editor, Author at Mediastreet

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Mind the Digital Skills Gap

March 5, 2020 No Comments

Sourced from iab.uk.

IAB UK and Middlesex University join forces to explore the digital skills gap in the ad industry and provide advice on how to recruit and retain the best talent

Building a sustainable future for digital advertising is a key priority for IAB UK and one that can only be achieved if both new recruits and those that already work in the industry are equipped with the right skills to keep up with the pace of change as technology and automation evolve.

By teaming up with Middlesex University, our aim is to highlight where the gaps in knowledge and training are most prominent and provide advice to help the industry educate, train and attract people with the right skills to match demand – both now and in the future. The results are based on a survey of 78 IAB UK members across October and November 2019. Of these, 67% are from advertisers, agencies or media owners and 70% are at senior/Director level or above.

Key findings include:

88% claim that finding qualified individuals with up-to-date digital skills is a challenge for their business
The most prominent skill gaps are in areas with rapid market adoption. Data and advanced analytics are key skills cited as being increasingly important, but also difficult to find
While having AI/AR/VR skills is currently not a big priority for the majority of businesses, the pool of experts is relatively small – leading to high demand
The skills shortage is most pronounced at junior and intermediary levels, with 46% believing that most new graduates are not equipped to take up careers in the digital marketing sector
Retaining highly skilled digital staff is also a challenge – 78% find it difficult to retain staff with sought after digital skills

What can be done to bridge the gap?

The digital advertising industry needs to work more closely with schools, universities and training providers to communicate which skills will be in demand in the future
As an industry, we need to work on attracting new recruits by showcasing the breadth of opportunities available. Practical education and modernised recruitment strategies can help to widen the pool of suitable candidates available
When it comes to retention, businesses should focus on providing long-term career progression opportunities, as well as creating an inclusive working culture that offers opportunities to staff to expand their digital skills and develop within the business

Commenting on the research, IAB UK’s CEO Jon Mew said: “At the IAB, our mission is to create a sustainable future for digital advertising. A key part of that is ensuring that both new starters and those with more experience are equipped with the skills they need to get the most out of our fast-evolving, innovative and complex industry. By shining a light on where work is needed to bridge the digital skills gap, industry, businesses and individuals all stand to benefit.”

Professor T C Melewar PhD HFAM, Professor of Marketing and Strategy at Middlesex University, added: “This survey shows how important it is to nurture the ties between the universities and the digital marketing industry. Our relationship at Middlesex with the IAB and employers in the digital marketing sector ensures that we are delivering the right skills to the industry, and equips our students to make the most of the great potential there is to flourish and build successful careers in this field.”

Download the full report below, including views from industry figures including Natalie Bell, MD of Manning Gottlieb OMD and Rachel McDonald, MD of Dentsu Aegis North.

For more advice on how to get into the digital ad industry, take a look at our Get into Digital hub.

In News

Finally, There’s a Social Network Without Any People

March 5, 2020 No Comments

By Gita Jackson

Botnet is a social media app without people. Perfect.

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Ever wanted to post something to social media just for the cheap, dopamine-fueled thrill of seeing a stream of favs and comments, but not risk interacting with a real human being? Botnet, a social media simulation for iOS where you’re the only human in a sea of bots, might be just what you need.

When you download the app, you enter a fantasy world where you’re the most popular user—and only non-bot—on a social network. It feels like a blend of the big three apps: the overall layout of Facebook, the commenting system of Instagram, and the anarchy of Twitter. While it feels real enough when you’re posting about your cat or the weather, Botnet’s views on politics are baffling, though not moreso than a particularly obsessed Twitter rando.

According to the makers of the app, when you post, all the comments are made by bots trained on thousands of “real conversations.” For a dollar each, you can buy bots that will troll you or make dad jokes. It’s deeply refreshing in some ways. All the minutiae that I post about is treated like the most fascinating and mind blowing content to this army of bots. I love being popular.

Posting about my cat or my boyfriend yielded an eerily accurate facsimile of what happens when I post something stupid on social media. Bots in the replies to both pictures said “great pic!” or posted the “100” emoji. In general, Botnet’s use of emojis is stellar. Just like on Instagram or Twitter, the first replies I get to any post are the same emojis people use to get in their first reply—stars, crying laughing faces, and hearts.

Some of the replies were so convincing, I reached out to Billy Chasen, artist and creator of Botnet, to ask if there were any real users on the app other than myself. The company told Motherboard that it uses GPT-2, an algorithm created by OpenAI, and trained it on “millions of internet comments.”

“Everything they write is original and based on training,” Chasen said.

When I posted about politics on Botnet, things got weirder.

Botnet functions basically like a diary. While the bots give you the impression of there being interaction, you’re actually just writing down your thoughts in a closed system that no one but yourself will see. What I do in my real life diary is try to decompress and untangle my stresses, and on Tuesday, February 11, one of my greatest stresses is the New Hampshire primary election. I wrote in Botnet, “Bernie Sanders will be victorious in New Hampshire.” Instead of hearts and smiley faces, one of the first replies I got was “The Democratic Party will not abandon Marianne Williamson.” The bots, it seems, have some pretty wild political opinions.

