More than 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections occur in the U.S. every year and more than 35,000 people die as a result of those infections, according to a new CDC report. Source: Biggest Threats and Data, 2019 AR Threats Report
Blue Cross Blue Shield plans are set to launch a nationwide high-performance network, called Blue HPN, in 2021. Source: Health Leaders > BCBS TO LAUNCH BLUE HPN
When it comes to communication, it looks like the healthcare industry got stuck in a time warp. “Adoption of modern communication solutions has occurred in every other industry but healthcare,” said Brad Brooks, CEO and co-founder of TigerConnect, in a statement. Source: TigerConnect Surveys Confirm the Broken State of Communication in Healthcare
After news broke about a health data partnership between Google and Ascension Health, sparking a federal investigation, the tech giant and health system released statements defending the project. Source: Google Cloud > Our partnership with Ascension
UnitedHealth Group has named Andrew Witty, CEO of Optum, as its new president, will oversee enterprise business strategy formulation, enterprise business development and partnerships and oversight of enterprise research and development and clinical capacities in addition to his responsibilities as Optum chief executive officer. Source: UnitedHealth Group > Sir Andrew Witty Named UnitedHealth Group President
Opioid-related malpractice claims pose real risks for doctors and physician practices, according to a new report. Source: Coverys > The Red Signal Report
Juul has announced that it will voluntarily stop selling its popular Mint e-cigarette flavor ahead of an expected ban on mint-flavored electronic cigarettes from the Trump administration. Source: CNBC > Juul halts sales of its popular mint flavor
In its second-quarter as a public company, Livongo Health reported strong financial and operational performance that surged past sales and profit expectations. Source: Livongo Reports Third Quarter Financial Results
Arkuda bags $44M to target progranulin and head off inherited dementia. Armed with $44 million from the likes of Atlas Venture and Pfizer Ventures, Arkuda Therapeutics is going after progranulin, a protein that plays a role in neuronal health and lysosomal function, to treat an inherited form of dementia. The company aims to push its lead program into the clinic in 2021. Source: Global Genes > Arkuda Therapeutics Raises $44 Million to Treat Rare Form of Dementia
ASH: UPenn’s CRISPR-edited immune cells prove safe in small cancer studies. Three years after tech billionaire Sean Parker’s Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy became the first research institution to launch a human trial of CRISPR-edited cells in cancer, the scientists running that trial are reporting that the therapy has been well tolerated by three patients. Source: EurekAlert > First-In-US trial of CRISPR-edited immune cells for cancer appears safe
Uber’s self-driving car that killed pedestrians at Arizona last year due to the software unable to detect and react to jaywalkers, according to reports released by US National Transportation Safety Board. Source: ETAuto.com > Driverless Uber software could not spot jaywalkers
Biogen and Samsung expand biosimilar deals to cover Lucentis, Eylea, and China. After a successful partnership with its biosimilar joint venture Samsung Bioepis, Biogen has decided to move into more drugs and markets. In an expanded deal, Biogen is putting down $100 million upfront for copycats to Novartis and Roche’s Lucentis, Regeneron and Bayer’s Eylea, and new rights for anti-TNF drugs in China. Source: Xconomy > Biogen Adds Two More Biosimilars in $100M Deal with Samsung Bioepis
Don’t wait up. FTC delays Novartis’ Sandoz deal with Aurobindo into 2020: report. Novartis’ $1 billion asset hive-off to Aurobindo Pharma likely won’t happen this year, and once again it’s antitrust worries holding up the transaction. Amid some unusual scrutiny for pharma’s 2019 deal-making, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is reportedly looking closer at a lawsuit Aurobindo faces. Source: ETMarkets News > Aurobindo’s buyout of Sandoz assets delayed on FTC query
Teva taps new CFO, hikes legal set-aside to more than $1B as opioid deal falters. In an offer aimed at settling the thousands of opioid lawsuits it faces, Teva has proposed an eye-popping $23 billion-plus deal with plaintiffs. So far, that offer hasn’t gained much traction, though, leaving the drugmaker with a legal overhang that now tops 10 figures. Source: The New York Times > Teva Pharm Says Opioid Settlement Will Not Derail Ability to Cut Debt
AEP, Fortress JV to protect US grid. American Electric Power has formed a joint venture with industrial cybersecurity firm Fortress Information Security to better protect the US power grid from cyber threats. The Asset to Vendor Network for Power Utilities (A2V) venture will help promote collaboration among North American electricity companies. Source: DailyEnergyInsider > Fortress, AEP team up to help protect power grid from cyber threats
McDonald’s signs Virtual Power Purchase Agreements. Fast food chain McDonald’s has signed two long-term, large-scale virtual power purchase agreements (VPPAs), to buy renewable energy generated by Aviator Wind West, a wind power project located in Coke County, Texas and a solar project located in Texas. Source: Renewable Energy World > McDonald’s signs renewable virtual power purchase agreements in US
CAHORS adds LoRa for smarter power grids. Smart energy grid technology firm CAHORS Group has integrated LoRa and LoRaWAN technologies from analogue and mixed-signal specialist Semtech Corporation. The LoRa technology is being incorporated into CAHORS’ new Sentinel line fault detection solutions. They will support more accurate line fault detection in smart grid networks. Source: AP News > Semtech’s LoRa® Devices Create Smarter Grids with Accurate Line Fault Detection
Semtech’s LoRa Devices Create Smarter Grids with Accurate Line Fault Detection
