Weekly Digest #18: Smart Glass & Very Smart E-doctor
August 11th, 2016
Facebook builds plans to earn even more on advertising, LinkedIn has decided to help Android app developers test their products, and IBM Watson has transformed into an electronic embodiment of the well-known Dr. House last week. Another quite useful invention of the previous week is the Glassify drinking glass that offers discounts on alcohol while making sure the owner doesn’t have too much.
Android Platform: the Choice of Game Developers
Game developers prefer Android. Such was the conclusion reached by the authors of Developers Economics study done by VisionMobile company. Having surveyed over 16,000 game developers from 145 companies, VisionMobile noted that 79% of games are developed on Android platform. At the same time, 47% of respondents consider Android their primary platform (last year the figure was 40%). This is the highest popularity of Google’s mobile platform within six years. Until this year, the developers’ attention has been almost evenly distributed between iOS and Android.
If we talk about the iOS, 61% of developers write apps for it and only 31% use it as their main platform, which is 8% lower than six months ago. WindowsPhone platform is pretty much invisible for the developers - only 27% write for it and 4% consider it their primary.
The report also presents some of the figures for the development of Internet of Things devices. At the end of 2015, around 47% of developers were involved in developing software for IoT. However, only 22% are still doing it now. Mainly their focus is taken by smart home solutions, applications for portable devices, and IoT in the corporate sector. About 23% of developers reported being engaged in virtual and augmented reality projects, about 40% are working with data mining and machine learning.
LinkedIn will help to test Android applications
LinkedIn, the business social network, has introduced a tool for testing Android applications. Open-source Test Butler service allows you to test your own applications to detect errors in their design. Test Butler was created as a tool for internal testing of mobile applications before the public launch. However, the company decided to make this service available to the public. One of the Test Butler’s features is that he finds external risks for the applications’ health.
IBM Watson Helped to Diagnose Cancer
Supercomputer IBM Watson helped detect a rare form of leukemia. Artificial intelligence has helped to discover that a woman wasn’t diagnosed correctly and the treatment she was getting wasn’t doing anything. The doctors turned to IBM Watson and his algorithms and the supercomputer analyzed all the parameters of the disease, comparing them to the other results from 20 million other medical histories. Within 10 minutes, it was able to determine the correct diagnosis.
Watson has been used to diagnose diseases for several years now. 2 million pages of text, over 25,000 medical histories, and 14,000 hours spent on setting the algorithms and data analysis - this is what the supercomputer required for this work.
Facebook to get more revenue from ads
Facebook is working on getting, even more, revenue from advertising campaigns. The company plans to achieve this in several ways. On one hand, Facebook promised to reduce the ranking of pages with non-informative titles (click-baiting) that post only to attract the attention of people using the social network and to get them to click on the website link. An example of such titles can be something along the lines of “She opened the letter and what she read there made her cry” or “You will not believe who was the champion of the Olympic Games.” The social network plans to analyze the contents of the blog and find the words that are commonly used for click-baiting. Facebook pages, therefore, urge owners not to use such headers that hide the information about the texts or exaggerate it.
Another thing Facebook is working on - AdBlock bypass. The social network plans to introduce a new advertising format and expand the possibility of personalized ads, allowing them to be seen even by users that have ad blocking tools. Services such as AdBlock already became a real headache for the owners of content-driven projects. Furthermore, there are special tools that block the ads on Facebook as well, removing them from the timeline. Facebook hasn’t specified what methods will be used to solve this problem, mentioning just the “new formats” launch.
Blockchain and Internet of Things: United on the Isle of Man
Isle of Man authorities decided to use blockchain technology for IoT-devices identification using unique identifiers. At the moment, the idea is going through a testing phase.
The idea is in confirming the authenticity of the IoT-devices, including their web registration so that counterfeit devices (for example, those designed to steal data) could not register in the network. In addition, blockchain will not allow changing such identification numbers, which would also provide a security layer.
The technology is implemented thanks to cooperation with Credits (aka Pythia) startup. The Isle of Man was running an incubator for startups working in the field of blockchain and cryptocurrency in 2014 and this was one of the startups.
Marketing Intelligence and Google Analytics for All
Google has created a special workable test Google Analytics account, available to any registered Google user. It is designed for experimenting with and testing the features of the statistics service. The statistics available in the account are the ones for real online e-commerce Google Merchandise Store. The test account can analyze advertising with Google AdWords and adjust target landing pages. In other words, users can test statistics using real business data.
Meanwhile, App Annie analytics platform has given access to the Marketing Intelligence e-commerce analytics service. This service allows to analyze the competitors’ actions, optimize keywords for online retailers, and to create and analyze the effectiveness of ads.
Glassify: Glass which will not let you get drunk
There are various solutions that use Internet of Things technology and not all of them are super-serious such as monitoring the state of the body or controlling the temperature at home. An Israeli startup has developed an “intelligent” glass, the task of which is to monitor how much alcohol did the user drink, offer a discount, or call a taxi. Glassify glass can be offered by the bartender at drinking establishments.
The discounts offered by Glassify do not exceed 5 glasses and after all five are drunk, Glassify will prompt the user to call a cab.
The Glassify mobile app, among other things, tells users about discounts at nearby bars and even as a feature to invite friends to a pub. Another useful feature is the ability to pay with your smartphone, using the bank card that was connected to your smartphone.
Bars that are testing Glassify glass say the alcohol sales have grown by 13%.
