That’s a fitting title, as we’ve reached that time of year where TV startups are going to be popping up all over. In fact, two of fall’s best arrive Tuesday, as Atlanta (FX, 10 ET/PT) and Queen Sugar (OWN, 10 ET/PT) – both reviewed elsewhere – begin their weekly cable runs. For fans of streaming, however, and of Emmy-winner Martin Freeman, the place to be is Crackle, which launches this new 10-part series starring Freeman as an unscrupulous FBI agent determined to take down a new digital-currency company.
9/11 Inside the Pentagon PBS, 8 ET/PT
There have been a number of documentaries about the 9/11 attacks, but most of them have focused on the destruction of the World Trade Center. This special takes a different approach, looking instead at the attack on the Pentagon. Along with first-person accounts, PBS says, the program includes rarely seen Department of Defense footage from inside the building.
Zoo CBS, 9 ET/PT
With all these new fall shows on the way, obviously summer series have to get out of the way. Tonight, that means the season finale of Difficult People (Hulu), ABC’s Bachelor in Paradise (8 ET/PT) and Mistresses (10 ET/PT), and Zoo, which wraps up with a two-hour finale. The show has already been renewed for a third summer, so don’t expect that wrap-up to be conclusive.
A little over three years ago, the Popslate presented an intriguing idea: What if a case could turn the back of your phone into an E Ink display? Like a lot of first-generation, crowdsourced products, the original didn’t quite live up to the promise. Popslate 2, though, looks like a very promising course correction.
The original Popslate, which finally materialized last spring, worked as advertised. Its limitations, though, made it difficult to justify as an everyday case. It charged with a different cable than the iPhone 6 it was designed to fit, and at launch only displayed still images pushed from an app on the front of the phone. It eventually used IFTTT to prompt screen updates without manual intervention, but even that required a little bit more digital elbow grease–and a little less functionality–than might justify the added bulk and expense.
Popslate 2 doesn’t just promise to address these issues; it actively adds plenty of functionality as well. It’s an evolution, not merely refinement.
To start, Popslate 2 not only ditched microUSB for the Apple-preferred Lightning cable, the case itself provides a backup battery that can add up to nine hours of talk time (or four hours of browsing) to your iPhone. It manages to do so while still reducing the thickness versus the original Popslate by nearly half. The display itself has improved, as well. Still “shatterproof,” it’s now 200 dpi versus the previous version’s 115, and has a pleasant-looking curve to it.
There’s also an easy way to navigate the latest Popslate on the display itself. Three capacitive touch buttons at the bottom of the display let you switch between apps and scroll through content.
More important than the hardware upgrades, though, are the software smarts Popslate has added. Rather than lean on static images and clumsy IFTTT integration, Popslate now pulls directly from a handful of useful apps to maintain a dynamic display. You still need to download and use the Popslate app to customize your black-and-white rear display, but your options have expanded.
“We are leveraging sources with APIs and pulling that content straight into the Popslate app,” says co-founder Greg Moon. “Planned integrations for launch are: NYT, Twitter, Accuweather, and Google Calendar. We are also putting together partnerships around sports and stocks, which likely will also be part of the launch.”
Moon says the company determined what apps and areas to focus on based on people’s IFTTT usage on the original Popslate. In addition to the news, weather, and social functions it has already has–and the sports and stocks to come–you can expect to see wearable and IoT data apps at some point as well. Popslate 2 also comes with a Wallet function that lets you display items with bar or QR codes, like boarding passes or concert tickets.
That’s not to say everything is perfect. While the ideal app might seem to be Kindle–reading E Ink beats reading on an LCD display any day–you won’t find Amazon’s e-reading software here. You can use Popslate 2 as an e-reader, but currently only through Project Gutenberg, a free e-book resource whose catalog features mostly public domain classics. While Moon wouldn’t confirm if there were plans for Kindle down the road, he’s confident that the e-book selection will expand.
“We are also in discussions with additional e-book providers,” says Moon. “Unfortunately we can’t disclose the parties at present for confidentiality purposes. As a result, our e-book sources and supported formats (including EPUB) will expand substantially after launch.”
