Friday 2 February 2018

E-Commerce Minute

E-Commerce Minute: Friday -- February 2, 2018

The E-Commerce Times -- E-Business Means Business
http://www.ecommercetimes.com
Part of the ECT News Network

Headline Scan
There May Be Gold in Them Thar Podcasts
Feds to Probe Apple's iPhone Performance Disclosures
Apple May Be Gearing Up to Crack E-Books
The Top 20 CRM Blogs of 2017: Countdown, Part 2
Don't Pay the Hackers
Google's Ad Mute Option Could Be a Valuable Messaging Tool
Self-Service AI Aims to Grease the Wheels for B2B Sales Teams
AT&T Raises Eyebrows With Call for Internet Bill of Rights
New Service Aims to Ease B2B Tech Purchasing Process
Salesforce's Triangulation Strategy

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Today's Story Highlights

There May Be Gold in Them Thar Podcasts

User engagement with podcasts has been steadily increasing, and many
listeners actually prefer longer-format content, based on results of
Apple's Podcast Analytics reported this week. The service, which Apple
launched late last year, gives podcasters a way to track performance
metrics including number of listeners, total time listened and time per
device.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/85107.html

Feds to Probe Apple's iPhone Performance Disclosures

Both the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange
Commission have launched investigations into Apple. The company has said
that it will respond to the federal inquiries. Apple faces allegations
that it may have misled investors when it decided to throttle
performance on older iPhone models while introducing two pricey new
ones, including the thousand-dollar iPhone X.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/85104.html

Apple May Be Gearing Up to Crack E-Books

Apple reportedly has been working on a redesign of its e-book app for
iPhones and iPads, in what could be the biggest upgrade to its e-book
service in years. The new app reportedly is undergoing testing and will
be released in the next few months. It will have a simpler interface
that better highlights books currently being read in a section called
"Reading Now."
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/85098.html

The Top 20 CRM Blogs of 2017: Countdown, Part 2

Where does the discipline of CRM begin? We have a good idea where the
software fits, but where does its impact end? With a sale? With a
customer saying good things about your company to other customers? With
a repeat purchase? And does CRM contribute to these events alone, or is
there a web of other activities that help drive these relationships --
and do we ever consider these things to be CRM?
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/85097.html

Don't Pay the Hackers

If you follow security news, you may have noticed a disturbing trend.
Last year, we learned that Uber paid attackers $100,000 to keep under
wraps their stealth of the personal information of 50 million Uber
riders. More recently, we learned that Hancock Health paid approximately
$55,000 in bitcoin to bring hospital systems back online. The payment of
ransoms could be more common than it appears.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/85095.html

Google's Ad Mute Option Could Be a Valuable Messaging Tool

Google on Thursday announced a new feature that will let users mute so-
called "reminder ads" in third-party apps and websites that are powered
by its ad engine. It plans to expand this feature to its own services,
including Gmail, YouTube and Google Search, in the coming months. The
new tool is the latest addition to Google's dashboard for ad controls.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/85090.html

Self-Service AI Aims to Grease the Wheels for B2B Sales Teams

SalesDirector.ai has released a self-service version of its artificial
intelligence sales execution and sales forecasting platform for B2B
sales teams. The system provides enterprise-grade AI to sales teams in
less than five minutes, according to the company. Like the regular
SalesDirector.ai platform, the self-service version is offered as a
service.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/85093.html

AT&T Raises Eyebrows With Call for Internet Bill of Rights

In an open letter and a series of full-page ads in major newspapers,
AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson has urged Congress to enact an Internet Bill
of Rights and to bring the Net neutrality debate to an end. Although
AT&T supported the FCC's December vote to repeal its Net neutrality
rules, the company has called on legislators to establish new laws to
regulate the Internet.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/85091.html

New Service Aims to Ease B2B Tech Purchasing Process

TechTarget has launched Deal ScoreCard, a quarterly report designed to
help B2B technology executives make better purchasing decisions. Deal
ScoreCard covers 20 technology product market segments across the
storage, data center, cloud, and end-user computing enterprise
technology markets. It leverages proprietary buyer-generated data across
four categories.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/85084.html

