Monday, 10 November 2014

MixRadio Discloses Natively Built Personalized Recommendation Engine


MixRadio
MixRadio has been successfully providing genuine digital music service from past 5 years and they have been able to reach out to as many as 20 million users across India. According to a recent research conducted by the company, the mobile music streaming in India is expected to grow heaps and bounds and as much as 110% in the coming 4 years.

This indicated that 1 out of 15 mobile streaming all around the world will be taking place in India. Based on the outcome of this research, the company has indicated that the personal radio will keep on dominating the market and the millions of users will have increasing access to existing data as well as preferences. MixRadio’s newly disclosed personalized engine will be able to give a completely new level of experience to the millions of users in India.

On the 4th November, MixRadio opted for the MixRadio Music Connects event held in Mumbai for making the global announcement pertaining to their newly and natively built recommendation engine. This new personalized recommendation engine will be providing “Play me” one touch option for the music lovers and audiences globally.

What is special about this new engine? 

This new engine is expected to be delivering a greater breadth of music and in a more personalized way when compared to the earlier days. The engine has been created to deliver a completely unique and relevant listening experience due to the fact that it will be using billions of data points from millions of customers globally. The music listeners will be able to see a complete catalogue of the artist and listen to the selected song, they will also come across tracks which either has gone unnoticed or forgotten at times. The aim is that the music listeners will be able to discover more and more about the music they like. The Play me option has been evolved in this new engine which adds to the experiences of the listeners.

According to Head of MixRadio, Jyrki Rosenberg, the main roadblock that was faced by the development team was the organization of the large catalogue of music which includes 32 million tracks for just a single listener making it entirely relevant and personal. What we have promised the listeners is the fact that they will be getting their own personalized radio station and that too by touching a single button. The company has been able to develop an engine which is delivering what they have promised.

According to Rosenberg, this new engine was in development and evolution stages since 2010. Although not known to many, but MixRadio was moving their existing listeners towards this new engine and today they have completed the final shifting. According to the preliminary reports, the new recommendation engine has been able to have a positive impact in the retention as well as the engagement level of the customers in the new service. This is expected to be a new experience for the Indian music listeners in terms of how and what they enjoy. According to the Company development of this new engine has been the most effective business model they have adopted in recent times.

Microsoft's Unveils RemoteIE To Test Web Pages In Internet Explorer On Any OS


IE
The ultimate aim of this move by the company is to attract as many developers as possible so that they can develop websites which is compatible with their browser’s latest version. So, the latest version or so called developer tool that was unveiled by the company has been named as “Remote IE”, which basically will allow the latest version of the IE to work on any operating system like OS X devices as well as iOS and Android. At the moment this launch has been limited at the testing level.

The company is hoping that the developers will be able to run the browser preview build without the need for them to be actually on the latest version of the OS or Windows. Currently the Remote Internet Explorer, the company’s had made sure that it runs on the company’s cloud computing platform called Azure and they can’t expect all the developers to use their windows platform. According to Microsoft, at present the service has been reserved and restricted to safeguard their server resources and that is the reason the remote IE has been kept at the testing level.

The company has made sure that no single session last more than 60 minutes and any session kept idle for even 10 minutes will log out the user. Moreover, there are some tradeoffs considering the fact that at the moment Remote IE has been made free for everyone and also the company’s focus was completely on getting the attention of more developers to modify their websites to make it compatible with the new Internet Explorer.

At the end, you are among the developers, irrespective of software or system environment you work in and use, Microsoft has come up with a blessing in which you will be easily able to test your website’s compatibility with that of Microsoft's browser. On the other side, Remote Internet Explorer has been given access to the latest builds of the IE that are currently in the testing process for use on Windows 10 technical preview.

How the developers can use the service: 

In order to use this service, the developers will be required to register themselves on the Remote IE website. They will be directed for downloading a client application for selected operating systems. The developer can either press F12, or use the IE menu to get access to the developer tools. The previous version of IE is not available for testing as the current Remote IE is based on the Windows Server 2012 R2. According to Microsoft they are working towards getting the previous version to be available for testing.

At the moment testing time limits have been set and the company is working on increasing the same depending on the demand and the resource availability. One this user’s will have to remember is the fact that they can’t make any changes in the settings in the application, but certainly the web developers will be able to test their unique creations.

Utilising ICT to Get the Most from Design


Draftsight
Since the inception of the modern computer, the design world has sought to find a balance between digital and analogue processes. While there's no perfect formula to striking a balance between the two, it's fair to say that the prominence of digital design continues to grow with the releases of more powerful software.

Simply put, it's no longer possible to get the most from design in today's world without utilising ICT to some extent. Here, we take a look at a handful of things you can do to ensure you're getting the most from your design when it comes to digital practices.

Create and use shareable files

One of the most significant benefits to using ICT for design is the ease with which projects can be shared. With this in mind, it becomes clear why it's essential to be creating and using shareable files.

In the design world, CAD software is commonplace, and this most often demands working with DWG files. Making use of Draftsight software can allow you to create and manage these files, allowing you to stay in professional contact with just about everyone else in your industry.

Openness is key to ICT and this begins with the software you choose to use on a daily basis in your design room.

