-ing it’, an apparent reference to the purge and later return of the legendary Apple founder at the company.” Good lord.
Complicating all of this is the potential investment by SoftBank. Apparently, the board is split (surprise!) over whether to continue talks, with one faction arguing that Uber doesn’t need the money, and others fretting that the involvement of SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son could give Kalanick a powerful new ally. On the other hand, SoftBank has been investing in Uber’s Asian rivals, so shutting it out could pose its own problems.
Meanwhile, both stories agreed there were four remaining candidates, though they only named outgoing GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt. A new CEO is expected to be announced in the coming weeks, which likely can’t come too soon for a company that hasn’t had a chief financial officer for two years and said it was searching for a chief operating officer before Kalanick departed.
Other than that, it’s business as usual for Uber.
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"This minivan lets you monitor your kids in the back (Darth Vader voice optional) | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/transportation/this-minivan-lets-you-monitor-your-kids-in-the-back-darth-vader-voice-optional"
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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 This minivan lets you monitor your kids in the back (Darth Vader voice optional) 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.
My son was sitting in the back of a 2018 Honda Odyssey Elite minivan (base price of $29,990), and he had no idea what was about to happen. Using a new feature called CabinWatch, I was able to monitor my two kids in the back of the vehicle. A screen shows a wide-angle view, and you can tap the touchscreen to zoom in on any part of the video image in real time.
Then, things got interesting.
When I pushed the CabinTalk button, I started using a Darth Vader voice — think the scene from Tommy Boy where the main character talks into a fan.
It’s amazing how alert everyone in the minivan became suddenly, not knowing this was a feature in the Honda (I’ve never “heard” it was available in any other car). Interestingly, you can also hear what they say even in the second-row seats. And, when you talk, you can pick an option to use the speakers or interrupt their movie and speak through the headphones. When you do, the video they are viewing also pauses.
My kids are well-behaved, but I can see where a parent might use this feature to keep tabs on anyone in the back seats with this visual and audio monitoring system. Thankfully, it wasn’t too distracting. I could press the CabinTalk button and then focus on the road. My wife glanced at the screen a few times as well when we were on a longer drive.
It’s easy to imagine how much fun we had with CabinTalk. In a few cases, especially when I drove around with my nephew in the back, it was handy because we could discuss where we wanted to eat lunch without the typical “can you hear me now?” problems.
This is the first Honda to use its own Wi-Fi hotspot, and when we tested this feature, it became more obvious how a true helicopter parent might check on their kids — you can check the screen and see which device they are using and even visually inspect which app they’re using. I see CabinWatch and CabinTalk as deterrents mostly. Your kids know you can keep an eye on them.
Unlike monitoring systems that exist to check a lane or behind the vehicle, the interior-focused CabinView works at any speed. (Even on several other Honda makes and models, the live feed of the side angle when you change lanes or make a turn only works for a short time.) At the 2018 Honda Odyssey Elite site, the CabinWatch feature page shows a small child in a car seat facing the opposite direction (as required), demonstrating that you can get a pretty good overhead view of a baby. This helps with peace of mind while driving. It also hints at how cars will work in the future, maybe showing a live feed of a crib at home or allowing you to hold a quick Skype call from the touchscreen in the backseat. Cars will become much more connected to each other, the surroundings, and other cars. Soon, we’ll be able to have a video chat with another driver, maybe someone who is part of a road trip convoy to a family vacation.
For now, the internal monitoring worked great — I liked how simple the controls were, letting the driver use them without fumbling around. It’s one step forward for connected cars.
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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"Lyft appoints former Obama adviser to board | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/transportation/lyft-appoints-former-obama-adviser-to-board"
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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 Lyft appoints former Obama adviser to board 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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( Reuters ) — Ride-hailing company Lyft Inc said on Monday it appointed Valerie Jarrett, an adviser to former President Barack Obama, to its board.
Jarrett, 60, served in several roles during Obama’s eight-year administration. Most recently she was senior adviser to Obama and an assistant to the former president for public engagement and intergovernmental affairs.
Jarrett has also worked as Chicago’s commissioner of planning and development and held the chair of the city’s transit board.
The appointment comes at a time when Lyft, co-founded by Logan Green and John Zimmer, is vying for a bigger share of the U.S. ride-hailing market, which is dominated by Uber Technologies Inc.
“I am a frequent Lyft passenger and have been inspired by the strong community John and Logan have created that is dedicated to enlightened corporate values,” Jarrett said in a company blog post.
San Francisco-based Lyft has been expanding its services in the United States and is working to develop autonomous cars.
The company also has partnerships with Alphabet’s self-driving division, Waymo, automakers General Motors Co and Jaguar Land Rover.
Lyft raised $600 million in April, valuing the company at $7.5 billion.
Lyft’s main rival Uber has been rocked by a string of executive departures following an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment, bullying and other employee concerns.
In June, Uber fired 20 employees, including executives, for their behavior and Chief Executive Travis Kalanick announced he was taking a leave of absence for an unspecified length of time.
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 removes VPN services from App Store in China | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/security/apple-removes-vpn-services-from-app-store-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 removes VPN services from App Store in China Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Apple retail store in San Francisco's Union Square neighborhood.
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( Reuters ) — Apple Inc says it is removing virtual private network (VPN) services from its app store in China, drawing criticism from VPN service providers, who accuse the U.S. tech giant of bowing to pressure from Beijing cyber regulators.
VPNs allow users to bypass China’s so-called “Great Firewall” aimed at restricting access to overseas sites.
In January, Beijing passed laws seeking to ban all VPNs that are not approved by state regulators. Approved VPNs must use state network infrastructure.
In a statement on Sunday, an Apple spokeswoman confirmed it will remove apps that don’t comply with the law from its China App Store, including services based outside the country.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Beijing has shut down dozens of China-based providers and it has been targeting overseas services as it bids to tighten its control over the internet, especially ahead of the Communist Party congress in August.
While personal VPN providers have been the subject of state-led attacks in the past, this marks the first time Apple has complied with requests to scrub overseas providers from its store, a move that VPN providers say is unnecessarily supportive of China’s heightened censorship regime.
VPN provider ExpressVPN said on Saturday that it had received a notice from Apple that its software would be removed from the China App Store “because it includes content that is illegal in China”.
“We’re disappointed in this development, as it represents the most drastic measure the Chinese government has taken to block the use of VPNs to date, and we are troubled to see Apple aiding China’s censorship efforts,” ExpressVPN said in a statement.
Other major providers, including VyprVPN and StarVPN, confirmed they also received the notice on Saturday from Apple.
“We view access to Internet in China as a human rights issue and I would expect Apple to value human rights over profit,” Sunday Yokubaitis, president of Golden Frog, which oversees VyprVPN told Reuters on Sunday.
Yokubaitis said Golden Frog will file an appeal to Apple over the ban.
China users with billing addresses in other countries will still be able to access VPN apps from other branches of the App Store. A number of VPN apps were still accessible on the China App store on Saturday.
Apple is in the middle of a localization drive in China, and named a new managing director for the region – a new role – this month.
It is also establishing a data center with a local partner in the southwestern province of Guizhou to comply with new Chinese cloud storage regulations.
VPN providers say that while the apps are not available on the store, users are still able to manually install them using VPN support built into Apple’s operating system.
“We are extremely disappointed that Apple has bowed to pressure,” said Yokubaitis. “(It’s been a) disappointing morning but we will fight on.” 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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"Why Hearthstone boss Ben Brode makes videos from his house | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/pc-gaming/why-hearthstone-boss-ben-brode-makes-videos-from-his-house"
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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 Hearthstone boss Ben Brode makes videos from his house Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Hearthstone game director Ben Brode likes to record from his home so that he doesn't inconvenience people. Or so he can rap.
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Ben Brode is a jolly bloke. Anyone who’s seen the Hearthstone game director talk during videos or other presentations have caught his hearty laugh and seen his trademark plaid shirts. But he’s also known for something else: filing videos about Blizzard’s card game from his home, not the company’s studio at its Irvine headquarters.
I had a chat with Brode a couple of weeks ago, and the first thing I asked him was why he filmed so many updates and other Hearthstone videos from his home. I can’t take full credit for this question — I got to thinking about it after the gang on “ The Angry Chicken ” podcast (which covers the card game) discussed the very question. It looks like Brode recorded one of his most recent videos next to his stairwell.
“Yeah, sort of. It’s just a little side desk that’s downstairs,” Brode said over Skype. “It looks like a stairwell, yeah.” He also raps from here, too.
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! Turns out Brode likes doing these videos from home because he’s busy at the office, wants to get it right, and is just a nice guy.
“I’m in meetings all day at work, and I don’t have a lot of time to do other stuff. I like taking my time. I like thinking about how I’m going to do things. I do a couple of takes. I don’t like inconveniencing crew people who are handling cameras,” he said. “It fits my style to take my time and do it after I put the kids to bed. I realize it’s not the most corporate feeling, but it’s a bit more personal that way to me, too. I bought myself a fancy microphone and a reasonable camera, and I do it at home.” 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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"Video: Spread Shot Studios...a solo mission | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/pc-gaming/video-exclusive-spread-shot-studios-a-solo-mission"
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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 Video: Spread Shot Studios…a solo mission Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Presented by Intel The story isn’t just about a single, devoted individual committing himself to making a game.
It’s about a dream and the commitment required to achieve that dream.
Sorob Raissi isn’t doing this the easy way, but his game, Space Jammers, is available now and his story is here.
And here: Sponsored posts are content that has been produced by a company that is either paying for the post or has a business relationship with VentureBeat, and they’re always clearly marked. The content of news stories produced by our editorial team is never influenced by advertisers or sponsors in any way. For more information, contact [email protected].
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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"Richard Garriott's Shroud of the Avatar gets publishing help from Travian Games | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/pc-gaming/richard-garriotts-shroud-of-the-avatar-gets-publishing-help-from-travian-games"
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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 Richard Garriott’s Shroud of the Avatar gets publishing help from Travian Games Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn That clockwork dragon looks like a handful for this part of intrepid adventurers.
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Shroud of the Avatar has been chugging along in its Early Access testing state since 2013 as Richard “Lord British” Garriott’s gang at Portalarium heads toward a planned 2017 release. And now the modern embodiment of his landmark Ultima role-playing game series has some new help for overseas publishing — along with a complete story.
The Austin, Texas-based game studio announced today that Germany’s Travian Games will handle publishing duties for Shroud of the Avatar in Europe, Central and South America, the Middle East, and North Africa. The company is self-publishing in North America. The deal not only helps Portalarium distribute Shroud but maybe even pushes the project over the finishing line, as Garriott had to turn back to the crowdfunding spigot back in June.
The studio said it’s now raised $11.8 million, claiming it’s the second-highest crowdfunded game behind Star Citizen , another effort in which one of gaming’s legendary designers is going back to his roots with the help of their fans.
“The agreement included a licensing fee that we will allocate as needed between development and publishing,” a spokesperson said over email.
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! Games in Travian’s portfolio include the railroad sim Rail Nation and Crowfall, another crowdfunded MMORPG.
Portalarium is promising a huge world for players to explore and create their own tales in, but it also has a 40-hour main story created by Garriott and noted fantasy author and pen-and-paper RPG designer Tracy Hickman (Dragonlance, Dragonships of Vindras). The studio confirms that it’s complete, and it “includes a series of moral dilemmas and ethical choices” that are a hallmark of Garriott’s work on Ultima.
“This is all built on top of a sandbox where players can indeed ‘tell their own stories’ as well,” the spokesperson said.
And Early Access players can now play the entire first episode of the main story, too. To date, Portalarium said that people have logged more than 3 million hours of playtime during Early Access. The rest of Shroud remains in its beta state, and the studio said it still needs work on some skill trees and crafting recipes (among other things).
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.
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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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"Hearthstone's Archbishop Benedictus is Blizzard's craziest card ever | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/pc-gaming/hearthstones-archbishop-benedictus-is-blizzards-craziest-card-ever"
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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 Hearthstone’s Archbishop Benedictus is Blizzard’s craziest card ever Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Archbishop Benedictus in Hearthstone's Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion.
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Hearthstone has seen some pretty crazy cards since launching in 2014. The PC and mobile digital card game has given us a minion that makes everything choose targets randomly, spells that replace your deck with another class’s cards , and minions that can replace your Hero.
But the Priest’s new Legendary minion, which will come out with the Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion sometime in August, is the game’s kookiest one yet.
Meet Archbishop Benedictus. He costs a whopping 7 mana and only has a meh-worthy 4 attack and 6 health. But his Battlecry, an effect that triggers when you play it, is incredible: Benedictus shuffles a copy of your opponent’s deck into your deck.
This is pure wackiness, and it’s beautiful.
Priest has some tools that gives them cards from their opponent’s hand or deck, but it’s just one or two. Some of these, like Thoughtsteal and Mind Vision , have been around since the game launched in 2014. But Benedictus will put their entire deck into yours. This could give you about 20 extra cards.
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! Now, is this a good card? Success in Hearthstone’s Standard mode usually relies on consistency. You make a deck with a game plan (like focusing on cheap minions that can quickly deal damage or planning to out-value your opponent with late-game cards). Adding a bunch of unplanned cards into your deck could ruin your game plan. You could draw stuff that might not help you out at all.
But who cares? Benedictus looks like a ton of fun. Not every minion or spell needs to help create some top-tier deck. Just look at Renounce Darkness. People are always making decks based around this card, fully aware that they probably won’t win even half of the matches. [ My Renounce Darkness Warlock has a 37 percent win rate –Ed.
] But the randomness makes it a ton of fun. It’s also nice to see card-stealing become more of a central theme for the Priest class, a concept it’s been focusing more on since Mean Streets of Gadgetzan with cards like Drakonid Operator and Crystaline Oracle in Journey to Un’Goro. It’s more exciting than just healing things.
The Hearthstone community already seems excited about Benedictus. On the game’s Reddit page, a post about the card has 6,322 upvotes, more than any other reveal for the Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion from the past month.
Receptions from popular streamers and Hearthstone pro players, meanwhile, range from enthusiasm … F2P Player – just craft this one Legendary and every deck ever will be yours! pic.twitter.com/W2QqDwmqcW — Disguised Toast (@DisguisedToast) July 31, 2017 … to terror … At the airport coming back home, and then open Twitter to find this. Oh. No.
pic.twitter.com/IkYocwo7gj — Amaz (@Amaz) July 31, 2017 … to disappointment in Priest getting a “meme” card (meaning it’s more about having fun than competitive play).
I expected nothing and I'm still disappointed pic.twitter.com/soq0cIQTUN — SK Zetalot (@Zetalot2) July 31, 2017 While Blizzard is touting Death Knights and Lifesteal as big features in the new expansion, this Priest Legendary may upstage everything else in the set. We’re reached out to Blizzard to ask about how it came up with this crazy concept. Hopefully we’ll learn more about Benedictus’s design if Blizzard gets back to us.
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.
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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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"AMD unveils high-end Ryzen Threadripper CPUs and Vega GPUs | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/pc-gaming/amd-unveils-high-end-ryzen-threadripper-cpus-and-vega-gpus"
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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 AMD unveils high-end Ryzen Threadripper CPUs and Vega GPUs Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn AMD's latest Vega graphics chip.
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Advanced Micro Devices unveiled new high-end processors and graphics chips for gamers at its Capsaicin event ahead of the Siggraph graphics show in Los Angeles.
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company said it is reinvigorating the high-end PC market with new Ryzen Threadripper central processing units (CPUs) and Vega graphics processing units (GPUs) aimed at gamers and content creators.
AMD unveiled the Radeon RX Vega family of GPUs, with availability starting on August 14. The three new graphics chips are based on the Vega GPU architecture. They include the high-end Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid Cooled Edition, engineered with 64 compute units to be the most powerful Radeon ever built.
The lineup also includes the air-cooled Radeon RX Vega 64 and the Radeon RX Vega 56. The high-end Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid Cooled Edition is available in a package with two games and other features for $700 while the air-cooled Radeon RX Vega 64 is available in a package for $600 or standalone for $500. The Radeon RX Vega 56 is available for $500 in a package or $400 standalone.
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! AMD also had workstation versions of the graphics chips, including the Radeon Pro WX 9100 workstation graphics card. The latter delivers up to 12.3 TFLOPS of peak single-precision compute performance for the most demanding media and entertainment — and design and manufacturing workloads.
AMD also said its Radeon Pro SSG is the world’s first GPU to break the terabyte memory barrier with 2 terabytes of graphics memory, so it can handle smooth, native 8K video editing in real time.
AMD’s 12- and 16-core Ryzen Threadripper CPUs will be available on August 10, and the company also announced its 8-core Ryzen Threadripper CPU for August 31. The 16-core, 32-thread Ryzen Threadripper 1950X (base clock of 3.4 GHz and boost of 4.0 GHz) will sell for $1,000. The 12-core, 24-thread Ryzen Threadripper 1920X (base clock of 3.5 GHz and boost of 4.0 GHz) will sell for $800. And the 8-core, 16-thread Ryzen Threadripper 1900X (base clock of 3.8 GHz and boost of 4.0 GHz) will sell for $550 starting August 31.
The company also announced AMD Studios, focused on advancing the technology of entertainment — creating hardware and software solutions for the ever-increasing demands of modern storytelling.
And it introduced the new P47, a massively parallel computing platform in a 2-unit form factor designed to excel in a range of tasks, including graphics virtualization and machine intelligence. It operates at 1 petaflop and will be built by Inventec.
Motherboard designs are already available from top motherboard manufacturers including ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI.
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"Microsoft kills Word Flow keyboard for iOS, recommends SwiftKey instead | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/microsoft-kills-word-flow-keyboard-for-ios-recommends-swiftkey-instead"
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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 kills Word Flow keyboard for iOS, recommends SwiftKey instead Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Word Flow for iOS.
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Microsoft has killed off its experimental keyboard app Word Flow, which debuted as a feature for Windows Phone and as a Microsoft Garage project for iOS in April 2016.
SwiftKey is now Microsoft’s recommended, and only, keyboard for Android and iOS.
Back in March , Microsoft changed its mind about what to do with its SwiftKey virtual keyboard apps for Android and iOS, which the company acquired last year. Microsoft originally planned to “integrate SwiftKey technology with our Guinness World Record Word Flow technology for Windows” but then decided to bring Word Flow’s features to SwiftKey. The company also decided not to bring Word Flow to Android.
Microsoft has removed Word Flow from Apple’s App Store, according to a support document first spotted by Windows Central.
As you’d expect, the direct Apple App Store link for Word Flow no longer works.
The Microsoft Garage app’s description now reads as follows: The Word Flow experiment is now complete! We encourage you to download the SwiftKey Keyboard from the App Store.
The SwiftKey product team is frequently building and evaluating new features for SwiftKey and shipping updates. We encourage feedback at https://support.swiftkey.com.
Microsoft’s SwiftKey keyboard competes against Google’s Gboard keyboard and a slew of other Android and iOS keyboards. Apple’s App Store doesn’t show download numbers, but SwiftKey has over 100 million downloads, while Gboard has passed 500 million.
Microsoft Garage debuted in October 2014.
The group regularly releases experimental applications for Android, iOS, and other platforms, but it closes down projects when they are deemed no longer worth the effort.
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 SLAM technology is redrawing augmented reality's battle lines | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/how-slam-technology-is-redrawing-augmented-realitys-battle-lines"
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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 How SLAM technology is redrawing augmented reality’s battle lines Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Google's visual positioning service for Tango, using SLAM 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 early June, Apple introduced its first attempt to enter AR/VR space with ARKit.
What makes ARKit stand out for Apple is a technology called SLAM (Simultaneous Localization And Mapping). Every tech giant — especially Apple, Google, and Facebook — is investing heavily in SLAM technology and whichever takes best advantage of SLAM tech will likely end up on top.
SLAM is a technology used in computer vision technologies which gets the visual data from the physical world in shape of points to make an understanding for the machine. SLAM makes it possible for machines to have an eye and understand what’s around them through visual input. What the machine sees with SLAM technology from a simple scene looks like the photo above, for example.
Using these points machines can have an understanding of their surroundings. Using this data also helps AR developers like myself to create much more interactive and realistic experiences. This understanding can be used in different scenarios like robotics, self-driving cars, AI and of course augmented reality.
The simplest form of understanding from this technology is recognizing walls and barriers and also floors. Right now most AR SLAM technologies like ARKit only use floor recognition and position tracking to place AR objects around you, so they don’t actually know what’s going on in your environment to correctly react to it. More advanced SLAM technologies like Google Tango, can create a mesh of our environment so not only the machine can tell you where the floor is, but it can also identify walls and objects in your environment allowing everything around you to be an element to interact with.
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! Before SLAM there was Marker-Based AR A few years back, Apple acquired the leading German AR company, Metaio.
Metaio was innovative and had substantial lead in the AR market those years. What we see with ARKit is an improved version of Metaio’s SLAM. Yes, even before Apple introduced ARKit some companies had SLAM in both Android and iOS, like Wikitude and Kudan. But what Apple introduced was far better than today’s SLAM technologies.
Before this, most AR experiences were marker-based, meaning you needed a defined image to point your device’s camera at to see the AR experience. Using the defined image allowed your device to understand and track the overlaid digital content. The problem with marker-based technology was that users had to have a physical object (the image) to experience it. So companies had to promote both the application and the physical object (catalogues, brochures etc).
Above: Audi’s augmented reality catalog But with ARKit this is now solved and you don’t need anything except your phone and your environment. But there’s one important thing here lacking: context! Recognizing floors alone is not enough Marker-based technology was limited but it had context, meaning it had an understanding of the physical world (through the defined image) and could change the experience based on that. For example you could point your device’s camera at a McDonald’s package and experience McDonald’s augmented reality or point your device’s camera in the same app at a Starbucks cup and experience a totally different augmented reality content. These central apps are called AR browsers and will have a critical role in the future of AR.
So though ARKit has a great technology it lacks context and its apps won’t have an understanding of where users use them. Developers can use inputs like GPS data or environment light to add more context but it doesn’t have context in its core. Last week developers did an interesting job in making a demo of using ARKit for navigation, but it’s important to note that such demos use GPS data as input and they can’t recognize locations via visual input and thus are not near what Google Tango can do with its indoor navigation technology.
ARKit + CoreLocation, part 2 pic.twitter.com/AyQiFyzlj3 — Andrew Hart (@AndrewProjDent) July 21, 2017 There is no doubt that the future of AR is SLAM technology, but for it to be really useful, and not just for fun like Snapchat filters or landing a SpaceX shuttle in your pool, it will need context. Other major companies like Google are aware of this.
Google is not in a hurry Google is doing SLAM with its Project Tango , developed in partnership with companies like Lenovo. Tango uses two cameras to sense depth and have an understanding of the world via SLAM maps. Unlike Apple’s ARKit, Project Tango has context in its heart so it can have applications like “Indoor Navigation” as it is much more advanced than ARKit and has an understanding of its surroundings via SLAM maps. SLAM maps are databases of machine’s visual understandings of the world and their importance is that they enable machines to interact with physical world and also differentiate between places.
Above: A Project Tango phone with two cameras Despite recent analyses Google is actually much more ahead in the AR game. Context is the most important part and though Google’s project tango is unlikely to take off in the future as it needs special hardware (two cameras to sense depth that only a few devices right now support).
Google has already has context and has visual understanding of the world via Google Lens. This data will be much more valuable as in people switch from mobile devices to wearables like AR glasses.
Facebook is trying to catch up Google’s main competitor in the field of augmented reality is not Apple, but Facebook. Facebook has the advantage of a 2 billion user community, and once it develops a way to let its community to handle the mapping it will have great leverage. Unlike Apple, Facebook’s AR vision is all in its own apps and doesn’t let users to use the technology inside their own apps.
Analysts say that Apple allowing users to have AR technology inside their own apps gives it an advantage over Facebook. But as the fight over the physical world’s visual maps heats up Facebook having all their info within their more tightly walled garden may give it an advantage.
Snap is also a company with the advantage of a large community that is aware of this opportunity. In a recent patent Snap introduced a technique of combining GPS data and SLAM maps to put related AR content in the real world. Meanwhile, Lenovo is also trying to make a SLAM database in partnership with Wikitude called Augmented Human Cloud.
