4 smart appliances for a more harmonious home. Integrating smart technology into our homes makes life better, especially for couples. However, while being able to set a mood lighting scheme or turn up the air conditioning on the way home from date night is convenient, it doesn’t really solve any problems. But some newer smart home products actually do. Technology is trying to solve relationship quarrels before they start, creating a more harmonious, less stressful home environment. 1. Smart mattress Your mattress is one of the most important things you own — sleep impacts every aspect of our lives. With tons of features, one of the most helpful is the anti-snoring system. The product raised $79,303 on Kickstarter with 17 days to go by the time of writing. 2.
Smart home expert and "techorator" Janna Robinson is a huge fan of Kohler’s Numi Smart Toilet. There is also an option to save your settings so you can always feel like the king or queen of your throne. 3. 4. Image: liz pierson/mashable Well, that's easy. Microsoft is adding the Linux command line to Windows 10. Microsoft is reaching out to Linux developers in a way that the company never has before. "The Bash shell is coming to Windows. Yes, the real Bash is coming to Windows," said Microsoft's Kevin Gallo on stage at today's Build 2016 keynote. The announcement received an uproarious applause from the crowd.
The new functionality will be enabled as part of this summer's Anniversary Update to Windows 10. "This is not a VM. More importantly, it represents Microsoft's refreshing stance on open-source development. Developing. Microsoft Build: HoloLens Mars demo. Video games taught me a lot about DevOps. I’m a parent of two teenagers and I’ve observed, and in some cases participated, in playing video games.
I grew up with video games and played Pac-man, Qbert, and Asteroids in the 1980s. It is amazing for me to see the advancements in video games. I’ve learned to play newer video games with my kids and added new words to my vocabulary such as MMORPG – massively multiplayer online role-playing games – and First Person shooter. I’ve noticed a common characteristic. Many video games are constructed using a key concept of a “technology tree.” What is a technology tree? The “technology tree” is an intrinsic design built into many games.
The best illustration of this design can be seen in turn-based games such as Civilization. Video games have figured this out correctly – you must work over time and acquire basic skills before you can advance to the next level and learn more advanced skills. As an example, working with one client, we built a DevOps technology tree that looked similar to this: Google makes its machine learning platform available to developers. Google made its Cloud Machine Learning platform, which is used by Google Photos, Translate, and Inbox, available to developers today. During the announcement at NEXT 2016, Google's Cloud Platform conference, Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt called machine learning "what's next," according to TechCrunch. Machine learning powers features like the Google app's speech recognition and the smart reply feature in the Inbox app, and Google sees the technology as the future of computing.
"Cloud Machine Learning will take machine learning mainstream, giving data scientists and developers a way to build a new class of intelligent applications," Fausto Ibarra, Google's director of product management wrote in a blog post. "It provides access to the same technologies that power Google Now, Google Photos, and voice recognition in Google Search as easy to use REST APIs. " Cloud Machine Learning will take machine learning mainstream.
IRS Phishing Scam: What it Teaches Us About Document DRM. As if the tax season wasn’t bad enough already. Earlier this month, it was revealed by the IRS that hundreds of businesses have been targeted by a massive phishing scam, the aim of which was to gain access to highly sensitive tax documents. And in the case of several major corporations, including Mansueto Ventures (publisher of Inc. Magazine and Fast Company), GCI and Snapchat, it succeeded. “A new group of phishers is trying a new tactic: sending out emails that appear to be in-house – often from the CEO or CFO – asking HR personnel for the W-2 information of employees companywide,” writes Security Intelligence’s Douglas Bonderud. “Since the email looks official and the request seems reasonable, it’s no surprise that several businesses have already been victimized.” No Control, No Security Businesses should never share sensitive documents without first protecting them. That’s where WatchDox by BlackBerry comes in. How WatchDox Keeps You in Control of Your Documents Don’t Fall Victim.
