So much tech and so little time so these 2 guys sit down and help you get to the bottom of what is hot and what is not!
Andrew and James
This week we talk a really cool little BOSE speaker, James is going to buy one, and then there is the regular entertaining chat.
The show notes and links.
https://www.cnet.com/products/bose-soundlink-revolve-plus/review/
Bose Soundlink Revolve+ 1,199
-this is an audio lantern that is loud, has great bass and is bluetooth
-easy pairing
-16+ hours battery
-WOW is all I have to say
With true omni-directional performance, and an entirely new acoustic design, Revolve speakers spread deep, jaw-dropping sound in every direction -- from a seamless aluminum design.
oth new Revolve models are just at home outside. They feature an IPX4-rating to withstand spills, rain, and pool splashes; and rugged durability to survive dings, drops, and bumps. A quarter-twenty thread on the bottom of each makes for easy mounting on a tri-pod for listening in the yard or an outdoor party.
Revolve is 6” high x 3 1Ž4” deep, weighs a mere 1.5 pounds, and provides up to 12-hours of battery life. Revolve+ is slightly bigger for more performance at 7 1Ž4” high x 4” deep, 2 pounds, and up to 16-hours of playtime. Both can pair through NFC, feature plain-language voice-prompts for fool-proof set-up, and integrate microphones to use as a speakerphone, or with Siri and Google Assistant.
The free Bose Connect app now syncs two SoundLinks -- any combination, for any models starting with the SoundLink Color II. New Stereo Mode enables left-right pairing, and new Party Mode lets you play the same music on both simultaneously.
PRICING, AVAILABILITY AND COLORS
The SoundLink Revolve and SoundLink Revolve+ Bluetooth speakers will be available beginning May 1, 2017 for AED 799 and AED 1,199 respectively, and come in two colors – Triple Black and Lux Gray. SoundLink Revolve and SoundLink Revolve+ are sold at Bose stores, and authorized Bose dealers. Additional information can be found at Bose.ae
Has instagram have no shame? Nope!
Your Insta game just got a fun new upgrade thanks to Tuesday's announcement that face filters will now be available on Instagram Stories. These face filters, which seem to be more advanced than Snapchats' face filters, include a koala with twitching ears, a spotlight that follows your movements, and — for the algebra lovers out there — math problems swirling around your head. And those are just some of your new options.
Along with Face Filters, Instagram announced two other exciting updates. First, you will now be able to create videos and play them in reverse with a feature called "Rewind." It will be located next to “Boomerang” and “Hands-Free". The other new feature is the addition of a hashtag sticker to your story. Available within the sticker icon at the top right of your screen, you will be able to choose the hashtag sticker, customize it, and then add it to your picture or video. Just like you can click on a user's handle in a story and see their page now, you'll now be able to click on the written or sticker hashtag and be directed to the hashtag page, too.
Insta after Spotify - what could this mean?
Matthew Ogle, a product manager at Spotify who helped develop and oversee popular discovery features such as Discover Weekly, is leaving the company to join Instagram, Ogle said on Twitter Monday.
The departure may come at an awkward time for Spotify, which is planning to go public soon either through an IPO or the more rare route of a direct listing. Spotify’s revenue reportedly grew by 49 percent to 2.9 billion euros ($3.1 billion) last year, but its operating loss grew even faster to between 300 million euros and 400 million euros.
The key to Spotify’s future profitability is luring more listeners into subscriptions. And this is where Discover Weekly played an important role. The service, which uses Spotify’s music recommendation algorithms to serve up a two-hour playlist each week, was as close as Spotify has come to a killer app. Audiophiles praisedthe service, and millions of users came to await each week’s offering.
The secret to Discover Weekly came from technology developed by music analytics firm Echo Nest, which used to power Rdio’s music recommendations until Spotify acquired the firm in 2014. After the acquisition, Rdio’s recommendations were never quite the same. Rdio filed for bankruptcy late last year, with Pandora buying some of its assets.
According to Ogle’s LinkedIn page, he worked at Echo Nest until 2012, when he founded music discovery community This Is My Jam. In early 2015, he joined Spotify. Today Ogle tweeted, “After 12+ yrs in music, I’m trying something new — at one of my all-time fave services.”
Another week another hack. Zomato being the target
Less than 24 hours after revealing a major security breach that compromised the accounts of millions of users, restaurant search service Zomato revealed that it has engaged with the hacker responsible and has agreed to meet certain conditions in exchange for the stolen data being removed from the dark web.
