Google Duo Makes Video Calling Between Operating Systems Easier

Google’s Duo – Video Calling App

For years, Apple and Google had been competing with each other for dominance over mobile users, with Apple submitting its greater devices such as the iPhone. Google on the other hand had battled back with its Android operating system together with a sequence of mobile apps which seemed to quite flexible and well-matched with broader set of devices than the apps of Apple.

Recently, Google had featured that strategy with the release of its new mobile app, the Duo, a video calling app which is said to be a direct substitute to the FaceTime of Apple. The app tends to fit precisely in the playbook in mobile of Google.

Google had progressively provided its software as well as internet service comprising of Google Maps, Google Docs and Google Photos to iPhone users and all these apps had been convincing substitute to the proprietary apps of Apple such as Apple Maps, Photos and Notes since they tend to function on a broader variety of devices inclusive of Macs, Android devices, Windows PCs and iPhones.

FaceTime can only be utilised to call others having the Apple devices though Duo enable the user to place video calls between Android as well as iPhone users and substantially increases the number of people with whom one intends to have a video discussion.

Great Product/Increase Use of Video Calling with Android Users

Google had mentioned in a statement in an indirect shot at Apple that one should not have to worry about whether your call can connect or if your friend is utilising the same type of device one is using. It is no wonder that almost half of U.S. adults do not make video calls on mobile.

All this encouraged the strategy of Google in attracting iPhone users over to Android. It is said that Google’s apps usually tends to operate better on Android devices than the iPhones and hence more users seem to get hooked on the core apps of Google with less reason for being loyal to Apple.

The head of communication products, Nick Fox had stated that the top priority with Duo was to create a great product and to increase the use of video calling with Android users. However he adds that making the Android much more attractive than the iPhone owners had been a secondary motive. He informs that the appeal of Duo was that it seemed to be simple to use, was fast and much more extensively accessible.

Switching – Android to iPhone – Highest

He commented saying that their view is video calling and should work for all. If one can only call half the people they know, that is very limiting. Apple does not seem to be concerned by the moves of Google.

When the falling sales last month had been reported by the iPhone maker, Timothy D. Cook, chief executive of Apple had highlighted that the rate where people were switching from Android-based devices to iPhone had been the highest the company had ever seen.

He had mentioned in a call without revealing the precise figure that their year-to-date iPhone sales to switchers were the greatest they have seen in any nine-month period. A spokeswoman of Apple had refrained from commenting beyond the comments of Mr Cook.

Putting a Computer in Your Brain is no Longer Science Fiction

Kernel – Small Chip Implanted in Brain – Neurological Damage

Bryan Johnson, a technology entrepreneur, like several in Silicon Valley foresees a future wherein intelligent machine could perform many things such as drive cars on their own and anticipate our requirements before we tend to ask. From his modest office in Venice Beach, his science-fiction-meets-science start-up, Kernel has been building small chip which could be implanted in the brain in order to assist people suffering from neurological damage which could be the result of strokes, Alzheimer’s or concussions.

Top neuroscientists building the chip call it a neuroprosthetic and hopes that in the long run it would be capable of boosting intelligence, memory as well as the other cognitive responsibilities. Johnson admits that the medical device will take several years but he can afford to wait. In 2013, he had sold his payment company, Braintree to PayPal for $800.

Earlier Mormon raised in Utah, he expresses regarding the project with missionary like passion and focus. He further added in an interview regarding the company that he had not spoken openly before, stating that `human intelligence is blocked-in relationship to artificial intelligence and the blocked-in is the degeneration of the body and the brain and this is a question of keeping humans front and centre as we progress’.

Support Cognitive-Enhancement Businesses

Johnson is said to be one out of a set of leading entrepreneurs who is of the belief that Silicon Valley could pay a role in financing large-scale scientific encounters, the types which could intensely enhance home life that could go further than building software. Several of their ventures have been drawn from the values of software.

 Venture capital firms such as Y Combinator, Andreessen Horowitz, Peter Thiel’s Founders fun, Khosla Ventures and several others, in the last two years had invested in start-ups which centred on `bio-hacking’, with the idea that one can engineer the body as one would, a software program.

