After Effects CC 2017 Mac Pro vs PC Performance

After Effects CC 2017 Mac Pro vs PC Performance

Participate:

Always look at history when reading hardware article. Some of the content in this article is likely to be out of date, as written on March 30, 2017. For the latest information, see the latest articles.

Table of contents:

Introduction

Test the setting

RAM Preview - Standard Projects

RAM Preview - GPU Heavy Projects

Submission of final - standard projects

Final submission - GPU heavy projects

Affiliate Movement

conclusion

After effects of workstations

Introduction

If you are thinking of moving an After Effects station from a Mac to your computer, it is likely to do so for one of the following three reasons:

The most powerful capabilities available on PC (integrated video capture options, VR headset support, hardware upgrades, etc.)

Low cost PC workstations

High performance of the modern computer workstation

In this article we will be specifically in number 3 - studying how Mac Pro compares (late 2013) in one of After Effects' workstations. This system is designed based on our extensive testing of After Effects and represents a great value (priced just over half the cost of your Mac Pro) as well as providing excellent performance in After Effects.

There is a wide range of tasks that we can test, but in this article we will specifically consider the RAM preview performance, final submission (export), and motion tracking. If you do not want to look at diagrams and data graphs, we also have a summary of this article available on Youtube:

Test the setting

To learn how to compare your current Mac Pro to a modern workstation, we'll test the following systems:

Mac Pro (late 2013) Puget Systems Workstation

CPU Intel Xeon E5-2697 v2

(2.7-3.5 GHz) Core Core i7 6900K 3.2GHz

(3.5-4 GHz) 8 Core

RAM 4x DDR3-1866 16GB ECC

(64 GB total) 4x DDR4-2400 32GB ECC Reg.

(128 GB total)

GPU 2X AMD FirePro D700 6GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX

Hard Drive 1TB PCIe-based Storage Flash Samsung 960 Pro 1TB M.2 PCI-E x4 NVMe SSD

OS MacOS Sierra Windows 10 Pro 64-bit

After Effects CC 2017.1

The system cost $ 9,399 $ 5,633

Starting with your Mac Pro, we'll use the best options available now including Core 12, 64 GB DDR3, and Dual D700. Since After Effects is able to use a GPU with OpenCL or Metal, we decided to test both to see if there is a significant difference in performance.

The PC workstation that we will use is a typical configuration that we sell for After Effects using the Intel Core i7 6900K and GeForce GTX 1080 8GB video card and 128 GB of DDR4 memory. This system comes with almost 60% of the cost of your Mac Pro, so it should be a great indicator of what kind of performance you can expect while reducing the cost of the workstation itself. Even if you have a large budget, editing $ 4,000 can open up a number of possibilities, including upgrading multiple workstations at the same time, upgrading monitors and other peripherals, increasing internal storage (not an option on a Mac) Pro), or taking a beautiful holiday to Hawaii.

One thing we want to point out is that although each of these workstations is used for one drive, this is not actually what we usually recommend to our customers. As part of our storage test, we found that using at least one drive configuration with cache on a secondary drive could have a significant impact on performance. However, since your Mac Pro is capable of owning only one internal drive, we chose to match this limit on your computer workstation to ensure that we do not overly prefer the PC.

In order to accurately measure the two work stations, we tested with both standard animation projects as well as working with 4K video files using heavy GPU-accelerated effects such as Lumetri Color. In addition, we have tested motion tracking with both 1080p and 4K footage. This will not test everything that can be done at all in After Effects, but by testing a variety of projects from different sources, we hope to find a number of directions That will help show performance difference between Mac Pro and PC workstation.

