computer science

4 items re: innovative ideas, emerging technologies, and/or trends

On 10/16/2015, in 21st century, 3D, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, computer science, corporate / business world, emerging technologies, future, game-changing environment, health, ideas, innovation, science, trends, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

6 fascinating ideas that are about to change our world — from businessinsider.com by Barbara Tasch which also eventually points to a posting entitled Future technology: 22 ideas about to change our world — from sciencefocus.com

Excerpt:

Hydrogen-powered cars and refueling stations
Nearly supersonic trains
Internet for everyone
Self-driving semitrailers
Fight fire with sound
Portable water-treatment systems

The Rise of Cognitive Business — from ibm.com by John Kelly

Excerpt:

When the original Watson won on the TV quiz showJeopardy! in 2011, it was one computer tucked away in a room at IBM Research. Now it’s in our cloud, available anywhere. Back then, Watson consisted of a single software application powered by five core technologies. Today, it includes 28 cognitive services. Each represents a different mode of thinking–visual recognition, personality insights, relationship extraction and tradeoff analytics, to name a few. And more are on the way.

That’s a lot of technological progress in five years, underpinned by IBM’s deep technology capabilities in areas like data analytics, open standards, cloud services and security, and our deep knowledge of industries and professions. But just as important is the progress that we and our partners are making in applying cognitive technologies to real-world problems and opportunities.

Because of that progress, IBM is embarking today on a company-wide initiative aimed at accelerating the delivery of cognitive computing to businesses, government, and society. It’s similar to our launch of System/360 in 1964–a move that revolutionized computing and, over time, transformed the way business was done.

We believe that the world has entered a new era in the history of computing, which we call the cognitive era. IBM is committed to advancing cognitive technologies and a new way of solving problems to help transform companies, industries and professions, and to improve the day-to-day lives of individuals everywhere.

New innovation brings 3D virtual organs to the operating theater — from adigaskell.org

Excerpt:

Recently I wrote about a novel new tool to telementor surgeons as they operate on patients. The system allows the surgeon performing the operation to receive help and guidance from a more experienced peer using telecommunications equipment.

The technology, called the System for Telementoring with Augmented Reality (STAR), was documented in a recent study and harnesses a range of technologies to provide surgeons with a transparent display, and several sensors to improve the communication between mentor and mentee.

Preparing for surgery
This approach is pretty cool, yet it nonetheless only provides help and support during the surgery itself. A new health tech startup called EchoPixel is hoping to change that by providing an accurate and realistic representation of the organ being operated on prior to the surgery taking place.

The company wanted to improve the existing methods of preparing for surgery, which usually revolve around 2 dimensional images produced by CT and MRI scanners of the relevant organs.

What Will the Future of Collaboration Look Like? — from corporatetechdecisions.com by Jonathan Blackwood
Collaboration is a term whose very definition is in flux. So what will collaboration look like in the near future?

Excerpt:

The implementation of unified communication technologies has allowed for multiple offices to communicate, and placed less of a burden on employees being in office, resulting in part-time or full-time employees working from home. As a result, collaboration has centered around allowing employees to work together across distances.

“The out-of-room experience has been where all the focus has been. I think what happened, and the reason that we and Barco and Crestron have devoted so much time and money to the in-room experience is because that was really lacking,” says Rob Balgley, CEO of Mersive. “I think what you’re going to see next is the in-room experience that we’ve created, that others have created, is going to be married with the out-of-room experience, and that’s going to be the next big thing.”

From DSC:
These advancements should help us connect remote learners
with those learners meeting within a face-to-face setting.

Ginni Rometty: Forget digital—cognitive business is the future [Lorenzetti]

On 10/14/2015, in analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, computer science, corporate / business world, platforms, programming, trends, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Ginni Rometty: Forget digital—cognitive business is the future — from fortune.com by Laura Lorenzetti
A new era of cognitive business is here.

Excerpt:

IBM Chairman and CEO Ginni Rometty said that a new technological era is upon us, one that marries digital business with digital intelligence. It’s what’s known as cognitive business.

“Digital is the wires, but digital intelligence, or artificial intelligence as some people call it, is about much more than that,”…

Also see:

IBM launches yet another Watson business unit — from fortune.com by Barb Darrow
A new IBM Watson consulting unit aims to speed up the commercialization of cognitive computing—a.k.a. artificial intelligence.

