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"Conversion rate optimization: Killer essentials you can't afford to miss (webinar) | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/marketing/conversion-rate-optimization-killer-essentials-you-cant-afford-to-miss-webinar"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages VB Webinar Conversion rate optimization: Killer essentials you can’t afford to miss (webinar) Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn CRO (conversion rate optimization) offers tremendous gains in engagement, often at a fraction of the cost of other marketing tools. Join our free webinar and learn from the experts exactly how to leverage the power of CRO — and the best tools they’re using to do it.
Register here for free.
Driving visitors to your sites takes a lot of effort, but it’s only the first step. Persuading them to engage is the holy grail. What convinces a visitor to become a customer? For Ed Fu, CMO at job platform company ZipRecruiter , it goes far beyond fiddling with colors and buttons. “We view it as an experimental platform to test different theses. It’s a scientific way to discover evidence that supports a theory.” Eighteen months ago, ZipRecruiter raised $63 million in a first round of funding.
And Fu takes a similar approach to CRO. “It’s an investment paradigm,” Fu says, citing Warren Buffet’s discussion of compounding interest in the investing world. “We view it the same way.” He describes every A/B test win as interest — explaining that companies that use CRO effectively and consistently, perfecting and optimizing the user experience, have a high compounding interest rate.
“And,” he says, “that’s how you engineer growth.” But more importantly, conversion rate optimization is the evidence-backed way to create a great user experience that not only keeps them coming back, but also persuades and convinces.
“Conversion funnel optimization is a conversation, a give and take between you and your customers,” Fu emphasizes. “At the end of the day, you can test different forms, you can test a number of pages, but what you’re really doing is asking for information from your customers.” At each step of the process, you need to provide value to them. “The right amount of value,” Fu explains. “Not too much, not too little. It’s a dynamic give-and-take process that is almost like a sales conversation.” The focus, he says, is on the customer. “We look at how to have that conversation so that we’re constantly adding value for the customer, or for the prospect,” he says, “to increase the probability that they’re giving us more and more information and at the end — hopefully converting and actually subscribing with us.” He warns that A/B testing can be entirely too surface level. Most out-of-the box A/B testing platforms allow you to easily test headlines, and copy, and button sizes and color.
“But,” he warns, “you have to dig deeper. You have to dig very deep and really try and understand what your customers want and what problem you’re trying to solve for your customers.” Fu focuses ZipRecruiter’s optimiation heavily on the customized onboarding and product introduction experience, all designed in response to what they’ve learned about the customer’s motivations and pain points.
“If you think about it from the customer problems-first standpoint, and the customer segmentation first standpoint,” Fu notes, “you can unlock massive wins in CRO.” Fu will be joining VB’s Stewart Rogers who will dive into the best CRO tools based on VB’s latest in-depth CRO report — which ones are killing and which ones not so much — as well as Alex Lirtsman, Chief Strategist of ReadySetRocket.
Don’t miss out! Register here for free.
In this webinar, you’ll learn: How to leverage the most effective CRO tactics such as A/B split tests, website heat mapping, mobile, and performance tracking The best and worst tools on the market today based on Stewart Roger’s own VB Insight Conversion Optimization report The impact CRO can have on your brand Speakers: Stewart Rogers, Director of Marketing Technology, VentureBeat Ed Fu, CMO, ZipRecruiter Alex Lirtsman, Chief Strategist, ReadySetRocket Moderator: Wendy Schuchart, Analyst, VentureBeat The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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5,914 | 2,016 |
"Terbium Labs snags $6.4 million to prevent data theft | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/terbium-labs-snags-6-4-million-to-prevent-data-theft"
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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 Terbium Labs snags $6.4 million to prevent data theft 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.
Data intelligence startup Terbium Labs announced today that it staged a $6.4 million series A investment led by.
406 Ventures.
The Baltimore-based startup said it’ll use the investment to fuel enterprise sales of its intelligence system Matchlight, a dark web data intelligence platform that offers protection to “organizations from relentless attempts to steal data for personal, monetary, or political gain.” Terbium Labs has raised at least $9.7 million.
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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5,915 | 2,016 |
"'PayPal Mafia' impact explored in hypnotic new interactive graphic | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/paypal-mafia-impact-explained-in-hypnotic-new-interactive-graphic"
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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 Feature ‘PayPal Mafia’ impact explored in hypnotic new interactive graphic 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 mind-boggling reach of the so-called “PayPal Mafia” is well known in Silicon Valley.
This network of former PayPal employees and executives seems to be at the center of just about everything happening in Silicon Valley over the past decade. LinkedIn. Yelp. Yammer. 500 Startups. YouTube.
This list seems infinite, and the network of connections is byzantine. But the folks at Fleximize , a U.K.-based firm that offers various funding options to companies, decided to try to chart all these pathways in one crazy, interactive graphic.
So, for the startup-obsessed among us, feel free to indulge and nerd-out as you explore and discover the wealth of links this remarkable group has established.
See the full story of the PayPal Mafia.
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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5,916 | 2,016 |
"Japan’s telemedicine and drug delivery platform Port Medical raises $7.9 million | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/japans-telemedicine-and-drug-delivery-platform-port-medical-raises-7-9-million"
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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 Japan’s telemedicine and drug delivery platform Port Medical raises $7.9 million 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.
( The Bridge ) – Tokyo-based Port is preparing for the beta launch of Port Medical , a telemedicine platform allowing chronic patients to consult a doctor online. The company announced today that it has fundraised 900 million yen (about $7.9 million) from Eight Roads Ventures Japan (previously known as Fidelity Growth Partners Japan), Mitsubishi UFJ Capital , and Global Brain.
Port has been serving businesses with employment consulting services through the leveraging of social media as well as offering several vertical media sites such as CareerPark (tips for career building) and Tabimo (travel tips). The company learned of many issues in the healthcare and medical sectors through Medicil , a health and beauty tips website launched back last November, and then launched the Port Medical platform to address these issues. The latest funds will be used to improve media content, strengthen technology capability, and launch new businesses.
Port is expecting to attract 30 million readers for vertical media sites during 2016, expanding into other sectors beyond career building, travel, healthcare, and financial topics. They are planning to develop a recommendation engine using natural language processing and artificial intelligence (AI) for their existing and new services. Regarding the Port Medical platform, the company claims it will be more focused on partnering with governments, hospitals, and other stakeholders in the medical industry.
Translated by Masaru Ikeda, edited by “Tex” Pomeroy 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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5,917 | 2,016 |
"Smarter, better sound technology is finally catching up | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/dev/smarter-better-sound-technology-is-finally-catching-up"
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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 Smarter, better sound technology is finally catching up Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn This sponsored post is produced in association with BeMyApp.
The modern web browsing experience is increasingly being rendered in higher and higher definition — Youtube started supporting 4K Ultra HD video in 2014. Now, high definition audio is finally catching up to video and audience expectations with Dolby Digital Plus.
Dolby Digital Plus (or Enhanced AC-3) brings high definition 5.1 surround sound audio to supported web browsers: Microsoft Edge on Windows 10 and later and Apple Safari 9 on OS X 10.11 El Capitan and later. The smart audio technology can render high-quality sound compressed at better bit rates and smaller file sizes than conventional formats even without high-end gear.
Without the need for high-end audio hardware and native application on modern browsers, the technology can be used on a wide variety of projects — from web-based games to experimental browser-based multi-channel sound mixers.
Bolstering storytelling and driving experience Garrett Nantz shares that Dolby Digital Plus was central to the storytelling and immersive environment of the web browser game Feisty Galaxies.
Nantz is the Creative Director and Principal of Luxurious Animals, the creative digital agency behind the game.
“Sound quality is something that’s personally important to me,” Nantz said, “Part of your story can be told aurally as well as visually. There’s just something really powerful about the voice and sound effects and music that help immerse you more in the world than just visuals itself.” Nantz explained the new technology allowed the universe of Feisty Galaxies to be the funny, purposeful, space odyssey it was meant to be from the player’s perspective. Dolby Digital Plus has allowed what Nantz calls a “cute ‘em up” to play with spatialized, multi-dimensional sound while also remaining very efficient. Luxurious Animals managed to deliver better sound quality at a bit rate better than MP3s.
Attention developers! The Dolby Audio Web Challenge is now underway.
BeMyApp has partnered with Dolby to offer more than $10,000 for developers to creatively deliver premium sound using Dolby Digital Plus. Deadline is May 1, 2016.
Find out more here.
And so far, the game’s audio has received positive player feedback. The technology knows what to do with the multichannel 5.1 or 7.1 MPEG4 files, Nantz said, so essentially there’s a huge sound perspective that works well across listening devices: from laptop speakers to headphones to a sound system with surround sound decoders.
Jason Marsh, meanwhile, explains that there was no other technology that could have powered Re.Flow , a visual and aural mixer that matches abstract visuals with multi-dimensional sound. Re.Flow takes 16 clips, each with 5.1 surround sound encoding, and mixes up to eight of them at a time while retaining the encoding and sound quality — all within a browser.
Marsh, CEO and founder of virtual reality company Flow and webVR company Marshworks, explained the spatialized sounds in the resulting mix are matched with abstract visuals in the browser, making for a combined immersive experience.
“It definitely sounds like it’s coming from the sound field all the way around you and behind you, which you wouldn’t get without the right tech like Dolby Digital Plus,” Marsh said. He demoed the project on stages and conferences and has received “fabulous” feedback.
“I’ve done a number of art installations and the digital artistic community in San Francisco seems to be responding very well. I’ve lined up quite a few additional professional artistic opportunities this coming year. It’s very exciting and really fun to jump from tech to art and all of it is coming alive as one project,” he said.
Smarter sound tech for the future Dolby Digital Plus essentially brings the high-fidelity audio used in cinemas and home theaters to the web browser. It uses compression that bests the lossy codecs of typical formats like MP3s and AACs. In Feisty Galaxies, the audio file sizes were 25 percent smaller (up to 50 percent smaller for some files) at over 120 kilobits per second. For Re.Flow, the Dolby Digital Plus audio files that were 50 percent to 60 percent smaller than MP3 files actually sounded better.
Dolby Digital Plus also avoids common issues with lesser file formats, like how MP3s have problems with header information that always leads to silent gaps within sound loops. The technology is also smart enough to fall back to supported formats with just a few lines of code if the browser does not support its codecs.
So is audio finally catching up to the HD norm? “I definitely think that is the perfect analogy. Everyone’s looking for the 4K version of everything,” Nantz said, “When people see there’s a way to monetize audio content that’s superior and that has multi-channel that can immerse you further, it will get there.” This kind of smarter audio technology will also prove valuable in virtual reality, where the placement of objects in 3D space needs the multi-dimensional and spatial capabilities of Dolby Digital Plus.
“There’s still some future generational work to do to make it so you can do dynamic placing of objects in space instead of having to pre-encode a 5.1 audio file and the applications for that,” Marsh said, “[but] I think it’s great for step one. Moving forward I also see it’s going to be even more important” Learn more on how you can implement Dolby Digital Plus for the Dolby Developer team in this free webinar.
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].
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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5,918 | 2,016 |
"Google now offers 24/7 Chrome support for non-Google Apps customers | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/dev/google-now-offers-247-chrome-support-for-non-google-apps-customers"
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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 now offers 24/7 Chrome support for non-Google Apps customers Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Google is getting a wee bit more enterprisey. Today the company announced that it’s beginning to offer 24-by-7 phone and email customer support for Chrome to businesses that aren’t even paying to use Google Apps like Gmail and Docs.
The new program, Chrome for Work Assist, is a “contact us” affair. In other words, neither the blog post announcing the news nor the website that promotes it contains pricing information.
Before now, Chrome support was only available to Apps customers, Google for Work product manager Saswat Panigrahi wrote in the blog post. Chrome for Work Assist has only been available in the U.S. and Canada, he wrote, but will become more widely available in the future. He added that in addition to providing support, Google will be helping companies deploy Chrome across their workforce in the new offering.
Chrome has racked up more than 1 billion active users.
Longtime users might know their way around it, but for companies that pay for many Microsoft technologies, technical support for Chrome, specifically, could be most welcome.
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 sort of nuance is critical to getting businesses more comfortable with deploying core Google technologies. Success could mean greater willingness to pay for Google Apps, the Google public cloud, and other premium services.
Last year, Google hired enterprise software veteran Diane Greene by acquiring her company Bebop.
Since that deal, Google has done certain things to make its technology a more appealing choice. For instance, Google quietly launched a content delivery network and a competitor to public cloud market leader Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) Lambda event-driven computing service. And, last week, Google went public with the fact that music streaming service Spotify will be migrating its data infrastructure from AWS to the Google Cloud Platform. With these moves, and the new Chrome support for non-Apps customers, Google seems to be attempting to more fully shed its reputation as a consumer-focused company.
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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5,919 | 2,016 |
"Zambon Launches Xadago® (safinamide) in Italy for Patients with Mid- to Late-Stage Parkinson's Disease | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/zambon-launches-xadago-safinamide-in-italy-for-patients-with-mid-to-late-stage-parkinsons-disease"
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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 Zambon Launches Xadago® (safinamide) in Italy for Patients with Mid- to Late-Stage Parkinson’s Disease Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn MILAN–(BUSINESS WIRE)–February 29, 2016– Zambon S.p.A., an international pharmaceutical company strongly committed to the central nervous system (CNS) therapeutic area, and its partner Newron Pharmaceuticals S.p.A. (“Newron”), a research and development company focused on novel CNS and pain therapies, today announced the launch of Xadago® (safinamide) in Italy for the treatment of mid- to late-stage Parkinson’s disease (PD). Following the launch in Switzerland, Germany and Spain, Xadago® (safinamide) is now available in Italy as add-on therapy to a stable dose of levodopa (L-dopa) alone or in combination with other PD therapies for mid-to late-stage fluctuating patients.
Prof. Fabrizio Stocchi from IRCSS S. Raffaele, Rome, declared that “safinamide represents an important option for patients with PD already treated with L-dopa alone or with other therapeutic combinations. Its dopaminergic and non dopaminergic properties introduce a novelty within the drugs for PD treatment.” Prof. Stocchi added: “Safinamide has been demonstrated to significantly increase on time with no, or non-troublesome dyskinesias in addition to an improvement of motor functions (UPDRS III).
Studies performed in patients on L-Dopa have demonstrated its efficacy in benefiting both short-term (6 months) and long-term (up to 24 months) quality of life outcomes. Safinamide has been investigated in double blind, placebo-controlled studies of up to 24 months’ duration, where it showed a good safety profile with maintenance of the clinical benefits.
” Maurizio Castorina, CEO of Zambon S.p.A.
said: “The launch of Xadago® in Italy makes us particularly proud because it is the result of Italian research excellence and a major step forward in the treatment of this progressive disease. We are committed to developing innovative therapies for patients suffering from PD and other central nervous system diseases and we look forward to launching this new chemical entity in other European countries in the near future.” About Xadago® (safinamide) Safinamide is a new chemical entity with a unique mode of action including selective and reversible MAO-B-inhibition and blocking of voltage dependent sodium channels which leads to modulation of abnormal glutamate release. Clinical trials have established its efficacy in controlling motor symptoms and motor complications in the short term, maintaining this effect over 2 years. Results from 24 month double-blind controlled studies suggest that safinamide shows statistically significant effects on motor fluctuations (ON/OFF time) without increasing the risk of developing troublesome dyskinesia. This effect may be related to its dual mechanism acting on both the dopaminergic and the glutamatergic pathways. Safinamide is a once-daily dose and has no diet restrictions due to its high MAO-B/MAO-A selectivity. The New Drug Application (NDA) for Xadago® to the US FDA was accepted for filing by the US FDA, PDUFA date is March 29, 2016. Zambon has the rights to develop and commercialize Xadago® globally, excluding Japan and other key territories where Meiji Seika has the rights to develop and commercialize the compound.
References: Two-year, randomized, controlled study of safinamide as add-on to levodopa in mid to late Parkinson’s disease.
Borgohain, Rupam; Szasz, Jozsef; Stanzione, Paolo; Meshram, Chandrashekhar; Bhatt, Mohit H et al. (2014) Movement disorders : official journal of the Movement Disorder Society vol. 29 (10) p. 1273-80.
Anand R: Safinamide is associated with clinically important improvement in motor symptoms in fluctuating PD patients as add-on to levodopa (SETTLE). 17th International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders, Sydney, Australia, June 16-20, 2013.
About Parkinson’s disease PD is the second most common chronic progressive neurodegenerative disorder in the elderly after Alzheimer’s disease, affecting 1-2% of individuals aged ≥ 65 years worldwide. The prevalence of the PD market is expected to grow in the next years due to the increase in the global population and advancements in healthcare that contribute to an aging population at increased risk for PD. The diagnosis of PD is mainly based on observational criteria of muscular rigidity, resting tremor, or postural instability in combination with bradykinesia. As the disease progresses, symptoms become more severe. Early-stage patients are more easily managed on L-dopa. L-dopa remains as the most effective treatment for PD, and over 75% of the patients with PD receive L-dopa. However, long term treatment with L-dopa leads to seriously debilitating motor fluctuations, i.e. phases of normal functioning (ON-time) and decreased functioning (OFF-time). Furthermore, as a result of the use of high doses of L-dopa with increasing severity of the disease, many patients experience involuntary movements known as L-dopa-Induced Dyskinesia (LID). As the disease progresses, more drugs are used as an add-on to what the patient already takes, and the focus is to treat symptoms while managing LID and the “off-time” effects of L-dopa. Most current therapies target the dopaminergic system that is implicated in the pathogenesis of PD, and most current treatments act by increasing dopaminergic transmission that leads to amelioration of motor symptoms.
References: BMC Oertel. European Handbook of Neurological Management, Vol1, Chapter 14 & 15, 2011.
NICE PD guideline, 2006.
About Zambon Zambon is a leading Italian pharmaceutical and fine-chemical multinational company that has earned a strong reputation over the years for high quality products and services. Zambon is well-established in 3 therapeutic areas: respiratory, pain and woman care, and is very strongly committed to its entry into the CNS space. Zambon S.p.A. produces high quality products thanks to the management of the whole production chain which involves Zach (Zambon chemical), a privileged partner for API, custom synthesis and generic products. The Group is strongly working on the treatment of the chronic respiratory diseases as asthma and BPCO and on the CNS therapeutic area with Xadago® (safinamide) for the Parkinson treatment. Zambon is headquartered in Milan and was established in 1906 in Vicenza. Zambon is present in 19 countries with subsidiaries and almost 2,700 employees with manufacturing units in Italy, Switzerland, France, China and Brazil. Zambon products are commercialized in 84 countries.
For details on Zambon please see: www.zambongroup.com About Newron Pharmaceuticals Newron (SIX: NWRN) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapies for patients with diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) and pain. The Company is headquartered in Bresso near Milan, Italy. In addition to Xadago® for Parkinson’s disease, Newron has a strong pipeline of promising treatments for rare disease patients at various stages of clinical development, including sarizotan for patients with Rett syndrome and ralfinamide for patients with specific rare pain indications. Newron is also developing NW-3509 as the potential first add-on therapy for the treatment of patients with positive symptoms of schizophrenia.
For more information, please visit: www.newron.com Important Notices This document contains forward-looking statements, including (without limitation) about (1) Newron’s ability to develop and expand its business, successfully complete development of its current product candidates and current and future collaborations for the development and commercialisation of its product candidates and reduce costs (including staff costs), (2) the market for drugs to treat CNS diseases and pain conditions, (3) Newron’s anticipated future revenues, capital expenditures and financial resources, and (4) assumptions underlying any such statements. In some cases these statements and assumptions can be identified by the fact that they use words such as “will”, “anticipate”, “estimate”, “expect”, “project”, “intend”, “plan”, “believe”, “target”, and other words and terms of similar meaning. All statements, other than historical facts, contained herein regarding Newron’s strategy, goals, plans, future financial position, projected revenues and costs and prospects are forward-looking statements.
By their very nature, such statements and assumptions involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that predictions, forecasts, projections and other outcomes described, assumed or implied therein will not be achieved. Future events and actual results could differ materially from those set out in, contemplated by or underlying the forward-looking statements due to a number of important factors. These factors include (without limitation) (1) uncertainties in the discovery, development or marketing of products, including without limitation negative results of clinical trials or research projects or unexpected side effects, (2) delay or inability in obtaining regulatory approvals or bringing products to market, (3) future market acceptance of products, (4) loss of or inability to obtain adequate protection for intellectual property rights, (5) inability to raise additional funds, (6) success of existing and entry into future collaborations and licensing agreements, (7) litigation, (8) loss of key executive or other employees, (9) adverse publicity and news coverage, and (10) competition, regulatory, legislative and judicial developments or changes in market and/or overall economic conditions.
Newron may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in forward-looking statements and assumptions underlying any such statements may prove wrong. Investors should therefore not place undue reliance on them. There can be no assurance that actual results of Newron’s research programmes, development activities, commercialisation plans, collaborations and operations will not differ materially from the expectations set out in such forward-looking statements or underlying assumptions.
Newron does not undertake any obligation to publicly up-date or revise forward looking statements except as may be required by applicable regulations of the SIX Swiss Exchange where the shares of Newron are listed.
This document does not contain or constitute an offer or invitation to purchase or subscribe for any securities of Newron and no part of it shall form the basis of or be relied upon in connection with any contract or commitment whatsoever.
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"Yahoo may write down goodwill value of Tumblr | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/yahoo-may-write-down-goodwill-value-of-tumblr"
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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 Yahoo may write down goodwill value of Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Outside the Yahoo office in San Francisco.
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(Reuters) – Yahoo said it may have to write down the goodwill value of Tumblr, more than two years after the web pioneer spent $1.1 billion to buy the microblogging site.
Yahoo said earlier in the month it took a $230 million impairment charge related to Tumblr and was considering strategic alternatives for its core internet business.
“It is reasonably possible that changes in judgments … could cause the company to consider some portion or all of the remaining goodwill of the Tumblr reporting unit to become impaired,”Yahoo said in a regulatory filing on Monday.
The deal for Tumblr was then seen as a bold bet by Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer to revitalize the company by co-opting a Web property with strong visitor traffic but little revenue.
Yahoo said on Friday it would take pretax charges of $64 million to $78 million, mostly in the first quarter of 2016, due to job cuts and other restructuring moves.
Of the total, $40 million to $48 million would be for severance pay and related cash expenditures, the company said in a filing.
Yahoo has said it would reduce workforce by 15 percent by the end of 2016 and close offices in Dubai, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Milan.
The company’s shares closed up 1.3 percent at $31.79 on Monday and were largely unchanged in extended trading.
(Reporting by Alan John Koshy in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza and Sriraj Kalluvila) 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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"Svbtle's Dustin Curtis promises the blogging platform will remain online 'forever' | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/svbtles-dustin-curtis-promises-the-blogging-platform-will-remain-online-forever"
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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 Svbtle’s Dustin Curtis promises the blogging platform will remain online ‘forever’ Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Dustin Curtis has made a bold promise that his blogging platform and content will remain available on the web “forever.” Svbtle’s chief executive hoped that this guarantee would demonstrate its commitment to the online presence of users, while also helping to gain new ones.
“One of the biggest downsides of investing time and energy into using a new startup’s service is the nearly inevitable fact that, at some point, that startup will likely be acqui-hired and shut down, transitioned into something entirely different, or even completely fail,” Curtis wrote in a blog post. A consequence of these events is the loss of data from millions of users or untold hours spent transitioning to a new service.
With the “Svbtle Promise,” the company will let you continue to publish new content as long as you’re paying $6 per month.
Additionally, it promises that should an acquisition be made and “negatively impact the service,” Curtis and his team would do everything in their power to ensure that the site would remain standing and you could still use it.
“We are a small, profitable company with low costs that are covered by paying customers. And while we hope to continue growing, we also hope to maintain a sense of dedication to how we treat our customers’ and users’ data. These promises reflect how we want our own content to be treated. In that way, both the Svbtle service and its customers’ interest are aligned. We like it that way,” reads part of the Svbtle Promise.
Curtis told VentureBeat in an email that he had always been planning on making this promise but was spurred into action after hearing from users that data durability was a concern for them: “I decided to make the forever promise official and public right now.” He declined to state whether Svbtle had been the target of an acquisition, but that “the potential for an acquisition or an ‘exit’ of any kind is indeed one of the reasons we made this promise public. Those transactions tend to kill startups, and we want to make sure it doesn’t kill Svbtle.” The company said more features are coming later this year, such as design customization and support for a service for companies that is “dead-simple” and is a “complete solution.” It’ll also working on establishing an efficient network that will better pair readers and writers to help spread ideas and content.
Svbtle started in 2011 as a way to offer users another option to publish their content — Curtis said he was tired of using services that were “incredibly slow, contained endless lists of unnecessary features, had egregious security bugs, and which required me to be heavily locked in to proprietary networks with little sense of my own identity.” Its launch came about around the same time as Evan Williams’ Medium, which has seen quite a bit of success, including most recently raising $57 million and also opening up a publishing API , WordPress plugin, and adding new content partners.
Updated at 4:55 p.m. on Monday: This post has been modified to include statements from Dustin Curtis.
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"Newron Pharmaceuticals Supports Rare Disease Day® and Joins Global Movement to Raise Awareness for Rare Diseases | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/newron-pharmaceuticals-supports-rare-disease-day-and-joins-global-movement-to-raise-awareness-for-rare-diseases"
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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 Newron Pharmaceuticals Supports Rare Disease Day® and Joins Global Movement to Raise Awareness for Rare Diseases Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn MILAN–(BUSINESS WIRE)–February 29, 2016– Newron Pharmaceuticals S.p.A. (“Newron”), a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapies for patients with diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) and pain, today announced it has joined forces with 300 million people living with rare diseases and health care advocates around the world for Rare Disease Day®, an annual global initiative dedicated to elevating public understanding of rare diseases and calling attention to the special challenges of people affected by these.
“We are proud to support NORD (The National Organization for Rare Disorders in the USA) and EURORDIS (the European Organization for Rare Diseases) to raise awareness for rare diseases and their devastating impact on patients’ lives,” said Stefan Weber, CEO of Newron, “We are particularly honored to support groups such as Rettsyndrome.org and Curerett.org, who are dedicated to improving the lives of girls living with Rett syndrome, which is one of more than 6,000 rare diseases.” About Rare Disease Day® Rare Disease Day was launched by EURORDIS and its Council of National Alliances in 2008. Held on the last day of February each year, a rare day, it seeks to raise awareness of the impact that rare diseases have on the lives of patients and those who care for them. What began as a European event quickly became international in scope, with participants from more countries joining each year. See the Rare Disease Day 2016 video.
Since Rare Disease Day began, thousands of events have been held throughout the world, reaching hundreds of thousands of people. The political momentum resulting from the Day has also served advocacy purposes, contributing to the advancement of EU policies on rare diseases and the creation of national plans for rare diseases in a number of EU Member States and now in other countries.
In the United States, the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) promotes and celebrates Rare Disease Day. For more information about Rare Disease Day in the U.S., please visit http://www.rarediseaseday.us/.
For information about global activities, please visit www.rarediseaseday.org.
About Rare Diseases The European Union considers a disease as rare when it affects fewer than 1 in 2,000 citizens. According to EURORDIS, over 6000 different rare diseases have been identified to date, affecting over 60 million people in Europe and the USA alone. Due to the low prevalence of each disease, medical expertise is rare, knowledge is scarce, care offering inadequate and research limited. Despite their great overall number, rare disease patients are the orphans of health systems, often denied diagnosis, treatment and the benefits of research.
Newron is pursuing clinical development with sarizotan in Rett syndrome.
About Rett Syndrome Rett syndrome is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder primarily affecting females, with an estimated prevalence ranging from one in 10,000 to one in 20,000 females. There are no approved treatments available. Rett syndrome is characterised by a loss of acquired fine and gross motor skills and the development of neurological, cognitive and autonomic dysfunction, which leads to loss of ability to conduct daily life activities, walk or communicate. Rett syndrome also is associated with a reduced life expectancy. Approximately 25 percent of the deaths in patients with Rett syndrome are possibly related to multiple cardio-respiratory dysrhythmias that result from brain stem immaturity and autonomic failure. More than 95 percent of these patients have a random mutation in the MeCP2 gene. Episodes of apnea, hyperventilation and disordered breathing are found in approximately 70 percent of patients with Rett syndrome at some stage of their life.
*For more information on Rett Syndrome, visit www.rettsyndrome.org About Newron Pharmaceuticals Newron (SIX: NWRN) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of novel therapies for patients with diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) and pain. The Company is headquartered in Bresso near Milan, Italy. Marketing authorization in the EU for Xadago ® (safinamide) for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease was granted by the EU Commission in February 2015, followed by Swissmedic’s marketing authorization for Switzerland in November 2015. The drug has been launched by Newron’s partner Zambon in the first key EU countries Germany, Spain and Italy, as well as in Switzerland. The New Drug Application (NDA) has been accepted for review by the FDA, PDUFA date March 29, 2016. Zambon has the rights to develop and commercialize safinamide globally, excluding Japan and other key Asian territories, where Meiji Seika has the rights to develop and commercialize the compound. Newron’s additional projects are based on highly promising treatments for rare disease patients and are at various stages of clinical development. They include Sarizotan for patients with Rett Syndrome, for which Newron received Orphan Drug Designation in both the US and the EU, ralfinamide for patients with specific rare pain indications, and NW-3509 as potentially the first add-on therapy for the treatment of patients with positive symptoms of schizophrenia.
Important Notices This document contains forward-looking statements, including (without limitation) about (1) Newron’s ability to develop and expand its business, successfully complete development of its current product candidates and current and future collaborations for the development and commercialisation of its product candidates and reduce costs (including staff costs), (2) the market for drugs to treat CNS diseases and pain conditions, (3) Newron’s anticipated future revenues, capital expenditures and financial resources, and (4) assumptions underlying any such statements. In some cases these statements and assumptions can be identified by the fact that they use words such as “will”, “anticipate”, “estimate”, “expect”, “project”, “intend”, “plan”, “believe”, “target”, and other words and terms of similar meaning. All statements, other than historical facts, contained herein regarding Newron’s strategy, goals, plans, future financial position, projected revenues and costs and prospects are forward-looking statements.
By their very nature, such statements and assumptions involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and risks exist that predictions, forecasts, projections and other outcomes described, assumed or implied therein will not be achieved. Future events and actual results could differ materially from those set out in, contemplated by or underlying the forward-looking statements due to a number of important factors. These factors include (without limitation) (1) uncertainties in the discovery, development or marketing of products, including without limitation negative results of clinical trials or research projects or unexpected side effects, (2) delay or inability in obtaining regulatory approvals or bringing products to market, (3) future market acceptance of products, (4) loss of or inability to obtain adequate protection for intellectual property rights, (5) inability to raise additional funds, (6) success of existing and entry into future collaborations and licensing agreements, (7) litigation, (8) loss of key executive or other employees, (9) adverse publicity and news coverage, and (10) competition, regulatory, legislative and judicial developments or changes in market and/or overall economic conditions.
Newron may not actually achieve the plans, intentions or expectations disclosed in forward-looking statements, and assumptions underlying any such statements may prove wrong. Investors should therefore not place undue reliance on them. There can be no assurance that actual results of Newron’s research programmes, development activities, commercialisation plans, collaborations and operations will not differ materially from the expectations set out in such forward-looking statements or underlying assumptions.
Newron does not undertake any obligation to publicly update or revise forward-looking statements except as may be required by applicable regulations of the SIX Swiss Exchange, where the shares of Newron are listed.
This document does not contain or constitute an offer or invitation to purchase or subscribe for any securities of Newron, and no part of it shall form the basis of or be relied upon in connection with any contract or commitment whatsoever.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160229005170/en/ Media Newron Pharmaceuticals Stefan Weber, +39 02 6103 46 26 CEO [email protected] or UK/Europe FTI Consulting Julia Phillips, +44 (0)20 3727 1000 or Switzerland IRF Communications Martin Meier-Pfister, +41 43 244 81 40 or Germany MC Services AG Anne Hennecke, +49 211 52925222 [email protected] or U.S.
LaVoieHealthScience David Connolly, +1 617-374-8800, Ext. 108 [email protected] or Investors and analysts Newron Pharmaceuticals Stefan Weber, +39 02 6103 46 30 CEO [email protected] or Germany MC Services AG Anne Hennecke, +49 211 52925222 [email protected] or U.S.
LaVoieHealthScience David Connolly, +1 617-374-8800, Ext. 108 [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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"Indonesia says Internet giants need to pay tax or face blockages | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/indonesia-says-internet-giants-need-to-pay-tax-or-face-blockages"
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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 Indonesia says Internet giants need to pay tax or face blockages Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Indonesia's Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro speaks with Reuters during an interview at his office in Jakarta September 30, 2015. REUTERS/Darren Whiteside JAKARTA (Reuters) — Global Internet-based firms could have their services blocked in Indonesia if they do not obtain “permanent establishment” status in the country and pay Indonesian tax, government officials said on Monday.
Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro told reporters all Internet-based services must have a local presence in the form of a representative office or a full-fledged company.
“All have to create a permanent establishment, like the contractors for the oil sector, so they can be taxed,” he said.
The minister did not name specific Internet firms that would be impacted.
Separately, Communications Ministry spokesman Ismail Cawidu told Reuters his ministry aims to issue a regulation in March containing rules to apply to streaming and messaging providers as well as social media websites.
Indonesians are huge users of Google and social media sites. The country is considered Twitter’s capital and is home to the world’s fourth-largest number of Facebook users.
Cawidu cited national interests on taxes and controlling content related to terrorism and pornography as the main reasons for the regulation.
If they do not comply, Indonesia will reduce their bandwidth or block them entirely, Cawidu said, adding that there might be a transition period under the new rules.
“They have massive customers in Indonesia… If someone places an ad in Google, what do you think we get?” he said.
The Communication Ministry estimated digital advertising from Indonesia was worth about $800 million last year but the business was left untaxed because of loopholes in regulations.
Some of the internet giants have already formed legal entities in Jakarta, including Google, while Facebook and Twitter have representative offices.
Communication Minister Rudiantara told Metro TV on Sunday even those already here may face greater scrutiny of their tax reports.
“Google has an office in Indonesia, but digital age transactions do not go through that office. That is what we’re looking to straighten out,” Rudiantara said, giving an example.
Efforts to get immediate comment from Google, Facebook and Twitter were unsuccessful.
(Reporting by Gayatri Suroyo, Hidayat Setiaji and Agustinus Beo Da Costa; Editing by Richard Borsuk) 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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"Google says it bears 'some responsibility' after self-driving car hit bus | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/google-says-it-bears-some-responsibility-after-self-driving-car-hit-bus"
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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 says it bears ‘some responsibility’ after self-driving car hit bus Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn A prototype of Google's own self-driving vehicle is seen during a media preview of Google's current autonomous vehicles in Mountain View, California September 29, 2015. REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage 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.
(By David Shepardson, Reuters) — Alphabet Inc’s Google said on Monday it bears “some responsibility” after one of its self-driving cars struck a municipal bus in a minor crash earlier this month.
The crash may be the first case of one of its autonomous cars hitting another vehicle and making an error. The Mountain View, California-based Internet search leader and tech firm said it updated its software after the crash to avoid future incidents.
In a Feb. 23 report filed with California regulators, Google said the crash took place in Mountain View on Feb. 14 when a self-driving Lexus RX450h sought to get around some sandbags in a wide lane.
Google said in the filing the autonomous vehicle was traveling at less than 2 miles per hour, while the bus was moving at about 15 miles per hour.
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 vehicle and the test driver “believed the bus would slow or allow the Google (autonomous vehicle) to continue,” it said.
But three seconds later, as the Google car in autonomous mode re-entered the center of the lane, it struck the side of the bus, causing damage to the left front fender, front wheel and a driver side sensor. No one was injured.
Google said in a statement on Monday that “we clearly bear some responsibility, because if our car hadn’t moved, there wouldn’t have been a collision. That said, our test driver believed the bus was going to slow or stop to allow us to merge into the traffic, and that there would be sufficient space to do that.” The company also said it has reviewed this incident “and thousands of variations on it in our simulator in detail and made refinements to our software. From now on, our cars will more deeply understand that buses (and other large vehicles) are less likely to yield to us than other types of vehicles, and we hope to handle situations like this more gracefully in the future.” There has been no official determination of fault in the crash. Google has previously said that its autonomous vehicles have never been at fault in any crashes.
The Mountain View Police Department said no police report was filed in the incident.
Stacey Hendler Ross, spokeswoman for the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, which operates municipal buses in Mountain View, confirmed the incident occurred, but said she did not know any details.
A spokesman for the California Department of Motor Vehicles said on Monday it will speak to Google to gather additional information, but added “the DMV is not responsible for determining fault.” A spokesman for the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration declined to comment.
The crash comes as Google has been making the case that it should be able to test vehicles without steering wheels and other controls.
In December, Google criticized California for proposing regulations that would require autonomous cars to have a steering wheel, throttle and brake pedals when operating on public roads. A licensed driver would need to be ready to take over if something went wrong.
Google said in November that in six years of its self-driving project, it has been involved in 17 minor accidents during more than two million miles of autonomous and manual driving combined.
“Not once was the self-driving car the cause of the accident,” Google said at the time.
(Reporting by David Shepardson, additional reporting by Bernie Woodall; editing by Chris Reese, G Crosse) VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Google and Bing agree: Trump will win on Super Tuesday (Update) | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/google-and-bing-agree-trump-and-clinton-will-win-super-tuesday"
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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 and Bing agree: Trump will win on Super Tuesday (Update) 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.
Update/Correction: This post was updated at 5:01 a.m. Pacific 3/1/2016 to reflect current search data. The headline of an earlier version of this post was corrected to remove suggestion that Google and Bing showed similar predictions for Clinton.
Today is Super Tuesday, when 12 states hold their primary elections and caucuses in the U.S. presidential campaign. It is arguably the most important day for candidates in the battle for the Democratic and Republican nominations, a day when the most states and the most delegates are up for grabs. It’s also a day when the wisdom of the crowds, a hallmark of American democracy, is put to the test.
And while entering a search query is quite different from casting a vote, a look at search trends on Bing Search Wave and Google Trends offers a powerful indicator of people’s support for the candidates. Call it the curiosity of the crowds.
As of this writing (on the morning of Super Tuesday), both Bing and Google agree: Based on search volume, Trump will win all 11 Republican contests. However, they disagree on the Democratic contests, with Bing showing Sanders ahead 6 states to Clinton’s 5 states, and Google showing Sanders ahead in 9 of the 11 contested states. (The discrepancy between 11 contests across 12 states is due to Alaska holding its Democratic contest on March 26 and Alaska holding its Republican contest on March 29.) How the Republican candidates rank on Bing Search Wave : How the Democratic candidates rank on Bing Search Wave : How the Republican candidates rank on Google Trends : For the Democratic candidates, Google Trends is ranking them on a state-by-state basis. For example, Texas: For updated information on candidate search queries, visit Bing Search Wave and Google Trends throughout Super Tuesday.
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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"Clearside Biomedical, Inc. Announces Appointment of Richard J. Croarkin to the Board of Directors | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/clearside-biomedical-inc-announces-appointment-of-richard-j-croarkin-to-the-board-of-directors"
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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 Clearside Biomedical, Inc. Announces Appointment of Richard J. Croarkin to the Board of Directors Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn ALPHARETTA, Ga.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–February 29, 2016– Clearside Biomedical, Inc., a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company developing innovative first-in-class drug therapies to treat blinding diseases of the eye, today announced that Richard J. Croarkin has been appointed to Clearside’s Board of Directors. Mr. Croarkin is the former Senior Vice President of Finance, Chief Financial Officer & Corporate Strategy Officer of Alcon, Inc. and brings extensive global financial experience from working for diverse companies, including Nestlé Health Science S.A., Pepsico Incorporated and AMAX, Inc.
“We are delighted to have Rick join our Board of Directors,” said Daniel H. White, CEO and President of Clearside. “Rick’s extensive financial experience and understanding of the medical industry will be invaluable to Clearside as our company continues to grow.” “I am excited about the opportunity to work with the team at Clearside as they advance the treatment of blinding diseases of the back-of-the-eye using their proprietary suprachoroidal space (SCS™) microinjector-based drug therapies delivered via the suprachoroidal space,” said Mr. Croarkin.
