Mediaboss Marketing

May 17, 2022

PRESS RELEASE

Apple previews innovative accessibility features combining the power of hardware, software, and machine learning

Software features coming later this year offer users with disabilities new tools for navigation, health, communication, and more

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIAApple today previewed innovative software features that introduce new ways for users with disabilities to navigate, connect, and get the most out of Apple products. These powerful updates combine the companys latest technologies to deliver unique and customizable tools for users, and build on Apples long-standing commitment to making products that work for everyone.

Using advancements across hardware, software, and machine learning, people who are blind or low vision can use their iPhone and iPad to navigate the last few feet to their destination with Door Detection; users with physical and motor disabilities who may rely on assistive features like Voice Control and Switch Control can fully control Apple Watch from their iPhone with Apple Watch Mirroring; and the Deaf and hard of hearing community can follow Live Captions on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Apple is also expanding support for its industry-leading screen reader VoiceOver with over 20 new languages and locales. These features will be available later this year with software updates across Apple platforms.

Apple embeds accessibility into every aspect of our work, and we are committed to designing the best products and services for everyone, said Sarah Herrlinger, Apples senior director of Accessibility Policy and Initiatives. Were excited to introduce these new features, which combine innovation and creativity from teams across Apple to give users more options to use our products in ways that best suit their needs and lives.

Door Detection for Users Who Are Blind or Low Vision

Apple is introducing Door Detection, a cutting-edge navigation feature for users who are blind or low vision. Door Detection can help users locate a door upon arriving at a new destination, understand how far they are from it, and describe door attributes including if it is open or closed, and when its closed, whether it can be opened by pushing, turning a knob, or pulling a handle. Door Detection can also read signs and symbols around the door, like the room number at an office, or the presence of an accessible entrance symbol. This new feature combines the power of LiDAR, camera, and on-device machine learning, and will be available on iPhone and iPad models with the LiDAR Scanner.1

Door Detection will be available in a new Detection Mode within Magnifier, Apples built-in app supporting blind and low vision users. Door Detection, along with People Detection and Image Descriptions, can each be used alone or simultaneously in Detection Mode, offering users with vision disabilities a go-to place with customizable tools to help navigate and access rich descriptions of their surroundings. In addition to navigation tools within Magnifier, Apple Maps will offer sound and haptics feedback for VoiceOver users to identify the starting point for walking directions.

Advancing Physical and Motor Accessibility for Apple Watch

Apple Watch becomes more accessible than ever for people with physical and motor disabilities with Apple Watch Mirroring, which helps users control Apple Watch remotely from their paired iPhone. With Apple Watch Mirroring, users can control Apple Watch using iPhonesassistive features like Voice Control and Switch Control, and use inputs including voice commands, sound actions, head tracking, or external Made for iPhone switches as alternatives to tapping the Apple Watch display. Apple Watch Mirroring uses hardware and software integration, including advances built on AirPlay, to help ensure users who rely on these mobility features can benefit from unique Apple Watch apps like Blood Oxygen, Heart Rate, Mindfulness, and more.2

Plus, users can do even more with simple hand gestures to control Apple Watch. With new Quick Actions on Apple Watch, a double-pinch gesture can answer or end a phone call, dismiss a notification, take a photo, play or pause media in the Now Playing app, and start, pause, or resume a workout. This builds on the innovative technology used in AssistiveTouch on Apple Watch, which gives users with upper body limb differences the option to control Apple Watch with gestures like a pinch or a clench without having to tap the display.

Live Captions Come to iPhone, iPad, and Mac for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Users

For the Deaf and hard of hearing community, Apple is introducing Live Captions on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.3 Users can follow along more easily with any audio content whether they are on a phone or FaceTime call, using a video conferencing or social media app, streaming media content, or having a conversation with someone next to them. Users can also adjust font size for ease of reading. Live Captions in FaceTime attribute auto-transcribed dialogue to call participants, so group video calls become even more convenient for users with hearing disabilities. When Live Captions are used for calls on Mac, users have the option to type a response and have it spoken aloud in real time to others who are part of the conversation. And because Live Captions are generated on device, user information stays private and secure.

