Not to be outdone by the crazy week of announcements that came out of Las Vegas, Facebook announced that link-sharing service Branch agreed to join the Facebook network for $15 million. The idea, it seems, is to help users bond over interests based on link-sharing. As Branch is best known for its web-based link-sharing that keeps conversations circulating around news stories, it makes sense to assume that Facebook is going to use Branch’s technology to make conversing around breaking stories – particularly in mobile devices – that much easier. How this pans out, precisely, remains to be seen, but it’s a big announcement for the ever-expanding social network.
Category: Percolate
CES 2014: Staples To Become Smart Home Destination
CES is amazing for the amount of new technology it can showcase, but much like a high-end fashion show the question inevitably emerges: will I actually buy any of this stuff? And if so, when, where, and most importantly, why? This year, CES is aiming to tackle that question in a serious manner; look no further than Amazon and Netflix’s 4K agreements and Smartwatches’ partnerships with high-end fashion as evidence of trying to actually sell, in addition to creating, the tech we’ve seen.
In the same vein, one of the biggest CES trends has been the Smart Home – from lights and thermostats that interface with apps, to home security and chatting appliances – but the question still lingers, where, when, and why can or should consumers buy? Staples is looking to tackle this question with its renewed partnership with Zonoff. They partnered last year to offer what little home automation technology existed, but now post-CES 2014 the partnership looks to take off with offerings such as the Goji smart lock, Koubachi garden sensors, Radio Thermostat’s WiFi-connected products, Philips, Honeywell, GE, Linksys and more. To prove the ‘why’ quotient, Staples has agreed to showcase the platforms first hand in the Staples Manhattan store.
The race to get these home automation products into the hands of consumers is well and truly on. Revolv will be available at the Home Depot, Lowe’s will be selling the Iris home automation kit, and SmartThings is selling an entire package including Philips Hue, Jawbone Up, and Belkin’s WeMo. Now the question becomes, will consumers bite?
CES 2014: Consumers Now Wary Of Google, Facebook, Twitter
Consumers are significantly more wary of companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google, according to a study by McCann that was discussed at a CES panel led by Ad Age and IPG at CES. People are very sensitive about their private data, and when asked which companies are the greatest threat to the future of privacy 59% cited Facebook and 40% cited Twitter, while 32% responded with Google. These numbers represent a doubling from just one year ago, and it’s no surprise, given the important NSA revelations that have happened since that date.
What’s important to point out, though, is that people aren’t necessarily concerned with what might happen to the data immediately; they’re very concerned with what might happen in the near future as technology’s powers expand. As well, they’re concerned about what happens to their data on the back end, with respect to advertising, how data is bought, sold, and thereafter targeted; broad support was voiced for a Do Not Track system. The important takeaway, for both the advertising and technology industries, is that consumers are beginning to pay much more attention to their data and how its being used in an era of rapidly-advancing technology. Their trust is the foundation for much of these industries, and once it’s gone it will be very tough to win back.
CES 2014: T-Mobile Will Pay You To Leave Your Carrier
Bold, or stupid? The T-Mobile keynote was full of surprising moments, not least of which was the announcement of Contract Freedom – or in other words, how to get customers to join T-Mobile. To do this, they’ll pay your termination fee from other carriers – while also counting on you to turn in your existing phone, buy a new T-Mobile phone, sign up for a T-Mobile plan, and bring your number over to T-Mobile. The timing of the announcement is quite ironic, as the “bold new plan” comes on the heels of AT&T’s announcement to pay $200 per line that users switch onto its network. Whether mobile carriers are getting desperate in the face of increased consumer options, or whether this is just a game of matching the competition remains to be seen. What’s sure, though, is that carriers are trying to expand options and ways for consumers to get onto their service.
CES 2014: Mercedes-Benz Re-Introduces QNX
Not to be outdone by Audi’s connected car news from yesterday, Mercedes-Benz heralded its own connected car hub, QNX. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen QNX – indeed it’s an extended version of the technology that Mercedes-Benz debuted in 2013 – but this iteration of the technology features a touch-screen interface that extends across the entire dashboard, from the steering wheel to the passenger’s side above the glove compartment. It’s a simple, visual UI that includes the instrument panel, and supports jellybean apps, most prominently the iHeartRadio app. It also supports phone and tablet Android integration, so the passenger can control the media, phone calls, and more from their mobile device.
QNX is also quite flexible with respect to navigation, and is platform-agnostic. It’s been demonstrated with Elektrobit, Kotei, Navi & Data, Aisin, AW, and Nokia FREE, as proof of the fact that it’s possible to integrate it into many different software interfaces. How many of these it’s actually integrated into, after the buzz of CES, will be worth keeping an eye on.
