Spatial computing company Magic Leap has snagged Microsoft executive Peggy Johnson as its new CEO.
Magic Leap is a well-known company working on revolutionizing the computing industry. The company is considered to be one of the leaders in spatial computing, which includes elements of virtual, augmented and mixed reality. The company claims its wearable, Magic Leap 1, is the most advanced XR device on the market.
Peggy Johnson brings much to the table for Magic Leap, including over three decades in leadership positions within the tech industry. She previously worked for 24 years at Qualcomm before joining Microsoft in 2014. As executive vice president of business development, she oversaw the LinkedIn acquisition, and has a solid background growing business endeavors.
“Since its founding in 2011, Magic Leap has pioneered the field of spatial computing, and I have long admired the relentless efforts and accomplishments of this exceptional team. Magic Leap’s technological foundation is undeniable, and there is no question that has the potential to shape the future of XR and computing,” said Ms. Johnson.
“As CEO, I look forward to strategically building enduring relationships that connect Magic Leap’s game-changing technology and pipeline to the wide-ranging digital needs of enterprises of all sizes and industries,” explained Ms. Johnson. “It is with great pride and sincere appreciation to the Magic Leap Board, Rony and the entire team, as well as to Satya Nadella at Microsoft, that I assume the role of leading this visionary business into the future.”
Ms. Johnson will likely be a big asset as Magic Leap continues to compete in what is becoming a highly competitive field.
As the coronavirus forces people to forgo hanging out in person, social gaming is gaining in popularity.
According to report by NPR, social games are becoming the new way people hang out, providing interaction without the risk of infection. One such example is Discord, a communication platform popular with gamers that has seen a 200% increase in signups in the last week.
Even games that are normally played in person are seeing growth, as families stay home. Jackbox Games CEO Mike Bilder told NPR that their traffic last weekend was “comparable to Thanksgiving weekend, which is a very busy time of year for us. Across the board we’ve just seen a lot of additional activity over a typical weekend.” The company has also released a guide to help people adapt and play their games remotely.
Similarly, Facebook recently announced a closed beta of its Horizon virtual reality environment, an environment designed to allow users to visit, interact, cooperate on tasks, compete with each other and more. As the pandemic continues to progress, it’s a safe bet social games and virtual reality will only continue growing in popularity.
Apple has announced a new iPad Pro that is clearly aimed at the laptop market, with a slew of powerful new features.
The new iPad Pro is powered by the A12Z Bionic chip and an eight-core GPU, allowing the tablet to outperform most PC laptops on the market today, according to Apple. Given that the 2018 iPad Pro was touted as being faster than 92% of notebooks on the market at that time, Apple’s claim about the new model is probably pretty accurate.
iPad Pro Cameras – Image Credit: Apple
The camera on the new model is equally impressive. The iPad Pro includes a 12MP Wide camera, as well as a 10MP Ultra Wide camera. There are also “studio-quality mics and a breakthrough LiDAR Scanner that delivers cutting-edge depth-sensing capabilities, opening up more pro workflows and supporting pro photo and video apps. The LiDAR Scanner, along with pro cameras, motion sensors, pro performance, pro audio, the stunning Liquid Retina display and powerful apps, extends the lead of iPad Pro as the world’s best device for augmented reality (AR).”
iPad Trackpad Support – Image Credit: Apple
The feature that will catch most users’ attention is full trackpad support. iPadOS 13.4 brings trackpad support to the iPad, and the feature particularly shines when paired with the upcoming Magic Keyboard. The new keyboard is designed to offer a laptop-style experience, suspending the iPad magnetically and giving 130 degrees of viewing angle—far better than the older Smart Keyboard. The Magic Keyboard also features pass-through USB-C charging, leaving the USB-C port on the iPad free for peripherals.
“The new iPad Pro introduces advanced technologies never before available in mobile computing,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Combining the most advanced mobile display with powerful performance, pro cameras, pro audio, the breakthrough LiDAR Scanner and new Magic Keyboard with Trackpad, this is another huge leap forward for iPad. There’s no other device in the world like the new iPad Pro and we think our customers are going to love it.”
“We’re making iPad even more capable and versatile by bringing trackpad support to iPadOS,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “We carefully considered the best way to integrate trackpad use into a touch-first environment while retaining everything our customers know and love about iPad. We’re thrilled to bring this new way of interacting with iPad to the millions of people using iPadOS today.”
iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard – Image Credit: Apple
For years, the iPad has been a beautiful and powerful piece of hardware held back by the OS. Similarly, users have been clamoring for trackpad support to help with more tedious tasks. With today’s announcement, Apple goes a long way toward addressing those issues, making the iPad a much stronger laptop replacement than it has ever been.
Minecraft is already one of the most successful video games in the world, but now it’s also serving to help preserve information in its uncensored form.
Minecraft is a nearly infinite, open-world game that lets users create virtually anything they can image. Rather than creating a building or scene from a movie or TV show, NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has created a virtual library to house works that were originally censored in their countries of origin.
“Minecraft is a favourite – one of the world’s most successful computer games, with more than 145 million active players every month,” reads the statement. “Here communities can build entire worlds out of blocks, experience the freedom of an open world. Its creative mode is often described as ‘digital Lego’. In these countries, where websites, blogs and free press in general are strictly limited, Minecraft is still accessible by everyone.