To recap, India-based Zomato, which claims around 120 million users each month, revealed yesterday that around 17 million email addresses and hashed passwords had been stolen, but it later clarified that 60 percent of those accounts actually used third-party OAuth services — such as Facebook and Google — to log in. But that still left around 7 million users vulnerable, particularly if they used the same email / password combination on other services.
The iPhone is looking pretty cool
S8 is flying off the shelves
It's unclear what, exactly, this means. Samsung's Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus have only been on the market 25 days (and even shorter in Europe and India; the phones are still not available in China). A recent report claimed Samsung sold 7.2 million units of its Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge phones in the first quarter of availability, which would mean the S8 is selling better than its predecessor.
On the other hand, one early report on Galaxy S7 sales claimed Samsung had shipped 10 million units in the first three weeks of availability. The difference here could be "shipped" vs. "sold," but we cannot be sure know which metric Samsung's official is referring to when talking about the S8 in this latest report.
We've asked Samsung to clarify and will update this text when we hear from them.
-Samsung set to show stretchable screen technology! This is cool.
Stretchy display from Samsung
Flexible phones will soon take another step towards reality.
Samsung is expected to showcase the world's first "stretchable" display panel at a U.S. tech fair this week, according to news reports from South Korea.
The South Korean tech giant will showcase a 9.1-inch (23cm) panel at the Society for Information Display 2017 in Los Angeles, which will be held from May 23 to 25, reports the Korea Herald.
-this is cool Apple wow
If you're a big fan of Estelle, you better run to the Apple Store in New York on Saturday.
Apple will kick off its new "Today at Apple" sessions this weekend with tons of free classes and concerts in Apple Stores around the world. That includes Estelle at Apple's SoHo store, Christopher Martin in Brooklyn's Williamsburg neighborhood; Charlie Puth, Lil Buck and Leon Bridges in San Francisco's Union Square; Dua Lipa in London's Regent Street store; and Sigrid in the Marché Saint-Germain store in Paris.
Apple in late April said it would launch educational seminars in all of its stores. The Today at Apple program is free and open to the public. It includes more than 60 different classes on topics like art, design, coding and photography.
See also
The move is part of Apple's effort to turn Apple Stores -- which now number 495 around the globe -- into hangouts or town squares for the community, not just a place to buy iPhones. The company largely defined what a modern electronics-buying experience should look and feel like when it opened the first Apple Store 16 years ago. But some say the novelty has worn off, with Samsung and Microsoft successfully mimicking part of Apple's retail feel.
The company has tasked Angela Ahrendts, the former Burberry CEO who became head of the company's online and in-store sales in 2014, to turn things around in retail. Two years ago, Apple also promoted Jony Ive to the newly created position of chief design officer to give him more oversight over projects like retail store redesigns.
Sweden lists the country on Airbnb as a tourism stunt AMAZING
How Generation Z, Millennials (and the rest of us) consume media: 7 key trends
1. Our love of social shows no signs of abating
“Globally,” GlobalWebIndex reported, “around 1 in every 3 minutes spent online is devoted to social networking and messaging, with digital consumers engaging for a daily average of over 2 hours (rising to 2 hrs 40 mins among 16-24s).”
These findings, based on a survey of over 50,000 internet users from around the world, also revealed the near ubiquitousness of the social experience for online users; 94% of whom have at least one social media account. “The average internet users now has about 8 social accounts,” GWI found, “up from only 3 in 2012.”
This rise in account ownership – as well as efforts to increase the stickiness of the social experience – is clearly one reason for a growth in user hours. However, the data also reflects how our media habits are changing too.
Interestingly, “filling up spare time” was identified as the leading reasons for social media usage among 16-24s, highlighting how social networks have quickly become the default media activity for this age group.
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Image 1: Time spent on social networks and social media as a share of time spent online. Source: GlobalWebIndex.
2. Instagram continues to grow in popularity
The visual network now enjoys similar reach to Twitter, GlobalWebIndex reports, with Instagram trumping its older rival in the key 16-34 age group.
With Facebook, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp also continue to enjoy high levels of daily usage, Mark Zuckerberg can rest relatively easy at night.
That said, Snapchat is the most popular messaging app with Gen Z in the US, a finding which no doubt continues to influence the increasingly Snap-like functionality that we are seeing across many of Facebook’s mobile products.
