Minnov8

Showcasing Minnesota Technology Innovation

Mobile March Agenda Announced

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Our pals over at Mobile March just announced their full agenda, the lineup of presentations looks strong, and once again this is a must-attend event. You can view the full agenda here and the full press release is below:

Mobile March 2015 Agenda Announced
6th annual mobile event releases agenda with four tracks and three keynotes.

mmtc_500Minneapolis, MN – The Organizers of Mobile March today confirmed their agenda for the 6th annual conference scheduled for March 26th, 2015 at the Earle Brown Heritage Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park. The full day event includes three keynote presentations from nationally recognized speakers and four tracks of sessions. Tracks this year include Mobile Development, Mobile Design, Mobile Enterprise and Mobile Life. In keeping with the focus of learning all aspects of mobile, attendees are encouraged to attend session across multiple tracks.

Keynote addresses this year include, Billy Jurewicz, founder and CEO of Twin Cities digital agency Space150 offer a peek into the future and recap the state of digital to physical technology, Alex Haley of Present Endeavors will explore the Mindfulness movement in a tech crazy world, and Mark Wilkie, CTO of BuzzFeed wraps up the day with a look on his company’s aggressive app strategy.

Mobile March organizer Phil Wilson noted, “This year we are striving to delve deeper into what is happening across the mobile space. We feel this agenda represents not only where the mobile industry is but where it’s going” He goes on to say, “With the introduction of the Mobile life track and the our keynote on Mindfulness, we’ve also tried to focus on the human side of mobile, not often taken into account at other conferences.”

The full agenda may be seen at http://mobilemarchtc.com/2015-agenda/

Registration is now open for Mobile March, Thursday March 26th, 2015 at the Earle Brown Heritage Center via the Mobile March website atwww.mobilemarch.com or directly through Eventbrite at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mobile-march-2015-tickets-14763844055. Cost of registration prior to March 19thth is $115. Student discounts are available as well.

About Mobile March
Founded in 2010, Mobile March is an event dedicated to exploring the latest in mobile technology and trends. The name Mobile March not only denotes the month in which it takes place, it also emphasizes the ongoing advancement and growth of mobile technology and the related lifestyle.

By offering content that appeals to mobile developers, business people, and users we hope to facilitate a greater understanding between the constituencies that make mobile happen.  Whether you make money with mobile or just use it to stay connected, we invite you to join us for Mobile March.

Mary Lower
Sterling Cross Communications
(612) 636-6544
@PRMoxie

Mobile App Discovery Not Getting Easier; ‘Zombies’ Gaining

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Image ©TelegraphUK

Image ©TelegraphUK

Basically, app discovery is a bitch, and the App Store is no longer the answer. That is the gist of a report on “2015 App Store Competition” published a couple days ago by an analytics firm in Berlin called Adjust. (PDF of the full report here.)

Minnesota developers are of course not strangers to this problem.  It’s especially painful for startups looking to get traction in today’s “mobile first” startup environment — and moreso if they don’t have Silicon Valley sized funding rounds.  I asked a couple of experienced mobile industry players here in Minnesota for their reaction to this news.  But first, more on the report.

It opens with a somber tone: “The app ecosystem is evolving, and it is becoming more Darwinistic every day. Only the fittest of the fittest shall survive – which comes as no surprise to the developers who have followed closely as the app economy took a couple of milestones in the past year. The total volume of apps available through Apple’s app store crossed 1,000,000 apps in early April, only to continue its unrestricted growth to reach almost 1.5 million apps in December. At first sight, this seems to be an insignificant problem, because while the number of apps grows, so too does the user base. But this is hardly a compensatory mechanism, as each user can only handle a limited number of apps… With the growing number of apps, winning at the app store discovery game, securing those top 10 or even top 50 placements in their category, is proving an unattainable dream for many developers with smaller marketing budgets.”

Here are the key stats from the report:

• The App Store grew 60% in 2014, from 890,000 available apps on January 1 to more than 1.42M on December 31.

• The “Zombie” rate increased from 74% in January 2014 to more than 83% in December.

Image ©AppAnnie

Image ©AppAnnie

What is a Zombie, you ask?  It’s an app that’s effectively invisible in the App Store and not ranking in the top lists.  An app that’s not displayed in the rankings is only available to users searching for it specifically.  The App Store is an exceedingly crowded marketplace where only the biggest brands and budgets are able to achieve visibility among visitors.

