From DSC:
Don’t rule out tvOS for some powerful learning experiences / new affordances.  The convergence of the television, the telephone, and the computer continues…and is now coming into your home. Trainers, faculty members, teachers, developers, and others will want to keep an eye on this space. The opportunities are enormous, especially as second screen-based apps and new forms of human computer interfaces (HCI) unfold.

The following items come to my mind:

Online-based communities of practice. Virtual reality, virtual tutoring. Intelligent systems. Artificial intelligence. Global learning. 24×7, lifelong learning. Career development. Flipping the classroom. Homeschooling.  Learning hubs. Online learning. Virtual schools. Webinars on steroids.

With the reach of these powerful technologies (that continue to develop), I would recommend trying to stay informed on what’s happening in the world of tvOS-based apps in the future. Towards that end, below are some items that might help.


 

techtalk-apple-feb2016

 

 

 

Apple releases Apple TV Tech Talks video series for building better tvOS apps — by AppleInsider Staff

Excerpt:

Apple on Wednesday released to developers a series of videos focusing on Apple TV and its tvOS operating system, offering a detailed look at the underlying SDK, resources and best practices associated with coding for the platform.

 

Also see:

 

TVTechTalk-fe3b2016

 

 

Addendum on 2/26/16:

  • Apple Adds Multiple New App Categories to tvOS App Store — from macrumors.com by Juli Clover
    Excerpt:
    [On 2/25/16] Apple updated the tvOS App Store to add several new app categories to make it easier for Apple TV 4 owners to find content on their devices. As outlined by AfterPad, a site that showcases Apple TV apps, the new categories are rolling out to Apple TV users and may not be available to everyone just yet. Some users may only see the new categories under Purchased Apps until the rollout is complete.

 

 

Harvard’s new official tour app leverages augmented reality — from betaboston.com

 

New York Times showcases virtual reality technology — from browndailyherald.com by Harry August
Virtual reality, used to craft more immersive storytelling, risks providing less narrative context

 

Oculus preview event to highlight multiplayer games — from uploadvr.com

 

Woofbert are using VR to bring great art to everyone — from roadtovr.com by Kent Bye
Voices of VR Podcast – Episode #303

 

Woofbert VR

woofbertVR-Feb2016

 

Microsoft developing video calling that projects people in front of yYou — from gadgets.ndtv.com by Robin Sinha

 

Facebook has created a new ‘Social VR’ team to explore how we’ll communicate in virtual reality — from businessinsider.com by Jillian D’Onfro

 

I planned out my last vacation in virtual reality — here’s what it was like — from Business Insider By Brandt Ranj

 

Augmented reality looks to future where screens vanish — from interaksyon.com by Glenn Chapman

 

VR And AR will be mobile’s demand driver, not its replacement — from techcrunch.com by Mike Hoefflinger

Excerpt:

Projections for the big players
If things go in this direction, here’s how it may play out for The Big Six:

  • Apple…
  • Google…
  • Facebook…
  • Samsung…
  • Sony…
  • Microsoft…

 

 

Addendum:

 

LeapMotion-Feb2016

 

 

 

EdTech: These four b-schools are exploring virtual reality with Oculus, Google, Samsung — from businessbecause.com by Seb Murray
Elite schools place bets on next big innovation in online learning

Excerpt:

The immersive potential of virtual reality has Silicon Valley’s finest pouring vast sums of money into headsets and other whizzy innovations.

Google, Apple and Samsung are betting that these sci-fi concepts will become a staple of everyday life, with potential uses in gaming, advertising, marketing and increasingly, education.

The hype surrounding VR and the more complex augmented reality, is not lost on universities and business schools, who are eyeing its early pioneers and conducting secretive trials of head-mounted VR displays.

Four of the world’s top-ranked schools have told BusinessBecause they are exploring VR in tie-ups with Oculus, Samsung, and Google, as they place bets on the next big innovation in online learning.

