Technology

One of the bigger areas of research for Amazon is how they can possibly get your package to your sooner. It went from several days of shipping to offer free two-day shipping if you’re a Prime member. Now, many areas can get their stuff as early as one day. The company is pouring through money to change the way they ship, updating and improving the process.

This year, Amazon will spend around $35 billion on shipping costs. That’s about twice as much as it did two years ago. This shows just how devoted they are to improve their shipping game. They’re already the leader in this, as no other competitor is able to match the quickness in which Amazon gets packages to the customer.

The thing is, Amazon wants to stay number one. Many other companies are coming for their crown and they don’t want to fall behind. We’ve seen what happened to other once-dominate companies when they begin to get behind. It’s all about customer convenience. You’re less likely to order something online if it takes several days to get to you. You might as well head to the store and pick it up yourself.

But if you have the option of free one-day shipping, then you’re more likely to buy it on Amazon. So, while Walmart has the distribution and the massive brick-and-mortar retail game down pat, Amazon is taking a larger chunk of the holiday profits. More people than ever are shopping online for Christmas gifts for family and friends.

Amazon One-Day Holiday Shipping?

Amazon says they plan on spending an additional $1.5 billion this holiday to help do a better job of giving Prime members one-day shipping. That means you can be sure you’ll get a loved one’s gifts in time. This is hurting their profits, no doubt, but it’s only a small sliver of the capabilities they want to pursue in the future.

“When we have a full drone fleet, you’ll be able to order anything and get it in 30 minutes if you live near a hub that’s serviced by drones,” said Amazon CEO of Worldwide Consumer Jeff Wilke. “That’s only possible because of robotics.”

It appears as if Amazon has a lot of big plans for future deliveries. They wish to expand their drone program, which they’re still testing in a few markets. That means you could soon be within the 30-minute delivery window. You’d never have to go out and shop in a major retail store again. That is, unless you like that sort of thing.

As technology continues to expand, we see its influence everywhere. It’s making our lives easier and its even translating to how teachers reach their students. We may remember the classroom as a room full of desks and a chalkboard, but that image is quickly evolving. Digital technology is quickly taking over where education on how to use the latest technology is taking root.

Schools exist to educate our kids and to prepare them for the real world. Of course, parents are the main educators in that role. But schools are on the front lines by providing proper curriculums and all the opportunities that come with it. That’s why libraries full of books are being converted into computer labs.

As a result of this shift, the amount of money schools are spending on educational technology is growing dramatically. In the next five years, schools are expected to expand their technology budgets by $341 billion. This doubles what they are spending currently. It’s certainly a lesson in preparing for the future, but things are growing so rapidly. We don’t even know what the future might look like.

“We’re asking young people what they want to be when they grow up, when maybe more than half of the job’s tasks and industries they may work in have not been invented yet,” says Heather McGowan, a future work strategist who helps to prepare people and organizations for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Technology Jobs Not Available Yet

The World Economic Forum released a study that found as many as 65% of the current children entering primary school will later take jobs that currently don’t exist. We see how technology is revolutionizing our lives, but it’s shifting how we work. More robots are taking over manufacturing jobs, but someone has to build and maintain the robots.

Because the entire world is shifting, so should our educational demands. Schools are having to focus more on looking at what each individual child wants to learn. Just simply passing on knowledge won’t be as big of a part of schooling.

“The foundational knowledge of the future is your own ability to learn and adapt, because if you don’t your career will come to a screeching halt after a couple of years,” she says.

One such teaching toy is a robot called Cubetto. Cubetto is made of wood and is the beginning step in teaching kids how robots work. They insert blocks into a connected base that have instructions on them. They can see how they are simply programming the robot to move based on the blocks they insert. It’s primitive compared to what they’ll need to learn later, but is a good first step.

Teaching them Younger

Children as young as three are using this robot to learn how to think critically and even how to code. “It’s a skill that you can apply to anything: you basically learn to think in a very logical and rational manner,” says Filippo Yacob, founder and CEO of Primo, the toy maker that developed Cubetto. “For us, it’s about making children future proof,” he adds.

“The danger is, if you don’t get these things right, that children are really being hampered in their learning and it’s undermining their efforts to progress academically,” says professor Peter Barrett who led the study.

When your business is expanding, you have to start looking elsewhere for assistance you can focus on your job. While you’re busy doing the work and it made you successful, you might start to realize how distracting it is to answer the phone and do a lot of other menial tasks that keep you from getting your work done.

If you’re always answering phones, you’re missing out on work. But if you’re always doing work, you really miss out on the opportunity to build relationships with the consumers who call you wanting to buy or looking for more information. This predicament is costing you money. So instead of hiring somebody in house for $30,000 a year, you have two choices.

