#and focus on the tech and gadgets from 2009

[mpregeminem]

looking back the big bang theory was alright tbh the trick is to watch it with people who aren't like me (a hater)

[littlejazzy]

👻 Spooky Shows For Spooky Littles 👻

The season is changing, and with it, Halloween approaches! Here's a list of shows that are thematically appropriate, viewable for free on Archive.Org or free with ads on Tubi! It's organized kinda sorta from shows for the littlest little to things that might be more appropriate for middles - but don't let that stop you from exploring anything that looks interesting!

Super Monsters (2017) [S1] [S2] [S3] [x] [x] [x] [x]

The children of various monsters learn lessons and how to use their monster powers! (The [x]s are various specials that occur after the main series)

Ruby Gloom (2006)

Staring the titular Ruby Gloom, this is a really cute show about her and her slightly spooky friends!

A Pup Named Scooby Doo (1988)

Adapted for a younger audience, Mystery Inc. is similarly aged down in this extremely cartoony and silly animated series!

Sabrina The Animated Series (1999)

Admittedly, Sabrina is pretty cutesy, but she is a witch, so watch as this fact gets her into hijinks and adventures with her friends and talking cat! (Tubi Mirror)

Tutenstein (2003)

A 10 year old mummy is brought back to life after 3,000 years and has to adjust to modern day! Heavy focus on Egyptology and fairly accurate portrayals of Egyptian deities and myths!

Growing Up Creepie (2006)

Adopted and raised by a family of bugs, Creepie is a girl who's entering middle school and learning how to interact with humans! There's a heavy focus on bugs and fun facts about them!

Bump in the Night (1994)

A stop-motion cartoon, Mr. Bumby is a monster that lives under the bed, who at night has adventures with Squishington (a slime monster who used to live in the toilet tank) and Molly Coddle (a ragdoll)! (Tubi Mirror)

The Addams Family (1972)

An animated adaptation based off of the original comics, watch the spooky family and their kooky adventures!

Beetlejuice: The Animated Series (1987)

Follow the adventures of Lydia Deetz and her best friend from the Netherworld, Beetlejuice! (The archive is only for the first season - as of posting this, the full series is available to stream, with ads, on Tubi)

Freaky Stories (1997)

An animated anthology show hosted by two, gross live-action puppets!

Scooby Doo, Where Are You? (1969)

(Only available on Tubi) The original show that started it all, watch Scooby and the gang explore spooky places and solve mysteries!

Making Fiends (2009)

Follow Vendetta as she makes fiends, while Charlotte makes friends!

The Real Ghostbusters (1986)

This show follows the adventures of the Ghostbusters after the events of the original film! Some episodes are silly and cartoony while others can get a bit more intense and serious. The last few seasons are a spin-off show for younger audiences.

Extreme Ghostbusters (1997)

Follow-up to The Real Ghostbusters, this show follows the adventures of a new team of 'busters... in the extreme 90s!

Archie's Weird Mysteries (1999)

Watch Archie and his friends explore the strange and sometimes spooky secrets of Riverdale... but, erm, not like the latest adaption, lol (Tubi Mirror)

The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (2001)

After losing a bet to two children, the Grim Reaper is forced to be friends with them - mayhem ensues! (due to how the files are named, the series is scrambled, but is otherwise all there)

Tales from the Cryptkeeper (1999)

Animated anthology series of kids and teens facing spooky situations! (Tubi Mirror)

Nightmare Ned (1997)

Ned has frequent nightmares based off of what happened to him during the day!

Monster Force (1994)

A group of teenagers from the futuristic year of 2020 fight monsters and creatures using high tech gadgets!

Roswell Conspiracies: Aliens, Myths and Legends (1999)

(Only available on Tubi) Aliens live among us, evolving into what we know to be monsters, myths, and legends - A man named Logan joins the Global Alliance, a shady government organization, to unravel conspiracies and to do good!

GhostWriter (1992)

A live-action show, a team of children gather clues and evidence to solve neighborhood mysteries and crimes... with the help of a ghost who can only communicate with them by altering written text! (due to how the files are named, the first 9 episodes are out of order)

Gravity Falls (2012)

Twins Dipper and Mabel Pines explore the mysteries of the titular town of Gravity Falls! (if you have the space, probably make a copy of this one, lol)

Eerie, Indiana (1991)

Live-action show that follows new teenage resident of Eerie, Indiana, Marshall as he finds out that his new town is, well, eerie!

Goosebumps (1995)

Each episode/two-parter is based off of R.L. Stine's books, this live-action anthology show will give you, well, goosebumps! (as a bonus, here's pdfs and e-pubs of every single book - enjoy!)

Are You Afraid of the Dark? (1992)

The live-action spooky anthology show of all time, this show is perfect for middles ready to get scared! Listen and watch the Midnight Society gather around the campfire to tell spooky tales!

📼 Enjoy your shows! And remember - if you really like something, you should probably back it up! 📼

[jakezofficial-blog]

Understanding Digital Marketing in Accelerating Business Sales Growth

           A business that does not use digital marketing is like a fisherman without a net. It is in this era wherein prospect customers could be anywhere in the world. The internet revolutionized the way how the business operates. A business located on a remote island can now possibly edge out its brick and mortar competitors. Almost everything is digital. Individuals are stuck on their phone tirelessly browsing for the latest fashion, needed services, and most delicious food nearby. In a forecast made by Clement (2019), over 2.14 billion people worldwide are expected to buy goods and services online. This staggering number of prospect consumers is a good indication that digital marketing can accelerate sales growth for the business.            Marketing is an activity or process in which a certain product or service of value is communicated to its end-users (Kurtz, 2016). It is where the producer influences the consumer to buy products and services offered. In a study of marketing history by Ryan and Jones (2019), it was found that even with limited resources, ancient people influence others using available materials they have at that time. It started with the use of human voice and word of mouth, followed by etching images on stone or cave wall. Ryan and Jones (2009) summarized the progress of marketing from the 15thto the 20thcentury as follows:  a significant milestone achieved in the 15thand 16th centuries through the development of printing which minimizes the cost and maximizes profits. As a result, marketers used this to expand their prospective consumers. Then, the use of adverts in the early newspaper became popular during the 17thcentury, which escalated rapidly. It all started in England and eventually spread across the world. Moreover, in the 18thand 19thcenturies, newspaper advertising was expanded along with the inception of mail-order advertising. The 20thcentury entered a new advertising age, which is the use of radio offering and television advertising.  As digital technology continues to dominate the purchasing habit of consumers, marketers explore other possibilities in the digital realm. Thus, social media marketing, search engine optimization, and email marketing were introduced to reach prospects that will lead to sales. These three types of digital marketing are the most widely used by digital marketers to increase site traffic and user engagement.           The first is social media marketing. It is a digital tool used to spread information using the Internet and Web-based technologies in a more personal connection and promotes social interaction among its users from a one-to-many conversation to many-to-many (Close, 2012). Some of the most popular social media platforms people use today are Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Linkedin. Individuals always want to connect and to be updated with the latest feeds. According to Ewing (2019),  if consumers have a positive experience of a product through social media, 71%  of them will possibly recommend the brand to others. Consumers bank on a brand’s rapport and shared expertise. Nowadays, if a consumer wants to search for the reputation of a particular company, people look at social media reviews and testimonials. The comments or suggestions written on it build an impression on the service or products a brand offers. One way to leverage the power of social media marketing is through aiming for positive customer testimonials. It is about the customers telling why a particular business is performing well. Testimonials can go a long way since this will bridge the gap of uncertainties. When consumers browse for a product, they often look at the profile of the company and read the reviews and testimonials. Positive reviews attract more consumers, which will result in more sales. At the backbone of good testimonial is a combination of excellent service and great product. Entrepreneurs should not compromise quality over efficiency. They should consistently produce quality products and improve for negative feedback because one unsatisfied customer can pull the sales to dwindle.            Second is Search engine optimization or SEO. SEO is marketing efforts that focus on increasing the site visibility on the search engines by making some content improvements and making it user-friendly (David, 2011). Ramos and Cota (2009) simplify it as making changes to a web page so that visitors can find it in a search engine. The leading search engines that people commonly used today are Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. People use search engines to find a specific blog or content, looking for a company’s website, searching for a recipe, and even buying for available products. Internet users have become dependent on the use of these search engines. Companies are taking leverage with this technology to be the next big thing. The goal should be to arrange a website to hit the proper keywords going into the mind of a searcher or prospect customer. In this way, chances that a website can rank on the top spot of the first-page search. The typical behavior noticed is that people only click websites on the first and second page of a search engine. To understand better how individuals search, Ramos and Cota (2009) wrote that people search in three types; navigational, informational, and transactional. They highlighted that navigational search is about searching for the official website of an organization, a company, an office, or a person. Informational searches as to the search for information, learn about a subject, or how to perform a task. While a transactional search is about users searching to get something either buying a product, service, hear a song, watch a video, or download a PDF.  Search Engine Optimization is now advancing at a rapid pace through the use of Google Analytics to identify users’ purchasing patterns. An item or a product searched is being integrated to pop-up in digital devices.            The last one is email marketing. Email seems to be an outdated marketing platform for modern business since the rise of the modern project management system and new-age communication applications. However, the effectivity of using email for the formality of communication and delivering a sincere message cannot be replaced. In a recent study, Jeshurun (2018) showed that email marketing remains one of the most effective ways to advertise on the internet. The goal of email marketing is to get the receiver open up the email in order to increase the chance of opening up a transaction. Email marketing is the method wherein a sales pitch or a call to action message is sent to a customer list via email (Ryan and Jones, 2009). Examples could be a hotel promotion, free seminars, a money-off code for gadget purchase, free membership for gym referrals, or invitation to download a mobile game for user interaction.  Email is still a universally accepted medium in sending vital information and allowing for almost real-time status updates.  Its versatility makes it unique and does not grow old. Since email is a low cost set up, a user can sign up for free email providers such as Gmail and Yahoo. Once, email is activated, marketing flyers and promotions can now be sent to a business email list with an added personal touch. Email marketers focus mainly on these three things; subject line, story-why, and sell-click content. The subject line is about getting consumers’ attention. Story-why includes the body of the email that builds on providing relatable personal stories and explanations about the reason for sending an email. Sell-click content includes the link that directs the consumer to the details of the product being sold. Once the consumer is engaged, it could lead to more sales.            In a nutshell, digital marketing provided numerous benefits that level the playing field for business of all sizes. Every business is now given equal access to mass markets at any price budget. Small and medium enterprises can take a chance of competing against big businesses. For example, a successful email or social media campaign is only a fraction of a cost as compared to TV advertisements spent by established brands but still reach a broader audience. The interaction also played a role in the effectiveness of digital marketing — the ability of a business to interact with targeted audiences in real-time increases brand loyalty. A targeted approach also adds up in the success of these tools by dissecting a broad demographics into specifics which position the marketers to increase the conversion rate of ad campaigns by narrowing down a particular type of audience the ad will show. Marketers can now identify which particular audiences they want to reach. The system analytically read the common ground to connect the product or service such as goal, profession, education level, and buying behavior of consumers. New technology is released every month, and the goal of tech companies to reach the global ecosystem of "internet of things" is coming. It is where every service and product will be interconnected to devices such as tablets, smartphones, appliances, cars, and other gadgets through the internet. The majority of businesses aspire for growth and stability. Digital marketing methods, mainly social media marketing, search engine optimization, and email marketing, are among the new methods that can accelerate the sales growth of a business.

