03.15.18

From the frontier:Predictions for how tech will shape the world in 2018

BY Fast Company 4 MINUTE READ

A lot can happen in a year. And when that year is 2018, a year in which we stand on the threshold of an exponential future driven by technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, IoT and blockchain, the world may look very different by the end of it than it does now.

It is often productive to take some time in the early part of a year to consider (and imagine) what the next 10-12 months will hold. At the very least it affords us an opportunity to dream big and consider the implications of new trends, products, and services, as well as their underlying technologies. At best, we gain invaluable insight into how these technology trends will affect, improve or disrupt our businesses, our work and our personal lives, and help us reach previously unattainable goals, progress, (and even distant planets!)

Here are my (and my colleagues’) top technology predictions for 2018:

  1. In aerospace, the commercial airplane industry will see cool, new products and innovations. We’ll see the first legitimate applications of large-scale autonomous air taxis and hypersonic aircraft. In space, the journey to Mars is closer than we think. Our own Head of Innovation, Adriana Marais, is even shortlisted to be one of the first humans to undertake a manned mission to the Red Planet. 2018 is set to re-ignite our imaginations around space travel.
  2. In the manufacturing arena we will see the use of 3D Printing (or additive manufacturing) and robotics accelerating as companies position themselves to be more responsive, less wasteful and more competitive in a global context.
  3. Across Africa we will see agricultural value chains embracing technology as both government and private sector organisations work towards food security for Africa’s exploding population in the face of climate change, water shortages and land degradation. Technologies will be used to help both small and large-scale farmers achieve better outcomes with less impact on the environment and less wastage in the supply chain
  4. Artificial intelligence and machine learning will become mainstream in business in 2018. You can break it down into three categories:

A)     Advanced analytics and big data plays, where the aggregation of data will enable fresh and deep insights and       allow the creation of new business models,

B)    Business process automation, where we’ll see a high degree of back-end business processing being done by algorithms, freeing up human resources to be more productive and creative, and

C)    Customer experience, where we’ll see more intelligent and personalised layers between humans and systems, like voice navigation and human-like virtual assistants.

5. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Things, and blockchain will also enable new        business models and create new markets driven by start-ups and agile corporates that can embrace these     trends and understand the potential value propositions that can come out of it.

6.On the workplace culture side, we’re going to see a significant refocus on cultural aspects of organisations, specifically how company culture and its practices support the needs and well-being of the organisation. Companies are realising that if they don’t have the culture and the practices to support a healthy, productive environment for their workers, they’re not going reach their goals.

7.Design will assume a heightened eminence as companies, with equal and easy access to the latest technology platforms seek ways to establish a competitive edge in the way they apply technology to unforeseen problems and opportunities.

8.One of the biggest stories in 2018 will be cybersecurity. The explosion in software, technology, and connected devices open many new threat vectors, at the same time that the regulatory environment is becoming significantly tougher.  Security systems must keep pace in the same fashion. We desperately need to get those protocols and security measures in place.

9.Today there is a “land grab” happening in the IoT space as vendors, large and small, jostle for leadership. SAP’s global IoT evangelist Tom Raftery predicts that the IoT cloud platform market is going to consolidate quickly. “The IoT hype is going to finish and we’re going to move into possibly a ‘trough of disillusionment’ – as Gartner calls it – that precedes mainstream adoption. IoT architecture will evolve from data ingestion and analytics (the “thing to dashboard” paradigm) to an intelligent event-driven solution for end users. Digital twins will evolve from concepts to implementation providing new simulation and decision-making capabilities within and across companies.”

10.Cameron Beveridge, SAP’s local cloud lead, predicts that we’re going to see companies reassess their strategic technical plan – possibly even stopping some of the roadmaps and re-evaluating options for the cloud, as well as moving forward with ERP transformations and improving total cost of operations by streamlining business processes and technical architecture. “There will be quite a bit around end-to-end transformation and being more innovative and proactive in business processes.”

By Simon Carpenter, Chief Technology Advisor at SAP Africa

For more information, visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

 About SAP

 As market leader in enterprise application software, SAP (NYSE: SAP) helps companies of all sizes and industries run better. From back office to boardroom, warehouse to storefront, desktop to mobile device – SAP empowers people and organizations to work together more efficiently and use business insight more effectively to stay ahead of the competition. SAP applications and services enable more than 345,000 business and public sector customers to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and grow sustainably. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

 

 About Simon Carpenter, Chief Technology Advisor SAP Africa:

Simon has 33 years of wide-ranging experience in the IT sector. The last 21 years have been with marketleader SAP’s African business where he has held a number of leadership positions.

