Cloud

Show me your face: Google Nest Hub surveillance system lets you bring Big Brother home with you

Russia Today

By: Russia Today

Google’s Nest Hub surveillance system is constantly looking for its owner’s face and technically can’t be shut off, raising privacy concerns and questions about data misuse by the company that brags it toes the “creepy line.”

The latest “smart-home” device from Mountain View comes equipped with a constantly-scanning facial-recognition-enabled camera that can’t be shut off, only ‘disabled’ with a switch that also (supposedly) deactivates the microphone. Just as the device is constantly listening for its “wake word,” it is prepared to leap into action at the sight of its owner’s visage.

The Nest Hub, as its name suggests, serves as a “hub” for other internet-of-things devices like thermostats, surveillance cameras, and doorbells – which also come equipped with facial recognition, in case the user misses that feeling of being constantly spied on when they finally come home after a long day of surveillance outside. It also uploads video from phone calls and camera footage accessed remotely into the cloud and provides a window into your home for anyone with access to your Google or Nest account.

Surely Google learned its lesson after its Google Home AI voice assistant was discovered to be feeding audio of users’ private moments to third-party contractors for “grading” purposes. The company couldn’t possibly make the mistake of allowing that scandal to repeat itself, this time with video.

Google admits it may “use your face data to test future features and recognition algorithms before pushing them to your device,” CNET reported on Monday, citing a statement from the company, which also claimed “no pixels leave the Nest Hub Max” – except when they’re “temporarily processed at Google from time to time to improve the quality of your experience with this device.”

Google will “occasionally use the images you provide during setup to generate a face model in the cloud for a couple of reasons” related to “improving product experience” and “motivated by the fact that we have more computing power available in the cloud,” a company spokesperson told the outlet.

The doublespeak echoes excuses Google made for sharing Home audio snippets, like claiming the use of “language experts” was “necessary to creating products like the Google Assistant.” Unlike Google Home, which neglected to inform the users of that key fact until after it was discovered by a Belgian broadcaster, Nest Hub informs users they’re being surveilled and tracked right up front, when they set up “Face Match.”

A home surveillance system with facial recognition capabilities, capable of detecting the user’s emotions and remotely accessible – what could possibly go wrong? If nothing else, it should inspire a generation of horror filmmakers.

Source and Image: https://www.rt.com/usa/468456-google-nest-hub-personal-panopticon/

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Australia: Apple unveils new iPad, education software to win back schools

Noticias

Australia/April 3, 2018/By Richa Naidu and Stephen Nellis /Source: https://www.crn.com.au

Apple has rolled out a new iPad and classroom software aimed at grabbing more of the education market, but did not cut the price of its entry-level tablet despite schools flocking to laptops costing a third less.

Apple is looking to reassert dominance in schools, where inexpensive laptops running software from Google and Microsoft now top iPad by sales, offering a cheap way to get to cloud-based productivity tools.

The new iPad has a more powerful computing chip and an extensive set of new, free software for teachers to manage students and schoolwork. But the unchanged starting price of $439 for students and $469 for the general public, without a keyboard or case, compares with less than $200 for some Windows and Google Chrome models.

Apple shares were down 1.4 percent to US$170.26 after the event, slightly better than the NASDAQ Composite, which was down 1.6 percent in midday trading.

Some analysts had believed Apple might cut prices, but the company stuck with its more traditional approach of packing more features into a device.

Despite the new software, Apple faces a tough battle in the educational market given the popularity of Google and Microsoft’s productivity suites, said Carolina Milanesi of Creative Strategies. Google’s G Suite fuelled Chromebook sales because it was seen as easy to use to manage assignments.

«Most teachers don’t look past G Suite for education,» she said.

Apple, as part of its response, on Tuesday announced improvements in its iWork suite at an event in Chicago, where school bells and announcements over a public address system directed press and more than 300 teachers into an auditorium at Lane Tech College Prep High School.

The event came during a spring buying season when many schools are making purchasing decisions for the upcoming school year.

«We’ve been at this for 40 years and we care deeply about education,» Apple chief executive Tim Cook said at the event.

Apple executives said the new iPad works with its pencil accessory and features an upgraded A10 Fusion chip, the same CPU that powers the iPhone 7. It is available immediately.

The Apple Pencil remains priced at $145 for the public, though Lenovo will release a device called Crayon for $49, the first third-party stylus to work with the iPad.

Apple made up just 17 percent of the K-12 US educational market in the third quarter, according to data from Futuresource Consulting. Meanwhile 60 percent of mobile computing shipments to schools ran Google’s Chrome and 22 percent had Windows.

Chromebooks sold by Dell Technologies cost as little as US$189. Microsoft last year introduced an education-focused laptop from Lenovo running Windows 10 S for a similar price.

Acer announced a tablet that runs Chrome OS for US$329 on Monday that comes with a built-in stylus.

Apple in recent years made changes to its operating system so that more than one student can log into an iPad, and to its software to let teachers better manage students.

On Tuesday it updated iWork – which includes word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software – to allow students to take handwritten notes more easily, along with adding more free storage on its iCloud service.

Apple also released a new app called Schoolwork to help teachers create assignments and track student progress. Google has a similar app for managing student profiles, but analysts highlighted Apple’s Schoolwork app as unique in helping teachers manage assignments and progress.

The previously iPad-focused Classroom teacher administration app would start working on Mac computers in June, Apple said.

In the fall Apple will roll out «Everyone Can Create» lessons on video, photography, music, and drawing, joining existing «Everyone Can Code» guides for computer programming skills.