You can hire an answering service or you can hire a virtual receptionist. Both will be extremely helpful in adding extra presence to your business without spending an arm and a leg. In this article, we’ll look at both options so you can decide which one is the best one for you. It really comes down to what your priority is as a business owner.

Answering Services

An answering service is probably one of the most popular options out there. Odds are, if you’ve ever done business and had to call someone, like the customer service department, your call did not go directly to the company, but to answering service. Answering services are essentially call centers somewhere in the world.

Usually call centers are huge office spaces crammed packed full of people answering phones. If you get a phone call, someone in the service will answer the phone and read the introduction and the script from the computer screen. They leave and then take a message or transfer the call to you or another team member.

And that’s essentially it. These call centers get thousands of calls per day pertaining to a variety of different businesses. You can call them a hundred times a day and get a different person each time. This might seem like a good option for a lot of people, but if you’re looking to build relationships, and provide customers with good information, the call center probably isn’t the option for you.

Virtual Receptionist

It can be easy to confuse a virtual receptionist with an answering service. You might think that they do the same job, but a virtual receptionist gives you more options. That means it’s your job requires you to chase leads and isn’t just for customer service representation, then you might get better service going with a virtual receptionist.

Unlike having one of 1000 different people answer the phone, you’d be assigned a small team of receptionists (maybe around 5 or so) whose job it is to handle your account. They know the ins and outs of your business, or read from a script that you write, will chase leads, and help you convert traffic.

This is a big difference from someone is reading a script for a monitor to someone who knows your company and lives by your mission statement. Using virtual receptionist’s our full support team that handle all kinds of different tasks. They can make calls for you, fax papers, take care of personal business, send emails, and really is a one-size-fits-all approach.

Only you know what your needs are. A virtual receptionist is the next best thing to hiring somebody in-house. An answering service is having somebody there to answer the phone. Either way, your business will not be a girl the next level unless you find help and a support system that allows you to focus on your job. 

Apple is continuing to push its commitment to improving the American workforce. Their goal is to invest hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy by creating American jobs. The plan to create jobs here was curtailed a little bit as a result of the massive tariffs being placed on China. But once Apple received a tariff exemption, three days later they decided that they would start building their new Mac Pro computers in Austin, Texas.

“The Mac Pro is Apple’s most powerful computer ever and we’re proud to be building it in Austin,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. “We thank the administration for their support enabling this opportunity.”

As of June, it was reported that the production of the Mac Pro would actually be done in China. Pres. Trump’s tariffs going to hit the company too hard. That would make it difficult for Apple to make a profit and as a result, would have to move production overseas. But even the president was angry at Apple for that decision and said in a tweet:

“Apple will not be given Tariff waiver, or relief, for Mac Pro parts that are made in China. Make them in the USA, no Tariffs!” But once Apple reaffirmed their commitment to make the Mac Pro in Austin, it was finally decided that the US trade representatives would indeed give the company a waiver. Most of the main circuit board parts are indeed made in China.

Apple Believes in the Power of American Workers and Innovation

“We believe deeply in the power of American innovation,” Cook continued. “That’s why every Apple product is designed and engineered in the US, and made up of parts from 36 states, supporting 450,000 jobs with US suppliers, and we’re going to continue growing here.”

This machine is going to be one of the most powerful personal computers ever made. The cost of a Mac Pro is going to be $5,999. This is a bit more than the average American is going to spend on a computer, but usually these types of machines are high-powered for the purposes of video and music production.

They also plan on building a new campus north of Austin. This is a $1 billion investment that will create 5,000 jobs in the immediate future with the opportunity to expand 15,000 workers. Many states are involved in making the different component parts that go into this computer. By increasing American production, Apple is really proving their commitment to invest in America.

Trump stated that during a dinner with Cook, he made a compelling argument that many industries are being hurt by Chinese tariffs. We’ll see if this allows for other industries to receive an exemption in exchange for investment in American jobs.

Takoma Park, Maryland is home of the very first fully electric converted refueling station in the country. This gas station decided to convert to fully electric after the owner’s daughter convinced him it was time to make a splash. As climate change activists are marching across the world, more people are making decisions such as this.

Depeswar Doley, the owner of the station, isn’t sure if this is a gamble that will work out in his favor. Still, it didn’t stop him from trying. Even when he spoke with a public city official about the idea, they didn’t immediately dismiss it offhand. Apparently, they’ve been having a difficult time negotiating with oil and gas companies. The way they structure contracts is never in the best interest of anyone but themselves.