ABB buys Chinese EV charging provider Chargedot. Swiss-Swedish power and automation group ABB is acquiring 67 percent of Chinese e-mobility specialist Chargedot, which supplies EV charging stations and software in the Chinese market. The move will make ABB a major supplier to a number of leading Chinese car makers, and a partner of SAIC. Source: The Business Times > ABB buys majority stake in Chinese electric vehicle charging company
VPS, Artesyn AI energy provisioning. Software defined power control specialist Virtual Power Systems (VPS) has integrated its Intelligent Control of Energy (ICE) platform into the latest power solutions from Artesyn Embedded Power. This integration allows for machine learning and AI driven provisioning of energy consumed in very large data centres. Source: Mission Critical Power > Partnership will leverage AI to deliver power efficiencies to data centres
The headline on 13 November 2019
NVIDIA, HPE to transform US Postal Service. The world’s largest postal service, the US Postal Service, is adopting end-to-end AI technology from NVIDIA to improve its package data processing. The US Postal Service will use NVIDIA EGX AI technology supplied by HPE to speed package processing, and it is predicted it will improve processing speeds by a factor of 10. Source: NVDIA News > NVIDIA Provides U.S. Postal Service AI Technology to Improve Delivery Service
Daimler cuts jobs worldwide in transformation bid. Daimler is planning to save $1 billion in costs worldwide through job reductions to buffer the high cost of moving away from petrol and diesel cars and trucks. $100 million in savings will come from the van division, and $250 million from the company’s trucks and bus division. Daimler says it sees the creation of logistics hubs on motorways as a growth area, and is planning to devote resources to growing in this area. Source: Bloomberg > Daimler’s New CEO Warns Electric-Car Shift Will Be Painful
Daimler cuts jobs worldwide in transformation bid.
UPS, HERDX deliver Blockchain-Verified Beef from US to Japan. UPS and US agri-tech solutions provider HerdX have shipped blockchain-verified traced beef from a US farm to Japan. The delivery is seen as a significant step forward in quality assurance and traceability in the beef industry and was celebrated at an event attended by US and Japanese embassy officials in Tokyo. Source: Ledger Insights > UPS partners with HerdX for blockchain beef traceability
UPS, HERDX deliver Blockchain-Verified Beef from US to Japan.
GEODIS automates Dallas logistics centre. Supply chain operator GEODIS is automating its logistics operations with technology from Massachusetts based materials handling technology specialist Vecna Robotics. Vecna robots and workflow technology have automated the horizontal transport within a 150,000 sq ft distribution centre in Dallas. Source: PR Newswire > Vecna Robotics and GEODIS Partner To Advance Autonomous Logistic Solutions
ORBCOMM platform for Controlled Atmosphere. ORBCOMM has updated its ReeferConnect and VesselConnect platforms to manage the intermodal industry’s new, energy-efficient Controlled Atmosphere containers. The move supports the logistics industry’s move to controlled atmosphere containers for refrigerated cargo transport. The new platforms allow for remote command and control of the new, energy-efficient containers. Source: ORBCOMM Supports Industry Transition to Controlled Atmosphere Containers for Refrigerated Cargo Transport
Evergreen, BlueX launch Ocean Logistics platform. US-Taiwanese digital freight platform provider BlueX Trade and Taiwanese shipping firm Evergreen Marine are collaborating to develop digitalised integrated logistics. The partnership accelerates Evergreen’s digital push into providing integrated logistics. Source: AsiaOne > Evergreen Marine and BlueX Trade Partner to Revolutionize Integrated Ocean Logistics
Nauto AI to improve Fleet Driver Behaviours. Nauto has launched an in-vehicle real-time driver behaviour learning platform to increase fleet safety and reduce reported claims. The company says that customers are finding reported claims being reduced on average by over 35 percent, with some customer reporting more than 80 percent reductions. Source: Globe Newswire > Nauto Unveils AI-Powered Driver Behavior Learning Platform for Commercial Fleets
Telit announced successfully series of live 5G industrial data tests of its new industrial-grade FN980m 5G data cardm conducted on a live 5G network in Korea, and have particular application for 5G solutions for industrial routers and gateways, fixed wireless access, video broadcasting, and private LTE/5G networks. Source: Telit completes successful first live 5G tests of new industrial-grade 5G product
Nutanix announced partnership with Hardis Group to launched Vision Insights powered by Xi IoT, supply chain optimisation solution to help companies harness the potential of cognitive services (image and voice recognition), IoT, edge computing, and machine learning technologies to improve efficiency in warehouses, factories and distribution centres. Source: Nutanix Partners with Hardis Group to Deliver Innovative IoT Solution for Supply Chain Operations
Continental to implement ITS in Hamburg. At last month’s ITS World Congress in Singapore, the city of Hamburg signed a partnership agreement with German technology company Continental on the future development of urban mobility. Source: sgCarMart > Hamburg and Continental agree on mobility partnership
Telensa expands smart street lighting in Wiltshire. Telensa has been selected by Wiltshire County Council in the UK to expand its county-wide intelligent street lighting deployment by an additional 7000 lights. The firm’s technology already controls 35,000 lights that have paid for themselves in six years through reduced energy and maintenance costs. Source: LEDS Magazine > Wiltshire County Council Expands Telensa Deployment to 42,000 Smart Streetlights
Telensa expands smart street lighting in Wiltshire.
