3d illusion arts: Walyou

Walyou

Facebook cracks down on click-bait: “you’ll never believe…”
SwivelCard: half business card, half flash drive, all awesome
Ralph Lauren and OMSignal Launch Smart Shirt That Tracks Breathing
Amazon Gets Serious About Gaming, Buys Twitch for $1B

Facebook cracks down on click-bait: “you’ll never believe…”

Posted: 26 Aug 2014 07:00 AM PDT

Facebook has just announced a series of measures to crack down on clickbait in an attempt to help users decontaminate their feeds of shoddy journalism.

One of the worst tendencies in modern blogging and journalism is to create headlines that don’t really say anything about the story, but instead “bait” users into having to click to see what a story is all about. This practice, aptly deemed “click-bait”, is the key to success for some sites that expertly craft headlines that don’t say anything in order to get their pageviews. Well, it turns out this will be the end of an era, as Facebook has heard its users, and deemed the practice annoying.

The image illustrating this story is an example straight from Facebook's blog, where they also explain why they are not too happy about this practice. In their own words, “[W]hen we asked people in an initial survey what type of content they preferred to see in their News Feeds, 80% of the time people preferred headlines that helped them decide if they wanted to read the full article before they had to click through. Over time, stories with "click-bait" headlines can drown out content from friends and Pages that people really care about.”

The newsfeed algorithm will be modified so stories that don’t hold readers' interest after clicking, or don’t get comments and shares aren’t shown as often. The idea? That you see more of your friends, and the things you care about instead of junk clogging your newsfeed. Are you happy about these changes? Let us know about it in the comments section.

Via The Mary Sue

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Oculus VR Crystal Cove prototype, and Facebook Tests "Satire" Tag, Ruins All Humor.

SwivelCard: half business card, half flash drive, all awesome

Posted: 26 Aug 2014 05:00 AM PDT

People in business hand and receive so many different business cards that it is hard to make a difference. And that is exactly why SwivelCard stands out.

Flash drives and business cards on their own are not that special in the 21st century, yet SwivelCard has come up with a solution for those who need to stand out. SwivelCard is a business card that has a very special portion, meant to be tinkered with, folded and transformed into a USB drive. This USB drive, then, just needs to be plugged on a USB port into any computer, and users will be able to access the data on it. While it stores less than 1MB, that’s more than enough for your entire resume, highlights of your portfolio and even links to your website.

The cool thing about it, though, is that the owner of the card can remotely reprogram and change the destination page to keep the information in it updated. Furthermore, one can track when and how these cards are seen giving the owner complete control over the information the interested party is seeing. Want to own it? Well, good news, it’s up on KickStarter , so everyone who is interested can support it and get their hands on them.

Via Technabob

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Ralph Lauren and OMSignal Launch Smart Shirt That Tracks Breathing

Posted: 25 Aug 2014 01:51 PM PDT

Polo Tech - Ralph Lauren - OMSignal - Smart Shirt

Haute couture designers often surprise the world by creating unusual apparel. This time, Ralph Lauren collaborated with biotech firm OMSignal to develop a compression garment that collects biometric data and sends it to smartphones and tablets.

The Polo Tech shirt developed by the two companies will make its debut at the U.S. Open, but contrary to people’s expectations, it won’t be worn by the tennis players. Instead, the ball boys at the tournament will show the world how biometric data is collected with the help of a smart sensor.

OmSignal co-founder and CEO Stephane Marceau explained how the collaboration with Ralph Lauren started on the right foot from the very first meeting: “From the first meeting, we realized David [Lauren] and the team had a very clear point of view on wearable. They were immersed in it, they were very aware of what was going on.”

Marceau also explained that “The shirt is the sensor. We capture what we call the ‘ABC’ of health and wellness. A is for activity, movement…B is for breathing, C is for Cardiac”

David Lauren is aware that the Polo Tech shirt is the first of its kind in the fashion industry, and is quite enthusiastic about that: “Small niche brands have been attempting [smart clothing]. This is definitely the most forward, most cutting edge of all of them, for what we can tell, and merging it with our brand, the sophistication of our fabrics, the lifestyle philosophy is equally important.”

Lauren also explained that fashion should align to modern times, and that wearable technology plays a great role in that: “Our goal is to create and reflect the ultimate lifestyle, and we believe that a healthy and active life is an essential part of that. Ralph Lauren is excited to help lead the industry in wearable technology in this ever-evolving, modern world.”

In the not so distant future, this technology will make its way into Polo shirts, suits, and baby clothes. Lauren pointed out that “This fabric, this material can be used to help you live a better life at any age.”

As clothes finally gain some additional functionality, Lauren admits that “Our goal is to recognize the fact that this market is wanting a life that not only looks better, but actually feels better and is a healthier life.”

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Cityzen smart shirt that acts like a fitness tracker, and the OMSignal workout clothes that share biometric data with your smartphone.

Amazon Gets Serious About Gaming, Buys Twitch for $1B

Posted: 25 Aug 2014 01:17 PM PDT

As Google’s acquisition of the video gameplay website didn’t go through, Amazon looked at this as an opportunity to expand its involvement in the gaming world. The e-tailer is said to plan on buying Twitch for $1 billion or more.

A bit over three weeks ago, Google’s acquisition of Twitch was almost a certainty, and now we find out that Amazon also has an interest in the live-streaming service for videogame players. Oddly enough, the e-tailer is willing to pay the same amount ($1 billion), but might add a bit extra, just to sweeten the deal. According to The Information, Amazon is now in late-stage talks to complete this acquisition. After all, Twitch would fit just fine in the e-tailer’s portfolio, along with the in-house game development studio and the 3D smartphone that was launched recently.

Just to put things into perspective about how big Twitch is, the website has more than 45 million monthly users, and during primetime hours, it fares better than MTV, TNT and AMC. In this context, paying $1B for such a website seems quite a bargain.

Half a year ago, Amazon bought Double Helix Games, the makers of Killer Instinct. Correlate that with the launch of Fire TV, and you can see where all of this is going. The e-tailer is most probably considering adding Twitch to its set-top box, which is already handling gaming pretty well.

If Google’s plan was to torn Twitch apart and integrate it in YouTube, Amazon will likely keep it intact, as it’s more useful like that.

UPDATE: A few minutes ago, Twitch confirmed on Facebook that it has been acquired by Amazon, and quite a few people expressed their enthusiasm saying that it’s better that the e-tailer got ahead of Google in this deal.

In a Thank You letter, Emmett Shear, Twitch’s CEO, stated that “Today, I’m pleased to announce we’ve been acquired by Amazon. We chose Amazon because they believe in our community, they share our values and long-term vision, and they want to help us get there faster. We’re keeping most everything the same: our office, our employees, our brand, and most importantly our independence. But with Amazon’s support we’ll have the resources to bring you an even better Twitch.”

Now that the acquisition is official, it remains to be seen what plans Amazon has for Twitch.

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about Google’s plan to buy Twitch, and Twitch’s new VOD features & copyrighted music blocking system.