Simon is currently the Chief Technology Advisor (CTA) ensuring that:

  • SAP technology vision and strategy is fully evangelized
  • SAP is seen as a thought leader in the digital economy
  • Customers and partners understand and adopt SAP solutions leveraging latest SAP recommended technology strategy
  • Customers consistently get high quality SAP resources for their innovation, technology strategy and roadmap creation
  • SAP has a robust pipeline of innovation opportunities.

Simon has worked predominantly in the area of operations and logistics solutions ranging from on-board computing in transport; to large-scale enterprise systems. He has broad experience having worked in sales, marketing, support management, project management, and consulting and systems development. He thus has good insight into the soft issues (such as change management) that must be addressed for any technological initiative to be successful.

Simon has spoken at numerous local and international conferences and Universities on a wide range of topics and is a previous Best Speaker award winner at the SAPICS conference.

02.23.18

Nobody wants to let Google win war for maps all over again

BY Mark Bergen 8 MINUTE READ
On any given day, there could be a half dozen autonomous cars mapping the same street corner in Silicon Valley. 
 
These cars, each from a different company, are all doing the same thing: building high-definition street maps, which may eventually serve as an on-board navigation guide for driverless vehicles. 
 
These companies converge where the law and weather are welcoming—or where they can get the most attention. For example, a flock of mapping vehicles congregates every year in the vicinity of the CES technology trade show, a hot spot for self-driving feats. “There probably have been 50 companies that mapped Las Vegas simply to do a CES drive,” said Chris McNally, an analyst with Evercore ISI. “It’s such a waste of resources.”
 
Autonomous cars require powerful sensors to see and advanced software to think. They especially need up-to-the-minute maps of every conceivable roadway to move. Whoever owns the most detailed and expansive version of these maps that vehicles read will own an asset that could be worth billions.
 
Google maps has an upgraded feature. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison)
Which is how you get an all-out mapping war, with dozens of contenders entering into a dizzying array of alliances and burning tens of millions of investment dollars in pursuit of a massive payoff that could be years away. Alphabet Inc.’s Google emerged years ago as the winner in consumer digital maps, which human drivers use to evade rush-hour traffic or find a restaurant. Google won by blanketing the globe with its street-mapping cars and with software expertise that couldn’t be matched by navigation companies, automakers and even Apple Inc. Nobody wants to let Google win again.
 
The companies working on maps for autonomous vehicles are taking two different approaches. One aims to create complete high-definition maps that will let the driverless cars of the future navigate all on their own; another creates maps piece-by-piece, using sensors in today’s vehicles that will allow cars to gradually automate more and more parts of driving.
 
Alphabet is trying both approaches. A team inside Google is working on a 3-D mapping project that it may license to automakers, according to four people familiar with its plans, which have not previously been reported. This mapping service is different than the high-definition maps that Waymo, another Alphabet unit, is creating for its autonomous vehicles.
 
Google’s mapping project is focused on so-called driver-assistance systems that enable cars to automate some driving features and help them see what’s ahead or around a corner. Google released an early version of this in December, called Vehicle Mapping Service, that incorporates sensor data from cars into their maps.
 
For now, Google is offering it to carmakers that use Android Automotive, the company’s embedded operating system for cars. Google has named three partners for that system to date, but other automakers are reluctant to hand their dashboards over to the search giant. So Google is looking to expand the features on the mapping service and find other ways to distribute it, these people said. 
 
“We’ve built a comprehensive map of the world for people and we are working to expand the utility to our maps to cars,” a Google spokeswoman said in a statement. She declined to comment on future plans. 
 
At the same time, Waymo and the other giants with sizable driverless research arms—including General Motors Co., Uber Technologies Inc. and Ford Motor Co.—are all sending out their own fleets to create rich, detailed HD maps for use in driverless cars. There are also smaller startups hawking gadgets or specialized software to build these maps for automakers that find themselves farther behind. Still other suppliers are working on mapping services for conventional cars with limited robotic features, such as adaptive cruise control or night vision.
 
These self-driving maps are far more demanding than older digital ones, prompting huge investments across Detroit, Silicon Valley and China. “An autonomous vehicle wants that to be as precise, accurate and up-to-date as possible,” said Bryan Salesky, who leads Argo AI LLC, a year-old startup backed by a $1 billion investment by Ford. The “off-the-shelf solution doesn’t quite exist.”
 
The Cartographic Arms Dealers
 
Making a driverless map, like making a driverless car, is a laborious task. Fleets of autonomous test cars, loaded with expensive lidar sensors and cameras, go out into the world with human backup drivers and capture their surroundings. Plotting the results helps train the next fleet, which will still have safety drivers at the wheel—and, in some cases, scores of additional humans sitting behind computer monitors to catalog all the footage. 
 