“Reporters Without Borders (RSF) used this backdoor to build ‘The Uncensored Library’: A library that is now accessible on an open server for Minecraft players around the globe. The library is filled with books, containing articles that were censored in their country of origin. These articles are now available again within Minecraft hidden from government surveillance technology inside a computer game. The books can be read by everyone on the server, but their content cannot be changed. The library is growing, with more and more books being added to overcome censorship.”
RSF’s ingenious use of Minecraft is a perfect example of the innovative ways technology—including video games—can be used to address serious issues. According to the RSF, “the Uncensored Library is accessible through Minecraft with the server address: visit.uncensoredlibrary.com.”
Facebook is accepting applications for a closed beta test of its Horizon virtual reality (VR) environment.
Horizon is the company’s attempt to merge social media with VR. Horizon offers “an ever-expanding VR world where you can explore, play, and create in extraordinary ways.” The environment is designed to grow with the creations and contributions of its inhabitants.
In addition to contributing to the environment’s growth, the social aspect comes into play in the form of competition, as well as teamwork. Participants can engage in 1v1 contests, or work together to accomplish goals.
It’s obvious that Facebook is trying to establish a positive culture right off the bat, and avoid the toxic culture that has plagued many social media platforms. The company defines a Horizon citizen as someone who “is friendly, inclusive, and curious. They are open to new adventures and take advantage of the limitless possibilities of this world. There are many ways to play and create here – and Horizon citizens are enthusiastic of the countless kinds of fun to explore.” Horizon will also offer “Locals,” community guides whose job it is to welcome users and assist them in their endeavors.
With Horizon scheduled for release on the Oculus Quest and the Rift Platform in 2020, Facebook is accepting applications for closed beta and encourages users to sign up.
Schneider Electric has announced the release of the Uniflair Rack Mounted Cooling Solution, specifically aimed at edge computing and micro data centers.
The solution is aimed at freeing up floor space by using the bottom of an IT rack. This makes it ideal for applications, such as on-premise processing, where space is at a premium.
“Simply put, our new vendor-neutral, rack mounted cooling solution is right-sized for edge micro data centers and provides the right answer for cooling today’s critical edge technology,” said Maurizio Frizziero, Director of Cooling, Schneider Electric. “It offers more cooling in less space and simplifies management and maintenance, making it ideal for industries like retail, finance, health care, light manufacturing, and education.”
As 5G technology boosts edge computing, on or near-premise data processing will become far more important for a variety of technologies, such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality, virtual reality, self-driving cars and more. Solutions such as Uniflair will become an increasingly critical component, helping ensure the success of those technologies.
Verizon Business and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) are teaming up to deliver 5G applications.
The PNNL tackles some of the world’s biggest challenges, including energy efficiency, scientific discovery and national security. To aid in that goal, Verizon will be deploying its 5G Ultra Wideband at the PNNL’s Richmond, Washington facility. Together, the organizations will develop 5G applications for use in everything, ranging from first responders to chemistry to earth sciences research.
Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband promises speeds measured in gigabits rather than megabits, along with sub-millisecond lag. That performance will open a world of new possibilities for PNNL, as it researches artificial intelligence, machine learning, AR/VR and more.
“With Verizon, we plan to explore how cybersecurity will underpin 5G for critical infrastructure and how 5G will drive transformation in the protection of endpoint devices, advancement of artificial intelligence, the science behind autonomous systems and related internet of things applications,” said Scott Godwin, general manager of Corporate Partnerships & Alliances at PNNL. “This partnership fits squarely with PNNL’s commitment to explore the capability of new science and technology to further safety and security worldwide.”
“Our 5G Ultra Wideband network is built to support transformational innovations and solutions across all industries,” said Tami Erwin, CEO of Verizon Business. “There’s no doubt 5G’s increased data bandwidth and super-low lag will help play a critical role in evolving response connectivity and mission operations for first responders. We’ve seen exciting use cases come out of our 5G First Responder Lab and are thrilled to see the new applications that will arise from our work with PNNL.”
Robin Hood is about to come to life as Sherwood Forest becomes the world’s first 5G Connected Forest.
A £10m project has been approved to use a combination of 5G, virtual and augmented reality to create an immersive experience in Sherwood Forest. The investment consists of £5 million from the government, matched by a consortium led by Nottinghamshire County Council.
The technology will be used for both tourism and environmental needs, with Robin Hood brought “to life at the Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre via an incredible 3D/4D virtual reality experience.” Meanwhile, the technology will also be used to power robots and drones to help monitor the health of the forest while minimizing environmental impact.
“Nottinghamshire is once again at the forefront of latest technology, bringing together some of the best academic minds, 3D creators and experts in 5G,” said Nottinghamshire County Council leader, Councillor Kay Cutts.
“This will be the world’s first testing, of 5G, in a forest. It will bring the stories associated with Robin Hood and our ancient woodland to life in a new way.
“Together with our partners, we will create a virtual reality experience for visitors to Sherwood Forest to attract even more families and visitors to Nottinghamshire from across the UK and overseas, bringing benefits to local businesses and our economy.”
While the concept is interesting, this announcement seems to fit into the “just because it can be done, doesn’t mean it should be” category. In an era when experts are encouraging people to unplug and enjoy nature, it seems odd to be going to this length to wire nature. There’s something equally disturbing about seeing children in the forest with VR gear strapped to their heads.
The opening statement of the Nottinghamshire County Council’s announcement says “visitors to the Sherwood Forest Country Park will be able to get a 3D experience of the forest like never before.”