Embracing hybrid cloud with IBM VPN service - Bluemix Blog. Hybrid cloud is the new norm in business IT. A recent survey (*) of 500 IT decision makers worldwide by IBM Center for Applied Insights revealed that organizations are increasingly integrating cloud resources with traditional IT to accommodate dynamic business priorities and drive product and service innovations. The survey also suggested that leading organizations are powering their digital transformation through hybrid cloud and reporting better business outcomes than others. Cost reduction-from fixed IT to on-demand cloud services-and scalability to handle unpredictable traffic demand are generally considered as the two main motivators for cloud adoption. However, IBM study indicated that improving productivity has now become the number one goal as companies hope to offload some of their IT resources and management complexity to the cloud. (*) Growing up hybrid: Accelerating digital transformation – IBM Center for Applied Insights.
Is VDI Dying or Evolving? VDI – virtualized desktop infrastructure – has been around for years. It is widely used to provide remote application access to contractors, third parties and acquired companies. It was a great technology, as I’ll go into more detail below, and has been around for a decade or more. However, it’s become increasingly evident that VDI is a holdover from a bygone era, a relic of a PC-centric, client-server model that is hanging on in today’s world of web and mobile apps. It’s ill-suited to tackle the challenges of the modern day. According to Gartner, every employee is now a digital employee, requiring a workplace that promotes engagement, agility and freedom. Traditional VDI simply doesn’t have a place in such a workplace: it’s dated, it’s cumbersome and it’s difficult and expensive to both deploy and maintain. As is the case with many dated technologies, VDI adoption has stalled in the enterprise.
Faced with data such as this, one wouldn’t be remiss in thinking the technology is dying. Sword Art Online is a real game, alpha testing starts next month; Sponsored by IBM Japan. If you've ever seen the anime Sword Art Online, then you've probably wondered when we will get a game like the one in the show. Personally, the show made me pretty sad, because that's the exact sort of game that I'd like to play, but there is nothing even close to it that currently exists, even if you take away all of the cool VR parts.
If you haven't seen the show, the premise surrounds a virtual reality game, where players are completely immersed within it. They put on a special headset, and control everything using brainwaves and such. There's a rich in-game economy, deep specialization and talent system, and there's no way to leave, except by beating the game or dying. That last feature is one that really shouldn't make it into a real game, but the rest are just fantastic. And a company is now working on creating it. IBM Japan revealed today that they have teamed up with Bandai Namco and Aniplex to work on a VRMMO (yes, that's VR with MMO attached to it. Source: VRMMO-Project. A Novice Coder, a Finance Data Application, and the Value of Rapid Prototyping. I like to build things. I like analysis.
I like programming. Interestingly, you often need to reverse that order before you’re in a position to build an application for analyzing something. You need programming knowledge to turn the analysis into a “thing.” But, an hour later I had it. How did I build something in less than an hour? I started with a quick white boarding session. The resulting mockup, built in the Exaptive Data-Flow designer, looked like this: This only took a few minutes, but effectively illuminated what I had (the components), what I needed (the comments indicating necessary components), and the initial framework for my dashboard. To fill the gaps, I needed components for getting financial data. Get historical data: Get granular data: All that was left was to wire things up and configure the visualizations. Input four airline stock tickers, a date range, and…voila!
Below, I hover the line for Delta Airlines. I can also hover over the box chart to get more detail. 3 Signs You're Suffering From Collaborative Burnout. Top 5 upcoming mobile trends in 2016. It's that time of year again. While the last days of the year are the perfect time to take stock of what has transpired in 2015, it's also the perfect time to plan ahead and to look forward to the upcoming year. So naturally, we take out our crystal ball from the chest in the attic, give it a little rub and polish, and try to peer into what the future of mobile devices will look like in 2016. At least, based on the seeds that have taken root this year.
While many, like the adoption of 2K resolution screens and USB Type-C ports, may seem like no brainers, there are still some interesting things we're divining for the future. Here are five. Smartphone sizes and resolutions Once ridiculed because of their unwieldly sizes, the phablet device category has seen its vindication in Apple's iPhone 6 Plus and the subsequent 6s Plus. Below that, we'll see most non-phablet smartphones, especially the flagships to bear 5.2-inch screens.
Focus on Batteries Focus on Cameras Tablets and productivity. The Future of Virtual Reality. 6 key insights on UX design. At Dom & Tom, we’ve developed mobile apps and online platforms for over half a decade. We’ve had the privilege of working with amazing companies like General Electric, Hearst Corporation, Priceline, and many more. After working on over 300 such projects, we’ve learned a ton of lessons. Now we’d like to share 6 important insights to help you take your user experience to the next level. 1.
