As developers for tablets and smartphones we like to keep abreast of the latest mobile technology developments . This is a daily digest of mobile development and related technology news gathered from the BBC, the New York Times, New Scientist and the Globe and Mail to name a few. We scour the web for articles concerning, iPhone, iPad and android development, iOS and android operating systems as well as general articles on advances in mobile technology. We hope you find this useful and that it helps to keep you up to date with the latest technology developments.
John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi, Kevin McCarthy & Bernie Sanders Read 'Mean Tweets'
What does Speaker of the House John Boehner have to promise his constituents to keep getting reelected? What new job should House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi try? Who does Sen. Bernie Sanders most resemble? And what does Rep. Kevin McCarthy really need to do?
In the spirit of late night host Jimmy Kimmel’s recurring “Mean Tweets” segment, some of the nation’s top lawmakers read mean tweets about themselves for the 2015 Radio & Television Correspondents Association Dinner, held Wednesday night — and the results are priceless.
Check it out in the clip above.
VIDEO: Systrom: Instagram's ambitions to grow
Instagram’s co-founder, Kevin Systrom, discusses the company’s ambitions for photo-sharing service.
Why are people so mean online?
Why are people so mean online?
This Group Gives Refugees Toilets, Then Turns The Waste Into Charcoal For Cooking
This inventive solution is no load of crap.
Across the globe, 1.8 billion people use a drinking water source that is contaminated with fecal matter, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). To make sure the waste produced by refugees and low-income households in Kenya doesn’t infiltrate their water systems, a group founded by U.S. university grads is turning poop into charcoal for cooking.
Established in 2011 based off of research conducted at Emory and Georgia Tech, Sanivation provides toilets to people in need, collects the waste and then treats it with solar energy. The final byproduct are low-cost briquettes that can be safely used for cooking and heating homes.
Sanivation co-founder Emily Woods said in a video interview that the briquettes are particularly “fantastic” because it burns longer than standard coal and emits less carbon monoxide and particulate emissions.
Less pollution means significantly fewer deaths.
According to WHO, more than half of premature deaths that occur among children under 5 are due to pneumonia caused by household air pollution.
The process also drastically cuts down on deforestation, since the coal supplants firewood.
It takes about five tons of trees to produce just one ton of charcoal, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
While the group is concerned that people might be reluctant to use coal that was once feces, satisfied customers say there’s no odor and they don’t give a sh*t about the association.
“‘Go and [light them] and smell that smoke and see how it feels,” Nancy Wambui, a Kenyan who has used the source, told TakePart. “They see it’s not smelling, it’s cooking good.”
Last April, with funding and support from the CDC and a number of other organizations, Sanivation launched a three-month pilot program at the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, where 170,000 people live.
The group installed more than 30 toilets for nearly 300 people and collects the waste every three days. The poop is converted at a local treatment center, Woods said.
In Naivasha, Kenya, customers pay 600 Kenyan shillings per month (about $6.50) to get access to an in-home toilet and for their waste to be collected twice a week. Sanivation expects to reach 300,000 people over the next three years.
There, the group partnered with the Lake Naivasha Disabled Environmental Group and makes briquettes with a hand press.
Due to increased demand, Sanivation is seeking funds to develop a mechanized press, which could produce 1 ton of briquettes an hour.
Sanivation has already received a number of accolades of its work, including the InVenture Prize at Georgia Tech last year. The award included $20,000 and a free U.S. patent filing.
“We are exposing an issue that is considered taboo,” Erin Cobb, a member of the team, said in a statement, “and we are excited to give this important issue more attention.”
Learn more about Sanivation and how you can support its mission to purchase a new briquetting machine here.
To take action on pressing water issues, check out the Global Citizen’s widget below.
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In Disaster Relief, Information Is Life & Death
Ben Krause of J/P Haitian Relief Organization describes how failures of communication, coordination, and collaboration make disaster relief so much harder. XPRIZE Insights is a video series that highlights the leading thinkers of our time. Watch More Here>>
Visit XPRIZE at xprize.org, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Google+, and get our Newsletter to stay informed.
Uber Adds New Incident Response Teams Following Safety Concerns
(Reuters) – Ride-sharing company Uber said it has formed response teams to address safety issues across the world, amid increasing concerns about the security of its passengers and drivers.
The company, whose mobile app lets users hail taxis, has been dogged by controversies surrounding its business practices and safety policies, as it has grown rapidly around the world in recent months.
Uber will form a safety advisory board comprising independent experts to review its practices and advise on adding safety features to its platform, the company’s global safety head Phillip Cardenas said in blog post on Wednesday.
Uber was also elevating its standards of background checks on drivers and has established a new code of conduct, Cardenas said.
The round-the-clock response teams consist of specially trained groups to investigate safety concerns.
The measures come in the wake of Brussels police arresting a taxi driver who confessed to taking part in several incidents of intimidation against drivers using Uber’s ride-sharing app.
Some users have also alleged that the California-based company’s practices violated their privacy.
