It is possible to use the computer without a mouse? Here are some tricks:
Open the start menu using the Windows Key and the arrow keys to move up and down the menu:
Then click ENTER when you have selected the program you want.
Once you are in the program you can move around the menu bar by holding down the ALT button and clicking on the underlined letter on the menu option. Then you can use the arrow keys and ENTER to select what you want. See below for an example from Microsoft PowerPoint:
For more office keyboard shortcuts try this website from Microsoft:
It is possible to use the computer without a mouse? Here are some tricks:
Open the start menu using the Windows Key and the arrow keys to move up and down the menu:
Then click ENTER when you have selected the program you want.
Once you are in the program you can move around the menu bar by holding down the ALT button and clicking on the underlined letter on the menu option. Then you can use the arrow keys and ENTER to select what you want. See below for an example from Microsoft PowerPoint:
For more office keyboard shortcuts try this website from Microsoft:
Or this link for a printable list of them:
|
PRACTICE ACTIVITY: Try using some of these keyboard shortcuts sometime today.
TO KEEP ON LEARNING: If you'd like to learn more about using your computer without a mouse try searching the internet for:
Without a mouse
Keyboard shortcuts Computers for the visually impaired |
This underwater “column” is actually a natural formation. (Credit: University of Athens)
Both the insignificant and the extraordinary are the architects of the natural world.Carl Sagan
Research published recently has shown that what were thought to be the columns of a sunken city found in the sea of the Greek island of Zakynthos were actually made by microbial activity, not ancient humans. It turns out that microorganisms living around natural occurring methane leaks force the precipitation of minerals like dolomite and pyrite in the sediment. Then the resulting mineral-concretions, once eroded out from the ground, look like pipes and can be mistaken for columns.
Microorganisms are one of the architects of the natural world – able, despite their minute size, to “build” massive mountains. Dolostone is a common variety of limestone, characterized by its high content of calcium and magnesium. Calcium and magnesium are commonly found in seawater, however in experiments dolomite is chemically very hard to precipitate directly from water. U.S. geologist James Dwight Dana studied the reefs and atolls in the South Pacific and discovered that dolomite can be found in the local sediments. This was an important observation, as it demonstrated that dolomite can form directly from tropical seawater.
However, Dana couldn’t explain the mechanism of dolomite formation, nor could he explain why experiments failed to replicate the naturally occurring precipitation. One possible answer for this problem came from the study of a characteristic rock-formation in the Dolomites – the appropriately-named Hauptdolomit, the “main dolostone” formation. During the Triassic (some 216.5 – 203.6 million years ago) the area of the future Dolomites was situated in the Tethys Sea. In the shallow sea, a large carbonate platform developed, like what’s today found in the Bahamas.
The Hauptdolomit – formation forms characteristic steep cliffs, here the Sass dla Crusc (Hl. Kreuz Kofel), 2.907m (with some locals). The well layered structure demonstrates that these rocks were deposited in a shallow lagoon, photo by the author.
The lagoons and muddy flats of this carbonate platform were colonized by algae and bacteria for millions of years, forming a 1,000 meter (almost 3,300 feet) thick succession of dolomite rock. The area had a species-poor faunal community of invertebrates, dominated by gastropods and bivalves. Sometimes dinosaurs crossed the tidal flat. Their tracks have been preserved in some locations of the Dolomites – a clue that there were islands large enough to sustain such large vertebrates.
The top of the Hauptdolomit is characterized by the development of fossil soils, reflecting a major sea-level fall. The extreme shallow water conditions continued uninterrupted for millions of years and led to deposition of an up to 1,000 meter thick succession of dolomite rock. This reconstruction seemed to fit the observations of naturalists of modern reefs, atolls and carbonate platforms – there was only one problem: only very limited formations of dolomite have been observed in such an environment today.
In the modern sea, only aragonite and calcite are stable minerals and therefore can form directly by precipitaton from the water. Dolomite forms only locally, in pools of warm and salty water. The inorganic formation of dolomite alone is too inefficient to explain the importance of dolomitic rocks in the stratigraphic record.
However, (micro-)organisms can significantly increase the precipitation of dolomite from seawater. In the early 20th century scientists started to experiment with microorganisms and sedimentation. The Russian microbiologist Georgi A. Nadson observed the nucleation of dolomite in cultures of bacteria and published his observation in a paper entitled “Microorganisms as geological factor” (1903). Despite these promising results, the difficulties in observing bacteria and the formation of the crystals prevented further research and the idea faded into obscurity for decades.
New impulses to this idea were provided by the discovery of microbial mats in coastal lagoons along the shores of Brazil. Today, we know that many modern tidal flats are covered by a community of algae and bacteria. These organisms secrete a sort of mucus (extracellular polymeric substances – EPS), which acts as sediment trap and provides favorable conditions for some minerals, forming laminated microbial mats.
Microbial mats in dolostone, photo by the author.
In the Hauptdolomit-formation, the fossil remains of similar mats can be found. Bacterial activity therefore seems to be an important factor to explain the deposition of dolomite rock.
There are two main ways in which organisms can contribute to the formation of minerals. Biotically-controlled precipitation happens when an organisms controls the extent, the kind and the rate of mineral formation, for example to form shells or skeletal elements. Biotically-induced precipitation occurs indirectly, as the presence of organic matter or byproducts of the metabolism (like the EPS) of a life form causes chemical reactions and favorable conditions for the formation of minerals.
A recently published study (KRAUSE et al. 2012) expanded the range of dolostone formation significantly, showing that in deep sea sediments there are bacteria that can induce the precipitation of dolomite from seawater. Despite these insights, many questions remain unanswered. Why are there phases in earth history when dolostone formation was so common? Why not today, despite microbial activity? Were these phases controlled by the evolution of the microbial communities or changes in the seawater chemistry? If so, what caused these changes in the oceans of the past?
Here are five things in technology that happened this past week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them?
1 – Rolls-Royce unveils a cargo ship of the future that requires no onboard crew.
And you thought they just made fancy cars? Well, they do. But Rolls-Royce also makes engines and boats. And now…self-driving boats. According to Digital Trends: The futuristic-looking vessels can be monitored remotely by a “captain” stationed at a base anywhere around the world, Oskar Levander, the company’s VP of marine innovation,explained recently at the Autonomous Ship Technology Symposium in Amsterdam.
Why this is important for your business:
With all the fuss being made about self-driving cars and drones, we sometimes forget that so much of the world’s shipping happens on water. Look for innovative companies to take advantage of this future technology to eliminate unneeded personnel and keep overhead (and therefore your shipping costs) lower.
2 – A new startup builds artificial intelligence that automates all of a company’s accounting.
The company is called Smacc, and its platform, according to TechCrunch, works like this: Customers submit their receipts to Smacc, which turns them into a machine-readable format, encrypts them, then allocates them to an account. The platform gradually also self-learns, tracking invoices, sales and costs, as well as their liquidity. The system checks against some 64 data points, verifies the invoice, checking, for example, that the math adds up, and even if the VAT-ID and its issuer are correct. Once the system has already learned how to deal with the supplier on position levels, it will do it automatically. Over time – says the startup – it becomes better and better at automatically dealing and allocating the data.
Why this is important for your business:
For centuries, the mundane task of bookkeeping and accounting has been a critical (and sometimes expensive) process for businesses. And now we have companies like Smacc deploying AI to help us reduce that expense through automation. I predict this will be the first of many time-saving technologies that will benefit small businesses over the coming decade.
3 – Twitter’s Dashboard app enables businesses to find out what they should be tweeting.
Twitter wants you to be more effective. So the company has a new tool that will provide tweet ideas and suggestions catered to your business.
Why this is important for your business:
Many of my clients want to use Twitter, but wonder if it’s worth the time and effort. The more effective our tweets, the better our engagement with our community and, ultimately, the more leads we should be able to receive via the social media service. If you’re a Twitter-person, this is definitely a tool you want to use.
4 – A new laptop antenna could provide better connectivity and battery life.