From there, I started to test more general political opinions. By this point I had paid a buck to get some troll bots, which have red hued icons. When I mentioned socialism, they all insisted I’d be better off volunteering.

A picture of the Botnet feed with comments like

When I said that socialism is the only path to an ethical society, one of my bots attributed the quote, hilariously, to JFK.

A picture of the Botnet feed, where a bot attributes the quote

The friendly bots didn’t really understand what I meant when I wrote, “workers of the world unite,” but the troll bots were right on cue with telling me that queer people should go fuck themselves.

It’s incredible not just how deranged these bots are, but how much like real social media these replies are. I’ve had exchanges like these with real human beings on Twitter, confusing anger and Marianne Williamson stanning included. That said, Botnet did generate a comment leagues funnier than anything I’ve seen on Twitter when I’ve tried to talk politics:

New Hampee, indeed.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Gita Jackson

Sourced from Vice

In News

Programmatic Advertising Is Driving Rapid Growth in Mobile Video

March 5, 2020 No Comments

By Yoram Wurmser

As more people watch video content on their mobile devices, the nature of mobile video monetization is changing. This is particularly the case for programmatic advertising, which we define as an automated, technology-driven method of buying, selling or fulfilling digital display ad placements. Overall, mobile video ads sold programmatically generated $19.93 billion in revenues in 2019 in the US and will generate $24.87 billion in 2020.

Premium OTT channels, and even many mobile-first video publishers, have traditionally sold much of their mobile inventory via direct buys. This remains broadly true, but increasingly, those direct sales are using programmatic elements. Typically, these deals are programmatic guarantees for inventory on premium OTT services.

“Even if the seller and the buyer know each other, they are using programmatic pipes for executing a transaction and for serving a campaign,” said Kevin Schaum, vice president of advanced solutions group at SpotX, an ad-serving and supply-side platform (SSP) for video publishers. “That shift has been one of the main things that we’ve seen.”

With programmatic buying now widespread, ad buyers have more opportunities to place their content by device type. Although a few advertisers create versions of their advertising for different segments of users, for the most part, the targeting is using general data, including metropolitan statistical area.

As competition for advertisers grows fiercer, many of the small to medium-sized publishers have established partnerships that let them sell ads via programmatic direct. They can tout the brand safety advantages of buying through a known publisher but also the scale across sites that advertisers want. Group Nine Media, Insider Inc. and BuzzFeed have formed one such partnership.

“Rather than having our advertisers come to us individually and only buying YouTube or in-feed [ads] on our owned and operated [O&O], we’re trying to package that up for them and give them the scale they’re looking for,” said Ken Blom, senior vice president of strategy and operations at BuzzFeed.

“If you choose to buy all your media programmatically and not talk to publishers, you’ll miss out on the fact that we have ad formats that aren’t programmatically offered, or there’s some audiences that you might be missing if you understood how we’re making more affiliate content,” he said.

By Yoram Wurmser

Sourced from eMarketer

In News

Confront your fears … and four other ways to stop procrastinating

March 4, 2020 No Comments

Sourced from The Guardian.

Address your perfectionism, make a small starting step and break the cycle that is holding you back.

Figure out the underlying cause

Clare Evans, a productivity coach and author of Time Management For Dummies, says the main reasons for procrastinating are fear, perfectionism and not knowing where to start, or feeling overwhelmed or unmotivated. If it is fear, whether unfounded or founded, Evans says to confront the worst-case scenario: “It may not be as bad as we think.” Figure out what knowledge or skills you are lacking, and delegate if you can. If you’re paralysed by the need to get it right, Evans suggests honestly confronting whether “‘perfect’ is really what’s needed” – or if it is more important just to get it done. “Sometimes we procrastinate over tasks that aren’t really that important.”

Start with one small step

Tim Pychyl, founder of the Procrastination Research Group and associate professor of psychology at Carleton University, Ottawa, says procrastination boils down to an “emotion-focused coping response”: by putting off the task, we get rid of the bad feeling. Start by simply identifying the first step: “Ask yourself, ‘What is the next action I would take on this task, if I was going to do it?’” And make it really tiny. The idea is to move your focus away from how you’re feeling, and towards what Pychyl calls a “low-threshold entry to action”: “We can’t deny our feelings, but we can pay less attention to them … and our research has shown that getting started is key.” Evans suggests working on the task for 10 to 15 minutes and no more, just so as to have made a start.

Picture your future self

“Giving yourself a hard time only makes it worse,” says productivity expert Moyra Scott. “In order to beat procrastination you have to realise that it is very common. We are human. We procrastinate.” It can help to clarify or visualise what “done” looks like, she says: “What is the finish line you are aiming at?” Hal E Hershfield, an associate professor of marketing and behavioural decision making at UCLA Anderson School of Management, pictures himself having to do a task today that he actually completed yesterday.“ That’s most likely how I’ll feel tomorrow if I push off something that I’m meant to do today. The idea is to try to connect with the person I’ll be in the future and the emotions that I will eventually feel.”

