Tag Archives: googl

Mattel Enters 3D Printing, 360-Degree Imagery With Autodesk, Google

Toymaker Mattel ( MAT ) is revitalizing a few of its analog brands with digital technology from companies such as Autodesk ( ADSK ) and Alphabet ( GOOGL )-owned Google. At the Toy Fair 2016 conference in New York City, Mattel announced a ThingMaker home 3D printer and View-Master 360-degree image goggles . The annual toy fair, sponsored by the Toy Industry Association, opened Saturday and ended Tuesday. The original ThingMaker from Mattel debuted in the 1960s and allowed kids to mold their own rubbery creatures at home. The reimagined product uses 3D printing and was developed in partnership with Autodesk, a computer-aided design software firm. The ThingMaker 3D printing eco-system includes the ThingMaker 3D Printer and ThingMaker Design App. With the easy-to-use 3D printer, kids and families will be able to create and print plastic figures such as dolls, robots and dinosaurs, or wearable accessories like bracelets and necklaces. The ThingMaker 3D Printer will be available in the fall for $299.99, along with a variety of plastic-filament color options. Mattel also announced a collaboration with Google to update its View-Master for the modern age. The original View-Master debuted in 1939 and allowed kids to see 3D images by looking at pictures on swappable cardboard reels. The new View-Master works with Google Cardboard for an immersive surround-image experience. “Mattel’s new View-Master offers an easy-to-use and affordable platform that will enable users to take engaging field trips where they can explore famous places, landmarks, nature, planets and more in 360-degree ‘photospheres,’ ” Mattel said in a press release. “By pairing the View-Master’s ‘experience reel’ and app with an Android smartphone, kids will immediately experience an imaginative and interactive learning environment.” The experience reels will have themes such as nature, adventure destinations and science. The View-Master viewer and a sample experience reel will be available in the fall for $29.99. Mattel will sell packs containing four themed-experience reels for $14.99. The viewer and reels need to be paired with a smartphone and app.

Amazon Customers Confirm: Cloud Transition Still Biggest Trend

After tracking down top tech execs of 10 Amazon Web Services customers and nine AWS “premier consulting partners” for interviews, Deutsche Bank analysts came away convinced that the migration to the cloud is still “the biggest and most disruptive trend in the enterprise IT market today.” Aside from “assessing macroeconomic risks to 2016 IT budgets (as) the topic du jour,” many tech execs are slowing their IT spending as they prepare to move their enterprises to the cloud, said Deutsche Bank analyst Karl Keirstead in a research note Tuesday. Keirstead questioned whether the macro headwinds that many blame for the current softness in tech spending are really at fault. “Even Tableau Software ( DATA ) cited this phenomenon,” he wrote. Tableau stock notoriously gapped down 49.5% Feb. 5, spooking investors and dragging many software stocks with it, after offering 2016 guidance that missed Wall Street expectations. Tableau stock, down a fraction, near 40, in afternoon trading in the stock market today , is more than 50% off its Feb. 4 close and 70% below its all-time high above 131 set last July. Amazon ( AMZN ) stock was up 2.5% in afternoon trading Tuesday, near 520 and 25% off its all-time high of 696.44 set in December. The runway is still enormous for cloud migration. Amazon’s AWS, Microsoft’s ( MSFT ) Azure and Alphabet’s ( GOOGL ) Google Cloud Platform combined have grown revenue to about $10 billion annually, a “tiny penetration” of the $500 billion to $1 trillion spent annually on tech services and products, Keirstead said. “The trend to AWS is clear … as more and more large enterprises are shuttering private data centers in a quest to become ‘data center independent’ and younger and smaller customers are piggy-backing on AWS as a faster and cheaper way to scale up in new geographies,” he wrote. Neutral Toward Oracle, Security Vendors The big legacy IT infrastructure vendors are feeling the brunt of the migration, he said. Those interviewed were “cautious” toward managed hosting and colocation data center vendors, neutral toward enterprise software developer Oracle ( ORCL ) and neutral (not negative)  toward security vendors because “most” customers won’t rely only on AWS security, Keirstead says. “It was a mixed  bag for Red Hat ( RHT ), as several of the ‘all-in’ customers seemed content to move to Amazon’s own Linux distribution,” he wrote. He said feedback was “bullish” on software-as-a-service companies  Salesforce.com ( CRM ) and Workday ( WDAY ). “We now wonder if AWS is creating a tailwind for the SaaS (Software as a Service) vendors … and if the IT services vendors could get a lift as enterprises look to move or re-platform workloads to make them more cloud-friendly,” Keirstead mused. Deutsche Bank maintains buy ratings on Microsoft, Salesforce and Amazon.  Salesforce is expected after the close Feb. 24 to report earnings up 36% for the January quarter. Salesforce stock was down a fraction Tuesday afternoon, near 59 and 29% off a Nov. 19 all-time high at 82.90. Rival Workday stock was up 2.5% Tuesday afternoon, near 50.50, still 48% off nearly two-year high set in October 2014. It’s scheduled Feb. 29 to report an adjusted loss of 4 cents per share for its fiscal Q4 ended in January, vs. 6 cents lost in Q4 a year earlier. Keirstead said he doesn’t doubt that macro pressure is “keeping a lid on infrastructure IT spending,” but big legacy players Cisco Systems ( CSCO ), IBM ( IBM ) and EMC ( EMC ) “have cited a ‘tough macro’ seemingly every quarter for 12-plus months, he says. “It is entirely plausible that the ongoing weakness in technology capex, private data center build-outs and hardware refresh activity is also due to ongoing structural shifts as large enterprises rethink their IT infrastructures to prepare for a transition to the public cloud model.”                  

