Intelligent Stores Coming Your Way

 

The upcoming year plans to bring exciting technological breakthroughs. The “physical realm” of commerce will continue to dissolve, in 2019 and we’ll enter the age of “Experience-Driven, Unified Commerce”. A new type of retail paradigm where connectivity is ubiquitous, will exists without borders, and payment credentials are stored in the cloud. Consumers will interact with a host of “gateway” devices including smartphones, tablets, voice assistants, smartwatches, appliances, clothing, fashion accessories, automobiles, and more…anytime and everywhere. In order to keep up with the increasing demand for quick resolution and 24/7 accessibility, customer service will become increasingly automated, with AI-enabled live chat and virtual assistants becoming dominant communication channels.

The physical store of the future will be a significantly more digitized version of what exists today, with multiple smart devices working together on a single IoT platform to deliver hyper-personalized, adaptive and context specific experiences. AI will soon be applied across the entire retail product and service cycle, in areas such as product design and manufacturing, demand forecasting, supply chain management, price and assortment optimization, merchandising, promotions, customer experience. personalization, and post-sale customer service.

With AI and deep learning, retailers can use prediction analysis to determine which products might not sell under certain conditions – including market, economic, competitor and weather related factors – and create a combination of targeted discounts, dynamic, pricing, free shipping, enhanced services, product combinations etc., to clear out the inventory that is most likely not to sell after a certain period.

 

 

Digital Attention Crisis

 

A new group called the Center for Humane Technology wants to reverse the trend of “the digital attention crisis” among young people.

The initial group of experts includes former Google ethicist Tristan Harris; former Facebook operations manager Sandy Parakilas; former Apple and Google communications executive Lynn Fox; former Facebook executive Dave Morin; Facebook “like” button creator Justin Rosenstein; early Facebook investor Roger McNamee; and technologist Renee DiResta.

Nonprofit media watchdog group Common Sense Media  is on an anti-tech addiction lobbying effort called The Truth About Tech. The ad campaign in 55,000 American public schools will aim to educate students, parents and teachers about the dangers of technology and social media induced depression.

“The Truth About Tech campaign isn’t anti-tech, Common Sense founder and CEO Jim Steyer told Observer in an email. “It’s for tech that’s for kids. But there’s plenty of evidence that tech is changing the nature of our interpersonal relationships, and it’s time for a national conversation about that—among families, schools, and the industry.”

Parents and mental health experts have called on tech companies to reduce marketing to children. YouTube Kids and Facebook’s Messenger Kids have come under increased scrutiny in recent weeks.

Common Sense found that the average teenager uses online media nine hours per day, while tweens are exposed up to six hours a day.

Best Buy Will Cease From Selling Cd’s Target Maybe next!

Digital music has hit the roof,  so Best Buy is officially pulling the plug on music CDs, and another Target may soon be next. Although CDs remain a relatively popular format worldwide, sales in the U.S. dropped more than 18% last year, prompting Best Buy to drop the format entirely.

Digital music sales overtook physical format sales in 2015, and that trend is likely to continue. Paid subscription services like Spotify and Apple Music are experiencing substantial growth, increasing by more than 60% in 2017.

 Billboard is reporting that the retailer has informed music suppliers that it will stop selling CDs and pull them from shelves on July 1. Although Best Buy used to be the top music seller in the U.S., nowadays its CD sales generate a relatively low $40 million per year.

Best Buy will continue to carry vinyl for the next two years, keeping a commitment it made to vendors. The vinyl will now be merchandised with the turntables, sources suggest.

Sources say that Target has demanded to music suppliers that it wants to be sold on what amounts to a consignment basis. Currently, Target takes the inventory risk by agreeing to pay for any goods it is shipped within 60 days, and must pay to ship back unsold CDs for credit. With consignment, the inventory risk shifts back to the labels.

 

 

Emerging Trends In Technology

 

Next-Generation Batteries

The newest developments show that using sodium, zinc, and aluminum constructed batteries make the mini-grid a solid possibility for providing 24-7, reliable and clean energy to entire small rural towns.

2-D Materials

New materials such as Graphene are emerging and are going to change the world forever. Think about the Bronze Age…the Iron Age—these newest materials each contain a single layer of atoms and are two-dimensional. The potential positive impacts of evolving materials are limitless and bound only to the reach of scientists and how far they choose to push.

Autonomous Transportation

Self-driving cars are already in the here-and-now, but just how soon will  be helping to improve the lives of handicapped and elderly will change the quality of life for millions.

Personal AI

From your own personal robot assistant that can anticipate your every need and perform tasks at your whim, to entire AI environments—this could be affordable to everyone with the emerging availability of Open AI ecosystems.

Afrotech 17

1000 Black techies, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs in 1 room for 2 days on the water in San Francisco? AfroTech, the largest black tech conference in Silicon Valley!

With two full days of the latest technologies and hottest startups, you will have a chance to learn from some of the best, and connect with fellow innovators.

CLICK HERE

 

 

If Your Face Is Scanned the Next Time You Fly……………………HUH?

Scanned Face

There’s unsurety as to what the Government is doing with the images. They say, Facial-recognition systems may indeed speed up the boarding process, however, the real reason they are cropping up in U.S. airports is that the government wants to keep better track of who is leaving the country, by scanning travelers’ faces and verifying those scans against photos it already has on file. The idea is that this will catch fake passports and make sure people aren’t overstaying their visas. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has partnered with airlines including JetBlue and Delta to introduce such recognition systems at New York’s JFK International Airport, Washington’s Dulles International, and airports in Atlanta, Boston, and Houston, among others. It plans to add more this summer.