ABB launches interactive smart city tool. Swiss engineering company ABB launched an interactive smart city online desktop tool ahead of last week’s UN World Cities Day on October 31. Source: AFP > ABB Electrification Launches Virtual ‘Smart City’
Closer collaboration needed for smart cities, says Horiba Mira. As smart cities continue to gain momentum, UK-based engineering research and test company Horiba Mira believes it is critical that automotive and infrastructure providers work more collaboratively to bring connected and automated mobility (CAM) into the mainstream. Source: SMART Highways > Collaborative work “critical” for connected and automated mobility to work, HORIBA MIRA says
Closer collaboration needed for smart cities, says Horiba Mira.
Skybolt Zack release, will be priced at $19.99 / £14.99 and €16.79 for PC and $19.19 / £17.99 and €19.99 on Nintendo Switch. Available with a limited time* 15% discount and free soundtrack download on PC at Steam, Green Man Gaming and Humble Bundle. There is also a 15% limited time* discount via the Nintendo eShop for the Nintendo Switch version.
Hutch announces the release of Rebel Racing, available now on iOS and Android via the App Store and Google Play.
Headup and Devespresso Games announce ‘The Coma 2: Vicious Sisters’ is now available in Steam’s Early Access for Windows PC, Mac, and Linux at £9.99/€11.99/$11.99. Early Access buyers will receive a free Survival Guide/Artbook and an eerie Original Soundtrack. This pack, with a combined value of £6.59/€7.99/$7.99, will be delivered with the game’s official full release in Q1 2020.
SpongeBob: Krusty Cook-Off – Available to Pre-Order or Pre-Register on Google Play or Apple App Store to unlock different platform exclusive bundles of prizes
Niantic and The Pokémon Company announced the arrival of Team GO Rocket Leaders Sierra, Cliff, and Arlo to Pokémon GO.
DeNA Co., Ltd. and The Pokémon Company released updates for Pokémon Masters, adds three new story chapters with more Pokémon from previous generations, allow players to add Calem & Espurr to their teams and partner with Torchic as the Main Character’s Pokémon. Pokémon Masters is a free-to-start game with in-app purchases on compatible Android and iOS devices.
The Endless Mission, E-Line Media’s sandbox-style creation game is set to launch on Steam’s Early Access on November 14, 2019 for $14.99.
Daedalic Entertainment releases the ambitious new team RTS A Year Of Rain onto Steam Early Access for Windows PC, available for 20% off the regular RRP and will be available at £17.19/ €19,99 for limited time. Additionally, A Year Of Rain will be available in a 2-player pack on Steam at a 40% discount.
The Pokémon Company International and Nintendo announced a specific time period when Trainers will be more likely to encounter certain Gigantamax Pokémon in the highly anticipated upcoming Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield video games. Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield are launching on November 15, 2019, exclusively on Nintendo Switch systems.
Headup and ClockStone Software will release the first DLC for Bridge Constructor Portal dubbed “Portal Proficiency” for PC, iOS & Android, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Mac, and Linux on November 12.
The headline on 05 November 2019
World of Tanks Blitz is organizing its premier esports event in the form of the Blitz Twister Cup 2019 world championships on November 9th, 2019. The event stream is set to start at 2 PM local time in Minsk (11am GMT) and will show the entirety of the tournament. European North American Asian Official WoT Blitz Youtube channel
PUBG Corporation revealed additional details around the PUBG Global Championship (PGC), which begins this weekend. The Group Stage (Nov. 8-10) and Semifinals (Nov. 15-17) will be held at the OGN Super Arena in Manhattan Beach, CA, before culminating at the Grand Finals (Nov. 23-24) at the Oakland Arena in Oakland, CA.
PGC Group 1PGC Group 2
Square Enix announce that Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition is now available digitally and physically at retailers in select countries for the PlayStation4 computer entertainment system, Windows PC/Steam, and the Xbox One family of devices, including Xbox One X, with the Stadia version launching on November 19, 2019.
Uplandme, Inc. announced Upland, a digital property buying and trading game based on real addresses that bridge the virtual and real world, offers players true ownership of digital property that they can buy, trade, and sell via an open marketplace via the EOS blockchain and non-fungible tokens.
Real Time Tactics game Dog Duty is free to play for everyone on Steam from November 4, 10:00 a.m. Pacific until November 11, 10:00 a.m. Pacific, offers players the chance to take down evil octo-bosses and provide feedback gathered by SOEDESCO to further improve Dog Duty.
