Lenovo Unveil Mirage Solo Standalone Daydream VR Headset

The Lenovo Mirage Solo headset was launched at CES 2018. The Lenovo Mirage Solo head set with Daydream was eagerly awaited and is the first all-in-one Daydream VR headset.

The Lenovo Mirage Solo is an all-in-one headset without any cables, no connections to PCs or phones. The Daydream’s VR platform provides for an immersive experience of the motion tracking technology, called WorldSense. In addition, the Lenovo Mirage Camera with the Daydream technology allows you to capture your VR video in 180 degrees, which can then be seen on the Lenovo Mirage Solo.

The Lenovo Mirage Solo headset and the Lenovo Mirage Camera with the Daydream technology have showcased the latest WorldSense technology and VR 180. It comes at an affordable price, it is easy to set up and allows you to record, watch and share your VR video. The Lenovo Mirage Solo promises to deliver a high quality experience to its users. With the help of WorldSense, you can have a fully immersive experience. It allows you to explore your virtual setup as if you were actually present there.

Lenovo has taken into account the comfort factor, while designing the Lenovo Mirage Solo headset. It is made of plastic and weighs 645g. It has an adjustable head strap that should comfortably fit any head size. It comes with quick release buttons, for visor adjustments, accommodation of different head size as well as making it easy to remove when you have finished using it. The headset is lined with a soft fabric and has a fairly even load balance to avoid any strain on the neck. The areas that come in contact with the face and forehead have been provided with additional padding for extra comfort.

The Lenovo Mirage Solo has the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor and 4GB memory. It comes with 64Gb internal storage and a memory card slot supporting MicroSDTM cards up to 256GB for additional storage. The headset has a 5.5” 2560 x 1440 75 Hz LCD and two Fresnel Aspheric lenses allowing up to 110 degree view. The Lenovo Mirage Solo headset is powered by a 4,000 mAh Li-ion Polymer battery, that can essentially provide 7 hours of usage.

The headset has the Inside-out tracking technology called WorldSense, which is obtained from the cameras and sensors allowing 6 degrees of freedom (6DoF).

Earlier, the portable headsets could track head movement by using cables and external sensors. With the help of WorldSense’s inside-out tracking technology, the Lenovo Mirage solo headset can mirror real life by tracking its position in space through the in-built cameras and sensors.

The Lenovo Mirage Solo should be available in the 2nd quarter of 2018 and priced a little under $400.

Lenovo promises to come out with various apps using the Daydream platform in the Lenovo Mirage Solo headset along with the WorldSense technology.

The Lenovo Mirage Solo headset can be used for atleast 7 hours continuously and is powered by the Li-ion Polymer battery.

The Lenovo Mirage Solo headset with the WorldSense technology, makes the Daydream apps and gaming better as well as provide an immersive VR experience.

What Can Your Google Assistant Do?

Google Assistant can do a lot of stud which you can’t even think of

Since the launch of the Google Assistant year ago it has been improved and enhanced to a great extent. Google wanted to place its digital assistant as the direct competitor to the popular Apple’s Siri and the rising star in the Amazon’s Echo. Google Assistant has made it way from the Pixel Smartphones to every other Android Smartphones as well as to the Internet of Things devices. In short Google AI powered assistant has made the plunge from Smartphone to smart home products and much more. If you are wondering what makes so sought out then just keep in mind you can almost anything by simply assistant do so for you.

Talk to any app of your choice with Google Assistant

Google Assistant allows you open and use any app by simply "Open" command followed by the App name. But in some cases you can smartly say "Talk to Healing sounds" and this will result in the app playing the sounds for next two minutes. If you wish travel back in time and get to know the history then say "Talk to Ancient Times". It is worth noting that the command is "Talk to" followed by the app name.

Let’s get information about the health and medicine with Google Assistant

Google Assistant is smarter and more humane than the robotic appeal of other digital assistant and AI available in the tech arena. Herein you can use command like Ask, Talk or Open or even go ahead frame your questions to get necessary information related to the health and medicine in a smart way. This can help you in communicating with app like Virtual Nurse – to know what to do in panic situations, Baby Stats – to monitor the baby health by adding poop and pee data and Fitness Tips – to get necessary health tips.

Boost your productivity with it

Checking time and other weather updates are as simple as it can get. Just assistant for time, temperature, sunrise, sunset and other details and it will relayed back to your instantly. Users can even perform unit conversions along with have a look at the stock or bitcoin prices on the go without the need of typing everything in the web browser. Similarly calendar app can be called up and upcoming appointments and other agenda can be checked or added right in it.