Above: Snap patent to map the world in AR One database to rule them all The company with the most complete SLAM database will likely be the winner. This database will allow these giants to have an eye on the world metaphorically, so, for example Facebook can tag and know the location of your photo by just analyzing the image or Google can place ads and virtual billboards around you by analyzing the camera feed from your smart glasses. Your self-driving car can navigate itself with nothing more than visual data.
Every tech-giant knows the importance of having this database but they all have their own advantage and disadvantages in this field.
Apple has the least fragmented platform in smartphone market and can easily give its users the power to experience AR in their smartphones like it did with ARKit. But it lacks the community power.
Facebook has the power of its community but it lacks the platform to have full control.
Google has the power of platform with Android and also has products like Google Lens and Tango, but it lacks the power of community and its project Tango is unlikely to take off because it needs special hardware and few companies are supporting its vision and approach.
Having a visual understanding of the physical world is something that tech giants will fight over in the next years and companies like Apple that have lost out in areas like maps will be more careful. AR is predicted to be a billion dollar market and it may be the next big thing — and none of the tech giants want to be left behind.
Mojtaba Tabatabaie is founder and CEO of PendAR augmented reality solutions.
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! 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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"AdColony: Scheduled events beat user-generated content in mobile-app engagement | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/marketing/adcolony-scheduled-events-beat-user-generated-content-in-mobile-app-engagement"
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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 AdColony: Scheduled events beat user-generated content in mobile-app engagement Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The most popular ways to keep users engaged: achievements, push notifications, and value-exchange ads.
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Scheduled and dynamic events beat user-generated content when it comes to keeping users engaged, according to mobile-ad firm AdColony ‘s Summer 2017 Mobile Publishing Survey.
AdColony recently surveyed publishers who have an average of 3 million monthly active users.
Above: Playable and video ads are becoming more popular.
The survey said 86 percent of publishers believe rewarded video ads provide a positive user experience. Eighty percent of publishers use video and display ads in their apps. Ads account for 55 percent of publisher revenue. For non-gaming apps, ads are 76 percent of revenue.
Publishers said they are most excited about playable ads (where people can tap on an ad and begin playing a game) and immersive ads, but only 48 percent of them are using playables now. And playable ads are viewed as a positive experience by only 25 percent now. This suggests that even though some uncertainty exists regarding the impact of playables on the user experience, the new format has promise.
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! Outside of ads, in-app purchases are the most effective monetization.
Pre-roll video has the worst impact on the user experience while rewarded video has the best impact. In-app purchases have the best impact on the user experience, while subscriptions have the worst. User retention, in-app behavior, and session duration are the best indicators of user quality.
While top mobile publishers have more than 50 employees, only one to three of those employees are dedicated to monetization. Of monetization methods, publishers rank rewarded video ads as No. 1. Rewarded video, in-app purchases, and interstitial video are considered highly effective.
Above: AdColony says ads are the dominant form of monetization for all apps.
About 71 percent of publishers use three or more engagement methods to retain users. Achievements, push notifications, and value exchange ads are the most popular means of engaging users. Seventy percent of publishers say that push notifications are effective. Rewarding users through VIP tiers is effective for 65 percent of publishers in driving engagement.
Respondents primarily represented mobile game developers (90 percent), with a minority making non-gaming apps (18 percent). A small number (8 percent) represented mobile publishers who make both gaming and non-gaming apps. The survey had global distribution.
Above: Rewarded video is still very popular.
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! 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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"Simcoach Games creates training games that can lead to new careers | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/simcoach-games-creates-training-games-that-can-lead-to-new-careers"
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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 Simcoach Games creates training games that can lead to new careers Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Eben Myers (left) and Jessica Trybus of Simcoach Games.
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Simcoach Games makes training games that show people how to do certain kinds of jobs, and those games can sometimes lead people to adopt new careers. That ability to change lives is why CEO Jessica Trybus and vice president Eben Myers have made more than 150 titles over 12 years.
Their company is one of Pittsburgh’s many tech and gaming startups, and it is a spinoff from the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University, where Trybus is a professor in practice. Her company addresses the issues we’re writing about in our new VentureBeat channel Heartland Tech and the topics we’ll discuss at our upcoming Blueprint conference in Reno, Nevada, on September 11-13.
I met Trybus at her company’s headquarters in the fashionable riverside Strip District neighborhood. She is bullish on Pittsburgh’s transformation from a Rust Belt city to a modern economy with tech and game jobs, and she feels Simcoach Games, which makes games that simulate real-life jobs, is part of that transformation.
Simcoach’s games such as Booeys teach players how to get into a tech career or show them how to do construction jobs. Sometimes, players conclude that’s not what they want to do. And to Trybus, that’s a good thing, as it prequalifies people to be job candidates at the companies which sponsor the games.
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 simple mobile games have paid the bills, and Simcoach Games employs 20 people. And it gives new meaning to the once-fashionable word, “gamification,” or using game mechanics in non-game applications to engage people through fun. I interviewed Trybus and Myers about these subjects.
Here’s an edited transcript of our interview.
Above: The view from the Entertainment Technology Center.
Jessica Trybus: We’re over 12 years as a spin-off from Carnegie Mellon and the Entertainment Technology Center. I was involved with the ETC early on, and like Jesse Schell I’ve been on the faculty there for a long time.
GamesBeat: How many years have you been teaching? Trybus: Thirteen. I got my graduate degree at Carnegie Mellon, and almost immediately became faculty. Then I also spun off the company about six months after that. We’re about 20 people now. Some Carnegie Mellon folks. Jesse has a lot of ETC grads.
Simcoach Games was originally called EtCetera Edutainment. That was a nod to the ETC. 2002, 2004, my work was around using game technologies and techniques for things other than entertainment: marketing, training, learning. I spent a lot of my graduate time thinking about those things. Then, of course, we all know that you can use games for other things, so when I started the company, the vision was similar. I was building great games for workforce development, training, and learning.
We started off by going to large companies in Pittsburgh, like Alcoa and Westinghouse and US Steel. UPMC is our big health system here. We said, “How would you use this for training? How are you training today? How are you talking to the next generation of your work force?” That’s how we got started. We built many, many games for training, learning, safety, you name it.
Things have evolved. We’re able to develop games much more quickly. Almost all of them are mobile. A lot of the workforce development games we focus on now are free in the app stores. We’re focused on licensing the data around who plays these games and what skills they want to pick up because of the games. A lot of our games are about industry awareness, career awareness, specific jobs. They’re assessing an aptitude, like if you have an aptitude toward a tech career, if you think like a technical person.
There are virtual experiences for specific jobs. Things to engage and attract and almost pre-qualify people for jobs – people who may not know that in, say, construction, there are all of these different trades and they’re great careers. You don’t need a four-year degree, but you need an apprenticeship. A lot of people don’t know how to get involved. We use this arcade of games to attract people and connect them, with the data, to training programs and employers.
Above: Simcoach Games’ Booeys title.
GamesBeat: Did you ever consider yourselves part of the gamification trend with guys like Gabe Zichermann? Trybus: I’ve been to some of those places. Bunchball in particular, I went out to see their CEO. I think internally we did not consider ourselves part of that, because when we started, earlier on, out of Carnegie Mellon, we were really focused on solving real problems with games that were using the concept of simulation to train. How could you do a better, faster, cheaper flight simulation, but for all these other occupations? Not so much adding incentives and rewards around a structure that was already there, like sales.
We also acknowledge that as part of a larger wave in the market, though, for people to understand — people would say, “Oh, you’re a gamification company?” And we’d say, “Okay, sure.” The reason we changed the name of the company — there were a couple of reasons, but the reason we finally changed it to Simcoach Games was because we were using game design as a differentiator from passive learning to active learning. Everything we do is a game, if that makes sense, in order to up your ability to retain the information or be immersed through the interactivity. But we saw ourselves as something different from the trend in gamification.
GamesBeat: How many games have you made so far? Trybus: We’ve done about 150 games — projects, products, games. We don’t have 150 games on the app stores, although we do have a lot. The first couple of years we did one or two games a year, and now we’re doing dozens and dozens, because they’re short, they’re mobile, they’re easier to develop. They’re not as deep. They’re not around compliance training, so it’s not truly game-based simulation. One thing we realized is that it works better to make shorter games to focus on one or two critical skills, rather than throw in everything on a topic.
GamesBeat: What’s your favorite format? Have you moved into VR much at all? Trybus: Not so much, primarily because our customers haven’t adopted it. The hardware implementation is still a big question. People think there’s a cool factor in VR, and certainly it’s affordable to set up now, but what does that mean as far as workflow, when you train people, when you put it on? As opposed to being able to do it anywhere, even on your own device. That said, we’re ready when our customers are.
GamesBeat: Owlchemy had the big hit with Job Simulator.
Trybus: We’ve developed in VR. All of us that trained at CMU have experience designing and developing VR, and we do, but not for commercial products.
Above: Art on the Carnegie Mellon campus.
GamesBeat: Have you found that this is a good place to be, or have you veered off at any point into other directions, like commercial games? Trybus: No, our focus has always been around workforce development and training. How do you engage people to know what they’re getting into with respect to a task or job, and the importance of solving those problems for employers and for industry? Problems of low retention on something, or turnover is a big issue, or not being pre-qualified or interested in a job. Is there training you can get before you’re hired that makes sense? We’re focused on the skills gap issue in this country. So many people don’t know what they want to do, but there are so many jobs available – and in growing numbers – that will not be filled. And when they are filled there’s too much turnover. How can we balance that out? There are always people out of work who don’t know what they want to do. Maybe one subset of that goes on to a four-year college, but really shouldn’t. Those are the kinds of things we’re looking at. We like to build great games that engage, but that’s the space we’re trying to solve problems in for industry.
GamesBeat: What kind of jobs need this kind of help? Trybus: It turns out that a lot of occupations can benefit on the recruiting side from just getting people aware of what that occupation and industry is about. Getting people aware about what their path might be from training to a career, and some of the skills. Do you have an aptitude or a proclivity toward those skills? A big one, huge, is construction. There are 20-plus different trades, and in this country primarily — if your dad wasn’t a carpenter you don’t think about being a carpenter, let alone other trades. So how do you recruit a diverse new generation of construction workers? Advanced manufacturing. Health care. Everything from nurses — we have a shortage of high quality nurses — to all different kinds of tech roles, environmental service roles. Those are the ones that we’re generally focused on, because we have those needs here, and then we’re building out across the country. Also retail, retail grocery, and technology. How do you find a high-school dropout or someone from a low-income, disadvantaged environment that might have the wiring to do a technical job, but has never been encouraged in that way and doesn’t really know? Can you use games to get their attention and have them solve puzzles, like in an entertainment game? Then you feel out at the end that they have that proclivity and ramp them into a training program. Those are the kinds of jobs we’re looking at right now, but I know we can use games in different areas beyond that.
GamesBeat: So the game is meant to give you an idea of what the job is like, visually? Trybus: There are maybe three, four, five categories of games that we’re building today. One might be career awareness in general. One might be life skills, soft skills. We hear this from employers — a lot of folks don’t know it’s important to show up on time, to plan time management. How to interact with other people. Basic stuff to be successful at a job that has nothing to do with the skills of a job. Also, the aptitude assessment, the types of games I mentioned for things like tech aptitude, as well as maybe safety skills, particular skills for a particular occupation.
The idea is, can you play all this so that when you’re recruited, or you want to go into a training program, so you have an idea of what you’re going into? You play a crane game to be attracted to being an operating engineer. It doesn’t mean you’re certified to operate a crane, but it means you know what it’s like to operate a crane. You understand the physics, the controls, the safety and variables that play into it, how much money you can make, and all in a fun way.
GamesBeat: Can you make the game really fun and let you knock a bunch of buildings down? Trybus: Sure you can. That’s a big part of what we learned from the day we started the company. We want to give them a taste, but we want to make the game in and of itself fun and motivate them to find out more. Or maybe you’re motivated to not find out more. You talk about—I don’t want to work at heights on a tower crane. I don’t want to work in a lot of snow here. If that’s a way for them to find out and explore different options, that’s positive.
Above: Harness Hero has tips for construction workers.
GamesBeat: It seems like they should teach these games in schools, at least in vocational schools.
Trybus: We’re distributing through there. The games are free. That’s the model. Schools, from middle schools to high schools to tech schools, are interested in using these to reinforce their curriculum and their messaging. The schools, at least in Pennsylvania, have to create opportunities for career awareness and career exploration. That’s built into our law. How they do that is a bit broader, but these games are starting to fit in – both the soft skills games I mentioned and the career-specific ones.
GamesBeat: How do you make money? Is it on a project basis with companies? Trybus: Traditionally we’ve taken on games with development partners that know the problem we’re solving, know the content. They’ve paid for the games to be developed. Our core focus, our core model, is the licensing of a data dashboard to a training organization or industry association or an employer.
I mentioned that crane game. If you’re looking to recruit operating engineers, you might pick out five of the games we have that are applicatble to your trade. Essentially, that organization would pay for data per game, per zip code, to see who in that zip code has played these games, has done well, and expressed more interest. That’s the connection. The games have, and will have, a direct — they’ll be localized. If you’re interested, it’ll you send you to a local organization that provides training or an onramp to find out about getting into those careers. That’ll be different here than it is in, say, northern California. We call it regional target messaging. The clients pay on a software service model.
GamesBeat: It’s like using mobile game analytics and user acquisition for job recruits.
Trybus: Right. All of our games are free. The idea is, if you play these games, you sign up and create a digital profile in our — the thing is called the Simcoach Skill Arcade. It’s the games, the digital profile, and the data dashboard. You acknowledge that if you play these games, you’re going to accrue badges, achievements, and that data can be shared with potential employers. The skillers, as I call them — we’re building the number of skillers on our platform.
GamesBeat: Do you have to weed out the 10-year-olds? “Come back in eight year or so.” Trybus: Well, some of the games are of great interest at the middle school level, because that’s where — they’re not making decisions yet about college or jobs, but they’re starting to want to think through the types of things that interest them, the types of things they’re good at, in a little more abstract ways. Exposing them to careers that are available without getting too into the weeds on when they have to start training. But that’s when they say it’s important to start this exposure, in middle school, so they can think through it over the next couple of years.
GamesBeat: How were you inspired to create the company in the beginning? Trybus: Personally, I was working on the question of whether we could build games for training. I was doing that at the ETC. I thought, “Well, instead of going back out west to create games, I’ll go to industry and start to learn about their needs.” I think it just started itself really fast, because back then — 2004, when I started to talk to companies – I was surprised by how much they thought this made sense, even when I was talking about special graphics cards and high-powered computers to run the games. We weren’t running 3D games in browsers in 2005.
Above: Simcoach’s Selector Safety shows you how to operate safely in construction areas.
GamesBeat: Is that what some companies wanted? The equivalent of Uncharted 4? Trybus: Yeah, but we work through that. The budgets were — we were building games for a couple hundred thousand dollars, or a couple million. Now that cost is much lower, but of course we’re making a much shorter game that focuses on specific critical skills. We have a pretty tried and true process that’s evolved, a method for creating these, how we do them and how we integrate the content experts. But yeah, I think up front — we had to focus on, what’s the learning objective? How does this feature or that feature benefit the learning, as opposed to just being cool? GamesBeat: Your company seems to fit here more than it would in, say, Hollywood.
Trybus: For sure. I really think it’s a great Pittsburgh story, because of Pittsburgh’s history. It feels like Pittsburgh to be applying the techniques and technologies of game design and development to solve industry problems. Especially for a lot of the industries here. We’re excited about where it’s evolved to and where we’re going.
GamesBeat: What does your client list look like? Is it spread around the country, or is it concentrated here? Trybus: A lot of our clients have always been national, and even international, because our games apply to industries regardless of whether you’re making steel or ketchup. We’ve worked with companies all over the world, or at least that have a global presence.
Right now we are focused on the regional targeted messaging in a big way in Pennsylvania. That’s primarily as we’re building out the platform, building out the games, and building out the state partners, as well as the local partners and companies we’re working with. We’re targeting a lot of our skillers to be from this region. That said, we’re already inadvertently pulling in a lot of interest from other parts of the country. Southern California is one area. It’s because the story of construction around the country is the same. The story of nursing shortages is the same. The story of soft skills is the same. But as far as proving it out, we’re focused here.
GamesBeat: It seems like a lot of people in the game-centric areas might not chase after that. They wouldn’t spot this kind of opportunity. When you teach about this subject at the ETC, do you talk about it in a different way with students? Trybus: The ETC is primarily project-based. My title actually has “Professor of Practice” in it. The idea is, I’m in industry making a lot of games with a lot of different clients, focusing on the problem we’re solving. I bring that back in and focus on process with the students. I try my best to ask questions that they can think about and explore, but at the end of the day the students will work on interdisciplinary teams, which is a big deal. They’ll have a client and they’ll go through the process of concepting, prototyping, playtesting, iteration, publishing to the app stores—it’s a soup to nuts experience in 16 weeks, with a real client.
I bring what I see as best practices, I hope, back in. But it’s similar. It’s very similar to what we do here. It’s just that these teams have 12 years of experience through many iterations.
GamesBeat: Is the ETC graduating anyone with this kind of specialization, like training simulation? Trybus: There’s certainly a specialty — I think Jesse tried to coin the term “transformational games.” There’s a specialty in looking at games for other than entertainment purposes. But the fact of the matter is, nine out of 10 projects we did 10 years ago or more were straight entertainment, whether it was theme parks or 3D/4D movies or console games. Today, arguably, nine out of 10 projects at the ETC are edutainment, or something that is about a way to effectively communicate, whether it’s theme park or game design. So to answer your question, yes, there are people who are very interested in pursuing things like serious games or transformational games, educational games for kids, but it’s naturally leaning toward that anyway.
Above: Simcoach Games creates simulations of real-life jobs.
GamesBeat: Since there is that broader category of serious games, is there competition in the field of what you’re doing? Trybus: Our competition over the years has primarily been the traditional passive training solutions that were in companies. Now it’s the recruiting, the job boards, anything that has to do with workforce development and training. That’s our major competition. A lot of studios have come and gone or stayed around the country and around the world doing one-off projects using games for learning. That’s all over the place. I guess, in a way, those studios have competed with us.
GamesBeat: There was a company in North Carolina, BreakAway. Is that in the same space? Trybus: We’ve had some crossover in the past, especially early on. If I remember correctly, they came out of the Department of Defense side of it. Early on, our competitors were mainly funded by Defense or came out of that kind of work.
GamesBeat: Military training? Trybus: Right, or health care, but with government funding either way. I don’t know of other companies that have been around as long as we have that started by going straight for industry. That’s how we managed all that revenue early on.
GamesBeat: Did that end up being a bigger market compared to government? I’m not sure if anybody really measures that.
Trybus: At the time the government was huge, but the market to use this kind of technology to solve industry problems has certainly grown, and is growing. Especially now that we have the proliferation of mobile devices. It’s all in the cloud. It’s all trackable. That didn’t exist 10 years ago.
GamesBeat: It sounds like it was a big boiling-the-ocean test to get it started.
Trybus: You’re right. Looking back, I agree with you. One of our challenges has always been the potential to lose focus, because we get a lot of people calling and saying, “Hey, can you build me a game for X-Y-Z?” And we have, especially when we bootstrapped the company to get to our core solution, which is the Simcoach Skill Arcade. We built a lot of great games that won’t fit into the Skill Arcade, but that’s what balanced the business and taught us how to build great games.
GamesBeat: You would favor creating something that fits in the Arcade over something that’s just a one-off? Trybus: Yeah, because we’re focused on a scale solution. We want to collect the data around career readiness so we can license it, because we think that information and the skillers that are signing up will be really valuable to these industries or potential employers. It’s funny. It’s not about the games so much as the data on the people that play them.
GamesBeat: What’s appealing about this to you, as far as specializing in this particular area of game design? Eben Myers: First and foremost, building games, but also doing something to help people. Early on our games were focused on corporate training, often around safety. To be able to build a video game that we could reasonably say saved lives — that was pretty cool. Now we’re building video games that have changed lives, in the sense of bringing people from underserved populations into places where they have career opportunities. That’s the core thing.
The other piece of it, to me, is just getting to learn new things and interact with lots of different people, and then the challenge of translating all of that into games.
GamesBeat: I’m most familiar with entertainment games, but what makes a good training program? Myers: The overlap, if you do it right, is really quite large. I subscribe to Raph Koster’s notion that fun is what we experience when our brains are learning. If we build our games right, we end up with a fun game that also happens to be — the core learning happens to be about whatever the topic is. Things that are key to that are the same things that are key to good games: challenge, meaningful interaction, well-defined goals, things like that. You see all those things together in both entertainment games and educational games. In an educational game it all comes around learning objectives that are specified up front.
GamesBeat: What do you think has been your most impactful game, out of all 150 or so? Myers: Honestly, maybe it’s because I was just in a meeting talking about it, but one of our more recent games is called Booeys. It’s a game intended to serve as a pathway into tech-related careers, STEM-related careers. It’s a little puzzle game where you essentially program a little ghost to achieve little objectives. It encourages you as you go along. If you’re succeeding, the ghost character comes up and tells you nice things and eventually encourages you to reach out to resources where you can potentially get training toward a tech career.
The numbers right now are pretty small, but we have a concrete pipeline from downloading the game to playing the game to reaching out for resources to actually ending up in tech skills boot camps. We have people who’ve gone through that entire pipeline and who are either in a boot camp now or moving into careers that were otherwise not open to them. We’re working on increasing the numbers now, but to me that’s such a tangible story of impacting someone’s life.
Trybus: We also have evidence — the numbers are in the dozens only, but evidence of the success of the game lining up with the success of the boot camp program that sets you up for being successful in a job. That’s pretty significant so far.
Above: Carnegie Mellon’s soccer field.
GamesBeat: It seems like it’s hard to measure in some ways. Sometimes a person might wind up in a career years from now, but they were exposed through your games.
Myers: Right. They may be predisposed. I don’t necessarily see that as a knock, other than we’re providing another avenue for those people. Another big game — we built version one a couple of years ago, and we’re building a more modern version now — is a game called Future Road Builders that’s intended to help people decide if they’re interested in a career in construction, and then choose a trade within construction.
What’s interesting about that one is that it’s another game designed as a pathway into a career. But in that case, pre-qualifying people is a part of it. We’re happy with someone playing it and deciding they never want to go into construction, because you don’t want to waste everyone’s time if you apply to an apprenticeship, get in, and halfway through your first year you realize you don’t like it. On the other hand, if you go through that and decide you do want to work in construction, ending up in the right trade is the next important choice. If we can help people make that choice, that serves a purpose that makes me feel good.
Trybus: I think, in addition — there’s a lot of different games that I think have had really positive impact for different reasons. We talked about the history of safety. Even related to what we’re building now for some of the trades — when you go down a negative path and talk about knocking stuff over and you see your character blow up or fall or whatever, it’s really because of your choices, or lack of choices, the right choices. Those kinds of things have been impactful as far as taking that seriously and pursuing that further.
GamesBeat: How are you recruiting people into the company? Is there a particular pitch that’s successful at attracting people as employees? Myers: We have really strong ties to the ETC at CMU. That’s a huge recruiting pipeline. The Art Institute, locally, is another source of artists — both people coming out and folks who are further down the line of their career. On the business side we have other avenues, typically through school communities or programs that arise around education. That’s a big one. The development community — in terms of games, but also tech in general — is just exploding around here. There’s more and more talent available. There’s a lot of competition for jobs.
GamesBeat: When you launch a game, are you the ones doing the best job of drawing the audience, or do the companies you work with serve that purpose? Do they advertise or otherwise pull people into the game? Trybus: We’ve been talking about the best ways to do that. It’s probably the combination of a bunch of things. Typically we’re trying to work with our development partners and content partners to get it out. We have some other ideas on how to cross-promote. I talked with someone who might be developing a game with a specific audience, but if they put that game on our platform that has all the Skill Arcade users, they’re essentially able to get cross-promotion from other games. You can see that network growing and working to help others. But right now it’s fair to say that we’re leaning on the industries and development partners we work with, building up from there as far as how to promote our games.
Above: Simcoach Games works with Pennsylvania’s state government on games that simulate roadside construction jobs.