The antenna, developed by scientists in the UK, could replace as many as five separate antennas you might find in your current notebook. Furthermore, it also reportedly requires less power than the conventional set ups, meaning it could lead not only to better connectivity for thin-and-light laptops, but also slightly longer battery life.
Why this is important for your business:
My entire business life, like many of my clients, revolves around weakening batteries and poor Internet connectivity. Show me a laptop that significantly improves both, and I’m sold.
5 – A new tool from Google may improve your ad results.
Google released new “My Activity” and “Ads Personalization” pages so that users can have more control over the kinds of ads they’re receiving.
Why this is important for your business:
At first, you may think, “oh no – this will decrease the number of people seeing my ads.” And in some respects, it will. But as more people use this tool, you’ll be able to better target your ads to eyeballs that are truly interested in what you have to offer. So wouldn’t you rather have your advertising reach 10 people who are definite buyers of your products rather than 1,000 who couldn’t care less?
Gene Marks owns The Marks Group, a 10 person technology consulting firm and is also a small business expert, speaker and columnist at other major outlets.
This week has seen chatter of a new Surface device to come from Microsoft. The Surface All-In-One PC. Some believe this could be targeted at the living room and be a commercial version of PixelSense (such as Windows Central’s Daniel Rubino), others believe it’s going to be a more traditional computer (Aaron Lee and Steve Shen at Digitimes). My money would be on a new best-in-class desktop machine.
Why would Microsoft bring out another slice of hardware that competes with its manufacturing partners?
Microsoft Surface Book (image: Microsoft PR)
To answer that question, it’s probably better to think about Microsoft’s well-known products. They remain software based – Windows 10 and Office 365 being the two that people will immediately latch on to. Software requires hardware to run on, and Microsoft wants to have the best possible hardware to demonstrate its prowess with 1s and 0s.
Surface is the ‘dream machine’ brand of Microsoft. The current Surface devices are arguably the best implementation of Microsoft’s vision in mobile computing. Other manufacturers have excellent devices in these spaces, and also work in other spaces – there’s no Surface PC gaming device – and there is more than enough flexibility in the Windows 10 platform to allow for innovation and specialisation by manufacturers. The competition created by Surface is more a case of ‘you can do something more futuristic’ than ‘we can sell more units than you can’.
The Surface range also acts as a magnet – it gives consumers something tangible to focus their desires on. As a piece of software, Windows 10 is a touch ephemeral. The focus on cloud-based services is even harder to create an emotional connection over. That’s one of the biggest advantages that Surface offers Microsoft – it is a tangible expression of the full portfolio from the Company.
It also draws more direct comparisons with Apple. The Surface and Surface Pro devices compare favourably with the iPad and iPad Pro tablets, and the Surface Book will happily duke it out with the MacBook Pro.
An unprotected computer or computerized device that holds data is especially vulnerable to cyber attacks, spam, or other threats. These can compromise a user's identity or undermine the security of the computer's hardware and the information it contains.
Even before you arrive on campus, make sure that your computer will be as safe as possible from viruses and other malicious programs that are rampant on the Internet. Also make sure that you are applying best practices when using computer technology. Tools and resources are available from IS&T, many of them free, to ensure you have a layered defense against many of the threats to your computer and the information it contains.
STOP - Security Tracking of Office Property
Laptops and some other small electronic devices can be tagged with the STOP tag. This loss prevention measure is a visual deterrent to stealing electronic devices.
The Intel Corporation within Nigeria has unveiled a new radio show, which according to the company, is set to empower women and girls while connecting them to opportunities for personal growth in Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
The radio show, which has been dubbed: “She Will Connect”, will air on a weekly basis on Nigeria’s very own WFM 91.7, while the new features column called ‘Through her Eyes’ will feature on the Bella Naija blog.
The new initiative, according to Intel, is a part of the company’s She Will Connect programme, and is targeted at helping young girls and women access an innovative combination of digital literacy training, online peer network, and gender-relevant content.
