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Excerpt from:

Tech News Latest Technology Headlines and Trends on CNN ...

Bad Taste

You’re standing in the checkout lane. You know you want to buy a pack of gum, but just aren’t satisfied with any of the available options. You ask yourself: “Why is it so hard to find a bitter-tasting gum that zaps my tongue with electricity and never runs out of flavor?”

OK, so maybe not.

But on Monday, a team of Japanese researchers demonstrated just such a gum at a technology symposium in Berlin, Germany. And while you might never find this electric chewing gum at your local convenience store, a piece could one day come packaged with your favorite virtual reality (VR) game — and, in the nascent field of virtuality, that’s a big deal.

Sensory Underload

Most of today’s VR systems trick you into thinking you’re in another world by manipulating sight and sound. You don a headset and a pair of headphones, and you’re fighting zombies or whatever.

A few researchers have attempted to bring touch and smell into the virtual experience, but with middling results. Taste has proven particularly tricky to incorporate — according to the Japanese team’s research paper, many attempts include the use of grotesque-sounding “cables around a user’s lips or batteries in their mouth.”

Not exactly the kind of tech that facilitates a seamless transportation to another world.

Tip of the Tongue

The Japanese team’s device, however, looks pretty much like a regular stick of gum. Instead of just chicle and sugar, however, it incorporates a small device — slightly smaller in diameter than a dime, and covered with a saliva-repellent film — that generates a painless current of electricity when chewed. When this electricity hits the chewer’s tongue, it give the sensation of tasting something bitter or salty. As long as the chewer keeps chewing, they’ll keep “tasting” the electric chewing gum.

Why it’s a big deal: The researchers believe they can force the gum to simulate other flavors by adjusting the strength and pattern of the electric current generated while chewing. If they’re successful, we could be moving toward a future in which VR experiences tickle your tastebuds as well as your senses of sight and sound.

READ MORE: Electric Chewing Gum Zaps Your Tongue to Create a Virtual Flavour Hit [New Scientist]

More on VR: You Can “Feel” Virtual Objects Using Microsoft’s New Tech

Read more here:

This Electric Chewing Gum Never Runs out of Flavor

DOD + Amazon 4Ever

You might not think Amazon should work with the U.S. government, but guess what? Jeff Bezos don’t care.

The CEO channeled his inner honey badger during a WIRED event on Monday, telling the audience that, despite both internal and external protests, Amazon would continue to work with the U.S. military on various projects.

“We are going to continue to support the [Department of Defense],” said Bezos. “And I think we should.”

Distance Desired

Bezos’s comments come amid a recent wave of controversy surrounding tech companies’ work with government agencies.

In May, Google found itself under fire for helping the U.S. military use artificial intelligence to analyze drone strikes, and in June, Microsoft employees decried the company’s work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

That same month, Amazon employees and shareholders asked the company to stop providing government and law enforcement agencies with its facial recognition software Rekognition.

Dept. of Dissent

Following these protests, Google (sort of) agreed to step away from the drone strike project, and Microsoft’s CEO downplayed the company’s involvement with ICE.

Bezos, however, isn’t about to let angry employees and shareholders decide whose sandbox Amazon can play in.

“It doesn’t make any sense to me…One of the jobs of the senior leadership team is to make the right decision even when it’s unpopular,” he told the audience at the WIRED event.

And Bezos does appear to believe working with the DOD is the “right” decision. “If big tech companies are going to turn their back on the U.S. Department of Defense, this country is going to be in trouble,” he said.

Maybe so. But Amazon’s technology is powerful, and if Bezos indiscriminately lends that power to government agencies, there’s a solid chance the average American is going to be in trouble instead.

READ MORE: Jeff Bezos Defends Amazon Taking Defense Contracts, Even as Google and Others Shy Away: ‘This Is a Great Country and It Does Need to Be Defended’ [Business Insider]

More on Rekognition: Employees, ACLU Demand Amazon Stop Facilitating Government Surveillance

Read more:

Jeff Bezos: Amazon Won’t Stop Helping the Military

Drone Home

Uber, a $120 billion company that does not make money, just announced a literal flight of fancy.

The ride-hailing service wants to transition its delivery program Uber Eats from human drivers to autonomous, airborne drones. And it wants to do it by 2021, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Who’s Driving?

The future is inexorably defined by those with the money to shape it. According to The WSJ, Uber executive Dara Khosrowshahi said the words “we need flying burgers” out loud, in real life.

Let’s just take a second to let that sink in, and be grateful that Silicon Valley has its priorities so well-aligned with the rest of us.

Delivery Instructions

This isn’t the first time Uber launched a new venture in the face of enormous technological and legal hurdles. The company is still working to develop its flying taxi service, and a network of flying drones will face similar challenges that make the 2021 goal a bit of a stretch.

But what this does mean is that the company that changed being designated driver from a real slog into a profession is now trying to take work away from its network of drivers.

If this comes to pass, instead of telling a courier which apartment to buzz and giving them a tip, I’m gonna have to go outside, figure out how to open up some dumb robot’s storage box, and hope its propellers don’t take me out while I’m grabbing my ‘burg. Hard pass.

READ MORE: Uber Ambitiously Eyes 2021 for Food-Delivery Drones Launch [The Wall Street Journal]

More on Uber’s ‘ambitious’ projects: Uber Plans To Launch Flying Taxis With Technology That Doesn’t Exist

Read the original:

Uber Aims to Replace Delivery Drivers With Drones

Plan B

It’s never a bad idea to have a back-up plan — especially when the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.