Addendum on 10/15/15:

IBM’s smart computer Watson will soon help you score big with Fantasy Baseball — from finance.yahoo.com com by Julie Bort

5 items from Microsoft’s big event held on 10/6/15

On 10/07/2015, in computer science, education technology, human-computer interaction (HCI), Microsoft, programming, tablets, tools, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, wearables, by Daniel Christian

Everything You Need To Know From Microsoft’s Massive Hardware Event — from techcrunch.com by Alex Wilhelm

Excerpt:

Microsoft [on 10/6/15] announced a grip of new hardware, including Surface products, high-end smartphones, a wearable, Windows 10 for the Xbox One and its first laptop.

The laptop, called the Surface Book, stunned in an event marked largely by products Microsoft watchers were expecting.

Introducing Surface Book & Surface Pro 4 — from microsoft.com

Microsoft’s HoloLens Developer Edition Gets Date and Price — from vrfocus.com by Jamie Feltham

Excerpt:

Speaking at a Windows 10 briefing [on10/6/15] the company confirmed that applications for a HoloLens development kit are now open. Successful applicants will be able to pick up a kit for some $3,000 USD, and it will be arriving in the first quarter of 2016.

.

First HoloLens Prototypes Showcased — from vrfocus.com by Jamie Feltham

Excerpt:

Microsoft’s HoloLens mixed reality (MR) head-mounted display (HMD) is still a relatively new concept, having only been revealed to the public in January 2015. The device has remained shrouded in mystery since that time, making a handful of showings at events such as E3. The company has revealed a lot more about the kit [on 10/6/15], though, confirming that the anticipated Development Edition will be arriving in Q1 2016 for applicants in the USA and Canada at a price of $3,000 USD. Now a new video has been revealed giving a glimpse at the kit’s origins.

The new Microsoft Band offers Cortana integration, VO2 monitoring and Golf cards — from digitaltrends.com by David Curry

Excerpt:

Microsoft announced the second generation of the Microsoft Band at its event [on 10/6/15], a small update adding a new, more functional design and two sensors to track elevation and VO2 monitoring.

Addendum on 10/9/15:

Windows 10 ramps up universal apps ecosystem — from businessinsider.com

IBM Expands Watson Platform for Next Generation of Builders; Extends Industry’s Largest Portfolio of Cognitive APIs — from ibm.com

– New APIs Broaden Watson’s Language, Vision and Speech Capabilities
– Developer Tools Simplify Combining APIs and Data
– Upcoming Platform Innovations Previewed including Industry Data Sets & Robotics Integration
– New Watson Hub to Open in San Francisco

Excerpt:

SAN FRANCISCO – 24 Sep 2015: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today expanded the industry’s largest and most diverse set of cognitive APIs, technologies and tools for developers who are creating products, services and applications embedded with Watson.

The announcement was made by IBM during its forum on cognitive computing and Artificial Intelligence, where the company announced a new Watson location in San Francisco. IBM also previewed new platform innovations and research projects that will extend its industry-leading cognitive portfolio.

Excerpts from IBM Watson Ecosystem Partners in Market Building Businesses:

Student Career Counseling: Carney Labs is an education technology company that provides a platform embedded with Watson language capabilities to help schools learn about a student’s personality characteristics in order to build them a career roadmap. The Commonwealth of Virginia adopted a policy for all high schools in the state to leverage this app to use with students entering their freshman year.

Knowledge Management: Bloomfire is a cloud-based knowledge network platform that helps employees within a company easily find the information they need to do their jobs. By scanning posts within the platform and automatically creating tags via the Watson data insights API, employees at companies including Whole Foods, Dun & Bradstreet and Etsy spend less time searching for information and more time doing meaningful work to improve company performance.

Research & Development: Inno360, an enterprise research and innovation management platform provider, is embedding a powerful combination of 7 Watson APIs for language and data insights into its SaaS platform to transform the way its clients, including Fortune 50 companies, conduct research and process big data. Inno360 is able to provide its clients advanced analysis of their R&D data to resolve product issues quickly and bring new products to market more rapidly.

Talent Sourcing and Matching: UnitesUs is a cloud based hiring & recruitment platform utilizing cognitive computing and big data analysis to match prospective employees to hiring organizations based on personality, company cultural fit, and core qualifications. By analyzing the personalities of job candidates leveraging Watson language capabilities and characterizing a company’s work environment, UnitesUs uses proprietary, automated matching algorithms to help companies, including imaging and electronics company Ricoh USA and fitness gym chain 24 Hour Fitness, make better hiring decisions.

From DSC:
The following app looks to be something that the “makers” of the programming world might be interested in. Also, it could be great for those learners interested in engineering, robotics, and/or machine-to-machine communications; using this app could help start them down a very promising path/future.