According to This Day Live, the Public Relations and Marketing Manager, Intel West Africa, Adim Isiakpona, disclosed that the programme would bring millions of women online, and reduce the gap in access to internet and digital literacy skills for young women by up to 50 per cent, while also connecting millions of women to new opportunities through technology.
According to Isiakpona, “Girls and women are an important part in the growth of any economy and the She Will Connect programme has gone a long way to reach and enable them to do more.”
“Intel will continue to drive momentum into its She Will Connect programme. We want to use this radio show and the column on Bella Naija, to empower several girls and women by closing the gender gap in education access, inspiring more girls and women to become creators of technology, and connecting girls and women to opportunity through technology access,” he concluded.
After nearly a decade of “doing more with less,” government CIOs remain under pressure to further optimise IT and business costs while leading digital innovation in the public sector, according to Gartner, Inc. Government CIOs face organisational and cultural challenges that are barriers to harnessing the synergistic potential of social, mobile, data analytics, cloud and the Internet of Things (IoT) to drive transformational change.
Rick Howard, research vice president at Gartner, said legacy silos of systems, data and processes reinforce “business as usual” practices and behaviours that limit government participation in broader partner ecosystems capable of supporting fully digital end-to-end citizen services.
“In the digital service economy, government must make strategic investments in IT or risk perpetuating suboptimal business and service models that are financially unsustainable in the long term,” said Mr Howard. “Government CIOs who are too slow to adopt the technology innovations that are transforming private sector service industries will increase business risk and cost, while compromising the mission of their organisations.”
Spending by national, federal and local governments worldwide on technology products and services is forecast to grow slightly by 0.3 per cent to $430.1 billion in 2016, growing to $476.1 billion by 2020. This is a turnaround after a 5.2 per cent decrease in 2015.
To enable government transformation initiatives, Gartner has identified the top 10 strategic technologies in 2016 and provides recommendations to CIOs and IT leaders regarding adoption and benefits. It is not a list of what government CIOs spend the most time or money on, rather it is a list of strategic technologies that Gartner recommends they should have a plan for in 2016.
1. Digital WorkplaceThe government workforce is increasingly populated with digitally literate employees, from frontline workers to top-level executives. The digital workplace is a business strategy to boost employee engagement and agility through a more consumerised work environment. The digital workplace promotes collaborative work styles; supports decentralised, mobile work environments; and embraces employees’ personal choice of technologies.
2. Multichannel Citizen EngagementDelivering an effective citizen experience requires a holistic approach to the citizen: (1) using data to capture and understand the needs and desires of the citizen; (2) leveraging effective social media and communications to actively engage citizens; (3) allowing the citizen to engage on his or her own terms; (4) understanding the citizen’s preferred engagement channels; (5) affording seamless transitions among channels; and (6) ultimately delivering a more satisfying set of citizen interactions. Adopting a citizen-centric information management strategy with multichannel citizen engagement opportunities will deliver quantifiable benefits.
3. Open Any DataOpen any data in government results from “open by default” or “open by preference” governance policies and information management practices. These make licence-free data available in machine-readable formats to anyone who has the right to access it without any requirement for identification or registration. Open data is published as collected at the source (“raw”) at the lowest granularity, as determined by privacy, security or data quality considerations. Open data is accessible with open APIs and is not subject to any trademark or copyright.
4. Citizen e-IDAs government becomes more digitalised, digital identity will need to become more reliable in order to serve as the core for all digital transactions. Citizen electronic identification refers to the orchestrated set of processes and technologies managed by governments to provide a secure domain to enable citizens to access these core resources or services. Governments should require online authentication and identity proofing, because in-person verification methods are becoming outdated for offering citizens integrated and seamless access to resources and services. This “no wrong door” business model must be able to associate each citizen with one unique and persistent identifier within the bounds of what is culturally acceptable and legally permissible.
5. Analytics EverywhereAnalytics is the collection and analysis of data to provide the insight that can guide actions to increase organisational efficiency or programme effectiveness. The pervasive use of analytics at all stages of business activity and service delivery — analytics everywhere — allows leading government agencies to shift from the dashboard reporting of lagging indicators to autonomous business processes and business intelligence capabilities that help humans make better context-based decisions in real time.
