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23 Aug 22:51

Storytelling or Story Making?

by Eric Karjaluoto

Whenever folks in the industry start repeating the same word, I tend to think something’s wrong. In fact, I often treat such behavior as a guide for what not to do. “Storytelling” is most certainly one of those words.

Storytelling is a funny notion, in part, because most marketers are so terribly bad at it. That’s not really their fault, though. Narcissistic owners, nervous managers, and serious legal teams are all adept at squelching good stories. And no wonder—they all have a lot on the line. But, that’s not actually the point of this discussion, is it?

Want to get past storytelling being just another line item in your résumé or services list? Well, that’s tough—because the stories people want to hear typically aren’t the ones you want to share. Want the front page of your local newspaper? No problem! Light the place of fire. There you go: instant press! (Aren’t you glad you read this blog?)

Of course, there are good stories you can tell without resorting to arson. Maybe you made a huge mistake and somehow rectified it. Perhaps you are obsessed with something that everyone else finds peculiar. You might have discovered something surprising, no one else even realizes. Or, could be that you took an uncommon path to where you are today. None of these are great examples of prospective stories; however, they’re all more viable starting points than, “we started in 1983, and we’re passionate about x.”

Nevertheless, none of this gets us past the obvious problem with most brand storytelling: you’re just taking about yourself. How exciting do you find this in real life? Tell me the truth. Do you enjoy going for dinner with people who only talk about what they do? Didn’t think so.

Want to truly engage people in stories? Help them find a story they can tell! The audience at The Vancouver Aquarium’s 4D theatre get splashed. Upon leaving, attendees all tell this story to friends. Diners at Chicago’s Wiener’s Circle get berated when they order their hot dogs. You can bet they talk about that. Some people go to a microscopic (and otherwise entirely forgettable) American outpost called Hyder, and get Hyderized. They’ll not only tell you this story, they might even sport a t-shirt to commemorate their “achievement.”

Maybe what I describe above isn’t about storytelling. Fair enough—those aren’t common stories pitched by their brand/PR departments. That said, I think the people behind these experiences help make stories—and that’s something. The story someone tells about their experience with your brand is infinitely more powerful than the “stories” you put in your brochure.

23 Aug 22:51

CBC says Canadian streamed 626 million minutes of video during Rio 2016 Olympic Games

by Ian Hardy

The CBC has experienced a very good month.

Coming off its record-breaking viewership of the Tragically Hip’s concert on Saturday, the broadcasting corporation announced today that the Rio 2016 Summer Games was the most-watched summer Olympics in Canadian history.

Between the Opening Ceremony on August 5th to the Closing Ceremony on August 21st, 32.1 million Canadians watched the 31st Olympiad. CBC says Canadians watched more live coverage than any other previous Summer Games, mainly because the broadcaster offered more hours of live coverage than any other Olympic Games.

Specifically for digital viewership, CBC/Radio-Canada’s online coverage and mobile apps saw a total of 229 million total page views and almost 37 million video views. CBC notes that the video views amassed over 626 million minutes of video watched.

The most watched moments during the Olympics on CBC was day 13 (August 18th) when 7.2 million viewers tuned in to see Usain Bolt capture gold and Canadian Andre De Grasse secure silver in the men’s 200m. In addition, on day nine (August 14th), 6.9 million viewers tuned in to watch the bromance in the 100m final between Bolt and De Grasse.

Team Canada brought home 22 total medals.

Source CBC
23 Aug 18:39

Recommended on Medium: "Meet TIFFBOT, the robot film critic" in Chatbots Magazine

This film-loving chatbot helps you decide what to see at the Toronto International Film Festival

Continue reading on Chatbots Magazine »

23 Aug 18:38

FEMA Proposes Rules for Construction in Flood Areas

FEMA Proposes Rules for Construction in Flood Areas:

The Federal Emergency Management Agency proposed regulations Monday that would require companies and homeowners using federal funds on construction projects in flood-prone areas to build on higher ground—2 feet higher, in many cases.