Authorities in New Delhi on Wednesday asked India’s federal information technology ministry to block the apps of Uber and local rival Ola to enforce a ban on the companies’ services.
(Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar in Bengaluru; Editing by Joyjeet Das)
Don't Settle for Lousy Home Wi-Fi
My brother-in-law was conversing with my wife and myself via FaceTime on his iPhone when he complained that his signal kept breaking up. I knew the problem couldn’t be at my end — I subscribe to Time Warner Cable’s top 300 Mbps broadband service, and my wife’s iPhone 6 was connected to our home Wi-Fi hotspot supplied by a state-of-the-art 802.11ac Wi-Fi router.
After some investigation, we discovered my b-i-l’s video burping problem: his Wi-Fi was supplied by a AT&T U-verse cable modem/router supplying an embarrassingly paltry 18 Mbps (megabits per second). Embarrassingly because AT&T’s U-verse 18 Mbps service and Time Warner Cable’s Ultimate 100 Mbps service cost exactly the same — $45/month. (Further embarrassing comparisons: “Performance” 25 Mbps Comcast Xfinity service is $30/month, while 50 Mbps service via Cablevision’s Optimum Online is $45/month).
But I digress.
This fractured FaceTime episode exposes three disturbing problems in our increasingly Wi-Fi dependent lives: our underwhelming and non-competitive national broadband infrastructure controlled by local monopolistic cable companies, none of which we can do much about, and the lies your Wi-Fi router tells you, which you can certainly do something about.
Let’s talk some Internet connection basics first.
Our Internet Kinda Sucks
Internet connections, wired and wireless, are like water pressure. The greater the water pressure, the faster and the more effectively the job gets done. If your pressure is low, your morning shower annoyingly takes forever. Low water pressure from a hydrant and forget about dousing a home fire.
Same with broadband and Wi-Fi. The faster your speeds, the faster your email comes in, the faster email attachments download, the faster Web pages fill, the less music streaming buffers and the fewer breakups there are in video calls. High-definition video streamed via Netflix, Hulu and other services to your TV, requires the highest pressure/speed to ensure burp-free viewing.
The greatest need for speed will be for 4K streaming. Netflix and Amazon have already begun pumping out 4K programming for streaming to the 4 million 4K UHD TVs expected to be sold this year. How much speed? Netflix requires connection speeds of at least 25 Mbps for 4K streaming.
Unfortunately, most of the U.S. broadband infrastructure is incapable of delivering these minimum 4K streaming speeds. According to the most recent “State of the Internet Report” from Akamai, the average U.S. broadband speed is merely 11.1 Mbps, which ranks 16th in the world, half the average of perennial broadband leader South Korea at 22.2 Mbps. Although we’re getting 1.5 Mbps faster speeds than our average speed of a year ago, Norway, Romania and Lithuania have all shot passed the U.S.
That’s just embarrassing.
If your broadband and Wi-Fi connections from your cable ISP (Internet Service Provider) are lacking, there are alternatives. Your cable ISP may offer faster speeds than you’re subscribed to. If not, check to see if there’s a local DSL (Digital Service Line) supplier, which you can find here.
Wi-Fi Varieties
Piping decent wired broadband connectivity into your home is step one. Step two is spreading Wi-Fi around your abode and its surroundings.
There are several varieties of Wi-Fi, each version providing progressively faster speeds than the previous version. 802.11 is the technical designation for the Wi-Fi standard established by the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) in 1997. The most prominent versions are 802.11b (2000, 11 Mbps), 802.11g (2003, 54 Mbps), 802.11n (2009, 600 Mbps) and, most recently, 802.11ac, with top speeds of 1300 Mbps, or 1.3 gigabits per second (Gbps).
By way of comparison, your LTE smartphone’s theoretical speed is around 12 Mbps; T-Mobile’s LTE Wideband service, available in a growing number of U.S. cities, boosts speeds to around 100 Mbps.
Both 802.11n and 802.11ac (or just N and AC) Wi-Fi are delivered over both 2.4 GHz and new-ish 5 GHz frequency bands that deliver higher performance at greater range; so-called “tri-band” AC routers broadcast Wi-Fi over 2.4 GHz and separate high and low 5 GHz bands.
These 5 GHz bands are practically empty compared to crowded 2.4 MHz bands in which most neighborhood Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and many cordless phones live, along with interference from other electrical devices such as your microwave oven. The experience difference between 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz is the difference between driving on a empty multi-lane freeway vs. a two-lane highway at rush hour.
You should always use the 5 GHz network for video streaming. I use 2.4 GHz for wireless peripheral connections, such as to my Wi-Fi printer. Check your N or AC router’s instruction manual to set up a 5 GHz network, if you haven’t already done so.
Lies Your Router Tells You
You may have noticed a weird discrepancy in the speeds I rattled off above. I mentioned I get up to 300 Mbps from Time Warner Cable, but AC Wi-Fi is capable of delivering up to 1.3 Gbps.
So why aren’t I or anyone else getting 1.3 Gbps wireless connectivity from their AC router?
