How waterproof is the iPhone 7?

Apple touted that its newest iPhone finally has the ability to withstand water. The company's official claim is that the iPhone 7 is "splash and water resistant" instead of being full on waterproof. This means that if you drop your phone in a toilet, you don't have to dive your hand in quick to retrieve it and rush to find a bowl of rice. However, you still can't go scuba diving with your phone case-free.
The iPhone 7 is rated IP67. Having tested against the Ingress Protection (IP) standard means the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus is fully dustproof and fine with water as shallow as 15 centimeters and as deep as one meter. So basically, this phone can survive being submerged, but don't leave it in water deeper than three feet.
Your phone will survive but don't expect your speakers to work properly right away. After tossing our iPhone 7 Plus into the big, concrete water fountain in Bryant Park, New York (which left our jet black-colored device with a couple very noticeable micro-abrasions), we dried off the handset and held it with the Lightning port facing down. Apple advises that users dry off their phones shortly after it resurfaces, and not charge them until 5 hours later. The one we submerged worked perfectly fine after leaving the water, except for the speakers. After our iPhone finished its swim, the bottom speakers just didn't work in the same way: Keyboard clicks were hard to hear and the the sound of an iMessage being sent was a bit off. Luckily, this new iPhone offers stereo speakers--one at the bottom of the device (which existed in the previous iPhones) and an improved speaker at the top above the screen. Sounds at the top sound noticeably clearer and louder than the bottom.
After 24 hours, the bottom speakers sound less muddled when turned up loud to play music. But when volume is turned low, iOS's various sound effects may as well not be there.

Future Is of Artificial Intelligence

Amazon, Google's DeepMind, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft will work together on issues such as privacy, safety and the collaboration between people and AI.
Dubbed the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence, it will include external experts.
One said he hoped the group would address "legitimate concerns".
"We've seen a very fast development in AI over a very short period of time," said Prof Yoshua Bengio, from the University of Montreal.
"The field brings exciting opportunities for companies and public organisations. And yet, it raises legitimate questions about the way these developments will be conducted."
Bringing the key players together would be the "best way to ensure we all share the same values and overall objectives to serve the common good", he added.
One notable absentee from the consortium is Apple. It has been in discussions with the group and may join the partnership "soon", according to one member.
The group will have an equal share of corporate and non-corporate members and is in discussions with organisations such as the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence.
It stressed that it had no plans to "lobby government or other policy-making bodies".
"AI has tremendous potential to improve many aspects of life, ranging from healthcare, education and manufacturing to home automation and transport and the founding members... hope to maximise this potential and ensure it benefits as many people as possible," it said.
It will conduct research under an open licence in the following areas:

• ethics, fairness and inclusivity
• transparency
• privacy and interoperability (how AI works with people)
• trustworthiness, reliability and robustness

Microsoft's managing director of research hailed the partnership as a "historic collaboration on AI and its influences on people and society", while IBM's ethics researcher Francesca Rossi said it would provide "a vital voice in the advancement of the defining technology of this century".

Another Feather Added

Today on very this day IIT-Bombay has another feather in its cap with a micro-satellite designed and built by its students being part of ISRO's launch of eight satellites through PSLV C-35.

PSLV C-35, carrying India's SCATSAT-1 meant for ocean and weather studies and seven other satellites, including PRATHAM academic satellite, from IIT- Bombay, lifted off yesterday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota.

Started in 2008 by Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay and Shashank Tamaskar, then third year students of Aerospace Engineering course, the project took almost eight years to get materialised.

Since then, as many as 80 students from various batches joined the project and worked on it.

Dreams of the alumni and the current students, who worked on the project came true with launch of PRATHAM at 9.15 am from the space centre.

The 10-kg Pratham microsatellite will measure the total electron count (TEC) in the ionosphere that can improve the accuracy of the global positioning system in India and predict tsunamis, an official of the IIT-B said.

Designed to fit within a 30-cm cube, the Rs 1.5 crore microsatellite will orbit at an altitude of 670-km and orbit over India at 11.25 am every day. The life cycle of the mission is four months, but the satellite will be able to continue collecting data on the electron count, a professor of the institute said.

It is the first satellite to be designed and launched in the space by the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay.

Beside SCATSAT-1 and PRATHAM, the 44.4 metre tall workhorse PSLV rocket also carried another academic satellite developed by BES University, Bengaluru; three from Algeria and one each from the US and Canada.

Before PRATHAM, six educational institutes such as IIT-Kanpur, Pune-based College of Engineering and Chennai's Satyabhama University succeeded in launching academic satellites between 2009 and June this year.

Keep In Mind What Not To Do ????

One of the things I like most about search engine optimization (SEO) is the diversity of different approaches it offers that can work for it. You don’t have to use a one-size-fits-all, cookie cutter approach, and in most cases, you can’t.