The regulations stem from an executive order signed by PresidentBarack Obama in January 2015. The order requires a new flood-protection standard for infrastructure projects that use federal money and is part of the administration’s broader agenda to addressclimate change.

“This is ensuring that when federal investments are made we will rebuild higher and stronger,” Roy Wright, deputy associate administrator for insurance and mitigation with FEMA, said from Baton Rouge, La., where he was helping oversee the agency’s response to recent historic flooding that has killed 13 and displaced thousands.

Mr. Wright called the regulations the most significant flood-protection action a president has taken since Jimmy Carter.

How stupid a world, where FEMA mandates building at least 2 feet above the 100 year flood line, and people start howling, despite recent massive floods in Texas and Louisiana, not to mention Katrina and Sandy. 

GOP clowns who deplore big government – which is who has to pay the insurance for these flooded homes and businesses – are yelling about regulations and government overreach. Idiots.

23 Aug 18:38

Trump concession speech leaked

by Josh Bernoff

Tuesday, November 8, 2016, NEW YORK, 11:15 PM EST. Thank you. Thank you all. We showed America something, didn’t we? Didn’t we? Let’s acknowledge the hard work of our volunteers and campaign staff. And of Ivanka, and Eric, and Donald Jr. and Melania. And Mike Pence! Let’s hear it for those guys. Look. I set out in … Continued

The post Trump concession speech leaked appeared first on without bullshit.

23 Aug 18:36

Pinterest Acquires Instapaper

by John Voorhees

In a surprising move, Pinterest has acquired Instapaper, the iOS app and web service originally built by Marco Arment and sold to betaworks in 2013. According to Casey Newton of The Verge:

The goal is "to accelerate discovering and saving articles on Pinterest," the company said in a statement. It will continue to operate as a standalone app, and the Instapaper team will work on both that app and on Pinterest generally.

Pinterest has had an article saving feature since 2013, though the service is far better known as a way to bookmark images and other visual content. With the acquisition of Instapaper, which Pinterest says will be maintained as a stand-alone app, Pinterest appears to be looking for a way to expand its customer base into sectors adjacent to it’s core product.

→ Source: theverge.com

23 Aug 18:35

As sites abandon comments, The Coral Project aims to turn the tide

files/images/coral-hero.jpg


Nausicaa Renner, Columbia Journalism Review, Aug 26, 2016


I've commented on comments before, and in particular  NPR's decision to shut down comments. This story looks at some alternatives,  including Disqus (which we use here at OLDaily; I cleaned out some spam in Disqus this morning). The article also mentions the  Coral project, covered here last year. This project, sponsored by Mozilla, continues to chug along; code is available in their repository. "Since The Coral Project was first announced two years ago, they have identified and are developing three highly customizable and open-source tools, as well as a guide to the tools and issues of audience engagement."

[Link] [Comment]
23 Aug 18:35

where the wild (spammy) things are

by D'Arcy Norman

Wordfence automatically blocks IP addresses that repeatedly attempt to brute-force logins on UCalgaryBlogs. After a few attempts, they aren’t able to try again for a few minutes (in case it’s a legitimate person trying to log in, it doesn’t banish them entirely right away). If they knock it off, the ban gets lifted. If they keep hammering, the ban gets escalated, eventually putting them in a permanent penalty box (identified by their IP address – not perfect, but it’s all we have).

wordfence-countries-report
Blocked logins by country, August 8-22, 2016

I was half tempted to just drop the ban-hammer on the entire country of Russia, but we have students there (and I wouldn’t want to anger Putin or his tiny-handed American mouthpiece). The US? Buffalo appears to be one of the biggest sources of spam bots – colocated servers (compromised? rented by spammers?) are a big chunk of the attacks we get.

23 Aug 18:35

Firefox 49 Beta 7 Testday, August 26th

by Camelia Badau

Hello Mozillians,

We are happy to announce that Friday, August 26th, we are organizing Firefox 49 Beta 7 Testday. We will be focusing our testing on WebGL Compatibility and Exploratory Testing. Check out the detailed instructions via this etherpad.