Salesforce's Triangulation Strategy

Partnerships may be playing the role usually reserved for M&A activity
in the CRM world right now. Generally a company makes a purchase when it
wants to capture the benefits of another business' R&D or established
market base. However, at the moment it appears that the desirable
targets are too big to swallow, and the result is more partnering
between the big guys and the really big guys.
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/85087.html

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Tech News Flash

Tech News Flash: Friday -- February 2, 2018

TechNewsWorld -- All Tech - All The Time
http://www.TechNewsWorld.com
Part of the ECT News Network

Headline Scan
HighGround CEO Andee Harris: Find Your People
Facebook Is Gobbling Less of Users' Time
Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JP Morgan Aim to Untangle Employee Healthcare Knot
Alexa Now Can Dash Off Text Messages to Android Phones
Privacy-Minded Smart Speaker May Struggle to Get to Know You
Alphabet's New Chronicle Promises to Speed Threat Data Analysis
The Ironic Weirdness of Apple and Intel vs. Qualcomm
NYC Data Science Academy CTO Vivian Zhang: Do the Difficult Things First

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Today's Story Highlights

HighGround CEO Andee Harris: Find Your People

"Human capital management is the idea that your humans are your capital,
and so you should be investing in them and managing them, making sure
that you're giving your talent opportunities to grow, and that they have
purpose in their work," said HighGround CEO Andee Harris. "Human
resources is more about HR benefits and core HR systems," she noted,
while HCM "is more about people systems."
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/85102.html

Facebook Is Gobbling Less of Users' Time

The social media industry may have to struggle to rehydrate in light of
some surprising and troubling metrics Facebook released on Wednesday. In
addition to a pause in user growth, there have been signs that user
engagement may have reversed course. The decline may have something to
do with Facebook's efforts to recover from accusations that it has
provided fertile ground for fake news.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/85105.html

Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, JP Morgan Aim to Untangle Employee Healthcare Knot

Three corporate giants on Tuesday announced they were banding together
to provide healthcare for their 1.1 million employees. The companies --
Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway and JP Morgan Chase -- plan to form a company
"free from profit-making incentives and constraints" in order to improve
employee satisfaction with their healthcare coverage as well as reduce
costs.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/85103.html

Alexa Now Can Dash Off Text Messages to Android Phones

Amazon on Tuesday introduced new functionality that enables its Alexa
virtual assistant to send and receive SMS messages on devices running
Android 5.0 or higher. Carrier charges may apply. Alexa, the software
that powers the Echo line of smart speakers, can play and send
personalized messages from contacts for users who have set up voice
profiles.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/85100.html

Privacy-Minded Smart Speaker May Struggle to Get to Know You

Mycroft AI earlier this week announced that its Mark II smart speaker
achieved full funding on Kickstarter in just 6.5 hours. As of Wednesday,
pledges reached more than three times its $50K goal -- with 23 days
remaining in the campaign. The Mark II is positioned as an open source
alternative to the dominant Amazon Echo line of smart speakers and its
main challenger, the Google Home device.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/85099.html

Alphabet's New Chronicle Promises to Speed Threat Data Analysis

Alphabet has launched Chronicle, a new cybersecurity venture, following
two years of development at the Alphabet X research lab. Chronicle will
include VirusTotal, a Google-owned cybersecurity and intelligence
platform and malware intelligence service. The idea behind Chronicle
stems from the fact that many companies receive many more security
alerts per day than they can handle.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/85096.html

The Ironic Weirdness of Apple and Intel vs. Qualcomm

I am not remotely religious, but recently it has become harder and
harder to ignore that things have become incredibly ironic of late -- as
if a divine being with control over the world decided to prank us. For
example, take President Trump. During the campaign, everything he made
fun of others for doing -- including drinking water badly, playing too
much golf, slacking off and slurring words -- he has done himself, in
glorious living color.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/85092.html

NYC Data Science Academy CTO Vivian Zhang: Do the Difficult Things First

In the data science field today, "the big problem is that the industry
does not have official data science training," observed Vivian Zhang,
CTO of the NYC Data Science Academy. "Their majors don't teach them
anything in the industry. We've become a natural transition funnel to
bring those people in. Companies know that data science is important,
but they don't know how to do it."
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/85058.html

News Alerts From ECT News Network
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The Morning After: Testing Nintendo's new toys, Sony's CEO changes

Engadget Email Newsletter

It's Friday, February 02, 2018.

