AMAZON'S AWESOME GENIE ALEXA

AMAZON'S AWESOME GENIE ALEXA

NEWS:

• Alexa is Amazon’s Voice control system. Using nothing but the sound of your voice, you can search the web, shopping lists, shop online, get instant weather reports, control smart-home products all while your phone stays in your pocket and it’s capable of much more

• Now that there are four ways to interact with Alexa with the Tap, Echo and Dot devices, and with the Amazon Fire TV. You might find yourself talking to her more often. 

• Thanks to the Echo’s far-field microphones, Alexa can respond to voice commands from almost anywhere within earshot. And there’s no activation button to press. Simply say the trigger word (either “Alexa,” “Echo,” “Amazon,” or “Computer.”) followed by what you want to happen, and it will be done—as long as you’ve set up everything properly and are using the correct command.

• Some Example Commands:
• Ask for help: "Alexa, help."
• Play music: "Alexa, play some music."
• Create a shopping list: "Alexa, add eggs to my shopping list" or, "Alexa, I need to buy laundry detergent."
• Basic math: "Alexa, what's 5 plus 7?" or, "Alexa, what's 56 times 33?"
• Ask a general question: "Alexa, how many people live in America?"  And many varieties of commands you can use for controlling your smart home.

 VIEWS:

• "I truly believe that for AI to be useful in our daily lives, it has to be something you can connect with,” says Rohit Prasad, Amazon's head scientist for Alexa, who is playing a key role in the retailer's efforts in artificial intelligence for Alexa.

• He also says, the big goal for Alexa is a nice, long chat- an actual 20 min conversation.

• Alexa competes with other personal digital assistants like Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana and the Google Assistant and has emerged as one of the leaders in voice computing.

• “I ask my Echo for the news headlines every morning as I'm getting dressed. It saves me times popping onto the internet for the headlines and wasting precious time,” shared by a customer.

• Software developer James Rhodes—whose wife, DeLacy Rhodes, is a microbiologist—has created a skill for Alexa called Helix that lends a helping hand around the laboratory.

THE MUSE:

• Among the more than 35,000 reviews on Amazon, the general consensus is that unlike Apple’s Siri, whose error rate can be frustrating, the Echo responds as soon as it hears the word Alexa and it rarely mishears commands.

• “I think of Alexa as a nice library lady who lives in the black cylinder,” said April Hamilton, an engineer who runs the blog Love My Echo.

• Alexa, stop it! Amazon's personal assistant is causing havoc for people with a similar name.

• “I always liked my name, until Amazon gave it to a robot,” Alexa Sussman, told the newspaper.

• On Twitter, Oli Davis, from London, said he was watching wrestling, including a match featuring an athlete named Alexa Bliss, prompting his device to get 'very confused'.

• Human Alexas are finding gadgets bleeping into action or music stopping whenever their names are called in the house, the Wall Street Journal reported.

IOT and Industry 4.0 Big News or Big Noise?

IOT and Industry 4.0 Big News or Big Noise?

NEWS:

• The transformation of the industrial sector has begun. The big buzz at the World Economic Forum (WEF) is about the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ - “a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work and relate to one another”.

• The First Industrial revolution began by steam and water. The Second was the introduction of electricity to create the mass production. The Third is about the internet, communication technologies and digitization of everything. Now, a fourth is building on the Third, the digital revolution.

• The world is at the beginning of a revolution where there are huge advances in genomics, artificial intelligence, materials, and manufacturing technologies.

• We can see this happening in several areas already. Virtual reality that allows us to transport to new worlds and interact with information in new ways, robots, and software working side-by-side with humans. Machines are closing in on human ability with astonishing speed. Robots are replacing humans, not just on factory floors, but in homes too. 

  VIEWS:

• There are both opportunities and challenges. It can lift global incomes and improve lives worldwide, and the supply-side miracle due to technological innovation will lead to long-term gains in efficiency and productivity, says Klaus Schwab, the founder and executive chairman of the WEF.

• Once the automation takes over activities that humans used to do, that should free up time for people to do a better job of reaching out to the elderly, having smaller class sizes, helping kids with special needs, says Gates.

• If robots are going to take over human jobs, that means fewer people will be working, which in turn means fewer people will be paying taxes. “But you can’t just give up that income tax because that’s part of how you’ve been funding that level of human workers,” Gates said.

• This fourth revolution is fundamentally different from the previous three, which were characterized mainly by advances in technology.

• In the next few years, I expect the digital transformation of life to bring the huge changes everything from science to health care to robotics, says Mitchell Baker, Mozilla founder. 

   

THE MUSE:

• In this fourth revolution, we are facing a range of new technologies that combine the physical, digital and biological worlds. These new technologies will impact all disciplines, economies, and industries, and even challenge our ideas about what it means to be human.

