Category: News

Older people and those with conditions affecting their bones often believe that exercise is unsafe. However, exercise is known to reduce symptoms and even reverse some musculoskeletal issues. Older adults and people with frail bones caused by osteoporosis or aging-related…

If you want to hear a story about how real mental health and recovery from mental illness should work, look no further than Paris Williams. During the May 15, 2013 episode of Mental Health Exposed, Paris tells his personal story of mental illness, recovery and a new…

The United States has been a stable country for most of its 230-plus years, as well as a global hegemonic power since the end of World War II and the world’s primary superpower since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the crumbling of the Soviet Union in 1990. That kind…

The list of antidepressants that can cause sudden death is growing exponentially, with citalopram – under the brand names Celexa and Cipramil – the latest such drug to be added, according to a new study. The research, published recently in the British Medical Journal…

To protect against a bioterrorism attack such as anthrax, plague or smallpox, perform a bioterrorism risk assessment to put in place an effective disaster plan for survival. Emergency response and preparedness is best achieved by preparing a kit beforehand, including…

Even what conventional medicine might consider a well-managed case of diabetes can be well off the mark of optimal health. Any person with diabetes can tell you that managing this condition — whether type 1 or type 2 — requires a great deal of tenacity and awareness…

The anti-gunners will try to spin it, of course, but there is no spinning the cold, hard data surrounding economist John Lott’s longtime contention – backed up by years of research, of course: More guns truly does equal less crime. And now, it’s official. According…

The anti-meat segment of the mainstream scientific community has come out with yet another new study condemning meat as damaging to human health, this time claiming that an all-natural, amino acid-producing substance naturally found in red meat causes heart damage. Demonstrating…

The impact of eating nuts has been evident for the past decade as repeated scientific studies confirm that the omega-3 fats in this tasty nut promote cardiovascular health as they improve cholesterol biomarkers. Walnuts provide healthy doses of essential minerals, fiber…

Thyme is extensively utilized in European cuisines and it is much appreciated as a spice enhancing the taste of various foods. The Greeks use it regularly as a medicinal herb as they are particularly fond of its many health benefits. Thyme, also known as thymus vulgaris…

Unhappy with the lack of progress on new gun control legislation, the Obama Administration is using your tax dollars to corner the market on ammunition, buying up as much as possible to limit the amount the public can purchase, according to a U.S. lawmaker. Sen. Jim…

IRS official Lois Lerner who heads the tax exempt division of the IRS will be invoking Fifth Amendment protections under the Bill of Rights to avoid incriminating herself in federal testimony, reports the LA Times. What makes this such a hilarious example of hypocrisy…

IBM’s Watson computer has taken on a new job — that of customer service agent — as Big Blue puts its Jeopardy-playing computer into a new role. This will also be the first time IBM delivers Watson completely as a service, instead of as a highly customized software product for select customers in the medical and financial services field. But as Watson expands its role it may invite more comparisons to Siri, Apple’s natural language processing assistant.

Tuesday at the IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Nashville, Tenn., IBM plans to launch the Watson Engagement Advisor, aimed at helping consumer brands better recommend products to customers and provide better customer service at scale. Yes, that’s right. This is a technology that can diagnose cancer will be used to help sell people more products.

Why we need Watson-level AI for customer service today.

Still, customer service is a legitimate and complicated problem, especially in an era where social media meets our desire for a personalized and instant response to any inquiry or service issue. Firms have to engage with customers via phone calls, tweets, Yelp, Facebook posts and for all I know, angry letters. And many of those customers using new media don’t want to wait for a response. Companies that can offer good service quickly in a variety of mediums have an advantage. And Watson would allow them to do this at scale. Imagine offering Ritz Carlton service at Holiday Inn prices.

Brands who buy the Engagement Advisor software will get access to a much smarter virtual agent that can sift through massive amounts of information to respond to users’ questions quickly. As someone who was totally schooled at Jeopardy by Watson, I cannot emphasize enough how fast it is.

The IBM release notes that the Engagement Advisor software is designed to help existing customer service personnel answer questions quickly or it can be deployed via the brand’s mobile site where customers can interact with Watson directly. As IBM’s release says, “In one simple click, the solution’s “Ask Watson” feature will quickly address customers’ questions, offer advice to guide their purchase decisions, and troubleshoot their problems.”

It’s possible this will remind users of Siri, Apple’s chatty personal assistant on the iPhone and iPad. However, instead of being deployed on a device, Watson is embedded on a brand web site.

