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5 Ways Inventory Tracking Technology Is Evolving For 2017

Inventory tracking isn’t a “sexy” industry, but it’s a necessary one for almost any business involved in manufacturing or shipping tangible goods. You need some way to track how much you’re producing, how many raw materials you’re consuming, where those products are going, and how much money you’re making.

Old-school tracking systems relied on unreliable, time-consuming manual processes to make counts and organize data, but advanced modern-day systems are starting to reshape how quickly and efficiently we can track our inventory. According to SystemID, “advancements in [the Internet of Things (IoT), big data, smart manufacturing, and mobile device management (MDM)] are literally changing how companies operate.”

Currently, most of us are still using variations of barcode scanning software to help us organize our inventory, but what does the near future hold for this software?

Predictions for Inventory Tracking Development

1. Real-time is becoming the new normal. Older tracking methods generally relied on a dedicated period of time to catch up on inventory, such as taking counts at the end of the day or the end of the week. Today, scanning technology and more advanced systems are making it possible to keep track of inventory in real-time. That means your system is updated anytime a product makes a move, whether that’s getting shipped out to a different facility or placed on the line for the first time. This leads to faster, more accurate insights, and leaves less wiggle room for potential mistakes and confusion.
2. Retail and fulfillment are blurring. With the dawn and boom of ecommerce, many physical retail stores are being forced to get into online sales, whether they like it or not. Attempting to preserve the best of both worlds, being an online and physical retailer at once, many brands have opted for a hybrid model. They’re enabling customers to place orders online but ship them from retail stores, rather than warehouses or fulfillment centers, or even opting for in-store pickup. This demands a new approach to inventory management—one that’s more intuitive and accessible, and one that accommodates a new model of retail.
3. Big data is leading to more advanced insights. Big data is a general advancement in technology that’s making operations for most companies radically different, both on the inside and outside. In the inventory management space, this means companies are gathering more specific insights about their products and operations than ever before, and they’re using them to form more impactful conclusions about how their businesses operate. Companies are learning more about what processes are most efficient and which ones need to change, and they’re getting more helpful data about who their customers are and what they need from their brand. Ultimately, this leads to a more complicated data system to manage, but a more effective and beneficial one.
4. Companies are demanding more information. Despite this influx of new information, companies are still hungry for more. Now that managers and business owners have gotten the chance to glean more insights and draw more data from their operations, they’ve become obsessed with the idea of getting more. This demand, in turn, is affecting how inventory management software companies develop and present their products; these companies are doing more to offer flexible, customizable solutions that can fit almost any business need, and they’re trying to draw in more data points from more areas of business to make more comprehensive and in-depth software packages. As long as people keep seeking it, software companies will keep upping the stakes.
5. Solutions are becoming diversified. New software companies are constantly looking to emerge, and existing consumers are making more scrutinizing decisions about what types of software to choose. The end result here is that there’s a greater—and growing—diversity of software options available to the average inventory manager. There are specific systems available for a variety of different industries and niches, and more companies have popped up to provide fully custom-built software from the ground up. No matter what you’re looking for, there’s probably a solution out there for you.

Looking to the Future

Like with any realm of technology, it’s impossible to say for sure how inventory management systems will develop. However, due to the demand of the industry, the room for growth available, and the monetary incentives of developing the next great breakthrough, it’s certain that tech companies everywhere are already pushing to make purely speculated software iterations a reality.

The best thing you can do is remain open to these new possibilities and keep your organization running as smoothly as possible.

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Live Beacon Sends Web Content and Notifications to Nearby Phones

When beacons were first introduced, the application of the technology had great potential, but the adoption rate hasn’t met that expectation. James Grant, Founder of Live Beacon wants to change all that with a device that can be easily deployed out of the box.

What is a Beacon?

A beacon is a small devices that uses Bluetooth Low Energy to transmit signals on to smart mobile devices, such as smartphones. The app on the phone picks up the signal, understands the position of the consumer on micro-local scale and delivers hyper-contextual content based on the location.