Competition for visibility in the app stores is expected to get even worse in 2015.  “If this trend continues – and nothing indicates it wouldn’t – we’ll see less than a tenth of apps attracting any kind of organic user attention by the end of the year, and those that do gain attention will be apps that already have significant traction,” said Christian Henschel, CEO and cofounder of Adjust. “The app store, as a source of organic acquisition, has finite capacity. When that’s reached, the app store will be dead.”

Okay, that last phrase is a little bit out there — but you get the point.

Emerging user acquisition techniques are replacing app stores for discovery.  Here’s how Adjust’s CEO puts it: ”Developers need to look to other ways of promoting their work.  In 2015, we’re looking at multiple techniques emerging that allow more ad formats to be less of a nuisance, instead adding value for users. If we can make ad user experience better, we can promote good content in new ways and places. The techniques that we are exploring – such as in-app use of source data – already show great promise to provide really good experiences for users in acquisition.”  [Here’s one example. Hint: it has everything to do with data.]

Adjust’s report makes it clear that, as more app developers vie for consumer attention, 2015 presents a huge challenge for developers, “and an opportunity for app marketing and analytics vendors to provide app publishers with the tools to optimize their user acquisition and in-app performance.”

So, what do some local mobile app industry players have to say?  First, I asked Wade Beavers, WadeBeaversCEO, DoApp Inc., a mobile app publisher founded in 2008. His answer shows this is hardly news to him.  He sees the growth in the App Store from another viewpoint:  “The amazing growth in the App Store is a direct reflection that the mobile web does not fulfill the appetite of users and developers.  That is the story.  For years folks have been trying to make the mobile web the replacement, but it is not happening.  The store needs a better way (for app discovery), but the real story is the mobile web is losing.”

Another Minnesota player who’s extremely close to this issue is Rob Weber, SVP and cofounder, NativeX (formerly W3i). His firm has been in the business of app distribution for RobWeberyears (even well before mobile). It has mobile app customers nationwide, including many in the Bay Area, where it has offices. Here’s what Rob had to say: “Nothing this report is saying is very surprising to me. From our vantage point at NativeX, we’ve seen that mid-sized app publishers and longtail hobby app publishers have been getting squeezed for a long time by the very top app publishers. Everyone has been watching Facebook’s massive growth in mobile ad revenues in recent quarters, most of which is coming from app advertisers. There are alternatives such as NativeX, but these alternatives also run on an auction basis, so there are some pricing pressures even in other channels. Facebook is the juggernaut. With Facebook’s auction-based ad platform being the dominant form of app discovery, top app publishers can afford to outbid smaller competitors and essentially squeeze them out of distribution. Many of the mid-sized app publishers have either folded up shop over the recent years, or been ‘acqui-hired’ by bigger app publishers. This trend is likely to continue.  It is a sign of the space reaching maturity.  The winners are primarily in gaming, where publishers like King and SuperCell have established dominant positions. To show just how far these top app publishers will go to expand distribution, and how big this space is, witness the multiple, very expensive Super Bowl commercials we saw this past weekend.”

As you may know, NativeX offers monetization solutions for app developers, with a heavy focus on game apps (the largest category in the App Store). And it has some pretty good data science chops of its own. The company was cited in this recent report: VentureBeat Recognizes NativeX As a Top 10 Company for Monetization & User Acquisition. It was also named as a leader in another report published by VentureBeat in late November: Mobile User Acquisition: How the most successful developers get better users for less money.

I’d be interested in hearing from mobile startups here in Minnesota — those in non-gaming categories — about what they’re doing to get their new apps discovered, or get more downloads for their existing apps.  Is it all just about raising more money to spend on Facebook ads?  Comment here or shoot me an email.

Mobile Digital Health Conference Debuts

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mobcon-dhWith Minnesota’s success in medical devices, and increasingly in med-tech overall, focusing health innovation with mobile in one event is a smart strategy.

A new conference called MobCon Digital Health will be held April 8, 2015 at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Minneapolis.

Click here to register.

MobCon Launches a Digital Health Conference in 2015

MobCon Digital Health to Focus on Technology in the Healthcare Industry

MINNEAPOLIS, MN. JANUARY 26, 2015—MobCon, an innovative mobile strategy conference in Minneapolis, announced today the launch of MobCon Digital Health in 2015. On the heels of the highly successful MobCon 2014, which was attended by hundreds of mobile enthusiasts from around the country, MobCon Digital Health, to be held at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis on April 8, 2015, will zero in on advances in technology that will impact the healthcare industry.