This writer, for one, has always been under the impression that “a 3D experience of the forest” could be achieved by simply taking a walk in one.
Ericsson researchers have set a new record for mmWave 5G, hitting 4.3Gbps download speeds.
mmWave is the fastest variety of 5G, and offers revolutionary speeds compared to 4G. Speeds are so fast that experts have long said it could disrupt entire industries, making things possible that could never be done with previous technology. Artificial intelligence, autonomous cars, mobile gaming, virtual and augmented reality are just a few of the industries 5G stands to have a major impact on.
Ericsson’s researchers have just displayed some of that promise, achieving a whopping 4.3Gbps downlink with mmWave 5G.
“This is a fantastic achievement,” said Per Narvinger, Head of Product Area Networks. “To put 4.3Gbps in context, that is the equivalent of downloading one hour of ultra-high-definition, or 4K, content from a streaming service in just 14 seconds. Ericsson is taking the next steps in ensuring service providers can deliver the best capacity and data rates over millimeter wave 5G. The 8CC aggregation solution we have successfully tested will enable not only higher speeds but also large-scale 5G deployments and new business opportunities.”
In the U.S., T-Mobile, Verizon and AT&T have all deployed mmWave 5G in parts of the country, although rollout is slow as a result of the frequency’s extremely short range. This has led T-Mobile and AT&T to complement their mmWave service with low-band 5G, which has far better range and coverage but offers speeds similar to 4G.
Ericsson’s announcement also lends weight to CEO Borje Ekholm’s recent comments that his company is at the forefront of 5G, both in terms of technology and scalability. In that interview, he said: “I find it’s a bit difficult to say that we’re behind when I see no one ahead of us.”
“We started the rollout to all of the Walmart retail environments at the end of 2019 and so far so good,” says STRIVR CEO Derek Belch. “We’ve had almost a million Associates go through different training modules. Doug McMillon actually in their earnings report a month ago did reference employee training as being one of the reasons that their earnings are what they are. So it’s definitely something that we’re seeing have a very positive effect as it relates to placing employees in these simulation-based learning environments that virtual reality affords.”
Derek Belch, founder and CEO of STRIVR, discusses the success that enterprise companies such as Walmart, Verizon, and BMW are having with their virtual reality employee training technology in an interview on CNBC:
Walmart VR Training Positively Impacting Earnings
We started the rollout to all of the Walmart retail environments at the end of 2019 and so far so good. We’ve had almost a million Associates go through different training modules. Doug McMillon actually in their earnings report a month ago did reference employee training as being one of the reasons that their earnings are what they are. So it’s definitely something that we’re seeing have a very positive effect as it relates to placing employees in these simulation-based learning environments that virtual reality affords. It’s been really cool.
Walmart VR Training – Oculus x Walmart x STRIVR
We have about 30 customers in the Fortune 500 right now. It’s definitely crossing the chasm. We’re still on our way up here in the early adopters’ phase but we’re seeing this catch on. There’s definitely product-market fit for immersive learning as we call it. This is the real deal. This is very similar to pilots in a flight simulator. Historically, we’ve trained employees or we’ve assessed employees via PowerPoint’s, videos, and lectures. Candidly, we don’t know if people are half asleep or if they’re actually engaged.
Now with virtual reality, we’re able to put people through simulation-based learning, simulation-based training, simulation-based assessment, and it’s catching on. I think by this time next year if you’re not doing something (with VR training) you’re behind in the Fortune 500. We’re seeing that this is the real deal.
VR Technology Finding Its Legs As a Useful Tool In the Enterprise
At this point, we’ve talked to everybody. There isn’t a company in the Fortune 500 that we have not talked to in some way, shape, or form. We are not working with Amazon currently. We have talked to them on and off and we’ll see where that goes. To be honest, I’m not really worried about anyone doing this themselves. This is still the very early days of virtual reality. We work very closely with Oculus, which is owned by Facebook, they’re a great partner of ours.
We take a lot of pride at STRIVR and what we call the end-to-end solution which is basically, hey, in the early days while you’re an early adopter and the technology is certainly viable and ready it’s also really difficult to scale. So we do a lot of heavy lifting for our partners, Walmart being one of them along with Verizon and BMW. We just do a lot of work for them up front while the technology is finding its legs to get to the point where computers, iPads, and cell phones are right now as a useful tool in the enterprise. I’m not worried about anybody in the next 18 months or so doing this on their own but certainly, we’ll see as the ecosystem evolves where it goes from there.
STRIVR VR Technology Being Used by Verizon
As it relates to the viability of using this as a predictive tool, this is how the Walmart use case came about with using this for assessments. Were actually patent pending right now on what we call an engagement algorithm to see how engaged somebody is during a simulation. We tell our partners all the things we’re working on behind the scenes and Walmart said they wanted to test that out to see if this would be a good use case for them.
We Take Pride That Our VR Experiences Won’t Lead To Nausea
This (disorientation) is an issue for sure. That question always comes up in every demo. “Hey, am I going to get sick? Oh, I’m good, I don’t need to put it on. I got sick last time.” This is all about how the brain works and your equilibrium. If you’re sitting or you’re standing and you put on a headset and now you’re on a rollercoaster or you’re running through an active shooter game or something like that, yeah you’re going to get nauseous because your body is static but your brain thinks that it’s doing something else.
We take a lot of pride in making sure that the experiences we build along with some of the subtle things we do in the software aren’t going to lead to nausea.