Control everything around you with new age Google assistant

You can control lightning, appliances, fixtures, home security, temperature, air, entertainment systems, home electronics, computer and other peripherals. With Google HomePod you get a chance to the assistant in the best way possible wherein it gets connected with all your smart devices having support for the assistant and you get overall control on it. While cooking food you can turn on music or TV, check the temperature, get notified if someone comes into the home or even turn on appliances to get the things ready for dinner in time. The prospects of using Google Assistant are immense and limitless by your imagination and your appliances support for it.

5 Outdated Myths About SEO for Small Business

SEO can be confusing – which is the correct way?

How many times have you received those emails telling you that your website is not appearing on the first page of Google so you will never be found. Panic! They promise they will get you the top position in Google for your industry, so you hand over your money willingly for them to ‘fix’ this problem (often at either far too cheap or overly extortionate rates). However nothing changes and you are still so far down the search rankings you wonder if they did anything at all. You have come to the conclusion that SEO is a big con and you won’t waste money again!

Well, if done incorrectly, spending all of your marketing budget on SEO can indeed be a waste of time. However if done correctlySearch Engine Optimisation (SEO) can give a positive boost to your business, increasing your visibility to your target market and most importantly, providing revenue from your website in terms of actual sales or leads generated.

I have put together the top 5 myths about SEO to help small business owners make sense of an ever changing landscapeand help them to display their site page, for example best armor in bloodborne, in the first position of Google.

1. We must be No. 1 on the first page of Google. 

Firstly, doubt any SEO company that guarantees to get you the number one slot. There are no guarantees of this! Google themselves won’t even guarantee it. A more realistic aim is a position on the first page of Google, as high as possible within the top three results. These positions continue to gain the higher percentage of clicks. This doesn’t mean that if you are on other pages you won’t get any traffic either, it has been shown that those on the top of subsequent pages still get clicks, or if they include rich snippets such as author profile (those ones with a photograph). Of course if the company you choose is reputable they will inevitably get you top positions for your important keywords in a focused and ethical way, as a result of hard work and determination. There are no quick fixes!

2. Build as many links as possible. 

The SEO landscape has changed, Google released it’s Panda algorithm update which reduced rankings for low quality sites and those which copy content. This means that whist the number of links are still important for your website’s authority, you should focus on quality, not quantity. You need links on relevant websites which lead back to the great content you have provided such as blog posts, lead generation offers and guest posts. If you focus on good quality content, the links will come naturally.

3. Keyword density is important. 

Not so much anymore. Another algorithm update, known as Penguin, meant that it would also reduce the rank of websites that were seen to be ‘keyword stuffing’ or providing irrelevant links to outgoing content on your page. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use keywords within your website content, but include them within the natural flow of the text. Your keywords don’t need to be exact match either, as Google will intelligently pick them up when presenting relevant search results to the user. So write a natural headline for your article, not one that’s awkwardly formed around a keyphrase. Finally, contrary to some opinion, there is no ideal keyword density for your page. Just ensure they are included in your page title, headlines and at least once throughout the content.

4. Geographic keyphrases must be used for local SEO. 

Ok, still fairly important and it won’t harm your site if you do, but remember Google and other search engines are capable of knowing where you are located (especially on a mobile device). They provide results these days specific to the users location. You should also make sure things like title tags, reviews and social media (especially Google+ Local) clearly state where you are located.
5. SEO and Social Media are separate.

Not at all! The relationship between the SEO and Social Media are becoming increasingly combined and known as ‘social search’. If you provide great content the theory as above is that it will naturally be shared, and any social content that is connected to you will be prioritised in social search. This means anyone you are linked with on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin etc. If they are social media influencers, even better. Some social networks such as Pinterest and Instagram even aid your quality link building efforts and are shown to increase traffic considerably. Google now includes social within it’s analytics program where you can see how many visitors have come to your website as a result of social search. If you have conversion tracking enabled you can even see how many of these social visitors have contributed to a sale. So make sure you include some social media marketing in your digital strategy and you can’t go wrong!

I hope this helps you as a small business owner to banish some of the myths surrounding SEO, and to gauge whether a current or potential agency is working to best practice for you. If you have any questions or would like to discuss how to improve your strategy then let me know below!