VoiceOver Adds New Languagesand More

VoiceOver, Apples industry-leading screen reader for blind and low vision users, is adding support for more than 20 additional locales and languages, including Bengali, Bulgarian, Catalan, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.4 Users can also select from dozens of new voices that are optimized for assistive features across languages. These new languages, locales, and voices will also be available for Speak Selection and Speak Screen accessibility features. Additionally, VoiceOver users on Mac can use the new Text Checker tool to discover common formatting issues such as duplicative spaces or misplaced capital letters, which makes proofreading documents or emails even easier.

Additional Features

Celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day

This week, Apple is celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day with special sessions, curated collections, and more:

About Apple

Apple revolutionized personal technology with the introduction of the Macintosh in 1984. Today, Apple leads the world in innovation with iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV. Apples five software platforms iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS provide seamless experiences across all Apple devices and empower people with breakthrough services including the App Store, Apple Music, Apple Pay, and iCloud. Apples more than 100,000 employees are dedicated to making the best products on earth, and to leaving the world better than we found it.

Press Contacts

Chloe Sweet

Apple

chloe_sweet@apple.com

Apple Media Helpline

media.help@apple.com

(408) 974-2042

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Apple previews innovative accessibility features - Apple

How risky is being indoors with our 10-year-old granddaughter without masks? We have plans to have birthday tea together. Are we safe?

That question, from a woman named Debby in California, is just one of hundreds Ive received from concerned people who are worried about COVID-19. Im an epidemiologist and one of the women behind Dear Pandemic, a science communication project that has delivered practical pandemic advice on social media since the beginning of the pandemic.

How risky is swim team? How risky is it to go to my orthodontist appointment? How risky is going to the grocery store with a mask on if no one else is wearing one and my father is an organ transplant recipient? How risky is it to have a wedding with 200 people, indoors, and the reception hall has a vaulted ceiling? And on and on.

These questions are hard to answer, and even when we try, the answers are unsatisfying.

So in early April 2022, when Anthony Fauci, the presidents chief medical advisor, told Americans that from here on out, each of us is going to have to do our own personal risk assessment, I put my head down on my desk.

Individualized risk assessment is not a reasonable ask, even for someone who does risk assessment for a living, let alone for the rest of us. Its impossible to evaluate our own risk for any given situation, and the impossibility of the task can make us feel like giving up entirely. So instead of doing that, I suggest focusing on risk reduction. Reframing in this way brings us back to the realm of what we can control and to the tried and true evidence-based strategies: wearing masks, getting vaccinated and boosted, avoiding indoor crowds and improving ventilation.

A cascade of unknowable variables

In my experience, nonscientists and epidemiologists use the word risk to mean different things. To most people, risk means a quality something like danger or vulnerability.

When epidemiologists and other scientists use the word risk, though, were talking about a math problem. Risk is the probability of a particular outcome, in a particular population at a particular time. To give a simple example, the chances that a coin flip will be heads is 1 in 2.

As public health researchers, we often offer risk information in this format: The probability that an unvaccinated person will die of COVID-19 if they catch it is about 1 in 200. As many as 1 in 8 people with COVID-19 will have symptoms persisting for weeks or months after recovering.

To embark on your personal risk assessment, as Fauci casually suggested, you first have to decide what outcome youre talking about. People often arent very specific when they consider risk in a qualitative sense; they tend to lump a lot of different risks together. But risk is not a general concept. Its always the risk of a specific outcome.

Lets think about Debby. First, theres the risk that she will be exposed to COVID-19 during tea; this depends on her granddaughter. Where does she live? How many kids at her school have COVID-19 this week? Will she take a rapid test before she comes over? These factors all influence the granddaughters risk of exposing Debby to COVID-19, but I dont know any of them and likely neither does Debby. Given the lack of systematic testing, I have no idea how many people in my own community have COVID-19 right now. At this point, our best guess at community rates is literally in the toilet monitoring sewage for the coronavirus.