• Industry 4.0 is at an inflection point today- A recent Price Waterhouse Cooper's study of Industry 4.0 adoption found that 72% of manufacturing enterprises predict their use of data analytics will substantially improve customer relationships along the product life cycle.

• 35% of companies adopting Industry 4.0 predict revenue gains over 20% in the next five years.

• As automation increases, computers and machines will replace workers across a vast spectrum of industries, from drivers to accountants and estate agents to insurance agents. By one estimate, as many as 47 percent of U.S. jobs are at risk from automation.

• Fifty percent of jobs done by humans today are vulnerable to replacement by robots, according to McKinsey report. That could amount to a loss of about $15 trillion in wages worldwide and about $2.7 trillion in the United States. But the report further mentions that this might not happen until 2055, plus or minus 20 years.

Future of Retail: Big Data and Consumer Behavior.

FUTURE OF RETAIL:BIG DATA AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

NEWS:

• The technology, which uses face recognition software can identify customers in a store through their smart phones, connecting their Wi-Fi network in order to track their shopping behavior.

•  Retailers can able to see the customers coming into the store, what they do inside the store, they are going to purchase or not. That kind of Big Data is applied in a retail store environment.

• Traditional retailers are using analytical tools which are available to e-Commerce firms, to track their customers. The software can anonymously differentiate by gender, adults from children, could also interpret facial expressions and also recognize repeat customers that will help retailers understand why someone did or did not buy a certain product.

•  Some retail stores use the platform called Euclid Analytics, to track their potential customers, which helps them to have a better understanding the activities, operations and design of the store.

 VIEWS:

•  According to Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum, that kind of tracking is unethical and contrary to shopper’s expectation of privacy. She says that, “Legally stores have the right to put up security cameras, but the consumer expectation of privacy is being circumvented here.” 

• When a consumer looks into that camera, they expect it’s being used for security, not marketing purposes.

• Some of the owners of retail stores, shared that customers seem to have no problem with cookies, profiles that let e-commerce sites know who they are and how they shop. So, the technology doesn’t bother them much. 

\        THE MUSE:

• Synqera, a start-up in St. Petersburg, Russia, is selling software for checkout devices or computers that tailors marketing messages to a customer’s gender, age and mood, measured by facial recognition.

• For retailers, the rise of e-commerce is giving consumers more information and choices than they’ve ever had before, making competition all the more fierce. So, the store managers have been fighting back by trying to re-create in physical stores the sort of analytics available to e-commerce firms.

• The idea that you’re being stalked in a store is, I think, a bit creepy said Robert Plant, a computer information systems professor.

• "If I ever find out a store is tracking me this way, I would never go in that store again,” shared by a customer in a survey.

• The wall street journal conducted a study of over 100 popular smartphone applications and found that applications were collecting information about, "Location, unique serial number like identifiers for the phone, and personal details such as age and sex" and sending that information to marketing companies.

TRUMP'S TRIUMPH TRUMPET

TRUMP'S TRIUMPH TRUMPET

NEWS:

• US Presidential election results saw Donald Trump emerge victorious and he will be in sworn in as the forty-fifth President of the country in January 2017. 

• The Republican presidential nominee secured the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House. In doing so, he completed the biggest upset in modern political history, beating his Democratic challenger, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as well as one of the most promising fields of Republican candidates in a generation.

• While Clinton had a higher share of the popular vote than Trump, the Republican was able to take a series of battleground states including Florida, Ohio and North Carolina, before stunningly carrying Pennsylvania, a state that had not backed a Republican for president since 1988.

VIEWS:

• President Barak Obama on Wednesday said he was heartened by Donald Trump's call for unity after his stunning victory .

• Satya Nadella in a LinkedIn post congratulated president-elect Donald Trump, and said that Microsoft looks forward to "working with all those elected yesterday. Our commitment to our mission and values are steadfast, and in particular fostering a diverse and inclusive culture."

• "I pledge to every citizen of our land, that I will be a president for all Americans," Trump said. "And this is so important to me. He added: "It is time for us to come together as one united people."

THE MUSE:

• President-elect Donald Trump once said, “I will build a great, great wall on our southern border.” But it turns out that glorious promise may wind up being a modest fence.

• 'Americans have just screwed the world yet again,' said Syed Tashfin Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi who has several close friends in the US. 

• 'I'm very afraid, will there be more wars? Will America attack Muslim countries again?' asked Indonesian activist Alijah Diete as Donald Trump edged closer to a shock victory in the US election.

• Rebecca Gomez, 22, told NBC News. "I'm Mexican, but I was born in the United States. I'm afraid people won't care about that, though. I'm afraid they will be violent."

