Read original story on: Engadget
MasterCard, one of the major Apple Pay partners, has built its own plastic card with a built-in fingerprint sensor and NFC chip. Made in partnership with biometric tech company Zwipe, the stripe-less card is said to be extremely secure and easy to use. We imagine Apple won’t be too happy about this.
Read original story on: ReadWrite
Instead of reading, you can now listen to your Twitter feed. Well, not all of it—just the tweets that include Twitter Audio Card, a new feature that lets users discover and listen to audio directly in feeds on both iOS and Android devices. Soundcloud and iTunes are the first to come on board, but Twitter says more partners are signing up. As Twitter continues to integrate multi-media experience to its service, brands will no doubt benefit from a diversified toolbox.
Source: The Verge
Following HBO’s announcement offering standalone HBO GO yesterday, CBS is launching a streaming service. Dubbed CBS All Access, the service will be available for $5.99 per month, and allows subscribers to watch CBS content and classic shows online. NFL games are not being made available, though, given the huge ratings live sports still attract. As the cord-cutting movement continues to gain momentum, we expect more TV content providers to join in.
Read original story on: Engadget
At Dreamforce 2014, Black Eyed Pea’s Will.i.am just unveiled the Puls, a smart wristband that can send texts and emails or take phone calls thanks to a mirrored SIM card. The Puls, designed and manufactured by his own wearable tech company, i.am+, is powered by an Android-based platform and connects to the Internet not only via WiFi, but also via 3G—it works exclusively with AT&T in the US and O2 in the UK. Whether this newcomer can use the celebrity effect to make a splash in the already crowded wearable market remains to be seen.
Source: Adweek
Data measurement company ComScore released a report on digital viewership trends gleaned from a survey of 1,159 users, revealing some interesting insights about Netflix and the OTT industry.
Dominance Among Millennials
Of those surveyed, overall, 32% subscribed to Netflix. For comparison, 19% had Hulu, and 9% had Amazon Prime. More impressively, nearly 50% among millennials had a subscription to Netflix.
Well-supported By OTT Devices
44% of Netflix users watch through an OTT device like Chromecast or Roku. Add in the other 21% watching on alternative platforms such as gaming consoles or connected Blu-ray players, and that leaves just 27% of users watching Netflix directly on their computers.
Popular With Families
In addition, families with children are more likely to have a Netflix subscription. According to the survey, Netflix reached 25% of households with one to two people, and 40% of households with more than three.
Source: ReadWrite
Google Now, Siri, and Cortana were each given 3,000 voice queries in a new study to compare the capability of these three major voice-activated AIs. Google Now emerged as the clear champion with 88% of the questions handled correctly. Siri took the second-place with a 53% success rate, while Microsoft’s newly introduced Cortana finished with a mere 40%. Looks like both Siri and Cortana still have a lot of room for improvement.
Source: LA Times
Following last week’s announcement of its first-ever brick-and-mortar store in Midtown Manhattan, Amazon is now planning pop-up stores in San Francisco and Sacramento, California, next week for the holiday shopping season. Different than the supposed “warehouse function” of its NYC store, these two pop-up stores will reportedly carry Amazon-branded e-readers, tablets, smartphones, and streaming media players to provide customers with an opportunity to try out its own lineup.
Source: Digiday
Programmatic TV advertising refers to the data-driven automation of audience-based advertising transactions. Following the gradual proliferation of programmatic ad buying on digital platforms, TV seems like the next one to embrace this new form of ad buying. But the fact is, less than 1% of TV inventory has been sold programmatically this year. Why is the market so slow when it comes to programmatic TV ad-buying?
Source: AdAge
Apple Watch has chosen a surprising yet reasonable platform for its media debut—Vogue China. On the cover of the upcoming issue of the fashion magazine, an Apple Watch Edition is prominently featured on the wrist of supermodel Liu Wen, finished with, of course, a color-coordinated band.
China has been an increasing priority for Apple, especially since its share in Apple’s global revenue has expanded from 2%, in 2009, to 16% last quarter. As a result, it makes sense for the Cupertino company to throw this one to the Chinese market. Its collaboration with Vogue magazine, moreover, solidifies Apple Watch’s role in pushing towards the convergence of tech and fashion industry.
Groupe BPCE, the second largest bank in France, is set to announce a new service that will let their customers send money over Twitter, according toReuters. It’s unclear exactly how the service will work, but reportedly it will make use of the bank’s existing mobile payments system S-Money. This move positions Twitter as an alternative to the existing P2P payment services like Venmo. And as with the introduction of the “buy button” earlier last month in the States, it’s up to the consumers to embrace or reject the little blue bird’s entry into eMoney.