Climate change could render vast segments of the Earth completely uninhabitable to humans, and attempts to address the problem by cutting carbon emissions might not be enough to save the planet.

We need a Plan B, and startup accelerator Y Combinator wants to help develop it.

Out of the Air

Y Combinator helps startups get off the ground by offering up to $150,000 in funding in exchange for a 7 percent stake in the company. The accelerator maintains a Request for Startups page that lists areas it’s particularly interested in funding. On Tuesday, it added carbon removal technologies to the list.

“We have conviction that it’s a worthwhile endeavor to remove CO2 from the air and transform it into something else useful or figure out how to store it safely, long-term,” wrote Y Combinator CEO Sam Altman in a blog post. “They may seem like moonshots now, but our goal is to try to come up with technically feasible solutions at realistic costs.”

Chasing Rainbows

Some experts argue that carbon removal technology isn’t a realistic solution to our climate woes — they’ve even gone so far as to call the proposed machines “carbon unicorns,” since they don’t yet exist.

But just because we don’t have adequate carbon removal systems right now doesn’t mean some innovative entrepreneur couldn’t develop them with a little seed funding — the kind Y Combinator is now offering up.

Who knows? Perhaps this unicorn funding could lead to a planet-saving breakthrough.

READ MORE: Frontier Carbon Removal Technologies [Y Combinator]

More on carbon capture: A Tax Incentive Might Finally Make Carbon Capture a Thing

Read the rest here:

Y Combinator Is Turning Its Attention to Carbon Removal

Meet the Brixel

The term “smart home” probably makes you think of a more-or-less traditional house that features a few smart lights and connected appliances.

Design studio Breakfast threw out that playbook with an extraordinary new demo of a technology it calls “Brixels” — a portmanteau for “bricks” and “pixels.” They’re smart blocks, kind of like giant Legos, with built-in actuators that let them transform on the fly, giving designers a new tool with which to create adaptable public and living spaces.

Bling Blocks

In a series of photos and videos, Breakfast showcased Brixels with wooden, colored, and mirrored finishes. One video — check it out below — shows how we could use double-sided Brixels to create a wall that can transform from a solid color into a brilliant mirror.

Of course, you’ll never know how you feel about anything in interior design until it’s 10 years old and clogged with dust and grit. But if these Brixels prove that they have longevity, they could be an exciting new resource for architects and designers.

READ MORE: Say Hello to ‘Brixel’, 2018’s Answer to the Brick [Curbed]

More on smart homes: A New “Mega-Sensor” Could Make Your Entire Home Smart

Continue reading here:

These Lego-like “Brixels” Could Make Your Walls Into Robots

Face Hole

Retail giant Amazon tried to sell its facial recognition technology to US. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this summer, according to documents obtained by the Project on Government Oversight and first reported by the Daily Beast.

ICE has attracted controversy during the Trump administration for what critics and insiders say is overzealous enforcement of immigration laws, which includes rounding up undocumented immigrants at hospitals and church shelters.

On Tuesday, the Daily Beast reported that ICE has discussed deploying Rekognition, Amazon’s facial recognition tech, which can scan a person’s face against a database of millions in just moments.

ICE ICE Baby

Amazon workers and former ICE insiders are reportedly concerned that Amazon’s facial recognition tech would give the agency too much power.

“If they have this technology, I can see it being used in any way they think will help them increase the numbers of detentions, apprehensions, and removals,” former deputy director of ICE Alonzo Peña told the Daily Beast. Peña also said that abuse of the tech “should be an area of concern, given this new technology — there’s potential for its use to be very widespread.”

Things to Come

The idea of ICE‘s widespread deployment of facial recognition tech brings to mind China, where the government is using an extensive system of cameras and facial recognition tech to apprehend drug smugglers and other suspected criminals.

Some local police departments in the U.S. already use Rekognition, but whether we’ll ever see the U.S. government adopt facial recognition tech as readily as China’s has remains to be seen. If it tries, though, it’s likely be the tech industry providing the algorithms — so the public response to the revelation about Amazon and ICE could be a preview of how Americans will perceive that relationship.

READ MORE: Amazon Pushes ICE to Buy Its Face Recognition Surveillance Tech [Daily Beast]

More on Amazon: Employees, ACLU Demand Amazon Stop Facilitating Government Surveillance

Read the original here:

Report: Amazon Tried to Sell Facial Recognition Tech to ICE

Six years ago, Google ushered in the age of face computers with perhaps the coolest tech publicity stunt out there: a live stream of product engineers jumping out of a zeppelin and landing on the roof of a building. The crowd — ostensibly there to hear Google co-founder Sergey Brin speak — watched the whole thing from the divers’ perspective, live-streamed via the brand new Google Glass. The demo promised an era of geeks-gone-badass, stunts made more awesome with seamless sharing.

But the reality of face computers has been much more disappointing. Since that defining airdrop, we’ve seen the blindingly-bright future of augmented reality (AR) take the form of a wildly popular (for a second) Pokémon game, some truly ridiculous Snapchat camera glasses, and — not much else.

The lack of useful or even interesting applications for AR makes it clear that we’re still in the tech’s early days. That’s probably for the best, since we have no idea what role we want AR to play in our lives, or in the world at large.

Analog Boy, an episode of Glimpse, a new original sci-fi series from Futurism Studios (a division of Futurism LLC) and DUST, shows one potential version of a future world full of augmented reality wearables. Watch the episode below.

