Nuance: Virtual Assistants will work across platforms within two years (video) — from allthingsd.com by Ina Fried

Excerpt:

Siri is good at predicting the weather on your iPhone. And Google Now can tell you a few interesting things.

But within two years, virtual assistants will be able to do a wide range of tasks from handling all types of media to making reservations to offering full control of devices. More importantly, they will work across tablets, televisions and phones.

“I think we will see virtual assistants within two years that are quite robust,” Nuance CEO Paul Ricci said, speaking at D11. “I also believe that within two years we will see that virtual assistants will work across platforms.”

Tagged with:  

Daniel-Christian-Google-Glass-May-2013

 

From DSC:
Thanks to Mr. Andrew Vanden Heuvel (one of the early explorers), I was able to briefly try Google Glass out today

I can see numerous applications involving augmented reality, journalism, videography, medicine, and other disciplines/areas.  However, I can also see how this sort of thing comes with concerns re: privacy and security. But as with any technology, the technology itself is neither good nor bad — it’s how we use it.

 

Apple Inc. (AAPL), Google Inc (GOOG), Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN): Ecosystems are widening moats — from insidermonkey.com

Apple smartphone strategy: It’s the ecosystem — news.investors.com

The strength of Apple’s ecosystem remains its greatest asset and will secure customers and profits despite slowing growth and margin dips — from tbrnewsommentary.wordpress.com by Beau Skonieczny, Analyst
iPad continued to fuel growth and healthy margins for Apple despite headwinds

 

From DSC:
Those of us working in the tech side of the house know how difficult it is to navigate this space. The targets are always moving, and determining which tool to go with has changed through these last few years.  It used to be about individual tools (and sometimes still is).  But increasingly, one needs to fly at the 50,00-foot level and ask how the ecosystems are playing out and how an individual tool fits into a greater ecosystem or platform.  Some ecosystems that come to my mind right now include: Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft.

 

 

 

Google is retiring Google Reader as of July 1, 2013.

Excerpt:

We launched Google Reader in 2005 in an effort to make it easy for people to discover and keep tabs on their favorite websites. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on July 1, 2013, we will retire Google Reader. Users and developers interested in RSS alternatives can export their data, including their subscriptions, with Google Takeout over the course of the next four months.

 

From DSC:
To Google (and others) —

You should know that when you do this sort of thing, it creates a great deal of nervousness and uncertainty in K-12 and in higher ed.  We ask, well if we go with (Google Docs, Google Drive, Google ___) will they pull it in the future? What would we do at that point? It also causes us to pause in moving things to the cloud…

Below, I will be adding some alternatives that I’ve seen people mentioning:

 

 

Addendum on 3/15/13 and in defense of Google…
As Google stated, usage is low and RSS didn’t hit the mainstream in the current form.  Which is too bad, because it’s a very promising technology!  Also from this page, here’s a solid graphic that shows the decline in usage:

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Here’s how it’ll feel to wear Google Glass –from mashable.com by Pete Pachal

 

Okglass

 

New Google Glass UI video shows off search, camera, and voice translation features — from theverge.com by Amar Toor

 

google glass ui 2 640

 

 

Google Glass in the classroom — from Andrew Barras at educationstormfront.wordpress.com

Excerpt:

Did you notice it didn’t have anything about being in a classroom? What would it look like if it did? Tie together facial recognition, speech to text transcription, and IBM’s Watson (or Google’s version of it, Google Now) and what do you get?

 

Google Glass augmented reality project now open to regular people — from readwrite.com by Dan Rowinski

 

 

 

Also see:

 

 

 

NASA hosts its first Google+ Hangout connecting with space station— from nasa.gov

Excerpt:

WASHINGTON — NASA will host its first Google+ Hangout live with the International Space Station from 11 a.m. to noon EST, Friday, Feb. 22. This event will connect NASA’s social media followers with astronauts on the ground and living and working aboard the laboratory orbiting 240 miles above Earth.

From DSC:
Talk about some serious communications!