It’s an expensive ordeal with a payoff that’s years, if not decades, away. “Even if you could drive your own vehicles around and hit every road in the world, how do you update?” asked Dan Galves, a spokesman for Mobileye. “You’d have to send these vehicles around again.” 
 
Unlike conventional digital maps, self-driving maps require almost-constant updates. The slightest variation on the road—a construction zone that pops up overnight, or a bit of debris—could stop a driverless car in its tracks. “It’s the freak thing that happens that’s going to make autonomous not work,” said McNally, the analyst.
 
FILE – This July 19, 2016, file photo shows the Google logo at the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. Starting Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018, Google will start using its Chrome browser to reshape the web by eradicating ads it deems annoying or otherwise detrimental to users. It just so happens that many of Google’s own ads will pretty much sail through its new filters. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
Mobileye argues that it’s more efficient and cost-effective to let the cars we’re driving today see what’s ahead. In January, the Intel Corp. unit announced a “low-bandwidth” mapping effort, with its front-facing camera and chip sensor that it plans to place in 2 million cars this year. The idea is to get cars to view such things as lane markers, traffic signals and road boundaries, letting them automate some driving.  
 
Mobileye says this will take less computing horsepower than building a comprehensive HD map of the roads would; Mobileye’s Galves said the company will pair its sensor data with the maps from navigational companies and, over time, create a map that a fully driverless car could use. 
 
That’s also the tactic of Google’s longtime mapping foes: HERE and TomTom NV. These two European companies have positioned themselves as the primary alternatives to Google Maps, selling the dashboard screen maps to automakers today. Yet these “static” maps see only broad street shapes and capture snapshots in time. Now both companies are working on replacement products: “dynamic” maps that represent lanes, curbs and everything else on the road. The hope is that car manufacturers will stick with old-guard mapmakers as vehicles move from somewhat intelligent to fully automated vehicles without steering wheels.
 
HERE, owned by a consortium of German automakers, has a few examples on the road. Its mapping system enables limited hands-free driving for Audi AG, one of its co-owners, and plans to support safety features this year for Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, another co-owner. (Intel also took a 15 percent stake in HERE last year.)
 
Tesla Inc. is the car company most eagerly embracing the incremental march toward autonomous driving with its driver-assistance software, Autopilot. Tesla relies on cameras and sensors on its vehicles but has eschewed lidar. The company hasn’t disclosed what mapping service it’s using for Autopilot, and a company representative declined to comment. Tesla had a nasty public split with Mobileye two years ago. 
 
But Tesla has leaned on at least one other company, Mapbox Inc., to help assemble its maps. Tesla paid $5 million to Mapbox for a two-year licensing deal in December 2015, according to a regulatory filing. Mapbox has mostly sold its location data to apps such as Pinterest and Snapchat. Fresh off a $164 million financing round, the startup has started to inch into automotive maps. Through its software installed on phones, Mapbox said it plots some 220 million miles of road data globally a day, providing an updated snapshot of basic features like street lanes.
 
“We have more sensors on the road today than the entire connected car space will have by 2020,” said Chief Executive Officer Eric Gundersen. Its pitch to carmakers is to use that location data as a base layer for future maps—pairing it with camera systems, such as Mobileye’s, or their own sensor data. And like other companies targeting automakers, Mapbox is happy to play neutral and work with anyone. “We don’t know who is going to win,” Gundersen said.
 