References Clements, J. (2019). Number of digital buyers worldwide from 2014 to 2021 in billions. Retrieved from https://www.statista.com/statistics/251666/number-of-digital-buyers-worldwide/ Close, A. G. (Ed.).(2012). Online Consumer Behavior. New York, NY: Routledge. David, M. M. (2011). WordPress3 Search Engine Optimization. Birmingham, United Kingdom: Packt Publishing Ltd. Ewing, M. (2019, June 28). 71%. More Likely to Purchase Based Social Media Referrals [Infographic]. Retrieved from https://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/30239/71-More-Likely-to-Purchase-Based-on-Social-Media-Referrals-Infographic.aspx Jeshurun, S.B. (2018). A Study on Effectiveness of Email Marketing. Shanlax International Journal of Management Vol. 6 pp 84-86. Kurtz, D.L. (2016). Contemporary Marketing. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning Ramos, A., & Cota, S. (2009) Search Engine Marketing. USA: The McGraw-Hill Companies Ryan, D., & Jones C. (2009). Understanding Digital Marketing: Marketing strategies for engaging the digital generation. Philadelphia, PA: Kogan Page.

The author is an MBA student at the Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business. This essay is part of his Final Extended Definition Essay in fulfillment of the requirements of the course, Advance Technical Writing 1. Visit his blog at http://jakezofficial.tumblr.com/The views expressed here are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official position of DLSU, its faculty, and its administrators.

[eelinktechs-blog]

Internet of Things IoT Smart Kitchens a Reality

Right now, there are over 3 Billion devices connected to the web. Most of which, we actually don't desire somebody hacking into. The number of connected devices is increasing exponentially as a product of the expansion in IoT (Internet of Issues) gadgets and those units are surrounded by controversy relating to their current level of safety.

What's an IoT device? In brief, it is any gadget that has been given the aptitude of speaking over an IP network. Said one other method, IoT units embrace hardware that permit two-way communication over a Wi-Fi network. Suppose mild bulbs that may let you know whether they're on or off and could be managed from anywhere on the planet with an internet connection. The extra of the gadgets in your life that may communicate this way, the larger the specter of hacking.

There have already been numerous movies and demonstrations of hackers taking management of autos that have embedded network connectivity. While the thought of somebody having remote management of your car is threatening, the larger risk is the one you won't see.

Think about having your complete file from your driving habits and behaviors ending up in undesirable hands. If a hacker can take information out of your automobile, it would be on level to assume they'll take data from much smaller and cheaper units. www.eelinktech.com/ So, who exactly regulates and makes positive that the safety in our IoT items are literally safe? Underwriters Laboratories (UL) is at present attempting to fill within the gap that buyers is likely to be feeling relative to IoT and safety concerns.

So what is the "hole" that Underwriters Laboratories is at the moment making an attempt to fill in? Nicely, as with computers, IoT objects can have firmware and software. As you most likely know, your software/firmware usually gets upgraded/up to date when there has been a fault or weak-level detected in the product. Imagine you purchase a automobile Iot device Manufacturer that's "unhackable", only to search out out 5 months later that a hack has been developed to focus on your car. What do you do until the company releases a repair? In addition, the manufacturer still has the same certification on the window which leads new patrons to assume that they are protected when truly, that is not the case.

The products you purchase can undergo many safety exams before they go away the factory, however, as time goes on, vulnerabilities can nonetheless be found. If the producer isn't persevering with to help their products after launch, you might need to avoid their products or the whole resolution itself. As our IoT technology will get extra advanced and intuitive, a hacker's arsenal is doing the Click here for Wikipedia same. The important thing take away is that buying and utilizing IoT gadgets comes with a few of the similar overhead that maintaining and sustaining a daily LAPTOP does. All the time be sure to concentrate to what updates your IoT items have. As annoying as updating a device's software program is, it's necessary to maintain your self forward of the hackers looking for your vulnerabilities.

IoT (Web of things) has turn out to be one of the vital superior technological approaches at this time with its anticipated growth of over 26 billion related devices by 2020, according to Gartner. IoT will have an effect on among the best automation products by that time. Automation in dwelling, industries, and in workplaces will develop into a serious development space for the startups in addition to established companies. Let's take a look at some of the most modern IoT corporations we've as we speak, and see how they will pave technique to a better tomorrow.

Nest was just lately acquired by Google due to its robust presence in the dwelling automation house. Nest is a home automation merchandise company primarily based in Palo Alto, California, where Google itself is headquartered. Nest produces sensor-pushed self-studying thermostats and smoke detectors. These units are AI-prepared, which means they will be taught your environments and necessities and function accordingly.

New-York-primarily based Quirky is an revolutionary company that designs, manufactures, and provides sensible units that can suppose on behalf of the users. The modern factor about Quirky is you can submit your personal ideas for creating among the innovative merchandise. Founded in 2009, the firm obtain its preliminary funding of 6 million in 2010. In 2012, the company received 68 million funding from Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. They've created dwelling automation merchandise that learn based on your utilization of them.

Already established Philips is a multi-billion dollar Dutch firm manufacturing plenty of electronic objects, equivalent to LED gentle bulbs. One of the current improvements from Philips is the Hue lighting system that adjustments colours based in your wants and moods. Philips concentrates on electronics, healthcare, and lighting primarily.

We know Jawbone from its Up fist band that displays your exercise traits. Jawbone Up has develop into so widespread and hip that it enjoys a big person base from iPhone and Android users. The Jawbone product makes use of the low-vary, low-energy Bluetooth low vitality protocol to constantly monitor the workouts you do to maintain your self in form.

Washington DC-primarily based SmartThings is a know-how innovations company that makes home automation hubs base on cloud computing platforms for Android, Windows Telephone, and iOS customers. You need to use the SmartThings hub to attach and monitor various units in your house utilizing just your smartphone remotely.

ARM is known far and vast as the important thing manufacturer of smartphone processor architectures. The high-finish architectures created by ARM is the premise of a lot of the smartphone processors that we have at this time, including Snapdragon and Apple iPhone processors. ARM can also be at the forefront of sensor manufacturing for various devices and issues that may be connected to the IoT sphere.

Atmel is a large manufacturer of microcontrollers, capacitive contact screens, advanced logical and digital circuits, Social Network Here and RF parts. These components are integral to each IoT device and the sensors associated with it.

Network system producer Cisco also has a huge presence within the IoT market. Cisco's current leadership in the networking hardware market enabled it to capitalize on the IoT market on the right time. Additionally, the profitable implementation of IoT requires extremely sturdy network infrastructure, which is Cisco's robust level.

Within the semiconductor market, Intel is the final word provider. This experience has helped Intel to safe high spot within the semiconductor market for IoT. Semiconductors type an integral a part of each electronic system. Because of this, a leading

Beyond Google, IBM, Oracle, and SAP, Microsoft has secured one of many very prime spots for the software growth in the IoT domain. Primarily based on internet analytics rankings, Microsoft is the number two firm in IoT domain with software program as its main power.

IoT is a powerful space of improvement and progress, with enormous variety of opportunities for sturdy gamers who make their entry on time. This is the rationale why capitalizing on the IoT domain will help companies achieve enormous growth potential within the coming years.

China suppliers have intensified efforts to develop an IOT commonplace, which they hope would be the benchmark for a global regulation. Eelink Tech Presently, the dearth of a unified standard and high chip costs are preventing mass manufacture of IOT products.

Still in its nascent stage, the Internet of Issues trade has seen worldwide improvement acquire pace in 2010. However widespread adoption does not appear doubtless in the near future, just because a global customary shouldn't be but in place.

IOT refers back to the networked interconnection of assorted units and appliances. A unified regulation is critical as a result of devices have to follow one protocol to be able to work together and obtain clever control. The interface and chips must be standardized. And not using a global communications protocol, IOT product manufacturers can be unable to work with change operators and retailers. Such gadgets then would be no completely different from abnormal merchandise resembling standard home home equipment.

The US, the EU, Japan and China have all intensified efforts to come up with Click here for our Blog their own commonplace, which may then be the basis for a world regulation.

Several of China's largest export manufacturers have been within the IOT field since 2005, some even earlier. Dwelling home equipment, good meters and digital tags are just a few examples of products that have been built for networked interconnectivity. These companies shaped a group to work on an Clever Grouping and Resource Sharing normal that would regulate IOT development.

The sooner they can provide you with a home commonplace, the simpler it will be to pitch said regulation for worldwide use. This can then scale back technical limitations for China suppliers, who also wouldn't must pay IP fees to organizations in developed international locations.

The Midea Group and the Haier Group have each been in a position to develop core management chips and are now engaged on integrating the power grid with the intercommunication, Internet, radio and TELEVISION networks.

Haier has already obtained approval for seven trade and 9 national IOT standards. It has also submitted purposes for two worldwide standards, of which one could be China's first within the dwelling community discipline. The corporate has additionally utilized for greater than 1,000 patents for its IOT home home equipment line.

[kin922]

HOW I MAKE MONEY WITH TRENDING TOPICS That Actually Works

Trends.co

https://trends.co/

Trends.co is a premium subscription service that aims to help entrepreneurs build successful businesses. Members get access to a private community of innovators, plus research data and reports. The service was launched in 2019 as the “premium research arm and private community” of the popular email newsletter The Hustle.

Members have reported success stories from using Trends.co, such as uncovering signals that the indoor plant business was set to bloom and repositioning a brand to focus on its strengths. However, some users have expressed dissatisfaction with the service, claiming that most of the content is generic and not worth the price of admission. Additionally, there is no clear refund policy for customers who are unhappy with their purchase.

Trends.co sends out an email every couple of weeks with highlights from the main group so members can easily keep up with popular posts. They also publish Signals which show what’s trending or growing based on thousands of bits of data.

Trend Hunter

Trend Hunter is an online community and website that provides insights into emerging trends and consumer behavior. It offers a variety of resources, including trend reports, trend videos, and trend-spotting tools. Trend Hunter also uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to accelerate its trend library and research.

The company’s team of skilled Researchers and Futurists leverage its team of over 269,000 Hunters and AI to develop Custom Trend Reports. These reports are used by entrepreneurs, marketers, journalists, and other professionals to stay ahead of the competition.

Trend Hunter is led by CEO Jeremy Gutsche, a New York Times Bestselling Author and futurist who delivers keynote speeches on innovation. The company also publishes the 2023 Trend Report on innovation which is gifted to drive awareness of their custom trend research and innovation conference.

Trend Watchers

Trend Watchers is a platform that notifies content creators about internet trends across 30+ categories and shows them how to profit off them by using their Viral Video Maker. It was created for content creators, but the trends on the platform can also be used by entrepreneurs, business owners, investors, e-commerce store owners, bloggers and more. Trend Watchers sources its trends from a variety of sources/signals and checks them with Google Trends. The platform also has an expiration date for each trend so that users are always seeing fresh data.

Trend Watchers offers long-term trends with consistent traffic, rising trends that are hot right now, peaked trends that have already peaked and early trends that may blow up in the future. The platform also provides detailed help blogs and video courses to help users effectively apply these trends to their social media channels.

