Scribd adds unlimited access to ‘New York’ and ‘Time’ magazine
Last summer Scribd axed romance novels because it couldn’t afford them. Business has apparently stabilized because now it’s adding magazines to the fold. Not those types of magazines, though. Starting this month, what’s being added to the subscription-based reading service is unlimited access to publications Bloomberg Business Week, Fortune, Money, New York, People and Time. The magazines are a value-add and won’t bump the existing $8.99 monthly fee, according to Wall Street Journal.
These are full magazines, that will apparently be linked by interest and related articles based on what you’re currently reading. It’s worth noting that Scribd’s offering isn’t nearly as robust as what you can get with Amazon’s all-you-can-read Kindle Unlimited subscription, of course.
In all, this seems like an experiment for publishers more than it does Scribd itself. Scribd appears to be happy just to increase what it offers to subscribers. Heads of licensing and biz dev for Time Inc. and New York magazine, on the other hand, seem to be doing it more for insights of how people read their product than seeing it as a revenue driver.
“We’re interested in new emerging platforms where we may gain exposure to readers we may not be already reaching,” New York’s Camilla Cho said.
Source: Wall Street Journal
Facebook blocks UK insurer from profiling users for discounts
When you’re a first-time driver, getting a reasonable car insurance quote can be a tricky affair. Age and inexperience on the road result in higher premiums, which only come down after you’ve proven you’re not a danger to yourself or others for a number of years. Some insurance providers have offered ways to bring costs down by asking customers to drive with a companion app but one UK company, Admiral, decided to take the unusual step of tapping into car owners’ Facebook accounts to assess their personality and decide whether they deserve a discount. At least that was the plan.
The Guardian reports that Admiral’s “firstcarquote” initiative was designed to reward drivers who appear to be conscientious and well-organised, at least according to their social media presence. It attempts to detect people who seem overconfident, looking out for overuse of exclamation marks (!!!) and trigger words like “always” or “never” counting against them.
Admiral was meant to launch firstcarquote this week but a notice on the company’s website says it “still has to sort a few final details.” What it doesn’t tell you is that Facebook has outright blocked the tool. An Open Rights Group statement confirms that firstcarquote contravenes Facebook’s Platform Policy section 3.15, which states: “Don’t use data obtained from Facebook to make decisions about eligibility, including whether to approve or reject an application or how much interest to charge on a loan.”
Admiral has yet to confirm whether it will be able to navigate around the block but says an applicant’s data (which won’t include photos) will be compared with thousands of other customers to “form a prediction about the way you might drive.” Users won’t be penalized for following a controversial page, nor will they be judged on something they posted way back in the past. The system takes into account the last six months of an person’s Facebook history and only accesses their account when they apply.
Admiral’s Facebook-centric initiative appears rudimentary but it’s insistent that as more first-time drivers apply and sign up, it can make more correlations between social media and claims data, allowing the model to evolve over time. In a similar move, health insurance company Aetna is giving its employees Apple Watches to help collect data and encourage a more active lifestyle.
Whether younger drivers will soon start going back through their social histories to delete what they deem to be unflattering in order to save money (up to £350) remains to be seen. Facebook is staunchly defensive of its platform and its action against Admiral has already won support from digital rights groups. Open Rights Group, for example, said: “Young people may feel pushed into such schemes because of financial constraints. The right to keep things private shouldn’t be the preserve of those who can afford it.”
Via: The Guardian
Source: Admiral’s FirstCarQuote
China’s WeChat messenger tests its own version of instant apps
WeChat might not mean much here in the US, but in Asia, the messaging app boasts some 800 million users. Its next step toward dominance is “small programs” that act like apps within the chat service, according The Information. These perform singular tasks, but won’t require a download. “People would be able to scan a QR code via the WeChat app on their phone to use loyalty points at a favorite coffeeshop or transfer money without leaving WeChat or downloading a separate piece of software,” the report says.
Much like Google’s still-unreleased Instant Apps, it sounds like WeChat’s “small programs” are all about efficiency and speed. The idea is to keep users within WeChat instead of having them download other apps they might only use a few times. For a domestic example, it’s a bit like how Apple positioned its recent additions to iMessage. Where this cleaves from Cupertino’s add-ons is that it may not have an app store, although The Information posits that the small programs could be searchable within the application — much like how you can order a ride with Didi Chuxing currently.
The update is only available to a beta group of 200 developers, with parent company Tencent saying it will go wide soon.
Source: The Information
See the Face Palm and ‘Harambe’ emojis on iOS for the first time
Apple’s developer preview of iOS 10.2 offers the first look at a handful of fresh emojis, including Shrug, Avocado, Face Palm, Duck, Fox, Fingers Crossed and Gorilla (AKA Harambe), as spotted by Emojipedia. The preview is available today for registered developers and it also includes the lineup for Emoji 4.0, the overhaul that adds male and female versions of most jobs to the official Unicode rulebook, plus expands skin tone options across the board. The update means male dancers wearing bunny ears and female police officers, for example.