If I assume that Debbys granddaughter does have COVID-19 on the appointed day, I can start thinking about Debbys downstream risks: whether shell get COVID-19 from her granddaughter; the chances that shell be hospitalized and that shell die; and the probability that shell have long COVID. I can also consider the risk that Debby will catch COVID-19 and then give it to others, perpetuating an outbreak. If she gets sick, the whole hierarchy of risks comes into play for everyone Debby sees after she is infected.

Finally, there are competing risks. If Debby decides to skip the party, there may be risks to her own or her granddaughters mental health or their relationship. Many skipped celebrations in many families could negatively affect the economy. People could lose business; they could lose their jobs.

Each of these probabilities is influenced by a cascade of fickle conditions. Some of the factors that shape risks are in your control. For example, I decided to get vaccinated and boosted. Therefore, Im less likely to end up in the hospital and to die if I get COVID-19. But some risks are not in your control age, other health conditions, gender, race and the behavior of the people all around you. And many, many of the risk factors are simply unknowns. Well never be able to accurately evaluate the whole volatile landscape of risk for a particular situation and come up with a number.

Taking charge of what you can

There will never be a situation where I can say to Debby: The risk is 1 in 20. And even if I could, Im not sure it would be helpful. Most people have a very hard time understanding probabilities they encounter every day, such as the chance that it will rain.

The statistical risk of a particular outcome doesnt address Debbys underlying question: Are we safe?

Nothing is entirely safe. If you want my professional opinion on whether its safe to walk down the sidewalk, I will have to say no. Bad things happen. I know someone who tore a tendon in her hand while putting a fitted sheet on a bed last week.

Its much more practical to ask: What can I do to reduce the risk?

Focusing on actions that reduce risk frees us from obsessing over unanswerable questions with useless answers so we can focus on what is within our control. I will never know precisely how risky Debbys tea is, but I do know how to make the risks smaller.

I suspect the question folks are really asking is: How can I manage the risks? I like this question better because it has an answer: You should do what you can. If its reasonable to wear a mask, wear one. Yes, even if it isnt required. If its reasonable to do an at-home antigen test before you see your vulnerable grandparents, do that. Get vaccinated and boosted. Tell your friends and family that you did, and why. Choose outdoor gatherings. Open a window.

Constantly assessing and reassessing risks has given many people decision fatigue. I feel that too. But you dont need to recalibrate risks of everything, every day, for every variant, because the strategies to reduce risk remain the same. Reducing risk even if its just a little bit is better than doing nothing.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read more:
It's Impossible to Determine Your Personal COVID-19 Risks and Frustrating to Try but You Can Still Take Action - GovExec.com

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A coalition of social medias most promising venture-backed companies today launched the My Friends My Data Coalition (MFMD) to give online consumers control of their most valuable asset: friends. MFMD is calling for an industry-wide interoperability standard for friend graphs, focused on ease of portability through one-click privacy-safe API protocols.

MFMDs founding members are Dispo, Itsme, Clash App, Muze, spam app, and Collage. Backed by tens of millions of downloads, founding members have received nearly $100 million in venture capital from the worlds pre-eminent venture capitalists including Sequoia Capital, 776, and Andreessen Horowitz. MFMDs founding members are committing to making their friend graphs interoperable in a privacy-safe, one-click manner.

Large social media companies are intentionally holding our personal contact information hostage, said Dispo founder and CEO Daniel Liss. This limits consumer choice, stymies competition, and inhibits free speech. We, the members of MFMD, are committed to giving our community members control of their friend data. We invite Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snap, Twitter, and other large social media platforms to join us.

Currently, consumers on the largest social media networks cannot export friend lists in a privacy-safe way. While the largest tech companies have promised cross-app data portability for years, concrete changes have never emerged, and consumers are instead provided with incomplete and unsearchable information when attempting to move their contacts.

The internet was founded on a fundamental belief in consumer choice and connection, and working together we can achieve that, said Aakash Sastry, founder and CEO of Itsme. MFMD is working to make friend data portable, so you can take your friends wherever you go online, safely and privately.

