Adidas Wilson's Blog, page 163
April 22, 2017
April 21, 2017
Apple’s Augmented Reality Plans May Include iPhone 8 Smart Connector for Special Glasses
Apple’s iPhone 8 will reportedly include an iPad Pro-like smart connector that may be the link up for augmented reality and virtual reality headsets. The report is tenuous, but the idea that Apple is ready to introduce its augmented reality platform this fall is interesting.
Word of Apple’s plan comes courtesy of the Israeli website The Verifier saying the smart connector will also be used for charging, sort of like MagSafe for the iPhone. Assuming they’re right, Apple will use the iPhone’s smart connector right away for more than it’s done with the iPad Pro. Currently, the only accessory taking advantage of the iPad’s smart connector is the Smart Keyboard cover.
It’s no secret Apple is exploring augmented reality, which overlays data, graphics, and other content onto whatever users are looking at. Google’s first public attempt at grabbing the augmented reality market was Google Glass—high tech eye glasses that projected information only the wearer could see.
Google Glass never amounted to more than a public exploration of what’s possible with augmented reality technology in part because convincing people to wear glasses who don’t need them is a hard sell. Apple will likely use the iPhone as its augmented reality platform, just as Facebook just announced it’s doing.
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Using smartphones with augmented reality makes sense because users won’t have to buy more equipment to carry around, and the built-in cameras can handle the image and video capture necessary while the phone processors handle the real time overlay of data, all of which displays on the built-in screen.
Relying on smartphones means users need their phone in hand to experience augmented reality, which they currently do when playing Pokémon GO—a popular augmented reality game that sends players on hunts in the real world to capture virtual characters.
Smartphones and Augmented Reality
If Apple wants to make augmented reality feel more immersive, adding in some sort of glasses is the most logical path to take. Glasses as an accessory instead of a requirement means more iPhone owners can try augmented reality without spending extra money, and those who want a deeper experience can buy Apple’s special glasses.
Connecting the glasses to a smart port, however, seems clunky and awkward since there’ll be an extra cable running from the glasses to your iPhone. Instead, Apple could use the smart connector to charge its glasses and go with Bluetooth when they’re in use.
That said, there isn’t much right now to back up the idea of augmented reality glasses for the iPhone 8 yet. The Verifier doesn’t have a history with insider sources, and there aren’t any independent reports echoing what they’re saying.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, for example, has a well documented track record with Apple product leaks, and his report from earlier this week has no mention of the smart connector or augmented reality glasses. Until more sources back up this report we’re remaining skeptical.
Source:
https://www.macobserver.com/news/iphone-8-augmented-reality-smart-connector/
3D-Printing Tools from Martian Dust Will One Day Help Us Colonize Mars
One of the many challenges of colonizing Mars is that the planet is lacking many of the natural resources we rely on here on Earth. We’ll need to bring as much of what we need to survive as possible, but you can only pack so much into a spaceship. So scientists are developing ways to utilize at least one of the red planet’s most abundant resources: dust.
We’ve had a hard time coming up with reasons as to why everyone needs a 3D printer here on Earth, but on Mars the machines could be used to manufacture tools, spare parts, even entire structures, habitats, and vehicles, given there’s no hardware stores for astronauts to visit if we eventually send humans on the 34 million mile journey. But 3D printers don’t make things out of thin air.
You’ve probably seen an affordable consumer-friendly 3D printer at work, melting and extruding thin lengths of plastic to build up a model. There’s no plastic on Mars, however, and packing miles of filament on a ship takes up valuable space that could be better used for transporting oxygen, water, and other essentials. So scientists at Northwestern University’s McCormick School of Engineering have developed a way to turn extraterrestrial materials, like Lunar and Martian dust, into a 3D printing material.
While Martian meteorites kicked up from cosmic collisions have made their way to earth, giving us some idea of what the red planet is made of, we don’t have physical samples of the dirt and dust covering its surface. Instead, the Northwestern scientists have relied on NASA-approved simulants—aka fake dust—that the space agency uses for its own testing purposes that match the shape and size of the tiny particles that make up Martian dust.
When mixed with a series of simple solvents and a biopolymer developed by the researchers that binds the dust together when dried, the material can be extruded with a 3D printer to create whatever Martian colonists happen to need. The printing process isn’t entirely dependent on materials found on Mars, but objects can be produced that are made of over 90 percent dust, reducing the amount of raw material a spaceship needs to haul.
3D printing still has a long way to go before astronauts impossibly far from home can rely on it for survival. A machine screwing up after 20 hours of printing is annoying here, but could mean life or death for off-world colonists. However, it might eventually be one of the best tools for quickly setting up a viable establishment, without requiring astronauts to plan and pack for every possible scenario once they land.
Source:
http://gizmodo.com/3d-printing-tools-from-martian-dust-will-one-day-help-u-1794507348
Reclaiming the word ‘old’: How fashion is fighting ageism
An estimated 50 percent of the U.S. population is expected to hit 50 years of age or older this year, according to a Nielsen study that examined Baby Boomers, a portion of the population born in the post-World War II era between 1946 and 1964. What’s more, this group is expected to control 70 percent of disposable income in the U.S. by the end of 2017.
This has inspired a shift within fashion, an industry in large part built upon appearances and ingrained standards of beauty, which in America has long been synonymous with youth. This is particularly true if you’re a woman — just take one look at Hollywood, where according to a University of Southern California study examining the 25 best picture nominations from 2014 to 2016, 78 percent of the actors over 60 were men, compared to just 12 percent of women.
It’s also led to a challenging dichotomy for luxury brands that sell products with exorbitant price tags, but have for decades featured women as young as 15 on runways, when women over age 50 hold more spending power.
“The interesting thing about fashion is it’s a paradox because of its extreme focus on beauty,” said Ashton Applewhite, author of “This Chair Rocks: A Manifesto Against Ageism.” “Of course, we do idolize youth and equate youth with beauty, but aging and beauty can and do co-exist. Hiring older models is a validation of that.”
This February, 21 models over age 50 walked runways during global fashion weeks in New York, Paris, London and Milan, an uptick from the 13 models featured the previous fall, according to a study by the Fashion Spot. In New York, brands like Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, Tom Ford, J. Crew, Rachel Comey and Tome, for which O’Shaughnessy walked, led the charge on age inclusivity.
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“We have been fed this notion that youth equals beauty, and once the powers that be decided to sexualize young women for commerce, it became the normal way to cast an ad or a show,” said Tome designer Ramon Martin. “What that method of casting is ignoring is the rest of womankind, and a large group of older women who have the budget and lifestyle to afford designer clothes. I think for those women, seeing someone their age resonates with them more.”
Designer Tracy Reese has also played a significant role in age inclusivity, an effort that communications manager Alyssa Jones said is a reflection of understanding her brand’s consumer base. “We know that our customer ranges over a lot of different age groups, and we felt like we needed to represent that. It makes a difference when your customer sees someone who represents them in the clothes.”
Though women over 50 make up a relatively small percentage of models in runway shows and marketing campaigns, their presence is making waves. Just this week Calvin Klein announced that 73-year-old actress Lauren Hutton will star in the brand’s latest underwear campaign, while former model Tyra Banks announced in March she is removing the age restriction for contestants in her popular reality show, “America’s Next Top Model.” There are also global reverberations that point to promising signs of change, like the new Moscow-based modeling agency Oldushka that is exclusively open to clients over age 45.
Changing perception
Brady told O’Shaughnessy during her American Apparel shoot she was inspired to cast an older woman after stumbling upon Advanced Style, a blog started by 35-year-old Ari Seth Cohen in 2008. At the time, Cohen had moved to New York and was spending quality time with his late grandmother, a woman he said had a particularly positive view of aging contrary to most older people he knew. Inspired by her, and the stylish older women he encountered on the streets, he began taking photos of them and sharing them online, during a period in which street style blogging was just emerging.
“I wasn’t seeing these women represented in lifestyle and fashion media, and they inspired me,” he said. “The fashion industry is ageist because the world is ageist, and the industry reflects many world views. I had the opportunity to put something different out there and represent aging in a different way.”