Mr. Croarkin served as Chief Financial Officer of Nestlé Health Science S.A., a division of Nestlé focused on medicalized nutrition solutions for chronic medical conditions. As noted above, Mr. Croarkin worked at Alcon, Inc. from August 2007 to November 2010. Prior to Alcon, he served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Nestlé Waters North America. Before joining Nestlé, Mr. Croarkin worked for Pepsico Incorporated for 11 years where he served in several global senior financial positions including Chief Financial Officer of Pepsi-Cola Latin America and Pepsi-Cola Canada. Mr. Croarkin started his career with AMAX, Inc. where he worked in treasury, corporate development and planning. He holds a BA in Economics from Georgetown University, an MBA in Finance from the University of Connecticut and a Diploma in French language from Alliance Francaise in Paris, France.
Mr. Croarkin is currently a Director on the Board of Aerie Pharmaceuticals, Inc., which he joined in May 2015. Mr. Croarkin also serves as a panelist on the NASDAQ Listing Qualifications Panel.
About Clearside Biomedical, Inc.
Clearside Biomedical, Inc., headquartered in Alpharetta, GA, is a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company developing innovative first-in-class drug therapies to treat blinding diseases of the eye using Clearside’s proprietary SCS™ microinjector to reach diseased tissue through the suprachoroidal space. Clearside holds intellectual property protecting the delivery of drugs of any type through the suprachoroidal space to reach the back of the eye.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160229005229/en/ Clearside Biomedical, Inc.
Charles Deignan, 678-270-4005 Chief Financial Officer [email protected] or The Trout Group Investors Matthew Beck, 646-378-2933 [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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"Amazon and Brita launch a $45 water pitcher that reorders your filters automatically | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/amazon-and-brita-launch-a-45-water-pitcher-that-reorders-your-filters-automatically"
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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 and Brita launch a $45 water pitcher that reorders your filters automatically Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Brita Water Pitcher 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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Amazon has partnered with Germany-based water-filtration giant Brita to launch a new smart water pitcher.
Above: Brita As with most products that come with “smart” as part of their branding, the $45 device is Wi-Fi enabled, and it sports a built-in feature to monitor the amount of water that passes through the jug’s filter. When the filter approaches the end of its life — after roughly 40 gallons of water — a new filter arrives courtesy of Amazon’s Dash Replenishment service.
It’s basically designed to keep your drinking water fresh and save you from having to remember to replace the filter.
The Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as a major driving force behind many emerging products. At the Consumer Electronics Show back in January, Samsung unveiled an eclectic mix of products , such as smart fridges, while at Mobile World Congress last week, a Samsung spin-off company debuted smart shoes.
And last week, the major tech companies collaborated on a new IoT-focused standards group aimed at boosting interoperability.
That we now have a smart water jug in our midst should not be overly surprising, especially given that Amazon already offers a similar reordering service for products such as printer ink cartridges.
So why not water filters too? “We saw an opportunity to work with Amazon to make keeping up to date on filter changes effortless for Brita users,” explained Brita’s general manager, Ed Huber. “By integrating Wi-Fi connectivity into this pitcher so it can connect with Amazon Dash Replenishment, we’ve created an elegant, simple solution to eliminate that moment when you realize you didn’t reorder your filter.” It’s also worth noting here that Brita has been retooling its filter replacement cycle with each new product launch, from purely manual refills to an onboard digital counter that reminds you when to order. These efforts have culminated in this entirely automated system that completely removes the hassle of upgrading the filter. In many ways, the Amazon tie-up is the perfect scenario for Brita.
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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"Twitter experiments with trending tweets in the timeline | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/social/twitter-experiments-with-trending-tweets-in-the-timeline"
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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 Twitter experiments with trending tweets in the timeline Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Tweet 1/5 in the "#AusOpen is trending" box in my timeline.
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Twitter is once again experimenting with the precious timeline. This morning I came across a cluster of five tweets on a trending topic.
The tweets appeared on an Android phone under a type of heading I hadn’t seen before — “#AusOpen is trending.” #AusOpen stands for the Australian Open, a tennis tournament currently taking place in Melbourne. But at the moment, #AusOpen doesn’t even seem to be trending globally — it appears in my automatically tailored Trends list when I’m logged into Twitter.com on desktop, but it’s missing from the more generic Trends list on Twitter.com when I’m logged out. Still, even if Twitter thinks my geography or some other factor suggests that I would be interested in #AusOpen, much less five tweets about it, I’m afraid I’m not. (I’m not the only one to see these trending tweets in the past few days; they’ve shown up for a few other users , too.) A Twitter spokesperson confirmed that this is an ongoing experiment.
This is Twitter’s most recent episode of tinkering with the timeline — one of many parts of the product Twitter has run experiments with. Last month, Twitter was reported to be ordering tweets in the timeline in a way that was not in reverse chronological order.
In 2014, Twitter was experimenting with individual recommended Tweets.
In this case, the unit of experimentation is a unit of tweets.
Above: Tweet 2/5 in the “#AusOpen is trending” box in my timeline.
Above: Tweet 3/5 in the “#AusOpen is trending” box in my timeline.
Above: Tweet 4/5 in the “#AusOpen is trending” box in my timeline.
Above: Tweet 5/5 in the “#AusOpen is trending” box in my timeline.
This reminds me of Facebook, which sometimes populates the News Feed with social media content about subjects that many people are talking about. It can have the effect of bringing you out of your bubble and exposing you to other things that are going on in the world.
But like any other Twitter experiment, it’s unclear if the company will roll it out to everyone or remove it at some point.
Next to the “#AusOpen is trending” heading that I saw was an X — just as there is on Twitter’s “While you were away…” feature, which contains a few older tweets and shows up from time to time. I tapped the X and saw a dialog box. “Dismiss this?” I tapped yes. A new dialog box asked if I liked the feature. I tapped no.
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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"Take It To's blogging platform helps creative professionals showcase and share their work | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/social/take-it-tos-blogging-platform-helps-creative-professionals-showcase-and-share-their-work"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Take It To’s blogging platform helps creative professionals showcase and share their work 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.
Take It To today launched a content management system aimed specifically at creative professionals. You might think of it as having a style similar to Medium, with aesthetics like Tumblr or Pinterest, but there’s more to this than meets the eye. It’s billed as a way to give artists, designers, photographers, models, and others more control over how and with whom their content is shared. Take It To is looking to expose its blogging platform to this audience in a way similar to how Vimeo is viewed.
Marcus Mam, a fashion and celebrity photographer and Take It To cofounder, said that his platform was “developed by creative professionals, for creative professionals.” “We set out to create a platform where content can benefit from the synergy that a social media platform can provide, while at the same time addressing the limitations of the linear feed model that all of the current social platforms have adopted,” Mam said. “On Take It To, users can finally showcase, collect, organize, and share content in unprecedented ways; content remains relevant and doesn’t end up lost and forgotten in the feed.” The platform currently only offers one layout, but there’s some flexibility in how it’s implemented. Users can create mini-magazines inside their template and share photos, artwork, drawings, videos, and other creative projects to a select audience. Users can customize their magazines in a variety of ways, including what the cover art looks like, where specific photos appear, and corresponding descriptions.
What the company is trying to do is give creative professionals a more interactive way of showcasing their work. Take It To doesn’t believe that platforms like Squarespace, WordPress, Tumblr, and others adequately provide the support that photographers, videographers, artists, designers, models, and other industry types need.
When creating a magazine, creators have the ability to drop in how many photos and videos that they want, including content pulled from social media. They can also put in descriptions to help you better understand what’s going on in each piece of work. There’s certainly a social component to Take It To, where people can follow each other and even share others’ content. However, unlike with reposts on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, etc., every comment and favorite is tagged back to the original author, not the person who shared the work.
Mam told VentureBeat that users can upload files of any size to the service, including full-resolution images. However, there will be some compression: “When the images are uploaded to our server, there is post-processing to reduce the file size, change the orientation of the image if it’s not correct, and finally generate smaller versions. After that it’s sent to [Amazon’s] S3 for storage. Only GIF images don’t have post-processing because we observed that it could halter them.” One downside of Take It To is the lack of a native mobile app at launch. However, Mam explained that his team is developing Android and iOS apps, which will be released around March or April.
Take It To currently is available for free, but the company is looking at possible ways to monetize the service, including charging $5 to $10 per month for extra storage and future productivity and business tools. An ecommerce offering is also being discussed to help creators make money off of their work.
Mam’s team is also testing out whether native advertising can be leveraged on the platform through something called “sponsored collaborations.” He describes it like this: “As brands increasingly want to find relevance with the sought-after audience on our platform, they can do so in a meaningful way by joining forces with our creative community and turning their product or service into a work of art. Even during our beta phase, we found organic collaborations emerging between artists of varying disciplines, such as illustration and fashion design. We look forward to facilitating that same cross-pollination of ideas between select artists and brands on exclusive, never before seen content.” Take It To started off as a bootstrapped startup, but has since raised $1 million in funding from an undisclosed investor in October 2014.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"How Twitter could be 10X bigger, 100X more profitable, and 1000X more awesome | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/social/how-twitter-could-be-10x-bigger"
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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 Twitter could be 10X bigger, 100X more profitable, and 1000X more awesome Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Twitter's logo featured in the lobby of its San Francisco headquarters.
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I’ve spent many years studying, writing about , building, and funding companies (such as Bottlenose , Klout , and The Daily Dot ) in Twitter’s ecosystem.
Despite the media chatter , I am still bullish on Twitter – as should be any investor who understands the social network’s fundamentals and true potential. Twitter has the highest revenue growth rate of any tech firm with over $2 billion in sales over the last year. And at today’s market cap, Twitter is an incredible bargain.
The company has enormous untapped potential to impact the world and create value for investors and partners — far more than short-term investors probably realize. But to unlock that hidden potential, some significant product and business model evolution may also be necessary.
I truly want the Twitter ecosystem to succeed. And it is in that spirit of support and optimism that I’m offering a number of ideas below that could help Twitter not only regain its former growth curve but surpass it. I’m breaking down my detailed playbook for the company into three sections: 1: Improving the signal-to-noise ratio on tweets 2: Enabling better search and collection of tweets 3: Focusing on being a network not a destination Let’s jump straight to part 1.
1: Improving the signal-to-noise ratio on tweets One of the primary challenges to using Twitter today is finding content you want and getting attention for your own content amid all the noise. I believe the changing ratio of reward to effort in Twitter is one of the underlying reasons engagement rates are not what they once were. Another way of thinking about this is that the signal-to-noise ratio in Twitter needs to be improved. There are several ways to fix this: Smart personalization and filtering The first thing Twitter needs to do is give users better ways to filter their timelines so they can improve the relevancy of what they see.
To do this, add machine-learning based personalization to the Twitter user-experience so that users can teach Twitter what they want to see (and what they don’t want to see).
How to do it: Twitter should add Netflix-style thumbs up (“more like this”) and thumbs down (“less like this”) feedback actions on each Tweet.
Based on this feedback, Twitter can learn machine learning to learn and adapt to each user’s changing interests and prioritize content for them.
In addition, by analyzing what each user has tweeted, retweeted, liked, or taken action on in the past, as well as who they follow and who follows them and takes action on their tweets, the system can learn even more deeply about changing user interests and priorities.
By personalizing the user experience, Twitter can vastly improve the signal-to-noise ratio for each user. This will help to restore the reward of participation by giving users more relevant and timely content when they use the app. This in turn will yield greater response rates to tweets, which not only rewards other users for tweeting but ultimately also rewards advertisers for their tweets as well.
A new metric for influence Another way to filter and improve Twitter’s signal-to-noise ratio is to provide a better way to measure the value of a user.
Follower counts made sense as a filter in the early days of Twitter, but with the rise of fake Twitter accounts, Twitter followers for sale, and Twitter bots that generate followers, nobody trusts follower counts anymore.
Verified users and featured users is another approach, but that tends only to apply to celebrities or major brands. What about the 99% of the rest of the users? Twitter needs to add its own influence score, like what Klout (a company I helped start) pioneered, to provide a better way to filter users and their tweets by influence.
A Twitter influence score would add another level of social reward to participating in Twitter, especially if this score doesn’t simply favor massive celebrities with enormous followings but rather is a true measure of a user’s expertise and potential to drive downstream engagement on topics.
How to do it: Influence should be a measure of potential downstream engagement that a user generates, and it might also take into account a formal measure of expertise and a measure of downstream influencers who follow a user.
Users should have a cumulative influence score, as well as a sub-score for each topic or hashtag they are influential for.
Ranking users on a topic by their real influence would create a competitive cycle where users would once again try to be in the top 1000 or top 100 for topics on Twitter.
Every hashtag (and even every proper noun) on Twitter should have an auto-generated portal page with a leaderboard that ranks the influencers and content for that topic.
Twitter could provide a badge for people who rank in the top 100 or top 1000 on a topic. This badge would appear on their Twitter profile and next to their favicon, and they could even put it on their resumes or on LinkedIn and other sites.
Implement congestion pricing The signal-to-noise problem in Twitter has a negative impact on engagement and reward to consumers, publishers, and advertisers. What this comes down to is the fact that there is no cost to Tweet. A spammer can send thousands of useless messages at no cost drown out legitimate tweeters who don’t spam.
When you have a limited supply of something (in this case, user attention) and a potentially unlimited demand for it (in this case, content providers who want their attention), the solution is congestion pricing.
Uber, for example, has shown us all how congestion pricing works. We can also see congestion pricing in the rise of pay lanes on busy highways and in auctions for limited ad slots on search engines and TV networks. It’s time for Twitter to do this with tweets.
How to do it: Every tweet is essentially an ad to get attention from someone.
Anyone should be able to tweet for free – which is like posting an ad for free. But free ads should get lower exposure than paid ones.
Anyone should be able to optionally pay to boost a tweet to buy it higher visibility.
Boosted tweets would be displayed at the top of feeds in a special section according to a dynamically priced auction run by Twitter.
Boosting a tweet should be easy and built into the Twitter publishing UI/UX and API.
Promoted tweets are simply the most premium boosted tweets – and they appear in an even more highlighted section above the regular boosted tweets.
Users should be able to pay into their Twitter account to buy points that they can spend to boost posts.
Points can also be earned by engaging with Twitter (see next section).
Not only would congestion pricing make a ton of money for Twitter, but it would solve the signal-to-noise problem almost overnight. Some users would be upset and say this is unfair. Too bad. It’s better for Twitter as a whole, and ultimately for them too — because it would make Twitter far more usable and engaging for everyone.
Add a points economy There are several ways users can engage in Twitter. In the early days of Twitter, as I’ve mentioned above, the potential reward per amount of effort in engaging was higher, and this served to spur a lot of engagement. But today the potential reward for engaging has decreased – it’s simply harder to get attention than it was before. Twitter can solve this by further gamifying engagement to provide more potential reward.
How to do it: Twitter should implement a virtual currency system within Twitter, where users can earn and spend points (call them “Seeds” perhaps?).
Twitter should reward users by enabling them to earn points when they do things that benefit Twitter and Twitter advertisers, such as posting tweets that earn a certain number of responses from other users, clicking on ads, sharing ads, or hitting “achievements” such as getting 20 retweets on a post, or getting 10,000 real followers, or ranking in the top 100 or top 1000 influencers on a topic, clicking on a certain number of tweets per day, etc.
Users should also be able to earn points when other users optionally give them “tips” on Tweets they like.
Users should be able to buy points for cash as well, by paying into their Twitter account.
Users can spend their points to boost posts (essentially this is a micropayment to increase the visibility of a post), buying actual ads (promoted Tweets), or on giving “tips” to other users on posts they like.
Points could be redeemable at an exchange rate for cash, or goods and services, just like loyalty programs for credit cards and frequent flyer programs.
A simple points economy would help to increase the potential reward of engaging in Twitter and could be very profitable to Twitter as well. Every user would become a potential paying advertiser. Tens of millions of users, each spending a few dollars a month, translates into meaningful revenue.
Improving the noise-to-signal is just one area where Twitter could greatly improve. The other two areas the company should focus on are: Enabling better search and collection of tweets Focusing on being a network not a destination 1 2 3 View All 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 Facebook's Parse shutdown is good news for all of us | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/why-facebooks-parse-shutdown-is-good-news-for-all-of-us"
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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 Why Facebook’s Parse shutdown is good news for all of us Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Image credit: Claudio Divizia/Shutterstock 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.
As Jim Barksdale famously said: “There’s only two ways I know of to make money: bundling and unbundling — most people spend half their time adding and other people spend half their time subtracting, so that’s what works out.” Yesterday, Facebook put a bullet in Parse , its “unbundled” platform-as-a-service for mobile developers, throwing its substantial weight behind the fully bundled world of Facebook apps. Given the company’s most recent earnings announcement, its strategy of pulling content from all over the Web into the Facebook app vortex is monetizing well. No surprise, given Facebook’s all-seeing access to all user data and activities.
You have to marvel at how fast things have changed: After Facebook acquired Parse for $85 million in 2013, Parse was the centerpiece of Zuckerberg’s Facebook keynote just last year. Since then, however, Facebook has doubled down on Messenger , which it believes to be the platform of the future as it chases WeChat’s success in China. This might seem strange, since most people still consider Facebook a social network, but here’s the big picture: In recent months, Facebook has greatly shifted focus and resources from its original, browsing Web-based social network to its mobile Messenger app, and it is busy rolling out enterprise-friendly services, such as customer communication bots , to increase its appeal to businesses. This pivot for a $300 billion cap company is right up there with Bill Gates’ similar move in 1995, when he realized the Internet Tidal Wave was coming for Microsoft. There’s a very good reason for this: Messaging and notifications are rapidly eating up the Web experience, becoming the dominant way we interact with and consume Internet content and services. As we browse the Web less, we browse our social media notifications and messages more. Browsing the Web on our phones is convenient, but it’s also sub-optimal. Which in turn drives us back into our social media, where Web links are contextualized — mostly by friends we trust and people/brands we’ve opted to follow.
Facebook is savvy to see this and shut down Parse — which after all, only enables companies to build products that compete with Facebook and its apps — while retrofitting Messenger into a communication tool for enterprise. So a key question in the coming years is whether enterprise will embrace Messenger, even if that means handing over their customer data and customized user experience to Facebook and its walled garden. (On this topic, social game developers may have some hard-earned wisdom to share.) Developers will get distribution for their content and a potential reach of over 1 billion users, but in exchange, they lose control over the customer experience and their data. Companies will soon need to decide if they’re willing to give up so much to play in Facebook’s walled garden.
However, it would be a mistake to assume that one messaging app will engulf our Internet activity, because we’re entering a phase of the Internet where the mass explosion of messaging is in non -messaging apps: Dating, on-demand services, retail, gaming, and even enterprise apps utterly depend on messaging for the core experience and to retain users and drive engagement. (Or as designer Luke Wroblewski put it as a corollary to Zawinski’s Law, “Every mobile app attempts to expand until it includes chat. Those applications which do not are replaced by ones which can.”) For that reason, I think the future of Internet engagement may not belong to any one platform or any single walled garden but to thousands of mobile mega-niches of messaging and conversation.
If I’m right about that, Facebook just did developers who’ve come to rely on Parse an enormous favor by killing it — no longer dependent on a company dedicated to channeling the entire Internet experience into its own apps, they are now free to consider platforms that enable them to build experiences that benefit their users — as opposed to Facebook’s dominance.
Ron Palmeri is founder and CEO of Layer.
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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5,932 | 2,016 |
"Samsung confirms Galaxy S7 event for February 21 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/samsung-confirms-galaxy-s7-event-for-february-21"
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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 Samsung confirms Galaxy S7 event for February 21 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.
It’s been a crazy Samsung weekend. In less than 48 hours, we learned what the Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge will look like, and when the two phones from the world’s biggest smartphone maker will be announced: February 21.
Here’s a quick recap in case you crawled under a rock for the past few days.
It all started on Friday when infamous leaker Evan Blass unveiled the first press shots of the two devices. He published one (included above) by updating the feature image for VentureBeat’s article titled “ Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge will feature microSD, water resistance, and larger batteries ” — that’s his piece from earlier this month detailing the devices. The other one he published on Twitter: https://t.co/JT6X0g8sBu pic.twitter.com/J78eezrU5o — Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 29, 2016 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! Notice the date in the above picture. Sunday, February 21. What’s the closest year that February 21 falls on a Sunday? Oh, you know, 2016.
On Saturday, Blass added fuel to the fire by tweeting images indicating that Samsung indeed has plans to unveil #TheNextGalaxy on that exact day: FYI pic.twitter.com/j6CdsN6Gl5 — Evan Blass (@evleaks) January 31, 2016 Naturally, there were skeptics. But it didn’t take that long to convert them.
On Sunday, Samsung confirmed the date and venue: “February 21 (Sun) 19:00 CET (Doors Open at 18:00)” and “CCIB (Centre de Convencions Internacional de Barcelona).” Barcelona is of course the home of Mobile World Congress, arguably the world’s biggest smartphone event. This year’s edition takes place between February 22 and February 25, though the Sunday is often when big news starts to trickle in.
The South Korean company also published the following teaser video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3g3O94WALV8 The clip doesn’t reveal much. A man wearing Samsung’s Gear VR headset could mean anything, though we can’t help but hope Samsung has virtual reality news to share. Samsung’s event will be streamed live , so at the very least the company should let Gear VR owners tune into the launch event in virtual reality. Right? Just imagine: Using the S6 to see the S7 get unveiled right in front of you.
Update on February 1 : And now Blass gives us the backs.
Part two.
(Background: https://t.co/JT6X0g8sBu ) pic.twitter.com/SOtHYAJexu — Evan Blass (@evleaks) February 1, 2016 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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"Nokia-Samsung patent verdict expected within days | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/nokia-samsung-patent-verdict-expected-within-days"
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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-Samsung patent verdict expected within days Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn A man walks at the Samsung Electronics' headquarters in Seoul January 7, 2015. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji 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) – Nokia and Samsung are expected to settle their two-year patent dispute within days, with analysts forecasting a one-time payment of hundreds of millions of euros for the Finnish company.
Nokia entered into a binding arbitration with South Korea’s Samsung in 2013 to settle additional compensations for a five-year period starting from early 2014.
The International Chamber of Commerce’s arbitration court is due to make its ruling on the issue imminently.
Nordea analyst Sami Sarkamies, one of few analysts to give a precise estimate, said the verdict could boost Nokia’s operating profit by about 700 million euros ($758 mln) this year, forecasting the court will stipulate an annual patent fee of 300 million euros.
“Samsung has been paying Nokia probably 100 million per year, and the rate could now come up to around 300 million euros (per year). The settled rate will also be paid retrospectively for the last two years,” Sarkamies said.
“But they have already booked perhaps 100 million a year from Samsung to their income statement, so the EBIT impact for this year could be around 700 million euros.” Sarkamies has a “hold” rating on Nokia shares, which have fallen 9 percent since last April when it announced a 15.6 billion euro takeover of French network gear rival Alcatel-Lucent, due to be completed this quarter.
Investors have worried about the integration process and special terms negotiated by the French government, but the share price could get a boost if the settlement with Samsung is much bigger than analysts forecasts.
Last month, Sweden’s Ericsson said that a patent license deal with Apple Inc would help lift its intellectual property rights revenue by up to 40 percent in 2015, sending its shares up sharply.
Nokia, which once dominated the global mobile phones market, is now focused on telecom network equipment but still holds on to a portfolio of phone patents.
It said last month that the International Chamber of Commerce had advised that the settlement with Samsung is expected by the end of January.
A Nokia spokesman declined to comment on Saturday, saying the company had nothing to add beyond the previous statement.
($1 = 0.9233 euros) (Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl; Editing by Susan Fenton) 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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5,934 | 2,016 |
"Depth-sensing cameras will open up a whole new frontier for smartphones | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/depth-sensing-cameras-will-open-up-a-whole-new-frontier-for-smartphones"
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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 Depth-sensing cameras will open up a whole new frontier for smartphones 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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[Full disclosure: Body Labs is backed by Intel Capital and is working with Intel RealSense to develop 3D body scanning software for smartphones.] 2016 marks the beginning of a fundamental leap forward in smartphone hardware: depth-sensing cameras. We’ve already seen accelerometers, gyroscopes, barometers, cameras, and fingerprint sensors become common on even the most budget-friendly smartphones. And, due to the accelerated hardware arms race between the world’s top manufacturers, we’ll see depth-sensors on some consumer tablets hitting the market this year.
These sensors supplement today’s monocular RGB images with per-pixel depth information (often derived by projecting a pattern of 3D infrared light into a scene). The technology will enable enhanced object, body, facial, and gesture recognition.
Depth sensors will not only make a smartphone more aware of its immediate environment but will also improve the ability to accurately isolate and identify a user’s body in space. Ultimately, this will spark an explosion in consumer applications ranging from virtual apparel try-on to personalized VR experiences mapped to your living area.
The true game-changing element will be the form factor, not the technology. Depth-sensing cameras are hardly new — Microsoft released the Kinect in 2010. However, if you’re Google Maps trying to navigate indoors or Oculus attempting to improve the immersive experience of virtual reality (VR), you need to solve what I refer to as an “input barrier” with enabling hardware. This barrier largely consists of three main challenges: 1. Cost.
Previously, comparable technology has cost anywhere from $10,000 to more than $250,000 for a high-end laser scanner — not within the range of the average consumer. However, the recent commoditization of depth-sensing cameras has made the cost of implementing them into smartphones more justifiable.
2. Convenience.
With sensors coming from Intel RealSense, Google Project Tango, and Apple PrimeSense, depth-sensing cameras are now small enough to be included in smartphones. By being included in a smartphone, the user also only has to commit to purchasing one device.
3. Adoption.
This technology isn’t valuable if a large number of hardware manufacturers refuse to adopt it. Fortunately, the smartphone industry benefits from a very fast product refresh cycle. Unlike televisions, which are upgraded by U.S. consumers every seven or eight years, smartphones are upgraded approximately every 18 months. It’s why more Americans could have a depth sensor in their phone before having a 4K TV in their living room.
With Intel, Google, and possibly even Apple poised to push their sensors onto mobile devices this year, the data from 3D sensors could quickly become a viable platform for developers to build on. Building software around 3D data is challenging, but companies like mine are already working to transform the raw data generated from these sensors into easy-to-use 3D models that enable new applications and functionality. As a result, this new platform could disrupt several major markets before the year is over: 1. Digital photography By incorporating 3D information with photos and video, we will have new options when it comes to editing digital content. For example, you could automatically remove and replace the background of an image, or segment (e.g., “cut out”) a specific object for use as a standalone graphic, which could become a valuable feature of smartphone photography.
2. Mapping and navigation Google Maps is the most widely used navigation software in the U.S., but it’s usefulness ends when entering a building. With no access to GPS, depth-sensing technology can provide mapping applications with accurate 3D models of building interiors. They can also provide a user’s position and orientation within these buildings to guide them directly to a product or service. The University of Oxford has also been experimenting with depth sensors for a few years to provide the visually impaired with a set of “smart glasses” that could also assist them in navigating through the world around them.
3. Fashion and apparel Apparel fit has been estimated to be a multibillion-dollar problem for many retailers with more than a third of their online sales returned due to inaccurate sizing. But depth sensors in smartphones could enable accurate sizing recommendations and custom tailoring without a user having to leave their living room. Retailers can use applications that provide sizing recommendation engines such as True Fit with additional tools that can capture personalized body shape to drive down their returns and improve their knowledge of their customers.
4. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) A challenge with VR is enhancing the sense of presence related to three major factors: 1) the use of your hands, 2) occlusion — the effect of one object blocking another from view, and 3) moving into the environment.
By using a VR headset like Samsung’s Gear VR — enabled by a depth-sensing smartphone — a game could identify obstructions in the real world to inform it how to animate them in the virtual one. By also maintaining a sense of presence in reality — as well as virtually — users could roam freely about the game and also customize it to their living space.
5. Product design and 3D printing The 3D printer market is estimated to grow to $5.4 billion by 2018.
With depth sensors, users could quickly scan real-world objects or people from their smartphones in a matter of seconds. Artists could then seamlessly build, print, and manufacture personalized products at scale. This technology will reduce the expertise required and the overhead demanded to design and print in 3D. We’re now seeing companies such as Nervous System that are designing in 3D and then using a Kinematics system for 4D printing that creates complex, foldable forms composed of articulated modules. This, potentially combined with companies like Voodoo Manufacturing , which is delivering fast, affordable and scalable 3D printing, would drive down the cost and time associated with product development cycles.
6. Health and fitness There are more than 138 million total health and fitness clubs worldwide with an estimated market size of $78.17 billion.
These clubs have three priorities: 1) bring in new members, 2) retain current members, and 3) get existing members to spend more on additional services.
In order to justify new services, health clubs are looking to equip trainers with depth-sensing cameras to efficiently visualize recorded progress like weight loss or muscle growth during a workout regime. This could also unlock new features for apps such as Google Fit, Apple’s HealthKit, and Samsung’s S Health by enabling them to track shape change over time. Companies such as VirtualU are also taking 3D scanning technology and partnering with health clubs to providing vivid health and fitness metric tracking beyond antiquated measurements like BMI.
Those are just a few of the many possible applications for depth-sensor enabled smartphones. But it will take hard work and a lot of investment to bring this potential to life. Even high-quality 3D sensors are only useful if supported by a robust collection of software libraries.
And sensor makers will have to adhere to a standard set of APIs to prevent platform fragmentation, an issue that’s already prevalent in the smartphone industry. Such APIs will also need to mitigate what is currently a steep learning curve when it comes to application development around 3D images. From first-hand experience, my colleagues and I can attest that working with raw RGB-D data currently draws too heavily on PhD-level machine learning and requires more than a passing familiarity with relevant academic research.
We anticipate that companies releasing new 3D sensors will need to invest heavily in the software development resources these sensors require. Even so, the enormous potential value of these new devices will more than outweigh the investment needed for its adoption. With depth sensors making their way into devices this year , the currently iterative smartphone industry is potentially set for another exciting shake-up.
Eric Rachlin is a cofounder of Body Labs and leads the company’s product development. Before Body Labs, he worked as a senior research scientist at the MPI for Intelligent Systems, where he helped manage a team of computer vision researchers to build a statistical model of human pose and shape.
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"Online ad execs repent the sins of their first $50 billion | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/marketing/online-ad-execs-repent-the-sins-of-their-first-50-billion"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Guest Online ad execs repent the sins of their first $50 billion 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 are a million ways to monetize your business, and a digital advertising salesperson can sell you each one. The official theme of the Interactive Advertising Bureau event this month, the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting , was how the online ad market will get to the next $50 billion in revenue. Yet the unofficial theme that wafted through the hallways and even onstage was: How do we move past the challenges created by the first $50 billion? The first $50 billion ushered in promise and growth for an established industry on the search for sustainable alternatives to print and broadcast advertising. We built banner and display ads for websites and portals. We filled pages with as many ads as we could sell, making a serious dent in lost print revenue. We designed programmatic to deliver relevant ads at Internet speed. We literally tapped into the potential to reach people anywhere on their mobile devices. Social media emerged as a powerful distribution platform, and we discovered new ways to share and tailor content for social platforms and pray to Facebook’s algorithm fairy.
Yet, it’s finally become clear that the first $50 billion we generated through all this innovation is largely responsible for the situation we now find ourselves in: Ads frequently clutter a user’s online experience, slow their page loads and, at times, endanger their security. To patch up the wear and tear caused by building on a hyper-growth industry, we’ve coped by adding new technologies that adapt to the way users people discover and consume content today. At the IAB leadership meeting, industry leaders finally started to admit that these Band-Aids are causing more trouble than than the problems they were designed to fix.
The swift and painful ascent of ad blocking $21.8 billion. That’s the estimated cost of ad blocking to publishers in 2015. The tension was palpable even before the meeting, as the IAB blocked AdBlock Plus executives from attending the event. IAB president Randall Rothenberg elaborated onstage during his keynote, calling for-profit ad blocking apps “ an old-fashioned extortion racket ” that confines free speech to whatever fits in their business model.
The inconvenient truth that the industry faced at the meeting is that current online advertising isn’t sustainable as we fully embrace mobile. Consumers will not accept disruptive, slow experiences, regardless of the content value. As Scott Meyer from ad-blocking extension Ghostery put it, “The consumer has made it clear that the [current] user experience is not what they’re looking for.” Publishers either need to change their advertising strategies or ad blockers will slowly but steadily drain their revenue.
Sales brings in more cents, less sense According to Upstream Group founder and CEO Doug Weaver, “The first $50 billion in digital revenue was built around the scrappy, frenetic, take-no-prisoners, pursuit of success [by sales].” His keynote centered on resetting our sales goals to focus on excellence — not just successfully hitting quota.
To overhaul online advertising, the larger culture of ad sales needs a mindset shift, from selling more to selling more strategically and thoughtfully. If we keep with the former approach, we’ll sell our audience right into the arms of ad blockers.
Will overregulation of native advertising erode its luster? Even native advertising is now at the risk of being regulated out of relevance. The U.S. FTC issued guidance on proper disclosures for native advertising at the end of December, calling for greater consumer protection from deceptive advertising. Through its vice president of public policy, Brad Weltman, the IAB shared its reservations about the commission’s heavy-handedness, calling portions “overly prescriptive.” And publishers, who view higher value, less obtrusive native advertising as a welcome alternative to display, are clearly finding the uncertainty over native ads discomforting.
The truth is, as native advertising matures and becomes more unified with content, these disclosures must be clear. No one mistakes a billboard for a message from the highway patrol, but someone reading a quality native ad may assume the content was penned by the New York Times or Buzzfeed. With a better user experience and more profitable rates, native advertising is here to stay. Publishers must take proactive control of their native advertising with clear disclosures as native continues its ascent.
Repenting the first $50 billion We’ve already learned important lessons during the first two decades creating the digital publishing industry. Content farms no longer churn out search engine optimized explainers. Fewer publishers rely on intrusive pop up ads, though too many resist conversion.
And the democratization of distribution opened up social media as a powerful way to surface and share what our networks deem the best content.
As we stare into 2016 and beyond, with a mix of optimism and fear, let’s remember that we’re still riding the wave of an industry in transition. New platforms and trends will come and go and stay for awhile, but the clear takeaway from the IAB meeting is that publishers need to refocus on the most important metric: their audience’s experience. We will repent for the sins of the first $50 billion and build up to the next $50 billion and beyond by remembering that audience, not ads, are our lifeblood.
Satish Polisetti is CEO and cofounder of AdsNative, a new ad server built for publishers and app developers. Follow him on Twitter: @sat_p..
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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"Mobile marketing tips from CMOs who are killing it (webinar) | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/marketing/mobile-marketing-tips-from-cmos-who-are-killing-it-webinar"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages VB Webinar Mobile marketing tips from CMOs who are killing it (webinar) Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn What keeps 1/3 of Playboy’s registered mobile users coming back every day? Join the superstar CMOs from Playboy, Gamestop, and Tune for a lively roundtable on what it takes to win mobile audience loyalty.
Register here for free.
“Everyone knows Playboy,” says Robin Zucker, SVP of Digital Media Marketing. “Twenty-year-olds know Playboy. But is it still relevant?” That’s the question that’s taken Playboy from 11 million fans and followers to over 30 million in the past two years. Users are engaging consistently and deeply — and over a third of them are super users, returning to the mobile app every day.
Playboy is arguably one of the most iconic cultural brands in the world. But, says Zucker, just a year and a half into their mobile marketing transformation, they’re still basically a startup, still looking for the best and most relevant ways to reach the audience they know is out there — and 80 percent of that audience is on mobile.
“It’s about fishing where the fish are,” she says. “Our digital evolution wasn’t about being digital, it was about reaching the audience we want to reach in the place they spend their time.” Facebook and Snapchat do so well, she says, because they deliver an experience that couldn’t be more personal. And that’s the driving force of Playboy’s strategy. “We really strive to create an experience that is differentiated and means something to the consumer,” she says, creating a connection that keeps users coming back.
“It’s art and science,” Zucker says. “It’s really understanding the consumer, what they’re responding to, and looking at that over time. Working closely with the editorial team to make sure they’re producing the right content.” The science part comes on the analytics side, she says, by investing in the right tools to reconnect with those audiences that they’ve built across these different platforms, both to measure them and communicate with them.
But there’s no rest for the wicked. Optimization is ongoing and their approach is continually refined by applying feedback not only from large-scale analytics, but focusing on a one-to-one scale as consumers move across platforms.
Their current focus is customer journey mapping — understanding how people enter the Playboy experiences, where they go, and most importantly, what they need to get customers to do, so that they can have a better experience.
“The more you can understand the consumer experience path,” she notes, “the more you can create a better and more personalized experience, especially on the app.” One size doesn’t fit all, she emphasizes, and there’s no such thing as “set it and forget it.” They’re continually testing new analytics tools, working to uncover better metrics and ways to leverage them.
In the end, she says, “It’s all about better tools and better infrastructure, so we can keep refining and improving the experience — and improving our numbers.” Tune in to our free webinar to learn more about the tools they use, the strategies they’ve uncovered and the way they keep users coming back in record numbers.
Register here for free! In this webinar, you’ll learn: Five key tips to move the needle in your existing digital strategy How Gamestop and Playboy are staying ahead of the competition Surprisingly simple new ways to engage with mobile customers Speakers: Robin Zucker, SVP Marketing, Digital Media, Playboy Jason Allen, VP of Digital, Gamestop John Koetsier, Mobile Economist, Tune Moderator: Wendy Schuchart, Analyst, VentureBeat This webinar is sponsored by Tune.
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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5,937 | 2,016 |
"Adtech isn’t in trouble -- it’s just misunderstood | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/marketing/adtech-isnt-in-trouble-its-just-misunderstood"
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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 Adtech isn’t in trouble — it’s just misunderstood 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.
Adtech took a very public beating in 2015 – falling stock prices throughout the year and an IPO market that has effectively been shut since mid-2014 have led to speculation about the state of the whole sector. However, research by my firm shows that, while the number of M&A deals was down in 2015, the decline was relatively modest at eight percent. There were still over 400 completed deals in the adtech and martech sector last year, and multiples remained healthy.
So what’s behind these mixed signals? There was a flurry of adtech IPOs in 2013 and early 2014, as private companies took advantage of investor appetite for the fast-growing adtech sector. With hindsight, many of the companies that went public did so too early. The market for their solutions was still nascent, and they were unable to meet investor expectations for revenue growth. Furthermore, those investors were relatively uneducated about the market and clearly held a number of misconceptions.
This situation was exacerbated by the way some of the companies were positioned as they went public. While they were represented as being Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) businesses, their revenue models were actually transactional and tied to media spend. This doesn’t have the stickiness and revenue visibility of SaaS. A re-rating of the sector was inevitable as companies missed growth targets and investors became better versed in how the market actually operates.
The performance of a dozen or so listed companies does not, however, reflect the overall health of the sector. The private company market is buoyant, deal activity is high, valuations are healthy, and innovation is rife.
That said, let’s start with the bad news: Undoubtedly the shake-out of the public adtech market has, to a certain extent, filtered down to the private one. Raising venture capital has become harder — many VCs consider themselves overexposed to adtech and are more highly attuned to innovation and differentiation than 12-24 months ago. Businesses that don’t have proprietary technology and a differentiated offering have had to realign their valuation expectations.
However, at the same time that public market investors have been losing their appetite for the sector, interest from strategics has been growing, and this isn’t restricted to outright acquisition. Sky’s recent $10 million investment in DataXu is a good example of this – a new entrant into the sector providing growth funding, which might otherwise have been provided by the public markets or late stage VCs. Similarly, the venture capital arms of Google, Salesforce, Unilever, and Hearst Media have all been actively investing in the sector throughout 2015. Simply put, growth capital is coming from a wider range of sources.
One of the unique features of the adtech market is the sheer number of companies for whom advertising technology is strategically relevant. Not many businesses across the breadth of the (cash rich) technology, media, and telecom universe can ignore the disruption that’s occurring in advertising and marketing. For some, such as the enterprise software vendors, it presents an opportunity to integrate additional revenue streams. Conversely for traditional media players, notably publishers and broadcasters, it offers a defensive mechanism to protect those revenues. Other interested parties include telcos, traditional data groups, social networks, and other diversified Internet groups, and consultants, not to mention the pure-play adtech and martech consolidators themselves. An increasingly competitive market coupled with a frenetic rate of innovation suggests adtech M&A will remain buoyant.
The other critical factor in the ongoing strategic interest in this sector is the shift in momentum from adtech to martech. The public markets now make a clear distinction between each segment. While definitions vary, the market generally thinks of adtech as technology designed to streamline the buying and selling of digital ad inventory, where the revenue model is tied to media spend or other performance-based metrics. By contrast, martech is software sold on a subscription basis to facilitate and optimise the broader marketing function. For investors, the subscription-based revenue model is generally most attractive because it provides greater revenue visibility and (potentially) stickiness. In reality the picture is more blurred, but this shift has also become apparent in the private market, and many of the very high multiple deals in 2015 were in the martech segment.