No previous testing experience is required, so feel free to join us on #qa IRC channel where our moderators will offer you guidance and answer your questions.

Join us and help us make Firefox better! See you on Friday!

23 Aug 14:44

Simple Knowledge Acquisition Plans

by Richard Millington

Make a list of what your team does that drives the biggest results. Then make a list of what you plan to do in the future.

From this you can build out your team’s knowledge acquisition plan.

For example, let’s imagine your team writes content to persuade members to take action. You might want to learn the top techniques used by journalists to tell a story, copywriters to persuade people, and nonprofits that solicit donations via their written material. You might also want to learn how to rank highly for relevant search terms.

This is all knowledge you can get from experts in each field.

Now imagine your team is about to do something they haven’t done before (e.g. run a conference). You want to learn what you need to know. You also want to know how to negotiate the best deals, deal with union labor, avoid being charged for wifi installation (believe me), find reliable suppliers, how to generate immediate interest, attract bulk-purchases, comply with local laws, and stay on time (harder than it seems).

Now seek out the experts and experiences that will ensure your team acquires exactly this knowledge. Look for conferences that tackle these challenges instead of generic themes. Find training courses that cover these issues. Pay experts a few thousand dollars to mentor your team for a day or two. This kind of knowledge is exactly what’s going to move the needle for you.

Too often we give team members a training budget and tell them to spend it. That’s a dumb idea. Far better to identify what drives results now and what you plan to do in the future and ruthlessly pursue the best knowledge for both.

23 Aug 14:42

Making money on apps? That's over.

by Volker Weber

Brent Simmons on the state of creating paid iOS apps:

Do we still talk about new apps and recommend apps to people? Hardly, these days.

Vesper is shutting down. If Simmons and Gruber cannot keep an iOS app viable, the ecosystem really is in trouble. Games & junk just mask it.

You can still make money by creating apps that solve difficult problems. You can still make money by creating apps for people who pay for development. But solving a simple problem does not pay anymore. No matter how good your app or your marketing is.

Hindsight is 20/20. Work on Vesper started in 2012, before Apple started working on a viable Notes app or Microsoft started to throw it weight around. Evernote was the only game, and that was just awful.

More >

23 Aug 14:42

Défendre le chiffrement

by Tristan

En sortant de la maison de la radio

En sortant de la maison de la radio

Le ministre de l’intérieur, Bernard Cazeneuve, a récemment annoncé qu’il souhaitait limiter l’accès au chiffrement, dans le cadre de la lutte contre le terrorisme. J’étais ce matin, à 6h20 (ouch !), l’invité de France Inter, pour expliquer pourquoi c’était une ânerie sans nom. Pour la même raison, je co-signais une tribune dans Le Monde, En s’attaquant au chiffrement contre le terrorisme, on se trompe de cible, avec mes anciens collègues du CNNum.

L’interview qui est passée sur France Inter est disponible en ligne. Il existe aussi une transcription.

Voici quelques points saillants de l’argumentaire :

  • Bien sûr, devant la menace terroriste, on a envie de mettre en place tout ce qui est possible. Pourtant, il ne faut pas jeter le bébé avec l’eau du bain.
  • Le chiffrement est essentiel dans la vie numérique, surtout que ce dernier prend une place grandissante
  • Le chiffrement est indispensable pour permettre le fonctionnement du commerce électronique et des banques. Il est aussi très important de le promouvoir pour limiter l’espionnage industriel (lune des missions de la NSA)
  • La notion de backdoor (porte dérobée) est très dangereuse car cela réduirait la sécurité et la liberté de tous.
  • Interdire la crypto ne gênerait que les honnêtes citoyens, les terroristes et malfaiteurs iraient utiliser des logiciels qu’ils trouveraient ailleurs qu’en France.

Je vous encourage à lire la version longue de la tribune sur le site du CNNum, elle est très bien écrite.