6. Smart MachinesIn practice, smart machines are a diverse combination of digital technologies that do what we once thought only people could do. While capabilities are evolving rapidly, it already includes deep neural networks, autonomous vehicles, virtual assistants and smart advisors that interact intelligently with people and other machines. Government IT leaders must explore smart machines as enhancements to existing business practices, and possibly as foundations for new public services or ways of accomplishing business goals altogether.
7. Internet of ThingsThe IoT is the network of physical objects (fixed or mobile) that contains embedded technology to communicate, monitor, sense or interact with multiple environments. The IoT architecture operates in an ecosystem that includes things, communication, applications and data analysis, and is a critical enabler for digital business applications in all private-sector and public-sector industries. The business use cases and adoption rate by government agencies vary according to service domain or programme mission. Government business models are emerging that take advantage of the IoT; for example, pay-for-use or subscription-based taxation models, smart waste bin collection on city streets, and the remote monitoring of elderly patients in assisted-living settings.
8. Digital Government PlatformsGovernments face constant pressure to improve service delivery and save costs. Adopting digital platforms reduces effort and facilitates user-centric design. These platforms deliver services such as identity management and verification, payments, reusable application services, and notifications (for example, SMS and email) that are commonly used across multiple domains. Globally, governments are taking a platform approach to simplify processes, improve citizen interactions and reduce expenditures.
9. Software-Defined ArchitectureSoftware-defined architecture inserts an intermediary between the requester and the provider of a service so that the service can change more dynamically — in other words, it is the IT equivalent of changing the tires while the car is moving. Adding a layer of software to abstract and virtualise networks, infrastructure or security has proved to be a useful way of deploying and utilising infrastructure. Applying the same technique to software architecture improves the manageability and agility of the code so that the organisation can respond to the fluidity requirements of digital government and the IoT. Some government organisations have begun implementing software-designed infrastructure, but most are still operating in traditional data centres.
10. Risk-Based SecurityThe cybersecurity threat environment is constantly evolving, but it represents only one dimension of a complex, multifaceted set of threats and risks. Government CIOs must adopt a threat-aware, risk-based security approach that allows governments to make knowledgeable and informed decisions about risks in a holistic fashion, allowing for a wiser allocation of resources; more sound decisions about risks and their impacts on government missions, operations, assets and people; and engagement of senior leadership in risk-based decisions.
Four new trends emerged in 2016 with the potential to significantly benefit government performance within the next three to five years. Analytics everywhere, smart machines, software-defined architecture and risk-based security will each challenge governance, human resources management, sourcing and financing practices.
“Many of these technology trends change business models in ways that need to be reflected in more modern policies, especially those related to privacy or regulation,” said Mr Howard. “CIOs will need to be front and centre in providing advice to policymaking bodies and working with industry experts who can consult on options and impacts.”
More information is available to Gartner clients in the report: “The Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for Government in 2016.”
Nigerian consumers are increasingly comfortable with online shopping – both from local retailers and foreign online stores — and are some of the world’s most prolific users of mobile devices to do this shopping. And forecast say they are going to stay out front when it comes to mobile commerce.
This is according to a recent study conducted in Nigeria by Ipsos, a global market research company, on behalf of PayPal.
Nigerians are mobile-savvyAccording to the research, Nigeria is home to some of the keenest mobile shoppers on the African continent, and is also the third largest mobile commerce market in terms of the incidence of mobile shoppers amongst the countries that participated in the research. With 72% of online consumers shopping on a smartphone in Nigeria, the country follows China (86%) and India (82%) in terms of incidence of shopping via smartphone. The global average across the 29 surveyed markets is 47%.
A large majority of consumers pick smartphones to shop online both when shopping cross-border and locally in Nigeria. In terms of the value of this spend, consumers estimate that mobile shopping accounts for 38% of their total online spend, and 36% of cross-border purchases.
According to the forecasts, this trend is likely to continue: the survey predicts that mobile spend will increase by 39% to N78.3 billion in 2016, and by 31% to N102.2 billion by the end of the following year, from N56.2 billion in 2015.