Walmart, Verizon, BMW Having Success With Virtual Reality Training Technology – STRIVR CEO Derek Belch
Watching sports may never be the same if a demo by telecommunications company Optus is any indication.
ZDNet is reporting on a demonstration Optus put on at its headquarters in Sydney, in partnership with mixed reality firm Unbnd, combining the power of mixed reality and 5G. Mixed reality (MR) is the term that covers both augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).
According to ZDNet, in the presentation Optus and Unbnd demonstrated “a 360-degree ‘virtual theatre’ that allows viewers to experience National Basketball Association (NBA) content in either 2D or 3D, such as live games and replays, while also providing access to additional mixed reality information like scores and statistics, as well as the ability to buy NBA products such as basketball jerseys.”
The technology could eventually allow viewers to watch and essentially ‘participate’ in sports that would otherwise be too dangerous for the average person. As an example, according to ZDNet, the demo “showcased an immersive sportscar racing experience which was streamed to a 5G-capable handset. In that mixed-reality experience, viewers could see three 4K video streams concurrently — ranging from driver POV streams to the main race coverage — in addition to real-time statistics such as the positions of race cars on the track map and the speed of each driver that are tracked by Internet of Things sensors.”
Optus and Unbnd’s demo is an amazing example of what’s yet to come as 5G is paired with other revolutionary technologies, such as MR.
At an event in Ireland, where he was presented with an award to recognize “the company’s contribution to FDI in Ireland,” CEO Tim Cook took the opportunity to share his vision of augmented reality’s (AR) future, according to Silicon Republic.
“I’m excited about AR,” said Cook. “My view is it’s the next big thing, and it will pervade our entire lives.”
One significant area where AR differs from virtual reality (VR) is the potential for human interaction. VR tends to segregate individuals in their own virtual environment. Any interaction with other humans depends on them having access to VR equipment and being part of the same virtual environment. AR, on the other hand, is not as exclusionary.
“I think it’s something that doesn’t isolate people,” Cook continued. “We can use it to enhance our discussion, not substitute it for human connection, which I’ve always deeply worried about in some of the other technologies.”
Cook also sees the technology being used to help people perform hands-on tasks, especially ones they may not be familiar with. He used the example of changing the oil on a vehicle as the kind of task AR could help with.
Apple has made no secret of their faith in AR, even over its more buzz-generating sibling VR. The company has integrated AR into its visitor experience at the Apple Park, and both iPhones and iPads currently support AR. Cook’s comments give a small glimpse into why the company is so bullish about the tech.
ZDNet is reporting that Samsung Heavy Industries and SK Telecom “have developed a 5G-based autonomous navigation platform that will allow ships to move to set destinations on their own.”
The first trial involved a 3.3 meter long ship outfitted with a Samsung lidar sensor connected to SK Telecom’s 5G network. A destination was set 250 kilometers away.
“The ship safely sailed to the destination and avoided obstacles, SK Telecom said. They were also able to control and monitor the ship from the centre through using the telco’s 5G network.”
According to ZDNet’s report, this is just the beginning for the two companies. They plan on developing 5G smart yards that can be used to help pilot ships close to shore, reducing the risk of human error. They also plan on expanding the technology to be able to remotely monitor and operate heavy equipment. The two companies are also working on augmented reality (AR) equipment that will provide a way of monitoring the inside of shipping containers.
Samsung and SK Telecom are providing yet another example of the possibilities 5G are opening across a range of industries.
According to a press release, Verizon and Snap, Inc., the creator of Snapchat, have teamed up to create new augmented reality (AR) tools and experiences.
The deal gives Snap access to 5G test equipment in Verizon’s labs, which the company can use to create and test boundary-pushing AR experiences that take full advantage of 5G speeds. Snap will also have its software preloaded on some Verizon 5G phones. This will likely lead to a large influx of new customers for Snap, and help it cement its spot in the AR race. Verizon, in turn, will have premium sponsorship placements in Snap Originals.
“5G will change the way people live, work and play and we’re partnering with leading companies like Snap Inc. to create unique experiences and new offerings,” said Frank Boulben, Senior Vice President of Marketing & Products, Verizon Consumer Group. “Our strategy is to partner with the best brands to ensure our customers have exclusive access to cutting edge technology and services. Our 5G Ultra Wideband technology should change the way mobile users forever experience places and events, evolving the way they see the world.”
“Major advances in high-bandwidth experiences are fueling the future of augmented reality,” said Jared Grusd, Chief Strategy Officer, Snap Inc. “We are thrilled to partner with Verizon to move the industry forward through the development of creative and innovative 5G experiences on Snapchat.”
Snap will also benefit from the many live events Verizon sponsors and hosts, providing AR experiences and introducing countless event-goers to the benefits of AR. Verizon alluded to the possibility by highlighting the potential “opportunities to experience live events in new ways through Snapchat.”
This new partnership highlights the importance of the technology to old and new companies alike.
“I don’t think that Microsoft, Amazon, or any of these big tech companies are going to go all-in and say we are going to build products that are going to be controversial, part of the kill chain, and designed specifically for DoD,” says the founder of Oculus VR and Anduril, Palmer Luckey. “Because if it reduces their consumer enterprise sales by one percent or increases controversy by one percent it’s likely not worth doing.”
Luckey added, “I don’t think that the United States leads in the technologies that are going to be relevant to the warfare of the future. I think that the US is falling behind in areas like autonomy and artificial intelligence.”
Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus VR and Anduril, discusses how Anduril can compete and win against behemoth defense contractors and big tech in an interview on CNBC:
Big Tech Won’t Build Products That Are Part of the Kill Chain
No, (I don’t think Microsoft is a rival to Anduril). Actually, I think that we’re going to be doing a lot of work with Microsoft on a lot of this stuff. You’re not going to have one company owning everything anyway. I’m glad that Microsoft and Amazon are vigorously competing for this Jedi contract. Contrast that with Google that dropped out because they said they couldn’t be sure the government was going to abide to their internal corporate ethics principles. I think that there’s a big difference though between what Amazon and Microsoft are doing with Jedi and what we’re doing. Microsoft has said that the military will always have access to their best technology and that’s true. But they also are selling to everyone. They’re building a product that’s for everyone.
Everything that we’re building is specifically for the Department of Defense. We’re not going out there and saying, let’s resell the thing where we make 90 percent of our money in the consumer or the enterprise space. We’re going to say what do they need and what is the absolute perfect thing? I don’t think that Microsoft, Amazon, or any of these big tech companies are going to go all-in and say we are going to build products that are going to be controversial, part of the kill chain, and designed specifically for DoD. Because if it reduces their consumer enterprise sales by one percent or increases controversy by one percent it’s likely not worth doing.
US Is Falling Behind In Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence
In China, you have lots of new companies doing defense work and lots of consumer technology companies doing really strong defense. China has a very strong pipeline from new tech to military deployment. I think the United States knows that they can learn a little bit from that and that they’re going to have to if they’re going to keep up with our adversaries who are honestly much better at that innovation pipeline than we are right now.
I think that we lead right now especially when it comes to conventional military force and when it comes to conventional military operations. I don’t think that the United States leads in the technologies that are going to be relevant to the warfare of the future. I think that the US is falling behind in areas like autonomy and artificial intelligence. I think that China has structural advantages over the United States because they’re willing to surveil their entire population and use it as a training system for their artificial intelligence models. I’m not saying that we should do that. I’m very much against that in fact. But we do have to realize that China has certain structural advantages.
In China, the government by law is able to take any technology they want from the private sector and use it for military purposes. In the United States, we’re lucky that our companies are even able to say I don’t want to work with the government. I don’t agree with Google’s decision to pull out of the Jedi contract, for example, but I am very supportive of their right to do so. Again, I’m not saying we need to be more like China on this. I think that would be terrible. But we do have to recognize that there are structural advantages in what they’re doing and so we have to not just do the same thing they’re doing. We have to try new things, better things, and alternate routes where they don’t really have such a strong advantage.
Lockheed, Raytheon Do Not Have The Best New Tech Talent
I think our (smaller) size actually works in our favor. If it was a big landscape of smaller highly competitive players I think we actually would have a harder time raising money. As it is investors look and they say, hey, the whole field is dominated by a handful of players that make all of the money. They’re old, they’re very slow-moving, they don’t have all the best talent. That type of market is the one where you can believe the most that somebody can come in and disrupt it.
We’re a defense technology company first. We’re not a consumer technology company dabbling in defense work. We from day one said what can we develop that really helps the US Department of Defense and that helps keep America and our allies safe. That’s why we’re building artificial intelligence powered hardware and software. I think that we have a few big competitive advantages. The first thing is that we have a really strong team that comes from areas where the experts in autonomy, computer vision, machine learning, networking, those types of things, actually are.
Lockheed, Raytheon, the traditional defense primes, they’re good at building aircraft carriers and good at building fighter interceptors but they do not have the world’s best talent when it comes to artificial intelligence, computer vision, and machine learning. That’s why our company is focusing on that. We think we can add a lot of value there that other people cannot necessarily add.
Big Tech Won’t Build Products That Are Part of the Kill Chain, Says Anduril Founder Palmer Luckey
Google CEO Sundar Pichai unveiled their Stadia game streaming platform at the 2019 Game Developers Conference in San Fransisco today. Stadia is designed to bring high-end gaming to Chrome and other devices and aims to eliminate the many barriers to gaming. It will likely be a subscription service similar to Netflix but focused on games that can be played without a console right in Chrome or other devices.
Biggest Impact of Gaming is How it Pushes Technology Forward
Perhaps the biggest impact of gaming is how it pushes us to make big leaps in computing and networking power, high fidelity graphics, and the infrastructure that supports it all. All of it is pushing computing and technology forward and I find it really exciting. At Google, we have always believed that technology should adapt to people. Not the other way around. We’ve been building towards this vision for some time. For example, when we launched Chrome a decade ago we envisioned that it could be a modern platform for web applications. We wanted to bring the power of the web to everyone including use cases that seemed impossible at that time like high-quality games.
Finally, we are making progress towards that goal. In fact, over the last two years, we’ve been hard at work on game streaming technology. Last Fall, we launched our first public test with Project Stream. But a technical test wasn’t the whole view of our ambition. It was probably the worst kept secret in the industry. Internally, we were actually testing our ability to stream high fidelity graphics over a low agency network. We learned that we could bring a triple-A game to any device with a Chrome browser and an internet connection, using the best of Google to create a powerful game platform.