In addition to providing trend data, Trend Watchers also hosts virtual events in conjunction with its CX Trends 2023 Report. At these events, trend analysts Vicki Loomes and Livia Fioretti present The TrendWatching Worldview.

Flippa

Flippa is a private marketplace for buying and selling online businesses, based in Melbourne, Australia, and Austin, Texas, United States. It was founded in June 2009 by Mark Harbottle and Matt Mickiewicz. Flippa allows individuals and business owners to buy and sell websites, online businesses and other digital real estate. The majority of Flippa’s revenue comes from selling online businesses including content sites, SaaS businesses, ecommerce businesses, apps, digital services, marketplaces and more.

Flippa is ranked 45 in the Computers Electronics and Technology  Web Hosting and Domain Names category globally according to December 2022 data from Similarweb. According to Trustpilot reviews from customers who have used Flippa’s services, the platform is a trusted platform to connect buyers, brokers and sellers globally.

Flippa is an online marketplace for buying and selling websites, online businesses, domain names, apps, and other digital assets. It is primarily geared towards entrepreneurs and small business owners who are looking to buy or sell their digital assets.

To use Flippa, buyers and sellers must first create an account. Once they have done so, buyers can browse listings using filters such as website age, keyword, language etc., while sellers can list their digital assets for sale. The process of buying and selling on Flippa is relatively simple and straightforward. Buyers should look for websites with high traffic and good potential for growth when searching for a website to purchase, while sellers should ensure that their listing page contains all the necessary information about the asset they are selling.

Flippa also offers a range of tools and resources to help make the process of buying or selling as smooth as possible. Additionally, it provides a secure platform for conducting online transactions between buyers and sellers. Overall, Flippa is a convenient platform for buying or selling websites and domains, making it an ideal choice for entrepreneurs looking to buy or sell their digital assets.

[bestieltscoachinginstitute]

IELTS Institutes Well Known for Top Results and Quality Trainers

Today, numerous institutes are offering IELTS Coaching in Chandigarh and claim them to be the best one. Having an experience of 2 or 3 years and little or no student cannot make them the best. For taking that position, rich experience and a lot of research in order to deliver top results are required.

In Chandigarh, there are nearly 500 coaching institutes actively involved in delivering IELTS classes to budding students. Out of those, hardly 50 have accreditations from British Council or IDP are co-founders of the IELTS test. Understanding the mechanism of the workflow and quality of results delivered, acceptance of these institutes is made by these governing bodies.

Going a little deeper in the segmentation of IELTS institutes in Chandigarh, the majority of good names are present in sector 34. Out of them, one is Dolphin Head Hunters. This is one of the most heard names in IELTS industry is well known for top results and quality trainers. Incepted in the year 2009 and currently has a vast campus spread over more than 5000 square feet that too in the center of the city with proper transport connectivity, this IELTS institute is doing wonders in unmatchable coaching quality.

Moreover, Dolphin Head Hunters is the only IELTS institute in Chandigarh sector 34 having a single branch and a dedicated focus on teaching practices only. No kind of visa service is offered here. The epitome is we are the only institute with the sole motive of delivering high-end results which can make the further process easy to go and widely accepted as per the need of any student looking for study or resettlement options abroad.

Having experience of more than 12 years in this segment and handling a monopoly number of students which exceed more than 600 per month at times, study material has also reached an extensive height crossing all the leaps and bounds which a person can ever think of.

At the same time, flexibility of the time and different batches for students and working professionals help the learners make the right decision for their career. As we all know, IELTS is the most widely taken language test worldwide today and nearly 11000 organizations worldwide accept this test as a parameter for judgment on the basis of scores. So, the interest factor of students automatically reaches the pinnacle overtimes.

Our research methodology is efficient enough to deal with almost every query raised by the students during the learning phase. Be it the smallest query about any kind of question doubt which has risen or a major one in relation to the strategies that need to be applied for solving the modules of this test with ease, our trainers are efficient enough to deal with all needs of the students.  

Considering all the parameters discussed, we whole heartedly invite you to join the best IELTS institute in Chandigarh is not only education-friendly but also well-acquainted with high tech gadgets like projectors, sound systems, and POS machines in order to provide the students with an experience that last a lifetime over their minds. For admission queries, feel free to reach us over call or visit www.dolphinheadhunter.com for more information.  

Original Source: https://ieltscoachinginstituteinchandigarh11.blogspot.com/2021/04/ielts-institutes-well-known-for-top.html 

[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/the-biggest-tech-product-flops-of-the-2010s/

The Biggest Tech Product Flops of the 2010s

The last decade introduced a wealth of game-changing technology to our lives. But along with it came some true disasters.

December 3, 2019 15+ min read

This story originally appeared on PCMag

In the US, 20 percent of small businesses can’t make it a year, half are dead in five years and a full 70 percent can’t make it past a decade, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Success is even harder if that business is all about one particular product — especially if that product is tech-related.

Look at companies like Juicero, which couldn’t launch a smart juicer even with $120 million. Or Pono, a digital media player and music download service for audiophiles that Neil Young just couldn’t quite make happen. Crowdfunding has many tales of spectacular failure, like the Zano Drone, which earned $3 million on Kickstarter but couldn’t actually … fly.

Even big names like Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon — the so-called Frightful Five of Tech — have their fair share of shameful screw-ups in the tech product space.

Related: The Best Esports Games for 2019

That’s what we’re here to reflect on: 10 years of tech product failure. Not the small ones like those above, but the products and services you came to love, or wanted to love, or can’t understand why they didn’t get any love. Some are great ideas that never went anywhere. Some were incredibly flawed products that never should have made it past prototyping. A few are glorious vaporware — products rumored, promised, or even guaranteed, but that never came to be.

Apple AirPower Wireless Charging Mat

Image credit: via PC Mag

Apple’s good at delivering high-quality products most of the time. But occasionally it over promises, as it did with the AirPower in 2017. It was supposed to be the ultimate wireless charger mat for Apple products, powerful enough to charge an iPhone X, Apple Watch, and AirPods simultaneously. It took another 18 months or so before the much-delayed, destined-to-be-overpriced mat was cancelled because it would “not achieve our high standards,” according to Apple.

Amazon Fire Phone

Image credit: via PC Mag

While you can expect a whole separate story from us on the major smartphone failures of the past decade, there are a couple that are just so bad they must be included here. Amazon’s first and only foray into the space was 2014’s Fire Phone. It was more than a phone — with 3D capabilities, it was a way for Amazon to help you showroom the world, and thus increase its own retail sales. Which some found offensive at best, especially in a $650 device that only worked with AT&T. Amazon, never one to shy away from pulling a loser off the shelf, killed the handset off in less than a year after taking a $170 million hit.

BlackBerry PlayBook and BlackBerry 10

Image credit: PlayBook photo by Will Ireland T3 Magazine Future via Getty Images

Research In Motion owned the mobile space in the first decade of the new millennium. But by 2010 it was trying desperately to stay relevant. The PlayBook tablet was RIM’s answer to the iPad and Kindle Fire. But it just couldn’t compete because BlackBerry didn’t have the apps; thousands of units shipped to retailers and never left the shelves, despite some big price cuts. RIM — by then renamed BlackBerry Ltd. — killed the device by mid-2013.

It also shipped BlackBerry 10 that year, a mobile operating system it hoped would give iOS and Android a run. It even had 100,000 apps — including 28,000 Android apps that apparently ran like they were on dial-up — but it was no use. BlackBerry 10 ran on a few phones, the last one being the BlackBerry Leap in 2015, but it couldn’t bring back the heyday of the “CrackBerry.” 

Coolest Cooler

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Once the most funded Kickstarter project in history (as of 2014), the Coolest Cooler — a cooler full of gadgets like a blender, wireless speaker, and USB for charging devices — turned out to be mediocre at best. By 2016, Coolest was out of money and couldn’t ship all its orders, a saga that continued through 2018. Coolest still has it for sale on its website for $399.99, though.

Facebook Home and More

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We could devote an entire story to Facebook screw-ups in the 2010s. From the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal to potentially messing up democracy itself in the US, the list goes on and on. But let’s focus on the bad products/services it tried to foist on us in the last 10 years.

Trending Section: A way to get people talking about the news, the Trending section met its demise in 2018 after accusations that its human editors were ignoring conservative news sources.

Facebook Home: Rather than create an actual phone, Facebook opted instead to release a user interface for Android phones that put Facebook front and center. Unfortunately, it was also a huge security risk.

Facebook Deals: For four months, Facebook tried to take on Groupon, but despite having billions of users, still couldn’t pull it off.

Facebook Email: Remember how in 2010 this unified inbox was supposed to be a Gmail killer? Since it died in 2014, no one else remembers either.

Facebook Places: Another standalone app, this one trying to outdo Foursquare. The power of the check-in eventually migrated over to regular Facebook posts.

Notify: From November 2015 to June 2016, you could get real-time news from a standalone app from Facebook, but no one bothered.

Facebook Gifts: Wanted to only do your shopping for gifts on Facebook? That might have worked from 2012 to 2014.

Is there more? Sure, but these are depressing enough.

Google Fiber

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Gigabit fiber expansion is expensive, even for tech giants. Google Fiber, which like Google itself is a division of parent company Alphabet, Inc., was all about fiber to the home (FttH) and launched with some fanfare in 2012 in the Kansas City metro area. It has won awards — more than a few from PCMag and its readers — for its speed and customer service. But FttH apparently isn’t a big money maker. Despite opening up in a few new cities through 2015, Google put a halt on further fiber expansion in 2016. If you’ve got it, enjoy it, because no one else is going to get it. (The same thing happened to Verizon Fios the decade prior; it ceased expansion to new cities in 2010.)

Google Glass

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The cyborg backlash started with Google Glass, an optical HUD that you could use with glasses or without, so all the data you’d typically see on a phone could float in front of your eyes. After selling a prototype for $1,500 in 2013, Glass went out to the general public the next year. But technical limitations and privacy concerns doomed the dorky high-specs, and by 2015, the first-generation of Glass was no longer for sale. Google has since moved on to only providing Glass as an “Enterprise Edition” for businesses at $999 a pop, but the rest of the world doesn’t care.

Google Nexus Q

Joe Britt, former engineering director at Google, introduces the Nexus Q.

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Google tried to get into the media hub game as early as 2012 with the Nexus Q, a weird little Magic 8-Ball sized thing you hooked up to a TV to stream YouTube and other Google properties. But it didn’t work with services like Netflix or contain any local storage, which made it pretty limited for $300. Google stopped selling it by January 2013, and the Chromecast came along to erase the Q from memory. 

Google Social Efforts (Buzz through +)

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Google’s rivalry with Facebook pre-dates the past decade, but really took off with the launch of Google Buzz in 2010, an attempt to bring some web-based social networking to Android and iOS users. Google killed it in October 2011, so it could concentrate on Google+.

What a waste or resources. Despite trying to graft this free social tool onto actual useful and popular Google properties like Blogger, Gmail and YouTube, Google+ never caught on. Worse, as the service was heading into the sunset, it was revealed that a bug in G+ in early 2018 exposed 500,000 profiles, and Google tried to keep it hush-hush. Then another bug came along that pushed up the timetable to kill the service from August 2019 to April. Google+ for the enterprise lives on, but the consumer version joins Friendster and MySpace in the hall of failed social networks.