GamesBeat: I can see a health care company advertising this on TV, something like that.
Myers: Future Road Builders is a great example. Our organizational partner, the Constructors Association of Western Pennsylvania, literally puts futureroadbuilders.com on all of their materials. They’ve convinced their trade union partners to do the same thing. Whenever we go visit one of the apprenticeship centers, something like that, they always have flyers out. They’re all promoting through their networks. We support that as best we can, and meanwhile we’re working on our own avenues for cross-promotion.
GamesBeat: Are you bullish on Pittsburgh? Is this a good place to have a tech company? Trybus: I am. I’m from Pittsburgh. I’m a little biased. I spent some time in Silicon Valley, and we came back, and to my surprise we stayed. I credit Carnegie Mellon. I didn’t spend much time at Carnegie Mellon before I took off for college and moved to California, so when I came back, I was thrilled to learn about CMU. Don Marinelli and Randy Pausch , pretty much right when I moved back—they had just started this program. I just thought it was really cool.
I am bullish on Pittsburgh. We’ve certainly gotten a lot of press lately on some of our neighborhoods and our culinary scene. There’s talent moving here. There’s certainly talent out of Carnegie Mellon and Pitt and other schools. We have a lot of colleges around here. The town is great. For the most part, it’s a relationship town. People want to see you succeed. They want to see companies and innovation succeed.
Not every tech company may have made it. A lot of people have issues with the type of money that needs to be raised and whether you can raise it quick enough. I think you figure it out. You can certainly get on a plane.
GamesBeat: Are there venture capitalists present here, or incubators? Trybus: We have a couple of great incubators here that have been recognized nationally. We have some notable VCs. You don’t hear about too many gaming explosions here, although Duolingo might count as gamification. But this space didn’t even exist here before Schell Games and before Simcoach. There’s capital to be found here if you have a great business, if you’re solving a great problem and there’s a clear scalable strategy. You can raise money.
It’s been a long time since I’ve considered this the Rust Belt. Robotics is another area where we’re strong as far as startup companies solving problems.
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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"Nvidia uses AI to create 3D graphics better than human artists can | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/nvidia-uses-ai-to-create-3d-graphics-better-than-human-artists-can"
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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 Nvidia uses AI to create 3D graphics better than human artists can Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Nvidia Zcam demo at Siggraph.
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Nvidia spans both gaming graphics and artificial intelligence, and it is showing that with its announcements this week at the Siggraph computer graphics event in Los Angeles.
Those announcements range from providing external graphics processing for content creators to testing AI robotics technology inside a virtual environment known as the Holodeck, named after the virtual reality simulator in the Star Trek series. In fact, Nvidia’s researchers have created a way for AI to create realistic human facial animations in a fraction of the time it takes human artists to do the same thing.
“We are bringing artificial intelligence to computer graphics,” said Greg Estes, vice president of developer marketing at Nvidia, in an interview with GamesBeat. “It’s bringing things full circle. If you look at our history in graphics, we took that into high-performance computing and took that into a dominant position in deep learning and AI. Now we are closing that loop and bringing AI into graphics.” “Our strategy is to lead with research and break new ground,” he said. “Then we take that lead in research and take it into software development kits for developers.” 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: Nvidia’s Optix 5.0 can “de-noise” images by removing graininess.
Nvidia has 10 research papers this year at the Siggraph event, Estes said. And some of that will be relevant to Nvidia’s developers, which number about 550,000 now. About half of those developers are in games, while the rest are in high-performance computing, robotics, and AI.” Among the announcements, one is particularly cool. Estes said that Nvidial will show off its Isaac robots in a new environment. These robots, which are being used to vet AI algorithms, will be brought inside the virtual environment that Nvidia calls Project Holodeck.
Project Holodeck is a virtual space for collaboration, where full simulations of things like cars and robots are possible. By putting the Isaac robots inside that world, they can learn how to behave, without causing havoc in the real world.
Above: The Project Holodeck demo “A robot will be able to learn things in VR,” Estes said. “We can train it in a simulated environment.” Nvidia is providing external Titan X or Quadro graphics cards through an external graphics processing unit (eGPU) chassis. That will boost workflows for people who use their laptop computers for video editing, interactive rendering, VR content creation, AI development and more, Estes said.
To ensure professionals can enjoy great performance with applications such as Autodesk Maya and Adobe Premier Pro, Nvidia is releasing a new performance driver for Titan X hardware to make it faster. The Quadro eGPU solutions will be available in September through partners such as Bizon, Sonnet, and One Stop Systems/Magma.
Nvidia also said it was launching its Optix 5.0 SDK on the Nvidia DGX AI workstation. That will give designers, artists, and other content-creation professionals the rendering capability of 150 standard central processing unit (CPU) servers.
The tech could be used by millions of people, Estes said. And that kind of system would cost $75,000 over three years, compared to $4 million for a CPU-based system, the company said.
OptiX 5.0’s new ray tracing capabilities will speed up the process required to visualize designs or characters, thereby increasing a creative professional’s ability to interact with their content. It features new AI “de-noising” capability to accelerate the removal of graininess from images, and brings GPU-accelerated motion blur for realistic animation effects. It will be available for free in November.
By running Nvidia Optix 5.0 on a DGX Station, content creators can significantly accelerate training, inference and rendering (meaning both AI and graphics tasks).
“AI is transforming industries everywhere,” said Steve May, vice president and chief technology officer of Pixar, in a statement. “We’re excited to see how Nvidia’s new AI technologies will improve the filmmaking process.” On the research side, Nvidia is showing how it can animate realistic human faces and simulate how light interacts with surfaces. It will tap AI technology to improve the realism of the facial animations. Right now, it takes human artists hundreds of hours to create digital faces that more closely match the faces of human actors.
Nvidia Research partnered with Remedy Entertainment, maker of games such as Quantum Break, Max Payne and Alan Wake, to help game makers produce more realistic faces with less effort and at lower cost.
Above: Nvidia is using AI to create human facial animations.
The parties combined Remedy’s animation data and Nvidia’s deep learning technology to train a neural network to produce facial animations directly from actor videos. The research was done by Samuli Laine, Tero Karras, Timo Aila, and Jaakko Lehtinen. Nvidia’s solution requires only five minutes of training data to generate all the facial animation needed for an entire game from a simple video stream.
Antti Herva, lead character technical artist at Remedy, said that over time, the new methods will let the studio build larger, richer game worlds with more characters than are now possible.
Already, the studio is creating high-quality facial animation in much less time than in the past.
“Based on the Nvidia research work we’ve seen in AI-driven facial animation, we’re convinced AI will revolutionize content creation,” said Herva, in a statement. “Complex facial animation for digital doubles like that in Quantum Break can take several man-years to create. After working with Nvidia to build video- and audio-driven deep neural networks for facial animation, we can reduce that time by 80 percent in large scale projects and free our artists to focus on other tasks.” In another research project, Nvidia trained a system to generate realistic facial animation using only audio. With this tool, game studios will be able to add more supporting game characters, create live animated avatars, and more easily produce games in multiple languages.
Above: AI can smooth out the “jaggies,” or rough edges in 3D graphics.
AI also holds promise for rendering 3D graphics, the process that turns digital worlds into the life-like images you see on the screen. Film makers and designers use a technique called “ray tracing” to simulate light reflecting from surfaces in the virtual scene. Nvidia is using AI to improve both ray tracing and rasterization, a less costly rendering technique used in computer games.
In a related project, Nvidia researchers used AI to tackle a problem in computer game rendering known as anti-aliasing. Like the de-noising problem, anti-aliasing removes artifacts from partially-computed images, with this artifact looking like stair-stepped “jaggies.” Nvidia researchers Marco Salvi and Anjul Patney trained a neural network to recognize jaggy artifacts and replace those pixels with smooth anti-aliased pixels. The AI-based solution produces images that are sharper (less blurry) than existing algorithms.
Nvidia is also developing more efficient methods to trace virtual light rays. Computers sample the paths of many light rays to generate a photorealistic image. The problem is that not all of those light paths contribute to the final image.
Researchers Ken Daum and Alex Keller trained a neural network to guide the choice of light paths. They accomplished this by connecting the math of tracing light rays to the AI concept of reinforcement learning.
Their solution taught the neural network to distinguish the paths most likely to connect lights with virtual cameras, from the paths that don’t contribute to the image.
Above: Nvidia uses AI to figure out light sources in 3D graphics.
Lastly, Nvidia said it taking immersive VR to more people by releasing the VRWorks 360 Video SDK to enable production houses to livestream high-quality, 360-degree, stereo video to their audiences.
Normally, it takes a lot of computation time to stitch together images for 360-degree videos. By doing live 360-degree stereo stitching, Nvidia is making life a lot easier for the live-production and live-event industries, said Zvi Greenstein, vice president at Nvidia.
The VRWorks SDK enables production studios, camera makers and app developers to integrate 360 degree, stereo stitching SDK into their existing workflow for live and post production. The Z Cam V1 Pro (made by VR camera firm Z Cam) is the first professional 360 degree VR camera that will fully integrate the VRWorks SDK.
“We have clients across a wide range of industries, from travel through sports, who want high quality, 360 degree video,” said Chris Grainger, CEO of Grainger VR, in a statement. “This allows filmmakers to push the boundaries of live storytelling.” 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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"Wisconsin may offer $3 billion worth of incentives to Foxconn in effort to create 'Wisconn Valley' | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/wisconsin-may-offer-3-billion-worth-of-incentives-to-foxconn-in-effort-to-create-wisconn-valley"
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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 Wisconsin may offer $3 billion worth of incentives to Foxconn in effort to create ‘Wisconn Valley’ Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The logo of Foxconn, the trading name of Hon Hai Precision Industry, is seen on top of the company's headquarters in New Taipei City, Taiwan.
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As the hoopla that followed Foxconn’s announcement of a new plant in Wisconsin fades, details are starting to emerge about the steep cost the state will pay for 3,000 jobs.
If the plant is ever actually built.
Last week, Foxconn revealed that it would invest $10 billion in a new factory that will manufacture LCD Screens in the southeast corner of the state. The company projects that within four years, it will have 3,000 people working there. Potentially, that number could rise to 13,000 down the road.
But as the Washington Post reported back in March , Foxconn has a history of not following through on splashy, job creation announcements. In 2013, Foxconn announced a plan to invest $30 million in a new Pennsylvania factory that would create 500 jobs.
Four years later, no ground has been broken. No plant has been built. And Foxconn has offered no explanations or updates.
The Post noted that, in general, attracting Asian manufacturers to the U.S. would require an array of incentives, tax breaks, free land, and assorted financial goodies.
On Friday, we learned that Wisconsin is prepared to offer Foxconn a package totalling $3 billion in financial incentives over 15 years.
Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has called a special session of the state legislature this week to consider and (possibly) adopt that $3 billion package.
This has prompted some skepticism, with the Wisconsin State Journal calling the price tag a “steep tradeoff” and noting that the “economic infusion promised by Foxconn carries an unprecedented price tag.” But Walker seems to think the expenditure is worth it because he apparently has even more ambitious plans. He hopes that Foxconn will be the catalyst for transforming Wisconsin into what he has started calling….wait for it…”Wisconn Valley.”’ #BREAKING : Details sent to lawmakers on #Foxconn in #Wisconsin — calling it "Wisconn Valley".
#news3 pic.twitter.com/HJMwOg7QCX — Jessica Arp (@news3jessica) July 26, 2017 Go ahead and groan.
The special session could be held as soon as Tuesday. The stakes are incredibly high. The legislature is controlled by Republicans, so the package should pass. But it will be telling to see what other details of the deal may emerge, and how much criticism it faces from lawmakers.
The result could set a precedent in terms of what kind of price states are willing to pay to entice overseas manufacturers to come to the U.S. No doubt politicians and manufacturing execs around the country will be watching closely to see what happens next.
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"Silicon Valley vets head to Cleveland for Startup Scaleup | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/silicon-valley-vets-head-to-cleveland-for-startup-scaleup"
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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 Silicon Valley vets head to Cleveland for Startup Scaleup Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Startup Scaleup, a networking event for entrepreneurs, returns to Gordon Square in Cleveland on August 15, 2017.
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Now in its third year, Startup Scaleup is pulling in Silicon Valley executives who want to see Cleveland’s entrepreneurial spirit up close.
Former Yelp and Move.com executive Rob Krolik and Silicon Valley entrepreneur Alex Bard are among the speakers appearing at the event, which is organized by JumpStart. The day-long event, aimed at helping entrepreneurs start and grow businesses, is happening August 15 in the Gordon Square Arts District.
“One of the things we’re very excited about this year is that we’ll be hosting current and former Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, investors and executives who will be taking part in sessions throughout the day and networking with local entrepreneurs and investors,” said JumpStart CEO Ray Leach in an email. “Increasingly, other hubs of entrepreneurship are starting to take notice of what’s going on in Northeast Ohio and want to get involved.” This event will offer more than 35 workshops, panel discussions, and networking opportunities at 12 venues throughout Gordon Square. Attendance was about 1,300 in 2016, and more participants are expected this year, organizers said.
“Startup Scaleup is designed specifically with entrepreneurs in mind,” Leach said. “Whether they are just starting to think about launching their own venture, currently building a startup, or scaling an existing small business that has huge potential for growth, it’s all about helping them access resources they need to achieve their goals.” Krolik is the former CFO of Yelp and Move.com, while Bard is a partner at Redpoint Ventures and a serial entrepreneur who has sold companies to Salesforce and AOL.
Above: Alex Bard, Silicon Valley entrepreneur and partner at Redpoint Ventures. Courtesy Alex Bard “With increased access to information, talent and technology, it’s now possible to build great companies anywhere in the world — not just in the valley,” Bard said in a written statement. “That’s why I’m very excited to be a part of Startup Scaleup and to come see what’s going on in Cleveland first-hand.” Startup Scaleup’s programs are organized into two tracks: one for entrepreneurs who are building young ventures, the other for small-business owners who want their ventures to grow. Attendees can follow one track or mix and match sessions to fit their needs, organizers said.
Startup Scaleup tickets are $20 and include a $10 lunch voucher and two $5 snack vouchers redeemable at Gordon Square restaurants.
Here are some schedule highlights; go to the website for full information: The Art of the Exit Krolik, who helped take Yelp public in 2012, gives his insights on that process.
The Business of Getting Big This session is about how multimillion-dollar Northeast Ohio businesses like Hyland Software and hand sanitizer company GOJO grew.
Mastering the Side Hustle WOIO Channel 19 anchor and successful food entrepreneur Tiffani Tucker, along with other small-business owners, discuss launching a side business while working full time.
Startup Stories Life After Exit: Explorys cofounder Steve McHale and Silicon Valley entrepreneur/investor Alex Bard share insights about what happens when a company is acquired or sold. McHale’s company was acquired by IBM, and Bard has sold companies to Salesforce and AOL.
Silicon Valley Money, Midwest Zip Code John Locke from Silicon Valley venture capital firm Accel, along with representatives of two Ohio startups, talks about about how startups can attract coastal capital while remaining headquartered in the Midwest.
This post originally appeared on Cleveland.com.
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"Innovation hubs are becoming more protective than innovative | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/innovation-hubs-are-becoming-more-protective-than-innovative"
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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 Innovation hubs are becoming more protective than innovative 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.
LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman spoke this past May at the Tech Alliance luncheon in Seattle, and something he said got me thinking about Silicon Valley – and all innovation hubs — in a different way.
While interviewed on stage by angel investor Sarah Imbach, he called Silicon Valley “myopic” and urged people to pay attention to what’s going on in Seattle, the other tech hub where he now spends time as a startup investor and Microsoft board member.
Myopic is exactly right. And with that Silicon Valley and other innovation hubs risk losing their edge.
The innovation ecosystem in the Bay Area comes together like a non-linear neural network. There’s the perception that it is all self-organizing and efficient. They have ideas, networks, partners, teams, capital, and customers — it’s all there, and innovation can quickly scale.
But, at times, a myopic view can result in a follow-the-leader mentality. A case in point: In some instances venture capitalists give the appearance of a herd mentality by investing in trends they all see, at the same time.
In a place like Silicon Valley, resources do come together quickly. And what’s dangerous is pushing the same idea forward by a multitude of investors and entrepreneurs.
Oftentimes, everyone wants to jump in for fear of being left out. This is human nature. This attitude can result in VCs and entrepreneurs not taking risks and instead pursuing what the VC or entrepreneur next door is doing. The VC’s goal is to aggressively participate in the financing feeding frenzy at the right time so they can get a return. The entrepreneur might look for a fast and easy exit. This is where bubbles come from.
But a return or an exit is not innovation.
The problem is this: You cannot innovate with a consensus mindset.
Of course, there are still new and original ideas that completely transform a market. Examples include ride sharing and Netflix, but these are rare.
Mostly what we are seeing is that networks too often come together to do incremental things. They are not creating the next transistor chip or laser or next energy source. Certainly not with the frequency you would expect or we desire.
Innovation is more than just cool new apps.
An incremental mindset does not create breakthrough ideas. It creates, simply, temporary market penetration.
The Silicon Valley ecosystem itself – and Seattle too — can at times act like a big risk-averse company with a big balance sheet it’s trying to protect.
It’s Clayton M. Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma, applied to the whole network instead of a company.
Here’s the Innovator’s Dilemma: Once a company has successfully developed and launched an innovative product, it wants to produce it in a more efficient and profitable way rather than invest money in new, innovative, disruptive ideas. The dilemma is between investing in something new that could cannibalize the business now and letting upstart rivals run with the lower-end disruptive innovation that could blindside you later.
Some companies are working to break free of this dynamic that chooses scale over innovation.
Google is leveraging its success via Alphabet. Internet search is becoming progressively less profitable, so they are focused on innovative new areas like life sciences, robotics, and home automation.
Amazon is succeeding around retail and looking at it from different angles; case in point: its recent purchase of Whole Foods. Amazon is leveraging its expertise around operational efficiency to innovate in very different ways from the moonshot approach.
It’s time to change the myopic approach to innovation ecosystems. If we don’t make adjustments now, we’ll be talking about how the Innovators Dilemma is no longer an issue just for companies. It wil instead be an issue impacting innovation regions and entrepreneurial hubs like Silicon Valley and Seattle.
The time is now to disrupt the actual innovation process.
[The views expressed here are the personal opinons of the author and not those of the University of Washington.] Vikram Jandhyala is Vice President for Innovation Strategy at the University of Washington, Executive Director of CoMotion, and co-Executive Director of the Global Innovation Exchange (GIX). He is a professor and former chair in the Department of Electrical Engineering and serves on the advisory boards of The Technology Alliance, Washington State China Relations Council, UW Foster Business School’s Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship, and Partners for Our Children. He founded, along with his students, Nimbic (acquired by Mentor Graphics) and was an early employee at Ansoft (acquired by Ansys).
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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"Alibaba dominates B2B in India | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/commerce/alibaba-dominates-b2b-in-india"
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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 Alibaba dominates B2B in India Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Alibaba founder and chairman Jack Ma smiles as he looks at real-time data of transactions at Alibaba Group's 11.11 Global shopping festival in Beijing, China, November 11, 2015.
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B2B trade platforms have been around for some time. TradeIndia and IndiaMart took advantage of the internet to cater to this segment of users when few really understood how to even approach the internet. Later still, companies like WYDR came around that tried to simplify B2B trade even further.
The following graph provides an overview of how reach by application installs has evolved for B2B apps over the 10 months.
Unlike other industries, incumbents in B2B have a huge advantage over new comers in this space. They have data – knowledge of transaction patterns, trading volumes and an established customer relationship. So it’s surprising to see IndiaMart struggling to maintain their lead. They were not just leaders but pioneers in their field but seem to cede ground to domestic and international entrants.
How does this impact market share by App installs? Take a look below: In the B2B space, a large number of customers will also prefer to use the desktop over a mobile app. Reach simply represents the % of users that have a certain app installed on their phones. So this doesn’t necessarily mean that revenues will fall in line, it is, however, an important indicator of ‘traction’.
In fact, if you look at the same companies in terms of Net Promoter Scores (NPS), you’ll find that IndiaMart is doing far better than its competitors.
Why is Alibaba growing as fast as it is? Indian businesses need to remain competitive which means they will need suppliers who can provide the same goods cheaper and customers who may be willing to pay higher prices/ offer better terms etc. Alibaba’s global reach gives them these things.
For example, if I was a carpet manufacturer – why would I want to restrict myself to India? I would want to use these platforms to expand my target set of customers & suppliers.
In today’s market – it’s relatively cheap to start an online business – the cost of building an app/ website etc is falling every year. You can even get off the ground & show some ‘GMV’. God knows there are enough potential customers out there. But the odds are that you’re just teaching your customers to use your global competitor (the old Flipkart taught customers how to use Amazon argument).
So can these companies continue to think India first? Don’t they need to have a global reach to remain relevant even to their own customers? I would reckon that we all do.
[This story originally appeared on the KalaGato blog.
] Ashish Kapoor is chief analyst at market intelligence group KalaGato.
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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"Your employer doesn't own your free speech | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/your-employer-doesnt-own-your-free-speech"
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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 Your employer doesn’t own your free speech 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.
There’s an open secret that everybody knows, but nobody can really talk about. And more likely than not, it’s affecting your career growth.
Most employees are used to company social media policies , which set guidelines for employees looking to post on social media, write blog posts, or otherwise communicate with the public – whether or not the communication is related to the company. We normally accept these policies as just another part of corporate life, assuming that every other professional follows suit.
But in the past five years, I’ve increasingly heard from dozens of professionals, at companies of all sizes, that these social media policies may have unintended effects.
First there’s the man who couldn’t comment about a professional topic because his “highly exclusive” software company required him to go through media training first – even though the topic was completely unrelated to his company or his company’s industry.
Then there was a professional who told me he wanted to speak on a panel, but chose not to because getting HR approval was such a politically-charged, cumbersome process.
And then there was a woman who impressed me so much, I wanted to nominate her for an industry “40 under 40” award. She told me that although she was honored, she’d rather not be nominated unless I coordinated with her company’s PR team. If she bypassed the process, she told me, she could be “ostracized” for the external publicity.
Then there was the woman who actually did receive a prestigious industry award, and immediately regretted it. “I nearly had to apologize for the award after I received it,” she confided in me.
And it isn’t just within my own circle. Social media shows several professionals frustrated by these effective gag orders.
Taking mandatory corporate training (due 12/31). It is super painful. I'd say more, but I just learned our social media policy forbids it.
— Brian W. Knight (@outdoortype) December 28, 2015 @GerryCallahan @Gary_Tanguay you know @gehrig38 had to SIGN a social media policy at @espn that forbids/penalizes this kind of thing.
— Jeffrey Banks (@jefbanks) August 26, 2015 Started a couple weeks ago and the social media policy forbids me from mentioning where.
— Jordan Walton (@Jaysgba) November 23, 2016 Actions speak louder than words. Employer emcourages us to develop our skills, but prohibits us from attending any related events.
#irony — Eva Vander (@Missteaque) January 28, 2015 Companies do have legitimate reasons for implementing social media policies. The policies help maintain confidentiality, control external messaging, protect intellectual property, and track branding. So where are they going wrong? The issue isn’t the policies themselves. Rather, it’s the way these policies are enforced in practice, and the implicit messaging that accompanies them. In many cases I’ve seen, the issue isn’t that employees are completely barred from receiving awards, publishing, or speaking at events, it’s that employees are forced to jump through so many hoops to do so. The process can get so cumbersome that it doesn’t seem worth it. If your employer won’t even let you comment on LinkedIn, why would you feel free to speak at panels or conferences? Or the process can end up politicized. If you have to tell your manager every time you get recognition outside the company, you may be seen as constantly trying to “one-up” them.
It’s easy to dismiss this as a simple issue – if you don’t like a company’s social media policy, don’t work there. But it’s not that simple. First, the widespread issue is with the enforcement practices, not the policies. It’s nearly impossible to perceive how a company’s social media policy will be enforced by reading the language alone. After all, the nature of the problem is that nobody can really talk about it! Second, we are switching jobs today more frequently than ever as new technology and trends quickly change and skills become obsolete. So maintaining a portable professional reputation is becoming increasingly important. Developing this reputation by engaging in social media, publishing, or even speaking at events gives employees the opportunity to learn new skills, keep up with technology, pursue their passions, showcase their expertise, influence the industry, and much more. In fact, the number one topic that other professionals ask me about is how to gain more visibility. And nine times out of 10, they tell me I’m lucky to work for a startup, where I have more freedom of speech! And that brings me to the third problem with this practice: It’s probably illegal.
