IOT Archives - Page 12 of 17 -

Telehealth surges paving the way for change

Telehealth surges – possibly reshaping care delivery

Just how much has COVID boosted the telemedicine industry? The incumbent players in the space include Teladoc, MDLIVE and American Well, as well as international companies including Britain’s Babylon, Sweden’s Kry and France’s Doctolib. Babylon signed on 140,000 new users in the UK since the onset of COVID. Companies have been providing telehealth for more than half a dozen years, but the healthcare industry has been slow to embrace remote care. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: Healthcare providers in the U.S. have been on a building tear, throwing neighborhood clinics into many neighborhoods, creating, in many places, a glut of walk-in clinics. For this reason, along with resistance to change, telecare has not been attractive to providers. Consumers, however, have experience the convenience of remote care, and will likely, for many years, hold on to a fear of being in places with sick people. Expect care providers to embrace telehealth and blend remote services into traditional offerings.

Britian’s NHS creates its own national contact tracking app, shunning Google and Apple collaboration

Britain’s National Health Service has developed a Bluetooth-based contact tracking app which stores contact data between all users of the app in a database. If individuals choose to self-identify as infected, the app can notify all of those people who were in contact with the infected person. The NHS app stores data on a central server, whereas the Google Apple contact tracking app stores info on smartphones in a decentralized architecture. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: So, to whom do you wish to provide your location data: Big Tech, federal government, or no one? In the spirit of helping our communities track and address pandemics, do we offer data and participate, or, as CNBC states, is mission creep too tempting by any party? Big Tech already has the majority of our personal data if we own a smartphone, so perhaps trusting BigTech to use the data not only for profit but also for good is enough. Separation of tech and state will have to remain strong for all but those who wish to entrust all personal info to their governments.

Tom Cruise and Elon Musk collaborate on movie filmed in space

Cruise and Musk are apparently partnering on a project to film a movie, or some of a movie, aboard one of Musk’s SpaceX crafts. No details were offered on schedule, plot or names. CNET

dis-rup-shun: Musk has often been guilty of blurring the lines between space business and show business, and Cruise has often been guilty of considering himself out of this world, so the collaboration may be a match made in heaven. Before launching Hollywood into outer space, SpaceX must successfully send a NASA astronaut to the International Space Station on May 27th. If that goes well, perhaps movie talk is in order.

A rare event — Apple products on sale

A number of hot products from Apple, including the generation 5 watch, iPad, iPod and AirPods are among the items being cleared from Best Buy stock — an event that rarely occurs. Wired

dis-rup-shun: Strange times make for strange sales, and Best Buy, despite having a steady online business, is suffering mightily, like most all other retailers, from stores shuttered for nearly two months. Expect quite a few surprising sales as companies across the globe from Neiman Marcus to Best Buy fight for survival and liquidate inventory.

Consumer Electronics, IOT, Smart Home

Covid Coach is the mental health app to keep you coping

Featuredby sbsikesLeave a Comment

Covid Coach mental health app helps people cope

Covid Coach offers people in isolation a number of tools to deal with anxiety, loneliness and depression, by offering tips on applying for unemployment, meditation guidance, and a way to measure stress and anxiety in an effort to manage it. Wired

dis-rup-shun: The app, from the National Center for PTSD is yet another way to engage technology for health. As mental health treatments are rarely discussed, providing a confidential, easy to access tool for everyone, the National Center for PTSD is proving the value of public health programs.

NVidia scientist creates $400 ventilator

The innovators at Nvidia, the chip company that has powered game consoles, auto dashboards, and millions of PC graphics processors has developed a simple, power efficient ventilator using a small number of components. It’s $400 price tag stands in contrast to the $20,000 charged by traditional ventilator manufacturers. The system is now being submitted to the FDA for emergency certification. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: Competition is good, and the pandemic is tearing down many walls that were erected by companies that don’t want competition. One barrier that justifies the inflated price for medical equipment is FDA certification. With an emergency certification process in place, the FDA will be hard-pressed, after the end of the pandemic, to prove why nimble companies cannot compete, in perpetuity, with the healthcare equipment incumbents.