Emceed by Archelle Georgiou, MD, a physician and healthcare industry expert for KSTP-5 Eyewitness News and President of Georgiou Consulting. MobCon Digital Health will be a powerful force for the future of digital healthcare. Keynote presentations and educational tracks on the Future of Digital Health, Regulatory & Legal Compliance, The Power of Data, From Sensors to Mobile, and Digital Health as a Business will be presented by the top minds in the healthcare industry.

MobCon Digital Health has also announced its Advisory Board, which will provide insights into trends in the healthcare industry and offer guidance on program development. The Board includes:

  • Jack Cosentino, Health Practice Director, MentorMate
  • Sara Ratner, Senior Vice President of Operations, RedBrick Health
  • Archelle Georgiou, MD, President, Georgiou Consulting
  • Shaye Mandle, President and CEO, LifeScience Alley
  • Ann Holder, Executive Director, Medtronic
  • Amy Ronneberg, CFO, Be the Match
  • Jeffrey Blank, Managing Director, Treehouse Health
  • Levi Downs, MD, Chief Medical Officer, University of Minnesota Health
  • Kevin Ronneberg, MD, Medical Director, Target Corporation
  • Tim Bowman, Director, Entrepreneur in Residence, Optum
  • Timmeko Love, Business Development Manager, Mayo Clinic Ventures
  • Nancy Kingsland, Senior Manager, Global Health Promotion, General Mills

About MobCon Digital Health: MobCon Digital Health is the foremost healthcare technology conference, bringing together top medical industry experts and healthcare IT innovators for a one-day event to showcase the emerging models of healthcare. Designed as a central point to engage and share innovation, best practices and digital and mobile strategies related to health and healthcare, MobCon Digital Health will empower attendees to discover new ways to improve healthcare outcomes. Learn more here.

Quantifying the Hype: A Data Analysis of #CES2015

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CES-signThink of it as the morning after. Actually, it was the Monday following the week when 2015 International CES ended, on a Friday. I was scrolling through my email, trying to decompress — feeling some pride in surviving multiple weeks of being blasted with hundreds (thousands?) of PR pitches from an absolutely cuh-razy variety of exhibiting companies, from all over the globe. The blisters on my feet weren’t hurting so bad anymore. Whew! Things were finally starting to… slow… down.

Part of this decompression process is always trying to form in my head my overall opinion of the show — this after writing a couple of posts (and shooting a ton of photos), but no one person can ever really write enough posts to describe their entire experience at this thing. Which begs the question, how the hell do I summarize yet another year of this massive tech-product sensory overload? It is not easy netting it out!

As luck would have it, however, along comes one last, lonely email pitch, from a smart PR guy in New York (Jay Kolbe, Managing Director of SparkPR). I’ve never met him, but I’m liking what I’m reading. He’s telling me what he has today is “the most comprehensive data set you’re going to find about CES, with regards to what was actually ‘talked about’ and ‘seen’ in the last week online, via mobile and across Twitter.” Music to my ears!  He’s summarized it for me… with real data!

So, what follows — pretty much word-for-word — is what he proceeded to tell me in that email pitch. I asked him if he had any charts to support his summary, and he quickly complied.  The data, and the charts, are from Amobee Intelligence, a digital marketing company that developed an intelligence technology platform, which is described at the end of this post. (Amobee is, you guessed it, a SparkPR client.) Herewith, that data summary, which supports a lot of what I had observed with my own eyes (and heard and read) at the show. But it gave me more insight than I could possibly have gathered on my own… and nothing beats real data, ya know?

Samsung, Sony, and LG made the biggest impact at CES, but not necessarily for what they actually showed during the event. In several instances, awareness for these brands was driven as much by what they didn’t bring to the event as to what they actually displayed. TVs and computers were strong, as always, but washing machines (yes, WASHING MACHINES! as in the “Internet of Things”) and Wearables were as prominent as ever. And the auto industry continued its growing involvement with the event, mostly on the strength of talk about self-driving cars.

Brand-Related_DataConsumedatCES2015

Samsung indexed as the most “seen” brand online, via mobile and across social, during the week of CES. From curved computer screens, to SUHD TVs with enhanced LCD backlights, to washing machines with built-in sinks for washing delicates, what made Samsung stand out was the sheer volume of products that they brought to the event in Las Vegas. Also gaining them notice was their renewed focus on the “Internet of Things.” By 2017, Samsung is projecting that 90% of their products will be connected to the Internet.