“As It Searches for Suspects, the FBI May Be Looking at You”). Privacy advocates also point out that research has shown the technology to be less accurate with older photos and with images of women, African-Americans, and children (see “Is Facial Recognition Accurate? Depends on Your Race”).

 

 

Microsoft Research Developing Classroom Technology To Assess Children’s Reading Ability

Microsoft Research is developing technology which may end up in the next version Microsoft’s classroom software. In a recent publication, Microsoft Research describes an AI-driven system which could help teachers automatically assess reading performance for students, saving them time and allowing more individual attention to students who need it the most. Their research paper, “Automatic Evaluation of Children Reading Aloud on Sentences and Pseudo words,” automatically predicts the overall reading aloud ability of primary school children (6-10 years old), based on the reading of sentences and pseudo words.

 

Google Hire

Google Hire allows employers post job listings, then accept and manage applications, according to job listing links spotted by Axios reader Colin Heilbut. So far, several tech companies seem to be using (or testing) Google Hire, including Medisas, Poynt, DramaFever, SingleHop, and CoreOS. Google has assured, that “Only information that a candidate voluntarily provides would be passed to a prospective employer as part of their online application.”

 

 

Textbook publishers Find Ways For Students To Save Money

• Several well known textbook publishers are finding nee and alternative ways to save students money and stabilize revenues with inclusive access digital material models funded by fees included in student material fees.
• Under the new model of bookselling, students receive digital access to required course materials and have the option to pay additional money for a printed copy, delivered on the first day of class. 
• Officials at Indiana University told Inside Higher Ed that in the eight years since piloting its eText initiative, revenues exceeded $10 million last year and there was a more than 40% jump in annual growth. 

The Engineers Responsible For Smart Phone Photography Awarded Huge Cash Prize

These talented inventors paved the way for smartphone cameras, selfies, Instagram, and plenty more besides.For without the groundbreaking research of Eric Fossum, George Smith, Nobukazu Teranishi, Michael Tompsett, and the late Willard Boyle, your smartphone camera might not even exist.

Four surviving engineers were rewarded for their work in digital imaging technology across three decades, work that besides smartphones has also had a huge impact in other fields such as medicine and space research.

The prestigious Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, which celebrates world-changing innovations in engineering, awarded the four inventors a cash prize of 1 million pounds (about $1.25 million) at a special event in London on Wednesday night.

The engineers are responsible for three digital imaging breakthroughs: the charge coupled device (CCD) found in early digital cameras; the pinned photodiode (PPD) that helped to scale down the size of light-capturing pixels and enhance image quality; and the complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor used by most of today’s digital cameras and imaging equipment.

The Archives Of America’s Social Media President

Photo credit: Cheriss May via Getty images

The administration has launched a White House Social Media Archive where you can find President Obama’s entire social media presence as Potus

The Digital Transition

 

Technology & The Music Industry

In the past five years, the number of times you visit a band’s Wikipedia page can tell if a band is going to break in the next year or so. For instance, about eight months before The Weeknd began to play across radio stations throughout the country, there was a huge spike of views on their Wikipedia page. And there are now firms that create analytics of data of the number of YouTube clips that are played. Another way record labels or representatives of an artist are able to tell if an artist is going to break is through the use of Shazam (an app that identifies the media playing around you). Shazam is able to show the most “Shazamed” song in your particular area.

Previously, record executives would instinctively know this song or artist was going to be a hit. But that led to repetitive-sounding music that often was the same thing time and time again. Now we have songs and artists that sound really distinct, and that diversity is in part because it’s possible for the data and technology to draw attention to people’s taste.

The millennial generation is the first that has been able to experience music almost entirely out of chronology. Because of the internet, we are able to explore any era or kind of music at any time. As a consequence, there are fewer successful albums and more one-hit wonders. Technology has influenced the way we define a successful album. Earlier generations have a tendency to create links with the ownership of music through cassette tape and CDs. At the same time, radio is pulling us in a more conservative direction in terms of playing fewer songs with little diversity.

But the millennial generation associates music and music ownership with the internet and cellphones. For them, the access to music via the internet results in almost a paralyzing effect of having so many choices. For instance, with so many opportunities, if you choose restaurant A, you are missing out on restaurant B, C, or D. It’s similar with music.

Cameras Turned Into Health Monitors

Google’s PhotoScan App

Google recently released an app called PhotoScan to make it easier for people that are tasked with digitizing photos. And you can download Google PhotoScan on iOS and Android.

The PhotoScan app opens up your smartphone camera and asks you to position a printed photo within the frame. After you line up the printed photo within the frame, you will need to tap on the shutter button. The shutter button triggers the flash and shows four white circles on the corners of the printed photo. Once you hover your phone camera above each white circle, PhotoScan will automatically crop, remove the light glare and enhance the photos. And after the photo is processed, you can manually adjust the corners and rotate as necessary.When you are finished digitizing your photos, you can save all of the scans to your camera roll with one tap. After the photos are added to the camera roll, you will see a confirmation and a button to open the Google Photos app where the scans can be viewed.

Download

President Obama Will Pass On Digital Tools When He Leaves Whitehouse

The digital material will all be sent off to the National Archives and Records Administration.This will include Obama’s tweets and his snaps. Those materials will also be preserved in a more readily available form “wherever possible. @POTUS44, will be handled by the National Archives and Records Administration. Similar accounts will be set up for the Obama administration’s Instagram and Facebook posts. 