The New Hotshot Pathfinders
It’s not just that no one knows who will come out on top. The mapping industry doesn’t even know which strategy is best. Every self-driving map looks different because each one depends on the sensor system of the vehicle that creates it. And there isn’t a standard sensor package, said Spark Capital’s Nabeel Hyatt, an early investor in Cruise Automation, the autonomous-driving company bought by General Motors in 2016 for $581 million.
As a result, a slew of HD mapping companies are taking different stabs at the problem, each gobbling up venture capital and competing for lucrative contracts. Some of them disparage Mobileye’s approach, which relies on a seamless transition from semi-autonomous driving (what’s called Level 2 and 3) to driving without human assistance (Level 4 or 5). “It’s very hard to climb the ladder from 2 to 3 and then to 4,” said Wei Luo, COO of DeepMap Inc. “There’s a very intense gap.” The best HD maps, Luo argues, are built with only driverless functions in mind. The startup said it’s working with Ford, Honda Motor Co. and China’s SAIC Motor Corp. (Mobileeye is also working with SAIC, and Waymo is in talks with Honda.)
Waymo is in this camp, too. The effort formerly known as the Google self-driving car project started on maps in 2009, with Waymo’s Andrew Chatham and one other engineer doing the “super tedious” work of crafting them from scratch—shipping cars packed with sensors to capture a city’s surroundings, then coding those 3-D images into a digital landscape. Chatham said cars may rely on perceptions systems alone to drive on the highway but would be helpless in other traffic conditions. Imagine pulling up to a busy, double-left-lane intersection you’ve never seen before. Now imagine a self-driving car trying to do that.
“That’s the advantage of having a detailed map,” said Chatham. “We can give the cars all the answers to the nasty questions.” He said Waymo is exploring solutions to mapping real-time factors such as construction updates, but declined to share details.
Thanks to its years of effort and artificial intelligence arsenal, Waymo is considered the leader in HD maps. But to date, the company has pitched its entire suite to prospective partners and landed few. Chatham declined to say whether Waymo is considering selling its map as a separate product.
Another potential force in this market is Uber. The ride-hailing giant is also working on HD maps for its driverless program, using test vehicles in a similar way to Waymo. Lisa Weitekamp, an Uber manager, said the private company is exploring ways to place map-generating sensors inside the millions of human-driven vehicles in its service. The maps those cars already use—the “static” navigation software in the app that takes in popular routes and driving decisions—helps inform Uber’s driverless maps, Weitekamp added. “It gives us a leg up,” she said.
That would make access to ride-hailing maps a valuable asset. Currently, Uber uses a combination of TomTom, Google and its own data for the maps its drivers and riders see. The contract between Uber and Google is set to expire this year, according to two people familiar with the deal. Representatives from both companies declined to comment.
Plenty of newcomers are pitching carmakers on the need to catch up with front-runners such as Waymo and Uber. DeepMap Inc., started by veterans of Google and Apple, is banking on its intelligent software to cut down the time and cost involved in converting the images pulled from self-driving car sensors into a single, high-resolution landscape. The startup said it’s working with Ford, Honda Motor Co. and China’s SAIC Motor Corp.
Civil Maps has tech that “fingerprints” sensor data, forming digital grids with each loop made by a mapping vehicle around the same area. It’s a bit like the way the mobile app Shazam recognizes a piece of music, said CEO Sravan Puttagunta. Ford is an investor and Puttagunta said his company is in the process of raising additional money.
For now, most car companies are testing the waters rather than cutting massive, multimillion-dollar deals for maps. A Ford spokesman described its work with startups as “research.” Argo, the automaker’s self-driving bet, has looked at a variety of suppliers but is currently relying on its own internal maps. GM spokesman Ray Wert said the company prefers to do its own mapping.
The new entrants know they can’t all survive. “It’s very similar to navigational maps or even the search engine,” said DeepMap’s Luo, a former Googler. “Whoever has bigger scale will have the advantage.”
– BLOOMBERG 
02.21.18

7 rules for break up in the digital age

BY WENDY MONCUR AN DANIEL HERRON 4 MINUTE READ

Digital technologies can be great when looking for love, and displaying togetherness to the world. But for those who are facing a broken heart, we offer a more useful gift than roses or chocolates. Inspired by Dua Lipa’s pithy advice in her hit song, New Rules, we have produced a practical checklist for how to deal with the digital aftermath of a romantic break up.

1) ‘Don’t pick up the phone’

As tempting as it might be to check up on your ex online, don’t do it. Yes, it’s easy to take a peek at your ex’s Facebook profile or Instagram feed and see what they’ve been up to, without them ever knowing you were there, but still …

This kind of Facebook “stalking” is fairly common, but it really isn’t a good idea. It can lead to an increase in longing and sexual desire for your ex, levels of distress, and negative feelings, as well as a decrease in personal growth post-break up. Every time you visit your ex’s profile, it makes moving on that much harder for you (but doesn’t affect them in the slightest). Why put yourself through the pain?

2) ‘Don’t let him (or her) in’

When you’re in a relationship, all of the different ways you have of keeping in touch with your partner online are the bee’s knees. Facebook, Snapchat, WhatsApp, or Google make keeping up-to-date with each other so easy; but what about after a break up? Suddenly the WhatsApp thread that you used to make plans together can turn into a direct line for your ex to get a hold of you, while the location data you shared with each other on Google can make stalking you infinitely easier. What about the passwords you shared, or the logins you saved on your ex’s laptop – how much access does your ex actually have to you and your online accounts?