From their website:

Programming re-imagined for the connected world.
Learn to program Arduino, drones, robots, connected toys, and smart home devices, all wirelessly. Tickle is easy to learn, fun to use, and 1000x more powerful!

Easy to learn, yet incredibly powerful!
Start learning programming the same way as Computer Science courses at Harvard and UC Berkeley. Tickle is used by makers and designers around the world to create custom robots and interactive projects, including Stanford University computer scientists.

Spark your imagination.
Create stunning games and interactive stories using our library of animated characters and sounds. With the ability to program devices to interact with other devices and virtual characters, the possibilities are limitless.

1000X the super (programming) power.
If you’ve tried Scratch, Hopscotch, Tynker, Blockly, Scratch Jr, Kodable, Pyonkee, mBlock, or Code.org, now you can go beyond the screen and program your own connected future.

Networks and the Nature of the Firm [O’Reilly]

On 08/31/2015, in 21st century, business, change, changing business models, computer science, corporate / business world, internet, new business models, programming, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Networks and the Nature of the Firm — from medium.com by Tim O’Reilly
The discussion around companies like Uber and Airbnb is too narrow. The issue isn’t just employment, but a huge economic shift led by software and connectedness.

Excerpt:

One of the themes we’re exploring at the Next:Economy summit is the way that networks trump traditional forms of corporate organization, and how they are changing traditional ways of managing that organization. Uber and Airbnb are textbook examples of this trend. Uber has ambitious plans to manage hundreds of thousands?—?eventually even millions?—?of independent drivers with a small core of employees building a technology platform that manages those workers. Airbnb is on track to have more rooms on offer than large hotel chains, with under a thousand employees.

…

But the Internet takes the networked firm to a new level. Google, the company that ended up as the prime gateway to the World Wide Web, provides access to a universe of content that it doesn’t own yet has become the largest media company in the world. 13–24 years olds already watch more video on YouTube, much of it user-contributed, than they watch on television. And Amazon just surpassed WalMart as the world’s most valuable retailer by offering virtually unlimited selection, including marketplace items from ordinary individuals and small businesses

From DSC:
Are we neglecting to ask some key questions within higher education? I’ll get to those questions in a moment, the ones that came to my mind after seeing the following posting:

The robots are coming for your job! Why digital literacy is so important for the jobs of the future — from theconversation.com

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

In a report released this week, the Foundation for Young Australians (FYA) claims that up to 70% of young people are preparing for jobs that will no longer exist in the future. The report also raises concerns about decreasing entry-level occupations for school leavers and the impacts of automation.

In another recent report, the Committee for Economic Development of Australia predicts that:

almost five million Australian jobs – around 40% of the workforce – face the high probability of being replaced by computers in the next 10 to 15 years.

…

The FYA report also makes the case for increased emphasis on developing digital literacy and the implementation of a digital technologies curriculum in primary school.

Digital literacy includes skills such as coding, data synthesis and manipulation, as well as the design, use and management of computerised, digital and automated systems. Success in the new work order requires these skills alongside lateral thinking, innovation, problem-solving, collaboration and entrepreneurship. Add these to the traditional literacy skills of reading and writing and you have a very complex picture of what literacy is.

With automation a real threat to future jobs, school curricula have to keep up with the times.

From DSC:
The article raises an important point: “At the same time, the question of how we are preparing students in our schools for the new work order also bears serious consideration.”

I couldn’t agree more, as there are enormous ramifications to this topic/question: Are we, in fact, preparing our students for the future that they will inherit?

I suppose I could have also titled this posting, “More reasons to support the liberal arts,” as the liberal arts lay a strong foundation for many of the twists and turns that our students (and ourselves) will encounter down the road.

However, I fear that even within our liberal arts programs, we aren’t offering quite enough new courses that would help our students deal with a rapidly changing world. For example, I would like to see more courses on futurism offered — training students to look up and pulse check a variety of items that could impact them, their families, or their businesses in the future. Also, I don’t think they are going to know how to run their own businesses or to effectively freelance, something that 30-50% of them are going to need to do (depending upon which articles and reports one reads).

Also, why aren’t we offering more online-based opportunities for students to encounter learning opportunities and discussions that involve people from all over the globe? Won’t they be on project teams like that in the future? Isn’t that occurring already?

What do you think…how are we doing here? How are things in your city, state, or country?