Draftsight 1
Use high resolution

Computing power is now advanced and affordable enough to allow designers to work in very high resolution for most of the time. While this will require investment in computing power and high resolution monitors, it is something to which there is no alternative.

Aesthetics are a key part of design and you need your hardware to allow you to get as close as possible to reality.

Businesses must train

ICT should be empowering, not enfeebling. The only thing which stands in the way of empowerment is proper training. Businesses who employ people as designers should take responsibility for keeping their workers up to date with the latest technologies and practices.

Sub-par training is too often responsible for companies not getting the most from their design software.

Recognise and exercise the benefits

ICT is taking an increasing role in the design world for good reason. Designers need to recognise what the benefits are and find a way to incorporate them into the work they do. The ability to experiment, for example, without using resources can transform the way a design process evolves.

What is The Reason Behind Flipkart Launching Wearable Support for Their Smartphone App?


 Flipkart  Wearable Support
Pebble was the first company to venture into the wearable devices and they were later on joined by companies like Martian, Garmin, Moto 360 and other different companies among others ventured as well. One of the most expected releases that took place in the month of September 2014 was the launch of the Apple Watch. Although, this was not the first time the developers have seen a smart watch, but it really got the app developer’s spirit pumping. With this release the customers are anticipating more apps to be added to the wearable devices.

Flipkart joins the team:
 
With every company trying to be the first in the market, Flipkart seems to have captured the attention by launching a smart phone app for the android wearable device. This app will allow the android wearable device users to access their product wish lists from the Flipkart website and apart from this feature the latest app comes with the advantage that the user will be able to get push notifications from the Flipkart on their wearable device.

The user will be able to take the advantage of this feature only after they have activated the push notifications on their wearable gear. Flipkart is currently working on adding further updates to this app wherein the users will be able to track their order details, pricing details as well as the notifications about the new offers.

So what are the features that the users will get in this new app?
 
i. The user will get a newer, faster app and also a brand new interface
ii. The customers will get 100% protection and they will get a contented shopping experience.
iii. The customers will get options for the mode of payment like Credit card, Debit card, COD, Net banking and EMIs.
iv. The users will be able to choose from a variety of products through voice, bar code and even using text.
v. The user will have the option to view the products in full screen mode, list mode and even grid mode.
vi. Multiple filter options and sort out the products of your choice.
vii. Users will be able to receive personalized notifications about products.
viii. The users will also be sent out suggestions about new products based on their shopping experience.
ix. Users will be able to view the image and get all the details of the products.
Flipkart has got the benefit to be considered as the first company to be into retailing of the products from brands like Martian, Motorola and Garmin and the latest app will be compatible with all the products of these companies.

The things the user needs to have to get access to the new app:
 
i. The users will be required to connect their devices with the app
ii. The user’s wish list from the website will be automatically loaded on this app
iii. The Flipkart application will have to be updated from the app store

NASA Releases Over 60 Space Audio Recordings on Soundcloud


NASA
After many decennaries, NASA has been able to put up a SoundCloud account, which will allow them to stream out the audio clips they have collected and which includes celestial sounds like the ones from the launching of the rockets, the dialogue of the astronaut with that of alien lightning and also the interstellar plasma.

Now, NASA has released nearly 60 space recording for people to hear anywhere online. These released recordings contain sounds that came from the launching of the shuttle, Saturn’s rings, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune and some of the most famous quotes from the astronauts.

So what’s special about these recordings?

At the moment, there are 63 recordings in offering, but the emphasis was on the fact they uploaded the very first audio consisting on Neil Armstrong’s voice. If the reports from 'mother nature network' have to be believed, the first video which was posted by NASA contained the most famous word “A Giant Leap”, said by Neil Armstrong when he first put his foot on the surface of the moon and touched it.

Earth-song:

The Chorus, which is also known as “Earth-song” is known to be one of the most popular NASA feeds. Earth-song is essentially the noise which is made by the electromagnetic phenomenon, which is actually caused by the plasma waves in the radiation belts of Earth.

These plasma waves become visible at least 12,874 km (8,000 miles) on top of the surface. These Earth-song recordings were recorded by NASA in 2012 with the help of the EMFISIS probe.

Saturn Radio:

Saturn Radio is one of the other recordings uploaded by NASA. Saturn is known to be the hub of dramatic sounds and aurora which are similar to that of the southern light and the northern sounds which roams around the Earth’s pole, and this happens when the upper atmosphere is hit by the solar wind.

The Northern and the Southern lights look similar to that of the strong radio emissions from the planet and this was detected the very first time in 2002 by the Cassini spacecraft.

The Sounds of Interstellar:

The Sounds of Interstellar is another audio clip which basically represents the data that was collected outside the Heliosphere by NASA's Voyager 1in 2012 and 2013.

Lift Off:

These sounds were from the very first manned-mission, Apollo 11. This mission conducted on the moon was called as Lift off. These clips consist of the sounds of lift off as well as the appreciation in the space center.

On the similar lines, even ISRO (India's space research Organization) reached out to millions of the people from the social media by giving out the step by step information about all their historic Mars Orbit Insertion which were successful in the month of September.

The ISRO got lots of appreciation for their initiative from the users of the social media. Constant tweets between NASA and ISRO became the trending news in the media and very much appreciated.