Posts Categorized: App Economy

How Pinterest keeps the internet trolls away

Posted by & filed under App Economy, Pinterest.

Valued at a staggering $12 billion, Pinterest is one of the digital world’s most successful platforms. Yet somehow, the image-sharing app has managed to sidestep the pitfalls that have tripped up some of Silicon Valley’s other big players, such as Twitter and its trolls, Facebook and its fake news and YouTube and its filter failures. Source: CBC News Date: January 26th, 2018 Link: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/pinterest-ramona-pringle-1.4483331 Discussion 1) Pinterest claims that by saying… Read more »

Everything we knew about money is up for grabs. So will we end up smiling?

Posted by & filed under App Economy, disruptive technology, Emerging Technologies.

“Thanks to mobile payments, it is entirely possible that we will see a major country such as China become a predominantly cashless society in five years’ time, if not sooner.” Source: BBC Technology News Date: November 21, 2017 Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/The_disruptors_money_changing Discussion 1) What would it mean in your country to have it operate completely cashlessly? 2) Friction-free transactions… Read more »

‘We’re designing minds’: Industry insider reveals secrets of addictive app trade

Posted by & filed under addiction, App Economy.

The average Canadian teenager is on track to spend nearly a decade of their life staring at a smartphone, and that’s no accident, according to an industry insider who shared some time-sucking secrets of the app design trade. CBC Marketplace travelled to Dopamine Labs, a startup in Venice, Calif., that uses artificial intelligence and neuroscience to help… Read more »

‘Tell me phone, what’s destroying my crops?’

Posted by & filed under App Economy.

Voruganti Surendra is a farmer who grows paddy rice on an acre of farmland in Guntur District, Andhra Pradesh.  He and hundreds of his fellow farmers are using a new app that can recognise a growing number of crop pests and diseases and give advice on how to treat them.  “It is very useful,” he says. “Farmers… Read more »

The long wait for a Persian iPhone keyboard

Posted by & filed under App Economy, Apple.

For years Persian speakers used the Arabic keyboard on the iPhone, which was not really ideal for writing quickly or accurately in Persian.  Android devices as well as Apple computers have Persian keyboards, but until this week the option wasn’t available on Apple phones or iPads. Source: BBC Technology News Date: September 28th, 2017 Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41355541 Discussion 1)… Read more »

Smartphone fingerprint sensors may not be as secure as you think

Posted by & filed under App Economy, Cybersecurity, Electronic Surveillance.

New research suggests that smartphones can be easily fooled by fake fingerprints that have been digitally composed. Source: New York Times Date: April 25th, 2017 Link: https://www.thestar.com/business/tech_news/2017/04/11/smartphone-fingerprint-sensors-may-not-be-as-secure-as-you-think.html Discussion 1) Biometrics has been touted as a very secure way to ensure the security of technology.  What could we do better now that we know fingerprints are so easily falsifiable?… Read more »

How one app wants to make you smarter while you wait

Posted by & filed under App Economy.

Modern technology requires an awful lot of waiting. Waiting for slow web pages to load. Waiting for people to reply to your texts. Waiting for email to send. This week, researchers at MIT unveiled a new system designed to make wait times more productive. It’s called WaitSuite. Source: CBC Date: April 18th, 2017 Link: http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/waitsuite-makes-use-of-tech-wait-times-1.4073743 Discussion 1) “How would I… Read more »

The subtle power of default choices

Posted by & filed under App Economy.

A 2003 study found that the number of people who consented to be organ donors was about 80 percent higher in countries with opt-out policies–(Would you like to refuse to join the organ donor registry?) –than those with opt-in policies (Would you like to join the organ donor registry? Source: FAST Company Date: April 18th, 2017 Link: https://www.fastcompany.com/40403706/the-subtle-power-of-default-choices Discussion… Read more »

Tech boom marks revival in fortune for Ontario government

Posted by & filed under App Economy, Ecommerce, Emerging Technologies.

Computer-design and related jobs rose 26 per cent in Ontario over the past five years to 162,000 in 2016, driving a 13 per cent increase in technology-services employment, as manufacturing fell 2.9 per cent over the same period, according to Statistics Canada. Job growth in computer-design was even faster than the 16 per cent increase… Read more »