I can’t overstate adtech’s importance, though — media spend represents over half of most marketing budgets, and global ad spend is $570 billion per year.
In reality the sectors are (slowly) converging, and the end game will surely see vendors providing integrated marketing and advertising platforms to brands. This convergence will take longer than some commentators are currently predicting, but it will underpin continued M&A activity in the sector.
Without doubt, the adtech sector faces challenges — continued consolidation behind the “walled gardens” of the digital giants, such as Amazon and Facebook, the impact of ad blocking, ongoing data privacy concerns – but the opportunities are as great as the challenges. As in every tech sector, startups and growth companies will drive innovation, and the large strategic acquirers will continue to bring that innovation in-house through M&A throughout 2016.
Julie Langley is a Partner at M&A and fundraising advisory firm Results International.
She has over 15 years experience advising technology and digital media companies on corporate transactions, including company sales, acquisitions, financings, MBOs, and joint-ventures. She has completed transactions with companies including Oracle, Microsoft, Experian, Moody’s, IAC, BT, Axel Springer, CNET, and DMGT.
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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"Space Pirate Trainer is good VR if you want to blast robots out of the sky | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/space-pirate-trainer-is-good-vr-if-you-want-to-blast-robots-out-of-the-sky"
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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 Space Pirate Trainer is good VR if you want to blast robots out of the sky Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Space Pirate Trainer 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.
Kablam! Kablam! Kablam! I’m tempted to write just that much about Space Pirate Trainer from I-Illusions.
It’s a shooter game in virtual reality, and I saw a demo of it this week in Seattle at Valve’s event for the HTC Vive virtual reality headset.
The title is one of a dozen games we saw for the Vive, which debuts in April and represents a major attempt to turn VR into a giant industry. Tech advisor Digi-Capital estimates that VR could be a $30 billion industry by 2020.
With the Vive, you can hold to touch controllers in your hands that serve very nicely as guns in this game. Sensors in your room map out the space on the floor where you can safely walk. So you can turn around anywhere in the VR environment and shoot anything that moves. The Space Pirate Trainer is like an arcade game that is really immersive, as if you were inside the arcade machine.
“Your job is to shoot the incoming droids and protect the spaceship behind you,” said Dirk Van Welden, founder of I-Illusions, developer of the game.
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: Space Pirate Trainer is like an unending wave attack simulator.
The trainer starts out easy, with just one flying robot coming at you. You can see it approach on a 3D mini map. The robot flies all over the place, and you can shoot it down with a gun in either hand. You can also reach to your back and pull out a shield in your right hand. The shield deflects incoming lasers from the robots. But you can see through it a little bit. If you squeeze the trigger with the hand that is holding the shield, you can push the enemies away from you. It’s like a force field that pushes them back and gives you more time to deal with someone else.
You can use a pistol, an automatic weapon, or a lightning gun that zaps the enemies. With each new training wave, more enemies approach at the same time. The early levels are easy. But if the robots hit you three times with a laser, you’re toast. So it gets pretty hard where there are seven or eight robots shooting at you. They don’t all shoot at once, but they do move beyond your field of view. You get the best result when you hold the shield in one direction and fire in another. That way, you aren’t as vulnerable from the side or behind.
Inevitably, they’re going to get you. Sometimes you won’t even know from which direction you got hit. It’s just an endless combat trainer.
Space Pirate Trainer is coming out on the HTC Vive, hopefully as a launch title, Van Welden said.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
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"Final Approach is an HTC Vive VR game that turns you into a kid playing with toy airplanes | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/final-approach-is-an-htc-vive-vr-game-that-turns-you-into-a-kid-playing-with-toys"
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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 Final Approach is an HTC Vive VR game that turns you into a kid playing with toy airplanes Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Final Approach 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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One of the best games I saw this week at Valve’s demo of the HTC Vive virtual reality headset was Final Approach from developer Phaser Lock Interactive.
This aviation-themed VR game makes you feel like you are a kid again, playing with toy airplanes in a pretty virtual world.
The title is one of the launch games for the HTC Vive, the VR headset for the PC that debuts in April. The game delivers the kind of experience that is immersive and you can only experience in VR. That’s exactly what the Vive will need to stand out from the competition and induce the masses to embrace a platform that some say will be a $30 billion industry by 2020. This is one of a dozen previews we’re running on game demos on the HTC Vive.
In Final Approach, you are something like an air traffic controller. You can stand in the middle of an island, point to a flying plan with your virtual finger, and guide that plane into a beautiful landing on an airstrip on the island below. It is an awesome, immersive experience where you can walk around inside the virtual world and control the planes in a way that is much more intuitive than controlling them with a traditional video game controller.
“That’s exactly the idea we wanted to get behind, the feeling that you are a kid playing with your toys” said Michael Daubert, chief creative officer at Phaser Lock Interactive, in an interview with GamesBeat. “You control these toys and care about them. You don’t want to break them. And there is this whole world of action going on around you.” 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 sort of like a blend of aviation and airport management, with a bit of SimCity and flight simulation thrown in. The game world exists within the confines of your living room, as the HTC Vive has sensors that allow it to map a free space in your room. The VR system lets you maneuver around a safe space in your room, so you can wander around the Final Approach island and see it from different points of view. You can also use hand controllers to interact with the items in the virtual world.
“It’s a room scale virtual space,” said John Nagle, chief technical officer, in an interview.
Above: Final Approach is like playing with miniatures in VR.
Like the 2D game on the iPad, Flight Control, you can manage the aircraft landing at a busy airport. Using the touch control system of the HTC Vive, you can point at aircraft and trace a path. you can get them to fly through a series of circles and land. I did this a few times, and the game was fairly forgiving at enabling aircraft to land even with crazy flight paths. The environment of the game was beautifully rendered. You can also scale down to a micro environment on the airfield, where you have to use fire extinguishers to put out a fire on an aircraft on the landing strip. So you can switch from a bird’s-eye view to a first-person view. You can chase away seagulls with air horns.
I didn’t have great luck with another level in the game, where I had to guide a helicopter through skyscrapers to drop a load of materials on a skyscraper under construction. I picked up the load OK using my fingers, but when it came time to drop them, I clipped the top of a building and crashed the helicopter.
The best part of the game seemed like a different title altogether. I was in the middle of a toy version of the Battle of Midway from World War II. I was able to control (historically out of place) military jets. I launched a series of drone aircraft with a tap of a finger. I traced landing paths for aircraft that were damaged. And I led an enemy fighter into a wave of flak from one of the nearby ships. This part of the game was more like a combat flight simulation, while the rest of the game was like an airport management game or SimCity game.
Above: The Midway level in Final Approach.
The game has six levels right now. It could have three to five hours, with lots of replay value, said Daubert. The missions take seven to ten minutes. The missions force you to deal with flight challenges in crowded urban environments, tropical islands, and wilderness landscapes, while training them to battle forest fires, rescue boaters at sea, or even perform full military strikes. You have to watch out for other aircraft, landscape hazards, and even thunderstorms.
The game is the first title from Austin, Texas-based Phaser Lock Interactive, which has 14 employees. Daubert and Nagle are 25-year veterans of the game business. They started the company in May 2015, after participating in a game jam on room-scale VR. The team did a demo and then Valve, the creator of the Steam VR platform that the HTC Vive uses. Valve asked the team to create a title. The team is doing the game as a launch title for the Vive, but it also plans to do versions for the Oculus Touch and PlayStation VR.
The title will be a paid game on the HTC Vive, and it is expected to debut on other VR platforms too.
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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"Budget Cuts aims to take the puzzles and humor of Portal into VR (hands-on) | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/budget-cuts-aims-to-take-the-puzzles-and-humor-of-portal-into-vr-hands-on"
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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 Budget Cuts aims to take the puzzles and humor of Portal into VR (hands-on) Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Budget Cuts for the HTC Vive VR system.
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We’re not sure if Valve is making a version of Portal for the HTC Vive virtual reality headset, which is powered by Valve’s own Steam VR technology. But at least one developer has been inspired to make a Portal-like game in VR.
Neat Corporation from Stockholm, Sweden, showed off Budget Cuts at Valve’s recent Vive showcase in Seattle. The title is one of a dozen releases that I saw for the HTC Vive , the VR headset for the PC that debuts in April. The system is Valve and HTC’s bid to be a player in what could be a $30 billion industry by 2020, according to tech advisor Digi-Capital.
From the start, Budget Cuts will make you smile. It has a staid corporate art style that makes you feel like you’re walking around in a giant office building. Although you can move around 360 degrees with the Vive headset (which has sensors that designate a safe spot for you to walk around in your living room), you actually don’t move all that much on your own.
Above: You have to find a way around the robot guards in Budget Cuts You play as a spy for Trans Corporation. You’ve been laid off, thanks to budget cuts. You sneak into a building with the object of finding your job application. When you find it, you have to stamp “approved” on it. But you don’t really roam. You can walk around in a room-sized space freely.
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! To move farther, you use a special gun, which enables you to teleport from one place to another. You shoot out a ball which lands some distance away. When you click a button on your handheld touch control, you travel quickly to that spot. It’s pretty similar to a system used by Epic Games in its Bullet Train VR demo for the Oculus Rift.
It took me just a couple of minutes to learn how to move around. You can shoot the gun through open vents, doorways, windows, and other openings. That allows you to travel unseen. Some clunky robots guard parts of the office, so you have to figure out a way around them. One way to do that is to find a knife. Then, you can use the portal gun to sneak up behind the robots. At that moment, you can throw the knife by making an actual throwing gesture. The first time I did this, I was throwing at a target on a wall. The knife went about half way to the target and descended to the floor. So, each time I threw the knife, I had to throw it hard.
I wandered around through vents and avoided the red areas that were staked out by the robots. If the robots catch you, you’re dead. You have to throw knives at them to take them out before they get you. I didn’t have time in my demo to do this, but I could see it would take some practice to learn how to throw in VR. Mind you, it’s not exactly the same as throwing a knife in real life. For one, it’s not as accurate. And, as I mentioned, you have to throw it harder than you otherwise would. I think that part of the experience needs some more work.
Above: This robot is a good target for a knife throw in Budget Cuts Other parts of the game require you to find keys to unlock safes and otherwise solve puzzles. Joachim Holmér, one of the cofounders of Neat Corporation, said that the dev team is still working on some things, such as a way to make the throwing more accurate.
A very small group is making the game, with two full-time developers, one part-time, and two freelancers. It is self-funded. Here’s a video of the gameplay. Budget Cuts isn’t a launch title, and it is expected to ship by the end of the year, Holmér 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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"VR startups: 4 lessons to learn from the AR hype cycle | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/vr-startups-4-lessons-to-learn-from-the-ar-hype-cycle"
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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 VR startups: 4 lessons to learn from the AR hype cycle Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Dean Takahashi using the Oculus Rift VR headset with Oculus Touch.
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Back in 2008, augmented reality (AR) could do no wrong. There was unbelievable hype around the technology and a growing amount of interest from just about every brand, company, and investor. Fast-forward three years and by 2011, if you were an AR company, you might as well have worn a scarlet letter.
The disillusionment of AR technology was quick and painful from brands, agencies, and consumers. AR tech was limited, didn’t match the vision of concept videos and demo videos of AR tech showed optimal conditions versus how the AR tech would perform in the real world. Expectations were not met, and while some AR companies survived the hype cycle or were acquired , most AR companies closed their doors.
Now, five years later, with HoloLens, Kinect, Project Tango, Magic Leap, and other next-generation devices poised to take AR to its impending renaissance, AR’s tech cousin, virtual reality (VR), is entering its own hype cycle. With VR poised to bask in the spotlight as the “it” technology of 2016, what can VR companies learn from the lessons of the prior AR hype cycle ? 1. Focus on your platform, not custom brand executions Approximately 75% of the inquiries my AR company, Zugara, received from 2008-2011 involved custom AR applications. These often involved customizing our technology that didn’t help advance or build upon our platform. Some of the custom inquiries had budgets associated with them, most did not. As a VR company, it’s critical to focus on potential projects that advance your platform with minimal customization. Without any initial funding, this will be harder to do, but it’s important that you’re not recreating the wheel for others at the expense of your own product or platform.
2. Beware of the PR pyramid scheme Like AR in 2008-2011, there is a lot of PR value for VR companies to take advantage of. However, this often comes at the expense of obtaining revenue. During this current VR hype cycle, there will be brands and agencies trying to leverage PR “value” in exchange for you absorbing the development cost for their initiative. Nothing gets the blood boiling more than a multibillion-dollar brand or tech company trying to get your small startup to subsidize costs for their brand or product. This can quickly devalue your product or platform, so choose your PR opportunities carefully and strategically.
3. Develop a product strategy especially for outbound sales When an industry is hyped to the extent VR is right now, most of your sales and product inquiries will inevitably be inbound. From 2008-2011, approximately 95% of our inquiries were inbound. This was great for a while, but soon the inbound sales spigot shut off. VR hype will go through the same cycle as marketers and agencies leverage VR for its initial PR value before moving on. With consumers, you’ll have a longer runway, but you’ll need to be careful about the next point … 4. Enjoy the hype environment, prepare for the future, and avoid “And then what?” From 2008-2010, AR projects involving black and white markers (and eventually images) were all the rage. The problem? They soon became a “been there done that” type of experiential project for most brands and agencies. There was nothing of value for the consumer beyond the initial gimmick of viewing an animation via a webcam or mobile browser. It’s not hard to see comparisons with current VR simulations that involve sitting or standing and viewing an environment. Though these 360-degree simulations seem new now, it’s only a matter of time until they lose their luster as the next BSO (Bright Shiny Object) lands on marketers and consumers’ radars. So it’s important to continue to evolve your technology and platform so you’re never asked, “This is cool … but then what?” It’s an exciting time to be both in the AR and VR industry. Both technologies have seen their ups and downs over the years, but now that the technology is mature enough to bring the vision of AR and VR pioneers to life, it’ll be an exciting future if we can all avoid a new hype cycle.
Matthew Szymczyk is CEO of Zugara.
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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"Connecting Silicon Valley and the rest of the world | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/connecting-silicon-valley-and-the-rest-of-the-world"
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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 Feature Connecting Silicon Valley and the rest of the world Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Silicon Valley 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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Not all roads to Silicon Valley were created equal. Those born in close proximity to the southern San Francisco Bay Area region can build local contacts organically just from being there. Meanwhile, budding entrepreneurs elsewhere in the world may expend considerable resources just trying to get a foot in the door.
This is one problem that Chris Burry , co-CEO of US Market Access Center ( US MAC ), has been targeting with a series of programs designed to match the needs of Silicon Valley’s bigwigs with top technology talent from Europe and beyond. US MAC has run the so-called TechMatch program several times in San Francisco already, bringing together startups and entrepreneurs from around the world to meet and pitch in front of key people from the tech realm. These include investors from 500 Startups, Band of Angels, DFJ, Garage, and Venrock and representatives from the likes of Adobe, Fujitsu, Honda, HP, Oracle, PayPal, Salesforce, Samsung, and Sony.
The ultimate goal of the corporate startup matching program is to help big companies find innovation that would otherwise pass below their radars and, of course, to give startups access to the major players in the U.S. The startups generally pay to be there, or at least are sponsored by their home government to go. It’s worth it because even those who don’t receive direct investment or business receive coaching in how to pitch and whether their product is actually appropriate for the U.S. market.
“What we were seeing was that startups around the world struggled to get meaningful connectivity,” explained Burry, in an interview with VentureBeat. “Even the best of the best struggle, because when they get off the plane at Silicon Valley, there are 20,000 other startups. How do you get through the noise, unless you know someone?” Though US MAC has programs other than matchmaking, such as early entrepreneur education, coaching, and advising, it ultimately serves as a bridge between two disparate worlds. It has the connections if you have the talent, and a little bit of money. “We saw the value startups got out of having these connections, so we got the corporations — who were really embracing the concept of open innovation to look outside their company for innovation,” added Burry.
While local startups may already have the connections, visitors from abroad need a soft landing spot, somewhere to sit and work while in town, and US MAC can help set such things up.
US MAC keeps an up-to-date list of the key skills and specialities that tech companies and investors are looking for — this helps ensure that US MAC is focusing on the right areas of industry. For example, it may learn that the automotive industry is currently seeking human-machine interface technologies, such as voice, gesture, and touch. Or, with the rise of self-driving cars, perhaps there’s a growing demand for object-detection technologies. US MAC’s list is fairly substantial, evolves constantly, and covers everything from enterprise software and mobile telecoms to fintech and the Internet of Things (IoT).
TechMatch heads to Slovakia Back in October 2015, US MAC coordinated a TechMatch event for the first time ever outside the Bay Area — in Bratislava , capital city of the central European nation of Slovakia. VentureBeat was invited along to get a taste of the action.
Above: TechMatch Using its global network, US MAC curated a bunch of startups with products or services that matched US MAC’s list of “desirables.” More than 1,000 startups were initially screened for the event from various regions around the world, leading to around 200 for US MAC itself to review.
Out of that batch, it selected 68 to present in Bratislava, hailing from Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, and Sweden.
Above: TechMatch: Slovakia Slovakia may not be on the mainstream startup radar, but TechMatch Bratislava drew some notable names.
Guy Kawasaki , who served two stints at Apple in the 1980s and 1990s — perhaps most notably as the main dude responsible for marketing the original Mac computer — gave two talks at the event. One was on lessons learned from Steve Jobs, and another on what he called the “art of the story” to help startups hone their product pitching.
From the investment realm, Ian Sobieski from Band of Angels was in the house, alongside the likes of Bill Reichert from Garage Technology Ventures and Mohanjit Jolly from DFJ Venture.
Besides helping to judge pitching contests, they were also involved in discussion around things like how non-U.S. startups should approach Silicon Valley investors.
Above: TechMatch: Silicon Valley Investors So how did Slovakia emerge as the meeting place for this Silicon Valley showcase? Well, it all started with the Slovak Business Agency (SBA), the local organization responsible for helping startups. The SBA has been putting together a series of support programs and had sent some startups to the renowned Pioneers Festival in Austria , and to Collision in Las Vegas.
TechMatch was actually the SBA’s own branding — the name just happened to be the same as that used by US MAC in California. But because of US MAC’s experience and connections in this field, it won a tender to help pull things together on behalf of the Slovakian government.
“From my conversations with them, what they understood was that the ecosystem in Slovakia is still very young,” said Burry. “There’s not a huge startup culture. There’s tons of talent here, but in order to grow crops, you need a fertile field, and if you don’t have a fertile field, it doesn’t matter how good the seed is. The SBA is focusing on how they can fertilize the ground.” US MAC isn’t the only organization looking to connect regional startups with the U.S. — there’s the likes of the German Accelerator and Plug and Play , which also aim to connect international startups with the Valley. And US MAC itself runs a multitude of other programs, such as the 2-week-long Access Silicon Valley , which looks to fast-track Irish startups’ entry into the U.S. market. “It’s more market validation,” said Burry. “It’s to help understand: What do I need to change? What should I fix in my company to be relevant to the U.S. market? Or, you may figure out that it’s not relevant at all. If you’ve figured out at the end of 2 weeks that the U.S. is not your market, that’s actually a positive outcome. Stop wasting your time trying to figure out how you’re going to get into a market that isn’t your market.” As such a unique and global event being funded from the public purse, the Slovakian event drew its fair share of attention from the local media. And that included criticism , with many arguing that the event was overpriced. Indeed, the 5-day event was thought to have cost around €1.4 million ($1.5 million), roughly the same amount as the country allocates to support startups for an entire year.
“It’s a shame… I do on some level understand that, well, there is an expense related to the event,” said Burry. “You’re in a country that is not as well off as other places, average wages are lower, and there are a group of people here who believe that the event was overpriced. From my perspective, they don’t understand how much things cost.” But perhaps the brouhaha was less about the actual expenditure than it was about what the country was set to gain from it. After all, this wasn’t an event purely for Slovakian startups. Of the 68 startups, only 10 were from Slovakia, and from that only a couple made it to the final batch who pitched to the panel on the last day. But Slovakia wasn’t hosting the event specifically to benefit individual startups (though that was one aim), it was more about putting Slovakia on the startup map.
“My belief is Slovakia as a country would have the opportunity to gain mindshare,” said Burry. “There is a mindshare war going on. When I only have this much money to invest, where am I going to look? If you’re not on the radar, the investment isn’t going to happen.” As with other startup hubs across Europe, like London, Berlin, Stockholm, Paris, or Amsterdam, Slovakia is trying to plant a seed that could lead to other things, be it accelerators or perhaps the European base for big tech companies. It wants an ecosystem.
“The people who were upset about the conference, the thing they were missing is… this is an investment,” continued Burry. “It’s an investment in a transformational journey for the country. Today, Slovakia is known as a place you can go get resources at a cost-effective rate. If they want to transform their country to be a place to go for innovation, you’ve got to begin by doing things like this.” 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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"Uber riders from China can now use Alipay to pay for trips in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/commerce/uber-riders-from-china-can-now-use-alipay-to-pay-for-trips-in-hong-kong-taiwan-and-macau"
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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 riders from China can now use Alipay to pay for trips in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau 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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Uber has formed a partnership with the Ant Financial Services Group that will make it easier for China-based riders to pay for rides in other regions. Ahead of the Chinese New Year, the company permits riders from mainland China to use their Alipay accounts when using the service in other regions, starting with Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau. The payments will be made in RMB currency and will be extended to other parts of the world later this year.
Alipay had been supported by Uber since 2014, but only for those rides within mainland China. If you traveled to Hong Kong, you would have to connect a dual-currency credit card with your account and be billed in U.S. dollars. Now this simplifies the payment process and is likely a move to encourage more riders to consider using Uber.
More than 125 million outbound trips were made by people from mainland China in 2015, according to the investment group CLSA.
And Chinese New Year is an event when millions of people will make the trek home to spend time with their family — which Uber wants to help enable. So in order to overcome a potential roadblock, specifically having to deal with currency issues just to get home, Uber struck this partnership to make it easier for Chinese riders.
Also, by making its service more convenient to riders in mainland China, Uber could be trying to be more competitive against Didi Chuxing (formerly Didi Kuaidi) , which has formed a ridesharing alliance with Uber’s main U.S. rival, Lyft.
“We’re delighted to partner with Alipay, and to work with them to bring the convenience of their payment platform to our users internationally,” said Eric Alexander, Uber’s head of business in Asia, in a canned statement. “As the only truly global ridesharing platform, we are increasingly seeing very strong demand from mainland Chinese riders using Uber in other markets internationally, and this partnership enables us to provide these travelers with a more convenient, hassle-free payment solution.” The company explained that Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau were selected not only due to their popularity with China’s business and leisure travelers, but also because of their importance to Uber and Alipay — all three are key markets for both services.
This isn’t the first time that Alipay has formed a partnership with the private on-demand car service. It has also been a supporter of Uber’s API service.
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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"SolidEnergy Announces Series B Investment | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/solidenergy-announces-series-b-investment"
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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 SolidEnergy Announces Series B Investment Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn WALTHAM, Mass.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–January 30, 2016– SolidEnergy, the developer of the “anode-free” battery delivering ultra high energy density and safety with 1200 Wh/L and 400 Wh/, announces today that it has raised $12M in a Series B round. The round was led by a major U.S. auto company, and syndicated by SAIC, Applied Ventures, LLC, and all existing investors who participated in the Series A round.
This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160129006017/en/ “Our new strategic investors are very experienced in battery investments and have very high standards. We are all very excited for the high energy density that our anode-free batteries have demonstrated in practice, not just on paper,” said Qichao Hu, SolidEnergy’s Founder and CEO. “Strategic investments will help us build an ecosystem around our anode-free battery by establishing partnerships with equipment suppliers, battery manufacturers and battery end users. We are humbled by the challenges and are very excited to play a role in the electrification of transportation and reduction of greenhouse gas emission worldwide.” About SolidEnergy SolidEnergy revolutionized portable energy storage with the introduction of the “anode-free” lithium metal battery in 2014. SolidEnergy’s two material platforms, dual-layer electrolyte and ultra-thin lithium metal anode, provide transformational energy density and safety across all rechargeable lithium batteries and can be seamlessly integrated into existing Li-ion manufacturing capability. The final applications include drones, watches & wearables, smart phones, and electric cars.
SolidEnergy was founded in 2012 during the turmoil of the lithium battery industry meltdown. Its mission is to power people’s lives, whether they are communicating with loved ones on a phone or driving with family in an electric car.
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"President Obama unveils initiative to bring computer science to more schools | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/president-obama-unveils-initiative-to-bring-computer-science-to-more-schools"
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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 President Obama unveils initiative to bring computer science to more schools Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn U.S. President Barack Obama (L) smiles as he speaks with members of the Team America Rocketry Challenge competitors representing the U.S. Virgin Islands as he plays host to the 2015 White House Science Fair at the White House in Washington, March 23, 2015. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst - RTR4UJ3P President Barack Obama wants to make computer science more accessible in schools around the United States. Today he unveiled his Computer Science for All initiative, a program that’ll make investments in not only the state and local levels, but also with federal agencies. The goal is to train teachers so that they in turn can encourage their students to learn computer science.
At this year’s State of the Union address , President Obama said, “In the coming years, we should build on [the increase of high school graduation rates and boosted graduates in fields like engineering] by … offering every student the hands-on computer science and math classes that make them job-ready on day one.” His administration believes that now is the time to achieve this goal as a “new basic” skill necessary to achieve better paying jobs and moving up in society.
Making investments in teachers President Obama’s initiative is the latest effort to improve science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) opportunities for the nation’s students. To accomplish this goal, the White House will provide $4 billion in funding to states and $10 million to districts as part of the upcoming budget proposal. The money would go toward training teachers, expanding access to resources and training material, and establishing partnerships.
Starting this year, the National Science Foundation said it will provide $120 million towards the Computer Science for All initiative over the next five years. The funds will be used to create research foundations aimed at developing and implementing sound academic computer science instructions in the schools. This includes “prototyping of instructional materials, scalable and sustainable professional development models, approaches to pre-service preparation for computer science teachers, and teacher resources at the K-12 grade levels.” It’s estimated that the investment will prepare up to 9,000 additional high school teachers in computer science by 2021.
The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) is also committing to the cause, putting $17 million in Segal AmeriCorps Education Awards toward teacher training. The CNCS is a federal agency develops community solutions through its AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, and Social Innovation Fund programs. Over the next three years, it’ll work alongside the NSF and the STEM organization 100Kin10 to help thousands of teachers access the AmeriCorps Educational Awards and to help pay for teachers to be trained in computer science.
In addition, 100Kin10 has pledged to help its 200-plus partners prepare more than 10,000 teachers to teach computer science by 2021. The organization, consisting of companies like the New York Academy of Sciences, SRI International, the University of New Hampshire, and Teach For America, will launch a $1 million “coopetition” to find the best ways to prepare and support engineering in K-12 schools in New York state, with a focus on computer science.
Other federal agencies such as the Department of Defense, the National Math and Science Initiative, and the Department of Education’s Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education and its 21st Century Community Learning Centers program are also involved in promoting computer science in schools.
The last piece of the program is to motivate leaders at all levels to participate in this process. President Obama wants to get governors, mayors, education leaders, CEOs, philanthropists, and others involved. Right now, the states of Delaware and Hawaii, along with more than 30 school districts in the United States, have committed to expanding computer science opportunities.
Private sector firms have also pledged contributions, such as Cartoon Network’s $30 million effort to get young people to learn creative coding; Apple’s expansion of coding opportunities for children and additional investments in training workshops; Facebook’s outreach to parents and students in communities underrepresented in the tech sector; Google’s additional investment of $23 million to support K-12 computer science education in order to reach 5 million more students; Microsoft’s campaign to encourage all 50 states to adopt Make CS Count policies and invest in computer science education; and Code.org’s goal to prepare 25,000 more teachers to teach computer science this year.
The growing need for STEM education The White House said that last year there were over 600,000 available jobs in tech and by 2018, 51 percent of all STEM jobs are estimated to be in a computer science-related field. And the demand keeps growing — the federal government alone needs an additional 10,000 professionals to help manage its IT infrastructure and cybersecurity. “Providing access to [computer science] is a critical step for ensuring that our nation remains competitive in the global economy and strengthens its cybersecurity,” the Obama administration wrote.
The launch of the Computer Science for All initiative isn’t the first time President Obama has promoted this field. In his two terms, he has created the White House Science Fair; started the Educate to Innovate initiative; signed into law the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which increases the opportunities states and school districts have to offer computer science coursework; became the first sitting president to learn how to code ; and hosted the inaugural White House Demo Day.
President Obama’s latest initiative doesn’t appear to be just talk. He has worked alongside multiple partners — on the federal, state, and local levels as well as in the private sector — to generate commitments to improving computer science opportunities for millions of students. It starts with making sure that the teachers are educated first before branching out to encourage everyone to be strong in STEM.
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"Padmasree Warrior leaves Box's board after joining Microsoft's | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/padmasree-warrior-leaves-boxs-board-after-joining-microsofts"
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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 Padmasree Warrior leaves Box’s board after joining Microsoft’s Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Padmasree Warrior.
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Former Cisco executive Padmasree Warrior is resigning from the board of directors of cloud file syncing and sharing service Box , effective on Sunday, January 31, according to a regulatory filing the company posted today. She joined the board in March 2014.
The news comes just less than two months after Warrior was elected to Microsoft’s board of directors.
Box went public in December 2014 and has announced multiple partnership arrangements with Microsoft. Now Warrior has a say in some of Microsoft’s biggest decisions as it remains focused on the “mobile-first and cloud-first world” that chief executive Satya Nadella often speaks about.
Warrior is currently CEO of the U.S. branch of Tesla competitor NextEV.
Previously she spent seven years as Cisco’s chief technology officer, and she also held executive roles at Motorola.
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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5,947 | 2,016 |
"Nokia boosts revenue with Samsung patent resolution | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/nokia-boosts-revenue-with-samsung-patent-resolution"
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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 boosts revenue with Samsung patent resolution Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The Nokia headquarters is seen in Espoo, Finland, July 28, 2015. REUTERS/Mikko Stig/Lethikuva HELSINKI (By Jussi Rosendahl for Reuters) — Finland’s Nokia on Monday settled its patent dispute with South Korea’s Samsung, saying the arbitration verdict would boost its patent sales by hundreds of millions of euros.
Nokia said the settlement would lift sales at its patent unit Nokia Technologies to around 1.02 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in 2015, include catch-up revenue from the past two years, from 578 million euros in 2014.
The annualized net sales run-rate for the patent unit is now about 800 million euros, Nokia added.
Nokia entered into a binding arbitration with Samsung in 2013 to settle additional compensations for Nokia’s phone patents for a five-year period starting from early 2014.
“The use of independent arbitration to resolve differences in patent cases is a recognized best practice, and we welcome the additional compensation payable to Nokia under the extended agreement,” said Ramzi Haidamus, the head of Nokia Technologies.
Nokia added it expects to receive at least 1.3 billion euros of cash during 2016-2018 related to its settled and ongoing arbitrations, including the Samsung award. Nokia currently has a similar dispute with LG Electronics.
Nokia, which once dominated the global mobile phones market, is now focused on telecom network equipment but still holds a large portfolio of phone patents. The company is due to close its 15.6 billion euro all-share takeover of French network gear rival Alcatel-Lucent this quarter.
(Reporting by Jussi Rosendahl, editing by Terje Solsvik) 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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5,948 | 2,016 |
"Name-brand colleges are hurting tech hiring | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/name-brand-colleges-are-hurting-tech-hiring"
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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 Name-brand colleges are hurting tech hiring Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Students of Harvard University gather for their graduation ceremony.
We have a problem in the United States. Over the last 30 years, college tuition has increased 1,120 percent.
And American student debt is forecast to swell to $1.4 trillion by 2020 — it’s already impossibly upwards of $1.2 trillion. College is too expensive.
Ridiculously, shamefully expensive in many cases. To make matters worse, our society and the companies that fuel it have become addicted to high-priced, name-brand education — and it is affecting the American workforce dramatically.
It’s time for businesses to change how we look at higher education when it comes to recruiting. If we want access to the best talent out there, we have to redefine the value of a college education in the job market and expand the regard we have for certain name-brand institutions into a newfound — and entirely necessary — respect for alternate paths to job skills.
The “blue collar” dilemma In past U.S. recessions, the “blue collar” jobs that didn’t require a college education or advanced experience and skills were typically the first to disappear. But following our last recession, the jobs didn’t come back like they used to — because they were automated by technology. We now have a growing population of folks without the requisite skills or education to get the kind of job that pays well or can become a lasting career.
The shuttered steel mills of Pennsylvania may seem far away from Silicon Valley, where companies vacuum up talent. But that blue-collar job loss and the struggle to fill engineering jobs are actually interconnected: Both are the product of our obsession with high-priced, brand-name education.
Educational costs are out of control Today, so many businesses, particularly in the tech industry, over-favor the most expensive schools — the MITs, Stanfords, and Harvards. According to a Nerdwallet study conducted over the 2009-2011 school years, Ivy League graduates were 59 percent more likely to find employment than the average graduate. The logic has always been their graduates are “less risky” and “more productive” for the companies who hire them.
But while more than 25 percent of recruiters plan to hire 100+ people in the next year , we have this burgeoning group of people who can’t afford the education to get the skills to fill that demand. And even if they can afford some education, it’s not from the universities that companies seem to prefer.
So here we are, with thousands of people in search of employment, and thousands of job openings that are critical to helping businesses remain competitive — and one sad, expensive educational barrier preventing the two groups from successfully addressing the other’s needs. What do we do? A mentality that needs evolving It’s going to take a lot more than a quick fix. Both business and government will need to work together to change the current system and discover a better alternative.
We’re already seeing greater investment in alternatives to pricey universities, such as online learning courses and degree programs. Now we need more ways to make college affordable, through reduced/free tuition programs or apprenticeship programs that combine education and work experience.
Apprenticeships, in particular, have proven extremely successful at training employees for future vocation in countries like Germany, and they’re starting to appear in the United States as well. Job seekers are hungry for opportunities to develop their careers, and I think they will start to care less about how they build skills as long as they can afford to build them at all.
Alongside governmental initiatives, companies across industries need to develop a new outlook on hiring talent. We’re on the cusp of a major fundamental shift, where businesses realize that the effective ROI of employees developed through these educational alternatives, or with degrees from non-name-brand schools, is just as high if not higher than that achieved through those premier colleges. A 2014 LinkedIn college ranking survey showed that some industries, such as media and accounting, grabbed their best workers from lesser known schools — and Jobvite data from 2015 showed San Jose State University in California as the top university most likely to land its graduates a job in Silicon Valley. The best talent doesn’t always have the most expensive diploma.
Some companies are already getting it right. In 2014, Google revealed that its search for talent doesn’t factor in college rankings ; instead, they prefer candidates with “intellectual humility,” which graduates of top schools may be lacking. And last year, Ernst & Young’s U.K. offices announced that they will no longer require new hires to have college degrees , after an internal study found little proof that academic success affected how employees performed on the job.
In 2016, I believe we’ll see this shift finally tip the scale. We have to make education more accessible, and we have to value and promote all kinds of education in order to put people to profitable, and purposeful , work.
Dan Finnigan is CEO of Jobvite , an analytics-driven recruiting tech company. He was previously both an SVP for Yahoo and general manager of Yahoo HotJobs and served as the president and CEO of online media company Knight Ridder Digital. He also previously worked as a freelance reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and today publishes an Inc. column on leadership and business.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Microsoft's Project Natick brings data centers underwater | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/microsofts-project-natick-brings-data-centers-underwater"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Microsoft’s Project Natick brings data centers underwater Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Microsoft's Project Natick underwater data center capsule.
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Microsoft today unveiled Project Natick, a fascinating research initiative that could bring cloud computing infrastructure closer to big cities near large bodies of water — by putting data centers underwater.
Microsoft isn’t running any web services, like Office 365, through the data center infrastructure inside of these capsules. But Microsoft did build one (named the Leona Philpot , after the Halo character ) and set it 30 feet underwater off of the California coast for four months in 2015. The capsules could have their computing hardware replaced every five years, but eventually they could well be kept underwater, without people onsite, for 20 years or more. And they could be powered by renewable energy, too.
“Project Natick reflects Microsoft’s ongoing quest for cloud datacenter solutions that offer rapid provisioning, lower costs, high responsiveness, and are more environmentally sustainable,” Microsoft explained on the website for the project.
It’s an unusual and forward-looking way for a company at Microsoft’s scale — or any scale, really — to operate its core data center infrastructure. It’s reminiscent of the Google barge that some people suspected had been intended to house data center hardware. (Other reports suggested it could be used for retail purposes.) But that project has been forgotten. Major web companies like Google and Facebook are now focusing on using aircraft to deliver the Internet to people, which has taken up some of the spotlight on research into new or better ways to deliver services. But the servers, storage, and networking equipment have got to live somewhere.
One might think putting data centers in the ocean might have environmental repercussions. But Microsoft is indicating that nothing untoward happened in the initial experiment.
“During our deployment of the Leona Philpot vessel, sea life in the local vicinity quickly adapted to the presence of the vessel,” Microsoft said on the Project Natick website.
Now Microsoft is looking to advance the research by building larger capsules. People working on the project have begun devising one three times as large as the first, according to John Markoff of the New York Times.
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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"Intel promotes 8 executives, but its upper ranks aren't more diverse | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/intel-promotes-8-executives-but-its-upper-ranks-arent-more-diverse"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Intel promotes 8 executives, but its upper ranks aren’t more diverse Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Intel CEO Brian Kraznich at Intel analyst day.
Intel announced eight executive promotions today, but seven of those are white and Asian men. The lone person who would qualify as a diverse candidate within that group is Christina Min, who was promoted to corporate vice president and group controller for the corporate finance group.
Intel has committed to hiring 40 percent of all new employees as women or underrepresented minorities (which does not include Asian men). In the most recent year, Intel said that 43 percent of new hires were women and underrepresented minorities. Brian Krzanich, chief executive of Intel, has made diversity and inclusion one of his major priorities at Intel.
Of course, the eight promotions today tell very little about the overall makeup of the executive staff at Intel, which does include high-ranking women. In response to a query, Intel said, “Intel promoted 12 women into the appointed (or group) VP ranks and three women are receiving new Intel Fellow honors (this includes Genevieve Bell, who is now a Senior Fellow). While there’s more to do, we are narrowing the gap when it comes to female representation. We’ll have more to share on this next week when our diversity report comes out Feb. 3.” Today’s promotions include advancing Wendell Brooks, former corporate vice president, to senior vice president. He is head of Intel Capital, the chip maker’s global investment group.
Steven Fund, chief marketing officer, was also promoted from corporate vice president to senior vice president. The other promotions involve the following new corporate vice presidents: Peng Bai, co-director of the Logic Technology Development organization within Intel’s Technology and Manufacturing Group; Brice Hill, group controller for corporate finance; Matthew Smith, director of HR business and employee solutions; Weng Kuan Tan, general manager of the client computing group; and Jason Waxman, general manager of the cloud platforms group.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Google's U.K. tax deal sparks criticism | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/googles-u-k-tax-deal-sparks-criticism"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Google’s U.K. tax deal sparks criticism Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn (Reuters) – Britain’s opposition Labour party demanded on Sunday that the finance ministry explain how it arrived at a back tax payment by Internet giant Google that has put the government on the back foot.
The settlement of 130 million pounds ($185 million) for the period since 2005, announced just over a week ago, was hailed by the government as a major success but criticized by other parties, and could be examined by European Union antitrust regulators.
In a letter to Conservative finance minister George Osborne, Labour’s parliamentary spokespeople for finance and justice asked him to provide more information on the deal to restore public trust in tax authorities.
“We would urge you to address the widespread concerns that have been expressed about the lack of transparency surrounding the deal,” Seema Malhotra and Charles Falconer wrote in the letter.
They asked for additional information on whether Diverted Profits Tax had been levied on Google, and further details on the basis that authorities had used to arrive at the figure of 130 million pounds.
Google says it is paying all the tax that is due.
Tax avoidance has become a hot political issue in Britain, where people question whether the burden of strengthening public finances has been shared fairly.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has already challenged Prime Minister David Cameron to defend the deal, and the party has called for an investigation by the National Audit Office, while the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has said it will investigate the arrangement.