All AC routers are marketed to reflect their theoretical top speeds. For instance, the sales copy for the Netgear Nighthawk X4 AC2350 router ($280) I’ve been testing (pictured above, left) says it’s capable of “up to 1.73Gbps, and a combined speed of 2.33Gbps,” hence its AC2350 sobriquet. Other AC routers similarly brand themselves to reflect their top theoretical speeds — the Asus RT-AC3200, the Belkin AC 1750, the Buffalo AirStation Extreme AC 1900, the D-Link AC3200, the Linksys EA9200 AC3200, the TP-LINK Archer CP AC1900, the TRENDnet TEW-828DRU AC3200, to name a few.
But Wi-Fi hotspots can’t deliver wireless connection speeds any faster than the incoming wired connection from your cable or other ISP (Internet service provider); top theoretical AC router speeds are only available in a direct computer-to-computer wireless connections, which you’ll never do.
Hence the router lie.
So, if AT&T U-verse only delivers 18 Mbps to my brother-in-law’s home, his router (or, in his case, his AT&T U-verse-supplied Arris NVG589 combined modem/N router) can only deliver Wi-Fi up to 18 Mbps, usually less. And if multiple devices are drawing from that 18 Mbps, everyone’s connections will slow down.
And an AC router can only deliver peak performance to gear capable of receiving AC signals, regardless of what speeds are touted on the box or the sales copy.
For instance, my older MacBook Air laptop is not AC capable. As a result, I only get top speeds of “only” around 70 Mbps over 5 GHz from the Netgear Nighthawk (tests conducted using Ookla’s Speedtest.net site) and around 85 Mbps from my go-to Asus RT-AC68U AC router (pictured above, right), but only around 55 Mbps from the Arris Touchstone TG1672 modem/N router supplied by Time Warner Cable.
On my AC-compatible iPad Air 2, however, I’m getting around a robust 225 Mbps over AC Wi-Fi from both the Netgear and the Asus (tested via the free Cloudcheck app) routers, but “only” around 85 Mbps from my Arris N modem/router.
Still way better than 18 Mbps, eh?
Expanding Limited Wi-Fi Range
The other problem with home Wi-Fi is getting it where you need it.
Wi-Fi normally transmits out to around 150 feet, but this is range assumes line-of-sight between the router and the receiving device.
In the real world, walls and ceilings can limit Wi-Fi reception to a few yards, which is where an AC router comes in handy. Instead of just transmitting indiscriminately in all directions, AC routers use “beamforming” — transmissions are concentrated to where the router senses AC devices are located.
But that doesn’t mean every corner of your abode will be covered. If centrally located, an AC router should be able to douse a 3,500 square foot house with Wi-Fi. If you live in a multi-level dwelling, or you want coverage on your patio or out by the pool, and your AC router is located anywhere other than the center of the house, you’ll need a Wi-Fi extender or repeater.
The most comprehensive and effective Wi-Fi expansion/repeater solution I’ve run across is the ActionTec WCB3000N ($150), but setting it up is not for the technically faint of heart.
Easier is a plug-in expander/repeater such as the palm-sized 2.4 GHz/5 GHz Amped Wireless REC15A ($90). You just plug it into an AC outlet where you get at least 70 percent Wi-Fi reception and run through a quick online set-up to add around 6,500 square feet of Wi-Fi coverage. Easy peasy.
Then there’s the just-announced Sengled Boost ($50), an app-controllable LED light bulb with a built-in Wi-Fi repeater. I’m getting one this week so will let you know after I’ve had a chance to figuratively and literally light it up.
Bottom line: If your current ISP or router doesn’t supply the Internet connections you need, you don’t have to settle. There are ways of getting faster and wider connections either via setting up a 5 GHz network on your current N or AC router, buying a new AC router, extending your Wi-Fi’s reach via an extender/repeater, or hooking up with a new ISP and getting more megabit bang for your buck.
Naspa's Annual Conference Was Going Well. Then Yik Yak Showed Up.
Student-affairs professionals flocked to New Orleans this week for the annual meeting of Naspa — Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education. It’s one of the few times of the year they can get away from students and their annoying habits like, say, their use of the anonymous messaging app (and frequent powder keg of vulgarity) Yik Yak. Sounds like a great getaway, right?
Foolish student-affairs professionals. When will they learn? Yik Yak knows no borders.
The conference — which, again, is attended by people who have spent time mopping up Yik Yak messes — has been at least partially derailed by some colorful posts on the app. The activity was so pronounced that the association had to put out a statement responding to the posts.
'If The Internet Was A High School' Shows Why The Whole Web Needs Detention
Facebook and BuzzFeed are dating. The Huffington Post has a fight behind the gym after school.
And if that’s not enough drama for you, then you’ll want to catch all of Cracked’s “If The Internet Was A High School.”
But as you watch the digital-yet-human teen angst unfold, Cracked would like to point out: “We’ll never graduate and be able to move far away. The Internet is forever.”