Should You Buy the Hype? An Inside Look at the Virtual Reality Landscape — from singularityhub.com by Howie Leibach

Excerpts:

Consequently in 2014, less than two years after the Kickstarter, Facebook acquired Oculus for $2.2 billion dollars, and in doing so legitimized the VR industry overnight.

“We’re making a long-term bet that immersive, virtual and augmented reality will become part of people’s daily life,” said Zuckerberg.

With his track record for sniffing out “what’s next” and a distribution network of 1+ billion people, many have been quick to infer VR has a very bright future. Some analysts are already predicting VR will generate $30 billion in revenue by 2020, and many of Zuckerberg’s Silicon Valley counterparts haven’t hesitated to make similar predictions.

VR is still perhaps one or two years away from going mainstream, but more consumers are being exposed to it than ever before. Advancements in headset technology regularly make front page news on CNN, the Wall Street Journal, Business Insider and Wired. VR has even infiltrated the holy grail of pop-culture, prominently featured (and lampooned) on a recent episode of South Park.

But none of this VIP treatment matters if the product can’t sell. With the consumer Oculus Rift six to twelve months away, some are still on the fence, debating if they should buy the hype.

Realistically, many businesses don’t have time to wait and are already bracing for a future with VR in it. As executives scramble to invest in their own VR initiatives, many want to know what’s actually happening in the space.

Below are excerpts from Greenlight VR’s July Research Report, which investigate trends on the state of the industry, including VR growth, investments and opportunities.

Also see:

Which Way Next? A New Singularity Hub Channel to (Re)Imagine the Future — from singularityhub.com by Sveta McShane; also see all of the items on the Which Way Next? channel.

Hackathons as a new pedagogy [Zoras]

On 07/24/2015, in 21st century, collaboration, computer science, design, experimentation, higher education, innovation, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, maker movement, pedagogy, programming, project-based learning, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, user experience (UX), using teams, by Daniel Christian

Hackathons as a new pedagogy — from edutopia.org by Brandon Zoras

Excerpts:

Students are coming out of school expected to solve 21st-century problems and enter into occupations that haven’t even been imagined yet. Schooling is not designed in this manner, so we wanted to give students an opportunity to solve problems in authentic contexts, using 21st-century skills and collaboration techniques. We wanted to break down walls between classrooms and have students use interdisciplinary skills to solve problems with teams of their peers, with mentors, and with industry professionals.

Why a Hackathon?
Hackathons have become a new way of doing business, creating products, advancing healthcare, and innovation. The energy is high, and so are the stakes. Can you turn an idea into a product over the course of a weekend? But let’s move beyond that. Let’s look at the teaching and learning within a hackathon. Hackathons are really the ultimate classroom.
…
It is within hackathons that students are utilizing their skills and knowledge to solve problems. It’s project-based learning, inquiry-based learning, and STEM all wrapped up into one activity! It’s about design thinking and truly a 21st-century learning opportunity. Students are working collaboratively within mixed-ability groups to examine problems and come up with solutions.
…
Benefits For Students
A huge learning factor is failure. Often, school protects students from failure, and students always manage to mix A with B to get C. The hackathon, though, enables a support system where, once an obstacle or failure throws a wrench in students’ plans, they work as a team to get around it.

New tools, emerging technologies, HCI, & resources to check out

On 07/13/2015, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), chemistry, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, computer science, digital learning, digital video, education technology, educational games / serious games, Microsoft, user experience (UX), user interface design, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, wearables, by Daniel Christian

Augmented Reality Chemistry Experiments with Elements 4D — from whiteboardblog.co.uk

Excerpt:

Elements 4D is a neat Augmented Reality chemistry app for iOS and Android devices which provides a fun way to look at various different chemical reactions.

The app uses blocks that are inscribed with the symbols of 36 elements from the periodic table. The site will eventually sell ready-made cubes, but you can download paper templates for free here.

When viewed through the app, these blocks instantly transform a simple, inanimate object into dynamic, dimensional, 4D representations of each element.

Also see:

elements4d’s website

Toss your manual overboard—augmented reality aims at big industry — from arstechnica.com by Lee Hutchinson
Papers, diagrams, and checklists would be replaced with intuitive visual tools.

Excerpt:

GE is focusing efforts on constructing an extensible “field maintenance manual” intended to be used for industrial equipment. The use case being tested in the labs is with oil and gas; researchers in GE’s Research Center in Brazil are building software that they hope will replace the need to deal with bulky printed maintenance manuals—manuals which have to be kept up to date and which lack any kind of interactivity.