Still, there are some approaches that almost never work, to the point of being counterproductive or destructive for most brands that attempt to wield them. Why are they still around? Some of them are obsolete practices, serving as remnants of strategies that used to work; in these cases, companies may not realize that search engines and best practices have changed. Others are the product of wishful thinking, created by a logic that on the surface seems sound, but doesn’t reflect reality.
Following these five approaches will almost certainly burn you, so stay away from them at all costs:

1. Keyword stuffing

Keywords are a somewhat divisive issue in the SEO world, with some people arguing that keywords are no longer a relevant consideration, while others claim they still have value for audience targeting and performance evaluation. In any case, no matter whether you’re using keywords as the strategic basis of your strategy or you’ve abandoned them altogether, stuffing keywords into your content in the hopes of ranking for queries containing those keywords is a bad idea.
You won’t stand much better chance of ranking for those queries, thanks to the semantic search of Google’s Hummingbird update; and to make matters worse, your content will be evaluated at a lower quality. Your users won’t be happy reading keyword-stuffed content, either; there really is no victory here.

2. Engaging in link schemes

Link-building is an essential component of an SEO strategy. However, participating in link schemes as a way to build your authority faster is going to hurt you. Google explicitly warns webmasters against the use of link schemes, which include paid links, link exchanges and exotic tactics like link wheels. As a general rule, any link built with the deliberate and exclusive purpose to increase search rankings may be considered an unnatural and harmful link; it could therefore be flagged as spam and drag your authority down.
Stick with organic link building tactics like guest posting to stay safe. For help, see SEO Link Building: The Ultimate Step-by-Step Guide.

3. Publishing fluff content

Each piece of content you create adds a new title and a new page to Google’s index, provides more content for your users to read and search engines to index and provides more opportunities to acquire conversions and inbound links. So, it stands to reason that having more content is a good thing. The problem is, many novice search-optimizers are blinded by this thought, and start churning out content in high quantities rather than paying attention to that content’s value.
Related: 6 Essential SEO Strategies to Incorporate in 2016
This is colloquially referred to as “fluff content,” and in the early days of SEO it might have helped you. Today, it will only bring down your search rankings and irritate your users, decreasing traffic and conversion rates.

4. Fixating on rankings

Keyword rankings are a good metric to measure for the health of your SEO campaign -- but they’re only one of several metrics you need to pay attention to. Assume, for a moment, that you hold 10 number 1 rankings for various keywords. That sounds great on the surface, right? But what kind of search volume are those specific keywords seeing? Are those people even clicking through to your site?
Assuming they are, are those keywords the kinds that would be input by future potential customers, or tire kickers? There are too many variables and metrics that influence the overall “value” of a position for you to obsess over a single metric like keyword ranking. That tunnel vision can compromise your interpretation.

5. Hiring cheap agencies or freelancers

Speaking generally, in SEO, you get what you pay for. Expensive agencies are expensive because they work hard, have more experience, offer more tools and spend time to make sure you’re satisfied. Cheap agencies are cheap because they blitz through their work without care, take shortcuts and probably outsource the work to even cheaper (and less qualified) people. Trying to save money this way could leave you with an inexperienced service provider, and if you aren’t careful, could land you with a Google penalty.
You have a degree of flexibility and forgiveness in SEO. You can piecemeal your strategy together based on your unique goals and circumstances, and even if you mess up, you’ll have enough time and freedom to correct your mistakes and still see a positive ROI in the long term.

Startups == Keep Up With Innovation

Globally, there are over 100 million new businesses, which are launched every year. Considering the statistics, it translates into roughly 11,000 startups launched every hour! In this fast paced environment, it is essential for startups to keep innovating, if they want to survive.
With thousands of new companies being launched every day, startups can't afford to rest on their laurels and take the chance to not experiment or innovate. They need to keep their eyes and ears firmly on what is happening around them in the market and keep a check on what their competitors or new players are doing. Considering the pace at which technology gets obsolete today, one new or disruptive technology is all it could take to wipe out a complete business overnight, thus leading to a complete waste of all the resources, time and effort invested in building the business. So, there’s little chance you can count on ‘so-called’ innovative product to keep your startup going, if you don’t continue to make innovation your priority on a day-to-day basis.
Here are some of the biggest advantages any business can derive from innovation:

Gives you a competitive edge

Innovating gives startups an edge over their competition and helps them become and remain a market leader. Many companies have managed to grab a new market or niche by launching a totally disruptive or new technology, but failed to retain their edge later since they were unable to keep up with the pace of innovation in the market. Take for instance the case of Apple Inc., which has remained the industry leader since it's launch nine years back, but is now witnessing a decline in revenues due to lack of innovation in its latest smartphones.
On the other hand, Uber, which completely disrupted the cab sharing industry, has managed to remain a market leader as it is constantly innovating. Right from ride sharing to premium cars, the company has grabbed a foothold in every market it operates in. To take things a notch higher, Uber is doing a pilot run with its autonomous cars in Pittsburg. The company is thinking ahead, and focusing on the latest technology and innovation to remain the industry leader.