See you at homecoming, Twitter.
H/T Viral Viral Videos
Checking Intention: How We Can Promote Constructive Online Dialogue
This morning, I realized that I live in an era in which silencing others’ opinions online means psychologically shutting people up, or making people feel uncomfortable to the point where they don’t see benefit in sharing their own thoughts. The danger about this phenomenon is that it’s polarizing communities, and most people don’t even know they’re doing it.
My Facebook news feed blew up yesterday in response to Judith Shulevitz’s New York Times article critiquing “safe spaces” on college campuses. Not long after I shared the article, I stumbled upon a friend’s status that claimed that progressive issues like these are “only discussed by and between white people.”
As a Hispanic woman who agrees with the article and who wants to discuss campus group-think a whole lot more, this claim made my voice feel silenced, and, as a result, I felt the need to debunk this obviously false claim that only white people have an opinion about this issue. In less than 40 words, I quickly stated that I am Hispanic and that I agree with Shulevitz. In turn, I falsified the claim that was made.
Not surprisingly, I was quickly notified of defensive responses that did nothing but tell me various reasons why I was misunderstanding the article. I felt that these responses were odd, because all I was doing was explaining why the claim that only white people discuss this issue is false. And though I commented a little more, after a while, I just posted this:
Nobody told me to shut up outright, but the disproportionate number of likes on each person’s comments, the sarcasm and shaming directed toward me, and the lack of empathy people had for my own personal experiences made me feel really uncomfortable sharing my opinions. Not once did someone ask me why I agreed with Shulevitz. So I asked myself a question instead:
Why did I feel silenced?
I realized that the reason I felt silenced by my peers was because there were no questions involved in our conversation. There was only telling. And defending. No one asked each other a question. Even I was guilty of that. All I did was state why someone’s claim was wrong. And though it was blatantly wrong, I am still guilty of not having asked a question.
The funny thing is that right before I engaged in this conversation with friends, I engaged in another conversation on one Washington Post comment section regarding the late Kara Trippets, may she rest in peace. I’m still smiling as I write this, because this Post conversation was the best online discussion I have ever participated in or read. Here are some of the comments people left about it:
What made this conversation that I had with total strangers different from the conversation I had with the people I go to school with and see on a regular basis?
The answer is that with this one, my intention was different. After a while, I started intending to learn why these people believed what they believed. My intention wasn’t to defend my own belief or to make them understand my viewpoint. I felt myself truly wanting to learn from them. And though I didn’t change my mind about physician-assisted suicide, I learned about people. I read their stories. I felt their pain. It was a moment I was connected to total strangers.
It. Was. Awesome.
And all it took were some thought-provoking questions. All it took was dialogue. All it took was an intention to learn and to care.
Not everybody asked questions in return, but I think we all knew that we were genuinely interested in what each other had to say. Sure, there were people who tried to take a jab at my confidence, but these comments were meaningless in a thread that people felt comfortable and safe sharing their opinions on. The dialogue we engaged in proved to me that we don’t need to silence others to get our point across and that by doing so we rob ourselves of the opportunity to connect with people on a deeper level.
This is how we should be communicating with each other on online forums. This is what I want to see more of. This can be our future. Asking questions is an act that stems from genuine interest and that shows people how much others care about what someone has to say. They do what statements can’t do: They give an opportunity for others to have a voice. One thing we should all do to help ensure that our online communities are constructive and compassionate is to check our intention and ask to each other some really good questions.
You're About To Start Seeing 360-Degree Videos On Facebook
A new type of video is coming to your News Feed.
Facebook announced Wednesday that the News Feed will support 360-degree videos, which let you move your viewpoint up, down, left or right to see different areas in frame.
“This is a new and much more immersive type of content,” Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, said during a keynote address at the company’s annual developer conference in San Francisco. “You’re actually interacting with it, and you feel like you’re there.”
Here’s a sample of what the experience will look like:
Think of these spherical videos like a live-action version of Google’s Street View, which lets you virtually visit a point on a map and look 360 degrees around by dragging your cursor or finger across a screen.
A Google Street View camera.
Spherical videos are filmed with special cameras that record a 360-degree view. Although they provide a unique experience when viewed on a computer screen, their real potential lies in virtual reality. To that end, Facebook said that 360-degree videos will be viewable using products from Oculus VR, the virtual reality company that Facebook bought last year for $2 billion.
“You’re going to be able to put on your headset and feel like you’re really there,” Zuckerberg said.
Facebook’s announcement comes fewer than two weeks after YouTube started supporting 360-degree videos. YouTube’s videos can only be viewed in the Chrome browser on a desktop or in an Android app.
It’s unclear when Facebook’s new feature will roll out, if it will be available on both mobile and desktop, and which types of cameras will be supported.
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Huffington Post.
Adorable Girl Scouts Ask Obama 'What Have You Come Up With?' And Then They Hug It Out
A team of Girl Scout Daisies showed some super flower power at the White House on Monday.