 

 

How Google is reimagining books — from fastcodesign.com by Meg Miller
Editions at Play” sees designers and authors working simultaneously to build a new type of e-book from the ground up.

Excerpt:

The first sign that Reif Larsen’s Entrances & Exits is not a typical e-book comes at the table of contents, which is just a list of chapters titled “Location Unknown.” Click on one of them, and you’ll be transported to a location (unknown) inside Google Street View, facing a door. Choose to enter the house and that’s where the narrative, a sort of choose-your-own-adventure string of vignettes, begins. As the book’s description reads, it’s a “Borgeian love story” that “seamlessly spans the globe” and it represents a fresh approach to the book publishing industry.

Larsen’s book is one of the inaugural titles from Editions at Play, a joint e-books publishing venture between Google Creative Lab Sydney and the design-driven publishing house Visual Editions, which launched this week. With the mission of reimagining what an e-book can be, Editions at Play brings together the author, developers, and designers to work simultaneously on building a story from the ground up. They are the opposite of the usual physical-turned-digital-books; rather, they’re books that “cannot be printed.”

 

From DSC:
Interesting to note the use of teams of specialists here…

 

 

 

Interactive app brings 4th-century thinker to life — from campustechnology.com by Toni Fuhrman
At Villanova University, a student-developed app version of Augustine’s Confessions brings contemporary vitality and relevance to a classic 4th-century work.

Excerpt:

Augustine of Hippo, who lived from A.D. 354 to 430, might be surprised to find his Confessions in circulation today, including a number of e-book versions. Still widely read, popular in great books programs and studied in university classes, The Confessions of St. Augustine is autobiography and confession, spiritual quest and emotional journey.

One of the most recent electronic versions of the Confessions is an interactive app developed at Villanova University (PA), the nation’s only Augustinian Catholic University. Released three months ago on Augustine’s birthday (Nov. 13), the Confessions app is required for all freshmen as part of a “foundation” course. Available for both Apple and Android devices, the app includes the 13 books of the Confessions, authoritative commentaries, photo gallery, timeline, map and text-highlighted audio, as well as search, note-taking, annotation and bookmark options.

 

“What better way to reflect on and update this struggle than for today’s students to use technology to bring the text to life through visual, audio and analytical components?”

 

 

 

Confessions-Feb2016

 

 

From DSC:
Love the idea. Love the use of teams — including students — to produce this app!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winner revealed for Microsoft’s HoloLens App Competition — from vrfocus.com by Peter Graham

Excerpt:

Out of the thousands of ideas entered, Airquarium, Grab the Idol and Galaxy Explorer were the three that made it through. Out of those the eventual winner was Galaxy Explorer with a total of 58 per cent of the votes. The app aims to give users the ability to wander the Milky Way and learn about our galaxy. Navigating through the stars and landing on the myriad of planets that are out there.

 

 

 

Also see:

Virtual Reality in 2016: What to expect from Google, Facebook, HTC and others in 2016 — from tech.firstpost.com by Naina Khedekar

Excerpt:

Many companies have made their intentions for virtual reality clear. Let’s see what they are up to in 2016.

 

 

Also see:

 

Somewhat related, but in the AR space:

Except:
Augmented reality(AR) has continued to gain momentum in the educational landscape over the past couple of years. These educators featured below have dove in head first using AR in their classrooms and schools. They continue to share excellent resources to help educators see how augmented reality can engage students and deepen understanding.

 

 

 

Intel launches x-ray-like glasses that allow wearers to ‘see inside’ objects — from theguardian.com by
Smart augmented reality helmet allows wearers to overlay maps, schematics and thermal images to effectively see through walls, pipes and other solid objects

Excerpt:

Unlike devices such as HoloLens or Google Glass, which have been marketed as consumer devices, the Daqri Smart Helmet is designed with industrial use in mind. It will allow the wearer to effectively peer into the workings of objects using real-time overlay of information, such as wiring diagrams, schematics and problem areas that need fixing.