CES 2014: Simplicam Uses Facial Recognition To Watch The Home
One of the biggest trends at CES this year has been the connected home, and over the early portion of this week there have been no shortage of app-based device-control solution for all the appliances around the house, as well as chore-setting hardware, in addition to various forms of home security systems. To that end, there have been a plethora of WiFi cameras introduced, but ArcSoft’s Simplicam aims to simplify the process of even pulling up an app, by using facial recognition technology to notify you of when your family – or anybody else – has arrived in the house. There’s a built-in, two-way talk and automated alarm system, as well as PC access. The cloud service allows you to save, and share, if you want, your clips from the camera. It starts at $150, and heralds the age of total home security control.
CES 2014: Oculus Rift Debuts Crystal Cove Prototype
The Oculus Rift has garnered much attention over the past few years as being the go-to standard in virtual reality gaming headsets. Now, though, there are officially competitors, as more developers enter the VR gaming space. Oculus has responded to many of the issues with the original design in a new prototype they debuted at CES, called the Crystal Cove. It improves on the Rift in several ways: primarily, the resolution is better – specifically, OLED high-definition – addressing the key issue of the “screen door effect,” where it was possible to see the gaps between pixels. At the same time, a key complaint was that the Rift, because of its blurriness and low resolution, caused dizziness and sometimes nausea after long periods of gameplay. Now, the Crystal Cove features a technique called low-persistance-of-vision, which alters how images are displayed with specific reference to blurriness. The most interesting addition, however, comes in the form of motion tracking: the Crystal Cove doesn’t just know your head’s orientation, but it can now tell where, in 3 dimensional space, your head actually is; if you lean, it knows. The body tracking reduces some of the motion sickness, but also adds to the total immersion of the device itself. It’s a big step forward for Oculus, which now seems well on its way to mass-production.
CES 2014: Yahoo Revives Summly As News Digest App
Yahoo’s young Nick D’aloisio remerged at their CES Keynote yesterday to highlight a new app called the Yahoo News Digest. Highly visual in nature, it aims to rethink news consumption for the modern era, and eschews personalization in favor of curation. In principle, the Digest takes the form of the morning and evening papers that have existed for decades by notifying all Digest subscribers at a given point, in the morning and the evening, when the digest is ready; everybody receives the same Digest that has been curated by Yahoo’s news staff, and it comes in the form of digestible bits of text dotted with photos, maps, tweets, and other visual elements. The ultimate goal is to tackle the overwhelming feeling brought on by too much reading material often found in apps like Flipboard, where it can often seem exhausting just to get through all the feeds you’ve subscribed to.
For now, the app is iPhone only, but one of the more interesting announcements from the keynote is that the Digest will feature native advertising – or, advertisements that look similar to the articles and sit within the flow of the Digest itself. Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer admitted that advertising – specifically native advertising – would need to help Yahoo emerge again as one of the more profitable companies, and the Digest is a prime target for intuitive, native ad work. Advertisers should keep a keen eye on the app in the near future.
CES 2014: Samsung Announces Line Of Smart Cameras
Samsung debuted a new line of sharing-focued, Smart cameras at CES. Samsung’s other, more trendy announcements – such as the connected home and kitchen – mean that this one has flown under the radar a little bit. Nonetheless, Samsung is trying its best to elevate point-and-shoot cameras to the same level as smartphones by incorporating WiFi and NFC for pairing with smartphones and social networks. As well, the selling points include higher zoom – up to 12x – and higher quality than smartphones can offer, at 16MP images as a bare minimum. The higher end models come with HDMI and SD slots, as do most high-end cameras, but the lower-end cameras feature Micro SDs and weigh in at just a third of a pound. Whether the point-and-shoot era has past us by with smartphones quite capable of taking over that role remains to be seen, but CES is the best possible venue for Samsung to make the case for consumers to continue to invest in light, portable, sharable cameras.
CES 2014: Tobii’s Eye Tracking Comes To Games
The Xbox Kinect might finally have a real competitor in the gaming world. Tobii’s eye-tracking has been slowly gaining notoriety, but at CES they announced a new tracking system specifically designed for gaming. Not only can it control your desktop, but they’ve released an EyeX Dev Kit for developers to create games with eye tracking integrated into their core. The company notes that at present that eyes can control things like character movement and aiming, but they want to go deeper to create fully-immersive experiences. They’re also working with third party developers: SteelSeries, a prime example, is a new type of sensing stick, and Synaptics are also working to develop new types of hardware integration for Tobii’s technology. These developments could mean that eye-tracking takes on a much deeper and more meaningful purpose in both interactive experiences, advertising, and gaming more broadly.