New Microsoft Tool Takes the Pulse of Higher Education
Bing Pulse in the Classroom, a new student response system designed for higher education, launched this week.

Excerpt:

A new student response tool designed by a team at Microsoft will soon be giving teachers instant feedback on how their lessons are going.

Bing Pulse in the Classroom, a free online tool designed to make higher education lectures more dynamic, was released Thursday. The technology lets teachers ask students questions to get a real-time “pulse” of the lesson to ensure a teacher isn’t getting too far ahead of the class.
…
A feature not included in Pulse in the Classroom’s first iteration was live video streaming. Nesho says this capability will soon be added, and it could be a game changer for higher education classes that incorporate distance learning. Using a live video stream along with the Pulse feature set, the platform comes closer to an all-inclusive classroom experience.

Microsoft pioneers new ‘machine teaching’ technology to bring machine learning to the masses — from winbeta.org by Joseph Finney

Excerpt:

Tech companies are constantly building and testing technology which could cause the next paradigm shift in how the world communicates, creates, and consumes. Many big names including Google, IBM and Microsoft are investing in machine intelligence and machine learning. Now Microsoft believes they have created the next generation of machine learning which they call machine teaching. While the name ‘machine teaching’ does not instantly communicate the purpose or intent of the new tech the underlying concept is simple.

Essentially, like Henry Ford brought the automobile to the masses, Microsoft wants to bring machine learning to everyone. Many companies are focused on making their machine learning algorithms more accurate, but Patrice Simard believes more advances can be driven by bringing machine learning to the masses.

Also relevant here/see:
What Every Manager Should Know About Machine Learning — from hbr.org by Mike Yeomans
A primer on machine learning — from loop.ai
A tour of Machine Learning Algorithms #BigData #MachineLearning — from mo-data.com
In this post we take a tour of the most popular machine learning algorithms.

Microsoft launches site for teachers taking Minecraft into the classroom — from theguardian.com
Minecraft in Education portal aims to get educators sharing tips on how Mojang’s popular game can be used to teach children

The Scoop on Periscope: Broadcast Live Video to the World — from learninginhand.com by Tony Vincent
[Tony includes a nice infographic in this posting.]

First Look: Jaunt’s VR Camera Codenamed NEO — from by Jonathan Nafarrete

Excerpt:

Jaunt has announced the launch of a new professional grade VR camera series codenamed “NEO” that will enable the next generation of filmmakers to produce the highest quality VR experiences.

Industrial Design by LUNAR.

Leap Motion’s Augmented-Reality Computing Looks Stupid Cool — from wired.com

Excerpt:

This demo, in which a standard desktop computer is reimagined as a three-dimensional workstation of the future, offers a glimpse of what that might look like.

The project came out of a hackathon at Leap Motion, whose nifty gesture-recognizing sensor acts as a sort of finger-scale Kinect for desktop software. Using a prototype Leap sensor, a developer-kit Oculus Rift, a team of engineers built an augmented-reality work environment in which regular desktop applications jump out of the computer and into 3-D space. It’s a new computing interface hovering in front of a traditional personal computer sitting on a wood table—three generations of the “desktop,” one on top of another.

Apps That Rise to the Top: Tested and Approved By Teachers — from kqed.org by Katrina Schwartz

EdTech 2015: What’s Coming Down the Innovation Pipeline — from medium.com by Daniel Rezac
Brace Yourselves for a New Wave of Classroom Integration

Office 365 Open Source plugins for Moodle: getting better all the time — from msopentech.com

Excerpt:

[On June 26th, 2015] we shared the news that the upcoming Cypress release of Open edX, the most popular open source MOOC (massive open online course), will include new features for tighter integration with Office 365. Those features are the result of our open source collaboration with members of the Open edX community.

In addition to the new work we’re doing with Open edX, we continue to work with Remote-Learner (a leading Moodle partner) to make improvements and additions to the open source Office 365 plugins for Moodle. Moodle is the most popular open source learning management system (LMS), and the Office 365 plugins were released in January of this year. In this post, we’d like to share a few details about the great work Remote-Learner is doing to evolve the plugins.

New math app turns 2-D problems into 3-D solutions for Nova Scotia students — from trurodaily.com by Zane Woodford, Metro Halifax

Excerpt:

HALIFAX – A new augmented reality application for iPhones, iPads and Android devices brings math problems off the page for Nova Scotia students – illustrating angles, curves and the dreaded Pythagorean theorem in three dimensions.

© Metro Halifax/Jeff Harper
Grade 9 student Nathaniel Jarmash uses an augmented reality app
to work on his math problems at Sir Robert Borden Junior High School.