Break the cycle

Judson A Brewer, a neuroscientist and director of Research and Innovation at the Mindfulness Centre at Brown University, says procrastination has its origins in reward-based learning: a trigger (think about a deadline), a behaviour (scroll social media), then a reward (distract from the unpleasant thought). Willpower alone is often not enough to overcome such a powerful impulse, evolved to help us remember where to find food. But by making ourselves aware of our habit loops, says Brewer, we give ourselves the opportunity to break them. “Curiosity is like a superpower that can help us notice these urges simply as thoughts, emotions and body sensations, and then move on to the task at hand.” The reward can be reframed as the feeling of accomplishment, instead of the relief (tempered by guilt and building anxiety) of a momentary distraction. “Reflecting on the rewarding properties of not procrastinating builds healthy habits that become stronger than procrastination itself – hacking our brain in the process.”

Stop trying to fight the monkey

Productivity coach Grace Marshall says one common misconception about productivity is that it is “just about nailing yourself to the seat, and getting it done”. While that is sometimes effective (and, if a deadline is looming, necessary), it can be a stressful approach, she says – “and as willpower is a depleting resource, it’s not sustainable”. Her suggestion is to stop trying to overpower or ignore the primitive part of our brain driving procrastination, and instead try to distract it. Tell yourself: “I’m not really going to work on this right now, I’m just going to open the file and make some notes.” Play – turning the task into a game or an experiment – can also be an effective diversion. As Marshall writes: “Fighting the monkey is exhausting, and it doesn’t work very well.”

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Feature Image Credit: We all know only too well how to put things off. Photograph: Tim Robberts/Getty Images

Sourced from The Guardian.

In News

iOS 13 Battery Drain: 15+ Tips to Make Your Battery Last Longer

March 4, 2020 No Comments

Sourced from MacRumors

With every new operating system update, there are complaints about battery life and rapid battery drain, and iOS 13 is no exception. Since iOS 13 was released, we’ve seen reports of issues with battery life, which have waxed and waned with various iOS 13 updates.

iOS 13 battery life problems caused by bugs can’t be helped until Apple provides updates to address the issues, but there are steps you can take to maximize your battery life and cut down on hidden sources that might be causing excess drainage.

1. Limit When and How Often Apps Access Your Location

It’s a good idea to check your location settings to limit apps accessing your location for privacy reasons, but it can also be beneficial to your battery life. Here’s how to get to your Location Services settings:

Open up the Settings app.
Choose Privacy.
Tap Location Services.
Review the list and edit settings by tapping on the name of each app in the list.

You have four possible choices for location settings for each app thanks to some updates introduced in iOS 13, though not all four choices will always be available for every app depending on what it does. You can select the following: Never, Ask Next Time, While Using the App, and Always.

Never will prevent an app from ever accessing your location, and unless there’s a specific need for an app to know where you are, such as a mapping app, setting location access to Never is the best choice.

Ask Next Time will prompt an app to ask you with a popup the next time that it wants your location, so you can temporarily approve it. With this setting, location access is off until expressly allowed via the popup.

While Using the App, as the name suggests, allows the app to detect your location only when the app is open and being actively used. If you close the app or switch over to another app, location access ends.

Always allows an app to have access to your location at all times, regardless of whether it’s open or closed. This will result in the most battery drain and should be limited to only the apps that you need the most.

A lot of apps will ask for location information that don’t really need it to function (for example, a banking app might want location access to show nearby ATMs, which is also available through entering a zip code), so clearing the cruft here will ensure no apps are accessing your location without express permission.

You can also turn off Location Services all together, but most people probably aren’t going to want to do so because it can interfere with apps like Maps.

2. Limit Apps Using Bluetooth

iOS 13 introduced a feature that lets you know when apps have requested Bluetooth access, and there are a surprising number of apps that want to use Bluetooth for things like location tracking with Bluetooth beacons or scanning for Chromecast devices.

This is a good list to review to make sure you don’t have a sneaky app in the background connecting to Bluetooth sources without your permission as that can drain battery. It’s totally fine to allow Bluetooth access to apps that need it for Bluetooth-enabled accessories, but nixing access for retail stores is probably a good idea. Here’s how to access Bluetooth settings:

Open the Settings app.
Tap Privacy.
Tap Bluetooth.

From this list, toggle off any app that doesn’t need a Bluetooth connection to function. It’s best to be liberal with the toggling off — if you disable access and then a feature within an app stops functioning properly, you can just turn Bluetooth back on.

Bluetooth can also be turned off entirely, which can perhaps save a bit of battery life, but it’s not a great idea for most people because Bluetooth is used for AirPods, Apple Watches, and other accessories.

3. Turn on Low Power Mode

Low Power Mode has been around for a few years now, and it’s the number one best setting to enable if you’re concerned about battery life. It cuts down on background activity like behind the scenes downloads and it lowers the brightness of your display after inactivity more quickly.

A popup to enable Low Power Mode will come up when battery life on the iPhone is at 20 percent, but you can enable it at any time through Control Center by tapping on the battery icon or ask Siri to turn it on. Alternatively, it’s available in the Settings app:

Open Settings.
Scroll down and tap Battery.
Tap the Low Power Mode toggle.

With Low Power Mode turned on, your battery icon at the top of your iPhone will be yellow, which lets you know when it’s active. Some people like to keep Low Power Mode on at all times, but know that it does need to be enabled regularly because it automatically turns off when the iPhone is charged.