Mise à jour

Le soir sur BFM Business

BFM_Business_Tristan_Nitot_Chiffrement_Cazeneuve.jpg

La vidéo de BFM Business

23 Aug 14:42

Mobile Gaming – Pokemon went.

by windsorr

Reply to this post

RFM AvatarSmall

 

 

 

 

 

Tencent and Activision can breathe a sigh of relief. 

  • Pokemon Go is already showing all the hallmarks of being a craze rather than a revolution as the appeal of the game is already beginning to pall despite only being 6 weeks old.
  • Data from Apptopia shows that daily active users peaked at around 45m users three weeks after launch but have since declined by 40% in the last month to 27m users.
  • Google Trends is also showing that the spike of interest in augmented reality caused by the launch of the game has also declined precipitously as it is almost back to where it was prior to launch.
  • Furthermore, in the last two weeks Pokemon Go has fallen in the US Apple App Store to No. 16 although it remains at No. 4 on Google Play.
  • The good news is that Pokemon Go remains No. 1 on the grossing chart for both iOS and Android.
  • This indicates that the number of new users joining the game is collapsing fast although revenue generation from those that are still playing the game remains very healthy.
  • I suspect that this will translate into rapidly stalling revenue growth at Niantic and how long existing players will keep paying is the real question mark.
  • From my perspective, the real potential for Pokemon Go was to fill the vacuum that exists in developed markets when it comes to mobile gaming.
  • Both Xbox and Playstation Network have failed to gain any traction on mobile devices leaving the largest Digital Life segment unoccupied.
  • To fill this segment a thriving multiplayer gaming environment is needed that has comfortably more than 100m MaUs but to dominate it, I think 300m MaUs or more is needed.
  • With Pokemon Go having made just half of that and now showing signs of decline, those that are working quietly to fill this segment can breathe a collective sigh of relief.
  • Top of this list are Activision which has purchased King Digital (Candy Crush with 500m MaUs) and Tencent which has purchased Supercell (Clash of Clans 100m DaUs).
  • These two need to take these single game franchises and entice their players to try the other games and services that they have to offer.
  • This is how they can turn a single game community into a place where users come to play games against each other.
  • Pokemon Go seems to have fallen short of the critical mass needed to challenge the scale of King Digital or Supercell, Tencent and Activision remain the most likely winners.
  • The Gaming segment remains unoccupied and I suspect that there is room for one dominant service and a host of smaller followers.
  • Tencent has the most experience of mobile gaming with its dominant position in China but it knows very little of the market outside of China.
  • However, at the same time Activision has no experience of mobile which could prove to be an even greater challenge.
  • Tencent is the company I would look at for exposure to gaming on mobile devices but I think that Nintendo could fall further as it is still meaningfully above pre-launch levels.
23 Aug 14:42

clavierm: the-future-now: This is getting out of hand, even...





















clavierm:

the-future-now:

This is getting out of hand, even Shkreli has commented 

follow @the-future-now

This needs to end …

The culmination of monopolistic practices embedded in a health care ‘marketplace’ where the government won’t negotiate to get medicine prices lowered. Time for single payer.

23 Aug 14:41

Composite Olympic moments

by Nathan Yau

Hernandez balance beam

One more Olympics-related piece for the road. The New York Times used photo compositing to show a handful of critical moments for individual athletes. The above is the Laurie Hernandez’ dismount during the team event.

And, I can’t go without mentioning the Nike human chain commercial from six years years ago, which is the video version of this.

Tags: compositing, New York Times, Olympics

23 Aug 14:38

analyticisms: This is a pretty amazing chart that shows how...



analyticisms:

This is a pretty amazing chart that shows how fast things move in the mobile world. In 7 short years. The OS map of the mobile world in 200 is incredibly different from that of 2016 (and much less diverse).

23 Aug 14:38

"What soon makes the new arrival devoted to this country is the democratic trait among the people. I..."

What soon makes the new arrival devoted to this country is the democratic trait among the people. I am not thinking here so much of the democratic political constitution of this country, however highly it must be praised. I am thinking of the relationship between individual people and of the attitude they maintain toward one another.

In the United States everyone feels assured of his worth as an individual. No one humbles himself before another person or class. Even the great difference in wealth, the superior power of a few, cannot undermine this healthy self-confidence and natural respect for the dignity of one’s fellow-man.

There is, however, a somber point in the social outlook of Americans. Their sense of equality and human dignity is mainly limited to men of white skins. Even among these there are prejudices of which I as a Jew am clearly conscious; but they are unimportant in comparison with the attitude of the “Whites” toward their fellow-citizens of darker complexion, particularly toward Negroes. The more I feel an American, the more this situation pains me. I can escape the feeling of complicity in it only by speaking out.



-

Albert Einstein, The Negro Question, cited by Jason Kottke in Albert Einstein, civil rights advocate

23 Aug 14:37

PDF Expert 2 for Mac Adds Powerful PDF Editing Features

by Graham Spencer

PDF Expert launched on the Mac last November, and in my initial review I was pretty effusive, impressed at the level of functionality, polish, and speed for an initial release. At the time I even called it "a better Preview for PDFs", and had made PDF Expert the default application for viewing PDFs on my Mac. Nine months later, and it all still rings true. Better yet, Readdle is today launching a big version 2 update for PDF Expert which makes it an even better and more powerful app. Now you can now edit text, images, and outlines in PDFs, as well as password-protect your PDFs in PDF Expert 2.

The ability to edit text in a PDF feels kind of amazing at first, and is astonishingly easy to accomplish in PDF Expert. In addition to the "Annotate" button in the top-left of the title bar, you will now also see the "Edit" button. Clicking that will give you access to four new tools; the ability to edit text, images, links, and redact information.

These new tools give you a lot of editing power. Whether you have misspelled a customer's name on an invoice, made a typo in a 20-page memo, or need to delete an unnecessary word or three, you can do all of that with edit text tool. It is as simple as clicking into the paragraph or sentence and then making the edits as if you were in a text editor. Any additions you make will automatically be styled so that they match the surrounding text, and your paragraph will automatically reflow to adjust for any additions or deletions. Note that this feature will only work in PDFs that have text that can be highlighted – if the PDF is just a scanned image, the text editing features will not work.

It is a similar story with the image editing tool. Existing images can be moved, resized, rotated, replaced, exported, cropped, or even edited in an external image editor (e.g. Preview itself). Additionally, you can insert new images and edit those in the same ways too. The link editor enables you to insert new links, whether they be to websites, or another page in the PDF. The redact tool is fairly self-explanatory, and extremely useful for those who need it, permanently blacking out or erasing text or entire portions of the PDF.

There is a fifth and final edit tool, accessible from the sidebar and under the Outlines tab. In PDF Expert 2, you can now edit a PDF's outline, renaming and remapping the destinations of existing ones, or adding entirely new ones. Outlines are the equivalent of chapters in a book, and can help make your PDFs more professional and easier to use (particularly when the PDF has many pages).

To round out the version 2 release of PDF Expert for Mac, it is now possible to password-protect your PDFs so that sensitive documents are more secure. Readdle have told me that they are using AES-256 encryption, Preview uses RC4 encryption.


PDF Expert 2 is a solid update that brings powerful PDF editing functionality into an already compelling product. If you spend a lot of time reading PDFs, I would highly recommend PDF Expert. For more details, I would recommend reading my original review which is still relevant today – it goes into detail about PDF Expert's key advantages over Preview.

PDF Expert for Mac is available for $59.99, and there is a 7-day trial available. For all existing customers, PDF Expert 2 is a free upgrade.


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23 Aug 14:36

Top 7 Android 7.0 Nougat features

by Matthew Moniz

Android 7.0 Nougat has officially started rolling out to Nexus devices.

If you own a Nexus 6, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus  9, Nexus Player or Pixel C, expect an update to appear over the course of the next several weeks. I was lucky enough to get the update on day one.

The update size is a total of 45MB because I’m running the latest developer build of Android N. This goes to show that changes to Nougat from the developer build of the operating system are mostly minor. I’m sure if you’re coming from Marshmallow, however, Nougat’s download size will be significantly bigger.

In the meantime, while you wait for your update, here are my 7 favourite features of Android 7.0 Nougat.

  1. Multi-window: Run two apps side-by-side. The windows are resizable by dragging the middle divider.

  2. Direct Reply: Reply directly to notifications without having to go into the app itself.

  3. Quick Settings Control: Quick Settings gives you easy access to some of your favourite settings. With Android Nougat, you get to choose which tiles go where, along with being able to delete and or move them.

  4. Stacked Notifications: Notifications have becoming smarter. Notifications now stack based on the type of app. This will reduce clutter and create a more organized experience.

  5. Emojis: Over 1500 Emoji including 72 new ones are now available.

  6. Doze 2.0: Doze was introduced with Android Marshmallow but it did not live up to expectations. Android N has improved doze by helping save more battery life. When you’re not using your phone it will go into low power usage.

  7. Display Size – In Android the only size you could change was the size of the text. But with Android 7.0 you can now adjust the size of the icons.

That wraps up our 7 favourite features of Android 7.0 Nougat. Let us know your favourite in the comments below.

Related reading: Android 7.0 now rolling out to Nexus devices in Canada [Update]

23 Aug 05:17

Netflix to produce new Anne of Green Gables show in partnership with CBC

by Patrick O'Rourke

You’ve just finished binge-watching Breaking Bad on Netflix and are looking for something new from the creative minds behind the series’ excellent writing.

You could watch Better Call Saul, a relatively solid Breaking Bad series spin-off, or instead, start streaming Anne of Green Gables. Wait, what?

In an interesting turn of events, the lead writers of Breaking Bad have switched gears and are currently working on a remake of the story of a young girl’s adventures in 1890s Prince Edward Island.

Netflix has revealed plans to stream ‘Anne,’ an eight-hour miniseries based on the 1908 classic novel Anne of Green Gables, in partnership with the CBC, which will also broadcast the new TV show next year.

Moira Walley-Beckett, one of Breaking Bad’s key writers, is handling key writing duties on Anne. She won an Emmy for her work on the series.

Filming is scheduled to start this September in Ontario. Despite being available in Canada for a number of years, Netflix has forged few co-production partnerships with Canadian studios.

The most notable examples include the company’s involvement in bringing back Trailer Park Boys and Degrassi.

Image credit: CBC

ViaCNET
23 Aug 05:16

Twitter Favorites: [Planta] Leaving Seattle. I like America, but find I only need it in little doses, like a weekend say.

Joseph Planta @Planta
Leaving Seattle. I like America, but find I only need it in little doses, like a weekend say.
23 Aug 05:16

Twitter Favorites: [waltdwilliams] Why is non-lethal always the most challenging way to play a game? Not killing people is so easy. I do it every day and I'm not even trying.

Walt Williams @waltdwilliams
Why is non-lethal always the most challenging way to play a game? Not killing people is so easy. I do it every day and I'm not even trying.
23 Aug 05:16

Twitter Favorites: [jimpick] Dear programmers, don't refer to human communication within your team as 'protocols'.

Jim Pick @jimpick
Dear programmers, don't refer to human communication within your team as 'protocols'.
23 Aug 05:16

Twitter Favorites: [knguyen] I have an aunt who always says "you're either good with kids or you're good with women" which was her way of complimenting my babysitting.

Kevin Nguyen @knguyen
I have an aunt who always says "you're either good with kids or you're good with women" which was her way of complimenting my babysitting.
23 Aug 05:16

Twitter Favorites: [lmlauramarsh] Athleisure, uniform of the idealized multi-tasking female worker. Adore adore this essay by @moiragweigel: https://t.co/N3WCH7bQK9

Laura Marsh @lmlauramarsh
Athleisure, uniform of the idealized multi-tasking female worker. Adore adore this essay by @moiragweigel: reallifemag.com/pajama-rich/
23 Aug 05:15

RIP, Mathie.

Last night I found out i’d lost a friend, and if you’ll be patient with my words, I’d like to reflect a little.