Restrictive enforcement of social media policies can often chill free speech. How much progress would Susan Fowler have made if she’d had to ask Uber’s permission before writing that iconic blog post? The National Labor Relations Board has declared that workers have a right to discuss work-related matters on social media. In fact, the labor board’s rulings tell companies that broad – either as written or as enforced – social media policies are illegal when they “ would reasonably tend to chill employees” from communicating with each other about work conditions. These restrictive practices hurt not only employees and companies, but entire industries that miss out on important diversity of thought.
So the secret’s out. These benign social media policies, through restrictive or negatively ambiguous enforcement practices, are frustrating professionals and stunting career growth. What can we, as an industry, do? It’s time employees realize that their personal growth is far more important than adhering to the culture of fear cultivated by these practices. As the NLRB ruling shows, it is every employee’s right to engage in free speech, political activity, and improving work conditions. When your lawful, appropriate conduct is questioned, view it as an opportunity to politely educate your company’s “enforcers.” This will help them realize they have no reason (or right) to restrict harmless free speech. This especially applies to those in higher-ranked positions who have more power. It’s on you to help change the status quo for those who may not have as much clout.
It wouldn’t hurt employers to get on board as well. Companies don’t need to do away with social media policies altogether. They just need to shift their enforcement practices. Employers should aim to coach their employees on effective, positive social media, publishing, or speaking – not strictly prescribe or enforce when, what, and how they can do. Otherwise, these restrictive practices will eventually come back to haunt employers.
Employees are their companies’ biggest evangelists, especially in the age of social media. High profile employees – those who speak at events, write articles, do interviews, serve on boards, and maintain social media – actually benefit companies. When professionals develop portable professional reputations, their companies shine, too. For example, Sheryl Sandberg ’s Lean In and Plan B movements have reflected positively on Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. And Tracy Chou, who forced companies to release their diversity data, definitely reflected positively on Pinterest.
Think about it this way: You’ve already invested time and resources into hiring these professionals. You should trust their judgement and encourage them to grow. Even if that growth takes place outside the company, all the positive publicity and goodwill will flow back to you.
Board service, speaking gigs, articles, interviews, social media, and freelance work are all valuable parts of a well-rounded professional’s career. So enough is enough – employers, stay in your lane! Olga V. Mack ( @OlgaVMack ) is a startup lawyer. Currently General Counsel at ClearSlide, a San Francisco-based startup, she previously worked at Zoosk, Visa, Pacific Art League of Palo Alto, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and Yahoo.
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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"When blockchain meets big data, the payoff will be huge | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/when-blockchain-meets-big-data-the-payoff-will-be-huge"
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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 When blockchain meets big data, the payoff will be huge 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.
If there is a “sweet spot” for blockchain, it will likely be the ability to turn insights and questions into assets. Blockchains will give you greater confidence in the integrity of the data you see. Immutable entries, consensus-driven timestamping, audit trails, and certainty about the origin of data (e.g. a sensor or a kiosk) are all areas where you will see improvement as blockchain technology becomes more mainstream.
Beyond data integrity (which is a huge component), the shared data layer that blockchains will introduce creates an entirely new set of possibilities for AI capabilities and insights. Trent McConaghy, CTO of BigChainDB does a great job in explaining the benefits of decentralized/ shared control, particularly as a foundation for AI. In this world, he says, you get: • More data, thus improved modelling capabilities • Qualitatively new data leading to entirely new models.
The inherent immutability leads to more confidence in training and testing data and the models they produce.
We are also likely to see blockchain-based technology make an impact in the cost of storing data and in the amount (and quality) of data available. Cost savings in data storage will come from the disintermediation of centralized storage providers, thus reducing the “trust tax” you pay them currently. This should also create downward pricing pressure on SaaS suppliers as they move to decentralized storage providers.
You can expect to see decentralized solutions like Storj, Sia, MaidSafe, and FileCoin start to gain some initial traction in the enterprise storage space. [Disclosure: Storj was previously a client of mine.] One enterprise pilot phase rollout indicates this decentralized approach could reduce the costs of storing data by 90 percent compared to AWS.
As for blockchain-driven AI, you can expect to see a three phase roll-out. First, within the existing enterprise. Then, within the ecosystem. Finally, totally open systems. The entire industry might be termed blockchains for big data (McConaghy’s words).
Longer term, we will see an expansion of the concept of big data, as we move from proprietary data silos to blockchain-enabled shared data layers. In the first epoch of big data, power resided with those who owned the data. In the blockchain epoch of big data, power will reside with those who can access the most data (where public blockchains will ultimately defeat private blockchains) and who can gain the most insights most rapidly.
There are two significant implications here: • Customer data will not belong to organizations, locked away in corporate databases. It will belong to each individual, represented as tokens or coins on an identity blockchain. The customer of the future will grant access to others as necessary.
• Transaction data will be viewable by anyone. Anyone can access the data about the transactions that occur on a given blockchain. (For example, here are the latest Bitcoin transactions.
) When data moves out of proprietary systems onto open blockchains, having the data itself is no longer a competitive advantage. Interpreting the data becomes the advantage. In a blockchain world, all competitors are looking at the same ledger (imagine you and your competitors all have the Google Sheet or Excel file).
Anyone can provide an interface to that ledger. That’s relatively easy. That’s what you see here for Ethereum or zCash.
And many companies will provide applications that enable a customer to interact with a protocol. This is what Jaxx or BitPay do, for Bitcoin.
Yet, there are very few companies that provide a set of analytic capabilities that suck up all of this data and explain what it all means or what should be done about it. Fewer still have figured out the scalable process for doing this. This is the opportunity. Some have called it the “ Data Industrialization Opportunity.
” Simply put, it is the question of who can put the best AI/machine learning solution on top of open, shared, blockchain-based data layers. Whoever does that gains some degree of competitive advantage. If a Bitcoin wallet, for example, instead of being “dumb” (as it is now) is actually “smart” — in the sense that it can advise or help customers make sense of the world (based on all the data available on the blockchain) — that one will be market leader.
The world’s top 50 physical mining companies are worth about $700 billion. You can expect to see blockchain-based data mining companies that will easily take us into trillions of dollars of market capitalization, although, granted, this may be many years off.
This article is adapted from an excerpt of the author’s new book, The CMO Primer for the Blockchain World.
Jeremy Epstein is CEO of Never Stop Marketing and author of The CMO Primer for the Blockchain World. He currently works with startups in the blockchain and decentralization space. He advises F2000 organizations on the implications of blockchain technology. Previously, he was VP of marketing at Sprinklr from Series A to “unicorn” status.
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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"Snapdeal founders derail $950 million acquisition bid by Flipkart as talks end (update) | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/snapdeal-founders-may-derail-950-million-acquisition-bid-by-flipkart"
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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 Snapdeal founders derail $950 million acquisition bid by Flipkart as talks end (update) Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn An employee cleans a Snapdeal logo at its headquarters in Gurugram on the outskirts of New Delhi, 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 ) — India’s Snapdeal said it had decided to remain independent and was ending all talks regarding a sale, bringing the curtain down on months of discussions around a possible acquisition of the e-commerce firm by bigger rival Flipkart.
The board of Jasper Infotech, which runs Snapdeal, had in-principle agreed to Flipkart’s revised buyout bid of up to $950 million and a deal was pending approval of smaller shareholders, Reuters reported last week. But obstacles remained with sources saying founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal were mulling an alternate path.
“The company has now decided to pursue an independent path and is terminating all strategic discussions as a result,” Snapdeal said in a statement on Monday.
The failure to forge a deal is a setback for Softbank Group, the largest investor in Snapdeal, as the Japanese firm has been trying to engineer an all-stock transaction for months, as a means to secure a sizeable stake in Flipkart, India’s No. 1 home-grown e-commerce player.
The Flipkart deal had a “number of onerous requirements” such as “indemnities and protections”, a source involved in the talks told Reuters ahead of Snapdeal’s decision on Monday.
Flipkart also insisted on getting approval from all Snapdeal shareholders for the deal to go through, two other sources said.
Founders Bahl and Bansal plan to run a stripped-down version of its online marketplace and this has the backing of the firm’s early investors Kalaari Capital and Nexus Venture Partners, a fourth source said.
Snapdeal will be able to financially sustain itself with the sale of certain non-core assets, the firm said in its statement.
The company has already announced one such sale – Indian lender Axis Bank said last week it would acquire the company’s digital payments unit FreeCharge for $60 million.
Standard Chartered’s private equity arm is in talks to acquire Snapdeal’s logistics arm Vulcan Express, a fifth source told Reuters.
Reuters has previously reported that the founders’ bid to keep Snapdeal independent is likely to result in layoffs at the company, which currently employs about 1,200 people.
SoftBank said it respects Snapdeal’s decision to pursue an independent strategy.
“We look forward to the results of the Snapdeal 2.0 strategy, and to remaining invested in the vibrant Indian e-commerce space,” SoftBank said in a brief statement.
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"NIO U.S. Wins Automotive Security Hacking Challenge | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/nio-u-s-wins-automotive-security-hacking-challenge"
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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 Press Release NIO U.S. Wins Automotive Security Hacking Challenge Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn LAS VEGAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–July 31, 2017– The NIO U.S. team took home First Place at DEF CON 25 2017 Car Hacking Village, beating out 10 other teams in the third annual “ Capture The Flag ” (CTF) security event.
“We’re incredibly proud of what our team accomplished,” says Abe Chen, NIO U.S., Director of Product and Information Security, who led the four-person team. “The competition was fierce and it was down to the wire. But we had a blast and can’t thank the Car Hacking Village enough for the opportunity-and prizes.” At the annual security conferences in Las Vegas last week, researchers and hackers devised a series of challenges to understand the vulnerabilities of our connected world. One topic that has gained exposure over the last year has been security vulnerabilities in modern automobiles. The Car Hacking Village is comprised of both professionals and hobbyists working together to provide hands-on, interactive car-hacking skills. At CTF, participants work on a wide array of security challenges, covering WiFi, ECUs, over-the-air updates, encryption, infotainment, gateways, and remote hacking of connected vehicles.
The NIO U.S. “Robamierdas” team won the First Place Prize which included a new Ford F-150 pickup truck and the coveted lifetime DEF CON “Black Badge.” A Black Badge is one of the highest honors that DEF CON bestows in recognition of overall elite skills and outstanding contribution to the security community.
In March 2017, NIO U.S. announced its first production autonomous electric vehicles will be available in U.S. in 2020.
About NIO U.S.: NIO U.S. is a start-up based in the heart of Silicon Valley developing autonomous electric vehicles. NIO U.S. has hundreds of world-class experts from leading automotive and high tech companies. NIO U.S. received its Autonomous Vehicle Testing Permit by the California DMV and is currently testing on public roads in advance of the release of a Level-4 production vehicle in 2020. NIO U.S. is part of NIO Inc., with investors including Tencent, Temasek, Baidu Capital, Sequoia Capital, Lenovo, TPG and other world-renowned investment institutions.
MORE INFORMATION www.nio.io Twitter: @NIOSocial Facebook: NIOSocial Instagram: niosocial LinkedIn: NIO Snapchat: blueskycoming 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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"Linden Lab launches open beta for social VR platform Sansar | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/linden-lab-launches-open-beta-for-social-vr-platform-sansar"
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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 Linden Lab launches open beta for social VR platform Sansar Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Apollo Museum in Sansar 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.
Linden Lab has opened the creator beta version of its Sansar social virtual reality platform to the public. It’s all part of a larger vision to bring us the Metaverse, the immersive virtual world that sci-fi fans have dreamed about for decades.
After four years of development, the San Francisco company that brought us the Second Life virtual world is now moving into VR with Sansar, which already has hundreds of user-generated VR experiences available in the Sansar marketplace.
Sansar empowers just about anyone — individuals, communities, schools, studios, corporations, brands, and others — to easily create, share, and ultimately sell immersive 3D social experiences for consumers to enjoy, said Bjorn Laurin, vice president of product for Sansar, in an interview with GamesBeat.
“It’s a very exciting day for us that represents four years of work,” he 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! Sansar’s open beta comes just days after another social VR platform, AltspaceVR, announced it was shutting down on August 3.
That company had 35,000 users, but it ran out of money. Such is the nature of the VR market, which is taking off more slowly than people hoped. Sansar will still have plenty of rivals, such as Roblox, Facebook, and others.
Above: Sansar Autowerks experience.
Sansar is available on the HTC Vive VR headset, the Oculus Rift, and Windows PCs. While Second Life exists as a virtual world that you have to log into, Sansar is a collection of experiences. Creators can build an experience and share it as a link on social media, and people can go directly into it. That makes Sansar creations much more accessible to everybody, Laurin said.
“Sansar democratizes social VR,” said Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab, in a statement. “Until now, complexity and cost [have] limited who could create and publish in this medium, and Sansar dramatically changes that. It’s been inspiring to see the thousands of virtual creations that have already published with Sansar during our limited preview, and I’m looking forward to the explosion of creativity we’ll see now that we’ve opened the doors in beta.” At opening, Sansar’s Atlas directory already has hundreds of virtual experiences, including multiplayer games, recreations of historic sites and landmarks, art installations, movie theaters, museums, narrative experiences, jungle temples, 360-degree video domes, sci-fi themed hangouts, and more.
Creators invited to the platform during a limited-access preview have published thousands of amazing public and private experiences, and with the opening of beta today, the world is now invited to join them. More than 14,000 people applied, but Linden Lab limited the number to about 3,000.
Above: Foggy Night in the Forest experience.
Linden Lab developed tools that make creating things in Sansar more intuitive. It has drag-and-drop editing, making it easy to create a scene with assets imported from common 3D modeling tools or purchased from the Sansar Store.
With the push of a button, creations become hosted multi-person experiences that consumers using VR head-mounted displays (HMDs) — as well as desktop mode on PCs — can enjoy. Every Sansar experience has a unique link that people can share via Facebook, Twitter, email, and blogs.
Each instance of an experience is currently set to allow 35 concurrent avatars, and automated instancing will enable creators to reach unlimited audiences. Laurin said that will hit 100 avatars per instance by the end of the year.
Many thousands of creations are already in existence, but not everyone has made their experiences public, Laurin said.
Above: Sansar Beach Basketball experience.
Avatars, or your personalized characters, have a wide variety of customization options. Sansar also provides rich social interactions without requiring additional hardware like cameras and trackers. An integration with Speech Graphics’ technology provides accurate avatar lip-syncing and facial animations, driven in real time as users speak into the microphones on their HMDs or audio headsets. Through VR hand controllers, avatars can realistically mirror people’s hand and arm movements, thanks to an integration of IKinema’s RunTime middleware, the full-body inverse kinematics technology.
With Sansar, creators can earn money from their virtual creations by selling them in the Sansar Store. In the future, creators will also be able to rent or charge for access to their experiences. At the opening of beta, the Sansar Store features thousands of items for sale from creators around the world.
A relationship with TurboSquid provides creators with access to hundreds of additional high-quality 3D models in the Store today, with thousands more being added in the coming months. Planned integration with TurboSquid’s StemCell initiative will make it easy for TurboSquid’s community of 3D modelers to immediately upload and sell their creations in the Sansar Store, further augmenting the assets readily available to Sansar creators.
Above: Creative Yong experience.
Sansar is free to use, with additional capacity and customer support available to creators through paid subscriptions, starting at $9.99 per month. Linden Lab started in 1999, and its Second Life platform became the largest-ever virtual world filled entirely with the creations of its users.
With Sansar, the company wanted to make the experience more accessible and reach broader audiences.
“For those who are familiar with 3D creation, it could take a day or two to make an experience,” Laurin said. “But everyone can do it. I was walking around in a VR redwood forest the other day, and we got lost in it. That’s how big the experiences can become. We will see exciting things in the weeks and months and years ahead.” 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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"Kony Received the Highest Scores for External Informational Apps and External Transactional Apps Use Cases in New Gartner Report | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/kony-received-the-highest-scores-for-external-informational-apps-and-external-transactional-apps-use-cases-in-new-gartner-report"
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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 Press Release Kony Received the Highest Scores for External Informational Apps and External Transactional Apps Use Cases in New Gartner Report Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn AUSTIN, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–July 31, 2017– Kony, Inc.
, the leading enterprise mobility and digital applications company, announced that it has received the highest and second highest scores by Gartner for critical capabilities for Mobile App Development Platforms (MADP). Based on a five-point scale, Kony received the highest scores for External Informational Apps (4.24) and External Transactional Apps (4.24) use cases. Kony also received the second highest scores for Internal Complex Apps (4.24) and Internal Simple Apps (4.27) use cases in the July 2017 Gartner Critical Capabilities for MADP report, based on Gartner’s evaluation of 11 leading MADP vendor offerings.
Kony is also the only vendor recognized by Gartner as a Leader in mobile app development platform providers for five consecutive years, based on the June 12, 2017 Magic Quadrant for Mobile App Development Platforms report. As the largest provider focused purely on omni-channel, enterprise mobility and digital solutions, Kony serves more than 250 million mobile app users worldwide every day and manages more than 3.4 billion user sessions annually.
“Enabling and leveraging digital innovation has emerged as a board-level priority,” said Thomas E. Hogan, chairman and chief executive officer, Kony Inc. “We believe Kony’s scores in this comprehensive report is further validation of our ability to help organizations across all industries accelerate their digital journey.” The Gartner Critical Capabilities research outlines four major use cases for MADPs, details essential functional areas, and rates each vendor’s ability across the four scenarios. According to Gartner, “Application leaders must address a wide range of mobile app use cases across the enterprise. This research evaluates popular MADP offerings across four common use cases for external and internal app users.” In the report, Gartner states, “Mobile app development platforms (MADP) continue to evolve rapidly to support capabilities beyond just smartphones and tablet apps, including desktop and mobile web, and new conversational user interface (UI) channels.” According to Gartner, “This research complements Gartner’s ‘Magic Quadrant for Mobile App Development Platforms,’ but has a different emphasis. Magic Quadrants highlight a broad set of criteria that includes corporate viability, vision, marketing and geographic focus. Critical Capabilities research emphasizes product features, rather than the strategic qualities of the vendors. Magic Quadrants take a holistic view of a vendor to evaluate its commercial ability to gain market share, and assess how well that vendor understands the direction of the market it is in order to remain viable and relevant. Critical Capabilities research is specifically product-focused, looking at how features in the vendors’ currently shipping products can be applied to important use cases.” The Kony AppPlatform is an open and standards-based, integrated platform for mobile app development and beyond. It supports the entire application software development lifecycle (SDLC) and operations (DevOps) lifecycle, empowering enterprises to quickly design , build , deploy , and manage omni-channel app experiences. This full DevOps solution encompasses unique app user interface design and development tools ( Kony Visualizer ), powered by Kony’s mobile backend-as-a-service (MBaaS), API Management and backend application development offering ( Kony MobileFabric ). It extends fully to the Line of Business through the addition of Kony AppVantage , which allow customers to rapidly obtain secure, enterprise-grade apps as an end-to-end managed service.
Leading enterprises worldwide rely on Kony to realize the: Fastest development and deployment speed – 50-60% savings over custom native or web development; Richest interaction design and native user experiences – delight your customers with no-compromise, modern omni-channel experiences; Ease and speed of backend integration – reduce cost and effort of integrating to backend APIs, databases and legacy middleware by up to 75%; Automated protection and insights – ensure best-in-class security and analytics are enabled by default across your entire application; and Patented cross-platform API with guaranteed SLA – future-proof your app with the only SLA that guarantees support for OS upgrades within 30 days.
Download a complimentary copy of the Gartner Critical Capabilities Report Gartner, Critical Capabilities for Mobile App Development Platforms, 17 July 2017 Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
About Kony, Inc.
Kony is the fastest growing, cloud-based enterprise application and mobility solutions company, and a recognized industry leader among mobile application development platform ( MADP ) providers. Kony helps organizations of all sizes drive business ingenuity by rapidly transforming ideas into innovative and secure omni-channel applications. Built on the industry’s leading digital platform, Kony provides the most innovative and secure omni-channel applications, with exceptional user experience and app design. Kony’s cross-platform, low-code solution also empowers organizations to develop and manage their own apps to better engage with their customers, partners and employees. By seamlessly leveraging and connecting apps to all types of data sources and information, Kony also enables organizations to transform their business processes and gain valuable insight. Kony was named the first place winner in CTIA’s MobITs Awards in the Mobile Applications, Development & Platforms category and included on the Inc. 500|5000 list of fastest growing private companies in America.
For more information, please visit www.kony.com.
Connect with Kony on Twitter , Facebook , and LinkedIn.
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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"Here's the employee problem that Apple Park doesn't solve | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/heres-the-employee-problem-that-apple-park-doesnt-solve"
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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 employee problem that Apple Park doesn’t solve Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Apple Park The opening of Apple Park has already begun, with thousands of employees in the process of relocating to the monumental new headquarters that was the dream of founder Steve Jobs.
It’s a massive undertaking that combines industrial design and nature. But it won’t address the problem of Apple employees being scattered around the region.
In a profile of Jony Ive’s work on Apple Park in the Wall Street Journal last week, executives suggested that a desire to consolidate the company’s far-flung workforce was one of the motivations behind the years and billions of dollars spent building Apple Park: The scattering of thousands of Apple employees across more than 100 sites in Silicon Valley has rendered more difficult the collaboration necessary for innovation. “We didn’t plan our growth, and then when we saw our growth, we were so engrossed in trying to push things forward that we didn’t spend time to really develop the workplace,” says Cook. “We’ve done a really good job of working around it, but it’s not the way we want to be working, nor does it represent our culture well.” And later in this story: Ive and Cook place great importance on employees being physically together at work — ironic for a company that has created devices that enable people to work from a distance. Face-to-face communication is essential during the beginning of a project, when an idea is sprouting, they say. Once a model emerges from a series of conversations, it draws people in and gives focus. “For all of the beauty of technology and all the things we’ve helped facilitate over the years, nothing yet replaces human interaction,” says Cook, “and I don’t think it will ever happen.” Yet with room for 12,000 employees, Apple Park may only have enough space for between half and two-thirds of Apple’s local employees.
We don’t have exact numbers for how many Apple employees there currently are in Silicon Valley. In 2015, The San Jose Mercury News reported there were 25,000 Apple employees in the “Santa Clara Valley.” The County of Santa Clara disclosed that were 19,000 Apple employees in the county as of June 30, 2016. That was up from 10,000 in 2007, and just behind the 20,000 Google employees in the county. And there are no doubt some in neighboring counties, including San Mateo and San Francisco, Apple has said it will continue to use its current, historic headquarters in Cupertino. But it will likely need to keep some employees in the numerous other spaces it has bought or rented around Silicon Valley.
It will be interesting to see which groups Apple has chosen to move to Apple Park. And equally interesting to see what it will do to ensure that those still stuck in an office somewhere don’t feel like second class citizens.
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 acquires AI assistant startup Ozlo | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/facebook-acquires-ai-assistant-startup-ozlo"
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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 acquires AI assistant startup Ozlo Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Ozlo helps you find places to east faster than Google.
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 has acquired AI assistant startup Ozlo to help build “compelling experiences within Messenger that are powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning,” a Facebook spokesperson has confirmed to VentureBeat. A brief note on the acquisition and plans to join the Messenger team was also shared on the Ozlo website.
As part of the acquisition, Facebook will receive Ozlo’s tech and a majority of its team of about 30 employees, and Ozlo will shut down its apps and API services, according to Recode.
The Ozlo app for iOS and the web launched in October 2016 and was powered by an AI assistant of the same name. Ozlo initially focused on helping users sift through restaurant listings in a conversational format.
Ozlo offerings eventually expanded to include restaurants that serve foods for people with strict dietary restrictions, as well as weather forecasts and more local business services, like movie listings. Similar to other assistants, Ozlo began to leverage APIs from apps like Yelp, DoorDash, and others. In March, Ozlo started offering its own APIs.