The words “mini MOOC” come to my mind…

 

The new basis of competition and the superiority of ecosystem economics — from visionmobile.com by Michael Vakulenko

Also see:

The changing landscape of app discovery — from visionmobile.com by Andreas Pappas

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VisionMobile - The changing landscape of app discovery

 

Also see:

 

DeveloperEconomics-Feb2013

 



Also see the following infographic from
OnlinePhDPrograms.com

Making Money with iOS Education Apps

Google’s absolutely amazing & extraordinary office in Tel Aviv, Israel –from theultralinx.com by Oliur Rahman

From DSC:
Thanks Oliur for a great portfolio of images/ideas!  Here are just a few examples of some very cool spaces that encourage learning, creativity, innovation, and collaboration:

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Google Office 2

 

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Google Office 13

 

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Google Office 18

 

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Google Office 32

 

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Google Office 34

 

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Excerpt from Learning TRENDS by Elliott Masie – February 1, 2013 (emphasis DSC)

#760 – Updates on Learning, Business & Technology.
55,887 Readers – www.masie.com – twitter: emasie – The MASIE Center.
Host: Learning Directions Blended Seminars

2. Logitech Business Camera – Skype for the Classroom! I almost never endorse or highlight a product, as Learning TRENDS is vendor-neutral. But, we have been on a quest for a simple technology that finally arrived.

We wanted a camera, with High Definition capability, that could [offer remote Pan/Tilt/Zoom (PTZ) capabilities] – and also worked perfectly with both Skype, Gmail Video as well as a capture camera for content.  Why? In all of our classrooms, we have multiple large Plama/LCD Screens and wanted to add cameras for both video conferencing, class capture and knowledge clips.  While we could mount a nice single focus camera, the PTZ capability was missing.

Logitech BCC950 Conference Cam Video Conferencing Camera is perfect! We have tested in multiple settings and are delighted with the focus, quality and ease of use in a classroom or meeting room.  It has extensions that allow it to be mounted apart from the base and it would be ideal to add video capacity to a classroom – in our effort to evolve to the “connected classroom”.  The price is around $220 and we have purchased several for our Center.

 

Also see:

 

Conference Cam

Can you apply Google’s 20% time in the classroom? — from guardian.co.uk/teacher-network by Stuart Spendlow
Google offers its engineers 20% of their timetable to work on their own projects. Keen to see if it could work for education, Stuart Spendlow introduced the idea to his own classroom

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Pupils cooking

20% time developed a class of intrinsically motivated learners who strive to
make themselves proud without any fear whatsoever of making mistakes,
says Stuart Spendlow.
Photograph: Paul Doyle/Alamy

ECAR2012

 

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Example slides from today’s presentation:


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 ECAR2-2012

 

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ECAR3-2012

 

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 ECAR4-2012

 

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ECAR5-2012

 

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ECAR6-2012

 

 

From DSC:
I also support one of the questions which, paraphrasing, asked, “Do you pulse check students’ expectations?

 

Tagged with:  

Living room wars — from tnl.net by Tristan Louis

Excerpt:

Control of the TV screen is seen as a major step in the next iteration of computing. The field can be divided between hardware manufacturers, content providers and end-to-end players who are looking to provide a complete solution. The net result is that while everyone is trying to get into every other player’s field, the emerging winners may not be the ones who grab most of the headlines.

Also see:

  • The four screens — from tnl.net
    Excerpt:
    The battle for digital supremacy is increasingly being waged on 4 different screens, with much of the focus in the computing industry being focus on 2 of them. When one looks at the expanding field, however, the dynamics may be radically different than expected.

 

Addendums/see:

 

 

From DSC:
What might H2O-like functionality look like on a Smart TV?

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H20 from Harvard Law

 

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From DSC:
What educationally-related apps could something like ScreenBee address?

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From DSC:
Eventually, this will lay a solid foundation for what I’m calling “Learning from the Living [Class] Room.”

 

Also see:

  • HEVC is game changer for multi-screen and IPTV
    Excerpt:
    There is an industry consensus that HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding), the draft compression standard, will have a dramatic impact on the industry thanks to its ability to eventually halve bit rates compared to MPEG-4 AVC (H.264), the current encoding Gold Standard that it will complement but ultimately succeed. And as with all encoding, if you create sufficient extra coding efficiency to halve bit rates then you can also choose to leave bit rates the same but double picture quality, or turn the bandwidth/quality dial to any point in between. Encoder vendors are working towards deployments of the new codec as early as next year, probably starting with multi-screen TV services and fixed line IPTV.
    .
  • Indra Sistemas SA : Connected TV: Gateway to the job market for the disabled
    Excerpt:
    Thanks to this standard, researchers of the Visual Telecommunications Application Group (G@TV), through the Indra-Adecco Foundation Chair, are developing a television platform in which people with various disabilities can access services such as distance learning and job offers. It will also enable employers and the public to obtain information about disability and the integration of the disabled into the workforce.

The world is not enough: Google and the future of augmented reality — from TheAtlantic.com by Alexis C. Madrigal
The new Google FieldTrip app probes the question: What digital information do you want to see overlaid on the physical world?

Also see:

Field Trip

 

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