 

 

Top 20 User Experience Blogs and Resources of 2015 — from usabilitygeek.com by Matt Ellis

Example resources from that posting:

 

ux-design-feb2016

 

 

ux-design2-feb2016

 

 

 

ux-design3-feb2016

BONUS: 15 Honorable Mentions

The following is a list of other excellent user experience blogs that did not make it in this list but are so good that they are still worth a mention. So please be sure to check them out as well!

 

From DSC:
Though I’m sure this list is missing many talented folks and firms, it’s a great place to start learning about user experience design, interface design, interaction design, prototyping, and usability testing.

 

 

 

NMCHorizonReport2016

 

New Media Consortium (NMC) & Educause Learning Initiative (ELI) release the NMC Horizon Report > 2016 Higher Ed Edition — from nmc.org

Excerpt:

The New Media Consortium (NMC) and EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) are jointly releasing the NMC Horizon Report > 2016 Higher Education Edition at the 2016 ELI Annual Meeting. This 13th edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, an ongoing research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in higher education.

The report identifies six key trends, six significant challenges, and six important developments in educational technology across three adoption horizons spanning over the next one to five years, giving campus leaders, educational technologists, and faculty a valuable guide for strategic technology planning. The report provides higher education leaders with in-depth insight into how trends and challenges are accelerating and impeding the adoption of educational technology, along with their implications for policy, leadership, and practice.

 

NMCHorizonReport2016-toc

 

 

CollabClassrmsMarkFutureHigherEd-EdDive-1-22-16

 

Collaborative classrooms mark wave of the future in higher ed — from educationdive.com by Tara García Mathewson
Student-centered models turn instructors into guides as students investigate for themselves

Excerpts:

The designs put students at the center of instruction, shifting the faculty role to one of tutor or guide.

“This changes the whole way we teach,” Benavides said.

Some colleges and universities are designing these spaces in new, modern buildings, while others are remodeling existing classrooms and making them work for this next generation of teaching and learning.

 

From DSC:
This sort of change may be uncomfortable to students and to faculty members alike. However, to shift the ownership of the learning to the student is a positive move. Why? Because we all need to be lifelong learners now.  The learning rests with each one of us now, or we could be broadsided and have a very difficult time getting back up. So to come out of college knowing how to learn…that’s a huge plus in my mind.

 

 

DanielChristian-No-longer-running-sprints--but-marathons

 

 

Also see:

 

Learning-Spaces-Guide-pkallscDotOrg

 

  • What do we want our learners to become?
  • What kind of learning experiences enable that becoming? 
  • What kind of learning spaces enable such experiences? 
  • How do we know? 

 

 

Meta-Analysis-Active-LearningSTEMApr2014

 

 

 

From DSC:
Currently, you can add interactivity to your digital videos. For example, several tools allow you to do this, such as:

So I wonder…what might interactivity look like in the near future when we’re talking about viewing things in immersive virtual reality (VR)-based situations?  When we’re talking about videos made using cameras that can provide 360 degrees worth of coverage, how are we going to interact with/drive/maneuver around such videos? What types of gestures and/or input devices, hardware, and software are we going to be using to do so? 

What new forms of elearning/training/education will we have at our disposal? How will such developments impact instructional design/designers? Interaction designers? User experience designers? User interface designers? Digital storytellers?

Hmmm…

The forecast?  High engagement, interesting times ahead.

Also see:

  • Interactive video is about to get disruptive — from kineo.com by James Cory-Wright
    Excerpt:
    Seamless and immersive because it all happens within the video
    We can now have embedded hotspots (motion tags) that move within the video; we can use branching within the video to change the storyline depending on the decisions you make; we can show consequences of making that decision; we can add video within video to share expert views, link directly to other rich media or gather real-time data via social media tools – all without leaving the actual video. A seamless experience.
    .
  • Endless learning: Virtual reality in the classroom — from pixelkin.org by David Jagneaux
    Excerpt:
    What if you could be part of the audience for Martin Luther King Jr.’s riveting “I Have a Dream” speech? What if you could stand in a chemistry lab and experiment without any risk of harm or danger? What if you could walk the earth millions of years ago and watch dinosaurs? With virtual reality technology, these situations could become real. Virtual reality (VR) is a hot topic in today’s game industry, but games are only one aspect of the technology. I’ve had fun putting  on a headset and shooting  down ships in outer space. But VR also has the potential to enhance education in classrooms.
    .
  • Matter VR