Before the technology truly becomes ubiquitous, we need to have a serious look at how we want to shape AR — and the ethical lines we don’t want it to cross. Right now, addressing these issues has been left to the tech companies who have been allowed to collect and use our personal data willy-nilly, with little input from the privacy-wary humans who would be using the tech in the real world.

Before the technology truly becomes ubiquitous, we need to have a serious conversation about how we want to shape AR — and the ethical lines we don’t want it to cross.

Now seems like a pretty good time to sort these things out. We are fast approaching the day in which recording technology, from cameras to microphones, can fit seamlessly into the kinds of objects we already use. Companies from Apple to Intel to Bose are already working on it. If they succeed, AR may integrate into our lives seemingly overnight, the way the iPhone did.

In truth, people are worried about face-mounted, AR-equipped computers not just because they’re new. AR, when it matures, will likely be able to do more than superimpose Pokémon onto park benches. Let’s say AR becomes standard issue within technology from Google, Facebook, or Amazon. Real-time information would highlight our environments, enabling us to learn so much more about the world around us. The technology could have some truly beneficial uses, such as assisting factory workers or others with hands-on jobs.

But there’s a dark side to it, too — bringing AR into a world dominated by tech companies that collect ever-growing amounts of our personal data means being comfortable with the fact that other people will be able to interact with us in new ways, probably without us ever knowing.

If people start walking around using sophisticated AR-enabled devices, paired with powerful facial recognition software, it’s easy to imagine how some creeps could covertly violate people’s privacy. Say you’re walking down the street. Someone with an AR-equipped phone or Google Glass would be able to, say, scan your face and find all your social media. This sort of technology could bring about a new era where it’s even easier to stalk or bully people online (not to mention generally icky).

People have been concerned about the privacy implications of AR since it first emerged. Back in 2014, at the height of Google Glass’s 15 minutes, market research firm Toluna surveyed how customers felt about the device. They found that 72 percent of Americans wouldn’t wear Glass due to privacy concerns.

72 percent of Americans wouldn’t wear Google Glass due to privacy concerns.

The thing that prevented Google Glass’ mainstream adoption? Its miniature spy camera. With Glass, you could simply turn your head, frame a shot with your eyes, and plink — the device could take a photo or a video. With a few tweaks to the software, your subject would never even know it happened. The current iteration (rebranded for industrial use) is a little better — it requires a voice command and a button press to record video, but that doesn’t demand the subject’s attention the way, say, sticking a camera lens in their face might.

Most of today’s augmented reality wearables are a lot less subtle than that. The hardware has simply not progressed as quickly as the software, so the devices are often clunky and unwieldy. Upside: it’s easier for a passerby to tell how they’re being used.

Companies like Google want AR features to be sleekly embedded in a pair of smart contact lenses (perhaps just to see if it can be done) but it will be many years, possibly decades, before this is possible. There are still major technical challenges to overcome, like figuring out how to power such a contact. And that doesn’t even address our own discomfort with the idea.

But the software is rapidly advancing even farther. For the first time, tech giants are testing the boundaries of AR in everyday gadgets instead of separate wearable gizmos. Take Google’s Lens, a camera tool that the company says “answer[s] all kinds of questions — especially when they’re difficult to describe in a search box, like ‘what type of dog is that?’ or ‘what’s that building called?’”

And that’s just the beginning of what AR could do for us. With sophisticated augmented reality, we’ll have new types of movies and games, but also a more streamlined experience going about our daily lives. Everything we need will be right in front of us.

We need ground rules for how to use augmented reality. Those could be hard rules like formal legislation and restriction (ban facial recognition software from any AR platform), or soft rules like social norms (basic decency and not using our newfound technological powers to exploit people.). If we don’t make them before they’re needed, we might find ourselves in a world where our already-scarce digital privacy goes away altogether.

As individuals, we don’t have much leverage over the tech companies pushing these gadgets. But we can push our leaders to address forward-looking concerns. Congress has recently held Facebook and Twitter accountable for their role in the 2016 presidential election. It’s not a stretch to think the companies that might be bringing AR into maturity might find themselves in a new age of intense scrutiny.

Read the rest here:

Glimpse: Truly Useful Augmented Reality is Coming. We’re Not Ready.

What should have been a routine, required national test of the Wireless Emergency Alerts system has become a crucible for public distrust.

Viewership for the major news networks was high, but TV only tells half the story.

When workers automate their own duties, who should reap the benefits?

In a battery-powered reboot, the 90s toy is living up to its destiny.

Just ask Bill Gates how it works.

A computer has written a novel narrating its own cross-country road trip.

Private-labeled teas helped fund success during the suffragist movement. Todays activists might learn from their model. An Object Lesson.

In a special bonus episode of the podcast Crazy/Genius, the computer scientist and data journalist Meredith Broussard explains how technochauvinism derailed the dream of the digital revolution.

Musk and Tesla have settled the SECs securities-fraud lawsuit. The outcome feels like the end of an era for Musk.

Facebook has identified, and fixed, an exploit that allowed attackers to gain control of user accounts. These failures are so common and so widespread, its becoming hard to even notice them.

The SECs suit against the Tesla CEO is the latest sign that he cant separate his companys performance from his vision for the future.

Commercial companies are proposing lunar missions at a pace the world hasnt seen since the Apollo program.

Body cameras that automatically activate in response to the sound of gunfire could forever change peoples expectations about public spaces.