Makes start-ups more efficient

If innovation is the lifeblood of your business, it makes it easier to solve problems as well as huge challenges. With every mind in the organization focused on bettering the end product or the process they are associated with, it will eventually witness greater efficiency with regard to systems, processes and products/services, which can be a huge advantage for the business.
Did you know, Google assigns a special hour or day in each office for people to experiment and innovate! Rather than looking outside for new companies, the Internet giant has created a monopoly in the online space by encouraging employees to innovate from within. It has also set up an in-house incubator to nurture ideas that have merit. Many of its innovative products like Hangout, Maps, etc. have all been a part of its in-house born ideas.

Creates entry barriers for competitors

Being an innovator or a disruptor is the best way to stay at the top and become an industry leader. However, one good idea leads to a thousand followers! And some of them may even be good. So if you want your company to remain the leader, it is ideal to keep thinking about the next step, the next level of innovation and experiment. This will ensure that you stay far ahead of your competitors.

Compete with larger well established companies

Big companies have more resources at their disposal and can easily implement and adopt new technologies. Large-scale companies have access to bigger platforms, which startups may take years to build. Big companies can out-innovate startups by adopting a systematic approach to innovation and learning. In order to compete with them, start-ups need to be a step ahead and adopt a culture of innovation.

Conclusion

95% of startups fail within their first year due to lack of any new ideas. So clearly, every startup needs to make innovation a part of its DNA, if it wants to get ahead of competitors and retain that position.
Innovators should be encouraged and rewarded, so that each and every individual in the organization is inclined to solve problems and experiment without having to worry about failing, since ultimately this will make the startup more efficient and give it an edge over others. When every single person on your team is focused on innovating, there is no way anyone can stop you from reaching the top and staying there.

Ideas Are Important

Having a good look at Apple’s latest shopping list, there no denial with the fact that Tim Cook has big plans for the artificial intelligence industry. What seems like a shopping spree, only months after buying Turi, and also recollecting that Apple bought Perceptio at the end of 2015, rumors of the firm buying another machine learning startup have resurfaced.

This time it’s India/US based machine learning startup called Tuplejump.
Though the representative from Apple neither denied nor acknowledged the buzz going around, but they didn’t either shy away from giving their standard response when they do acquire a company:

“Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.”

Coming back to the startup, Tuplejump was founded by Rohit Rai, Satyaprakash Buddhavarapu and Deepak Alur. The Hyderabad-based firm helps companies to store, process and visualise big data. According to media reports, apple was particularly interested in “FiloDB”, an open source project that Tuplejump was building to efficiently apply machine learning concepts and analytics to massive amounts of complex data right as it streamed in.

The important thing is that big companies are now a days are focusing on different ideas that can be implemented to improve the consumer satisfaction through providing new and improved services.   

Which social marketing tools support Twitter’s expanded tweets

Some social marketing management platforms fully support Twitter's expanded tweets, while others are working on updating their software.

It's true that  Twitter officially expanded the length of tweets by not counting photos, videos, polls and quoted tweets against its 140-character limit. But that doesn’t mean every brand has access to the bonus character space yet. Depending on which social marketing software they use, some marketers may already be able to take advantage of the extra text, while others must wait.

Below is a rundown of some social marketing management platforms and whether they support the expanded tweets. It’s worth noting that none of the social marketing management platforms are currently able to support polls in extended tweets because Twitter hasn’t extended that capability externally. If there’s a relevant social marketing management platform you’d like to see added to the list, please email editors@marketingland.com.

Get Lenovo Z2 Plus with Snapdragon 820 launched in India; priced Rs 17,999 onwards

In fast launching mobile arena Lenovo has launched the Snapdragon 820 powered Z2 Plus in India. The phone is a re-branded version of the Zuk Z2, which was recently launched in China.

The Lenovo Z2 Plus comes with a Snapdragon 820 SoC paired with either 3GB or 4GB of RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of storage. Storage isn’t expandable.

The devices boasts of a 5-inch, FHD screen developed by Sharp. Connectivity comes in the form of dual-SIM support (nano-SIMs) in a 4G+3G configuration. The usual assortment of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS options are present. The phone apparently runs a close-to-stock version of Android 6 with the Google

Now.
Lenovo claims to have implemented an “alloy rollcage” to give the phone rigidity, this is encased in fibreglass. A U-Touch 2 fingerprint sensor doubles as a home button. The phone apparently supports gestures via the fingerprint scanner.
The rear camera is a 13MP, f/2.2 unit with a 1.34 micron pixel sensor. The front camera is an 8MP unit. Also included is a U-Health app which is functionally similar to Apple’s Health app. Lenovo claims to have worked hard on the app to ensure that it consumes as little power as possible while harvesting as much health-related information as possible from you.
The app will track steps, running, distance covered and other such information. The 3GB model with 32GB storage is priced at Rs 17,999 and the 4GB variant with 64GB storage is priced at Rs 19,999. Both models will go on sale this Sunday, 25 September, at midnight exclusively on Amazon.

