The Week That Was, April 11th, 2013
Hi readers! I’m an intern at in the Middle East, and I’m giving blogging on Arabian Bytes a try for the first time this week with the return of The Week That Was! This week, we’re looking at brain games and brain waves, Facebook is in real life, and Twitter for business, so without further ado, we start with…
Twitter Tips for Business Success!
With Social Media becoming an increasingly integral part of business these days, Twitter has re-launched Twitter for Business , an online resource where business ventures can get a better understanding of how to effectively incorporate Twitter efficiently into their business Strategies.
Twitter for Business includes online lessons designed to help businesses master the art of social media and leverage the site to its full potential site. Brand success stories include Porsche who combine promoted trends with promoted tweets, and Hubspot who use promoted accounts to build their follower base of business-to-business marketers.
Read more here.
Obama’s Brain Game
The Obama government has announced that they are investing in the BRAIN initiative (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies). The initiative is an intrepid plan to develop tools that can better map the human brain, helping scientists’ to understand how it works and how it can be healed when damaged. It is hoped that the research will also pave the way for treatments such as Alzheimer’s and epilepsy.
According to President Obama, “The most powerful computer in the world isn’t nearly as intuitive as the one we’re born with”.
Read more here.
No More Pesky Passwords
With numerous accounts to manage online, there is always the possibility of forgetting which password goes with what, but thanks to the researchers at the UC Berkeley School of Information, it many not be necessary to rattle our brains anymore.
By measuring brainwaves with intricate biosensor technology, researchers are able to replace passwords with “passthoughts” for computer validation. All you need is a $100 headset that wirelessly connects to a computer via Bluetooth whilst the device’s sensor rests against the user’s forehead, providing an electroencephalogram (EEG) signal from the brain. Whilst still in the test phase, simple actions like focusing on breathing or on a thought for ten seconds resulted in successful authentication.
Brainwaves are also unique to each individual, so even if someone knew your passthought, their emitted EEG signals would be different!
Read more here.
**Facebook Lives **
Can’t get enough of Facebook? Well now you never have to be without following Facebook’s recent unveiling of ‘Home’; a new smartphone software which claims it “isn’t a phone or operating system,” but is “more than just an app” and will deliver a “completely new [smartphone] experience.”
The software is essentially a Facebook-ified version of Google’s Android operating system, modified by Facebook engineers to place the social network at its core. ‘Home’ will be downloadable on a handful of smartphones in the coming few days, taking over the basic functions of a phone by ultimately transforming the device into Facebook to create a Facebook environment for our lives.
So how will it work?
A flow of updates from your News Feed will be the first thing seen when you turn on your device. The “cover feed,” a slideshow of friends’ photos and status updates, will also take over the phone’s primary screen. Home will also feature “chat heads”, which essentially brings together texting and messaging, replacing names with Facebook photos and allowing users message within any application.
Read more here.
** Instagram & Facebook – One Year On**
It’s been a year since Facebook acquired the small but trendy smartphone app, Instagram, for a massive $1billion!
On the day of the deal, Instagram’s CEO Kevin Systrom stated on their blog that Instagram would remain essentially the same; “The Instagram app will still be the same one you know and love. You’ll still have all the same people you follow and that follow you.You’ll still be able to share to other social networks. And you’ll still have all the other features that make the app so fun and unique.”
So what does the relationship look like one year on?
From Facebook’s offices, Instagram continues to bring out innovative features such as feed and profiles for the web, photo maps, and a tool called Lux for balancing exposure and adjusting brightness. It has also offered new filters like Mayfair, Willow and Sierra, and in addition now also provides translations for 25 languages. Most significantly, its follower base quadrupled to more than 100 million monthly active users.
For now neither Facebook nor Instagram have really influenced each other’s offerings, and so far, there seems to be no indication that they will. The day the will come of course when Facebook will want to monetize its massive investment; when this day will be and what this will entail, time will only tell. Let’s just say that the new web version of Instagram leaves plenty of room for ads.
Read more here.