The “after launch” part is the other small cause for concern. Like its forebear, Popslate 2 is a crowdfunded project. But while it’s generally healthy to be skeptical of Indiegogo concepts, the fact that the Popslate team has already delivered once offers at least some confidence in the second generation. It’s expected to ship this July, at a cost of $149 (or $69 for early backers).
A second E Ink display isn’t a new idea; a company called Yotaphone has even built one into the handset itself. But if Popslate 2 delivers the improvements it’s promising, it will have made a pretty good product pretty great.
Over the past few months, I’ve watched as five of my friends turned in high profile jobs for new directions. In the past, the ritual of “moving on” would have been done discreetly, behind closed doors, and whispered among close friends. But the power of social media, combined with the changing dynamics of work, gave each of them the freedom and power to embrace the newly emerging trend of the Personal Pivot. Each of their stories is different as you might expect, but they share some themes that I suspect will be valuable to explore.
So first, the stories of Robert Scoble, Stephanie Agresta, Bonin Bough, Rob Barnett and Sree Sreenivasan.
Robert Scoble, after seven years as the Futurist at Rackspace, announced to his 5,000 Facebook friends and his blog readership that he was heading out on his own. His passion for Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality had convinced him that he’d seen the future of technology. He got a spot as an Entrepreneur in Residence at UploadVR and explained rather publicly about the complexity of piecing together a financial base as an independent. He’s now traveling the world, speaking and learning, and working on his next book with his writing partner Shel Israel.
Stephanie Agresta was global social media and digital leader at MSLGroup – a high-powered PR executive who was spending her life on airplanes. PRWeek named her #6 among digital creators in public relations and Business Insider called her one of the top 25 advertising executives on Twitter. But here too, the power of her personal brand and her network gave her the freedom to launch her own company. Now she’s working with startups and innovative entrepreneurs, closer to the companies where her experience can make a meaningful difference in their rapid growth.
Bonin Bough was the chief media and e-commerce officer at Mondelez, the global snack company. After four years at the Kraft spin-off, and years before that at Pepsi – Bough’s drive was focused on startups and innovation. With a book about to be published, and television show with LeBron James called the “Cleveland Hustle” about to have it’s premiere on CNBC – Bough turned in his corporate lifestyle for a job closer to his passions and his beliefs. And he’s just released the book “Txt Me: Your Phone Has Changed Your Life. Let’s Talk About It”
Rob Barnett has been in the media and entertainment business his whole career. In 2006, long before anyone talked about web video or ‘over the top’ channels, he launched My Damn Channel to give talented creators more control over the way they got to make content. Now he’s launching his talent and client focused business with Rob Barnett Media. Sree Sreenivasan was for three years the Chief Digital Officer of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. When that gig came to an end, he shared his job search in a very public way and even went to so far as to publish a page where friends could suggest what gig Sree 3.0 should be looking for. Then, he announced he’d been named New York’s Chief Digital Officer.
While each of their situations is different – there’s a pattern in each of their situations that make for some useful rules that anyone can deploy.
The Five Elements of a Personal Pivot:
Your Network Is Your Most Valuable Asset
Share Passion – Early And Often
Be Humble About Who You Are
Be Honest About What You Need
Be Open To Others, And Their Needs
So, here’s how the Personal Pivot works –
Your Network Is Your Most Valuable Asset. You’re friends and followers are the connecting points to your next potential gig, and their network can be activated to help you find new opportunities, new relationships, and new contacts. So don’t forget you need to be willing to reach out and ask your network to advocate for you – and at the same time always be willing to do the same for anyone in your network. An active network works two ways.
Share Passion – Early And Often. It’s really not possible to overshare within your network, as long as what you’re sharing is relevant to your brand. But putting yourself out there, on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram, on Facebook Live, Periscope, and fast growing networks like SnapChat and Musical.ly. In a world with content becoming more nitchified and fractured – you might think that tweeting a comment once is enough – but it’s not. You can fire off the same tweet four times in a day and have little risk of oversharing.
Be Humble About Who You Are. While sharing is critical – it’s also important that you don’t turn sharing into bragging. It’s easy to make your social sharing about what you’ve done, rather than engaging in a conversation with your friends and followers. So rather than pitching yourself, use your engagement with your community to ask questions, get feedback, and share observations.