The projects we used (with their source) are:

Enterprise standard source length

Template People

(1920x1080) ~ 12.8 seconds

(30 fps - 384 frames) BlueFX

Grunge tires

(1920x1080) ~ 19.9 seconds

(24 fps - 469 frames) Free AE templates

Fiber particles

(960 x 360) ~ 8 seconds

(24 frames per second - 191 frames) Video CoPilot

Simple rings

(1920 × 1080) ~ 6.3 seconds

(24 fps - 150 frames) AE templates are free

Subscribers 5K

(1920x1080) ~ 10.2 seconds

(30 FPS - 307 frames) FX Channel House

Enterprise heavy GPU source length test effects

4K ProRes 4444 clip 16.5 seconds

(23.976 FPS - 395 snapshot) transcoded from R3D sample files

EPIC DRAGON 4K HD (3840x2160)

-Lumetri color correction

- Blurred camouflage

-sharpening

Track Source Source Length

H.264 1080p clip

4K ProRes 4444

Read More »

How to create a USB drive to restore Windows 10

How to create a USB drive to restore Windows 10

All you need to know about this dynamic tool.

You never know when you will need a Windows recovery drive to restore your system to an authentic state, so the time to create one is now - and it is very easy.

The recovery drive is similar to the media that you receive if you purchased a system that was previously created. Again in the day, the PC will be shipped using a CD or DVD that includes a picture of the system when leaving the factory. If your computer's operating system is set aside, you can easily restore it to the way things were on the first day (although you will lose all data and applications created later). At present, manufacturers usually place a picture of the system since it left the factory on a hidden part of the main drive.

The Windows recovery disk supports this idea. In addition to allowing you to reinstall Windows, it includes many troubleshooting tools, which can be life-saving if the system is not running.

Some of these tools have been used to be part of the operating system. If the computer fails to boot, you are presented with a list that allows you to try to boot in safe mode, or use the Last Known Good Configuration. This is no longer the case with Windows 10. Now you need these tools to reside on a separate device and a bootable USB drive, and everyone running Windows must keep one in a safe place that holds the "Emergency" flag.

Create the recovery drive

You can easily create a retrieval engine by using the tool included with Windows 10.

Here's how to create one and what it can give you.

First, get an 8 GB to 16 GB USB drive and insert it into an open USB port on your computer. Then, go to the Windows Control Panel (right-click the Windows icon is the easiest way) and type a recovery drive in the search bar. The manual way to go to System and Security> Security and Maintenance> Recovery will be.

Windows 10 Recovery Drive Create Recovery Drive

You may need to enter an administrator password to go further. In the resulting dialog box, check the box labeled Backup System Files to Recovery Drive.

When you create the recovery drive, you must boot from it to use it. The performance of the computer differs from the USB device depending on the age of the computer and the motherboard, but you can typically press one of the F keys during boot to access the boot selection window. From there, you can select the USB drive you are using, and you should continue to boot from the recovery drive.

When successfully quitting, you'll see a screen that displays the Troubleshoot option. Click it, you will see the following: Recover from drive, advanced options (maybe restore factory image, if available).

Drive Recovery Main Menu

What you'll see when you boot from the recovery drive, allowing you to either repair or reinstall Windows completely.

The first option lets you reinstall Windows. Note that you will lose all your data and installed apps. This is a clean installation of Windows, not a restore from backup or something along these lines. This is the nuclear option, in other words.

The second option, called Advanced Options, lets you repair your Windows installation in several ways and directs you to the following list:

Advanced Options

Advanced options offer quite a few useful tools to repair and repair your computer.

The Advanced Options menu lets you do the following:

System Restore: Use this to reset your computer to a happier time, when things are working normally. This does not affect your data, but it affects installed programs because it replaces the registry with an earlier version.

Recovering system images: If you have used the Windows 10 photo backup utility, this is where you can use it. You can restore the computer image at the time that you created the image, which includes all the data and programs installed at that time.

Fix Startup Problems: This is a type of "black box" in that it tries to fix any problem that prevents the system from booting, but it does not tell you what to do or, if it succeeds, what the problem is. This is the first thing you should try, because it is faster and less penetrated.

Command Prompt: This can be useful for a wide range of tricks and tactics, especially running the SFC / Scannow command to check and repair damaged system files. We all know that a command prompt is a wizard toolkit, and if you know what you are doing, the possibilities are almost endless.