(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Kevin Liffey) 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 acquires spatial perception startup Flyby Media, reportedly has a secret VR team | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/apple-acquires-spatial-perception-startup-flyby-media-reportedly-has-a-secret-vr-team"
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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 acquires spatial perception startup Flyby Media, reportedly has a secret VR team Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Apple has reportedly acquired Flyby Media, a startup that developed technology for mapping spaces using smartphones.
This technology could be useful for tracking head-mounted displays in virtual reality or augmented reality systems. And that fits with Apple’s current interest in virtual reality , including the recent Metaio and Faceshift acquisitions. News of the Flyby acquisition was originally reported today by the Financial Times.
“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans,” an Apple spokesperson wrote in an email to VentureBeat. That’s Apple’s usual way of confirming that it has bought a company.
Apple now has “hundreds” of people working on virtual reality and has crafted prototypes for headsets in recent months, the Financial Times reported.
The efforts come as Apple strives to catch up to companies with virtual reality or augmented reality products in the works or available now. There’s Samsung’s Gear VR, Facebook’s Oculus Rift, HTC’s Vive, Microsoft’s HoloLens, and Google’s Cardboard.
Interestingly, Flyby Media has previously worked with Google, on its Project Tango project, which gives mobile devices a way to determine where they are in space, according to a cached version of the startup’s website (it’s no longer live). But Flyby has also done Apple-related work. It built “a proprietary iPhone-based product to create scalable floor plans for integration into Apple’s MapsConnect program,” according to the site.
There are two demos that Flyby cofounder Oriel Bergig has given at conferences where he has spoken. The first is a video showing a person moving around a room and leaving virtual breadcrumbs in their path. When the person moves around enough, you can see the breadcrumbs — little spheres floating in the air. This method, called SLAM, can operate on a smartphone.
The other demo shows a two-dimensional map that tracks a person holding a mobile device as the person moves around within an indoor space.
This is speculation, but the technology could very well get integrated with some kind of headset from Apple. It’s not inconceivable that an Apple headset could be connected with, say, an iPhone that sits on top of a person’s computer and tracks the person’s motion. The Oculus Rift headset from Facebook has a dedicated device for this task, but virtual reality head tracking would be an excellent new use case for the iPhone. Alternatively, perhaps with the assistance of some type of case, an iPhone could track movement of a head-mounted display as the person wearing it moves around a large room.
Here are some (admittedly dated) videos showing Flyby’s capabilities: Update at 1:50 p.m. Pacific: Added Apple’s confirmation of the Flyby acquisition.
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"A new breed of 'data-first' tools could soon dominate the enterprise | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/a-new-breed-of-data-first-tools-could-soon-dominate-the-enterprise"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Guest A new breed of ‘data-first’ tools could soon dominate the enterprise Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The real potential of big data 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 about to witness an upheaval in the enterprise software market that will put billions of dollars of IT spending up for grabs.
In the old world, enterprise applications were primarily about increasing a business’ efficiency through better workflow — data and analytics were add-ons. In the emerging world, applications will be “data first,” putting data and algorithms at the center, and using them to drive other applications.
This revolution is in its early days, but data-first services are starting to emerge in many of the major enterprise-application categories. Companies such as Vlocity in customer relationship management (CRM), Moogsoft in IT operations, and Kanjoya in human resources are amongst startups driving the new, data-first approach. [Disclosure: My firm is an investor in Moogsoft.] The original enterprise software paradigm spawned huge businesses such as SAP and large parts of Oracle, and their legacy services remain a potent force. By mapping out key business workflows, writing software to codify them, and then repeating this play across a wide range of processes, they created value by improving efficiency. The subsequent SaaS revolution improved the software delivery and distribution model massively, but it also deflected attention from innovation that would have delivered even more value. As one top SaaS CEO explained to me recently: “The cloud idea turned out to be so big that we never got to the other ideas in our plan.” Many of those neglected ideas had to do with data. Data-first applications differ from workflow-first ones in several respects. Architecturally speaking, they are built around a scalable data-centric core that is highly flexible with regard to data type and structure and the nature of the processing to be done on the data. This is the opposite of prior architectures that led with business logic.
The new services also rely heavily on embedded algorithms. High-frequency trading, consumer fraud detection, and ad targeting are early examples of this tectonic shift. These involved an incredibly high scale and velocity of interactions, which meant no human could be in the loop. At the same time, a glitch wouldn’t bankrupt a company, kill a patient, or cause any number of other catastrophic outcomes. In processes where the stakes are much higher, data-first applications are likely to support skilled operators and analysts wherever good data sets can be put to use (see chart below).
What really distinguishes data-first applications, however, is the virtuous data cycle they make possible. The data they generate are used to power additional, domain-specific applications, driving additional insights. So they could eventually become virtual breeder reactors of business-process optimization and insight generation. The cycle isn’t new: Consumer web companies such as Google and Facebook have been running this play for years. What is new is that this phenomenon is now invading numerous business categories.
Many early examples have emerged in sales and marketing, where it’s relatively easy to demonstrate a swift return on investment. The data-first model will have most value in industry-specific applications.
Veeva is the canonical example of this. The company built its footprint — and its data set — with a standard CRM application for life sciences, subsequently rolling out other data-first services such as Veeva Network and Veeva OpenData in the healthcare arena. Veterans from Veeva and CRM pioneer Siebel Systems have now teamed up at Vlocity to target other verticals.
With lots of data, complex operations, and highly technical users, IT is a natural place for data-first applications. Moogsoft’s incident-management application consumes data from various IT systems, applications, and external sources and delivers an intelligent view of service-affecting situations in real time. It also captures information about how incidents are resolved to build an historical data set of key people, symptoms, and cures.
Cyber security is another area where the new generation of applications is taking off. Today’s security-information and event-management products are easily overwhelmed by the volume and diversity of data streaming towards them. To tackle this challenge, Securonix , Fortscale , and Exabeam have developed services that ingest numerous data streams and use big data analytics to identify anomalous behaviors and create measures of potential risk.
Even in HR, which has far less data and far fewer technical users, new entrants are championing a data-first approach. They include HiQ , which uses data science and public information to identify employee flight risks, and Kanjoya, which uses the data generated by a social network that it created, called the “Experience Project”, to train algorithms for emotional analysis of free-text employee survey responses.
These and other data-first attackers will initially appear with focused use cases and will integrate with incumbent systems for legacy data access, as new data collectors, and as analytical coprocessors. The first impression is all very complementary. However, this is likely to be just the first step in a wholesale transformation that will be every bit as big as the SaaS wave before it.
The smarter incumbents are already trying to respond, but this could well be an even more difficult transition for them than the leap to the cloud. Data-first alternatives are already capturing beachheads that will allow them, some day, to topple empires.
Peter Wagner is a Founding Partner of Wing Venture Capital , which invests in startups focused on business technology markets.
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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"15 alternatives to Facebook's Parse | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/15-alternatives-to-facebooks-parse"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages 15 alternatives to Facebook’s Parse Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Parse no more.
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Sh*t happens. Sometimes cloud services and applications shut down. Yesterday, Facebook announced that it would be closing up Parse, the mobile backend as a service (MBaaS) that it acquired in 2013 for a reported $85 million.
Customers do have a whole year to get their apps running on different infrastructure. And fortunately, there are many other cloud services to choose from if you don’t want to detail with the complexity of managing the underlying server and storage infrastructure for your mobile apps.
Here’s a roundup of Parse alternatives to consider, along with a bit of background information on each one: AnyPresence.
Founded in 2011, AnyPresence has an enterprise focus. It supports on-premises deployments. It announced a $6 million funding round in September 2014.
Appcelerator.
Founded in 2006 and recently acquired by Axway, Appcelerator offers its Arrow cloud service starting at $259 per seat per month. Customers include Cisco and VMware.
Appery.
Appery launched in 2012 originally under the name Tiggzi, as a product from Exadel, which started in 1998. More than 300,000 developers use it, and customers include Aetna, Konica Minolta, and Toyota.
Backendless.
Founded in 2012, Backendless has taken on less venture capital than some of its competitors, but “at this point the business can fund itself,” founder and CEO Mark Piller wrote in a support forum post last year. The cost of deploying apps on top of multiple servers is not posted on the company’s website.
Built.io.
Founded in 2007, Built.io offers a backend that can be deployed on Amazon Web Services, IBM SoftLayer, or VMware’s vCloud Air.
CloudMine.
Established in 2011, CloudMine is currently offering a special deal to Parse customers to win their business. CloudMine has integrated itself with platform as a service (PaaS) company Apprenda and it announced a $5 million funding round in March 2015.
FeedHenry.
Established in 2008, FeedHenry was acquired by Red Hat in September 2014 for around $82 million. Today the pricing for the Red Hat Mobile Application Platform is not immediately visible; you have to contact Red Hat.
Firebase.
Established in 2011, Firebase is a real-time cloud backend with a strong developer following and hosting for static assets in apps. It was acquired by Google in October 2014.
Kii.
Established in 2007, Kii supports on-premises and cloud deployments. The company focuses on Internet of Things (IoT) applications in particular. Earlier this month Kii announced that it had received funding from Cisco Investments.
Kinvey.
Founded in 2010, Kinvey has several enterprise customers, and it’s available for deployment on on-premises data centers, too. The company raised a $10.8 million round in September 2014. VMware used Kinvey’s backend to deliver a mobile offering in vCloud Air.
Kony.
Founded in 2007, Kony offers the MobileFabric MBaaS. Kony raised $50 million in June 2014.
Kumulos.
Founded in 2010, Kumulos focuses on providing MBaaS to companies as a tool that they can white-label for their own customers to use. Pricing, at $50 per app per month, only kicks in once apps are live.
moBack.
Founded in 2012 and currently advertising free service on its website, moBack can be deployed on top of Amazon Web Services or on-premises data center infrastructure.
Syncano.
Founded in 2011, Syncano announced a $5.5 million funding round in September. It costs just $25 a month to run applications in production with Syncano.
Telerik.
Boasting customers such as Dell, IBM, Microsoft, and Sony, Telerik has been around since 2002; it was acquired by Progress in December 2014 for $262.5 million.
Also, the Parse Server software is now available under an open source license , allowing you to set up a Parse-like experience on whatever infrastructure you want.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! If you’ve been using Parse, feel free to share what you’re doing with your mobile apps in the comments.
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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"12 things we learned as a new VC fund | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/12-things-we-learned-as-a-new-vc-fund"
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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 12 things we learned as a new VC fund Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The SparkLabs team on a weekly video call.
When we launched SparkLabs Global Ventures two years ago , we faced a lot of uncertainty and risk as a new seed-stage fund. How would the chemistry work out between the six partners? How would entrepreneurs respond to our vision and team? How would investors respond to our thesis as a global seed-stage fund? After two years, we’ve invested in 54 companies across five continents and backed many inspiring and awesome entrepreneurs. We’ve also learned a lot from those entrepreneurs, industry veterans, and each other. We had a recent discussion as a team ( HanJoo Lee, Frank Meehan, Net Jacobsson, Jimmy Kim, Jay McCarthy, and myself ), wrote down a laundry list of all the things we’ve learned along the way so far, and whittled it down to the top 12 lessons we want to keep top of mind: 1. Team decisions work.
While it’s difficult to track the success rate of our decision process (all six partners have to say yes to an investment) versus an individual partners’ success rate, we’re confident that our process has led us to the best decisions. Over the years, I’ve conducted dozens of survival simulation training sessions, which examine decision-making by groups versus individuals in harsh, life-threatening environments (i.e. Death Valley or Antarctica). I have never experienced a session in which an individual scored higher than the group. Regardless of free riders or having a few weak links on a team, the team decision prevailed and scored higher in the probability of the group’s survival over any single person. I believe this has held true for our approach to startup investing, and I can state confidently that my five partners made me smarter.
2. Exceptional entrepreneurs can be found anywhere.
We started with the thesis that awesome innovations and innovators can be found anywhere, not just in Silicon Valley. Our experience over the last two years has proven this to be the case. We are seeing great companies rising from all corners of the globe.
3. True grit matters.
Call it grit or hustle, but I can’t overstate the importance it has to a startup’s success. And successful entrepreneurs know how to leverage that hustling attitude without crossing the line into stubbornness. They also know when to pivot and when to fold.
4. Speed matters.
Speed can be a good indicator of whether a startup in the seed stage will be able to survive. How quickly can the founders close their funding round? Find and hire the right talent? Quickly hustle their way to the right VP to pitch their product? 5. Integrity matters.
This is not good for goodness sake. Integrity is an absolute starting point. Don’t lie to your investors, don’t lie to your company’s partners, don’t lie to your employees, and don’t lie to yourself.
6. Money and time, baby. Money and time.
The givens for a startup’s life are the amount of money you have and need, the time it gives you, and time you need to raise your next round. Every other factor is fungible. A common mistake that we saw over the last two years by otherwise great founders is that they get stuck on a certain valuation level, delay, or don’t close their round, and decrease their runway and lifeline as a result. In other cases, we’ve seen founding CEOs who don’t closely track their burn rate and cash, which leads the company to operate under circumstances that should have been more in their control. Situations like these put companies in unnecessary trouble.
7. Do not optimize your valuation.
Optimizing your fundraising valuation will come back and bite you. Our team has seen this play out several times within our portfolio and among other startups, where companies underestimate their cash needs, run out of money, and can’t raise a bridge round from their existing investors. Why? Because the first set of investors don’t want to put in at the higher valuation, such as $12 million, and the second set of investors realize that they won’t get as good a deal as the first set of investors but will have the same outcome. Or a startup seeks out a bridge, but with a bump in valuation without much justification. Of course the founders believe it’s justified, but investors don’t, and no one invests. Then it’s too late to go back to investors with a lowered valuation. If you are in need of a bridge round, keep it at the same valuation or a very small bump because speed is essential, not your ownership percentage.
8. Low versus high burn rate? We have seen both approaches work, but each requires associated tactics that make sense in its context. If you are working on a mobile app or game, you absolutely need a low burn rate. This is because you never know what idea will stick. So you need to ensure your survival until you figure out the puzzle. However, if you are in hardware, you need a good amount of capital up front so that you are not scrambling all the time. Also, with ecommerce and certain fintech plays, you absolutely need a lot of capital and need it fast if you’re going to matter in the market. So know the characteristics of the sector you are playing in, and cater your strategy and tactics accordingly. Of course, regardless of industry sector, spending on private jet rides and vacation trips is a quick path to failure.
9. Always fundraise.
Whether we are raising for our own startups or a new fund, it seems like we spend half our time on fundraising. If you are an entrepreneur or newbie VC, it’s something you can’t avoid so you have to embrace it. Since my late twenties, fundraising has always been my second job.
10. Ecommerce outside of China and the U.S. has awesome potential.
We believe this for several reasons: a proven business model, easily tracked KPIs, immediate revenue growth, and still so much opportunity to disrupt traditional retail.
11. Fintech, cybersecurity, deep tech, and enterprise are focus areas for 2016.
While our team jokes around that “we look at anything online but not illegal,” we will continue to look strongly into fintech and cybersecurity while looking more actively into enterprise and deep tech plays.
We believe there will be much more disruption in the commercial banking sector and across more markets, such as in Asia and Western Europe. Cybersecurity across industry verticals and platforms will continue to increase.
Our team has seen more academic researchers seeking to commercialize their deep tech discoveries. While most are difficult to productize or build a company around, we believe there will be some diamonds in the rough that can be developed into world-changing companies.
12. Hardware is really hard.
We have invested in six hardware companies so far and also seven from our affiliated startup accelerator in Seoul. We love IoT and hardware and will continue investing in this space, but we have learned along the way that making a physical product is much harder than it seems. One minor design or manufacturing error can double your costs, set you back three months, or kill your company altogether.
If it’s a consumer product, we look for what my partner Net Jacobsson calls the “holy trinity of IoT” (product, subscription, data). If it’s an industrial IoT play, the revenue or revenue potential has to be crystal clear. Saying that you are collecting a billion data points that someone will eventually buy isn’t moving the needle on our team.
We know there will be dozens more insights that we will gain over the next two years from our portfolio companies and each other, so we look forward to it! Thanks to HanJoo Lee, Frank Meehan, and Net Jacobsson for writing most of these points. I wholly admit that I plagiarized their work.
Bernard Moon is cofounder and General Partner at SparkLabs Global Ventures , a global seed-stage fund, and cofounder of SparkLabs , a startup accelerator in Seoul, Korea. Follow him on Twitter.
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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"Twitter's China director Kathy Chen departs after 8 months | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/social/twitters-china-director-kathy-chen-departs-after-8-months"
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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 Twitter’s China director Kathy Chen departs after 8 months Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Twitter's logo featured in the lobby of its San Francisco headquarters.
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Twitter’s seemingly endless line of executive departures continues as the company’s managing director in China, Kathy Chen, announced her departure.
Though she said it was the “right time” for her to move on, she had only joined Twitter in April.
Chen did not disclose her future plans, except to say in a tweet that she will “take some time off to recharge, study about different cultures and then pursue more international business opportunities.” 7/12 Now that the Twitter APAC team is working directly with Chinese advertisers, this is the right time for me to leave the company.
— Kathy Chen (@kathychen2016) December 31, 2016 Although she received the title of managing director for Greater China, Twitter wasn’t able to legally operate in the country because of a ban imposed by the government — although some users have found workarounds.
The company nevertheless opened up a Hong Kong office in 2015 to pursue Chinese advertisers, with the idea that limits on using the service internally shouldn’t stop businesses from advertising beyond China’s borders.
Chen was brought on board to oversee this effort and to find ways for developers and other businesses in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan to be able to use the platform. However, Twitter faced criticism over the decision to hire her from free speech activists concerned about Chen’s background working with the People’s Liberation Army as an engineer and as CEO of Computer Associates, which once counted China’s government as a minority owner.
In a 12-part series of tweets yesterday, Chen said she felt that since Twitter now has an established relationship with Chinese advertisers, her job was done. “Great China is one of our fastest growing revenue markets in Asia Pacific for Twitter today…” she said , adding that the advertiser base has grown “nearly 400 percent over the past 2 years.” The Hong Kong office will remain open “at this time.” Twitter also has an office in Singapore, where its Asia Pacific headquarters is located.
6/12 At this time, our HK office will stay open to maintain our Greater China presence & for business opportunities with Chinese companies.
— Kathy Chen (@kathychen2016) December 31, 2016 Chen joins a growing cadre of executives who have left the company, including chief technology officer Adam Messinger ; Josh McFarland who is now a venture capitalist with Greylock; Kevin Weil who joined Instagram ; chief operating officer Adam Bain ; engineering executive Alex Roetter; global media head Katie Stanton; and human resources chief Brian “Skip” Schipper.
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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"Rejoice! Twitter CEO is 'thinking a lot' about letting users edit tweets | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/social/rejoice-twitter-ceo-is-thinking-a-lot-about-letting-users-edit-tweets"
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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 Rejoice! Twitter CEO is ‘thinking a lot’ about letting users edit tweets Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey onstage at the Flight developer conference on October 21, 2015 at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, Calif.
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If you know a dance to please the Twitter gods, then start doing it right now.
Because it seems the greatest wish of Twitter users everywhere could in fact become a reality. Yes, we’re talking about the near-universal desire for Twitter to add an edit button to its service. With our grammatically challenged incoming tweeter-in-chief, one could argue that such a feature has become a matter of national security. (Okay, not really, but…) During a late-night tweet-brainstorming session, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey asked for suggestions about how to improve the service. He publicly discussed the notion of editing tweets and seemed to be focused on the question of how to do it, rather than whether to do it.
This is our most requested feature (today & always). Mostly to quickly fix mistakes. Anything beyond would need to show revision history https://t.co/fHtGNjkuEx — jack (@jack) December 29, 2016 @_AlexLawrence @cloleaf yup me too. We're thinking a lot about it.
— jack (@jack) December 29, 2016 Cool! So, what’s been holding things back the past 10 years? Well, Dorsey noted that the company would need to figure out just how to implement editing, as well as the rules around it.
For instance: Do you get just a set amount of time in which to make a change? If you can make a change at any time, Dorsey suggested there would need to be a way to view the revision history. It could be tricky, of course, if you embed a tweet (like the ones above) and then someone goes back and changes it. Of course, if you have a change log, then any mistakes still live on in some form, though in a less obvious way.
Dorsey also worried about downsides. These include the fact that tweets are taken as public statements by the media and considered to be the “public record” of what was said. If these can always be altered, that might make them less valuable.
Still, for now, we’ll take “thinking a lot about it” as a sign of hope in a dark age.
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 in 2016: Live, fake, and half-baked | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/social/facebook-in-2016-live-fake-and-half-baked"
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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 Facebook in 2016: Live, fake, and half-baked Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Facebook Live advertisement as shown in the Montgomery BART station in San Francisco, Calif.
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Facebook didn’t flood 2016 with mind-blowing announcements, let’s be honest. In 2015, the company inched closer to making our world a much smaller place , thanks to the promotion of Free Basics, Oculus virtual reality, and more. But this year Facebook charted a different course, one that enabled its 1.8 billion monthly active users to be more vocal about their lives.
And, well, it hasn’t exactly been smooth sailing.
Instead of giant leaps into extraordinary new categories, Facebook doubled down on existing products, such as Messenger and Instagram. The features Facebook added in 2016 may impress users across these apps, but the company copied a great deal from Snapchat. (Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?) Facebook also made an aggressive push into live video. Through partnerships, relentless advertising, and a constant stream of new features, Facebook is determined to convince us that livestreaming is great and everyone should do it. (How else will the company increase its original sharing stats?) VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! On the less-than-stellar side, 2016 was also the year Facebook’s powerhouse advertising program had to recalculate its metrics multiple times. As 2017 approaches, we have to wonder if the controversy over inaccurate reporting will impact brands’ decisions to spend money on the platform. Has Facebook become too big, too fast, and will we now see it begin to slow down? The dawn of Messenger For much of 2016, Facebook’s new releases centered not on the social network itself, but on secondary products: building up chatbots, replicating features from Snapchat, and promoting livestreaming. With more than 1 billion people using Facebook Messenger each month, the company moved forward with plans to transform it into a platform. At F8, Facebook introduced a formal way for businesses to interact with customers, with the addition of some artificial intelligence.
Above: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on stage at the F8 2015 developer conference talking about the Messenger Platform.
The Messenger Platform allows developers to build conversational bots, using its send and receive API. This means the likes of CNN, Salesforce, OwnersListen, Poncho, Expedia , Hipmunk , and Yahoo can build applications to improve customer service and establish more intimate relationships with their customers. Facebook’s entry into the space enjoined it with Slack, Kik , Line , WeChat, and Telegram , each of which had been exploring bots for some time. But having a company with a household name on the scene cast a spotlight on this trend.
Was it worth it? There are now more than 34,000 bots on the platform, but how many provide real value? Facebook’s vice president of messenger David Marcus admitted earlier this year that the space “got really overhyped really, really quickly,” but he stopped short of saying that chatbots are doomed. Marcus explained that Facebook wanted to lay the groundwork for what the company hopes will be a flourishing ecosystem. “It’s not easy, and it takes time,” he noted on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt in September.
Above: PayPal & Facebook Messenger Facebook continued to improve the Messenger platform by introducing new capabilities, such as making it possible for bots to accept payments.
While there’s much said about the use of artificial intelligence, the truth is these applications within Messenger are a hybrid of both advanced machine learning and human-powered customer service.
But this was only the beginning of Facebook Messenger’s push this year, as its capabilities expanded to not only enable more people to make Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls — the app now powers more than 10 percent of all calls globally — but also group video calls. The company also recently added more creative tools designed to personalize conversations. Facebook reports that more than 300 million people are making voice and video calls through Messenger each month.
On the other hand, 2016 saw hardly any public updates to M, Facebook’s pseudo-competitor to Siri, Alexa, and Google Now. Available to a select number of users through Messenger, M launched last year to help users complete tasks, with features like suggested responses , which Facebook is still experimenting with. While Facebook Messenger focused on bots and the platform launch this year, it’s possible that once the right number of partners jump on board, M could become a big part of Messenger in 2017.
Sharing is now in real time People have been livestreaming for years, thanks to Ustream, Livestream, Justin.tv, and Twitch, but in 2016 Facebook and Twitter brought livestreaming into the age of mobile. Today, individuals, celebrities, and brands have a more consumer-friendly and commercialized option for sharing what they’re doing in real time.
For Facebook, encouraging people to go live has become a a key strategy. In some cities, subway stations and bus shelters are plastered with advertisements promoting Facebook Live, and commercials have aired in select markets.
Whether you’re at a sporting event, political rally, graduation, or anything else you want to share in real time, the social networking company wants to make sure you can do so in an unfiltered way.
One of Facebook’s plans to attract new users is to bring in publishers and content creators — the YouTube stars, as it were. Facebook has signed agreements with 140 media companies and celebrities through which it will pay for content to be created. “The arrangements are a way to encourage publishers to produce a steady stream of high-quality videos, until Facebook figures out a more concrete plan to compensate creators, such as through sharing of ad revenue,” the Wall Street Journal reported.
Facebook’s payouts vary by contract and haven’t been officially disclosed, but reports say at least 17 publishers are receiving more than $1 million to go live. These include BuzzFeed ($3.05 million), the New York Times ($3.03 million), and CNN ($2.5 million).
Above: Facebook Live on Android And what about Facebook’s competition? Those companies aren’t giving up without a fight. YouTube jumped on the bandwagon this year with the launch of a livestreaming service in its mobile app. And Twitter has certainly not surrendered its position in the space — its Periscope service has broadcast more than 200 million streams in the past year. Twitter is also in pursuit of influencers, with a VIP program and support for including high-quality streams from your Xbox One, virtual reality headsets, computer or web cam, external cameras, and more.
Above: Facebook’s creative tools: filters and doodling while livestreaming.
Facebook, on the other hand, is rapidly beefing up its infrastructure to support broadcasts of up to four hours.
And it’s introducing new tools, such as moderation, audio, and video controls that allow social media managers to manage live videos, scheduling , 360-degree videos , and more interactive livestreams. You can now “drop in” on conversations , and there are tools to help social media teams work more closely together.
This month, Facebook also added live audio-only streaming.
Unlike Messenger, Facebook Live isn’t an application you download — it permeates throughout all of the social network’s properties so you can easily livestream within a status update, on the Facebook Mentions app, and through Instagram.
Facebook has seen at least a couple of instances that showcased the impact of live video this year. Viewers watched when Democrats from the U.S. House of Representatives used Facebook Live to broadcast their protest of the opposition’s refusal to vote on gun control legislation and when a person scaled Trump Tower in New York City.
However, there were other examples that raised concerns about whether Facebook needs tools to preempt graphic content.
Above: U.S. House Democrats begin their sit-in protest of no gun control measures being voted on in the chamber.
In June, Diamond “Lavish” Reynolds broadcast live from her car while being detained by police. An officer had allegedly shot her boyfriend, Philando Castile, and as she broadcast in the moments following, viewers saw him slumped over and bleeding from his stomach. The video was quickly picked up and a day later had garnered 2.7 million views — but it appears to have been deleted now. It was also unavailable for a short time following the incident, leading to allegations that its brief disappearance was the result of police and Facebook interference. It was restored with a “viewer discretion” warning label, however, and the company attributed its absence to a “technical glitch.” Still, some questioned why such graphic content hadn’t featured a warning upfront. The company issued a statement explaining how it separates “permissible graphic content” from violent images and banned videos: The rules for live video are the same for all the rest of our content. A reviewer can interrupt a live stream if there is a violation of our Community Standards.
Anyone can report content to us if they think it goes against our standards, and it only takes one report for something to be reviewed.
One of the most sensitive situations involves people sharing violent or graphic images of events taking place in the real world. In those situations, context and degree are everything. For instance, if a person witnessed a shooting, and used Facebook Live to raise awareness or find the shooter, we would allow it. However, if someone shared the same video to mock the victim or celebrate the shooting, we would remove the video.
Others have used Facebook to share equally disturbing things, such as livestreaming their suicide.
And people have shown live action in war-torn places such as Mosul , shootings at a Munich shopping center, and more. But Facebook isn’t alone in struggling with the bigger implications of live video, as Twitter has faced criticism for also allowing people to livestream their own suicide or footage of someone being raped.
As the Columbia Journalism Review puts it: “Livestreaming isn’t going anywhere. The technology will continue to host photos and video from family get-togethers, school performances, and sporting achievements, bringing pleasure to millions. But it is how the platforms respond to the challenges posed by serious events that will test how seriously they take their role within the news ecosystem.” Impact of Snapchat Above: Examples of Snapchat-like lenses for Halloween that can be affixed to Facebook Live broadcasts.
Facebook once made an offer to buy Snapchat for $3 billion. The company wanted to dominate all things social and basically gave Snapchat an ultimatum : Sell to us or we’ll crush you. After Snapchat refused to sell, Facebook pushed forward with a series of experiments to figure out the ephemeral network’s secret sauce. After multiple failed attempts, Facebook began weaving Snapchat-inspired features into different products, including Messenger and Instagram.
Some see what Facebook has done with Instagram Stories, geofilters, and stickers in photos and videos as a sign that the social networking company isn’t original anymore. Instagram cofounder and chief executive Kevin Systrom recently heaped praise on the competitor, telling TechCrunch that Snapchat parent company Snap deserved all the credit for pioneering the space of ephemeral messaging and communication.
While pundits and analysts may wish for more innovation, you could argue that the features Facebook copied from Snap are not exclusive and were useful additions. Just because one company does something doesn’t prevent others from doing it too, right? What can you believe anymore? But 2016 was more than just product updates and copying. It was also the year Facebook became embroiled in one of its biggest controversies since its advertising technology Beacon was revealed to be collecting non-user data.
In the aftermath of a divisive U.S. presidential election, Facebook has faced a barrage of criticism for allowing fake news stories to proliferate on the social network, allegedly contributing to Donald Trump’s victory.
Above: Speaking at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit on November 19, 2016, Facebook cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg vowed, “We also need to do our part to stop the spread of hate and violence and misinformation.” Fake news is not a new problem, but after a hotly contested race, Facebook bore the brunt of the criticism for the phenomenon. At first, company chief executive Mark Zuckerberg downplayed its significance, saying in a post : Of all the content on Facebook, more than 99% of what people see is authentic. Only a very small amount is fake news and hoaxes. The hoaxes that do exist are not limited to one partisan view, or even to politics. Overall, this makes it extremely unlikely hoaxes changed the outcome of this election in one direction or the other.
Nearly a week later, Zuckerberg clarified his statement: “While the percentage of misinformation is relatively small, we have much more work ahead on our roadmap.” He highlighted efforts Facebook would be making to reduce fake news on the site, including stronger detection technology, easier reporting features, third-party verification, warnings, quality improvements to the related articles feature, “disrupting fake news economics,” and listening to user concerns. Facebook has already put some of these efforts in motion, including partnering with Snopes and other signatories of Poynter’s International Fact Checking Code of Principles to help fact-check articles. But Facebook’s fake news initiative promptly received criticism from those who say it would allow the social network to censor certain sites.
Concerns about bias go back to earlier this year, when Facebook fired all of the human editors who worked on its trending topics feature after reports surfaced that conservative outlets were being censored.
Facebook has has refuted these claims , and Zuckerberg wound up meeting with a few publishers to sort through the issue. Enhancements were made to improve the trending algorithm in an attempt to eliminate bias, but then Facebook found itself flat-footed when the iconic Vietnam War image of the “Napalm Girl” was censored.
And let’s not forget the temporary censorship of Shaun King after the Black Lives Matter activist and writer posted racist emails he received — Facebook issued a mea culpa, saying that it was a mistake.
In October, Facebook established a new official policy that no longer places as great an emphasis on censorship of the site. “Observing global standards for our community is complex. Whether an image is newsworthy or historically significant is highly subjective,” wrote Facebook’s vice president for global public policy Joel Kaplan and vice president of global operations and media partnerships Justin Osofsky. “Images of nudity or violence that are acceptable in one part of the world may be offensive — or even illegal — in another. Respecting local norms and upholding global practices often come into conflict. And people often disagree about what standards should be in place to ensure a community that is both safe and open to expression.” Above: How to report a fake story to Facebook for third-party verification.
Moving forward, the service promised to show images and stories that are deemed “newsworthy, significant, or important to the public interest — even if they might otherwise violate [Facebook’s] standards.” Keep in mind that all of this took place while Facebook repeatedly denied that it was a media company , something it has only recently come to terms with.
In a Facebook Live video , Zuckerberg acknowledged this reality, but with a caveat: “It’s not a traditional media company. You know, we build technology and we feel responsible for how it’s used. We don’t write the news that people read on the platform. But at the same time we also know that we do a lot more than just distribute news, and we’re an important part of the public discourse.” Advertising hiccups For many quarters, Facebook has been an advertising powerhouse, beating all analyst expectations in terms of revenue, marketing potential, and even user numbers. But the company began showing cracks in its facade this year when it had to recalculate advertising metrics not once, but an estimated 10 times.
Marketing Land has chronicled many, if not all, of the known measurement errors in the past year. In 2016, Facebook apologized for incorrectly tabulating the average watch time of Facebook page videos , the organic reach of page posts , the rate at which video ads are completely watched , the average time spent on Instant Articles , and more.
Above: Computer screens display the Facebook sign-in screen in this photo illustration taken in Golden, Colorado, United States July 28, 2015. REUTERS/Rick Wilking/File Photo Facebook isn’t the only social network to experience at least one snafu in calculating advertising metrics, as Twitter has also apologized for a similar glitch. But for a company with more than $6 billion in advertising revenue, repeated missteps could cause some brands to move their advertising dollars elsewhere. On the other hand, the reach and the tools Facebook offers across not only its core social network but also Instagram could outweigh these bumps in the road.
That doesn’t mean the company should just brush these errors off. It’s said that more than two-thirds of social media ad spending was done through Facebook in 2016, meaning that the company has quite a bit to lose unless it figures out how to restore confidence in its metrics.
Above: Facebook headquarters.
This year has passed with hardly any truly exciting product advancements from Facebook. The company has progressed naturally, but it has stumbled quite a few times along the way — enough to reveal some chinks in its armor, perhaps giving competitors an opportunity to pick away at its market share and dominance. Financially, Facebook continues to show it’s still able to grow, with its third-quarter numbers for monthly active users up 16 percent annually and revenue in that same time period up nearly 56 percent year over year. Facebook’s stock price has grown about 10 percent this year.
Facebook’s challenges in 2016 have revolved around three things: live video, advertising vulnerabilities, and its content problems. More than a decade on, Facebook has grown tremendously in size, stature, and capabilities, but is it becoming more complicated than it can handle? For many quarters, the company has seen success both financially and in terms of growth, but that could all change if Facebook continues to allow fake news, incorrect metrics, and mediocre product releases to occur. It will be worth watching in 2017 to see if the ubiquitous social platform still has some magic up its sleeve.
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"4 Twitter fixes Jack Dorsey says he'll consider in 2017 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/social/4-twitter-fixes-jack-dorsey-says-hell-consider-in-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 4 Twitter fixes Jack Dorsey says he’ll consider in 2017 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey onstage at the Flight developer conference on October 21, 2015 at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, Calif.
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Earlier this week, Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey issued a public call for feedback on what his company could be doing better. And it went pretty much how you’d expect it to go. On Friday, he shared four “clear themes” that people have told him what they want from the service: handling abuse, editing tweets, following topics and interests, and better managing conversations.
Not surprisingly, abuse was immediately one of the hot things requested by users. People have grown tired of the fact that Twitter is seemingly failing in taking action to stop trolls and those electing to harass others. Sure, you can block someone and report them, but does that solve the problem? Twitter has rolled out features over the course of the year, including allowing others to filter their mentions and also mute specific keywords.
In a tweet today , Dorsey remarked that there’s “obviously a ton of work ahead, but biggest ask was for greater transparency around our actions (or inaction) and faster shipping.” We’ve heard Twitter’s stance on harassment before — it’s not part of “civil discourse,” but users are starting to see the service as inhospitable and that needs to change.
Dorsey’s mention of “inaction” is rather poignant, highlighting that the company recognizes that it’s been sluggish to protect users, which has affected potential acquisition candidates.
Another of the most popular requests was the ability to edit a tweet after it had been posted. Whether it’s a typo or a flagrant mistake, we’ve all wanted to make changes to what was said without having to delete the whole thing, because why sacrifice the engagement, right? That’s probably easier said than done — Dorsey remarked that either editing mistakes immediately or at any point in time is a “big [difference] in implementation,” especially since many people on Twitter use what is posted as public record (like with the President of the United States).
But this has resulted in some pushback from users, such as CivilBeat’s social media and video manager Anthony Quintano , who questioned that if Facebook can do it, why can’t Twitter? Facebook has established exactly how Twitter should implement edited posts.
@Jack.
pic.twitter.com/5M49CmrNm8 — Anthony Quintano (@AnthonyQuintano) December 30, 2016 Dorsey rebuffed this argument, saying that Twitter isn’t in the habit of copying others.
Instead, his company is going to “learn from others. And do it in our own way.” @AnthonyQuintano copying others is not what I aspire us to be. We will learn from others. And do it in our own way — jack (@jack) December 30, 2016 Granted, it’s likely not a switch you can turn on to just allow tweets to be edited because there are many factors at play in determining the process. For Twitter users, do they prefer a finite set of time in which to make a change? Should there be a change log so that any mistakes still live on in some form? How does this affect the community of users, some of whom likely take what is tweeted as gospel? When Dorsey assumed power as the permanent CEO, he promised that one of the company’s strategies was to simplify the experience and show why people should use it. The last two items he said he’ll consider next year involves being able to follow topics and to better manage conversations. These seem pretty worthwhile because right now people basically have to follow hashtags or search for specific keywords, such as “Warriors” if you’re interested in the Golden State Warriors or #SXSW for chatter around South by Southwest. Or you can follow specific accounts, but what if you’re interested in seasonal or ephemeral topics? Or maybe you want to read what people are saying about woodworking, politics, global warming, and other interest-based conversations? Topics: lots here but simply being able to follow topics was strongest request. Being more topic/interest-focused (v account) opens up a lot — jack (@jack) December 30, 2016 As for conversations, Twitter right now is a hodgepodge of chatter where it’s a town hall and everyone is talking over one another, but is there a way the service can improve the conversation and bring better meaning and dialogue? Dorsey promised that this is something Twitter will work on to “make this easier.” These are just four things Dorsey said he’ll consider going into the new year, but whether he keeps his word or takes verifiable action remains to be seen. After all, Twitter has been saying it’s against abuse and harassment for months but has failed to find a solution to improve things. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens in 2017.
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"Bill Gates warns world 'vulnerable' to deadly epidemic in next decade | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/offbeat/bill-gates-warns-world-vulnerable-to-deadly-epidemic-in-next-decade"
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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 Bill Gates warns world ‘vulnerable’ to deadly epidemic in next decade Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates speaks at the Global Citizen Concert to End AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on September 17, 2016. REUTERS/Geoff Robins/Pool/File Photo - RTX2QEL4 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.
(Thomson Reuters Foundation) — Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates warned on Friday that the world was vulnerable to a deadly epidemic of an illness like flu, with the recent Ebola and Zika outbreaks underlining weaknesses in global efforts to tackle health crises swiftly.
Gates, whose foundation invests in improving healthcare in developing countries, said the global emergency response system was not strong enough and the ability to create new drugs and vaccines quickly was lacking.
He added that there needed to be more focus on developing treatments for likely epidemics.
“I cross my fingers all the time that some epidemic like a big flu doesn’t come along in the next 10 years,” Microsoft Corp founder Gates told Britain’s BBC radio.
“I do think we will have much better medical tools, much better response, but we are a bit vulnerable right now if something spread very quickly, like a flu, that was quite fatal.” But Gates defended the World Health Organization (WHO) over widespread criticism of its handling of the 2014 Ebola crisis that killed thousands in west Africa, saying the agency was neither funded, nor staffed, to meet all the expectations.
He also raised concerns over growing antimicrobial resistance to drugs, saying the success of antibiotics had created complacency.
The misuse and overuse of antibiotics is accelerating antimicrobial resistance which is already complicating efforts to treat tuberculosis, HIV and malaria.
Gates said richer countries must help developing nations tackle disease, both for humanitarian reasons and for their own self-interest.
He said international co-operation had almost succeeded in wiping out polio, which remains endemic only in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
If there are no new cases in the next three years polio will become the second human disease to be eradicated after smallpox in 1980.
“We’re very close. Hopefully, the last case will be sometime next year,” Gates said.
(By Emma Batha. Editing by Belinda Goldsmith) 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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"Signal for Android now circumvents censorship in Cuba and Oman | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/signal-for-android-now-circumvents-censorship-in-cuba-and-oman"
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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 Signal for Android now circumvents censorship in Cuba and Oman Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Signal for Android.