They have subsidized the companies which focus to arrange the bacteria in the gut reprogram the DNA one is born with or conduct cancer biopsies from the blood samples. They have also supported cognitive-enhancement businesses such as Thync that tend to build headset which sends mood-altering electrical pulses to the brain as well as Nootrobox which is a start-up making chewable coffee complement that associates doses of caffeine with active elements in green tea, thus leading to a accurately planned, zenlike high.

Speed up Scientific Breakthrough

It seems easy to discharge these attempts as the hubristic, techno-utopian illusions of self-involved choice are of the belief that it could challenge death and human deterioration. Though there is no lack of hubris in Silicon Valley, it is also sure that some of these projects would speed up the scientific breakthrough and seal some of the gaps which may have been left in the process of declining public subsidy for scientific study, according to the professor of bioethics and medical humanities at North-western University, Laurie Zoloth. Besides this, techies have been encouraged by the statistic that several biological as well as health challenges progressively comprise of data-mining together with computation which look more like problem than one would know to resolve them.

Kernel is said to be a cognitive improvement and the concept depends on the work of Theodore Berger who was a pioneering biomedical engineer directing the Centre for Neural Engineering at the University of Southern California and is said to be the chief science officer of the start-up.

Airline Cabins Of the Future- A New Golden Age of Travel

Air Travel Experience Renovated with Technology

In comparison to the air travel photos of the 1960s which portray smartly attired, champagne sipping passengers in a spacious airliner cabins, the present scenario is that of cramped seats with overcrowded airports which appears that our flying experiences seems to be gradually getting worse. The aviation industry has invested immensely in order to demonstrate sentimental passengers, the mistake.

Though the aircraft may seem to be the same to those of the supposed wonderful years but each aspect of air travel experience is being renovated currently, with the use of technology. At the front position we have the aircraft cabins and the fundamental to their transformation is that of a wireless connection. With every passenger practically using a smartphone, tablet or a laptop, the inflight Wi-Fi tends to open up new means of commitment with the travellers and redefine their flying experience.

Mobile technology has already being playing an important part in improving travel accompanied with electronic boarding passes to last-minute bids on biz upgrades on class. Other airlines such as KLM had also begun sending boarding passes as well as flight alerts, through dedicated airline Facebook Messenger chat bot.

Inflight Entertainment/Personal Devices

However, the one area wherein mobile could be accurately transformative is the inflight entertainment together with personal devices being a gateway to a range of up-in-the-air services. Though built-in-in-flight entertainment systems seem doubtfulto disappear, especially on long-haul flights, they could work in tandem with the own devices of the passengers.

Panasonic had unveiled Waterfront, earlier in 2016 which is a system that permits passenger in utilising their mobile handset in order to control the built-in entertainment of the aircraft. Aerospace companies Thales and B/E have also been utilising mobiles in personalizing passenger experiences.

On syncing the handsets, the seats tend to know the preferences of a passenger and could also restart a movie at the precise place they could have left in the earlier flight. Some of the airlines are discarding the implanted entertainment systems completely and are opting for he handsets of the passengers in delivering inflight entertainment, which is a change that significantly lessens aircraft weight and more cabin space.

Cost Effective/Flexible Means of Quality Inflight Content

Internet connection is not needed and passengers could only link their devices to an in-plane network. AirFi, Netherlands-based is mostly preparing low-cost airlines which tend to fly short-haul single-aisle aircraft often and does not have entertainment systems. The portable wireless system of the company beams pre-loaded content on the devices of the passenger.

The AirFi terminal tends to perform like a normal Internet router which is lightweight and can be installed in a luggage compartment with ease. Job Heimerikx, AirFi CEO had stated that it is cost effective as well as a flexible means of providing quality inflight content to the short haul market. He further added that `there are customer service and a commercial angle to the system and passenger could access a broad range of movies together with other kind of entertainment though they could also utilise it to order food or shop duty free.

It seems like an evolution of the traditional inflight magazine but since it occurs at online stores, one could make it really personal’. This conception tends to flourish on obtaining a captive audience.