Think Again About Future of Retail on Mobile

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Can you count how many phones have you owned over the past five years ? My guess is that it would be  more than one. Actually, my guess is probably more than five. It is for me at least.
Did you know that consumers engage with their mobile devices between 150 and 200 times each day. That adds up to over 30 billion mobile moments each day in the US alone.

In the mobile age in which we live, the ever-connected customer is swamped with retailers vying for their attention, and they can become fickle. So, how do you grab the attention of potential customers and engage existing ones?

Customers are engaging with brands across an increasing number of touch points – websites, social media, in-store, mobile and tablets. At each touch point, customers expect a customised and personalised experience optimised specifically for them.

The new levels of flexibility and convenience that improve their experience are great for the customer, but the increased customer expectation continues to be a challenge for businesses, which have to manipulate enormous amounts of data to try to understand how to effectively engage each individual.

Neither can the influence of mobile technology in retail be understated. We are all becoming mobile connected consumers with the majority of purchases in retail now happening on mobile. We are seeing mobile technology take a huge leap forward as consumer adoption increases. Furthermore, retail businesses are embracing apps even more to connect with their valued customers.

Retail businesses are using mobile to enable staff with tablets to help engage with products and customers on the shop floor. We are seeing new mobile usage in-store for things like mobile payments collected via tablets also. The influence is sparking a trend from 'mobile first' to 'mobile only'.

We are still on the curve, further adoption by all demographics will increase the development of the industry. Retailers are still learning how to engage the 'connected consumer', but different strategies need to be introduced to create a wider reach. Millennials who understand 'mobile only' will help the industry develop even quicker.

We have seen new innovation in mobile within retail, where mobile has helped the connected consumer find, engage and execute the content they really want, at the time they want it and in their current location. This means that adoption has improved as the content is more personal to the user, ultimately improving purchase decisions.

We see leading brands now delivering personalised discounts and vouchers to their users' smartphones while they are in-store, and cinema chains sending personal notifications to movie-goers once they have left the cinema - "Rate the X-Men movie and we will enter you in a competition to win free cinema tickets."

Above all consumers want to receive the right content across all the channels they choose to subscribe to. This could be online, tablets, mobile desktop, social media and apps; they should all be connected. The information and content we receive across these channels can be delivered by the retailers in a seamless way.
This means a piece of content should be posted once and remain available to the consumer across all these channels while creating the same experience and reaction. People are time poor, especially when shopping - if we can send a more personal message at the right time to a consumer, they are more likely to purchase the product or service.

New technology and innovation come and go, the retail pioneers who embrace this culture represent the test bed for what becomes mainstream. This could be using new marketing technology like beacons or augmented reality (AR). The business will drive the need to use this technology and the consumer will be the one to experience this new engagement.

Businesses should not be scared of technology innovation. If you do not try then you risk falling behind; it's far harder to win back a customer who has moved to another brand because the rival brand trialled a beacon in-store campaign.

I see many businesses that wait for others to trial new technology and see what the results are first before committing. However, these days is it much easier, cheaper and quicker to get a trial of mobile innovation rolled out to customers. You only need to test a small audience to evaluate what a bigger strategy would look like.

Technology and social media are changing things rapidly in the retail environment. Businesses can see this as a huge challenge to overcome or they can see it as a huge opportunity that they can embrace. By embracing change and catering to the needs of their customers, companies will be seen as relevant and their messages will resonate with the people they are trying to reach.

You can discover how in a new webinar from SmartFocus & Forrester Research. Save your space here.
Kym Reynolds is Head of Mobile Marketing for SmartFocus. SmartFocus is an innovator in messaging and communications, enabling the world's largest brands – including Nestlé, Mercedes-Benz and House of Fraser – to understand and connect more closely with today's connected consumers; whether that be via web, mobile, email or social channels. 

Through The Message Cloud solution, SmartFocus genuinely listens to and learns from customers using patented algorithms and unique location-based marketing tools. Using The Message Cloud, SmartFocus customers have the rich data, intelligence and the tools for contextually unique engagements, through any digital channel.

GoPro launches Karma drone and voice-controlled Hero5

Great to grasp camera-maker GoPro has unveiled  a foldaway drone that matches in an exceedingly backpack.The fate craft additionally options a clastic device which will be accustomed build hand-held shots a lot of steady.

In addition, the firm unveiled  a brand new action camera which will be controlled with voice commands yet as a pay-to-use video sharing service.GoPro hopes the launches can circle its fortunes.

Foldable drone

GoPro initial declared that it planned to form its own drone in could 2015 and had planned for it to travel on sale within the half of this year.

The move presents a chance for it to make the most of a aggressive market.

But it additionally helps the firm address the actual fact that DJI - the bestselling drone complete - has ditched support for GoPro's cameras in favour of its own, whereas 3D AI - another widespread manufacturer - is currently promoting the utilization of a rival camera created by Sony.

The Karma is not the first commercial foldable drone, but the feature is still relatively unusual.
GoPro says the move allows its aircraft to be carried about in a relatively small backpack that is "so comfortable... users will forget they've got it on".
The Karma's other distinctive detail is its removable three-axis stabiliser, which can be fitted to a bundled grip and then held in the hand or attached to a helmet to film Steadicam-like shots.
Normally, filmmakers would be required to buy a separate device known as a gimbal, to achieve this.