“The Supergirls,” aka Troop 411 — a team of five 6-year-olds from Tulsa, Oklahoma, represented Girl Scouts of America at the 2015 White House Science Fair with a page-turning robot. Wearing superhero red capes over their blue, badged uniforms, the team proudly presented their invention to President Obama himself. “It’s a prototype,” one of the (yes, 6-year-old) girls told him.
Girl Scout Troop 411 is presenting their Science project at the White House Science Fair today! Looks like they’re having a blast!
A photo posted by Girl Scouts (@girlscouts) on Mar 23, 2015 at 9:17am PDT
After walking him through their invention, the girls explain to the president that they came up with their idea through a “brainstorm session,” and one of the Girl Scouts asks Obama if he’s ever had one himself.
“I have had a couple brainstorming sessions, but I didn’t come up with anything this good!” the president told the troop. “So you guys are already better brainstormers than I am.”
Before Obama can finish his thought, another one of the other girls chimes in and asks him, “What did you come up with?”
“I came up with things like, you know, health care. It turned out OK, but it started out with some prototypes,” the president told the girls. He then tells them they did a good job and they all go in for a big group hug — just a regular old Monday for the “Supergirls” of Troop 411.
Group hug with the president! #Troop411 @girlscouts #supergirls #WHScienceFair pic.twitter.com/x0AwcGEgEU
— Girl Scouts East OK (@newsGSEOK) March 23, 2015
The battery-powered device, built from Legos, was created after the girls spoke with a librarian who told them some people have difficulty turning the pages of books, Tulsa World reported. The troop, who were the youngest inventors at the fair, then thought of people with arthritis or who are paralyzed and wanted to create an invention that would help them.
Their invention supports the Girl Scout Research Institute study Generation STEM: What Girls Say About Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math.
“It really is a problem with girls, when they get to middle school, they lose confidence in their own ability to succeed in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math),” troop leader Suzanne Dodson said. “Having this experience at young age really gives them a confidence boost.”
Girls change the world: http://t.co/h8h3EKxzIS #WHScienceFair pic.twitter.com/9Lfjfo7xPB
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 23, 2015
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Apple Store Employees Are Giving Fashion Advice Now
Apple store employees, those people who magically lay on iPhone screen protectors for you, are getting tasked with doling out fashion advice now, too.
It’s all thanks to the soon-to-debut Apple Watch. According to 9To5Mac, the company is pushing its staff to “build relationships with customers to understand their purchase plans, stylistic wants, and fashion needs,” which means doling out tips according to customers’ aesthetics when shopping.
As guides, employees will reportedly have sheets with examples of various personalities and looks that different Apple Watch options could possibly accommodate. Look at the guiding tool, below.
Photo courtesy of 9To5Mac.com; see more examples here
Apple’s venture into sartorial choices isn’t surprising. Last year, big names, such as Patrick Pruniaux, Tag Heuer‘s former vice president of sales, were tapped to likely consult on the Apple watch’s overall look. Vogue China was the first glossy magazine to feature the high-tech accessory on its November 2014 cover.
The Apple Watch is available for sale on April 24th.
The Huffington Post reached out to Apple for comment and has yet to receive a response.
Innovation at Its Finest
When we think about innovation, we try really hard to see into the future. What could we invent? What could make a difference in the world? Sometimes, innovation is about new ideas and products. Other times, however, innovation is about reinvention (what could we be doing differently?). Some of the best innovation is a fusion — taking new ideas or products and applying them to existing methods and processes.
Take a popular buzz word — digital marketing, for example. It has been around since the dot-com bubble era. While I was working with the rising digital firms in the dot-com bubble, we would build digital businesses completely from the ground up. Fast forward 15 years, and there’s still buzz around the digital experience… yet most people think that it’s a new thing and see “digital experience” as a new phenomenon. Is it a new thing? I think it’s more of a revolution, that this buzzword is being reinvented for today’s generation.
Developing a solid strategy is one thing, but execution is what sets apart the ‘okay’ companies from the ‘great’ ones. The Palm Pilot PDA was a game-changer for corporate business people in 1997. But then Blackberry began monopolizing the mobile industry in 1999 with mobile phones that operated like PDA’s, striking a blow to Palm. Yet, Blackberry lost its place as a market leader almost immediately once Apple’s iPhone gathered a following after 2007. Looking at the smartphones we use today, however, we see that the basic idea is having a personal assistant in a portable device, which his exactly the idea Palm had pioneered so many years ago. They had the answer right out of the gate. If they would’ve taken their strategy and capitalized on the mobile phone PDA concept sooner, then who knows? Palm Pilots could have been the mobile device of the 21st century.
I gave a keynote late last year at Concordia University on Innovations, Startups and Entrepreneurship. What struck a chord with my audience during my talk was not about innovation per se; it was about inspiration. How do we inspire the next generation of leaders? Is it even possible to cultivate genius innovation, or does it need to grow naturally? For that matter, how do you solve the problem to begin with? How do we make the world a better place? All of these questions are the starting base of innovation.
