Get your next movie recommendation from a Facebook bot
Facebook is still working on rolling out its bot platform, with the apps that will eventually comprise it still in its early stages. But there’s one that you can try out right now, complete with a ridiculous name based on one of the memes du jour out there on the internet. It’s called And Chill, and it’s a movie recommendation engine.
Via Facebook Messenger or text you can engage And Chill, where it will ask you to tell it a particular movie you enjoyed and why you liked it. The bot will analyze your reasoning and use the data it receives to recommend films in the same vein as the one you stated a preference for. The science behind it all isn’t so readily shared by the startup itself, but it “uses a few different frameworks to detect patters, attributes, and other factors” to work its magic.
At the time of this post And Chill is under some heavy load, promising it “won’t be long” for a response, but to expect delays. I wasn’t actually able to get a recommendation due to said delays (I waited 20 minutes for a response) but it looks from other user reviews it’s offering some decent suggestions here and there.
It’s definitely a leg up from doing the Netflix shuffle where you flip back and forth through categories aimlessly, but it’ll need some time before it works as flawlessly as we’d want. Still, you’ve got to admit — being hand-delivered a movie suggestion and a trailer to match it is a lot better than trolling IMDb.
If you’re interested in giving And Chill a try, you can access it via Facebook Messenger or by texting 213-297-3673.
Via: TechCrunch
Volkswagen ponders a luxury Uber rival with Porsche cars
Last week, the Volkswagen group dumped $300 million into Gett, a taxi hailing-cum-ride sharing app that’s big outside of the US. Now, the company has revealed that it’s pondering a rival to Uber Black by offering private drivers access to its higher-end vehicles. Details are scarce since it’s a single line reference in a very long press release, but VW says that it’s looking at a “special chauffeur service” that features “premium brands, such as Audi and Porsche.” What that looks like in reality is anyone’s guess, although the idea of getting ferried around in an Audi RS 7 does have some appeal.
The deal with Gett will concentrate on getting Volkswagen cars into the hands of Gett’s drivers with the promise of juicy discounts. For instance, the firm will offer a special package that’ll bundle car insurance and servicing with the purchase price, which can be paid by a would-be operator in installments. It’s a similar deal to the one that Uber offers would-be drivers, letting them buy cars from manufacturers like Volkswagen, Ford and Toyota at a discount. Uber, however, also lets prospective cabbies rent their vehicle on a monthly basis, thanks to a deal with Enterprise. Both of which will likely become more muscular now that Uber has a further $3.5 billion in its back pocket.
The troubling fact for the auto industry is that people will still need cars, but it’s likely that they won’t need as many as they do right now. On-demand services and self-driving vehicles are, after all, intended to shuttle around cities like an ersatz taxi-cum-metro system rather than sitting in parking lots. The concepts of ownership that we currently hold dear (and the profits that car companies get from them) are likely to fade away in the next, say, fifty years time. As such, conglomerates like VW will have to reinvent themselves as both manufacturer and transport company in one.
But these changes are never easy, especially when the biggest car firms have tons of baggage that slows down their progress. Many are still devoting time and resources to producing thousands of new cars with combustion engines that will be on the roads for years to come. Looming in the shadow, however, is the emissions scandal, with the financial and reputational penalties likely to be felt for years to come. Younger, more nimble rivals without legacy businesses, like Tesla, are working on mass-producing electric cars for mass-market prices. When that happens, the amount of time that the establishment has left may start to run out a lot faster than before.
Via: FT
Source: Volkswagen
Why celebrities get away with stealth shilling on Instagram
Kim Kardashian is a social media powerhouse, boasting 72 million followers on Instagram and more than 45 million on Twitter. For celebrities in general, it’s never been easier to reach fans across the world, whether it be with a 140-character tweet or a selfie that breaks the internet. Though public figures mostly use these platforms to give outsiders a peek into their glamorous lives (or simply stay relevant), they’re also using them to make money.
Kardashian is the perfect example. Take her recent tweet advocating for a skin care line, in which she failed to mention that it was an ad. Clicking on the link prompts you to subscribe to her app to learn more about the product. Sponsored posts like these are a new advertising scheme that brands use to push their wares. The problem is, in most cases sponsored posts don’t include proper disclosure, making it difficult for fans to know the difference between a heartfelt message and an advertisement.
