Archive for November 20, 2019

Adastra launches Proboston North America

Posted in Commentary with tags on November 20, 2019 by itnerd

Adastra Group, a global leader in data management and analytics, today announced the launch of its newest division, Proboston North America, a company focused on a full-service approach to digital media for business. This latest addition to the Adastra roster provides greater insight across the full spectrum of digital business, combining Digital Transformation, user friendliness and digital marketing under one roof for startups and established businesses alike.

Adastra, a company with shared European and North American headquarters (including offices in Toronto, Markham, Calgary and Detroit) acquired Prague-based company, Proboston in 2018 to tap into its creative UX design capabilities and bolster Adastra’s data and digital expertise. Today’s launch of Proboston means the company can support the vast ecosystem of startup accelerators and incubators across Canada and the United States while also offering seamless digital and design capabilities to its existing client base as well as franchises and new businesses.

Proboston is designed to help build and grow successful organizations and is targeting the entrepreneur community with specialized packages for standard branding, website and data services as a foundation for marketing and digital strategies.

Proboston harnesses Adastra’s services to help businesses unlock valuable insights from their data and foster growth. The company will build on Adastra’s global expertise in data-driven solutions while emphasizing the universal importance of a seamless user experience, user interface and strong design elements.

The customer experience and journey are critical in modern society. Proboston’s next-level design creativity, combined with the technical skills of Adastra’s mobile app and web application practice, offers something truly unique not offered in the current market.

Data-Driven, AI Enhanced, Personalized Marketing Videos

Together, Proboston and Adastra are also launching AmetIO, the first personalized marketing video solution that uses AI to optimize branding and marketing campaigns. AmetIO leverages the power of the Cloud to personalize content at scale and tell a visual story that engages consumers at an individual level.

The combination of AI and digital design enables both cost-effective marketing campaigns and conversion rates that are exponentially higher than traditional digital marketing. T-Mobile, an early adopter of the solution, has emphasized AmetIO’s effectiveness following its first AmetIO-driven campaign.

Click here to see a personalized AmetIO video made for T-Mobile.

Learn more about how Proboston and Adastra are transforming the digital space in North America  (including through the launch of AmetIO) by visiting https://adastracorp.com/proboston andwww.adastracorp.com.

Leave a comment »

Canadians invited to participate in global UAE Food Security Challenge

Posted in Commentary on November 20, 2019 by itnerd

On the occasion of World Food Day, marked at the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, Her Excellency Mariam bint Mohammed Saeed Hareb Almheiri, UAE Minister for State for Food Security, spoke to the significance of global food security challenges and their impact on future generations.

Appealing to university students, early-stage start-ups and tech incubators in advanced urban farming markets from around the world, the Minister revealed plans by the UAE government to foster international collaboration to find innovative solutions across the food value chain through an open call-for-submissions to the “FoodTech Challenge.”

Open to applicants from around the world, the FoodTech Challenge seeks commercially viable solutions that promote sustainable food practices and stimulate domestic food production in the UAE. At the end of the competition, four teams will be awarded against a $1 million prize pool defined by in-kind support totaling $150k via Catalyst, a Masdar-BP accelerator, and a $100k cash prize.

Reinforcing the UAE’s commitment to enhancing global food security, the FoodTech Challenge launched on September 23rd in support of the country’s aim to encourage the adoption of urban farming solutions at the national, community, and household levels. Launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the FoodTech Challenge is an initiative of the UAE Office of State for Food Security in partnership with Tamkeen, an Abu Dhabi-based company mandated to deliver projects to meet the UAE’s vision of knowledge-based development.

Placing emphasis on the importance of empowering youth and attracting their interest in the food security sector, the Minister underlined the UAE’s commitment to providing opportunities for young people to push the boundaries of innovation in food production by creating sustainable farming systems that can be adopted by future generations.

Applications for the FoodTech Challenge will remain open until February 2020, when submissions will be shortlisted and the top 10 teams will present their business cases at an awards ceremony held at New York University Abu Dhabi in April 2020. A panel of VIP judges including agtech industry experts will select four winners across two categories: household farming and community farming.

Entrants can submit their applications via www.foodtechchallenge.com.

 

Leave a comment »

Infographic: A Christmas Carol: Scam Edition

Posted in Commentary with tags on November 20, 2019 by itnerd

‘Tis the season to be scammed: McAfee survey shows cybercriminals target Canadian shoppers in-store, online and through mobile 

A new survey from cybersecurity company McAfee, called A Christmas Carol: Scam Edition, found 40 per cent of Canadians have been a victim of, or know someone who has been a victim of, email phishing in 2019. While email was the most popular vehicle for hackers, robocalling (39 per cent) and text phishing (30 per cent) also ranked highly.

