Adidas Wilson's Blog, page 67
October 13, 2017
Facebook now lets you order food without leaving Facebook
Today Facebook is announcing that users can now order food for takeout or delivery using both the Facebook mobile app and website. But it’s not at all what you might think; Facebook hasn’t created its own answer to Seamless, which would be massive news for the restaurant industry. This isn’t that.
Instead, the company is partnering with existing services GrubHub, Delivery.com, DoorDash, ChowNow, Zuppler, EatStreet, Slice, and Olo, and will now link out to those food ordering businesses for restaurants that support them. You head to the new “Order Food” area of Facebook under the Explore section, find the local spot you’re craving, and then hit “start order.” From there, if a restaurant supports more than one of Facebook’s ordering partners, you’ll be able to choose between them. Once you do, Facebook will bring up an in-app browser that takes you through the existing websites for Delivery.com and the others. That’s where all the ordering actually happens, so you’re not actually doing much with the Facebook app beyond finding a restaurant and tapping your preferred delivery option.
Seamless is not currently among Facebook’s partner services, but parent company GrubHub is, so that should get you most of the same delivery restaurants. But there are other omissions such as Caviar, so you’ll still need to open those apps separately to know which restaurants use them and place an order.
Facebook is also partnering on food ordering directly with national chains Chipotle, Five Guys, Jack in the Box, Papa John’s, Wingstop, Panera, TGI Friday’s, Denny’s, El Pollo Loco, and Jimmy John’s. But it works the same way as with the other services; you browse to one of these nearby chain locations, pick start order, and then you’ll be sent to their existing delivery system. All Facebook is really doing here is launching an in-app browser so you can get a meal without ever leaving the app.
“We’ve been testing this since last year, and after responding to feedback and adding more partners, we’re rolling out everywhere in the US on iOS, Android and desktop,” Alex Himel, Facebook’s VP of local, said in a press release. “People already go to Facebook to browse restaurants and decide where to eat or where to order food, so we’re making that easier.”
Source:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/13/16468610/facebook-food-ordering-new-feature
Jay-Z Reportedly Looking to Buy Harvey Weinstein’s Interest in the Weinstein Co.
As the ashes continue to fall from the gigantic brushfire that is Harvey Weinstein’s career and alleged history as a sexual predator and serial harasser in Hollywood, some news comes along that provides something of a silver lining to the bullshit: Jay-Z is apparently looking to buy Weinstein’s interest in the company that bears Weinstein’s name.
Multiple sources connected to the rapper and business mogul have told TMZ that Jigga and a group of investors that includes a famous movie producer and a billionaire are talking about buying Weinstein’s 23 percent stake in the Weinstein Co.
Jigga previously worked with both TWC and Weinstein himself on the six-part series Time: The Kalief Browder Story, which originally aired on Spike beginning in March 2017 and is now available for streaming on Netflix. He also now has a Trayvon Martin series that will begin production.
Jay-Z has a first-look film deal with the Weinstein Co., and sources tell TMZ that he’s looking to expand his relationship with the company. With Harvey out, he wants a substantial equity stake in the film studio, TMZ reports.
Imagine the black power that would come to Hollywood if this deal actually happened. This is a game changer for sure.
As our managing editor, Genetta Adams, said when I pitched this story, “He’s not a businessman, he’s a business, man.”
Source:
https://thegrapevine.theroot.com/plot-twist-jay-z-reportedly-looking-to-buy-harvey-wein-1819378273
Google commits $1 billion in grants to train U.S. workers for high-tech jobs
The nature of work is changing on a global level at a rapid pace. Sure, it’s not the first time work has been dramatically impacted by technology, but the growth of automation, robotics, AI and the like have the potential to displace jobs at an unprecedented rate. And Google will almost certainly be one of the driving forces behind that transformation.
The search giant has regularly expressed a desire to help stem some of that negative impact, and now it’s putting its money where its mouth is to the tune of $1 billion. CEO Sundar Pichai announced Grow with Google at an event earlier today in Pittsburgh, PA. Over the next five years, the initiative will commit $1 billion to nonprofits aimed at training American workers and helping build business.
The location of the event will not be lost on anyone who has followed Pittsburgh’s growth over the last few decades. The Steel City has long served as an ideal example of an economy that’s rebounded from the brink of disaster. In Pittsburgh’s case, technology was a primary driver, thanks to Carnegie Mellon, which has helped transform it from post-Rust Belt depression to one of the country’s leading tech hubs. These days, the walls of Pittsburgh’s former factories house cutting-edge innovations in fields like robotics and autonomous driving.
Pichai noted in his address that the city also holds special meaning for him. “It was the first city I saw in America when I came here 24 years ago,” he explained. “I was here before the internet really took off, but the city was already changing. The number of high-tech jobs had doubled.”
The company is committing $10 million to Goodwill as part of the initiative — the largest Google.org has committed to one organization. That money will be used to help launch the Goodwill Digital Career Accelerator, aimed at preparing the American workforce for high-tech jobs. Grow with Google also will take the form of a national tour hosted by libraries and community organizations aimed at bringing training and career advice directly to local towns and cities. That’s part of the company’s goal of committing one million hours to employee volunteering over the next five years.
“At Google, our mission is to make sure that information serves everyone, not just a few,” Pichai explained in the address. “A child in a school here in Pittsburgh can access the same information on Google as a professor at Carnegie Mellon. In the end, the internet is a powerful equalizer, capable of propelling new ideas and people forward.”
Source:
Google commits $1 billion in grants to train U.S. workers for high-tech jobs
October 12, 2017
After ‘Blade Runner 2049’ Crashed, Leave It To ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ To Save Autumn B.O. With $100M+ Opening
But with the domestic box office still 4.7% behind last year with $8.3 billion, if we’re going to beat last year’s record $11.4B, it will have to start with Disney/Marvel’s Thor: Ragnarok who’ll pass the baton to Warner Bros.’/DC’s Justice League who’ll then pass to Disney/Pixar’s Coco and then finally Disney/Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Thor Ragnarok, the third in the series, hit tracking this morning, and it’s looking at a $100M-$110M start per industry figures with enormous strength among the four quadrants: Very strong with families, Hispanics and African Americans. Thor: Ragnarok in tracking has an enormous 85% in total awareness, 29% in unaided (those polled say it’s a movie they want to see without being prompted on the title, that number is huge), 61% definite interest, and 24% first choice (when you’re in the double digits at that level, that’s excellent). A $100M start would be huge for the threequel, beating its previous chapter, Thor: The Dark World‘s, $85.7M November opening four years ago. Such projections this far out always come with a footnote because when a pic arrives this strong, it’s hard to determine how high it will go. Even if the domestic marketplace turns wonky, a $90M opening for Thor: Ragnarok wouldn’t be so bad.
The Thor franchise started off with Paramount distributing the movie under their deal with Marvel, opening the first installment to $65.7M (and a final $181M) in May 2011. When Disney took over Marvel, they pushed this franchise’s numbers up even more with $85.7M debut and $206.4M final stateside. Thor: Ragnarok is the third Marvel title to play in the November corridor following Thor: The Dark World and last year’s Doctor Strange ($85M, $232.6M). Together the first two Thor movies have made over $1.09 billion at the global B.O.
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Guardians of the Galaxy writer-director James Gunn gave the film a rave review, saying on Facebook, “I don’t think any film of the modern era has captured the batshit crazy fun of 80’s classics like Flash Gordon and Buckaroo Banzai as well as Taika Waititi has here. I felt like I was fourteen watching a magical VHS tape that exploded into something grand. It’s the most colorful of all Marvel films — I mean, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is practically sepia-tone in comparison — and it’s also the funniest.”
Deadline saw Thor: Ragnarok on Tuesday night and it truly is a ton of fun in the Guardians of the Galaxy-kind of way, far from the moody tones of Thor: The Dark World. In the threequel, Thor’s sister, Hela (Cate Blanchett) takes over Asgard and paving the way for the planet’s Ragnarok aka its apocalypse. She has crushed Thor’s hammer to bits and the hero is stranded on the colorful planet Sakaar where he is forced to fight in gladiator battles, his first being against the Hulk. With Hulk’s help and Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Thor looks to make his way back to Asgard.
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10 Steps to Ebook Success
1. Stop complaining about print publishers
You may think your writing is amazing and deserves to be published by one of the majors, and that they are all a bunch of numbskulls for overlooking your genius, treating you badly, not promoting your work properly or generally doing a terrible job. Well, get over it. The fact that you think they have failed you presents an amazing opportunity to forge an alternative path into an amazing future. So stop wasting your energy badmouthing them, hating them, etc, and instead channel that force into something good. Yourself.