Once the application on the consumer’s smartphone detects the Beacon, it can communicate the data to its server to trigger an action.

Why is Live Beacon Different?

In an email interview with Small Business Trends, Grant said one of the biggest challenges companies faced with beacons is they underestimated the complexity of connecting the physical and digital worlds.

Live Beacon was designed to simplify the deployment of beacons, and it does this without a single line of code. It lets you send location-specific information from your web page, video or web app up to 30 meters (100 feet) using the free Live Beacon app and cloud portal.

Once you deploy the beacons, iOS and Android smartphones receive notifications when they are within the range of a beacon.

Grant said, “Building a ‘ground up’ iBeacon experience is a huge undertaking and a massive distraction from their core business.” And this is where he thinks Live Beacon will succeed where others have had a hard time.

He went on to say, “There’s also a disconnect between beacon hardware manufacturers and software providers, which makes things difficult. We believe the hardware and software should be developed together (much like Apple’s philosophy with the iPhone and iOS). By offering a single universal product to all of our customers, we’re able to offer it at a much lower cost and continuously improve it for everyone (as opposed to hitting the reset switch with each new project).

What Can You Do with Live Beacon?

The possibilities are limitless, because the technology is highly flexible and users can develop many different type of use cases for virtually any location.

According to Live Beacon, these are some of the ways in which businesses can deploy the devices.

Build a digital loyalty and reward system so they don’t have carry a card or clip coupons when they enter your business. A simple tap at the register with their phone and they can get their discount.
Replace brochures, pamphlets and other printed materials with beacons that transmit online content. This not only saves you money in printing costs, but it quickly lets you update the content so you won’t have outdated information on old brochures.
Create multimedia tours for different attractions in your city by placing beacons near points of interest.
Gamify the world with activities that keep participants active and entertained.
Simplify and automate access to smart connected devices in your home or place of business.
Make menus and specials available in front of restaurants.

For small businesses with brick and mortar stores, Live Beacon offers another way to connect digitally with their customers outside of a website or social media. And with the complexities of the older beacons no longer a factor, you can now add and remove content at will to let your customers know your latest offerings as they walk by your place of business.

Grant concluded by saying, “Live Beacon is easiest and best way for small businesses to deliver location-specific information to their customers. With Live Beacon you can use your existing online content and be up-and-running in a matter of hours.”

Live Beacon will be launching a Kickstarter campaign in the very near future, but you can visit their website today.

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Google Calls a Penalty On You! Your Next Step Is To …

Our colorful friend Google drops the hammer by dishing out manual penalties by the thousands. Their commitment to user experience and trust is what makes them the top dog of search engines, which is why SEO practices have to be carried out in a legitimate, procedural way.

Shortcutting or investing in black hat SEO is a good way to wind up with one of these common Google penalties, but it doesn’t mean your website is ruined forever. You can bounce back from a Google penalty by knowing what to do.

4 Step Google Penalty Recovery Plan

First and foremost, identify what kind of penalty you’ve been slapped with. Google provides step by step instructions for identifying what kind of penalty you got and how to recover from it, so this is your starting point. Unless you’ve committed a major SEO offense, you’ll more than likely be dealing with a manual action penalty.

Next, do a thorough inspection of your website’s architecture and perform a site audit. This will mainly entail checking for clean source code, page depth, and other foundational aspects of your website that Google looks at.

After that, you’ll want to make your website Panda friendly, which deals in large part with content. Believe it or not, things like low quality and duplicate content are punishable because they disrupt a user’s access to reliable content, which is a no -no in Google’s eyes.

Your final step in bouncing back is to build new links that are authoritative and high quality. Despite it sounding like a huge undertaking, a few really good links can drastically improve the traffic and search ranking of your site. Focus less on building bulk spam links and more on securing editorial links on respected websites with high traffic. You can do this through guest posting, developing creative content likeinfographics or tutorials for others to share on their websites or even by writing reviews.