The drone will cost $799 (£612) and will be released on 23 October.
When bundled with the new Hero5 Black camera, it will cost $1099.
That is $100 less than DJI's Phantom 4 - which includes collision-avoidance sensors, which the Karma lacks - but $100 more than the Chinese company's last-generation Phantom 3 Professional.
The research firm IHS Markit predicts sales of consumer drones will rise from three million units this year to 6.7 million units in 2020.

"The target market for consumer drones and action cams is very similar, so it makes sense for GoPro to do this," commented its senior director of consumer electronics, Tom Morrod.
"And maybe it can carry it off because of its brand.
"But what differentiates one drone from another is its flight control and navigation systems, which are typically developed in-house by the different companies.
"That technology is very different to what GoPro's done before and can be complex to develop.
"So, GoPro must convince consumers of its abilities or will not find this an easy sell."

Upgraded Hero

The announcement of the Hero5 Black camera comes two years after that of the Hero4 Black - the longest GoPro has taken to refresh its top-end model to date.
The new $399 (£306) device features a 2in (5cm) touchscreen and can also be controlled by speaking to it, which might be useful in situations where the owner is wearing gloves or does not have a free hand.
"It opens up a whole new world of possibilities," said the firm's chief executive Nick Woodman at the launch.
"You just think it, say it, do it."

The firm suggested that the facility would also help users avoid missing critical moments.
As an example, it said an owner could say "take a photo" to snap a picture while they continued to simultaneously film video with the device.
Its 4K video and 12 megapixel photo capabilities are the same as the last generation.
But the new camera gains:

• Waterproof protection without a case, up to depths of 10m (33ft)
• Stereo sound recording via three microphones
• Automatic electronic stabilisation of its footage
• GPS location data

In addition, the camera can be set to automatically upload video and pictures to the firm's new video sharing service, GoPro Plus, if its owner takes out a subscription.

The add-on also includes access to a library of music the owner can use for their edits as well as a discount on further accessory purchases.
The new camera - and a smaller HERO5 Session, which takes 4K video but only 10 megapixel photos - will be released on 2 October.

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Analysis: Dave Lee, North America technology reporter

Three hundred. That's how many people GoPro have flown and driven in for this event. 100 of its own staff, 100 athletes and 100 reporters (for the record, the BBC has paid its way).
We're at around 6,000ft (1.8km) above sea level, in a jaw-dropping ski resort that hosted 1960's Winter Olympics.
GoPro is still the most recognisable brand in action cameras, so much so that "a GoPro" has become shorthand for any brand of small camera.
But the issue isn't whether GoPro is performing well in the market. They are. Problem is, the market isn't as big as they, and their shareholders, had perhaps hoped.
Today's launch of a drone and camera is designed to inject a bit of energy back into the firm.
Its new easy editing and publishing tool cement its ambition to not only dominate hardware but also the means of consumption for extreme footage.

A totally wireless iPhone?

No headphone jack? What about no wires at all?
One of the big points that Phil Schiller, Apple's marketing chief, tried to convey to audiences at the iPhone 7 launch event last week was the push toward a greater number of wireless experiences.
"Up till now, no one has taken on the challenge of fixing the things that are difficult to do in your wireless experiences," Schiller said onstage. "It makes no sense to tether ourselves to our mobile devices."

Though Schiller was talking about the wireless AirPod earphones, that comment could be taken as a mission statement of sorts for the entire device. Between the AirPods and the removal of the headphone jack, Apple is forcing your hand to give up on wired headphones -- or at least consider it.
That may be just the beginning. Next year's iPhone could do away with the last physical wire: the Lightning cable needed for charging. Yes, Apple may finally embrace wireless charging, a feature found on other marquee devices, like Samsung's Galaxy S7.
"All the talk about wireless at the event definitely signals a future intent to move to wireless charging," said Jan Dawson, an analyst at Jackdaw Research.
The Apple Watch already uses a form of wireless charging. And the Qi standard, embraced by the likes of Samsung, already drives wireless charging stations in thousands of public spaces and 50 models of cars. Those stations are just waiting for an iPhone.

Better Bluetooth

Bluetooth 5, meanwhile, promises to quadruple the range and double the speed of existing Bluetooth technology. It may be the answer to those skeptics who still shun wireless headphones. With Bluetooth 5, those headphones should work more reliably.
The new version of Bluetooth, which could come as soon as this year, could also mean more things in a home being paired, or faster communication with the Apple Watch.
WiGig, meanwhile, is another intriguing wireless standard promising extremely high speed, shorter-range connections that can be used for 4K video streaming, sending data to second displays and syncing. Could a short- and long-range wireless overhaul let a future iPhone seamlessly connect to even more devices?

Examples of Communities & Membership sites

Why it is Important ??