The president’s staff also plans to have much of his social media material ready for download by the time Obama’s term is up, so it’s ready and easy to access for fans and researchers and whoever else wants to take a look. 

The White House’s accounts, including @POTUS, will be wiped clean while maintaining their followers. That’ll prevent any jarring difference in message and, that way, each successive president will have a clean digital slate. @POTUS will be made available to the 45th President on January 20, 2017.

The Digital Transition

@Potus

The Bitcoin Heist

Hong Kong-based Bitfinex suspended all trading after discovering a theft of Bitcoin worth tens of millions. Detailed on the company’s site, all digital deposits and withdrawals have been suspened as well. The  reported loss is estimated at just under 120,000. That puts the total loss at around $65 million at the current exchange rate. The company did announce that the theft was limited specifically to Bitcoin wallets and no other digital tokens currently traded on the site were impacted by the theft. While the authorities attempt to trace down the location of the stolen funds, Bitfinex will also have to figure out how hackers were able to circumvent the company’s withdrawal limits.

Tech Inequality In HR Dept

A recent study suggest that  92 % of workers in HR dept some form of outdated system.  The HR tech industry is growing fast.

In the last five years it has grown by 50 percent into a $10 billion industry. Attracting and retaining talent has become crucial for every company worldwide . There are plenty of roadblocks preventing businesses from taking the HR tech leap. For instance, there are often concerns from HR employees around the difficulty of the technology. You’ll want to ensure that you focus on integrating user-friendly software or hardware that won’t intimidate your employees. And you also want to avoid simply adding more technology on top of what you already have, otherwise employees may look at it and say “Why do I need other tools in addition to my current HRIS system? according to Steffen Maier, co-founder of Impraise — a company that provides real-time employee feedback for HR — and Tom Haak, partner at Crunchr — a company that uses data analytics to create meaningful employee data.Attracting and retaining talent has become crucial for every company worldwide and therefore, having a great work culture should be a part of every company’s priority list, if companies want to remain competitive, motivate employees and grow their business.

Read More

 

Trends For Digital Success

With the continued rapid advancement of technology in the workplace we can expect changes in the way we work. Successful organizations are those which enable their people to accomplish more with technology. They create corporate cultures with new business processes which give employees the opportunity to adapt to advanced technology.

Key trends are imperative for digital success, reinforcing the fact that along with new technologies, people will be crucial to an organization’s success in the new digital landscape.

INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION-

The next wave of automation solutions will gather large volumes of data across a range of different systems to create solutions weaving systems, data and people together. With new high-value roles related to programming, monitoring and machine maintenance.Intelligent automation will be a launch pad for new employee growth and innovation allowing them to complete more value driven tasks.

LIQUID WORKFORCE-

Leading organisations will use technology to enable an adaptable, change-ready and responsive liquid workforce. GE recently introduced a new approach called FastWorks, eliminating rigid approval processes which previously prevented employees from making changes to their projects or quickly switching direction.

DIGITAL TRUST-

Digital risks like data breaches and improper data handling are pervasive and organizations need to establish digital trust with their employees and their customers.

Focusing solely on delivering better cyber security won’t be enough to gain the trust of individuals, ecosystems and regulators – leading organizations will need to make digital ethics a core part of their organization. Platforms like Apple Pay and Health Kit have strong cyber security and ethics embedded to give customers confidence their digital footprints are secure and private.

PREDICTABLE DISRUPTION

By predicting disruption, organizations will be able to create new opportunities for people. Take Visa, for example, which has partnered with Accenture to envision the future of the connected car, one which embeds commerce into the Internet of Things. Consumers are able to place grocery orders with a single touch on the car dashboard and, thanks to Bluetooth sensors, by the time they arrive at the store the payment is completed and the goods are ready to go

Google’s Cultural Institute

Now you can pay virtual visits a concert venue and even experience a performance from onstage. Google has made an online collaboration that made its debut Tuesday with more than 60 performing-arts organizations around the globe. The Google Cultural Institute, an online platform that uses the company’s technology to share art and culture allowing users to experience dance, drama and music from over 60 different organizations all over the world.

Company Luna Creates A Smart Mattress

Vessel-Banking To Be The Next YouTube

Former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar is the man behind creating Vessel. YouTube has a broad range and large library of content. At the end of the day, this is about getting unique or different content on Vessel, and pulling from YouTube’s paid stars original content. Vessel has poached some of YouTube’s big names, but more importantly the company is focused on ensuring that the content that is on Vessel remains exclusive for 72-hours. That is the one major requirement that those who want to publish or upload to Vessel. Vessel’s major draw is that individuals who sign up with the company to create original content, will ultimately make a lot more money – and specifically, the company has said that that figure could be as high as $50 per thousand views, compared to the current $2-3 per thousand views on YouTube. It remains to be seen though just how successful this medium will be, and whether it will truly take digital subscriptions to the next level.

Singapore Most Prepared For Digital Age

 

Singapore is the country most prepared for the digital age because it has the necessary infrastructure and supporting conditions in place, a new global study has revealed. According to the Digital Evolution Index, a joint study by MasterCard Global Insights and the Fletcher School at Tufts University, Singapore has the highest Index score out 50 countries on supply, demand, institutions and innovation. Hong Kong ranks third on the Index, but  Malaysia (#23), China (#29) and Thailand (#35) are named as the top three fastest moving digital economies. Joining Singapore and Hong Kong,  Sweden is (#2), the UK (#4), Switzerland (#5), the US (#6), Finland (#7), Canada (#8), South Korea (#9) and the Netherlands (#10).