Be Honest About What You Need. If you’re thinking about joining startup boards, or mentoring young CEO’s, or working with emerging clients – then make sure to let people know what you’re thinking. You can’t get introductions, connections, leads or opportunities if you’re community doesn’t know what you’re looking for.
Be Open To Others And Their Needs. Asking your friends and followers what you can do for them – who they need to be introduced to, and what kinds of support and feedback they need is a great way to build a connection and put some credits in the favor bank.
The new connected world we live in gives you the power to share. Sharing your career goals, and engaging with your friends to help them, is a new behavior. It wasn’t long ago that these kinds of pursuits were kept private. But as I’m learning from watching my friends – being open and honest can be the most effective way to find opportunities. So don’t worry that sharing your next step will turn people off. Far from it – being open and honest in the new world of the Personal Pivot is the surest way to turn people on.
Request for Information (RFI) for the provision of the payload module for the joint ESA-China SMILE mission
18 December 2015
The European Space Agency invites European industry from ESA Member States to declare their interest for the provision of the payload module for the joint ESA-China SMILE mission by replying to this Request For Information (RFI). The submission deadline for the response to this RFI is 29 January 2016, 12:00 CET (noon).
Direct link to this RFI web page: http://sci.esa.int/SMILE-RFI
The Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer (SMILE) is a joint mission between ESA and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) with a planned launch date in 2022. The mission aims at increasing our understanding of the connection between the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth’s magnetosphere by looking at the nose and polar cusps of the magnetosphere and the aurorae at the North Pole while simultaneously monitoring the in situ plasma environment.
The mission was selected by the Science Programme Committee (SPC) in November 2015 within the ESA Science Programme as the first joint mission with the Chinese Academy for Sciences for a nominal launch in 2022. The payload is provided and funded by consortia from a number of ESA Member States and China. ESA and CAS are jointly the Mission Architect.
The total space segment consists of a Propulsion Module (PM) and Service Module (SVM) provided by CAS, and a Payload Module (PLM) containing all the instruments, the PLM Control Unit and X-band communication system provided by ESA. The launch of the complete space segment will be under ESA responsibility. CAS will be in charge of the Mission Operations Centre, with a possible ESA contribution (e.g. ground station), and both ESA and CAS will participate in the Science Operations Centre.
The objective of the present Request For Information (RFI) is to collect preliminary information from potential providers in ESA Member States, in preparation for the corresponding Invitation to Tender planned in 2016. The payload module procurement would be based on a design-to-cost approach featuring low risks and a reliable development schedule.
DOCUMENTATION
The RFI documentation package can be downloaded from the dedicated section in the right-hand menu. The package includes:
• The RFI for the provision of the payload module for the SMILE mission
• Payload Module Requirements Document (PLMRD)
• Four Instrument Interface Control Documents (summary)
• Space-to-Ground Interface Control Document (summary)
• Environmental Specifications (ES)
• Science Requirements Document (SciRD)
• Payload Definition Document (PDD)
• Mission Analysis Guidelines (MAG)
• Summary of the Internal Final Presentation of the SMILE CDF study (IFP)
INFORMATION DELIVERY
The information package in response to this RFI shall be sent by e-mail to the following addresses:
Silicon Valley’s biggest tech firms are bursting at the seams. Apple’s spaceship campus is nearing completion, but it recently purchased property in San Jose and is reportedly eyeing more property north of its newest campus in Cupertino. Google and Facebook are also looking to expand, and every week I hear of a company that needs more space to house a growing tech staff.
So one has to wonder if they know something we don’t. Are we about to enter a strong growth cycle?
At Creative Strategies, we have spent a lot of time researching this question, and I believe we’ve identified several indicators that the tech industry is poised for a major upswing in the next five to 10 years.
The biggest thing I see coming is 5G. Every major telecom company, as well as chip makers like Qualcomm and Intel are betting their futures on 5G networks and the devices that take advantage of it. The amount of money being spent on this buildout will be staggering, and it means more tech jobs and growth not only in Silicon Valley but all over the world. Once a mesh of broadband wireless networks becomes available, the Internet of Things will really take hold.