 

MatterVR-Jan2016

 

Holograms are coming to a high street near you — from telegraph.co.uk by Rebecca Burn-Callander
Can you tell what’s real and what’s not?

Excerpt:

Completely realistic holograms, that will be generated when you pass a sensor, are coming to the high street.

Some will be used to advertise, others will have the ability to interact with you, and show you information. In shops, when you find a shirt you like, the technology is now here to bring up a virtual clothes rail showing you that same shirt in a variety of colours, and even tell you which ones are in stock, all using the same jaw-dropping imaging we have previously only experienced wearing 3D glasses at the cinema.

Holograms, augmented reality – which superimposes technology over the real world – and virtual reality (VR), its totally immersive counterpart, are tipped to be the hot trends in retail next year. Pioneers of the technology are set to find increasingly entertaining, useful and commercially viable ways of using it to tempt people into bricks-and-mortar stores, and fight back against the rise of online shopping.

 

 

 

 

WaveOptics’ technology could bring physical objects, such as books, to life in new ways

 

 

Completely realistic holograms, that will be generated when you pass a sensor, are coming to the high street.

 

 

From DSC:
What might our learning spaces offer us in the not-too-distant future when:

  • Sensors are built into most of our wearable devices?
  • Our BYOD-based devices serve as beacons that use machine-to-machine communications?
  • When artificial intelligence (AI) gets integrated into our learning spaces?
  • When the Internet of Things (IoT) trend continues to pick up steam?

Below are a few thoughts/ideas on what might be possible.

A faculty member walks into a learning space, the sensors/beacons communicate with each other, and the sections of lights are turned down to certain levels while the main display is turned on and goes to a certain site (the latter part occurred because the beacons had already authenticated the professor and had logged him or her into the appropriate systems in the background). Personalized settings per faculty member.

A student walks over to Makerspace #1 and receives a hologram that relays some 30,000-foot level instructions on what the initial problem to be solved is about. This has been done using the student’s web-based learner profile — whereby the sensors/beacons communicate who the student is as well as some basic information about what that particular student is interested in. The problem presented takes these things into consideration. (Think IBM Watson, with the focus being able to be directed towards each student.) The student’s interest is piqued, the problem gets their attention, and the stage is set for longer lasting learning. Personalized experiences per student that tap into their passions and their curiosities.

The ramifications of the Internet of Things (IoT) will likely involve the classroom at some point.  At least I hope they do. Granted, the security concerns are there, but the IoT wave likely won’t be stopped by security-related concerns. Vendors will find ways to address them, hackers will counter-punch, and the security-related wars will simply move/expand to new ground. But the wave won’t be stopped.

So when we talk about “classrooms of the future,” let’s think bigger than we have been thinking.

 

ThinkBiggerYet-DanielChristian-August282013

 

 

 

Also see:

What does the Internet of Things mean for meetings? — from meetingsnet.stfi.re by Betsy Bair

Excerpt:

The IoT has major implications for our everyday lives at home, as well as in medicine, retail, offices, factories, worksites, cities, or any structure or facility where people meet and interact.

The first application for meetings is the facility where you meet: doors, carpet, lighting, can all be connected to the Internet through sensors. You can begin to track where people are going, but it’s much more granular.

Potentially you can walk into a meeting space, it knows it’s you, it knows what you like, so your experience can be customized and personalized.

Right now beacons are fairly dumb, but Google and Apple are working on frameworks, building operating systems, that allow beacons to talk to each other.