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Open Whisper Systems, the company that makes the Signal encrypted messaging app and that contributed to the encryption in Facebook-owned WhatsApp, today updated its Signal app for Android with the ability to avoid being censored in two more countries: Cuba and Oman.
Last week the company did something similar in Egypt and the United Arab Emirates after learning that people in those countries had problems using the app. People need to have country codes enabled to access this feature.
Signal uses a method called domain fronting to make it harder for the app to be crippled. As Open Whisper Systems’ Moxie Marlinspike explained in a December 22 blog post : Many popular services and CDNs, such as Google, Amazon Cloudfront, Amazon S3, Azure, CloudFlare, Fastly, and Akamai can be used to access Signal in ways that look indistinguishable from other uncensored traffic.
The idea is that to block the target traffic, the censor would also have to block those entire services. With enough large scale services acting as domain fronts, disabling Signal starts to look like disabling the internet.
The Tor browser also employs this approach, as Bruce Schneier pointed out earlier this week.
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 Signal app for iOS doesn’t have censorship circumvention for Cuba and Oman yet, but it got the feature for Egypt and United Arab Emirates after it rolled out on Android, so the same thing should happen here.
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"Outlook for Android and iOS now supports shared calendars | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/outlook-for-android-and-ios-now-supports-shared-calendars"
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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 Outlook for Android and iOS now supports shared calendars Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Outlook for Android.
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A Microsoft employee today confirmed that the company has added support for shared calendars, a long-requested feature, in its Outlook app for iOS. The feature is also available on Outlook for Android, as well as Microsoft’s Calendar app for Windows 10.
It’s not complete, but the core functionality is live now, as Microsoft senior program manager Julia Foran explained in a post on Outlook for iOS’ UserVoice page. (Hat tip to MSPoweruser for reporting on the news.) In order to view shared calendars on Android or iOS, you’ll need to share and accept calendars from Outlook on the web first, Foran wrote.
“If you’re sharing with edit access, at this point you’ll need to wait a little after initially accepting before you can edit the calendar,” Foran wrote. “The updates are only available for view & edit permissions and coming soon for delegated permissions. Those are the big things we’re finishing in addition to adding ability to share/accept from any Outlook application.” Google Calendar for Android and iOS both let users view shared calendars, and Apple lets iCloud users share calendars through the Calendar app for iOS.
Earlier this year Microsoft enhanced Outlook with the Interesting Calendars feature that was previously part of Sunrise.
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"How Apple, Google, and Microsoft used each others' app stores in 2016 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/how-apple-google-and-microsoft-used-each-others-app-stores-in-2016"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages How Apple, Google, and Microsoft used each others’ app stores in 2016 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Top apps .
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For the last two years, we have examined how Apple, Google, and Microsoft develop apps for each others’ competing platforms.
It’s time to take another look at their strategies, which of course align with their respective business models.
Apple last year released its first three Android apps for Google Play: Move to iOS , Beats Pill+ , and Apple Music.
This number didn’t change in 2016, and neither did the fact that Apple continues to ignore the Windows Store. On its own platform, the company more than doubled its apps over the last year.
Google brings almost all its major apps from Android to iOS, offering solid experiences on both platforms. The company also shuns the Windows Store, except for one app: Google Search. On its own platform, the company increased its own apps by some 20 percent in 2016.
Microsoft continues to develop apps for all three platforms, naturally preferring its own. Like in 2014 and 2015, Microsoft this year offered more iOS apps than Google does. And once again, both Microsoft and Google still offer more iOS apps than Apple does in its own store.
Here’s a snapshot of how many apps the three companies had available in each store at the end of 2016: To compile this chart, we tallied up the number of apps published by these companies in each of the three app stores. That means we’re counting apps listed in the stores, not those that come preloaded on devices (and we’re counting just one app for iOS, instead of one for iPhone and one for iPad, just like on Android and Windows). Remember that not all apps are available in every market, so you may see fewer apps, depending on which regional store you are accessing. Also keep in mind that all three of these companies build software that doesn’t reside in app stores, and they acquire apps published by different firms — neither is being counted here.
Microsoft has so many entries in its own Windows Store because we’re also counting those published by “Microsoft Studios.” Google’s numbers are inflated a bit as well by the inclusion of very similar apps (such as Chrome and Chrome beta), since we’re counting individual entries in the store.
All in all, not much has changed in the past few years. Thanks to the failure of Windows 10 Mobile, neither Apple nor Google had to even consider giving Microsoft’s platform another look.
And so the Android-iOS duopoly continues. Right now, it doesn’t look like 2017 will be much different.
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"Apple will reportedly cut iPhone production by 10 percent in Q1 2017 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/apple-will-reportedly-cut-iphone-production-by-10-percent-in-q1-2017"
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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 Apple will reportedly cut iPhone production by 10 percent in Q1 2017 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn iPhone 7 Plus.
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Apple will be decreasing the production of the iPhone by 10 percent in the first quarter of 2017, according to a new report.
The move will affect the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, which were introduced in September , Nikkei said today, citing its own calculations based on data that it has seen.
A year ago, Nikkei reported that Apple had chosen to cut production of the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus by 30 percent.
Declines in production could mean sales of the phones are not as high as Apple had expected. Lower iPhone sales equate to lower Apple sales, which equates to lower Apple profit. Which is not the type of thing Apple would like to see after reporting three consecutive quarters of sales declines.
Nikkei said Apple has had trouble meeting demand for the iPhone 7 Plus because of a shortage of camera sensors. That phone, of course, has two cameras and is capable of shooting in a bokeh-like portrait mode.
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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"Chinese firms reportedly ordered to pay Disney, Pixar $194,000 for copying 'Cars' | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/media/chinese-firms-reportedly-ordered-to-pay-disney-pixar-194000-for-copying-cars"
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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 Chinese firms reportedly ordered to pay Disney, Pixar $194,000 for copying ‘Cars’ Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Disney's Festival of Fantasy Parade Finale 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) — A Shanghai court ordered two Chinese firms to pay Walt Disney Co and Pixar more than 1.35 million yuan ($194,440) compensation for copying parts of their hit movies “Cars” and “Cars 2”, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.
The ruling is the latest in a slew of intellectual property wins for large foreign firms, who have complained about widespread copyright infringement in China.
Disney and Pixar took the Chinese firms to court saying the characters, titles and posters from local animation “The Autobots” were substantially similar to those from “Cars” and “Cars 2”.
The court agreed that the Autobots characters K1 and K2 were similar to Disney and Pixar’s animated cars Lightning McQueen and Francesco Bernoulli, Xinhua said.
The court ordered infringement activity to stop immediately, and said Disney and Pixar should receive 1 million yuan to cover economic losses, as well as 350,000 yuan for legal expenses.
Disney is making a major push into China with the recent opening of a $5.5 billion theme park in Shanghai, its first on the mainland. Its animated movies including “Zootopia” and “Big Hero 6” have been big box office hits there.
Disney, Pixar and the two Chinese firms were not immediately available for comment.
Xinhua said the total order covered more then 1.35 million yuan, but did not list any other payments.
German carmaker BMW and basketball star Michael Jordan have both won intellectual property cases in China this year.
(Reporting by Engen Tham) 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 DeanBeat: What to expect from the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/the-deanbeat-what-to-expect-from-the-2017-consumer-electronics-show"
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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 The DeanBeat: What to expect from the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Workers pass by a sign outside the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, January 5, 2016. REUTERS/Rick Wilking - RTX215XB Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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I spend most of the year laser-focused on games. But next week, I’m going to expand my horizons beyond games to the entire tech industry.
I’ll be attending CES 2017, the big tech trade show next week in Las Vegas. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve made it to this show, but I still feel it’s important to attend to see what’s coming next. I’m going with VentureBeat’s Ken Yeung and John Brandon, and our stories will be dropping as early as today. I’ve already written dozens of stories that will appear during CES 2017, and so I’ve got a few insights for this preview.
This tech trade show is the biggest in the U.S., and last year’s event drew more than 177,000 people to view more than 3,000 exhibitors across more than 2.4 million square feet of space. (Here’s last year’s preview ). The Consumer Technology Association, which puts on CES every year, expects to have about 3,800 exhibitors, 165,000 attendees, and 6,500 members of the media at CES 2017. It will cover a record 2.5 million square feet this year.
Big companies won’t tell you this, but I think one of the big trends will be the Internet of Stupid Things.
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: Samsung’s Internet of Things had 200 connected objects last year.
You see, the Internet of Things, or making everyday objects smart and connected, has been going for a few years. We’ve got all of the Internet of Obvious Things covered, like smart drones, smart robots, smart basketballs, smart pet feeders, smart dog collars, smart watches, smart smoke alarms, smart home security cameras, and smart refrigerators. Instead of hundreds of things, we’ll now have thousands of connected things.
This year, in a search beyond the obvious, tech companies are moving into Stupid Things. They’re connecting devices that don’t really need connecting. I’m talking about smart garbage cans, smart wine bars, smart floors, and smart flower pots.
Now, Masayoshi Son, the CEO of SoftBank, anticipates that we’re going to have a future with 1 trillion Internet of Things devices. So you could say we are just getting started.
To me, what makes them stupid are the price tags, which usually start at $99 and go up, and their lack of security, which makes our homes vulnerable to cyber attack. Would you really pay $200 to detect a particular kind of gas in your home? I think these devices are only worth marginally more than what we pay for the dumb, disconnected versions. A pet feeder? $25.
I’m being facetious about the Internet of Stupid Things, but we are heading toward a world where everything will have sensors. That big data will have enormous value, and it could also represent an enormous threat to our privacy. But I see too many companies that are trying to measure a tiny slice of the Internet of Things and hoping to cash in on it. The integrated system has the value, and the parts alone are a tough sell.
The Stupid Things will eventually give way to truly smart things, through artificial intelligence. John Curran, managing director at Accenture for communications, media, and tech, said in an interview that he thinks the “smart” part of technology will finally come true. With improvements in AI (through voice or visual recognition), companies can now retrofit their products with A.I. that really works.
Above: AImotive’s software can recognize green areas that are safe to drive, and other cars (orange). Pedestrians show in red.
“It’s a golden thread that will be woven through so many of the technologies that we’re going to see at CES — everything from automotive to robotics to smartphones to health and fitness,” Curran said. “I’m excited to see how it manifests itself and permeates the show. The technology has advanced. If you look at what you have now as a convergence of big data and analytics, machine learning, natural language processing, ubiquitous connectivity — all these things come together. You have an opportunity for device manufacturers and companies who are building services to run on those devices to leverage A.I. and create much easier-to-use, much more intuitive and natural customer interfaces.” We’ll see the emphasis on AI at the keynotes. Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of Nvidia, will give the first keynote at CES 2017, and I expect him to talk about the company’s transformation from a graphics chip maker to an A.I. company. And we’ll seen incremental advances on smart things that used to be dumb, like self-driving cars, home control systems such as Amazon’s Echo with Alexa, and health and fitness devices that can recommend exercise routines. Curran believes the smart companies will offer services that go with their new devices.
Based on the floor space, we’re going to see a lot of drones, augmented reality, virtual reality, robots, smart cars, health and wellness, wearables, and 3D printing. We’ll see some smartphones, based on introductions of new processors coming from big chip companies. But most of the smartphone introductions usually happen at the Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona in the spring.
Above: Samsung’s press event in 2016.
Apple doesn’t go to CES. But its archrival, Samsung Electronics, will have a press conference at 2 p.m. Wednesday. Samsung could play in all of the major categories of electronics. You can bet it will make a big deal about the pervasiveness of inexpensive 4K TVs, which have four times the number of pixels of high-definition TVs. I expect that we’ll see plenty of expensive 8K TVs and ways to connect them to all of the other devices in your home. You’ll also see Samsung reveal products in almost every other tech category that exists.
CES 2017 takes place in Las Vegas from Jan. 5 to Jan. 8. The press shows up for special events on Jan. 3 and Jan. 4.
CES will also have some interesting no-shows. Facebook’s Oculus isn’t going, as it has already launched its big products in 2016. And drone maker Parrot says it will just do meetings this time.
Above: Panasonic’s interactive mirror from CES 2015.
I really hope to see companies come back with good ideas from past years, only in a more refined, cheaper, and more practical. I’d love to see Panasonic’s interactive mirror become affordable, at maybe $99 (and I don’t mean cheap knock-offs), but I fear my family will have to wait a while for that. Electric cars are becoming awesome, but if you add self-driving to their features, then it’s going to be a while before they become practical. I’d love to see some of these devices make the leap from the equivalent of porn for the tech enthusiast to affordable and valuable devices for mainstream consumers.
Virtual reality has a chance to make some progress on this front, as the 2015 products are only partly satisfying and far too expensive. Augmented reality smartglasses are getting more affordable, but I don’t think we’ll see anything really cool and affordable on that front until 2018. Moore’s Law, or the prediction that the number of transistors on a chip will double every couple of years, will deliver technological progress that makes these devices more affordable and better. But it can’t work miracles. That’s up to the engineers.
I hope you’ll read our coverage of CES 2017 in the coming days.
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Games Beat Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"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-13"
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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.
Happy Friday! This week, Tech.eu tracked 7 technology M&A transactions and 23 tech funding deals totaling €67.7 million ($71.3 million) in Europe, Turkey and Israel. Here’s an overview of the 10 biggest European tech news items for this week: 1) HERE, a digital maps company co-owned by German automotive companies Audi, BMW, and Daimler, has welcomed three Asian companies as new shareholders as it plans to expand in China.
Chinese mapping company NavInfo, Internet services group Tencent (QQ, WeChat etc.) and Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC are jointly buying a 10% stake in HERE.
2) Danish eyetracking tech company The Eye Tribe has been acquired by Facebook ‘s Oculus.
3) Snapchat has reportedly made its first Israeli acquisition with the purchase of augmented reality (AR) startup Cimagine for $30-$40 million.
4) Tel Aviv-based database security company Hexatier has reportedly been acquired by Chinese phone manufacturer Huawei.
The deal would be Huawei’s second acquisition in Israel in the last three weeks and is worth $42 million according to Israeli financial daily Calcalist.
5) Turns out SoundCloud didn’t just strike licensing deals with Sony Music, Warner Music and Universal Music in the past, the three music labels also became investors/shareholders of the Berlin company.
6) French cosmetics giant L’Oreal is investing ‘several millions of euros’ in an early stage fund managed by private equity firm Partech Ventures.
7) UK fintech firm Nutmeg has raised £12 million in a Series D funding round led by Taipei Fubon Bank, Taiwan’s second largest financial services firm.
8) Iceland’s QuizUp has been sold to Glu Mobile for $7.5 million.
9) Danish eSports agency RFRSH Entertainment has raised €4 million.
10) Russia’s national savings bank Sberbank has announced a “strategic agreement” with Sistema , a major Russian conglomerate, and Sistema_VC, the venture arm of Sistema, in the fields of advertising technology and Big Data monetization.
Bonus link: Helsinki is turning an abandoned hospital into a massive startup campus.
You can subscribe to Tech.eu’s newsletter here.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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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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"Spanish social advertising company Adsmurai raises $4.2 million | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/spanish-social-advertising-company-adsmurai-raises-4-2-million"
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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 Spanish social advertising company Adsmurai raises $4.2 million 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.
Barcelona-based social advertising company Adsmurai has received €4 million ($4.2 million) in a second round of funding led by venture capital firm Axon Partners Group , with participation from Banc Sabadell, through its program BStartup10 , and Enisa , a Spanish government-funded financing group.
Launched in 2014 by Marc Elena, Otto Wüst and Juan Antonio Robles, Adsmurai specializes in generating and optimizing advertising campaigns on social networks. A partner of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter, the company manages its clients’ ad campaigns on these platforms for an approximate value of €20 million.
Adsmurai is headquartered in Barcelona and has offices in Madrid, Mexico, Colombia and Peru.
The company intends to put the funds toward the development and improvement of their services using artificial intelligence applied to image recognition, as well as to promote their international expansion, with a focus on Europe.
Read more: WebCapitalRiesgo You can subscribe to Tech.eu’s newsletter here.
This story originally appeared on Tech.eu.
Copyright 2016 VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Amazon awarded patent for drone-friendly floating warehouses | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/commerce/amazon-awarded-patent-for-drone-friendly-floating-warehouses"
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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 awarded patent for drone-friendly floating warehouses Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Amazon Prime packaging 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 might soon take flight in more ways than one.
The e-commerce giant has been awarded a patent that describes a logistics technology it calls “airborne fulfillment center (AFC).” The AFC is essentially in airship that’s capable of flying at altitudes of 45,000 feet or more that would house items the company sells through its online marketplace. In the patent, Amazon describes a method by which drones would fly into the warehouse, pick up the items they need to deliver, and then deliver those items to the customer’s home.
Amazon filed for the patent in 2014. While it was actually awarded in April, it wasn’t discovered until Wednesday by CB Insights tech analyst Zoe Leavitt.
Over the last few years, Amazon has been working on drone technology through its Prime Air initiative with an aim on delivering products to customer homes without relying upon logistics companies to do it. Earlier this month, Amazon successfully completed its first drone delivery in the U.K.
The company plans to expand its drone testing in 2017 in hopes of eventually relying on the unmanned aerial vehicles to deliver lightweight packages to homes.
Currently, Amazon’s drone-delivery process requires the company to erect a warehouse to serve a particular area. Inside that warehouse is a selection of lightweight products the company sells through its e-marketplace. Once a customer places an order, those items are packaged in a box the drone can carry. The drone is then outfitted with the package and delivers it to a customer’s home within 30 minutes.
The potential pitfall with drones, however, is that they can only travel so far, so Amazon would technically need to erect a large number of warehouses around the world just to accommodate customers in disparate areas.
But rather than look to the ground for fulfillment centers, Amazon is apparently looking to the sky. Like their grounded alternatives, the AFCs would be home to an inventory of items Amazon sells through its online marketplace, according to the patent. New items would be added to the AFC with help from a logistics shuttle that would carry products to and from the device. When an order is placed, a drone would be outfitted with the desired products and descend from the airship. It would then deliver the items to the customer.
Since the drones that Amazon is testing can’t get up to heights as high as 45,000 feet, the company says its used drones will fly back to a ground installation, where they’ll be placed in a shuttle and brought back to the AFC.
Amazon says the AFC concept could be a boon for handling its logistics, and pointed to its ability to move around in anticipation of demand as one of its benefits.
“The use of an AFC and shuttles also provides another benefit in that the AFC can remain airborne for extended periods of time,” the company wrote in its patent description. “In addition, because the AFC is airborne, it is not limited to a fixed location like a traditional ground based materials handling facility. In contrast, it can navigate to different areas depending on a variety of factors, such as weather, expected demand, and/or actual demand.” For its part, Amazon hasn’t commented on the patent and did not immediately respond to a Fortune request for comment. And like other companies, Amazon often files for patents on technologies it might never bring to the market. But it’s possible that one day, Amazon drones—and airships—will be flying above, delivering products to folks around the globe.
This story originally appeared on Fortune.com.
Copyright 2016 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 PolitiFact's founder remains more optimistic than ever about the future of fact checking | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/why-politifacts-founder-remains-more-optimistic-than-ever-about-the-future-of-fact-checking"
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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 PolitiFact’s founder remains more optimistic than ever about the future of fact checking Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn During a political season in which fact checking became a central part of the cultural conversation, somehow facts seemed to matter less than ever to the outcome.
This was one of the more puzzling contradictions of this tumultuous election season for me, and honestly, a bit dispiriting as a journalist. So much effort was mustered by so many journalistic organizations, so much information was available, and so many voters claimed they were hungry for it.
Yet, in the end, all the fact checking in the world never really seemed to change anyone’s opinion of either major candidate.
Am I being overly pessimistic? To test my perspective, I spoke with Bill Adair, founder of PolitiFact , the fact-checking site of the Tampa Bay Times. PolitiFact may not have been the Internet’s first fact-checking project, but it’s fair to say that its success, including winning a Pulitzer Prize, helped shine a spotlight on the practice and make it an essential tool for many major news organizations this past year.
Adair is currently Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism and Public Policy at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, but is still a PolitiFact contributor. In addition to teaching, his research work there continues to focus on the concept of fact checking. And far from feeling battered, Adair made it clear that he feels immensely proud of the work done by the growing army of political fact checkers.
The real issue, he says, goes beyond newsrooms and fact checking.
“I think there’s an unrealistic expectation that fact checking is suddenly going to change people’s minds,” he said. “It’s our job to inform. It’s then up to democracy to decide what to do with it. But we did our job.” As part of his work at Duke, Adair is helping to track the growing fact-checking movement. He’s currently identified 120 organizations that have some kind of dedicated fact-checking operation. These span the globe, and range from national to local politics.
“There’s more fact checking than ever, particularly at the state and local level,” he said. “It’s not just the presidential campaign. We did lots of great work.” The real lesson from this campaign mainly confirmed a challenge that he and others had already identified: The most partisan political audiences tend to reject or ignore any fact checking that doesn’t support their passionate views.
Despite the deep political divides in the U.S., there is a narrow middle that remains receptive to having their minds and opinions changed by information they consider reputable, he said. Adair believes he can reach and grow the number of people who fall into that category by delivering fact checking in a more timely way.
“We need to examine how we can expand our audience,” he said. “That’s my work here. How can we get people across the political spectrum to respect this work and realize this is objective journalism?” Part of the answer is technology and products. At Duke, Adair has created the Reporters Lab to test new ideas and solutions for enhancing the impact of fact checking.
For instance, they created a browser extension for a fact-checking pop-up that they tested during the third presidential debate. Tweets from PolitiFact would trigger a pop-up window for someone watching the debate livestream.
“If you can get fact checking done at the moment of the statement, you can perhaps reach a larger audience,” Adair said. “Because who seeks out fact checks? It’s mostly partisan people. And they’re the people who are already convinced they are right.” The lab has also developed a fact-checking widget that makes it easier to share fact-check items across social media and to embed them on websites. And in October, the lab introduced a new fact-checking app for the Amazon Echo.
Owners of any Alexa-enabled devices could just say “ask the fact checkers” about claims made by the presidential candidates.
Adair is currently talking to the Knight Foundation about a proposal to fund work on tools that would automate fact checking. His vision is to be able to build massive databases of verified information that could be automatically searched by fact-checking tools, which would then deliver the information on any platform, from smart TVs to mobile phones.
To continue building the momentum around this work, Adair also cofounded this year the International Fact Checking Network with the nonprofit Poynter Institute.
The IFCN is planning its first conference some time next year in Madrid. The idea is continue to develop strategies, tools, and lessons, and, of course, offer support to each other.
That sense of community between fact-checking organizations is crucial. In a moment when were people of all political persuasions lament about living in a “post-fact world,” Adair says the people doing the hard work of fact checking should be recognized and applauded for their efforts.
“You shouldn’t blame the fact checkers for how people react,” he said. “We gave people the information. If they chose not to use it in who they voted for, that’s totally up to them. Our goal is to empower democracy. And we did a really good job of that. The fact checkers shouldn’t become the scapegoats.” 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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"Why 2017 will be the year of drones | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/why-2017-will-be-the-year-of-drones"
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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 Why 2017 will be the year of drones Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn 2016 taught us a lot about drones and their potential to deliver benefits for consumers, communities, and businesses alike. Google and Chipotle tested burrito delivery on the campus of Virginia Tech, while cities nationwide turned to drones to help first responders, inspect bridges and roads, and monitor construction sites. We witnessed the launch of innovative products from Intel, Yuneec, DJI, Sensefly, and others — not to mention GoPro’s first drone. Through it all, we experienced changes in FAA regulations and the advent of Part 107 , which has opened the skies for drone commerce, making once experimental drone operations completely routine.
And we’ve only scratched the surface. In 2017, we’re going to see drones come to the forefront of business, tech, and our daily lives. Let’s talk about what drones have in store for us next year.
Follow the money … away from venture capital We’ll see VC investment in drones decline in 2017, but that doesn’t mean total investment will slow. Expect large enterprises like telecom companies and large consumer electronics brands to begin investing more seriously in the drone space — along with increased M&A activity and more strategic partnerships. More drone companies will prove they can generate revenue and will attract partners who can help them accelerate.
Big players will get into the game Logistics companies like Amazon and DHL will start to put more and more drones in the air. Traditional retailers that have been developing drone strategies behind closed doors will announce their ideas for innovation and implementation, heating up the marketplace. Cloud players and corporate giants (think IBM or GE) will stake out expanded drone positions with long-term impacts for the entire industry. And Uber, after publishing its flying car white paper earlier this year, will convene its first “Elevate Summit” in 2017, bringing together a community of stakeholders that is looking to low-altitude airspace, not our roadways, for the future of mobility.
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s 20,000 drones! Today, we commonly see about 5,000 drones flying simultaneously around the world. With large consumer electronics, logistics, and telecom companies making major plays in the drone ecosystem, I predict that by the end of the year, that number will reach 20,000 simultaneous drone flights worldwide. That would represent a 400 percent increase next year.
Smart cities get even smarter Many cities with “smart” inclinations are already considering what transportation and infrastructure will look like in 20, 50, and even 100 years — and are planning accordingly. These “smart government”-minded cities are investigating how unmanned aircraft could affect this future, and in 2017, we’ll see them make moves to establish themselves as top places for drones to do business. Next year, smart cities will invest in civic drone technology to be adopted by fire departments, police departments, and local administrators. And we might even see competition among the most connected cities as they try to attract the first drone deliveries to their communities.
Drones will be easier to buy and fly — and safer than ever Prices for drones will continue coming down, even for drones with sophisticated features. The experience of flying a drone will become easier, especially as autonomous flight capabilities improve.
In 2017, the drone industry will build tools to help drones and their operators make accurate risk assessments, which can be used to identify safe flight plans, prevent accidents, and make drone flight even safer. In the U.S., we should see significant advancements on the road to Unmanned Traffic Management (the public-private partnership that will enable air traffic control and data exchange for millions of drones). Abroad, I expect we’ll see other countries open the skies for more automated flight beyond visual line of sight.
The bottom line: 2017 is the year of the drone Whether we’re talking about who’s paying for them, who’s buying them, or how they are being used, drones will be pushed to the forefront of cultural, political, commercial, and consumer conversations in 2017. A shifting adoption landscape combined with new sources of funding and advanced improvements in technology should make 2017 a monumental year for the drone. I can’t wait to see what’s next.
Ben Marcus is cofounder and CEO of AirMap, an airspace management platform for UAS. He was previously cofounder and CEO of jetAVIVA and served as a flight test engineer for Eclipse Aviation. He is an FAA-certified Airline Transport Pilot and Flight Instructor with flight experience in more than 100 aircraft types and ratings in seaplanes, gliders, helicopters, and six types of jets. He is also a certificated Remote Pilot. He serves on the board of Angel Flight West, a non-profit organization that arranges free air transport in response to health care needs, and he flies volunteer missions for animal rescue groups Pilots N Paws and Wings of Rescue.
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"Wall St. set to end 2016 with a whimper | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/wall-st-set-to-end-2016-with-a-whimper"
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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 Wall St. set to end 2016 with a whimper Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn A trader wears glasses that say "2017" ahead of the new year on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., December 30, 2016.
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(Reuters) — U.S. stocks fell on the last trading day of 2016, eating into gains for the year, as Apple led a decline in technology stocks.
The S&P 500 technology sector’s 0.72 percent drop put the broader index on track for its third straight day of declines, its longest losing streak since Nov. 4.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was set for its first weekly decline since the U.S. election. The rally had pushed the index to within 13 points of 20,000 last week, but after three straight days of losses, the index is now about 200 points shy.
“The market is ending 2016 with a whimper. We entered the rally like a lion, but are leaving like a lamb,” said Andre Bakhos, managing director of Janlyn Capital in Bernardsville, New Jersey.
“It is disappointing on many levels as investors believed that we are going to see the Dow at 20,000. The euphoria that was in motion in the Trump rally has fizzled.” Until Thursday, the three main Wall Street indexes were set to end the year with double-digit percentage gains. The S&P is now on track to post a gain of 9.7 percent for the year, the Nasdaq 7.8 percent and the Dow 13.7 percent.
At 12:35 p.m. ET (1735 GMT) the Dow was down 20.2 points, or 0.1 percent, at 19,799.58, the S&P 500 was down 5.87 points, or 0.26 percent, at 2,243.39 and the Nasdaq Composite was down 38.38 points, or 0.71 percent, at 5,393.71.
Seven of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were lower, with technology and consumer discretionary stocks taking the biggest hit.
Apple was the biggest drag on all three indexes, falling 0.6 percent to $115.98 after the Nikkei financial daily reported that the company would cut production of the iPhone by about 10 percent.
Apple suppliers also dropped on the news. Qualcomm, Skyworks Solutions, Cirrus Logic and Qorvo were down between 1 percent and 2 percent.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers on the NYSE by 1,444 to 1,402. On the Nasdaq, 1,795 issues fell and 1,004 advanced.
The S&P 500 index showed one new 52-week high and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 35 new highs and 36 new lows.
(Reporting by Yashaswini Swamynathan in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Savio D’Souza) 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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"Tesla faces lawsuit over sudden Model X acceleration | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/tesla-faces-lawsuit-over-sudden-model-x-acceleration"
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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 Tesla faces lawsuit over sudden Model X acceleration Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn A Tesla Motors sign outside the company's showcase store in Seattle, Wash.
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(Reuters) — Tesla Motors Inc was sued on Friday by a Model X owner who said his electric SUV suddenly accelerated while being parked, causing it to crash through the garage into the owner’s living room, injuring the driver and a passenger.
The Model X owner, Ji Chang Son, said that one night in September, he slowly pulled into his driveway as his garage door opened when the car suddenly sped forward.
“The vehicle spontaneously began to accelerate at full power, jerking forward and crashing through the interior wall of the garage, destroying several wooden support beams in the wall and a steel sewer pipe, among other things, and coming to rest in Plaintiffs’ living room,” the lawsuit said.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in the Central District of California, seeks class action status. It cites seven other complaints registered in a database compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) dealing with sudden acceleration without warning.
The lawsuit alleges product liability, negligence and breaches of warranty, and seeks unspecified damages.
Tesla did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
NHTSA did not return a phone call seeking verification.
The luxury Model X, launched in late 2015 X, was Tesla’s first sport utility vehicle.
In its marketing, Tesla claims the Model X is the safest SUV in history.
(Reporting by Alexandria Sage; Editing by Leslie Adler) VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Tech IPO drought continued in 2016, but there are signs 2017 could be a blockbuster year | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/tech-ipo-drought-continued-in-2016-but-there-are-signs-2017-could-be-a-blockbuster-year"
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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 Tech IPO drought continued in 2016, but there are signs 2017 could be a blockbuster year Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Nutanix celebrates its premier on the NASDAQ on September 30, 2016.
When it came to public offerings by tech companies, 2016 emerged like a corpse and only exhibited the faintest of heartbeats by the end.
Still, it’s worth re-writing the line that we have all written for the last two years: Next year could be much better! And this time, that could actually turn out to be true.
Let’s start with the 2016 IPO autopsy.
According to Renaissance Capital, in 2016 there were 21 U.S. tech IPOs, which raised only $3 billion. (The first quarter was particularly rough, with zero tech IPOs.) For the year, the total was down from 2015’s 26, which raised $7.1 billion. Put those two years together, and they don’t match 2014’s 56 tech IPOs, which raised $32.5 billion.
Within these numbers, things were a bit worse for venture capital firms. Only 15 of those tech IPOs were venture-backed, down from 20 venture-backed tech IPOs in 2015.
It’s a remarkably awful track record, considering that the U.S. economy is doing well overall , the S&P 500 hit record highs, and unemployment continued to dip.
The culprits are those oft discussed. Greater access to late-stage capital is allowing tech companies to stay private longer (cough, Uber, cough). There is a general desire to avoid the scrutiny that comes with being a public company. There is also a feeling that — thanks to unicorn mania — many of these companies are overvalued. And yes, that breeds skepticism among investors with regard to tech IPOs. And then the U.S. election was a distraction.
Still, amid the dry spell, there were some bright spots.
Overall, tech IPOs outperformed all other sectors, providing a 39.8 percent return from their initial IPO pricing, well above the 23.6 percent overall return for all IPOs this year, according to Renaissance. That means that, for the most part, what companies are sneaking out are generally considered to be of good quality. Indeed, four of the top 10 IPO returns came from tech companies: Acacia Communications: up 191.8 percent Impinj : up 133.4 percent Twilio: up 97.7 percent Nutanix: up 79.0 percent These performances are just one reason to be optimistic about next year. Solid returns are just what tech needs to rebuild its credibility and get its IPO mojo back. Renaissance is predicting that tech IPO activity in 2017 will increase “significantly.” In part, that’s because of looming IPOs by Snap and Spotify. Renaissance projects that Snap will file sometime in the next six months and that its IPO could raise $4 billion, at a valuation of $25 billion. Spotify is even more likely to IPO in 2017, thanks to terms of the debt it raised. While Spotify’s IPO terms are less clear, Renaissance points out that just these two companies would likely raise more money than all VC-backed tech IPOs over the last two years put together.
And this also doesn’t include persistent speculation that companies like Uber, Airbnb, Pinterest, Dropbox, Palantir, or WeWork could be considering going public.
However, there are some caveats that could just as easily dampen enthusiasm.
The largest tech IPO of 2016 was Japan’s Line , which raised a total of $1 billion after debuting on the New York Stock Exchange this summer. However, the stock is currently trading at $33.83, as of Dec. 23, well below the $42 per share offering price. Another big one, Dell spinoff SecureWorks, is down about 24 percent since it raised $112 million in April.
The overall IPO pipeline (not just tech) also remains weak. According to Renaissance, 120 companies filed for IPOs in 2016, down by 50 percent from 2015. The number of companies that we know have filed for IPOs is 64, also down about half from this time last year.
And, of course, there is the wildcard of a new administration taking office in late January. Radical changes in policy could either excite markets or spook investors.
If the IPO window doesn’t reopen, some of the larger unicorns could be in the tough position of needing to raise more money from private investors who are growing tired of underwriting their losses and are hoping for an exit.
But, overall, it seems 2017 could the year tech IPOs make a comeback. The real drama may be just how wide that IPO window opens and how many tech companies can squeeze through it.
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"Run-DMC files lawsuit against Amazon and Wal-Mart claiming trademark violations | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/run-dmc-files-lawsuit-against-amazon-and-wal-mart-claiming-trademark-violations"
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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 Run-DMC files lawsuit against Amazon and Wal-Mart claiming trademark violations Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Darryl McDaniels of the rap group Run DMC takes part in a panel discussion of National Geographic Channel's ''The 80s'' during the 2013 Winter Press Tour for the Television Critics Association in Pasadena, California January 4, 2013.
(By Jonathan Stempel, Reuters) – A founder of Run-DMC on Thursday filed a lawsuit accusing Amazon and Wal-Mart of selling a wide variety of clothing and accessories bearing the pioneering rap group’s name without permission.
Darryl McDaniels, the owner of Run-DMC Brand LLC, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, is seeking at least $50 million of damages from the retailers and other defendants over their alleged sale of glasses, hats, patches, T-shirts, wallets and other products that infringe the Run-DMC trademark registered in 2007.
McDaniels called the Run-DMC brand “extremely valuable,” and said it is the subject of several licensing agreements, including to endorse sneakers from Adidas AG.
He said the defendants are confusing consumers into believing that Run-DMC endorsed their products and are trading on the goodwill associated with the name, in violation of federal trademark and New York unfair competition laws.
“Plaintiff will suffer immediate and irreparable injury, loss, or damage” unless the infringements are stopped, according to the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan.
Other defendants include Jet.com, an online retailer that Wal-Mart bought, and a variety of companies that do business with Amazon or sell products through Amazon.
Amazon, Wal-Mart and Jet.com did not immediately respond to requests for comment. McDaniels’ lawyer did not immediately respond to similar requests.
Run-DMC was founded in the New York City borough of Queens in 1981 by McDaniels, Joseph “Run” Simmons and Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell. It became one of the best-known rap acts of the 1980s, including for the album “Raising Hell” and such songs as the Aerosmith cover “Walk This Way” and “My Adidas.” In 2009, Run-DMC became the second rap act inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The case is Run-DMC Brand LLC v Amazon.com Inc et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 16-10011.
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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"NaviGate Cardiac Structures Inc. ("NCSI") Reports World's First Transcatheter Tricuspid Valved Stent is Successfully Implanted | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/navigate-cardiac-structures-inc-ncsi-reports-worlds-first-transcatheter-tricuspid-valved-stent-is-successfully-implanted"
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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 NaviGate Cardiac Structures Inc. (“NCSI”) Reports World’s First Transcatheter Tricuspid Valved Stent is Successfully Implanted Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn LAKE FOREST, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–December 30, 2016– NaviGate Cardiac Structures Inc. (“NCSI”) announced today that a novel valved stent that can capture the enlarged annulus in patients suffering from functional tricuspid regurgitation (FTR) was implanted in a patient presenting with massive incompetence of the tricuspid valve.
The patient, a 64-year-old female with an extensive history of severe tricuspid regurgitation (TR 4+) that invariably results in right heart failure (RHF), a lethal condition, was successfully treated with the GATE™ tricuspid Atrioventricular Valved Stent (AVS) from NCSI. The cardiac team from the Cleveland Clinic, recognized as the number-one cardiac medicine center in the USA for 22 consecutive years, implanted the AVS with catheter-guided technique under a compassionate plea from the patient. (A compassionate plea allows a special permission for medical procedures deemed to be the last resort for patients with conditions for which no approved device or medicine exists.) After the implantation, the valve demonstrated excellent valvular function, indicating correction of the massive regurgitation problem. The patient became stable and was closely observed by the cardiac team and at 30 days post implantation is doing quite well.
“This is a step forward in the treatment of tricuspid regurgitation. The hope is to provide a device that is able to capture the diseased tricuspid valve annulus, which has been enlarged inordinately by the ravages of functional tricuspid regurgitation, thus causing a reverse flow of venous blood from the right heart that should go to the lungs,” said Cleveland Clinic cardiovascular surgeon Dr. Jose L. Navia , a member of NaviGate’s scientific advisory board and company shareholder.
“This patient’s annulus measured 49.7 millimeters in diameter, and there are currently no valved stents that can secure such a dimension without extending into any of the chambers and still provide valvular function, yet there are millions of patients in the USA and worldwide presenting with this problem,” said Dr. Samir Kapadia , Cleveland Clinic interventional cardiologist. Dr. Kapadia also serves as a scientific advisory board member to NaviGate.
The GATE™ tricuspid AVS has been developed and manufactured by NCSI, which licensed the seminal technology from Cleveland Clinic. The technology platform, initially explored at Cleveland Clinic, includes percutaneous valve devices for mitral valve replacement and tissue-preservation techniques that remove the toxic tissue fixatives, which-although allowing the fabrication of biological valve replacement from animal tissues leaves residuals that are thought to promote untoward effects for the longevity of tissue. The technology removes most of the water so that the device can be shipped in the “dry form.” NCSI made modifications to the device that differentiates it from all others presently manufactured for atrioventricular valves. The unique design of this device in the form of a diffuser or truncated cone exhibits a low-height profile that can be more easily threaded through the vasculature to reach the atrioventricular valves, allowing it to reside without protrusion into either of the adjacent chambers (atrium or ventricle) for mitral or tricuspid valves.
“Our quest,” said Dr. R. Quijano , President and C.E.O. of NCSI, “is to fully develop and provide the medical community with systems of devices to replace the lost function of both atrioventricular valves of the heart, the tricuspid and the mitral, and to develop the easiest, most user-friendly and most secure methods for their use. Not an easy task, granted. These devices could be used by cardiologists delivered either by threading through the vasculature (so long as the patient has no blood clots in those vessels), or alternatively through minimally invasive surgical and beating-heart techniques by the surgeon when the former is not advisable.” NCSI is presently conducting clinical trials (Chile and Poland) of its NAVI™ mitral valved stent for correction of Functional Mitral Regurgitation (FMR), a similar deadly condition affecting millions of patients worldwide. One patient in Chile has just passed the one-year mark and returned to work with a functional valve.
The healthcare market for these two conditions reaches close to $20 billion yearly, which explains the extensive effort being made by many large multinational medical companies as well as the plurality of start-up venture companies that have focused for the last decade on mitral replacement and repair and those that are now pursuing the repair and replacement of the “forgotten” tricuspid valve.
* New York Heart Association (NYHA) Functional Classification Scale for TR-4 + : Unable to carry on any physical activity without discomfort. Symptoms of heart failure at rest. If any physical activity is undertaken, discomfort increases.