Use your phone as video camera for video calls

It’s easy to join video calls with your phone, but if you need to share your desktop and your office computer does not have a working camera, several apps enable your phone to serve as video camera for your desktop video calls. For Android to PC, there’s DroidCam. For iPhone to PC, there is iVCam, and for Android to Mac, try EpocCam. Wired

dis-rup-shun: In the age of work from home, image matters, and having a crisp, steady image and great audio are the new “dress for success.” If your built-in camera is crummy and you have an older smartphone that is not in use, this may be the answer.

Airbus app helps airlines find parking places for aircraft

The airline industry is operating at 5% of last year’s numbers. More than 16,000 aircraft are parked. Finding enough space at airports around the globe to stack giant planes is an unprecedented logistics challenge. Airbus has developed an app that helps airlines find new places to park jets. Watch the video here CNBC.

dis-rup-shun: The drop in demand for aircraft will take months to years to ripple through the economy, forcing aircraft manufacturers to turn to new revenue sources, like on-the-ground maintenance. Maintaining jets in remote locations that are not in service will be a big business for the next year. Now is a time to see how innovative Boeing and Airbus can be at not building new planes.

Consumer Electronics, IOT, Smart Home

A smart vaping device?

Featuredby sbsikesLeave a Comment

Smart vaping — tracking (bad) habits

IO(S)T — the Internet of smoking things is here. The PuffPacket, developed with the help of researchers at Cornell, connects your vaping device to your smartphone via Bluetooth, at which point vapers can view their vaping activity on an app, and can opt to send it to the cloud where various other parties may use the data for various purposes. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: What is the value of your vaping data? To vaping device and cartridge manufacturers, knowing when and how you use their products will help them improve both their products and their advertising. For you, knowing when you most enjoy the experience will help you purchase the right supplies for the right times, or will help you know when you need substitute products if you desire to quit. For regulators, the data will help them understand trends and policies needed to protect minors.

Coronavirus damage report: advertising

This week, a number of advertising-fueled businesses reported earnings. The good news is that a slow March did not hurt the top line drastically. The bad news is that the damage will come in the second quarter. Some executives expect the pullback in advertising to come in waves over the coming quarter, but expect sector performance to vary. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: Two factors are working for the advertising industry’s favor: one is a very strong January and February, which kept the quarter somewhat healthy, and the diversification of Big Tech companies that are not only major advertising engines, but also purveyors of entertainment, logistics and video conferencing — all of which thrived in usage during shelter in place.

Studio quality microphone to enhance video calling and video making

The Rode GO lavalier microphone is the $199 device that is next in the transformation of your home into a top notch conference center or video production studio. During the time of quarantine, many have purchased new monitors, special behind computer lighting and created special backgrounds. Adding a wireless mic brings high quality audio to the home studio/office.TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: Remember the book Wikinomics? The book, published in 2006, stated that the new Internet economy was all about decentralizing (formerly) specialized functions, such as journalism and yes, movie making. Pro-grade tools available for a few hundred dollars or less will continue to blur the lines between amateur and professional content and provide massive amounts of long-tail content for the world to enjoy.

Amazon smart oven: IOT gone awry

Wired’s Joe Ray chronicles the frustration of trying to find conveniences provided by a smart oven. Amazon’s offering, leaning heavily on Alexa, the smartphone app, and cross-selling packaged food from Amazon, proves complicated and, ultimately, not helpful. Wired

dis-rup-shun: In defense of Amazon (not that they need defending), much of the problem is that the microwave was intended to make something complicated (cooking) very simple. The truth is, using IOT technology to make something that is already simple more simple results in complications. It is safe to say that very few people actually cook in their microwave — it is for quick heating or thawing — and therefore trying to turn the device into something more is a task in itself. IOT is valuable to consumers when it solves a problem. When IOT goes looking for a problem, it usually fails.

Consumer Electronics, IOT, Smart Home

Moxie robot teaches kids what parents don’t

Featuredby sbsikesLeave a Comment

Moxie robot builds children’s social and emotional skills

Moxie is a small robot for children. It is designed by the founder of iRobot, makers of Roomba whose current company, Embodied, has identified the need to help children with deficiencies in social and emotional development. Moxie becomes a new friend and mentor for children, helping them learn to make eye contact when speaking, remember to thank people, and complete a number of human tasks. Wired

dis-rup-shun: Sad. Parents aren’t modeling social and emotional skills for their children and need to outsource parenting to a little robot. On the other hand, we all know people whose parents clearly skipped those lessons when raising them, and would have benefited from a robot step-parent. Expect teaching robots to be common household appliances in three to five years.