While receiving a Google penalty certainly isn’t a good thing, it can definitely be overcome and is certainly not the end of the world. By approaching it as an opportunity to correct the weak spots of your website, the penalty can eventually be lifted and your site left in better standing to build new traffic.

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What is AMP and Does Your Small Business Site Need It?

The number of mobile only Internet users in the US exceeded desktop in 2014, and the gap is getting wider. This particular trend hasn’t escaped the notice of Google and Twitter, leading the companies to create the Accelerated Mobile Pages or AMP project to make mobile pages much faster.

The initiative from Google and Twitter is in part a response to Facebook’s Instant Articles project and others like it that have developed ways to speed up access on mobile devices. But unlike the Facebook or Apple platforms, this is an open source project, which should encourage more content creators and developers to use AMP.

Currently AMP is used by leading publishers around the world, including BBC, Guardian News & Media, SPIEGEL ONLINE, The Financial Times, CBS News, CNN, Forbes, NFL, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and many others.

According to comScore, half of all US digital media consumption is being accessed on mobile devices. And the technology is also being used by today’s workforce and the businesses and organizations they work for, making fast access on mobile devices a key feature moving forward. So how is AMP going to improve the way your small business’ customers access your website with greater speed on mobile devices?

What is AMP?

Simply put, AMP is a barebones or stripped-down form of HTML which allows for pages to be designed for fast loading. This is achieved because the pages are for static content, thus they don’t require the same level of interaction from the user, and this makes the pages load faster than regular HTML.

The Process

In order to make AMP so fast, developers have to use streamlined versions of CSS, a style sheet language common in web design, and certain tags of HTML can’t be used. With these parameters in place, it leaves little space to do anything but let you read the content you are looking at quickly.

Even though the pages are static, rich media objects like video and social posts and display advertising can be embedded by developers with a growing library of web components, which includes analytics.

Google will also expedite the process because most of the content is going to be heavily cached for quick availability. The AMP format lets content producers make their files available to be cached by third parties. This not only gives publishers control of the content, but other platforms can cache or mirror the content so it can be delivered quickly to users. All of the AMPs are going to be cached by the Google AMP Cache at no cost.

Using AMP

The biggest application of AMP so far has been by publishers that want to serve their content quickly so their users can access it without having to click through to a website. An AMP enabled webpage is made available in the mobile results as a carousel above the rest of the results page.

For publishers that have valid AMP versions, it means their results will show above both the news and regular search results. An AMP version still requires a regular desktop version of the pages. Once it is marked with an AMP HTML link on your desktop page, Google is able to find it.

Benefits of AMP

The biggest benefit of AMP is the speed at which users can access your pages, eliminating the high bounce rates attributed to slow loading pages. For publishers that rely on delivering the latest news or other types of content, AMP could be a great value proposition.

Additionally, it promotes greater distribution so publishers can make the content available everywhere much quicker across platforms and applications. For companies that rely on revenue from ads or subscriptions, AMP also seems to have great potential.

Can anyone accelerate their mobile pages?

The beauty of the open project is that it is available to anyone, including publishers, consumer platforms and creators. So if you want to increase the visibility of your small business website on mobile, AMP may be one option to consider.

The goal of the project is to allow publishers to use AMP to improve mobile access to news stories, videos, blogs, photographs and GIFs.

Getting content into AMP HTML

The AMP project is built with existing web technologies, which means the development process is like the one already used by many publishers. If you’re not familiar with HTML or you’re not a developer, Content Management Systems (CMS) have plugins that generate AMP content automatically.

The WordPress AMP plugin creates dynamically generated AMP-compatible versions of all the posts on your site. This is a great way to try AMP for your business without having to invest any money.