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"Latest Trump FCC pick has not battled net neutrality rules | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/latest-trump-fcc-pick-has-not-battled-net-neutrality-rules"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Latest Trump FCC pick has not battled net neutrality rules Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) logo is seen before the FCC Net Neutrality hearing in Washington February 26, 2015.
The incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump named another person to its transition team overseeing the Federal Communications Commission. And unlike past picks, this one has no record of criticizing net neutrality, the 2015 rules that prevent Internet service providers from slowing or blocking online content and services.
David Morken, co-founder of Republic Wireless and an entrepreneur from Raleigh, N.C., will join three prior Trump FCC transition team members in helping set policies at the agency that regulates telecommunications, cable TV, and the Internet, Politico reported on Thursday.
But unlike previous Trump FCC transition picks, Morken has no obvious and widespread record of speaking out against the agency’s moves in 2015 to protect competition on the Internet through net neutrality rules. Companies like AT&T and Verizon have complained that the rules over-regulate the industry and deter investment in networks.
Rather, Morken was quoted in the Wall Street Journal on Dec. 9 expressing concern about the tilt of some of the earlier picks.
“Traditional Republican telecom policy has favored incumbents who are heavily engaged in regulatory capture over innovators like us,” Morken was quoted saying in article about Trump’s expected FCC policies to demolish regulations that protect smaller players. Morken told the paper he was a lifelong Republican, but in “every election I have to choose between voting personal conviction or business interests.” Fortune contacted Morken for comment and will update this story if we receive a response.
Trump’s first three picks had ties to the largest companies in the telecom sector and had written publicly against the FCC’s rules on net neutrality.
Jeff Eisenach, an economist who has been on Verizon’s payroll, and Mark Jamison, who formerly worked on Sprint’s lobbying team and now heads the University of Florida’s Public Utility Research Center, opposed the net neutrality rules and other policies of the FCC under Obama appointee Tom Wheeler. A third appointee, Roslyn Layton is a telecom industry consultant and visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who has opposed both net neutrality and Internet privacy rules.
The two current Republican members of the FCC, Ajit Pai and Michael O’Rielly, have said rolling back the net neutrality rules will be a top priority next year. They will constitute a majority at the agency once Wheeler steps down, as he has pledged to do next month.
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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"Cubans gain access to the internet at home in Havana pilot project | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/cubans-gain-access-to-the-internet-at-home-in-havana-pilot-project"
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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 Cubans gain access to the internet at home in Havana pilot project Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The Cuba State Capitol (El Capitolio) in Havana. The photo is taken from a nearby rooftop.
(Reuters) — Downtown Havana resident Margarita Marquez says she received a special Christmas gift this year: web access at home, a rarity in a country with one of the lowest internet penetration rates in the world.
Marquez, a 67-year-old retired university professor, was among those selected by the government two weeks ago to participate in a pilot project bringing the web into the homes of 2,000 inhabitants of the historic center of the island’s capital.
Most of Communist-ruled Cuba’s 11.2 million inhabitants only have access to internet at Wi-Fi hotspots, and only then if they can afford the $1.50 hourly tariff that represents around 5 percent of the average monthly state salary.
Only 5 percent of Cubans are estimated to enjoy internet at home, which requires government permission. This is usually granted mainly to academics, doctors and intellectuals.
“It’s like a dream come true,” said Marquez, who lives with her sister in a second-story flat in a colonial-era building. “To be in touch with the outside world is important.” Her 80-year-old sister, Leonor Franco, said the news they had been selected came as a surprise and she was excited to be surfing the web for the first time.
“I had never had any experience of internet,” she said, seated in front of a laptop she has owned for two years without web access, searching for videos of her favorite singers on YouTube.
She said she wanted to learn how to surf the web properly so she could make the most of the experiment, and for as long as the government provided free internet access.
“From March we will have to start paying and we don’t know if we will be able to continue. So at least we are going to enjoy January and February,” she said.
While the cost of internet has dropped in recent years, it is still prohibitive for most Cubans.
Cuba says it has been slow to develop network infrastructure because of high costs in part due to the U.S. trade embargo. Critics say the real reason is fear of losing control.
Before Wi-Fi signals became available last year, broadband internet access had been limited largely to desktops at state internet parlors and pricy hotels.
However, the government has said it wants to ensure everyone has access and has installed 237 Wi-Fi hotspots so far. In September, it announced it would install Wi-Fi along Havana’s picturesque seafront boulevard, the Malecon.
“There are many places now where you can go and sit and connect along the Malecon,” said Eliecer Samada as he sat on the stone wall lining the boulevard, checking social media on his phone. “We’re happy with this.” (By Rodrigo Gutierrez and Mario Fuentes; Writing by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Paul Tait) 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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"CES 2017: Your guide to surviving tech's craziest trade show | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/ces-2017-your-guide-to-surviving-techs-craziest-trade-show"
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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 CES 2017: Your guide to surviving tech’s craziest trade show Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The Microsoft party at CES 2016.
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I’ve survived more than 20 Consumer Electronics Shows. This year, I’m going to walk miles and miles of exhibits again at CES 2017 , the gigantic tech trade show in Las Vegas next week. If you’re a newcomer or even a veteran who needs reminders, please heed some advice to avoid nightmares and hangovers.
Just like last year , the survival tips are affected by bag restrictions and entrance searches at all of the big venues. The threat of terrorism has put a damper on the wanton luggage follies of years past.
That means, sadly, I won’t be able to get much use out of my brand new backpack roller (which my coworkers have dubbed my secret weapon in years past).
The 50th annual show opens on Tuesday, January 3, for the 6,500 or so press attending the show. The press events continue on January 4. But the 2.4 million square feet of exhibit space will open at 10 a.m. Thursday, January 5. VentureBeat writers Ken Leung and John Brandon will join me, and some of my colleagues will be comfortably watching livestreams at home.
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: CES 2016 drew more than 170,000 attendees.
Gary Shapiro, chief executive of the organization newly renamed Consumer Technology Association, told us in September that 4K TVs are selling at faster rates than their HDTV predecessors, with 20 million expected to sell in the U.S. in 2017, up 5 million from 2016. We’ll see 4K TVs from many of the big consumer electronics companies, as well as 8K TVs and monitors.
And we’re also going to see a lot of drones, wearables, augmented reality, virtual reality, robots, smart cars, health gadgets, 3D printers, and Internet of Things objects. There were 177,000 people at last year’s show, and the CTA hopes to rein it in a bit to 165,000 this year. That’s insanely crowded, even for Vegas.
I pay attention to the overall numbers because they are like bellwethers for the tech economy. Companies go there to be perceived as cool, and I go so that I can stay up to speed on the latest technology. We can expect to see more than 3,800 exhibitors.
Now I am one of those people who is getting a little tired of each new Internet of Things announcement. But if Masayoshi Son, CEO of SoftBank, is correct , we’re not doing with them yet. He anticipates that by 2018, the number of Internet of Things devices will surpass the number of mobile devices. By 2021, we’ll have 1.8 billion PCs, 8.6 billion mobile devices, and 15.7 billion IoT devices. He predicts we’ll get to a trillion IoT devices.
Apple doesn’t attend the show, but just about every other tech giant does. CES is where you’ll find the powers that be.
My survival tips Above: Models show off the Razor Hovertrax at CES 2016 Some of these tips are recycled from past years, but the new baggage rules make that tricky. You’ll just have to travel lighter. This year, the CTA intends to search bags at the entrances to the show floor just as it did last year. We survived that hassle a year ago, but don’t forget to take possible delays into account when planning your schedule.
Shapiro noted, “Tragically, our world has also seen an increase in violent and inexplicable acts. We will enhance our security measures accordingly.” Rolling bags won’t be permitted on the show floor, and you can only carry two bags, each smaller than 12 inches by 17 inches by 6 inches. Last year, we were able to get search stickers at the first search place, and then use those to circumvent the bag checks every time we came in and out of buildings. However, I wouldn’t count on that happening every time you go into a new venue.
You need a CES badge and a government photo ID. If you can, you should pick up your badge at the airport or one of these locations.
Media is subject to the same rules, with some allowances, so long as you have a media badge.
On your crowded flights, try to travel light. For Southwest, try to check in exactly 24 hours ahead of boarding. Check in your baggage if you don’t have to get anywhere fast. Be prepared for long cab lines or rental car check-in lines. (Services like Uber and Lyft were very useful last year at CES.) Bring your comfortable shoes, and try not to stay out too late at the parties. If the parties are what you care about, check out the Karennet party list.
Many of them are invite-only. Remember to swap phone numbers with the people you are meeting with so you can coordinate. Incorporate drive and eating times into your calendar, or use a calendar that does that automatically for you (I’m still looking for one).
Smartphone reception is better than it used to be, but it’s still probably prone to interference. Text message is usually a decent way to communicate with coworkers. We always seek out the Wi-Fi havens in the press rooms or wherever we can find them. But carry a MiFi or activate a personal hotspot if you can; even hotel Internet connections are likely to be stressed to the limit during the show. If you’re responsible for uploading video, good luck with that.
If you collect a lot of swag, you can send it home via shipping services instead of carting it on the plane. You should print a map of the exhibit floor or rip one out of the show guide. You should also print your tickets, schedule, and RSVPs for events. You need a lot of battery backup for your laptop or smartphone, hand sanitizer, a good camera, ibuprofen, and vitamins. Bring a backup for everything, even if you have to leave it in your hotel room this year.
Above: Intel’s booth at CES 2016.
Pack enough business cards. If you’re exhibiting, wear your company brand on your shirt. Try very hard to keep from losing your phone. I wear a jacket with zippered pockets so I can put my phone and wallet inside.
Make some time to walk the show floor. If the cab line has you frustrated, don’t think about walking to a nearby hotel. Chances are the cab line there is also bad, and the hotels are so huge that a mirage effect makes them look deceptively close. If you have a rental car, try not to get stuck in a traffic jam in a 10-story parking garage.
Schedule your appointments in locations that are near each other. Arrive early for keynotes because the lines are long. Drink lots of water. Get some sleep — you really don’t have to party every night. Don’t miss your flight on the way out. Pack up a bunch of snacks early on to avoid getting stuck in morning or lunch lines. Take a good camera because what happens in Vegas … gets shared on the Internet.
What’s happening when And here’s how we expect the news to unfold this week: Tuesday Lots of embargoed news will break Monday through Thursday as tech companies try to steal each other’s thunder and catch some early buzz. The Consumer Technology Association analysts will open a press-only event with sales stats and trend forecasts for 2016. The event officially kicks off in the afternoon with a press-only CES Unveiled reception, where scores of companies that have won innovation awards will be first to show off. You’ll start seeing posts about cool stuff at that party on Tuesday evening, particularly from all the tech journalists who are chained to tables at the party.
Wednesday Press Day at CES has now morphed into a day and a half. It starts around 1 p.m. on Tuesday and then runs from 8 a.m. to the early evening on Wednesday. Qualcomm has a press event at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, while LG kicks off the Wednesday press events at 8 a.m. You should search for CES press event livestreams, particularly if you can’t get in.
Above: The line for the 2016 CES Unveiled party.
Most of the press events are at the Mandalay Bay, although Sony has an event at 4:45 p.m. at the Las Vegas Convention Center on Wednesday. These events are closed to non-press attendees, but we’ll be writing posts about a lot of these events.
At 6:30 p.m., Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang will give the opening keynote for the first time. At the keynote, the CTA’s Shapiro will welcome the early crowd at the sprawling Palazzo ballroom at the Venetian Hotel. Then Huang will talk about transforming Nvidia from a graphics chip maker to an artificial intelligence company. We’ll close the evening with the Pepcom Digital Experience party, a private event at the Mirage Hotel.
Thursday At 10 a.m., the show floor formally opens in the Las Vegas Convention Center and World Trade Center, the Westgate Las Vegas, and the Renaissance Las Vegas. We’ll see keynotes by Arnold Donald of Carnival, Richard Yu of Huawei, Carlos Ghosn of Nissan, Barry Diller of IAC and Expedia, and Michael Kassan of MediaLink. That’s a strange cast of characters at a tech event, but it shows you how ubiquitous tech has become. We’ll catch more product unveilings at the invite-only Showstoppers Party at the Wynn Hotel.
The Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) is cavernous. It stretches from the North Hall, where a lot of the car makers and speaker manufacturers gather, to the vast Central Hall and the multilevel South Hall. It’s a couple of miles from one end to the other, so try to space out your appointments. A rookie mistake: not paying attention to the exhibit floor map about where your appointments are.
It’s not easy to get from the LVCC to the Sands Expo during the rush period, but the CEA provides shuttle buses for that purpose. Parking is scarce, and you’ll pay $20 or more for it each day.
Above: CES 2016 show floor The Tech West area includes the Sands Expo, The Venetian, the Palazzo, Wynn Las Vegas, and Encore at Wynn. Tech South, which includes the Aria, Cosmopolitan, and Vdara hotels, is host to C Space activities. Sadly, we won’t see any high-ranking federal officials at this year’s event.
When the exhibit floor closes at 6 p.m., there’s a mad rush for the taxi line, the shuttle buses to major hotels, the parking garages, and the monorail. Try not to get stuck in gigantic traffic jams out on the Las Vegas Strip and anywhere else near the main convention center; maybe wait out the rush at a coffeehouse or hotel bar.
Friday If you’re still up for hearing talks, Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm, will speak from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the Venetian’s Palazzo Ballroom, while Kevin Plank of Under Armour will talk at 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the same venue.
Saturday I’m taking off a little early this year, flying out on this morning. I suspect a lot of people will be doing so, so watch out for the stampede.
Sunday If you hate crowds, this may be the day to show up. The VB crew will be gone by this point, and we’ll be home contemplating our picks for the top CES trends, the best products and services, and awesome images from the show. But the show floor will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
If you’re smart, you’ll take some painkillers and a vacation day before you return to work.
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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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"CEO of German auto supplier says jobs will be lost in shift to electric cars | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/ceo-of-german-auto-supplier-says-jobs-will-be-lost-in-shift-to-electric-cars"
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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 CEO of German auto supplier says jobs will be lost in shift to electric cars Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Elmar Degenhart, CEO of Germany's Continental AG speaks during the 'International CAR Symposium' in Bochum January 29, 2013. REUTERS/Ina Fassbender (Reuters) — The shift to electric vehicles will cost jobs at German automotive supplier Continental, its chief executive told a newspaper, but he said many of those jobs would be offset by new positions related to electro-mobility.
“Due to the low added value, production jobs will be lost,” German weekly paper Welt am Sonntag quoted Elmar Degenhart as saying in a summary of an article to be published on Sunday.
He said it was too soon to say whether the number of jobs that would be lost would be bigger or smaller than the number of new positions created.
“There is enough time to design the process such that the blow is softened and major pain can be avoided,” he said.
Some 30,000 of 218,000 jobs at Continental are dependent on combustion engines, the paper said.
Continental said last month it would increase spending on electric-car components in coming years but expects to avert any major impact on its earnings through additional sales from new R&D projects.
(Reporting by Maria Sheahan; editing by Susan Thomas) 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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"3 near-term bots that will force us to ask moral questions | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/3-near-term-bots-that-will-force-us-to-ask-moral-questions"
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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 3 near-term bots that will force us to ask moral questions Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Questions about chatbots and humanity Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
A lot of my waking (and dreaming) life is spent thinking, studying, and reading about machine learning, artificial intelligence, and bots.
A common theme that comes up is the need to make the technology seem more human. Well, it’s going to happen, and probably sooner than most of us realize. But what will human-seeming bots mean for humanity? As the CEO of a company pushing hard in the field of machine learning for AI purposes, I think it’s imperative that we address the social and moral questions associated with AI now, rather than post facto. Below are important near-term examples that I think will really require us to stop and think. I’ve listed out when these bots should be available.
1. Recommendation bots (within 2 years) Everyone wants a bot that can interact with a human and help them place an order. But bots are built by humans and funded by businesses. So just how impartial are those recommendations? Imagine you’re trying to figure out where to stay when you take the family to Disney World. If Hotel Chain X has paid the folks running a travel recommendation bot to push their hotels, it stands that the bot has been trained with more positive data about Chain X — meaning that the bot will push users to Hotel Chain hotels.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! By simply adjusting the training corpus for the AI, you can create a bot that honestly believes it’s making the best recommendations for users when in reality it’s making the best recommendation for advertisers. It’s a subtle, undetectable twist on the notion of paying for placement — and it’s almost guaranteed to happen. Recommendation bots will arrive with an agenda, and unless guidelines or regulations are put in place, you won’t know what it is.
2. Virtual girlfriends/boyfriends (within 3 years) As a society we keep our friends close and our phones even closer. It’s not a stretch to imagine the virtual personas of our phones shifting from trusted adviser to romantic interest — think the Oscar-winning film Her.
With AI being endlessly adaptive and lacking the burden of an ego, it’s perfectly positioned to be trained to become the ideal better half. Imagine a partner that could learn your tendencies and desires and adjust itself to meet them in every way. Then imagine what this means for how we learn to socialize, and how we subsequently treat those around us. It sounds frictionless and idyllic on the surface, but there’s a darker side that comes with having our every whim indulged and no one to check our more self-centered proclivities.
This is something we’ll have to deal with sooner rather than later, as virtual partners aren’t so far away. In fact, they already exist in a limited fashion in Japan, and as the technology improves I suspect they’ll be everywhere.
3. Nefarious uses (within 3 years) The above examples may be fraught with problems, but they’re not intentionally designed to harm users or society. But any technology can be used for evil — or at the very least, for mischief.
Let’s take an example from the corporate world. Imagine a corporation with the resources or technological know-how to build a bot that mimics their competitors’ users. These bots could be used to attack my competitors’ support sites, gumming up support operations and forming an intelligent denial-of-service attack. This may be a relatively harmless-sounding scenario, but that’s what makes it scary. There are without a doubt people actively trying to think of ways to do harm with this new technology.
Given the above, is the world doomed to a Terminator-like existence in the not too distant future? Fortunately, probably not. There are a variety of corporate, educational and governmental working groups exploring the questions, risks, and threats that AI and machine learning will uncover. Of these, the one with the most technical credibility is the group created by Google, Microsoft, IBM, Facebook, and Amazon.
The very collaboration between these long-term competitors points to how seriously the issue of the morality and ethics in AI is taken by major companies.
Is it ideal that the people discussing ethics and morality are ones pushing the technologies that will cause the problems mentioned above? No, but at the moment they’re the ones best equipped to point out the issues — and manage them. The most credible, non-industry-associated group is Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency in Machine Learning (FAT ML).
Despite groups like the above, we are going to be in the Wild West for a while. No one knows for sure when these problems will pop up — nor precisely how we’ll deal with them when they do. It’s going to be quite a ride, but I’m hopeful that the benefits of AI and machine learning will drastically outweigh the costs.
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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"10 predictions and opportunities for virtual and augmented reality in 2017 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/arvr/10-predictions-and-opportunities-for-virtual-and-augmented-reality-in-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 10 predictions and opportunities for virtual and augmented reality in 2017 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn 2016 was “Year Zero” for the current wave of consumerization of virtual reality and augmented reality, devices are finally shipping, consumers are buying, and applications are earning. Consider what “Year Zero” was for the PC or the mobile waves of technology adoption, and look at where we are today. 2017 is shaping up to be an early and fantastically productive year for the virtual reality & augmented reality industries.
Having spent the better part of 2016 diving into the VR & AR industry, here is list of six predictions and four “wishes” for 2017: Predictions #1: Apple enters the augmented reality game through the iPhone 8 camera Of the tech majors who are openly investing billions into VR & AR initiatives, Apple is strikingly missing from that list. While Cupertino’s infamous “cone of silence” is typically quite effective, its M&A and hiring strategies paint a picture of deep exploration in virtual and augmented reality through acquisitions such as Primesense , Metaio , Flyby Media , and key hires from the Microsoft HoloLens, Oculus, and Magic Leap teams. With the unveiling of iPhone 8, the 10th anniversary iPhone, many are predicting a stark change in form factor, and while a head worn display is possible, the phone camera is the obvious and most accessible AR device for consumers today.
#2: Snap unveils roadmap to augmented reality platform, a natural extension of Spectacles Above: Snapchat’s new Spectacles.
2017 will be a big year for Snap Inc., coming off a buzzy release of its connected sunglass camera product, Spectacles , and preparing for the potentially the largest tech IPO since Facebook. With Spectacles, not only has Snap has made it “cool” with the millennials-set to wear a battery and camera on your face, but the company has invented a novel and very natural way to keep this battery-laden device juiced up — via the charging case. While today, Spectacles are primarily content capture devices, a believable next step for a future Spectacles product is to enable display of information within the lenses, to the wearer, such as time, walking directions, recent text messages, or next appointment. Google Glass is rolling over in its deep grave.
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! #3: HTC Vive announces “standalone” Virtual Reality headset, like Oculus Santa Cruz HTC Vive, the currently leader in room scale Virtual Reality, will announce a “standalone” VR headset. The Vive is the industry leader in terms of quality of experience and depth of “immersion” in VR, thanks to its sophisticated infrared light tracking hardware setup. However, the curse is that it must be tethered and powered by a high-end gaming PC with a top of the line GPU hardware, which can be very expensive. Don’t forget that HTC’s primary area of expertise is that of a manufacturer of high-end mobile phone devices, including the Google Pixel.
So, expect HTC to announce a standalone VR device, with the compute and graphics power onboard, which will enable high quality mobile VR experiences to consumers at a far more approachable form factor and price.
#4: Facebook takes a bigger focus in Virtual Reality, Oculus brand steps back Above: Photo of an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.
In Facebook’s acquisition of Oculus , it acquired a delivery mechanism. After two years of product development on hardware and software, Facebook reached a high point of quality for both consumers and developers, and it did so in a relative “walled garden” of early adopters who are excited by and loyal to the Oculus brand. In 2017, expect Facebook to start introducing VR experiences directly to its 1.79 billion monthly active users under its own, more familiar, flag.
#5: Removing the tether…the dawn of wireless head mounted displays For those who have tried a full-featured virtual reality rig like Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, the experience is often “out of this world,” but there’s a common annoyance caused by the “tether,” that hangs down the back of the head-mounted display (HMD) connecting it to the PC. While annoying to the user, this cord carries important low-latency, high speed graphics to the HMD ensuring a quality experience and minimizing potential of nausea. With advances in near-field Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity, expect to see a number of branded and manufactured wireless headsets or attachments come to market to solve this tangled problem.
#6: WebVR takes center stage as bridges are built between fully immersive VR and mobile While millions of new people will try and buy VR experiences in 2017, the vast majority still will not have access, but WebVR will offer a “magic window.” VR is so compelling because of the extraordinary experiences it enables for the user, and as social creatures, we naturally want to share this. As VR starts to have more “creation” experiences, like TiltBrush or Medium, enabling users to create art or environments, so will they want to share with friends outside of VR. Mozilla’s A-Frame is a fantastic framework and open standard to enable any JavaScript developer to render 3D images directly in a browser.
Wishes As an active investor in the VR & AR industry looking for Series A-stage companies working to shape great products and experiences, here is what I hope to see in 2017: #1: More “creation” experiences in VR and AR Above: Demos of the Oculus Rift virtual reality goggles at the Intel Developer Forum.
To date, most VR experiences have been primarily content consumption or gaming experiences. However, some of the most engaging and exciting experiences are applications that let the user create content. These are applications like Google’s TiltBrush, Oculus’ Medium, or Quill, and more environmental creation apps like High Fidelity or Mindshow. In AR, even consider Snapchat’s face filters as a type of highly-popular augmented content creation. As WebVR becomes more common, enabling 3D rendering of VR and AR content to be shared more freely in the browser, I’m excited to see what types of art, experiences, and applications are created by users and developers.
#2: More natural social interactions Current social experiences in VR tend to be a bit awkward — an empty room, some floating avatars, and nothing really to talk about. Rec Room has done a good job of layering in social interaction around simple schoolyard games, which leads to the most contextually natural social interaction I’ve seen yet in VR. Social can’t just be copied over from prior platforms such as chat rooms, photo sharing, and messaging — it will take new life and form factor in VR. it will take new life and form factor in VR. It will be interesting to see if it focuses more vertically around different types of content like education, art, movies, and games, or if there can be more ubiquitously relevant horizontal applications such as Facebook.
#3: More “magic window” opportunities How do we reach more people with 3D content in a way that encourages them to take the leap into trying or buying VR? The “magic window” bridge enabling people outside of VR to see, experience, or partake in VR experiences will be a key step. A good example showing the implementation of “magic windows” is Mark Zuckerberg’s video chat at the Oculus OC3 developer conference where, within VR, he conversed with his wife Dr. Priscilla Chan, who wasn’t using the technology.
The Fox Sports VR app for iOS is another example of the “magic window” that enables viewers to watch live sports from within a virtual Fox Sports luxury box at the stadium. This experience, powered by LiveLike, enables users to interact, share and talk about the game no matter if they are in VR or only on a mobile device.
#4: New ideas for in-experience monetization VR is nascent, distribution is still limited, and monetization is in the early days. There aren’t yet enough eyeballs to sustain consistent advertising streams, and premium content is still being defined. My druthers says that because of its incredible immersiveness users would be willing to pay for extensions, or added levels, to the experiences they love, but may not be willing to shell out relatively large cash ($20 to $60) at the outset for something new and unknown. Unfortunately today, most of the VR app distribution outlets like Oculus, Steam, and Google don’t support in-experience transactions, but I imagine they will, so they can get their take.
Before that, what other unique models of monetization and engagement can we think of that makes sense in the VR and AR form factor? In-app purchases? Subscription? Cross-platform presence and avatars? Micro transactions? Virtual goods? The advancements of VR & AR in 2016 have laid the groundwork for a fantastic year of growth ahead in 2017. From the foundational platform builders, to the indie developers creating delightful experiences, the opportunity in VR continues to grow, and now is the time to start staking claims.
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.
Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more.
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"Voice search is different, not better | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/voice-search-is-different-not-better"
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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 is different, not better 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.
Hey Siri, is voice search really that big of a deal? Looking….
Searching the web for “is voice search really that big of a deal?” Tech pundits and marketing gurus are already lauding voice search as the most disruptive advertising technology since the advent of the smartphone. The incorporation of voice search in our daily lives will undoubtedly increase in the coming years, and this proliferation of voice-activated technology will likely make our lives easier, but it is not yet certain that voice search will be an effective vehicle for advertising. In fact, in the rush to name voice search as the next great hope in digital advertising, we may have collectively overlooked a host of challenges that will likely temper its rise.
Technical challenges We are currently exiting the nascent phase of voice search. As a society, we’ve been interacting with automated voice command programs for a little over a decade. Traditionally, automated voice has been clunky at best, but current technology has evolved enough to make true voice search a viable possibility, and now advertisers are scrambling to keep up.
Most early voice search implementation types will function in a way that is similar to existing text search. In these instances, advertiser strategy remains the same, and budgets must be adjusted to accommodate voice search query volume, in whatever forms they might take. However, the forms of voice search that are most desirable from a consumer perspective are the most challenging from an advertiser perspective.
Consider the following examples: VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! 1. Hey Siri, how far can the new Tesla go? Looking… Here’s what I found on the web for “how far can the new Tesla go?” 2. Alexa, please play “The Jungle Book” movie in the kitchen.
3. Cortana, I need a flight to Los Angeles.
4. Siri, can you get me an Uber home? Examples 1 and 3 are standard web searches with an extra step: voice recognition. The search engine result page remains the same, and the user needs to interact with a screen to use the search feature. In Example 3, consumers are used to seeing every available option when shopping for a flight, and it is highly unlikely that a voice response or one-off action would be helpful in this scenario. From an advertising perspective, this type of voice search is only a slightly different form of search query that must be matched and priced accordingly. It’s an implementation type, not a game changer.
Examples 2 and 4 are fundamentally different from existing search, but these instances only apply to brands with pre-existing customers, such as a subscription video service or a car service app. This type of concierge search will be a boon to a handful of specific business models, but will not make a huge difference in terms of conquesting or awareness campaigns.
Granted, if the user in Example 4 did not have a subscription to Uber, this would create an advertising opportunity for Uber, Lyft, and any other competitors, but absent a completely new audio implementation strategy, the UX of those ads will not be very different from existing web search and app install search.
The ideal voice search scenario facilitates a hands-free conversation between man and machine, but this holy grail of voice search, from a consumer perspective, is years away. This type of exchange relies on two technologies that are currently far from perfect — natural language search and voice recognition — as well as one branch of technology that’s not even close — artificial intelligence.
In the near future, even with hypothetically advanced AI, most ads will still need a screen. Hands-free visual advertising requires widespread adoption of wearable augmented reality, and judging by Google Glass’ recent failure, this is unlikely in the immediate future. Likewise, we can’t expect voice-activated audio advertising to have a performance profile that’s significantly different than existing audio ads.
The only plausible counterargument would be an automated app install, signup, and payment system. This is what many of the larger tech players are working on right now. If a user could vocally agree to sign up for Uber, then we might see true voice search pose a threat to text search, but I don’t foresee a hard vocal conversion in the near future.
Social limitations Much of the current excitement about voice search depends on the assumption that people will actually like it. Currently, one third of Americans prefer texting to a voice call, and 75 percent of millennials prefer texting.
We’ve become accustomed to expressing thought through our thumbs. Why should a new technology with questionable user experience change this? For the sake of argument, let’s assume that the voice search user experience has improved to the point that people actually want to use it: minimal frustrating interactions; minimal mistakes; a seamless natural conversation. Even in this scenario, we have to acknowledge that there will be certain situations where people will not want to search aloud. People will certainly feel comfortable utilizing voice search in the comfort of their cars or homes, but voice search will likely not become the norm for public social behavior. Texting has become preferable to voice calls largely because text allows us to conduct private conversations in very public spaces. Most user searches are private experiences. Even if we perfect voice search, it’s not likely to replace text search in the near future.
The social limitations of voice search are a bit more subjective, and while some may dismiss the above points as conjecture, I think it’s helpful to view any new technical innovation with a healthy dose of skepticism. The fact is, we don’t really know that people will like voice search. From an advertising perspective, this is critical. If a new technology doesn’t fundamentally change the way customers shop and interact with brands, it can hardly be considered disruptive.
In order for voice search to truly revolutionize advertising, we will need to develop some sort of algorithmic native audio advertising, coupled with voice activated conversions. It’s plausible, but there are a lot of technical and user experience hurdles in the interim.
So, is voice search really that big of a deal? Perhaps, but you shouldn’t plan on changing your search strategy any time in the near future, because it is going to be a very long time before we can ask Siri this question and receive a spoken response of: Yes, and here’s why… 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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"Keep your New Year's resolutions with help from these bots | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/meet-your-new-years-resolution-with-the-help-of-these-bots"
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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 Keep your New Year’s resolutions with help from these bots 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.
It’s easy to get sort of jaded about New Year’s resolutions, but we all believe that with some hard work, we can become a better person, and a new year tends to bring that out in people.
Just about everyone wants to get rid of bad habits, improve their career, work out more, or save money. Here’s a series of bots that can help you reach each of these goals.
More suggestions? Ping @kharijohnson on Twitter.
Make good habits, dump bad ones First on the good habits list is Letz, which was named bot of the year by the Product Hunt community in the Golden Kitty Awards earlier this month.
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 productivity app is available on iOS, Android, and the web, and it even has bots on Slack and Facebook Messenger.
Letz helps make sure that the tasks you set actually get done, with the help of its AI assistant Lucy. It follows your location, pings you at times you’re likely to see a notification, and makes sure you don’t forget about items on your to-do list.
Whether your goal is to make good habits or get rid of bad ones, you may want to try out Habitfy.
It offers a lot of the features you get with Letz — make routines, start good habits — but a different motivation. When you complete your tasks, points are converted to cash that is donated to Charity:Water. It also comes with 40 habit suggestions, like inbox zero, write a to-do list, code for 30 minutes, or pray.
Use this app with its iMessage app extension and you can share your success streaks and accomplishments with family and friends.
Get fit and lose weight FitStar Personal Trainer on Google Home delivers seven-minute workouts. It’s one of the 50-odd conversations actions (like Alexa skills) made available for Google Home in recent weeks. This action is an awful lot like the Alexa skill seven-minute Workout that follows the same approach: push-ups, jumping jacks, wall squats, and other exercises that require no equipment. It’s disappointing that this action makes no connection to the FitStar Personal Trainer apps for workout routines, however.
Fitbit on Alexa will tell you things like the number of steps you take a day, how much sleep you got last night, or the number of calories you need to burn to reach your goal. What Fitbit can’t do is put any of that data into context or offer proactive advise, like telling you it’s time to go to bed. It’s a standout skill, one of the best of 2016 , but it is by no means a coach.
For food and cooking, the Allrecipes skill has more 60,000 recipes. You can ask for a certain recipe or just tell the skill what ingredients you have on hand, and it will tell you what you can create. If you like a recipe, you can ask the skill to send it to your Alexa app.
For meal tracking and nutritional data about more than 20,000 different foods, try the Track by Nutritionix Alexa skill.
Manage your personal finances If your goal this year is to be smart with your money, you may want to start with a little subscription spring cleaning.
Trim scans your bank account to find your subscriptions , and if you choose to jettison any of them, will take care of it for you. Doing so has helped people save millions of dollars since the bot launched earlier this year, CEO amd cocreator Thomas Smyth told VentureBeat in a phone interview.
Trim was one of the few Facebook Messenger bots highlighted this year by the Messenger team, both on the company’s blog and in the recommended bots section in the search function on Messenger.
Trim also has a chatbot with the ability to negotiate a lower payment with Comcast , a company with a reputation for the absolute worst customer service. To keep your blood pressure in check, Trim lets you play Snake, Tetris, or other games while you watch the bot negotiate your monthly fee.
Also in this category is Kasisto’s MyKAI , an AI assistant for personal finance with the ability to answer more than 1,000 different questions about your money, and financial education in general — everything from “What is stock?” to “How much did I spend eating out last week?” KAI Banking has been adopted by banks in Singapore, Canada, and India, as well as by the startup Varo Money and soon MasterCard.
Digit is another awesome automation option for your personal finances. In September, Digit CEO Ethan Bloch said his company has helped people save $230 million thus far.
It uses an algorithm to figure out how much money it can put into a savings account based on your spending habits, so that saving money has as little bite as possible. Bloch wondered aloud why every bank doesn’t offer this service, and I’m starting to wonder the same.
Improve your career If your New Year’s resolution is work-oriented, you may want to consider CareerLark.
This Slack bot solicits brief feedback from your manager and is designed to improve your talents and skills.
Are you a project manager or executive? You might want to consider Polly or Growbot.
Polly gives you the ability to poll your team and get their opinions on things like team happiness and product quality. From former Microsoft engineers, Polly is the most popular bot in the Slack app directory. It is also one of a handful of startups championed by Slack, and it was the first bot referenced at the launch of Microsoft Teams last month.
Growbot makes it easy to give kudos to an employee for a job well done. Those kudos, in the form of emojis, can add up to bonuses, like Uber rides.
The common trait between CareerLark, Polly, and Growbot is that all three practice some kind of micro-feedback, asking employers, managers, or teammates to take a minute out of their day to recognize a coworker. If part of the purpose of the Slack bot platform is to create positive company culture, these bots fit the bill.
Just maintain Finally, if you’re going to make it through this year, you’re going to need a little chill — or a whole lot, depending on the day.
Enter Pepper:ai , a Facebook Messenger bot that takes your daily emotional temperature, an act that helps you measure your emotional state over time.
There’s also meditation assistant Headspace , which is now available for Google Home.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"How voice assistants can provide medical advice | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/how-voice-assistants-can-provide-medical-advice"
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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 voice assistants can provide medical advice 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.
Ben Fox Rubin had a great post in CNET’s CES blog that discussed whether voice assistants were equipped to provide health and emotional support. He starts out by citing a JAMA study from early 2016 that found voice assistants mostly lacking when asked about some basic physical and mental health situations. This highlights two interesting points: What is the purpose of voice assistants? How will services break down between general purpose and specialist voice assistants? What is the purpose of a voice assistant? Voice assistants were designed to help execute tasks, remind users of important items, fetch information, and make entertainment more readily accessible. These all require integration with other services to fulfill user needs.
That is a core selling point for Mycroft , an open source voice assistant platform. It is giving away the software, and one of its biggest values is a copious number of third-party integrations. Most of these third parties will also integrate with Amazon and Google offerings because of the scale of these companies and their user bases. If you want control over your own voice assistant, these integrations are critical.
So where are the integrations with applications that can analyze emotions and moods, or that can serve as your on-call doctor? These were simply not the core use cases that voice assistant designers tackled first.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Fetching information is fraught with dependencies The “fetch information” task is particularly onerous for voice interfaces, even though it is a core use case. First, your language engine must properly understand intent. Then, it must locate and return information that provides the best answer.
You may think of search as mature, but how often does Google provide you with the right answer with the first search result? How often is that second, third, or later entry a better fit? For health queries like those in the study, the assistant needs to present the best answer first. There is no audio scanning of search results today. You get one and only one answer.
This is particularly challenging in health care, when the most common answer to direct questions is “It depends.” How old are you? What is your medical history? What risk factors are you exposed to? Which of the medical studies with seemingly opposite conclusions should be presented? When Google Home announced WebMD availability earlier this month, The Verge had this headline: “Google Home is going to help you misdiagnose yourself.” The article included this prescient question: Clearly the only skill [for Google Home] we care about is WebMD because what could go wrong? IBM’s Watson has focused its attention on medical diagnoses to assist physicians and not to replace them. It also has been working furiously to ingest and analyze large volumes of information so it can do justice to the complex nature of medicine. It even acquired Merge Healthcare for $1 billion just so it could better understand medical imaging. And the underlying AI has been in development and use for more than a decade.
The consumer-oriented solutions from Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Apple were developed for more mundane tasks and information retrieval with low stakes associated with errors. It’s not surprising that these solutions performed inconsistently with higher complexity and higher stakes queries about physical and mental health.
Generalist versus specialist approaches Then you have solutions like Sense.ly.
It uses a voice assistant to help users record their medical information and access appropriate answers to health questions. Sense.ly is also an assistant to health care providers looking to stay better connected to their patients.
The solution doesn’t address home automation, cooking instructions, or simple math problems. The technology behind Sense.ly almost certainly could be extended to these everyday tasks, but that is not its purpose. It is designed to interact solely around health and wellness topics. It is a specialist voice assistant and is unlikely to be replaced by something like Alexa anytime soon.
Where we are headed The fact that people want to ask voice assistants about health questions speaks to the power of the voice interface and the expert implementation of voice user experiences. Users just assume they can or should talk to their voice assistant as if it were a wise and understanding human. That leads them to confess their feelings and ask about personal health topics even to an inanimate device sitting in their kitchen. Sense.ly’s director of user experience, Cathy Pearl, commented in a Voicebot interview this month that the specialist solution goes even further in making a connection: We have some patients that get really attached to the avatar [voice assistant]. There is a daily check-in and we have a good compliance rate because people feel accountable to the avatar. Some patients will apologize to the avatar if they miss a check-in. They will share information about their day. This is important to compliance.
Developers deliberately attempted to make their voice assistants more human-like. The result is that we treat them more like humans. Personal connections or at least personal conversations with voice assistants are the inevitable outcome. However, we don’t ask our doctor for cooking instructions or a chef for medical advice. Voice assistants have some super-human qualities, but we shouldn’t expect generalists to compete effectively with specialists for some time to come, particularly in health care.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"How AI will help knowledge workers | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/how-ai-will-help-knowledge-workers"
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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 AI will help knowledge workers Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn AI will assist workers.
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.
Will you still be doing your job in 5-10 years or will a robot do it for you? This is a question knowledge workers have started asking themselves as AI is becoming more capable and widely adopted. Atlassian cofounder and CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes has said AI will play a major role in the future of team productivity. Well, here is why.
AI’s immense growth Bank of America and Merrill Lynch predicts that AI will have a $9 trillion impact on knowledge work over the coming decade.
The McKinsey Global Institute says AI is driving transformation of society at a rate of “3,000 times the impact” of the Industrial Revolution.
CB Insights analysis shows funding for AI companies is increasing year-over-year.
Broad trends and real-world results mean AI and bots can’t be ignored as empty hype any more.