Digital.NYC

 

 

Digital.NYC officially launched on Wednesday by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, the website is hoping to become an online hub for everything tech in New York, including venture capital, technology jobs and incubators. The website will be a “resource that is expected to  connect members of the city’s tech hub to training, jobs, and funding and make our city’s digital economy accessible to all New Yorkers,” said de Blasio in a statement accompanying the launch.

The announcement was made in Dumbo Heights in Brooklyn, a once dilapidated area near the Brooklyn Bridge that has been revitalized over the last decade and now has become a hub of startup activity in recent years.

Silicon Alley of old, which was located primarily in lower Manhattan’s Flat Iron district, still has a significant  number of tech-focused companies. Recently the focus has been on Brooklyn. The city has made a concerted effort to use the Brooklyn’s newfound cultural cache to attract tech startups.

Eyeing a quick survey of New York’s leading tech names, such as  Etsy, Tumblr, MakerBot, Squarespace, TechStars, Fab, Union Square Ventures and Foursquare, reveals that they’re spread all over the city, with no particular locational focus.

View Here

Captcha Takes Down Silk Road

Former FBI agent Christopher Tarbell has claimed that the agency tracked down the servers of anonymous online marketplace Silk Road by employing an IP leak caused by a Captcha prompt on the site’s login page.

The anonymous online marketplace, popular as a black market trading bazaar, was taken down in October last year, with its owner and operator the Dread Pirate Roberts, aka Ross William Ulbricht, arrested at San Francisco airport.

Silk Road employed the anonymous  internet privacy network in order to keep its true IP address and web server location secret, however, according to Tarbell’s declaration (PDF) for the United States of America v. Ross Ulbricht case being heard at the Southern District New York District Court, the FBI tracked down the Silk Road server by allegedly using the leaky Captcha prompt.

During  the FBI’s investigation of the Silk Road website, the SR Server was located by Tarbell and another member of the CY-2 squad of the FBI New York Field Office. who is a former computer forensic examiner with the FBI’s global forensic team, and also served as a lead case agent in the Silk Road investigation while part of the FBI’s CY-2 cybercrime squad.

Tarbell says “The IP address leak we discovered came from the Silk Road user login interface. When examining the individual packets of data being sent back from the website, they noticed that the headers of some of the packets reflected a certain IP address not associated with any known Tor node as the source of the packets. This IP address (the ‘Subject IP Address’) was the only non-Tor source IP address reflected in the traffic we examined.

“The Subject IP Address caught our attention because, if a hidden service is properly configured to work on Tor, the source IP address of traffic sent from the hidden service should appear as the IP address of a Tor node, as opposed to the true IP address of the hidden service, which Tor is designed to conceal.

When Tarbell typed the Subject IP Address into an ordinary (non-Tor) web browser, a part of the Silk Road login screen (the Captcha prompt) appeared. Based on his training and experience, this indicated that the Subject IP Address was the IP address of the SR Server, and that it was ‘leaking’ from the SR Server because the computer code underlying the login interface was not properly configured at the time to work on Tor.

After the Silk Road shutdown  in October of 2013, 3.6 million bitcoins were seized.

 

Microsoft & The Internet Of Things In London

Microsoft and its tech partners Telent and CGI are trying to wire-up the Underground, ,upgrading the way the network is managed by integrating Microsoft’s Azure Intelligent Systems Services and claiming it’s living proof of the “internet of things” in action over in London.

 

Data & Visualizations

 

 

View It

The Third Digital Dentistry Symposium In Istanbul

 

 

Read About It Here

Tech Summer Camps Booming In Popularity

 

Tech summer camps are growing in popularity particularly around the Pacific Northwest.

iD Tech Camp is holding several summer tech camps at the University of Washington.Video games are very popular. At iD Tech Camps, kids ages 7-to-17 are learning how to code, program, and develop video games and apps. They also get hands-on training in Photoshop, web design and popular robotics classes.

Camp counselors are trying to get young people trained in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) programs. iD Tech Camp points says more than one million jobs in STEM fields are expected to go unfilled by 2020. Yet, 9-out-of-10 high schools don’t offer computer science classes. Computer Science is a field where the females are  outnumbered by males. Still at the tech camps there are more boys than girls.

Major tech companies like Twitter, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn released their workforce diversity figures this week after much pressure. According to USA TODAY, males outnumbered female staff by an average of 70% to 30%. The majority of workers were white followed by Asian.

 

Twitter’s Figures & Stats

 

Twitter’s diversity figures, by ethnicity. Graphic via Twitter.

More Stats Here

Google’s Stats

Facebook

Pinterest

Yahoo

 

Lexis Nexis Now Offering A New Online News & Information Resource

 

LexisNexisLegal & Professional, has  launched a new online news & information resource offering access to materials and tools on legal eBooks, digital library technology and print titles.

Called LexisNexis® Legal Content Insider, this new resource was unveiled at the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas. The site provides legal professionals up-to-date  information on legal publications. Built on the LexisNexis® LexTalk platform, the site also is connected to a network of community forums where legal professionals such as law librarians can connect with one another on issues of the day. This site features legal eBooks & print titles as well as influential blogs, and legal news feeds from Law360® and LexisNexis® Mealey’s®, as well as connection to the full LexTalk network of forums for legal professionals.
The sites goal & strategy is to offer innovative technologies to legal professional and help them better use legal publications, by providing resources to assist them in managing their collections.