4. Use WiFi Whenever Possible

WiFi uses less power than a cellular connection, so to maximize battery life, Apple recommends connecting to WiFi whenever possible. At home or work, for example, WiFi should be activated, saving cellular data and battery life.

5. Activate Airplane Mode in Low Signal Areas

When you’re in an area with no cellular coverage or a low signal, your iPhone is draining battery looking for a signal or trying to connect. If you’re experiencing poor cellular coverage, it’s best to activate Airplane Mode since you probably can’t do much with low signal anyway.

Airplane Mode will prevent your iPhone from endlessly searching for a signal, saving the battery until you can get to a place with a better connection.

6. Make Sure Your Battery is Healthy

Battery drain can be due to a battery that’s old and no longer functioning in optimal condition. You can check the health of your battery by following these steps:

Open the Settings app.
Scroll down and tap Battery.
Tap on Battery Health.

In the Battery Health section, there’s a listing for “Maximum Capacity,” which is a measurement of battery capacity relative to when it was new.

If the capacity is under 80 percent, it may be worth seeking out a battery replacement. Apple will replace a battery that is below 80 percent capacity under the one-year warranty plan or under AppleCare+ for free.

Otherwise, replacing the battery will cost between $49 and $69 depending on which iPhone you have.

To make sure your iPhone battery stays healthy longer, you might want to turn on Optimized Battery Charging under the Battery Health section in the Settings app. Optimized Battery Charging allows the iPhone to learn your charging schedule so it can wait until you need it to charge past 80 percent.

For example, if you put your phone on the charger at night, the Optimized Battery Charging setting might hold the iPhone at an 80 percent charge, filling it up close to when you wake up to reduce battery aging.

Apple also recommends avoiding extreme temperatures to prevent permanent battery damage due to heat or cold, as well as removing certain cases when charging. If your iPhone gets warm while charging, it’s best to take off the case to keep your battery healthy for a longer period of time.

7. Manage Apps That Are Draining Battery

The iPhone tells you which apps are eating up the most battery so you can make sure nothing is secretly draining your battery without your knowledge. You can check your battery usage statistics by opening up the Settings app and tapping on the Battery section.

There are charts here that let you see your battery level over the course of the last 24 hours or the last 10 days, as well as the apps that have used the most battery life. If there’s any app that you don’t need that seems to be draining an excessive amount of battery, you can delete it.

For apps you do need, you can moderate how often you’re using the app to cut down on battery drain.

This section will also tell you how much time apps spend using Background App Refresh.

8. Limit Background Activity

Apps, both first and third-party, use background app refreshing features to update even when they’re not open to do things like load mail messages and download updates so they’re ready to use at all times.

Background App Refresh can impact battery life, so turning it off can help make your battery last longer. You can turn off Background App Refresh all together or choose which apps can refresh in the background.

Open the Settings app.
Select General.
Choose Background App Refresh.

From here, you can tap the Background App Refresh option again to turn Background App Refresh off all together or choose to have it activate only when connected to WiFi, which doesn’t drain battery as much as downloading over cellular.

You can also choose to turn Background App Refresh on just for your most used apps by tapping on the toggle next to each app in the list.

9. Adjust Mail Fetch Settings

In addition to turning off Background Refresh, adjusting when and how often the Mail app checks for new emails can save some battery life.

Open up the Settings app.
Choose Password & Accounts.
Tap “Fetch New Data” at the bottom.

From here, you can turn off Push (which lets you know right away when a new email message is available) and adjust Fetch settings on a per account basis for accounts that don’t support Push (like Gmail accounts).

Adjusting the Fetch settings to have longer intervals before checking for new messages can help save battery life, as can turning off Fetch all together in favor of manual checks that will download new messages only when the Mail app is opened.

You can choose the following settings: Automatically, Manually, Hourly, Every 30 Minutes, and Every 15 Minutes.

10. Limit Notifications

Cutting down on the number of notifications that apps are sending is a good way to save a little bit of battery life. If you have apps inundating you with notifications, it’s going to drain battery every time your screen lights up and your phone makes a connection, plus a glut of notifications is just plain annoying.

Adjust your notification settings in the Settings app by following these instructions:

Open the Settings app.
Tap Notifications.
Go through each app and adjust whether or not an app can send you notifications by tapping on the toggle.

If you do allow notifications, you can choose to allow apps to show on the Lock screen, in the Notification Center, as banners, or all three.

Apple also has this handy feature that lets you modify your notification settings right from the notification itself on the Lock screen. Just long press on a notification and then tap the three dots (…) to get to options that include Deliver Quietly or Turn Off.

Deliver Quietly allows notifications to appear in Notification Center but not the Lock screen, while Turn Off lets you turn off notifications for that app entirely.

11. Disable Automatic Downloads and App Updates

If you’re often low on battery, you may not want your iPhone doing things that you’re not explicitly initiating, such as automatically downloading apps downloaded on other devices and downloading software and app updates.

Apple has a feature that is designed to sync apps between all of your devices by downloading apps that were downloaded on one device on the other devices as well. So if you download an app on an iPad, for example, Automatic Download will also download the app on your iPhone.