2. Have talent
This sounds obvious, but the volume of badly conceived, badly written, badly designed, typo-ridden ebooks by unknown authors is incredible. Anyone with ambitions within ebooks should have at least one hard-nosed, smart book person in their life who loves them enough to read their material and be brutally honest about whether it is a work of genius or whether you need to consider a job at the post office. If you don’t have any such individual in your life, paying a freelance editor to do it for you is money well spent. Anyone who self-publishes without showing his or her work to a single living soul will probably fail.
3. Be multi-skilled
The days of the writer who only knows how to write books are totally, totally over. Any budding author who wants to publish digitally needs to know how to do a range of tasks, particularly in areas such as design and marketing. Basically, all the tasks that a publisher once did for you, you now have to do yourself. The alternative is to pay for someone to do them, but who has that money when they’re just starting out? Better to force yourself to learn through necessity; then you become more powerful and less dependent, which can only be good.
4. Have more than one ebook already written
Amanda Hocking, Stephen Leather, John Locke and many of the first wave of self-published eBook millionaires all had a number of titles ready to go at the same time. More ebooks means more chances to sell, and more chances for a reader who likes one of your titles to seek out the rest, thereby multiplying your revenues. “Having five books available at the same time is probably the best thing I did,” said Locke in The Mail On Sunday. In fellow ebook novelist Joe Konrath’s case, in January of this year he posted on his blog that he’d banked a cool $100,000 in Amazon sales for that month alone — but this was from a total of FIFTEEN ebooks. Writing three or more ebooks before you even think about publishing is a mammoth task, which requires ninja-like patience, perseverance and planning. Most self-publishers are too eager to get their stuff out there, and so they publish too fast and without any strategy. Better to carefully plan your sequence of titles, and to take the time to write well.
5. Get the genre right
Of course, write what you love, first and foremost — but if you have your eye on money, the most popular ebook categories are thriller, mystery and romance novels. An episodic series, with heroes or heroines that readers can follow through successive releases, is a good strategy. John Locke created the character of Donovan Creed in his series of seven best-selling crime novels. Aside from this the other categories showing rapid growth are educational and self-help eBooks.
6. Write shorter books, more often
The average novel is approximately 80,000 words long, but ebooks lend themselves to shorter formats, some even the length of extended essays. (Amazon call them Kindle Singles). The cold fact is, ebooks by definition are cheap, and however many words you write, you will only be able to charge a small amount for it online. There is little point in writing a door-stopping 200,000-word opus, if you can only charge $2.99 for it. Rather than spending a year or more producing one full-length title, it may be better to spend that time writing a sequence of three or four shorter eBooks of, say, 20,000 words each. In marketing terms, publishing four times in a year is better than publishing just once.
7. Price doesn’t matter — quality matters
Some disagree with me on this. Many sell their ebooks for as little as 99 cents or less, which means they shift in bulk. But most people who can afford 99 cents can easily afford more than that before they start to get twitchy. I have bought terrible ebooks for five and ten dollars apiece and ended up disappointed — not at the price, but at the low quality of what I bought. In tests people tend to equate poor quality with cheap prices, so a low priced ebook may not always be the best thing.
8. Social media marketing is the only way to promote.
I have read posts by many of the first wave of ebook money-makers, and they all say the same thing — that conventional PR and advertising didn’t sell their ebooks. (Most first timers can’t afford the latter anyway). It wasn’t until they started blogging and doing the other forms of social media that things really took off. Lady GaGa presents an amazing example from the world of music. With 50 million Facebook fans and 20 million Twitter followers, she owns her own database of customers, and so selling becomes that much easier; crucially, she no longer relies on conventional PR. Of course, writers can’t compete with GaGa’s numbers, but the principal plan of action is the same.
9. Create your own selling platform
Amazon, iTunes and the like provide a good platform for independent e-publishers, but let’s be clear — as long as they provide the sole outlet for your ebooks, all the promo work you do drives traffic to their websites, not yours. More importantly, they then own whatever database of customers you create from your sweat. As far as possible today’s writers need to own their own customer bases (see no. 8). For the ebook author, this means building your own blog or website and connecting with an independent digital fulfilment house, who will distribute your downloads on your behalf, and give you your database, all for around 10-15 percent, rather than 30-70 percent. This route is difficult to set up, but worth it in the end. It won’t replace Amazon or Apple, but it will at least give you some skin in the game.