Google TV

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The first attempt at interactive TV by Google was Google TV in October 2010. Available first from Logitech and Sony, the Android-based hardware integrated with the Chrome browser to make an overlay that should have made TV more active for viewers. But it wasn’t what passive TV wanted, especially not in such a clunky interface. By 2014, Android TV had taken over to power digital video streaming for smart TVs and media hubs.

GoPro Karma

GoPro is synonymous with action cameras, but it had a rough few years thanks in part to a foray into drones. The Karma worked with GoPro’s Hero4 and Hero5 cameras, but it was hardly a best-in-class drone — some fell out of the sky when the battery compartment door opened. After that, it only had 15 minutes of flying time. GoPro smartly killed the $800 Karma in early 2018.

JooJoo Tablet

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Imagine it’s 2008. Everyone thinks Apple has something big planned in the tablet space, but who knows? So Mike Arrington, founder of TechCrunch, decides to take on Apple with a $200 tablet called the CrunchPad, which uses an open-source OS to keep costs low. He teams with Singapore-based Fusion Garage, which soon decides it doesn’t need Arrington, who sues. The CrunchPad is dead.

Fusion Garage, however, releases it under the name JooJoo, with a pre-sale in December 2009 … for $499. In January 2010, the iPad is finally announced, crushing interest in the JooJoo. A few of them even ship to buyers, but it shouldn’t have bothered. Our 1.5 star review said it was “overpriced, doesn’t do very much, and doesn’t do anything particularly well.” By November 2010, the JooJoo was discontinued, and Fusion Garage (despite trying to sell another tablet called Grid 10) followed it into the ether not long after.

Lytro

The Lytro Light Field Camera

Image credit: Lytro

Light field photography, championed by the Lytro, was tech that would let you take a shot — then focus on the subject later. Lytro’s tech was fascinating, but not particularly well-executed. In our 2012 review of the Lytro Light Field Camera (pictured), we found that “its image quality and ergonomics are poor, making the camera little more than an overpriced toy.” Two years later, the $1,600 Lytro Illum didn’t fare much better; “its image quality is disappointing and its price sky high,” we concluded. Despite a pivot into VR video capture, the company shut down in early 2018. It shut down its hosting services at the same time, so no one can share Lytro images anymore. Those we had in our reviews at the time are all broken links.

Microsoft Kinect

Image credit: Will Ireland T3 Magazine Future via Getty Images

This one flopped twice in the last decade. The original, called Project Natal during its development, debuted in November 2010 on the Xbox 360, turning your body into the game’s controller. It even came to Windows itself in 2012 and was forced upon the first buyers of the Xbox One. By 2014, Kinect was sold separately and was on its way to being a market failure. Microsoft stopped making them in 2017, but they still turn up in weird places. 

MoviePass

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Everyone wanted MoviePass to work. While it was founded in 2011, it exploded into the public consciousness in 2017 with a plan that would let you see as many movies as you wanted for only $10 a month. It was a doomed business model, of course, because that price is nuts, especially when trying to service an instant influx of 2 million subscribers. After a number of increasingly frustrating changes to its business model over the next few months, plus going to war with big-name cinema chains like AMC, MoviePass finally kicked the popcorn bucket in September 2019 with a one-day notice. Copycats abound, but none will ever have a price as crazy good as MoviePass once had.

Nintendo Wii U

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The Wii U was the successor to the original Wii, meant to take on the Xbox One and Sony PlayStation 4. It moved away from motion control toward dual-screen play, but it launched in 2012 with very few games and was slow to see any traction. Nintendo admitted defeat as early as 2014, and gave it a mercy killing in 2017, a couple of months before the Nintendo Switch debuted — a device that improved on the Wii U’s concepts and game play in almost every way.

Ouya Video Game Console

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Ouya was going to change video games. It made a massive $8.6 million as a Kickstarter in 2013, with the promise of being an Android-based console. It went on sale that year, and even supported media apps like Twitch at the time. But then it never sold, because it wasn’t great at its one job: playing games. Our two-star review said it was an “ungainly mess of a consumer product that requires more work than it’s worth to get the most out of it.” By 2015, the company assets had been sold to Razer, which to its credit continued to support Ouya users until June 2019.

Path

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Launching a social network post-Facebook is like swimming upstream without legs. Path tried in 2010, hoping to be the social network for just you and your 50 closest friends, with chat and photo-sharing ultimately becoming more of a public journal space (because we needed another LiveJournal?). It had privacy problems (it was fined $800,000 by the FTC for storing data from underage users), and was eventually sold to a South Korean company, which killed it dead in 2018.

Sony PlayStation Vita

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Mobile gaming is all the rage, but now only Ninteno competes against smartphones for gamers’ affections. As of this year, the Sony PlayStation Vita ceased production after almost a decade of trying to catch on. As our analyst Will Greenwald put it, “It was a great system, ahead of its time and it didn’t have the Nintendo game list or pedigree that the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and 3DS had. It eventually just became this puzzling handheld only enthusiasts and Japanophiles dug.” 

Qwikster

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Qwikster never existed as anything other than a lesson in big companies dealing with public backlash. In September 2011, Netflix decided it would break itself into two services, one for streaming video, the other (Qwikster) for renting DVDs via mail, plus video games. Supposedly 800,000 people left Netflix in a huff over the move (and the fee increases Netflix had planned). So Qwikster never happened and today you can still log in with only one Netflix account to stream movies and rent DVDs and Blu-rays. But Netflix never did add video games and continues to gradually increase prices. So who really won here?

Samsung Galaxy Note 7

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The Galaxy Note 7 was a lovely phone … until it started exploding. Pants pockets were scorched, people awoke to smoking smartphones on their night stands and airplane passengers were spooked by malfunctioning phablets. Samsung issued a recall, but eventually threw in the towel completely and blamed faulty batteries. But while the Note 7 will go down as a huge disaster, the botched rollout didn’t kill the Note brand; the Note 8, 9 and 10 have since arrived without incident.

Samsung NX1

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Samsung played in the digital camera market with its NX system, introduced in 2010. Mirrorless tech was in its infancy then, but the system’s performance ramped up quickly. The flagship NX1, from 2014, offered a BSI CMOS sensor and 4K video — tech that would take some time to make it to other systems.

The NX300 followed in 2015, putting the NX1 toolset in a more affordable package. But the camera system struggled to gain traction in the market. Samsung did everything it could think of — including gimmicky events where photographers could swap an old — even broken — SLR for a free NX1, but it didn’t work.

Samsung unceremoniously killed the system later that year. It’s a shame, because the cameras were ahead of their time. — Jim Fisher, lead analyst for digital cameras

Secret

Image credit: Secret via PC Mag

The Secret app was intended as a place to reveal your inner-most secrets. You know, back before people remembered there was such a thing as privacy (thanks to Facebook’s scandals). One problem: The anonymity that Secret allowed made people act like jerks. Enough so that an entire country (Brazil) banned the app. It didn’t fit with the remaining founder’s vision, so after only a few years existence and a meteoric rise, the popular app shut down in 2015.

Steam Machines

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Steam proved to be a popular way to distribute PC games, so Steam-based hardware seemed like a natural evolution. But despite an early showing of Steam Machines in 2014 — which manufacturers could make with the Linux-based Steam OS software — they didn’t ship for over a year. And when they did arrive, even from big names in gaming like Alienware (above), they didn’t sell. Perhaps because Steam put itself in competition with its own (now-discontinued) Steam Link set-top box for TVs. By 2018, Steam itself removed the Steam Machines page from its nav bar, despite claiming the Machines are still a thing.

Tizen

Tizen running on a Samsung Z910F phone and SM-R380 Smartwatch at the Tizen Developer Conference in San Francisco June 3, 2014.

Image credit: Josh Edelson AFP Getty Images

Samsung backed this Linux offshoot for mobile devices from the get-go, hoping to forge a new OS that would use HTML5 apps to make smartphone users happy. Getting it on their phones would have meant controlling the money that typically goes to Google when you license Android for a phone. But Tizen never took off, not in phones, smartwatches, or tablets. In fact, the only success Tizen has seen is in smart TVs, where it resides today in about 21 percent of them. So it’s not a failure or flop in that regard — since it still exists. It’s simply a long way from where it started on small screens.

Vine

Image credit: Vine via PC Mag

This is less a tech flop than it is a case of tragic mismanagement by the company that acquired it. Vine was an instant hit when launched in 2012, limiting shared videos to only six seconds long and forcing creators to be extraordinarily creative. Twitter bought it and couldn’t figure out how to make money off the service — money-making not being Twitter’s forte — so it shut down in 2016. Vine’s co-founder said he’d launch a sort of Vine 2.0 by 2017, but financial and legal hurdles killed that before it was even born. Maybe his latest project, Byte (Vine 3.0?), will eventually become available, but with TikTok taking over short-form video, who’s going to care?

Windows 8 + Windows RT + Windows Phone

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With the memory of Vista fading, Microsoft was riding high on the success of Windows 7 when it launched the ill-advised Windows 8 in 2012. Changes to the OS — tiles, ugh — and attempts to make it more mobile-friendly all sent users into a rage. A year later, with Windows 8.1, Microsoft was walking back a lot of the interface “enhancements” to be more like Windows 7 again. When Windows 10 came along as a free replacement, and was welcomed with open arms by 8-haters and lovers alike.

Windows RT was a cripple-ware version of Windows 8, made just for tablets and laptops with lower-power chips to save money. It was crippled in that it only would run apps from the Windows Store — an Apple-esque move at which traditional PC users chafed. Thankfully, when Microsoft moved the Surface line of hardware to the high end, it killed off the low-end RT OS.

Microsoft’s other big OS failure came in three stages through the last decade, with Windows Phone 7, Phone 8 and finally Windows 10 Mobile. Maybe someone out there liked having their desktop OS shrunk down to a phone screen, but obviously not enough. Microsoft finally killed the last vestiges of its experiments with mobile in late 2018. Bill Gates blames the feds.

Honorable Mention: Apple’s Project Titan

Image credit: Yagi Studio | Getty Images

It’s taken as a given that Apple’s been looking into battery-powered, self-driving vehicles for a long time. Its autonomous vehicle group even has a name, Project Titan, and has been in existence since 2014. In 2018, the group had 27 cars registered for road testing. However, it recently laid off 200 people and shifted other staff around. Yet, it also bought Drive.AI, a tech for artificial intelligence in self-driving vehicles. Could a car still launch from the Cupertino loop by 2023, give or take? Or license tech out to others to make such a car? Check back again in 10 years. 

[suraj-singh1]

The Web – Savior of Small Businesses

Today’s super competitive market place does not allow for small businesses to take it easy. The big boys in the arena are always upping the ante in terms of their products, services, and costs. Small businesses are left with no option but to compete in the cut-throat market or perish. The first accounting software to help small businesses was launched back in the 1990s. People then were still trying to come to terms with the Goliath that was the Web. A little more than two decades later online tools are becoming the difference between the survival and collapse of a business.

Researchers have found that workers only use 60% of their total available time. That is, out of a five-day workweek they are productive for approximately four days. That means you are earning money only 60% of the time you are at work. In a situation like this using the right online tools can help you save on time and costs while ensuring a higher level of efficiency.