Returning to the previous structure: Although vaguely worded, this allows you to restore your computer to the previous Windows architecture, which means that before any update converts everything into a pear shape.

As you can see, it is very helpful to have one of these recovery drives at hand. Do yourself a favor and get one now. If you cannot create a recovery disc in Windows 10 for some reason, we also have some suggestions for that interface.

Read More »

How to Use Restore from USB Tools and Recovery Drive (2018 or later)

How to Use Restore from USB Tools and Recovery Drive (2018 or later)

Introduction

From within Windows

Unable to access Windows

When your SSD / HDD dies

If you need to reinstall your Windows system to the state it originally had when it was received, we have a guide for you!

For Windows 10 systems that were ordered in 2017 or earlier, use this guide: How to use the Restore from USB tools and recovery drive

For Windows 7 systems with recovery DVDs, use this guide: How to restore using Windows 7 System Image Recovery

Starting mid-December 2017, we changed the way Windows is handled here in Puget Systems. Our new procedures are faster and lead to a more disciplined industry experience, as well as more secure and standardized backup and restore methods. For this reason, the system reset process has changed. This guide guides you through how to reset your system to factory settings. Please note that this will delete everything and reset the system as it was when it was shipped to you, with drivers and courtesy programs. Be sure to copy any data you care about first!

There are two different versions of this guide: one if the systems are capable of booting in Windows, and others for systems that are no longer able to boot to Windows - but where the same primary drive still works. If your system has a failed primary drive, either of these methods will not work. In this case, you will need to replace the drive and perform a new installation of Windows.

From within Windows

Use these steps when you have access to the Windows desktop environment after copying any data you care about to a different physical drive (not just a secondary partition on the same drive!):

Step 1:

Press the windows key or click the Start menu, type "reset" and select "Reset this PC".

Step 2:

On the next screen, select Restart Now under Advanced Startup.

Step 3:

This will quickly restart the system and bring you to the next screen where you want to select "Troubleshooting."

The fourth step:

Here you will choose the option "Puget Systems".

Step Five:

You will now select the disk you want to restore. Be careful here where data will be cleared from the selected disk. If you are unsure of your choice, please contact our support department before continuing.

To continue, click Restore and then Yes.

Step 6:

Accept the license agreement.

Step 7:

Press OK. "This step may take some time to complete, so please be patient.

Step 8:

When you're finished, you'll see this prompt:

Click "OK" and the system will restart.

Step Nine:

The system will restart again to the Advanced Startup screen.

Just click "Continue" and your system will start normally, after restoring factory settings that were originally shipped.

Unable to access Windows

If you are not able to access the Windows desktop environment, but the same drive is fine and the restore data is still intact, the following steps will allow you to restore the operating system and programs to factory conditions. This will erase all the data on the drive, so make sure you copy any data you care about to another physical drive (not just a secondary partition on the same drive!):

Step 1:

When the system is shut down, connect the USB drive of Puget Systems Tools to one of the USB ports on the computer.

Step 2:

Operating system while holding down the "F8" key. This will interrupt the normal boot process and take you to the list of introductory devices on the motherboard.

Step 3:

Once you access the list of boot devices, use the up and down arrow keys to select UEFI: Kingston Data Traveler.

Press "Enter" key to boot from the Puget Tools drive, which will provide access to the Windows restore process.

The fourth step:

You will now select the disk you want to restore. Be careful here where data will be cleared from the selected disk. If you are unsure of your choice, please contact our support department before continuing. To continue, click Restore and then Yes.

Step Five:

Accept the license agreement

Step 6:

Press OK. "This step may take some time to complete, so please be patient.

Step 7:

When you're finished, you'll see this prompt:

Click "OK" and the system will restart.

Step 8:

The system will restart again to the Advanced Startup screen.

Just click "Continue" and your system will start normally, after restoring factory settings that were originally shipped.