Zoom chooses Oracle in chess match with Google and Microsoft

Zoom announced that it has chosen Oracle, a distant “also ran” cloud infrastructure provider to handle the exploding demand for Zoom’s video conferencing services. The choice became clear as cloud leaders Microsoft with Teams video conferencing software and Google with its Meet video software announced plans to provide the software for free (Teams is a no-cost add-on to users of Office). Zoom stated that it was not interested in funding its rival’s free offerings. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: The diversity of the organizations under Big Tech’s umbrellas make it hard for smaller technology players to determine who is friend or foe. Is Google’s massive ad platform, the leading online marketplace, also a threat as it collects shopping and traffic data of all of its customers’ customers? Is Amazon’s leading cloud platform — a significant infrastructure provider — providing competitive data to Amazon.com? Scale obviously has advantages, but creates many conflicts that are the source of much of the Justice Department’s concerns about Big Tech, which have been muffled by the COVID crisis.

Electric Harley Davidson is the company’s latest reinvention

Harley’s LiveWire is an exciting offering in the growing electric motorcycle market. Harley has broken its tradition of using mostly its own components and has sourced best of breed components from other vendors to create a state of the art device. For $30,000, one can have an efficient, renewable energy work of art. CNET

dis-rup-shun: Harley has taken a play out of Tesla’s playbook. That is, the company is first launching a state-of-the-art, top-of- the-line product that redefines the company’s image as leading innovator. GM’s approach to electric vehicles — starting with the economy-minded Volt, proved unexciting. Harley, like Tesla, can later target a larger, more mainstream motorcycle buyer with a less expensive electric model, but first it will tantalize the market with a product many people, including non-cycle enthusiasts, would like to own.

Indoor security camera round up: Wyse wins

CNET offers a quick review of the top indoor Wi-Fi connected cameras, from the best value to the most sophisticated. The Wyze camera costs $20 with 2 weeks of free video storage. Netatmo works with HomeKit, the iPhone native home control app. Nest Cam IQ recognizes faces and tells you who is coming and going.

dis-rup-shun: These amazing cameras at amazing prices will continue to make homes smart. My employer’s latest survey, research firm Interpret, determines that 11% of U.S. broadband users have a smart security camera installed. With the Nest Cam, how could you teenager ever deny coming home after curfew? Expect that 11% to grow steadily as people solve “home problems” with video.

Consumer Electronics, IOT, Smart Home

Drones deliver meds to retirement community

Featuredby sbsikesLeave a Comment

UPS and CVS use drones to deliver meds to retirement homes

Residents at Florida’s The Villages retirement community will receive medications via drone, starting next month. The companies have been testing the service since last year and are now addressing the challenges of the current conditions by delivering medications to a facility that is particularly vulnerable to visits from non-residents. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: The current shelter in place environment is a text book application for medicines delivered by drones — especially since most drones cannot carry a heavy payload. Light loads such as medications, in emergency situations, are an ideal application of the aircraft. Regular specialty delivery applications will advance the role of drones as everyday link in the logistics chain.

Airbus 380, the largest passenger jet, is 15 years old and retired

The massive A380 is the largest production passenger plane ever built and is Airbus’ answer to the Boeing 747 — provided to a market that was clamoring for large, efficient craft to optimize hub and spoke airline operations models. The A380, however, turned out to be more fixed asset than most airlines wanted — requiring terminal and tarmac re-configurations and oceans of fuel to operate. Airbus expected to sell over 1200 models over its product life, but pulled the plug on the program after selling only 251. CNET

dis-rup-shun: The Corona Virus pandemic did not kill the A380, but it put the last nail in the coffin as all A380s are currently grounded. Attacking business problems with scale is difficult, and risky. While scale often looks like the proper strategy on paper, the inflexibility created by commitments large enough to keep a fleet of A380s flying has proved to be a hindrance. The A380 will be honored as both an engineering feat as well as case study in business planning.