 

 

Addendum on 1/14/16:

  • Huddle Space Products & Trends for 2016 — from avnetwork.com by Cindy Davis
    Excerpt:
    “The concept is that you should be able to walk into these rooms, and instead of being left with a black display, maybe a cable on the table, or maybe nothing, and not know what’s going on; what if when you walked into the room, the display was on, and it showed you what meeting room it was, who had the meeting room scheduled, and is it free, can just walk in and I use it, or maybe I am in the wrong room? Let’s put the relevant information up there, and let’s also put up the information on how to connect. Although there’s an HDMI cable at the table, here’s the wireless information to connect.
 

The next phase of UX: Designing chatbot personalities — from fastcodesign.com by
When the conversation is the interface, experience design is all about crafting the right words.

Excerpt:

You may have heard that “conversational interfaces” are the new hotness in digital product design. Why open and close a bunch of apps on your phone to get stuff done when you can invoke a text-message-like window and just say what you want done to a chatbot? Well, here’s one reason: what if the bot is annoying or tedious to talk to? In conversational UIs, personality is the new UX.

 

 

Five ways businesses need to rethink UX in 2016 — from information-age.com by Chloe Green
How can businesses keep pace with customer expectations of their online experiences? Digital technologies are evolving fast, and with them user experience expectations.

Excerpt:

In today’s technology-driven world, the task of keeping customers happy is a constantly moving target. Not least because customer expectations of their digital interactions with a business are continually evolving.
Therefore, keeping pace with the changing expectations that customers have of their online user experience (UX), has never been more important.
Yet even digitally savvy organisations may not yet be prepared to make the necessary UX improvements to ensure they are meeting changing customer expectations in 2016. So, what are the five considerations that must be made to enable businesses to keep pace with customer expectations of their online experiences?

“Once the things in the IoT are connected and given a voice, they become more than just ‘things.’ They become part of a living experience shaped by interactions among people, places, and objects, among product, nature, and life,” said Olivier Ribet, VP of High Tech for Dassault Systemes. “They become contributors to what beckons just beyond the IoT: the Internet of Experiences. Earning a piece of the Internet of Experiences requires a higher level of strategic thinking-or Experience Thinking-but the returns promise to be higher as well.”

 

 

How the Internet of Things changes traditional design and user experience — from huffingtonpost by Phil Simon

Excerpt:

Make no mistake: Design is no longer an afterthought at progressive organizations. Companies are hiring highly paid user-experience experts en masse–a trend that will only intensify as the Internet of Things (IoT) arrives.

 

 

 

Web design trends: 6 designs to end 2015 — from webimp.com.sg

 

6designstoend2015-web-imp

 

 

 

Be careful about these 6 web design trends in 2016 — from awwwards.com
Are Hamburger Menus, Parallax Scrolling and Complex Typography a help or a hindrance?

Excerpt:

Trends in web design, like fashion trends, come and go. Sometimes trends are dictated by necessity (like responsive design). Other trends are industry shifts, such as the change from skeuomorphism to flat design.

The decision to follow a trend must depend on the needs of your users and your business. The decision should never be based solely on “it’s what the cool sites are doing”. Fads fade. A site built only on trends quickly becomes out of date.

With that in mind, let’s look at the design trends that you might want to think twice about using.

 

 

 

Top web design trends for 2016 — from creativebloq.com
We round up the hottest web design trends set to dominate 2016.

Excerpt:

Just like any other field of design, web design trends come and go with the passing of time. Unlike many other fields, however, web design has a relentless driver to change: technology. Because the basis of the platform is ever changing, some of the trends in design for the web are as a result of improvements to what’s possible as much as a reflection on changing taste.

2015 has been an interesting year in terms of web design. The visual landscape for web designers has remained largely as it was in 2014, with only a refinement of the minimalist approach that has become popular over the past few years. Underneath the aesthetic treatment of pages, however, the web has been quietly progressing.