• Trump's radical views on immigration, if practiced in real life, will turn out to be a nightmare for Indians holding the H1B visas in the US. Given the implications, Indians followed the US elections closely. And as Trump delivered his victory speech, many took to Twitter to respond to the news and his seeming reformed, civil self.

MODI’S BIG BLOW ON BLACK MONEY

MODI’S BIG BLOW ON BLACK MONEY

News:

• Rs 500, Rs 1000 notes are banned and Rs 2000 notes are introduced from 12 AM 9th November 2016.

• Citizens have 50 days from November 10th to December 30 to return notes and Banks and Post offices.

Views:

• Prime Minister of India, Modi :  India takes a historic step to fight corruption, black money, terrorism and counterfeited currency. 

• Union Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley: A lot of black money will be forced into the banking system with the demonetization move.

• Former Attorney General of India and eminent lawyer, Soli Sorabjee: A bold and innovative move. However taxpayers nothing to worry about.

The Muse:

• Demonetization in Indian history: 
• The first was when Rs 1,000, Rs 5,000, and Rs 10,000 notes were taken out of circulation in January 1946, a year and a half before the country won independence from British.

• It was on 16 January 1978 that the country was told that the janata party coalition, which had assumed office a year earlier, has decided to scrap Rs 1,000. Rs 5,000, Rs 10.000 notes.

• History tells, nothing great resulted with the two previous demonetization steps in independent India in last 69 years.

• Former Finance Minister and senior Congress leader, P. Chidambaram: I don’t understand why Rs 2000 notes have been introduced when Rs 500 and Rs1000 have been demonetized.

• All India Bank Employees Association general secretary CH Venkatachalam:"Everyone knows that black money is mostly in foreign currency, in foreign banks, in gold or in properties and less in cash. Hence, this steps alone is not going to help in unearthing black money".

How To Customize Unique LinkedIn Background Image With Simple Steps?

In the free version of LinkedIn, the most difficult part of uploading is the background image. (Premium subscribers get customized background image templates) The real problem is about half of the background image is blocked by photo, name, personal headline and other details of the profile. The solution is we have to demark the blocked part and the visible part.

 Here, I show how I customized my background image with simple steps.

 1.    Open Microsoft excel sheet.

2.    Fill cell addresses A to O horizontally.

3.    Then vertically A1 to A15, B1 to B15….likewise up to O1 to O 15

•     Copy all the above cells and open in Microsoft paint brush.

 

•    Save the file in PNG format and upload as the background image of your profile as shown below.

• Open in Microsoft paint brush and demark the visible part of your background image as shown below.

• Customize the visible part with your own border.

• Erase everything except your border, demarking the back ground image and the blocked part of your profile.

• Finally, customize your background image with in the visible part of the boarder as shown below.

Your background image is looked differently if you see from your friend’s login. Seek a friend’s help and see your background image from his logged profile. Check, recheck and fix it—fit and perfect within the visible part.

With 450 million professional users and 40 million student users, LinkedIn is a powerful platform to project your profile. Don’t miss the opportunity to make your LinkedIn profile more visually effective to catch the eye of your employer.

FACEBOOK AS A MARKETPLACE

FACEBOOK AS A MARKETPLACE

News:

• Facebook on October 3rd announced a new feature called Marketplace, an e- commerce hub that will initially be available through its mobile app.

• It's designed to provide a single place for users to buy and sell goods and services through the social network.

• Marketplace is currently only available in the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand on mobile, but the company plans to roll out to other countries and on the desktop in the coming months.

• Selling an item in Marketplace is just as easy as browsing for one. Simply:

         1.    Take a photo of your item, or add it from your camera roll

         2.    Enter a product name, description and price
         3.    Confirm your location and select a category

         4.    Post

• Now anyone looking in your area can find your item and message you if they want to buy it. You can also choose to post to Marketplace and a specific buy and sell group at the same time.

• To keep track of all of your current and past transactions in Marketplace, visit the Your Items section. There, you can view your saved items, products you’ve posted for sale, and all your messages with people.

Views:

•  Mary Ku, Director of Project Management of Facebook:

"450 million people access "buy and sell" groups on the platform monthly, a number that the social network is looking to tap into with Marketplace".

• Moor Insights & Strategy analyst Patrick Moorhead:

"Marketplace brings it with spontaneity. Users go on Craigslist and eBay to shop for products, but on Marketplace, impulse buys will be a thing. This is because browsing through the social network could allow users to see if certain items for sale would catch their eye, and so they might spend more time on the social network". 

The Muse:

• Facebook Marketplace is how different from other online e-commerce competitors? Will Marketplace grow into a service that will challenge the likes of Craigslist’s and eBay’s?