Some Important Tools for Small Businesses:

Google Analytics — For new business numbers are all that matters. How much traffic does your website attract? Where is the majority of traffic from? What are the key demographics of your target group? These questions play a crucial role in determining the success or failure of a start-up.

Tracking these statistics is no easy feat. This is where Google Analytics comes to the rescue. Users can view the countries their site has been seen in, the percentage of differences in traffic drivers, and their key figures, broken down by day, week, month, or year. It uses simple, clearly marked charts and graphs for best conveying the information to the lay individual.

It also helps you channel resources to features that are captivating users on your website and help you better plan your business. When you know what is pointing people to your site, you can reverse engineer and explore advertising opportunities with sites that focus on related topics. If it is appropriate, you can also plan your homepage according to the subject matter that is drawing people in. Google Analytics also offers you a ‘bounce rate’ breakdown, i.e. the proportion of your website’s visitors who navigate away without clicking through to a second window. A high bounce rate means your website is not doing very well.

Dropbox — The idea of toting around a bag full of gadgets, because each one of them has a different important document in it, seems primitive now. Not only do we have a plethora of excellent multitasking mobile devices to choose from, but the popularity of cloud-based storage has also effectively ended the need to carry our documents in our devices. Dropbox has turned out to be a savior for multitaskers everywhere. It creates a virtual link between all your Internet-connected devices. Using the cloud-saving capability, users can save images, documents and video clips to their Dropbox accounts. These files can be accessed from anywhere.

There is no fear of losing a document or sending files that are too large. Dropbox helps make file sharing with other users much simpler. It also allows you to organize your files by allowing you to create personalized folders. Some companies also choose to use it as a shared server. This saves them the cost of buying a server and also promotes transparency within the company.

MailChimp — It is imperative for new businesses to get the word on them out in the market. Making sure that your product, service or idea is reaching the right people is of prime importance during the beginning. Social media is one way to reach potential clients, but when it comes to retaining them, MailChimp comes in very handy.

With over 400,000 users, it helps you create email newsletters to distribute to your clients. It offers you a free gallery of HTML templates on top of letting you create your own template. Users without any experience in tech or design can easily create a visually pleasing E-blast that will catch the reader’s attention. Sending newsletters regularly can help you keep your database updated on your current projects and can direct great traffic to your website.

Skype — This highly potent combination of phone, video, and chat makes a powerful social structure and an even more effective business tool. Its video capabilities are great for large groups. Its phone services too can prove to be immensely beneficial for businesses.

New businesses may be dealing with overseas clients and time differences, but with Skype, high phone fees are a thing of the distant past. It can also send documents during a call making it perfect for telephonic conferences.

Screen sharing is another valuable feature on Skype and is an ideal way to give remote presentations. It also has a call forwarding feature for those using it on a regular basis. With over 550 million users, Skype accounted for 12% of the calls made in 2009. Almost one-third of its users use it primarily for business.

Odesk — Starting a business is not just a matter of harnessing your own skills, but also that of others. New businesses, often without the means to hire full-time staff but with project deadlines staring at them, hire a per-project contractor which can be extremely beneficial.

Odesk streamlines this process for you. You can take advantage of the large database of contractors looking for work to find the best fit for your company. It provides previous work experience, sample portfolios, and client reviews so that you can make an informed decision. It helps you set up virtual interviews and with its tracking tool allows you to constantly watch your projects and make notes or additions in real-time. Odesk also handles all of the transactions so you can pay your contractor at ease.

Insightly — One of the most popular customer relationship management packages, it allows you to track leads, proposals, opportunities, and projects, as well as manage files through an easy user interface.

The biggest strength of Insightly is its integrations, including the ability to automatically sync your account with your Google contacts and Google calendar. It also lets you search your Google Drive and attach any Google Doc file to the relevant contact or organization. It can also be integrated with your MailChimp account.

Trademarkia — One of the largest visual search engines, it has more than 6 million trademarked logos, names, and slogans on the Web. It lets you see how your personal name, product name, trademark or username is being used on any of the 500+ popular social networks. It helps you reserve the name of your choice and stops others from using it. It is one of the most widely used software and technology tools for brand protection.

Evernote — There is no need to dig through the mountain of documents on your desk for that one piece of paper with the time of your meeting on it. An information organization tool, Evernote works with the three basic functions of capture, access, and find.

Feed into it all of your information, from doctor appointments to business meetings, access it from different sources like a smartphone, a tablet or a computer and find everything in moments. It is a free application that you can test for yourself.

The mobile application space has seen tremendous growth over the past few years, thanks to cloud-based software which has brought to businesses improved mobility and lower costs. But finding the right application for your needs can be daunting. There is always going to be a need for applications and software that increase productivity and help streamline the more tedious aspects of a business.

This is not the age for businesses to shy away from technology; on the contrary, it is the time to reach out and embrace it. Big or small, every business today has found its way on the Web. Making use of the many tools available to small business owners online can be a cost-effective and highly professional way to manage your business.

[themakersmovement]

Why We Can’t Recommend Wink Hubs Anymore Wink We love Wink’s smarthome hub and have recommended it highly in the past. But the Wink Hub has been “temporarily unavailable” in stores for over five months now, and Wink won’t say why. What’s going on? Is Wink done for? A Brief History of the Wink’s Many Owners Wink has been around for years now and was formerly the product of a company named Quirky. Quirky began life as a startup company in 2009 with several, well, quirky but useful sounding ideas. They announced a mirror that eliminates shower steam fog, a set of wheels designed to turn any object into a remote-controlled car, and more. In 2014, Quirky partnered with GE to create a new company named Wink to focus on internet-connected devices. Unfortunately, Quirky itself didn’t do well; it spent a lot on development with little return, and then Wink suffered a significant setback. Every Wink owner came home to find a hub “so secure that it is unable to connect to the Wink servers” (those were Wink’s words). The problem centered on an expired certificate, and unfortunately, solving it required a recall of many hubs. Between the cost of the recall and other financial difficulties, Quirky went bankrupt in 2015 and the Wink assets sold to Flextronics (now called Flex), which had been the leading supplier for Wink’s hardware and firmware. Flextronics, in turn, sold Wink to i.am+ in mid-2017, where the company remains to this day. If you’re not familiar with i.am+, it’s a company owned by will.i.am, with a focus on wearable technology. Quirky did come back to life but remains separate from Wink. Wink Development Has Slowed to a Crawl Smarthome hubs live and die by their product integrations. If a smarthome hub doesn’t work with as many smart devices as possible, then users will abandon it for a competitor that does support their gadgets. So it’s disconcerting that Wink last announced new product integrations in September 2017. In any tech industry, let alone the smarthome sector, that’s an enormous amount of time without iteration. To illustrate that fact, the very next announcement from Wink was support for Cortana, complete with pictures of Windows Phones and mentions of the Harmon Invoke Cortana speaker. In the last four months, all of Wink’s blog post updates described firmware updates designed to fix issues. The last new feature, which realistically is an enhancement of Lookout, came over a year ago. But worse than lack of updates and features, it’s almost impossible to buy a Wink Hub now. Wink’s Supply is Nonexistent Wink’s online store has been entirely out of stock since at least November 2018, which isn’t a good sign. Any attempt to add a Wink product to the cart at its website led to “temporarily unavailable” errors. This is true for many of the third-party products on the Wink website as well, like lightbulbs and smart plugs. Even Amazon.com and Home Depot had little, if any, Wink products available. We reached out to Wink about this back in November 2018. Wink said the problem was only temporary, and that it was working on restocking its online store soon: Read the remaining 21 paragraphs https://buff.ly/2D1kKBS

[bigyack-com]

Kickstarter Employees Vote to Unionize in a Big Step for Tech

Kickstarter, which was founded in 2009 and has raised less than $15 million in venture capital, gives people a way to raise money for their creative projects — such as a film or a new gadget — from the public instead of through traditional investors, a model known as crowdfunding.The privately held company, which is based in Brooklyn and has 145 employees, has long positioned itself as altruistic. In 2015, it reincorporated as a public benefit corporation, meaning its primary focus was to provide a benefit to society rather than to generate revenue.Its employees’ unionization drive began last year, after Kickstarter found itself embroiled in a debate over whether to cancel a fund-raising effort on its site for a comic book that included images of people punching Nazis. Workers pushed the company to allow the project to continue, which it did. The episode sparked discussions among employees about formalizing their voice in the workplace.The incident “was one moment in a line of events that prompted Kickstarter employees to organize,” Clarissa Redwine, a former organizer at the company, said in an email on Tuesday. “We wanted power in product decisions, certainty in the terms of our employment, and power to question management when needed.”Last March, employees began trying to organize a union. Some colleagues dissented, arguing that organizers had not been transparent about their efforts and questioning whether white-collar tech workers could benefit from a union. They said they were already highly paid and received more benefits than the average worker.One employee, who opposed the union effort and who asked not to be named because some dissenters had been harassed online, said Kickstarter pays well and that some employees worried a contract might hamper them from engaging freely with leadership. It was also unclear whether a union would give employees sway over business decisions since traditional union contracts cover wages and hours, not corporate strategy.In September, Kickstarter fired two of the organizers behind the union attempt, including Ms. Redwine. The organizers said the company was retaliating and filed claims with the National Labor Relations Board. Their cases have not been resolved. Read the full article

[actutrends]

How tech is catering to the elderly and caregivers

At CES 2020, tech’s biggest trade show, it was heartening to see that the tech industry is paying attention to the needs of the elderly and the younger people who provide care for the elderly.

I’ve paid attention to this since my 86-year-old mother has severe dementia and lives in a memory care home in Silicon Valley. For years, I couldn’t find any technology that she could handle or that could make my life easier. But I’m happy to see that many tech companies now get it. Our generation is about to be overwhelmed with caregiving tasks for the elderly, and we need some help.

CES 2020 had 2.9 million square feet of space and 4,500 exhibitors in Las Vegas. Most of the tech for the elderly was in the health and wellness marketplace in the Sands Expo, which was up 25% in exhibitors and 15% in square footage.

“The role technology will play in health monitoring and self-treatment is already in great demand for eldercare and to anyone that needs to keep track of their health,” said Tim Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Technologies who has attended 50 CES events over the decades, in an email. “It will be one of the more important growth markets in tech in the next 20 years.”

I noticed the trend at CES 2019, and what was different compared to the past is that it wasn’t just startups with attentive CEOs who were coming up with these products. Big companies were paying attention as well to the human side of technology, from sex tech to mom products. And it makes sense.

The elderly are a big market

Above: Samsung’s Ballie can offer alerts for senior caregivers.

Image Credit: Samsung

The American Association of Retired Persons said in “2019 Tech Trends and the 50 ” that 115 million Americans over 50 represent an enormous market for technology and that by the end of the next decade this group is projected to spend $84 billion on tech products.

One of the problems is that technologists have been designing cool products that don’t resonate with older people. Jitterbug created its retro cell phones because fancy products like the iPhone just weren’t designed for older people. And some of the products also weren’t designed with much younger caregivers in mind either.