Image 2: Daily usage of leading social networks and messaging apps.
Source: GlobalWebIndex.
3. Online video is a fully established platform
Among all internet users (aged 16-64), 92% watch video clips online each month, GWI revealed, with just under half watching live TV, online TV/movies, and 53% watching sports online.
This trumps usage of online radio (46%) and podcasting (36%), although these activities lag behind online gaming (63% of internet users in the last month) and music streaming (62%).
Regular viewing of online TV leaps to nearly three-quarters of GWI’s global sample when the habits of 16-24s (71% have done this in the past month) and 25-34s (73%).
Image 3: Monthly online entertainment activities.
Source: GlobalWebIndex.
4. Gen Z has quickly become the Netflix generation
In North America, 70% of Generation Z (those aged 14-19) watches Netflix each month, GWI observed, compared to an aggregated figure of 1 in 4 across all international markets. Worldwide, Gen Z consumption of Netflix (25%) is ahead of the adoption curve for the total audience of this popular – and leading – global OTT service (20%).
Gen Zers watch more online TV than other demographics, averaging 1 hour 11 minutes a day, but this continues to lag behind traditional TV, which notches up an additional 20 minutes more of their time on an average day.
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Image 4: Media consumption habits. Gen Z vs. the Global average.
Source: GlobalWebIndex.
5. Younger audiences love to binge
Love of OTT may also be one of the reasons why, Deloitte found, Gen Z and Millennials in the US are also more likely to be binge-watches.
In the press release for their latest Digital Democracy Survey, Deloitte noted that 40 percent of millennial and Gen Z binge watchers do so weekly; and that Gen Z and millennials spend about half their time watching television shows and movies on devices other than a TV.
Meanwhile, the main report finds that this group averages a staggering 6 episodes – or 5 hours – of viewing in a typical binge-session.
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Image 5: Audience who have ever binge-watched / binge weekly
Source: Deloitte Digital Democracy Survey, Eleventh Edition
6. US audiences lean towards free streaming services
Subscriptions for streaming video services have grown by 18% in the past four years (up from 31% in 2012 to 49% in 2016) as a near majority of households subscribe to services like Hulu, Amazon Prime and Netflix.
Amongst Gen Z, Millennials and Gen X (audiences aged 35-50) that rises to 60%, suggesting that it’s predominantly older audiences who have yet to fully embrace these OTT platforms.
Across the board, however, more time (40%) is spent on free streaming services, than on paid content (35%), which suggests that these services still need to double-down on original output and programming acquisition if they’re to gain a greater share of audience time.
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Image 6: US household streaming habits
Source: Deloitte Digital Democracy Survey, Eleventh Edition
7. Cord-cutting may be on the cusp of going mainstream
Millennials and Generation Z have led the way when it comes to cord-cutting. This is not surprising, given the predominance of mobile devices in influeecning their media and communications habits.
Generation Z spend longer online on their mobiles than they do on all other devices combined, GlobalWebIndex discovered. They also found that smartphone ownership amongst this demographic dwarfed their ownership of other media devices.
Having led the charge for cord-cutting, it looks as though this habit could spill over into the wider population.
Although Deloitte found that Pay TV supscriptions are holiding steady (74% of US households) their research also noted that “two-thirds of pay TV consumers say they keep their pay TV subscriptions because it is bundled with their Internet.”
With the rise in streaming services – and investment in original content from many of these providers – growing year-on-year, Pay TV’s next thread could come from its core audience. And not just the younger generation.
Image 7: Generation Z, device ownership
Source: GlobalWebIndex.
DuckDuckGO email
Last email we talked about how "private browsing" modes aren't really private. They still let websites track you across the net. But why all this tracking? Let's take the prime example--Google. If you ask most people what Google's business is they will say "search," but Google actually makes a lot of its money from serving ads on other sites. Put simply, Google isn’t a search company, they’re an advertising company. Princeton's WebTAP privacy project recently found that Google's trackers are installed on 75% of the top million internet websites. The next closest is Facebook at 25%! (See Figure 3 in Section 5.1 for details.)
Google sells ads not only on their search engine, but also on over 2.2 million other websites and over 1 million apps. Every time you visit one of these sites or apps, Google is storing that information and using it to target ads at you. That’s why you may have seen ads tracking you across the net!
If you want to stop websites from re-marketing to you, you'll need to install a free tool like Privacy Badger which blocks trackers.
Stop ad stalking today!