Niebla Games announce the upcoming Demo Weekend of Causa, Voices of the Dusk, beginning on Saturday, November 23 at 9 am (ET), which currently in development for PC, Consoles (PS4 and Xbox One), and Mobile; and will offer cross-platform capabilities.
Codemasters has released a free Trial Version of DiRT Rally 2.0, available now on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. The full version of DiRT Rally 2.0 is available now on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Steam, Oculus, Windows 10, Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass for PC (Beta).
Ron Chaimowitz joins Kronoverse as a board advisor, effective November 1, 2019, prior to the 2020 Q1 open beta launch of Kronoverse’s skill-based strategic game, CryptoFights.
Geronimo Interactive announce that Reborn: A Samurai Awakens will launch on PlayStation VR on 5th November, priced at $14.99USD / €14.99.
Farming Simulator 20 – Farm ‘Em All in new trailer for the upcoming Nintendo Switch and mobile release on December 3. Pre-order start now.
Rune Skovbo Johansen released reveal trailer for Eye of the Temple, a VR puzzle action game that lets players explore a treacherous temple with a unique sense of immersion.
Tri-Heart Interactive announce that The Otterman Empire will be firing onto Steam, Nintendo Switch and Xbox One early 2020.
GAWOONI releases Super Panda Rush, a new kind of promotional game in partnership with Delivery Hero / foodpanda (Thailand) and BEC-Tero Music, available for free and can be played in all internet browsers on smartphones, tablets or PC.
Wargaming releases its first full retail edition of World of Warships: Legends, The Firepower Deluxe Edition, will be available in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand on November 15 for both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in most major retail stores as well as Amazon. Retail SRP: $39.99 USD/€39.99/£34.99.
Lifelong Games announces the release of Brukel, for PC on Steam, Itch.io and Game Jolt. With a release date of November 3.
Twitter drafted a new policy in which it would label deep fakes and other “manipulated media”. It’ll run a notice next to those tweets, warning people before they RT or like those tweets, and add a link to content that explains why Twitter believes that tweet was “synthetic”. Twitter says it may remove the deep fake if it threatens someone’s safety, but otherwise, it’ll leave it up. It’s now running a survey to get people’s views on this draft policy (well done
Google is going to start naming and shaming slow websites. This will help you figure out if it’s the web page that’s slow or if it’s your network connection. Google hasn’t quite figured out how it’ll label them, but this is all part of the company’s plans to showcase “high-quality” experiences.
Google is going to start naming and shaming slow websites.
Disney launched its streaming app Disney+ in the U.S. People complained that it was hard to create new accounts, browse shows, and stream content. All technical teething pains as you’d expect. But it didn’t stop Disney from getting 10 million subs on the first day.
Disney launched its streaming app Disney+ in the U.S.
YouTube scared the shit out of creators. It updated its Terms of Service to say that “YouTube may terminate your access, or your Google account’s access to all or part of the Service if YouTube believes, in its sole discretion, that provision of the Service to you is no longer commercially viable.” Everyone thought YT would shut down non-viable channels when the company meant it would end its services that were not viable.
If the “clarified” TOS is meant to inform us that certain features on YouTube may be ended, then you need to update the TOS again because, the way it’s phrased now, everyone who read it thought it was saying YouTube will ban accounts for not being profitable to YouTube. pic.twitter.com/8UDcv0ASzs
Instagram launched a TikTok copy. Reels lets you create 15-second videos, set it to music, and share them as Stories. It’s on both iOS and Android but limited to Brazil for now.
Softbank-owned Yahoo Japan is planning a $27 billion merger with Naver’s Line. This could transform Japan’s media landscape by combining news, e-commerce, and payments. This could be the shot in the arm that Line needs — it’s struggling to find new users with its app entrenched (only) in Japan, Taiwan, and Thailand.
Australia’s ABC decided not to broadcast the Tokyo Olympics live on the radio because of the costs. This ends a 67-year tradition for the broadcaster, triggering a storm of complaints.
The Atlantic has a new, redesigned app. The best thing about it: It feels like a newsletter. It starts with a “Today” screen that’s hand-curated and written by humans. The bad thing: It’s only on iOS for now.
Singapore-based theAsianparent raised a “seven-figure” Series C2 round of funding to expand into retail.The company plans to create a line of maternity and baby products. “Content companies cannot exist as content companies alone. We pivoted to being content and community with the launch of the app last year. And now, we’ve closed the loop with commerce.”
Singapore-based theAsianparent raised a “seven-figure” Series C2 round of funding to expand into retail
WordPress.com added recurring payments to the platform. “Let your followers support you with periodic, scheduled payments. Charge for your weekly newsletter, accept monthly donations, sell yearly access to exclusive content — and do it all with an automated payment system.”
Google News Initiative launched its second innovation challenge. If you’re in Singapore, they’d like to meet and explain the application process and help you understand what they’re looking for. This takes place on Friday, 22nd November, at 1 pm at Google’s Singapore office. Details and RSVP here.
