August 24, 2017 - itbusinessdirect

With iPod discontinuation, what are the alternatives?

August 24, 2017September 1, 2017 Staff Writer

Smartphones have largely replaced portable media players for most people. It’s been a few years since Apple bothered to update its iPod touch, and it’s been even longer since any other company try to offer a good Android-powered alternative to Apple’s touchscreen media player. Apple is now abandoning its traditional iPod because most people with smartphones now use them for everything. However, many current smartphones – including Apple’s – don’t have FM, and none has a DAB radio. Worse, smartphones need regular app updates and sometimes annual operating system upgrades. You…

Riding the digital storm

August 24, 2017 Dianne Jacobs

The digital disruption storm is past the horizon and in the business backyard. Business leaders are now sensing the digital heat and are hurriedly getting equiped to survive the ‘storm-winds of digital disruption’. Across all industries, digital disruption is no longer a hypothetical—it’s reality. Digitization is changing the way products are made, marketed, and delivered, altering consumers’ behavior and expectations in turn. These changes are unlike anything the world has seen since the Industrial Revolution. Those who don’t adapt will be left behind. Organisations are under immense pressure to keep…

Robots in Japan are now Buddhist priests

August 24, 2017September 1, 2017 Editor

It seems there is literally no job that is safe from the rising tide of automation, including those who guide us into the afterlife. In Japan robots can serve as companions, helpers for the elderly, entertainment bots but now SoftBank’s humanoid robot Pepper has put itself up for hire as a Buddhist priest for funerals. Taking the German blessing bot’s idea and running with it, Pepper’s new code will let it chant sutras in a computerised voice while tapping a drum, providing a cheaper alternative to a human priest to…