Samsung, Intel, Dell Unite For Internet of Things Connectivity Standards

 

The Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC) plans to deliver the specifications for free data flow between devices, regardless of the OS, device type or wireless communication technology. The new consortium, includes chipmakers Broadcom and Atmel. The consortium will rival the Qualcomm-supported AllSeen Alliance, which last week welcomed Microsoft as its 51st member, among Sharp and others. Apple and Google are also pursuing their own ways of interconnecting household devices. In June, Apple announced HomeKit, which will integrate control of devices like lights and thermostats.
Google’s Nest has also partnered with companies including Whirlpool Corp and light bulb maker LIFX to integrate their products with its thermostats and smoke detectors.

The Internet Of Things: A New & Upcoming Trend

According to industry research firm IDC, the IoT market is expected to hit $7.1 trillion by 2020,” said John Maddison, vice president of marketing at Fortinet.

Completed in June 2014, the survey asked 1,801 tech-savvy homeowners questions relating to the Internet of Things as it pertains to the connected home. These were the top findings:

The Connected Home is a reality – A majority (61 percent) of all respondents believe that the connected home (a home in which household appliances and home electronics are seamlessly connected to the Internet) is “extremely likely” to become a reality in the next five years. China led the world in this category with more than 84 percent affirming support.

• In the U.S., 61 percent said that the connected home is extremely likely to happen in the next five years.

Homeowners are concerned about data breaches – A majority of all respondents voiced their concern that a connected appliance could result in a data breach or exposure of sensitive, personal information. Globally, 69 percent said that they were either “extremely concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about this issue.

• Sixty-eight percent of U.S. respondents said that they were “extremely concerned” or “somewhat concerned.”

Privacy and trust are concerns – When asked about the privacy of collected data, a majority of global respondents stated, “privacy is important to me, and I do not trust how this type of data may be used.” India led the world with this response at 63 percent.

• Fifty-seven percent in the U.S. agreed with this statement.
• Data privacy is an extremely sensitive issue – Respondents were also asked how they would feel if a connected home device was secretly or anonymously collecting information about them and sharing it with others. Most (62 percent) answered “completely violated and extremely angry to the point where I would take action.” The strongest responses came from South Africa, Malaysia and the United States.

The Smart World In 2020

Big Data & Retail

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAQX8W3D6Mg

Silicon Valley Startups Flocking To Dublin

Silicon Valley companies are flocking to Dublin, as their gateway to European and global success.  Business writer Heather Somerville on the website http://www.contracostatimes.com reports; the start-ups don’t qualify for the tax breaks available to multi-nationals simply because they only apply to profits.

Start-ups are following Apple, Intel, Google and Facebook to Europe because it makes good business sense. Somerville reports that these startups are setting up their first overseas offices in the hope that the booming tech city of Dublin will become their launchpad to global success. San Francisco data software start-up New Relic have just made the commitment to Ireland. Chief marketing officer Patrick Moran says “It feels a little bit like a mini-San Francisco. All of our startup friends are there.”

New Relic opened a Dublin office in February and plans to hire about 50 employees at their first office outside the US.Chris Cook, president and chief operating officer at New Relic, added: “Dublin is the launching point for our European strategy and an essential part of our global expansion plans.”

Fellow San Francisco-based companies like Airbnb, cloud software company Zendesk and file storage and sharing startup Dropbox are also new to Dublin.

Yelp  and Survey Money have announced plans to open a 100-person Dublin office.

Mark Harris is chief financial officer of Malwarebytes, an anti-virus software company in San Jose is expected to  open in Ireland next year.

More Here

 

Hands-free Driving Coming Soon

 

Check This Out. I wonder If You Could Do Drive Like This In New York City?

 

More here

Books That Were Made Into Movies

 

 

 

Image Credit: Warner Bros.

All You Need is Kill
by Hiroshi Sakurazaka

EDGE OF TOMORROW
A soldier who dies during an alien war relives his final day in battle over and over until he can figure out how to escape the time loop.
Based On: All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka
Release Date: 6 June 2014
Starring: Tom Cruise, Emily Blunt, Bill Paxton  Playing…  

Gone Girl

by Gillian Flynn

 Gillian Flynn’s third novel, and to call it thrilling would be a massive understatement. The story digs deep into the psychology behind long-term relationships, exploring the difficulties within a failing marriage and a wife’s disappearance. Fingers crossed that Ben Affleck’s performance as a husband suspected of murder follows in the footsteps of Argo and The Town rather than Gigli.

 

Divergent

by Veronica Roth

 Shailene Woodley perfectly captures Tris’ vulnerability and strength. For those of you who haven’t read the novel, Divergent is set in a post-apocalyptic Chicago where society has been divided into five factions, all of which focus on a particular value such as honesty, intelligence or bravery.