Mobile Products and Washing Machines: Top of the Class at CES

While rumors that Samsung would debut the Galaxy S6 at CES proved untrue, that phone still caused a sizable amount of online chatter, driving speculation that they were showing the smartphone privately to carriers at the event. Galaxy S6-related interest represented 11% of all the Samsung awareness around CES.

Nearly as ubiquitous, Sony had 71% as much CES-related consumption as Samsung between January 6-9. Among the Sony products generating interest were what they claimed was the world¹s thinnest 4K TV, Playstation Now (an app that lets you play popular video games from the cloud without needing to buy a console), an HD action camera with 4K video, and the relaunch of the iconic Walkman — now reimagined as a high-end HD music player with Bluetooth headphones for serious audiophiles.

[A note from Graeme: But don’t buy one of those – buy one of these.]

As with Samsung, much of the discussion around Sony was for the highly anticipated Xperia Z4, which wasn’t publicly shown at CES, as many hoped, driving discussions online that accounted for 24% of all Sony-related awareness at CES.

Another brand making waves was LG, which had 61% as much CES awareness asSamsung during the event. LG was a brand that did unveil its big smartphones at CES, with the bendable LG G Flex 2 accounting for 22% of all LG-related consumption at CES. Other hits included seven 4K OLED TVs with Quantum Dot Displays and an extremely popular Twin Wash washing machine, which pragmatically allows you to get two loads done at once. There was also a semi-mysterious smart watch built for Audi that allows you to unlock your car, among other functions.

Computing Always Strong at CES

Meanwhile Intel had 37% as much related awareness as Samsung over the course of CES. 12% of Intel CES related consumption was around Curie, the button sized platform meant to power the next generation of wearable devices, with another 6% of Intel¹s awareness at the convention related to RealSense. While RealSense is already in the market, much of the focus in the Intel keynote was around both practical and imaginative applications for the camera recognition system. Intel also made a big splash with their announcement that they¹d be devoting $300 million to improving workplace diversity in their workforce.

Lenovo managed to draw 16% awareness as Samsung, driven by their lineup of Tab 2 A7 tablets, Flex 3 laptops, and the S41 Notebook – all budget devices. Blackberry had 13% as much awareness as Samsung, largely around the announcement of QNX becoming an “Internet of Things” platform and around BBM messaging coming to Android Wear. It appears that their embracing of IoT is helping return Blackberry to prominence.

There was 12% as much consumption around Asus as Samsung, almost exclusively around the Zenfone 2 phablet.

Auto-Related_DataConsumedatCES2015

Autos Show Well at CES

For the second year in a row, self-driving cars made the biggest impression at the event. With 11% as much awareness as Samsung, Mercedes-Benz made a splash with their self-driving car prototype, the F 015 Luxury in Motion. Meanwhile, Audi had 10% as much awareness as Samsung, around their own autonomous car and the previously mentioned LG watch prototype.

There was 46% as much CES-related awareness around BMW as around Mercedes-Benz, primarily for the BMW iHome Charging Service for electric cars and their experimental ActiveAssist technology, which literally makes it impossible to crash your car when you¹re parking it. NVIDIA had 31% as much CES awareness as Mercedes, mostly around Drive PX platform that identifies objects from up to 12 cameras at once, and will be used to power self-driving cars. Volkswagen had 30% as much CES awareness as Mercedes, around their Golf R Touch touch-less gesture-controlled interface concept and semi-automatic Park Assist feature.

[A note from Graeme: See my post about the VW press conference.]

At slightly lower of a profile, Ford had 19% as much CES awareness as Mercedes-Benz, mostly around their SYNC 3 communications and entertainment system, with such features as improved voice recognition. Similarly themed, Parrot had 13% as much CES related awareness as Mercedes-Benz — around The Simple Box, their connected automotive infotainment solution. Android Auto also had 13% as much CES awareness, as brands like Volkswagen, Kenwood, Parrot, and Pioneer integrated Android Auto into their products.

Making less consumer focused news, Toyota had 8% as much awareness as Mercedes, on the heels of releasing 5,680 patents around their fuel cell technology, in an effort to promote “unconventional collaboration.” Finally, Chevy had 4% as much awareness around their last-minute decision to unveil the 2016 Chevrolet Volt at CES, instead of the Detroit Auto Show a week later.