“Social robots have struggled to find a home in recent years,” said Steve Koenig, vice president of market research at the Consumer Technology Association, in a press briefing. “If you have an aging loved one at home, you want the peace of mind to know that their medication was dispensed. Treating people, like seniors with Alzheimer’s, requires a focus on the human-machine interaction.”

Apple didn’t appear at the show, but its Apple Watch and iPhone products keep adding new capabilities for detecting health problems, such as atrial fibrillation (via ECG), a life-threatening condition caused by an irregular heart rate. (I used my iPhone/Apple Watch to figure out that I walked 37 miles at the show.)

The media also did a better job focusing on stories about the elderly and caregivers.

Designing with caregivers in mind

Above: Gillette Treo is designed for caregivers.

Image Credit: Gillette

Procter & Gamble showed off the Gillette Treo, a razor that is designed for a caregiver to shave an elderly person. In all of its 182-year history, P&G’s Gillette brand has never created a razor for someone to shave someone else. One of its features is that it has a tube filled with shaving cream that you can dispense while you’re shaving someone, so you don’t have to go get a can of shaving cream.

“The overall objective is to bring to life the product innovation and the human insight that we’re bringing to show consumers,” said Guy Peri, vice president and chief data & analytics officer at P&G Information Technology, in an interview with VentureBeat.

And Samsung digital health vice president Natalie Schneider spoke alongside Jo Ann Jenkins, AARP CEO, on the topic of the “longevity economy” in a talk at CES. The idea is that companies can profitably target the elder generation, which is about to become a huge population as the baby boomers retire. The AARP also showcases the wares of seven healthcare startups at its booth at CES.

Samsung itself had its Ballie rolling robot, which can detect a fall in a home and roll over to ask the person if it should call 911.

One of the winners at Last Gadget Standing, one of the big awards contests at CES, was MedWand, a handheld medical testing device created by Samir Qamar and his team. MedWand is a small connected device with a camera. The four-ounce device can perform 10 different tests, including heart rate, temperature, and electrocardiogram (ECG). It is targeted at people in homes, hospices, and eldercare facilities and enables them to share exam results remotely with their doctors in real time.

Withings introduced the new ScanWatch that checks for sleep apnea and also takes ECG readings. And Omron Healthcare is now selling its FDA-cleared wearable blood pressure monitor for $500.

Improving hearing aids

Above: Nuheara’s IQbuds2 Max lets you personalize your soundscape.

Image Credit: Nuheara

Since the U.S. revised its laws regarding hearing aids, a lot of change has been happening in that market. You no longer have to go to an audiologist to purchase hearing aids, and that is expected to bring the price down. (I paid $5,000 for my mother’s hearing aids from Hearwell.)

I used Nuheara IQbusd2 Max earbuds to listen to people speaking to me at different parties at CES. It worked pretty well, and made me notice that, even though my hearing is pretty good, devices like these $400 earbuds can help me hear better in challenging environments such as parties or restaurants.

Zvox is also seeking to bring down the cost of hearing aids with app-enabled hearing aids. And Phonak, a hearing aid brand owned by the Swiss company Sonova, actually took molds of my ears to create custom hearing aids. The latter is an example of a traditional hearing aid maker moving to the high end to provide better quality at a higher price. Its Virto Black hearing aids aim to deliver customized hearing solutions that are far above what others can do in quality.

Designed with human interests at heart

Above: Buddy detects if an elderly person falls and helps get aid.

Image Credit: Live Freely

LiveFreely announced Buddy, a software-based system for wearables to help detect falls and notify caregivers or 911 of an emergency. It was created by brothers Arthur and Daniel Jue, who faced personal challenges in taking care of their own parents.

In an interview with VentureBeat, CEO Arthur Jue said their father had a stroke on Valentine’s Day in 2009. He had told the family to go to a dinner event without him and said he was going to lie down. They offered help, but he declined. When they returned, they found he had had a stroke and couldn’t move. They had to carry him to the car and take him to the hospital.

Ejenta is working on a system for remote health care, collecting biometric data from a variety of sources such as smart clothing or phones. It is modeled after a program designed by NASA for astronauts.

Boston-based Loro created an assistant in the form of a parakeet that rests on the shoulder of a wheelchair user. It is like an extra set of eyes, trained to recognize objects. It also has a tablet that helps someone communicate if the person cannot do so on their own.

Vayyar also had a second, less expensive and more compact version of its fall detection sensor. And Smardii showed off a connected diaper.

CarePredict has a wearable that tracks things like sleeping, walking, and vitals. It is also working on AI to detect problems such as depression.

Japan’s Xenoma created e-skin, or pajamas for elderly people. These have sensors to detect vitals and sleep patterns, as well as falling.

Tivic won one of the Innovations Awards for treating allergic rhinitis. Reliefheat.com had a portable heating pad controlled by Bluetooth and an app that would be great for caring for seniors who have back pain. Dexcom and Freestyle showed off continuous glucose monitors, which are helpful for people with diabetes.

“I use the Dexcom CGM, and it is the most important health-tracking tool I have,” Bajarin said.

Smart homes to help the elderly live where they are

The ambition behind technology for eldercare is growing. Akio Toyoda, CEO of Toyota, noted in his press event at CES that elderly people can receive better care in a place like Toyota Woven City, a connected community that the company is building on a former Toyota factory site.

Technis uses sensors to create smart floors, detecting how seniors are moving in the house and how often they use the bathroom. It also monitors how fast they are moving and uses AI to detect abnormalities that are worth alerts.

Papa also provides a service where older people can essentially rent grandkids, or young people who can serve as companions, tech fixers, and helpers.

K4Connect has created K4Community for senior living communities. It is built on an operating system that allows for the integration of biometric health devices and data, smart home automation, voice technology (such as Amazon’s Alexa), and communication devices (of any brand, make, or model). The aim is also to help the elderly population live more independently, both more safely and healthier, for longer periods of time.

And Sekisui had an ambitious “platform house concept,” which would allow seniors to live independently for a longer time while being monitored closely. Working with MIT, the Sekisui House uses ceiling sensors to monitor a person’s heart rate. It will call for help and unlock the doors for emergency crews if someone is in trouble.

I can appreciate these advances. When my mother broke her wrist recently, she wasn’t wearing her wrist band. So the caregivers at the home didn’t realize she had fallen for a while.

I took her to see a bone doctor. He had her put her wrist on a platform, and we were immediately able to see an X-ray of the fracture. He didn’t have to develop the film or wait for the X-ray to be processed. It was visible in real time, and that helped us get out of the doctor’s office as fast as possible.

The post How tech is catering to the elderly and caregivers appeared first on Actu Trends.

[techbotic]

Why We Can’t Recommend Wink Hubs Anymore

Wink

We love Wink’s smarthome hub and have recommended it highly in the past. But the Wink Hub has been “temporarily unavailable” in stores for over five months now, and Wink won’t say why. What’s going on? Is Wink done for?

A Brief History of the Wink’s Many Owners

Wink has been around for years now and was formerly the product of a company named Quirky. Quirky began life as a startup company in 2009 with several, well, quirky but useful sounding ideas. They announced a mirror that eliminates shower steam fog, a set of wheels designed to turn any object into a remote-controlled car, and more. In 2014, Quirky partnered with GE to create a new company named Wink to focus on internet-connected devices.

Unfortunately, Quirky itself didn’t do well; it spent a lot on development with little return, and then Wink suffered a significant setback. Every Wink owner came home to find a hub “so secure that it is unable to connect to the Wink servers” (those were Wink’s words). The problem centered on an expired certificate, and unfortunately, solving it required a recall of many hubs. Between the cost of the recall and other financial difficulties, Quirky went bankrupt in 2015 and the Wink assets sold to Flextronics (now called Flex), which had been the leading supplier for Wink’s hardware and firmware. Flextronics, in turn, sold Wink to i.am+ in mid-2017, where the company remains to this day. If you’re not familiar with i.am+, it’s a company owned by will.i.am, with a focus on wearable technology. Quirky did come back to life but remains separate from Wink.

Wink Development Has Slowed to a Crawl

Smarthome hubs live and die by their product integrations. If a smarthome hub doesn’t work with as many smart devices as possible, then users will abandon it for a competitor that does support their gadgets. So it’s disconcerting that Wink last announced new product integrations in September 2017.

In any tech industry, let alone the smarthome sector, that’s an enormous amount of time without iteration. To illustrate that fact, the very next announcement from Wink was support for Cortana, complete with pictures of Windows Phones and mentions of the Harmon Invoke Cortana speaker. In the last four months, all of Wink’s blog post updates described firmware updates designed to fix issues. The last new feature, which realistically is an enhancement of Lookout, came over a year ago. But worse than lack of updates and features, it’s almost impossible to buy a Wink Hub now.

Wink’s Supply is Nonexistent

Wink’s online store has been entirely out of stock since at least November 2018, which isn’t a good sign. Any attempt to add a Wink product to the cart at its website led to “temporarily unavailable” errors. This is true for many of the third-party products on the Wink website as well, like lightbulbs and smart plugs. Even Amazon.com and Home Depot had little, if any, Wink products available.

We reached out to Wink about this back in November 2018. Wink said the problem was only temporary, and that it was working on restocking its online store soon:

Read the remaining 21 paragraphs

Why We Can’t Recommend Wink Hubs Anymore published first on https://medium.com/@CPUCHamp

[blakcmambaa]

Wink

We love Wink’s smarthome hub and have recommended it highly in the past. But the Wink Hub has been “temporarily unavailable” in stores for over five months now, and Wink won’t say why. What’s going on? Is Wink done for?

A Brief History of the Wink’s Many Owners

Wink has been around for years now and was formerly the product of a company named Quirky. Quirky began life as a startup company in 2009 with several, well, quirky but useful sounding ideas. They announced a mirror that eliminates shower steam fog, a set of wheels designed to turn any object into a remote-controlled car, and more. In 2014, Quirky partnered with GE to create a new company named Wink to focus on internet-connected devices.

Unfortunately, Quirky itself didn’t do well; it spent a lot on development with little return, and then Wink suffered a significant setback. Every Wink owner came home to find a hub “so secure that it is unable to connect to the Wink servers” (those were Wink’s words). The problem centered on an expired certificate, and unfortunately, solving it required a recall of many hubs. Between the cost of the recall and other financial difficulties, Quirky went bankrupt in 2015 and the Wink assets sold to Flextronics (now called Flex), which had been the leading supplier for Wink’s hardware and firmware. Flextronics, in turn, sold Wink to i.am+ in mid-2017, where the company remains to this day. If you’re not familiar with i.am+, it’s a company owned by will.i.am, with a focus on wearable technology. Quirky did come back to life but remains separate from Wink.

Wink Development Has Slowed to a Crawl

Smarthome hubs live and die by their product integrations. If a smarthome hub doesn’t work with as many smart devices as possible, then users will abandon it for a competitor that does support their gadgets. So it’s disconcerting that Wink last announced new product integrations in September 2017.

In any tech industry, let alone the smarthome sector, that’s an enormous amount of time without iteration. To illustrate that fact, the very next announcement from Wink was support for Cortana, complete with pictures of Windows Phones and mentions of the Harmon Invoke Cortana speaker. In the last four months, all of Wink’s blog post updates described firmware updates designed to fix issues. The last new feature, which realistically is an enhancement of Lookout, came over a year ago. But worse than lack of updates and features, it’s almost impossible to buy a Wink Hub now.