Google Committed to Paying Billions to Game Developers
When we say best of Google, it always starts with our cloud and networking infrastructure. Our custom server hardware and data centers can bring more computing power to more people on planet Earth than anyone else. Today, we are in 19 regions, and in over 200 countries and territories connected by hundreds of thousands of miles of fiber optic cables. The best of Google also includes our open platforms that allow us to reach billions of people. With Google, your games will be immediately discoverable by over two billion people on a Chrome browser, Chrome Books, Chrome Cast, Pixel Devices, and we have plans to support more browsers and devices over time. That’s in addition to all of the people playing and watching games across YouTube and Google Play.
When we build these ecosystems, we always take the approach that we only succeed when our partners do. Collectively, our partners across web, Google Play, and YouTube have earned more than $110 billion over the last four years alone. We are committed to this approach here as well. So now, we have focused on our next big effort, which is to build a game platform for everyone. And, when we say for everyone, we really mean it. It is one of our most cherished values as a company. Be it Android or Chrome or AI, we are dead serious about making technology accessible for everyone.
Google is Dead Serious About Eliminating Barriers
But, if you think about games, there are a lot of barriers for users to play high-end games. Beautiful graphics really need high-end consoles or PCs. And games don’t have instant access. Think about the way the web works. You can easily share a link and it works seamlessly. We want games to feel that way too. Instantly enjoyable with access for everyone.
I think we can change the game by bringing together the power and creativity of the entire community, people who love to play games, people who love to watch games, and people who love to build games. That means all of you. We are really excited to work with you. We want to build a platform and we want you to show us what’s possible. And together, I think we can create a new games experience powered by best of Google and built for everyone.
Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon sees enormous potential for 5G to change the form factor of devices. “The most important thing is as you change your experience with 5G you’re going to want a different type of device and a different type of screen size and resolution,” says Amon. “The apps are also going to become way more powerful and you will actually have more powerful hardware that goes along with.”
I feel that there’s enormous potential for 5G to change the form factor of devices. We’re very proud of this partnership with Samsung and how they have been a great partner pioneering this new technology with us. We also see a number of different devices being announced and we see a potential for form factors to change. The most important thing is as you change your experience with 5G you’re going to want a different type of device and a different type of screen size and resolution. The apps are also going to become way more powerful and you will actually have more powerful hardware that goes along with.
Bigger screens are here to stay. I think you will see the opportunity for larger screens as you have flexible OLED technology. You’re also going to see devices that are more specialized for more capable gaming because 5G will allow you to have mainstream gaming on 5G devices. You’re going to see devices there are going to converge between productivity. Over time, we expect to see virtual reality or augmented reality devices as well as a companion to your phone that is going to be using 5G technology. We hope that they look like eyeglasses.
Qualcomm 5G PowerSave Technology
One of the big announcements we’ve made at the show (MWC Barcelona 2019), we’re very proud of it, is the Qualcomm 5G PowerSave technology. That is actually a technology that is allowing the first generation of 5G phones to allow you to have all-day battery life. We have a very mature smartphone base today and users won’t settle for any less than we have on your phones currently. I think that’s the bar for those new 5g flagships. We’re happy a number of OEMs announced phones at this show with this technology.
I will do a comparison because I think sometimes we forget about what happened in 4G. When we were about this time launching 4G technology, that was over a decade ago, we had two operators and four devices. Look where we are right now. We have 20 operators and 30 devices. It’s an order of magnitude different. Actually, it’s a proxy about how much faster 5G is going to get deployed.
AWS CEO Andy Jassy announced Amazon Textract at the AWS re:Invent 2018 conference. Textract allows AWS customers to automatically extract formatted data from documents without losing the structure of the data. Best of all, there are no machine learning skills required to use Textract. It’s something that many data-intensive enterprises have been requesting for many years.
Amazon Launches Textract to Easily Extract Usable Data
Our customers are frustrated that they can’t get more of all those text and data that are in documents into the cloud, so they can actually do machine learning on top of it. So we worked with our customers, we thought about what might solve these problems and I’m excited to announce the launch of Amazon Textract. This is an OCR plus plus service to easily extract text and data from virtually any document and there is no machine learning experience required.
This is important, you don’t need to have any machine learning experience to be able to use Textract. Here’s how it generally works. Below is a pretty typical document, it’s got a couple of columns and it’s got a table in the middle of the left column.
When you use OCR it just basically captures all that information in a row and so what you end up with is the gobbledygook you see in the box below which is completely useless. That’s typically what happens.
Let’s go through what Textract does. Textract is intelligent. Textract is able to tell that there are two columns here so actually when you get the data and the language it reads like it’s supposed to be read. Textract is able to identify that there’s a table there and is able to lay out for you what that table should look like so you can actually read and use that data in whatever you’re trying to do on the analytics and machine learning side. That’s a very different equation.
Textract Works Great with Forms
What happens with most of these forms is that the OCR can’t really read the forms or actually make them coherent at all. Sometimes these templates will kind of effectively memorize in this box is this piece of data. Textract is going to work across legal forms and financial forms and tax forms and healthcare forms, and we will keep adding more and more of these.
But also these forms will change every few years and when they do something that you thought was a Social Security number in this box turns out now not to be a date of birth. What we have built Textract to do is to recognize what certain data items or objects are so it’s able to tell this set of characters is a Social Security number, this set of characters is a date of birth, this set of characters is an address.
Not only can we apply it to many more forms but also if those forms change Textract doesn’t miss a beat. That is a pretty significant change in your capability in being able to extract and digitally use data that are in documents.
Etsy CEO Josh Silverman says that “machine learning is opening up a whole new opportunity” for the company to organize 50 million items into a discovery platform that makes buying an enjoyable experience and also is profitable for sellers.