The healthy growth rate forecast in 2016 tops out both China (38%) and UAE (35%). “Nigerian online shoppers have realised that the world is their shopping mall when it comes to buying what they need and want. They are no longer limited to what they can buy domestically, and are confidently scouring the globe for great deals, more choice, high quality and premier brands,” said PayPal’s General Manager Africa and Israel, Efi Dahan. “And, they are doing so wherever and whenever they want to, using their mobile devices as an essential shopping tool.”
Online spending trends in NigeriaOverall, online shopping in Nigeria is growing rapidly with 6 out of 10 Internet users in Nigeria shopping online in the 12-month period the survey covered. Total online spend is predicted to increase from N128.1 billion in 2015 (which itself was a jump of 58% from estimated spending in 2014) to N172 billion in 2016, up by 34% from the previous year. This growth continues to N217.7 billion in 2017 — 27% more than in 2016.
What’s more, 70% of Nigerian online shoppers indicated that they had purchased on international websites in the past 12 months, 6% of which shopped online only internationally. Meanwhile, just a third of the online shoppers (30%) exclusively shopped locally online.
The top 5 online cross-border purchase categories in Nigeria are (% cross-border shoppers who have purchased in each category from another country):
- Digital entertainment and education e.g. e-books, digital downloads of music (55%)
- Clothing, apparel, footwear and accessories (50%)
- Consumer electronics (45%)
- Jewellery and watches (43%)
- Physical entertainment and education (e.g. books, dvds etc.) (35%)
Interestingly, this matches closely with what online shoppers around the world buy when shopping cross-border. For all shoppers surveyed in the global study, clothing was the top cross-border purchase; consumer electronics ranked second; digital entertainment and education, third; and physical entertainment and education, fifth.
The notable difference was travel, which ranked fourth amongst global cross-border shoppers. This goes to show how, when it comes to online shopping, borders really are meaningless, consumers take a global view, and we all share similar online shopping preferences.
Where Nigerians shop onlineNorth America is the number one cross-border online shopping destination for Nigerians (with 48% of online shoppers having shopped in NA in the past 12 months). It is followed by Asia (40%) and Europe (36%). Intracontinental online shopping is also strong, with 15% of online shoppers shopping online in the rest of Africa ranking it the fourth biggest region for Nigerians, mainly from South Africa (11%).
The reasons Nigerians choose to shop in each country differ from location to location. Nigerians shop online in China to get better prices and discover new and interesting products. They choose to shop in the US and UK thanks to the reputation of the online store and the higher quality products they can buy.
International retailers wanting to attract Nigerians to shop online should pay attention to the factors that would make Nigerian online shoppers more likely to shop cross-border: free shipping (stated by 62% of online shoppers); faster delivery (60%); proof of product authenticity (58%); and a safe way to pay (54%) are the top four.
Drivers and Barriers to cross-border shopping in NigeriaFor Nigerian shoppers, key deterrents to online cross-border purchases are shipping costs and security concerns about online payments.
Cost is both a motivation and a deterrent for online shoppers. 62% of online shoppers surveyed who do not currently shop cross-border claimed delivery shipping costs as the top barrier for starting to shop from websites in other countries. Additional barriers include concerns about not receiving the item purchased (54%) and concerns about customer support (53%).
“We can see two groups of drivers: shipping-related drivers such as free shipping, and faster delivery, and security-related drivers such as a safer way to pay, and proof of product authenticity,” said Dahan.
International paymentsPayPal is, according to the research, the most popular way that Nigerians pay for cross-border online purchases, with 55% of Nigerian cross-border shoppers saying they have used PayPal for cross-border purchases in the past 12 months. Those who say that PayPal is their preferred method for cross-border say their reasons for preference are that it is a safer way to pay (63%), payments are processed quickly (56%), and it is a well-known and trusted brand (54%).
PayPal payments are followed by the next competitor at 51% incidence of usage. In general, Nigerian shoppers’ payment preferences are based on fast payment processing (53% give this as a reason for preference), payment safety (46%) and convenience (45%).
