Welcome to Forbes. How Google Finally Got Design. It would have been crazy to say just a few years ago. But today, Google produces better-designed software than any other tech behemoth. If you don’t believe that, then set down your Apple-flavored Kool-Aid. Take a cleansing breath, open your mind, and compare Android and iOS. Start with push notifications—a crucial feature that's telling precisely because we take them for granted. How’s Apple doing? Your push notifications appear on your lockscreen. Careful. Examples like these happen everywhere in iOS, and they're painfully obvious when compared to Lollipop, the latest version of Android. Such attention to detail used to be Apple’s thing. Google has come so far, despite years of self-defeating battles over what constitutes good design. Design Comes to Google Before Its Time The effort had a compelling logic. This created problems. Marissa Mayer, an engineer with no design background who had climbed up to become head of Google’s user experience.
Pine. This all changed, of course. Near-Collision Between Drone and Helicopter Rattles Pilots. Close call -- a drone and helicopter almost collide in South Florida with a crowd below. See the near miss that rattled pilots. NBC 6's Willard Shepard reports. (Published Wednesday, Jul 16, 2014) Helicopter pilot Paul Barth and his camera operator saw a brightly colored object in the South Florida sky with them just before sunrise. "I didn’t know what it was when I first saw it," Barth said.
They saw the object while they were airborne to document the Wings for Life World Run charity race in May. “We were on a collision course," Barth said. Prosecutors Have Doubts in Police Shooting, But No Charges Down below were the athletes and support staff participating in the run to raise money for those with spinal cord injuries. “It came right at us and went right underneath us," Barth said. What happened, Barth said, is an example of the growing conflict in the sky between airplanes, helicopters and what many are flying for fun — drones. Mother of 4 Found Shot to Death on Miami Street.
Sue Fennessy. A Social Network You Can Make a Profit From [Video] AOL Unveils One, Its Big Bet On Programmatic Ads. More than a year ago, AOL executives Tim Armstrong and Bob Lord first publicly outlined their plans to unify AOL’s various ad products as a single platform called One. Today that platform is actually launching. The company bills One (or, to use the full name, One by AOL) as the platform where advertisers can optimize their ad campaigns across channels including video, display, and television. A big piece of that launch involves rebranding AOL’s existing programmatic ad products, so Adap.tv is now known as One by AOL: Video; the AdLearn Open Platform is now known as One by AOL: Display; and Convertro is now known as One by AOL: Attribution.
(Like TechCrunch, Adap.tv and Convertro were both startups acquired by AOL.) AOL has become increasingly focused on programmatic advertising (where the ad-buying process is managed by technology and algorithms). That last point was probably the biggest one, with Demsey contrasting AOL’s approach with the “walled gardens” of Google and Facebook. Has This Teen Created The World's Safest Gun? - Luminaries. Twitter unveils a new homepage for people who aren't signed in | The Verge. Twitter spent the past year trying to convince skeptics that its relatively slow progress in attracting new users doesn't matter, because its reach is actually much larger.
Millions of people who don't have Twitter accounts still see tweets every month, and Twitter said it was planning new efforts to convert them into active users. That effort starts today with the rollout of a new homepage for people who aren't signed into the service. More than 500 million people visit Twitter each month who aren't signed in, and of those, 125 million come directly to Twitter.com.
Until now, unless you were there to sign up for an account, that page has been a dead end. Beginning today, though, people who aren't signed in will see a curated collection of timelines designed to show off popular parts of the Twitterverse. Choices include pop artists, cute animals, space news, business news, and actors and actresses. Cute animals, business news, and tech. Internet Explorer Update: Microsoft to kill off Internet Explorer. In its heyday, Internet Explorer was a cutting edge portal that shaped the way the world accessed the Internet.
But its heyday is long, long gone. Many people grew to hate Internet Explorer after years of poor development and even some neglect. Meanwhile, rival browsers like Firefox and Chrome began to better cater to users’ needs, and they’re now both quite popular as a result. Of course, Internet Explorer comes preinstalled on Windows so it’s still the most popular browser in the world, but that will soon change.
No, Microsoft isn’t in jeopardy of losing its market share lead in the browser market — it’s finally killing off Internet Explorer. DON’T MISS: 5 secret things you didn’t know your iPhone could do People’s interest was instantly piqued when it was discovered that Microsoft was working on a new browser codenamed “Project Spartan” for inclusion in Windows 10. Then, excitement grew as new Project Spartan details were revealed.
Sony shutting the doors on PlayStation Mobile this fall. Cable Companies Should Be Seriously Terrified Of Apple Right Now. Apple could finally offer some real competition to cable and satellite companies. The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday evening that the consumer tech giant is planning to launch a web-based TV service this fall, with a small package of roughly 25 channels. A TV service from Apple, which has been rumored for years, could shake up the TV industry, forcing other pay TV providers to drop prices, improve customer service and offer smaller packages to compete. “If nothing else, it should put some pressure on the traditional pay TV players and get them to up their game,” said Jan Dawson, an independent telecom analyst.