Hey, good morning!

It’s Friday, and in celebratory fashion, we’ve been playing with Nintendo’s new cardboard gambit, getting hyped over a new Stargate (no judging) and investigating how Uber’s getting into mapping to get your ride where you need it to be.

But what about all the memes and parody Twitter accounts?

Sony CEO Kaz Hirai will retire in April

Sony dropped some surprising news ahead of its earnings report last night, announcing that CEO Kaz Hirai will step aside and become chairman. In his place, CFO Kenichiro Yoshida is getting a promotion, in a much better situation than Hirai faced when he took on the role in 2012. Yoshida will unveil his plan for Sony’s future on April 1st, his first official day as CEO.

These crazy Switch accessories aren't so crazy after all.

Nintendo Labo hands-on: Cardboard has never been this fun

Leave it up to Nintendo to get us excited over cardboard. Labo, its DIY Switch-powered cardboard accessory line, seemed like the purist encapsulation of Nintendo's philosophy: Play is far more important than having the best graphics. At first glance, Labo seems like a unique mix of digital and analog gaming that kids will likely love. And based on (almost) 34-year-old Devindra Hardawar’s brief time with a few Labo kits today, it's something adults will likely have a blast with as well.

The rollout may finally be complete.

YouTube's live TV service is now available on Apple TV

Looks like Google is making good on its promise to bring its cord-cutting alternative to more popular platforms. YouTube TV is now available for Apple TVs, after having hit Roku devices earlier today. The service is available in almost 100 metro areas and can also be downloaded for Chromecast, Android TV, Xbox One and newer Samsung and LG TVs. Well, it's only taken nearly a whole year.

The iPhone X wasn't enough to keep mobile sales growing for Apple.

Apple's iPhone sales dropped during the holidays

This past holiday quarter, Apple released the iPhone X, probably the most hyped and anticipated device the company has launched in many years. And following whispers that the iPhone X isn't selling as well as expected, Apple did indeed slip a little bit. The company just announced that it sold 77.3 million iPhones in its fiscal year Q1, down a scant 1.3 percent compared to the 78.3 million sold one year ago.

It's the first time iPhone sales have declined during a holiday quarter since the phone launched, as best we can tell. Despite that, Apple says the iPhone X has been its top-selling iPhone every week since it shipped in early November.

Don’t call it a delay?

'Red Dead Redemption 2' is coming on October 26th

Rockstar Games has pushed back the release of its next big game one more time, saying that Red Dead Redemption 2 needs a bit more polish. Hopefully it has the time needed to avoid an Andromeda situation, but for now, gamers can at least check out some new screenshots.

The series premieres on February 15th.

'Stargate: Origins' trailer has an 'Indiana Jones' feel to it

Origin story! The new show will focus on Catherine Langford, the daughter of the person who discovered the Stargate on Earth. In the trailer, she battles Nazis as she fights to figure out what the Stargate is. The show has an Indiana Jones vibe to it, and it looks like a lot of fun.

Ads still make most of the money, though.

Alphabet picks up momentum with Google's cloud and hardware

Yep, yep, yep, Google makes the vast majority of its money from ads scattered across every corner of the internet. Other products are more recognizably Google-y, however, and Alphabet's new earnings release shows off some impressive growth in areas beyond just ad money. Alphabet raked in $32.3 billion in revenue in its fourth quarter, and just about $4.7 billion came from what the company refers to as Google's "other revenues."

When it comes to investing in new businesses, he’s all impulse and instinct.

Jeff Bezos’ master plan is to have no plan

The richest man in the world has been using his wealth in unexpected ways. Jeff Bezos announced this week that Amazon would create an independent company with JPMorgan and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. The new venture seeks to keep employee health-care costs under control and will initially focus on technology that would "provide U.S. employees and their families with simplified, high-quality and transparent healthcare at a reasonable cost."

That adds health care to the list of industries Bezos has a significant investment in, along with technology, retail, media and aerospace. What is he up to?

But wait, there's more...

1. Uber's battle to get your car to arrive on time

2. Google backs a single stylus for all your devices

3. DARPA turns drone ship development over to the Navy

4. Owl is a smarter spin on a dashboard camera

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