What you need to know about the shared services strategy
Functional shared services can bring so many benefits to all sorts of organizations. Whether it’s cutting labour costs thanks to location-driven arbitrage, making services like HR and finance standardized and streamlined, or giving all internal customers the same high-quality experience, there’s a lot that shared services can bring to your company.
Most importantly of all, though, they can help to both cut down on unnecessary expenditure and increase company growth- making them the smart choice for any organization that wants to get ahead of the competition. However, have you ever thought about the extra benefits that you could reap by taking things one step further?
Apple joins Instagram to boast about iPhone photography
Smartphones have forever changed the photography market. While a standalone camera, such as a DSLR, may take a better photo, they can be a chore to carry and maintain. Not to mention, they can be very expensive. For many non-professional photographers, their phone is more than good enough. Heck, some people claim an iPhone, for example, can rival dedicated cameras.
Apple seems keen to brag about how good its iPhone is at photography -- there are countless TV commercials produced by the company that highlight that exact thing. Apple is also taking its bragging a bit further by way of social media. After increasing its activity on Twitter lately, the company has now joined Instagram too. Under the @Apple handle, the MacBook-maker is not sharing photos of its products, but instead, photos taken with them.
What you need to know about chatbots
As consumers become bombarded with more and more advertising both online and in the real world, the challenge of directly appealing to customers is a challenge facing businesses both large and small.
Combining the intelligence of machine learning and AI systems with the personal touch of technology platforms such as instant messaging apps or mobile devices, chatbots could soon be the best way for businesses to directly reach out to their individual customers.
Microsoft does Windows 10 privacy propaganda well
One of the big complaints people had about Windows 10 when it first launched was how the new operating system spied on its users.
Microsoft has since reigned in this spying and introduced controls to give users greater management over their privacy, and now the software company has issued a lovely piece of spin, with an equally lovely headline -- Your feedback is helping shape Windows privacy -- to convince Windows 10 doubters the problems of the past are rapidly receding.
Bitcoin is on a roll and the crypto market benefits
Things took a turn for the worse in the cryptocurrency market after the price of Bitcoin broke the $3,000 barrier in mid-June. All the major coins posted significant losses, leading the market to shed tens of billions of dollars in value in a really short period of time. The flippening? Well, that didn't happen. Ethereum crashed even harder than Bitcoin, dropping from a $400 peak to $150 last month.
But, as investors know, volatility is the name of the game. The cryptocurrency market has repeatedly crashed and recovered to reach new highs, and it's on the same path now as the rise of the major coins, spearheaded by leader Bitcoin, goes to show.
Firefox 55 unveils performance improvements and new features aplenty
Mozilla has unveiled one of the biggest updates to Firefox yet with its release of Firefox 55.0 for Windows, Mac and Linux. Firefox for Android 55.0 is also due imminently.
Firefox 55’s many highlights include instant restoration of browsing sessions with a large number of tabs, the ability to reposition the sidebar and a feature for grabbing screenshots of web pages direct from the browser itself.
Google Pixel and Pixel XL get big discounts
The Pixel and Pixel XL are among the best flagship smartphones that you can buy today. And, since they're rapidly approaching their one-year anniversary, they are now offered with some serious discounts direct from Google, making them an even more attractive proposition in the high-end market.
Google is offering the Pixel and Pixel XL with discounts of up to $200 on its online store, and, to sweeten the deal even further, you can also grab a VR headset for free.
Irony alert: the BBC has designed its own font to avoid paying license fees
The BBC has announced plans to roll out a new font across its network of websites in a cost-saving measure. The corporation has designed a new font called BBC Reith, named after Lord Reith, the founder of the BBC.
The beeb says that it will be able to save an undisclosed sum of money by ditching the fonts it currently uses as it will no longer have to pay license fees for them. That sound you can hear is the shrill ring of irony as a corporation that charges a license fee tries to avoid paying a license fee...
