Hasta La Gadget!

Manny Tangco (far right) owns Manila’s Malabon Zoo. Above he poses with “Pacquiao” the orangutan, an albino python and former beauty queen Gionna Cabrera in a PR stunt last weekend promoting e-trikes in The Philippines. The country’s government is…

Different parts of the world have different time zones and this is something that we’ve all come to know and accept. However sometimes it can be a bit tricky trying to figure out the time in a different part of the world that you might not be familiar with, and while you can use the internet to figure out the time, perhaps the World Clock by 11+ could be a more stylish alternative.

If you have not heard of 11+, don’t worry. This is because they’re a pretty small design firm and they hail from South Korea, although based on their designs, like the World Clock, we reckon that they’ll soon be making a name of themselves. So what is the World Clock? Well it’s basically a clock that tells you the time of the world.

However what makes it different from other clocks is that in order to tell the time in different parts of the world, all you’d have to do is roll the clock to a particular time zone and it should be able to give it to your correctly.

Now we’re pretty sure this isn’t the first clock of its kind to offer up similar functionality, but thanks to its very clean and sleek design, we reckon that it would be a great addition to homes where design has been given a lot of priority. That being said if you’d like to get your hands on it, you can do so by heading on over to Leibal’s website where it can be purchased for $49.

Minimalist World Clock Will Show Different Timezones By Rolling It

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No software or service is perfect and there are always loophole and exploits that hackers can take advantage of. This is why it is important that developers take note of reports of such loopholes and close them ASAP, but now instead of relying on security companies or individuals to send in reports, Google has decided to take it upon themselves to do so.

Dubbed Project Zero, this is a new project by Google that aims that ensuring the entire internet is safe from potential attacks, like the recent Heartbleed security bug that had everyone in a panic. According to Google, “You should be able to use the web without fear that a criminal or state-sponsored actor is exploiting software bugs to infect your computer, steal secrets or monitor your communications.”

Google also claims that they will not be placing any bounds on this project, meaning that it does not matter who made the software, as long as it is one that is depended on by many people, Google will work towards improving its security. This means that it doesn’t matter if you favor iOS over Android, or Internet Explorer over Chrome, as long as it is used by many, Google will be keeping a watchful eye over it.

Google will also be making Project Zero transparent by allowing users to monitor how long it takes for a report bug to be fixed by a vendor. Google will be sending the bug reports directly to the developers themselves as opposed to third-parties, to ensure that the issue gets addressed ASAP. It’s a noble pursuit and we can’t wait to see if overall security can be improved with a behemoth like Google now actively taking part in it.

Google Announces Project Zero, Wants To Make The Internet Safe

, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

In recent years, graduate business programs have received little good news and even less praise. Fewer American students are taking the GMAT test, competition for MBA students is increasing, people are questioning the value of business education, entrepreneurs are aggressively promoting their online solutions to the problems and educational costs continue to rise. Some observers predict that scores of schools — and even entire universities — will go out of business in the coming decade. As the very large baby boomer generation nears retirement, advances in technology, the globalization of markets and economies and government concerns about measuring learning could bring to an end the golden age of American higher education.

That’s the bad news. On the other hand, as a business school dean, I wonder whether another baby boom has given us opportunity. The echo boomer generation — children of the baby boomers — is now completing college and entering the workforce. Soon, there will be many more people with several years of job experience under their belts and a desire to improve their circumstances. This echo boomer generation, also known as Gen-Y or Millennials, was born between 1982 and 1995 and numbers nearly 80 million. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were more 22-year-olds last year than any other age group in the United States, followed by 23-year-olds and 21-year-olds. These young adults are either in college, headed to graduate school or are poised to enter the working world. Graduate business schools need to plan accordingly.

As college administrators, we need to prepare for an influx of echo boomers in the classroom, as this enormous cohort means larger applicant pools and some measure of relief from higher education’s environment of hyper-competition. Enrolling these students in large numbers will require changes. Institutions will need to balance intergenerational differences between students and professors, facilitate productive communication at speeds expected by a generation that has grown up texting, and address issues of concern to echo boomers, such as fair treatment of adjunct faculty and teaching assistants.

Echo boomers are different from their parents and have different expectations. According to survey research, echo boomers are more interested in doing work that helps others than they are in making money. They demand mentorship and expect a high-tech fast-moving workplace. They desire flexibility and fair treatment. Compared with their parents, echo boomers have been exposed to more technology-enhanced learning, have experienced a greater emphasis on standardized tests, face more pressure to build the right resume and are more attentive to high-quality brands.

At the same time, echo boomers seem to be competitive and impatient. Maybe this is because they’ve grown up in an era when long careers at the same company have disappeared as quickly as company-funded pensions. This has fueled interest in entrepreneurship, as younger workers seek to offset the uncertainty caused by job switching and shorter careers. It has also fueled a decline in trust of corporations, business leaders, and colleagues.