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 news comes a week after DigiTimes reported that Facebook is working on its own smart speaker to rival Amazon’s Echo and Apple’s HomePod.
A report by The Information earlier this year found that about seven in 10 of intelligent assistant M’s interactions in private beta testing required intervention by a human. So instead of M acting as an assistant, like Alexa or Siri, the first public iteration of Facebook’s intelligent assistant was M Suggestions.
Based on words used in a conversation, M can suggest that you create a calendar event or hail a ride from Lyft or Uber. Earlier this month, M learned how to recommend recipes from Food Network’s bot — marking M’s second bot recommendation.
CEO Charles Jolley, a former Facebook head of product, created Ozlo together with Mike Hanson in 2014. The company is based in Palo Alto, California.
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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"Are you addressing threats to your business continuity? | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/are-you-addressing-threats-to-your-business-continuity"
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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 Are you addressing threats to your business continuity? Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Presented by CoreSite The digital revolution has shaken up the IT capabilities of your company: The move to XaaS and mobile applications has boosted efficiency, cut costs, and created new opportunities.
But the risks that have shaken out of that transformation are increasingly damaging to your bottom line. Downtime becomes your biggest threat, caused by everything from cyber attacks to catastrophic power failures. The average revenue lost due to downtime has skyrocketed to $8,851 per minute.
That’s a 38 percent increase since 2010.
Maintaining 100 percent uptime is possible, with comprehensive, powerful BC/DR (Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery) models. They can address dangers from the mundane to the emerging. But deciding which model aligns best with your business objectives takes some significant self-examination.
Find out where to start — including determining location, complicance requirements, budget and implementation.
Access this free white paper that reviews all you need to move forward with the right solution.
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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"AptoZen Launches New Hiring as a Service (HaaS) to Help Organizations Bring Talent Acquisition to the Cloud | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/aptozen-launches-new-hiring-as-a-service-haas-to-help-organizations-bring-talent-acquisition-to-the-cloud"
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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 Press Release AptoZen Launches New Hiring as a Service (HaaS) to Help Organizations Bring Talent Acquisition to the Cloud Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–July 31, 2017– AptoZen today announced its release of enhanced cloud-based hiring services to help companies find the right talent quickly and build teams on the fly. The new service, called HaaS (Hiring as a Service), enhances AptoZen’s existing data service of Sourcing and Matching to make hiring less error-prone, inexpensive and successful for the longer-term.
As employees are the lifeblood of innovation and growth, hiring is one of the most significant tasks for any company to undertake, and it is done at considerable cost and time. Based on AptoZen’s recent research of 418 organizations, 71.8% said it is “moderately difficult” or “extremely difficult” to find qualified candidates for open positions. Despite rigorous interviews and assessment tests, it is difficult to answer whether the new employee will ultimately work out or not.
With so much technology available to companies, talent acquisition has become more complicated: job boards, employee referrals, applicant tracking systems, social media, personality testing platforms, complex HR systems, conflicting data, etc. It takes considerable time, cost and effort to hire and companies still heavily rely on their “gut feel” to make a hire. AptoZen HaaS uses robust data models to replace this complexity, from sourcing to recruitment to on-boarding new hires, with a simple, quick and inexpensive alternative.
AptoZen combines artificial intelligence and human touch with team-building experts to find the best candidates available, vet their personality and experience, predictively demonstrate their future success and guarantee it, all at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods. AptoZen HaaS leverages sophisticated data collected over 36 years by its parent company, Intrax , to match people with organizations beyond resumes and arcane job descriptions. Road-tested in the highly-competitive Silicon Valley job market where positions need to be filled immediately, AptoZen HaaS results in an average time to hire of just 22 days. Its secret sauce is pattern-matching derived from hundreds of thousands of talent-matching scenarios, honed carefully with human decision-making. As a result, AptoZen HaaS creates a four-level predictive fit to guarantee companies with a successful hire. The AptoZen system is comprehensive and generates results of the highest quality: technology to track employee referrals, recruit and post jobs, experts to talk to every applicant, professionals to write job descriptions, offer letters, negotiate salaries and even prep the new hire for their first day.
“Our turn-key HaaS offers similar advantages to SaaS – you only use what you need, when you need it,” said AptoZen’s Chief Revenue Officer, Mukund Sundaram.
“You don’t require expensive technology and perform manual repetitive work. Use only what you need and pay less to generate the same outcome. It’s a much more efficient, intuitive and economical way to hire.” For more information regarding AptoZen, visit https://www.aptozen.com/ or follow @aptozen.
About AptoZen: AptoZen is a fully funded tech venture of Intrax, a global organization that believes in connecting people through cultural exchanges. Intrax has operations in more than 100 countries worldwide and offers exchange programs, international au pairs, work travel opportunities and global internships.
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.
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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"8 ways we can prepare for bots stealing our jobs | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/8-ways-we-can-prepare-for-bots-stealing-our-jobs"
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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 8 ways we can prepare for bots stealing our jobs 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.
We are at the beginning of what the World Economic Forum has labeled the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Millions of people will lose their jobs as the economy shifts towards automation and AI. The Trump administration seems to disagree , claiming that AI will not take American jobs for another “50 to 100 years.” But this assertion is off-base. Even the most conservative estimates project automation to take 6 percent of all U.S. jobs by 2021. Here are some steps we can take to prepare the United States for automation right now.
1. Mark jobs with stability rankings We could introduce new metrics to the economy. Jobs that have a low likelihood of being replaced by AI should have a stability ranking to inform people that those jobs are relatively safe. Jobs that have a high likelihood of being replaced by AI, like that of a taxi driver, should have a warning attached to them.
2. Update the curriculum Right now, approximately 50 percent of subject knowledge currently acquired during the first year of a four-year technical degree becomes outdated by the time students graduate.
Businesses should collaborate more closely with governments and education providers to reshape curriculum. College programs should be connected to companies around the country. This connection would help schools understand what skills are in demand and enable them to keep their curriculum updated.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! 3. Invest more in retraining programs The United States spends only 0.1 percent of GDP (1/1000th of GDP) on programs that help workers transition between jobs, such as training programs and job-search assistance. Other advanced economies spend on average 0.6 percent of GDP investing in these programs.
The American government should encourage those who lose their jobs to get trained in new ones and subsidize that training. People should not have to worry about being able to provide for themselves because of automation; instead, they should have a certain level of financial security while they train for new jobs.
4. Learn from the past In the early 20th century, major investments in secondary education helped the U.S. transition from an agriculture-based economy to a manufacturing economy. As automation looms, the U.S. would benefit from new investments in education.
5. Ease mid-career transitions In Denmark, 70 percent of workers consider mid-career transitions a positive development, whereas in most other developed countries, only 30 percent of people feel good about it. Why? Denmark dedicates two weeks of the working year on certified skills training for adults. This means that employment mobility is the norm in Denmark — as it should be everywhere, with automation looming.
6. Subsidize job seekers There are conflicting reports about whether we are ready for Universal Basic Income, but a Universal Basic Adjustment Benefit could be a good alternative for those worried about the potential of UBI contributing to a culture of laziness. Instead of subsidizing everyone, UBAB provides benefits to those actively seeking new job opportunities.
7. Redefine work Companies will increasingly connect with remote freelancers and independent contractors through online platforms. New skills will have to be learned, and old skills will either become obsolete or get redeployed across different industries. For instance, while retail sales jobs may evaporate, sales jobs in information technology will become more prominent. It is up to the private sector and the American government to ensure that these transitions are as smooth as possible.
8. Study automation There is no government program or institution dedicated to automation and its effects on the American way of life. Automation needs to be studied, and formal policies need to be put in place which address the issues it creates.
In the end, automation will revolutionize traditional employment and the way business is done. We must find a way to tackle the very real and current problem of job loss. Studying automation, investing in education, connecting businesses with educational institutions, and changing the way we think about traditional employment should be top of mind for all Americans as we enter the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Michael Solomon is an established entrepreneur and the founder of tech talent agency 10x Management.
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"Chatbots bring new income stream to ecommerce | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/chatbots-bring-new-income-stream-to-ecommerce"
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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 Chatbots bring new income stream to ecommerce 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.
Growing revenue is a constant battle for ecommerce websites. This can involve fine-tuning processes by optimizing funnels, checkout pages, or calls to action. It also means being open to new technologies and opportunities.
Recent research on consumer attitudes shows the income-growing opportunity chatbots can represent for ecommerce store owners. Below, I’ll dive into the study and shed light on three major learning points we can take from it.
35% of consumers want more chatbots Before we examine the actual revenue and ROI element of chatbots, it is important to look at consumer adoption of the technology. After all, for a revenue stream to scale, you need adoption. Without it, we would be left with a neat growth hack — good enough for a quick spurt of income, maybe, but not good enough to scale.
The 2017 chatbot report suggests we are not looking at a fad but, instead, an actual trend. Out of the 2,000 consumers interviewed, 35 percent said they want more businesses to adopt chatbots.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! To put an even finer point on it, that means that although only 57 percent of respondents had already used a chatbot before, over half of those consumers are already asking for more.
Consumers are ready to spend over $600 via a chatbot It’s time to talk cash. The research shows consumers are ready to spend real money while interacting with a chatbot. On average, millennials (26 to 36 years old) would be willing to spend $618 via a chatbot.
So far, case studies around chatbots have mostly been about fun. You will find countless stories about entertaining bots that help you be a better cook, find the right pair of shoes, or simply deliver a joke every day.
This research shows chatbots can do much more than entertain. A finely tuned ecommerce chatbot can be a new revenue stream.
According to the study, “ One in five (21%) UK consumers would consider purchasing goods and services from a chatbot.” This is a goldmine for ecommerce businesses looking for new ways to attract, entertain, and monetize an audience. It’s no wonder giants like Walmart are using AI to enhance a shopping experience , and it’s just the beginning.
40% of consumers want deals and offers Many studies have announced email marketing’s death. One of the biggest reasons people cite for disliking marketing emails is the irrelevant and promotional content.
Surprisingly, this exact type of content would please almost half of the consumers if it came through a chatbot. When promotional content comes through a channel a consumer likes to use, they seem to find it less spammy, more personal, more bespoke.
It’s a goldmine for ecommerce. Where most marketers have struggled to maintain a 15 percent open rate on their beautifully designed emails, they can now leverage this new channel that does not require any of the fluff.
You can now target customers through a channel they love, a channel they want to use more, a channel they are ready to spend money through.
Conclusion: Ready for the chatbot revolution All these statistics come from an extensive study on consumer behavior regarding and expectations for chatbots. There are many more interesting data points herein I could have reported on.
While some might think chatbots are a fad, research proves otherwise. The first ecommerce stores to adapt will be the first to profit from this new channel.
Alex Debecker is the founder of Ubisend , a SaaS platform that allows users to integrate multiple mobile messaging applications and send messages to their subscribers across all of them from a single account.
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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"Amazon could make Whole Foods a place to play with Alexa gadgets | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/amazon-could-make-whole-foods-a-place-to-play-with-alexa-gadgets"
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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 could make Whole Foods a place to play with Alexa gadgets Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Whole Foods Market 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 clearly has big plans for Whole Foods once its $13.7 billion purchase of the organic-grocery chain is official. While much of the discussion around the merger has centered on Amazon initiatives like Prime Fresh, Amazon Go, and a possible meal-kit delivery service, the combination of the two companies could offer Amazon other benefits that it lacks in its current delivery-centric shopping model.
Case in point: Amazon’s brick-and-mortar stores. Whole Foods could provide a network of locations where, tucked into an Amazon-branded corner of the grocery store, Amazon shoppers not only pick up and return goods they’ve ordered through the ecommerce store, but also browse the selection of books that Amazon offers through its handful of bookstores. And, more importantly, check out the latest Amazon devices.
During the company’s recent earnings call , CFO Brian Olsavsky barely mentioned the Whole Foods deal except to say he was excited about it. But he rambled on when asked about Amazon’s brick-and-mortar bookstores, and how it’s helping drive interest in gadgets like the Echo and Kindle: On the place of physical, again, as I mentioned in the earlier question, we are experimenting with a number of formats. You’ve seen the physical bookstores, and I would say that the benefit there is again, we have a curated selection of titles and it’s also a great opportunity for people to touch and feel our devices and see them, especially the new Echo devices. I went into the store in Seattle last week and I saw about a third of the people were standing around the device table learning how they work, how they interact with devices. So, I saw firsthand the customer experience, I think, that’s what we’re seeing as a benefit to the physical stores right now.
Of course, Amazon hasn’t said publicly whether it’s planning such a move, but the company is surely examining all the ways it can benefit from its grocery purchase.
And it’s easy to imagine the barrage of Amazon services that could become available at 400 Whole Foods locations across the United States once the acquisition is made final.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Online shoppers may be able to get orders fulfilled quicker or pick up large or perishable orders at their local Whole Foods, but the stores could also be a great place to play with the latest Amazon tech.
The Amazon experiment with brick-and-mortar stores began slowly, with its first bookstore opened in Seattle in 2015. Today there are eight Amazon bookstores, with five more on the way for the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, and Seattle.
Amazon is also exploring stores to sell home appliances, electronics, and furniture, anonymous sources told the New York Times this spring. It’s unclear at this time if those sources were talking about another set of stores, or if part of that vision includes Whole Foods.
By next year, an anonymous source told the New York Times , Amazon wants to open more AmazonFresh Pickup locations and expand Amazon Go stores to cities in the U.S. and U.K. The company has also sought approval from the Indian government to open online and physical food stores in that country.
Since Apple began to open glass cube stores in the early 2000s, tech giants have used brick-and-mortar locations to offer customer support, device repairs, and software tutorials, in addition to selling and showing off their latest gadgets.
Amazon hasn’t released a new Echo since the first one in November 2014, but it has pushed a series of iterations in the past few months. The Echo Look came out in April. Still in private beta, it uses computer vision to help you get dressed and make fashion decisions. The Echo Wand scans grocery barcodes, sticks to your fridge, and also has Alexa inside. The Echo Show meanwhile came out a few weeks ago with a visual user interface.
Companies that leverage Alexa Voice Service to bring Alexa inside their products could also be showcased in Amazon stores. Whether Amazon acquires spatial data from robot vacuum maker iRobot or not, Amazon home robots could be demoed by wandering around Whole Foods.
Price has been the biggest determinant of what smart speaker shoppers are willing to buy, according to a Morning Consult survey.
Some home robots today, like Asus Zenbo and Mayfield Robotics’ Kuri , retail for $600 and $800.
That works for Whole Foods, a company with a reputation for attracting the kind of middle and upper class shoppers who might be more willing to be first adopters of expensive home robots instead of, say, a $50 Echo Dot.
Amazon is getting into the business of physical stores precisely to give people the ability to experience things in person, and that extends to its products. As Olsavsky says, there will be crossover. In addition to his comments during the call, there’s another hint at Amazon’s physical store strategy: Upon visiting the Amazon Books homepage , one of the very first things you see is an Echo Show ad to “test drive in store today.” 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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"Baidu spearheads China’s self-driving charge from Silicon Valley | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/transportation/in-silicon-valley-baidus-spearheading-chinas-self-driving-charge"
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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 Baidu spearheads China’s self-driving charge from Silicon Valley 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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( Reuters ) — Baidu, China’s leading internet search company, is set to announce the first vehicle manufacturing partners for its self-driving software next week, including Chery Automobile, one of the country’s biggest carmakers, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The partnerships may be announced in Beijing, but they are the result of work that is happening 6,000 miles away in Silicon Valley, where Baidu and more than 30 other Chinese companies are busy developing and funding software and hardware to power internet-connected, autonomous vehicles.
The goal is to get those vehicles on the roads in China, the world’s biggest auto market. The hope is that the same technology, embedded in exported Chinese vehicles, can then conquer the United States.
Baidu Inc, known as China’s Google, is playing a central role in that effort. Like Waymo, the self-driving arm of Google parent Alphabet Inc, Baidu is using what it has learned in mapping and artificial intelligence to design the software and systems necessary to make self-driving cars a reality.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Its project, unveiled in April, is named Apollo after NASA’s moon-landing program. The name indicates the scale of Baidu’s ambition, but also the difficulty of the project.
It is by no means clear that it will succeed in one of the most competitive parts of the technology industry. Chief scientist Andrew Ng and self-driving unit manager Jing Wang left earlier this year to form their own startups.
“The competition for talent is keen,” Jingao Wang, the new head of Baidu’s Silicon Valley self-driving team, said in an interview at its technology center in the shadow of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Sunnyvale, California. “There is never enough.” Baidu has at least one advantage over Waymo, based just five miles away at the sprawling Googleplex in Mountain View. It now has a presence in the United States, whereas Alphabet has no footprint in China, after Google shuttered its website there in 2010 rather than bow to the government’s internet censorship.
Silicon Valley dragons In 2011, Baidu was one of the first of the new generation of Chinese companies to set up a base in Silicon Valley, in order to tap the world’s deepest tech talent pool. Since then, it has made itself the center of a “China network” of almost three dozen firms there, through investments, acquisitions and partnerships.
For a graphic on the links between some of China’s tech firms in Silicon Valley tech firms, click here.
Over six years, Baidu has assembled a formidable 200-person tech team, recruiting from top U.S. universities and established leaders in the auto and tech industry, including Google, Facebook Inc and Microsoft Corp.
It has expanded its technical capability through the acquisition of vision and robotics startup xPerception, a close partnership with chipmaker Nvidia Corp, and investments in other Silicon Valley firms such as Velodyne, an expert in lidar, the light-sensing technology key to letting self-driving cars “see” where they are going.
Baidu was followed by Tencent Holdings Ltd, China’s largest internet company, which has bought its way into Silicon Valley, including a $1.8-billion investment earlier this year in Tesla Inc, the California electric car maker which is also working on self-driving technology.
Baidu and Tencent have teamed up to bankroll Nio, a startup aiming to put autonomous electric vehicles on American and Chinese roads by 2020, which is now valued at $2.8 billion.
Nio has its main offices in Shanghai and San Jose in Silicon Valley. Not far away, another Chinese-funded self-driving startup, Faraday Future, has a small team of engineers working from the U.S. office of sister company LeEco.
The money that Baidu and other Chinese investors have invested in Silicon Valley has driven up the value of mobility startups such as Zoox, said Evangelos Simoudis, a Palo Alto venture investor.
Pivot to AI Chinese newcomers have now spread across the San Francisco Bay Area. Palo Alto, the birthplace of Silicon Valley, has emerged as a financial hub for China-connected venture capital firms such as GSR Ventures and ZhenFund.
In neighboring Menlo Park, the center of U.S. venture capital, China’s largest automaker Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp has a tech center that houses the state-owned company’s investment arm. China-backed Lucid Motors, a self-driving electric vehicle startup, also makes its home in Menlo Park.
“It takes the whole industry to make self-driving become real, instead of one company,” said Amy Gu, managing partner of Hemi Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm that invests in autonomous vehicle startups. “It is not only about spending money, but about being able to come up with real products for which customers will pay.” It is not clear how quickly — if at all — Baidu will get to the point of producing such a product.
The company is struggling with a decline in its core advertising business, hurt by government curbs on medical ads in China and some unsuccessful side ventures. It is now looking to shift its focus to artificial intelligence under the guidance of Qi Lu, a former Microsoft executive. Self-driving is a key application of that.
Baidu has not specified how it intends to make money from the open-source Apollo project, but it has said it will integrate cloud-based data services into the platform, much as Google has done with its ubiquitous Android smartphone operating system.
The company may fill in some details at a developer conference it has scheduled for July 5 in Beijing, when it releases some Apollo technology for cars driving on urban streets and will announce its first manufacturing partners.
That could be a turning point when the technology focus will begin to shift from California to China, according to Simoudis.
“The dependence on Silicon Valley talent may not be eliminated, but it will continue to diminish as the Chinese build their own capabilities,” he said.
(Reporting by Paul Lienert; Editing by Joseph White and Bill Rigby) 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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"Dear Mark Zuckerberg: If you want to build community, open your Facebook Groups API | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/social/dear-mark-zuckerberg-if-you-want-to-build-community-open-your-facebook-groups-api"
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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 Dear Mark Zuckerberg: If you want to build community, open your Facebook Groups API Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Mark Zuckerberg onstage at the Facebook Communities Summit on June 22, 2017.
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.
Dear Mark, This week, you announced you have 2 billion monthly users. What an incredible feat. I was also excited that you publicly announced the new Facebook mission to “give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together.” As a community organizer and entrepreneur, I am thrilled you are making community and human connection a priority.
Communities not only have the power to change lives and politics, they enable us to build a new more collaborative economy. And most importantly, they are what keep us emotionally healthy and our society moving forward.
Behind any thriving group, there’s a critical leader — a community organizer. In order to succeed, community organizers need to be efficient and empowered to organize and take their members to the next level of participation. SaaS technologies can enable them to do just that. And as you said in your note , “Bringing us all together as a global community is a project bigger than any one organization or company.” So in the spirit of collaboration, I write this letter to you today with one request: Open the full graph API for Facebook groups, so we can all join forces in this mission to empower leaders to create movements and connect the world.
As Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, we have a responsibility to work together to meet the technological needs of community builders.
Today, community leaders — ranging from businesses to nonprofits to political movements — face difficulties because they have to use multiple mobilization tools. They want the benefit of member discovery and engagement on Facebook, while using advanced management tools to overcome other operational, database management, and analytical challenges. Currently, the Graph API for Facebook Groups is very limited and creates a situation in which their tools are siloed and their workflow is full of friction.
Prior to founding Mobilize , I spent years studying and organizing political and social movements. I found there are specific steps community leaders follow to turn their communities into movements. An Open API and seamless organization across tools would better enable this process: Smooth recruitment and onboarding process.
Getting the word out can be the biggest challenge for a community. Leveraging the social graph, Facebook helps people discover groups quickly, however, community organizers work with robust CRMs to help them manage membership which need to be connected.
To help streamline the recruiting process, the Graph API should enable Group managers to invite, add and remove members, based on triggers from other databases.
Designing a robust organizational structure.
Communities are typically comprised of multiple subgroups so that every member will find their own place and role. Leaders therefore need sophisticated tools to truly organize their communities with flexible groupings and subgroups. Most importantly, they need to know as much about their members as the members are willing to share, and that information may need to be customized for their particular group. With permission, profiles need to be richer and more flexible.
Group leaders need to be able to leverage that data and be confident it will be available to them when needed. To enable that, the Graph API should let them register members into a CRM in order to build a richer member directory.
Multichannel communication with members.
All posts and messages are not created equally, and some are mission-critical to the functioning of a community. Community organizers need to be able to reach members every way possible. They want to use calendars, file sharing apps to provide training and resources, text messaging, and email campaign systems that include call-to-actions and confirm that the message is seen. Managers need a dashboard to handle that entire communication eco-system.
Therefore, the Graph API should enable third-party platforms to post on Facebook Groups.
A deep, immersive experience and sense of belonging.
The biggest advantage of community building on Facebook is that members are there for other reasons and you can get their interest and attention. However, sometimes it’s beneficial to also have a dedicated place for community building. This is important in the offline world and it’s important online as well.
Scale and analytics.
Leaders need to be able to track success, address issues, and optimize their programs for engagement and growth.
What is obvious from this list is that Facebook plays an important, but not comprehensive, role in providing the technology stack for community building. Critical functions needed by community leaders are not available in Facebook groups but are provided effectively by both startups and established players in the ecosystem.
A more extensive Facebook Groups API would empower the many other organizations that are playing critical roles in the quest to build community. Building a community takes a village, and so does building a strong infrastructure that will truly empower people around the world to build communities. It’s an exciting time in the tech industry, and the world — a time when collaboration is clearly more powerful than competition.
Sharon Savariego is cofounder and CEO of Mobilize.
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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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"Twisted Pixel brings Hollywood A-list voices to VR | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/pc-gaming/twisted-pixel-brings-hollywood-a-list-voices-to-vr"
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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 Twisted Pixel brings Hollywood A-list voices to VR Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Presented by Intel Launching a game into the fledgling VR world might for some sound like a risk: become a pioneering early adopter or languish as an also-ran in a field of too few units? For Twisted Pixel Games and Chief Creative Officer Josh Bear it wasn’t an early-technology play as might be suggested by a resume that includes Gunslinger, an early support showcase for the fateful Kinect on Xbox 360.
