YouTube for kids launching 23 Feb 2015
Free new app YouTube Kids – currently for Android only. The app will be separate to the main YouTube service. The homescreen will have 8 options including choices from US kids’ TV; popular song videos; educational programs; links to top videos. Searches can be typed or spoken and the site will be free of comments with a timer for parents to shut down the app. No announcements yet about a similar Australian roll-out – maybe it will happen at the same time.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2015/02/19/youtube-for-kids-new-android-app-out-feb-23/23707819/
Google to revamp products with 12-and-younger focus
Google processes 40 000 search queries per second and many users are children, so it is planning to create child-specific versions of its most popular products –YouTube, Search and Chrome. Children of Google employees use the Kids Studio room at Google HQ where they are encouraged to tinker with prototype projects.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/12/03/google-products-revamped-for-under-13-crowd/19803447/
The end may be nigh for keyboard, mouse and monitor
Microsoft’s Windows 10 will incorporate voice, gestures and holograms. “When people can talk to their tech, see 3D representations in the air and interact with media or docs by waving their hands, the long-term survival for the keyboard, mouse and monitor suddenly seems precarious” – Adriana Lee. Microsoft’s voice feature, Cortana will be part of Windows 10 and people will be able to talk to their computers, maybe en masse. Windows Holographic will also be available, via HoloLens goggles. Currently 90% of personal computers run Windows. Windows 10 will be released mid-year and upgrades will be free this year.
http://readwrite.com/2015/01/21/hololens-windows-10-holographic-cortana-microsoft
Windows 10 Hologram trailer – impressive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W97LCtOSXPY&feature=player_embedded
Google boss warns of “forgotten century” with emails and photos at risk
Google VP Vint Cerf (co-founder of the internet) warns that huge amounts of digitised material – images, videos, blogs, tweets, emails and official documents – may be lost forever because the programs needed to view them will become defunct. We face “a forgotten generation, or even a forgotten century” through “bit rot”. Cerf hopes that “digital vellum” can be used to preserve old software and hardware so that old files can be recovered. He says “if there are photos you really care about, print them out”.