WFH is working well for a large number of displaced workers

In a multi-state survey, 42% of respondents reported to be working from home, up from 9% who were working from home pre-COVID. Among respondents working from home, 24% indicate a desire to remain at home or working at home more frequently after the shelter in place order is over. 60% of workers stated that they are equally or more productive at home than in office, and 28% said time saved on commuting was spent working longer. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: Even a 5% shift in work habits will send ripples through the office economy — lowering demand for office space, office supplies, lunch counters, commuter trains, bus seats, tolls, gas consumed and dry cleaning, to name a few items. The productivity gains proven from web conferencing and remote work platforms such as Teams and Slack will result in permanent structural changes to many organizations — and potentially better performance and lifestyles for workers.

Books sales are booming – not just at Amazon

Online booksellers are pandemic winners. Independent bookseller upstart Bookshop expects to complete $6 million in sales in year one, and hot topics are gardening, sustainability and eco-friendly activities, while guide books, travel and foreign language topics are duds. Wired

dis-rup-shun: Not just Bezos, but everyone in the online book business is enjoying the spoils of a captive audience. At home online entertainment companies are thriving, including those that support cooking, streaming video, music services, games, sexual health, exercise and home delivery, to name a few.

Consumer Electronics, IOT, Smart Home

Your personal data could prevent future pandemics

Featuredby sbsikesLeave a Comment

Social networks may be the future of epidemic tracking

Carnegie Melon University is working to use self-reported personal data to Facebook and Google, about COVID and statistics on doctor visits to build a data map of the pandemic, which may be a powerful predictive tool for future outbreaks. Wired

dis-rup-shun: This is a great example of how using your data and mine can help scientists identify movement of diseases from region to region, perhaps better preparing communities for what is coming, and understanding what actions may be taken to curtail outbreaks. This data is provided by willing volunteers, so if it seems creepy or “overstepping” consider that individuals have decided to make a contribution, using the new currency of personal information. After all, you are already contributing every day, thanks to your smartphone.

Facebook adds video calling for 50 to Messenger

Facebook won’t get left out of the video conferencing boom. The company will begin, this Friday, enabling free video calling for up to 50 through Messenger rooms over which the host can control access and invite people without having Facebook accounts. Video call traffic in WhatsApp and Messenger has more than doubled since the beginning of the global pandemic. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: First there was the telegraph, and a company called ITT dominated. Eventually the telephone replaced the telegraph, and calling was dominated by AT&T. Then, of course, there were mobile phones dominated by a company called Cingular Wireless, and then there was the Internet, dominated by Google for search and Facebook for social networking. Will Zoom become the dominant video conferencing provider of the next era, controlling the majority of video conference calls? Not if Facebook can stop them with WhatsApp and Messenger. Leadership is changing quickly with the world turning to virtual communities and Facebook knows that an opportunity lost may not ever be regained.

Fortnite in-game concert event attracts 12.3 million players

Epic Games’ Fortnite property hosted a live, in-game concert by rapper Travis Scott. The psychedelic event was a debut for new music from the rapper. The event follows prior events featuring a never before seen clip from Star Wars, and Chance the Rapper’s Quibi debut. Event attendees received special Fortnite loot. CNET

dis-rup-shun: An alternative reality is not complete without an alternative economy, and attracting players with big name live events does a good job of pumping up the latter. Epic is creating buzz for Fortnite and, just like a live concert, gets a bump from selling special items within the event. And you thought there was nothing to do during quarantine?

Airtime app creates a YouTube viewing party

The new Airtime app from YouTube enables a group of friends, families, or associates to experience a curated set of video together, in a private viewing room on YouTube. Once friends are alerted and invited, then sign in to a private room where they can, together, watch a movie of show, watch and video chat with one-another, and pause the video as desired. CNET

dis-rup-shun: Forget homework — every night is now a Friday night sleepover with this app. This blend of YouTube and Zoom takes virtual community building to a new level. Expect group activities such as going to a mall, a movie theater or a frozen yogurt shop to be permanently impacted by increasingly better ways to hang out without every leaving home.