Taking a deal home to his family, his daughter was all for it. She spoke with him about the environmental impacts currently going on. Oil and gas burning in cars is some of the biggest polluters of our air and is decisions like this that force people to make better environmental decisions.

“It’s good for the environment,” Doley said. “I’m not doing this just to nickel and dime, thinking about how much money I’m going to make — no. I know this is a good cause, and this is something new. What I’m doing, maybe it will encourage other businesses owners and encourage the electric car business.”

Social Change Using Electric Cars

Electric cars still aren’t a mainstay in our country. The vast majority vehicles bought are gas powered, but the technology is finally catching up so that these vehicles are cheaper to buy. The only question now is how to fill up. That’s difficult to do when, again, the vast majority of refueling stations are for gas vehicles.

Even then, it’s not so easy. It can take as long as 30 minutes or even much longer to refuel an electric car. This is much longer than what it takes to refuel the average gas vehicle. To staunch environmentalists, this is actually worth the time if it prevents more pollution from filling up our skies.

“Maryland is proud to be a national leader when it comes to clean and renewable energy, climate change, and the promotion of electric infrastructure and vehicles,” said Governor Larry Hogan. “This fully-converted, gas-to-electric charging station is a prime example of our administration’s commitment to the environment and transportation.”

“This thing is so new, we don’t know what’s going to happen,” Doley said. “It might flop, or it might work out — we have no clue at all. We’re just crossing our fingers, and in the back of my mind, I know this is something good for the environment.”

FaceApp has been a viral sensation recently as more people are posting pictures of themselves using the app. If you have a Facebook page, you’ve most likely seen your friends, relatives, or even yourself posting what they would look like as an older person. This isn’t the first time that FaceApp has been in the news.

Back when the app was first released in 2017, there was a lot of press around how it made people look younger or older, male or female, or even adding features to their physical face to add a smile or make them look happier. It was truly a revolutionary technology in today’s modern world full of crazy and fun apps we enjoy sharing a social media.

Even as many celebrities use such applications, promoting FaceApp for their millions of followers, there are a lot of growing concerns about the use of this app. You might’ve seen a certain New York tabloid headline that said Russians now own all of your photos. No doubt the headline was sensationalized and meant to scare people, but is there any reality to it?

FaceApp and the Privacy of Users

There are a lot of questions around whether or not we should be using social media. Sign up for a website, we often click through that we’ve read the terms without actually reading them so we can start posting. You essentially get Facebook permission to use your data, and then act shocked when they do.

This is the same warning many are giving about FaceApp. They say that the headquarters of the company is based in St. Petersburg, Russia, meaning if you have the app on your phone, a Russian company has access to some of your data. Did you read the terms and conditions? Was there any fine print that you didn’t see? Or did you just follow along with the latest trend?

It’s almost as if we don’t care about Digital privacy whatsoever. We don’t think about or even consider where our information goes. Every time a movie star has her nude pictures stolen plastered all over the Internet, it makes you wonder how certain things like that happen. It should happen more often considering the apps we download onto our digital devices.

What is Done with Our Data?

“Most images are deleted from our servers within 48 hours from the upload date,” the company said in a lengthy statement.

But if you read the terms and agreements page, it says that by downloading the app, you “grant FaceApp a perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, transferable sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform and display your User Content and any name, username or likeness provided in connection with your User Content in all media formats and channels now known or later developed, without compensation to you.”

That simply means that FaceApp can do whatever they want with your picture. You download the app, hit agree, then they can do what they want. You just gave them full permission and rights. It’s just like Facebook’s terms: “If you share a photo on Facebook, you give us permission to store, copy, and share it with others,” the social network says.

We are not careful with our digital privacy. If this bothers you, then you should start reading the terms and agreements. Know exactly where your information, data, and pictures are being sent and how they’re being used.

If you look at all of human history, the rise of computing technology is only a modern concept. Governments have used it for longer, but the birth of the personal computer happened only about 30 years ago. Even then, it didn’t really rise to quite the same popularity until the late 90s.

As we cruised through the 2000’s in 2010’s, we see technology taking on the even larger prominent role in our everyday life. Nearly everything we do today revolves around a computer.

Whether were at school, at work, at home, or even the way we shop, research, eat, entertain ourselves, pay our bills, find love, buy groceries, and so much more, our modern technological advances have impacted our lives unlike anything else in history.

While we consider this a good thing and realize the full potential of where our technology is taking us, a perfect digital storm is brewing.

As these new devices, browsers, brands, and operating systems hit the market, along with all the software needed to run the devices, and the coding that goes into building the over 1 billion websites in existence today, there might be some trouble ahead for the tech industry.