Advertising and monetization on AMP

Publishers control their own ad inventory with their existing website, and AMP also supports subscriptions and paywalls allowing publishers to regulate the viewing experience for subscribers, metered users and anonymous users.

As for analytics, according to Google the analytics support in the demo release of AMP is very limited, but publishers do get credit for the traffic from a measurement perspective. Google goes on to say, it expects support for collection of analytics information. Third party systems and analytics providers are participating in the project to deliver solutions without compromising the AMP file speed or size.

Conclusion

The fact is more than half (53 percent) of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take longer than three seconds to load. And with the average load time for mobile sites over 3G connections taking 19 seconds, the numbers just don’t add up. Add to that mobile sites that load in five seconds or less earn twice the mobile ad revenue as those that load in 19 seconds.

No matter how you crunch the numbers, faster means better all around, which makes AMP a necessary tool for businesses of any size looking to improve the experience of their users on mobile.

[“source-ndtv”]

Set Up Your Mobile Office — in the Middle of Nowhere — with PLUG

Whether you own a smartphone, tablet or laptop, the power intensive applications used today drain battery power faster than ever. And no matter how advanced these devices get, you never seem to have enough power when away from a power strip or receptacle. A new ultra-high capacity battery pack from PLUG is looking to solve this particular problem with a unit that not only lets you charge your smartphone and tablet but also has two AC wall outlets in a device that is surprisingly portable.

Currently PLUG is part of an ongoing successful Indiegogo campaign having surpassed its initial goal of $30,000 to more than $170,000, and it still has a month left on the funding run.

So why are more than 600 backers so excited about PLUG?

This is the second crowd funding campaign for the makers of PLUG, ChargeTech. In 2014, the company introduced the world’s smallest portable power outlet and has since partnered with Google, NASA, Hilton and Toyota. This time around, ChargeTech says, the PLUG battery pack is three times more powerful.

What’s in the PLUG Portable External Battery Charger?

The PLUG has 16 3,000mAh Tesla battery cells manufactured by Panasonic to deliver 48,000 mAh capacity with 250 Watts. The battery and integrated circuitry are housed in a form factor that is a mere 8.6″ x 5.6″ x 1.6″ weighing in at 2lb 3oz, which makes it slightly bigger than a hard cover book.

It has two AC outlets, two fast charge USB ports, one Type C USB output, and a dedicated charging port.

The PLUG also comes with an optional compact, weather-resistant, solar panel that can recharge the device entirely with solar power.

The pass-through charging lets you power your devices while the PLUG is still charging, so you can continue to use it just like a USB hub or surge protector.

It takes approximately seven hours to charge the PLUG with the charging cable that comes with the unit and with solar power recharging can take up to eight hours.

What Can You Charge with the PLUG?

The simpler answer would be what can’t you charge with the PLUG? The ultra-high capacity and power of the device should allow you to charge and use laptops, desktops, smartphones, tablets, medical devices, flat screen TVs, game consoles, mini fridges, cameras, drones, hoverboards, printers, and much more.

The company says you will also be able to charge laptops up to three times, charge tablets up to seven times, charge phones up to 28 times, run a flat screen TV for four hours or run a mini-fridge for eight hours with the power from a single recharging of the PLUG.

Business Applications

A charger with this much capability provides many options for small businesses. Small operators that provide out door trips can use the PLUG to charge the phones, tablets, cameras and other electronics of their customers.

Business travelers attending conferences and retreats will be able to use and charge their electronic devices with the PLUG without having to go in search of an outlet. And if there is a power outage, the PLUG can supply enough power to keep your devices going until electrical service is restored.

Additional use cases include charging drone batteries for aerial video companies, charging equipment for photo shoots in remote locations and, of course, getting away from the office at the beach or elsewhere while still being able to keep your devices charged.

The devices are still available for a pledge of support on the company’s Indiegogo campaign site. You can get a single PLUG for a $199 pledge and two units for $349. If you want the solar panel, you can get one PLUG and the panel for $349 and two PLUGS and two panels for $599.