Sony has always been one of the top innovators for decades – electronics, quality, premium products and style. Think about it: it really has been decades. Anyone remember the Walkman you used to carry around and rock out with? Sony was also the first leader to grace the world with the 4K TV ten years ago. These television sets have ultra HD resolution of 3840 x 2160, four times the number of pixels in normal HD TVs! Companies like Samsung and Panasonic soon caught up with their technology, but Sony has set the example. Further, Sony reinvented the Walkman to be all about high resolution in sound quality. If you think about it, they have really been leaders in reinventing the category of the Walkman. It was the precursor to the next generation of high resolution sound: the MP3. This is the direction that all audio has moved to, and other companies like one I came across, AfterMaster, as well as Sony continue to reinvent technologies and work on the next stage of high resolution audio. But, what’s next? Companies should take the next step of integrating technologies so they can incorporate into other channels like mobile, auto, or even our homes.
People often ask me to weigh in on the PC vs Mac debate. I don’t think the PC market is dying just yet…However, I do think the market is going to go more mobile, shifting the categories within Apple iOS and Android. So, I would say the future will bring answers to how the gap between these operating systems and devices will be bridged. It may only be a matter of time! Take big data and IoT – these alone are going to become a $50B industry by 2020 (MWC Brian K from Intel shared in his keynote this month). Integration is inevitable, and what we’ve seen so far is just the beginning.
I was getting on the plane last month and a woman asked me what type of smartwatch I’ve got. As I showed it off, I told her that I don’t really use it to text or make calls. It’s just not functional enough. But, for me, it’s worth it because of the tracking technologies for my health. I can see how many steps I’ve taken throughout the day, how many hours of sleep I’m getting (or not getting), and this is extremely helpful. The woman then told me that she has an implanted heart detection device that automatically will connect with her buzzer that she carries in her purse – talk about technology integration! The healthcare IoT is booming and that will continue to be a huge trend in the coming years. It’s amazing to think what else will come out of the innovation put into IoT.
With all of these thoughts, I’m left with more questions. Is it an evolution or revolution that we live in? It seems like technology is outpacing society sometimes. I’m so glad that mobile is on the forefront. Again, mobile isn’t something brand new – it has been around for a while, from the StarTAC to pagers, to the first iPhone. Technology is everywhere today. We hope to see people and businesses continue to invent and reinvent technology because this innovation is what will lead our future.
Farm Groups Fight For Drone Freedom
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – American farmers want the Federal Aviation Administration to relax proposed regulations on commercial drones so the unmanned aircraft can be used over longer distances at any time of day or night, farm group representatives said on Wednesday.
Representatives for wheat, corn, and other farmers told a Capitol Hill forum that they will submit written comments to the FAA calling for final regulations to accommodate emerging drone technology for a range of agricultural applications.
They also want to make sure farmers can register drones and qualify to fly them easily, quickly and safely.
“Flexibility is a key term, and access,” said R.J. Karney, a lobbyist for the American Farm Bureau Federation.
Agriculture is seen as a major beneficiary of commercial drones, which could help farmers tend to crops more effectively and economically. But proposed FAA rules would allow drones weighing less than 55 pounds at altitudes of no more than 500 feet, in daylight hours and within an operator’s line of sight.
The FAA is expected to produce final regulations in late 2016 or early 2017. Farm group representatives said they expect to raise their concerns by an April 24 deadline for public comment.
Wheat growers want a mechanism allowing drones to fly beyond the operator’s line of sight assuming technology emerges that would safely allow it, said John Dillard, an attorney representing their interests at the forum.
Farm representatives said they also would call on FAA to allow drone flights at night, so farmers can treat crops at optimal hours after sunset. Karney said flights should be allowed above the 500-foot ceiling, too.
Paul Delaney, a spokesman for the American Soybean Growers Association, expressed concern about the potential for cumbersome paper registrations and requirements for aviation markings that could make it difficult to use very small drones.
“Those little piecemeal elements of the process – the ones that potentially stand in the way of a farmer being able to buy something, outfit it and have it integrated as soon as possible, those are the ones we really want to make sure are flushed out,” he said.
The forum took place a day after e-commerce giant Amazon.com blasted FAA for its slow pace on commercial drones and called on the regulatory agency to begin planning for more sophisticated operations.
(Reporting by David Morgan; Editing by Christian Plumb)
Steve Jobs Became A Better Boss When He Curbed His Narcissism
It takes a certain amount of narcissism to claw your way up the ranks of a company. But it takes as much humility to be successful once you’re there.
Executives who curb their confidence in their vision by admitting mistakes and limitations and acknowledging the contributions of others tend to command the most respect and loyalty from their teams, who thereby deliver results, according to a new study from Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management. However, humility, like meditation or golf, may take some practice.
And even so, narcissism is often a necessary tool for success — as it was for the late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, whose obsessive commitment to his vision for the iPhone maker helped shape it into the world’s most valuable company.