A surefire way to build trust and foster brand loyalty is to establish an online community or membership site. It provides your audience with a sense of belongingness, exclusiveness, and the reassurance that your company is looking out for your valued customers. However, before you get ahead of yourself, remember that a successful community is not easy to establish. It requires extensive planning, research, and time and effort in order to set up an engaging platform.
The first step in creating an evergreen community is understand the how the best in the business have done it in their respective markets. Below are seven of the best online communities or membership sites operating today:

1. Blogging on Your Own Terms

It is a community built specifically for bloggers who need guidance and support in their careers. It worked on a simple premise of bringing like-minded people together on a single platform.

If you want your platform to garner opt-ins, then you should make the entire process simple and convenient. While some membership sites work on a paid subscription basis,

2. Exposure To Photography

Another example of a simplified membership site is photography. As the name suggests, it is a photography community based on the Google+ social platform. However, a noticeable difference between the previous example and this site is the strict set of rules that manage the community.

You see, this group is more of a professional community that is built for passionate photographers. In this case, the use of Google+ is perfect because image sharing, feedback, and networking are all integrated within the platform.

When building an online community, you need to carefully choose a platform that can highlight what your group is all about. Community managers also need to leverage any built-in features (image sharing, comments, and “+1”s) to foster a tight-knight community.

3. Deily

While some of the best online communities connect like-minded people, Deily nurtures a unique experience that unites people from different religions. The genius behind Deily’s platform is that it encourages people to contribute user-generated content for the purpose of discussion or debate regarding a person’s faith. Users can upload audio clips, videos, full articles, and photos that share their religious views and opinions.

The more quality UGC gets posted on Deily, the more discoverable they are in social channels and search engines. Sure, your brand may not deal with a field as big as religion, but you can borrow inspiration from Deily’s full-blown site structure and features.
Takeaways:
Since there is a number of different religions that may have opposing views, Deily did not force everyone to interact in a single channel. To better manage your community, make sure you offer different “subgroups” that segregate your audience. Besides, by giving every subgroup equal privileges on the site, users are encouraged to respect and learn from each other.

4. YouMoz

Moz is a popular, authority website for all things SEO. It is the go-to place for digital marketers looking to demystify SEO and keep up with the ever-growing competition. Additionally, it is a place where SEO professionals and gurus can share their knowledge. In the YouMoz blog, any member can post articles on SEO news, tips, strategies, and case studies.

If there’s one thing YouMoz accomplished for the brand, it is to aggregate all the best, experience-based tips and insights by the SEO community in a single location. As an incentive, quality posts will get promoted on the Moz website itself – granting exposure to dedicated members who pour their heart and soul in their submissions.
Takeaways:
YouMoz’s success strategy hinges around user-generated content or UGC. This type of content is deemed trustworthy by the online community since they mostly made from firsthand experiences. You can also promote UGC in your membership site to make users feel more involved with the community’s development.

5. YouPreneur

The path to entrepreneurship is a rugged road full of uncertainties and challenges. As an entrepreneur, you need all the help you can get when it comes to making informed decisions to make the most out of your investments. YouPreneur is an entrepreneurial community by Chris Ducker tailored to give aspiring entrepreneurs a helping hand.

This particular example proves that monetization can be easy if you as long as you target a profitable market. The YouPreneur is full of battle-hardened marketers and entrepreneurs – including Chris Ducker himself. Given it is a paid subscription, entrepreneurs and startups need to consider membership as an investment. They need to learn and make time to use the platform regularly to get the most out of them.
Takeaways:
Paid membership sites need to offer a lot of value to retain subscribers. Fortunately for YouPreneur, Chris Ducker’s experience along with the submissions of other qualified individuals were leveraged well and translated into useful information. Make sure your site offers a ton of valuable content to users; outsource from different contributors if necessary.

6. Geeks Life

If you are planning a paid membership site, the first thing you need to consider is your pricing model. Geeks Life managed to hit the nail in the head by working with a "pay with what you can" basis. This means users can specify their pricing to suit their usage needs. This process eliminates the need to formulate packages that give your audience fewer options for a subscription.

Today, however, Geeks Life tweaked their flexible pricing model and settled for a donations system. Upon signing up, members can choose how much they are willing to donate, which will give them access to behind-the-scenes content, printed newsletter subscription, and a 10% discount for other products.
Takeaways:
Giving the audience more control over their payments is a great way to attract more subscribers. This strategy basically gives everyone with different budgets the opportunity to join. You don’t need to do exactly this, but you need to make sure you have flexible membership options to suit your audience’s different needs.

7. Quiet Speculation

Finding an idea for a membership site can be a lot harder than setting up the site itself. A great strategy for this is to look at niche products, services, or brands in a new angle. Observe trends and issues that people already talk about. Quiet Speculation is a great example that identified a gap between the demand for information and the availability of sources. It is a growing online community that tackles the “money-making” aspects of Magic the Gathering. Yes – the trading card game.
Takeaways:
As the internet continues to grow, new opportunities arise for bringing communities closer together. If you’re planning to build a new membership website, pay close attention to the latest trends in popular industries—preferably something you’re genuinely interested in. Look to fill the gaps between the demand for information and the availability of resources.