If that’s a feature you want, leave that enabled, but if it’s not, you can turn it off by following these steps:

Open the Settings app.
Tap on your profile picture.
Tap on iTunes & App Store.
Toggle off Music, Apps, and Books & Audiobooks.

If you also don’t want apps to update on their own, make sure to toggle off App Updates as well. Leaving this on allows iPhone apps to update automatically when new updates are released in the App Store.

You can also turn off automatic iOS updates if desired by following these steps:

Open the Settings app.
Tap General.
Tap Software Update.
Tap Automatic Updates.
Tap the toggle to turn updates off.

12. Activate Dark Mode

Apple in iOS 13 implemented a long awaited Dark Mode feature, which is available across the operating system, including Apple’s built-in apps and third-party apps as most have implemented support.

On devices with an OLED display like the iPhone X, XS, XS Max, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max, Dark Mode can save a bit of battery life, so it’s worth enabling. Here’s how:

Open the Settings app.
Choose Display & Brightness.
Tap the “Dark” option.

If you tap on the toggle for “Automatic,” Dark Mode will turn on or off with the sunset and the sunrise each day, allowing you to toggle between dark and light mode.

Dark Mode can be toggled on through the Control Center too, which is a convenient way to activate it if your device isn’t in automatic mode.

13. Turn Down Device Brightness

If you’re in a bright room or direct sun, you probably can’t help but have screen brightness turned all the way up, but if you don’t need a super bright display, dimming it down can save battery life.

Brightness can be controlled through the Control Center on the iPhone using the brightness toggle or through the Display & Brightness section of the Settings app. It’s a good idea to turn on the auto-brightness setting to make sure your screen isn’t overly bright in darker rooms by default, but some manual adjustment may be necessary in brighter rooms and in the sun.

14. Adjust Auto-Lock and Turn Off Raise to Wake

It’s a good idea to set the Auto-Lock on the display as low as you can tolerate, which will cause the iPhone’s display to turn off after a short period of inactivity.

You can choose ranges from 30 seconds to never, but the lower end of the spectrum will help preserve battery life by cutting the display when it’s not needed.

If you really want to save battery, turning off Raise to Wake can help, though it may make features like Face ID less convenient. Raise to Wake is a rather convenient option, so this should be a last resort.

15. Make Sure Everything’s Up to Date

If you’re running iOS 13, make sure you have the latest version installed because Apple has been making improvements and refinements to the operating system since it was released. Here’s how to check:

Open Settings.
Tap General.
Tap Software Update.

From here, the iPhone will let you know if your software is up to date or if there’s a new version available.

You should also make sure all of your apps are up to date, which you can do in the App Store.

Open up the App Store.
Tap on your profile in the upper right.
Swipe downwards to refresh everything.
Tap on Update All.

The update section of the App Store is also a great way to cull apps. If you see an update for an app you don’t use often, swipe to the left on it and you can delete it right then and there.

16. Don’t Close Apps

Many battery life guides will suggest manually closing apps by using the App Switcher to prevent them from running in the background, but this doesn’t save battery life and can in fact drain more battery.

Apps in the background are paused when not in active use and aren’t using battery life. Closing out an app purges it from the iPhone’s RAM, requiring a reload when it reopens, which can have a bigger impact on battery.

17. Restart

Sometimes an app can act up or a background process can go wonky, and the best solution is to simply restart your iPhone. If you have an iPhone 8 or later, follow these steps:

Press and release the Volume Up button.
Press and release the Volume Down button.
Press and hold the Side button until the Apple logo appears, and then release the Side button.

If you have an iPhone 7 or earlier, follow these steps to restart:

Hold down the Volume Down button and the Sleep/Wake button at the same time.
Keep holding until until the screen goes dark and the Apple logo appears on the display.
Release the button.

After the Apple logo appears, it will take a minute or so for the iPhone to start back up.

18. Restore as New

If you’re at your wits’ end and nothing is helping to improve significant battery drain, you can try restoring your iPhone and setting it up as new to eliminate any potential behind-the-scenes problems. This should be a last resort, as starting from scratch can be a hassle.

First and foremost, make sure you have an iCloud backup.

On a Mac with Catalina, open Finder. On a Mac with Mojave or earlier, open iTunes. On a Windows machine, open iTunes.
Plug your iPhone into your computer.
If you’re prompted to enter a device passcode or to click a Trust This Computer prompt, do so.
Select your device from the side bar in Finder or the side bar in iTunes.
Click on the Restore open. If you’re signed into Find My, you’ll be prompted to sign out.
Click Restore again to confirm.

After restoring, you can set your device up as if it was a new device. You can restore from the iCloud backup that you created prior to the restore, but you might want to try starting fresh to prevent any possible problems.

Other Tips

There are a lot of battery saving tips and guides on the internet, and there were some other questionable tips that people recommended that may or may not save much battery life. It’s difficult to tell, but it’s not terrible idea to consider some of these options if they’re features you don’t use.

These tips should be employed judiciously and after the tips above because turning off every feature on the iPhone may not be the most desirable way to save battery.