There is so much talk right now about these legacy platforms prioritizing creators. As a former creator, Ive sat in meetings since 2014 about their efforts to build better for creators, said Brendon McNerney, founder and CEO of Clash App. If platforms truly want to prioritize us then the best thing they can do is allow us to move our fans between platforms. Each platform offers their own outlet for creativity and connection with fans - this is not a zero-sum game.

The move to give consumers online friend portability mirrors efforts to enact phone number portability, enabled by the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

For more information, visit: myfriendsmydata.org.

The rest is here:
My Friends My Data Coalition Launched by Leading VC-Backed Social Media Companies Dispo, Itsme, Clash App, Muze, spam app, and Collage to Give...

Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Luka Doncic is on the track to becoming an all-time basketball great. Despite being just 23 years old, Doncic has established himself as one of the best players in the league by being a perennial NBA MVP candidate and All-NBA First Team player. His playoff performances are building a legacy of their own, as Doncic keep matching pace with Michael Jordan to be the all-time leader in PPG in Playoff history.

Doncic's impact on the game is often compared to that of LeBron James. People have already been drawing comparisons between the 2007 Cleveland Cavaliers that LeBron James took to the Finals and the 2022 Dallas Mavericks that currently sit in the Western Conference Finals against the Golden State Warriors.

Warriors' forward and veteran Draymond Green is intimately familiar with the comparisons between Luka and LeBron. Having played LeBron in four NBA Finals and now facing Luka in the Western Conference Finals, Draymond extensively broke down the comparison and why there is merit to people looking at Doncic as the next LeBron in terms of their playing styles.

"One of the main glaring similarities that stick out to you is how those two guys can manipulate the defense. How those two guys can control the pace of a game at their size, with their passing ability, and the way they can put pressure on the rim and pressure on the defense. With the vision that they have, they're a lot alike. They both understand what they're trying to get to on the court and they will be very methodical in getting to whatever it is that they know that they want to get to. There are not many people in this league that can control a game or control the tempo and pace of a game like that. I think one of the things that it requires is an uncanny ability for thinking about the game of basketball."

LeBron is a bigger player than Luka, as a 6'9 athletic freak of nature. James has a career full of highlight dunks whereas Luka does his scoring through a lot more finesse and shooting. However, their control over the game is eerily identical, as they are strong enough to match up with most wing defenders. Both also possess genius-level basketball IQ that allows them to manipulate the game for 48 minutes.

"If you can be sped up, you can't control a game, you can't control the pace of a game. You can't speed Luka up. Luka is going to get to what he wants. You can't speed LeBron James up. LeBron James is going to get to exactly what he wants to."

People have spoken about Luka always playing at his own pace for years now, and Draymond finally shed some reason as to why he is able to do so. His size, awareness, and control of the ball all make for a very deadly combination and this is without factoring in his ability to create open opportunities for others. LeBron's playmaking abilities were always known but were highlighted after he took a pass-first role during the 2020 NBA Championship season for LA.

"Luka is 23, obviously he can't do it at the level that LeBron does it at yet, because LeBron has done it for so long, he's seen every defense possible. You just can't teach experience But I definitely see the similarities there."

Age is a massive factor. Doncic has been playing NBA basketball for just about 4 years and is yet to have a lot of playoff experience. This is his first deep playoff run, as he was eliminated by Kawhi Leonard's LA Clippers in back-to-back years. However, facing one of the best defensive players of this generation and averaging over 30 points against his team in the playoffs is a great indicator of how special Doncic really is.

The comparisons with LeBron will only gain more steam as James looks to slowly wind down one of the greatest careers in NBA history. But if he is leaving with Doncic continuing on the path he is, the league will be in good hands. Whether Doncic can live up to this billing for 20-years as LeBron has is another argument entirely.

More here:
Draymond Green Explains The Similarities Between LeBron James And Luka Doncic: "Not Many People In This League Can Control A Game Like Them"...

