Another week ending and I’m finishing up what has been the longest, most relaxing vacation I’ve ever taken. It’s made me realize even more than usual how important recharging is – and I don’t mean my cell phone batteries, and I’ve resolved to check out more often and for longer periods of time. I’m pretty sure that nobody ever lays on their deathbed wishing they had worked more. I’m trying to make sure I remember that! The good news is that these link posts are fairly quick and easy to compile – my team and I just make sure we save some of the best things we’ve read all week to share with you. Here’s what we think you might need to know about this week.
Industry
Disney’s MagicBands: Magical or Creepy?
Visiting a Disney theme park has always been part magic, part technology. A recent initiative may have turned a visit to “the happiest place on Earth” into the techiest family vacation ever!
As part of their new MyMagic+ initiative, Disney is introducing MagicBands for guests visiting Disney World and its other theme parks. Disney’s intention is to make the guest experience easy and fun. The MagicBand technology enables visitors to reserve FastPass rides in advance, gain entrance to the parks, make purchases and even open their hotel room door with a simple wave of their MagicBand.
The bands can track your location as you wander through the parks via long-range radio transceivers enabling Disney to know precisely where you are and offer customized and personalized experience based on your location and personal information. For example, a child wearing a band will make it possible for a costumed character to greet him by name. While the child will certainly be mesmerized, the parent maybe concerned about the obvious privacy issues this access to this personal data creates.
Another concern mentioned by guests is the apparent transition to more exclusive levels of access for guests staying on property over day guests and those staying off site in non-Disney hotels. All on-site guests receive MagicBands free of charge as part of their vacation package. This enables them to make FastPass reservation in advance for popular attractions. While guests who are not staying on site can purchase MagicBands when they visit, they don’t receive the same level of advance access to attraction reservations.
If I’m going to fork over the dinero to take my kids to Disney, these MagicBands sound pretty attractive to me. What do you think?
Technology
1Password Unveils ‘Holy Grail’ of Password Managers for iOS 8
Using strong unique passwords has always been excellent advice to follow, but as we all know, many times convenience trumps safety. Too many time people just use the same easy to guess password for all their online account and then wonder why they get hacked.
Using a good password manger can help; but most are a pain to use, especially on mobile. You end up having to copy and paste each login and password, going back and forth between your password manager and app to sign in. I totally understand why people take the lazy (and unsafe) way out and opt for the easy to remember password.
With the introduction of iOS 8 this fall, the makers of 1Password aim to make the process a heck of a lot easier by tapping into TouchID. Third party developers will be able to integrate the functionality of 1Password right into their apps. Using TouchID, users will be able to auto fill their login credentials and quickly sign in. Here’s a video showing how this will work:
1Password App Extension for iOS from AgileBits on Vimeo.
We are huge 1Password fans around here and this makes us swoon with anticipation. If you’re not yet using a password manager, this is the time to start!
Yo Lineup Lets Doctors’ Offices and Restaurants Tap the Power of Yo
I know what you’re saying, isn’t Yo that silly app that can send an audible “Yo” to your friends by simply hitting the Yo button? Yes, but after receiving $1.5 million in funding, the app’s developers have released a follow-up called Yo Lineup.
An app designed with doctors and restaurants in mind, the tool lets people in waiting rooms or restaurant lobbies know how far along they are in the line and notifies them with a “Yo” when they’re ready to go.
There’s one catch, though: customers and patients have to have the Yo app installed and an account on the service to use Lineup. However, it’s fairly easy to download and register quickly, and Yo claims that it’s been installed 2 million times. Those who opt out can just wait in line as usual. For restaurants, Yo Lineup could be a cheap alternative to more expensive and complicated pager solutions. Hmmmm. I wait in a lot of restaurants with a fancy pager thingamabob. Maybe makes the silly app not so silly after all. But I think there’s a long way to go before consumers really get this – never mind go to the trouble of downloading an app and setting up an account for it. What do you think?
via Gizmodo
The World’s Fastest Network Lets You Download a Movie Faster Than a Blink of Your Eye
My Google Fiber is pretty fast with its 1000 Mbps speeds, but scientists at the University of Denmark may have just made it look like the 1996 version of AOL. By using a single multi-core optical fiber, this team of smarties were able to transfer data at 43 terabits per second!