“Most of them don't have much competition today, and as a result they have high prices, poor customer service, lousy interfaces and complex offerings.” For many people, the company they pay for TV is also the company they pay for Internet, and Internet providers may raise the price of broadband-only subscriptions to keep people from dropping their TV packages. Youtube Tips. CES 2015: Ashton Kutcher urges brands to put 'full force' behind social issues.
LAS VEGAS — Ashton Kutcher has issued a rallying call to brands and marketers to put their "full force" behind social issues because they have the sort of budgets and resources available to help "create a world that has a little more compassion. " The actor and tech investor had a "canal-side" chat on Wednesday with Monica Karo, chief executive of OMD, at a private event at The Venetian hotel here. The gathering was part of CES International 2015. "The reason why I wanted to come is I wanted to connect with the people who have the ability to make a difference," Kutcher said. "You represent some of the largest brands and companies in the world, and you have budgets to actually move the needle budgets to shape people’s hearts, crack it open a little bit. " Marketers, he said, may be able to "create a world that has a little bit more compassion and a little bit more social interest and a little bit more movement towards that which we all know this world can be.
" Tsū. Ashton Kutcher launches new online platform called A+ Ashton Kutcher reached a major milestone in 2009: beating out CNN to be the first Twitter user to reach 1 million followers. The feat marked the first, but certainly not the last, time that Kutcher realized the power of celebrity influence on social media. “Antennas of influence are actually pop culture channels,” Kutcher said in a phone interview. “Not necessarily major news organizations. It’s my belief that the way people consume media today is through social media.”
Now the actor-turned-entrepreneur is taking his social media knowledge and tech background to the next level with the launch of a social-driven technology platform: A+. The website’s focus is on distributing upbeat content with a purpose instead of traditional click bait. “I think with great distribution comes great responsibility,” Kutcher said. The content is generated and curated by an editorial staff of about 15 people, as well as through user contributions. “It’s almost like a magic trick,” Kutcher said. Tsū. Tsū. Next Century Cities. YouTube. Don't Let YouTube Own Your Audience 07/02/2014. It’s no secret that many marketers and content creators rely on YouTube for their online video strategies, and superficially it makes sense: it’s free, it’s relatively easy, consumer awareness of the platform is high, and it has huge reach.
But directing customers (or rather, viewers) to YouTube is ultimately self-defeating, because marketers and content creators are turning over their hard-earned audiences over to YouTube – and everything else that goes with them, including valuable data. Lamb summed up the argument: “When your business model for video is based on YouTube, what happens if YouTube shuts down today, and you don’t know who your audience is, or have their data? You really don’t have a strategy.” Citing an example from another social giant (guess who) he added: “Zynga should have been a huge warning sign for anyone who’s dependent on a third party distribution platform like that.”
It’s Official—FCC Enacts Expansive Net-Neutrality Rules. February 26, 2015 A bitterly divided Federal Communications Commission approved sweeping net-neutrality regulations Thursday that will fundamentally transform the U.S. government's power over Internet access. The new regulations deliver a thrilling victory to Internet activists and tech start-ups, who waged a fierce yearlong campaign to ensure that all Internet traffic is treated equally.
It's a stinging defeat for cable and telecom giants like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T—traditionally some of the most powerful lobbying forces in Washington. The FCC's new rules largely track a proposal from President Obama and will bar Internet providers from blocking websites, selectively slowing down any content, or creating any special "fast lanes" for sites that pay more. The goal of net neutrality is to prevent Internet providers from acting as "gatekeepers" and controlling what online content people can access. Don't Miss Today's Top Stories Love it - first thing I read in the morning. " YouTube Kids Launches to 'Answer Kids' Million Questions' It's 7 p.m. -- do you know what your children are watching?
Parents can now rest assured that their young blank slates can avoid NSFW videos, PETA-riling clips and possible allusions to pedophilia by watching YouTube Kids, a child-friendly app that the video-streaming platform revealed Tuesday (Feb. 24). "Today, we're introducing the YouTube Kids app, the first Google product built from the ground up with little ones in mind," the company wrote on its blog, nearly on the nose of its 10-year anniversary. "The app makes it safer and easier for children to find videos on topics they want to explore, and is available for free on Google Play and the App Store in the U.S. The YouTube Kids app is a joy, even for adults.
"A really important element is audio," product lead and group product manager Shimrit Ben-Yair tells Billboard. Ben-Yair adds that the impetus for YouTube Kids came from data showing "tremendous growth" in family usage of YouTube's main hub. Facebook. Multipop - Sign In. Shake Shack's Secret Sauce Video. Transcript for Shake Shack's Secret Sauce I was started out in the Saint Louis right up in the midwest. Feet com events. More than anything going up Lewis was where you were treated in a restaurant. It was maybe even better. Food tasted but I also have some great memories a lot of have to do things like customers.
Cheeseburgers and Fries. And it. This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.