NRK

Thor Gjermund Eriksen

I joined NRK in November 2012. Its difficult to sum up how significant and deep the changes in the media industry have been, and how different NRK is today. We used to have 30-40 digital staff. Today, our digital unit is ten times the size. There are 20% fewer people with permanent contracts and NRK works more and more with people outside the company. Everything has been about speeding up while at the same time increasing quality in all processes.

In 2021, NRK had the best reach ever. We had never reached so many Norwegians before, so many times every day. We also began to turn the corner with younger audiences, whose trust and use of NRK are growing, although NRK continues to closely track this demographic and how they engage with public service media.

NRKs position in Norway is strong. Weve been able to fight back in terms of reach and now operate the countrys leading streaming service which is bigger than Netflix and HBO. The way the audience consumes NRK content is totally different to seven years ago and Im sure the focus will be on keeping this position and being mindful that for anyone younger than 55, audio and video streaming services are stronger than linear.

I am often asked to explain how trust in NRK increased during the pandemic. I dont believe you suddenly build trust in the middle of a pandemic or a war. Trust is about the quality of your work during all the years when there is no pandemic or no war. NRK needs to be important in everyday life at all times. Building audience trust is a long-term process and not about reaction in a crisis.

When it comes to internal challenges, I believe leaders need to prepare their organizations for unpredictability. We all need to be better prepared for shock. Whereas we dont know when a crisis will come or how it will hit, we know it wont be when or how we expect it. What is more likely to strike next are new competitors or new technologies that offer audiences new ways to consume content. And this is one of my main messages to PSM organizations: we must embrace unpredictability and shock. Do not misunderstand me, I dont love conflict or pandemics, but I do admire an organization that is prepared for meeting unpredictable challenges.

In our industry, the main external challenge is to strengthen our platforms and brands, fight back for editorial control and against tech giants who act as intermediaries between broadcasters and their audiences. This is about trust, editorial control and being less dependent on Facebook, Google and Apple. Whereas this challenge used to be mainly about video, I see it spreading to audio, including radio content and podcasts. And the challenge isnt easier because Spotify is a European company.

You cant avoid the Tech Giants, so you have to find ways to connect with them. Fortunately, in Norway, the new Minister of Culture has been very engaged on this issue. NRK works in close partnership with the Norwegian government and other media companies to shape a common position towards Tech Giants and strike a balance between their innovative positions and the independence of the media sector. This is a difficult exercise, especially as the representatives of Tech Giants in Norway dont have much influence on their organizations.

NRK took a strategic pivot with regards to these players: we communicated very clearly within our organization and to the public that we will withdraw our content from global platforms. Our objective is to strengthen our platforms with more and more exclusive content and to use global players only to target specific age groups.

These companies are clever and extremely powerful. If you compare the economic size of Google, Facebook or Apple to a State, they would rank among the 20 biggest nations in world. They are not evil however their power must be contained. This is where the role of the EBU is pivotal. Together, we can combine our strategic efforts at national and international levels to fight for a common position regarding regulation of global players.

Before I joined NRK, I was CEO of one of the biggest private media in Norway, and before that, almost 20 years ago, I was editor-in-chief of one of Norways biggest newspapers. On a day-to-day basis, NRK has a constructive cooperation with the private sector. We are open-minded organizations who meet regularly and listen to one anothers challenges. The way we collaborate on topics like Tech Giants is a good example: the Minister of Culture invites all media companies to attend a meeting prepared and aligned. If all stakeholders had come to the table with their own different views and three or four bullet points, then politicians would have ended up with 40-50 priorities - in other words no priorities. We needed to set up a process to achieve common views and decide together our top three priorities for Norways media industry. This process has been effective for politicians and good for the media.

However, when it comes to debate on the concept of public service, private media are capable of weighing in, especially when politicians challenge a remit or funding. I believe PSM are on strong ground because evidence shows their positive contribution to the media market as a whole, to democracy and to all audiences. PSM should not downgrade their ambitions because of some political opinions. We must stand up for our values. Unlike many European countries, this tension is not very strong in Norway because private newspapers, local media, commercial TVs have managed to transform their business models, develop digital products and see their results increase. Private media in Norway are smart and that is fundamentally positive for the media industry, including public service media.