Lionsgate has signed an output deal with Amazon for the U.K., giving Amazon first window streaming rights in the U.K. for the studio’s recently released and upcoming theatrical films. Source: Hollywood Reporter > Lionsgate and Amazon Sign U.K. Output Deal
The headline on 13 November 2019
The new Disney+ app is now available on LG TV models produced from 2016 through 2019 running the webOS platform, content including movies and shows from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic and more. Source: PR Newswire > Disney+ Comes To LG Smart TVs
The new Disney+ app is now available on LG TV models produced 2016 through 2019 running the webOS platform, LG Electronics USA announced today.
Facebook wants to do away with sexy emoji. We all know that the use of the eggplant emoji has nothing to do with eggplants. “It’s not a great joke. There’s no punch line, just an assumption that the viewer understands the reference: When depicted online, “eggplant” is code for “dick.”” Facebook doesn’t like this, and wanting to clamp down on it speaks to the ubiquitous legitimacy of these symbols. “Certain emojis will only be removed from Facebook and Instagram if they are used alongside a request for nude imagery, sex or sexual partners, or sex-chat conversations,” says the platform. Source: The Atlantic > Free the Eggplant
eggplant emoji
If your website loads slowly in Chrome, Google might give it a badge to shame it. They’re still experimenting with options on how to signal this to users. But speed is rewarded too: The options for the new badging will include “a loading progress bar that would appear green if the site is fast”. “We are being very mindful with our approach to setting the bar for what is considered a good user experience and hope to land on something that is practically achievable by all developers.” Source: The Verge > Google plans to give slow websites a new badge of shame in Chrome
Message on the loading screen for slow sites and green progress indicator for fast sites.
YouTube redesigned its homepage. The YouTube homepage is Comfortable, which means you see fewer video thumbnails but more information about each video. Fewer videos mean longer titles, which also makes it easier to glance at information rather than hover or click through to see the detailing. Source: The Verge > YouTube’s homepage redesign means people will see bigger thumbnails and fewer videos
Apple redesigned, of all things, their privacy pages. This is interesting not just because of what they did but why. The Verge says the new pages are “now like product pages but for privacy”. They look great, and now detail privacy features on a number of their products instead of the generic boilerplate privacy boringness that used to live in this section. Redesigning privacy says a great deal about how the company is prioritizing privacy, and making it easier for its users to understand and access it. Source: The Verge > Apple’s new privacy pages are easier to read and look way better
The U.S. government charged two former Twitter employees with spying for the Saudis. The two — a former media partnerships manager for the Middle East and a former site reliability engineer — are accused of using their positions in the company to dig into personal information about Saudi critics and thousands of other Twitter users. The account of an anonymous person who angered officials with disclosures about corruption in the Saudi leadership was among those targeted by the alleged spies. Another was an account belonging to someone close to the late Jamal Khashoggi.
Australia’s government says it won’t loosen the country’s media ownership laws anytime soon. Communications Minister Paul Fletcher says he wants more time to see how recent reforms are playing out. Media execs want more flexibility to pursue acquisitions in regional areas which they hope will help them stay competitive in the digital space.
Singapore has started to register drones that weigh more than 250g. It’s also raising penalties. First-time offenders could be jailed up to 2 years and fined up to US$37,000 for flying drones without a valid permit.
Google Discover, which pulls up a feed of recommended content in a new tab on the mobile Chrome browser, is driving more traffic to some sites than Search itself. Publishers are cautiously gleeful. “We all know the risks with algorithms. But I think this is here to stay.”
To build trust and optimism, Facebook decided to call itself FACEBOOK. You won’t see it on the app, but it appears on all corporate branding — a subtle way of telling you that Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram belong to FACEBOOK. When in doubt, put a cap on it.
Twitter is notoriously bad at shipping features that they talk about. But here’s something to look forward to — you can now follow conversations in topics that you care about. So if you’re into EPL, you just need to search for that and Twitter will give you a collection of those tweets.
YouTube Music is now available in Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Thailand.It works in 78 countries, which puts it almost on par with Spotify.
Facebook says it will do more to fight fake news ahead of Taiwan’s presidential election in January. Taiwan’s cybersecurity authorities have warned of rampant misinformation — the island gets about 30 million cyber-attacks a month believed to come from China. In August, Facebook removed seven pages, three groups, and five accounts that it said were behind “coordinated inauthentic” actions such as posing as news orgs and driving people to sites outside of Facebook.
Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network and Facebook announced a program to encourage the creation of new tools that could “improve fact-checkers’ scale, efficiency or workflow”. Grants of between $15,000-$70,000 are available.
Adobe, Twitter, and NYT are working on a way to add attributions directly to photos and other content. The tool will 1) record who created that content and 2) figure out if that content has been modified by someone else. Adobe showed how this could work in Photoshop, but didn’t say when it would be available.
The headline on 07 November 2019
Tegna reported third-quarter financial results. Successfully closed acquisitions of stations from Dispatch Broadcast Group and Nexstar Media Group which provide shareholder value, enhance portfolio of Big Four stations in key markets, further diversify geographic footprint and reinforce disciplined M&A strategy. Source: BusinessWire > TEGNA Inc. Reports 2019 Third Quarter Results
To rid an entire generation of the PTBD (Post Traumatic Browser Disorder) triggered by the use of Internet Explorer, Microsoft has redesigned the Edge logo. This is a landmark, people. The new lowercase ‘e’ looks almost nothing like the old lowercase ‘e’ of the horror story that was IE. The new logo looks like a stylized wave.