“It wasn’t the intention to focus the studio around gaming technology,” says Bear, “but we got to see Project Natal — as Kinect was initially known — and Microsoft was incredibly excited about it, so we got to make Gunslinger.” The studio, with several games under its belt over its ten-year tenure, had always wanted to make Wilson’s Heart, which is out now in VR. “We had an early prototype that we had called ‘The Hands Game’ working with a gamepad with a first-person narrative. It used your hands to pick up objects like guns, like a first-person shooter…but then when the Oculus guys showed us that technology, with its Touch controller, we were all like ‘oh man, this just makes sense for this game,’” explains Bear.
Changing the core technology was not a straightforward process, however. What had begun life as a PC game with first-person sensibilities now had to adapt its functions to fit a whole new ballgame. “We basically started over when we had VR,” says Bear, “we even had to reassess the black and white graphics aesthetic: Would it be weird in VR? Will it work or feel unreal to gamers?” “We had to do a lot of work with the controllers to make sure the hands felt good. They are so much a part of the game that we had to make sure they felt, acted, and looked cool,” he adds.
Above: The gameplay blends psychological horror with puzzles, and not many “gotcha” horror jump moments.
Questions and challenges will continue to be answered with work, ideas, and understanding the new paradigms as VR evolves. Fundamentals of the game experience are affected: how long is too long, how short is too short? Nobody will currently build a 100-hour VR game (yet) but length of the total experience is one of the challenges that Bear’s team had to grapple with.
“Some people took six hours, some eight, and we saw ten or 12. But we have to be cognizant of that because you’re going to want to get out of the helmet at some point no matter how much you like this stuff,” says Bear.
Do you feel dizzy? Of course, one of VR’s major challenges impacting experiences at this stage of the technology’s development is motion sickness. One design change that was required in switching from PC to VR was handling locomotion. “We didn’t want players getting sick, but we wanted to keep people in it as much as possible. So, when you warp in the game and the screen goes black you can still hear Wilson breathing or his footsteps or sound effects to push you along,” says Bear, “so we had to think about everything very differently in VR.” An early version of the game allowing players to walk around anywhere and go where they want — and, in fact, one of the most requested features emerging from players experiencing the game now — caused problems for people.
“Hopefully we — or someone — will figure out the way to make that happen, but it’s the reason we went with the teleportation system.” The result? “We’ve had no issues with motion sickness at all,” says Bear.
Bear adds, “Oculus has been great about taking this as a top concern. But it’s hard because some people love it so much they just want to walk around, but they could pull the wires out and bust their system. So yeah, it’s a big challenge.” The game experience itself is set in the 40s post-WWII and is one of psychological horror borne of Bear’s deep passion for the old Universal monster movies. “My favorite was The Wolfman, and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Boris Karloff, all that…and throw in some Twilight Zone. We wanted to see if we could do our own homage to those movies.” Those movies all had defining actors making their roles their own, and in themselves becoming an iconic part of the lore. Wilson’s Heart stars a top-tier, all-star cast of voice actors that are a really standout addition to the game.
Above: The cast from Peter Weller to Michael B. Jordan to Rosario Dawson and Alfred Molina to Kurtwood Smith is outstanding.
Hollywood heavyweights “I really wanted Peter Weller for Wilson…really love Robocop — who doesn’t — but he was great in Naked Lunch, Buckaroo Bonzai, and others. So we flew to New Mexico, showed him a brief demo of the game and he was super-gracious, loved the concept, and the art, and just said he would do it,” said Bear.
For the other roles, he looked at the requirements of the character and identified ideal actors. “We got all our first picks,” he says. That includes Michael B. Jordan, Alfred Molina, Rosario Dawson, and Paul Reubens.
A kick for any Robocop fan is that in addition to headliner Peter Weller, Kurtwood Smith also provides voice talent. “Although we never had them in the same room, to have those two was amazing,” says big Robocop fan, Bear, “and Kurtwood even threw in a couple of Robocop lines all on his own, and I tried to keep calm about it in the VO room! And we did use one in the game.” How is it working with top-tier talent for a videogame? “They were right on point,” says Bear, “they would improve the lines we’d written on-the-fly…when you have that kind of talent, it makes things a lot easier.” But come on…what were they actually like? “Some of the nicest people I’ve ever met!” says Bear.
Garnering positive reception from press and community alike, Bear understands the nature of the current VR beast. “To be fair, you need the rig, you need a powerful PC to run it, and you need the controllers. So, I do think that the game will have a long tail as there is more adoption,” he says.
For the 30-plus developers at Twisted Pixel, it’s not all about VR, however. “As much as we love VR, we love PC and console stuff. It’s more about the concept and what platform fits it best, rather than just trying to cram something onto VR.” Whatever the next step, Bear gets the nature of the business “We have the 3- to 5-year outlook, of course,” he offers, “but as you know, that often goes to shit!” Sponsored posts are content that has been produced by a company that is either paying for the post or has a business relationship with VentureBeat, and they’re always clearly marked. The content of news stories produced by our editorial team is never influenced by advertisers or sponsors in any way. For more information, contact [email protected].
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"Get ready for serious games that improve your judgment | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/pc-gaming/serious-games-to-improve-your-judgment-are-on-their-way"
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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 Get ready for serious games that improve your judgment 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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For years, video games have provided useful imitations of real-world scenarios. From flight simulations to military training, video games offer a low-risk environment to develop necessary experience. Now, a recent government intelligence program has taken that a step further, creating video games to improve cognitive skills.
The recurrent errors in our decision-making In psychology, heuristics are the simple, efficient rules that people use to form judgments and make decisions. These classifiers are the effortless, intuitive thought processes that we have encoded into every facet of our daily lives for acts like forming sentences and recognizing faces. And they serve a crucial purpose. Unlike newborn children, we aren’t paralyzed in thought from every stimulus we encounter. We instead utilize millions of split-second mental shortcuts, accumulated over a lifetime, that allow us to function at a high level.
But our heuristics sometimes lead us astray. Here’s a quick thought exercise: a baseball bat and a baseball cost a combined $1.10. The bat costs a dollar more than the ball. How much does the bat cost? If you’re like most people, your first thought was “the bat costs $1.00!” In fact, over 50 percent of Harvard, Princeton and MIT students gave the same answer.
But that answer is actually incorrect. The bat costs $1.05, 1 dollar more than the 5-cent ball.
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! Heuristic errors comes in a variety of forms, and academics like Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman have devoted a substantial amount of work to identifying and categorizing these cognitive biases. The basic mechanics inherent in all cognitive biases, however, are mostly similar: we observe a challenging problem, substitute in a much easier problem, and then answer the easier problem. For the bat and ball problem, we know that the combined cost is $1.10, and that $1 + $.10 = $1.10. However, we ignore the more challenging criteria — the bat has to be exactly $1 more than the ball.
IARPA and the search for good judgment In 2006, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence created IARPA , the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity. IARPA was modeled after DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), an organization responsible for the invention of revolutionary technologies like GPS, voice recognition software, and most notably, the internet. IARPA is structurally similar, and provides research contracts to projects at the cutting edge of science, technology and engineering, with a singular goal– generating revolutionary capabilities for the U.S. Intelligence Community.
IARPA soon recognized the opportunity for cognitive skill training. Intelligence analysts have to interpret ambiguous information on a daily basis, and then make recommendations with significant downstream consequences. If the judgment of intelligence agencies is clouded by cognitive biases, such as groupthink, confirmation bias, or anchoring, the ramifications could be severe. IARPA sought a solution, and in 2011, they funded a program that offered a novel approach: ‘serious’ video games.
‘Serious’ video games helped analysts fast-track the experience curve by offering a training environment that was immersive, interactive, and without the fail risk. Skills like information assessment and cognitive bias mitigation could be practiced and developed in short training sessions, instead of real-life trial-and-error.
IARPA’s five-year game contest To create the games, IARPA’s SIRIUS program developed a five-year contest.
They invited six academic and industry teams to develop debias training video games, and challenged them to target six well-known biases (see table below). These six biases were chosen because of their impact on intelligence analysis, but they also impair decision-making in a variety of other fields, including business, policy, medicine, and education.
Once the games were complete, IARPA scored the teams based on a series of controlled experiments involving hundreds of participants. Some participants played the video games, while a passive-learning control group watched instructional videos. They tested participants on their bias mitigation skills before, immediately after, and eight-12 weeks after the experience. The winning team was determined based on the percentage point improvement in bias mitigation score.
The results were profound. Measured based upon percentage point improvement over their base score, the video game players showed significantly stronger persistent bias reduction effect on the test population, as much as three times larger than the effect produced by the control group. Moreover, when tested for information retention eight-12 weeks later, the video-watching control group reverted close to their pre-experiment levels, while the game players retained their skill. In fact, in some studies, the gamers’ bias mitigation skills actually improved during the interim period! The video games had provided a decision-making skill set which was then reinforced by real-world experiences.
One of the top performing teams was led by Tomek Strzalkowski , a computer scientist at the University of Albany, and also included researchers from Syracuse University, Colorado State University, University of Arizona, and Temple University, as well as the game development company 1st Playable Productions. Commenting on the success of his team’s strategy, Professor Strzalkowski remarked, “A key takeaway was that we did not need a game that also teaches bias mitigation; instead, we needed a teaching strategy that was a game.” This is a major insight for any serious game developers. First, find the best teaching mechanism. Then, support it with gameplay.
In recognition of their accomplishment, Professor Strzalkowski’s team earned a gold medal at the International Serious Play Awards competition. The team has since partnered with Correlation One , my talent solutions technology company in New York City, to repurpose the games for commercial use.
Applications beyond the intelligence community Beyond the intelligence community, the applications for cognitive games are vast. Cognitive biases impact decision-making in a variety of disciplines and industries, and so technology that trains employees to improve their judgment could create an enormous value opportunity. Consider a financial trader whose job requires her to digest a constant stream of information, and use that information to make impactful, time-sensitive decisions. Or a hiring manager, who wants to ensure that each candidate is given a fair, objective screening process. Even in the emerging world of artificial intelligence, where algorithms increasingly make decisions in place of humans, bias mitigation is extremely important. An algorithm that isn’t well-calibrated can lead to sub-optimal decisions across the board, so the AI developer must be especially aware of potential biases.
The SIRIUS program also strengthens the argument for wider adoption of ‘serious’ video games. U.S. companies spent over $70B on training last year, but only 16% looked to games or simulations for their solutions. Yet video games have a proven efficacy for training purposes. They provide a low-risk, high-repetition environment to gain necessary skills and experience, and are being deployed in an increasing variety of use cases. With a younger generation that is already familiar with gaming technology and rapidly entering the workforce, one should expect ‘serious’ training games to become more prevalent in the future.
Andrew Strong is Head of Decision Solutions at Correlation One, a NYC-based technology startup.
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! 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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"PC Gaming Weekly: It's all in the cards | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/pc-gaming/pc-gaming-weekly-its-all-in-the-cards"
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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 PC Gaming Weekly: It’s all in the cards Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The Chaos Arena turns The Elder Scrolls' normal draft mode into something ... off-kilter.
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It’s an exciting time to enjoy card games on your PC. Market-leading Hearthstone, is addressing problems (some of which are long-standing issues, like duplicate Legendary cards ).
The Elder Scrolls: Legends added its first expansion, Heroes of Skyrim , bringing more than 150 cards (and lots of dragons!) to the game. The Witcher-based game Gwent is gaining steam, and Fable Fortune is twisting the rules of Magic and Hearthstone in its closed beta right now.
It’s a market that could hit $1.4 billion this year, market researcher SuperData projects , and it’s getting bigger.
I’m a sucker for each of these. Hearthstone has claimed more of my gaming time than anything else since its release in 2014. I play it on the train, while taking walks, and in the car (when I’m in the passenger seat, of course). I hit up Elder Scrolls Legends after I finish my daily quests in Hearthstone, and then I move into Fable Fortune. In the past, I’d play some SolForge, too, but it’s kinda of a mess after it almost died before executives at Grinding Gear Games (the folks who make Path of Exile, the online action-RPG in the spirit of Diablo II) saved that game from shutting down.
I’ve dabbled in some others, too: Shadowverse, Star Realms, and Hex. Shadowverse’s anime style turned me off. Star Realms is good, but it does have the same competitive hooks. I enjoyed Hex’s single-player mode, but my scant collection made the rest daunting to me.
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! But it’s OK that I don’t like all the cards games (and my wife and wallet agree with this, too!). And as we’re seeing with Fable Fortune, this market has plenty of room for innovation. Card games could find a home on consoles with the Nintendo’s hybrid portable Switch, and who knows what AR and VR could mean for this industry.
For PC gaming coverage, send news tips to Jeff Grubb and guest post submissions to Rowan Kaiser.
Please be sure to visit our PC Gaming Channel.
—Jason Wilson, GamesBeat managing editor P.S. The tyranny of Patches the Pirate invades this week’s Tavern Brawl in Hearthstone. It’s a 7-gun salute.
From GamesBeat Hearthstone weakens one the game’s most hated cards Hearthstone’s Quest Rogue players might actually want to find a cave to hide in after hearing the news of Blizzard Entertainment’s changes to the controversial The Cavern Below card. The publisher of the market-leading digital card game said it’s weakening one of the most-talked about cards from Journey of Un’Goro: The Caverns Below. It will […] Diablo III’s necromancer can’t reanimate Blizzard’s aging game Diablo III came out in 2012. Blizzard is now adding a new character class can keep the game running and earn it some money without having to release a full-on expansion for the aging game. The Rise of the Necromancer pack came out on June 27 for Diablo III on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and […] Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms is D&D’s first clicker game (Updated) Dungeons & Dragons is “clicking” with players worldwide in new ways thanks to livestreaming on Twitch, the renaissance of tabletop games, and a fantastic 5th Edition that gets better with every new storyline that Wizards of the Coast releases. The publisher is now looking to Codename Entertainment for the latest D&D video game: Idle Champions […] Grand Theft Auto studio backpedals after Take-Two shuts down OpenIV modding tool The infrastructure tool that enables many of the best mods for Grand Theft Auto IV and GTA V could return after the Rockstar Games studio and publisher Take-Two Interactive sent a cease-and-desist order to the people who distribute that software. Rockstar Games has posted a new policy about single-player mods that opens the door to the return […] Xbox fans hate ‘parity,’ but I want it after playing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Bungie confirmed at E3 (the Electronic Entertainment Expo trade show) in Los Angeles last week that its upcoming sci-fi shooter Destiny 2 will run at 30 frames per second on all consoles. That includes even the far more powerful Xbox One X from Microsoft, which has the horsepower to render the game faster than PlayStation 4, […] Beyond GamesBeat Devs share tips on using Discord to build a pre-release community Nearly 9 million people log in every day to the text/voice chat service Discord, and the bulk of the 45 million total registered users are there to discuss games. An increasing number of developers are creating their own Discords, which they’re able to use to build an audience, garner feedback, and form bonds with fans. Some studios have found a way to integrate Discord more tightly into their dev cycle, creating an engaged and active community months or years even before a game comes out.
(via Gamasutra) Female Esports Pros Hope To Close The Gender Gap Women remain a minority in the esports industry, but they have always been a presence in competitive gaming scenes. Compete’s video team interviewed four female esports experts about their successes, their struggles, and their different takes on competitive gaming’s gender disparity.
(via Compete) Bioware’s Anthem is Like Star Wars, Don’t Think Too Hard About The Science If you’re a science fiction nerd, you may have hard questions after seeing the E3 trailer for Bioware’s Anthem. What powers the Freelancers’ powerful Javelin exoskeletons? With those crazy Shaper Storms, why is there wild life on the planet at all? Well Bioware wants you to leave those questions behind.
(via US Gamer) The biggest mod for Morrowind celebrates 16 years in development, and counting In the last 16 years, over 600 modders have contributed thousands of new assets – including everything from art and music to complete towns and cities – to Tamriel Rebuilt, a community that’s constructing a mainland for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, whilst preserving the game’s creative vision and direction. To celebrate 16 years of the community, the team has released a new teaser showcasing the latest version of the mod.
(via PC GamesN) Subscribe to PC Gaming Weekly and receive this newsletter every Thursday 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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"Paradox Interactive acquires Age of Wonders dev Triumph Studios | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/pc-gaming/paradox-interactive-acquires-age-of-wonders-dev-triumph-studios"
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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 Paradox Interactive acquires Age of Wonders dev Triumph Studios Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Paradox is getting into the wonderment business.
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Paradox Interactive is adding more talent to its stable of strategy developers. The company revealed today that it has acquired Triumph Studios, which is the team responsible for the turn-based strategy game Age of Wonders.
Paradox also owns all of Triumph’s assets as well in a deal worth $4.5 million (4 million euros) with the potential for $24 million extra depending on future performance.
Triumph Studios is now the fourth major Paradox studio, and with its location in The Netherlands, it is the first office outside of Sweden for the publisher. Paradox chief executive Fredrik Wester explained to GamesBeat that this represents a step forward for the company and also a challenge. But the company thought Triumph was the right opportunity to expand its footprint outside of its home country due to the developer’s pedigree.
“[Triumph fits into Paradox] like a glove,” said Wester. “Not only in the overlap of fans, but we have a lot of hardcore fans of the Age of Wonders series among the people at Paradox.” I asked Wester to explain exactly what Paradox was buying, and he revealed that it was way more than just the Triumph name.
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 Triumph Studios — lock, stock and barrel — but most of all, it’s a lot of new great insights into the turn-based strategy gaming niche and a new genre within our own where we can discover more,” the CEO explained.
Paradox doesn’t know if it’ll have to change anything with Age of Wonders, but the publisher believes it can merge its knowledge with its new acquisition to make everyone involved better.
“We bought Triumph because it’s a great company making great games,” said Wester. “Hopefully we can add a few insights from Paradox but we have full faith in the Triumph team to deliver great games.” In a direct message to fans of Triumph and Age of Wonders, Wester finished by confirming that Paradox has as much faith in that team as its fans do.
“Let’s add our collective powers to make their next game great,” he 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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"Indie dev turns Wikipedia into a text adventure game | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/pc-gaming/indie-dev-turns-wikipedia-into-a-text-adventure-game"
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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 Indie dev turns Wikipedia into a text adventure game 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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Like a lot of people, I’ve spent hours clicking from link to link, sucked into Wikipedia’s endless void of information. Indie dev Kevan Davis apparently has as well — except he came out on the other side with a game.
Wikipedia: The Text Adventure is a free-to-play piece of interactive fiction that uses real entries to create a virtual world to explore.
There are already a few informal Wikipedia challenges floating around out there, such as Wikirace.
It also goes by The Wiki Game, WikiLadders, or the cheekiest name yet, Wikispeedia, and you play it just by applying certain rules to Wikipedia pages. A page serves as “home base.” Players then start on a random page and try to reach home base by leapfrogging from one page to the next. The person who reaches it in the fewest clicks or fastest time wins.
Davis’s game is different — a slow, contemplative, curated travel guide to what at first appears to be a truly lonely planet. It expands on some of the experiments and themes in one of his previous works, Around the World in X Wikipedia Articles , a 117,000-word novel based on Around the World in 80 Days and generated with excerpts from Wikipedia using software.
“At the time I experimented with autogenerating a standalone text adventure along the same lines, but even a single small city quickly ballooned into enough articles to overload the compiler,” said Davis in an email, comparing the two works. “Today’s game generates itself piece by piece, instead, as the player moves around.” 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! In my first playthrough, I felt an almost off-putting sense of distance to the descriptions of places. The start screen offered me a few different options for where my trip could begin. When I clicked on Austria, I got a dry description of its famous ferris wheel, a recitation of facts such as its height (it’s 64.75 meters tall) and its exact location (Leopoldstadt, the second district in Vienna). I then had a few options to go to different locations, each as plainly described as the last.
It didn’t feel like the kind of experience that tries to make itself approachable or comfortable; instead, each location I visited felt cold and alien. But on the second playthrough, I noticed that there was a terminal prompt at the bottom and realized I could interact with it beyond just shuffling from city to city.
On Easter Island, I typed: “Examine statues.” The game responded with more information — still generated from Wikipedia, still dry — but it was something.
Twitter tells me that there’s further interactions available if only I had thought to try them: and talk to people — ⣝⣵⡎⣵⢗⣿⣫⢗⡎⣵ (@zarawesome) June 30, 2017 Some descriptions are accompanied by a staticky pixel art image, which Davis said is inspired by the 1980s text adventures of his childhood. “It’s also nice for making some of the bad photos and boring architecture look a bit cryptic and fantastical instead,” he said.
The low-fi art also fits the feeling of the game, since it almost looks like the details have been smudged out and all that’s left is a vague outline of this landmark or that monument. While at first, I felt like the game was about stripping away all the usual human elements of travel, the interactions made me think that maybe the point of Wikipedia: The Text Adventure is that it takes an effort to make any real sense of a place while traveling. Davis said that the game is about players setting their own challenges, defining their own paths.
“I always enjoy how different the same data can feel when you look at it from a new angle, or fit it into a framework that it wasn’t really intended for,” said Davis. “Wikipedia is always a magnificent rabbit hole of links, and the text adventure adds a few that weren’t quite there, a way to stumble into bits of history that were right next to something familiar, without otherwise having any connection to it.” 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.
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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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"Hearthstone's top game designer: 'No intention to adjust Primordial Glyph' | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/pc-gaming/hearthstones-lead-game-designer-no-intention-to-adjust-primordial-glyph"
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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 Hearthstone’s top game designer: ‘No intention to adjust Primordial Glyph’ Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn A Pyroblast for 8 mana? Why, certainly! 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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Every set that Blizzard’s Team 5 design group introduces to Hearthstone has a handful of cards that players love and hate: Think Dr. Boom, Reno Jackson, or Patches the Pirate. These are all Legendaries, the rarest of the game’s cards, and you can have just one copy of each in your deck. But one of the current set’s most disliked cards isn’t one of these ultra-rare cards ( though this one is ).
One of Journey of Un’Goro’s most hated cards is Primordial Glyph, a Mage spell. It’s an Epic card, thus it’s not that hard to acquire, and at 2 mana, it’s cheap. Combine it with its power — Discover a spell, then reduce its cost by 2 mana — you can see why it’s drawing ire. Not only could it give the caster a 1-cost Frostbolt, a 4-cost Blizzard, or an 8-cost Pyroblast, Primordial Glyph doesn’t give the opponent any information on what the spell could be. So foes have no idea what to prepare for.
I asked Hearthstone principal game designer Mike Donais if Blizzard had any intentions to change Primordial Glyph to give opposing players some clue as to the card the caster draws.
“It is really challenging to play around Primordial Glyph. Balancing the odds of each card coming out is really tough. However, looking at the data, the power level of the card is medium, so at this time, there is no intention to adjust Primodial Glyph,” Donais said. “In addition, lots of people are enjoying playing the card. If we get a lot of negative feedback in the future, we can discuss changing it like we did with The Caverns Below.” 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! [Hearthstone] Primordial Glyph Is Terrifying: https://t.co/5SJzL7Nw4U via @YouTube — TSM Kripparrian (@Kripparrian) May 11, 2017 I followed up by asking if even if Blizzard sees Primordial Glyph as a card with a medium power level, does Blizzard worry about how a number of players — including some highly regarded streamers and esports competitors — don’t like how little information it gives them. Donais dove into the role randomness and skill play in card games such as Hearthstone.
“Powerful random effects have always been part of Hearthstone. When we don’t have cards that provide a varied gameplay experience, games can sometimes feel ‘same-y.’ People sometimes mistake randomness and skill as being on a scale, where having more of one means you end up with less of another. That’s just not true; you can have high-skill high-luck games and games that have low-luck and low-skill,” Donais said. “You really need to be great at problem solving when games play out differently every time, since you have to figure out how to use a new set of cards and apply them to their maximum efficiency in each game. When you know exactly what will play out, you only need to solve the problem once, and then execute that solve every time you run into the situation.