When your SSD / HDD dies

If the drive on which Windows is installed ("primary drive") has actually failed, or the drive portion on which the restore image was saved has been corrupted, the only option is to reinstall Windows. If a failed drive is present, it must also be replaced before you do so. We strongly recommend that you contact the support department before proceeding with something like this until you do so.

Read More »

Set up your new iPhone XS the right way

Set up your new iPhone XS the right way

For many people, iPhone XS will be radically different from previous iPhones. However, iPhone setup has not changed much. However, while you may find yourself on a familiar floor, there are still a lot of small things to do before you launch your new phone for the first time (or soon thereafter). Let's take a look at how to set up the new iPhone XS in the right way.

Prepare iPhone XS the right way

With iPhone XS, you'll be able to take advantage of Apple's automatic setup program. If you're coming from an old iPhone without Face ID, you'll find that the Touch ID has disappeared. (This means that you will only have to save one face, instead of several fingers.)


If you're using a serial upgrade tool, and you're coming from an old iPhone X, nothing will change. But you'll still need to upgrade the same way.

Restore from backup of your old iPhone

icloud backup iOS 10 iOS 11
Backup on iCloud manual is easy.
The picture is: Worship Mac
You're likely to restore your new iPhone from a backup of your current iPhone. If so, you only need to do two things:

Make sure that you have a recent backup.
Use Apple's new automatic setup feature to get started.
Number 1 is as simple as going to the iCloud settings on your iPhone and checking for a fresh automatic backup. If not, do one manually. Go to Settings> Your Name> iCloud> iCloud Backup and tap Back Up Now. Wait until it ends.

Automatic setup for iPhone XS

For number 2, Auto Setup allows you to copy your Apple ID settings and home Wi-Fi settings from another device, just by bringing them closer.

If your old iPhone (or iPad) is already running iOS 11 or iOS 12, just put the devices next to each other. Then follow the prompts to avoid having to write your Apple ID and Wi-Fi passwords. This makes the iPhone's initial setup smoother.

Set up a new iPhone XS from scratch
The guide below assumes that you are setting up your new iPhone from scratch. If you do not want to do so, you'll definitely want to see the instructions for backing up your previous iPhone with an encrypted backup in iTunes. Even if you back up your new iPhone, you'll still need to run this list to make sure you're getting the most out of your device.

IPhone Setup: The Basics

Re-download only the apps you need - this app is necessary. We all have so many apps on the iPhone that we do not use. This is the main reason we prepared a clean, to be honest. Click the App Store app and make sure you're signed in to your Apple account. (Click on a small head icon on the Updates panel to see which account you're signed in to.) Only bleed the apps you've used in the past six months. Or be bold: just download the things you use every day. We are willing to bet to be very few.

Do Not Disturb is a basic setting for any iPhone.
Do Not Disturb is a basic setting for any iPhone.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre / Mac worship
Setting Do not Disturb - If you're like the rest of us, you're constantly receiving notifications, iMessages and other types of distractions on your iPhone. Set the Do Not Disturb setting in the Settings app (located in the second section at the bottom of the page, under Notifications and Control Center). You will need to schedule times when you need not to be disturbed.

You can switch to On and set the times when you want to keep notifications off your face. Try 10 pm to 7 am if you can. PRO Tip: Allow some things if there is an emergency: Enable Allow connections from Favorites, and change the recurring calls to On. IOS 12 also lets you turn on the "Do Not Disturb" feature in Bedtime, which ignores all alerts, and even hides them from the lock screen so you do not get harassed when picking up your phone to check the time.

Customize your iPhone setting

Go retro with your ringtone - set your iPhone ringtone to something no one else will have these days: Xylophone. Press Settings, then tap Sounds. Swipe all the way down the menu and click on Classic. You will switch to a list of all sounds from the original iPhone, including Xylophone, which seems to me like something of law and order. There is nothing more distinctive. Since no one else is using this old and polyphonic ringing tone, you'll hear a ringtone for your iPhone right away.