Wink’s Supply is Nonexistent

Wink’s online store has been entirely out of stock since at least November 2018, which isn’t a good sign. Any attempt to add a Wink product to the cart at its website led to “temporarily unavailable” errors. This is true for many of the third-party products on the Wink website as well, like lightbulbs and smart plugs. Even Amazon.com and Home Depot had little, if any, Wink products available.

We reached out to Wink about this back in November 2018. Wink said the problem was only temporary, and that it was working on restocking its online store soon:

Read the remaining 21 paragraphs

via How-To Geek

[ihtspirit]

Why students shouldn’t be forced to spend so much time sitting at desks in class

Why students shouldn’t be forced to spend so much time sitting at desks in class Originally published Feb. 7, 2019 in the Washington Post. By Valerie Strauss We all know it’s not a good idea for anybody to be sedentary for too long, for health reasons that are too long to chronicle here. Yet in many classrooms, kids are still forced to sit at desks for long stretches of time. This post looks at why and how that is hurting young people. https://ihtusa.com https://ihtusa.com/why-students-shouldnt-be-forced-to-spend-so-much-time-sitting-at-desks-in-class/ Originally published Feb. 7, 2019 in the Washington Post. By Valerie Strauss We all know it’s not a good idea for anybody to be sedentary for too long, for health reasons that are too long to chronicle here. Yet in many classrooms, kids are still forced to sit at desks for long stretches of time. This post looks at why and how that is hurting young people. It was written by Brad Johnson and speaks about education, fitness education, school administration and leadership. He is co-author of “Learning on Your Feet: Incorporating Physical Activity Into the K-8 Classroom.” This post first appeared in the publication Principal, which is published by the National Association of Elementary School Principals. I was given permission to republish it. You can find out more at Johnson’s website, doctorbradjohnson.com. By Brad Johnson [caption id="attachment_17205" align="alignright" width="525"] Students in New Delhi attend a happiness class July 13 as part of a program by the Delhi government to emphasize mental health and well-being. (Mansi Midha for The Washington Post)[/caption] With the decrease in physical education and recess time over the past 30 years, several disturbing trends have emerged. First, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 1 in 3 children in the U.S. is overweight — double the figures from the 1980s. From 2000 to 2009, incidences of adult-onset (Type 2) diabetes in children and teens increased 30 percent. Second, diagnoses of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder have also skyrocketed in recent years. In the 1990s, the use of psycho-stimulants such as Ritalin shot up 700 percent, and the United States now consumes nearly 90 percent of the world’s supply of such drugs. There are 5.7 million children age 6-17 who have been diagnosed with ADHD. If these stats were related to an infectious disease, we would declare it a full-blown epidemic. Instead, we call it education as usual. Is it any wonder that children are bored, off-task, disruptive or otherwise disengaged when all they do is sit at desks and listen to lectures or work on assignments with little physical activity involved? From kindergarten through high school, students spend most of their academic lives at a desk. A classroom in which students quietly work at their desks might appear to be ideal, but the amount of time we subject children to a seated position is almost inhumane.

The brain-body connection

Beyond the obvious health-related issues, research suggests that sedentary education might be the reason that students’ creativity and intelligence are hindered through¬out their formative years. Until the age of 4, children are continually playing and learning in a state of constant motion. But when they enter school, the focus shifts to uniformity, control, following rules and sitting at a desk. We are shortchanging our students when it comes to overall education and student achievement. So, what is it about movement and learning that is so important, anyway? First, physical activity improves brain elasticity, which allows children to learn more easily. Second, there is evidence that contact with the natural environment has a calming effect on children. And third, exercise releases endorphins (neurotransmitters that produce a feeling of well-being) that make children feel more relaxed. Finally, the part of the brain that processes movement also processes learning. So when students are sitting still, the learning process is actually hindered rather than enhanced. Several studies offer evidence that years of fine motor exercise allow brain reorganization and nerve growth. Physical movement such as standing, stretching, walking or marching can help the brain focus. If students feel drowsy, for instance, they should be allowed to stand at the back of the room for up to two minutes and stretch on their own. When I taught middle-level science classes, I would always have the students moving. I would let the students stand by their desks, sit on the floor or lie on the floor, even when taking notes. If a student had excess energy, I would let them do push-ups in the back of the class. This became the norm for the classroom quickly, so there were few behavior issues. Changes in body position help develop the vestibular system (inner ear and balance), alter blood chemistry, and develop core muscles. And physical activity — especially core strength and balance exercises — helps develop the executive function part of the brain where new learning is processed. Executive function includes cognition, organization, focus, emotional regulation, and the ability to multitask, all of which help students succeed academically. Sadly, only 1 in 12 students has the core strength and balance of students from the 1980s.

Tech’s effect

Over the past 20 or 30 years, Americans have become infatuated with technology to the point that we think every child must have a device and that gadgets will be the great equalizer in education. But those declines in scores might point to technology as being more culprit than cure. When we examine the countries that lead the world according to international PISA scores, we see a stark contrast. In Finland, students are given 15 minutes of recess not just once or twice a day, but every hour. Finnish officials told Politico that they didn’t need laptops and iPads to get to the top of international education rankings. When morning classes begin, smartphones disappear. The students — some of the highest-achieving in the world — cut graph paper and solve equations using clunky plastic calculators. Teachers prefer hands-on learning methods, using chalkboards rather than smartboards. Similarly, South Korea wanted to immerse its schools in technology a few years ago, but realized that too much tech might not be good for students. Schools limit the amount of class time spent on computers, and they haven’t seen a drop in test scores.

Classroom management

When surveyed, teachers typically say that classroom management is the toughest part of teaching. We have all been trained in different methods to manage behavior. Many say that relationships, expectations and consistency are key to behavior management. But behavior has less to do with teachers’ actions than it does with the students themselves. If a student is constantly rocking, swaying, or tapping a pencil or foot, it doesn’t mean they don’t care about rules and expectations; it means they are children who have lots of energy. As I mentioned above, the executive function area of the brain is responsible for regulating emotions, organizational skills, focus, and for multitasking — traits that influence a student’s ability to behave in class. Imagine a principal walking by a classroom at the end of the day and seeing students slouched over in their desks, tapping a pencil or a water bottle. His or her first thought might be that the teacher is not engaging or that the lesson is boring. The reality is that neither may be true; instead, students might lack the core strength to sit up and focus on the lesson.

The research says

Over the past three decades, we have seen tremendous increases in ADHD diagnoses and the numbers of overweight and obese students. This is a recipe for disaster. A physically active classroom could turn these trends around. What are the effects of adding more physical activity to the academic classroom? Mark Benden, director of the Ergonomics Center at Texas A&M, has dozens of schools using pilot programs to make classrooms more active. His research shows many benefits: There has been a decrease in ADHD medication among the students in his classrooms; body mass index among overweight students in active classrooms showed significant decreases. Executive function and working memory showed significant improvement, leading to improved academic achievement. Physical activity also showed positive results in alternative schools. One class of students with behavior disorders and learning disabilities began using treadmills and stationary bikes at the beginning of class. Within four months, stu¬dents took less medication, behavior improved, and students improved their average by one full grade in reading, writing and math. These results reinforce the idea that the traditional desk-centered, sedentary classroom must be redesigned to better suit students’ needs. It can even be as simple as giving students a “brain break” every 15 minutes to stand and stretch, or offering stability ball seating, push-up mats, and other accessories. To increase student focus, on-task behavior, achievement and general well-being, include physical activity in the classroom. It’s time to get students out of their seats and learning on their feet!

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New Post has been published on https://brandbaskets.in/the-new-idea-for-those-striving-to-find-a-middle-path-between-fomo-and-jomo-technology-news-ettech/

The new idea for those striving to find a middle path between FOMO and JOMO, Technology News, ETtech

Nikhil Jois was always online. The 28-year-old, who joined almost every social network, believed that “your network is your net worth”.

“In my vanity, I thought that everyone wanted to know where I had that masala dosa. I was craving for validation. I wouldn’t just post something, I would wait to see who likes it, who laughs at my jokes and who is jealous of me,” says the Bengaluru-based tech entrepreneur.

It soon became a vicious loop that he couldn’t escape. He had a fair idea of what addiction meant, and social media had begun to feel like one.

“I put on weight, got unusually stressed and unnecessarily angry. I wasn’t looking good or feeling good.” He tried turning off his mobile notifications and uninstalling some of the apps but eventually ended up logging on to them from his desktop. “It was like I was trying to sneak past myself.”

Then, in April 2017, Jois asked his brother to change all his social media passwords and not disclose them to him. “That really worked wonders for my health and productivity,” he says.

It’s been a year since and he claims he is no longer a social-media addict. “I sleep better. I feel healthier. I have regained two hours of reading time a day.” The web browser app on his cellphone has been replaced with Kindle just so he reads more long-form writing than bite-sized content. “I still get FOMO once in a while, though,” he says.

FOMO, or the fear of missing out, is a two-decade-old phenomenon acronymised by a Harvard MBA, Patrick J McGinnis, in 2002, and bandied about by every third digital literate since 2014. FOMO is a feeling that if one is not online, one might miss out on what others are experiencing, learning or talking about.

People suffering from FOMO are tethered to their digital devices and are often found rigorously posting their life updates, and liking and commenting on other people’s posts. Some of them passively scroll through social timelines to see what everyone’s up to.

Jois curbs FOMO by meeting people in person instead of going down the online rabbit hole. He’s moving towards JOMO, he believes. JOMO, or the joy of missing out, is a relatively positive belief that cutting off all social media and digital devices can be blissful. It was reportedly coined in 2012 by the American blogger and tech entrepreneur Anil Dash who briefly switched off his devices and went offline after the birth of his son.

FOMO and JOMO are the two ends of a spectrum that includes other social media-borne emotions like FOJI (fear of joining in), MOMO (mystery of missing out), SLOMO (slow to missing out). To Karthik Srinivasan, a communications and digital marketing consultant, JOMO is more a glamourisation of privilege. It’s meant for people who can afford to miss out on opportunities and leads that social media has on offer.

“FOMO and JOMO are two extremes. One is harmful, the other unrealistic for most users. Nobody is talking about a balance between the two, the middle path,” he says.

ET Magazine has decided to call the middle path NEMO, which means Nearly but not fully Missing Out.

Jois is an ideal example of NEMO now. He is away from most online networks but hasn’t turned into a social media recluse. He occasionally logs into Facebook to run an ad for his digital agency. He follows a select set of people on Twitter to get a lowdown on what’s happening in the world.

Palak Kapadia, 22, is another young NEMO-ite. The Mumbai-based writer envied people who seemed to have a better life on Instagram until she became what she resented. In September 2017, she got an offer to teach English in a high school in Nantes in western France. It was a seven-month term that gave her a chance to visit 14 countries in Europe over the weekends. “Now I was showing off how great my life was.”

Travelling also made her introspect. “It was exhausting to stay updated and keep posting everything all the time,” she recalls. During a trip to Italy, she chanced upon a quote that said: “Would you continue to do what you’re doing if you knew nobody was watching?” She recalls: “I realised my fear of missing out on other people’s lives was actually making me miss out on my own.”

