This may be the best program on UAE radio, TechTalk with Andrew and James.
What a show, jam-packed with tech insights.
And what is going on with ~Amazon they are doing some great stuff and shaking up the industry, lots of industries.
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The notes.
Walkie
Snap are helping people
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/snapchat-outlines-snap-ads-best-practices-in-new-video/524741/
Google Neighbourly
We know amazon is huge but just how big
Amazon's Alexa voice assistant has so many skills, it can be hard to know exactly how to activate them sometimes. But the company is building a new way for people to discover skills without having to request them specifically by name.
Amazon announced today that it's launching a new beta feature called the CanFulfillIntentRequest interface that developers can use to make their Alexa skills more easily discoverable.
The tool uses machine learning to find skills that can help fulfill a person's request when they don't know exactly what you're looking for. For example, if they ask, "Alexa, where are the best surfing spots today near Santa Barbara," the voice assistant will scour all the various surfing skills on the platform to determine whether they can understand and help process the request.
Microsoft has reportedly agreed to acquire code repository GitHub, according to Bloomberg. The apparent deal, which neither company has publicly confirmed, could happen as soon as Monday. Terms of the deal are still unknown.
Microsoft’s apparent interest in GitHub was first raised Friday by Business Insider, and things appear to have escalated mighty quickly from there. The companies have reportedly had on-and-off conversations about a potential acquisition for years, but GitHub has long maintained its intention to remain independent. Now, assuming Bloomberg’s report holds, the code repository service and developer community will be absorbed by Microsoft.
When contacted about the reported acquisition, a spokesperson for Microsoft told Gizmodo that the company “doesn’t comment on rumors or speculation.” GitHub did not respond to request for comment, but we will update this post if we hear back.
GitHub, which has been described as Facebook for programmers, was reportedly interested in becoming a publicly traded company as of just six months ago and was in the process of exploring a potential IPO, per Business Insider. The company was last valued at $2 billion back in 2015.
Love the Google expeditions idea!
https://youtu.be/iZJPO7FVM3U
On Wednesday Google released an update to Google Expeditions that allows students and others to guide themselves on Google Expeditions. Expeditions are Google's Virtual Reality experiences that can be viewed through the Expeditions app on phones placed in Google Cardboard Viewers. The new "solo" mode in Expeditions (currently only for Android) lets students view Google's virtual reality Expeditions without guidance from a teacher. In the "solo" Expeditions students can choose "Explorer" mode and they will see highlighted information included about the places they're viewing in virtual reality.
Social media tax in Uganda!
Today, Uganda's parliament passed a controversial "social media tax." It will consist of a daily fee of about 200 shillings (5 US cents) levied on anyone who uses social networking and messaging apps and platforms like Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter. According to Trading Economics, in 2016, Uganda had a per-capita income of $666.10, so this isn't an insubstantial tax.
President Yoweri Museveni was a vocal supporter of and advocate the bill. He believes that social media encourages "gossip," according to BBC News. The law will go into effect as of July 1st, but it's not clear how the government will monitor its citizens or collect the tax.
This is certainly a strange way to regulate the use of social media within a country. It's possible there may also be a political angle here, as President Musaveni suspended access to social media apps and platforms in the run-up to the country's 2016 presidential elections.
Uganda isn't the only country looking to limit its population's usage of social media, though. Papua New Guinea recently announced that the country would block access to Facebook for a month to analyze how the population is using the service. It's not clear why the government needs to shut down access to Facebook in order to get this data, but clearly countries are interested in limiting citizens' use of social media.
New Galaxy Note Coming
This is another cool google idea being tested in NYC
Realtime info and user comments!
Crowdsourced navigation apps like Waze are helpful for avoiding the real-world hazards that conventional apps don't mention. But what if you use mass transit -- why can't you get alerts that go beyond official route closures and delays? You can now, if you live in New York City. Google incubator Area 120 has released an invitation-only Pigeon app for iOS that offers NYC subway directions based both on real-time train positions and user-submitted feedback. If a train faces an extended delay or there's a glut of people at a given station, you can switch lines and stops to make your commute a little faster (or at least, less painful).
A little Jurassic Park augmented reality fun
The dinosaurs of Jurassic World have moved to being recreated in augmented reality in advance of Universal’s coming movie “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” in June.
The AR feature in the app creates images of dinosaurs much like Pokémon Go creates characters.
The app, Jurassic World Alive, was created by Ludia and uses Google Maps location-based technology to find dinosaurs. Players earn in-game currency and battery life for a drone, which can be used to track the creatures.
When the app is loaded, it asks for permission to determine the user’s location and dinosaurs can be captured, if close enough to the app user, much like Pokémon characters in that game.
Once a dinosaur has been captured, it can be seen in the consumer’s real-world surrounding using the app’s augmented reality feature. The creatures also emit sounds.
In the movie, the island’s volcano comes to life as the lead characters race to rescue the remaining dinosaurs from the extinction-level event. The app was released on the App Store and Google Play Store this week.
Drones, there are many commercial applications and the idea that they can be used for advertising or replacements to fireworks is interesting, also interesting is the computing control power!
Intel’s drones have now flown in California to recreate the cover of “Time” magazine in the sky.
The cover was made using 958 Intel Shooting Star drones, all controlled from one computer. The drone cover was captured by yet another drone, one specialized for commercial and film cinematography, which recorded the event from start to finish.
Intel’s drones are increasingly used for marketing and entertainment at high-impact events.
For example, they have been used for a 300-drone light show at Disney World in Orlando in place of fireworks.
At the opening of the Olympics, Intel used more than 1,200 Shooting Star drones that also set a Guinness World Record for the most unmanned aerial vehicles airborne simultaneously. That surpassed the 500 drones flown simultaneously in Germany in 2016 and the 300-drone show that closed the recent Olympics.
Wearables continue to grow in numbers shipped!
The market for wearable bands has pretty much shaken out for the moment.
Left standing, in a big way, is Apple.
Overall shipments of wearable bands grew 35% to 21 million units in the first quarter of this year, according to a new tally by Canalys.
The money is in smartwatches, while overall wearable units shipped is ruled by basic bands. Smartwatches, where Apple excels, accounted for 80% of wearable band revenue. By number of units shipped, smartwatches accounted for 43% of the market.
Apple has emerged as the top wearable vendor -- shipping 4 million smartwatches in the quarter -- closely followed by Xiaomi in China and just 100,000 units behind Apple with its low-priced Mi Band dominating its shipments, to the tune of 90%.
Garmin and Fitbit are also still in the game. Garmin is now the second-largest smartwatch maker after Apple, with 1 million of its watches having shipped in the quarter.
Pintrest and ads a new canvas!
Pinterest is rolling out a new video ad format.
The “Promoted Video at max width” unit spans across the app’s two-column feed and streams ad content right where users are browsing.
By contrast, “Promoted Video at standard width only shows up on one column of feeds,” a company spokeswoman said on Thursday.
As such, “this new format offers brands enhanced ability for storytelling, as well as an immersive canvas that will inspire Pinners to discover new products and services,” she added.
The new format is already being tested by big brands like adidas, American Express, Chevrolet, Kohl’s, Tropicana and Paramount Pictures.
Long synonymous with static images, Pinterest is doing its best to bring video into the picture. In the past year, the number of videos on its network has grown by 180%, according to internal data.
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