After a break up, take steps to reduce their access. Some social media platforms such as Facebook have an option to end sessions on particular devices, and others, such as Google, give you the option of logging out of all devices. Consider changing your passwords or adding extra security to your accounts with two-step verification. You can also turn off location services on your mobile phone and other devices.

3) ‘Don’t be his (or her) friend’

This one is tricky. After you break up, should you “unfriend” your ex, and sever connections across social media? Severing your online connections might seem brutal, yet a big part of being able to move on after a break up is about being separate from your ex, both on and offline.

If you don’t want to completely sever connections, there are other options. A good one is to add your ex to your “restricted list” on Facebook. This sneaky option means that it looks like you’re still friends with your ex, but you only share your posts with them when you choose “public” as the audience, or when you tag them in a post. And you can still see their posts – even though you know that’s not a good idea.

4) ‘If you’re under them, you ain’t getting over them’

Facebook “pushes” content at us. It reminds us of our own past posts, based on their popularity. It alerts us to new posts by the people who are important to us.

On a bad day, you could get notifications about your ex’s current activities and reminders of memories of happier days as a couple. To dodge these bullets, do two things. First, alter your Facebook “on this day preferences” to remove people (your ex) or significant dates, and stop those unwelcome memories from coming at you.

Second (if you are still Facebook “friends” with your ex), change the preferences for your news feed. There is an option to “prioritise who to see first”. Take that little blue star off of your ex’s photo, and their updates will no longer be top of your Facebook feed.

5) ‘He (or she) doesn’t love me’

If you have set your “status” on your Facebook profile to indicate romantic togetherness – for example, in a relationship, engaged, civil partnership – you may want to change it. A change from togetherness to singledom will only appear on your timeline if you choose for it to do so.

Sharing news of the break up with your friends on social media can be like ripping off a plaster – painful but you only have to do it once. However, breaking the news will likely generate responses from your friends – for better or for worse. And if your friends aren’t too tech-savvy, those opinions may be quite public. Think about letting your friends know that you’d rather communicate privately with them about the break up, online or offline.

6) ‘I’ve got new rules’ (for using my Netflix)

If you were cohabiting, it’s likely that you shared online accounts for everything from utilities to media streaming services like Spotify. Often, these accounts are intended to be used by just one person, and are password protected.

If you are the account holder, change your passwords. Now.

If you are not the account holder, get all of the details that you need from the accounts (for example the name of your electricity provider, the Game of Thrones episode you were watching) before your ex changes the password and you lose access.

7) ‘Write it down and read it out’

It’s tempting to make it look like you are coping really well and having an amazing time in your newfound singledom, by posting only very positive images and text about your fun activities and new friends. If your aim is to show your ex that you are doing great without them, go right ahead.

But bear in mind that if your friends see those same posts, they may be less likely to offer you their support, exactly because you look like you are doing fine.

So make good use of your online social media, and make it a force for good after a romantic break up. Don’t look at what your ex is doing. Do let your friends know that you need them. And things will start to look up.

– The Conversation

 

The Conversation

02.19.18

You can no longer “view image” on Google search

BY Staff Reporter < 1 MINUTE READ

Google has decided that it will be removing the “view image” option that appeared when you clicked on a picture.

The button was previously used by users when searching for a picture and they wanted to see it independently to save it instead of going to it’s original site. The reason behind the removal is that, Google has been under fire from photographers and publishers who felt that image search allowed people to steal their pictures.

A deal to show copyright information and improve attribution of Getty photos was announced last week and included these changes. The intention seems to be either stopping people from taking an image altogether or driving them through to the website where the image is found.

This would also let people  see any associated copyright information. Additionally, This would allow websites who have adverts to get more revenue. Today we’re launching some changes on Google Images to help connect users and useful websites. This will include removing the View Image button. The Visit button remains, so users can see images in the context of the webpages they’re on. pic.twitter.com/n76KUj4ioD

– BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE

02.16.18

Microsoft launches new feature for Xbox Live app

BY Staff Reporter < 1 MINUTE READ

Microsoft has just launched a party chat feature for its Xbox mobile apps.

Similar to WhatsApp, The feature allows Xbox Live users to communicate with their gaming friends via both voice and text when they’re out of the house and away from the console.

Additionally, the feature was also added for users who don’t always feel like putting on a headset during multiplayer sessions in order to communicate with team mates. Making the feature available after many weeks of testing puts Microsoft ahead of competitors as live voice chat isn’t an option for other gaming applications unless they make use of  a third-party service.

However, the only downside of using the new feature is that sound quality can’t be guaranteed on the app as it depends on the type of smartphone that you are using. The feature which is found on any Xbox app is available on Android and iOS.

– BUSINESS REPORT ONLINE