Consumer Electronics, IOT, Smart Home

Google changes the ad game, again

Featuredby sbsikesLeave a Comment

Google requires all advertisers to provide identity to consumers

Google is making a major change to online advertising, requiring all advertisers to provide their identity and country of origin for any consumer that clicks “Why this ad?” button. All advertisers will be given 30 days to comply with the same disclosure that Google has required of political candidates since 2018. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: It is very gratifying to see new CEOs such as Google’s Sundar Pichai join Microsoft’s not-so-new CEO, Satya Nadella, do logical and smart things to make their companies better industry leaders. Maybe Zuckerberg will get inspired to polish up his company’s tarnished reputation, and take a leadership position in the right direction.

Apple releases cheap but powerful iPhone

Apple’s iPhone SE is out this Friday, and while Apple has not made much noise about it, it is a powerful offering at $399. For less than half of the flagship iPhone 11, one can get the same processor, much of the same camera technology (no zoom or wide angle) in what is an iPhone 8 case. Battery life is shorter, but if you charge daily, no big deal. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: Why is this a big deal? Apple needed to beef up its low end to ward off growing rivals from Korea and China that are offering amazing functionality for less. Also, in the post-COVID-19, yet-to-be-named recession we are now in, plopping down a grand for a new device will be a low priority. As long as you are not ashamed by your smaller screen, you can replace your old or broken phone without breaking the bank.

WAH desk injuries? Get a massage gun

One side effect of sitting at your desk for inordinate hours is aches and pains in the back and butt. Percussive massage guns are an increasingly important work at home tool, along with large monitors, standing desks, and back lighting for web conferences. There are a variety of massage gun models for different conditions. Jen Reviews

dis-rup-shun: Working at home, if you are not home schooling, raises efficiency and output for most knowledge workers. It also required that people learn when to leave the office. For many, the result is 14 or more hours in the desk chair, especially since our social lives often take place from the same seat. Post sheltering massage businesses should see a surge in demand, but until then, massage guns and Peloton workouts will sustain us.

Smart homes learn by listening

Carnegie Melon University and Apple are partnering to develop Listen Learner AI technology. Listen Learner is an AI based technology that enables smart devices in the home to identify sounds and attach them to an action. For instance, jingling of car keys might signal to your home that you are leaving and you want to put your home into an away mode, with lights off, temperature in save mode, and the alarm system activated. To train smart systems to recognize those sounds is a tedious process, but Listen Learner technology tries to guess and asks you, verbally, to confirm. This process is much more convenient for home owners and more likely to succeed. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: Despite people’s fears of big brother listening, audible AI technologies are pushing ahead. Expect home security systems to depend less on your arming them as they learn to recognize motion and sound patterns and decide, mostly correctly, when it is time to arm. The applications for seniors are very promising. If your home recognizes the sound of the front door opening and doesn’t “hear” a return, it could notify caretakers. Or if it senses the sound of a fall, it could take immediate action, perhaps saving a life.

Consumer Electronics, IOT, Smart Home

Google opens healthcare API to connect providers

Featuredby sbsikesLeave a Comment

Google opening healthcare API

Google’s Cloud unit continues to pursue the connected health industry by opening its health information interface, called Google Healthcare API. This action enables different healthcare information providers, regardless of if they are using Google’s cloud, to connect to a common data interface intended to integrate disparate health information sources. The Department of Health and Human Services previously issued a mandate restricting vendors from a common practice of blocking information exchange between systems. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: Microsoft’s Azure cloud service has pursued a similar path to encourage standardization and information exchange. The healthcare industry, quite simply, has used data as a competitive advantage, making it difficult for consumers and doctors to shop for competitive services. Creating an open data exchange will enable willing healthcare providers to de-mystify the healthcare pricing and payment system, and empower consumers to choose what they pay to whom. Fear of sharing personal information with BigTech will hinder some, but when shopping for care becomes as easy as ordering an Uber ride, consumers will overcome their privacy concerns.