So you want to be a data scientist: A guide for college grads [Woodie]

On 06/22/2015, in analytics, career development, computer science, data related items, programming, science, workplace, by Daniel Christian

So you want to be a data scientist: A guide for college grads — from datanami.com by Alex Woodie

Excerpt:

The first piece of advice for budding data scientists is not to get frustrated by the job requirements. No recent college grad can fill is simultaneously a math/statistics genius, an expert in marketing/derivatives /cybersecurity, and a pro Python/Java/R coder. (Hint: That’s why data scientists are called unicorns—because they don’t exist!)

“There are many skills under the umbrella of data science, and we should not expect any one single person to be a master of them all,” says Kirk Borne, a data scientist with Booz Allen Hamilton. “The best solution to the data science talent shortage is a team of data scientists. So I suggest that you become expert in two or more skill areas, but also have a working knowledge of the others.”

According to Borne, you’ll do well by yourself to bone up on core data science skills such as machine learning, information retrieval, statistics, and data and information visualization. You’ll also want to know your way around a databases and data structures and have at least some programming languages under your belt, such as Python, R, SAS, or Spark. Familiarity with graph analysis, natural language processing, and optimization also looks good on your data science resume, as do data modeling and simulation.

“The good news for physics, biology, astronomy, chemistry, and other science students is that they can easily translate their science skills into a data science profession,” he says.

25 impact opportunities in U.S. K-12 education [Getting Smart & Vulcan, Inc.]

On 06/22/2015, in active learning, assessment, computer science, education, education reform, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, K-12 related, pedagogy, professional development, programming, science, STEAM-related, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

25 impact opportunities in U.S. K-12 education — by Getting Smart in partnership with Vulcan, Inc.

Excerpt:

With support from Vulcan Inc, a Paul Allen company, Getting Smart conducted a series of expert interviews with education and philanthropy leaders, and led a design workshop, to identify and vet impact investment strategies in U.S. K-12 education. This resulting report outlines opportunities where organizations can participate in making significant shifts in the American education landscape, ultimately improving student outcomes.

Through our research and interviews, approximately four dozen impact opportunities were identified in the following 10 categories and are described within the report:

Student-Centered Learning
New School Development
Professional Learning & Development
Next-Gen Assessment
Entrepreneurship Education
Portable Data & Parent Engagement
Learning Resources
Social-Emotional Learning
Early Learning
STEM, Coding & Computer Science

Also see:

EdTech 10: When impact potential is ripe — from gettingsmart.com

Excerpts:

1. Microschool, big impact. We’ve seen how microschools could, in most cities, accelerate the transition to next-gen learning. That’s why we were so excited to see AltSchool highlighted in a video on CBS News This Morning.
…
4. Mind the gap. Closing the Achievement at Three Virtual Academies, is a new report from K12 that highlights the progress of Texas Virtual Academy (leaders in Course Access in the Lone Star State), Arizona Virtual Academy, and Georgia Cyber Academy in creating opportunities for low-income students.

Everything you need to know from today’s Apple WWDC Keynote — from techcrunch.com by Greg Kumparak

Excerpts:

The Next Version Of OS X — Apple announced OS X 10.11, or “OS X El Capitan”.
iOS 9
Siri is getting smarter
Split Screen iPad Apps: Perhaps the biggest feature of all, and something that has been rumored for ages: the iPad is getting split screen apps. You’ll now be able to run two apps at once, side by side. (Split screen iPad apps are limited to the latest/most powerful iPad hardware: the iPad Air 2)
Picture in picture video
CarPlay goes wireless
Swift 2: Apple also announce Swift 2, the second iteration of their new programming language.
watchOS 2
Apple Music: As long rumored, Apple is launching a Spotify/Rdio competitor. It’s $9.99 per month, or $14.99 on a family plan (with support for up to 6 accounts)

The Apple Watch just got a lot more useful — from fastcompany.com by John Paul Titlow
Apple’s WatchOS 2 is here and it will let developers build native, much more capable apps.

Excerpt:

If you had your doubts about the Apple Watch, Cupertino just made it much more interesting. At the Worldwide Developers Conference this morning, Apple announced WatchOS 2, a new version of the watch’s operating system that lets developers build native apps for the device.

Watch OS 2 will also ship with a number of new features, like the ability to set photo watch faces, reply to email, take FaceTime audio calls, use Apple Pay’s new virtual loyalty cards, and get mass transit directions.