“Given Nigerian consumers’ preference for speed, security and convenience, it’s not surprising that many Nigerians repeatedly use PayPal for their cross-border shopping whether using a laptop, tablet or smartphone to make the purchase,” said Dahan.
Microsoft today announced that the Windows 10 Anniversary Update will launch on August 2. This is one of the biggest Windows 10 updates yet and will include new features for both consumers and enterprises.
As Microsoft also announced today, Windows 10 now runs on 350 million devices and users have spent 135 billion hours using it so far. That’s up from the 300 million devices running Windows 10 the company announced in May.
Picking August 2nd as the launch date is a bit of an odd choice, though, given that Microsoft’s free update offer, which allows most current Windows users to update to Windows 10 for free, expires just a few days earlier on July 29th and Microsoft doesn’t seem to have any intention to extend this offer beyond this date. July 29th also marks the one-year anniversary of Windows 10 that gives the update its name.
As Windows senior director Lisa Gurry told me, the company doesn’t want to roll out a major update on the 29th because it’s a Friday and also because the Windows team wanted some extra time to finish the product. She also noted that the expiration date of the offer was communicated for a year now, so Microsoft couldn’t change it anymore. I’m not sure I buy all of that, but the date is now set.
On the enterprise side, the update will include a number of new security features, including advanced threat protection in Windows Defender and the Windows Information Protection Service for ensuring that enterprise data remains secure.
Most of the new features, however, are geared toward consumers. Cortana, for example, will now be able to answer to queries without you having to log in to your computer and can now help you recall your frequent flier number, while Windows Ink allows you to easily write notes, draw sketches, and add sticky notes to documents and web sites (with the help of the updated Edge browser, which is now also more energy efficient than before and offers support for a limited number of third-party extensions).
Gurry also noted that the update includes a number of new features for schools that want to adopt Windows 10 laptops (instead of Chromebooks or iPads, for example). It’s now easier to set up a shared cart of devices, for example, or to configure the laptop for a test-taking session (with copy-and-paste disabled, for example).
Xbox One users will also see some updates to their console. Maybe the most noticeable will be the addition of Cortana to the system. In addition, Microsoft’s Xbox Anywhere program will allow gamers to buy games once and then play them on Xbox One and on their PCs. These games will be available in the new unified Windows Store on Xbox and PC.
Finland-based Internet of Things startup Haltian, which back in 2014 crowdfunded an IoT developer device aimed at lowering the barrier of entry to building connected devices, is lining up its next IoT device: a tracker phone for parents to give younger kids.
The target age group for the screenless, compact smartphone alternative — called Snowfox Trackerphone — is ages six to eleven. CEO Pasi Leipälä says the idea is to offer parents peace of mind about where their kids are plus the ability to call them when needed, as well as a simple communications device for children who may be too young to have a full-featured phone of their own.
The device has GPS and voice functionality, with a button on the side that can be used by kids to request a call back from their parents. Pushing this will send a push notification to the companion SnowFox app on their parents’ smartphone. To respond to an incoming call kids also just push the button.
The device can also be configured to automatically send geofenced notifications to the companion app — for instance to tell a parent their child has arrived at or left school. It’s been designed with active lifestyles in mind, and is touted as “playproof” and waterproof. It’s also a quasi wearable, with a loop allowing it to be attached to bags or worn around the neck on a lanyard.
There’s been an explosion of thing-tracking connected device startups in recent years — such as SF-based Tile which just last month raised another $18 million. Children tracking devices have also been an emergent category, with basic GPS trackers joined by wearable options, including some with comms features such as Tinitell. Snowfox thus joins a competitive space, although Leipälä claims existing solutions are often missing core features or else aren’t reliable. Hence the team reckons there’s room for one more.
Pricing for the Snowfox trackerphone will be €149 (RRP), while the monthly connectivity cost is €9.90. The device is not yet up for ordering, though, with Haltian running anIndiegogo crowdfunding campaign to raise $50,000 to help with go-to market costs.