The rise of the Apple watch

The Apple Watch is now five years old, and last year, according to Strategy Analytics, the company shipped an estimated 31 million units while all Swiss watch brands combined shipped about 21 million units. Today the Apple Watch offers about 20,000 apps, most that require the use of the iPhone (which offers 2 million apps), and include many health and fitness apps, including an FDA approved EKG sensor. CNET

dis-rup-shun: Apple is, in fact, redefining the definition of the watch, much like it did a phone. Calling an iPhone a phone is almost a misnomer, given that voice communication is such a small part of the utility it offers. Soon an Apple Watch will provide so many seemingly-essential functions that comparing the device to a wrist watch will be for the purposes of nostalgia only. As CNET says, watch makers that have not joined the smart watch race have essentially missed the window to do so.

Facebook’s Portal is a Coronavirus winner

As often covered, Facebook’s smart display offering, the Portal family, was received tepidly when introduced, mostly due to people’s lack of trust for Facebook’s privacy policies. Now the devices are out of stock on most online stores. Strategy Analytics estimates that Facebook has sold about one million units in 2019 and 200,000 units so far this year. This success, however, represents only 2% of the market, of which Amazon has 45%. CNET

dis-rup-shun: The pandemic may have saved this product line from extinction, and it seems that many people believe that Portal is a better solutions for seniors than its competitors. Will Facebook seize this opportunity and seek to carve out its place in the aging-in-place market, or will it continue to throw small stones at Goliath? Facebook has an opportunity to double down on attempts to prove that the company is trustworthy, and winning over seniors would be a smart way to build a beachhead of consumer support.

Battling slow Wi-Fi?

If sheltering in place has made you more aware of the ups and downs of your home Internet service, then read CNET‘s explanations and suggesting course of correction. First, the review suggests that inconsistent Internet speeds are the result of your provider throttling your speeds to better share bandwidth across customers. They can do so given legislation that gave them that right (net neutrality). Step 1 in the diagnosis is to run some speed tests through M-Lab. If this test verifies inconsistencies, then you may wish to install a virtual private network (VPN) through software, to conceal your streaming volume and schedule from your provider. In theory, this will reduce fluctuations they impose.

dis-rup-shun: The article also suggests that you call your provider and threaten to switch if they won’t stop jacking with your speeds. It seems that we are as dependent on Wi-Fi for living as we were with dial tone and maybe even moreso, but the mysteries of getting constant, stable coverage are battles faced my most households. Is it poor infrastructure to the home, or is an old router, or inadequate signal to cover the home? It seems that there is a real opportunity for an Internet Doctor service to replace the dying Cable Guy.

Consumer Electronics, IOT, Smart Home

BigTech increasing presence in wallets

Featuredby sbsikesLeave a Comment

BigTech gaining increasing share of wallets

Tech firms have been seeking to replace our wallets with electronic payment methods which are very popular in many countries, but slow to catch on in the U.S. Apple’s credit card, along with payment services from Google and Samsung are increasingly accepted and 15% of Starbucks orders are now mobile. McKinsey found, in a 2019 survey, that only 35% of people trust Facebook to handle their finances, compared with more than 50% who trust Apple and 65% trust Amazon. BigTech firms know that direct access to consumer spending data is a treasure trove of marketable information. CNET

dis-rup-shun: Banks are sitting ducks. While BigTech cannot take over all capabilities of banks, and while banks exist under charters issued, in the U.S., by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), many of their services will disappear. BigTech will take more transaction fees, annual membership fees, small loans, and yet to be created financial services. Currently big banks are forming close relationships with BigTech, which is a competitive strategy, but will also accelerate the displacement of traditional banking as tech firms acquire both ownership and knowledge of the industry.

Facebook accelerates gaming with dedicated app

Facebook is launching a dedicated app, Facebook Gaming, that allows users to watch live game play or to share live their own game playing. This release is timely, given the uptick in gaming as a result of the global pandemic. The app positions Facebook against live game playing platforms of YouTube, Amazon’s Twitch, and Microsoft’s Mixer. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: Game playing is up by more than 20%, according to some sources, and Facebook is simply accelerating a plan that was already in testing in Asia. Facebook continues its wise moves to diversify and enrich its platform, as the core service is mature and losing many of its followers to alternative social media platforms that are seen as more trendy and relevant, as Facebook becomes, for millennials, like the phone book of their parents’ generation.

