CMRA camera band turns your Apple Watch into a first-gen Galaxy Gear



Remember the original Galaxy Gear? Hard not to — gadgets don’t get much gadgetier and clunkier than Samsung’s first big attempt to figure out why folk might want computers on their wrist. One of its key features was the camera embedded in the watch strap, letting you quickly snap photos without the need to get your phone out, and now a company is aiming to bring similar functionality to the Apple Watch.

The CMRA band comes from Israeli startup Glide, who already makes an Apple Watch-compatible video chat app. It looks like one of Apple’s rubber Sport Bands but incorporates an 8-megapixel primary camera as well as a 2-megapixel module angled toward the face. While it’s not quite clear how CMRA integrates with the Watch, it does require its own battery — Glide includes a stand that charges both the Watch and the CMRA and can also be used on the go.

"The camera is only valuable when it is out and ready to take a photo or video," Glide CEO Ari Roisman tells Recode. "Our phones live in our pockets." If CMRA is able to be used without too much reliance on the phone, that’ll certainly be the selling point. But that’s probably a big "if."
CMRA won’t ship til spring next year, however — preorders open today for $199, or $149 if you’re quick. The regular selling price will be $249.

Here’s what 1Password’s Touch Bar support might look like



All the hype around the new MacBook Pro has been about what its flashy new Touch Bar can do, but there’s good reason to be excited about its Touch ID sensor, too.One early example: the maker of 1Password, AgileBits, is already showing off its planned support for the laptop’s fingerprint sensor. It plans to allow users to log into 1Password without typing in their (quite possibly complicated) master password.

Basically, the change would take the app from 1 to (mostly) 0Password, since you’d only occasionally need to type it in. For users of the app, that’s a big convenience.

AgileBits is already starting to imagine what it’ll do with the MacBook Pro’s Touch Bar, too. There’s nothing necessarily crazy here compared to what Apple showed on stage yesterday, but it’s good to see that some of the Mac’s staples are already thinking about Apple’s new hardware.
The mockups place some of 1Password’s key options, like the ability to create different types of entries and to change the length of a new password, right on the Touch Bar. These aren’t supposed to be final designs, but they suggest that AgileBits — and other interested app developers — will be able to launch custom Touch Bar layouts pretty quickly.

There’s no timeline on when 1Password will get these new features. But, you know, no one actually has this computer yet so it doesn’t really matter for a few more weeks.

Apple says new MacBook Pro has only 16GB of RAM to save battery life


Much has been said about the cost, trade-offs, and compromises involved with purchasing Apple’s new MacBook Pro. Apple unveiled the device, which comes in three new iterations, yesterday at a press event, and people pouring over its spec sheets and purchase options have complained that its limiting 16GB memory option is severe given the price tag. Apple has now come out and explained that any more RAM in a notebook of its size would have a detrimental effect on battery life.The answer comes from up high. When a MacRumors reader emailed a general Apple line about a 32GB RAM option, he got a surprise response from marketing chief Phil Schiller himself. Here’s the exchange:

Q: The lack of a 32GB BTO option for the new MBPs raised some eyebrows and caused some concerns (me included). Does ~3GBps bandwidth to the SSD make this a moot issue? I.e. memory paging on a 16GB system is so fast that 32GB is not a significant improvement?

Schiller: Thank you for the email. It is a good question. To put more than 16GB of fast RAM into a notebook design at this time would require a memory system that consumes much more power and wouldn't be efficient enough for a notebook. I hope you check out this new generation MacBook Pro, it really is an incredible system.

So this would seem to undermine any speculation as to whether the new MacBook Pro’s performance upgrades mean a bump in memory isn’t neccesary. Now, Schiller didn’t really answer that part of the question, so there remains the possibility that the improved bandwidth does in fact go a little ways toward making up for the lack of RAM. But Schiller’s reply does point a more concrete finger at battery life, which Apple tends to prioritize over other benefits in its notebook lines.

Phil Schiller says the MacBook Pro doesn’t need an SD card slot



Apple is taking a lot of flack for its decision to drop the SD card slot from the new MacBook Pro range and outfit it with Thunderbolt ports only, but the company is confident it’s made the right choice — even if a lot of users won’t agree with its reasoning.