What about those old tunes? If you purchase from iTunes, it will be easy to restore. Better yet, why not make your ring tones using the free Garage Band application? You can start from scratch, or use any song in your music library.

It is easier to find it when you have more than one device on the network.
It is easier to find it when you have more than one device on the network.
Photo: Rob LeFebvre / Mac worship
Change the name of the iPhone - when using a connected service.

Read More »

Netflix tests a mobile subscription only to make its service more affordable

Netflix tests a mobile subscription only to make its service more affordable

Netflix tests a mobile subscription only to make its service more affordable

Netflix application code
Netflix is ​​testing a low-cost mobile phone subscription as it explores a new package designed to expand its appeal in Asia and other emerging markets.

Red Hastings chief executive told Bloomberg last week that the company would test packages at lower prices, and it did not take long for these tests to emerge. The first reports from Malaysia, where Netflix quietly put a portable layer only at RM17, or about $ 4, every month. This is half the price of the company's lowest-priced "basic" package - sold at RM33, or about US $ 7.90 per month in Malaysia.

Netflix spokesman confirmed the Malaysian experience. Similar trials "are being conducted in a few countries", although they refused to provide details, they added. It remains to be seen whether this new subscription layer will be deployed to other parts of the world.


Please note that the mobile-friendly beta reduces Netflix in Malaysia by approximately 50%

This step is logical for Netflix. While it added a large number of international users - those outside the United States account for 79 million of its 137 million customer base - it has argued in the past that it lacks more customers because its stringent prices are prohibitively expensive in much of the world. In fact, to prove this point, a number of competitors in Asia are pricing their services more forcefully.

Competitors including Hotstar Fast-growing in India, iFlix - supported by SKY covers 28 countries - both HOOQ and Viu are priced from $ 3 per month. While it's not clear how many users are clicking from Netflix, it's clear that there is a price discrepancy, which is what this new mobile offer does in some way. It is also increasing the number of mobile users only in India and other parts of Asia.

Apart from offering cheaper options, Netflix will also double the local content in Asia. India is a major hub and this month the company unveiled a list of eight new Netflix movies and a new series from India.

The Mobile Pack is not the first time Netflix has used its pricing strategy.

The company tested a strategy to bypass Apple Store using its own online payment system during the summer. Instead of using in-app payments for billing, so Apple paid 30 percent of the booty, Netflix enabled it to raise all the money for itself. More money is better, of course, but the cost is that the user experience is clunkier without shop applications which may put some potential customers. It is not clear how good the test was done on Netflix.

Read More »

WeWork picks up another $ 3B of SoftBank

WeWork picks up another $ 3B of SoftBank

Adam Newman (WeWork) at TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2017
WeWork received an additional US $ 3 billion in financing from SoftBank, not confused with SoftBank Vision. The transaction comes in the form of a note, allowing SoftBank to pay $ 3 billion to allow shares to be bought before September 2019 at $ 110 or more, ultimately leading to WeWork's $ 42 billion valuation.

In August, Softbank invested $ 1 billion in WeWork as a convertible note.

According to the Financial Times, SoftBank will pay WeWork $ 1.5 billion on January 15, 2019 and another $ 1.5 billion on April 15.

SoftBank is the largest investor in WeWork, with SoftBank Vision contributing $ 4.4 billion to the company last year.

Playing real estate in WeWork is just one aspect of the company's strategy.

More than physical ground, WeWork wants to be the central connective tissue to work in general. The company often contracts with top service providers at "full sale" prices by negotiating on behalf of its 300,000 members. In addition, WeWork has developed corporate products for large companies, such as Microsoft, who tend to sign longer and more lucrative lease contracts. In fact, these types of deals make up 29 per cent of WeWork revenues.

The biggest issue is whether WeWork can maintain its overheated growth, which seems to have been the key to its high valuation. After all, WeWork has yet to achieve profitability.