10. Have no social life
Make no mistake, self-publishing is seriously time-consuming. On one of Joe Konrath’s recent blogs he talked about the fact that promoting his books takes even more of his time than actually writing them. “If you want to have extraordinary sales, it means devoting an extraordinary amount of time to it,” he says. “That means sacrificing other aspects of your life, like leisure, sleep and family.”
It’s a sobering thought. But, after reading this, if you still want to take the plunge and self-publish digitally, be prepared for the long haul, for hard work, but also the joys of being autonomous. Go for it, and good luck.
Source:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-arogundade/10-steps-to-ebook-success_b_1571095.html
Amazon’s Clever Solution to Stolen Deliveries: Your Trunk
A recent study suggests that nearly eight out of 10 Americans shop online. This is a boon for companies like Amazon that specialize in home delivery, but also for more unsavory enterprises—including the crooks who specialize in swiping people’s packages.
These so-called “porch pirates” are a growing nuisance for both consumers and businesses, which is why a proposed solution by Amazon is a big deal.
As CNBC reports, the solution involves Amazon working with a maker of “smart” license plates to allow delivery people to have temporary access to customers’ car trunks.
Phrame’s product fits around a license plate and contains a secure box that holds the keys to the car. Users unlock the box with their smartphone, and can grant access to others — such as delivery drivers — remotely.
The upshot is that Amazon customers using the service wouldn’t have to worry about their package sitting unattended for porch pirates to pilfer, or about their merchandise getting damaged by rain or snow. Instead, the package would simply be waiting for them in their car.
The report does not provide specific details of how exactly the system will work, but it likely involves a smart sensor granting access to verified delivery agents like UPS and FedEx for a short window of time. Customers would presumably receive a notification on their Amazon app when the delivery is complete.
Unnamed sources also told CNBC that Amazon is working on a similar system involving smart doorbells. If this is the case, it’s less obvious how this would work in practice: While many customers might be okay with granting access to their car trunk, fewer would be comfortable opening their front door of their home while they were away.
If Amazon pulls this off, consumers wouldn’t be the only ones who benefit. Businesses are also harmed by package theft, which creates additional costs and can create a poor shopping experience that deters customers from ordering again. Likewise, a system of car trunk drop-offs would also improve efficiency by reducing the number of times truck drivers attempt a delivery.
Source:
http://fortune.com/2017/10/10/amazon-phrame/
Tim Cook says the tech ‘doesn’t exist’ for Apple to make good augmented reality glasses
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been talking up augmented reality for the past year, but don’t take that to mean that Apple will launch a dedicated AR product anytime soon. In an interview with The Independent, Cook said that currently “the technology itself doesn’t exist” to make augmented reality glasses “in a quality way.” And Apple, he said, won’t ship an AR product unless it can deliver “a great experience.”
Cook identified two problems with current AR devices. Their field of view and the quality of their displays, he said, aren’t there yet. “Anything you would see on the market any time soon would not be something any of us would be satisfied with,” Cook told The Independent. “Nor do I think the vast majority of people would be satisfied.”
He’s not wrong. Current augmented reality headsets all leave something to be desired. Microsoft’s HoloLens works, but it has a limited field of view and requires a large headset. Meta’s is less expensive but similarly huge. And Google Glass (which doesn’t even totally count as augmented reality) flopped badly immediately upon release.
But even if Apple doesn’t plan on diving into dedicated AR hardware, it already made an enormous play for the augmented reality market this year — perhaps doing more than any company to date. With the release of iOS 11 last month, recent iPhones were granted the ability to perform all kinds of AR tricks using something Apple calls ARKit. It lets developers make augmented reality games and makes it easy for camera apps to implement augmented reality stickers.
That means Apple is in an early position to be at the center of a possible boom in augmented reality experiences. Cook seems to believe as much. He compared the introduction of AR features to the introduction of the App Store. “Now you couldn’t imagine your life without apps,” he said. “AR is like that. It will be that dramatic.”
Even if it won’t happen right away, there are already signs that Apple is exploring dedicated AR hardware. The company has a patent application that envisions augmented reality glasses, and Apple reportedly has a team of over 1,000 people working on AR. In typical Apple fashion, Cook told The Independent that Apple has no interest in rushing into the market just to get a head start. “We don’t give a rat’s about being first,” he said. “We want to be the best.”