Disable “Hey Siri” so the iPhone isn’t listening for the wake word.
Turn off Siri entirely.
Turn off Screen Time.
Turn off Siri Suggestions.
Turn off motion effects.
Turn off AirDrop.
Turn off vibrate.
Use Safari content blockers.
Don’t use Live or Dynamic wallpapers.
Turn down volume.
Turn down the brightness level of the Flashlight feature in Control Center.

Sourced from MacRumors

In News

How Much Will Google Pay For Publisher Content?

March 4, 2020 No Comments

By Rob Williams.

Google is taking a friendlier approach to publishers with its discussions about possibly paying them a licensing fee for content, as The Wall Street Journal reportedlast week. The talks are said to be in the early stages, but they may help publishers create another source of revenue as they cope with declining ad sales.

The value of publisher content to Google has been hotly debated since last year. The News Media Alliance, a nonprofit that represents more than 2,000 newspapers in North America, argued that Google makes at least $4.7 billion a year from “crawling and scraping” their content. Google refuted the claim, which also was questioned by media analysts, executives and columnists.

It’s hard to imagine that publishers have much bargaining power with Google, given that it’s the most popular search engine in the world outside of China. Even if antitrust authorities manage to compel Google to undo its acquisitions of DoubleClick, YouTube and Android, the company will still dominate internet search.

It’s also important to understand the difference between Google Search and Google News, the two main avenues to publisher content from the search company.

Google Search is valuable to publishers, helping them to connect with online audiences. The key debate is whether Google helps or hurts traffic with search results. Google has said it drives 10 billion clicks to publishers’ websites and is providing an invaluable service.

Some publishers, especially in France, have argued the search results show too much copyrighted content from their websites. Instead of urging people to click through, Google gives readers just enough information to stay on its site, the argument goes.

In addition, Google News gathers headlines from publishers in one place, helping readers to find the latest headlines. Google doesn’t have advertising in Google News, which means there isn’t any revenue to share with publishers.<

However, as other companies like Apple, Facebook, News Corp and AT&T develop news aggregation services, the search giant has more competitors for user attention.

Facebook last year announced plans to share revenue with publishers, while Apple has a paid digital newsstand that also provides additional income. Google’s willingness to pay for publisher content is a welcomed development.

By Rob Williams

Sourced from MediaPost

In News

How Adidas is using WhatsApp as a direct marketing channel

March 3, 2020 No Comments

By Seb Joseph.

Facebook may have shelved the idea of ads on WhatsApp, but Adidas is still steaming ahead with its plan to turn the app into a key marketing channel.

Adidas has been using the mobile messaging app to chat directly with customers since 2015. At the time, the app was seen by the company’s marketers as a way to build hyper-local communities in cities across the world. Now, it’s being used as the main platform for global campaigns. WhatsApp, and by extension direct messaging, is seen as a way to grow influence among key fans rather than buy influence.

“It’s allowed us to build direct relationships with a smaller community of influential people in an ongoing way that doesn’t feel transactional and allows for a conversation, rather than just a broadcast,” said Laura Coveney, managing editor for Adidas’ newsroom in London where the campaign was managed.

The most recent example of the strategy was the “100% Unfair Predator” campaign. Earlier this month, Adidas opened up a hotline on WhatsApp for people in need of a footballer to cover for unreliable teammates on their team. Adidas-sponsored players were made available for games last week once fans had shared some basic information with the hotline such as the game they need the player for. The company’s marketers would notify fans on the morning of their game if their request was successful. The rented players turned up dressed in Adidas’ new Predator20 Mutator footwear.

“We know our audience use it to share fixture info, team selection — and team-mates messaging to find last-minute replacements,” said Coveney. “WhatsApp was perfect for the more functional elements of the ‘Rent-a-Pred’ hotline as it allowed consumers to share private information one-to-one with us for review, before being allocated a Predator player near them.”

Despite Facebook’s decision to scrap plans to run ads on WhatsApp, advertisers like Adidas continue to build a presence there. Messaging apps are becoming the dominant way people communicate with one another on mobile devices. The total number of messaging app users grew 12.1% in 2019 to reach 2.52 billion people, per eMarketer. That means 87.1% of smartphone users worldwide will use a mobile messaging app at least once per month in 2019, according to the research firm.

The open rates for messages in WhatsApp will be “immensely” higher than message platforms’ closest competitor, email,” said James Whatley, strategy partner at Digitas U.K. He added: “The brands that get this right will be the ones that understand just how private message platforms are and how privileged they are to be invited in.”

Direct messaging is becoming increasingly central to Adidas’ marketing strategy. For example, marketers for Adidas used WhatsApp to send direct messages to its “Tango Squad” community — a group of young footballers across 15 key cities worldwide who were given exclusive access to new drops before anyone else and were invited to exclusive events. The groups were between 100 and 250 people. In the wake of reassessing whether it should buy as many ads on social networks like Facebook, Adidas is finding ways to move to more one-to-one communications.

Last year, the sportswear manufacturer turned some of its smaller-scale influencers into salespeople. Working with social commerce app Storr that lets anyone open a store on their phone, Adidas gave some of its biggest fans early access to products, exclusive drops, and secret events. In exchange, the fans sold Adidas’ products. The sellers receive a 6% commission for every sale or have the option to donate to one of Adidas’ partner charities.