It can greet customers by name, however and offer to help them via a chat window on the company site or via a mobile push alert, that will appeal to people who want to tweet or text their customer care questions without having to stay focused on a single web page. In the ideal case Watson will have access to customer records plus the data stores it was trained on, and will be able to use both in giving a customer a recommendation or help.

The business of Watson is a big one

Instead of naming customers directly IBM writes that brands including ANZ, Celcom, IHS, Nielsen and Royal Bank of Canada are, “exploring how the Watson Engagement Advisor can help them engage with their customers.” This may be phrased this way because the initial pilot projects involving Watson require a lot of training of the computer before it becomes valuable. During Watson’s “apprenticeship period,” IBM in some cases hasn’t charged clients, or charges them lower rates.

But it’s no secret that Watson is a big business bet for IBM. At last year’s Structure conference, Dan Cerutti, IBM’s VP of Watson Commercialization, explained IBM’s ambitions for Watson, including delivering the machine as a service over more and more devices. IBM sees Watson as a new type of computing and plans to build out new business models to support it, as Cerutti detailed in our chat almost a year ago.

Along the way Watson not only impresses with its ability to filter through reams of data to correctly answer a natural language question, it also has been able to do this as it shrinks in size. Since its television debut, Watson has seen a 240 percent improvement in system performance, and a reduction in physical requirements by 75 percent. The whole system can now be run on a server that takes up the size of four pizza boxes from a giant machine that took up an entire bedroom. Smart, svelte and delivered as a service. Get ready to meet Watson in more roles and in some surprising places.

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Truphone has always had a soft spot for the international business traveler. When it became a virtual mobile carrier in 2010, its core service was a plan that charged you local rates for voice, SMS and data on either side of the Atlantic – a boon to any globetrotter accustomed to paying exorbitant roaming fees outside his home country. Now Truphone is extending more love to border-crossing businessmen and women – or at least to the companies that pay their phone bills.

On Tuesday Truphone is unveiling its first shared plans for business. Companies can now buy big batches of minutes, texts and megabytes and pool them across not just multiple devices, but also multiple nations. For instance a $500 plan includes 5000 voice minutes, 5000 text messages and 1 GB of 3G data, all of which can be used anywhere in the U.S., U.K. Netherlands, Australia and Hong Kong. Germany, Poland and Spain will join that list later this year.

Those prices will definitely seem high to most of us since we’re accustomed paying only for the for the domestic-only voice and data buckets offered by our local carriers. But if you’re splitting your time between countries in the Truphone “Zone” those rates look like a bargain. Anyone who has ever opened their mobile browser overseas can attest to international data roaming rates being practically criminal — $20 a megabyte isn’t uncommon.

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Amazon Web Services can now claim a rare blessing among cloud providers: it has earned the FedRAMP accreditation that certifies that it has met a variety of security standards. That certification, which covers AWS GovCloud as well as Amazon’s other U.S. regions, should make it easier for state, local and government agencies to put workloads on Amazon’s public cloud infrastructure without having to jump through so many hoops.

FedRAMP, which stands for the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program, “is a U.S. government-wide standardized approach to security assessment, authorization and monitoring,” said Adam Selipsky, VP of AWS. If a service gets certified by FedRAMP for use by one agency, it will be easier for other government organizations to adopt it as well, he said.

In government parlance, Amazon now has a three-year “Authority to Operate,” or ATO. That certifies that a range of government data can be stored or processed on Amazon infrastructure. Companies seeking FedRAMP certification typically work with a sponsor agency, which in Amazon’s case was the Department of Health and Human Services.

HHS has used AWS to run for the Centers of Disease Control’s BioSense program for tracking health problems in the U.S. and for the National Database for Autism Research. 

FedRAMP blessing greases the skids for more government use

AWS now has both a FISMA (Federal Information Security Management Act) Moderate and a FedRAMP Moderate ranking.The latter designation means that ”sensitive data” can be stored and managed on AWS infrastructure.

“This is a journey, a sliding scale. Sensitive data is a term of art used in government. Even more top secret categories of data require additional certifications,” Selipsky said.