A recent Business Insider report estimated that IoT investment will hit $6 trillion over the next five years, with 24 billion IoT devices installed by 2020. Close to $3 trillion will be spent on application development, device hardware, system integration, data storage, security and connectivity between now and 2020. If true, you can see why Apple, Facebook, Google, Intel, Qualcomm, and many other tech companies are prepping for explosive growth.
But the IoT is not just for the home; cars and city infrastructure stand to benefit, too. We are already seeing major moves to put sensors and wireless cameras in light poles, streets, and buildings. While these will be important for city management and services, they will also be critical for use by autonomous vehicles. These costly infrastructure buildouts will take time and demand the help of many engineers and specialty personnel.
A fourth growth area will be data centers, from data mining to data analytic skills and data-specific engineers. Right now, almost every company is in need of more staff to deal with these disciplines, especially data analysis. Each day, these companies collect terabytes or petabytes of data that needs to be searched, analyzed, and used to enhance the ability to create products and services.
All these connected devices, however, will need to be secure. In years past, my career advice has been to become an IT professional or engineer. Now my answer is to become a security expert. This area will only grow as hackers and rogue nations try to steal identifies, state secrets, or intellectual property.
Don’t forget about virtual and augmented reality, or more likely a mix of the two. There is no doubt that VR and AR will revolutionize the computing experience and offer new ways to interact with technology. It’s still early days, but this sector will bring new jobs and new levels of innovation.
Finally, keep an eye on the digitization of the health market and how trackers and smartwatches will link patients to health professionals. At every level of the healthcare system, digital technology will be an important tool for diagnoses, records, and disease prevention.
As one who has tracked the tech market for the last 35 years, I am excited about what’s to come. Clearly, the country’s top tech firms are getting ready for the next great era in technology.
If the Michael Kors Access has taught me anything, it’s that Android Wear watches from fashion-first brands–like Michael Kors–can’t spin Google’s smartwatch story in an entirely different direction. I’ve been testing the Dylan version of the Access for the last two weeks, and while it’s a perfectly good-looking watch, I can’t say it offers dramatically better materials or design compared to the best Android Wear watches from tech-first manufacturers like LG, Huawei, and Motorola.
The Dylan version of the Access bears the familiar “MK” logo on the top of its crown, but that almost invisible flourish will always be a little secret between you and your watch. Beyond that, we can admire the Dylan’s chunky lugs, chiseled bezel, and stark, monochrome palette. The design is effectively butch for anyone who needs that vibe from a watch, but unless you’re already familiar with Michael Kors timepieces, no one will spot the Access on your wrist and ask, “Yo, brah, are you wearing Michael Kors?”
Jon Phillips
Chunky and architectural, the Dylan protrudes just about 12mm off of your wrist. And those aren’t screw heads on the lugs. They’re buttons, and you press them to pop out the strap pins.
Nonetheless, the Access version of Dylan looks very similar to the analog Dylan: more or less the same case and silicone strap, but with two fewer buttons, and, of course, a digital display for Android Wear. The Access also comes pre-loaded with various watch faces that preach the Michael Kors aesthetic a bit more loudly. So, if you just can’t lower yourself to buy a smartwatch from a tech-first manufacturer, you can jump aboard the Michael Kors train, confident that one of the designer’s watch faces will telegraph your brand affinities.
And the Access costs only $350 for the Dylan model I reviewed. That’s a notable–but not egregious–pricing premium compared to Wear watches from the tech companies.
Big, bulky and brand-correct
The Dylan version of Michael Kors Access has a bulky 46mm case. It’s big. There’s also a 44.5mm Bradshaw version that’s more gender-neutral. Both watches have stainless steel cases, but you can choose from a variety of finishes and straps. My review specimen came with a black case and silicone strap, but the Dylan is also sold with silver- and rose gold-colored cases and a leather strap.
Jon Phillips
This still photo of the Falling Glitz watch face can’t even begin to illustate the showy animation that plays in real life. This one definitely belongs on the rose gold Bradshaw version of the watch.