Apple introduces “News”: An old idea with big potential — from fastcompany.com by John Paul Titlow
WWDC 2015 Update: Apple just unveiled News, a Flipboard-Style news aggregation app that will ship with iOS 9.

Excerpt:

Apple is now a Flipboard competitor. When iOS 9 ships in the fall, it will include a new app called News, a newspaper, magazine, and blog aggregator that will feel very familiar to anyone who’s ever used Flipboard, Pulse, or one of the many other apps of this nature. The new app was unveiled by Apple’s vice president of Product Marketing, Susan Prescott, this afternoon at the company’s Worldwide Developers Conference.

Apple Maps in iOS 9 adds public transit, local business search — from cio.com by Marco Tabini

Kevin shows some of the great things developers can do with the new version of WatchKit.

The Internet of Things will give rise to the algorithm economy [Sondergaard @ Gartner]

On 06/02/2015, in 21st century, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, computer science, data related items, emerging technologies, future, game-changing environment, internet, machine-to-machine communications, marketplaces, Near Field Communication (NFC), professional development, programming, strategy, by Daniel Christian

The Internet of Things will give rise to the algorithm economy — from blogs.gartner.com by Peter Sondergaard

Excerpt:

It’s hard to avoid. Almost every CEO’s conversation about how IT is driving innovation inevitably comes back to the potential of big data. But data is inherently dumb. It doesn’t actually do anything unless you know how to use it. And big data is even harder to monetize due to the sheer complexity of it.

Data alone is not going to be the catalyst for the next wave of IT-driven innovation. The next digital gold rush will be focused on how you do something with data, not just what you do with it. This is the promise of the algorithm economy.

…

Algorithms are already all around us. Consider the driver-less car. Google’s proprietary algorithm is the connective tissue that combines the software, data, sensors and physical asset together into a true leap forward in transportation. Consider high frequency trading. It’s a trader’s unique algorithm that drives each decision that generates higher return than their competitors, not the data that it accesses. And while we’re talking about Google, what makes it one of the most valuable brands in the world? It isn’t data; it’s their most closely guarded secret, their algorithms.

A brave new world of opportunities
Where does this ultimately lead? Software that thinks. Software that does. Cognitive software that drives autonomous machine-to-machine interactions. Dare I say artificial intelligence? I dare. I did.

From DSC:
Besides Training/L&D departments and those developing strategy & vision within the corporate world…Provosts Offices take note. Computer Science programs take note. Interested students take note. Those who want to take a right turn in their careers take note.

Announcements from Google I/O 2015

On 05/29/2015, in computer science, education technology, emerging technologies, Google, internet, machine-to-machine communications, Near Field Communication (NFC), platforms, programming, technologies for your home, technology (general), tools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

Google has shipped over 1 million Cardboard VR units — from techcrunch.com by Darrell Etherington

Excerpt:

Google revealed today that Cardboard has quietly become the leading VR platform in terms of platform reach – over 1 million Cardboard units have shipped to users so far, a 100 percent increase on the 500,000 milestone it announced in December last year.

Cardboard’s progression is a testament to Google’s approach, which favors simplicity and low barriers to entry instead of freaky real verisimilitude and expensive, high-powered hardware. Google first revealed Cardboard at last year’s I/O event, throwing it out there almost as an afterthought and a seeming subtle dig at Facebook’s high-priced acquisition of Oculus VR.

Google’s Project Brillo is an OS for the home — and a lot more — from computerworld.com by Zach Miners

Excerpt:

Google has made a big play for the Internet of Things, announcing a new OS on Thursday that will connect appliances around the home and allow them to be controlled from an Android smartphone or tablet.

Dubbed Project Brillo, it’s a stripped down version of Google’s Android OS that will run on door locks, ovens, heating systems and other devices that have a small memory footprint, and allow them to communicate and work together.

Google takes another shot at mobile payments with Android Pay — from techcrunch.com by Kyle Russell

Excerpt:

At its I/O developer conference today, Google announced Android Pay, a new payments solution native to its mobile operating system. In addition to making it easier to pay at a merchant’s point of sale via NFC, the new system lets merchants integrate payments directly into their apps for selling physical goods and services using an Android Pay API rather than integrating a third-party provider like Venmo or PayPal.

Google launches Android M preview with fingerprint scanner support, Android Pay, improved permissions and battery life
— from techcrunch.com by Frederic Lardinois

Excerpt:

As expected, Google today announced the developer preview release of the next version of Android at its I/O developer conference in San Francisco. With Android M (which will get its full name once it’s released to users), Google focuses mostly on fit and finish, but the company also added a number of new features to its mobile operating system. It’s no surprise that Android M won’t feature any major new design elements. The last release, Android Lollipop, introduced Google’s Material Design language, after all, and there are still plenty of developers who haven’t even migrated their apps over.