Chromium-based Edge browser new logo
Remember how Adobe pulled its Adobe Creative Cloud services from Venezuela because of U.S. government trade sanctions against the country? It’s back — with three months added on as an apology for the millions of Venezuelan design folks who were left hanging.
The headline on 05 November 2019
Enea Openwave successfully optimized Apple’s new streaming service, Apple TV+, over mobile networks, using unique traffic management technology. Video could make up 90% of 5G traffic, as additional video streaming services such as Disney+ are launching in Q4 2019. Source: Enea Openwave is First to Optimize Apple TV+ Streaming Service
Sabio launched App Science TV, it’s new advanced TV solution that enables brands to leverage data to serve highly targeted ad units via TV and mobile formats to improve the performance of ad campaigns and return on investment. Source: PR Newswire > Sabio Launches Advanced TV Solution
Apple TV Plus’ one-year free trial offer is showing error messages for some users, including “Your account is temporarily unavailable” or “You are not qualified for the hardware offer” How to fix it? Just update your devices with the latest software, log in to the Apple TV Plus website using Apple’s Safari browser, click to accept the free 12-month Apple TV Plus subscription offer, logout then relaunch the Apple TV app and sign in again. Source: Variety > Apple TV Plus Free Trial Offer Showing Error Messages for Some Users — But There’s a Fix
The headline on 01 November 2019
Twitter banned political ads on its platform, putting pressure on Facebook to follow suit. Jack Dorsey explained Twitter’s stand noted two fundamental issues that set social ads apart — 1) these are highly optimized, highly targeted; 2) and are delivered at speed. But Jack’s most astute observation is framed in the last tweet of this thread: “This isn’t about free expression. This is about paying for reach. And paying to increase the reach of political speech has significant ramifications that today’s democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle. It’s worth stepping back to address.”
A final note. This isn’t about free expression. This is about paying for reach. And paying to increase the reach of political speech has significant ramifications that today’s democratic infrastructure may not be prepared to handle. It’s worth stepping back in order to address.
Downloads of the teen-favorite TikTok app are slowing down for the first time since it launched. The decline in downloads seems correlated to how much ByteDance has been spending on ads.
A new report from DW Akademie suggests donors should think in terms of “viability” and not just “sustainability”. It said donors should adopt “core funding on principle”, rather than trying to fund specific investigations, or content on specific areas.
WhatsApp sued Israeli firm NSO, alleging the company infected devices with surveillance-ware. WhatsApp says 1,400 phones were hacked — mainly those belonging to journalists, human rights activists, political dissidents, and diplomats. NSO Group says it’ll fight the case. “The sole purpose of NSO is to provide technology to licensed government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to help them fight terrorism and serious crime.”
BBC’s news site is now available on the dark web on the Tor network. This is part of the BBC’s plan to make its content available to countries like China, Iran, and Vietnam, which have been blocking access to the BBC.
Crowdfunded startup Hong Kong Free Press has been sustaining itself through the goodwill of people. This week, a newlywed couple decided to donate all their wedding gifts to the team.
I did a talk last year about how HKFP is powered by kindness… This week, a couple decided to donate all of their wedding gifts to us – so ridiculously generous.
China’s tech news site 36Kr set the terms for its IPO in the U.S. It plans to raise $63 million, much lower than its initial target of $100 million.
Email service Substack started with a belief that there should be a better way for writers to make money from their work. “We see an enormous opportunity in this moment of reconfiguration, where new voices will emerge, new kinds of businesses will be built, and everyone can benefit from rewarding relationships.” Substack just turned two. This is where they’re headed.
Google launched its second innovation challenge for news orgs in Asia Pacific. This time, they’re looking to support projects that increase audience engagement. These projects will have “clear indicators showing the impact of the project from a user perspective and/or for a business perspective”. Google will fund up to $250,000 to selected projects. Applications close on January 7, 2020.
WAN-IFRA and Facebook launched Newsroom Transformation 2020, a six-month training program for news orgs across Southeast Asia. This program covers four key areas of digital transformation: culture, journalism, audience, and operations.
Facebook is looking for a News Program Lead in the media partnerships team to “build and operationalize new news products, including a new surface for news”. The role is based in Singapore.
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) announced that Vitess, a database clustering system, has graduated from the incubation stage. Cloud native database system reaches version 4.0 with focus on usability and performance. Source: Cloud Native Computing Foundation Announces Vitess Graduation
Deutsche Telekom is now offering its enterprise customers new IT services and applications for Apple Mac devices, includes deployment infrastructure, app development, Office 365 integration and flexible leasing. Telekom also provides AppleCare for Enterprise and device lifecycle management for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Source: Telekom Media > Telekom to offer new services for Apple business customers
Vodafone Group announced that Vivek Badrinath will be appointed CEO of its new European tower company (TowerCo) effective 1 April 2020. TowerCo will be legally separated into a new organisation and will become operational by May 2020. Source: Vodafone announces executive committee changes
The work of integrating Centina’s software within Blue Planet has already begun.