“That’s not to say all forms of randomness are good for Hearthstone, but this kind of randomness, which gives players opportunities to adapt and make decisions, feels great.” Well, it may not feel great to everyone. Just ask Hearthstone pro player Navi of the Gale Force esports group.
being a primordial glyph gamer is worse than being a weeb — Alex (@Navi00T) May 30, 2017 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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"Lenovo's Moto X4 is coming to Google's Project Fi in Q4 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/lenovos-moto-x4-is-coming-to-googles-project-fi-in-q4"
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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 Exclusive Lenovo’s Moto X4 is coming to Google’s Project Fi in Q4 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 yesterday revealed that a Project Fi -compatible device “at a mid-tier price” was forthcoming from one of its hardware partners. VentureBeat has learned that the partner in question is the company’s former subsidiary, Motorola — sold to Lenovo in 2014 — and the device is this year’s Moto X iteration, branded Moto X4.
Rather than using its own infrastructure, Google’s Project Fi relies on T-Mobile, Sprint, and U.S. Cellular in a rather nontraditional mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) arrangement, combining coverage of the three partner networks to achieve maximum signal availability for customers. Its pricing structure is also innovative, at a base price of $20 per line plus $10 per gig of data — and unused data is credited back to customers’ accounts.
We hear you loud and clear. Keep an eye out for a new Fi-compatible device at a mid-tier price from one of our partners later this year.
https://t.co/74U3bq16pa — Project Fi (@projectfi) June 29, 2017 Besides being a highly anticipated phone in its own right, the Moto X4 will very likely own the distinction of being the first non-Nexus-or-Pixel-branded handset to offer Fi compatibility. According to an individual familiar with both companies’ plans, the handset is scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter.
Let's stop calling it "Moto X 2017," eh? pic.twitter.com/dBnUr5n7CU — Evan Blass (@evleaks) May 13, 2017 Not much is known about the Moto X4 yet, save for some general marketing points visible in a photo leaked out of a Motorola partner presentation. Having seen a picture of the actual phone, VentureBeat is able to confirm that the dual-camera device seen in the leaked photo is indeed the X4.
Motorola 2017 [via tip] pic.twitter.com/qahD9PIxrD — Evan Blass (@evleaks) May 14, 2017 Motorola chose to eschew an X-series handset in 2016, opting instead to concentrate on its new Moto Z line of flagships and their ecosystem of modular backplates.
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"ProBeat: Canada's Google ruling is disgusting | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/media/probeat-canadas-google-ruling-is-disgusting"
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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: Canada’s Google ruling is disgusting Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Google Canada 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.
When it comes to nonsensical rulings pertaining to the internet, the blame typically lies with some old U.S. judge who still uses a rotary phone. The legal system cannot keep up with the world’s most transformative technology, which happens to be evolving rapidly and unapologetically. This week, though, it was Canada that royally screwed up.
The country’s Supreme Court concluded, in a 7-2 vote, that a local court can grant an injunction preventing conduct “anywhere in the world.” Specific to the case, this means it can force Google to remove search results worldwide.
The Supreme Court wrote the following in its judgment : Where it is necessary to ensure the injunction’s effectiveness, a court can grant an injunction enjoining conduct anywhere in the world. The problem in this case is occurring online and globally. The Internet has no borders — its natural habitat is global. The only way to ensure that the interlocutory injunction attained its objective was to have it apply where Google operates — globally.
Maybe I should be thrilled that Canada is so forward-thinking to note that the internet doesn’t have borders. In some ways, that’s progress, given how often we see archaic courts making inane decisions related to the internet.
And yet, somehow, Canada’s Supreme Court couldn’t foresee its ruling being adapted by other countries. If Canada can enforce its laws to limit search results in other countries, does it accept when other countries decide to do the same? If a country as “free” as Canada wants to limit speech and information access via Google, you can bet your bottom loonie that other countries will do the same. It’s just plain backwards to de-index results worldwide because one country’s court order is violated.
Will Google have to remove everything about Tiananmen Square worldwide because China demands it? Will Google have to remove everything LGBTQ related worldwide because Russia demands it? Will Google have to remove everything about women driving worldwide because Saudi Arabia demands it? This is an incredibly dangerous precedent.
Need more proof that this is a terrible ruling? The RIAA is happy about it: Canada's Supreme Court Deals Blow to Google, Win For Music @billboard https://t.co/h6iVjs9X81 — RIAA (@RIAA) June 28, 2017 Google will of course end up deciding which countries’ extraterritorial orders it enforces. Some may argue, therefore, that Canada’s Supreme Court isn’t really accomplishing anything and this is much ado about nothing.
But as a Canadian, that just makes me even more embarrassed.
Sorry.
ProBeat is a column in which Emil rants about whatever crosses him that week.
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"Inside Google's cancelled experiment to fix the crappy web | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/media/google-publish-mission-to-fix-the-crappy-web"
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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 Exclusive Inside Google’s cancelled experiment to fix the crappy web 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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“Imagine Google built your website.” That’s the pitch Google sent to select ad publishers last August as it began promoting an experimental service called Google Publish.
In the hands of beta testers locked into non-disclosure agreements, Google Publish began life as a mobile site builder — a button for generating speedy, mobile-friendly sites, powered by testers’ existing blog feeds.
Google promised the publishers and bloggers up to “2x faster” websites and “35 percent more revenue” if they used Publish, suggesting it had magically solved two of the web’s biggest problems and packaged the remedy into some kind of WordPress killer.
Above: The Google Publish site generator, posted and then deleted from Twitter.
As a first step, Google asked Publish testers to divert some of their blog’s mobile traffic to their new Google site. If testers liked the results, they could switch all of their mobile traffic over to the service. With a one-two punch, Google could replace a crappy mobile site and lock users deeper into its own advertising product, Adsense. This goal overlapped heavily with AMP, Google’s open source project to replace clunky mobile sites with slimmed-down layouts and reduced ads.
But then Google Publish (inevitably) evolved: It started looking like a full content management system (CMS) — a real publishing tool. Google added features for posting stories directly inside the Publish service and suggested that bloggers switch entirely to Publish, abandoning their original CMS and web host.
Above: Credit: BuzzMyCode And then months later Google quietly killed the service, as has happened with many other behind-the-scenes experiments inside the world’s most successful advertising machine.
Google diminished the significance of Publish in an email to VentureBeat earlier this spring: “We regularly make decisions to test new solutions and products, taking into account feedback from our clients and partners along the way,” a spokesperson for Google wrote. “We decided to suspend a product we’ve been testing with publishers to help them improve the web experience.” No big deal, they might as well have said. This happens all the time.
In an on-background discussion with VentureBeat, an ad executive at Google told us this was just one of many similar, secret experiments going on inside Google. But Google Publish sticks out because, like many other services the company has released lately, Google created it to solve a very real problem: A lot of the web is slow and, well, shitty , dependent on displaying an increasing number of bloated and intrusive ads even as the amount of money they generate for publishers plummets.
And Google, an ad business, is increasingly invested in solving this problem. Quite publicly, Google is going to great lengths to prop up the best of the web and fix the worst of it.
Since February 2016 , Google has promoted AMP-powered stories at the top of Search results. And over time the company has lowered the mobile search ranking of sites that aren’t mobile friendly , including sites with “intrusive” popups and interstitial ads.
Even Google’s Chrome browser will soon block ads that the company deems “annoying” or “intrusive.” And Google has launched and relaunched Contributor , a service that lets you pay to remove ads from a handful of sites.
Of course, these projects aren’t philanthropic. Although Google today is wealthier than ever, most of its revenue — about 87 percent — comes from ads. And internet users are increasingly blocking ads. Google knows that the worse the web gets, the harder it will be to grow its ad business, and the worse the company will look to internet users who curse every time they click on some godforsaken ad-supported blog.
Even if financially motivated, Google’s intentions may well be benign on some level, and its many projects could even improve the web on some level. Better mobile experiences, for one, make services inside browsers competitive with walled-off app stores like Apple’s and Google Play.
“People tend to think that Google’s playing an evil angle on everything we do — that it’s all some giant company ploy … but we actually sit around and talk about how do we help build a better experience,” said the Google ad executive. “If there’s no publishers, then we don’t have a network business. If the advertisers can’t get any business, then they’re not going to spend money with us. There are a lot of things that could make a lot of money in the short run, but it’s like a sugar high and then you crash. Those are the things we don’t do, because we’re trying to make it work for the long run.” But the more Google wills the web into developing in any specific direction, the more the web plays into Google’s oversized hands. When Google’s Chrome browser starts blocking misbehaving ads next year, will that include the worst of Adsense? Google says Chrome will “stop showing ads (including those owned or served by Google) on websites that are not compliant with the Better Ads Standards starting in early 2018,” but are Google’s ads individually more likely to pass the smell test as independent ad blockers grow redundant? Google — like Microsoft in the ’90s, and Apple and Facebook today — believes the solution to every problem is more Google. That may be the secret to a prettier, speedier, more user-friendly web, but it won’t make the web any more open, democratic, or diverse. Instead of actually solving the problem, Google may wind up creating a new one. A perfect, controlled web. No sugar highs. No crashes. Just lots and lots of Google, your devoted gatekeeper. It may be better, but it still sounds shitty.
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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"Facebook Ads: How SMBs can get enterprise results | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/marketing/facebooks-ads-how-smbs-can-get-enterprise-results"
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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 Facebook Ads: How SMBs can get enterprise results Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Presented by Appness With more than 2 billion monthly active users worldwide , there is no doubt that Facebook is a leading traffic source for all types of businesses. No wonder so many marketers consider Facebook Ads a great opportunity to attract more customers directly to their applications.
But of the over 70 million businesses registered on Facebook, only 5 million of them actively use advertising on Facebook to promote their products and services. This mean there’s a lot of room for market growth and development.
The progress of Facebook advertising is aligned to help companies succeed quickly in this emerging market. As Facebook regularly releases new features for advertisers (as in constantly), companies must be able to quickly adapt to new ad trends to stay ahead. For example, the carousel ad format significantly increased user engagement through a more interactive feed and improved ad performance compared to traditional single-image link ads. This allowed advertisers to considerably expand their prospective audiences.
As reported in the first Quarter 2017 Earnings Call , Facebook is currently investing heavily in video, looking to draw user attention away from television and other traditional media. They recently launched mid-roll video ads and now their efforts are focused specifically on virtual reality as a new ad-powered revenue stream. According to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook has developed new computer vision tools that can apply the style of a painting to a photo or video, which will help make the camera the first augmented reality (AR) platform. The goal is to give developers the power to build various AR tools into the camera so more people can experience it on their phones. Creating the first open camera platform is a huge step forward, and Facebook intends to keep pushing the AR envelope.
Facebook is also exploring the creation of its own original video content with commercial breaks, similar to TV shows. Another potential driver of sales growth on Facebook may come from the development of new features, such as sports broadcasts and music services.
According to the latest eMarketer research , in 2017 Facebook is expected to capture 20 percent of the digital advertising market in the U.S., and Facebook’s share in the display advertising market will grow to 39.1 percent. This trend is likely to continue in the foreseeable future, and we may indeed see a new digital revolution very soon, with Facebook advertising becoming an essential element of any financial structure.
Pay for quantity, pray for quality Facebook is a powerful tool for driving traffic and can help any business convert this traffic into customers if used correctly. However, building an effective paid acquisition strategy may be a daunting challenge, since producing high-quality Facebook Ads requires knowledge, skills, and experience. Creating, structuring, and launching Facebook ad campaigns is a never-ending process. Moreover, it is always difficult to predict what kind of creative will strike a chord with the audience or when its potential will be exhausted. No matter how good they are, creatives need to be constantly monitored and updated, which takes a significant amount of time from media buyers and designers.
This presents an additional challenge especially for small and medium businesses. For SMBs, acquiring users on Facebook at the enterprise level is exceptionally difficult. As a rule, such businesses have little expertise in paid user acquisition, so they are forced to resort to external contractors, requiring significant effort and complicated arrangements. For their part, large advertising agencies are hesitant to work with SMBs, since this is not a high revenue generator for them. As a result, many advertisers consider driving Facebook traffic complicated and inefficient.
When it comes to effectiveness assessment, it is always difficult to get a precise picture of the sales funnel. Measurement is critical for every business. Marketers, whether using their own in-house media buying team or working with freelance media buyers, can hardly get detailed and accurate analysis regarding how much traffic eventually turned into customers. The number of impressions, clicks, or even downloads does not ensure subsequent purchases. This makes it impossible to objectively evaluate the results of an advertising campaign, and the entire process is like groping around in a dark room. Getting both quality and quantity there requires alternative payment models, providing the opportunity to mitigate possible risks from ineffective ad campaigns.
The next wave of advertising innovation The best solution to the problem is to build an environment for transparent, secure, and flexible collaboration between mobile app advertisers and media buyers. Facilitating access to Facebook advertising tools would open up more possibilities for businesses to reap the benefits of Facebook’s resources. The more easily businesses can adopt new Facebook features, the more prospects they will find on Facebook, leading to more of them joining this growing network.
At Appness , we believe that all types of businesses can benefit from simplified access to the Facebook human cloud: freelance media buying talent and performance agencies ready to share their insights, local expertise, creatives, and more. To address these needs we have created a platform that provides enterprise-level media buying and management services even for SMBs, so that any advertising campaign can be tailored to the particular business needs. For advertisers, this means brand-safe technologies, access to the human cloud, full control over creatives, and the opportunity to pay for real business results. For their part, media buyers get access to direct Facebook offers, a creatives media library and useful tools for easy creating and scaling ad campaigns. This is a crucial step towards building a progressive advertising community and transparent collaboration with a win-win outcome.
According to Sheryl Sandberg , COO at Facebook, their main goal currently is to build meaningful connections between businesses and people. From this we may conclude that the future of market development is in creating innovative products and platforms helping all kinds of businesses leverage the power of mobile outreach and streamline their Facebook activity.
To harness the full potential of Facebook mobile advertising, entrepreneurs must turn their attention to emerging technologies that simplify work flows and reduce risks by providing cost-effective and personalized advertising tools. As a result of integrating such solutions into marketing strategy, advertisers will boost their ROI, helping grow the Facebook Ads market and significantly changing the advertising landscape.
Mikhail Prytkov is Chief Operating Officer at Appness.
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].
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"3DLook launches a smartphone body scanner to help apparel retailers | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/marketing/3dlook-launches-a-smartphone-body-scanner-to-help-apparel-retailers"
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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 Exclusive 3DLook launches a smartphone body scanner to help apparel retailers 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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Buying clothes and apparel over the internet is still a tricky business, but it is hugely lucrative. And increasingly, smartphones are driving retail growth.
In 2016 — as noted in VB Insight’s latest research — mobile devices influenced $500 billion in sales, and $140 billion of that was driven directly by mcommerce.
The problem with online apparel lies in the difficulty of sizing items and the returns process that comes along with that. Consumers regularly purchase three of everything to send two back, and that cuts directly into profits.
Today, 3DLook has announced SAIA , an AI-powered smartphone body scanner that can be easily added to existing apps and mobile websites.
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The consumer uses their smartphone to take a front-facing photo. They then take a profile view. From those two images, SAIA calculates an accurate body profile that is used to match the size of the consumer to the retailer’s products. Because SAIA can be connected across multiple labels, it is possible to get an exact match despite the sizing differences that exist between manufacturers. For example, a medium on one retailer-owned label might be a small on another.
So how do retailers incorporate SAIA into apps and websites? “SAIA is easily installed into apparel ecommerce websites via a JS tag and into mobile applications with our SDK,” Vadim Rogovskiy, CEO and cofounder at 3DLook, told me. “Customers then will be offered to scan themselves with two photos from a smartphone camera without leaving the app or website.” The store can then automatically suggest items based on both body measurement and shape. That helps to avoid the “order three, return two” process consumers are getting used to.
“It will not only make online shopping more personalized and effective for customers but also will save them time because they will be offered only the particular set of clothes that fit them,” Rogovskiy said.
SAIA can be integrated with an existing recommendation engine, ecommerce platform, or CRM system. Once implemented, the system provides analytics back to the retailer.
“Apparel stores and brands will get access to their personal accounts at SAIA platform, where they can track how many of their customers have scanned themselves in a given period of time,” Rogovskiy said. “They can also use a reporting API to pull all the required data from SAIA to their CRM or analytics tools. For example, they can get data about size and body shape distribution among customers, insights about their body parameters, and other important data points, and then match them with their purchase histories.” SAIA is available to retailers via a monthly subscription, with additional per scan charges. An enterprise plan exists for the largest retailers.
So what’s next for this technology, and is 3DLook investigating applications beyond the apparel retail market? “Right now, we are focused on our solution for the apparel industry, but our plans go far beyond that,” Rogovskiy said. “We see a strong interest from the health and fitness industry as well, and we plan to create a vertical solution for this soon. We are not planning to focus only on body scanning — we want to make maximum use of the data that clients will gather using our platform to create more personalized recommendations for their customers.” 3DLook’s SAIA is available from today for apparel retailers.
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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"Kate Edwards resigns from top post at the International Game Developers Association | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/kate-edwards-resigns-from-top-post-at-the-international-game-developers-assocation"
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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 Kate Edwards resigns from top post at the International Game Developers Association Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Kate Edwards, former head of the IGDA and Stewart Rogers of VentureBeat.
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Kate Edwards carved out a role as a fearless advocate for game developers in the past four-and-a-half years. Now, she is resigning her role as executive director of the International Game Developers Association , the advocacy and networking group for the world’s game developers.
Edwards stood up for developers on issues including Gamergate , diversity, and unpaid “crunch” time.
She was one of the most outspoken advocates on feminist and labor issues for game developers, and she was frequently criticized for taking strong stands.
In a message, Edwards told GamesBeat, “I felt it’s time for me to move on. When I first took the IGDA role, I told the board that this is likely a three- to five-year mission for me, and here I am nearly at five years. My top goals were to reinvigorate the IGDA’s relevance, reinstate the IGDA’s core mission as an advocacy org and voice for game developers (not companies), and to emphasize the ‘I’ part of the IGDA and strengthen our international presence.” She added, “I feel I’ve accomplished all of those things, while enduring a lot of challenges (including weathering GamerGate), and now it’s time for someone with a different skill set to carry the IGDA forward.” 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! Edwards said the departure is amicable. In a statement, the IGDA said that Trent Oster, chair of the board of directors and CEO of Beamdog, will serve as the interim executive director until a suitable replacement is found.
“Kate has been an important industry leader for the IGDA in this role, doing heroic work as an advocate for developers of all backgrounds,” he said. “Her accomplishments have carried the IGDA through tough times and helped countless developers on their journeys,” says Oster. “We look forward to seeing what Kate accomplishes in what is certain to continue to be a bright career.” During Edwards’ five years as executive director, the IGDA expanded its international reach, establishing chapters in Bangladesh, Egypt, Estonia, Georgia, Tunisia and numerous other locations. Edwards signed more than 300 peer advisory letters of recommendation for game developers trying to get work visas in the U.S.
Above: Kate Edwards of the IGDA and Dean Takahashi of GamesBeat at GamesBeat 2015.
“I think it’s good for both the IGDA and for me,” she wrote. “For some it likely seems pretty sudden or abrupt, but the reality is that it’s something I’ve been mulling over for a while as this five-year timeframe started to come into view. The reality is that there’s never a perfect stopping point for a job like this, with so very many issues, activities, connections, and responsibilities in play. But now with GDC and E3 completed this year, it’s probably a better time than ever.” She doesn’t have another job lined up yet.
“I’m entertaining a variety of options, from another leadership role, other forms of advocacy, and of course my core consulting expertise in content culturalization,” she said.
Edwards is trained as a geographer, and for 23 years, she has advised companies about how their content would fit different territories around the world.
I enjoyed having Edwards as a speaker at our GamesBeat events.
She was brave enough to show up in cosplay, and it reflected her fearless spirit in leading the IGDA.
Above: The International Game Developers Association chief Kate Edwards talks game-design job satisfaction with USGamer senior editor Kat Bailey at GamesBeat 2015.
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"These were the 10 biggest European tech stories this week | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/these-were-the-10-biggest-european-tech-stories-this-week-30-june-2017"
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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 These were the 10 biggest European tech stories this week 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.
This week, Tech.eu tracked 17 technology M&A transactions, 1 IPO and 61 tech funding deals totalling about €384.5 million (about $439.3 million) in Europe, Turkey and Israel.
Here’s an overview of the 10 biggest European tech news items for this week: 1) The European Commission has fined Google €2.42 billion for breaching EU antitrust rules.
The Commission has concluded that Google has abused its market dominance as a search engine by giving an illegal advantage to another Google product, its comparison shopping service.
2) Delivery Hero’s valuation topped $5 billion after the Berlin-based food ordering and delivery firm went public in a listing on the Frankfurt stock exchange.
3) Apple has ‘almost certainly’ acquired German computer vision company SensoMotoric Instruments , a provider of eye tracking glasses and systems 4) Social media companies face fines of up to €50 million if they persistently fail to remove illegal content from their sites under a new law passed in Germany.
5) Just over a week after obtaining its full banking licence in Sweden, fintech company Klarna has received a fresh investment from Visa.
No terms for the deal were revealed but according to a report from Bloomberg, the Swedish company will be issuing new equity and will be targeting new regions for its services.
6) UK-based peer-to-peer online fundraising platform JustGiving has been acquired for $120 million by Blackbaud, a US-based software and services provider for not-for-profit organisations.
7) Austrian healthtech startup, mySugr, which makes a diabetes management app, has been acquired by Swiss medical multinational Roche.
No terms for the deal were announced.
8) Early-stage VC firm Capnamic Ventures has closed its latest fund at €115 million to invest in tech startups in the German speaking region. The firm, based in Berlin and Cologne, will invest between €500,000 and €3 million in early-stage companies in the B2B and digital infrastructure spaces.
9) Israel’s Autotalks, a company developing communications tech for connected cars, has extended its Series D round to $40 million.
10) Digital health startup KRY has raised €20 million in its Series A round led by Accel.
Previous investors Index Ventures, Creandum, and Project A also participated.
Bonus link: Why France Is Taking a Lesson in Culture From Silicon Valley (NYT) This post originally appeared on Tech.eu.
You can subscribe to Tech.eu’s newsletter here.
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"How to navigate the predatory jungle of Silicon Valley as a female founder | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/how-to-navigate-the-predatory-jungle-of-silicon-valley-as-a-female-founder"
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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 How to navigate the predatory jungle of Silicon Valley as a female founder Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Shippo cofounder and CEO Laura Behrens Wu onstage at YC's Female Founders Conference, June 29, 2017 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 conversation around sexual harassment is gaining momentum in Silicon Valley — and so it should. With Uber battling sexual harassment allegations and Binary Capital dealing with its dirty “open secret” , the narrative is taking a rough turn. In light of these recent events, the question becomes: How should women navigate the predatory jungle of Silicon Valley? I got some answers yesterday as I chatted with female founders and reporters in a private roundtable discussion hosted by Y Combinator. The conversation, which was on the record, kicked off YC’s fourth annual Female Founders Conference.
Here are some of the highlights.
Above: YC’s fourth annual Female Founders Conference Establishing a network “Newcomers are more vulnerable because they lack the network to support them and give them insights into what’s legit and what’s not,” said Laura Behrens Wu, cofounder and CEO of Shippo , describing the challenges faced by female founders who move to the Valley and those who are first-time entrepreneurs.
What’s more, when these women seek early-stage capital, they’re at a disadvantage. “It’s more difficult for female founders who are raising their seed round as they have less leverage.” This is where organizations like YC come in handy. Their partners are well-connected, know the right people, and will take action if necessary. This spring, when a female founder alerted the accelerator program to an investor’s inappropriate behavior toward her, he was banned from attending future Demo Days and blacklisted.
In another incident, YC also took action: The accelerator recently introduced a form founders can fill out anonymously to report bad investor behavior, something YC cofounder Jessica Livingston laid the grounds for in a blogpost back in 2014: Y Combinator has a zero tolerance policy for inappropriate sexual or romantic behavior from investors toward founders. Don’t even think about doing it. I will find out. Y Combinator will not continue to work with you.
Dress to (not) impress The issue of clothing also came up in the conversation. How should a female founder dress when she meets with potential investors? Dress too sexy and you’re labeled slutty, dress too conservative and you’re deemed a stuck-up bore.