As for availability, the company said it is in the tooling phase for PLUG, and it will provide regular updates on the progress to announcing any shipping dates.

Conclusion

PLUG can be an invaluable tool for anyone that greatly relies on their computing and electronics devices when they are on the road, a remote location or even at home during a power outage. The price is quite reasonable and the fact that companies such as Google, NASA, Hilton, and Toyota have partnered with the maker of the charger highlights the reliability of the product.

[“source-ndtv”]

Is the Mobile App Already Dead? comScore Says We’re Nearing “Peak App” (INFOGRAPHIC)

Barring Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and other hugely successful names, many apps are actually rarely used or even downloaded by mobile device owners. Yet many businesses spend considerable time and resources creating apps to engage customers.

A new study from comScore now says we’re nearing the “Peak App” moment, which suggests businesses should revisit their mobile app strategy.

Highlights of the comScore Report

Astonishingly, the comScore (NASDAQ:SCOR) study reveals 49 percent of smartphone users do not download any apps per month. About 24 percent of users install one or two apps over the same period.

Those who install more than five apps a month are more likely to be males aged between 18 and 44 years old, and they live in cities such as Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco and Houston.

Interestingly, the comScore report isn’t the only recent study to highlight the declining popularity of mobile apps. Another study by app tracker SensorTower has also revealed an average 20 percent drop in downloads in the U.S.

What This Change in the Mobile App Market Means for Your Business

Declining popularity of mobile apps doesn’t come as a surprise. Think about it. How many apps do you install and actually use on your mobile device?

It’s also a choice that many users are making today because installing too many apps is inconvenient and unnecessary. So if you want to go ahead and build an app, you have to give your customers a very good reason to install it.

Vik Patel, CEO of Detroit-based Future Hosting says, “If we were to ask users to install an app, there would have to be a very good reason. Good reasons include a genuine need for access to on-device features like the camera or accelerometer, or a requirement for graphical capabilities available only to native applications.”

Building an app requires both time and money. It’s therefore important for you to explore all options before making a decision. Does your business really need an app? Is it enough for you to just optimize your website for mobile? Can you instead focus more on engaging customers on social media?

These are some questions that you must answer before making a decision to invest in creating a mobile app.

At the same time, a mobile app can work really well for your business if you have the right strategy in place. If you are a small store owner, for instance, you can leverage your mobile app to implement loyalty programs or push notifications to drive footfalls.

“The total number of people using your apps and the time they are spending on average, those two combined is how you should measure the potential of an app to generate a lot of revenue down the line,”advises Fabien Pierre-Nicolas, VP of marketing at app analytics firm App Annie.

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SwiftKey’s Mobile Keyboard Is Way Ahead of You Already

Typing on smartphones or even tablets is doable, but not that enjoyable. The size of the devices as well as the limitations of the technology are some of the challenges. The creators of the SwiftKey Keyboard app have managed to make the process better, the company says, for hassle-free typing.

Although teens and younger demographics can get away with mistakes when they type on mobile devices, for business users it is not an option. And with autocorrect features inserting words that have left the recipient of a text message scratching their head and questioning the sanity of the person that sent it, SwiftKey decided to create a more intelligent system.

So how has the SwiftKey Keyboard managed to make typing hassle-free on smartphone and tablets?

When Jon Reynolds and Dr. Ben Medlock launched SwiftKey in 2008, they wanted to do away with the slow and frustrating process of typing on touchscreens. Though the technology has improved since that time, today’s apps still make mistakes.

SwiftKey uses neural networks and it has been built from the ground up with this technology. According to the company, it is the first instance of neural networks being used locally on a smartphone. With this system in place, the text you type becomes more accurate, saving you time, making you more efficient and removing the embarrassment of not having to explain something you didn’t intend to type.

