The Comunicano Communique for Friday March 11th 2016

The Comunicano Communique

A dozen stories today, and some themes. Also a shout out to my friends at L.A.'s own Hyperloop Transportation Technologies and their story in the WSJ. Ironically, it comes at a time where L.A. (see below) is rapidly becoming one of the most expensive places to visit–which is why I'm glad I live here. The reason..Messaging, encryption and bots. They are also hot topics, as is VR (Virtual Reality)…and the declining attention span, how to counteract that and more….today, all in the COMUNICANO COMMUNIQUE..READ ON By the way, don't miss the API event of the summer in Las Vegas. "All About The API"……     Gannett Plans First Regularly Scheduled News Show in Virtual Reality Virtual reality is coming to local and national news. While media outlets have experimented in recent years with one-off reports for viewing on a VR headset, Gannett Co. Inc. is going a step further. Its USA Today Network announced Thursday it will launch a regularly scheduled VR news show this spring.     [continue…]     A new system from MIT called Polaris claims to reduce web page load times by up to 34 percent. Yow! It's hard to find anyone who'd argue that websites load too quickly. Mobile pages constantly creak under the weight of complex visual elements and ad networks. It's led to an ad-blocking boom, boutique speed-boost solutions from Google and Facebook, and now, a system from MIT that its creators claim trims page-load times by up to 34 percent.     [continue…]     Slovakia Wants Its Own Hyperloop The hyperloop's first stop? Maybe Slovakia. Hyperloop Transportation Technologies Inc. said Thursday it agreed with the Slovakian government to explore building a hyperloop there, the first formal sign of interest from a federal government in building the futuristic tube-transport system.     [continue…]     Mobile Use, Attention Spans and How to Reach the Next Generation of Social Customers The average human attention span is reducing. That's no big surprise – researchers have been talking about it for years, using the inevitable comparison to a goldfish as the benchmark. But how much have our attention spans actually declined? And, importantly, what does that mean for how we optimize our marketing and advertising messages for best effect?     [continue…]     Wire, the messaging app backed by Skype's Janus Friis, gets video calls and message encryption It's been more than 15 months since Wire entered the competitive messaging app fray with the promise to build a Skype for the modern age – a promise given real credence by the backing of Skype cofounder Janus Friis. Available for Android, iOS, and desktop, Wire is making good on that promise today by introducing video calls to the messaging mix.     [continue…]     Confide confidential messenger gets $1.6 million, launches premium message retraction Confide, the messaging platform that keeps everything confidential, has today announced the close of a $1.6 million extension to their seed round, bringing total funding to $3.6 million. Investors include existing investors such as WGI Group, First Round Capital, SV Angel, CrunchFund, Marker, Howard Lerman and others.     [continue…]     Cola App Paves The Way For More Interactive Text Messages Instant messaging can be said to be a compulsory life skill in this day and age, but as with the many different kinds of personalities in which we see in humans, so too, will such nuances of personalities spill over to the interactive text messaging world.     [continue…]     Conversational Banking; from branches to bots. As chat platforms and bots replace browsers and apps, the way we access bank services will change. This is a good thing. It's Christmas 2015 and I am in Delhi for my friend's wedding. He's French and naturally his parents have flown in (smelly) cheese and (good) wine for a little pre-party.     [continue…]     Ask Amazon Alexa to pay your bills, with new Capital One app Amazon Echo is on a roll. From being named the top choice for consumers looking to automate their home, to adding two new voice-activated companions , Echo's latest collaboration makes it more useful for financially conscious users.     [continue…]     Companies Assessing Business Value of APIs  Application programming interfaces can extend the reach of an organization's core assets, allowing them to be shared, reused, or even resold as a new source of revenue. Application programming interfaces (APIs) are moving from tactical development technique to business model driver.     [continue…]     L.A. jumps up to world's 8th most expensive city for travelers and expats, study says Los Angeles is now the eighth most expensive city in the world for tourists and foreign businesspeople, a study released Thursday said, as a rising U.S. dollar has pushed the City of Angels ahead of pricey metropolises including Tokyo and Shanghai. L.A. – which ranked 27th last year – is now only…     [continue…]     21 hot programming trends — and 21 going cold Programmers love to sneer at the world of fashion where trends blow through like breezes. Skirt lengths rise and fall, pigments come and go, ties get fatter, then thinner. But in the world of technology, rigor, science, math, and precision rule over fad. That's not to say programming is a profession devoid of trends.     [continue…]

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