Earlier she would post 10 Instagram Stories a day. “Now, I barely do one in a couple of days.” Completely disconnecting from social media was not an option for her as she likes to know what her friends and extended family are up to.

Pankaj Malani, head of content at tech startup Dailyhunt, is a NEMO cadet, too. He quit Facebook four months ago because he couldn’t keep up with the stream of “fake happiness”. “People were getting married, having kids, going on vacations; it’s as if their lives were perfect when in reality I knew it was far from it.”

However, social media has also proved to be a great tool for him at work. “Every time I need a voice-over guy, a small-time actor, a translator, I just tweet it out and find someone within minutes.”

A lot of people depend on social platforms professionally, says Amrita Clements, a Mumbai-based clinical psychologist and marriage and family therapist. A majority of them also try to perfect their image on social media. “Social media has proved to be an amazing tool to connect the older generation but has made the younger generation in big cities even lonelier.” 80% of her patients recognise its role in changing their behaviour and causing them anxiety and depression.

(aybollads=window.aybollads||[]).push(id:"91015553-3");

Instead of asking them to clamp down on a behaviour, she puts them on the path of NEMO. “I tell them to create boundaries: avoid logging in when they are in a bad mood because it may end up making it worse.”

She encourages them to work on real relationships and focus on themselves. One-fifth of her patients who acknowledge social media’s role in increasing their anxiety are removing social network apps from their phones. Detachment from all platforms à la JOMO is still not advisable. “Social media has also helped normalise mental health issues. It’s hard to cut off something that can be so positive at times,” she says.

The middle path propagated by NEMO is finding takers around the world. According to Socialreport.com’s March 2018 report, around 400 million Facebook users are taking a social media detox on a monthly basis, as opposed to a blanket ban. Apps to help people track mobile usage or keep from distractions have come up.

In 2014, Kevin Holesh created an iOS app called Moment to check his device addiction. The app, at 5.3 million downloads right now, tracks your iPhone and iPad usage and sets daily usage limits so you don’t waste time on the gadgets. In-app purchases range from Rs 200 to Rs 2,000. 6% of its user base is from India. “It’s been a wild ride,” says the Pittsburgh-based UI-UX designer who has seen a 100% year-on-year growth in user base in the last four years.

He sees a huge boost in sales early January because of New Year resolutions. The concern around data privacy after the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica debacle was also good for business, he says.

While the future is certainly mobile-based, the highly productive times of many are often on desktop. In 2009, a North Carolina-based tech company called Freedom created an eponymous software that could be used across mobile phones and desktops to block distracting websites and apps as per the user’s wish. A tenth of its 750,000 users are from India, says Fred Stutzman, founder of Freedom.

Neither Stutzman nor Holesh is a proponent of JOMO. “It is unrealistic to expect people to go smartphone-free. Limiting yourself to two hours on the phone daily is a good place to start with,” says Holesh.

JOMO may have been called the next big trend, but it is actually NEMO that is turning out to be a potential global industry, with the emergence of a raft of phone-tracking and meditation apps that helps you have a balanced digital life.

Digital wellbeing is being turned into an experiential business too. A weekend of digital detox retreat at select tourist locations across the world ranges between $200 and $4,000.

In India, even the internet de-addiction centres in metros don’t talk about completely cutting off social media and digital devices. “Complete abstinence will be met by complete resistance. We have to reduce the dysfunctional part of one’s behaviour that leads to addiction,” says Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, a clinical psychologist at NIMHANS, who was instrumental in setting up the Services for Healthy Use of Technology (SHUT) clinic under the aegis of the Bengaluru-based medical institution that deals with mental health and neurosciences.

It’s also fashionable to look at social media addiction as a thing in itself when addictive behaviour is actually a lot more complex, says Dr Alok Sarin, a Delhi-based psychiatrist.

“People with addiction are prone to dependency behaviour. This dependency can be on a variety of things, including gambling, gaming and technology in general. It’s difficult to say if the problem is with the behaviour or the platform,” he adds. Companies like Google and Samsung are doing their bit to ensure their platforms offer a balance between digital connectivity and digital wellbeing.

Earlier this year, Arianna Huffington, cofounder of Huffington Post, launched the beta version of a digital wellness app called Thrive in India through the Samsung Galaxy Store and the Google Play store. “We will be officially launching the app in India this summer,” says Danny Shea, head of global expansion at Thrive Global.

Last month, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, announced a host of features for its upcoming products under the digital wellbeing umbrella while addressing the audience at the tech giant’s annual I/O conference. Finding a balance between FOMO and JOMO was key to his speech as well. A balance that, ironically enough, even the makers of apps like Moment and Freedom are striving to achieve. Everyone is indeed on a quest towards finding their NEMO.

Acronyms of Social Media Age

FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)

It is the anxiety caused by the assumption that if you are not online, you might miss out on what others are experiencing, learning or talking about

FOJI (Fear of Joining In)

It is the worry that your social media friends may not like or comment on your posts and pictures so you are less likely to post updates and could out of platforms at once. FOJI is exhibited by people who delete their post if it hasn’t received too many reactions within an hour of posting

MOMO (Mystery of Missing Out)

When you notice that your friends haven’t posted in a while and you feel anxious that they are having too much fun without keeping you in the loop

FOMOMO (Fear of the Mystery of Missing Out)

The feeling that you are missing out due to a broken or out-of-battery phone

SLOMO (Slow to Missing Out)

When you sleep through the night unaware of your friend’s party, only to wake up to a timeline full of pictures and updates from the same

BROMO (Bros Protecting you from Missing Out)

When your friends don’t post pictures from a fun gig just so you don’t feel left out

JOMO (Joy of Missing Out)

The belief that cutting off from social media and digital devices can lead to happiness

NEMO (Nearly but not fully Missing Out)

The acronym coined by ET Magazine to describe the balance a lot of users are trying to strike between FOMO and JOMO. NEMO is when you have not fully cut off from your devices or social media. (Source: theguardian.com and other media reports)

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[party-hard-or-die]

Stocks slide toward longest losing streak of the year

LONDON (Reuters) – Shares were on their way to the longest losing streak of the year on Wednesday, as an advance in U.S. bond yields beyond 3 percent and warnings from top global firms about rising costs fed fears that a boom in earnings may have peaked.

The DAX (German stock index) logo is seen at the stock exchange in Frankfurt, Germany, March 23, 2018. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach

All eyes will be on the scandal-hit social media firm Facebook (FB.O) later when it reports its results, though there was plenty to keep investors occupied till then.

Falls in Asia’s and then Europe’s main bourses pushed the 47-country MSCI world share index .MIWD00000PUS down for a fifth day running to its lowest level for more than two weeks.[.EU]

Tech-heavy Taiwan shares .TWII had hit two-month lows as worries about a slowdown in gadget demand spread, while oil firms .SXEP also eased as crude prices LCOc1 came off 3-1/2 year highs. [O/R]

Wall Street looked set to follow suit [.N] as the benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield continued to push above 3 percent US10YT=RR, having broken the psychologically key level on Tuesday for the first time since the start of 2014. [US/]

It has been down to a mix of factors. A strong U.S. economy and rising commodity prices which are increasing the chance of more U.S. interest rate hikes, as well higher debt and improving relations between Washington and China and North Korea.

“The now healthier global economy justifies these higher yields,” JPMorgan Asset Management’s Seamus Mac Gorain said.

“We expect 10-year Treasuries (yields) to end the year between 3 and 3-1/2 percent. A move beyond this level would likely require an acceleration of inflation in the euro zone and Japan, which is not yet evident.”

Euro zone bond yields – yields are a proxy of borrowing costs – were dragged up in the slipstream of the U.S. moves though Thursday’s looming European Central Bank (ECB) meeting ensured there was a touch of caution. [GVD/EUR]

Markets want to know when the ECB plans to wind down its 2.55-trillion-euro stimulus program. One of its policymakers, France’s Francois Villeroy de Galhau, said on Tuesday the weaker run of recent economic data was expected to pass.

The pan-European STOXX 600 equity index was last down 0.9 percent, as worries over the rising bond yields trumped a slew of well-received earnings updates from Kering <PRTP.and Credit Suisse (CSGN.S) as well as a flurry of takeover activity.

S&P E-mini futures ESc1 slipped 0.5 percent. Wall Street shares had skidded on Tuesday, with the S&P 500 .SPX slumping 1.34 percent, the most in two-and-a-half weeks. [.N]

Industrial heavyweight Caterpillar (CAT.N) beat earnings estimates due to strong global demand but its shares tumbled 6.2 percent after management said first-quarter earnings would be the “high water mark” for the year and warned of increasing steel prices.

“We’ve seen quite a lot of companies announcing above-estimate earnings and their shares falling sharply,” Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities senior investment strategist Norihiro Fujito said.

Market prices are reflected in a glass window at the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) in Tokyo, Japan, February 6, 2018. REUTERS/Toru Hanai

Reuters data shows that analysts are now estimating bumper 21.1 percent growth in the January-March quarter among U.S. S&P500 firms.

Fujito noted major financial shares such as Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and Citigroup (C.N) as well as Google parent Alphabet GOOG.N, the first major tech firm to report earnings, have followed a similar pattern.

“The market reaction so far feels as if we are starting to see an end of its long rally since 2009. Investors could be thinking that the best time will be soon behind us,” he said.

STATUS UPDATE

Facebook’s results are due after the closing bell. Revenues are expected to be up sharply but focus will all be on what impact the scandal over the misuse of tens of millions of its users’ data has had on usage of the social media site. [.N]

Creeping gains in U.S. Treasury yields are also fuelling nerves that portfolio managers may move money into safer fixed-income securities at the expense of riskier assets such as stocks and emerging markets.

The 10-year U.S. Treasuries yield US10YT=RR rose to as high as 3.02 percent. A break above its January 2014 peak of 3.041 percent could turn investors even more bearish.

Fed Funds rate futures prices <0#FF:> have been constantly falling this month, pricing in a considerable chance of three more rate hikes by the end of this year.

The impact is already reverberating in many emerging markets, with JPMorgan’s emerging market bond index .JPMEPR hitting a two-month low.

Turkey’s central bank took what was seen as a crucial interest rate decision. The lira has tumbled to all-time lows this year, stoking inflation, and its slightly larger-than- expected 75 basis points hike to 13.5 percent kept its markets largely in check.

In Indonesia, a market with one of the largest exposures to foreign portfolio holdings, the authorities have been intervening heavily to put a floor under the rupiah IDR=, which has been flirting with two-year lows.

The Indian rupee hit a 13-month low INR=IN while China’s yuan CNH=CNY= eased again in line with its bond yields following recent tweaks to its policy settings.

The dollar also continued gaining against the major currencies, setting new 2-1/2-month highs of 109.21 yen JPY= and $1.2175 per euro EUR=.

Oil prices were broadly steady below the more than three-year highs hit in the previous session. Rising U.S. fuel inventories and production weighed on an otherwise heavily bullish market.

Brent LCOc1 fetched $74.01 a barrel, up 15 cents. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 traded flat $67.88 while aluminum leveled off at $2,236 a tonne having been on a rollercoaster run in recent weeks following U.S. sanctions on Russia’s top producer of the metal, United Company Rusal (0486.HK) [MET/L]

Additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo; Editing by Louise Ireland and Alexandra Hudson

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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