Applewhite said the sluggishness of fashion and beauty to embrace aging is perpetuated by consumers themselves who shy away from the concept of getting older. This is exacerbated by the bevy of products marketed to women to remove wrinkles and increase youthfulness, in addition to the clothing that advances a false notion of “age appropriate” behavior, she said.
“Every so often, someone will ask me a question on my blog like, ‘Should an older woman wear a mini skirt?’” she said. “I think you should wear whatever you want. If the world isn’t comfortable looking at you, that’s their problem.”
She said, in order to mitigate this cycle, marketing to older women should focus more on showing off their features, rather than minimizing or obscuring problem areas.
“It’s amazing that ageism trumps even the bottom line,” she said. “The market has become deficit-oriented. It focuses on baggy clothes you can wear if you no longer have a waistline or ‘hip’ hearing aids for when you’ve lost your hearing.”
Cohen fears older women may start being commoditized as a fleeting trend, and if not marketed appropriately, it may ultimately lead to further alienation or fetishization of older consumers.
“I’m disappointed to see older women being used as an accessory, sandwiched between two younger people. The main focus isn’t about age. It’s about capitalizing on what people think is a trend. That, for me, isn’t really making progress.”
He anticipated that change will happen as American society continues to reconsider the notion of aging. “We have to realize that we all have to get old, so it’s important to talk about it and create a conversation around aging. Women are increasingly feeling empowered to be themselves and show their age. They’re creating a discourse between younger people and older people. So many of them are allowing their hair to go gray.”
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Source:
https://digiday.com/marketing/reclaiming-word-old-fashion-fighting-ageism/
Google to reportedly unveil an ad-blocking feature for its Chrome browser
Google plans to introduce a new ad-blocking feature to its Chrome browser, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal which cite sources familiar with the company.
The ad-blocker, which would be available as a default setting for both mobile and desktop, could spell the end of certain online adverts which many users claim disrupt their browsing experience, the paper said, citing sources familiar with the company.
Targeted adverts are likely to be those featured in a report released last month by the Coalition for Better Ads, a U.S. and European industry group, the Journal suggests. These include six desktop and twelve mobile web ad experiences which it said fell below the threshold of “consumer acceptability,” such as pop-ups and auto-playing video ads.
Under one potential iteration of Google’s plans, the ban could extend to all advertising that appears on sites with offending ads, rather than just the offending ads specifically.
The reports claimed that the plans could be announced and rolled out in weeks – or withdrawn entirely.
Google refused to confirm the claims, saying “we do not comment on rumor or speculation.”
However, the technology company, which is owned by Alphabet Inc., said it had been working to explore new ways of improving the browsing experience for users.
“We’ve been working closely with the Coalition for Better Ads and industry trades to explore a multitude of ways Google and other members of the Coalition could support the Better Ads Standards,” a Google spokesperson told CNBC Thursday.
To read the original article from the Wall Street Journal, click here.
The Final Two Fast And Furious Movies Will Bring In Han, Here’s What We Know
Justice for Han. It became a rallying cry for die-hard Fast & Furious fans following the resolution of the latest chapter, The Fate of the Furious. As the story concludes, Dominic Toretto (Vin Diesel) reunites with his family, explaining that the presence of his infant son is the reason why he had to go rogue and help a cyber terrorist known as Cipher (Charlize Theron). But in that close-knit group of confidantes? Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), the man who — just two movies ago — took out Han (Sung Kang), a former member of Dom’s crew. Was the notion of “family” expressed by Dom and his team a lie? Fast screenwriter Chris Morgan mulls that important question over in a recent interview, promising fans:
Justice for Han. I think you’ll learn a lot more about it, and I don’t know if that hashtag will be the appropriate one to put on it down the road. But I can tell you this: We will definitely be talking more about Han.
The Fate of the Furious, directed by F. Gary Gray, is now being positioned as the start of a new trilogy of Fast & Furious films, which would take the series through Fast 10. If you step back and ask why, the answer might be money. Fate broke records when it opened globally a few days back, and Hollywood rarely kills a cash cow.