Last week, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it will host an event in September called Putting Disclosures to the Test. The idea behind it is to learn what companies are doing to ensure consumers are aware of advertising claims, privacy practices and other information published on the web. According to the agency, the eventual goal is to find the right formula to keep ads from being deceptive, not only on social networks but the internet in general. Under the FTC Act, a federal law passed in 1914, the government is responsible for preventing dishonest methods of competition in the marketplace, including “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce.”
The Act was created well before the age of the internet, not to mention social media. But its intent hasn’t changed. As it stands, celebrities like Kim Kardashian are openly ignoring the law, taking to platforms like Instagram and Twitter to advertise products or services without letting followers know they were compensated for doing so. There’s no doubt Kardashian is powerful enough to persuade her fans to buy stuff. Remember when the Kimoji app shot to the top of Apple’s App Store, and apparently broke it, hours after its release?
Kim Kardashian posing with a product from her brand of cosmetics.
That influence is magnified by the millions of followers Kardashian has on Instagram and Twitter. So even if she’s only deceiving a small number of them, that could still pay huge dividends to a brand that chose to advertise with her. Even if it’s not an ad, famous people can still drive people’s choices. Victoria’s Secret model Kendall Jenner wore a $350 sweatshirt last year and, within days of being pictured in it, the piece sold out everywhere. Ditto for everything the Duchess of Cambridge has ever worn in public. This is why brands are so thirsty for celebrity endorsements: Whatever they touch turns to gold.
“If there is a connection between an advertiser and an endorser, then that connection or that relationship should be disclosed,” says Mary Engle, head of the FTC’s Ad Practices Division, noting that there are a few exceptions to this rule. In traditional media, such as television or newspapers, the FTC expects consumers to recognize that a celebrity is being paid for appearing in a commercial or printed advertisement. As a result, Engle says those type of ads don’t need a disclosure, like they would on a social media post.
Here’s an example of Kardashian posting an ad on Twitter, without any sort of disclosure. And this is just one of many.
#PRODUCTPORN DR. RAJ KANODIA’S SKINCARE LINE https://t.co/wCY7fe8jcW pic.twitter.com/jOdtTnsnTw
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) May 21, 2016
The FTC has clear guidelines for cases like this. It suggests individuals who were paid to endorse a product on social media include #Ad or words like “Sponsored,” “Promotion” and “Paid ad.” It’s rare that celebrities follow these rules, however. There’s a slight chance that Kardashian isn’t personally aware of the FTC Act and how it applies to advertising goods on social media, but surely her legal team knows that she’d be subject to fines if the FTC filed a case against her. You could also argue that the companies paying celebrities are responsible for making sure they follow the FTC’s advertising guidelines.
It’s not just celebrities either: Some of the biggest fashion and lifestyle bloggers are doing the same thing on Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. Earlier this year, the department store Lord & Taylor settled charges with the FTC after it was found to have deceived consumers by paying 50 “influencers” to advertise a clothing collection on Instagram without disclosing that these posts were paid promotions. Although the Lord & Taylor case was a win for the FTC, the brand was the only party held liable — not the bloggers who played a major role in it. That said, often these individuals take advantage of a loophole by calling themselves brand ambassadors, rather than offering straightforward disclaimers.
@KimKardashian how do we know what’s a good product and what’s not if you endorse everything?
— Mama Dollaz akaJewel (@mamajeweldollaz) May 21, 2016
To this day, despite clear violations from many celebrities, the commission has yet to reprimand any of them. And although companies such as Lord & Taylor should definitely face penalties for failing to properly inform its influencers on how to follow the FTC’s Endorsement Guidelines, celebrities and bloggers alike could use some discipline as well.
We’ve reached the point where Scott Disick, whose children are part of the Kardashian family, recently published a picture on Instagram with the instructions for a sponsored post as the status. Seriously, he (or whoever handles his account) copied and pasted the info from the advertiser and called it a day. He eventually realized this was ill advised and deleted the post, but the internet never forgets. In fairness, he did include #Ad in the replacement post, but that wasn’t there in the original version.
In which Scott Disick copied and pasted the email from the skinny tea marketing team onto his Instagram caption pic.twitter.com/ocVdxi4jaZ
— frank (@frankiegreek) May 19, 2016
“I understand the FTC likely feels the companies are the big fish in these situations,” says Julie Zerbo, editor-in-chief of The Fashion Law, a site that covers fashion law and the business of fashion, “but that is plainly inaccurate.” She says the problem is that the bloggers involved aren’t “small-time,” but rather sophisticated entities that make “hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars” through advertising campaigns on social media.
Zerbo believes it’s only a matter of time before the FTC starts cracking down on these people, not just the companies paying them. “[The FTC] needs to make an example of one big blogger or celebrity to set a precedent,” she added. “As of now, all influencers believe they are immune.”
The bigger issue are celebrities with millions of followers. But while the FTC hasn’t filed any legal cases against the likes of Kardashian and Disick, the agency agrees that they should be held accountable. “Both the individuals and the advertisers are separately responsible,” Engle says when asked about which party should be blamed for misleading consumers. Still, it’s unclear why the FTC hasn’t gone after any celebrities or influencers. As it stands, Engle explains, “the primary target of our investigations would be the advertiser or the company who is promoting its product.”
@KimKardashian wonder how much you got paid for this
— Just Tom (@JustTom) May 18, 2016
However, Engle tells Engadget that advertisers have a major responsibility to inform celebrities and bloggers (and anyone else they’re paying to push a product) that appropriate disclosures need to be made. “The FTC has taken the position that advertising should be identifiable as advertising,” she adds, “so that consumers know when they’re hearing a marketing pitch versus an organic or independent viewpoint.”
It’s obvious that the FTC has consumers’ best interests at heart, but it needs to do more for the cause. Because until Kim Kardashian starts labeling sponsored posts on Instagram or Twitter as such, her fans might assume that she genuinely likes whatever product she’s hyping. Maybe she really does love that dental product she’s obsessed with, but how could we be sure it isn’t an ad if she’s never set a precedent for adding disclaimers to her posts? You’ll just have to trust it’s an honest feeling.
Facepalm, selfie and shrug emoji are on the way
The annual additions to Unicode emoji library have been approved, which means 72 new tiny pictures are headed to your phone. When version 9.0 is released in June, selfie, shrug, facepalm, bacon, cucumber, avocado and dozens more new emoji will make the cut. Just in time for the Rio Olympics this summer, a smattering of event-related options and medals will also join the thousands of images that already exist. Even though the new additions will be included in Unicode this month, you’ll still have to wait until companies include them in their mobile software. The good news is new versions of Android and iOS are both due this fall.
Via: The Telegraph
Source: Unicode
Pebble adds Alexa’s voice controls to its upcoming Core wearable
Pebble announced its 3G-enabled Core device just last week, and even though the gadget won’t ship until 2017, the company is already adding features. Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant will be available on the wearable exercise accessory, bringing voice controls to the iPod Shuffle-esque device. With the Core, Alexa can still handle tasks like playing music, reading news headlines, shopping on Amazon, ordering food, controlling smart home tech and more. In terms of more Pebble-specific chores, the virtual assistant can read your Pebble Health summary to keep you up to speed on your daily stats.
Amazon released Alexa for developers to integrate with third-party apps and devices, and we’ve already seen the software pop up in both software and hardware applications. However, Pebble says that this is the first time Alexa will be available on “a fully-independent” 3G-enabled wearable. If the addition of Alexa has you ready to open your wallet, a $79 pledge will secure your Core ahead of next year’s ship date. That’s a $20 discount over the going rate when the device arrives.
Source: Pebble
‘Sims 4’ removes gender barriers in Create a Sim
The Sims franchise is all about customization. The city-building games feature wild objects, buildings, people and professions that can be combined in all manner of ridiculous ways, from blue-skinned rocket scientists with a deep love of cactuses to museum curators who enjoy a good naked walk around fine art displays. Personal choice is the joy of the game. That’s one reason it was strange to have customization options in The Sims 4 that were exclusive to either gender. Female characters couldn’t use the clothes, hairstyles, physiques and voice options that were designated for men, and vice versa.
That is, until today.
A free update released Thursday for The Sims 4 makes more than 700 existing pieces of content gender-neutral, allowing players to alter their characters in any way they wish for the first time. Women can have deep voices, broad shoulders and blazers, and men can have dresses, long hair and heels, for example. The update applies to customization options in the base game as well as existing DLC packs for the “Create a Sim” mode.
“The Sims has long been an inclusive game built by a diverse team for a diverse audience,” lead producer Lyndsay Pearson says. “We’ve been working on this update for more than a year, and it’s about giving players more ways to be creative and express themselves. Players have always been able to customize their Sims’ hair, age, skin tone and more. This is a natural evolution of that gameplay freedom.”
“We’re passionate about creating an inclusive environment where players are empowered.” – Lyndsay Pearson
Pearson says players would often ask for gender-neutral options, and removing those restrictions makes perfect sense for a game focused on creativity and personal style. After every new update, the Maxis team looks forward to seeing what players come up with and how they use the tools they’re given, she says. Removing gendered items only broadens the potential for creativity and expression.
“We’re excited to see how players use the gender customization options to express themselves and tell their stories,” Pearson says.
Today’s update wasn’t prompted by recent real-world conversations about transgender rights or bathroom politics — it’s been in the works for more than a year, after all, nearly since the game’s launch in September 2014. However, Pearson acknowledges that video games, just like other forms of mass entertainment, can influence the way people think about issues like gender, sexuality and social mores. In turn, society influences how developers approach their craft. Video games are immersive forms of entertainment and they can’t be separated from the people creating or playing them.
Maxis and publisher EA are proud to have a “long history” of fostering personal creativity and providing representation for all types of people, Pearson says.
“That’s why we’re passionate about creating an inclusive environment where players are empowered to be creative and express themselves,” she adds. “We give players the tools to reflect the world around them and bring their imaginations to life.”
Pearson hopes the update inspires players to tell their own stories — or the stories of a succulent-loving, blue-tinted rocket scientist. It’s entirely up to the players.
“For Sims players, more freedom, more customization options and more tools to express themselves are always a good thing,” Pearson says.
Google’s new software lets anyone make interactive displays
Google has created an intriguing new piece of open-source software in the form of AnyPixel.js, where anyone can create their own large, interactive displays. “Big and unusual” are the key operators here, and that seems to be exactly what Google has done as its first project.
While brainstorming ideas for something interesting to put in the NYC office, Google came up with an interactive light-up arcade button installation, taking over six thousand buttons and coordinating control via web page, opening up the panel of buttons to developers to create something fun. The result is an awesome-looking set of light-up buttons that you can press on your own for colorful, swirling designs or patterns you can watch over and over.
Google wants to put that kind of power in your hands, so you can create your own similar setups, whether you choose balloons, lightboxes, or a myriad of other components to bring your ideas to life. Before you get started you can take to Google’s browser previewer as well to get some sort of idea of how your project will look when it’s completed, so you don’t have to be in the dark throughout the creative process.
If you’re interested in working with AnyPixel.js, you can grab it from GitHub right here.
Augmented reality hardware is still way ahead of its software
Augmented reality — using a device’s camera to overlay information on the real world — is a concept that’s been around for years. But the combined failure of Google Glass and huge hype around virtual reality players like Oculus over the last few years have dampened the enthusiasm for the field a bit, relegating it to second-player status. Microsoft has reignited interest in AR thanks to Hololens, but the demos I saw at this year’s Augmented World Expo made me think there’s still a lot of work to be done. Particularly on the software side.
Unlike VR, which has the huge tentpoles of gaming and entertainment to rely on for consumer content, AR’s use case is a bit fuzzier. Probably the most useful consumer scenario for AR that I saw was at Epson’s booth, where the company was showing off its recently-announced Moverio BT-300 augmented reality glasses. A spokesperson told me there’s been a lot of interest in using the Moverio while piloting drones. You can watch the drone’s flight path and simultaneously see what its camera sees through the built-in screen in your glasses.
Beyond that, though, much of what I heard about was business-focused. That’s not a huge surprise, given that all the rumors point to Google remaking Glass into a device focused on work, not play. Right now it seems like enterprise is the most obvious place for AR companies to find success. The idea of providing workers in the field with the info they need, without tying up their hands, is compelling.
But nearly everything I tried at the Augmented World Expo felt like a half-baked demo. Part of that is simply due to the venue; I can’t very well use an AR headset to diagnose a mechanical problem with an engine and follow instructions beamed to my headset to fix it. But even in controlled demos, most of what I tried to do with these headsets felt too fiddly, unfinished and just plain difficult to execute.
The best demos I saw were ones where I didn’t really need to interact with what I saw on my headset. A company called Librestream is using AR technology to let remote workers see what someone sees out in the field and beam notes back and forth. For example, I could be looking at a data center server while a remote employee snaps an image from my headset’s camera and then sends it back to me with annotations about what I need to fix and what I should ignore. That demo didn’t rely on any tiny headset-mounted controls or gestures to make sense, and it was better for it.
I had less success trying Augmenta’s “smart panel” software. The idea is clever enough: Look at a plain panel with what amounts to QR codes around it, and you’ll then see a custom set of controls overlaid on it. The demo I tried had the panel wired up to a robotic arm, with controls to move it virtually placed on the previously-blank panel. Unfortunately, actually touching and activating those controls was an imprecise process, to say the least. It’s certainly less effective than using actual hardware controls.
Medicine is another big potential market for AR, and one demo I tried used a pair of glasses to make a minor surgery easier to perform. With one hand, I guided an ultrasound over a pretty gross bowl of something both solid and watery; in my other hand I held a long needle meant for extracting a sample for biopsy. In my glasses, I was able to see the precise path the needle would take overlaid on the ultrasound slice, letting me enter and exit the sample while easily diving into the fake tumor in one shot. It’s a hard experience to put into words, but it shows the potential for adding valuable information through AR.
The key word here is potential: Almost everything I saw felt like it had a lot of potential, but the software just wasn’t quite living up to it yet. It felt like bleeding-edge, hacky stuff. That’s fine in a vacuum, but for the technology to move forward, someone (like Microsoft) is going to really have to release some killer apps.
The other side of the equation is hardware, which feels much further ahead than the software. Both Epson and ODG are offering hardware with fairly impressive displays, both from a resolution and image quality perspective. ODG in particular was showing off a prototype with dual 1080p displays running at 60FPS, and the effective screen “size” when wearing the headset felt a lot larger than most of the competition.
For Epson’s part, the Moverio BT-300 is significantly smaller than earlier versions, and its screen looked impressive in the quick video demo I saw. But even the newer hardware seemed like a work in progress — lots of headsets felt like they were going to overheat, or the battery life wasn’t good enough to handle the rigorous demo environment.
A day spent trying out various AR demos was like taking a trip through one of technology’s more wild frontiers. There’s a host of companies working on hardware, software, components, platforms for developers and more — and there are tons of partnerships across the board intertwining them all. How it’ll all shake out remains to be seen, but it’s likely that Microsoft will play the role of Oculus here and blaze a trail for the smaller companies to follow. And it’s increasingly likely that a focus on business will be where AR finds its niche — but before businesses start investing serious cash in this technology, the whole experience, from hardware to software, will have to get a lot better.
2016 Internet Trends Report: Global Smartphone User Growth Slowing as Android Outpaces iOS
Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers partner Mary Meeker recently shared her annual Internet Trends report for 2016, showcasing a presentation of 213 slides covering a range of topics from global life expectancy to the ongoing market battle between iOS and Android.
Concerning the specific battle between iOS and Android, Meeker notes that over the past six years iOS has seen just a two percentage point increase in market share, while Android has exploded from a 4 percent presence in the industry in 2009 to a massive 81 percent in 2015. The pattern is expected to continue, with Meeker projecting iOS will see a year-over-year loss of 11 percent in unit shipments as Android climbs another 7 percent in 2016.
Due to Apple’s introduction of the lower-cost iPhone SE — and the cheaper price tag of smartphones in the company’s expanding global markets — Meeker also expects Apple’s average selling price per unit to dip this year for the first time since 2012. In that year, ASP dropped only 4 percent (from $712 in 2011 to $686 in 2012), but now the company is predicted to see a 9 percent decline in ASP (dropping off from $717 in 2015 to $651 in 2016).