I love the concept of public service media and our remit. PSM contribute to the cultural diversity and social cohesion of a country and are the cornerstones of every democracy.

I was the eighth Director General of NRK since the Second World War. After World War II, in many countries, public service was part of the effort to build the nation, telling people how they should live, what is right and wrong, forcing an homogenic way of life, shaping society to the line of the majority of politicians. At NRK, we are not proud of how we treated minorities during this time. They were oppressed and their language and culture werent respected.

Today, our role is the opposite: we encourage acceptance and respect of differences as a glue in society. It is really a big change in PSM responsibilities: our role is to fight for the right to choose your own life. Im not a religious person, but I really fought at NRK for all people to be able make their faith visible. Today we live in a multicultural society and we need to better mirror this. Of course, some people, some parties, some politicians have criticized NRK for taking this position. But we have stood up for our ambition to build acceptance for diversity and will show diversity as it is. I like saying that NRKs ambition is to be a common arena where everybody in Norway can watch someone who, in some way or another is like themselves, and listen to opinions they can recognize, but also listen to opinions that will challenge them.

To fulfil that ambition, NRK needs broad coverage and to be able to reach all Norwegians every day. But even in Norway, which is fortunateto be one of the wealthiest countries in the world, there are concerns with some groups, including people outside cities, people with lower education. So even here in Norway, NRK must remain realistic about its ambition.

In October 2013, Norway had a new conservative government which started a tough debate around NRKs funding and limiting its remit. The government remained for eight years and with time became more and more supportive of public service.

I must admit I was hesitant about any change to the license fee model that we wanted to keep because we believed it was the best way to secure NRKs independence. Despite having to collaborate with six Ministers of Culture in eight years, we gradually changed our view for a number of reasons. It was more and more unpopular to issue 2.2 million bills twice a year. And it was more and more difficult to justify the legal framework: were Norwegians paying for the linear and online content? We constantly had to explain, and this was damaging our image and reputation. We came to realise that if politicians want to undermine public service there are thousands of ways to do this, and no funding model can protect you. So, our strategy developed into how to convince our audience: if NRK makes its audience happy, thenthe politicians are happy. Therefore, as long as you can keep this position, and adapt your content to maintain audience engagement, your strategy is sustainable.

As long as politicians take decisions on a medium- to long-term period of three or five years, funding through the State budget is a more secure model than the license fee. NRKs funding for the past years has actually been predictable and reliable. If it were still operating under the license fee today, it would likely have suffered a decrease of EUR 20-30 million because politicians wouldnt have funded an increase of the fee in the middle of a pandemic. However, under the new model, funding is planned for four years and has been 100% respected.

I also appreciated the openness of the process. For example, our four-year funding plan initially started in the same year as general elections. I proposed to the Minister of Culture that the discussion on funding and remit should be in the year after the elections. It was not in the interest of anyone, neither the government, nor NRK, nor the public, to have this important discussion when the focus needs to be on covering the elections. NRK is the biggest and most democratic arena during election campaigns, and this is what matters in election year. The Minister agreed immediately.

Looking back on a decade at NRK, I see that the importance of impartial, independent, broad and trustworthy public service media has grown day by day, especially over the past two years with the pandemic and now with the tragic war in Europe. Therefore, I am quite optimistic for NRK now that the majority of politicians understand and better see our value. As long as NRK keeps audience trust, Im optimistic for the future.

And I want to be optimistic for PSM too: it must constantly adapt, increase quality in all its processes and not wait for politicians to shape the agenda. However, Im not nave; whereas NRK is in a good position in Norway there are negative indicators elsewhere in Europe, even until very recently in neighbouring countries, such as Denmark. Although the picture is mixed in Europe, I refuse to be pessimistic. We cannot allow ourselves to be pessimistic until were certain weve done all we can ourselves and together with the EBU.

The rest is here:
Interview with Thor Gjermund Eriksen on 10 years at the helm of NRK - European Broadcasting Union