“Humility is not meant to replace some of the quintessential aspects of leaders,” Bradley P. Owens, assistant professor of business ethics at the university, told The Huffington Post. “It’s meant to supplement and buffer them from the extremes of narcissism.”
The study, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, surveyed 876 employees at a large Fortune 100 health insurance company and asked them to rate 138 leaders in the company on their humility and effectiveness, and how motivated the employees were by their supervisors.
Researchers measured the narcissism of the leaders by asking them to describe themselves by choosing between statements such as “I am an extraordinary person,” or “I am much like everybody else.”
“The leaders that performed the best were those who had high narcissism and high humility,” Owens, the lead study author, said.
As a real-life example of how narcissism and humility can mix successfully, Owens pointed to the portrayal of Steve Jobs in the new biography Becoming Steve Jobs, penned by journalists Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli.
The book, released Tuesday, chronicles the tech titan’s humbling years after his first run at Apple, which ended with the board firing him. Roughly a decade later, Jobs returned to the company and led it in a stunning turnaround. Paired with the findings from Owens’ study, this telling appears to link the softening of Jobs’ initial hotheaded abrasiveness with Apple’s rise to global dominance.
Until he was fired in 1985, Jobs was known for being extremely demanding on people around him, including then-CEO John Sculley.
“That was part of his greatness,” William Simon, co-author of iCon: Steve Jobs, the Greatest Second Act in the History of Business, told ABC News in 2011. “But he drove people too hard. … Being gentle was not part of his demeanor.”
By the time Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, he had learned to balance his leadership style.
“When he came back in his second stint, people described him as someone who was still narcissistic, but had learned to temper his narcissism in important ways,” Owens said. “That’s why Steve Jobs was really a great example of what we were looking for.”
That means, too, that humility can be a learned skill.
“Even if you have a narcissistic leader, and in a sense it’s causing them to be less effective in certain ways, people can proactively practice virtues like humility and develop their character,” Owens said. “Over time, it will begin to stick and enhance their leadership effectiveness.
6Tag for Windows Phone Gets Another Update And Remains THE Instagram Client for Windows Phone
The go-to client in my opinion for Instagram for Windows Phone is 6Tag, one of the many apps that developer Rudy Huyn has developed for the platform. 6Tag over the course of the last few months has received numerous updates as it is continually improved – a far cry from the year old Instagram official app that sits stale in the Windows Phone Store. This latest update to 6Tag, version 4.0.6.0 for those keeping score at home, brings two new features an improvements to the Live Tile. 6Tag for Windows Phone – Free (In-App Purchases) – Download Now The two new
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'Her | Self' Photos Reveal What Women Really See When They Look At Themselves
Women should be seen and heard — and a new portrait series uses women’s words and faces to make sure they are.
Created by Jennifer Bermon, the “Her | Self” series is a gallery of 28 black-and-white portraits of women from all walks of life, taken over the past 20 years. Bermon, a professional photographer and network TV producer, asked each of her subjects to write down what she saw in the image of herself and included each woman’s response underneath her picture. The results are undeniably powerful.
“What better way to explore the source of women’s body image issues than to see, and hear, from women themselves?” Bermon told The Huffington Post. “The photos give people insight into who the women really are and what story they want to tell about themselves.”
The women featured in the photo series include an Academy Award-winning screenwriter, an NYC firefighter, a 74-year-old rabbi, a NASA scientist and a high school varsity rower. “I wanted to reveal their inner thoughts — those words that they shared with other women in private conversation,” Bermon wrote in her artist statement.
(Story continues below.)
“The one word that comes to mind is satisfaction. This is the face and posture of someone who is comfortable and satisfied with her position in life. I am a NYC firefighter in Engine 58 — the best firehouse in the world. I am the result of many hands molding me into the firefighter I am — especially Lt. Robert Nagel –- my hero, my role model. A man who looked life and death straight in the face, walked the walk and talked the talk. To have the best job in the best house in the best city in the world — this explains the smile captured here. It may not always be on my face, but it is always in my heart.”
Bermon started the project 20 years ago when she was a student at Mills College. She described an epiphany she had one day while listening to her friends talk about what they didn’t like about themselves. “They looked perfect to me. I realized, this was a part of normal, day-to-day conversation,” she said. “Did they really hear what they were saying about themselves? Do we, as women, hear what we say to ourselves? There’s something about a photograph that freezes things and gives us time to really see something. Having the women write their words, gave them a voice of their own.”
Instead of simply seeing the women in these portraits, the series allows viewers to learn what these women see in themselves. “The woman’s photo and her words become one piece that stands on its own, with no editing and filtering,” Bermon wrote. “The viewer, first attracted to the photo, is then further drawn in by the emotions revealed by the words.”
Bermon said that many of the women she photographed told her the process was therapeutic. Talking about what we see in ourselves feels good, she said. “When I take photos of the women, I hope to capture them in a simple, straightforward way — what I see. So it’s almost objective,” Bermon told HuffPost. “The photos are a jumping off point for them to write about what they are thinking, it’s all about hearing from the women.”