Like Dark Matter, Apple Was Part of the CES Conversation Even When It Was Unseen

Apple had 9% as much CES awareness as Samsung, not because of what they presented at CES (because they never do), but because their products were being compared to products that did launch at CES. For instance, there were several competitive products to Apple¹s automated home center called HomeKit, and numerous smart watch competitors to the upcoming Apple Watch.

Subjects_DataConsumedatCES2015

Top Topic Areas at CES Driven by Wearables

Moving on to the top CES associations by subject matter, if 2014 was the year Wearables arrived at CES, 2015 was the year that Wearables arrived front and center. There was more awareness around Wearables than any other topic at CES this year. In fact, there was 54% more awareness around Wearables than around any other product area, with related subjects also dominating the list. There was 33% as much CES-related awareness around Smart Watches as around Wearables, 28% as much around Internet of Things, 27% as much around Self-Driving Cars, and 22% as much around Drones as around Wearables.

[A note from Graeme: To keep up on the world of wearables, here’s a great resource.]

Apart from areas that are directly related to the “Internet of Things,” there was 65% as much CES-related awareness around Smartphones as there was around Wearables, with the Asus Zonefone 2 and LG G Flex 2 leading the charge. There was only 27% as much CES awareness around Tablets as there was around Wearables, with 24% as much around Cameras at the event.

On the TV front, there was 48% as much CES-related awareness around 4K and 44% as much related awareness around Curved TVs as around Wearables, indicating that 4K may be the next must-have product in that industry.

——————-

About Amobee: The above data was compiled by Amobee Intelligence (formerly Kontera), a company that helps brands understand the world’s content and customers’ interests. Its Intelligence platform analyzes the content being read and consumed on the Web, on social platforms, and on mobile devices. This historical and real-time information is used to provide marketers with trends and actionable insights for marketing strategies. Each day, the company cross-correlates the consumption patterns of more than 2 billion content items as they are seen and read by consumers across the web, mobile, and social digital ecosystem.

Core Technology & Platform: Amobee’s Marketing Intelligence focuses on surfacing both real-time and historical interest trends and patterns based on what content people actually “see” and consume across the entire digital ecosystem. Its Brand Intelligence technology is based on several proprietary semantic, statistical, and linguistic algorithms that analyze and correlate consumption of social, web, and mobile content. This real-time platform examines on a daily basis what consumers see and their content consumption patterns as they view and consume across more than 400,000 websites, 550 terabytes of video, 1.4 billion tweets, 450 million articles, 550 million images, and more than 300 billion phrases, to quickly aggregate actionable insights on more than 27,000 interest topics, 8,000 celebrities, 12,000 locations, and 350,000 products.

[Note: This post first appeared on my personal blog, GraemeThickinsOnTech.com.] 

Darn You, #CES2015 – You Made Me Buy a Pono Music Player

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Pono-logoI didn’t go to the CES show looking to buy anything. I was already spending enough money getting there… and, um, making cabbies rich once I arrived. But the chance to listen to Neil Young’s Pono music player at the Showstoppers press event at CES on Tuesday evening last week convinced me to open my wallet. The experience was just so amazing. 

Understand, now, I’m no audiophile or crazy-geeky music connoisseur. But I do know when I hear something that’s like nothing else. So I decided pretty instantly — yep, I’m a buyer! At $399, it’s a bargain toPono-MusicPlayers be able to have on-demand music experiences that rise above anything else, as Pono does. And as I considered the cost, I figured, hey, how many people paid this much and more for iPods back in the day? (Even though I admit I didn’t.) So, price is especially relative in this case.

Compare your iPod to the Pono sometime, if you can find someone who owns one, or if you can find a demo unit in a store. You will be convinced. Or compare it to the sound quality of any of the various modern smartphones out there today — those sure haven’t improved music listening much at all since the iPod, in any way I’m aware of.

Let’s face it, the portable music experience still leaves a lot to be desired — even with a $300 pair of headphones. The main limiting factor is the file compression that was required when music first went digital — that’s what really ruined the sound quality of music, compared to when vinyl albums were the gold standard. That’s what fired up Neil Young enough to decide, some years ago, that he would pull together a team of experts to do something about it!

I don’t care how many tracks I can store on the player itself and the removable memory card. Quality is much more important to me than quantity of tracks. I won’t bore you with all the tech specs. You wanna geek out, read CNet’s very good take — by Aussie Ty Pendlebury (just published January 7th).

What song did I listen to when I finally found Pono’s crowded Showstoppers table, you ask? Why, “Heart of Gold,” of course!