Our mission is keeping commerce human. It’s really about in a world where automation is changing the nature of work and we’re all buying more and more commoditized things from the same few fulfillment centers. Allowing someone to harness their creative energy and turn that creativity into a business and then connect with someone in the other part of the country or in another part of the world, that’s really special. We think there’s an ever-increasing need for that in this world.
It’s about value. We’ve been really focused on delivering more value for our makers. Etsy really is a platform that brings buyers to sellers and that’s very valuable. We raised our commission from 3.5 to 5 percent commission which was I think is fair value for our sellers, particularly because we’re reinvesting 80 percent of that into the growth of the platform.
Free shipping is pretty much table stakes today. Yet only about 20 percent of items have free shipping. About half of all the items on Etsy buyers say have shipping prices that are too high and yet we grew GMS at 20 percent last quarter.
Machine Learning is Opening Up a Whole New Opportunity
Machine learning is opening up a whole new opportunity for us to take 50 million items from two million makers and make sense of that for people. We have 37 million active buyers now and many of them come just for discovery, just to see what they can find, and that is exactly the right thing for someone out there. Our job is to create that love connection. Etsy over the past 14 years, with a large team effort, has I think done a great job.
One thing I want to emphasize is the quality and the craftsmanship with so many of the products on Etsy. That’s something that has been such a delight for me. People like Kringle Workshops that make these incredible products. What we have been doing a better job and need to continue to do a better job of really surfacing the beautiful artisanally crafted products that are available at a really fair price. You’re not having to pay for warehousing, you’re not having to pay for all the other things that mass-produce things have to pay for, you’re buying directly from the person who made it. So it can be both beautiful, handcrafted, and well priced.
There are 2 million sellers, 87 percent of them are women, over 90 percent are working from home or are businesses of one, who can create a global business from their garage or their living room. Etsy does provide a real sense of community for them and that’s really powerful.
Amazon May Open New HQ in Queens Near Etsy
We feel great about our employee value proposition and come what may. Here’s what we have going for us. We think we’ve got the best team, certainly in tech companies on the eastern seaboard. We think ours is the best and we continue to attract great talent. The reason is, first and foremost, our mission is really a meaningful important mission and that matters. Great people want to work in a place with a great mission.
Second, our technology challenges are interesting. For example, search and using machine learning to make sense of 50 million items that don’t map to a catalog. Third, our culture is really special. We have been a company that’s authentically cared about diversity from the beginning. Over 50 percent of our executive staff are women, we have a balanced board, 50 percent male and female, and 32 percent of our engineers are female, which is twice the industry average. People who care about diversity and inclusion really want to come to work at Etsy. All of that is going for us and we’re happy to compete with whoever we need to.
Earnings Call Comments by Etsy CEO:
Active Buyers Grew 17 Percent
Etsy’s growth accelerated again in the third quarter to nearly 21% on a constant-currency basis. Revenue growth exceeded 41%, fueled by the launch of our new pricing structure, and our adjusted EBITDA margins grew to nearly 23%, while we also increased our investments in the business.
Active buyers grew 17% to 37 million worldwide. This is the fourth consecutive quarter that GMS has grown faster than active buyers, evidence that we are seeing increased buyer activity on the platform, which is a key proxy for improvement in frequency. We grew the number of active sellers by 8% and GMS per active seller is also increasing.
Two principal levers contributed to our progress this past quarter. The first is our continued product investment, focused on improving the shopping experience on Etsy. By making it easier to find and buy the great products available for sale on Etsy, we’re doing a better job converting visits into purchases. The second lever was our new pricing structure, which enabled us to ramp up investments in marketing, shipping improvements and customer support.
Successful Cloud Migration
We achieved a significant milestone in our cloud migration this quarter, successfully migrating our marketplace, Etsy.com, and our mobile applications to the Google Cloud with minimal disruption to buyers and sellers. This increases our confidence that the migration will be complete by the end of 2019.
Once fully migrated, we expect to dramatically increase the velocity of experiments and product development to iterate faster and leverage more complex search and machine learning models with the goal of rapidly innovating, improving search and ultimately driving GMS growth.
In fact, we’re beginning to see some of those benefits today based on the systems we’ve already migrated. I’d like to thank our engineering team for their incredible work to get this – get us to this point.
Digital marketing is now firmly embedded in our day-to-day lives; we start our day with newsletters and check our Facebook before bed. Its influence will continue to grow in 2019, and new advertising trends built on today’s digital innovations will grow along with it. It’s your job to learn to distinguish them and adapt your marketing strategy accordingly.
Here are four digital marketing trends to watch out for in 2019:
Snack Ads
Most people prefer watching videos over reading, which would explain why marketers are producing more video content. While video has madedigital avertising more dynamic, it’s also caused consumers’ already short attention to become even shorter. Luckily, snack ads are enough to keep your target audience engaged. As the name implies, these ads can be likened to snacks, something easy to digest but filling. These videos ads are less than 10 seconds long; they’re short enough to keep people interested while still getting a brand’s message across.
Consumers will be seeing more of these short ads in 2019. Youtube is already pioneering snack ads, and Fox Networks Group will reportedly follow in its footsteps by incorporating them in their linear programs and streaming services.
Voice Search
The coming years will see a deeper interaction between people, devices and applications.Researchers have forecasted that by 2020, 30 percent of web searches will be conducted without even touching the screen. Half of these searches will be done via voice commands.