Given such views, the echo boomer generation will expect graduate business programs to give more attention to corporate social responsibility (CSR), namely discussion of ethics in applied forms as it relates to wage policies and societal inequality, corporate responses to climate change, LGBT rights and corporate political action. These issues will need attention alongside and within traditional coursework, such as accounting, finance and marketing. This generation will be interested in interdisciplinary approaches to issues relevant to its ideas and goals. The manner in which echo boomers have been educated will create a conflict for graduate business programs.

Not surprisingly, echo boomers expect large doses of technology to be present in their graduate programs. Schools must incorporate mobile and digital media in the learning process outside of the classroom to meet this generation’s expectations. Because of both exposure to technology and the emphasis on building the right resume, this generation must have many opportunities outside the classroom to practice concepts. This means exposure to internships, real-world projects, social entrepreneurship opportunities and public-goods projects is necessary for a school to attract these students. Business education must be more applied in the future to prepare these students for their careers.

If graduate business programs can meet the desires of the echo boomers, one might ask how students will pay for their degrees. As many observers have noted, one of the most significant statistics differentiating echo boomers from baby boomers is the amount of student loan debt these young adults carry at graduation. With declining returns on investment, prospective students will likely think hard about the value of a $120,000 MBA education.

If enacted and maintained, President Obama’s loan forgiveness program could provide some help to students (and business schools). It aims to ease financial burdens for students and graduate students using federal loans, freeing them of their debt as soon as possible so they can focus on their studies rather than on looming payments. The plan considers income and family size and those who qualify may have their monthly loan repayments limited to 10 percent of their income. Participants who have made timely, regular payments for more than 20 years will have their outstanding debts cleared, and those who work in government departments will have their debts cleared after 10 years. As with many government solutions, however, this will likely bring more oversight to educational programs and additional emphasis on learning outcomes.

The cost of higher education and resulting student loan crisis has a direct effect on the future of the echo boomers. Nine out of 10 echo boomers say they eventually want to own a place of their own, but what will happen when an echo boomer goes to buy a house, buy a car or pay for their own child’s education while balancing their own college debts? We should not expect the nation — taxpayers — to pay for this.

The best answer to the debt question is that business schools will have made the appropriate adjustments in curricula, experience-based learning opportunities and theory/practice mix in order to give students the skills needed to command higher compensation premiums at work. What today’s educators do for echo boomers will have a significant impact not only on the students, but also on the future of faculty and the educational system as a whole. Echo boomers are massive in number and have a lot to offer, but they will only save graduate business education if business schools change their programs to infuse technology, emphasize practice, and evaluate competencies rather than simply focus on time spent in the classroom.

Real-time media storytelling with “velocity” across a “proliferation of channels” is creating historic opportunities for the growing public relations industry to challenge the paid media turf of marketing and advertising. Richard Edelman, at Edelman PR’s 2014 Academic Summit in Chicago, suggested, “PR is now poised to become a more prominent discipline in marketing services.”

By the numbers, PR’s top 10 agencies had $4.5 billion in revenue – four percent of the 2013 marketing pie, Ad Age reports. While, PR overall revenue growth of 2.4% was slightly larger than advertising agencies, both were relatively smaller than the 13.8% reported for digital.

Edelman’s long view is to address the marketplace shift:

I am convinced that this is because the era of “marketing communications” – where classic, orchestrated advertising leads – is now in winter. It is giving way to an era of “communications marketing” – where spontaneous storytelling at the speed of now… is in full bloom.

If the “return to more substantive storytelling” that Edelman predicts is “social by design,” then PR should be positioning itself to lead on the mobile earned and paid media front.

It stresses relevant, substantive storytelling, stakeholder engagement trust and, above all, shared value for customers, organizations and shareholders. It does not favor classic advertising or media buying.

PR professionals bring relationship building and reputation management to the party that marketing-based campaigns frequently miss.

Digital media, though, present unique and very specific brand practices that go beyond relationships. On Instagram, for example, Seen Founder and CEO Brian Zuercher says photographs with water or higher color saturation are “eye-catching” and improve engagement.

Zuercher says the perception of PR as “like a redheaded stepchild to marketing” is wrong because “PR firms have a much better opportunity to actually do relationship-building than an agency does” through great storytelling. Companies, such as Starbucks, cultivate a consumer expectation that the brand will respond, Zuercher said. “I think that’s what PR firms are really great at doing, but now personalizing that and then delivering that in the right channel.”

Given that most brand engagement is positive, Zuercher highlights the opportunities for consumer relationships: “If you can inspire them to create a moment that’s very cool for them, that can go a long way.”

It’s clear that precision is needed within social media brand engagement, and the brand relationship is not the same as personal friendship on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or other social sites.

Brand enthusiasts have knowledge and experience that may allow opinion leaders to answer questions, address brand issues and help crowd-source solutions. In this way, brand community managers can sit back, listen and engage only for clarification, much as a teacher might when students wander off course.

This kind of authentic engagement moves us beyond paid bloggers, questionable product reviews or forced conversation and toward solution-based social media engagement.

As lines that once separated PR from advertising and marketing are now viewed as “blurred,” the challenge for professionals and academics is to retain core strengths, yet also learn to collaborate with digital media experts. In the end, better data measurement and analysis will be needed to refine compelling media storytelling.