 

 

Addendums:

  • The Most Important Design Jobs Of The Future — from fastcodesign.com
    Designers at Google, Microsoft, Autodesk, Ideo, Artefact, Teague, Lunar, Huge, New Deal, and fuseproject predict 18 new design jobs.
    Excerpt:
    Here are 18 of the most important design jobs of the future, as identified by the men and women who will no doubt do much of the hiring. Most looked three to five years out, but some peered farther into the future (see: organ designer).
  • 10 reasons to get excited about design in 2016 — from thenextweb.com
    Excerpt:
    It’s become more and more apparent that the number of screens with which designs must interact as well as the number of users is only going to grow. What’s more, the growth seems to be exponential. Equally compelling is the number of intersecting technologies for which a designer must prepare.Simply put, the challenges have never been greater, nor the solutions more complex.With such adversity comes inevitable excitement. To further enumerate the trends and techniques that are just starting to inspire widespread awe, we present to you this decennial diatribe: the top 10 reasons it’s going to be exciting to be a designer in 2016.
 

How IBM is Bringing Watson to Wine — from fortune.com by Jonathan Vanian
IBM helped the E.&J. Gallo Winery build an irrigation system that taps Jeopardy-winning technology to more efficiently water grapevines.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

IBM’s Watson super computer is learning to become a master winemaker.

At a vast vineyard outside Modesto, Calif., E&J Gallo Winery is testing a new irrigation system developed with IBM to grow grapes using less water. The plan is to eventually apply the lessons learned to Watson so that IBM’s data crunching technology can help farmers around the world.

Cutting water use can save huge amounts of money in the agriculture industry. It can also play a big role in water conservation, especially during droughts like the one that has plagued California for several years.

 

 

 

JCB tasting salon: A revolutionary wine tasting experience — from ideum.com

Excerpt:

Ideum, in collaboration with JCB by Jean-Charles Boisset, introduces an innovative new way to experience the exclusive wines within the JCB Collection, using state-of-the-art Ideum multitouch tables that digitally identify the placement of wine glasses. The full wine-tasting experience takes a group of four visitors through a flight of five wines. As new wines are introduced to the touch table, the visitors share a cinematic presentation introducing each wine. As visitors continue to taste each wine, they can access personalized tasting notes and additional information. The interactive experience takes between 40 minutes and an hour to complete.

 

ideum-winetasting-jan2016

 

Touchpress for Apple TV

touchpress-jan2016

 

beethoven-jan2016

 

 

Earthlapse

 

Earthlapse-Jan2016

 

 

Expand your vocabulary with Elevate Showdown on Apple TV — from appadvice.com by Jeff Byrnes

Excerpt:

Compete to expand your vocabulary
With Elevate Showdown, you race to match words to descriptions, playing against your friends in group mode using a custom Apple TV controller app, or versus competitors from around the world with Game Center integration. In group mode, you can play against up to three other people, while Game Center pits you head-to-head with a competitor.

 

ElevateApp-AppleTV-Jan2016

 

 

 

10 must-have Apple TV apps — from pcmag.com by Jordan Minor
Enjoy the App Store experience on your television with our Apple TV app starter set.

Excerpt (some example apps):

 

 

You can now explore 360-degree videos on Apple TV, no VR headset required — from fastcompany.com by Peter Wade
With a new app by Disney-backed virtual reality firm Littlstar, Apple TV users can access the platform’s library of 360-degree videos.

Related item:

Littlstar is the first to bring immersive 360 video to Apple TV — from twinkle.littlstar.com

Excerpt:

New York, NY – December 22, 2015 – Littlstar, the premier global network dedicated to virtual reality and 360 video, today announced the launch of its Apple TV app. The app, which is the first to bring immersive content to the new Apple TV platform, gives users access to a wide range of 360 video content from well-known brands.