The Bradshaw has a much wider variety of case colors, and comes with either metal bracelets or leather straps. Prices vary across the line-up, and the most expensive version is a $395 Bradshaw model with a gold-tone case and matching pavé bracelet.
Do you want more than one strap? Michael Kors says the only “supported” options are Michael Kors silicone bands at $40 a pop, and leather bands at $50. For what it’s worth, the lug width of the Dylan model is 28mm, but its strap pins measure 12.5mm.
Michael Kors
The Bradshaw version of the Michael Kors Access is slightly smaller at 44.5mm, and comes in many more looks. At the far right we see the gold-tone look with pavé bracelet–the most expensive model at $395.
But let’s go back to that really big case. Because the Dylan is so thick (about 12mm), I actually found it difficult to fit inside the cuffs of some long-sleeved shirts. That’s a first for me, and I’ve worn scads of analog watches, smartwatches and activity trackers.
The Michael Kors Access is also the heaviest wearable I’ve ever put on my wrist. Android Wear supports a few gestures that let you navigate its user interface with a flick of your wrist, and none of them are comfortable with a watch this heavy. Maybe if I had the wrists of Brock Lester I wouldn’t mind, but with my tech-journo anatomy, I see repetitive stress disorder in my future.
Jon Phillips
The Dylan’s silicone strap is comfortable and grippy.
If you can get past the size and weight, you’re left with a design that aligns just about right with the Dylan’s $350 price tag. The black steel case looks almost glossy but held up very well when I whapped it repeatedly with the sharp edge of a metal ruler. I also like the silicon strap. Its grooved texturing helps give the watch a bit more visual ID, and I love all silicone straps for their form-fitting grippiness. Just be prepared to keep it clean, as those grooves are magnets for dirt and debris.
For my own watches, I pick much more traditional, classic designs. But if I styled my hair with a razor-fade pompadour or maybe listened to Pitbull, I could totally see myself wearing the Dylan Access.
Strong battery life and a sun-friendly display
OK, let’s get into the guts. I won’t rehash Android Wear software specifics, but I will share that the Michael Kors Access was running Android Wear 1.5, so it’s definitely not a launch platform for the imminent Android Wear 2.0, which you can read about here. But there’s still a surprise hiding inside the watch: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 2100 processor.
Jon Phillips
The Notes complication has a very subtle star scene animation, and reveals steps progress, the current weather and time zone differentials.
As the name suggests, this chip was designed expressly for next-generation Android Wear watches. Its 30 percent smaller than Qualcomm’s previous-generation chip, and in theory allows for thinner case designs (though, clearly, Michael Kors didn’t get the message). The Wear 2100 also has built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi support, and consumes 25 percent less power than Qualcomm’s previous silicon. I never hammered the watch with excessive use, but I was happy with battery life, and finished all my days of testing with at least 30 percent battery capacity remaining.
Just like all other Android Wear watches, the Access comes with 4GB of storage for apps and music files. The watch is water-resistant to only 1 ATM, so it’s definitely not as rugged as, say, the Nixon Mission, which is good for 10 ATM.
Jon Phillips
Note the “flat tire” of missing pixels at the bottom of the display.
In terms of raw components, the watch’s 1.4-inch TFT LCD display may be the star of the show. With a resolution of 320×290, it has a “flat tire” of missing pixels at the bottom of the display. The touch display is also just a tad slow to respond to swipe gestures. These are negatives, for sure, but damn this watch is legible in sunlight.
For this we can thank transflective display tech. Colors are washed out under a bright sun, but, hey, you can easily read the screen, and that fixes a major pain point of first- and second-generation Wear watches.
Jon Phillips
This image accurately illustrates how that transflective display appears on a bright, sunny day.
Customizable watch faces, heavy on glitz
You can only add so many design elements to a watch case before the hardware gets too loud and gaudy. It’s the watch face that carries at least half of the visual ID, and this puts all digital-display smartwatches at a disadvantage. Lacking moving hands and dials, they can look like sci-fi movie props instead of sophisticated accessories.
Jon Phillips
Here we see the demure ambient mode of the Heart watch face. The full-color mode is gold, animated splendor.