One of the key issues of UX design is you’re always working against time. “If you can’t present your ideas, even if they’re fantastic, they won’t go live.” Design isn’t only about doing great work—it’s also about creating and holding a great presentation. The people you’ll present to are either product managers, VPs, or even the CEO. Each of them has their own role in the company, and they might not fully grasp the effectiveness of your improvements. “Within seconds, people must be able to understand the value you’re going to provide them.” The best way to do this? 2. “Great design tells a story.” 3. 4. 5.
When It Comes to UX Design, Simplicity Is Overrated. Is simplicity a real thing? Or is design the pursuit of something else entirely? A Logic 101 professor once explained to the class I was in that a major factor in screaming matches between people is the lack of a shared definition of a key term. “Clean,” for example, can be measured in degrees. It can mean very different things to people depending on their standards of cleanliness. Then there’s a word like “simple.” When many of them say “simple,” they mean to describe something incredibly easy to use. Practically every designer who's used an iPhone relies on it as the hallmark example of simplicity. As designers, we assume we all agree on its meaning. But when, exactly, do we see it? It’s Not That Simple Practically every designer who’s used an iPhone relies on it as the hallmark example of simplicity.
Neither is a 30-page survey on a dating website “simple.” Getting Clear So what are we talking about when we talk about simplicity? But one thing they can all be is clear. It’s not. IBM and Watson Analytics are changing how the world thinks about eCommerce – IBM Watson Analytics Community. IBM and Watson Analytics are changing how the world thinks about eCommerce Determining the next best action for driving sales is a daily activity for online merchandisers, marketers and product managers. They are also seeking innovative ways to transform the way “someone” buys. The goal of all this activity? To drive eCommerce to the highest peaks of performance. Innovating with business data and analytics To that end, IBM developed the IBM® Commerce Insights™ solution.
Enabling business users to find eCommerce insights IBM Commerce Insights for Watson Analytics offers cognitive, predictive and visual analytics of site data in an easy-to-use, cloud-based service. Go beyond analysis More than just an analysis solution, Commerce Insights for Watson Analytics enables you to make conclusions and predictions, based on correlations of current and historical data. What’s in it for you? Learn more. Google chap bakes Amiga emulator into Chrome. A Google chap named Christian Stefansen has created an Amiga 500 emulator that runs inside the Alphabet subsidiary's Chrome browser.
“The emulator code is based on the Open Source Universal Amiga Emulator which is about 400k lines of C code,” Stefansen says. He didn't cook up the code out of altruism: Google offers “Native Client”, billed as “a sandbox for running compiled C and C++ code in the browser efficiently and securely.” Porting the Amiga into the Native Client is therefore a good way to show it off to the curious or the nostalgic. The former will find a pixellated and slow-to-respond windowing system and low-fi graphics (here for readers on mobile devices). Anyone will appreciate just how far we've come since the days of the Amiga, thanks to the inclusion of the famous "Juggler" app depicted below. The app opens with a screen explaining the following feats of computation: "The images were generated with a standard Amiga with 512K memory.
The emulator ships with other apps, too. Why Social Engineering Should Be Your Biggest Security Concern. Three ways to build security into your mobile app from the start. This blog post is contributed by Jonathan Marshall, a WebSphere Technical Professional. We all know that security is important. In mobile application development, breaches are costly both financially and in terms of the trust of consumers and employees. There are many studies that illustrate the challenge and cost of security flaws: According to data from Arxan Technologies, 100 percent of the top 100 paid apps on Google Play have malicious variants.
What can we do about this? Here is the good news. 1. The key to maintaining rapid development cycles is to automate the scanning of the mobile application as part of development builds. Scanning tools, such as IBM Security AppScan Source, provide great coverage of security issues, such as the Open Web Application Security Project, OWASP. 2. All engaging mobile applications need to have access to real data and perform real transactions. How do we provide secure access to this data? Don’t build a custom mobile gateway. 3. Summary. Learn Swift in three easy steps today with IBM Swift Sandbox! The Encryption Debate: a Way Forward. Researchers Say Security of Encrypted Communications Apps Compromised by Users.
Testing the Watson Personality Insights Machine Learning Model.