McFly was right…Kind’ve

Recently the hype and buzz about electric personal vehicles has been running rampant. the generic Chinese “hoverboard” has taken the nation over by storm but was soon halted due to the notice of it’s hazards. Seemingly, some intuitive folks at ACTON, a rather small company that specializes in creating personal vehicles; their most recent stride is the ACTON Blink.

The ACTON Blink is an electric skateboard, measuring at 27inches in length, that has the ability to reach speeds up to 15 mph; not bad for a ride with a price tag of $499. This electric board isn’t one of a kind, there’s many more electric boards out there varying from size to features. to name a few there’s Boosted Board, Marbel, Stary, Mellow Board, and Yuneec E-GO. This new wave of electric skateboards have already changed how people commute in cities like New York City, they’ve tackled the problem of an affordable method of transportation.

 

@TheDailyMyles

#Stary #BoostedBoard #Yunnec #Marbel #MellowBoard #eboard #electricskateboard

 

Social Media and You

It isn’t a secret anymore that Social Media is an advertising juggernaut that can make or break a company’s exposure, but do you know how? Each digital platform has evolved to have their own unique advantages and disadvantages, and Mashable Social Media thought that it’s high time you learned about them.

Mashable it’s self is a site where many people converse and “socialize” about varying topics in our modern day; learning how to use and manipulate each can boost you and your business popularity.

Using sites that are international, like Twitter and Facebook, are great ways to spread awareness but inorder to gain a farther reach you must be specific. Some social Media sites are geospecific or provide a geographically specific vent; China’s “WeChat” is a Chinese version of twitter and facebook that if tapped can open your business up to a new audience. WeChat holds a wopping number of 650 million users that are active evry day. there are social media apps and mediums like this across the world and that if tapped, can expose you and your business to a new audience.

http://mashable.com/2016/03/24/advertising-strategies/#IBvTSnzMOaq8

• @TheDailyMylo

#socialmedia

#facebook

#twitter

Less is….More?

Most people have grown up to think that more of something, is usually better than less of something, Facebook changes that.

Last year, Facebook launched a stripped down, simplistic version, of their popular and highly featured Facebook app called “Facebook Lite.” The “lite” version, despite the lack of features that keeps Facebook fresh and relevant, has quickly become the fastest growing version the company giant has ever put out.

Facebook lite was rolled out 9 months ago, in June 2015, and was meant to be a data efficient alternative to their original Facebook app. It was produced and created in Facebook’s second largest market, In India. India’s diverse polyglot population mad it possible to have the app in over 50 different languages, generalizing it to a wider audience.

The drawing feature of Facebook lite is that the user determines what features they want. this is foreign to the original app where new features are a mandatory  addition of updates. This selective feature allows the user to use and delegate the use of their data to comply with changes in data availability; a common problem throughout India, and a growing one in other countries around the world.

http://mashable.com/2016/03/09/facebook-lite-fastest-growing-app/#iP8wZV_928q1

• Myles – @TheDailyMyles

 

#Facebook #Facebooklite #App #India #Mashable #MashableTech

It’s a Shia Lebouf thing

The world renowned, and “human internet meme”, Shia LeBouf is at it again as it makes another strange event happen. recently, LeBouf has started a 24-hour Shift in a Lift featuring him staying in an Oxford University elevator and chatting about various things from his movies to his take on recent news. LeBouf only left the elevator momentarily to give a short lecture to the students, but other than that he has stayed strong and stayed in the elevator.

“I know it seems cheesy on paper, but it’s only as difficult as the people who come in”, said LeBouf as he sums up his experience.

http://mashable.com/2016/02/19/shia-labeouf-occupying-lift/#l6fju19K6qqN

#ShiaLeBouf #Oxford #LiftShift #shia #lebouf

Xiaoice, the friendly robot

If you haven’t heard, a young woman, by the name of Xiaoice, is at the head of a wave of chat experiences in Asia. If you’ve ever had the app WeChat, then you have a good chance of meeting this special woman. Xiaoice is gaining popularity for many things, including how spontaneous how you meet her and how pleasant the conversations are with her, but what makes her special is that “she” isn’t really a “she”, but a “it.”

Xiaoice is a robot, a program to be precise, and its been implemented into various Chinese chat services in order to test its efficiency. When it was first introduced in 2014, it was aptly named “Xiao Na”, since it was Microsoft’s nickname for their Chinese expansion of Cortana [A fully voiced personal assistant program, much like Apple’s Siri].

What made Xiaoice so special and raise eyebrows was its ability to reply back to people with responses like any real person would. Ex:

Xiaoice isn’t a program that necessarily understands what the other use is saying, the most it understands is the letters. Its uses Microsoft’s Bing search engine in order to find suitable replies that seem genuine and real. Xiaoice also uses various voice and visual recognition systems in order to figure the context, tone, and meaning of what users say to it. The program is, inherently, “self- learning” since all of the conversations it had are recorded and stored for future insights.

This kind of information really brings to light how advance technology is getting, how much it has in such a short time. It makes one wonder “what’s next?”