Violent mobs in India may have gotten inflammatory messages on WhatsApp, but the license to maim and kill came from long-standing cultural divisions and governmental failures.

The company will begin estimating local carbon pollution from cities around the world.

The companys three high-profile acquisitionsInstagram, WhatsApp, and Oculushad fought to maintain their own identity. Those days may be over now.

Anxieties about the effects of screens on human health are hardly new, but the way the public addresses the problems has changed. An Object Lesson.

The companys new line of voice-automated products, including a wall clock and a microwave, could help it amass an enormous database of consumer behavior.

Microchip implants are going from tech-geek novelty to genuine health tooland you might be running out of good reasons to say no.

The Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into the Tesla founder, but theres no precedent for him, or his tweets.

Continued here:

Technology - The Atlantic

Embattled Chinese tech firm ZTE narrowly survived after the U.S. Department of Commerce hit it with a $1 billion fine and forced changes to its business earlier this year, and.Now it is back in the

In less than two months, thousands of the best and brightest minds from the European and international tech startup scene will attend Disrupt Berlin 2018. The conference, which takes place November 29

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SoftBank is getting into self-driving car services after the Japanese tech giant announced a joint-venture with Toyota in its native Japan. SoftBank is invested in Uber and a range of other ride-haili

Fitbit data may have helped catch one of its customers killers, and not for the first time. According to numerous media reports, a 90-year-old visited his stepdaughter at her home in San Jose,

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Kia is finally sharing more details about its upcoming all-electric crossover the 2019 Kia e-Niro that made its debut in Korea earlier this year. The upshot: its got some range. The pro

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Suppose the next time you go to a new doctors office, you wouldnt have to balance a clipboard on your knee, write down your whole medical history, remember the five-syllable name of every medica

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We have posted this before, but this needs to be reiterated.

We understand that many of you are emotionally driven to discuss your feelings on recent events, most notably the repeal of Net Neutrality - however inciting violence towards others is never ok. It is upsetting that we even have to post this.

Do we enjoy banning people for these types of offences? No... Many of us feel as if the system has failed and want some form of repercussion. But threats of violence and harassment are not the answer here.

And to be clear - here are some examples of what will get you banned:

I hope this PoS dies in a car fire

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I never condone violence but...

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Technology r/technology - reddit

What is happening today with cryptocurrency and blockchain technology is how I imagine the dot-com gold rush in the 90s felt.

Since I was too young to experience those years (I was 5 years old), I am paying extra close attention to what is happening today. And for those that don't realize it yet, Bitcoin and Ethereum are quickly changing the world. Age-old industries are being disrupted, the first (and potentially most foundational industry of all) being money.

Anyone who thinks Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are just a fad falls into the same category of people who thought "that Internet thing" was just a fad back in the 90s. That's what makes these innovations so interesting is that they seem to be eliciting all the same reactions, meanwhile showing all the same signs of future success. Remember when we thought the concept of sending each other pictures over the Internet was "crazy" and would "never happen?" I swear, I have a family video from the early 90s of my uncle showing my dad his brand new laptop, and making a joke that one day they would press a button and the digital photo would just appear on the other person's laptop. They both started laughing--as if that would never happen.

And then it happened just a few years later.

That's what's happening today with blockchain technology. It's so dense and do difficult to explain (similar to the concept of the Internet back in the 90s) that it has yet to really become a mainstream topic of consideration. But to those paying close attention, blockchain has all the potential in the world to disrupt some very old, very big industries: banking, big pharma, insurance, voting, and entertainment, to name a few.

Here's what interests me about blockchain technology and the entertainment industry:

How many times have we heard the infamous case study of a band being signed to a major label, only to sue them (and usually their manager) a few years later after realizing they'd been skimped on millions of dollars in royalties?

That has been happening since the days of Elvis.

What's interesting about blockchain technology is that, by using what are called "smart contracts," those contracts are executed on automatically through the blockchain. So, if a band signs to a label and their contract states that they receive 70% of every dollar made, with the label receiving 30%, those distributions happen every time a dollar enters the door--assuming all of this is being done on the blockchain. No more relying on a person to count the dollars. No more trusting other people to deliver on the contract. It all happens on the blockchain, and is validated through math.

The whole idea behind blockchain technology is trust. Transparency. Everything is out in the open, and anything that gets processed through the blockchain can be seen and validated by anyone on the blockchain.

Take that concept, and you can see why this is such threatening technology to such big industries. A lot happens behind closed doors, so to put it all out into the open is groundbreaking, to say the least.

Another way that blockchain technology is impacting the music industry is with royalty distributions on digital platforms.

As it stands, artists are victims of the system. If they want access to the massive user bases on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, etc., then they have to be OK with getting paid pennies on the dollar for people to listen to their music. What an artist makes on these streaming platforms is nothing compared to what artists in the 90s made on CD sales.

One startup that is looking to tackle this issue with blockchain technology is called OPUS, a streaming platform for artists to upload their music and receive 98% of the revenue. For those that don't know, 98% is unheard of, and is leagues above what an artist would make selling their music on Apple Music, for example.

The idea behind OPUS is to solve for three massive issues in the music business: revenue share, censorship, and transparency. This is the beauty of using blockchain technology, because all three of those can be delivered on. The revenue share issue is solved by giving artists 98% of all royalties, the censorship issue because the power remains in the artists hands, and the transparency issue because labels can no longer hide money from the artists. And because it is built on the blockchain, none of these parameters can be changed down the road--whereas other services may decide one day to cut the percentage given to artists.

