Archive for December 19, 2019

Create Christmas Magic With Interactive Augmented Reality App, Santa Was Here

Posted in Commentary on December 19, 2019 by itnerd

Artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) developer, Immersion VR, in partnership with AI and AR publisher, Charactr, today unveiled brand new, interactive AR mobile app, Santa Was Here, bringing the magic of Christmas home this holiday season. Available now in the U.S. and Europe for iOS, use your iPhone or iPad to record and save exceptional, multi-scenario videos of Santa Claus around the house with the ability to add personalized holiday greetings before sending and/or sharing videos to social media directly from the app. Whether Santa is caught landing his sleigh and reindeer in the backyard, seen dropping presents off under the Christmas tree, or witnessed magically disappearing into the night, Santa Was Here allows users to tap into their creativity and record videos right alongside St. Nick.

Here’s How It Works:

  • Download Santa Was Here from the App Store on your iOS device
  • Find the perfect spot in your home for the Santa model and chosen scenario. Using “Night Mode Filter,” you can record the desired scenario in the day time or with the lights on, then run the recording through the app’s filter to transform the video to appear as though it happened at night
  • When prompted, grant the app access to your phone’s camera and microphone
  • Choose the right angle and start recording
  • Edit and save your videos in the app’s gallery
  • Add a season’s greeting or holiday message before sending and/or posting to social media channels direct from the app

Published by Charactr (www.charactr.com) and developed by Immersion VR (www.immersion.pl), Santa Was Here is now available in the app store for iOS users in the U.S. and Europe and is free to download. Select premium features are available for purchase. For FAQ and additional information, visit santawashere.app.

To download the app, visit: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/santa-was-here/id1491731415

Share your best videos with Santa Was Here on Instagram by tagging @SantaWasHereApp and using the hashtag #santawashere.

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Here’s What To Expect From Today’s Rollout Of Tech To Block Nuisance Calls

Posted in Commentary with tags , on December 19, 2019 by itnerd

Today is the day that Canadian telcos at the request of the CRTC are to start blocking scam/nuisance calls. Or at least try to do so as I am dubious that this will really solve the issue. But pushing my own skepticism aside, here’s a quick primer as to what to expect from this effort.

What telcos like Bell and Rogers are going to do starting today is automatically block calls based on the caller ID information using the following criteria.

  • Numbers with more than 15 digits.
  • Numbers that can’t be dialed (such as a string of letters or 000-000-0000).

The net result is that calls from those types of numbers will no longer make your phone ring. Telus is doing something entirely different though.

As an alternative, telcos can offer subscribers “filtering services” that provide more advanced call-management features, which is what Telus is doing for its wireless customers. I was looking for details on that from Telus and couldn’t find anything online. Thus I  reached out to them for more information and this is what I got back via their Twitter support team:

Now here’s why any of these measures  isn’t going to make much of a difference from where I sit. This is only going to stop the low skilled scammers who for whatever reason can’t spoof numbers. Meaning that they don’t forge their Caller ID information to make it look like the call is coming from a real number such as a government agency or the police in order to make you more likely to answer the call. And the majority of nuisance calls that most of us get are spoofed. Thus all that these efforts are likely to do is to thin the herd of scumbags just a tiny bit. Now spoofed numbers are to be addressed by the end of September of 2020 by the rollout of additional tech to stop spoofing. But as I’ve written about previously, I am still dubious that even those efforts will make nuisance calls go away. But one could argue that any effort to cut down on the number of nuisance calls is better than making zero effort whatsoever.

I’d love to know if you notice a difference in terms of the number of nuisance calls that you get. Please leave a comment with your observations or reach out to me on Twitter with what you see.

 

 

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