LG ThinQ: The Latest Smart Speaker Gadget to Hit the Market

In the last few years we have seen a number of smart speakers hitting the market with Amazon’s Alexa being one of the best that was out there. Now the LG ThinQ gadget is LG’s response to the smart speaker market due to be released at the Consumer electronics trade fair coming up soon.

Other than the norm that is having an assistant attached to the gadget that answers to your every need and fancy LG’s ThinQ boasts of doing much more. As of now there is not much by way of price or specifications. The company plans on making a full reveal of the gadget at the Consumer Electronics Trade show.

What does the LG ThinQ Gadget do? 

Besides the obvious voice control feature that is there in all smart speakers, this gadget also seems to work as a premium speaker as well with a premium audio experience and support for lossless high resolution audio courtesy of Meridian audio technology.

With Meridian audio technology this LG gadget promises to put out more natural and warm music.
The gadget has the Google assistant on it and can be used to control all of LG’s smart gadgets under the ThinQ banner like their smart dishwashers, dryers, refrigerators, vaccumcleaners lineup. The smart devices can also be controlled through a voice app from LG.

The LG gadget also supports a number of voices so that all of the house hold members can use the LG ThinQ.

With all the smart speakers out there like the Amazon Echo, Google’s home lineup or to be released Apple’s HomePod and without much info on the specs and pricing of the LG gadget, it is unclear as to how this gadget is going to fair in the market place.

The LG gadget comes as part of a number of AI gadgets that LG plans on releasing in the current year. Future LG devices may also be supported for Voice control.

Other gadget releases with the LG ThinQ: 

LG also teased about a new fun and portable PK speaker that can be carried anywhere and give high res audio due to the Apt-X HD bluetooth standard. The PK speaker can stream 24 bit music with original sounding audio.

LG also plans on releasing a party speaker that has karaoke, DJ capabilities and 1800 max output along with releasing a soundbar at the CES expo.

The SK10Y soundbar is a 5.1.2 channel support gadget with Chromecast support, lossless audio, Dolby Atmos processing and meridian high elevation standard to put the sound at the level of the TV.
More about these gadgets will be known at the consumer electronics expo to be held in Las Vegas on Jan 9th of this year.

Targeting Myopia through Next Gen Contact Lenses

New age contact lenses to bring respite to the people suffering from myopia

Millions of people are suffering from variety of eye disease one such popular eye deteriorating condition is myopia. But a team of researchers from Brisbane has successful developed the next gen contact lenses which can help in changing the loss of eye sight in the long run. This new contact lens has been developed with the partnership between the world’s largest contact lens manufacturer Johnson & Johnson Vision and Queensland University of Technology’s professor Michael Collins. This helped in boosting the research being conducted by the professor into myopia and helps in enhancing the contact lens design to the next level.

A collaboration to last for two decades

This enhanced contact lens is a result of the 20 year collaboration between these two in which 12 years will be given towards supporting the university’s research program for the global myopia epidemic. Professor Collins has stated that this collaboration will help them in understanding the development as well as the progression of myopia. It is worth noting that there are more than two billion are suffering from myopia globally and it affects almost 4 million people in Australia.

Currently the team of researchers are working towards finding better strategies to slow and stop this disease before finding a perfect way to prevent it. In upcoming next few years they will be focusing on developing new optical designs specifically for the next gen contact lenses which has the potential to slow down the eye growth.

What is myopia and how it affects you?

Myopia or nearsightedness is one of the most common ‘refractive error’ for the eye. It is caused by the eyes growing too long eventually resulting in reproduction of blurred images. In this condition people have difficulty reading and seeing distant objects clearly but they are able to see the close up things well enough without any issues.

People suffering myopia will have huge difficulty in reading signs too far away like billboards, road signs but reading books will be a simple task for them and in some cases using computer wouldn’t require spectacles.

Saving the human eyes with next gen contact lens

Professor Collins has asserted that his research isn’t just focused towards reducing and preventing the rise of myopia but towards helping people in seeing better and clearer than ever before. It should be noted that the people suffering from myopia area more likely to develop other eye problems as they get older. They are at the risk of contracting eyes problems like retinal degenerations which can eventually lead to the partial blindness.

Therefore it becomes vital to slow down the myopia progression right at the younger age. He even states that the two main causes of the myopia are genetic risk and environmental causes. People who happen to do a lot of near work like reading, spending time indoors, or looking at the computer screens longer duration are likely to develop myopia.

This next gen contact lens will help the people suffering from myopia to start their way on the road to slow progression rather than sharing the risk of partial blindness in later years.