• Myles

http://mashable.com/2016/02/05/microsoft-xiaoice-turing-test/?utm_cid=mash-prod-nav-sub-st#XOpJ0YCP6kq2

 

Twitter’s on a Roll

Recently the social media giant, Twitter, has been the center of attention in the media world because of it’s recent conflicts. During this past week, Twitter has both made gains and stunted progress; It has confirmed it’s development of a streaming program geared for twitter while simultaneously stunting the growth of an already popular streaming app for twitter. Twitter has confirmed it’s acquisition and development of the program “Periscope”, sending a wave of speculation through out social media. This announcement was quick and abrupt for a company like Twitter, but it seems like it was needed since the project was already being out shined by the similar streaming app Meerkat. Meerkat was debuted at this year SXSW convention, it was a huge hit because of it’s unique feature to stream live video instantly and with only your phone and a twitter account. This promising app was beginning to seem like it would be a smash hit, much like SXSW poster boy company Twitter. Twitter quickly made motions to stunt and stop the apps growth since it showed the potential to be a huge competitor to it’s, still in development, Periscope. Meerkat, despite the “minor speed-bump”, claims that they’re still rapidly growing; in fact they believe the whole fiasco has actually gave them more attention and raised their fan base. Whether Meerkat survives to be something big, or dies out within a couple months, it is still clear that it’s onto something, and Twitter realizes this too. I believe this marks a turning point in citizen journalism. Meerkat’s concept is something that the common citizen has never had the opportunity to do by themselves; streaming has always been something for the “professionals” because of it’s complex setup,now made simple due to Meerkat.

http://mashable.com/2015/03/15/twitter-meerkat-graph-users/

Twitter Marching onto New Territory?

In the wake of a load of flooding news from this years SXSW, Twitter has debuted its new venture into each twitter user’s home, Twitter T.V. Timeline. Twitter is planning on launching a service that coincides with the daily user’s T.V. viewing; this service is groundbreaking and well-anticipated because of it’s potential in changing how people interact with their T.V. This  new feature brings the hopes of a new way users can change what they see on their screens. Throughout recent years social media has been the medium where viewers talk and gaff about who and what they’re watching, T.V. companies use this to their advantage and utilize this as a source of information to use to critique their channel. The new Twitter T.V. Timeline seems like it’s going to have a large impact on how people watch T.V. in general.

http://mashable.com/2015/03/12/twitter-experiment-tv-timelines/

Is Twitter Becoming Another Stage for Advertisers or a Stage for Creativity?

Recently, Twitter, has implemented a native system for videos to be posted on their websites and apps. The old method consisted of posting a URL that lead to another page that had the video embedded in it, this all changed. When Twitter implemented the ability for user to post videos natively in the Twitter app, it lead to a wave of new media and content streaming in. On one side of the spectrum, Users are now being able to express themselves in a way other than links and basic short text; On the other side, Advertiser are now able to properly sell their products by featuring full, attractive, videos rather then depending on the viewer to click a link. I believe this will spark a new wave of advertising on Twitter, one similar to the flood that Facebook users endure today. This feature seemingly may do more harm than good for the user, but it actually can spur a new wave of content from twitter user. New content can revitalize Twitter and bring life to it, it’ll prolong twitters appeal, similar to how instagrams video option prolonged it’s life. This ultimately marks a turning point in Twitter, it will be shown in the type of media we see on our feeds, a flurry of video updates by both news and normal people.

http://mashable.com/2015/02/26/oscar-twitter-tricks/

#TWITTER #VIDEO

Digital Technology for the greater good

Uber, a popular map directions app, has recently installed a brand new “SOS” feature that allows user’s to make quick and easy calls to the local emergency services. this all came into play after a controversial sexual assault case in India 2 months ago. This feature brings safety to the forefront of digital apps as digital technology evolves in accessibility, it’s only a mater of time till emergency services progresses also. The addition of this app was in retaliation to the growing amount of sexual assaults in India. in an effort to aid and keep it’s users safe, they added this feature. Uber’s stance on this seems to be useless since if you’re using their app, you’re likely on a phone where you could then call emergency services easily; but it’s not just for accessibility but to to support the on going problem of women being raped and sexually assaulted in India. This app is going in the right direction of bringing awareness to overlooked societal issues,besides, it’s never bad to be too cautious.

http://mashable.com/2015/02/11/uber-sos-button/

Facebook allows you to live on after you die?

Facebook is synonymous with the growing age of technology, ever keeping up to date and evolving with new trends, and is focused on keeping it that way with it’s new feature. Last Thursday (2.12.15) Facebook revealed their new feature, “Legacy Contact”, it allows a user to essentially give ownership of their account over to another person for after their death. This feature may seem strange and unneeded, but the concept of what happens to our online life after we die is a growing topic of interest. Our lives online are just as important as the ones we live in the real world, when we die our legacy is all we have, and for most people its on a social media outlet. Facebook’s new feature is by no means groundbreaking, but is drawing attention to a concept/point that has arisen due to the rising value of our digital lives. This can be the dawn of services that solely are for peoples digital lives after death, someones got to keep track of how you’re seen after your death.

http://mashable.com/2015/02/12/facebook-legacy-contact-guide/