OPUS is currently raising funds through an ICO to continue working toward this vision of artist empowerment.

When you look at the landscape of digital music, I really do believe decentralizing the industry is the next logical step. Even SoundCloud, one of the most popular streaming platforms on the Internet, has reported that they are quickly running out of cash and exploring potential acquisition deals (not so much out of choice, but by necessity) because artists have no way to monetize their audiences. But with something like OPUS, artists still have to do the heavy lifting of marketing their own music, except they're more handsomely rewarded for their efforts.

Blockchain technology will fundamentally change the way business is done in industries all over the world. I would encourage you to start paying attention now.

Original post:

Blockchain Technology Is Set to Disrupt Every Industry--and Music Is Next - Inc.com

Teaching with Technology Survey

Our 2017 Teaching with Technology Survey found that faculty have a positive outlook about technology's impact on their work, teaching effectiveness, student learning and more.

In a survey of faculty members at colleges and universities across the United States, 73 percent of respondents said technology has made their jobs "easier" or "much easier." And nary a one considered their job "much harder" thanks to tech.

Those findings came out of Campus Technology's second annual Teaching with Technology Survey, in which we asked faculty to dish on their use of technology, likes and dislikes, views of the future and more. Their responses revealed a lot about the business of teaching and learning with technology today and how it has changed over the last year.

While 73 percent of faculty were positive about the impact of technology on their jobs, that count represented a slip of four percentage points from last year, when 77 percent believed the same. The number of faculty who think technology has made their jobs harder is holding steady (17 percent this year compared to 16 percent in 2016), and a growing faction feels that tech has not had an impact either way (10 percent this year compared to 6 percent in 2016).

Whether technology is making life hard or easy for faculty, the majority of respondents (85 percent) feel the effort is worthwhile, agreeing that "Technology has positively affected my ability to teach." That number is slightly lower than last year, when 88 percent felt the same.

The results were similar when it came to technology's impact on student learning. Eighty-one percent of respondents saw a positive effect, compared to 84 percent last year. And 13 percent feel tech hasn't affected student learning one way or the other. "Technology is only as successful as the teacher who uses it," noted one respondent from a public university in California.

Overall, faculty in our survey hold an upbeat view of technology's value in higher education: Eighty percent think tech has had an "extremely positive" or "mostly positive" impact on education, similar to last year's count of 81 percent who felt the same.

A handful of respondents were less sanguine, feeling that technology has had a "mostly negative" impact, and 19 percent saw both positive and negative effects. As one faculty member from a two-year institution in Texas asserted, "Technology is rampant, but the actual impact on learning is unknown. Random studies have been conducted, but no one really knows."

"In some cases, technology is already overshadowing the learning process and making it more difficult," opined a respondent from Illinois. "More technology is not always the answer and more technology cannot replace good instruction."

"As with any facet of teaching and learning, there needs to be enough time for faculty to learn to properly use, adapt and implement for technology to be beneficial," pointed out a respondent from a Florida university.

"Technology used badly can be horrible," agreed a faculty member in Georgia. "Technology used to enhance student access to the world and their ability to collaborate and create can be awesome! It all depends on how you use it (like everything else)."

The full results of the Teaching with Technology Survey appear in the July digital issue of Campus Technology. Highlights from the survey will also be posted on this site over the coming months. You can check back for ongoing coverage in our Research section.

About the Author

About the author: Rhea Kelly is executive editor for Campus Technology. She can be reached at rkelly@1105media.com.

Excerpt from:

Most Faculty Say Technology Has Made Their Jobs Easier - Campus Technology

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Technology - reddit

Throughout history, advancements in technology have played an important role in how individuals are exposed to new information. From the printing press, to radio, to television, and most recently, the internet, each successive innovation revolutionized and altered how individuals engaged with new concepts, products, companies, and brands. Yet, despite technological advancements, until the mid-to-late 1990s most companies and brands relied on a linear and symbiotic way to reach consumers: traditional media companies sold advertising space to fund their operations and companies bought advertising space to reach consumers.

With the rapid growth and adoption of internet connectivity, the long-established advertising norms have been uprooted. Increased connectivity has resulted in the democratization of media; anyone with a good strategy, an internet connection, and basic web design skills is now capable of competing with multi billion dollar enterprises for views and advertising dollars. Moreover, the increased use of social media platforms not only means that people are accessing information in new ways, it also means they are no longer as reliant on receiving information through traditional mediums.

Due to the proliferation of new ways to reach consumers and shifting consumer habits, companies, brands, advertising firms, and media outlets have been forced to adapt and develop new ways to reach audiences. While Americans still spend about three hours a day watching television, the internet is not far behind, with most Americans spending about two hours online. Social media has also played an important role in impacting the how people access information, with Americans reporting they spend an average of 1.7 hours a day using social media. Globally, social media has experienced similar trends, with adults reporting having accounts on over 5 social networks. In recognizing the importance of the online world to reaching consumers in the United States, companies spent $15 billion more on online ads versus television ads in 2016. Although television still remains popular, its projected growth rate of 1.3 percent from 2016-2021, pales in comparison to projected online ad spending which is expected to grow at a rate of 9.9 percent during the same period. Perhaps not surprisingly, its been estimated that in 2017, companies will spend $204 billion on digital ads, an increase of over $50 billion since 2015. Additionally, combined spending on mobile ads and social media, non-existent 15 years ago, is expected to reach $55 billion dollars in 2019, an over five time increase from 2016 levels of $10.9 billion.