The new courses highlight features that some low-priced laptops do not have, such as a camera and microphone.

«If you look at it as a Chromebook competitor, it’s expensive. But if you look at it and say, I can do music with GarageBand, I can take pictures or use it as a video camera and now I can do (augmented reality) … it appeals to teachers and schools that want to push the envelope on education,» Milanesi said.

Sales of iPads made up just 8.3 percent of Apple’s US$229.2 billion total revenue last year, compared with the nearly 62 percent of sales generated by iPhones.

Source:

https://www.crn.com.au/news/apple-unveils-new-ipad-education-software-to-win-back-schools-487850?utm_source=itnews&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=networkbar

 

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Cloud learning, el Netflix de la educación en línea

Noticias

02 Enero 2017/Fuente:altonivel /Autora: Adriana Caballero

El cloud learning permite crear un nuevo modelo de negocio para que profesores y capacitadores extiendan su ámbito de trabajo y plan de enseñanza más allá de las aulas virtuales formales.

Una de las tendencias tecnológicas con más crecimiento en la actualidad es el cómputo en la nube o Cloud. Las características y beneficios de este tipo de productos y servicios son muy atractivos para varios modelos de negocio y sectores, y son cada vez más reconocidos y adoptados por las empresas alrededor del mundo. De acuerdo al estudio “El futuro de los servicios Cloud: Software como Servicio” de la firma Deloitte, el 58 por ciento de las empresas ya utilizan alguna solución cloud y un 48 por ciento considera la posibilidad de implementarlas a corto plazo.

La nube es una forma económica y eficaz de escalar un negocio, gracias a esto, empresas como Netflix, que cuentan con tecnología 100 por ciento en la nube tanto para sus servicios digitales como para su infraestructura de TI, han podido entrar en muchos países y crecer a pasos agigantados.

Los últimos avances en las tecnologías en la nube no solo han provocado la migración de los negocios de las empresas hacia este tipo de sistemas, sino que el sector de la educación y capacitación también ha podido identificar un nicho de negocio y de oportunidad para generar un entorno mucho más flexible y dinámico para el aprendizaje.

Te recomendamos: 5 consejos para usar la nube de forma segura.

Cloud learning, un nuevo modelo educativo

El surgimiento del e-learning y la integración de la nube a los espacios virtuales de aprendizaje han significado un cambio de paradigma educativo. Tradicionalmente, las plataformas para la formación online se basaban en programas repletos de cursos con contenido unidireccional y estático basado en una calificación final para validar el conocimiento. Ahora, la nube ha permitido no sólo a instituciones académicas y a estudiantes a potencializar sus experiencias de aprendizaje y capacitación, también a las empresas y a sus colaboradores.

El internet ha democratizado el conocimiento, pues el acceso a los contenidos ya no es exclusivo de una institución; expertos en diversas materias pueden compartir información e incluso comercializarla. El acceso y la disponibilidad ya no son una barrera, un curso puede verse en una computadora de escritorio, en un Smartphone o en una Tablet a cualquier horario y en cualquier lugar.

Además los contenidos pueden venir de distintas fuentes como videos vinculados desde sitios web como YouTube o Vimeo, o documentos alojados en Google Docs o Dropbox; también pueden provenir de los mismos usuarios mediante foros y webinars, lo que convierte al cloud learning en la formación e-learning más dinámica, interactiva y colaborativa que existe.

SaaS y conocimiento como servicio

El llamado Software como Servicio (Software as a Service o SaaS) son aquellos programas a los que se accede mediante una conexión a internet. Se caracterizan por su manera de pago bajo demanda, es decir, por el tiempo en que el programa será utilizado, por ejemplo una semana, un mes o un año y no por descarga o instalación.

Esta modalidad de software también se distingue por la reducción de costos de infraestructura tecnológica ya que el servicio es gestionado en su totalidad por el proveedor, el consumidor no necesita nada salvo un dispositivo como una tableta o computadora y acceso a internet.¡

Todas estas particularidades hacen que el SaaS sea ideal para su aplicación en e-learning; las plataformas son flexibles y adaptables a diferentes necesidades y bolsillos; al no necesitar de conocimiento especializado para su uso y mantenimiento, puede gestionarse muy fácilmente sin una restricción de horario o dependencia de algún administrador del sistema, permitiendo presentar contenido para los usuarios en cualquier momento.

La nube está cambiando la forma en que las personas aprenden, y también ha permitido que la educación en línea se extienda y llegue cada vez a más personas. Todos los beneficios que tiene hacen que la única preocupación de las empresas o de las personas, sea la de crear contenido educativo.

El cloud learning permite crear un nuevo modelo de negocio para que profesores y capacitadores extiendan su ámbito de trabajo y plan de enseñanza más allá de las aulas virtuales formales y se encaminen hacia un espacio de enseñanza en la nube interactivo y colaborativo, convirtiéndose en curadores de contenidos y moderadores y no sólo transmisores de conocimiento o administradores de plataformas. Con una buena plataforma, contenidos de valor y un modelo de negocio pueden crear un negocio basado en el conocimiento.

Sin duda la educación en la nube seguirá creciendo y así como Netflix ha desplazado a la renta física de películas, más tarde el cloud learning se masificará como una modalidad cotidiana de transmisión y adquisición del conocimiento.

Fuente de la noticia: http://www.altonivel.com.mx/cloud-learning-netflix-la-educacion-en-linea/

Fuente de la imagen:http://www.altonivel.com.mx/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Cloud_Learning-900×500.jpg

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