T he Gift of Privacy, Byte of Vine and Why Voice
Here’s the news we’re talking about around the Zbra Studios water cooler. We’ve provided key bullet points from each article for the speed readers out there.
Gift Guide: The best security and privacy tech to keep your friends safe
By Zack Whittaker from Tech Crunch
- “Security is more front of mind today than ever before.”
- “For this holiday season, we have more than a dozen gift ideas — from practical gadgets that will make it harder for spies to listen in, to data-saving tips that will keep your information safe — without breaking the bank.”
Vine’s cofounder just announced a new video looping app
By Cale Guthrie Weissman from Fast Company
- “Vine was ultimately axed because it had been unable to evolve as competitors encroached on its space, and some of its top creators began leaving Vine for other video platforms.”
- “One of Vine’s cofounders, Dom Hofmann, has long teased that he has been working on new app called v2, which would essentially be a new version of Vine–albeit, not owned by Twitter anymore. Earlier this year, it seemed those plans fell by the wayside, but now Hofmann has announced another new app: Byte.”
- “…it’s sounding an awful lot like Vine, which will likely make many people excited. Already, Byte’s Twitter account has more than 64,000 followers.”
Voice tech like Alexa and Siri hasn’t found its true calling yet: Inside the voice assistant ‘revolution’
By Rani Molla from Recode
- “Human-to-machine voice interactions are inevitable. And as affordable consumer devices and fast wireless networks proliferate — most voice-assistant processing happens on far-away servers — they are driving real utility and are changing how we interact with machines.”
- “Indeed, people who listen to Spotify on smart speakers are more likely to listen to music every day, according to the streaming music company, than Spotify users overall. They’re also more likely to listen to music on weekends and request nostalgic songs.”
- “One thing that companies hope will happen — but hasn’t yet — is that people will start using their voice assistants to effortlessly buy all kinds of stuff. Most surveys show that only around 20 percent of smart speaker users have ever used their device to make a purchase. The number that shop monthly is half that.”
Nick Cotton is a project manager based out of Los Angeles, California. He’s got a background in the entertainment industry, and uses his talent at online messaging to extol the virtues of content marketing, interactive fiction and sentences measuring 280 characters or less.
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