Month: April 2016

Fitbit CEO: “The Apple Watch Does Too Much, Is Confusing Customers”

Dan Uff April 4, 2016 0

FitbitCEO “James Park is on a mission to make you fitter, faster, stronger and more productive. His company Fitbit has put its activity trackers on millions of wrists in the nine years since it was founded,” James Titcomb reports for The Telegraph. “But Park, who co-founded Fitbit and led it to one of 2015’s biggest technology IPOs, believes that wearable technology is only at the cusp of its potential.”

“On its first day as a listed company, shares surged 20pc, valuing the company at $4.1bn and valuing Park’s stake at $600m. The months since then, however, have not been so kind. Shares have lost over half of their value since Fitbit’s IPO, amid a widespread tech malaise,” Titcomb reports. “One event that weathered the company’s share price was January’s unveiling of the Fitbit Blaze, a fitness-focused smartwatch, which added more advanced features such as the ability to read text messages and control a smartphone’s music.”

“Park is adamant that the Blaze – two thirds the price of Apple’s smartwatch and with a longer battery life – can compete, and says the Apple Watch, which boasts thousands of different applications, can be overcomplicated,” Titcomb reports. “‘I think it’s a great product and Apple’s a great company, but it’s a product that probably does too much,’ Park says.”

Read more in the full article here.

Why Microsoft wants to help developers build Bots

Dan Uff April 4, 2016 0

WindowsLogo Via: PCWorld:

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is pushing developers to create virtual assistants and intelligent chatbots to help users do everything from managing their calendars to booking hotel reservations.

To that end, Microsoft has published a new Bot Framework, which makes it easier to build chatbots using either C# or Node.js. Working with the tools isn't so easy that anyone could do it, but they can help reduce some of the difficulties of conversing with a computer.

It was one of the main announcements from Nadella's keynote address at Microsoft's Build developer conference Wednesday.

In a session following the keynote, Microsoft Senior Research Development Engineer Dan Driscoll revealed an interesting point in favor of creating intelligent bots as an interface for a service: The bots let developers meet users where they are without having to worry about what platform those people are on.

That's particularly notable for Microsoft because it's not doing well in the mobile phone market. As more computing goes mobile, and moves toward iOS and Android, the company needs a way to stay relevant and involved in users' lives on their smartphones.

If Microsoft can be one of the companies to power a new generation of intelligent bots, it could get developers locked into its cloud services, and stay even more involved with what could be the future of computing.

Derrick Connell, the corporate vice president of Bing, said he foresees a future in which there are tons of bots for different applications. In his view, businesses will want bots representing them to give them access to customers who are discussing decisions they're about to make.

After all, there's no better time to advertise hotel reservations than when people are first thinking about booking a room.

Looking toward the future, computer users may face an interesting conundrum, where there will be too many bots to handle the same query. After all, if someone is discussing a trip to San Francisco, there could be two dozen hotel bots, 10 airline bots, and 80 restaurant bots all vying for that person's attention.

That's when users will have to rely on intelligent systems moderating these bots to point them to ones that specifically meet their preferences. If Microsoft can be at the forefront of that with Cortana, it could be in a valuable position.

The counterexample to an intelligent assistant brokering the right bot transaction is the current state of online advertising. Theoretically, advertisements should be relevant to users as they're browsing the Web, but that's rarely what happens.

Right now, we're still at the beginning of what could be a nascent bot revolution. What remains to be seen is whether they will actually catch on.

Microsoft Offering Developers Pre-Order of its HoloLens

Dan Uff April 4, 2016 0

MSHoloLens Microsoft has opened up pre-orders for its developers to gain access to its new HoloLens wearable computer.

HoloLens lets a user wear special Virtual Reality headset that puts them in a 3D environment that will let them interact with objects within an environment.

The developer's kit, which includes the actual HoloLens headset, costs $3,000.00 and is available now.

For more information, click here.

Dad Asks Apple CEO to Unlock Deceased Son’s iPhone

Dan Uff April 3, 2016 0

iPhoneTop Apple is being asked to get past the security of an iPhone to allow access to data stored inside, but this time from an individual instead of a law enforcement agency. An Italian father has written to CEO Tim Cook for assistance to unlock an iPhone 6, one owned by his deceased 13-year-old son during the last few months of his life, so that they can retrieve photographs, video, and anything else that can help preserve the memory of their child.

A letter from Leonardo Fabbretti about his son Dama, quoted by the AFP for The Guardian, states "I cannot give up. Having lost my Dama, I will fight to have the last two months of photos, thoughts, and words which are held hostage in his phone. I think what's happened should make you think about the privacy policy adopted by your company. Although I share your philosophy in general, I think Apple should offer solutions for exceptional cases like mine."

Dama was diagnosed with bone cancer in 2013, passing away in September last year, and had access to the iPhone for almost nine months before his death. The father claims he was given access to the device's storage via Touch ID, but since the phone was turned off when it was found, it requested a passcode after being powered back on, a code the father didn't have.

The situation is similar to the FBI's battle with Apple over the iPhone used in the San Bernardino attack, with the phone set to delete data automatically after ten failed attempts at the passcode. Unlike the FBI, which eventually managed to get into the device by other means, Mr Fabbretti is left asking Apple for mercy instead of going through the courts. Apple technical support was allegedly contacted by Fabbretti, but he was advised there was nothing the company can do to help get past the encryption.

Cellebrite, the same company said to be used by the FBI to access the phone in the center of the San Bernardino row, has apparently offered to try and open the phone for the father, for free. It is unknown if Fabbretti has taken up the offer, but he has asked for Apple to donate to Ethiopia or set up a grant for research into privacy issues if the photographs cannot be retrieved at all.

Via: MacNN.com