This week on Between the Bytes, we give you two type powerhouses teaming up to take on another, some overstock updates, and then some local billboard updates as well. Stay tuned.
Welcome to Between the Bytes where we’re not as smart as your average nerd. I’m Gary Arnold and I’m Arash Bakhshandehpour. (Alexa how are you doing today? I’m great I hope you are too. Thank you.)
Tech News
Our first bit of news comes from Microsoft and Amazon in an unlikely team up. These two compete fiercely in the Cloud Arena and data storage. They have come together for artificial intelligence (machine learning). A new machine learning program or software has now been made available called Gluon. With Gluon, developers will be able to use Amazon and Microsoft’s machine learning algorithms to use in their own apps and other applications both in the Microsoft platform and in other platforms on Amazon Web Services. They’re coming together, it seems, to compete more directly with Google, which has been kind of the leader when it comes to machine learning and artificial intelligence. I’m sure we will see more about this in future months. Absolutely, the only thing more powerful than one tech powerhouse is two tech powerhouses.
Next, we have some more AR and VR news. Microsoft has now released their mixed reality it’s a headset that is for both augmented reality and virtual reality that a lot of software developers are actually currently using such as HTC and Visio. It’s meant to compete with the Oculus Rift that we have mentioned here on Between the Bytes before. It’s starting prices are anywhere from $299 to $530. It’s becoming huge, so huge in fact that it’s our next headline.
Overstock.com, which was actually founded and based here in Utah, just announced that they are releasing an app that uses iOS 11s AR kit features. This new app you’ll be able to download would be browsing overstock.com, looking for your furniture or whatever you want and be able to use your phone to visualize what a piece of furniture will look like in your home in real time. There are digital virtual reality versions of furniture they loaded in the app, you’ll be able to take a picture and say oh that’s what it’s going to look like there. The app is available now and so you’ll be able to download it and start shopping away. Makes catalog shopping a lot easier.
Next, as many of you may have noticed over the last handful of years, there’s been an increase in Blip billboards. They are the billboards that change different ads and they kind of just circulate. They have partnered with YESCO nationwide. YESCO is actually funded in increases in Blip billboards and Blip has now accounted for over about 11% of digital revenue for billboard advertising. Billboards are hoping that’s the future of where their advertising is going and for Blip, it seems like it’s been working. Definitely a smarter way to do billboard advertising but with a modern spin on it, it has gone digital.
Frontline
Hey, welcome to Between the Bytes Frontline where we’re bringing you breaking news on cyber threats and digital security. This week we have a very important update concerning the Wi-Fi protocol. A weakness has been found in Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi itself, meaning any device that connects to Wi-Fi, there is now a threat to where hackers could get in and see all information being exchanged on Wi-Fi. The weakness is in the WPA2 protocol and it’s a big threat that’s widespread and can affect any device that connects to Wi-Fi. Fortunately, a lot of companies are already ahead of the game. A Lot of network routers and other hardware providers have already offered patches that prevent this from happening in the first place. Microsoft and others have also sent out patches for their devices. An important thing to remember, and this is our Tech Tip of the Week is that when browsing the web make sure that you are browsing securely, look for websites that have HTTPS as a part of the URL. This security certificate will make sure that everything that happens on that website is encoded and secure so that even if somebody was able to break in and use this weakness in Wi-Fi, they wouldn’t be able to see the data in the first place. We will have more information forth coming about this new breaking news. Make sure to check out Executech where we’ll have articles and tips on ways to prevent threats like this down the line and how using up-to-date managed IT services and IT practices will help protect you against digital threats. That’s it for this week’s Between the Bites Frontline News.
Tech History
So this week on Between the Bytes Tech History we give you your very own loved IMDB, (Internet Movie Database) founded in 1990, 27 years ago today. Pretty crazy, and also today Thomas Edison submitted the patent for the first known video camera. It went by a very different name back then, they called it the Optical Phonograph so another fun fact about today’s history. Lastly, Microsoft in 2013, after taking it away for a little while and many user complaints, brought back their loved start buttons. So thanks for bringing that back Microsoft. (Start buttons back home)
And that will do it for this week’s Between the Bytes. We appreciate you guys, go ahead and like and subscribe our youtube page and follow us on social media. We look forward to seeing you next week.