It’s easy to see why voice search will play a vital role in our daily lives. Using voice to search and ask questions will elevate multi-tasking to new levels. For instance, you can do your shopping while cooking. A lot of people also find speaking to be quicker than typing. Domino’s Pizza is already using voice search technology, with customers being able to order their pizzas through Alexa.
With Google, Amazon, and Apple continuously working on improving their voice assistants, and more people expected to use smart speakers, your brand should make full use of this medium by producing relevant audio content.
Micro-moments
People are spending more than three hours a day on their smartphones, and it’s changing the way companies are trying to get the customers’ attention. The deluge of content and videos mean that brands should be able to deliver their message quickly and in an interesting way, and all in a matter of seconds. This new consumer behavior is what Google has termed “micro-moments.”
Image source: Google
Customers generally have four such moments – “I want to go,” “I want to know,” “I want to do,” and “I want to buy.” For instance, a customer is trying to decide where to eat and wants to know which restaurant is nearby.Brands can take advantage of this micro-moment by being able to provide the customers with the information they need. A Business Page on Google can help since you will appear on “Near Me” searches. Companies should also make sure they’re on platforms where customers search for information, like Amazon, Google Maps, or YouTube.
Augmented Reality
Virtual and augmented reality technology has given consumers something they want—the opportunity to be engaged in a brand’s message. A number of businesses have already embraced VR and AR’s ability to boost brand awareness and sell products. IKEA is a good example. The company’s shopping app gave prospective clients the chance to try out different design solutions before making a purchase.
Image source: YouTube
Social media platforms like Snapchat have also shown that augmented reality can expand a brand’s marketing reach and improve their interactions with customers. Snapchat’s facial and geo filter features quickly developed a following and helped the company, secure sponsors. 2019 will see AR and VR becoming a common marketing tool for companies, especially since the virtual and augmented reality markets are expected to hit $298 billion or more by 2023.
There are still several weeks left in 2018. That’s more than enough time to future-proof your brand. Take stock of these fast-rising digital marketing trends and develop a good strategy that incorporates them in your marketing plan.
The co-founder & CEO of augmented reality platform company Blippar, Ambarish Mitra, told an audience at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Portugal that within 5-7 years AR will be as ubiquitous as the Internet itself.
When you see the world with your eyes and through the eyes of a camera and something is recognized for the camera and you see some content that appears in the field of view, that is augmented reality. It is the enhancement of reality. Do not confuse it with virtual reality. Virtual reality has almost nothing to do with your immediate reality, it’s almost like escaping from reality.
It’s important to note why this industry is really relevant. Computers themselves are continuously evolving. You can see in the very early days it was all about the touchpad and the keyboard and it wasn’t a very natural behavior. Then the whole AI wave came along. What’s the role of AI? Besides artificial intelligence, I always call it IA, which is intelligent assistance. It’s here to serve us. We are not here to serve the AI.
Then touch, which is a very human function, touch computing came into play. In 2010 we saw the first birth of natural language processing. We humans talk and we want the computers to talk back at us. Then the final frontier which is vision. Vision is very important because vision is a large part of what makes us human. A lot of our cognition growing up comes from this sense which we call eyesight. Computers will one day, and beginning to already, will see and understand the world. Computer vision is very relevant.
AI and AR are Deeply Linked
We are already starting to see how computers are beginning to understand. It’s a very important branch of artificial intelligence and in a way augmented reality and AI has been positioned as very separate industries, but they’re very deeply linked. Augmented reality cannot scale until computers understand reality. It’s not just about gimmicky dinosaurs walking down a path. At one point we will see almost the entire Internet transform into an AR medium where everything in the field of view could come to life. It’s very relevant. You may not realize that even though the history of the Internet has been very words driven where you type some words and you get a response, but there are so many so many things in your everyday life which you cannot describe with words.
The next generation of computing is massively going to be vision based. AR promises to be a very lucrative industry because it is connected to the world we see and also a lot more possibilities with devices. Almost everybody has some form of an AR device because you have a camera on your phone. VR is an incredible and equally promising industry but still is a slightly niche utility because of how it moves you away from scaling or moving around the wider world.
This is the famous Gartner hype cycle which it has been applied to augmented reality as well. We started Blippar literally when it was in the very very earth early stages innovation trigger. We’ve actually been through the whole peak of inflicted expectations. We’ve raised a bunch of money and now it’s reaching a point where AR is under the scrutiny of whether it is going to deliver on its true potential.
AR Will Be as Ubiquitous as the Internet
The timing is great, five of the world’s biggest companies, not just in tech but the most valuable companies have invested in augmented reality. We are predicting that from five to seven years down the line it is really ready to be comparable and as ubiquitous as the Internet is today.
Facebook has launched an ad-based platform on AR. Snapchat has the famous face filters and of course, now Google with ARCore and Apple with ARKit are supporting the medium and making their phones compatible with it. So we believe AR is already having a positive impact.
About Blippar
Blippar is a seven-year-old British company operating out of Silicon Valley, New York, and London. Our mission was to create this ubiquitous AR platform which works on any camera device and brings the world to life. It’s been incredible the last two years with several large players coming into AR. It’s really validated the space.
When you use OCR it just basically captures all that information in a row and so what you end up with is the gobbledygook you see in the box below which is completely useless. 
Textract Works Great with Forms 
AR Will Be as Ubiquitous as the Internet 