HBO calls in FBI over Game of Thrones hack as Indian distributor admits it is the source of S07E04 leak
Season seven of Game of Thrones has been something of a disaster for HBO. Not in terms of interest or viewing figures, of course, but in terms of hacking, leaks, spoilers and piracy.
Last night saw the official airing of episode four of season seven but this particular episode, The Spoils of War, leaked some days ago. Distribution partner Star India has admitted the leak came from its website, and HBO has called in the FBI to investigate the hack that lead to a number of episode and script leaks.
Privacy: UK government to force social media and tech companies to give users more control over their data
The UK government is set to introduce a new Data Protection Bill which will give people the right to demand companies delete personal data. The bill, due to be introduced this summer, will make it easier for people to find out what information is held about them and how it is being used.
Matt Hancock, the Digital Minister, says that the bill amounts to a widescale "right to be forgotten" and it will give people the opportunity to separate themselves from online posts they made when younger. It will also take steps to increase privacy by making it harder for companies to gain permission for limitless access to personal data.
Ubiquiti Networks AmpliFi HD Mesh Wi-Fi System is a worthy Apple AirPort successor [Review]
There are many great wireless routers on the market nowadays, from companies like Netgear, Linksys, and D-Link. My favorite router of all time is not being made anymore, sadly. Unfortunately, the company that made the aforementioned product is no longer making routers at all. That company's name is Apple. The AirPort Extreme was a great wireless router for many reasons -- it was secure, easy to use, and looked great. Yes, when you are putting a router in, say, your living room, the appearance does matter.
A new router that borrows design cues from Apple's routers caught my eye recently, and I knew I had to try it. Not only does the AmpliFi HD Mesh Wi-Fi System sort of look like an AirPort router, but it promised an easy app-based setup. What really sweetens the pot, however, is that the 802.11ac system uses "mesh" technology, allowing several access points to work together. Oh, and let's not forget that this home-based product is made by the much-respected Ubiquiti Networks.
Google employee's anti-diversity manifesto goes viral as the company dismisses the diatribe
A document entitled "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber" in which an employee strongly criticizes the company's efforts towards diversity and equality has gone viral. The opinionated article was written by an unnamed senior software engineer, and it accuses Google of political bias while calling for great "ideological diversity."
The document has been dubbed a "manifesto" and it went viral within Google. It was shared internally on a mailing list, and several Google employees tweeted about its existence. It did not take long for the rant -- which attributes the gender gap in technology to biological differences between the sexes -- to go public, and for Google to attempt to distance itself from the contents.
Microsoft video confirms Spotify is coming to Xbox One
It has long been expected that the Spotify app would make its way to Xbox One, and evidence supporting this has been mounting for some time. Now a video by Major Nelson -- or Larry Hryb, if you prefer -- confirms the existence of the app.
Earlier in the week, eagle-eyed Xbox One users noticed Hryb was using the app. Later, a screenshot of Microsoft's ExpertZone website showed further evidence in the form of a (now-deleted) page referencing "Spotify goes Platinum" and a note that "Spotify is coming to Windows 10 and Xbox."
YouTube Music gets a proper offline mode for songs, albums and playlists
The arrival of offline mode to YouTube Music may not seem like news, but the reality is that the "mixtape" option that was available was very limited. Now YouTube has made it possible to download playlists, songs and albums for offline listening.
As before, you need to be a YouTube Red member to take advantage of the feature, and the update means that users now have far more control over their offline listening rather than relying on YouTube to select tracks based on listening history.
Report: LTE Apple Watch is on the way this year
One of the limitations -- if you want to class it as such -- of the Apple Watch is that it needs to be paired with an iPhone. But this could be about to change.
According to a Bloomberg report, Apple is preparing to launch a new LTE version of its smartwatch later in the year. This will eliminate the need to own an iPhone and enable owners to connect directly to the internet with their watch. The company is said to already be in talks with mobile providers in the US and Europe about an upcoming LTE Apple Watch (or Apple Watch series 3).
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