“The project has been a labor of love,” Bermon said. “The best part is that the other women get it and want to do something to open up the discussion about it.”
“Her | Self” is currently on display at the dnj Gallery in Santa Monica, California until April 4.
Check out more of the images and transcripts from “Her | Self” below.
“I see a woman with questions. Is it okay to be as strong as I am? As smart as I am? It is okay to know what I know? To become a woman? It is okay to be short, ethnic and over 40 in Hollywood? My belly in this photo grounds me, I appear centered. And yet I wonder. Will my baby be healthy? Will I ruin him/her with all the mistakes I will make? I see a woman who is about to laugh or cry, could go either way. I see a girl ever hopeful, who misses her father.”
“It’s difficult for me to identify with my image in photos. I attribute that to a life-long habit of observation, rather than participation. This photo was taken in 2007. I was happy then, the happiest I’d been since the births of my children: I had managed after eight years of relentlessness to get our screenplay of Brokeback Mountain made into a fine film. Oliver and Amanda were my sole companions and had brought life into my home, my first dogs in nearly a decade, and a great comfort to me when in the following year, Heath tragically passed away, then my beloved older brother/best friend ended his long battle with cancer. Since this photo, Ollie and Mandy have been joined by five more orphan dogs; my foster child and young niece Ashley; and Larry and Faye McMurtry. My home today is very, very ‘alive.’ And I realize, looking at this photo, that this all began in 2007. And I wouldn’t have it any other way…”
“At 35 I feel my place is becoming clearer, and easier. I try to be practical and realistic. I feel stronger than the 21 year old I was, who thoughts she knew everything. My body is decorated to celebrate my life. The life of my daughter who grew inside of me, the lives of my favorite people who have shaped me into who I am. I will dye my hair blue or wear glitter lipstick because why not? If I can be an example, to anyone, to do what makes you happy then that makes me happy. I am a 5’3” multi-racial, daughter, wife, mother, photographer, crochet enthusiast, dancer, coffee-lover.”
“You know, what resides within is what’s important. I’ve relied on myself and the resources of my women shipmates to sail around the world twice. We have only ourselves to love in the face of storms and offshore emergencies — and so far we’ve looked pretty good. I’ve been essentially living on the ocean for the past 12 years and my 38 fort sailboat Tertulis has been home to many (67) women on our passages. I hold my head up and have a steady gaze — which shows in this photo. I’m self-referenced. I’m happy. I’m thinking you’re looking right back at me ready to voyage into your future as captain of your life.”
“This photo shows that I’m a happy person. I have been incredibly lucky to be able to work at something I’m passionate about, combining nature and space missions, studying volcanoes on far-off moons, how the geology of distant worlds was shaped, seeing alien landscapes for the first time… is there anything more exciting? Perhaps being at the edge of a lava lake here on Earth, feeling the almost unbearable heat… Getting where I am in my career was not easy, but it was so much fun. I feel very lucky and content. I think success is not define by where on the ‘success ladder’ you are, but by how far you have come. I grew up in Brazil, where little girls at that time were not supposed to grow up to become volcano explorers or NASA scientists. I persevered and never let go of my dream. I may not fit people’s stereotype of a female scientist. I love architecture, art, and fashion. I can say I feel as comfortable in hiking boots as I feel wearing a ballgown. We should be faithful to ourselves and respect our own individuality and that of others.”
“I can remember being 5 yrs. old at an audition overhearing the casting director say to my mom ‘Bring her back after she’s lost 5 pounds.’ And by no means was I a total chubster, I just wasn’t boney like some of the other little girls there. Regardless I was rejected because I didn’t meet up to their standards. I felt I wasn’t good enough. That’s pretty fucking heavy considering I was in kindergarden. I guess that’s when it started. So for the next 15 years I lived with the idea that since I was overweight, I was worthless, I was not good enough, boys could never like me because I didn’t look like that girl… etc. That’s such bullshit! This society is killing any inkling of a positive self image for children. Girls aren’t taught to love themselves for who they are, instead they are bombarded with images of 98 lb. girls with ridiculous D-cups instilling that is normal, and that’s how they should look if someone is ever going to love them. It’s sad. At this point in my life I can say that I’m the BOMB, not just because I am, but simply accepting my greatness without worrying what anyone else has to say about it is the shit. Love yourself for who you are. Work hard to live up to your own dreams, rather than an MTV video.”
“I like the photo of me very much. I think it shows someone with a good spirit and vitality. One of the advantages of growing older is that I have let go of vanity about my physical self. The external and superficial have become less compelling as life nears its end. My self image was 74 years in the making. I was a much loved child who was fortunate enough to be successful in school and with friends. The directions to which I have put that self-confidence and energy have changed, of course, through the years. Becoming a mother has given me greater insight into myself and others. It has taught me to how to love another more than myself. Becoming a teacher, a political activist and a rabbi have given me expression to the values I espouse. Having confidence to ‘go forth and do’ comes from a very basic sense of oneself. I would like to think that the experiences of my life have helped me to beco