Rather than being fearful of AI, our opportunity is to embrace its potential to enable entirely new ways of operating in our organizations and allow us to apply our knowledge to higher value activities.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Understanding AI in business There are two basic ways to understand the world of AI: artificial general intelligence (general AI, or AGI) and narrow artificial intelligence (narrow AI). Narrow AI is the use of machines to intelligently solve specific problems, while general AI is a machine or group of machines that have the complete cognitive capabilities of a human. Contrary to what the science fiction movies might suggest, general AI is still a long way off.
General AI The main challenge to general AI is that, well, we don’t fully understand what consciousness is. Philosophers have advanced their thinking beyond Descartes’ concept of body and mind to the understanding that our brains give rise to consciousness, but neuroscientists and others still don’t understand what it is, let alone how to recreate it.
We don’t have the hardware — yet.
According to futurist Ray Kurzweil, it won’t be until after 2020 that the necessary hardware at the right price point is available for emulating human intelligence.
We don’t have the software.
As impressive as a computer winning a complex game like Go or as great as better-than-human speech understanding sounds, these are just small pieces in a larger puzzle that needs to be solved.
By way of example, the OpenWorm project has only just started the process of simulating a creature as simple as a worm. Despite the extensive understanding of Caenorhabditis elegans (the worm being simulated) there are still many questions about how to go about recreating it and its limited intelligence. So there is still some time until we have to consider singularity — or for Terminator fans, the Skynet problem.
Narrow AI Narrow AI, on the other hand, is already having an impact and is rapidly spreading into more areas. It has been influencing our everyday lives for years now, whether we are getting advice on stock purchases or being recommended a book on Amazon.
Narrow AI has been delivering value by using large, structured datasets to solve problems that have clear outcomes or rules. It is now reaching beyond this area.
AI, bots, teams, and management The possibilities for bots and AI to assist and participate in teams are opening up. The key drivers behind this are: Data is accessible.
Tasks, issues, timelogs, source code, test results, and all the other things you use to build software are sitting in a system somewhere. The systems holding team data are getting easier and easier to access due to APIs, support for add-ons, or their cloud-based nature.
Data is messy.
The data teams use is messy. It’s not anyone’s fault, it’s just the nature of work. Due to time constraints and release pressures, it’s hard to find the time to clean things up while a team is in motion (which is always). But that isn’t necessarily a problem now because of the advancements being made in dealing with unstructured data.
Dataset size isn’t an issue.
Compared to the massive datasets of Amazon, Facebook, and Google, the dataset sizes of most teams are very small. Teams usually only have tens or hundreds of tasks. Even larger teams with thousands of tasks would have, statistically speaking, a small dataset. Advancements in algorithms for small datasets mean that narrow AI can start producing meaningful results for teams.
Team process standardization.
Most teams, across organizations and around the world, are now settling on essentially similar processes and approaches to how they work. The pervasiveness of agile in software development teams is one example of this. The implication for narrow AI is that it’s easier to be more useful to a greater number of people. This also means it is possible to combine data across organisations to create larger datasets.
Productivity improvements now outweigh inaccuracy.
As the algorithms are evolving, there are still inaccuracies. However, the benefits gained — either by reduced costs, increased speed, or increased insight — now outweigh the flaws, inaccuracies and, for some chatbots, annoyances present in narrow AI.
This article appeared originally at Atlassian.
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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"Do chatbots really help you stay productive? | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/do-chatbots-really-help-you-stay-productive"
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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 Do chatbots really help you stay productive? 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.
When Slack burst onto the workplace, employees rejoiced. Finally, there was a way to chat without having to send a dreaded email or worse, get up and actually go talk with your coworkers face-to-face. Thanks to Slack and a handful of other messaging platforms, business teams could easily communicate using a single interface that would allow them to also send files, GIFs, and more.
The role of chatbots Workplace messaging platforms like chat typically come with artificial assistants, or chatbots.
Think of the Slackbot or iPhone’s Siri or Amazon’s Echo. These pieces of software can chat with employees and are also used to assist companies with everyday tasks. Siri and Echo can relay the time, weather, and even order an Uber for someone on the go with a simple command and internet connectivity. These chatbots, of all shapes and sizes, utilize a process called deep learning , which mimics neurons in the neocortex and learns to recognize patterns in digital representations of sounds and other data.
Chatbots provide convenience, streamlining certain processes that would cost time and energy for human employees to execute. For example, chatbots can help companies train new employees by moving entire training sessions online. These artificial intelligence platforms can also deliver data-driven results in places like call centers, assisting customer service representatives as they solve problems for frustrated customers. Chatbots could even replace your human assistants in some situations — instead of asking the front desk to book your flights or appointments, your chatbot assistant could do that for you with a simple text command.
But when it comes to workplace culture and productivity, how much are these artificial intelligence platforms helping your company? VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Stumbling blocks As with any new technology rollout, chatbots come with some initial problems that could hinder workplace productivity. Chatbots and artificial intelligence programs need to be able to understand the specific request a user asks, even if the request doesn’t come in the form of a question.
Turing Tests have exposed a weakness in artificial intelligence , revealing how difficult it will be to build more natural-sounding chatbots and to train computers to interpret the written word. For example, a comprehensive chatbot assistant must be able to discern colloquial language, slang, and formal language, as well as separating out multi-step requests that could come in a single sentence.
If you implement a chatbot into your workplace, consider the following scenario. On the one hand, a chatbot could help you accelerate your research for a specific project, or even help you find documents hidden deep within your folders. But what happens to productivity when employees need to stop to clearly spell out an inquiry because the chatbot misunderstood the first time? Having to fix a chatbot’s mistake could actually set your workers back and waste their time. Similarly, using an HR chatbot to vet potential employees can be problematic , as a person’s resume consists of more than just their technical skills and experience. AI software would need to be able to understand an applicant’s soft skills and be able to make the connection between their work experience and a company’s HR handbook.
The good news for intelligent chatbots is that technology is advancing at a rapid pace, and bots are learning how to process the human language better with each passing day. And there seems to be a growing acceptance of chatbots and an increased understanding of the potential benefit they offer.
Convenience and productivity Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg built an AI assistant, just like Iron Man’s own assistant Jarvis, to control his home and manage his work projects at the same time. Zuckerberg and his team are also building an AI to answer questions directly on Facebook Messenger. When applied to Facebook Workplace , this could dramatically increase employee productivity. While most bots can only answer simple questions at the moment, the idea is to one day build a platform that can maximize a worker’s productivity by passing mundane tasks off to an artificial assistant.
Despite current hesitations about chatbots, large enterprise software companies are investing money into developing “smartbots” to process some employee tasks. What many developers anticipate is that businesses will use bots to replace slow, outdated websites that make it difficult for them to effectively communicate with their customers. In particular, chatbots and AI platforms provide businesses with an opportunity to link all aspects of their company in a single layer that can be managed by a bot. This means an employee can use text-based commands to tell a chatbot to update aspects of a company’s website, instead of having to code it themselves. It’s an opportunity to improve productivity that will run into a few setbacks initially but could have dramatic implications for how we conduct business in the future.
Bots versus humans On the flip side, we have to ask how chatbots will impact workplace culture. The rise of machines inevitably brings up the question of human capital and whether certain jobs will become extinct once artificial intelligence and chatbots can assume those roles. Certainly, there is an economic benefit that comes with using chatbots. Businesses can save money and resources by “hiring” robots to replace humans who would require a salary, benefits, and more. As deep learning becomes more complex and machines are taught to think like the human brain, the case could be made that specific jobs, like the role of an assistant or data analyst, could go extinct. Productivity would likely also increase, as machines could process requests faster than people can, but this raises the question of what will happen to those who find themselves out of a job. And with fewer people working in offices and interacting with one another, it’s worth wondering what company culture will look like in the future.
At the end of the day, how a business chooses to implement new technologies will determine whether a chatbot improves or hinders workplace productivity. Without a doubt, businesses can benefit from a little extra help, and employees are free to focus on important issues when chatbots have taken over the most mundane tasks. Certainly, proper training and an improved deep learning software can streamline your office productivity. As for how bots will influence your culture? That remains to be seen.
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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"Amazon won the 2016 chat wars, but Microsoft isn't far behind | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/2016-chat-wars-are-over-amazon-won"
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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 won the 2016 chat wars, but Microsoft isn’t far behind Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Amazon Echo 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 2016, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple had no publicly known plans to create an ecosystem for bots. There was no Microsoft Bot Framework, no Facebook Messenger bot platform, no iMessage App Store, and no Lex Framework from Amazon.
Then a whole lot changed. After some of the deepest pockets in tech fought for ground with businesses, developers, and consumers, it’s worth asking: Who won the 2016 chat wars? Bigger battles are sure to take place in 2017, but this year, Amazon came out on top.
Why? VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Mainly because of the domination of Alexa. The AI assistant made immense progress this year, both in its AI smarts and in its success as a commercial product.
Alexa is helping Amazon stand strong When the first Echo became available in late 2014, it was a little-known product made by Lab126 , Amazon’s hardware division. By April 2016, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos posited that Alexa could be the fourth pillar of the Amazon business , together with AWS, Amazon Prime, and its massive retail marketplace.
Amazon doesn’t share sale figures, but it’s estimated that more than five million Alexa-enabled smart speakers have been sold so far, and that was before a 900 percent year-over-year increase in Echo sales this holiday season, according to Amazon. Alexa device sales were so high they sparked a surge in downloads that shot the Alexa iOS app into the top 10 of free apps.
Above: A lamp coming soon from General Electric incorporates Amazon’s Alexa.
Many devices that weren’t created by Amazon also integrated with Alexa. The Nucleus home intercom system , CoWatch smartwatch, this vacuum , and a General Electric lamp that looks like something from Tron will use the Alexa software development kit ( SDK ). A home robot and many other devices also have plans to integrate Alexa.
And in actual commerce, Amazon is way ahead of its competitors. This summer, Alexa got the ability to order millions of items from the Amazon retail marketplace. Alexa is now taking hands-free orders from customers, who are likely very used to the Amazon retail experience.
They’re already selling things to people, and that’s damn powerful.
Google, Apple, and Microsoft don’t have that sort of relationship with their customers, and Cortana, Siri, and Google Assistant lack the ability to make purchases today. Technically, Google Assistant can buy you a pizza, but it only works when you create a pre-order template with Domino’s.
Amazon’s AI assistant also got smarter this year. Alexa started the year with about 100 skills. Today, there are more than 7,500 integrations available to complete an absurd amount of tasks. You can control a car, run smart devices in your home, and send messages to friends.
Oh, and all those skills can now be downloaded or linked to in the Alexa Skills Marketplace , a single place to find every bot available. Competitors like Facebook and Microsoft haven’t gotten hip to this yet.
For developers, the Alexa Skills Kit got a major upgrade this year, adding hundreds of built-in commands.
The final icing on the 2016 cake is Amazon’s first deep learning products and the Lex Framework.
Lex is a toolkit with natural language understanding for making text or voice-enabled bots for platforms like Facebook Messenger and Slack that comes from the technology used to create Alexa.
A close second to Amazon in the 2016 chat wars has got to be Microsoft.
Microsoft is coming up Microsoft started the year being called a company on the rebound, after missing the app and smartphone boats. That conversation appears to be over, in part due to a well-executed bot strategy.
Well, after one of the biggest public relations disasters in recent tech history, that is.
Just days before the launch of the Microsoft Bot Framework with CEO Satya Nadella’s assertion that conversation is the future of computing, the chatbot Tay had to be shut down for spewing racist, misogynistic, anti-Semitic hate on Twitter.
Tay’s very public failure seemed to overshadow Microsoft’s framework, and could have resulted in a contraction by Microsoft.
That didn’t happen.
Instead, Nadella became a high-profile evangelist of bots, conversational computing, and artificial intelligence made available through Microsoft Cognitive Services.
Bots and human language will become the new user interface, Nadella said.
“Pretty much everyone today who is building applications, whether they be mobile apps or desktop apps or websites, will build bots as the new interface, where you have a human dialogue interface versus menus of the past,” Nadella said in July at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference.
The bot framework slowly expanded and took on a true multi-channel strategy, adding integrations with Facebook Messenger, Kik, Slack, and in recent weeks, Microsoft Teams, and Cortana.
On the research side, Microsoft achieved parity with human speech recognition in October. In that same month, Lili Cheng of Microsoft Research, who led teams in charge of the creation of Tay, talked with VentureBeat about the possibility of the return of Tay in another form ( meet Zo ), and the creation of a common bot search engine so that the best bots — regardless of platform — could surface.
In 2016, the Microsoft Bot Framework appears to have edged out much of its chat app competition in the arena of attracting developers.
We don’t know exactly how many bots have been made for Skype or with the Microsoft Bot Framework, but earlier this month Microsoft said more than 78,000 developers are now using its bot framework and cognitive services, more than double the 34,000 developers creating bots for Facebook Messenger.
The Azure Bot Service also launched this year to place bots in the cloud and make bot management easier for developers.
Finally, earlier this month Cortana began to compete seriously with the likes of Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant. A Cortana Skills Kit will launch soon , allowing developers to convert each bot made with the Microsoft Bot Framework into Cortana commands. A Cortana SDK is also underway, so it will enter mass market devices just like Alexa in devices like next year’s possible Echo competitor from Samsung’s Harman Kardon.
The real secret sauce — the major key, if you will: Cortana is already everywhere. More than 145 million people have it inside their Windows computers and devices.
Add in Microsoft’s AI prowess and the company seems well positioned to make big waves next year.
Amazon edges out Microsoft because the power of its AI assistant to compete with others is not something that could happen or is scheduled to take place. It’s already happening. Millions of Alexa devices have already been sold, and Amazon already has millions of products available for sale through its marketplace.
Behind Amazon and Microsoft come Facebook, Google, and Apple.
Facebook, Google, and Apple are plotting Facebook Messenger, the second largest chat platform on Earth, made a lot of changes this year.
Buttons, menus, and cards were added to the Messenger bot platform, along with other changes to give Messenger bots more options. Promotion and marketing, forbidden for the first months of the bot platform, is now possible on Messenger. The ability to accept payments was also added this fall. Each of these changes is fundamental to Facebook’s long-term ambition to reshape conversations between businesses and customers.
Look for more on this front in 2017, especially from that other chat platform Facebook owns. In late August, WhatsApp committed to opening its service to more businesses in “the months ahead.” With 1.2 billion monthly active users, WhatsApp is the biggest chat platform on the planet.
On the intelligent assistant front, Messenger’s AI assistant M, under development for more than a year now, is expected to be made available to more users in 2017. And a few weeks back, we saw the premiere of Jarvis , the AI assistant Mark Zuckerberg made for his home using the voice of Morgan Freeman. Jarvis will be available to the public in the future, Zuckerberg said.
Whether it was done to show off Zuck’s new tool or to get more attention for Facebook’s AI and chatbots, the Jarvis announcement got Facebook some press for its AI assistant at a time when all eyes were on Alexa and Google Assistant.
Google also had a strong year.
A day before it launched Allo , Google acquired API.ai , a platform used to create bots and intelligent assistants by more than 60,000 developers. Gupshup and partners like Dashbot also came on board to help people build and analyze their Google Home actions.
Google Home came out in October, and the Google Assistant platform debuted earlier this month and will extend to Pixel smartphones and the Allo chat app next year.
Dozens of actions, the Google Assistant equivalent of Alexa skills, ranging from WebMD to Domino’s to CNN have already launched. More are on the way.
Perhaps most importantly, a lot of people believe Google Assistant is the supreme assistant, the killer bot that’s better than the rest. But it’s early days.
How Google plans to put bots inside SMS on Android devices is a big, unanswered question we’re likely to hear more about in 2017.
If Amazon and Microsoft are the winners of the 2016 chat wars, Siri might be the loser. Many tests have found Alexa and Google Assistant to be superior to Siri, and momentum is clearly not on Apple’s side. Have you heard anybody talk about the fantastic things you can do with Siri since third-party integrations became possible in September? I didn’t think so.
Most of this year was a ramp-up — the launch of bot platforms and ecosystems. In the year to come, every one of the tech giants mentioned in this article will be well armed in the fight to occupy your home, your car, your workplace, and the chat apps we all use to communicate.
Now the real fight begins.
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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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"This is what a National Security Letter looks like | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/security/this-is-what-a-national-security-letter-looks-like"
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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 is what a National Security Letter looks like Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The National Security Letter sent to Calyx's Nicholas Merrill, in different degrees of redaction.
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In 2004, the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a National Security Letter (NSL) to a New York Internet service provider called Calyx. It’s a type of governmental information request that became much more common as a result of the passing of the USA Patriot Act in 2001, just after September 11.
All this time, this specific NSL — and hundreds of thousands of others — has been under wraps thanks to a gag order. But today this document is publicly available for the first time, following U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero’s decision to lift the gag order in September.
The document, which was sent to obtain information about a specific Calyx subscriber, is impressive in its scope. It shows the FBI searching for the subscriber’s name, account opening date, web service screen names, purchase records for the past 180 days, physical addresses, email addresses, a “radius log,” and “any other information which you consider to be an electronic communication transactional record.” (See the image above for more types of information the FBI sought.) Many contemporary technology companies have received NSLs. Last year Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo went to court to try to get the federal government to allow them to disclose the number of NSLs they receive.
LinkedIn and Twitter , among others, have also received NSLs.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Hat tip to Ars Technica for reporting on the document. The Yale Law School and the American Civil Liberties Union have more on the case.
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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"Meet 'One Love Machine,' the robot band built by a German artist | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/offbeat/meet-one-love-machine-the-robot-band-built-by-a-german-artist"
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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 Meet ‘One Love Machine,’ the robot band built by a German artist Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The One Love Machine Band by Berlin artist Kolja Kugler.
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TOULOUSE, France — Kolja Kugler of Berlin wants you to know that he’s not an engineer. Or developer. Or very tech savvy.
No, he’s an artist, a sculptor. And he said it was his interest in finding ways to make his objects more expressive that led him to start building robots. The result of this journey is his One Love Band, a collection of three large metal robots accompanied by several smaller whistling bird robots.
Kugler brought his heavy metal sculpture to the Futurapolis conference that was held last weekend in Toulouse. The band gave several performances over the course of the two-day event.
He got his start as an artist working with a group that was transforming abandoned Cold War war gear into large art installations. As he developed sculptures from scrap metal, he also began playing with ways to use air-pressure systems to power and control the movements of the sculptures.
His first robot, Sir Elton Junk, is the one in the picture sitting in the middle above the sign with times on it. Eventually, he took more scrap metal and built the other two robots: a bass player and a drum player. While he’s working on making their sounds more musical, his real interest is in expanding the range of head and body expressions the robots can make while playing.
The “One Love” name is a reference to the Bob Marley sign. Kugler plans to keep building more “band members” using money he earns from tours and paid performances. He noted that the band disassembles quite easily and fits into a van.
Here’s a glimpse of one of their performances this weekend: 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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"A cloning company wants to produce up to 1 million cattle a year, starting in 2016 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/offbeat/a-cloning-company-wants-to-produce-up-to-1-million-cattle-a-year-starting-in-2016"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages A cloning company wants to produce up to 1 million cattle a year, starting in 2016 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.
What costs $500 million USD and can churn out up to 1 million cattle embryos a year? A new livestock cloning facility in north China is hoping to do just that, starting production in the first half of 2016, according to one of the companies involved.
The project is a j oint venture between Boyalife Group, Peking University, the Tianjin International Joint Academy of Biomedicine and Korea-based biotech foundation Sooam.
Along with cattle, the plant also plans to produce sniffer dogs, pet dogs, and racehorses. While cloning projects have been undertaken by Chinese scientists since the early 2000s, there is yet to be a commercial enterprise for cloned livestock.
Boyalife says in a release that they have cloned three Tibetan mastiff puppies as part of their first joint venture with Sooam in September 2014. However increasing output to 1 million head of cattle per year seems somewhat unrealistic in the near future.
The company says it will start with 100,000 cattle per year, scaling up to the 1 million mark in an unspecified time range.
Chairman of Boyalife says that “Chinese farmers are struggling to produce enough beef cattle to meet market demand.” China’s demand for beef is indeed rising, with live exports expected to double to 200,000 in 2016. China is expected to consume 7.4 million tonnes of beef in 2016, with the country expected to produce approximately 90% of that amount according to the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service.
Recently Australia signed a hotly debated deal to allow 1 million head of annual live exports to China beginning in 2016. Interestingly, it’s exactly the same amount Boyalife and Sooam are hoping to ‘manufacture’ in their single cloning facility.
Boyalife says the project will also include a research laboratory, gene bank, and museum.
Currently beef consumption sits at just 15% that of pork due to prohibitive pricing. As China’s middle class expands, the demand for reasonably priced beef could bolster cloning projects. However China is still in the process of opening itself up to new markets for beef imports, including Brazil.
This year the European Parliament voted in favor of a ban on similar commercial cloning techniques citing animal welfare issues.
This story originally appeared on TechNode.
Copyright 2015 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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"Uber teams up with (RED) and the Gates Foundation this Giving Tuesday to fight AIDS | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/uber-teams-with-red-and-the-gates-foundation-this-giving-tuesday-to-fight-aids"
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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 teams up with (RED) and the Gates Foundation this Giving Tuesday to fight AIDS Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
Learn more.
After days of indulging our culinary and consumer appetites, the time has come for at least a day of giving back to those less fortunate. This Tuesday marks the third annual Giving Tuesday event — the kick-off to the holiday charity season. This year, Uber is among the first of what will likely be many companies making their mark on this occasion.
The on-demand private car service has partnered with the AIDS organization (RED) to allow donations from within the Uber app. On Tuesday, December 1, every rider in the U.S. can participate in this campaign by contributing $5 on top of their UberX fare — $0.25 of which will be used to pay for processing fees. What’s more, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will match every donation made from within Uber’s app. These contributions will go toward providing a month’s worth of life-saving medicine to those living with HIV/AIDS.
While December 1 has been labeled Giving Tuesday, it’s perhaps better known as World AIDS Day, and both events are certainly in alignment.
Only riders in the U.S. are eligible to make donations to (RED) within Uber’s app, but, as a symbolic gesture, international Uber cars will be highlighted in red to drive awareness of the cause. If you’re inclined to make a donation but can’t do it within the Uber app, you can donate directly (minus the matching contribution from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation).
With this campaign, Uber is helping raise awareness of efforts by (RED) to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of the HIV virus globally by 2020. Although this is commendable, some may criticize the company for its $0.25 processing fee. This isn’t the first time that Uber has come under such fire: during its Veterans’ Day campaign, the company collected donations to help homeless veterans, but passed on the processing fee to donors , as it will do here.
A company spokesperson provided this statement to VentureBeat: “We understand that processing fees are a hot button issue. We thought long and hard about the best way to handle fees, as we intend to do many more giving campaigns in the future where we will invite our riders to join in. We appreciate the generosity of our riders, and we’ll continue to be transparent about any fee.” On Tuesday, contributions can be added to every UberX fare in “select U.S. cities.” Although not all of the markets in which Uber operates are eligible, most of its 180 cities will participate in this program. At the end of your trip, you’ll receive an SMS message asking if you wish to donate $5 to the Global Fund, the recipient of the (RED) foundation’s money to help stop AIDS, as well as tuberculosis, and malaria.
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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"This wearable walkie-talkie could change the way we experience outdoor sports | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/this-wearable-walkie-talkie-could-change-the-way-we-experience-outdoor-sports"
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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 wearable walkie-talkie could change the way we experience outdoor sports Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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( The Bridge ) – A product that might completely change the way we have fun outdoors has come onto the scene. The Bonx wearable transceiver started its crowdfunding campaign in October and will be ending soon, a huge success, having raised over $180,000 surpassing their initial funding target of about $8,000 (1 million yen) in about 40 days.
Worn on one ear, Bonx is set up to work as a Bluetooth earphone connected to a dedicated smartphone app. The device was designed to allow users to be able to smoothly communicate with their friends nearby while skiing, snowboarding, or doing some other kind of outdoor activities.
Bringing real-time communication to outdoor sports It may be difficult to imagine for people who aren’t into outdoor sports, said Takahiro Miyasaka, CEO of Chikei, the startup behind Bonx, but “until now there were a lot of different difficulties involved in communicating with your friends while doing outdoor activities.” These days it’s possible to get a cellphone signal even in the mountains and other remote places, but, as Miyasaka explains, it was always a pain to have to take your phone out of a pocket and take off your gloves just to talk with your buddies, and it was never possible to smoothly stay in contact.
Being a long time snowboarder involved with an NPO that teaches kids how to snowboard, Miyasaka felt there was something lacking when just to communicate with the kids he had to have everyone stop and convene every time. “I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if we could have real-time communication for outdoor activities,” and that was the start of the idea the led to Bonx’s development. The concept of Bonx could even be called the GoPro of communication.
One characteristic of the dedicated smartphone app connected product, is the ability to transmit data between the hardware and the app over both Bluetooth and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy). The surrounding area is scanned for people with Bluetooth and those people are displayed in the app, then a group can be created for the people near you. After that you will be able to talk to the members of your group by pushing the button on the Bonx hardware. The hardware is also equipped with a hands-free mode which begins transmission automatically when the user’s voice is detected.
One thing that leaves a strong impression is Bonx’s user interface (UI), which reflects the needs of long-time outdoor activity enthusiasts with its simplicity. The device is tailored for its users, with just two main buttons, one big and one small, which can be easily pushed while wearing gloves, and an app with a simple UI designed to be used on location. Furthermore, the hardware is set up to only transmit data when speaking to conserve battery life, and in locations where signal is weak, the device will temporarily save voice messages until the signal is restored before sending. This device has been uniquely developed using voice recognition technology and their patent-pending voice data transmission system to handle use even in harsh conditions such as excessive noise or signal interruption.
Above: The Bonx team: (L to R) CTO Yuta Narasaki, CEO Takahiro Miyasaka, CCO Akihiro Momozaki, engineer Hodaka Saito Chikei has brought this product forward with about one year of development. To start they will be focusing on the Japanese and American markets, looking to continue expansion into the global market in the future. Additionally they are considering future collaborations with other companies to further increase Bonx’s features.
Of course by combining the outdoor sports market with the commercial transceiver market, the breadth of potential markets to reach is quite large. We’re very much looking forward to seeing how this product and business progress.
Translated by Connor Kirk, e dited by Masaru Ikeda 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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"Swatch and Visa debut pay-by-wrist smartwatch venture | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/swatch-and-visa-debut-pay-by-wrist-smartwatch-venture"
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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 Swatch and Visa debut pay-by-wrist smartwatch venture 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) – Swiss watchmaker Swatch, Visa Inc, and Visa Europe have launched a project that lets Visa cardholders in the United States, Switzerland and Brazil make payments with Swatch’s new “pay-by-the-wrist” Swatch Bellamy watch.
Set to launch in early 2016, Swatch Bellamy can be used around the world wherever contactless near-field communications (NFC) Visa payments are accepted, the partners said in a joint statement.
(Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Christoph Steitz) Read more : Swatch launches a $90 payments watch in China, coming to U.S. and Switzerland in 2016 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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"Picking an Android flagship: Moto X Pure vs. LG G4 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/picking-an-android-flagship-moto-x-pure-vs-lg-g4"
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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 Picking an Android flagship: Moto X Pure vs. LG G4 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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Motorola or LG? It’s not an easy question to answer this year, at least when you’re comparing the Moto X Pure Edition (also known as the Moto X Style) against the LG G4.
At first glance, they’re actually more similar than you might expect (same CPU, GPU, memory, etc.), though there are some important differences worth underlining.
The beauty of the Android ecosystem is that there are so many smartphones to choose from. The problem with the Android ecosystem is that there are so many smartphones to choose from. Nobody wants to carry around a handful of phones, so the goal is to narrow down the options.
After using both these phones, I have to say that it ultimately comes down to what type of phone you want. The LG G4 is arguably better for power users (for example, it has an LED notification light), while the Moto X Pure Edition gives you more bang for your buck (the G4 has a higher list price than the Moto X, but has been available for longer, so you may find comparable deals).
Look and feel If you care how your phone looks, go with Motorola. You can use Moto Maker to match the exact colors you want. The front can only be black or white, but you can pick from up to 10 accents and 28 different backs (though some cost extra).
The G4 isn’t ugly, but it’s also nothing special to look at. The placement of the power/lock button on the back, however, takes some getting used to. On the flipside, unless you pick a very vibrant back for the Moto X, the G4 will probably turn more heads.
Both phones feel solid in hand, and are definitely not too light. The Moto X is heavier than the G4 (179g/6.31oz versus 155g/5.47oz) so keep that in mind if weight is a concern.
I wouldn’t say either phone is more likely to slip out of your hands. Both devices aren’t particularly slippery, so it’s probably size that makes the biggest difference.
Display and size Compared to the G4, the Moto X has a slightly larger display (5.7-inch versus 5.5-inch) and is of course the larger phone. But I didn’t find the Moto X too big , surprisingly, despite the bigger screen.
If you have small hands, go with the G4. It’s simply more manageable, and you shouldn’t feel like you’re making any major tradeoffs compared to the Moto X.
If you watch a lot of videos, movies, and TV shows on your phone, or play a lot of games, the Moto X does have an extra 0.2 inches to work with. However, both screens have the same resolution (1440 x 2560), and the G4 actually has a higher pixel density than the Moto X (538 ppi versus 520 ppi).
Both phones produce gorgeous images and never made me feel as if I was getting a subpar experience. These are flagship devices, after all.
Calls and volume Like with any Android flagship description, there isn’t too much to report here. Both Motorola and LG know how to make a phone, and to make sure that you can hear the person on the other end.
In terms of the speaker, the Moto X is slightly louder, according to basic tests I performed. If you use your phone as a boombox, neither phone will disappoint, but the G4 just won’t produce as much noise.
Cameras Both these phones have great cameras, and I find it difficult to place one above the other. The Moto X has a 21MP rear-facing sensor, while the G4 has a 16MP sensor. On the other hand, the G4 gives you more control on the software side than the Moto X does.
Here is a picture of the Moto X taken with a G4: Here is a picture of the G4 taken with a Moto X: Again, these are solid camera phones. You can’t go wrong with either.
Software The Moto X and G4 both come with Android 5.1 Lollipop. Both will be upgradeable to Android 6.0 Marshmallow, though LG has the edge over Motorola because it claims the G4 is the first non-Nexus phone to get the update.
Because these are both Android devices, the software is quite similar. That said, Motorola customizes Android a lot less than LG, and frankly produces better apps.
This is why it’s a bit puzzling that LG beat Motorola to the punch with its Marshmallow commitment.
This is probably the biggest missed opportunity for the Moto X Pure Edition: Despite having a better software experience, the company didn’t make as much of an effort to rush Marshmallow onto the device.
Performance Both phones are Android powerhouses. That doesn’t mean you won’t see lag sometimes, a glitch here or there, and maybe even a crash or two.
But these are usually caused by poorly coded apps rather than carefully chosen hardware. Android apps are quite reliable, and you can largely expect your phone to work exactly as you want 99 percent of the time. That said, I did experience more lag with the Moto X than the G4.
If you’re having problems, restarting an app or the whole phone is the easiest way to get back top performance. And it’s easy enough to reset the device to factory settings to really get that fresh start.
Like with any high-end phone, the only real performance deterioration you have to worry about is the battery.
Battery life The G4 and Moto X have the same-sized battery (3000 mAh). Possibly because the Moto X is bigger, however, it doesn’t last as long for me as the G4.
Still, both phones can get you through a day without major problems. That said, batteries will start to drain more quickly the longer you’ve had them for. This is just the way phones are.
Nonetheless, the G4 still wins this category due to one major differentiator: It has a removable battery. If you’re a power user who spends hours upon hours on their phone every day, you can dismiss the Moto X right away.
If, however, you replace your phone on an annual basis, then chances are you’ll be OK anyway. You can always carry around a battery pack or car charger and recharge your Moto X that way. With the G4, you can replace your battery as needed, and your phone will last just as long as it did on day one.
Final thoughts If you want to spend less money and get a slightly bigger, but just as powerful, phone, go with the Moto X. If you want a slightly smaller phone, but one that’s more power user friendly, go with the G4.
These devices were both released this year, and neither is a poor choice. That said, if you prefer to have the latest and greatest software, look no further than the Nexus 5X or the Nexus 6P.
In fact, the next comparisons we do will only look at devices that ship with Marshmallow out of the box.
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"New Samsung patent shows off a phone that unfolds into a tablet (with bonus Apple cameo) | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/new-samsung-patent-shows-off-a-phone-that-unfolds-into-a-tablet-with-bonus-apple-cameo"
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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 New Samsung patent shows off a phone that unfolds into a tablet (with bonus Apple cameo) 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.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has just published an application from Samsung (via 9to5Mac ) that attempts to patent a foldable electronic device. It’s likely that one of the examples depicted in the application represents the company’s upcoming foldable smartphone, dubbed Project Valley.
First revealed by SamMobile , the so-called Project V (thus named to reflect the shape of the handset in mid-fold) goes by model number SM-G929F, just one digit higher than the SM-G928F Galaxy S6 edge+. While several foldable and rollable configurations are shown in the patent application, the one most frequently depicted is a horizontal clamshell whose single fold opens in the same manner as a book or magazine.
It’s not clear, however, how the screens will be oriented on the handset itself; either the device will fold in such a manner that the two halves of the screen are touching when closed, or in the opposite configuration, where the screens both face outward at all times. A 2014 concept video created for Samsung utilizes the former configuration, wherein the display is completely protected when folded over itself.
Also of note in the patent application, due mostly to irony, is the inclusion of an iPod icon, of all things, on one of the diagrams. While Samsung and Apple maintain a business relationship with respect to component production, Cupertino also famously sued its partner in several jurisdictions over alleged patent infringement regarding several proprietary iPhone technologies.
According to SamMobile , Valley will be sold in several European countries (the U.K., Germany, Italy, France, Poland) and Nordic nations, as well as its homeland of South Korea. A U.S. release, however, does not seem to be in the cards. The last experimental handset launched by Samsung, 2013’s curved Galaxy Round, never made it outside of the Korean market.
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5,997 | 2,015 |
"Google's data saver mode in Chrome for Android will now save up to 70% | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/googles-data-saver-mode-in-chrome-for-android-will-now-save-up-to-70"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Google’s data saver mode in Chrome for Android will now save up to 70% 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.
Google announced on Monday that it’s updated the data saver mode in Chrome for Android to save up to 70 percent of data when browsing web pages. That’s up from 50 percent , previously.
Users in India and Indonesia (two huge emerging markets for mobile, specifically Android) will be the first to receive the new feature, which will be rolling out to other countries in the coming months.
Tal Oppenheimer, Google’s product manager for Chrome, explained in a blog posting that Chrome is doing this “by removing most images when loading a page on a slow connection.” “After the page has loaded, you can tap to show all images or just the individual ones you want, making the web faster and cheaper to access on slow connections.” While Apple’s mobile Safari browser for iOS can now block ads , it doesn’t yet offer a dedicated data saver mode, like Chrome.
But data saving continues to be a trend, as more of the emerging world comes online through cheap Android smartphones. Last week, Opera Software rolled out an update to its data-saving Android app, Opera Max, to include music-streaming apps.
Oppenheimer didn’t comment on when Google will bring the 70 percent savings to Chrome for iOS.
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"BlackBerry to exit Pakistan 'for security reasons' | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/blackberry-to-exit-pakistan-for-security-reasons"
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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 BlackBerry to exit Pakistan ‘for security reasons’ 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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BlackBerry confirmed on Monday that it will exit the Pakistan market as of November 30, due to user privacy concerns, and said that it was unable to reach a compromise with the country’s telecommunications authority.
Specifically, the company announced that BlackBerry’s BES servers will “no longer be allowed to operate in the country, starting in December, ‘for security reasons’.” Here’s more from the company’s chief operating officer, Marty Beard, in a blog post [emphasis ours]: The truth is that the Pakistani government wanted the ability to monitor all BlackBerry Enterprise Service traffic in the country, including every BES e-mail and BES BBM message.
But BlackBerry will not comply with that sort of directive. As we have said many times, we do not support “back doors” granting open access to our customers’ information and have never done this anywhere in the world.
Pakistan’s demand was not a question of public safety; we are more than happy to assist law enforcement agencies in investigations of criminal activity. Rather, Pakistan was essentially demanding unfettered access to all of our BES customers’ information.
The privacy of our customers is paramount to BlackBerry, and we will not compromise that principle.
What we said in July when rumors of Pakistan’s decision started to swirl remains true today: “BlackBerry provides the world’s most secure communications platform to government, military and enterprise customers. Protecting that security is paramount to our mission. While we recognize the need to cooperate with lawful government investigative requests of criminal activity, we have never permitted wholesale access to our BES servers.” BlackBerry’s focus will remain on protecting corporate, government and military communications throughout the world, including in South Asia and the Middle East, wherever our technology operates.
Although the Pakistani government’s directive was aimed only at our BES servers, we have decided to exit the market altogether , because Pakistan’s demand for open access to monitor a significant swath of our customers’ communications within its borders left us no choice but to exit the country entirely.
This is a damning assessment by Beard of the Pakistan government’s interactions with, and requests of, BlackBerry. Earlier this month, the company did a deep-dive on privacy, security, and why it’s turning to Google’s Android operating system to power its latest wave of smartphones.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! But BlackBerry’s future remains far from certain, with chief executive John Chen saying it may exit the smartphone business if it’s not profitable within a year.
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"BlackBerry is bringing BBM mobile payments to Africa | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/mobile/blackberry-is-bringing-bbm-mobile-payments-to-africa"
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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 BlackBerry is bringing BBM mobile payments to Africa 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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BlackBerry announced Monday that it plans to allow BBM users in Africa (starting with Nigeria) to send money or airtime “as simply as they transfer photos or files.” It’s part of a wider push by BlackBerry to establish a presence in the mobile payments space, especially in emerging markets.
In Nigeria and South Africa, the company says it sees over half a million new users install BBM per month, which it believes is allowing “a network effects [to] take root in several markets across the continent.” Beyond that, it’s seeing “close to 10 million visits to the BBM Shop per month, and now over 26 million ad requests per day.” These strong advertising numbers mean that South Africa and Nigeria “represent two of our biggest global opportunities,” BlackBerry said, adding that while “both are seen as developing economies, they are some of our top revenue-generating markets.” The company already offers mobile payments in Indonesia , for example, an emerging country of around 250 million in Southeast Asia that still has many loyal BlackBerry users. But other popular messenger apps in these markets also offer mobile payments/wallets, including Line, WeChat (which just launched its peer-to-peer mobile wallet in South Africa ), Kakao Talk, and others.
BlackBerry first pushed into mobile payments in June last year when it signed a three-year deal with mobile payments firm EnStream, a joint venture by Canada’s three largest wireless carriers, to secure and transfer credit card information between smartphone owners and banks, as we reported at the time.
Then, in August this year, BlackBerry brought mobile payments via PayPal to BBM users in Canada, under the name BBM Money.
But the reality is that the remaining BBM strongholds are fairly few and far between these days, and it seems unlikely that even BlackBerry’s attempt to get back into the smartphone wars with Android will help a whole lot on that front — at least not in the near-term.
“We’re excited to announce we’ll be expanding our mobile payment initiatives into Africa, commencing in Nigeria,” Matthew Talbot, BlackBerry’s senior VP for emerging solutions, wrote in a blog posting.
“BlackBerry has partnered with Interswitch Ltd, Nigeria’s largest payment processor, to enable any Nigerian to transfer money or airtime within BBM, as simply as they transfer photos or files.” “Separately, we are also expanding BBM Shop payment options. We’ll soon include the Firstmonie mobile wallet, which is provided by Nigeria’s largest bank, First Bank of Nigeria Limited. We’re also teaming up with Mobile Media Info Tech (MMIT), a Nigerian company working to revolutionize mobile payments, to bring secure payments to the BBM Shop.” BlackBerry is also seeing over 20 million views per month ( views , not visits) on its BBM Shop in Africa, and says 60 million total stickers have been sent and received there. (It offers 25-sticker packs “tailored to the African market.”) While emerging markets are clearly important to BlackBerry (they’re important to all players in the smartphone game!), it seems that not all are created equal — yesterday, the Canadian company announced that it is pulling out of Pakistan over security concerns.
I don’t expect it has any plans to pull out of Africa too soon, though.
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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"Nokia will start shipping its $60K Ozo virtual reality camera in Q1 2016 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/media/nokia-will-start-selling-its-60k-ozo-virtual-reality-camera-in-q1-2016"
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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 will start shipping its $60K Ozo virtual reality camera in Q1 2016 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The Nokia Ozo virtual reality camera, on display at a Nokia event in Los Angeles on November 30.
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Nokia today is announcing that it is now accepting pre-orders for its Ozo virtual reality camera, with the first shipments coming in the first quarter of 2016. The cost: $60,000.