 

The Giver

by Lois Lowry

The Giver is about a 12-year-old boy who is chosen to inherit the human experiences — such as pain and love — that his society has given up in exchange for widespread harmony. With a cast that includes Meryl Streep and Jeff Bridges,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image Credit: Paramount

Hercules: The Thracian Wars
by Steve Moore

HERCULES
In a futuristic society where people have given up individuality and choice in order to protect themselves from pain and emotion, a young boy is selected to inherit The Giver’s memories of what living really feels like.
Based On: Hercules: The Thracian Wars by Steve Moore
Release Date: 25 July 2014
Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Rufus Sewell, John Hurt, Ian McShane
0 points

 

Image Credit: 20th Century Fox

The Maze Runner
by James Dashner

THE MAZE RUNNER
A group of teenage boys trapped in a seemingly inescapable maze full of horrific creatures is surprised by the arrival of a girl.
Based On: The Maze Runner by James Dashner
Release Date: 19 September 2014
Starring: Dylan O’Brien, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Kaya Scodelario
0 points

 

Image Credit: 20th Century Fox

Addicted
by Zane

ADDICTED
A woman must decide if pleasure is worth more than her family life and career.
Based On: Addicted: A Novel by Zane
Release Date: 5 September 2014
Starring: Sharon Leal, Boris Kodjoe, Tyson Beckford, Tasha Smith
0 points

 

Image Credit: 20th Century Fox

Animal Rescue
by Dennis Lehane

THE DROP
After a botched robbery, a man finds himself entangled in the investigation of a Boston neighborhood.
Based On: Animal Rescue by Dennis Lehane, from the short story collectionBoston Noir
Release Date: 19 September 2014
Starring: Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, James Gandolfini

Image Credit: 20th Century Fox

Gone Girl
by Gillian Flynn

GONE GIRL
Cops investigate the mysterious disappearance of a beautiful woman who went missing on the day of her fifth wedding anniversary.
Based On: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Release Date: 3 October 2014
Starring: Rosamund Pike, Ben Affleck, Missi Pyle, Tyler Perry, Neil Patrick Harris

Image Credit: Universal

Kill the Messenger
by Nick Schou

KILL THE MESSENGER
The true story of a journalist pushed to the breaking point after he exposes a cocaine conspiracy within the CIA.
Based On: Kill the Messenger: How the CIA’s Crack-Cocaine Controversy Destroyed Journalist Gary Webb by Nick Schou
Release Date: 10 October 2014
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Michael Sheen, Mary Elizabeth Winstead
0 points

Image Credit: Lionsgate

Mockingjay
by Suzanne Collins

THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY – PART 1
Katniss Everdeen, having successfully escaped the Hunger Games arena yet again, reluctantly becomes the symbol of Panem’s rebellion against the Capitol.
Based On: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
Release Date: 21 November 2014
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks
0 points

 

 

The Hobbit
by J.R.R. Tolkien

THE HOBBIT: THERE AND BACK AGAIN
The final installment of director Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings prequel trilogy, starring Bilbo Baggins and a rough-and-tumble team of dwarves.
Based On: The Hobbit; or, There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien
Release Date: 17 December 2014
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, Luke Evans, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom
0 points

 

Inherent Vice
by Thomas Pynchon

INHERENT VICE
A 1960s Los Angeles detective investigates the disappearance of a former flame.
Based On: Inherent Vice: A Novel by Thomas Pynchon
Release Date: 12 December 2014
Starring: Jena Malone, Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson, Josh Brolin

 

Chicago, New York City & Hawaii Bid For Obama Library

 

 

 

Four of the confirmed bidders are from President Barack Obama’s hometown Chicago.  Obama’s birth state of Hawaii offered an oceanfront location in Honolulu. And Columbia University, where he got his undergraduate degree, is offering a West Harlem site in New York City.

The Obama Foundation, which is planning the library, declined to confirm the bids it has received.

Four of the five proposed Chicago locations are on the city’s South Side. Which includes: the University of Chicago, where Obama taught constitutional law for 12 years; Chicago State University; vacant land in Bronzeville that was part of Chicago’s failed bid for the 2016 Olympics; and a former steel plant near Lake Michigan being pitched by real estate developer Dan McCaffery.

The library and museum is seen as a potential driver of economic development. The University of Chicago cited a study it commissioned that concluded the library would draw 800,000 visitors a year and create 1,900 permanent jobs. The University of Illinois-Chicago also is also offering potential locations on and off campus on the city’s West Side. Hawaii’s bid is being led by the University of Hawaii and backed by the state. The library would sit on oceanfront property in Honolulu, but the university says it’s willing to share the library and museum.

Columbia’s bid would put the library on its new Manhattanville Campus in West Harlem. The Obama Foundation is expected to announce a decision in early 2015

The Giant Techs Fight Against Global Search Warrants

 

Microsoft, Google, Apple and other tech companies in the US have been fighting a battle against internet surveillance. Earlier this year, Microsoft was forced to comply with a search warrant for a user’s email account stored in Ireland. The Manhattan magistrate judge ruled that the government could obtain data stored in the cloud in servers outside the US. In that case, This despite the fact that the US courts have no jurisdiction over data stored in Ireland or indeed any other country. The government maintains that in Microsoft’s case the warrant served as a way for the company to search within its database and reveal the relevant results. This could allow US law enforcement  access to all cloud data stored anywhere in the world.

Tech companies, especially those banking heavily on cloud-based infrastructure have seen cause for alarm. Sharing of user data to the US law enforcement may not be in line with the local law where the server is located. So companies are wary of having to break the law, to help maintain the law. This puts them in a precarious position, in terms of the public opinion and in the eyes of the law too. The United States is  setting a precedent for other nations. They could legitimately obtain user data stored in US cloud servers by forcing companies to do the same for them. And that would be in conflicting to US law. Google has rolled out End-to-End an encryption tool that would act as a Chrome add-on to make sure your browsing session within G0ogle’s servers is not even accessible by the company, and outside eyes.