Taking above examples in mind , you should have more than enough ideas for a successful membership site that rally your audience together – providing them with a community with your brand as the herald.

World’s largest neutrino detector gets a Fujitsu-powered supercomputer upgrade

Fujitsu is a company most associated with cameras and low-cost electronics in the United States, but this is a misperception. The company is a significant manufacturer of semiconductors, with its own SPARC processors, supercomputer designs, and cloud services. Last month, we discussed how Fujitsu had partnered with ARM to add support for ARM’s new vector processing SIMD to upcoming supercomputer architectures. But that’s not the only big iron the Japanese firm has in the proverbial fire. The company announced this week that it’s been hired to build an experiment-analysis system for the Kamioka Observatory’s Super-Kamiokande facility in Tokyo, Japan.
Super-Kamiokande is the world’s largest neutrino detector. Like the LUX dark matter experiment, it’s sunk a kilometer underground in a former mine. While neutrinos interact only weakly with matter, basically all other radiation is barred from passing through the detector by matter: specifically, the thousands and thousands of tons of dense matter surrounding the water tank. That includes cosmic rays, whose spallations could mimic neutrinos.
Neutrinos themselves, however, pass through just fine. When one of them hits the water, they’re capable of traveling faster than the speed of light through that medium (which is slower than the speed of light in a vacuum, so don’t worry). The resultant shockwave acts just like a sonic boom in our atmosphere — right down to the fact that the shape of the cone is related to the speed of the neutrino. It’s called Cherenkov radiation. Most of us think of radioactive things as glowing green, and this might well be because of green radium paint. Cherenkov radiation, however, glows a gentle, terrifying blue.

Cherenkov radiation at the Advanced Test Reactor. By Argonne National Laboratory, via Wikipedia

It’s only even visible as a blue halo because it’s such a high-energy phenomenon. Our blue-sensing cones are less sensitive than the green or red ones. That’s what the photodetectors in the tank at Super-Kamiokande are meant to find: the blue. They form a grid so that they can look for the Cherenkov radiation’s characteristic rings in the pattern of photodetector activation.

In 1987, the Super-K detector caught 19 neutrinos from the nearest supernova blast we’d ever seen — 19 of the billion trillion trillion trillion trillion neutrinos we expect were emitted. It’s since been used to directly confirm the production of solar neutrinos, which it did in almost real time because neutrinos don’t get trapped beneath the surface of the sun for thousands of years like photons. Neutrinos take only the usual eight or so light-minute travel time to get here. The new supercomputer should make it much easier to model the behavior of neutrinos when we do catch them. The system lets the facility exploit much greater processing power for event reconstructions and simulations.
According to Fujitsu, the new cluster will consist of 85 Primergy RX2530 M2 servers, backed up by a high-speed distributed file system and data processing system. The RX2530 M2 isn’t the heaviest hitter on the proverbial block, but these are two-socket systems with support for the latest Intel Xeon E5v4 processors. The cluster will have 2,380 cores total, which works out to 28 cores per server and 14 cores per socket. Fujitsu is promising a SPECint_rate2006 benchmark score of 107,100, or roughly triple that of the existing system. Maximum storage capacity of the system, at least for now, is 9PB. But I’m pretty sure that the best thing about this entire system is that it’s apparently all backed up on tape drives.

Android Nougat rolling out to Nexus 6, Nexus 9 LTE soon: Reports

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Recently Google started rolling out Android Nougat to select Nexus devices a few weeks ago. However, nexus 6 and the Nexus 9 LTE were absent from that list. However, this may change soon. According to a report by Android Police, the two devices will start receiving the update “in the coming weeks.” The exact date of the rollout is not yet known and neither is the reason for the delay.
 
To recall, the Nexus 6 smartphone was manufactured by Motorola and features a 5.96-inch QHD display. It is powered by a Snapdragon 805 SoC with 3GB of RAM. The HTC-made Nexus 9 is a tablet with a 8.9-inch display with a resolution of 1536 x 2048 pixels. It is powered by a Nvidia Tegra K1 SoC with 2GB of RAM

Android Nougat v7.0 offers a number of new features as well as improvements to some old ones. One of the new features is a multi-window mode lets users open two apps side-by-side. The Doze feature, which was introduced in Marshmallow, has also been improved. Nougat also brings support for Vulkan API, new emojis, and improvements to security.

Those using the Nexus 5 may not be as lucky though. According leakster @LlabTooFeR Qualcomm is not releasing updates for the graphics drivers of the Snapdragon 800 and 801 chipsets. As a result, phones like the Nexus 5 (which sports the SD800 SoC) may not be updated to Android Nougat.

What's That Facebook introduces Groups Discover in India ???

Officially announced the launch of Groups Discover in India, a feature using which users can locate different audience groups available on the social network. India is the third country where Facebook has made this feature live.