 

 

Everything you need to know about the new Apple TV App Store — from blog.appfigures.com

Excerpt:

AppleTVappsbycategory-dec2015

 

 

App showdown: Roku vs. Chromecast vs. Apple TV vs. Fire TV vs. Android TV — from macworld.com

 

 

 

The tech that will change your life in 2016 — from wsj.com by Geoffrey A. Fowler and Joanna Stern
Gadgets, breakthroughs and ideas we think will define the state of the art in the year ahead

Excerpts:

  • Virtual Reality Gets Real
  • Wiser Messaging Apps
  • Safer, Smarter Drones
  • Happy New USB Port! (USB Type-C port)
  • Voice-Operated Everything
  • Chinese Phones Hit the U.S.
  • Cameras That See More
  • Streaming Channels Galore
  • Wireless Charging Everywhere
  • Independent Wearables
  • Cutting the Headphone Cord
  • A Useful Internet of Things

 

 

 

 

Technology trends 2016 — from thefuturesagency.com by Rudy de Waele

Excerpt:

It’s this time of the year again for everyone in the business to release their yearly predictions. In order to save you some time, we collected all the most important and relevant trends – from the sources that matter, in one post.

The trends have been collected by The Futures Agency partner, speaker and content curator, Rudy de Waele, and were originally published on the shift 2020 Brain Food blog and newsletter.

 

 

 

CES 2016: Smart homes, smart cars, virtual reality — from cnbc.com by Harriet Taylor

Excerpt:

Nevertheless, there are still some distinct themes this year: Products that highlight the so-called Internet of Things (IoT), the connected home, autos and virtual reality will all have a big presence.

 

 

From smart to intelligent: 2016 AV trends — from avnetwork.com by Jonathan Owens

Excerpts:

  • Sensors
  • Bring Your Own Identity
  • UCC Bridging and True Collaboration

 

 

Cloud, virtual reality among top tech trends for 2016 — from news.investors.com by Patrick Seitz

Excerpts:

  • Cloud computing
  • Voice user interfaces
  • Virtual reality
  • Autonomous Vehicles
  • Over-The-Top TV

 

 

Virtual reality, robot companions and wraparound smartphones: Top 5 tech trends due in 2016 — from scmp.com by Jack Liu

 

 

 

The headset cometh: A virtual reality content primer — from gigaom.com by Megan Logan

Excerpt:

When we talk about VR, we tend to talk in broad strokes. “Experiences,” we call them, as if that term is somehow covers and conveys the depth and disparity that exists between gaming, watching, and interacting with VR content. The reality of virtual reality, however, is not so easily categorized or described.

VR content is the big blanket term that clumsily and imprecisely covers large and vastly divergent portions of the content market as it stands. VR games, immersive video, and virtual cinema all fall under “VR content”, but they’re fundamentally different experiences, possibly appealing to very different portions of a potential mainstream VR market.

 

 

6 ways work will change in 2016 — from fastcompany.com by Jared Lindzon
Workplace trends for 2016 will be set in large part by what’s happening in the freelance world right now.

Excerpt:

Most major workplace trends don’t evolve overnight, and if you know where to look, you can already witness their approach.

Many of the trends that will come into focus in 2016 already exist today, but their significance is expected to grow and become mainstream in the year to come.

While such trends used to be set by the world’s largest companies, today many are championed by the smallest. Freelancers and independent employees need to stay ahead of future needs to ensure they are up to date with the most in-demand skills. Therefore, activity in the freelance market often serves as an early indication of the growing needs of traditional businesses.

At the same time, large organizations today are under greater threat of disruption, requiring early adoption and a heightened awareness of the surrounding business environment.

Here are some of the workplace trends that are expected to have far-reaching effects in 2016, from the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies to the home offices, cafes, and coworking spaces of the freelance economy.

 

7 top tech trends impacting innovators in 2016 — from innovationexcellence.com by Chuck Brooks

Excerpts:

  1. The Internet of Things
  2. Data Science & Digital Transformation
  3. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Augmented Reality technologies
  4. Quantum and Super Computing
  5. Smart Cities
  6. 3-D Printing
  7. Cybersecurity

 

 

 

 

Related:

 

Addendum on 1/13/16:

 

 
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