Afterwards, I chatted with Phil Baker, Pono’s Senior VP of Product Development & Operations, who updated me about the success of Pono’s Kickstarter project. The company just completed the shipment of its first 15,000 units. And now orders are open to anyone to place from the company’s web site, right here — with delivery stated for February. (There’s even a discount code that will get you free shipping: CES2015 … and, shhh, it’ll work even if you weren’t there.)

By the way, Phil’s an interesting cat — read about his background on Pono’s “About Us” page (scroll way down), which includes experience with Apple. He, like the rest of the team, are not youngsters by any means — they have some years on ‘em. But it just goes to show you: experience does matter.

As they say, all the money in the world won’t buy you experience.

This team of old guys sure pulled off an amazing accomplishment in the Pono music player. And I can’t wait to fire mine up! Look for me at CoCo-Minneapolis sometime, after February, and I’ll give you a listen… 🙂

I Crashed the Volkswagen Press Conference at #CES2015

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VW-PressConf-CESWell, actually, I didn’t crash it (I had my Minnov8 press pass), but I did stumble in late… 🙁 Would you believe, just as it was wrapping up? Damn long cab rides! But there were still lots of people milling about on stage, and both the vehicles were still there. So, I grabbed some photos, and the press kit on my way out.

The red car is the Golf R Touch, which was attracting the most attention, and the white car is an e-Golf, their electric car, which looked lonely in comparison. (But who needs that now with cheap gas, right?!) They showed a “Connected Golf” version of that car, which is a set of features that seems to be their major focus at CES.VW-GolfRTouch

As a big VW guy myself — I’ve owned or leased six or seven of them in my lifetime, and I’ve been driving them exclusively for 10 years now — I just had to find out what was new. So, here’s what your roving Minnesota reporter at CES found out…

“Ten Key Facts about Volkwagen Innovations at CES”:

1) Golf R Touch offers intuitive operation of high-tech infotainment.

2) Gesture control of Golf R Touch revolutionizes user operation.

VW-eGolf3) Volkswagen will introduce MirrorLink™, CarPlay (Apple), and Android Auto (Google) in the vehicle in 2015.

4) Media Control integrates tablets and smartwatches into the Volkswagen infotainment system.

5) Regular Routes is ideal for daily drivers.

6) Inductive charging will be an important component of electric mobility.

7) Charge Check indicates the charge status by vehicle lights.

8) e-Station Guide shows the way to the perfect charging station.

9) Digital Key makes the smartphone a car key.

10) Trained Parking enables semi-automated parking.

It was not clear from the press kit exactly when in 2015 all of these features will be available — some may be in 2015 models now, others as the year goes on. That last one may be the furthest out, and will actually include something called Park Assist, which drives the car into the garage semi-automatically. Such huge demand for that, you know!

Anyway, with all the buzz VW will be generating from their presence at CES — and I saw their huge booth being set up in North Hall on Monday, too — perhaps it will help reverse their declining sales in the U.S. market in the past year or so.  Of course, if they’d just bring back the Passat wagon — the car I’ve actually loved for 10 years now (two of ’em, both Turbos), that would help a lot. People love them, and I sense really want them back. I know I would surely buy another one. Yes, the Golf is the world’s best-selling car, and it’s cool… but, hey, it’s just a little too juvenile, ya know?

Minnesota tie-in alert! Did you know our state ranks among the leaders nationally in VW sales? In one recent year, the Walser family of dealerships, based here in the Twin Cities, ranked #2 among all VW dealerships in the U.S.

[Note: This post originally appeared on my personal blog, GraemeThickinsOnTech.]

Technovation’s App Day Adventure

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technovationOften it seems that there is only lip service paid to the fact that there are fewer girls and young women learning to code and embrace technical engineering. Then there are organizations like Technovation[MN] (brought to Minnesota by Code Savvy) who have already taken action and are doing something about it.

Their Technovation Challenge season kicks off on January 11th with their ‘App Day’ adventure. Read the press release below for more information and how you can participate.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Melanie Shirley
612.385.7846

Technovation[MN] kicks off the Technovation Challenge
season with App Day on January 11

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn., January 7, 2014 – On January 11, more than 20 girls and 20 mentors will gather at TIES Training Center to learn how to code mobile apps in preparation for the Technovation Challenge that kicks off on January 12th.