Keeping Up with will Demand

As the tech industry continues to grow at a rapid pace, it’s creating a void amongst firms being able to fill the demand. When you add that to the shortage of software developers and testers, there’s a lot of tech that’s being pushed into the market that hasn’t been adequately tested yet.

When you have a business or an industry that experiences extreme growth in a new age of development, it often breeds uncertainty. New challenges are created instantaneously.

For example, if you’re a gamer, the common advice is to not buy a game at release. They’re eager to get the game out into the hands of public and bring in the cash flow. Because of that, the game requires multiple patches and fixes throughout the first days or even months after its release.

You’d think that the developer would do a better job of testing before releasing a game and causing frustration to their core fans. When you charge customers $60 for a game that doesn’t work very well and has many bugs, you’ll probably get a lot of bad reviews and lose a lot of trust in the market.

Dangerous Implications

The implications of rushing software and all other forms of tech for the sake of getting ahead can spell disaster, not just for the company who makes the tech, but for the people whose lives very well may rely on it.

We’re not just talking about your computer’s operating system, but all the new gadgets that will take up an even bigger role in our lives. What if bugs and malfunctions actually put your safety, your financial status, your job, or even your life at risk?

Recently there was a virus outbreak called Wannacry, which was the largest cyber-attack in history, infecting over 230,000 computers in over 150 countries.  Computers at hospitals, schools, and banks were compromised, as well as personal computers.

This ransomware attack, which only happened on Windows computers, was successful because of a vulnerability found in the SMB protocol. There’s no doubt that this sort of attack will happen again, as they are becoming more frequent.

When there is a risk of an attack or just faulty tech that hasn’t been properly tested for release, it can be quite worrisome for the advancement of technology in our lives. If you bought a self-driving car, are you safe knowing there was adequate testing done in the coding and programming? 

In most cases, the answer is no. When you buy a product, you expect the details to be worked out already. But, more times than not, they aren’t. We’ve already seen what happens when a company like General Motors knows about a problem, but pushes their unsafe vehicles out anyway. 

This is where technology meets greed and demand. 

As we get better at developing our technology, the more we rely on robots to fill human jobs. It may be great for companies looking to cut their spending, but it comes at the expense of real humans who need jobs to survive. Not only are U.S. workers losing jobs as factories shut down and move across the border where labor is cheap, they’re also losing them to robots.

On Wednesday, Oxford Economics shared a new report that says robots are expected to take as many as 20 million U.S. jobs in the next decade. That’s about 8.5% of the total manufacturing jobs out there today. This can be bad news, but it also shows a shift towards a more technological dominated industry.

In some areas, the take over of robots does create additional jobs in the tech center. Someone has to design, program, and install these robots in factories across the country. There will need to be repairs and tune-ups. So, jobs in this sector will expand, but it will cause some hurt. Many Americans are laborers who aren’t tech experts and they will have nowhere to go with their skills.

When you start displacing millions of workers, that creates a vacuum. Suddenly, whole towns die where workers relied on that often fairly good paycheck while the business gets to carry on making their products. We’ve seen this happen in the rust belt plenty of times in the past few decades. Ask Detroit and Flint what happens when industries pack up and leave, replacing all their workers with cheaper labor.

It’s Not a New Thing

Robots in industry aren’t a new thing. Back in 2016, 43% of all the robots in the world worked within the automotive industry. But now a new problem is arising. Robots are getting smarter and cheaper as we get better at making them. The average price of a robot has fallen around 11% in the last 5 years. They keep getting better at doing mundane tasks.

China is one place where automation is on a significant rise. They already have one-fifth of the world’s robots working in their factories. “China is investing in robots to position itself as the global manufacturing leader,” Oxford Economics said. By 2030, China hopes to be the world leader in robot manufacturing.

Income Inequality

While robots will certain give a boost to productivity (robots don’t need a day off or take sick days), and they’re cheaper than hiring a worker (robots don’t need a salary or benefits), it causes a major economic problem. Again, look at Detroit and Flint. GM and the other major car manufacturers shot themselves in the foot in a major way.

When you fire all your American workers in favor of cheaper labor, suddenly you have many less customers who are unable to afford your products. The businesses get richer by lessening their labor costs, but what happens when 20 million Americans lose their job in the next decade? That’s 20 million people looking for new work.

“This great displacement will not be evenly distributed around the world, or within countries,” according to the report. “Our research shows that the negative effects of robotization are disproportionately felt in the lower-income regions compared with higher-income regions of the same country.”

“Automation will continue to drive regional polarization in many of the world’s advanced economies, unevenly distributing the benefits and costs across the population,” the report said.