While the proliferation of new avenues with which to reach consumers has increased exponentially, it has not always translated into greater consumer engagement. Surveys have found that two-thirds of internet users viewed online advertising in a negative light, with users having used annoying and distracting as the most common ways to describe online advertising. Furthermore, many consumers are taking matters into their own hands to avoid unwanted marketing and using ad-blocker technology to filter out advertising; accordingly, in 2016 ad-blocker use grew by 30 percent.

The growth of digital advertising and its corresponding hurdles have spurred entrepreneurs to develop systems and processes to facilitate digital advertising, track results, and optimize effectiveness. In 2016, Adtech, or Advertising Technology, saw nearly $2.2 billion of investor funds flow into the sector. From interactive advertising, to personalization, to value-exchange, to native advertising, Adtech entrepreneurs are using technology to develop innovative ways to connect companies with consumers.

I had the opportunity to interview, Mitchell Reichgut, the CEO of Jun Group, a New York City based Adtech company that seeks to optimize the ability of brands and companies to effectively share content with potential customers. Mitchell and I discussed his business, the impact of technology on advertising, and his views on entrepreneurship. Hope you enjoy!

Mitchell Reichgut, CEO of Jun Group

CG: Tell me about your company. What does Jun Group do?

MR: Jun Group gets millions of people to watch videos and visit web pages from Fortune 500 brands across devices. The word Jun means truth and the worlds best-known brands trust us to connect them to their customers because everything we do is viewable, brand-safe, and transparent.

CG: What solutions does your company provide to brands and publishers?

MR: Our job is to provide clear, unfettered access to the people our customers want to reach. We are uniquely suited for this because our technology reaches over 100 million people in mobile apps where consumers spend 90% of their smart phone time. Instead of interrupting people, we allow them to opt-in to gorgeous, full-screen branded experiences. This produces some of the best results in the industry: 93% completion rates for 30-second videos, 100% viewability, an average of 3-5% of viewers take actions after watching (clicks to websites, social media actions, etc.), and less than 2% non-human traffic according to independent measurements.

All this is powered by value exchange, which lets people unlock entertainment, points, or other digital content in exchange for their time. Major ad platforms like Google, Facebook, Newscorp, AOL, and Pandora are all using value exchange to drive results for their advertisers.

CG: Technology has revolutionized how consumers interact with brands and companies. In your view, what have been the major changes impacting the advertising industry?

MR: Mobile applications have fundamentally changed the ad industry. People are especially intolerant of interruptions on their mobile devices because they are so personal, and the age-old precept of reach and frequency is becoming outdated. Additionally, advertisers can pinpoint specific people they want to reach on any device rather than relying on editorial environments to attract them. On one hand, these factors are creating more efficient advertising mechanisms; on the other, the power is shifting to consumers who are demanding more relevant and entertaining experiences in exchange for their attention.

CG: From your perspective, given the aforementioned changes and the rapidly evolving business climate, what should brands and publishers be cognizant of as they seek to promote their products and services to consumers? What strategies are most effective?

Along with all the opportunities and advances, digital advertising has major problems. Ad fraud is expected to cost advertisers over $16 billion in 2017 and we believe thats a gross underestimate because so much fraud goes undetected. To enjoy the benefits of this new marketplace while avoiding its pitfalls, advertisers should follow three rules. First, demand complete transparency throughout the process: payments, placements, partners, and technology. Second, create content that is meaningful to people. It doesnt have to be hilarious or outrageous, just relevant. Finally, ad context is as important as ad contentadvertisers must carefully choose where and how to place their brands.

CG: Looking towards the future, over the next decade or so, how do you see Ad-Tech evolving?

MR: Digital advertising will become less interruptive and more relevant. Currently, anyone who can afford to pay about $12 per month can avoid ads on platforms like Amazon, YouTube, Netflix, etc. The onus will increasingly be on advertisers to provide value in exchange for peoples attention. Lets not forget, though, that AM radio is still a popular and effective mass medium. New media will never fully supplant the old guard.

CG: Entrepreneurship is rife with challenges. What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs seeking to launch their own innovative, technology startup?

MR: When people ask me how to be successful in digital media, I ask them a question in return: how bad do you want this? Elite athletes, top academics, great artists, and successful businesspeople are typically willing to make deep sacrifices over long periods of time because they are passionate about what they do. Digital media is no exception. Work hard, stick with it, learn from mistakes, and the rest will take care of itself.

MR: Ive enjoyed this conversation and I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts. Thank you!

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Technology Has Changed Advertising Forever - HuffPost

Amazon is still tinkering with the checkout-free technology behind its Amazon Go retailer concept, but Palo Alto, Calif. startup Standard Cognition is moving to the front of the line, releasing an alternative technology with a similar goal of eliminating the checkout process that it will supply to retailers.

The startup, part of Y Combinators Summer 2017 batch, today embarked on the initial launch of its artificial intelligence-based system that lets consumers shop and pay without stopping to check out. The company bills its technology as a way for retailers to cut labor costs by eliminating cashiers, better use store space, track inventory and protect against theft.

The company said it is in advanced talks to set up pilots of its technology with several retailers. The technology uses machine vision and artificial intelligence to identify each item and detect when items are picked up, put back or left somewhere else in the store.

It works with a pair of apps, one for the shopper and one for the store. All shoppers have to do is open the app, check in, grab their stuff and leave. The bill will be charged to the app. Those without the app will be directed by store staff to automated kiosks, similar to self-checkout stations, where they can pay with cash or credit.