Michael Kors tries to shore up the deficit with a collection of branded watch faces that communicate the designer’s somewhat cheesy Real Housewives aesthetic. The faces aimed at men look techy and mechanical. The ones aimed at women are heavy on costume glitz, with lots of gold accents and rendered pavé insets, and even brief animations. They’re unapologetically trashy, but like NeNe Leakes, Michael Kors appears to be in on the joke.
Jon Phillips
Here’s a custom-designed color scheme for the Digital watch face (the stock black version appears in an image above). The outer ring shows step progress. The thick yellow ring shows the hour, and then we see rings for minutes and even seconds in finer increments.
In the Access settings panel, you can customize the watch faces for different colored backgrounds, hands and accents. You can even define auto-timing modes that set one watch face for daytime (6am to 6pm), and another look that runs at night. It’s a great idea that should be built directly into Android Wear itself. Unfortunately, Michael Kors’ customization interface is confusing, and there are no help notes for customization in the app.
I was also irked by the Access’ feeble charging system. It’s just a flimsy-floppy little puck that attaches to the back of the watch with a weak magnet. It doesn’t sit flat and confidently on a nightstand until you plop on the watch, and I always had to check twice to make sure the watch was actually seated on the puck, and charging.
Jon Phillips
The charging puck forms a weak magnetic bond to the watch, and slips off easily.
What’s in a name? For some, everything
When Android Wear was announced in March 2014, the available models were painfully frumpy. Even the original Moto 360, the most stylish of the bunch, looked more like a tech toy, thanks to its bizarre lug-less design. But that was more than two years ago. Tech brands like Motorola have improved their looks dramatically, and Android Wear watches like the TAG Heuer Connected ($1,500) and Fossil Q Marshal ($295-$315) provide options for consumers who simply must have a lifestyle brand on their wrists.
This is the competitive environment that Michael Kors finds itself in, and despite a fair number of drawbacks, the Access accounts for itself fairly well.
Jon Phillips
Push the crown to access settings, apps and contacts. The crown may bear the only visible Michael Kors logo on the physical design, but, hey, it’s there for those who care.
To be sure, the Access is big and bulky, and its charging adapter feels like an afterthought. But I give props to Michael Kors for imbuing the Access Dylan with essentially the same design as the analog Dylan, and releasing a wide range of woman-friendly Wear watches via the Access Bradshaw. The Dylan is also made of hardy, durable materials, boasts solid battery life, and is easy to read outside.
Are their better values in Android Wear? Most definitely. Do other models offer more features? Sure. But those watches can’t claim a fashion-first pedigree, and for some consumers–however dubious their logic may be–that could a deal-breaker.
HAWTHORNE, Calif. – A well-known Southern California MMA fighter and his wife have decided to donate their baby son’s organs, after the 15-month-old was disconnected from life support systems Sunday, CBS Los Angeles reported.
Liam Mikael Kowal was being pushed in a stroller by his 15-year-old aunt when both were struck by an SUV Saturday afternoon. The pair was in a crosswalk at an intersection. The intersection has flashing yellow lights, but is not a stoplight.
Liam was taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where he was stabilized. The family decided to remove him from life support Sunday.
The baby’s aunt recovering from leg injuries and is in stable condition.
Liam was the son of MMA fighter Marcus Kowal, a mixed martial arts athlete who owns Systems Training Centers. Kowal announced on hisFacebook page Monday that he and his wife had decided to donate the baby’s organs.
“This isn’t easy to write but Liam is going to donate his organs, so that his little heart can make another child live,” Kowal wrote.
“They made the decision, I think it’s a beautiful decision, and it’s based on the fact that if they can have a set of parents that doesn’t have to go what they’re doing through,” said Thomas Kowal, the baby’s uncle.
Donna Marie Higgins, 72, was arrested on suspicion of felony hit-and-run and felony drunk driving Saturday. Hawthorne police said witnesses followed Higgins after she left the scene.
Suspect Donna Marie Higgins.
Hawthorne PD via CBS Los Angeles
Higgins was released from the Hawthorne jail on $100,000 bail. Since Liam has died, Higgins may now be charged with felony vehicular manslaughter. The district attorney was expected to make a decision about the charges against Higgins Tuesday.
esa.int, Beatrice.Weihert
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