Android M will be able to give you contextual info about what’s happening in your Android Apps — from techcrunch.com by Frederic Lardinois

Excerpt:

Google Now has long helped Android users get timely information about local traffic, movies that are playing locally and other information based on their commutes, browsing history and other data. With Android M, which Google announced today, the Now service is getting even smarter and more contextual. When you tap and hold the home button in Android M, Google will grab the information from the application you are using at that moment and Now will try to give you the right contextual information about what you are looking at in that app. Google Calls This ‘Google Now on Tap.’

Chromecast gets autoplay, queuing, second screen and multiplayer game powers — from techcrunch.com by Darrell Etherington

Excerpt:

Google’s Chromecast is a quiet little media secret agent turning the search giant into a big time home entertainment player. All told, users of Cast-enabled software have hit the little button to put their small-screen content up on the big screen a total of 1.5 billion times in the U.S. alone, and Chromecast floats other Google boats, too – users increase their YouTube viewing time by 45 percent on average once they start using the device, for instance.

Chromecast (and Cast-enabled devices, including the Nexus Player and the Nvidia Shield) is about to get more powerful, thanks to a handful of new features announced at I/O this year. These new abilities turn the streamer into a much more robust media device, making it easy to see how Cast could underpin the home theater or media room of the near future. Here’s what Chromecast developers and users can look forward to coming out of this year’s show:

Google Play gets more family-friendly with content ratings, filtering by age and interest — from techcrunch.com by Sarah Perez

Excerpt:

In April, Google announced a new developer-facing program called “Designed for Families” which allowed mobile app publishers the option to undergo an additional review in order to be included in a new section focused on kids’ apps within Google Play. Today, the company officially unveiled that section — or sections, as it turns out — at its I/O developer conference.

Parents searching Google’s mobile app store will now be able to tap on a new “Family” button indicated with a green, smiley faced star icon in order to find the family-friendly content across apps, games, movies and TV homepages.

There’s also a “Children’s Books” button on the Books homepage, where parents can also filter the selection by age range and genre.

Google’s new Cloud Test Lab lets Android developers quickly test their apps on top Android devices for free — from techcrunch.com by Frederic Lardinois

Excerpt:

Google launched a new project at its I/O developer conference today that will make it easier for developers to check how their mobile apps work on twenty of the most popular Android devices from around the world. Sadly, the service will only roll out to developers later this year, but if you are interested, you can sign up to join the pilot program here.

It’s no secret that the diverse Android ecosystem makes life harder for developers, given that they can’t simply test their apps on a small number of popular devices and assume that everything will run smoothly for all users. Most developers keep a few phones and tablets handy to test their apps on, but few have access to a wide variety of recent devices to test every revision of their apps on.

Google Photos breaks free of Google+, now offers free, unlimited storage — from techcrunch.com by Sarah Perez

Excerpt:

Google officially announced its long-rumored revamp of its photo-sharing service, Google Photos, at its I/O developer conference in San Francisco today. The killer feature? Users can now backup up full-resolution photos and videos – up to 16MP for photos and 1080p for videos – to Google’s cloud for free. The service will roll out to Android, iOS and web users starting today, the company says.

The free storage option makes more sense for those with point-and-shoot cameras, and lets you keep a copy of your photos that’s good for your typical printing and photo-sharing needs. However, those with DSLR cameras or who want to store their photos and videos in their original sizes can choose a different plan which taps into your Google Account’s 15 GB of free storage. This is what was available before, and you can add to your storage quota as needed for a fee.

Android developer news from Google I/O 2015 — from lynda.com by David Gassner

Excerpt:

The keynote featured a smorgasbord of new technologies and additions/improvements to existing platforms. A stream of presenters followed each other across the stage, each talking about what was new for 2015. They covered Android, Chrome, and Chromebooks, virtual reality, 360-degree camera arrays, a stripped-down version of Android for the internet of things, and many other geeky new toys. Here’s what’s coming to an Android device or Android developer workstation near you.

Google I/O 2015: How context is slowly killing off the mobile app menu — from zdnet.com by Kevin Tofel
Summary: Google’s new Now On Tap feature, coming with Android M, shows a future where you don’t hunt through home screens and menus to find an app. The right apps come to you.

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Announcements from Google I/O 2015

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