By Seb Joseph

Sourced from DIGIDAY

In News

Google just updated Google Maps. How to use its new commute tools

March 3, 2020 No Comments

By Clifford Colby

Google Maps on iPhone and Android has added several new features to make your commute smoother.

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of Google Maps, Google is rolling out a big update to its planning and navigation app for iPhone and Android that will give you more detailed information about what you’re facing if you use public transportation to get around.

Since its launch in 2005, Google has expanded Maps from a navigation tool to a fuller-featured travel and entertainment service that can help you do everything from make dinner reservations and manage trip itineraries to find EV charging stations along your route.

The update expands Maps’ usefulness for public transit riders, displaying how crowded or hot a route may be, as well as if security is normally present during the trip.
More on Google Maps

Google redesigns Maps app, adds details on public transit safety, accessibility
6 hidden Google Maps tricks you want to know
4 weird ways I use Google Maps every day (that have nothing to do with driving)

Here’s how to use Google Maps’ newest transit features.
Using the new Google Maps transit tools

The new Google Maps update moves forward several useful tools you had to previously hunt for and expands the information it provides you about your public transit trips. Here are Google Maps’ five new tabs and how to use them.

Explore. In the Explore tab, you can discover what’s happening around you and find places to eat and things to do.
Google Maps Update

Google Maps shows displays rider-supplied transit information.
Google

Commute. A holdover from the previous version of Maps, on this tab you can get step-by-step instructions here for your trip — if traveling by car, by transit system, on foot or by bike.

Right now, you can already see how crowded — or empty — your bus, subway, or train will be when you pick your transit line. With the update, you can also see rider-supplied information on which accessibility features are available, what the temperature is like, if there is a women’s-only section or carriage, and if security is present.

Saved. Your saved places used to be buried in the navigation menu in the upper left-hand corner. You can now find those places you’ve saved under the Saved tab at the bottom of the Maps app.

Contribute. The Contribute tab, previously named Your contributions, lets you share reviews and photos of interesting places you’ve visited, add a missing place on the map and suggest edits to the map. If you join Google’s Local Guides program, you can earn points for your contributions and earn rewards such as a free six-month subscription to Google One.

Updates. This new tab is a bit like the older For you tab, letting you see what’s happening around you, with guidance from locals and from publications such as Surface and The Infatuation.

If you don’t have the new version yet, hold on because it is coming: Google tends to push out app updates slowly — over days and weeks. For more about Google’s navigation app, see six hidden tricks for Maps and four ways to use Maps without driving.

By Clifford Colby

Sourced from C/NET

In News

Microsoft Pulls New Windows 10 Update Causing System Crashes

March 3, 2020 No Comments

By Gordon Kelly

Microsoft continues to secretly offer Windows 10 free, and you can see why. Despite new attempts to overhaul Windows upgrades, the platform continues to anger users with poor quality updates and questionable transparency. And now Microsoft has had to issue another major warning to all Windows 10 users.

Pushed to users as part of its latest ‘Patch Tuesday’ updates, Microsoft has confirmed the KB4524244 security update bundled in it can cause system freezes and crashes across every supported version of Windows 10, from Windows 10 Home right through to Enterprise and Server. Unfortunately, KB4524244 was available for four days but Microsoft has now stated it has been pulled for good.

Update: also beware KB4532693. Another security fix recently released by Microsoft, Windows Latest notes it is also causing boot failures for a number of users as well as Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) crashes. Microsoft has so far only acknowledges minor issues connected to Windows Server on the KB4532693 update page, it is still floating around unlike KB4524244. Be sure to checkout the Windows Update troubleshooter linked below, it will also enable you to proactively block this update for now.

Additional Update: problems with KB4532693 just stepped up a notch with Windows Latest now reporting that it is deleting files. Desktop files are the main form of data loss, so be careful if you save important content there while user settings are also disappearing.

“Thank you, Microsoft for the latest updates which totally wiped all settings from my system on each startup. Everything reverted to basic settings [and] all my programme information and settings were also deleted from every programme on my system. Several apps were deleted completely, keyboard settings, language screen res everything gone,” writes one user.

“My desktop is black, icons are gone, Taskbar and Start menu are also empty. Uninstalled the update and my data is still missing, I cannot find it anywhere,” states another.

Windows Latest writes that this problem is “based on a small but a growing number of user reports” so be careful and, once again, make sure you get the Windows Update troubleshooter linked below.

“This standalone security update has been removed and will not [be] re-offered from Windows Update, Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) or Microsoft Update Catalog,” wrote the company on the Windows 10 Health Dashboard.

While Microsoft has now stopped the spread, users already impacted are left to pick up the pieces. As Bleeping Computer reported earlier in the week, both AMD and Intel computers were affected with HP owners hit particularly hard. Microsoft says it is “working on an improved version of this update” but in the meantime, it recommends affected users remove KB4524244 with these steps:

In Windows Desktop Search type ‘update history’ then click ‘View your Update history’
Select ‘Uninstall Updates’
On the Installed Updates dialog window, find and select KB4524244, click the Uninstall button
Restart

Proactive users can also download the Windows Update troubleshooter, which will allow you to hide problematic updates and prevent them from reinstalling. As things stand, it is fast becoming essential software for all Windows 10 users.