Moving Away From N-Gram

The use of the n-gram model to predict words has limitations, because it typically looks at the two last words in a sentence which it uses to predict the next word. What this means for you in the real world is that the platform only sees a few words back, which has been responsible for some funny and tragic mistakes.

The new SwiftKey neural networks model has been inspired by the neurons in the human brain to intelligently predict words based on meaning and sentence context. It can look further back in a sentence before making a prediction, and by training the neural model with millions of sentences, it can compare words in real-time and understand the relationship with each other.

Features of the SwiftKey App

Customization

With SwiftKey, you can use a selection of more than 80 colors, designs and theme to fit your style.

SwiftKey Hub

You can customize the keyboard layout on the fly with the SwiftKey Hub, so you can choose the best location for the keys on your tablet or smartphone.

Type With a Swipe

The SwiftKey Flow feature lets you type by sliding from letter to letter instead of tapping.

Accuracy and Speed

Typos may be a thing of the past with an intelligent autocorrect system that learns based on your personal writing style.

Typing in Three Languages

You can type across three languages without switching the setting for each language. Currently it supports more than 100 languages, with everything from Albanian to Zulu.

Predictive Emoji

The predictive technology of this app also extends to the emoji. So if you are typing pizza, an emoji of a pizza appears just in case you want to insert it. There are more than 800 emoji characters available.

It Continues to Learn From You

The neural networks technology continually learns your writing style to improve its accuracy when suggesting the next word. Instead of typing letter by letter, you can enter a whole word with a single tap.

According to the company, the technology it has created is able to deliver a more contextual next word prediction, and future developments will provide a more human mobile typing experience. With more than 300 million people around the world using the SwiftKey Keyboard app, it has proven itself in real-world use cases. The reviews for both the Apple and Android versions are very positive, with an overwhelming majority of Android users giving it four or five stars.

You can get the SwiftKey Keyboard app for free on iOS or Android.

[“source-ndtv”]

10 Features of Apple’s iOS 10 Small Businesses Need to Know About

The new iOS 10 by Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has been described by the company as its biggest release yet, and as an operating system with more personal, powerful and playful features. The good thing for small business owners is that the new features would seem to drastically enhance the way you can run your business on your iPhone or iPad.

Whether you are using the new iPhone 7 or many of the previous versions also supported by iOS 10, there are some new features that will make you more productive, the company says.

Here are 10 features small business owners can start experimenting with right away with iOS 10.

iOS 10 Features for Business

Comprehensive Privacy and Advanced Security

With smartphones and tablets now inexorably linked to the way we do business, and the threat of digital security also an inevitable part of this ecosystem, it is extremely important to have a comprehensive privacy and advance security solution in place.

The privacy features in iOS 10 now requires your permission if an app in Calendar, Contacts, Reminders, Photos or others want your location information or personal data. This features extends with even more control to the way in which HealthKit and HomeKit access your data.

Your conversations in iMessages and FaceTime are encrypted, so hackers waiting in the middle of a conversation won’t be able to see, hear or read what you are communicating. And when you are on Safari surfing the web, you can browse privately, block cookies, and prevent websites from tracking you.

The security, according to Apple, is the most advanced security of any mobile operating system. The new features help secure your personal protection with hardware and firmware that have been designed to protect against malware and viruses throughout the entire system. The device is protected with Touch ID and the apps have high-grade encryption, app transport security, and more.

Maximized Graphic Performance

When you are on a smartphone or tablet the last thing you want is lackluster performance from your device. Since iOS has been engineered specifically for the iPhone and iPad with a framework the company calls Metal, it is able to maximize graphic performance whether you are videoconferencing, accessing applications from the cloud, viewing a PowerPoint presentation, moving from app to app or playing the most complex 3D video game after a hard day of work.

Enchanced Machine Intelligence

The new OS has been designed to take advantage of the progress that has taken place in software intelligence. This includes Apple-developed machine-learning technology, which has also been incorporated into Siri.