This is the equivalent of downloading a one-gigabyte movie file in .2 milliseconds! At that speed, you could literally download thousands of movies faster than you can blink.
Even better? This wasn’t some one-time feat using some impossible to implement scheme. Since they used a single fiber, their technique is actually commercially viable and will most likely lead to much faster network connections in the future. Sign me up.
Social Media
Google Docs, Sheets And Slides Get a New Coat of Paint
Google has updated its Docs, Sheets and Slides apps with new homepages featuring a grid design and some added animations.
The new start pages make it easier to find files and get working quicker. It borrows liberally from the mobile design. Users who are used to the traditional folder files system may find the change jarring, but Google has made it easy to switch back to the old nav style with a click of the mouse. Check it out when you can – we think it’s pretty cool.
LinkedIn Redesigns Mobile Profiles to Put Relationships Into Context
LinkedIn released an update to its flagship app this past week with all new profile design focusing on adding more contextual information. Profiles now include contextual information about experiences, connections or groups you share with other users — including those who are not part of your connections. Information may include those who went to the same college or are members of the same LinkedIn group.
“Your LinkedIn Profile is your professional identity of record,” Charlton Soesanto, mobile product manager at LinkedIn. “Your new profile helps you tell your story to other professionals when they’re looking for you on the go.”
The redesigned profile will be made available on their iOS and Android apps, but will eventually appear on the website and other mobile apps. I’ve often been frustrated by the mobile experience on LinkedIn, so it will be interesting to see if this is any better.
via CNET
Facebook Moves Chat to a Dedicated Standalone Messenger App
Lots of folks are up in arms about Facebook’s latest move, requiring people who want to use Facebook chat on a mobile device to Facebook’s dedicated Messenger app. The permissions required by the app grant a lot of access to personal data and people are, understandably concerned. I’m not so sure how this all that different than the permissions you grant using Facebook, ever, in general, but that’s up to the individual users to decide. I’ve been a user of Messenger for quite awhile and I like it. But I totally get all the reasons people are concerned, too. Before you download the app, do your homework and check it out, then make your own decision on what’s best for you.
The specifics on how it will work — when users try to send a message in the Facebook app, they’ll be prompted to download Messenger if they haven’t already. Users will still be able to see pending messages within the main Facebook app. They can also still tap the messages button in the Facebook app, but then they’ll be sent over to Messenger.
According to Facebook, nearly 1.1 billion people access Facebook at least once a month from mobile devices and more than 200 million people use Messenger monthly. I’m assuming those numbers will start to climb with this forced move, because messaging through Facebook is easy. Period. And people like easy.
Bolt, Instagram’s own version of SnapChat has finally been released for iOS and Android. Now available in Singapore, South Africa and New Zealand, Instagram seems to be taking the slow road in rolling out its answer to the growing popularity of SnapChat.
Bolt’s big advantage is speed. Instead of having to page through a series of options, simply tapping a contact’s picture both captures and sends a photo. As long as someone is in your favorites list, there’s no swiping required.
There’s also a handy “undo” feature that allows you to recall a message in the first few seconds by shaking your phone. While Bolt doesn’t require a Facebook or Instagram account, you will have to sign up with your phone number for sorting through your contacts.
According to the folks at Instagram: “Bolt is the fastest way to share an image or a video — just one tap to capture and send. We decided to start small with Bolt, in just a handful of countries, to make sure we can scale while maintaining a great experience. We expect to roll it out more widely soon.
I predict that based on the huge Instagram user base and how comfortable people are with it, Bolt will be pretty attractive to users.
Miscellaneous
I want to be at the gym with this guy. Immediately. Is this the cutest thing you’ve ever seen or what??
Are you a Rick Astley fan? If yes, this Rickroll is for you!
Meghan Trainor is my new favorite music artist and when you listen to this song, you’ll know why. My eight-year-old girls have played this video no less than a hundred times this last week and it’s awesome to watch them dancing around singing “Momma, she told me ‘Don’t worry about your size.” What a great lesson for us all.
photo credit: jonasflanken via photopin cc
Things You Need To Know This Week – August 1, 2014 is a post from: V3 Kansas City Integrated Marketing and Social Media Agency