Leipälä confirms R&D on the device is all but done at this stage, with the trackerphone due to arrive in the Finnish market at the end of July. He says the crowdfunding campaign is aimed at helping the startup scale the product to international markets by proving out pockets of demand. Getting the word out more widely also still makes crowdfunding an attractive route to take, he adds.
“We are preparing already our first production batch,” says Leipälä, discussing why Haltian has opted once again for a crowdfunding route to market. “But in the meantime in order to grow the international market we need to be scaling up the productions and making the country specific type of approvals etc. So they are requiring funds.”
The Snowfox runs on the underlying software platform that Haltian created for its earlier Thingsee One IoT dev device — including a cloud and application framework it created — so it’s both being powered by that earlier tech, and acting as a showcase for “what kind of great things can be created in top of Thingsee platform”, as Leipälä puts it.
The startup, which was founded by several ex-Nokians, also designs connected devices for third parties. So there are multiple strands to its IoT business: design services, developer focused offerings and now its own connected device consumer play which utilizes the dev tools it has made.
“We have been generating profit but we have been investing practically all the profits into our own platform and device development,” says Leipälä.
Scaling this IoT business therefore depends on investing in market expansion and creating a growing portfolio of its own devices, he adds. After Snowfox, he says Haltian may look next at building a similar trackerphone type device targeting elderly users who might not be comfortable using a fully fledged smartphone.
“We are carefully studying the dedicated use cases to be able to understand that we are able to provide a great service — it’s not only about the device,” he tells TechCrunch. “So, for example, on Snowfox actually the main users are the parents who are able to see where their kids are going. And then also call them when they need. It is a full service. The device is only one part of it.”
Multiple IoT startups have been emerging in Finland in recent years — unsurprisingly so given the huge talent pool accumulated within former world number one mobile maker Nokia. Talent that for multiple years now, at least since the decline of Nokia’s dominance of the smartphone market, has been unlocked to feed the local startup ecosystem. The government has put a lot of effort into the education system to bolster development in this area.
“There is a lot of bright and competent people available with a lot of new ideas,” says Leipälä, discussing Finland as an IoT hub. “IoT is one of the key branches where there is possibilities to grow and the use case are practically unlimited. And now the IoT hype has been living for let’s say three, four years. Now it’s coming into reality.
“But you need to be finding specific use cases. Like having this kind of product, e.g. kid tracking. Or one good example is Enevo, a Finnish company who is creating an ‘Internet of bins’ — they connect garbage bins and are then optimizing the transportation based on that data. These kinds of specific use cases are now coming, based on the tech and what’s available.”
If you feel the world is in danger of under-population but your fallopian swim team is letting the side down, Sandstone Diagnostics has your back. Now FDA-approved, the company’s product Trak will be the lifestyle coach and home-diagnostics tool to help deliver happier sperm and tiny shouty miracles.
The company announced this week that its Trak product has been approved by the FDA, and suggested that it’d be starting to ship its product toward the end of the summer this year.
You spin me right round, baby, right round.
“Male infertility is a dramatically under-appreciated condition affecting millions of couples every year,” said Greg Sommer, CEO at Sandstone.
“Trak is a complete system that not only gives couples the ability to conveniently measure semen quality at home, but also provides digital health tools and population-based data to help men take charge of their reproductive health in a whole new way.”
The company suggests that its service is beneficial especially because having to give a semen sample at a clinic is seen as embarrassing and awkward, and can be a deterrent to getting the help that’s required to get male fertility back on track. I can see how that could be the case, and it’s worth pointing out that doing the same at home is often ranked highly among men’s favorite pastimes.
In addition to being FDA-approved to offer semi-quantitative guidance on the measured sperm count (such as “low,” “moderate” or “optimal”), the companion app gives feedback and wellness advice on ways to improve and track sperm count.Sandstone’s Trak uses centrifugal force to isolate and quantify sperm cells using specially designed (and mercifully disposable, single-use) cartridges. The system includes the Trak Engine and several disposable test kits for repeat testing to gather data over time.
