Amazon audio app

WASHINGTON: An app designed to help visually impaired or blind pedestrians use public transit will debut at a Washington subway station on May 24. Waymap aims to expand travel options for blind and visually impaired people with step-by-step audio directions that it says are accurate up to 3 feet (0.9 meter) throughout a trip. The app does not use GPS and can operate regardless of cellphone signal strength indoors or outdoors. It loads detailed mapping data onto a smartphone and uses motion sensors on the phone to offer precise directions. Advocates for the blind, Washington’s transit system Metro, Verizon Communications, which provided support through its startup accelerator programme, and the app’s founder will tout the launch in Washington at a Tuesday news conference. “Mobility is not a luxury,” said Waymap founder and CEO Tom Pey, who is blind and argues other apps are not precise enough. “It is, in fact, a human right.” Blind travellers often use a small number of … [Read more...] about App to help blind people navigate public transit to debut in Washington

“Creepy.” “Morbid.” “Monstrosity.” Those were just some of the reactions that poured in over social media when Amazon.com Inc’s Alexa digital assistant impersonated a grandmother reading an excerpt from The Wonderful Wizard Of Oz . ALSO READ: ‘Haunted’ Alexa video goes viral, commenters quick to debunk It all started innocently enough, with Alexa chief scientist Rohit Prasad trying to demonstrate the digital assistant’s humanlike mien during a company presentation Wednesday. Prasad said he’d been surprised by the companionable relationship users develop with Alexa and wanted to explore that. Human characteristics like “empathy and affect” are key for building trust with people, he added. “These attributes have become more important in these times of the ongoing pandemic, when so many of us have lost someone we love,” he said. “While AI can’t eliminate that pain of loss, it can definitely make their memories last.” ALSO READ: Amazon has a plan to make Alexa mimic … [Read more...] about Amazon’s Alexa impersonates grandma, creeping out Internet

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin I’ve never owned a made-to-measure Saville Row suit and neither have I ever worn a pair of handmade shoes that fit my feet like a glove. Owning those kinds of luxuries is seen as the reward for success. And if there were to be an audio equivalent of a handmade pair of shoes or a bespoke suit, then I would say a pair of headphones from Master & Dynamic would fit the bill perfectly. These are headphones made for people who love nice things and who care as much about form as function. Master & Dynamic is a New York-based boutique headphone brand and the brainchild of the genial and charming Jonathan Levine, a person who cares about every tiny detail of his products as if he were making them individually for each of his customers. The latest pair of headphones from the M&D brand is the MW75, a full-sized pair of over-the-ear wireless headphones featuring active noise cancelation (ANC). Like all the other products that … [Read more...] about Master & Dynamic’s New ANC Headphones Are Pure Luxury And They Sound Superb

Explore the full 2022 list of Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies , 528 organizations whose efforts are reshaping their businesses, industries, and the broader culture. We’ve selected the firms making the biggest impact with their initiatives across 52 categories, including the most innovative media , design , and consumer goods companies. advertisement advertisement This year’s most innovative consumer electronics companies might not be the ones you expect. While major tech brands such as Apple and Samsung dutifully churned out new versions of their popular phones, earbuds, smartwatches, and computers, the largest leaps happened on a smaller scale—or, in some cases, helped clean up bigger companies’ messes. Companies such as Back Market and the Swap Club , for instance, focused on reducing e-waste in consumer electronics by lowering the barriers to buying refurbished gear, while Framework reimagined the laptop with easy repairs … [Read more...] about The 10 most innovative consumer electronics companies of 2022

Conny Braams from Unilever; Dara Treseder from Peloton; Forbes CMO Hall of Famer Antonio Lucio; and Frank Cooper III from Visa. Illustration by Alexander Wells for Forbes. Recognizing the 50 Most Influential CMOs in the World By Seth Matlins , Managing Director, Forbes CMO Network Additional reporting by Diane Brady , Emmy Lucas , Olivia Peluso , Lauren Debter , Isabel Lord , Katherine Dunn T wo hundred years before it was first used as a verb, “influence” was a noun denoting the stars’ ability to affect human lives and destinies. Today, we consider “influence” less astrologically and more practically, focusing on the chief marketers who wield it to shape the character and destinies of the brands and businesses they help steward. The link between marketing and influence has always been inextricable. After all, a chief marketer’s job is about nothing more than it is the influencing of attitudes and behaviors in … [Read more...] about The Forbes World’s Most Influential CMOs List: 2022