Apple Music now available without iTunes

Apple Music is now competing with Spotify, allowing streaming directly from a web browser for those with a paid subscription. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: We can thank Apple for reinventing the music business and igniting a round of innovation with the coupling of iTunes and the iPod. Apple, however, botched iTunes and the Apple experience when it made moving and authorizing owned music from device to device, complex. Apple’s failure to keep iTunes as the most friendly music experience pushed consumers to streaming platforms such as Real Audio, Pandora, Spotify and many other competitors. Now Apple is doubling down on services and trying to capture more of the market it gave away a decade ago.

Mendel air sensor critical for indoor growers

Mendel has manufactured a $99 air sensor that tracks temperature, humidity, VPD, and Lux (lumens). Data is refreshed every 15 minutes and displayed on an app. Mendel, reportedly, was encouraged to develop this technology by cannabis growers whose margins are thin and investments high. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: Self-sustainability is more interesting than ever, with trips to the grocery store being dangerous and disappointing as a number of products, including produce, in short supply. Growing things indoors is challenging and the air sensor critical. With large numbers of people entering the cannabis business, demand for “smart gardening” products will remain strong.

Consumer Electronics, IOT, Smart Home

NBA and Microsoft take basketball to the cloud

Featuredby sbsikesLeave a Comment

NBA moves to the (Microsoft) cloud

Remember sports? The NBA and Microsoft announced a sweeping contract which employs Microsoft’s Azure cloud to create an enhanced fan experience — enabling fans to access historical videos and select camera angles. The contract also includes the NBA’s widespread use of Microsoft’s Surface devices. CNBC

dis-rup-shun: Question: How do you beat the cloud giant, Amazon? Answer: You leverage assets (a line of PC/tablets) that your competitor does not have, and you position your services to invent a new way of watching sports to create new camera angles and special features for online users. Microsoft continues to execute beautifully under Nadella and beat dominant AWS in some very strategic accounts.

Apple to develop over-the-ear headphones

According to Bloomberg, Apple is readying a line of over the ear, noise cancelling headphones. The company owns Beats, which offers a number of over-the-ear models. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: Over-the-ear headphones seem like a not very innovative product and it’s a bit of a surprise that Apple is pursuing this product now. What are some reasons? Firstly, the company has made so much money selling its premium priced AirPods that it can’t resist the urge to follow that act with another audio accessory. Secondly, given the fact that the future appears that it will be spent, in large part, on video conferencing applications, demand for audio accessories is greatly increased. Finally, since the company already owns Beats, it can repackage the technology and use existing supply partners quickly. In short, it is a low risk way to expand a profitable product line.

Website provides the office and workplace noises you miss

For those that are on the edge of insanity from the quiet or repetition of sheltering at home, the microsite Reichenbergerstr 121 offers a cacophony of office/coffee shop noises, taking you back to the time when you worked around people. Sounds effects supplied include:

Clandestine whispers of two people trying to gossip in an open office
Opening of a La Croix can
The retro summer jam everyone at the office agrees is a bop
Mediocre but hard-working Keurig machine gurgles
The marketing manager who worked with someone named Felicia and smugly shouted “bye Felicia!” 3 to 30 times daily
Two people apologizing for bumping into each other in the hall
C-SPAN broadcasting a Congressional hearing
Mysterious laughter from the one area where everyone is best friends
My editor trying to eat lunch the quietest that anyone has ever eaten Lifehacker

dis-rup-shun: This site does offer good amusement, especially if you start it and leave it, forgetting it is running until you hear distant giggles or an occasional whistle. Perhaps, once people return to public places, the sounds of crowds can be used to jump start traffic to empty shops and restaurants, and get the pump primed, so to speak. What would we do without the wonderful place called the World Wide Web?

Rokid glasses “see” COVID-19 from a distance

Chinese start-up Rokid has released infrared glasses that are able to see people with high body temperatures from three meters away. Outfitted on hospital workers or airport security agents, the technology could help remove infected people from crowds and public places. TechCrunch

dis-rup-shun: While this technology could be very useful, its use again seems like a violation of privacy, wherein the eye in the sky scans the crowd for people that will be escorted, by storm troopers, to an unidentified back room.