Speaking to The Independent, Apple exec Phil Schiller said the company had dropped the SD card slot as it was "cumbersome" and because wireless transfer technology for cameras is "proving very useful" as an alternative. A lot of photographers, though, would disagree with this. Although wireless tethering is certainly getting better, it’s frequently buggy and still slower than using an SD card to get photos from to your computer. In a professional situation where speed and reliability count, it’s not a viable alternative, which is why people will be forced to use a dongle instead.

Here's Schiller’s full answer on why the SD card slot was dropped:

Because of a couple of things. One, it’s a bit of a cumbersome slot. You've got this thing sticking halfway out. Then there are very fine and fast USB card readers, and then you can use CompactFlash as well as SD. So we could never really resolve this – we picked SD because more consumer cameras have SD but you can only pick one. So, that was a bit of a trade-off. And then more and more cameras are starting to build wireless transfer into the camera. That’s proving very useful. So we think there’s a path forward where you can use a physical adaptor if you want, or do wireless transfer.

When asked if it’s "inconsistent" for the MacBook Pro to retain the traditional headphone jack (another widely-used connector that Apple has dropped from the iPhone) Schiller says that professionals still need that on a laptop for other types of audio gear that doesn't work wirelessly. "If it was just about headphones then it doesn’t need to be there, we believe that wireless is a great solution for headphones," he says.

In a follow-up interview a day later, Schiller also notes that there has been "a lot of passionate dialogue and debate about the new MacBook Pro." He adds that he’s been surprised by the criticism, but says the decision to only use Thunderbolt ports was a "bold risk" and Apple will "help people through these changes."

Microsoft launches Minecraft: Education Edition for schools



Microsoft wants kids playing Minecraft in class, and it’s hoping that schools will not just let them, but support them. It’s launching a version of Minecraft today called Minecraft: Education Edition that includes some classroom tools and a way to roll out accounts to every student in a class or district.
The app has been in development since last January, when Microsoft purchased a mod working toward the same goal. The educational tools went into a beta period this summer, with Microsoft hoping to have a full release ready by the time school started. It missed that date by a couple months, but the game is now ready to go on both Windows 10 and macOS.


Despite the new name, Education Edition isn’t dramatically different from regular Minecraft. It’s pretty much the same game, just with some tools that’ll make things easier for teachers — there’s a way to see where all their students are on a map, give students different resources, and teleport people to specific locations. There are also a few new in-game items, including a camera and a chalkboard.
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Japanese messaging company, Line posts profit worth $50.8 million in third quarter



Japanese messaging app operator Line Corp said on Wednesday net income swung to profit in the third quarter, as advertising sales increased after it introduced a new platform in June for hosting digital ads. Line, which raised $1.3 billion in the world’s biggest tech IPO this year, has said it is strongly positioned in its four core markets – Japan, Taiwan, Thailand and Indonesia – although it has marketed itself as delivering steady returns rather than explosive growth.Line, which derives most of its income from mobile games and sales of cartoon emoticons called “stickers,” reported a net profit of 5.3 billion yen ($50.8 million) for the first nine months of 2016. It booked a net loss of 7.6 billion yen during the same period last year. The company did not release a breakdown of results for the July to September period but the quarterly results were derived from calculations by Reuters based on earlier earnings.

Based on the calculations, the company booked a net profit of 2.4 billion yen ($23 million) between July and September, compared to a 2.3 billion yen loss in the same period last year. January to September revenue was 103.2 billion yen, up 17.2 percent from the same period a year earlier, Line said.

That meant third-quarter revenue came in at 35.9 billion yen, the calculations showed, up 12.6 percent from the same period a year ago. During the third quarter, Line launched six new games, including “Gundam Wars” – a tie up with popular anime TV characters. It previously warned that expenses from marketing the games, four of which were developed in-house, could have a temporary impact on operating profit. Line, controlled by South Korea’s Naver Corp, has singled out ads as a key source of future revenue and third-quarter advertising sales rose 66 percent from the previous quarter to 12 billion yen, the Reuters calculations showed.