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin Mood Tea is a social enterprise committed to fighting the number one killer of young Australians; youth suicide. They sell life-enhancing teas that fit in with your mood, with all profits going towards funding mental health projects to save young lives. I love this idea and I caught up with General Manager Jenni Hayward to find out more. Afdhel Aziz: Jenni, welcome. Please tell us a little about Mood Tea and how the idea came about? Jenni Hayward: At the beginning of 2020, when Corona still meant beer, I was working with the team at UnLtd (the social purpose organisation that connects the Australian media industry with charities that help youth at risk). From the work that we do with our charity partners, we’ve seen first-hand what a critical issue mental health is for young Australians. Nine people die each day in Australia by suicide. It is the leading cause of death of young people. That’s not okay. So, … [Read more...] about How Mood Tea Is Helping Young Australians Tackle The Issue Of Mental Health

When the government announced a vaccination programme for 12-14-year olds earlier this year, Neeta Singh (name changed), an educator at one of India’s biggest edtech unicorns, was excited as she thought she would be back in the classroom after almost two years. Singh said she was very keen to get back to her previous employer, a tutoring company, despite the lower compensation as she wanted to get out of the ‘extremely toxic’ culture at the edtech unicorn she had worked at for almost 15 months. “I am a single mother of two and I cannot stop working as both my kids are still in school. The local tuition centre I was working at had asked us to look for different jobs in March 2020, when the government announced the first lockdown,” said Singh. “Back then e-learning platforms were offering huge packages so I accepted it. I thought working from home would be better as I would be able to manage things better. But my incentives and job security were linked to the number of classes, … [Read more...] about Layoffs, restructuring, slowdown: India’s edtech firms are struggling post-pandemic

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin If you’ve got a mesh Wi-Fi network set up in your home, you’ll already know how convenient they are. You can walk around your home and the device you’re using – be that a smartphone, tablet or laptop – will seamlessly log in to the nearest wireless access point without the need to do anything. There’s just one network name and one password no matter how many access points you use to blanket your home with a strong wireless internet signal. However, there’s a little problem with mesh networks as far as I am concerned. One of the wireless mesh access points must be plugged into the wireless router you normally use which may also include a broadband modem for connecting to the internet. Wouldn’t it make much more sense to put a VDSL broadband modem into one of the wireless mesh access points and do away with the need for a separate wireless router modem? I thought so and set about looking for something that would do this … [Read more...] about Ditch Your Old Wi-Fi Router Modem And Switch To Mesh Networking With VDSL

Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin What we are seeing today is the rise of the Conscious Consumers - people of every age but especially Millennials and Gen-Z who are increasingly looking to buy products and services that create a positive impact. Why is this important? Here’s a simple fact to illustrate it. Americans give a record $471 billion to charity - but they spend an estimated $10 trillion in consumer spending. The opportunity to unlock some of that spending towards solving the problems in the world is huge. In 2016, I co-wrote ‘Good is the New Cool: Market Like You Give A Damn’ which predicted that brands would have to learn that in addition to being cool, they would need to do some actual good in the world to earn consumer trust and loyalty. Today, it is possible to live in a world where everything you buy and consume is not only sustainable and socially-conscious - but also cool and aspirational. Here’s a snapshot of a day in the life … [Read more...] about A Day In The Life Of A Conscious Consumer Family

Just as the world was waking up to how fast fashion is destroying the planet, a new player popped up. advertisement advertisement Shein—a Chinese fast fashion retailer valued at $100 billion—has been called out by the fashion media for perpetuating wasteful overconsumption . Now, ThredUp is entering the fray. The Oakland-based consignment site is sending push notifications to its Bay Area customers, asking them to boycott Shein’s pop-up shop in San Francisco this weekend. It’s rare for a company in the fashion industry to take such a direct jab at another. “This is definitely a first for ThredUp,” says Erin Wallace, ThredUp’s VP of integrated marketing. “It’s an indication that we think Shein is a real problem.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by thredUP (@thredup) The Chinese retailer first launched in 2008, but grew at an alarming pace over the last five years when it expanded … [Read more...] about ThredUp picks a fight with fast fashion giant Shein