Source:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/11/16458944/apple-ar-glasses-tech-doesnt-exist-says-tim-cook
October 11, 2017
How Andy Serkis Could Continue As The Star Of The Planet Of The Apes Franchise
Long before the modern trilogy and Tim Burton’s 2001 remake, Roddy McDowall, along with Kim Hunter, was the big star of the Planet of the Apes films. What made his role in the movies particularly special, however, is that he didn’t always play the same character. Because of the identity-hiding make-up that was required for his role as an evolved chimpanzee, he was able to play the roles of both Cornelius and Caesar across four movies. It’s part of the Planet of the Apes legacy, and according to Andy Serkis, could ultimately be the key for him to return and star in the next chapter of this franchise. Serkis told me,
Well, let’s say that there have been some discussions about that. That’s the great thing about this technology, is that it allows you… as I have done going from playing Caesar as a young infant to a mature adult, though the entirety of his life. So that basically means I could potentially play another character.
The more recent Planet of the Apes films, directed by Rupert Wyatt and Matt Reeves, have masterfully used motion capture technology in lieu of make-up when bringing its simians to life, but one continued benefit is that it still totally masks the actor in the role. I had the chance to sit down with Andy Serkis at San Diego Comic-Con this past summer, and when I brought up the Roddy McDowall approach, he confirmed that it is an idea that the franchise has been considering when looking at possibilities for future sequels.
SPOILER WARNING: The rest of this article contains major spoilers for War For The Planet Of The Apes. If you have not yet seen the film, and don’t wish to know major details about the ending, please bookmark this page and return after your screening!
Of course, there is a reason why this is now an important subject to discuss. Audiences started on a long journey with Caesar that started with Rise of the Planet of the Apes back in 2011, but the most recent sequel saw his time come to an end. After successfully managing to save his fellow primates from the Colonel (Woody Harrelson), and bring them to the desert where they would make a new home, Caesar died as a proud leader in the final minutes of War For The Planet Of The Apes. It was a terribly sad cinematic moment, but it was also made clear that the character’s legacy will live on thanks to his young son, Cornelius. Naturally, it is the role of Cornelius that fans would expect Andy Serkis to play — a perfect nod to the contributions of Roddy McDowall.
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Oculus “Dash” replaces your computer monitor with VR
Dash is reminiscent of a Minority Report-style interface, where windows dangle in the air and can be moved around with the wave of a hand. Dash will let you code inside VR, but also bring along your favorite desktop experiences like Facebook and Messenger, YouTube, and Spotify.
Developers will especially enjoy the ability to debug VR apps while actually running them via Visual Studio, Unity, and Unreal. Screens appear in full-fidelity inside Dash, and you can access the rest of your PC beyond the core apps.
Customizable Home
The revamped Oculus Home lets you make your startup screen for Rift into your fantasy geek palace. You can pick all sorts of sensible or sci-fi furnishings, like art, seating, and toys. You can show off trophies of your in-game achievements, and even play retro video games. Oculus is planning to let you hang out with friends inside Home in the future.
Source:
Oculus “Dash” replaces your computer monitor with VR
E.L. James has a new ‘Fifty Shades’: ‘Darker’ from Christian’s point of view
Author E.L. James is once again going back to the well that made her famous. The “Fifty Shades of Grey” author will publish another retelling of a novel from her bondage-themed erotica trilogy, this one called “Darker: Fifty Shades Darker as Told by Christian.”
The novel will be released on Nov. 28 by Vintage Books, according to a news release from the publisher.
This is the second time that James has rewritten a novel from the immensely popular “Fifty Shades” trilogy, which tells the story of the relationship between young Anastasia Steele and kinky Seattle businessman Christian Grey.
In 2015, James published “Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian,” a retelling of the first novel in the trilogy told from Christian’s point of view. The book was savaged by critics, but still sold more than a million copies within days of its release.
In the news release, James praised her publisher and said writing the new novel was a “journey of discovery.”
“The inside of Christian Grey’s head is a fascinating place to be,” she said. “In ‘Grey’ we got the first glimpse of what makes Christian tick, but in ‘Darker’ we go deeper, into his most painful memories and the encounters that made him the damaged, demanding man Ana falls in love with.”
The “Fifty Shades” trilogy, which began with the 2011 novel “Fifty Shades of Grey,” has been a publishing phenomenon. The books have sold more than 150 million copies and have spawned two film adaptations, with a third one slated for release next year.
“Darker” will be published in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom in November, with a Spanish-language version following the next month, and will be released worldwide “soon after,” according to the news release.
Source:
http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-fifty-shades-darker-20171010-story.html