Line’s eponymous messaging app had 220 million active monthly users at the end of September, 3.5 percent higher than a year earlier, but flat versus the end of June 2016. That is less than WhatsApp and Messenger, both owned by Facebook Inc, which boast 1 billion users each. However, Line is one of the few pure messaging app plays available to investors. Line, which is listed in both Tokyo and New York, has climbed over 45 percent since its IPO in July. Prior to the earnings report, it was up 2.5 percent.

Startups and enterprises can leverage Big Data Analytics to optimise workforce





High-profile companies, particularly the e-commerce ones, have been laying off a number of employees. Ola fired around a thousand employees. Reportedly, India’s e-commerce marketplace Flipkart also laid off around 800 employees. Other enterprises and startups have also been cutting hundreds of jobs. Globally too, there have been such management decisions. Cisco is reportedly cutting 14,000 jobs in 2017 and Intel too laid off 12,000 employees. Startups such as Zomato and Foodpanda also fired employees. There could be several reasons for the pink slips: from over recruitment to poor financials to bad management decisions. Whatever the reason, laying off doesn’t augur well for the company itself; in fact, it has the potential to backfire. Valuable resources could migrate; frustration could erupt in employees staying back; long-term damage to a company’s image, production, and reputation and so on and so forth.

Big Data and Analytics can help HR streamline recruitment

Big Data and Analytics can help in sensible hiring and avoid layoffs. Well-researched recruitment is a precursor to prevention of mass firings. Not only that the technologies can also help companies deal with the enormous number of candidates that they have to screen as there is always chance for error. Additionally, the technologies factor in several other aspects such as background checks, market conditions, manpower requirement, etc. Also, processing of salaries and appraisals can be tedious, particularly in big corporations. All the data can be tough to handle. This is where Big Data comes into the picture; it removes the error out of the equation.

First of all, what exactly is Big Data? It is actually a term used for data sets so huge or complex that conventional data-processing methods would be insufficient. Big Data and Analytics tools process those data sets to find hidden patterns and unknown correlations, leading to discovery of meaningful market trends, candidate preferences and other useful recruitment information. Analytics may use several forms of data that may remain untapped through conventional programs. This includes data from Internet, social media and activity reports, candidate emails and survey results. HR firms can apply Analytics to describe, predict, and improve recruitment performance leading to workforce optimisation. The tools can also conduct sentiment analysis over data from social media platforms including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. A company can use Analytics tool to find out prevailing market sentiment and decide whether it is the right time for recruitment.

How does Big Data work?

Big Data uses mathematical and statistical tools together with algorithms to discover trends and make predictions. The tools take into account parameters such as benefits and compensation, job history, and level of education. This can lead to workforce optimsation, prediction and maintenance of optimal labor pool, and performance assessment, thus helping recruiting managers decide who to hire and how to retain talent.

“It is impractical to expect that managers would take foolproof decisions. They do go wrong at times. The errors increase as soon as the number of parameters to be factored in the calculations increases. People just can’t track and memorize that huge data. Therefore, it’s best that algorithms sort it out,” said Somesh Misra, VP, Products and HR, Deskera—a global business software provider having its own Big Data and Analytics tool.

There are several tools in the market that can take the hassle off for HR departments. Tools like AppDynamics and Workforce Analytics reduce the burden in several ways. They not only assess and predict whether a potential candidate would accept a job offer or if the prospect only in exploration mode, it would also track other significant feed such as social media. For example, culling information on the frequency of a potential candidate’s visits to LinkedIn, the frequency of LinkedIn page updates, whether the candidate is exploring different other options, whether he is asking for recommendations from other LinkedIn users. The tools also provide information on aspects like cultural fit of a candidate for the organisation, their personality with respect to organization values, etc.

Big Data HR tools give companies an edge

These tools help companies avoid taking the firing road in the long term and help them retain resources crucial to their growth. In today’s corporate world of cut-throat competition, companies need to be good at identifying, recruiting as well as retaining talent with the appropriate skill set. Through Big Data and Analytics, HR departments can collect, generate, visualise, and access data in a way not possible before. The technologies can go a long way ensuring that image and reputation of a company built over several years doesn’t get tarnished.