This week Microsoft demonstrated the future of Windows updates. The advances target a new generation of dual-screen devices and are not meant for the millions of existing Windows 10 PCs and laptops. Meanwhile, long-overdue Windows 10 update improvements were suddenly shelved.

Microsoft, it is time to prioritize the present.

Feature Image Credit: Windows 10 updates continue to cause problems. STEVE KOTECKI

By Gordon Kelly

An experienced freelance technology journalist. I have written for Wired, The Next Web, TrustedReviews, The Guardian and the BBC in addition to Forbes. Started in b2b print journalism covering tech companies at the height of the dot com boom and switched to covering consumer technology as the iPod began to take off. A career highlight for me was being a founding member of TrustedReviews. It started in 2003 and we were repeatedly told websites could not compete with print! Within four years we were purchased by IPC Media (Time Warner’s publishing division) to become its flagship tech title. What fascinates me are the machinations of technology’s biggest companies. Got a pitch, tip or leak? Contact me on my professional Facebook page. I don’t bite.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

It Took Elon Musk Exactly 5 Words to Teach a Major Lesson in Emotional Intelligence

March 2, 2020 No Comments

By Justin Bariso

Tesla has become one of the most valuable automakers in the world, based primarily on its potential for changing the auto industry. So, it’s easy to forget that the company is also in the solar panel business, due to its 2016 acquisition of Solarcity, a company Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been heavily involved in since its inception.

Well, Musk recently announced that Tesla is ramping up installations of solar tile roofs, also known as Solarglass, with international expansion planned later this year. But it was a simple, almost unnoticed tweet by Musk last week that drew my attention, because it gave some insight into Musk’s process for creating killer products:

One simple sentence. Backed up by decades of neuroscience research.

“Please let us know what improvements we can make to any aspect of Tesla SolarGlass roof! Critical feedback is much appreciated.”

There’s a lot to be learned from the process of asking for consumer feedback, but I’d like to focus on the value a single short sentence: “Critical feedback is much appreciated.”

One simple sentence. Five words. But it’s backed up by decades of research, and it highlights a major facet of emotional intelligence: the ability to learn from negative feedback.

What’s emotional intelligence got to do with it?

Emotional intelligence is the ability to identify, understand, and manage emotions. Put more simply, it’s the ability to make emotions work for you, instead of against you.

Typically, when we get criticized, our default reaction is to do one of the following:

Defend ourselves
Make excuses
Minimize the problem
Attempt to rationalize
Sidestep the issue
Shift the blame

When researching EQ Applied: The Real World-Guide to Emotional Intelligence, I worked with neuroscientists to come up with a simple explanation to sum up decades of scientific research, in an attempt to explain why this happens.

In short, when making decisions, we rely heavily on a part of the brain known as the prefrontal cortex. But when we feel triggered or under attack, a different part of the brain springs into action–the amygdala. The amygdala serves as our emotional processor, and it tends to take over when we feel we’re under attack.

This is known as an emotional hijack.

Emotional hijacks aren’t always bad. In the case of an emergency, the amygdala can provide the courage and motivation you need to defend yourself or your loved ones. But the amygdala can also cause you to act in a way you later regret. And when it comes to interpreting negative feedback, it can lead you to default to one of the above behaviors, before you even recognize what’s happening.

Now, here’s the rub: Nobody’s perfect. We all have blind spots and perspective gaps. We need negative feedback if we’re going to grow. Since most criticism is rooted in truth, it helps fill those knowledge gaps so you can improve. And even when feedback is off base, it’s still valuable–because it helps you understand the perspective of others.

All of this is what makes Musk’s invitation so excellent. By inviting the negative feedback, he puts himself in control. He frames the incoming comments, not as an attack, but as a learning experience. At the same time, he braces himself for what’s coming.

If you scroll through Musk’s “tweets and replies” tab on Twitter, you’ll find a perfect example of this: a two-way conversation between CEO and consumers. Musk uses the feedback to answer questions, clarify messaging, and even to crowdsource ideas–all as a much better way of responding to negative feedback.

Of course, Musk isn’t perfect. Over the past few years, he’s gotten himself into trouble by responding to criticism in the wrong way, also on Twitter.

But this further emphasizes the need to have a plan to deal with negative feedback. And while it would be great to always identify our triggers ahead of time, it’ll usually happen the other way around: We react to something that rubs us the wrong way and say or do something we later regret.

This is why it’s so important to understand the amygdala and how it works. It enables you to sort through your thoughts and feelings, like pieces of a puzzle. And as you begin to understand your reaction, you can train yourself to respond differently the next time.

Train yourself.

Feedback is like a freshly mined diamond. To the naked eye, it’s unattractive. But its true value becomes obvious after a little cutting and polishing. In the same way, it’s easy to see criticism as something ugly. But you can train yourself to view it differently by reframing it.

So, invite negative feedback by remembering a simple, five-word sentence:

Critical feedback is much appreciated.

And when the feedback comes, don’t view it as an attack. Rather, see it as a gift–a chance to learn.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images