Over the next year, tech togs of every variety will hit the market. They will allow us to control machines at a flick of the wrist, check our heartbeat and other bodily functions – thus revolutionising health and fitness – and even command computers simply by thinking.
Bridging the Email-Typing/Guitar-Shredding Gap Using Technology
WK recently allowed me some time to tackle a problem that plagues workers everywhere whether they are working in advertising or some other job that involves a lot of email typing. I’m talking about the problem of not being able to devote enough time practicing shredding the guitar. The solution of hooking a guitar up so that you could use it like a computer keyboard had been in my head for a few years and it was a real joy to get to follow through on it.
Wieden+Kennedy: Bridging the Email-Typing/Guitar-Shredding Gap Using Technology
13 ways for retailers to deal with the threat of showrooming
Showrooming, whether retailers like it or not, is here to stay. In fact, as smartphone usage grows, it’s only going to increase. Naturally, as retailers see the threat of people using their mobiles to compare prices and buy elsewhere, they are concerned about this trend. But what can they do about it?
Econsultancy: 13 ways for retailers to deal with the threat of showrooming
The Internet is a surveillance state
Whether we admit it to ourselves or not, and whether we like it or not, we’re being tracked all the time. Google tracks us, both on its pages and on other pages it has access to. Facebook does the same; it even tracks non-Facebook users. Apple tracks us on our iPhones and iPads.
Increasingly, what we do on the Internet is being combined with other data about us. Everything we do now involves computers, and computers produce data as a natural by-product. Everything is now being saved and correlated, and many big-data companies make money by building up intimate profiles of our lives from a variety of sources.
The Driverless Road Ahead
Nobody is sure when it will arrive. Google, which is testing a fleet of autonomous cars, thinks in maybe a decade, others reckon longer. A report from KPMG and the Centre for Automotive Research in Michigan concludes that it will come “sooner than you think”. And, when it does, the self-driving car, like the ordinary kind, could bring profound change.
Hello, World! This Site Is Now Responsive (If You Care)
Nobody outside of our Web Design world cares if the site is responsive, they just care if it works. And they probably have some battle scars from fighting anemic mobile sites.
Sure, it will take some time to change peoples’ mental model of what it means when a site looks different on their pocket-sized screens. But we must be doing something to help encourage that change, right? It’s not like we’re just silently launching responsive sites under the cover of night!
What methods do we use tell our audience that the new site we’ve just launched is new, improved, Responsive, and not one of those awful mobile sites you might be used to?
Val Head: Hello, World! This Site Is Now Responsive (If You Care)
Being an Intern Sucks in the UK Too
The thing is, most unpaid internships are useless, because most interns are not, in fact, interns, but regular members of staff except without pay, legal protection, or benefits. Employers in the U.K. argue that such positions are justifiable under Section 2 of the National Minimum Wage Act 1998, which requires that anyone who is a “worker” be paid, as internships are covered by the exceptions contained within the act for work experience and volunteering. However, advocacy group Intern Aware argue that these exceptions don’t cover the vast majority of internships in the U.K. Rather, businesses which actually do offer valuable experience and training are being used a shield by those companies who exploit young workers for free labour.
Cracking The Code
Smartphones and Tablets are already crammed with numerous input devices, of which the camera is but one. They are already capable of determining their location using multiple sources of data: global positioning satellites, the location of mobile phone mast you’re using, and the wi-fi networks in range.
As connectivity continues to improve in terms of both speed and coverage, the device will be able to feed what it gathers from its “senses” up to the cloud, where unfathomably capable systems will be able to determine all sorts of things about what’s happening where you are. Also, smart devices will become more and more aware of their human accomplices: about what we’re doing, who we’re with, what we’re paying attention to, and what we care about. The smart device of the near future will know something’s there before you do, whether or not you notice it, and whether or not you care.