Expedia Accepting Bitcoin Payments

 

Expedia has announced that it will now accept Bitcoins for hotel payments. Expedia customers can find and select Bitcoin as a payment option at check-out along with all other methods accepted on its website, including all the major credit cards, Discover, JCB, Diners Club and PayPal. When using bitcoins for reservations,customers indicate this as their method of payment at the appropriate prompt and then follow a few more steps to complete the transaction.

 

 

Photographers Upset Over Amazon’s Patented White Background

 

Amazon recently won a patent for a photography technique  snapping a picture of an object against a white background. This has caused an uproar among photographers. A petition circulating with nearly 45,000 signatures asking the US Patent and Trademark Office to appeal the parent.

 

Amazon’s Mystery Event June 18

 

 

The word is Amazon’s Mystery is their new 3D Smartphone

The 3D Smartphone-Amazon’s phone is supposed to  sport a 4.7-inch, 720p display. That screen size would be approximately the same as competitors, though lower resolution than the 1920 x 1080 flagships out there. Sources state that the new Amazon phone includes a total of six cameras. Six cameras  will be used to track your eye position so that the phone can continuously alter the position of the elements on the screen to help achieve a 3D effect on the phone’s home screen wallpapers and in several apps. The main rear camera is thought to feature a resolution of 13 megapixels, and the phone also includes a standard front-facing camera for video chats as well as Amazon’s  customer service feature. The device has an additional four front-facing cameras that work with other sensors to facilitate the software’s 3D effects. One source tells us these four cameras, which are situated in each of the four corners on the face of the phone, are low-power infrared cameras.

Over 400 Million Accounts Hacked This Year

 

 

 

The exact number of hacked accounts is difficult to determine. Many companies have not released the majority of the information regarding their cyber breaches. Many think cyber invasion is harmless: however the damage is quite serious. Today hackers are downloading your personal information, including your name, debit or credit card, email, phone number, birthday, password, security questions and physical address.The increase of hacker attacks is most likely as a result of everyone moving putting information online and hackers becoming more educated and computer savvy. Hackers are cheaper and can go in and out of companies with ease and unnoticed. The teams of hackers  create malware to attack specific organizations still using outdated systems like Windows XP.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Has Wearable Technology Gone Tooooooo Far?

 

 

How Are They going To Type & Text?

First spotted by Co.Design, the new nail technology uses sensors embedded in gel polish to track our behavior by the touch. It’s the work of Kristina Ortega and Jenny Rodenhouse of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. They believe wearable, purposeful nails could soon be all over the place as standard salons themselves.

 

 

 

 

 MORE HERE

 

 

 

 

 

 

Best Free AntiVirus Tools Today

 

AVAST-This antivirus tool also protects against spyware. Has “Remote Assistance,” which means the software can help a third-party access your computer if it becomes infected. This software also updates itself, so you don’t have to worry about updating your antivirus software

AVG-The AVG Antivirus free 2013 software is the industry standard when it comes to free, easy-to-download antivirus software. It’s exceptional at blocking malware, and the setup is easy; you can access the download and setup malware protection in under five minutes. AVG is compatible with most operating systems, from Windows to Linux to Mac OS. The free package offers basic malware protection and is a phenomenal zero-cost option, but there is also a premium version if you want a more comprehensive Internet security system that protects your files, links, and personal data.

BITDEFENDER-Removes and defends against viruses, Trojans, rootkits, spyware, and all types of malicious software is totally doing its job.

 

COMODO-Comodo runs on Windows and Mac. It’s a good free program for identifying viruses, but you must delete any of the viruses it detects yourself. The software automatically updates for you.

MALWAREBYTES ANTI MALWARE–This antivirus tool also protects against spyware. One of its strongest features is “Remote Assistance,” which means the software can help a third-party access your computer if it becomes infected. This software also updates itself, so you don’t have to worry about updating your antivirus software

 

 

Wearable Technology & Cyber Risks

Wearable technology is gaining prominence in this. however, when connecting to the internet we should be careful with the risk and implications wearing these devices.

Fitness bands that monitor and capture information about our movement using GPS can provide a malicious user with details about our daily routines and patterns as well as our current location.

Moreover, there’s the question of what the security implications of connecting these kinds of devices to the corporate infrastructure will be. For the IT team that is already defending their organisations from ever more sophisticated cyber criminals, wearable technology is just another attack vector that needs addressing. As an extension of BYOD, businesses should already have information and network-security policies in place, to cover many of the concerns applicable to wearable technology. Although most IT departments already have guidelines that address such issues as workplace social networking, safe computing and BYOD usage, wearable technology raises several questions for the further development of these standards.

The Word Through The Grapevine

The word in the grapevine- Google product strategist Scott Jenson  stormed out of a conference in San Francisco Tuesday, 30 minutes before he was scheduled to deliver a keynote address—a week after inviting himself onto the program via Twitter.

“He told a woman working at the registration desk of the IoT Expo. “I am Google, I do not speak to small groups.” He then walked out. The IoT Expo was an event devoted to the concept of the Internet of Things. Analysts believe that the Internet of Things will grow to become a multi-trillion-dollar market in the future. Google recently entered the Internet of Things market in grand style by acquiring Nest, the maker of networked thermostats and smoke alarms, for $3.2 billion in January.

 

Trends & Revolutionizing Healthcare

Smartphones-Smartphones will continue to improve data access for the medical staff, which will improve healthcare. Today, information can be obtained anytime and anywhere, resulting in quicker medical decisions. New medical apps are transforming the smartphone into a medical device with the ability to send relevant patient data to the electronic medical record (EMR).