U.S. government funding in artificial intelligence has fallen short and the country needs to invest in research, train an AI-ready workforce and apply the technology to national security missions, according to an independent government-commissioned panel. Source: Reuters > U.S. urged to invest more in AI; ex-Google CEO warns of China’s progress
AT&T has added three new opt-in automatic fraud call blocking related features to its free Call Protect app, meant to help users avoid unwanted robocalls.
Calls identified as “Spam Risk” can now be blocked automatically for no charge.
Calls from anyone not in your address book can be sent to voicemail automatically.
Calls can be blocked using Siri shortcuts. “Hey Siri, block the last call.”
Inseego announced that it has donated 4G LTE MiFi mobile hotspots to the Northern California VOAD network to provide critical communications during the power outages and wildfires that have displaced hundreds of thousands of residents statewide. In addition, powered by Sprint and Verizon, Inseego is donating backup batteries and solar-powered portable chargers for recharging wireless devices in remote locations and harsh conditions. Source: BusinessWire > San Diego-based Inseego Donates Mobile Hotspots to Disaster Relief Organizations Throughout the State of California
The global UCaaS marketplace is projected to exceed $24.88 Billion by 2021. That’s a tremendous opportunity for MSPs, VARs, and IT solution providers of all sizes.
How to Become a One-Stop-Shop for Your Customers by Offering UCaaS
In this detailed guide, we cover how, by offering UCaaS solutions to your customers, you can:
Consolidate services to a single platform, increasing efficiency
Reduce overhead costs, increase margins, and add new, sticky clients to your base Focus your time on providing reliable solutions for your customers
Data-driven innovation requires fast and secure access to enterprise data for anyone who needs it. DataOps methodologies provide the framework for improving speed and usefulness of data for innovation while complying with data security policies and laws. DataOps accelerates the adoption of transformative technologies, such as cloud, artificial intelligence, and machine learning furthering your ability to lead with innovative products and services.
The Role of DataOps in Innovation DataOps Success in the Data Economy
Digital transformation is a difficult road, one where businesses must continually reinvent themselves just to stay alive. Half of today’s business leaders are unsure what their industry will look like in just three years and 72% of them say they’re being out-innovated by their competitors. The fast is eating the slow, and companies need to innovate to win.
We need a new approach; one that does for data what DevOps did for infrastructure. That is the promise of DataOps, a new means to connect people to data, empowering them to overcome data friction and achieve the velocity of innovation demanded by the digital economy.
Take a minute to see how one premier financial institution used better visibility to meet the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) — avoiding fines up to $10,000 per day.
Changing Compliance Mandates Drive an Urgent Need for Inline Security Solutions
This case study, Changing Compliance Mandates Drive an Urgent Need for Inline Security Solutions, demonstrates how end-to-end control of the company’s data sources helped harden data security and meet compliance requirements, and how you can too.
Organizations need to adopt an extract, load, transform sequence to take full advantage of cloud data warehouses.
Optimizing Business Analytics by Transforming Data in the Cloud
Companies understand the value of data. But before data can be analyzed, it must be collected and prepared for analytics engines, and this process can be inefficient and costly. Moving data to the cloud can offer significant benefits, but only if done intelligently. IDG Research recently surveyed more than 200 IT, data science, and data engineering professionals to learn more about the growing reliance on placing data in the cloud, and what strategies companies are using to achieve the benefits of cloud-focused ETL or ELT, including automating data orchestration and transformation. Continue reading “Optimizing Business Analytics by Transforming Data in the Cloud”
The most comprehensive benchmarks on employee advocacy available. In this article, we show you the data behind building a world-class employee advocacy program.
Whether you’re launching employee advocacy for the first time or scaling it across the company, it can be a challenge to know whether you’re on the right track.
The Customer Benchmark Report on Employee Advocacy
Sure, we all want high-performing metrics but what’s a good metric to measure for my industry? And the biggest question of all, how do I compare with companies just like us?
The Customer Benchmark Report for Employee Advocacy is a comprehensive resource on the state of employee advocacy. Does this report answer pressing questions like what’s a good metric to measure for my industry? And the biggest question of all, how do we compare with companies just like us?
We analyzed over 378,000 shares by employees across 100 customers in 14 different industries such as Financial Services, Computer Software, Retail Banking, Travel & Tourism, Management Consulting, Retail and more. That makes this the most significant set of benchmarks in employee advocacy.
By reading this report, you’ll learn:
Why employee advocacy doesn’t work without the right benchmark data.
A handful of strategies and tactics for improving adoption, social reach and social engagement.
A data-driven approach to launching a best-in-class employee advocacy program.
Benchmark data for multiple company segments, use cases and industries.
Proven strategies and tips that increase adoption, social reach, and social engagement.
What industries perform best with employee advocacy.
An inside look into what best-in-class looks like for employee advocacy.
You may know some basics about data management, but do you realize the transformational results data-management-done-right can produce? This paper explains core data management capabilities, then describes how a solid data management foundation can help you get more out of your data. From getting fast, easy access to trustworthy data to making better decisions and becoming a data-driven business, you’ll learn why good data management is essential to success. Multiple real-world examples illustrate how SAS customers have used data management to improve customer experience, boost revenue, remain compliant and become more efficient.
