Online retailer experiments with junk mail you can’t delete

Between promoted tweets, unduly specific banner ads and a never-ending onslaught of marketing emails, it’s impossible to escape targeted advertising. Luckily, though, the white noise of the internet can largely be ignored or hidden by ad blockers and spam filters. But what if paper and ink letters started falling through your door, encouraging you to buy that novelty mug you showed an interest in the other day? Well, that nightmare scenario is already a reality, and could become much more prevalent if a trial between Royal Mail and an online retailer proves fruitful (as far as they are concerned, anyway). The UK postal service and an unspecified retailer are currently experimenting with targeted advertising, delivered by snail mail, based on consumers’ online activity.

To be clear, only registered users of the retailer who’ve agreed to receive marketing materials are at risk of being targeted. The letters they receive will be akin to email alerts, promoting individual or seasonal products they’ve previously expressed interest in. Royal Mail is also keen to point out it simply delivers the post, and that all customer data is held by the retailer. Jonathan Harman, chief of Royal Mail’s direct marketing division, has previously talked up the potential benefits of postal campaigns for online retailers. “Sure, it’s a lot more expensive per thousand than online display, but it may also be about 100 times more responsive.”

Some of the junk mail we currently receive is “targeted” to some extent, of course. If you’ve ever spoken to your bank about a loan or a credit card, for example, then you can bet there was a brochure in the post before you even put the phone down. Still, we’re sure Orwell would agree there’s a slight difference between a tailored Facebook ad and a nod to your browsing history delivered to your door in physical form. And think of the trees, man. Think of the trees.

[Image credit: Shawn Gearhart/Getty]

Filed under: Internet

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Via: The Daily Mail, The Guardian, Lifehacker UK

Microrobotic tentacles pick up bugs without squishing them

Some researchers develop soft robots, while others specialize on building tiny ones. This robotic tentacle by a team of engineers from Iowa State University, however, is both soft and tiny. In fact, that’s a true-to-size ant encircled by the tentacle in the picture above and not a scaled-up version of the bug. Associate electrical/computer engineering professor Jaeyoun (Jay) Kim wanted to “pioneer new work in the field with both microscale and soft robotics.” So, he and his team set out to make microtubes using a silicon-based material called PDMS, measuring 8 millimeters in length and less than a hundredth of an inch in width.

The engineers admitted that it was tough to design a teensy tentacle that can delicately handle small and fragile objects. In addition to figuring out how to peel off such tiny tubes from the production templates, they also had to add modifications to the tubes to give them more coils — they detailed the process in their paper published on Scientific Reports. According to Kim, his team’s microrobotic tentacles could be used for medical applications, since they don’t squeeze an object to pick it up — they’re “soft, safe and small” and just gently wrap around what they’re trying to hold. Thanks to the way they work, they won’t damage tissues, nerves or even blood vessels during medical procedures.

[Image credit: Jaeyoun (Jay) Kim]

Filed under: Robots

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Source: Scientific Reports, Iowa State University

TalkTalk’s new (almost) gigabit broadband is actually affordable

While BT’s broadband networks dominate the UK, other ISPs want to avoid giving their rival any more money by creating their own. Just yesterday, Virgin Media announced it had begun installing 152Mbps connections across Manchester as part of a £3 billion UK expansion, but now TalkTalk is going one better with the launch of Ultra Fibre Optic (UFO) broadband in York. Although it’s effectively a gigabit service, TalkTalk has steered away from using the term, choosing instead to brand it under the UFO name. Homes and businesses in the city will enjoy up to 940Mbps, which is over six times faster than Virgin Media’s current theoretical limit and 12 times quicker than BT’s current fibre allocation.

While TalkTalk isn’t the first to roll out gigabit speeds in the UK, it is the first to incorporate them into its standard packages. Home packages start at £21.70 a month and £25 per month for businesses — and that’s with line rental included (and no data caps). UFO will come to the Huntingdon and Groves areas of the city this autumn, but TalkTalk is taking a page from Virgin Media’s playbook by letting residents ‘vote’ for access by submitting their addresses.

TalkTalk’s UFO service has been more than a year in the making. In April last year, the company confirmed it had teamed up with Sky and CityFibre to deliver gigabit broadband to York. It suggests that Sky could soon follow up with its own announcement, which may also include additional areas like Basingstoke, giving BT and Virgin Media something to really think about.

Filed under: Household, Internet

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Source: Ultra Fibre Optic – TalkTalk