At an event in Los Angeles today, the company is holding an elaborate demonstration of the camera’s ability to broadcast live footage in 3D and 360 degrees. Rock band Best Coast will be performing at Capitol Records nearby, and people attending the publicity event will watch footage from the device as it is stitched together in real time.
The price tag proves that the device will be initially aimed at major media companies and content producers. But over time, Nokia Technologies, the Nokia research and development unit behind the Ozo system, might well be providing hardware to people with less money to spend.
“What is the virtual reality equivalent of the Canon 5D camera?” asked Ramzi Haidamus, president of Nokia Technologies, in an interview with VentureBeat at today’s event. That category, for “prosumers,” as he said, could well become a target for the company within three to five years.
Over time, in addition to making a “prosumer” model, Nokia will come out with new versions of the camera in response to the needs of its users, Haidamus said, adding that software updates will become available more frequently than hardware updates. Nokia Technologies will not ever produce headsets for consumers, and it won’t get into the content distribution business, either.
Nokia also wants to provide Ozo cameras to companies that can rent them out to people who want to make virtual reality video but don’t have the money to buy the cameras outright, Haidamus said.
The Ozo camera was first unveiled in July. The device calls on eight 2Kx2K shutter sensors and eight microphones in order to produce stereoscopic video.
Other companies, including GoPro (with help from Google ), make multi-camera rigs that can produce 360-degree video. Virtual reality startups like Jaunt , Lytro , and Vrse employ their own cameras. But the points of distinction with Ozo are its 3D, 360-degree live capability and its ability to show content producers their footage as it is captured.
Above: The Nokia Ozo virtual reality camera.
Above: The Nokia Ozo virtual reality camera.
Above: The Nokia Ozo virtual reality camera.
In launching Ozo, Nokia Technologies is citing a bunch of partners, including Akamai, Amazon’s Elemental Technologies , Facebook’s Oculus, HTC, and Samsung. Futurist Ted Schilowitz of 20th Century Fox has offered his perspective on the initiative.
“We are in current discussion with every major studio,” Haidamus said.
Over time, Nokia wants to incorporate more advanced technology into Ozo, such that it will be able to do more than just record what’s around it.
“The future of this camera is to start doing object recognition and marry that recognition with augmented reality, so you take the data that will be available on the Internet and you marry it with what [was] recognized,” Haidamus said.
The camera is made of milled aluminum alloy and weighs 9.3 pounds with its lithium-ion battery, according to a spec sheet for the device. It consumes 30 watts of power when recording and has no fans. The eight-camera shutters have an f/2.4 aperture.
Both the Ozo Remote Application and the Creator Application will be available for Mac OS X. The video from the Creator Application comes out in 8Kx4K.
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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6,001 | 2,015 |
"Adobe data: Cyber Monday 2015 will hit a record $3B in sales, sale product shortages hit all-time high | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/marketing/adobe-data-cyber-monday-2015-will-hit-a-record-3b-in-sales-sale-product-shortages-hit-all-time-high"
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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 Adobe data: Cyber Monday 2015 will hit a record $3B in sales, sale product shortages hit all-time high 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.
It’s becoming clear that many consumers avoided the hassle and crowds of Black Friday and waited to search for online bargains on Cyber Monday.
Adobe, citing data collected through 6 p.m. EST, said Cyber Monday sales volume will hit $2.98 billion by the end of the day, a 12 percent increase over last year’s total.
Adobe says its numbers are based on data aggregated from more than 125 million visits to 4,500 retail websites. The company says it tracks 80 percent of all online transactions from the top 100 U.S. retailers. By late morning Monday, Adobe reported, sales had already reached $490 million, a 14 percent increase over last year’s sales at that time.
The company adds that from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday consumers bought a total of $11 billion in goods, a 15 percent increase over the same period in 2014.
Interestingly, Adobe reports that the problem of out-of-stock items hit record levels during Cyber Monday 2015. Thirteen out of every 100 product views resulted in an out-of-stock message — twice the normal rate, Adobe said. So for record numbers of consumers the Cyber Monday deals must have seemed like a bait-and-switch.
Some retailers had even worse troubles.
Target.com advertised its Monday deals on sites all over the web, but as the crowds came in its servers couldn’t handle the load.
Many users were put into a queue to wait, or prompted to visit the site later in the day.
Above: Many online shoppers saw this message at Target.com Monday morning.
Target was offering 15 percent off every product on its site, and free shipping. A spokeswoman said the retailer was experiencing its busiest online shopping day ever, by far. Well, be careful what you wish for.
The payments service PayPal also experienced technical problems and delays, as Adweek’s Christopher Heine reports.
A glitch with a shopper’s go-to payment method can mean a particularly unpleasant end to a Cyber Monday product hunt.
Some have pointed out that consumers on Cyber Monday may be more likely to bail out at the first sign of site delays. That’s simply because many people are shopping from their desk at work, and don’t have a lot of time to wait around to get a deal. Many have a list of “target” products they want to buy, and might quickly switch to another site to buy them, even if the discount isn’t quite as deep.
Target wasn’t the only retailer to experience delays.
Ad Age points out that Neiman Marcus, Victoria’s Secret, and Foot Locker also suffered from site delays over the holiday weekend.
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6,002 | 2,015 |
"50% of adults shop on smartphones while browsing a store | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/marketing/50-of-adults-shop-on-smartphones-while-browsing-a-store"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages 50% of adults shop on smartphones while browsing a store 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.
Half of all adult shoppers conduct product research on mobile devices while shopping in physical stores, according to the results of a new study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).
The practice is called “showrooming,” and it’s especially popular among younger consumers. The IAB defines showrooming as “comparing prices on a mobile device while in a retail store before purchasing.” The study found that shoppers usually end up buying a product in a physical store after researching it on mobile while in store, but it is often not the same physical store where the mobile research began. The next most likely scenario is to buy the product from another store’s website after leaving the store, using either a mobile phone or a personal computer.
The 18-34 crowd, or Millennials, behave differently than other shoppers, however. More than two thirds of shoppers in that age range engage in showrooming, and they’re more likely to buy the product at a competing store than other shoppers, the study found. Older shoppers are more likely to buy at the same store after checking prices on a mobile device.
The IAB study also confirmed some more general behavior patterns among mobile shoppers.
Millennials, the report said, are more likely to make purchases on smartphones than any other group. Forty-three percent said they do so. Consumers in other age groups are still more likely to make purchases on a tablet (35 percent) than on a smartphone (28 percent).
“With the holiday shopping season in full swing, consumers are turning to smartphones and tablets throughout the gift-buying process,” said Anna Bager, VP and general manager of mobile and video at IAB.
“This report spotlights contrasts in how different generations shop on digital — significant differences that need to be considered in brand marketers’ strategies,” Bager said.
The results come from an October 2015 online survey of 7,276 respondents and another annual survey of 16,228 respondents, the IAB said.
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"Xenoblade Chronicles X impressions: Size matters | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/xenoblade-chronicles-x-impressions-size-matters"
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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 Xenoblade Chronicles X impressions: Size matters Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Gigantic, reptilian behemoths are a not-uncommon sight while touring planet Mira.
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With Starfox Zero being delayed into 2016, Nintendo’s biggest holiday release – both figuratively and literally – is Xenoblade Chronicles X, the followup to the critically acclaimed 2012 Wii RPG (re-released for the New 3DS earlier this year).
Xenoblade Chronicles X follows the exploits of a post-Earth humanity, forced to flee from the destruction of our home planet to resettle on a faraway alien world. It’s been claimed that its world is bigger than those of The Witcher 3 and Skyrim, and that assertion holds weight in terms of sheer gameplay content. Xenoblade is filled with things to do, with a myriad of sidequests to partake in and plenty to discover just by wandering around.
What you’ll like It’s a really, really big game world Xenoblade Chronicles X’s world is huge and expansive. The oft-repeated claim of “See that mountain in the distance? You can go there!” during demos of these sort of open-world RPGs has been mocked as marketing buzzspeak, but here it holds true: Eventually, you’re going to be able to climb those gigantic, strangely shaped cliffs you see towering off in the distance. Heck, at some point, you’ll probably have to for a quest.
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! With so much to explore, Xenoblade gives you a lot of tools to make your questing on the alien world of Mira easier. It is usually pretty generous about marking specific locations you need to visit to complete quests, but you’ll sometimes find that the terrain might prevent you from taking a direct route to the location. To help find your way, it supplies you with an aerial camera to get a Google Maps-like view of your surroundings. And early on, you also get a neat piece of kit called a “follow ball”: throwing it out draws a path to the mission destination you’ve specified. It’s like a futuristic GPS. (Just keep in mind that, like a GPS trying to guide you through construction areas, the follow ball doesn’t know when it’s zipping through a lair of hungry high-level enemies.) Not only is it big, it’s also fun to explore Xenoblade Chronicles X offers a lot of fast-travel options, which you can access at practically any time. While that’s pretty nifty, you’ll often find yourself opting to simply move to your next destination instead. Not only does this allow you to find more loot and objects of interest out in the field, it also lets you really take in the sights and sounds of Mira and its many locales.
Though the Wii U might not be as technically powerful as some other consoles on the market, the sheer strength of Xenoblade Chronicles X’s art direction gives players a world of awe-inspiring beauty. Exploration is its own reward. While going off the beaten path might lead you into peril, it might also lead you into an unexplored treasure trove of amazing alien fauna and strange beasts. A day/night cycle also affects the landscape and the creatures that roam it, transforming Mira before your eyes. Few games manage to capture the feeling of exploring a world unlike ours as well as Xenoblade Chronicles X does.
Above: The environments often leave you wondering what’s natural and what’s… less natural.
Multiple ways to fight Your character can follow many different class routes, learning skills and abilities that are beneficial to multiple combat scenarios. Switching is as easy as picking a selection from the class menu on the field — provided you have met the necessary level requirements, of course. Combat skills can be equipped and levelled up individually with Battle Points you earn from fighting, exploring, and completing missions, so if you find one particular way top enjoy combat — say, sneaking around an enemy and back-attacking — you can pump up skills that support that and rely on your CPU-controlled teammates for support in other areas. If you’d rather play it more safe, you can spread your augments around a wider variety of skills to become a combat jack-of-all-trades. You can upgrade weapons and armor with specific augments, as well, allowing you to micromanage down to the tiniest details of combat.
Once you clear Chapter 6, you’ll get access to a new mode of combat: mechanized armor suits called Skells. These robotic beauties change up the combat even further, as they have the resistance and firepower necessary to take down some of the absurdly huge beasts you see lording over the landscapes of Mira. You can hop onboard at any time during a fight.
Skells can help with exploring, too: You can transform them into a speedy motor vehicle to zip around the land (and mow down tiny enemies, which is admittedly quite hilarious), and by finishing the right set of quests, you’ll eventually open up flight modules for extra exploration potential. Skells operate on fuel, however, so you must be wary of running out of gas, lest your intrepid avatar find themselves in a monster cave with an empty tank.
What you won’t like It’s really, really big… on your Wii U storage, too If you buy Xenoblade Chronicles X at retail, prepare for some lengthy and annoying load times unless you download the free “data packs” from the Wii U eShop. These data packs help eliminate load times and move along area transitions smoothly, but they total up to over 10GB in storage space. Considering that most Wii U systems only come with about 32GB of storage, that’s a pretty large chunk of space you’ll need to sacrifice for a smooth gaming experience. (If you opt download it from the Nintendo eShop instead of buying a retail disc, it’s even bigger.) Maybe it’s time to put that extra storage drive you got super-cheap on Black Friday to use.
The story takes a while to get interesting While exploring Mira is exhilarating, the story doesn’t do much to spur on your expeditions — not initially, at least. It doesn’t take long to discover that a hostile alien race has followed humanity to this new planet and that they want us all dead, but you won’t learn much about the hows and whys of it for some time. Your character being a blank-slate avatar doesn’t help much here, either: While you can make some basic dialogue choices here and there, they don’t have as dramatic an effect on how the plot plays out as, say, your decisions in something like Mass Effect. If you were planning on being Anime Commander Shepard, you’re probably going to be disappointed.
Oh, and those awesome Skell mechs? Yeah, you aren’t getting your own Skell until you’re a good ways into the game. You’re just going to have to be patient.
Coming in cold might be a problem Xenoblade Chronicles X is a complex game, weaving numerous systems and factors into a web of combat and exploration. If you’ve played the first Xenoblade, a lot of the combat elements are familiar. But if you’re new to the series, it’s easy to get overwhelmed: the game doesn’t offer much in the way of tutorials, instead offering introductions to game systems primarily via text infodumps. The UI often displays a lot of information at once, as well, making getting a grasp on everything feel a bit intimidating. (It also makes things really hard to read if you opt to play on the Wii U gamepad).
Above: Combat is a blast, but the sheer amount of info it presents can also be overwhelming.
Conclusion Xenoblade Chronicles X is the kind of ambitious, meaty open-world RPG that’s been mostly absent on the Wii U up until this point. While it takes heavy inspiration from both Japanese and Western RPGs, it looks and plays distinctly enough from competitors in the field to be a unique, engaging experience. It has more than enough to satisfy the hungriest RPG fans: fun exploration, in-depth combat, and a scope that will keep players engaged for a very long time.
Score: 90 Xenoblade Chronicles X is available on December 4 for Nintendo Wii U. The publisher provided GamesBeat with a copy of the game for the purposes of this review.
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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"Oculus VR will have a 'special announcement' at 'The Game Awards' | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/oculus-vr-will-have-a-special-announcement-at-the-game-awards"
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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 Oculus VR will have a ‘special announcement’ at ‘The Game Awards’ Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Oculus doesn't need to convince GamesBeat's Dean Takahashi that VR works. He's seen it! 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 may learn a little bit more about the Oculus Rift later this week.
Oculus VR is going to make a “special announcement” this Thursday during The Game Awards , which is an annual livestreaming show that attempts to recognize excellence in game development. Imaging the MTV Video Music Awards but with more polygons and digital punching. In addition to highlighting some of the best games from 2015, The Game Awards will also have musical performances from Chvrches and promos for next year’s big games. But, at some point between all that, the company that is ushering in our virtual future will take the stage to talk about … something. The Rift virtual-reality head-mounted display, which makes you feel like you’re really in a video game world, is coming in the first quarter of next year. Fans are expecting to hear specific details about price and a release date for that device soon. But we’ll have to tune into the show to see if that’s what Oculus is going to reveal.
The Game Awards goes live on Twitch and YouTube this Thursday at 9 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Pacific. Gaming personality Geoff Keighley hosts the event, and he has lined up some new “World Exclusives” for your thirsty eyeballs.
Check out the trailer for the trailers (and awards): 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! We don’t really know what to expect from Oculus. The company has enough money — thanks to its parent company Facebook — to throw its own event to announce a date and price. But it could still talk about those details on Thursday.
The Game Awards will reach a specific audience of early adopters in the gaming space that could represent the first wave of customers to embrace the Rift headset.
If Oculus does announce a pricing and a release date, that’ll make it the first of the big three VR companies to do so. HTC and Valve have their Vive headset that is still supposed to come out in some way before the end of the year — although, as we wrote recently , that is looking less and less likely. And Sony is making the PlayStation VR. That PS4 peripheral is due out in the “first half” of 2016, and we will probably learn a little bit more about it during the PlayStation Experience this Saturday.
Of course, the Oculus announcement could have nothing to do with any of this. Maybe company founder Palmer Luckey will take the stage to reveal he has seen a future where virtual reality has destroyed civilization so he is retiring early to raise goats on a farm in the countryside. It could happen! 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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"Microsoft still struggling to keep up with demand for Xbox One Elite controller | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/microsoft-still-struggling-to-keep-up-with-demand-for-xbox-one-elite-controller"
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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 still struggling to keep up with demand for Xbox One Elite controller Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn It's the new Xbox One Elite Controller.
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One of the hottest items this holiday isn’t a game or a console — it’s a $150 joypad.
The Xbox One Elite controller is still very hard to find online and in stores, and it’s going to stay that way through the remainder of the year, according to Xbox boss Phil Spencer ( via Reddit ). The Microsoft executive took to Twitter to let some curious fans know that his team is still working to get more in stock, but he stopped short of making promises.
@NiTr0ian We are working to get more in stock, sorry they've been so hard to find.
— Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) November 27, 2015 One person explicitly asked about the chances of getting one before the Christmas holiday. Spencer explained that the hunger for the device has completely caught Microsoft completely by surprise. But even as the company works to address those market desires, it seems unlikely that it will have enough on store shelves to satisfy everyone.
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! @ZeZZeX It's tough as I don't want to overpromise. Demand has just exceeded our planning. If you find one and you want it, pick it up, sorry — Phil Spencer (@XboxP3) November 27, 2015 We’ve already talked about our love of the Xbox One Elite controller ( read our review ), and it seems like many of you were convinced and rushed out to buy one. The Elite was barely out for a day before the first shipment sold out online and at retail stores. At that time, Microsoft said it was going to replenish stock for the holidays, but it still hasn’t caught up enough to keep any retailer stocked with Elites.
The popularity of this controller didn’t just catch Microsoft unprepared. Most people figured this was a device that would only appeal to pro gamers and people with a lot of extra money to spare. But the Elite has proven that the console-gaming space has a significant number of consumers who want to play with high-end gear. This is a market that PC hardware manufacturers, with their $200 keyboards and $100 mice, have long served.
If Microsoft and other companies can produce more devices on par with the Elite, it’s possible this gamepad is only the beginning of a new trend toward higher quality for a higher price.
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.
All rights reserved.
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"Mario Kart 8 gets an esports show on Disney XD | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/mario-kart-8-gets-an-esports-show-on-disney-xd"
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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 Mario Kart 8 gets an esports show on Disney XD Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Mario Kart 8 is one of the great games Nintendo is boasting about.
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Mickey and Mario are teaming up … kind of.
Disney XD, a channel focused on content for kids, announced a new show today called Clash of Karts: Mario Kart 8, which will team up young gamers with popular YouTube personalities like Strawburry 17 and AtomicMari in a one-hour, multiround Mario Kart 8 competition. The show will air on December 5 at 8 p.m. Pacific and Eastern. This is another example of esports making it mainstream, this time in a young market.
Esports attracts more than 15 million fans, according to video game industry research firm EEDAR , which observed the habits of 2,000 esports spectators and compared them against the demographics of those that participate in competitive gaming. The fact that Disney, a company known for latching onto successful trends that resonate with young audiences, is airing a show about competitive gaming gives us an idea of just how fast the esports market is growing.
Disney is combining the esports trend with popular YouTube stars, another growing sector of the entertainment world. These self-made broadcasters have grown to fame thanks to their YouTube channels, attracting a large following of young audiences thanks to their big personalities. They also play popular games, like Minecraft and League of Legends.
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! Esports have been on TV before, including ESPN2’s (another network that Disney owns) Heroes of the Dorm special, which featured Blizzard’s Heroes of the Storm. Of course, that network focuses on a slightly older audience than Disney XD.
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.
All rights reserved.
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"Make sure you have these 2015 hits before the Steam Exploration Sale ends | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/make-sure-you-have-these-2015-hits-before-the-steam-exploration-sale-ends"
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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 Feature Make sure you have these 2015 hits before the Steam Exploration Sale ends Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn The Witcher III: Wild Hunt.
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If you’ve waited to play some of the year’s best games, Steam has rewarded your patience.
Right now, many of 2015’s greatest releases are on sale on Valve’s digital store. However, the sale ends tomorrow morning (December 1) at 10 a.m. Pacific. So, two of our writers, Jeff Grubb and Mike Minotti, have each picked three 2015 games that you should consider grabbing while they’re nice and cheap.
Jeff’s picks Dying Light Original price: $60 Sale price: $20 (66.66 percent off) Above: Dying Light was a surprise breakout hit for WB.
Techland’s first-person zombie-survival game Dying Light was one of the first big surprises of the year.
It came out in January, but it’s one of those releases I’ve gone back to repeatedly in recent months because its gameplay is so immediately entertaining. People knocked it for liberally borrowing elements from Ubisoft and other games, but those aren’t real complaints. It takes the best parts of those ideas, like a map overflowing with objectives, and wraps them up in a solid, tense survival game. Go play it.
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! Game of Thrones: A Telltale Game Series Original price: $30 Sale price: $15 (50 percent off) Above: Hey, look, it’s the robot from Destiny! I didn’t think I would care about any Telltale games after loving The Walking Dead. The formula was interesting, but I didn’t think it could sustain itself over multiple games. I was wrong, and for one good reason: the writing. Telltale has a monopoly on a new industry of what are essentially interactive comic books, and Game of Thrones is one of the best examples of how it is using that technology. It tells a side story in the same universe as the HBO show, but it is arguably better and more engaging than the product it is inspired by. If you’re into the Game of Thrones series, you should probably hop on this deal as a way of holding you over until the new season comes out.
Rocket League Original price: $20 Sale price: $14 (30 percent off) Above: Rocket League is this summer’s surprise gaming hit.
Rocket League is one of the reasons I believe 2015 is one of the best years ever for games. After getting this game for free as part of my PlayStation Plus subscription, I bought it on PC so I could play it on my laptop on the go. It’s a brilliant take on soccer or hockey played with cars, and while that might sound frivolous, it’s so well made, so finely tuned, and so exhilarating that it could beat out Fallout 4, The Witcher III, or Metal Gear Solid V as my game of the year.
Mike’s picks Ori and the Blind Forest Original price: $20 Sale price: $12 (40 percent off) Above: Ori is gorgeous.
If you like Metroid or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, you need to check out this beauty. Like those games, Ori is a nonlinear 2D platformer that focuses on exploration. It also looks absolutely gorgeous. Playing Ori really is like controlling an animated masterpiece by classic Disney or Miyazaki. It’s one of my favorite games of the year , and it’s pretty much a no-brainer at $12.
Grandia II Anniversary Edition Original price: $20 Sale price: $10 (50 percent off) Above: Awww, JRPG characters used to look so cute.
Grandia II was one of the first great role-playing games to come out for the Dreamcast, and this PC version celebrates the 15th anniversary of the classic with a faithful port. Grandia II has a lot of tropes you’d expect from a Japanese role-playing game but it stands out thanks to a fun battle system and some great music, including the most rocking battle theme of all time.
It also features great voice acting, something of a rarity for the genre back then, thanks to a great cast that includes voice acting vets like Cam Clarke and, believe it or not, Jodi Benson (the voice of Ariel from The Little Mermaid ).
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt Original price: $60 Sale price: $30 (50 percent off) Above: This griffin is not easy to take down.
The Witcher III is a massive, open-world role-playing that will take hundreds of hours to experience. It’s one of year’s best games , and you can already buy it for $30. If you enjoyed anything like Skyrim, Fallout, or Dragon Age, you should try this. And don’t worry if you haven’t played the previous Witcher games. I never did, but I still loved Wild Hunt and never felt like I was missing out by skipping its predecessors.
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.
All rights reserved.
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"Just Cause 3 impressions: Bugs mar what could be a tremendous Grand Theft Auto-at-war game | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/just-cause-3-impressions-bugs-mar-what-could-be-a-tremendous-grand-theft-auto-at-war-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 Review Just Cause 3 impressions: Bugs mar what could be a tremendous Grand Theft Auto-at-war game Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Fire grappler, zip up to helicopter, hijack: one of the fun ways to get around in Just Cause 3.
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Just Cause 3 brings back the incredibly flammable open world of prior installments in the series and adds some fun twists for those willing to do a little exploring.
You once again play Rico, now a near-professional revolutionary, returning to his old stomping grounds in the island nation of Medici to free it from the clutches of an evil dictator. (Kind and benevolent dictators being in short supply.) You use a pile of different weapons; your trusty grappling hook, parachute, and a new wingsuit; and an incredible array of planes, helicopters, automobiles, tanks, and boats to get around.
Unfortunately, technical glitches trash the fun to the point where, for now, we just can’t recommend it.
Just Cause 3 has been patching nearly every day leading up to the launch, so we’ll keep an eye on whether things improve once it hits retail. GamesBeat is withholding our final review score until then — but unless things improve, it’s not going to be good.
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! Check out our Reviews Vault for past game reviews.
The game goes on sale tomorrow from Avalanche Studios and Square Enix for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. We reviewed the PlayStation 4 edition. Here are our impressions.
Above: Our hero examines a photo of the bad guy.
What you’ll like (so far) That incredible, packed open world Just Cause 3 evokes and outdoes Grand Theft Auto V for open-world fun. The landscape is huge, 400 miles across, and full of challenges, areas to win back, and missions to complete. The incredible choice of things to do is absolutely the best part.
Want to blow things up? Go liberate an area by destroying a selection of major “chaos objects” inside, ranging from simple billboards to enormous installations.
Don’t feel like shooting? Go race planes or cars or wingsuits, engage in the handful of challenges unlocked each time you liberate a new area, or try for those in-game titles of longest wingsuit sail or headshots-from-parachute.
JC3’s open world approach proved so dynamic and enticing that it made me angrier when bugs interfered with the fun. You can absolutely see the promise here; I have to wonder whether another four months in development wouldn’t have resolved the issues and allowed players to just focus on the action.
Above: Want a better vantage point to shoot at people? You can hop on top of virtually any building or moving vehicle.
Getting around by hook and suit Rico’s grappling hook combines with his parachute in tremendous ways: As in JC2, you fire off a zipline toward an object or hillside and then open the parachute to launch into the air, pulling yourself along by grappling buildings or trees or things on the ground.
The new wingsuit offers high-speed dives you can end by pulling your chute or pulling yourself in with the hook, either of which provide a terrific way to drop in on enemies. Get in trouble? Just grapple yourself out, pulling yourself up to the highest roof in town for a better view and a chance to regroup.
The combination of gadgets makes our gun-toting hero feel incredibly mobile, a revolutionary with superhero-like motion, and makes the giant map feel much more manageable. (Fast travel between liberated areas also speeds things along, as do hijacked planes and cars.) Above: Firing while soaring on your parachute not only makes it harder for enemies to hit you, it can also move you up one of the game’s leaderboards.
A fun, forgiving arcade feel JC3 is easy. That’s not a bad thing: The whole game is focused on sometimes outright-goofy fun, the storyline is more serious than previous installments but still incredibly lightweight, and the fact that it’s almost difficult to get killed (unless you kill yourself) fits in with the overall philosophy.
Rico proves to be one of the most incredibly resilient action heroes on the planet. Enemies empty entire clips into him without killing him, and a few seconds in hiding is enough to restore his health.
That longevity gives you the time to do things like attach grappling lines to five enemies and a nice tank of gasoline, or a moving vehicle, and slam them together. He can withstand fire from helicopters and tanks and planes, giving you time to attach them together for hilarious results. Or to rip a heavy machine gun off a stand and gun them down. Or grapple up to one and hijack it. The possibilities feel endless.
Driving also has an arcade feel, as it’s forgiving as you drift around corners, and fun.
Above: Because attaching bad guys and cars to buildings is fun.
What you won’t like (so far) Online connection fails Just Cause 3 is the latest in a long line of games that keeps its online connection always-on, which mostly gives you in-game leaderboard updates for various achievements (strings of headshots, longest wingsuit flights, and so on.) Unfortunately, that means if the online connection fails, the game stops as it attempts to reconnect.
Throughout the review period, Just Cause 3 would disconnect repeatedly, then attempt to connect and fail, then reconnect without issue when manually nudged. Switching to offline mode only worked until the next time the player pulled open the (fairly vital) in-game map, which then caused the game to try to connect again.
Each time it hitched, I endured loading screens and was often dumped back at the previous checkpoint. To call it frustrating would be an understatement.
Above: All right, I’ve survived the explosion, I’m grappling out of the way to end the mission and … what do you mean, connection lost? Loading screens long enough for lunch While I’m talking about loading screens … Just Cause 3 has some of the worst we’ve seen in modern gaming. It started with a 90-minute delay to download a 2.7GB patch, but that just began my waiting. Every time you switch areas, every time you die, every time you accept a new mission, you’ll be loading. And loading. And loading.
The loading screens were minutes long on the PS4. In some dialogue and mission sequences, I spent more time loading than I did playing. I literally began avoiding some optional missions just because I didn’t want to wait, I just wanted to play.
Above: Hero + bad guy + fuel tank in midair: These are the moments Just Cause 3 could be made of.
A.I. and NPC glitches Part of Just Cause’s charm is how NPCs don’t instantly kill you. The bad guys’ awful aim allows you to take the time to truss them up to the nearest flammable object, which rapidly becomes one of the best things about the game.
But anyone who’s played Grand Theft Auto will be shocked at how easy it is to ditch the stars that represent the heat you’re under from enemies out to get you. Stand on a roof and shoot someone in sight of authorities and you’ll earn a star. Edge back down so you’re below the peak of said roof and you’re now “out of sight,” with soldiers searching for you. However, walking around the building to see if you’re still on the roof is apparently beyond their capabilities, so after a minute, they give up. You’re ready to pop up and kill someone new.
That is, of course, assuming that the soldiers move anywhere at all. I saw enemy NPCs glitching out a shocking number of times and in a huge number of ways. How long has it been since you’ve seen a triple-A title where the NPCs stutter in place, repeatedly run into walls, or otherwise completely fail? All of those issues and more were on display here.
The grappler, parachute, and wingsuit give you so many options for fast movement that the A.I. and NPCs could be smart and fully functional without losing any of the charming, arcade-y feel. It would have improved the experience immensely if, every so often, you had to jet around town to avoid the hunting bad guys.
Above: Sometimes NPCs freeze as solid as this statue of dictator DiRavello.
Aiming and gun controls Most of the weapons in JC3 fall into the “spray and pray” category, and even if you’re trying to be careful about aiming and have the drop on an enemy, you might not score those head shots. I found the guns’ kick unpredictable and annoyingly difficult to adjust for, further messing up my aim, so sometimes it’s not just the NPCs that can’t seem to hit anyone.
The X that passes for a targeting reticule is frequently inaccurate, causing you to miss enemies altogether or cause them flesh wounds (which slow them down about as much as they do you, which is to say not at all.) Controls for missiles are equally wonky and not always well-explained, so it’s worth doing some experimenting while you’re firing.
Above: Might as well go for the big guns, because your rifle or pistols won’t be any more accurate.
Last-gen graphics Just Cause 3 doesn’t qualify for fugly, but the graphics don’t look anything like some of the gorgeous games on the market. (Rise of the Tomb Raider, anyone?) You frequently have to sacrifice some graphical polish in open-world titles to free up the processing necessary to keep those huge areas loading quickly, but people and places in JC3 just felt primitive. Its graphical style hews closely to GTA V, which came out in 2013.
I would have forgiven some crudeness in the things that move (your NPC opponents and their vehicles), but even the buildings and other stationary objects lacked detail. The islands of Medici should have provided tons of opportunities for terrific water rendering, and those long parachute flights provide chances for amazing vistas, but JC3 offers you neither.
Above: A little muddy, a lot brown: many of the vistas in Just Cause 3.
Conclusion Just Cause 3 offers the tantalizing tease of a terrific open-world adventure, with weapons and tools that make blowing up the bad guys hilarious fun. The wide maps and great selection of missions, although fairly repetitive, means you always have something engaging to look forward to.
Unfortunately, technical problems ranging from serious connection issues to NPC failures make the game nearly unplayable at times, and if the bugs don’t drive you insane, the loading times will.
We’ll revisit this title after launch to see if the server and bug issues clear up, but for now, we don’t recommend you buy Just Cause 3. That’s a shame, because it has the potential to be just as much or more fun than other GTA-style open world games.
It definitely feels like a rushed release deadline may have mortally wounded this title.
Score: Pending Just Cause 3 launches December 1 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The publisher provided GamesBeat with a PlayStation 4 and a PC code for the purposes of this review.
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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"Investors believe in augmented and virtual reality -- and they're betting big money on it | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/investors-believe-in-augmented-and-virtual-reality-and-theyre-betting-big-money-on-it"
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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 Investors believe in augmented and virtual reality — and they’re betting big money on it Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn HTC Vive virtual reality headset, which uses Steam VR.
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Analysts have predicted for some time that augmented- and virtual-reality technologies will quickly grow into a lucrative industry. And by the way that venture capitalists are pouring money into this sector, it’s obvious that they have bought into the hype.
In the last 12 months, capital firms and other businesses have made more than $1 billion in investments in AR and VR tech companies, according to a Digi-Capital report.
That does not include the $2 billion that Facebook spent to buy Oculus VR in March 2014. Most of that $1 billion came when Google dropped $542 million on the AR startup Magic Leap. That investment represented more than half of the money put into this space in the 12 month period from quarter four of 2014 through quarter three of 2015. But that was also only the beginning as Google’s interest, which seems like an understatement, signified this could turn into the next big thing for tech.
Digi-Capital told GamesBeat earlier this year that the AR and VR market could grow into a $150 billion industry as soon as 2020. If that’s the case, Google and the other firms funding the progress toward that future stand to gain a lot.
Above: While Magic Leap is the behemoth, multiple related businesses have also benefited from the AR/VR rush.
“There have been significant investments in AR/VR head-mounted displays, video, solutions/services, advertising/marketing, games, and apps,” reads the Digi-Capital report. “As the ecosystem begins to take shape, the investment community is providing the fuel to take AR/VR skywards.” 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 while investors are putting their cash behind these ideas, no one knows yet if those bets will pay off.
“Nobody thinks [VR and AR are] a safe bet,” Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter told GamesBeat. “It is the flavor of the month, and the firms looking for capital are raising capital while the getting is good. It’s just a hot area right now — nothing more.” Pachter’s take on this trend has data to support it. In the last 12 months, this sector has only had $250 million in mergers and acquisitions, which would give venture capitalists the opportunity to exit with a profit. But, as you have probably figured out, $1 billion put into the space is a lot more than the $250 million pulled out of it.
We are, however, right on the edge of getting some very important data that could fuel an even larger rush on VR and AR. We’re just a few months, at most, away from the planned releases for the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PlayStation VR headsets. Additionally, Samsung and Oculus just released the Gear VR head-mounted peripheral that turns Galaxy phones into impressive (if limited) VR helmets.
With these devices finally going on sale for consumers, we may get some important answers. For example, sales results will help investors learns who is willing to spend money on first-generation VR tech and who is keeping their purses sealed until they know more.
If early sales results are positive, and if early adopters and critics come away raving, the people putting billions of dollars on the hopes that VR and AR will turn into a mammoth business will look razor sharp.
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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6,010 | 2,015 |
"Cards Against Humanity made $70,000 on Black Friday by selling nothing | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/cards-against-humanity-made-70000-on-black-friday-by-selling-nothing"
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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 Cards Against Humanity made $70,000 on Black Friday by selling nothing 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.
It’s amazing what people will spend on during Black Friday.
Fans of the popular party card game Cards Against Humanity willingly paid $5 (or $100 in one case) for nothing last Friday, raising a total of $71,145 which the company then divided among its employees. The Cards Against Humanity online store actually closed down for the day, leaving only the option to “give Cards Against Humanity $5.” Cards Against Humanity has a track record of mocking the day considered the start of the Christmas shopping period, when most other stores are enticing customers with bargains. In 2013, Cards Against Humanity actually raised the price of its base game by $5, and last year it sold 30,000 boxes of actual bull crap.
Cards Against Humanity is the No. 1 best-selling game at Amazon.com , and the company behind it says it’s donated over $4 million to charity since 2012. This time around, though, it’s been far more selfish with its Black Friday earnings.
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! “There’s been a lot of speculation about how we would spend the money from Black Friday,” read a blog post on the Black Friday breakdown, “and we’re happy to announce that this time, we kept it all.” Employees then disclosed exactly what they spent their fans’ generous donations on, including a $480 bottle of malt whisky, a suit of armor and two-handed great sword, games consoles, a trip to Finland, and corrective eye surgery.
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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6,011 | 2,015 |
"Oddup scores $1M for its startup rating system, initially focused on Asia | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/oddup-scores-1m-for-its-startup-rating-system-initially-focusing-on-asia"
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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 Oddup scores $1M for its startup rating system, initially focused on Asia 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.
Oddup is an 18-month-old startup out of Hong Kong that offers its own startup rating system based on factors it says are designed to determine risk. Websites like Mattermark, CB Insights, and Funderbeam offer similar rating systems on their platforms, but Oddup founder James Giancotti told VentureBeat that they don’t go into the kind of depth that Oddup is trying to achieve — a pursuit that has today landed it $1 million in seed funding and attracted corporate customers including J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and BNP Paribas.
Initially launched in beta back in February 2014, Oddup finally went live to the public at large this September. The $1 million funding round announced today was led by Kima Ventures, Click Ventures, and Bigcolors with participation from Big Bloom, Glooh Ventures, Justin Dry and Andre Eikmeier (CEOs of Vinomofo), and a number of angel investors, according to a release.
Factors that are used to come up with an overall rating for a startup are comprised of sub-scores in the following areas: Product, growth, location, team, market, industry, and competitors. These scores are assigned by its analysts, Oddup says, using its own patent-pending scoring methodology. Additional scores take into account things like investor quality, funding, and media buzz. Ultimately, a score of 1-100 is awarded, with a higher score suggesting a healthier, less risky startup.
“There are a number of platforms that capture investor sentiment and probability scoring,” Giancotti said, “but none are including detailed analysis, providing buy/sell/hold ratings, and future valuations of the startup. We are wanting to provide transparency in the world of startups including visibility on investors and locations.” But to get a taste for the platform, users will have to first sign up. Giancotti said this is because of “different jurisdictional laws [that] apply to the user base [i.e. Singapore’s laws on private company information differ from those of China’s], so for legal and regulatory reasons we need to keep the platform closed to ensure we meet all countries’ regulations.” With 50,000 users already, demand is being driven by a hot investment market globally and across Asia, particularly from smaller angel investors who want to dip their feet into the market but aren’t sure how to navigate all the noise. Initially, the focus is on startups in China (Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen), Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan, but with 22 staff already on hand, Oddup is looking to expand to Sydney, London, Melbourne, Bangalore, and Bangkok in the next six months.
In January, an API release is coming, according to Giancotti, that will enable other platforms to tap into Oddup’s database and ratings. As for monetization and revenue, he said: “We offer a free plan, and we offer an analyst plan (which is $99 per month). We also provide a pay-to-rate service for companies not yet rated on our platform. This product launched last month and we charge $499 to give a startup a full in-depth report.” (Examples of reports can be found at the end of this article.) “In late December we will be releasing our ecosystem report for each city Oddup has rated,” Giancotti said. “In the future, as we launch a city we will also include an ecosystem report. This report will be free to users. We are heading to iOS and Android in Q1 2016 to give users on-the-go information on all startups wherever they are in the world.” Certainly a new startup (for startups) out of Hong Kong to check out.
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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6,012 | 2,015 |
"Funding Daily: Today's tech funding news, in one place | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/funding-daily-todays-tech-funding-news-in-one-place-231"
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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 Funding Daily: Today’s tech funding news, in one place 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.
Here’s a list of today’s tech funding stories, updated as the day unfolds. Tip us here if you have a deal to share.
Japanese skills marketplace Coconala raises $4.4 million (Via The Bridge ) — Tokyo-based Coconala , previously known as WelSelf, offers an online platform under the same name where you can buy and sell knowledge, skills, and experience from users who are willing to teach. The company announced on Tuesday that it has fundraised a total of 540 million yen (about $4.4 million) from Jafco , Nissay Capital , SMBC Venture Capital , and Voyage Ventures in mid-November. This follows its previous $1.5 million funding from four investors back in September 2013.
Read more Oddup scores $1M for its startup rating system, initially focused on Asia Oddup is an 18-month-old startup out of Hong Kong that offers its own startup rating system based on factors it says are designed to determine risk. Websites like Mattermark, CB Insights, and Funderbeam offer similar rating systems on their platforms, but Oddup founder James Giancotti told VentureBeat that they don’t go into the kind of depth that Oddup is trying to achieve — a pursuit that has today landed it $1 million in seed funding and attracted corporate customers including J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and BNP Paribas.
Initially launched in beta back in February 2014, Oddup finally went live to the public at large this September. The $1 million funding round announced today was led by Kima Ventures, Click Ventures, and Bigcolors, with participation from Big Bloom, Glooh Ventures, Justin Dry and Andre Eikmeier (CEOs of Vinomofo), and a number of angel investors, according to a release.
Read more This list will be updated with breaking funding news all day. Check back for more.
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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Subsets and Splits
Wired Articles Filtered
Retrieves up to 100 entries from the train dataset where the URL contains 'wired' but the text does not contain 'Menu', providing basic filtering of the data.