The store app tells staff where customers are in the store and what they are buying. The system tracks shoppers, so if someone is trying to pocket items and walk out without paying, the technology uses predictive path finding technology to alert store employees.

The checkout-free Amazon Go concept, using similar technology to that of driverless cars, made waves when the company announced it last year. It has been in beta testing since then, with a planned public launch of early 2017. Reports indicate that Amazon has had some trouble with the technology, delaying its public debut.

We saw the need in the market for a bettercommerce solutionfor brick-and-mortar retailers that would leverage the latest AI technology to help them dramatically cut costs, get better analytics, get insight into inventory and shrinkage, and improve the checkout experience for their customers, Michael Suswal, co-founder and chief operating officer of Standard Cognition, said in a statement. It seems other companies have delayed their launches because of technical glitches caused by using out-of-date machine-learning techniques.

Amazon isnt the only retail giant looking at automating the checkout process, a move that could fundamentally shift the retail industry and have a significant impact on jobs. Walmart earlier this month debuted its Scan & Go app, which resembles a manual version of Amazon Go.

Amazon Go and Scan & Go are, at least for now, in-house technologies whereas Standard Cognition is offering its tech for retailers of all kinds.

For 99 percent of retailers who dont have the resources to deal with lost profit margins from cashier overhead, product theft and shrinkage, they are going to go out of business, Suswal said. We want to help retailers both small and large thrive and eliminate the cumbersome, expensive checkout experience as it exists today.

Suswal, the companys COO, and CEO Jordan Fisher both did stints at the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission. Several of the co-founders worked together at Pwnee Studios, a New York computer game studio.

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This Bay Area startup is arming retailers with the technology to take on Amazon Go - GeekWire

Upping your tech game at home can be fun - before you know it, you'll feel like you're living in "The Jetsons." But creating a smart house is about more than your own entertainment; it's also about saving cash and time. Many tech products are easy to install on your own, while others require a professional. Either way, technology can change your home for the better. Here are five ways it can improve your life:

Leaving a light on overnight doesn't seem like a big deal, but if you do it often enough, you're bound to burn through bulbs and notice a difference in your electric bill. With smart lighting, you can dim your lights using an app on your smartphone from another room or even another city. So, if you forget to turn off the hallway light as you leave for vacation, it won't burn the entire time you're gone. You'll just turn it off with a few taps on your phone and then sleep easy. You can also set a timer for your smart lights, ensuring they always dim or turn off at bedtime.

Sitting comfortably in your armchair and feeling too lazy to get up and turn down the heat? This is not a problem when you have a smart thermostat. Like smart lighting, this easy-to-use gadget can be controlled manually, but you can also access it from your smartphone. Some products, including Nest, are even able to sense when you're home, versus when you're away, and adjust the temperature as needed.

Smart lighting and a smart thermostat can cut your electric bill in half, but there are ways to save even more. Invest in solar panels and you may save more than $1,000 per year on utilities. While there is a significant cost associated with installing solar panels (around $10,000), tax credits are available to help you reduce your out-of-pocket expenses. Whether you're going to be in your home for the long haul or you just care about reducing your home's carbon footprint, solar panels are a great alternative to remaining on the grid.

Popular systems like Amazon Echo and Alexa add unprecedented convenience to your home. Want to find out the weather? Just ask out loud and get a response. Want to play your favorite song over an in-home speaker? These systems can be voice activated to play music. You can even Google a random factoid that escapes your memory just by asking your Amazon system to do it.

Creating a smart home may do more than make your life easier and your utilities more bearable. It can also increase the value of your home. More permanent solutions like solar panels can lead to a five-figure value increase, and smart thermostats are appealing to potential buyers. Given how easy many tech upgrades are to install and implement, using smart technology is certainly worth the effort.

Adding technology to your home is a surefire way to create a more comfortable and convenient living experience. Better yet, your pocket book may thank you. With tech advancements ever-evolving, it's becoming less and less expensive to make meaningful changes to your abode.

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Avi Savar is CEO and Managing Partner of Dreamit, a top venture accelerator and early stage investment fund. He is the author of Content to Commerce and consults globally on trends in digital media, disruptive technologies and corporate innovation. He has been featured on Fox News, Forbes, Mashable, Business Insider, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, the New York Times and is a contributing editor for Inc.

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http://www.designyourway.net/blog/inspiration/30-cool-high-tech-gadgets-to-give-your-home-a-futuristic-look/

7 Smart Home Technology Upgrades That Increase the Value of Your Home

http://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-smart-home-gadgets,review-2008.html

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5 Ways Technology Can Improve Your Home, and its Value. - Inc.com

Enlarge / It's the Sony U-Matic in all its analog glory. This device was used in the early 1970s to stream X-rated video to hotel rooms, often using a closed-circuit broadcasting device on the hotel roof.

Wikimedia

In 1973, a young Roger Ebert reviewed the movie Deep Throat. He was not yet a household name or a Pulitzer Prize winner, but he was a respected film critic. The fact that he and his peers regularly reviewed pornographic films suggested that wed entered a new era in filman era in which pornography might be viewed as art.

Turns out that wasnt the case. More than 40 years later, people are still arguing about whether porn can be art. But that doesnt mean the early '70s werent a turning point for porn. The year before Roger Ebert saw Deep Throat, the Hotel Commodore in New York City shocked the nation by announcing that it had installed a system which would let viewers watch X-rated titles in their hotel rooms. It might not be art, but porn had become a testing bed for new kinds of on-demand video technologies.

