Author Archives: lizaveta.makratsova

APPLE TV : Apple May Start Making Its Own TV Shows

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appletv

 

 

Creation of unique content is not a new thing for the company Apple, which has already managed to create from scratch the radio Beats 1 and from time to time shot some videos for the musicians to broadcast exclusively in their Apple Music. However, according to recent reports, it is just the beginning and Apple TV is o its way to come out.

According to the report Apple has been speaking with TV studios and producers to create new TV shows that will be offered exclusively to iTunes users. It’s also said that these shows might be included in some kind of a TV offering that Apple is likely to unveil later this year in September.

As the ”The Street” reports, currently  Apple is the initial stage of negotiations with the representatives of Hollywood production  about possible cooperation to create unique content. Presumably it comes to their own series and TV shows that will form the basis of its own subscription television service operating on the principle of Apple Music.

I believe that it can be a real good move and there are some successful examples of such initiatives which we all know – Amazon and Netflix, which for a long time were simple distributors of content, began to produce the shows themselves, that brought them great success. It could be easily possible that after a while we watch series issued in the  Apple studio.

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What will happen with our Facebook accounts after our death?

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A smartphone user shows the Facebook application on his phone in the central Bosnian town of Zenica, in this photo illustration, May 2, 2013. Facebook Inc's mobile advertising revenue growth gained momentum in the first three months of the year as the social network sold more ads to users on smartphones and tablets, partially offsetting higher spending which weighed on profits. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic (BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA - Tags: SOCIETY SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY BUSINESS)

 

Maybe some of you have already heard about the option featured on Facebook about the managing of accounts of the users when they die. Facebook gave the possibility of having our accounts permanently deleted when we die.

OR actually if some of us wishes we can point out some of our family members or friend to take ver the control of some aspects of our account – e.g. posting on the wall.

It appeared that these following features were among the most requested by users who gave feedback on its memorial page policies, therefore, Facebook decided to go further and to develop the idea of managing the accounts after the death.  Announcing the new feature, Facebook said: “When a person passes away, their account can become a memorial of their life, friendships and experience.

“By talking to people who have experienced loss, we realised there is more we can do to support those who are grieving and those who want a say in what happens to their account after death.”

Just think about the idea that your grandsons will be able to scroll down your newsfeed what can be a indeed a great memorial board!

So let’s take a look what happens when user chooses to allow someone to manage their page in the event of their death, that person will be able to

  • write a post to display at the top of the memorialised timeline
  • respond to new friend requests
  • update the profile picture and cover photo

Moreover, we are able now to choose to give our legacy contact permission to download an archive of the photos, posts and profile information which we have shared on Facebook.

 

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Tr4y4R5QWA]

 

Inspirations: 

http://newtecharticles.com/facebook-account-after-death-digital-legacy/
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-31438707

 

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The Future of Landing Page

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LandingPageDesign

Landing page is considered to be a web page where visitors get after they click the link on a search engine results page. So, basically it is the first thing a visitor can see.

By definition:
– Every single page can be a landing page
– Depend how the the visitor get there
Ex: Contact + company name

It can be:
– Filling a form
– Download e-book
– Taking a survey
etc.

Landing page has the following classifications and varies on the needs of the company/ individual who created it for some advertising/ informational purpose : 1) Clickthrough, 2) Lead capture, 3) Info, 4) Viral landing pages, 5) Microsites, 6) Product detail pages, 7) Homepages.

Every year Landing page design and look&feel structure are changing and there some trends for 2016 I want to show you. We will be able to see more and more  landing page templates of all different styles from clean and crisp, to wacky and colourful. Let’s take a look at some upcoming trends which already started to appear on a smaller scale :

TREND 1
Create a 3D effect with parallax scrolling
Examples to get inspired :
http://us.rimmellondon.com
http://lixpen.com

 

TREND 2
Use hidden menus instead of navigation bars ( kind of Hamburger Menu)
Example to get inspired : 
http://brianhoffdesign.com

 

TREND 3
Use full-screen background videos to tell your story.
Videos have the potential to increase landing page conversions by up to 86%, according to an Eye View Digital case study.
Example to get inspired :
https://www.storyandheart.com

 

TREND 4
Unusual navigation
Example to get inspired : 
http://www.giampierobodino.com

_____________________________

My Inspirations:
http://brianhoffdesign.com
http://www.dtelepathy.com/blog/design/8-reasons-why-pageless-design-is-the-future-of-the-web
http://monkeywebapps.com/blog/the-future-of-landing-pages-is-here-are-you-ready/

 

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Digital Business Era: Strategic Technology Trends for 2016 / Part II

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In my previous post I’ve described 5 strategic technology trends for 2016. With this post I would like to develop this topic and look at other trends which can play important role in digital business era next year.