Unlike in years past, global smartphone unit shipments are slowing “dramatically,” for both Apple and Android-supported devices. Expansion for the smartphone market as a whole has stagnated, going from a peak in 2010 at nearly 80 percent year-over-year growth, to just about 15 percent in 2015.
Global smartphone user growth is seeing a similar slow-down; understandably, the largest markets with the least amount of smartphone proliferation have the biggest upticks in year-over-year increments. These include Asia-Pacific, which has seen a nearly 20-percentage-point increase in smartphone user share over the last seven years and now accounts for over half of the total market.
Apple has been attempting to gain a larger foothold in these countries, notably seeing strong performance in China in recent years and looking toward India as its next area of focus. Low-cost devices — and a larger number of potential customers without a smartphone — in areas like the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America also presumably helped those territories come out on top in the total rankings for global smartphone user growth.
Earlier in April, Apple reported its first year-over-year decline in revenue since 2003. The news led to a string of reports addressing the company’s declining stock value and various “peak iPhone” comments concerning its potential inability to continue to grow in certain markets, especially where its flagship smartphones see annual releases without much dramatic distinction between models.
Meeker’s tamped-down expectations for 2016 mirror these concerns, particularly regarding the increasing belief that the 2016 iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus will be iterative updates on the current iPhone 6s line, using a largely similar design but with new features like a dual-lens camera and Lightning-enabled headphone connector. An uptick is now projected for 2017’s “iPhone 8,” which is seeing rumors surrounding everything from a massively redesigned bezel-free display that features a dual-curve OLED screen to truly wireless charging.
Mary Meeker’s 2016 Internet Trends presentation, and a download of the full PDF, is available on KPCB’s website.
Discuss this article in our forums
Third-Party iPhone 7 Plus Cases Continue Debate Over Smart Connector Inclusion
Following early third-party iPhone 7 cases that surfaced earlier this year, several accessory manufacturers have now begun releasing cases for the larger iPhone 7 Plus, but the cases continue to fuel conflicting rumors over whether the larger model will include a Smart Connector on the rear.
The first case manufacturer, Sunnyc, has a listing for a $9.99 case that includes mockup of the iPhone 7 Plus that shows off the rumored dual-lens camera system with a horizontally-aligned flash (via 9to5Mac). At the bottom of the case’s back side, there’s a cutout for a Smart Connector, a feature that has been the subject of a number of rumors including both as a potential inclusion on the device and an idea scrapped by Apple.
Sunnyc’s $9.99 iPhone 7 Plus case
Rumors earlier in the year began indicating that the iPhone 7 Plus would feature an iPad Pro-like Smart Connector, which is used to provide simultaneous power and data connections to accessories like the Smart Keyboard. As the expected fall launch of the new iPhone devices grows near, however, Japanese site Mac Otakara suggested Apple has nixed the Smart Connector from its plans — a rumor SunnyC’s case now opposes.
Supporting claims of no Smart Connector for the iPhone 7 Plus is another set of cases that recently surfaced on Alibaba. The simple cases include the same horizontally extended camera opening to accommodate dual lenses, but lack an opening lower on the case for a Smart Connector.
Either way, it remains unclear what advantages including a Smart Connector on the iPhone would bring, considering the iPad Pro’s primary Smart Connector-enabled accessory is its $149.00 sold-separately Smart Keyboard ($169.00 for the 12.9-inch model). Possibilities include an interface for battery cases that would not require a “chin” or block the iPhone’s Lightning port, a docking station, or a potential wireless charging solution that’s paired with a charging pad.
Sunnyc has also posted two case designs for the 4.7-inch iPhone 7 — both described as a “Protective Silicon Case” — that offer basic protection and raised edges to protect the front of the device. While one sells for $8.99 and has a cutout for the Apple logo on the back, and the other is going for $11.99 and includes a more uniform, uninterrupted back plate, both are largely unnoticeable as next-generation iPhone cases and do not include cutouts for a Smart Connector.
Related Roundup: iPhone 7
Tag: case leak
Discuss this article in our forums
AIVAnet 