To date, exactly one cloud provider — Autonomic Resources, a small North Carolina company — had earned the FedRAMP seal of approval from the General Services Administration. Now AWS is in the mix, but the two companies won’t have the arena to themselves for very long. Up to 15 providers are expected to clear FedRAMP hurdles this year with double that number expected to do so in 2014 when FedRAMP certification becomes mandatory, according to Federal Computer Week,

AWS is the kingpin in public cloud infrastructure where it’s had a 6 year head start. But now enterprise-focused rivals — VMware will announce its AWS response on Tuesday, HP and Rackspace have rolled out their own public clouds. An early FedRAMP certification which should make government IT types feel better about deploying work on AWS, may well be another early-mover advantage.

Amazon CTO Werner Vogels may well talk about the importance of public sector workloads when he speaks at GigaOM Structure next month in San Francisco.

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With hectic schedules, it can be hard to keep track of everything in your news feed. That’s why we created the TalkAndroid Daily Dose. This is where we recap the day’s hottest stories so you can get yourself up to speed in quick fashion. Happy reading!!

Guides

How to disable annoying Android notifications

Apps

Samsung’s annual Smart App Challenge has arrived, will focus on Chord SDK

Google+ Android app update includes photo enhancement and auto-backup features

Google Hangouts to seamlessly integrate Google Voice in the future

Carriers

Verizon updating pre-paid plans, data caps to increase

Google TV

Google’s latest media player hits the FCC

Phones

HTC Butterfly S screen resolution revealed, will adopt many HTC One features

Samsung Galaxy S 4 Active outed for your viewing pleasure

Samsung WatchOn app update hints at the Galaxy S 4 Mega, Mini, and Active

T-Mobile set to introduce the Galaxy S III LTE June 5th, Galaxy Exhibit smartphone on May 29th

Sony Xperia UL officially announced for Japan

Tablets

Retailer Adorama lists Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 7.0 for $199

Updates

Unlocked Samsung Galaxy S III gets a taste of Android 4.2.2, thanks to leaked firmware 

Miscellaneous

LG to unveil 5-inch unbreakable and flexible OLED display this week

 

 

Come comment on this article: TalkAndroid Daily Dose for May 20, 2013

Google appears to be working on a sequel to its ill-fated Nexus Q streaming device. The Nexus Q debuted at last year’s I/O Developers Conference with limited capabilities and a premium price tag that eventually led to Google postponing the project. But a recent filing with the Federal Communications Commission has revealed a mysterious Google-built device that “functions as a media player” and could be a revamped Q. Little is known about the device, although it is equipped with support for 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and was connected to a Dell 24-inch monitor for testing, giving further evidence that it is a potential Nexus Q sucessor. The device is known as the “H840 device” and features the model number H2G2-42, a reference to Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

Since Google Hangouts was released last week, users haven’t been too happy with the lack of SMS and Google Voice integration. Google has already told us that SMS messaging will be included in the near future, and today a Google member is assuring us that Voice will also be a part of future versions. Nikhyl Singhal, product manager for real time communications at Google, went so far to say on his Google+ profile that Hangouts is “designed to be the future of Google Voice” and that future versions of Hangouts will integrate Google Voice more seamlessly.

In addition, the recent Gmail update that added Hangouts disabled Google Voice outbound calling. On his Google+ account, Singhal added that “outbound/inbound calls will soon be available.” It’s great to see that Google will continue working to add and restore features to their new client that users want, but with Google, it’s hard to expect anything less.

Source: +Nikhyl Singhal

Come comment on this article: Google Hangouts to seamlessly integrate Google Voice in the future

Ed. Note: You can help people affected by the recent tornadoes through American Red Cross Disaster Relief. If you are in the affected areas, you can also register as "Safe and Well" to let your friends and family know you are okay.

This evening the President spoke with Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin to express his concern for those who have been affected by the tornadoes last night and continuing today.

As the President told Governor Fallin tonight, the administration — through FEMA — is committed to providing all the assistance it can to Oklahoma as the response effort unfolds. Already, FEMA has deployed an Incident Management Assistance Team, Urban Search & Rescue Teams, and an Medical Emergency Response Support Team to provide resources to hard-hit areas in Oklahoma.

FEMA is urging those in impacted areas to listen carefully to instructions from local officials, and to take the recommended protective measures. Residents should monitor local radio or TV stations, or the National Weather Service at www.weather.gov.

As the response effort develops, here is a list of resources for those affected:

Department of Homeland Security
On Twitter @DHSJournal
On Facebook www.facebook.com/homelandsecurity

FEMA
On Twitter @FEMA
On Facebook www.facebook.com/FEMA
Blog Updates from FEMA

American Red Cross
Latest updates
On Twitter: @RedCross
On Facebook:  www.facebook.com/redcross