  • Trend 6 – Ambient User Experience
    Under ‘ambient user experience’ Gartner refers to the ability of  devices and sensors to gather more advanced contextual data as AMbient UX. The main difficulty could be connected with “application design, anticipating this level of device synchronicity and collaboration, for lack of better framing”. Gartner insists that the devices will be so smart and intelligent that they will organise our lives without our  noticing that they are doing so.
  • Trend 7 – 3D-printing Materials
    The development of 3D-printing technology has led to increase in number of materials suitable for this purpose. Now 3D-printing is using nickel alloys, carbon fiber, glass, conductive inks, pharmaceutical and biological materials. A variety of materials will continue to grow, and 3D-printers will be used in new areas, such as aerospace, medical, automotive, energy, and military-industrial complex. 3D-printing has caught its stride now that companies like Tesla are using it to build engine parts, and SpaceX is using it to create rocket parts.
  • Trend 8 – Information of Everything
    According to Gartner, by 2020, “25 billion devices will be generating data about almost every topic imaginable”. This number gives at the same time opportunity and challenge.  There will be a terrific number of data, but making sense of it will be the trick.
  • Trend 9 – Advanced Customer Architecture
    Gartner notes that companies are pushing the envelope on making technology mimic human brains. Thus, advanced customer architecture will become more human and intelligent.
  • Trend 10 – Mesh App and Service Architecture
    According to analysts, companies will move from linear designs applications to a more flexible architecture, applications and services. Based on a software-configurable services, this new approach will give the performance with flexibility and speed. Mesh app and service architecture, the new emerging method of building distributed applications, offers a flexible and scalable delivery of implementation as on-premise and in the cloud.

Digital Business Era: Strategic Technology Trends for 2016 / Part I

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Technology
is moving at a breakneck pace, constantly evolving and developing.  We, guys, can see it easily by comparing our lives today with even a couple years ago. So do the businesses. Social, mobile, analytics, cloud, and increasingly the Internet of Things have become driving forces behind the rapid evolution of digital businesses. In this blog I will focus on the technology trends which are waiting for us in next year. We will be able to see the shift from today to tomorrow. I was inspired by Gartner forecasts, the world’s leading information technology research and advisory company. Let’s have a look in a nutshell :

 

  • Trend 1 – The Device Mesh
    Under the device mesh ( aka network device) are meant multiple device terminals that allow people to access information and applications or interact with each other, within commercial and government organizations. These devices include smartphones, portable electronic gadgets, consumer and household electronic devices, vehicles and all kinds of sensors.
  • Trend 2 – Advanced Machine Learning
    Deep neural computer networks will go beyond the classical computer systems and will be used to build systems that can learn and perceive the world independently and autonomously. The growth and complexity of data sources, data classification will make manual analysis uneconomical and unrealistic. Through neutron networks these tasks can be automated.
  • Trend 3 – Autonomous Agents and Things
    Machine learning will lead to a rise in the popularity of intelligent machines – robots, autonomous vehicles, virtual personal assistants and smart advisers who will work independently or semi-autonomous. Predecessors of these machines today can be considered as such as Google Now, Microsoft Cortana and Apple Siri. Their development will play a leading role in the industry, although the development of physical machines – electro-mechanical robots and others…also will continue.”Over the next five years we will evolve to a post-app world with intelligent agents delivering dynamic and contextual actions and interfaces,” said Mr. Cearley. “IT leaders should explore how they can use autonomous things and agents to augment human activity and free people for work that only people can do. However, they must recognize that smart agents and things are a long-term phenomenon that will continually evolve and expand their uses for the next 20 years.”
  • Trend 4 -Internet of Things Architecture and Platforms
    It’s not the first year when researchers indicate the Internet of Things, as one of the most important trends. However, they are now more clearly formulated, what exactly will happen. It is expected that 2016 will be the year of development of platforms for new technology. However, due to lack of organisation vendor standardisation of such platforms will flow quite difficult until 2018.
  • Trend 5 – Adaptive Security Architecture
    Network devices and intelligent machines will require significant computing resources, resulting in a proliferation of high-neuromorphic architectures based on field programmable gate array (FPGA) and graphics accelerators. The new architecture will help achieve the computing speed, measured in teraflops.

In my next post I will give you the list of next 5 upcoming trends for 2016.

Stay tuned! Thank you
Inspirations & Sources: