How Apple Is Figuring Out What's Next

The question is not whether Apple is looking ahead - it would be foolish to assume the company is quaking in fear of smartphone market saturation - but to what degree it is willing and able to change. JL

Neil Cybart reports in Above Avalon:

The company has been thinking and looking beyond iPhone for years. Apple's silicon efforts and broader ambition to control the core technologies powering its devices are giving the company a head start that will likely be measured in decades. The only way for Apple to remain relevant in the future is to disrupt itself by coming up with new tools consisting of a combination of hardware, software, and services

The Reason Facebook Uses Artificial Intelligence To Open Eyes In Blinking Selfies

Anything to enhance the user perception of impact - and self. The question is what happens when Facebook and others start making such changes without permission? JL

James Vincent reports in the Verge:

Facebook will do whatever it takes to encourage you to share more content — even, it turns out, using artificial intelligence to salvage photographs marred by an accidental blink.

What the Airlines Know About the Guy In Seat 12C

Like all monetizers of personal information, airlines are trying to discern the line between individualized service that customers appreciate and intrusiveness. JL


Scott McCartney reports in the Wall Street Journal:

The latest generation of hand-held devices used by flight crews has an overhead bin full of information about each passenger. Airlines are trying to figure out when personalized interactions could be considered invasive, amid growing concerns about how companies like Facebook and others are using personal data. While many travelers are pleased to see their loyalty acknowledged, they’d all rather have upgrades. And plenty of others prefer a bit of anonymity once they get on an airplane and leave town

From Rust Belt To Robots: Turning AI Into Jobs In the Industrial Heartland

The postive impact, especially on productivity, could be greater than predicted. JL


David Rotman reports in MIT Technology Review:

Advanced robotics can modernize the factories in a city like Pittsburgh and help make manufacturing more competitive. But the factory jobs lost through the years aren’t coming back. To boost growth, especially as workforce growth slows, we will need more AI, and we’ll need to learn how to deploy it better.

Here's Why No One Cares About Your Ideas

It's what can be done with them that they care about. JL

Greg Satell reports in Digital Tonto:

A good idea is not a mere moment of epiphany, but a call to action. It proves its value not by its elegance or through the brilliance of its conception, but in its ability to solve problems in the real world. So if you want people to start listening to your ideas, focus less on the fact that you have them and more on what value they can deliver to others.

The Reason We're Going To See A Lot More Older Athletes

Genetic marking, bio-technology and data science. Or, to put it another way, information and execution on the knowledge it provides. JL

Angela Chen reports in The Verge:

More than anything, injury limits the length of athletes’ careers. People end up retiring because they have trouble staying healthy and have too many accumulated injuries. There’s a long list of gene associations with different sports and in the future it may inform how athletes train and contract negotiation between athletes and teams. Athletes and coaches take a more sophisticated approach to athlete performance programs. And there are a number of technologies to monitor athlete training loads.

How Tech Turns Us Into Addicts

It's not just you - and it's not random. JL

Raian Ali and colleagues report in World Economic Forum, photo by Elijah Nouvelag in Reuters:

Digital technologies, such as social networks, online shopping, and games, use persuasive and motivational techniques to keep users returning. These include “scarcity” (status is only temporarily available, encouraging you to get online quickly); “social proof” (20,000 users retweeted an article so you should go online and read it); “personalisation” (your news feed is designed to filter and display news based on your interest); and “reciprocity” (invite more friends to get extra points, and once your friends are part of the network it becomes much more difficult for you or them to leave).