The result is a more intuitive system that makes everything you do with your device easier and faster. Proactive suggestion, and predictive typing have been combined with Siri for a personal assistant that will answer many of your questions and take your requests by speaking naturally. Siri now works with your favorite apps, so you can request a ride, send payments using Square Cash, book a reservation through OpenTable, and more.

Continuity Across All Devices

Even if your business is mobile first, there are multiple computing devices that are part of the total technological solutions in place in your company. This generally means laptops and desktops both at the office and at home. In order to ensure continuity across all devices, iCloud and iOS automatically connect many of Apple’s products.

You can start a task on the iPad and finish it on your Mac and stream video from your iPhone or iPad to your television through Apple TV. Everything gets synced automatically, so any time you add a new document, image or video the latest version will appear on all your devices.

AirDrop for Large File Sharing

You now work outside of the office just as much as you do inside, and this means sharing large files that far exceed the limitations of email servers. AirDrop is a feature that lets you send large files wirelessly no matter where you are, so you won’t have to go back to the office when you are on location.

Handoff Email and Messaging Across Devices and Solutions

The continuity feature extends to an application called Handoff which lets you write an email and hand it off to Mail, Safari, Pages, Numbers, Keynote, Maps, Messages, Reminders, Calendar, Contacts, Notes, Podcasts, Clock, and News.

When you are ready to text you can send messages from any of your devices, receive it on your iPhone and reply on your iPad or Mac. You can choose a number from Safari, Contacts or Calendar to quickly send a text message.

Multilingual Typing

We live in a very connected world, and even the smallest of businesses now interacts with people in many countries around the world. This means multiple languages, and the multilingual typing feature lets you type in two languages at the same time without having to switch keyboards.

The OS recognizes English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish pairs, as well as Chinese.

CarPlay

As a small business owner on the go, you can sometimes use your car as your second office. CarPlay makes it possible to safely and easily use your iPhone to make calls, send and receive messages, get directions and more so you can focus on your driving. It puts the functions you want to use on the built-in display of the vehicle so you can control them with your voice, touch or the knobs and controls of the car. Currently CarPlay is available on more than 100 automobile models, with more on the way.

Unsecured WiFi Network Warning

Free WiFi is so tempting but if you are not 100 percent sure it is secure, you can easily fall victim to an attack. Unsecured WiFi Network Warning makes recommendations when you connect your iOS device to an unsecured network.

New Notifications with 3D Touch

The new rich Notifications feature lets you quickly view videos, photos and reply. All it takes is tapping on the notification to launch the app or force press with the new feature rich 3D Touch to popup a preview. It also lets you clear the notification and delete emails from the expanded notification.

New APIs for Developers

Although Apple is notorious for protecting its intellectual property, the company has been coming around after witnessing the great benefits of what APIs have accomplished for other companies. The Apple iOS 10 SDK has new APIs and services that now contain its more popular applications, including Messages, Siri, and Maps. Developers will now be able to create innovative functionalities using Apple’s platform creating more business models for small developers.

Greater Compatibility with Other Apple — and Android — Devices

The new iOS 10 is compatible with: iPhone 7 and 7 Plus; iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, 6, 6 Plus; iPhone SE; iPhone 5s, 5c, 5; iPad Pro 12.9-inch and 9.7-inch; iPad Air 2; iPad Air; iPad 4th generation; iPad mini 4; iPad mini 3; iPad mini 2; and iPod touch 6th generation.

Apple has also made it much easier to move to iOS on your Android device. You can download the Move to iOS app on your Android device from any Android app store, and it supports all phones and tablets running Android 4.0 and later. You can get more information from Apple here.

If you want to upgrade to iOS 10 here‘s where you can do it.