In order to avoid any distraction or unnecessary attention, Behrens Wu has a “uniform” she wears during the entire fundraising process: “jeans, a black sweatshirt, black shoes, no makeup or nail polish, minimum jewelry, and hair tied up.” Her best anti-harassment “accessory,” though, is her male cofounder, who is by her side during investor meetings. This is something Elizabeth Iorns, cofounder and CEO of Science Exchange , agrees with, having a male cofounder herself.
Some female entrepreneurs see things differently. “I wear what I feel confident in and comes across as professional,” said Avni Patel Thompson, cofounder and CEO of Poppy.
“I try not to focus my energy on anything beyond that so that I can get back to preparing the content.” Above: Poppy cofounder and CEO Avni Patel Thompson onstage at FFC Female founders therefore need office-appropriate staples that are made in soft and neutral fabrics, fit the body without hugging it, and look feminine without being provocative. Is it absurd that women need a bodyguard and a uniform when pitching to avoid being sexual harassed? Of course it is — but at least we’re talking about it now. As one female participant put it: “We knew this was happening. Now we’re acknowledging it.” It’s a two-way street What became very clear during our intimate conversation is that these women are confident. From Iorns, who raised close to $60 million from investors like Union Square Ventures and Collaborative Fund, to Patel Thompson, who is a mother of two and scaling her second startup, these founders are facing challenges head-on.
A key point Patel Thompson underlined during the panel is that the founder-investor relationship is a two-way street. “I was given the advice that I should treat investors like employees, except that I can’t fire them,” she said. “So the vetting should go both ways for fit and value. It’s not just about the money.” So yes, you are trying to impress the investor, but the investor should also impress you. Granted, it’s easier to affirm this as a YC-backed company that has already secured funding, but the point is that founders should be picky.
Aileen Lee, founder and partner at Cowboy Ventures , shared her view on the industry during the conference. “I do think it’s more difficult for a woman to raise money,” she said onstage. With regards to the issue of sexual harassment in the Valley, she replied, “I’m pretty pissed off. We need more women VCs.” With fewer than six percent of VC partners being women, she has a point. She added that investment firms need to move away from their old “boys club” status quo and evolve into a more modern and inclusive workplace — something she is trying to do at her firm.
Above: Cowboy Ventures founder and partner Aileen Lee with YC partner Kirsty Nathoo So what’s the answer to fending off predators: Hire a bodyguard? Dress like a man? Only pitch to women VCs? There is no one answer, and changes won’t happen overnight. But the fact that women are starting to speak up is a start. Now the industry needs to listen and respond.
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"500 Startups sidelined Dave McClure because of 'inappropriate interactions with women' | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/500-startups-replaced-ceo-dave-mcclure-because-of-inappropriate-interactions-with-women"
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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 500 Startups sidelined Dave McClure because of ‘inappropriate interactions with women’ Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn 500 Startups cofounder Dave McClure 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.
500 Startups announced today that cofounder Dave McClure has been acting in a reduced capacity over the past few months following an internal investigation. The news came shortly after the New York Times revealed McClure had behaved inappropriately toward some women.
According to the blog post, 500 Startups cofounder Christine Tsai took on the role of CEO a few months back. This is the first time the organization has publicly addressed the matter with McClure. Tsai wrote: In recent months, we found out that my cofounder Dave McClure had inappropriate interactions with women in the tech community. His behavior was unacceptable and not reflective of 500’s culture and values. I sincerely apologize for the choices he made and the pain and stress they’ve caused people. But apologies aren’t enough without meaningful actions and change.
Because of this, we made the decision a few months ago to change the leadership structure at 500. I took on the role of CEO, which involves directing the Management Team and overall day-to-day operations of 500..
Earlier today, VentureBeat reported on the challenges female founders face when seeking investment. With Uber battling sexual harassment allegations and Binary Capital dealing with its dirty “open secret,” the conversation around sexual harassment in the Valley is picking up steam.
For his part, investor Chris Sacca , who was cited by the New York Times for inappropriate behavior toward a female entrepreneur, issued an apology yesterday. Sacca wrote: Particularly when reflecting upon my early years in Silicon Valley, there is no doubt I said and did things that made some women feel awkward, unwelcome, insecure, and/or discouraged. In social settings, under the guise of joking, being collegial, flirting, or having a good time, I undoubtedly caused some women to question themselves, retreat, feel alone, and worry they can’t be their authentic selves. By stupidly perpetuating a culture rife with busting chops, teasing, and peer pressure to go out drinking, I made some women feel self-conscious, anxious, and fear they might not be taken seriously.
I am sorry.
500 Startups did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Update: McClure wrote an extensive explanation and apology on Medium.
“I made advances towards multiple women in work-related situations, where it was clearly inappropriate,” he wrote. “I put people in compromising and inappropriate situations, and I selfishly took advantage of those situations where I should have known better. My behavior was inexcusable and wrong.” Furthermore, Axios is reporting that McClure has resigned as general partner of 500 Startups funds.
Correction at 6.27 p.m. PT: Dave McClure never held the position of CEO at 500 Startups. His title was cofounder. Christine Tsai is the first cofounder to hold the position of CEO. We have corrected the article and headline accordingly.
Updated on July 3 to include statement from Dave McClure and note that he has resigned as general partner.
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"Upfront Ventures closes $400 million fund as Los Angeles startups rub their hands | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/upfront-ventures-closes-400-million-fund-as-la-startups-rub-their-hands"
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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 Upfront Ventures closes $400 million fund as Los Angeles startups rub their hands Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Downtown Los Angeles skyline with snowy mountains at twilight.
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Upfront Ventures has closed its fourth core fund with $400 million in commitments. It’s the firm’s largest ever, and according to managing partner Mark Suster, the largest Los Angeles-based fund ever raised. Suster says he’s been on the road meeting limited partners for ten years, and finally, they’re understanding the value of L.A.’s tech scene. (Around 45 percent of Upfront’s investments are local.) As for the lingering criticism that it’s too easy for Sand Hill Road investors to swoop in and take all the good deals from local investors, Suster says it’s not true.
He points to LA success stories (some that Upfront has backed, some other local firms have) including sneaker marketplace GOAT, Loot Crate (Inc.’s fastest growing company this year), home security company Ring, gaming company Scopely, and exits such as Maker Studios and Truecar, Dollar Shave Club and Riot Games.
Snap, which is the city’s biggest success but had no local investors, was an anomaly, Suster says. “Everybody knew about it, very few took the risk,” he says, referring to the speculative nature of backing another early stage photo-sharing app, alongside what he saw as headline risk for what was then a “teen sexting” app. “Nobody knew except Benchmark just how talented the [Snap] team is,” he notes.
But Snap’s success creates more opportunities. “You have literally hundreds of under-30 millionaires from Riot Games and Snap,” he says. “Some section of those are going to create their next company. If it spawns 50 startups and we fund 15 of them, that’s how you germinate the next generation of companies,” he says. Likewise for new venture funds: “L.A. probably has 15 new funds created in the last few years and I’m ecstatic to have that,” Suster says. He believes Los Angeles has the potential to top New York City in terms of investments and exits. (The data shows NYC has a healthy lead on exits and on funding.
) Regarding New York, Suster throws down the gauntlet: “In 2009, ’10, ’11 and ’12, the VCs all thought New York was the big next market, so they all started traveling out there and doing deals. I just don’t think they are making that trip anymore, I think the trip is to SoCal.” He says he welcomes the money from big Valley firms because it results in situations like that of Ring. Upfront was an early backer of the company, and Silicon Valley investors have since poured more than $200 million into 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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"Redfin files for IPO in search of new home on Nasdaq | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/redfin-files-for-ipo-in-search-of-new-home-on-nasdaq"
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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 Redfin files for IPO in search of new home on Nasdaq 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.
Redfin, an online brokerage for the residential real estate market, filed to go public late Friday. Redfin plans to list its shares on Nasdaq under the ticker RDFN. Redfin’s filing said it plans to raise $100 million, although this figure is often included as a placeholder ahead of a roadshow.
The company’s online agents use its technology to offer commissions it says are well below traditional brokerages. In a letter to shareholders included in the prospectus, Redfin described itself as “rabid squirrels on a mission to make real estate better, and to treat everyone we work with along the way respectfully.” The Seattle-based company said its revenue grew 44 percent year over year to $59.9 million in the first quarter of 2017 and posted a net loss of $28 million, against a net loss of $24.4 million in the year ago period. Last year, the company saw revenue grow by 43 percent to $267 million and its net loss decrease to $22.5 million from $30.2 million in 2015.
The company said its cash flow last quarter was a negative $22 million and that it had $38 million in cash on hand as of March 31.
The prospectus included a disclosure that the company began testing last quarter an “experimental” service called Redfin Now, in which Redfin buys homes directly from sellers and resells them to buyers. “Customers who sell through Redfin Now will typically get less money for their home than they would listing their home with a real estate agent, but get that money faster with less risk and fuss,” the filing said.
Redfin says it has no specific plans for the IPO proceeds, but plans to keep the money in short-term investments for use in general corporate purposes, including technology and marketing. Goldman Sachs and Allen & Co. are listed as lead underwriters of the offering.
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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"Randi Zuckerberg is opening a Chuck E. Cheese's for modern kids in Tennessee | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/randi-zuckerberg-is-opening-a-chuck-e-cheeses-for-modern-kids-in-tennessee"
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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 Randi Zuckerberg is opening a Chuck E. Cheese’s for modern kids in Tennessee Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Randi Zuckerberg will open Sue's Tech Kitchen in Chattanooga, TN on July 28, 2017.
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.
Randi Zuckerberg envisions a future of integrated technology–and that starts with parents embracing interactive tech for their kids in a healthy way.
That’s the inspiration for the Zuckerberg Media founder and CEO’s latest venture, Sue’s Tech Kitchen , an interactive “tech-driven pop-up dining experience” opening in Chattanooga, Tennessee , on July 28. It’s a space where families, and especially kids, can immerse themselves in adventure and in what Zuckerberg sees as the tech and science of tomorrow. There will also be food.
“I felt one thing that was really missing was a place that families could go together where you can enjoy great food,” Zuckerberg says. “But you could also have incredible technology experiences that introduce children to all the exciting aspects of coding, tech, and gadgets that they’re going to need throughout the rest of their lives.” Based on the adventures of her new character Sue, a tech-savvy young girl who loves chemistry and cooking, the pop-up is set up like a sweet shop–though Zuckerberg says it will become a sit-down restaurant in the future. The shop has stations where families can take part in activities from coding with candy and 3-D printing desserts to creating ice cream with liquid nitrogen.
Families can make reservations for $5 a person, or walk right in to see which stations are available. In addition to having the immersive edible tech stations, Zuckerberg is inviting local startups and vendors to Sue’s in an effort to connect with the community.
“I want to keep [Sue’s] modular so that wherever we go, we can integrate local startups that are doing exciting things,” Zuckerberg says.
The idea for Sue’s Tech Kitchen first came to Zuckerberg around a year ago. She was writing a new book to follow Dot , a children’s book about a girl who integrates tech with her everyday life that’s now a TV show on NBC Universal Kids. Zuckerberg has long been an advocate for spotlighting women and girls in tech in hopes of giving young girls role models in STEM fields.
The character Sue was her latest attempt to push that mission, and the idea for Sue’s Tech Kitchen seemed like an obvious and interesting way to bring Sue to life, says Zuckerberg. While books and television are traditional mediums that can deliver her message in one way, Zuckerberg believes that experiences are a more modern way to launch content. “These are modern children who love technology experiences,” Zuckerberg says. She asked herself, “Where is the Chuck E. Cheese ‘s for the modern child? Why does that not exist?” Sue’s Tech Kitchen is set to open its doors at the Tomorrow Building in Chattanooga at the end of July for four days of beta testing, and then the pop-up will set off on a national tour that will last through 2018. Zuckerberg decided Chattanooga was the perfect jumping off spot for Sue’s Tech Kitchen, after visiting earlier this year.
“I think it’s just one of the coolest cities that is attracting a real innovative tech startup community,” Zuckerberg says. “I was just blown away by how this city was really rebranding itself–in the wake of losing factory and manufacturing jobs–as a new technology hub … I think that’s a really exciting model that a lot of cities could learn from.” The cities have yet to be decided for Sue’s tour after Chattanooga. Hopefully, Zuckerberg says, her company can find permanent locations for the sit-down version of Sue’s while taking in feedback from the families that visit at each tour city.
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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"Nokia nabs Samsung North America CEO to lead its consumer-focused Technologies division | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/nokia-nabs-samsung-north-america-ceo-to-lead-its-consumer-focused-technologies-division"
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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 nabs Samsung North America CEO to lead its consumer-focused Technologies division Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Gregory Lee (Nokia Technologies) 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.
Nokia has finally filled the vacant role of president of its Nokia Technologies division, nine months after Ramzi Haidamus stepped down.
The Finnish tech company has appointed Gregory Lee , who had been in various roles at Samsung since 2004 but served as CEO and president for the company’s North America division since 2014.
Haidamus joined Nokia Technologies back in 2014 but left the position last September when he was temporarily replaced by Brad Rodrigues, head of strategy and business development at Nokia Technologies, until they found a permanent replacement.
Once a major brand in the consumer realm, Nokia has shifted focus since it sold its mobile phone business to Microsoft back in 2014. It has doubled down on efforts with its network infrastructure business, Nokia Networks, while Nokia Technologies has played something of a bit part in keeping the brand alive in the public sphere. A number of products now emanate from Nokia Technologies, including its virtual reality (VR) Ozo camera and various products courtesy of digital health-tracking company Withings, which Nokia acquired for $192 million last year — though the Withings brand name is no more.
Nokia has also been edging back into the mobile phone fray, with a number of Nokia-branded devices slowly seeping into the market. Indeed, the company recently established a new business vehicle called HMD Global to design and develop new phones and tablets through a licensing arrangement. A number of Nokia devices have already launched around the world, including a feature phone , while at Mobile World Congress (MWC) this year, HMD Global revealed that three new Android smartphones were on the way. Nokia’s reentry to the U.S. smartphone market was confirmed earlier this week, with news that the mid-range Nokia 6 was set to launch for $229 through Amazon in early July.
It has hitherto been unclear how serious Nokia’s mobile phone aspirations for North America were, and the appointment of Lee brings just a little more clarity to the situation. As CEO, Lee has spearheaded Samsung’s various consumer businesses for North America, including mobile phones, however he has also been responsible for the company’s broader consumer electronics business in areas such as digital health and VR. This would seem to make him a great fit for Nokia Technologies, given its three current market segments : digital health, digital media (VR camera), and phones.
But the extent to which Lee is charged with bringing Nokia-branded phones to the North American market isn’t clear, especially since it’s technically HMD Global — a separate, independent business — that’s responsible for that segment.
“We have chosen the right leader to take Nokia Technologies forward at a time of renewed excitement about the Nokia brand around the world,” said Rajeev Suri, CEO and president of Nokia and chairman of Nokia Technologies, in a press release.
“Gregory’s passion for innovation and operational excellence, along with his proven ability to build and lead global consumer technology businesses, make him well suited to advance Nokia’s efforts in virtual reality, digital health, and beyond.” Lee will be based in California, where he will report directly to Suri.
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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"Microsoft will shut down Windows App Studio on December 1 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/microsoft-will-shut-down-windows-app-studio-on-december-1"
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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 will shut down Windows App Studio on December 1 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.
Microsoft today announced it is killing off its Windows App Studio service.
The free web-based tool, which is designed to let anyone build Universal Windows Platform ( UWP ) apps, will be shut down on December 1, 2017.
For those who want to keep building Windows Store apps without having to code them from scratch, Microsoft is pointing to Windows Template Studio , a Visual Studio 2017 extension that uses a wizard to guide you through the process. That tool, which was only announced last month, is also available as an open source project on GitHub.
“We took our learnings from the code generation engine and the existing wizard to provide a strong foundation for our code generation and developer experience in Windows Template Studio,” the Windows Apps Team said today.
Windows App Studio users should look to transition quickly. Although you have until December 1 to download your projects and data, there are two more dates that Microsoft has outlined as part of the sunsetting process.
Starting on July 15, only existing users will be able to sign in, and they will no longer be able to create new dynamic collections data sources. On September 15, the application editor will stop working and the dynamic collections API will stop providing data to existing applications. Microsoft promises to send multiple emails between now and December 1 to warn users about the app’s demise.
The biggest problem here is that because Windows Template Studio is an extension, it requires Visual Studio. Windows App Studio did not require downloading and installing a full-blown IDE by the fact that it’s a simple web app. As a result, Microsoft is increasing the friction for getting started with building Windows 10 apps, even if it believes Windows Template Studio is superior to its predecessor. But then again, Microsoft has stopped caring about the number of apps in its store and is more focused on bringing over the big names.
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"KEEN Growth Capital Acquires Partnership Interest in O'Dang, Maker of Innovative Hummus and Hummus Dressings | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/keen-growth-capital-acquires-partnership-interest-in-odang-maker-of-innovative-hummus-and-hummus-dressings"
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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 Press Release KEEN Growth Capital Acquires Partnership Interest in O’Dang, Maker of Innovative Hummus and Hummus Dressings Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn ORLANDO, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–June 30, 2017– KEEN Growth Capital (“KEEN”), a leading impact investing fund focused on better-for-you food and wellness brands, today announced the acquisition of a material interest in O’Dang, maker of innovative, premium hummus and hummus dressings. This acquisition is part of KEEN Growth Capital’s focus on greater social impact in the areas of nutritional well-being and disease mitigating and life-enhancing science and technology.
KEEN positioned and prepared O’Dang for the 4 th Annual Walmart U.S. Manufacturing Open Call on June 28, where more than 500 entrepreneurs from across the country presented at Walmart corporate offices in Bentonville, Ark. Product ideas spanned a broad range of categories, including home decor, apparel, hardware, toys, health and beauty aids, sporting goods and food.
O’Dang was acknowledged by Greg Foran, President and Chief Executive Officer of Walmart U.S. as one of the top three brands of the 500 presented at this event. O’Dang received a commitment to bring in multiple SKUs of hummus to a yet-to-be disclosed number of Walmart stores.
O’Dang Hummus was founded in 2014 by Jesse Wolfe as part of a University of Central Florida business class competition. Mr. Wolfe went on to present O’Dang on TV’s Shark Tank and garnered a deal with two Sharks. Now, as a KEEN portfolio company, O’Dang is poised to garner placement in a number of retailers and grocers nationwide. To attract the whole family, O’Dang currently offers hummus in six flavors: Buffalo Wing Hummus, Pepperoni Pizza Hummus, Queso Hummus, Salsa Hummus, Caramel Apple Crisp Hummus and Chocolate Hummus. Hummus dressings are available in four varieties: Ranch, Caesar, Honey Mustard and Italian. O’Dang hummus products are better-for-you, with lower sodium, fat and calories than most leading brands.
“The new partnership with KEEN is instrumental in taking O’Dang to the next level with major national retailers like Walmart,” said Jesse Wolfe, Founder and CEO of O’Dang. “I am elated by the acknowledgment from Walmart that O’Dang is an innovator, making better-for-you hummus enjoyable for all members of the family. ‘Hummus for All’ is the vision for our brand, making adventures in hummus delicious for everyone, everyday.” “We are thrilled to partner with founder Jesse Wolfe and O’Dang, an innovative leader in the hummus category. We’re equally excited about the positive reception of this brand at Walmart,” said Jerry Bello, Managing Partner of KEEN Growth Capital. “We think O’Dang will be a hit with consumers nationwide due its broad appeal to the whole family.” Jonathan Smiga, KEEN Growth Capital Managing Partner added, “We celebrate the fact that O’Dang is inclusive of age, gender and ethnic diversity. Truly, O’Dang is ‘Hummus for All.’ Because of this wide appeal, we anticipate O’Dang will be a high-performing company, yielding substantial returns for all stakeholders.” About KEEN Growth Capital KEEN paves the way for early stage impact brands to flourish. KEEN Growth Capital identifies food, beverage and wellness companies with great potential started by revolutionary-thinking, passionate entrepreneurs. The firm applies trusted skill and passion to develop portfolio brands into highly successful and respected companies. Infusion of intellectual and financial capital delivers positive outcomes for stakeholders – and ultimately the consumer. Investors benefit from outstanding returns and society is enriched by healthier products. KEEN is based in Orlando. Ideas welcome everywhere. Visit KEENGrowthCaptial.com for more.
About O’Dang O’Dang believes in “Hummus for All.” O’Dang makes premium hummus and hummus dressings that are adventurous and delicious, blending Mediterranean heritage with beloved, relatable American flavors. Exciting taste combinations make O’Dang the everyday hummus brand for the whole family. O’Dang believes in innovation, adventure and inclusion. Visit odanghummus.com for more.
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"India pushes Microsoft for cheaper Windows 10 upgrades after cyberattacks | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/india-pushes-microsoft-for-windows-upgrade-discount-for-50-million-users-in-wake-of-cyberattacks"
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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 India pushes Microsoft for cheaper Windows 10 upgrades after cyberattacks Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn A Microsoft logo is seen at a pop-up site for the new Windows 10 operating system at Roosevelt Field in Garden City, New York July 29, 2015.
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( Reuters ) — India is pressing Microsoft to offer a sharply discounted one-time deal to the more than 50 million Windows users in the country so that they can upgrade to the latest Windows 10 operating system in the wake of ransomware attacks.
Microsoft officials in India have “in principle agreed” to the request, Gulshan Rai, India’s cyber security coordinator, told Reuters over the phone on Friday.
A spokeswoman for Microsoft in India declined to comment on the matter. Officials at the company’s headquarters in the United States and regional headquarters in Asia also declined to comment.
If Microsoft agreed to such a discount, it could open up the global software giant to similar requests from around the world. Rai said the government was in talks with Microsoft management in India. It is not immediately clear whether any other countries were seeking similar deals.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Rai said India began talks with Microsoft after the WannaCry ransomware attack last month, noting that both WannaCry and this week’s attack, dubbed by some cyberexperts “NotPetya”, exploited vulnerabilities in older iterations of the Windows OS.
“The quantum of the price cut, we expect some detail on in a couple of days,” Rai said, adding the Indian government expected the company to offer the software at “throw-away prices.” “It will be a one-time upgrade offer to Windows 10 and it will be a discounted price for the entire country,” said Rai, who was hand-picked by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be the country’s first cyber security chief.
Rai declined to be more specific, but said he was confident that it would be “less than a quarter of the current price.” Rai, who has over two decades of experience in different IT areas including cyber security, said his team began coordinating with government agencies and regulators to push for OS upgrades soon after the WannaCry attack began on May 12.
The government’s quick action helped minimize the impact of the NotPetya attack, which affected two of India’s container port terminals, he said.
The government has also worked with banks to ensure that some 200,000 of the more than 240,000 ATMs in the country, most of which run on older Windows XP systems, have been upgraded with security patches released by Microsoft following the WannaCry attack, Rai said.
This is just an interim solution, however, said Rai, because although the patches fix vulnerabilities in older OS versions, they retain the limitations of those versions.
“New OS versions have different architecture, much improved architecture and much more resiliency,” said Rai.
Price-sensitive Windows 10 Home currently retails for 7,999 rupees ($124) in India, while the Pro version of the software typically used by large companies and institutions costs 14,999 rupees ($232).
Roughly 96 percent of an estimated 57 million computers in India currently run on Windows, according to Counterpoint Research. Apple- and Linux-based systems account for the rest.
Given that only a small minority of Windows users in India already have Windows 10, Microsoft could be forgoing several billion dollars of potential revenue if they agreed to sell just the more widely used Home version of Windows 10 at a quarter of its current Indian retail price.
In the price-sensitive Indian market, people using computers in households or small businesses often do not upgrade their OS given the steep costs. The wide use of pirated Windows OS versions, which would not automatically receive security patches, exacerbate the vulnerabilities.
In light of the attacks, Rai said, the government “wants to incentivise the common man to upgrade their systems”.
The WannaCry attack in May affected a state-run power firm in western India, while the NotPetya attack this week crippled operations at two port terminals in India operated by shipping giant AP Moller Maersk, which was affected globally.
(Additional reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal in Mumbai, Salvador Rodriguez in San Francisco and Jeremy Wagstaff in Singapore; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall) 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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Wired Articles Filtered
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