Hello, Harambe (Image credit: Apple)
The developer preview also shows off the final batch of updated emojis, which covers food and transportation icons. The new designs are less flat, with more emphasis on detail and lifelike colors. Basically, the burrito might actually make you hungry now.
Mmm. (Image credit: Emojipedia)
There’s no official public release scheduled for iOS 10.2, but Emojipedia expects it to land this month.
Via: The Daily Dot
Source: Emojipedia
Project Tango game ‘Woorld’ is here to make your life silly
This one is for all the Levovo Phab2 Pro owners out there. The Project Tango-powered augmented reality game Woorld is available today via the Google Play Store, just for Phab2 Pro people. Woorld comes from Keita Takahashi, the creator of eccentric classics Katamari Damacy and Noby Noby Boy, and it features a familiar brand of adorable, cartoonish characters and objects. However, since this is an AR game, everything is overlaid on the real world through the Phab2 Pro’s screen.
Players are able to map their surroundings and then place things like houses, sprouts, clouds, mushrooms, pyramids, snowmen and cute little box-like characters anywhere around the environment. The objects interact with each other — the sprout grows into a flower after it receives some rain from a cloud, for example.
We got a closer look at Woorld in May and found it to be a creative, sandbox-style experience. Woorld comes from Takahashi and Funomena, an independent game studio founded by Journey developers Robin Hunicke and Martin Middleton.
The Phab2 Pro hit shelves today for $500. It’s the first-ever phone to launch with Google’s Tango depth-sensing technology, and to show off all the fancy AR features, 35 new Tango apps hit the Google Play Store today.
Source: Funomena
Conjure spells on your phone to prepare for ‘Fantastic Beasts’
J.K. Rowling’s prequel to the Harry Potter series is set to hit theaters next week and Google wants to help you prepare by turning your phone into a magic wand. On an Android device, you can cast “spells” with an “OK Google” voice command. After you alert your phone with the magic phrase, follow it up with a command like “lumos” and “nox” to turn the flashlight on and off. You can also use “silencio” to mute any sounds and notifications. Sure, it’s rather simple, but it’s a neat way for Potter fans to get ready for Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them ahead of next week’s debut.
The movie promotions don’t stop there as Google lets you explore the streets of New York in 1926 via Maps. You can visit key locations in the film and take a virtual tour of each, including the Magical Congress of the USA (MCUSA). Google already detailed its Daydream VR experience where you’ll need to help Newt capture his escaped beasts before they cause a bigger ruckus. Of course, Google’s Daydream View headset will arrive this month, so you’ll have to wait to test drive the more immersive promo piece and use the controller as a magic wand.
Lastly, Google’s Allo messaging app is set to get some Fantastic Beasts-themed stickers to enhance your movie-related convos. Stickers are all the rage these days, so this isn’t a huge surprise after the recent Allo-assisted Stranger Things scavenger hunt and sticker pack. If you’re looking to check out all of the stuff Google created for the movie, the company has a dedicated site to all the goods right here.
Source: Google
Samsung spends $1 billion to strengthen US chip production
Making the chips that sit inside our smartphones, tablets and cars is a big business, and one that’s only getting bigger. Samsung is looking to take advantage of that by spending a further $1 billion on its Texas-based semiconductor facility. That cash is intended to increase Samsung’s ability to produce integrated systems on a chip like its Exynos-branded SoCs that reside inside mobile devices.
The Austin American Statesman quotes Catherine Morse, Samsung’s local general counsel, saying that the move will create more jobs. The executive believes that the firm will seek to employ a further 250 – 500 people in the expanded factory when its upgrades are finalized. That should be completed by mid-2017 and serves as a rare boost for Austin’s now-shrinking chip-making economy.
It’s also a sign that Samsung is looking to go it alone when taking on its global rivals in the chip manufacture wars. Its closest rivals are arguably TSMC, which produces the bulk of the chips for the iPhone, and Qualcomm, which recently announced that it would purchase NXP Semiconductor for $47 billion.
Source: Samsung
Google’s Daydream View VR reaches stores November 10th
You won’t have to wait much longer to see whether or not Google’s Daydream View headset is a viable contender to the likes of Gear VR. Google has announced that its virtual reality wearable will reach both the Google Store and retail in five countries (the US, Canada, UK, Germany and Australia) on November 10th. In the US, it’ll be available for $79 through Best Buy and Verizon. British buyers can track it down for £69 at Carphone Warehouse or EE, and Canadians can pick it up for $99 at Best Buy, Bell, Rogers or Telus.
You’ll need a compatible phone (such as Google’s own Pixel or Pixel XL) to use the Daydream View, but it promises to open up the world of mobile VR. Right now, your choices in that realm are largely limited to either basic viewers like Google Cardboard or Samsung’s proprietary Gear VR — you could soon see interactive VR on a wide range of Android devices. It’s also important to note that Google doesn’t have a monopoly on Daydream headsets, either. The aim is to create a whole ecosystem, not to corner the market.