Of those who lost money to a scam, 65 per cent lost more than $100 and 33 per cent lost more than $500. A new trend that may hit unsavvy consumers hard this holiday season is phony gift cards. McAfee’s advanced threats team says phony gift cards are being sold on the cybercriminal underground. The survey found that not even one-third (29 per cent) of respondents are aware of bogus gift cards.

McAfee listed several tips that can help consumers shop safely this holiday season:

  • Stop and pause. Instead of clicking on a link in an email, it is always best to check directly with the source to verify an offer or shipment.
  • Browse with security protection. Use comprehensive security protection, like McAfee Total Protection, which can help protect devices against malware, phishing attacks and other threats. It includes McAfee WebAdvisor, which can help identify malicious websites.
  • Use a tool to help protect your personal information. A solution like McAfee Identity Theft Protection takes a proactive approach to help protect identities with personal and financial monitoring and recovery tools to help keep identities personal and secure.

infographic-mcafee-christmas-carol-scam-edition.jpg

Leave a comment »

Another Update About Optimized Battery Charging

Posted in Commentary with tags on November 20, 2019 by itnerd

I’ve been experimenting with optimized battery charging since iOS 13 came out, and I posted an update of my experiences after using it for a while. But I decided to provide another update on the topic as I have now figured out how it works.

In short, if you’re someone who is constantly topping off your iPhone with a charge during the day and the battery never dips below the 50% mark, it is unlikely that optimized battery charging will kick in. But if you run the battery of your iPhone down during the day and end up below the 50% mark, optimized battery charging will kick in. Since it is turned on by default, you don’t have to worry about checking to see if it is on on not. But if you are the paranoid sort, you can check it by doing the following:

  • Go to Settings
  • Go to Battery
  • Go to Battery Health and look for Optimized Battery Charging

And you can confirm that it is actually working by going to Settings and Battery and looking for a graphic like this:

fullsizeoutput_e49

As you can see, it partially charges and then stops at 80% around midnight. It stays there until roughly 3AM when it charges the rest of the way and is ready to go sometime between 4AM and 5AM. Which is handy as I get up at 6AM and the iPhone knows that.

As for it helping my long term battery health, time will tell on that front. I’ve had my iPhone XS for over a year now and the maximum capacity which is the maximum amount of charge that it can hold relative to when it was new is 96%. Apple says this about what I should expect when it comes to battery health:

A normal battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 500 complete charge cycles when operating under normal conditions.

So based on that, I am way ahead of that figure as it is down 4% over a year which implies that if I do not change my usage patterns, I could be around 8% to 10% at this time next year. But I will point out that this figure was without optimized battery charging seeing as that was only added to iOS a few months ago. So if I am say 8% or below without changing my usage patterns, it implies that optimized battery charging is doing its job in terms of protecting the long term health of my iPhone’s battery. So my next task is to monitor the health of my battery of the next few months to see if it slows down the rate that I lose capacity. If I notice anything positive or negative on that front, I’ll report back via another update.

Leave a comment »

Should I Update To Windows 10 Version 1909?

Posted in Commentary with tags on November 20, 2019 by itnerd

Windows 10 feature updates tend to be a bit of a risk to update. The last few feature updates have been gong shows with serious issues that impact users. So it would be understandable if you’re gunshy about upgrading to Windows 10 version 1909. You can read what comes to the table in this feature update here. But I’ll cut right to the chase. Unlike most feature updates which overhaul the operating system, the majority of version 1909’s changes are to how the OS lets users manage their system and app notifications. In other words, these are cosmetic fixes. That means it should be low risk to upgrade.

In my case, I upgraded all my Windows 10 computers to version 1909 quickly and without an issue. And when I say quickly, I mean it updated in under 10 minutes which is unusual for a feature update. That’s a stark change from the last few feature updates which would “brick” at least one of my computers. The other thing that I note is that for the first time in about two years, a Windows 10 feature update hasn’t caused my phone to ring off the hook from clients who had an install of a feature update go south.

That all suggests to me that this feature update is safe to update to. The only thing that I would recommend is what I always recommend. Which is to back up your data before trying to install it. Even though this is a low risk feature update, there’s still risk involved. Which means that it is better to be safe rather than sorry.

Leave a comment »