Kiosks and mobile ordering are quickly changing the way we perceive customer service
Panera Bread is modernizing the dining experience at its restaurants with Panera 2.0, a series of integrated technologies that enhance the service, whether customers choose to eat in or get their order to go.
The fast casual chain expects to boost the customer experience with ordering kiosks, mobile and online ordering, and a feature that lets guests order at the table. The kiosks are already in place in about 400 restaurants, with plans to have them in all of their 1,972 stores within the next few years.9The move is part of an effort to cut wait times, improve order accuracy and focus on quality ingredients to draw more customers, but there is growing evidence that as pressure to raise wages grows, employers will turn to automation to avoid payroll hikes.
Certain fast food establishments in Europe have already replaced part of their workforce with automated employers in response to high minimum wages. For example, all of McDonald’s locations in France have installed kiosks that substitute and supplement human employees, allowing the chain to avoid some of the high payroll costs that come with France’s minimum wage, currently around $11 an hour in U.S. dollars. continued…
first published week of: 04/25/2016
April 3, 1981 marked the introduction of the Osborne 1, the first mass-produced laptop computer. Three-and-a-half decades later, laptops are now much more portable – but how do they compare to the deeper vision that sparked them, and what lays ahead? Gizmag talks with Dr. Alan Kay, the personal computing visionary who came up with the notion of a notebook computer, and Lee Felsenstein, designer of the first commercially available laptop, to get their views.
Dr. Alan Kay is a pioneer of personal computing and one of the most influential thinkers in the industry – some of his quotes include the Steve Jobs favorite, "People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware," and "the best way to predict the future is to invent it."
In 1968, then a doctoral student at the University of Utah College of Engineering, Kay was introduced to the innovative way in which the LOGO programming language was being taught to children at a Massachusetts private school. To him, this was the realization of the words of JCR Licklider, a psychologist at ARPA, who had posited that "it is the destiny of computers to become interactive intellectual amplifiers for all people pervasively networked worldwide." (In the early 60s, computer interactivity was very much a new concept.) continued…
first published week of: 04/04/2016
In the wake of data breaches, cyber espionage and cybercrime, organizations in 2015 gave security a higher profile than ever before
Following years of high-profile data breaches, along with cyber espionage and cybercrime, organizations in 2015 started giving security a higher profile than ever before. Here are the 10 most popular security stories of the year.
10. Microsoft CEO takes a collaborative approach to cybersecurity, by Kenneth Corbin
Microsoft CEO Nadella talks of company's role in an 'ecosystem,' saying partnerships and top-to-bottom protection and detection critical to battle emerging security threats. continued…
first published week of: 01/04/2016
We know people generally suck at choosing passwords, often using “12345" or “letmein.” But what passwords and usernames do attackers try most often? This analysis from information security firm Rapid7 shares some interesting details.
In their Project Heisenberg, Rapid7 deployed a collection of honeypots around the world, running on unpublished IP addresses. The company believes the only traffic coming to the honeybots would be from services that scan a wide range of IP addresses. Rapid7 analyzed the Remote Desktop Protocol login attempts to these honeypots for nearly a year. They recorded over 220,000 different attempts to log in, from over 5,000 distinct IP addresses across 119 different countries.
The top 10 most used passwords: continued…
first published week of: 03/07/2016
Verizon has been the most vocal about leading the way to a new, super-fast 5G network in the United States. As it promised last year, the company has begun testing 5G, including some pretty interesting uses for ultra-broadband wireless beyond just streaming massive video files.
America's largest wireless carrier has partnered with Ericsson, Intel, Nokia, Samsung, and Qualcomm to test 5G both in the field and in the lab. While we may lust after faster data transfer speeds to power our mobile gaming and media addictions, Verizon and the other members of the 5G Technology forum are also concerned with becoming part of the backbone for the Internet of Things.
"The network is going to be designed to accommodate billions of machine-to-machine connections," explains Verizon's Vice President of Technology Planning, Adam Koeppe, in a promotional video continued…
first published week of: 02/29/2016
Samsung is appealing its Apple infringement case to the Supreme Court because a very old law is a bad fit with very modern technology
Apple and Samsung rang in the new year right where they ended last year, in federal court, resuming their years-long patent litigation over smartphones. On Tuesday, a federal appeals court expressed skepticism over several Apple claims, such as its “quick link” and “pinch-to-unlock” patents. But this week’s hearing was just a sidebar in a larger story.
In December, Samsung appealed to the Supreme Court to resolve a distinct and particularly interesting question. The immediate concern is whether Samsung, under an 1887 law, must give Apple the “total profits” from sales of smartphones that contained a couple of minor contested patents. The larger import, however, could be to head off a new strategy of patent trolls, who are always searching for ways to exploit our complex intellectual property system.
Recall that among several parallel lawsuits, Apple was suing for infringement of three “design” patents, which protect a product’s appearance. Utility patents, on the other hand, cover functionality. Apple said Samsung had copied, for example, the rounded edges of the iPhone and the look of its app icons. Although the validity of the patents was questionable, a jury agreed, and after several years and multiple appeals, Samsung agreed on Dec. 14 to hand over $548 million to Apple. But it also reserved the right to reclaim the money depending on the resolution of further appeals at both the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and, possibly, the Supreme Court. continued…
first published week of: 01/18/2016
Letting people into their online accounts even when they mistype their password could make life easier without compromising security.
Most of us have, at one time or another, had to reenter a password because we mistyped it. Perhaps you have even been locked out of an account after too many typos.
New research shows those frustrations could be avoided using the same approach used to fix typos in text messages and documents: autocorrect. Researchers analyzed logins to the data-storage service Dropbox to prove that letting people in even when they get a few characters wrong can reduce headaches without significantly harming security.
“This is, in our view, a pretty big deal,” says Ari Juels, a professor at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech, in New York City. “Websites should be changing their password policies to make users’ lives easier. The security degradation is pretty small.”
On the face of it, letting passwords with typos unlock an account sounds like a bad idea. After all, an attacker trying to guess your password wouldn’t need to get it exactly right. Facebook has been criticized for allowing people to log in even when they get the case of their password’s first character wrong, or accidentally have caps lock on. continued…
first published week of: 06/06/2016
After the sale Yahoo will be left with cash, investments in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, and some patents
Ailing Yahoo is selling of its operating business for about US$4.8 billion to Verizon Communications, in a cash deal that will reduce the storied tech firm to mainly holding its cash, stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan and non-core patents.
For Verizon, the acquisition will help it gain Yahoo’s 1 billion monthly active users, its internet properties and key applications like search and email, and its advertising systems. Verizon is not unfamiliar to the acquisition and integration of web companies after its 2015 acquisition of AOL for $4.4 billion, when it acquired similar assets.
The transaction is expected to be completed by the first quarter of next year, subject to regulatory approvals, ending a long-drawn out bidding process for the company. After the transaction is closed, Yahoo will be integrated with AOL under Marni Walden, its executive vice president and president of the Product Innovation and New Businesses organization at Verizon, the communications company said Monday. continued…
first published week of: 07/25/2016