The United States was not the nation to lead the world into this new era. Japan got there first. Technology-friendly Osaka had hotels built specifically for many different combinations of sex and video. Some hotel rooms came equipped with video cameras, as well as, presumably, both an overworked technical staff and an overworked cleaning staff. Other rooms simply had a television that picked up the signal of a closed-circuit broadcasting device on the roof, creating an early form of streaming video. In 1971, one hotel's device made contact with a steel safety railing. This considerably increased the broadcast range and gave surrounding houses a glimpse of movies that not everyone appreciated.

Scandalized reports about Osakas hotels made their way across the Pacific to Los Angeles. There, groups of entrepreneurs snapped up Japanese technologynamely the Sony U-matic machineand made their own dirty little hotels with dirty little porn channels. This turned out to be a good deal both for the hotels and for Sony. The U-matic machines, which used cartridges to play different films, were too expensive for the consumer market. But they were worth it for motels, which could show the same few films over and over.

The motels, meanwhile, were explicit about what separated them from a generic family motor lodge. Advertisements encouraged patrons to rent rooms for a few days or for a few hours. Guests could unwind in luxury and privacy, watching X-rated films in their own rooms rather than going to theaters, peep shows, or arcades. That being said, a person spotted checking into an adult motel could no more argue their innocence than they could if they were spotted going into a peep show or an adult movie theater. Police raided the hotels regularly, prostitutes strolled outside, and no amount of repetition of the word luxury could make the hotels into something swank.

Museum of the City of New York

Thats why the Hotel Commodore made headlines. This was a legitimate hotel, for ordinary guests (the historic hotel was later torn down by Donald Trump, who turned it into the Grand Hyatt). Papers across the nation picked up the Commodore story, focusing on the technology as much as the films themselves. The Waukesha Daily Freeman, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, wrote about the hotel's alliance with a company called Player's Cinema Systems to deliver unedited X-rated films to its guests' hotel rooms. The films, the paper notes, are popular with businessmen. (You don't say.)

New York Magazine went further in depth on the technology behind the films: The Player's system, called The Movie Box, uses playback units with cartridges containing twelve tracks of twelve minutes each. Thus movies of up to two hours and twenty-four minutes can be put on one cartridge. The Movie Box, with the desired cartridge already installed, was delivered by a bellman to a room upon request. Guests would play it via a projection system made by Zeiss-Ikon. This, representatives of the hotel stressed, would allow responsible hotel employees to make sure that no children saw Russ Meyer's Vixen. It was custom content, delivered to your door.

The X-rated titles outsold the family fare, at least according to the hotel's general manager. This, in hindsight, was not remarkable. What was remarkable was that the hotel sold both. A family could watch Beware the Blob in one room, while a businessman watched something far less family friendlyin the next. Player's Cinema Systems could offer X-rated filmsto anyone over eighteen years old. The only problem was space: if they showed The Godfather, half an hour of running time would have to be edited out in order for the movie to fit on the cartridge.

Before the 1970s, when any movie was by necessity a public show, adult entertainment was segregated from the mainstream. It had its own theaters and sometimes its own section of town. Technology, and the promise of a great deal of money, made it just another thing to watch in a hotel roomand not the kind of hotel that gets raided by the police. What began in hotel rooms in the 1970s wound up on VCRs in the 1980s, and on the Web in the '90s and beyond. Today, a lot of adult entertainment is being streamed again. Only now it's streamed live, with performers who interact with viewers, rather than broadcast to hotel rooms from a cartridge in a U-matic. In a round-up of his porn reviews, Ebert writes, The huge cultural change since the 1970s is that now its consumed at home on video and the Web, not in steamy movie theaters and dank peep-show booths.

This was a cultural change brought about almost entirely by scientists, programmers, and engineers. In a sense, technology was what allowed respectable people to watch pornographynot by making porn into art, but by making it something we could watch in private.

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The very dirty history of on-demand video technology - Ars Technica

Looking at the sectors faring worst as of midday Monday, shares of Energy companies are underperforming other sectors, showing a 0.9% loss. Within the sector, Chesapeake Energy Corp. (Symbol: CHK) and Newfield Exploration Co (Symbol: NFX) are two large stocks that are lagging, showing a loss of 4.7% and 3.1%, respectively. Among energy ETFs , one ETF following the sector is the Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (Symbol: XLE), which is down 0.7% on the day, and down 16.72% year-to-date. Chesapeake Energy Corp., meanwhile, is down 46.23% year-to-date, and Newfield Exploration Co, is down 39.46% year-to-date. Combined, CHK and NFX make up approximately 0.9% of the underlying holdings of XLE.

The next worst performing sector is the Technology & Communications sector, showing a 0.3% loss. Among large Technology & Communications stocks, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (Symbol: AMD) and Micron Technology Inc. (Symbol: MU) are the most notable, showing a loss of 3.4% and 2.5%, respectively. One ETF closely tracking Technology & Communications stocks is the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF ( XLK ), which is down 0.2% in midday trading, and up 18.71% on a year-to-date basis. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., meanwhile, is up 5.34% year-to-date, and Micron Technology Inc. is up 35.15% year-to-date. Combined, AMD and MU make up approximately 0.8% of the underlying holdings of XLK.

25 Dividend Giants Widely Held By ETFs

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.

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Monday Sector Laggards: Energy, Technology & Communications - Nasdaq