Source: Google
Xiaomi aims to be more than king of the budget smartphones
The day after the Mi Note 2 and Mi MIX launch last week, the flagship Mi Home store next to Xiaomi’s headquarters was packed with visitors. Nope, they weren’t there to spend their yuan, but to simply wait for their turn to play with the new phones. But the real star was clearly the Mi MIX “concept phone.” People were drawn to its near-bezel-less display and fancy ceramic body. Despite this being Xiaomi’s most expensive smartphone ever, I heard many visitors ask if they could buy one immediately, only to be let down when told they have to wait until November 4th. Xiaomi must be doing something right
The Mi MIX didn’t just happen over night, of course; it was a two-year project with contributions from French designer, Philippe Starck. This man is no stranger to the tech world, he’s helped design headphones, hard drives, a smart radiator valve, electric bicycles and, even, the late Steve Jobs’ yacht. Barra described Starck’s role in the Mi MIX project as setting high-level priorities, especially when it came to convincing the Xiaomi team to keep things clean and simple.
Xiaomi’s aim with the Mi MIX is to showcase some of the breakthrough mobile technologies that will eventually trickle down to its mainstream devices. In this case, we have Sharp’s near-bezel-less display which we knew was arriving sooner or later. Hidden underneath that is Elliptic Labs’ ultrasound-based proximity sensor, which replaces the ugly infrared dot and turns the screen off when the phone is placed next to your ear. Last but not least, the full ceramic body is a nice alternative to the aluminum we’re accustomed to. The company hopes these experiments will lead consumers to see Xiaomi as home to serious innovation, rather than a budget brand.
Some would argue that it should be giants like Apple and Google bringing out devices like the Mi MIX. While Barra declined to comment on the iPhone 7, he was happy to praise his previous company’s efforts with the Pixel and even went as far as saying the series “sets a bar for the whole world.” He described Google’s latest phones as being “all-around optimized,” “very responsive” with “great battery life” plus an “awesome camera,” though he did say that they don’t necessarily have the best industrial design — especially with their “very tall chins.”
Could Google have done a phone like the Mi MIX? Barra defended his former colleagues by saying it would have been difficult for them to justify the risk of delivering a phone like this, as it wouldn’t sell in large quantities. The Pixel, on the other hand, doesn’t have this problem. “I think they’re gonna sell a lot of Pixels. Every Android enthusiast is going to try what they can to get their hands on one.” Sometimes I can’t help but wonder if Barra is still working for Google.
Save for the Mi Home’s strong resemblance to any Apple store, the Mi MIX could have almost peeled the copycat label off Xiaomi for good. Alas, people were quick to compare the Mi Note 2’s 3D curved body to Samsung’s S7 Edge and its discontinued Note 7. Barra was keen to point out that Xiaomi was actually the first company to release a smartphone with a 3D curved glass back — the original Mi Note. The same industrial design was applied to the smaller but more powerful Mi 5.
“I’m not worried about what people are going to say.”
Samsung then combined the 3D curved screen and the 3D curved glass back for the S7 Edge, to which Barra said, “Well, no one is going to give us credit for a curved back, right? They just care about the front.” It wasn’t until the Mi Note 2 when Xiaomi followed Samsung’s suit, courtesy of the flexible OLED display allegedly supplied by LG.
“In how many ways do you think you can design a curved display? Exactly one way,” Barra argued. “I don’t think that anyone can outright claim ownership of that as an invention because it’s kind of like a logical thing. They can claim that they were the first ones to do it, but certainly not the ones responsible for the most incredible idea in the world because it’s just a very straightforward engineering thing: As soon as you can come up with a flexible OLED display, you can design a screen like this.
“I’m not worried about what people are going to say, because we’re pretty confident in our design capability. I think [the Mi MIX unveiling] was a pretty clear demonstration of that.”
Instagram shopping tags help you buy what you see
Ads in your Instagram feed may be irksome, but wouldn’t it be nice if you could at least find out how much it would cost to buy those sweet shoes or stylish bags? Instagram sure does. It’s starting to roll out shopping tags that identify the products in ads. Tap a button and you’ll see the basic details of products in a photo ad; tap those products and you’ll get both more details as well as links to visit their store pages on the web. You can’t buy goods directly from Instagram right now (possibly a good thing), but you also don’t have to scrounge through a retailer’s website just to find what you saw a moment ago.
The tags are initially viewable only to a subset of iOS viewers in the US. Most of the early ad partners are fashion brands like Kate Spade and Warby Parker. Expansion to Android, video ads and other countries will follow as Instagram figures out how it can display and recommend products. Eventually, you’ll have the option of saving products you like so that you can buy them later.
Despite what you might think, Instagram isn’t taking a cut every time you tap a “shop now” link. Instead, it’s all about convincing advertisers to line up — they may be more likely to pay if they know that they can turn your ad view into a purchase within seconds. Also, the upcoming save feature is a not-so-subtle way of taking on Pinterest. While Pinterest isn’t limited to saving products from ads, you might have less reason to check it out if you can bookmark inspiring products on Instagram.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Instagram Business
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