Technovation[MN] is launching the Technovation Challenge in Minnesota for the second year in a row. The Technovation Challenge inspires girls in middle and high school to dream up, design, code and pitch mobile phone apps that help their communities. Through this program, Technovation[MN] seeks to attract, encourage and inspire the next generation of women technology entrepreneurs and empowers them to use technology to make the world a better place.

Last year, twelve teams of girls, ages 10 to 19, from Twin Cities area middle schools and high schools participated in the Technovation Challenge. This year, Technovation[MN] plans to have 25 – 30 teams from Twin Cities area schools guided by over 80 mentors from local businesses and organizations. Together, they will follow the Technovation Challenge curriculum to dream up, design and build their mobile apps. Teams build apps that solve a community problem or address a teen or womens’ issue.

“Our community volunteers and mentors are working to close the gender gap in computer science by teaching girls how to code and how to be successful entrepreneurs,” explained Shawn Stavseth, Co-Founder of Technovation[MN]. “Designing mobile apps is real and tangible for these girls because their phones are something they use every day. We want girls to understand the powerful role that technology can play in solving world problems.”

This year’s Technovation Challenge will conclude with a celebration on April 26 called Appapalooza, where the teams will show and pitch their mobile apps. The Appapalooza event is free and open to the public. To learn more, please go to Technovation[MN].

YOUR PARTICIPATION

  • Do you know a girl or a school that would want to be on a Technovation[MN] team? Apply here.
  • Do you want to volunteer to be a part of this amazing organization to help girls learn about coding and entrepreneurship? Contact Technovation[MN] here.
  • Interested in supporting Technovation[MN] with a gift? Donations are welcome here.

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About Technovation[MN]: Technovation[MN] was formed to bring the global Technovation Challenge to Minnesota. We want to inspire and enable Minnesota teen girls to dream up, design, code and pitch mobile phone apps. We provide information, resources, and encouragement for Minnesota Technovation Challenge teams including mentor recruitment and training. We also host several App Days to excite interest, and the Minnesota Appapalooza event to celebrate our girls success.

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2015 CES: Samsung’s SmartThings Rolls Out New Product & Services

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ST-CES2015As expected, Samsung’s CEO BK Yoon delivered an Internet of Things-centric keynote. Though the keynote was surprisingly simplistic and quite basic, he did give a high level overview that focused on the importance of open standards. He then committed to Samsung being open and focused on open, interoperable things.

He then introduced Alex Hawkinson, SmartThings’ CEO.

Without going in to any specifics, Hawkinson proceeded to roll out their new hub, new sensors, and a premium cloud service while touting their partnerships and that they’ve doubled the number of developers since being acquired by Samsung six months ago.

The new hub is particularly welcome from we early adopters (I’ve been a user since day one). The current hub only worked when the internet connection was live and it was quite frustrating when their service was down and lights wouldn’t turn on (or off…and be on all night). Now, should your internet connection go down, the hub will still perform all of its functions to trigger events with the ‘things’ connected to it.

Their blog post had this to say about what was new:

The new SmartThings Hub includes a more powerful processor and local app engine, built-in backup battery power, and expanded cellular connectivity. This will enable SmartThings to continue operating in the event of a power or Internet outage.

The new Hub also expands connectivity options to include additional wireless protocols such as Bluetooth Smart, providing customers with the widest range of devices supported by any smart home platform.

They’ve also announced a new family of sensors with modified versions of the SmartSense Presence, SmartSense Motion, and SmartSense Multi sensors.

In addition, a new (optional) premium cloud-based service will “…offer customers advanced incident management control, and improved home monitoring through DVR video streaming.“

While potentially exciting, the cloud service also has a potential downside. Like many companies in the Internet of Things space, SmartThings/Samsung is seemingly salivating over the prospect of having all of our connected-device data flowing to them.

Samsung connected TVs is already collecting our TV watching habits and a comprehensive service collecting significant usage data from within our homes could be problematic from  a privacy perspective.

After SmartThings CEO Alex Hawkinson spoke about their new premium service, there was a short segment about how an Internet of Things wine refrigerator could understand consumption patterns and make recommendations, but then went on to talk about the huge benefit for marketing and the supply chain to understand all of it. That intimates in-home usage data would benefit marketers and stores, and potentially also cause unknown privacy breaches.

So perhaps we can set up the new SmartThings hub, get it working, and then disconnect it from the internet?

StarTribune: IoT is Target for Hackers

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strib-iot

Article by the StarTribune’s Jeff Hargarten on Internet of Things cyberattack threat:

Cyberattacks launched through toasters, dishwashers, watches and refrigerators are among the threats information security professionals anticipate as the “Internet of things” becomes a reality.