Using Data Management to Solve Real-World Challenges
Do you trust your data? Is it easy to access, clean, integrate and monitor?
Do your business users have self-service access to the data they need to make better decisions and take required action?
Today, organizations collect an increasing amount of data and having a solid data management foundation can help you to make sense of it, allowing you to make better decisions and become data-driven.
The Bowen Center, one of the largest behavioral health facilities in America, recently increased its IT customer satisfaction score from the low 70s to close to 100%. How? By customizing their network infrastructure with Extreme Elements. And with their new, tailor-made network, they increased the reach of their telehealth services to clientele––nationwide.
Extreme Elements
Extreme believes delivering leading-edge experiences is based on connecting humans through technology. These connections require more than just newer hardware – they require an intelligent network. And unlike other vendors, we don’t offer one-size-fits-all solutions because we know there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for the human experience.
The managed IT services business has a bright future, with global growth expected to increase from $180.5 billion in 2018 to $282 billion by 2023. Yet, many MSPs continue to find it challenging to grow, optimize, and sustain (or exit) profitability. This eBook series sets out to offer critical guidance to MSPs on how to run their businesses better and smarter, growing their revenues and profit margins across pivotal maturity stages.
Secrets to Sustainable Growth For MSPs, By MSPs Chapter 1: Jumpstart Your Growth
The market for MSPs has been continuing to flourish for the better part of two decades, and the future shows every intention of following that pattern.
However, finding new ways to grow business has proved to be a challenge for many managed service providers. This article has been created to offer critical guidance to MSPs on how to grow their revenues and profit margins across pivotal maturity stages.
Whether you’re:
An early-stage MSP that is trying to acquire customers and grow revenue as quickly as possible to achieve scale.
A mid-stage MSP that have achieved scale and wants to increase their margins by optimizing processes and cutting costs.
A mature MSP that is profitable and needs to protect their revenue by retaining customers and growing wallet share.
Read on this article, guidance for MSPs that are trying to acquire customers and grow revenue as quickly as possible to achieve scale. The advice comes from the trenches; it’s not just written for MSPs, but by MSPs. This guide will provide useful insight on how to run a better and smarter business! Continue reading “Secrets to Sustainable Growth For MSPs, By MSPs Chapter 1: Jumpstart Your Growth”
Pharmaceutical and healthcare companies invest a great deal of time and money in commissioning research to address their insight gaps. The process often results in a suboptimal return on investment (ROI) due to faulty communication and inefficient documentation of insights. Amit Sheinholtz, Senior Associate User Experience Consultant and Elisa del Galdo, Head of Customer Experience discuss common pitfalls of the negative insight lifecycle and how to avoid them.
The right kind of insight can help pharmaceutical and healthcare companies to be truly customer-centered and data-driven. It can provide a holistic understanding of customers and different aspects of their lives that likely affect their interaction with the business. For example, met and unmet needs, how they think and feel, what they value most, and what drives their decision-making process. Continue reading “Enhancing the lifecycle of your insight”
Innovation in healthcare does not always come in a digital package. It is born in understanding the true cause of problems, observed or experienced, and using this insight to inform and inspire the creation of solutions that are fit for purpose. This understanding of unmet needs is driven by investigating patients’ problems from the outside in and seeing experiences from their perspective, as well as from the perspective of the other stakeholders they interact with.
Ingestible insulin delivery device
A team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has done just that. They have found a novel way to solve a major challenge for diabetes patients – delivering insulin without the need for painful and uncomfortable injections. Taking inspiration from the leopard tortoise, the MIT research project, sponsored by Novo Nordisk, is aiming to deliver insulin orally with a pill that releases its medicine in the stomach lining. Dina Patel speaks to Alex Abramson, the lead author of the paper and MIT Chemical Engineering graduate student and Ester Caffarel-Salvador, Postdoctoral Research Associate at MIT. Continue reading “The intelligent pill ending insulin injections”
Rachel de Sain is one of the women behind Australia’s groundbreaking digital health strategy, which resulted in a 90% uptake of electronic medical records across the country. Here she shares her story and the insights she learned along the way. Continue reading “Digital nation: how Australia became a digital health pioneer”
Within our customer experience capability at Blue Latitude Health (BLH), our user experience researchers and designers are tasked with the understanding customer and client needs, to drive innovation and to solve real problems.
Recently, a client required a centralized system to drive the development and deployment of data-driven patient services. They wanted the design and build of the patient services to be centralized and accessible by local markets for localization. Continue reading “Designing a global digital patient services platform”
Head of Customer Experience Elisa del Galdo explores how healthcare technology can help chronic disease patients and asks what makes a good digital therapeutic?
In the 20th century, research, technology, and new novel treatments have enabled us to increase the average lifespan by 25 years, but our healthspan has not increased accordingly. We live longer, but not necessarily better – unfortunately, our quality of life has not improved throughout these added years. This is in part due to the explosive, bordering on unmanageable, increase in chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, obesity, and asthma. Continue reading “Digital therapeutics and their impact on society”