Facebook's decision to bring the feature early in the country gains significance in the view of certain data points, which it revealed during the event. According to the site, globally more than 1 billion use Facebook Groups every month, while last year, people in tens of millions of Facebook Groups left more than 100 billion comments in Groups and there were more than 250 billion likes on Group posts.

"In India, over 80 million people use Groups each month to stay in touch with family, collaborate on projects, plan trips and offer support to friends. We work to keep Groups the best way for people to communicate, collaborate, and plan," Facebook informed.

The newly introduced feature, Groups Discover, will help a user find group across offers 25 different categories such as parenting, sports, food, buy and sell, networking, animals and pets, hobby and leisure, support and comfort and travel. Each topic page highlights the top suggested Groups based on popularity and members that a user already knows.The social networking site has also added several other features to its groups product to give users a better experience.

Imagine a wearable Camera that Lets You 'Go Back in Time' to Record Moments

If ever wish you could go back and record that custom sports car that just raced by, or that awesome jump shot your kid just made? A new wearable camera lets you do just that: go back in time, so to speak, to retroactively capture those fleeting moments you thought you missed.
Called the Perfect Memory camera, developed by New York-based General Streaming Systems, the 12-megapixel device is pocket-size and lightweight. With a tap of its touch screen, it can record video and audio, and is capable of full-high-definition (HD) 1080p video.
Here's how it works: With its AutoEdit mode, the camera is continuously recording, and when you tap its touch screen, it saves footage from the previous 5 minutes, or any other duration you want to set. This allows people to retroactively save a video of an event after the fact

"You don't know when a surprising, magical moment will happen ... capturing a baby's first words, for instance," said Jules Winnfield, chief operating officer of General Streaming Systems.
Perfect Memory can be worn as a hands-free bodycam. Depending on the camera's accessories, it can also attach to the dash of a car, be paired with sports action mounts, stick to virtually any surface and even hang around a pet's neck.
Perfect Memory can also snap photos, act as a regular video camera and shoot time-lapse photography, according to General Streaming Systems. The device can accept microSD cards with up to 128GB of storage space.
A free iOS or Android app can control the camera. The camera can use Wi-Fi to wirelessly connect with a smartphone via the app, and stream video and photos live, according to the company.
When the camera is recording video continuously at the highest level of resolution, its battery can last up to 4 hours, Winnfield said. When the camera is recording continuously and using Wi-Fi to stream video live, the battery will last up to 2 hours. If the camera is not recording continuously, its battery may last up to several days. The battery takes up to 1.5 hours to recharge, according to the company.
General Streaming Systems started developing the Perfect Memory camera in 2015. An Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign for the device raised more than $171,000 in two months. When the campaign ended on Aug. 20, it had raised almost six times more than its $30,000 goal. Mass production of the cameras (which can be purchased for an early-bird price of $119) will begin this month, and the devices are expected to ship to the campaign's backers beginning in October.

Samsung shares slide on Galaxy Note 7 recall

Samsung shares fell sharply on Monday, hitting a two-month low after the firm urged users not to use its flagship Note 7 phone and exchange the device due to fears it might catch fire.The South Korean company's shares dropped more than 6% on Monday.Samsung recalled 2.5 million phones last week after reports of the device exploding during or after charging.

Airline passengers were warned by US authorities not to use or charge the phones while on board.
Aviation authorities in several other countries and individual airlines have since then also banned the use of the devices on their flights.

What makes lithium batteries catch fire?
Hand in 'exploding' phones - Samsung


The company had already said it would replace all devices that customers would hand in.
According to Samsung, battery problems were behind the phones catching fire, but the firm said it was difficult to work out which phones were affected among those sold.
The phone was launched last month and has been otherwise generally well-received by consumers and critics.

Launch of Apple iPhone 6s

Apple iPhone 6s smartphone was launched in September 2015. The phone comes with a 4.70-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 750 pixels by 1334 pixels at a PPI of 326 pixels per inch. Apple iPhone 6s price in India starts from Rs. 42250.
The Apple iPhone 6s is powered by A9 processor and it comes with 2GB of RAM. The phone packs 16GB of internal storage cannot be expanded. As far as the cameras are concerned, the Apple iPhone 6s packs a 12-megapixel primary camera on the rear and a 5-megapixel front shooter for selfies.
The Apple iPhone 6s runs iOS 9 and is powered by a 1715mAh non removable battery. It measures 138.30 x 67.10 x 7.10 (height x width x thickness) and weighs 143.00 grams.


The Apple iPhone 6s is a single SIM (GSM) smartphone that accepts a Nano-SIM. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, GPS, Bluetooth, NFC, 4G (with support for Band 40 used by some LTE networks in India). Sensors on the phone include Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor, Accelerometer, and Gyroscope.
About Apple

Founded in a garage in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple began as a personal computer pioneer that today makes everything from laptops to portable media players. Headquartered in Cupertino, California, the consumer electronics giant entered the smartphone market with the iPhone in 2007, and the tablet market with the iPad in 2010, and the smartwatch market with the Apple Watch in 2014.