Mathie was one of the older, weirder, geeks I met. I’d escaped my home town in the edge of nowhere, and it was my first time having a peer group of adults.

He’d helped everywhere. With the student run shell server, with the local IRC server everyone collected on, a known and friendly face on the circuit

Mathie was one of the many people behind Scottish Ruby Conference, responsible for bringing a lot of interesting people into Edinburgh, and into my life.

Why wasn’t this talk given at Scottish Ruby Conference

I fucked up

In front of everyone assembled at the fringe track, a collection of talks that didn’t quite make it, mathie answered honestly. It’s kinda how i’ll remember him: a bit of a fuckup.

A fuckup who, changed my life for the better.

Thanks mathie, I hope to pass on some of your kindness.

RIP, You fucking idiot.

22 Aug 22:19

Picking up the Pace Again

by Helen Keegan
I haven't been paying enough attention to my personal blog of late (this last few days excepted) so I'm giving myself a challenge to pick up the pace again and write something 5 times a week (i.e. week days). I may not publish each time I write, but if I write that frequently, then there's half a chance that I'll write some articles I think are worth publishing and therefore, will increase my output over the coming weeks and months. It's all too easy to publish on Facebook and Twitter and then you can lose the things you've been talking about. If I can collate everything there, then it can act as my searchable archive.

If you've found this post, then you know my blog is here at http://technokitten.com . There's a box in the side bar where you can add your email address and that means you'll get an email for each day that I publish a new article. On days I don't write anything, you won't receive anything. It's completely free. If you prefer to hang out on Facebook, you can follow me there at http://facebook.com/technokittenblog and I'm going to do my best to cross post each article there too.  And if Twitter is more your thing, I'm there too under the moniker @technokitten. You'll also find me on Google+ and LinkedIn and you can follow me there. If you would like to add me as a connection on LinkedIn, please personalise the request so that I can see how we know each other.

I mostly write about mobile technology, but not exclusively. I'm also interested in digital apps and services in general (and how that impacts on our lives), the ethics and usage of Artificial Intelligence, the future of media (especially news), mobile marketing and advertising (well, I've been working in the sector for over 15 years), wearable devices and the Internet of Things (that's gadgets we wear and gadgets that talk to each other). I come to these topics as a pragmatist or analyst rather than an evangelist. I'm not a programmer so although I may lurch into technical speak from time to time, it shouldn't be beyond the understanding of a non-techie. I also share links to what I'm reading if I think it's worth wider thought or discussion or I'm searching for opinions.

And yes, I also use my blog to promote the events and initiatives I produce and support.

(I'm also relatively close to a milestone number of blog posts published over the years so that's another incentive for me to keep writing.)

Thanks in advance for your support.
22 Aug 22:08

How to Flash Android 7.0 Nougat Factory Image on Your Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6, and Nexus 9

by Rajesh Pandey
Google has just released the final version of Android 7.0 Nougat. The latest version of Android comes with many new features including multi-window support, a redesigned notification panel, built-in data saver, and more. Continue reading →
22 Aug 22:07

Android Nougat is here

by Volker Weber

Google has released Android Nougat, a.k.a. Android 7.0. If you have a Nexus 6, 6P, 5X, Pixel C, or Nexus 9, you can upgrade right away. If not, you may have to wait a few months, or most likely never get it unless you buy a new device. Next week will be the anniversary of the Lenovo Yoga Tab 3 Pro announcement, which wasn't available for months. It came with Android 5.1, was never upgraded to Android 6.0, and has not received security fixes since March, 1. And that's an expensive flagship device. Other vendors like Samsung might upgrade a few of their flagships, BlackBerry will most likely ship their next device with Nougat and upgrade the Priv and DTEK50. But most Android devices will not see this upgrade.

Unlike iPhones and iPads, when Apple releases iOS 10 next month.

More >

22 Aug 21:58

Google is Already Working on an Update to Android 7.0 Nougat

by Evan Selleck
Earlier today, Google officially started rolling out Android 7.0 Nougat for Nexus devices. And now the company is already talking about what’s coming down the pike. Continue reading →