But the interviews between the L.A. Times and key Fast & Furious members suggest that they are NOT taking the murder of Han lightly, and just as producer Neal Moritz told us that future installments will address Shaw’s role in the killing, that sentiment is echoed by Chris Morgan, who explains:
Look, I am literally the biggest Han/Sung Kang fan in the world. But I would say this. From the initial conceit of Deckard, I’ve never really thought of him as a bad guy. He was definitely against our team but he’s a guy with a code who loves his family.
Jason Statham also hears the concerns of fans. And he, too, believes that there are important details yet to tell. The action superstar tells the Times:
That whole episode has not fully detailed exactly what happened. I’m not going to say anything more than that! But [writer-producer Chris Morgan] likes to annoy the fans and please the fans and get all these angry protests. So, more to come.
And likely sooner rather than later. With The Fate of the Furious cleaning up at the box office, and the feud between The Rock and Vin Diesel on the backburner (for now), production on Fast & Furious 9 should get underway before too long. There were release dates announced for parts 9 and 10, but they have not been confirmed by the studio in some time. For more information on Upcoming 2017 Movies, head over to the link on those words.
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Source:
April 20, 2017
A Facebook Exec’s 5 Tips for Building Successful Distributed Teams
With 45 offices around the world, Facebook executives certainly understand the challenges of leading a distributed team.
As Facebook’s head of platform and marketplace, Deb Liu has spearheaded projects that include things such as login to marketplace and payments, leading teams based in places from Seattle to Singapore.
During her seven and a half years at the company, she has learned some lessons in effective leadership. From incorporating people on the ground to communication methods, check out these five tips from Liu to make your remote management process as seamless as possible.
1. Incorporate local leadership.
When growing, it’s important to make sure your distributed offices feel just as important as the central office. “You don’t want them to feel like they have less opportunity and less growth,” Liu says.
That’s why it’s necessary to bring in people from that area to join the team. “Having a local leadership team creates a strong foundation in which you can build a strong office in the long-term,” she says.
Local leadership allows a company to understand what’s happening in a new office’s area and any challenges that people there face. Ask questions such as, What are the work hours in that city? What is the weather like? What are the activities people do?
Understanding that locale will help foster a stronger office culture.
2. Transplant one or two people from headquarters.
There’s no reason to start from scratch when building a new team. Although it’s important to hire locally and employ local managers, a company should also transplant one or two leaders from the company’s headquarters to get the new office on its feet.
Those people can be in charge of growing the new team, and act as a bridge between the central and distributed office. Sending ambassadors is “an opportunity to build two-way communication,” Liu says.
3. Your first hires are the most important.
A strong company culture stems from a strong local culture. That all comes down to who you hire. “Your first few hires are going to be key in the kind of culture and office you’re going to build,” she says.
These key hires help set the foundation for your distributed office and play an important role in building the local team.
“Hire people who are self-motivated, good communicators and who are open and honest. These qualities will serve them in a remote working scenario,” Liu says.
4. Use the best technology.
An obvious challenge of distributed offices is that they reduce or eliminate face-to-face communication. Today’s technology can make up for this, allowing for seamless communication and the ability to build relationships. “The level of intimacy you can create is only as good as the technology that connects you,” Liu says.
For Liu’s teams, video conferencing has been the key to their success — and she recommends it for any business with distributed offices. Here are some quick tips from Liu:
Be mindful of timezones.
Assign someone to be a video conferencing sherpa, who’s tasked with monitoring the meeting and making sure everyone is heard.
Take notes and send them out to everyone after the meeting.
Maintain message threads and group chats so everyone stays connected.
5. Host company-wide events.
Technology today can take the place of face-to-face meetings, but it’s still important to host company-wide events to boost morale, build cohesion and foster creativity.
Facebook hosts an annual “Hackathon” for its employees — giving them the opportunity to collaborate with others in the company and put their creativity to the test. Every year, the hackathon is hosted in a different city of one of its distributed offices, and Facebook employees from around the world come together to participate.
“It is these things as a company that make us not headquarter-centric,” Liu says. It teaches employees about the cultures of other offices, and ensures that everyone at the company can feel the same level of opportunity and appreciation.
Source:
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/290877
Barack Obama Snaps Yacht Photos of Michelle on Tropical Vacation
Since leaving the White House in January, Barack and Michelle Obama have truly been living their best life. In the past few months the pair have traveled to Palm Springs, California, signed massive book deals, brunched with Bono in New York City, and even went kitesurfing with Richard Branson off his private island. But it’s the duo’s latest adventure that has social media in a frenzy.
As Travel+Leisure shared on Thursday, the Obamas recently boarded David Geffin’s 138-meter luxury yacht called the Rising Sun for an island-hopping adventure around French Polynesia. Other passengers onboard included Oprah, Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa, Tom Hanks, and Rita Wilson.
The group has already gone for lunch on Vanilla Island, stopped at Le Taha’a Island, and will likely continue on to Bora Bora. The trip will end at The Brando, a luxury resort where the Obamas have been staying for the past three weeks while working on their respective memoirs.
While the trip alone would be cool enough, it’s what Michelle and Barack were caught doing on the boat that has everyone talking.
In a new photo, if you look closely, you can see that after being president of the United States for eight years, Barack has graduated to being the ultimate Instagram husband.
Barack Obama is an Instagram Husband pic.twitter.com/OouLr7bjT2
— Madeline Hill (@mad_hill) April 16, 2017
Onboard the ship, Barack, like any good husband and dad, used what looks to be his iPad to snap a few glamor shots of his stunning wife — and people simply cannot get enough. Check out a few of the best social media reactions below.
Obama taking a fire pic of Michelle with his iPad is everything I needed tonight pic.twitter.com/8bb5oRQWkH
— Rosa Esc@ndón (@therealescandon) April 17, 2017
Guys Barack and Michelle Obama have moved on hey
Pornhub launches ‘Snapchat for nudes’ so you can put filters on your genitalia
Pornhub wants to help you step your sexting game up and turn your dirty NSFW selfies into totally SFW nude pics – which is why the adult entertainment giant is launching its very own ‘Snapchat for nudes.’
Available for free on the App Store and Google Play, Trickpics is a simple image manipulation tool that lets you cover up your genitalia with various Snapchat-esque stickers and graphic animations. The app currently offers over 15 filters to choose from, but Pornhub promises more are coming very soon.
While Trickpics works merely for image manipulation tasks, you can use the app to edit your nudes and then share them with friends and lovers via third-party messaging apps.
The good thing is that the tool requires no registration, which means you can play with Trickpics as soon as you’ve downloaded it to your device. To use its filters, you can snap photos with your camera or alternatively load it with images from your gallery.
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Among other options, Trickpics has various filters like the ‘Knock Knockers’ for the ladies and the ‘Dick-In-A-Box’ for the gentlemen. Although the app currently works only with images, Pornhub plans to eventually also introduce video filters.
“Selfies have become a popular form of self-expression it today’s society. They are essentially the self-portrait of the digital age, capturing individuals in all their glory,” said Pornhub VP Corey Price. “[Y]ou have the duck face, the bathroom pose, the obligatory gym pic, and, whether or not many of us want to admit it, the nude selfie.”
“We are proud to announce our brand new app that provides graphic animation which overlays an image’s NSFW components to create a SFW, shareable image. Our fans can now share sexy pics with a twist, in a fun way that evokes their creativity,” he continued.
In case you’re curious to browse through the cheeky filters, you can head to the official Trickpics page here. Pornhub has integrated an interactive filter gallery so you can easily check out its collection in action (you might need to disable your adblocker to use it though).
Now head to this page to download the ‘Snapchat for nudes’ and go spice up your genitalia pics with some fun filters.
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Source:
https://thenextweb.com/apps/2017/04/18/pornhub-snapchat-nudes-filter-genitalia/#.tnw_awJy2tvX
Scale matters: Advertisers are opting for Instagram over Snapchat
Instagram is mimicking Snapchat, and Snapchat is feeling the pain.
Eight months since Instagram rolled out its Stories feature and just over a month since it launched ads on it widely, it has already surpassed Snapchat. The feature not only has more people using it daily (200 million versus Snapchat’s last reported 156 million) but is also increasingly attracting more ad dollars. Agencies tend to drift where the action is, and, right or wrong, the general feeling is Instagram is on the upswing while the early buzz over Snapchat is fading.
“Many of our clients are deprioritizing Snapchat,” said Tom Buontempo, president at Attention, KBS’s social media arm, who declined to provide names of specific advertisers but whose clients include BMW, Carvel, Novartis and Spotify. “It’s no secret that Instagram has Snapchat in the crosshairs.”
Instagram Stories, like Snapchat, lets users create multiple ephemeral videos and string them together for a 24-hour period. Brands have increasingly been using Instagram Stories, both to post organic content as well as to run ads. A combination of Instagram’s pure reach, targeting and retargeting capabilities and a more interactive relationship with reps has made Stories an attractive bet for brands. Meanwhile, Snapchat’s growth has been a concern for the past few months, with Instagram Stories’ rapid rise coinciding with its slow-down. Since Instagram Stories launched in August, Snapchat’s growth has fallen 82 percent, according to TechCrunch.
While Capital One, Nike, Ben and Jerry’s, and Netflix were among 30 brands that tested out ads on Instagram Stories before they were widely rolled out in March, brands including Honda, Apartments.com, Chobani and Five Hour Energy have run ads on the platform more recently.
Honda, which ran an ad on Instagram Stories for its “Flipbook Series” campaign on April 10, to market the Honda Clarity, chose Instagram over Snapchat for the campaign, because it let the brand tap into the scale of its 1.4 million-plus existing Instagram fans, said Mike Dossett, associate director of digital strategy at RPA, Honda’s agency. Brands already have large audiences on Instagram and often have to do absolutely nothing to get instant engagement at scale on their Story posts. Plus, they can easily tap into Facebook’s underlying infrastructure.
“From buying and optimization to measurement and reporting, Instagram ads (including Stories) are embedded directly within the Facebook ads ecosystem that buyers know and understand,” he said. “That undoubtedly removes a barrier for advertisers with entrenched processes or less nimble buying protocols.”
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For Ben and Jerry’s, it was all about scale. The brand was a part of a beta test between January and March, and ran ads on Instagram Stories to promote its new Pint Slices. The ice-cream maker saw a higher CPM rate than its usual benchmark, according to Jay Curley, Ben and Jerry’s senior global marketing manager, and the brand plans to run more ads over the summer.
“In general, we want to serve up relevant stories to our fans wherever they are,” he said. “We have a robust following on Instagram, and people are not only spending more time there but also consuming Stories there.”
It’s also far easier to buy ads on the platform as opposed to Snapchat. Unlike Snapchat, which does not have self-serve advertising options outside of on-demand geofilters (although one for Snap ads is expected soon), Instagram provides marketers with a unified dashboard for buying and tracking ads, making it easier for clients to target and track analytics across a more unified dashboard, said Attention’s Buontempo.
The larger Facebook ecosystem also provides for more nuanced targeting, said Ben Kunz, svp of marketing and content at Mediassociates. Brands can reach people with specific interests in ice cream, for example, or match targeting to their own CRM lists, with all of Facebook’s data toys at their disposal. Instagram also has more flexible buying options, letting buyers buy ads on a performance-based cost-per-click basis apart from a cost-per-thousand impressions basis.
“Both Instagram and Snapchat stories are clever full-screen immersive mobile ad experiences, but taking over a mobile screen is no longer exactly rocket science,” said Kunz. “So it’s not the ‘billboard’ space that matters; it’s the quality of the data behind it. Better audience data always equals better advertising performance.”
Still, it’s not a zero-sum game. Clients have been increasing their Instagram budgets overall to tap into Instagram Stories, said Danielle Johnsen Kerr, director of social and editorial strategy at Deutsch, but they aren’t necessarily shifting already-allotted Snapchat dollars to Instagram. Snapchat’s young audience is still a draw for advertisers, and the platform has also been making efforts to ramp up on measurement and to roll out more self-serve options. Ben and Jerry’s, for example, will also advertise on Snapchat in the summer.
“But it is dependent on the audiences our clients are trying to grab,” she said.
Source:
https://digiday.com/marketing/scale-matters-advertisers-opting-instagram-snapchat/