[“source-ndtv”]

Sony Launches 4K HDR Projector at $14,999; Unveils Its First UHD Blu-ray Player

HIGHLIGHTS

The Sony 4K projector costs $14,999 (roughly Rs. 10 lakhs)
The Ultra-HD Blu-ray player’s price is not announced yet
The products were announced by Sony at CEDIA 2016

In what may make avid 4K video watchers happy, Sony on Wednesday launched a 4K HDR projector – the VPL-VW675ES. Sony’s VPL-VW675ES 4K HDR projector is said to be the first projector that supports Hybrid-Log Gamma HDR. Sony has priced the 4K projector at a whopping $14,999 (roughly Rs. 10 lakhs) to strengthen its SXRD projector technology.

Sony’s 4K projector was announced at CEDIA 2016 being held in Dallas from September 13 to 17. The new VPL-VW675ES has a contrast ratio of 350,000:1 with a brightness of 1,800 lumens. It uses HDCP 2.2 so that 4K content cannot be copied illegally. It has a bulb that is claimed to last for about 6,000 hours. With that a specification, it is one of the best 4K projectors that can also project real ultra-HD images, and just not fake it.

As per a CEPro report, Andre Floyd, Sony’s Product Marketing Manager, thinks that the “JVC’s and Epson’s current line of “4K” projectors can never get to full UHD because they start with an HD imager (1920×1080) that has only 2 million pixels”. He added that “Full 4K is 8 million pixels” and Sony’s new projector features the technology.

It can also stream content from number of services that include Amazon and Netflix. The new Sony 4K HDR projector is also compatible with standard definition technology.

At the same custom installer show CEDIA 2016, Sony also showcased its first Ultra-HD Blu-ray player. The UBP-X1000ES offers full Custom Installation (CI) compatibility along with a number of additional features. The UHD Blu-ray player will ship in the spring next year.

Besides supporting UHD videos, the UBP-X1000ES employs a Sony-developed Precision-HD drive that maintains consistent performance with virtually every optical disc format, like Blu-ray 3D, DVDs, CDs. The video processing technology in the player can upscale the full-HD (1080p) video to 4K 60p resolution. The Blu-ray player is equipped with audio compatible receivers that can match Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. The price of the Sony Ultra-HD Blu-ray has not been announced yet.

Tags: CEDIA 2016, Sony, 4K, 4K Projector, Blu-ray, Blu-ray Player, Home Entertainment

[“Source-Gadgets”]

LinkedIn CEO Meets HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar to Discuss Education Sector

HIGHLIGHTS

Interested in increasing research and innovation
Linkedin is focusing on making products in India and for India
Launched a Lite version of its website for mobile browsing in India

With the Indian HRD ministry exploring the possibilities of utilising the reach of social media in education sector to boost innovation and placements, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday discussed a range of issues with Linkedin CEO Jeff Weiner.

Emerging from the meeting, Javadekar said it was a fruitful discussion, and added that the ministry is open to good ideas.

“We had very fruitful discussion and we are sure there are many things which we can do jointly and we are interested in increasing research and innovation and relevant teaching and placements thereafter to happen in all college campuses and all our technical institutes,” Javadekar said.

(Also see: LinkedIn Crosses 100 Million Members in Asia-Pacific; 37 Million in India)

“We have more than 10,000 engineering colleges, therefore we have discussed many things and our AICTE and our department ministry will definitely work with good ideas,” he added.

Linkedin CEO Weiner said he was excited to meet the HRD minister and said that Linkedin is focusing on making products in India and for India.

Earlier this week, LinkedIn launched a Lite version of its website for mobile browsing in India. The company, which is being acquired by Microsoft, said on Monday the version was aimed at helping users browse its website faster on their smartphones in areas with slow or poor Internet connectivity.

LinkedIn Lite loads four times faster and provides a better experience to users in urban and rural areas with patchy networks, Akshay Kothari, the company’s country manager and head of product for India, said at an event in Bengaluru.

Written with agency inputs

Tags: LinkedIn, Jeff Weiner, Social, Apps, India

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