…there have already been recorded instances of other home appliances across the country being exploited by hackers. Earlier this year, 750,000 spam e-mails were traced back to a “thingnet” of more than 100,000 gadgets that included televisions, home entertainment centers and at least one refrigerator.

Read ‘Internet of things’ is soft target for hackers for more…

Why Encrypt Your Voice Calls End-to-End?

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As if it wasn’t already bad enough that our own National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting everything digital that we produce online (e.g., emails; SMS; metadata; Facebook posts), now German researchers have discovered a flaw that could let anyone listen to your mobile phone calls!

From the Washington Post article:

German researchers have discovered security flaws that could let hackers, spies and criminals listen to private phone calls and intercept text messages on a potentially massive scale – even when cellular networks are using the most advanced encryption now available.

The flaws discovered by the German researchers are actually functions built into SS7 for other purposes – such as keeping calls connected as users speed down highways, switching from cell tower to cell tower – that hackers can repurpose for surveillance because of the lax security on the network.

While the German researchers didn’t analyze U.S. mobile carriers (though did call out the German-owned T-Mobile USA as one that is vulnerable) the article did point out that simply encrypting ones communications may not be enough: “Those skilled at the myriad functions built into SS7 can locate callers anywhere in the world, listen to calls as they happen or record hundreds of encrypted calls and texts at a time for later decryption.”

utah-data-center-entranceThis is especially true since the NSA has their $2 billion digital collection and analysis facility in Utah where they are archiving the encrypted communications and files they’re gathering with their mass surveillance and can’t yet crack…until they get their new quantum computers online, no doubt.

With obviously zero awareness of the irony, the NSA has this page touting their Utah facility and in it is a photo of their sign, welcoming visitors. It says, “Welcome to the Utah Data Center. If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear.” A bogus argument, at best.

Fortunately there is no shortage of ways to keep your voice communications private and secure, at least until they can be cracked quickly and there is actual, warrant-based reasons to decrypt some person’s encrypted communications. Until the mobile phone providers implement truly secure, end-to-end encryption for voice—and not like what Verizon did with their app that put an NSA-friendly ‘backdoor’ in their new Voice Cypher app.

hacker-in-darkWhile one, sweeping problem is the NSA collecting everything (both encrypted and unencrypted) it goes way beyond that because of what those German researchers found which is worth repeating: that anyone with the requisite skills and resources can hack the mobile networks and eavesdrop on (or record) mobile calls.

So how do you stay safe?

PROJECTS
There are a number of projects working on end-to-end encryption for voice calls. The two that stand out are the Zfone Project and the Guardian Project.

The former is led by the guy that created the world’s top email encryption, Pretty Good Privacy, Phil Zimmerman and the latter which has delivered a phone app integration called Ostel, which works with apps for Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia, Windows, Mac OS X and GNU/Linux. Read more about its app integration here. While still not as straightforward to implement as it would be if end-to-end encryption for voice was built in to the phone, there are some good approaches and apps that should make it easy for you.

APPS & APPROACHES
There are no shortage of apps for both iOS and Android. One that stands out (and one I personally trust) is from a company called Silent Circle setup by the aforementioned Phil Zimmerman and a team of savvy technologists and cryptologists.

Silent Circle offers two key products you might be interested in if you want secure, end-to-end, encrypted voice calls:

  • Silent Phone (iOS and Android): The app is free but requires a Silent Circle encrypted calling plan. The cool thing? Like other app-to-app calling solutions, calling to another subscriber using the app is free (and there is a desktop app too). Otherwise you buy a monthly subscription for a number of “out-of-circle” minutes (so you can call regular phones).
  • Silent Circle also has a full, secure, Android-based smartphone called the Blackphone.
  • Other apps:

While many journalists, security bloggers and social media users seem tickled that the FBI director James Comey came out with his deep concern that the new iOS8-based iPhone 6 was encrypting emails, pictures and contacts making it ‘impossible’ for law enforcement to gain access, there might be more to it than it appears. It is highly likely this is all “theater” to help Apple be positioned to sell in countries like China who threatened to block sales of the new phone due to the ‘threat’ to their national security and China’s (and other countries) concerns has nothing to do with voice. It is highly doubtful any U.S.-based, mainstream maker of mobile phones or devices, will implement end-to-end voice encryption. So you’re on your own….for now.

Good luck out there. Stay safe and secure.