Facebook Drones, Alphabet Loons Vie To Lift Internet

Millions of Indonesians will gain access to the Internet if Alphabet ( GOOGL ) can follow through with plans to put large balloons high in the sky as part of its Project Loon program. Like Alphabet, Facebook ( FB ) is also working on plans to bring Internet services to large swaths of people in places where it’s hard to connect fiber-optic cable. Instead of balloons, Facebook is experimenting with large drones flying at high altitudes. Neither project is expected to easily fly over friendly skies. Alphabet’s Project Loon has faced opposition from Indonesia’s largest telecom company while Facebook’s Free Basics plan, which currently provides free Internet service in India, was thwarted by Indian regulators. Project Loon was first announced by Google about four years ago. The idea is to put a network of balloons traveling near the edge of space, designed to provide Internet coverage for people in rural and remote areas. Google has tested the concept with test flights across jungles, mountains and plains. It started with a trial of about 30 balloons over New Zealand. Trials also have been held over Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Australia, Brazil, France and elsewhere. The first commercial implementation is set for later this year over Indonesia. Agreements are in place with three mobile network operators, Indosat, Telkomsel and XL Axiata, as partners for the service. Telekomunikasi Indonesia, the largest telecommunication services company in Indonesia, in comments last October said the plan could harm local telecommunications providers. Alphabet has said it would work with Indonesian companies to develop a business model that works with the country’s law. About 2 in 3 of Indonesia’s 250 million residents do not have Internet access, Alphabet says. That’s largely because stringing fiber networks or installing mobile phone towers across the more than 17,000 islands that make up Indonesia is a significant challenge. Through balloon-to-balloon communication, Project Loon can receive and transmit wireless signals to even the most remote islands. The balloons are about 50 feet in diameter and soar at an altitude about twice that of other aircraft. Electronic gear and solar panels hanging with the balloons include an altitude control system. The balloons can then be programmed to rise or fall in order to catch stratospheric winds that can position the balloons at the right locations. Facebook, through its Free Basics service, provides free but limited Internet service on mobile devices. The service is available to about 1 billion people across Asia, Africa and Latin America, designed to “bring more people online and help improve their lives,” Facebook says. It’s part of Facebook’s Internet.org initiative that has provided Internet access to 19 million people in 38 countries. Last week, India’s Telecom Regulatory Authority ruled against differential pricing for Internet service, thwarting the idea for Facebook’s Free Basics and other similar services. Entrepreneurs in India had criticized the service, saying it positioned Facebook as a gatekeeper to the Web and that they feared being left at a competitive disadvantage.