Capture the benefits of Java Logging

Java Logs Specific Formation/Analysis

Provision of accurate information in leading one’s business to great height could be easy if the right approach is utilised. Machine data provides the incredible valuable statistics regarding your business operation and with the help of friendly platform, things tend to get easy in accomplishing your goal. Logmatic.io helps in real time BI solution for online marketers, with their plan of action. Individuals could send in their choice of logs and the powerful processing is taken care of by the service provider.The need of any installation or agent does not arise since it tends to run completely on the cloud. You could follow the simple guidelines wherein your logs can be integrated with easy and centralized into the log analysis platform:

• Any kind of logs, machine events or metric from any location can be sent 
• The need of any Logmatic.in proprietary code on the server is not essential. You have the choice between agentless or a log shipper 
• Scale on demand without automated overage penalties 
• Establish information utilising logical fields tag sets and metrics

Java Provides Plenty of Logging Libraries

Java tends to provide plenty of logging libraries beginning from java logging Util to some classy ones like the SLF4J and Log4J2 wherein to make it more multifaceted, each open source library tends to come with its specific logging standards which is said to enhance a layer of complexity to java logs specific formation as well as analysis. Java logging seems difficult to manage due to stack traces which have a tendency of getting split into multiples lines making them complex to link to the unique log event.

Java tend to take a tailored as well as extensible approach for logging and though it offers a basic logging API through the Util logging package. One could use instead one or more substitute logging solutions which tend to provide various methods in creating log date but share the final goal in delivering logs from your application to the desired destination. Java logs could be swiftly controlled making it a dominant tool for Devs as well as Ops which are likely to pay attention to app in production. Utilising the json format could also assist in handling the java logs accurately.

Mapped Diagnostic Context - MDC

Logging in json seems to be a decent notion for Java logs and using the json format could be beneficial in dealing accurately with java logs. Since java logs tends to be fragmented into multiples lines, the parsers could find it challenging in relating them to the original log event. Logging can be great and it informs the administrators as well as the developers of what takes place at a particular time but the user needs to embellish them with appropriate elements.

 In order to enhance log events, in Java the user could re-write messages in your code while introducing = systems. Alternative choice in improving the logs is to utilise Mapped Diagnostic context – MDC of Java which are great though for certain reasons only string form are permitted and hence offering numerical values for metric along with MDCs does not seem to be a good choice.

Microsoft Office for iPhone Gets Drawing Support for Your Fingers

iPhone – the Use of Finger to Write/Draw/Highpoint Documents

Microsoft had optimized its Office suite of apps for the iPad Pro and the Pencil stylus of Apple though the company had put off on any inking provision in Office for iPhone.Recently Microsoft had updated Word, Excel and PowerPoint for iPhone to add a new drawing tab choice. Similar to the Windows and iPad alternatives, Office on iPhone would now enable the use of the finger to write, draw and highpoint documents.

In Word in iPhone, the draw tab is said to be hidden away though once it is located you will able capable of choosing it from the certain objects, like a pen, highlighter or an eraser. Moreover the thickness as well as the colour of the pen can be adjusted and can be used freely to mark on documents.

In the case of Excel, one would be able to mark freely on cells and PowerPoints inking integration, it enables you to draw on slides with the help of the fingers. The new update to Office for iPhone is made available in Apple’s App Store. The iPhone’s screen being smaller than the iPad and the laptop it means that with regards to editing certain things, the screen size does not reduces it.

Office Apps – Word/Excel/PowerPoint

In the case of Microsoft Office, Microsoft has introduced a feature which enables the user to draw on the screen with their fingers, though this had been limited only to the iPad where the IOs devices were considered. Microsoft has eventually got around to updating its iPhone app with the introduction of the same finger-drawing feature.

This would be applicable to the complete suite of Office apps like Word, PowerPoint and Excel. As per Microsoft, `use your finger to write, draw and highlight with the tools in the new Draw tab’. This would make it much easy for the user in drawing shapes or making rough explanations, or focus on certain thing on the documents, spread sheet or presentations slides. Beside the finger-drawing feature the update is said to bring about assistance for Citrix in storing as well as accessing the documents.

Qualifying Office 365 Subscription for Creating/Editing Documents

With regards to Microsoft PowerPoint, users would be capable of adding notes and information together with their slide and be much ahead on their latest presentation. The potential of adding comments with the help of finger input seems much easier and practical taking into consideration the fact that changes need to be made at some point of time and nothing seems more convenient as an input tool than our finger which tends to streamline the entire process.

In order to get the latest update, you could go to the App Store and update the Microsoft Office Suite tools for the latest versions for your iPhone. While the apps are said to be available free of cost, for downloading, users would require a qualifying Office 365 subscription for creating and editing documents. Microsoft tends to roll out the latest update as well as new functions though one should yet get the up-to-date finger input selections very soon,