Wi-Fi
At many hospitals the wireless LAN (WLAN) now connects more devices than the wired LAN. It started with workstations on wheels (WoWs) and now encompasses medical devices, phones, video units, realtime locating systems (RTLS), and guest Internet access. Wi-Fi availability is the norm as we geer towards a digital space with mobile adoption.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
Smartphones + hospital Wi-Fi = the need for a BYOD policy and mobile device management. BYOD has greatly influenced how technology solutions are evaluated and implemented by hospital IT. The consumer market is now driving corporate adoption. The days of the rigid corporate standard for hardware are gone, as a result of  cloud infrastructure that is capable of supporting a range of devices dictated by the consumer. Thanks to BYOD, the medical staff can choose a device that they are familiar with, reducing costs and training requirements.

Government Mandates
Mandates like HITECH, HIPAA, and ICD 10 have forced healthcare institutions to invest heavily in IT infrastructure, talent, and application systems. These regulatory changes are moving us towards transparency and integration. The goal is to drive the widespread adoption and meaningful use of electronic health records (EHRs) to improve heathcare quality, safety, and efficiency; and reduce health disparities and costs.

Voice over IP (VoIP)
The emergence of VOIP has allowed healthcare institutions to leverage a single IT infrastructure backbone for both data and voice traffic. More importantly, it has created a unified communication flexibility that started with mobility and has now evolved into applications. Anyone can be contacted anywhere at any time from any device. This means that the medical staffs are available 24×7.

Social
Social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, provides a platform that is transforming healthcare. Hospitals can now reach out to staff, patients, younger audiences, and the general public in new ways. Not only does it improve patient engagement, but it provides a means to manage population health.

Mobile Health (mHealth)
With the increasing focus on decreasing healthcare costs, mHealth provides a spectrum of ways to leverage mobility to improve clinical work flows and outcomes. These range from video remote interpretation, to telemedicine and remote care use cases. The next step will be adoption of wearable technologies.

We are in a mobile world and with mHealth, medical professionals have the ability to make clinical decisions based on telemedicine technology and wearables. mHealth allows access to medical care from anywhere anytime. Rural areas can be provided with the same quality of care as the metropolitan population. With wearable devices and sensors individuals will be able to monitor their health the same way we monitor our cars, to stay on schedule with regular maintenance. This is a big step that offers individuals the benefits of personal big data.

Big Data
Data is everywhere and the challenge is to use that data to make meaningful decisions and provide better care. Imagine using wearables to track fitness, vitals, sleep patterns, etc. Personal big data helps individuals understand their health to make lifestyle improvements and live healthier lives.

 

Firefox Has A Big Update

Payment On The Go

PayPal is rolling out a new program that will allow customers to make payments on the go. The new feature lets them make wireless transactions using one of the trendiest wearable tech pieces, smartwatches. At the moment, PayPal is launching a pilot phase of the program at campus Starbucks in San Jose, using Samsung Galaxy smart on-wrist tech pieces.

 

Europe’s Online Games For The Unemployed

 

NEW YORK — Amsterdam wants to create an online game to get unemployed young people engaged in finding jobs across Europe. The cities are among 21 finalists vying for millions of euros in a new government-innovation contest was devised by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, his foundation announced Wednesday. The finalists come from 11 European countries and include sprawling capitals and modest-sized cities, their climates and cultures as different as those of Stockholm, Sweden, and Barcelona, Spain.

Asked for projects that could solve major social or economic problems or make government more effective, the cities “stepped up with bold and creative ideas,” Bloomberg said in a statement.

After the finalists hone their proposals, winners of a 5 million euro — nearly $7 million — grand prize and four 1 million euro awards will be announced in the fall.

Modeled on a competition that Bloomberg Philanthropies held for U.S. cities last year, the European contest was open to cities of 100,000 or more residents and drew 155 entries.

Several European finalists looked to improve residents’ lives with technology: auditory alerts to help blind people get around Warsaw, Poland; new systems for Londoners to monitor their health; and methods for making energy out of the heat thrown off by Madrid’s underground infrastructure, for example.

Other proposals are more interpersonal. Barcelona aims to make aging less lonely through social networking the old-fashioned way: identifying a team of relatives, friends, social workers and volunteers for each elderly person. Sofia, Bulgaria, suggests dispatching “mobile art units” where local residents could lend a hand to rejuvenating underused public spaces. Kirklees, in England, imagines getting citizens to pool resources ranging from cars to unused space to untapped expertise.

The Welsh city of Cardiff intends to help residents take small steps to be more productive, the Dutch capital of the Hague is proposing to let citizens choose how part of their taxes will be spent, and Stockholm wants to get people producing biochar, an organic, charcoal-like material that can improve soil quality and purify water, among other environmental benefits.

Read more here: http://www.modbee.com/2014/04/22/3305195/finalists-named-in-bloomberg-european.html#storylink=cpy

 

Digital Public Library Of America

The Digital Public Library of America (http://dp.la),is one year old this week. In celebration, DPLA is proud to announce the addition of six major new partners and other significant milestones as it enters its second year.

The New York Public Library (NYPL) this week expanded access to the full breadth of its digital collections through its partnership with DPLA, a major increase over its initial contribution of 14,000 records at DPLA’s launch. Over 1 million digitized items from throughout the Library’s research holdings are available, significantly increasing DPLA’s offerings by nearly 20%.

.

http://dp.la/