Can vision become a reality? SoftBank seems willing to bet on it.
WeWork picks up another $ 3B of SoftBank

Read More »

Top Android Apps 2018: Download it now

Top Android Apps 2018: Download it now

The best free Android apps

Best Android Apps - Introduction
Ten years have passed since the announcement of Android, and it was a decade ago. But there was no better time to hop on board, as the Google Play store exploded in recent years, with applications spreading to meet all your needs.

The problem lies in: having a large number of them, even with Editors' Picks, Featured, Best Selling, Top Paid, and Top Free categories there to help.

There are things you can do to filter the winners of the wannabes. Google creates a list of apps that you recommend based on previous downloads, so this is often the place to start.

You can also filter by new versions if you just want to see the latest things to get to the store. Or, if you want an app similar to an app, look for that app and see what appears.

Of course, using user feedback and ratings is an essential part of ensuring that your applications are of high quality. But the easiest (and best) way to find high quality apps is to make someone else looking for you.

What is the best phone for 2018? Check the countdown for the video below!
That is why we put this list. Just like you want the best apps for Android phones. Applications that will revolutionize the functionality, or at least, offer something so great that it is one of the applications that should be downloaded when you get a new phone.

The following applications will be continuously updated and are a combination of paid and free apps selected by our Android experts. So, even if you're reviewing the actual money for one of these apps, you're safe knowing it's a worthwhile purchase.

New This Week: Mobi Goo


£ 7.99 per month

You may have come across Moby before - it's a streaming movie service that allows subscribers to access a new movie every day, with an emphasis on independent and global movies. Moby Goo is basically a movie.

The service selects a new movie version every week and gives you a free ticket. Or rather, it gives you a quick response code that can be scanned in some movie theaters in exchange for a ticket.

There seems to be a good range of cinemas, including big strings like Vue, although Moby Joe tends to choose specialized films that do not contain large versions, so if you are not in a big city your mileage may vary.

The service is included with a standard Mobi subscription, so if you are already a subscriber you can download the MobiJo app and instant access.

However, while Mobi itself is available in both the United States and the United Kingdom, Mobi Go is currently a British service only. We will not be surprised if that changes someday, but at the same time, American users always have a superficially similar MoviePass movie.

Read More »

Vista snaps up Apptio for $1.94B, as enterprise companies remain hot

It seems that Sunday has become a popular day to announce large deals involving enterprise companies. IBM announced the $34 billion Red Hat deal two weeks ago. SAP announced its intent to buy Qualtrics for $8 billion last night, and Vista Equity Partners got into the act too, announcing a deal to buy Apptiofor $1.94 billion, representing a 53 percent premium for stockholders.

Vista paid $38 per share for Apptio,  a Seattle company that helps companies manage and understand their cloud spending inside a hybrid IT environment that has assets on-prem and in the cloud. The company was founded in 2007 right as the cloud was beginning to take off, and grew as the cloud did. It recognized that companies would have trouble understanding their cloud assets along side on-prem ones. It turned out to be a company in the right place at the right time with the right idea.

Investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock and Madrona certainly liked the concept, showering the company with $261 million before it went public in 2016. The stock price has been up and down since, peaking in August at $41.23 a share before dropping down to $24.85 on Friday. The $38 a share Vista paid comes close to the high water mark for the stock.

Stock Chart: Google

Sunny Gupta, co-founder and CEO at Apptio liked the idea of giving his shareholders a good return while providing a good landing spot to take his company private. Vista has a reputation for continuing to invest in the companies it acquires and that prospect clearly excited him. “Vista’s investment and deep expertise in growing world-class SaaS businesses and the flexibility we will have as a private company will help us accelerate our growth…,” Gupta said in a statement.

The deal was approved by Apptio’s board of directors, which will recommend shareholders accept it. With such a high premium, it’s hard to imagine them turning it down. If it passes all of the regulatory hurdles, the acquisition is expected to close in Q1 2019.

It’s worth noting that the company has a 30-day “go shop” provision, which would allow it to look for a better price. Given how hot the enterprise market is right now and how popular hybrid cloud tools are, it is possible it could find another buyer, but it could be hard to find one willing to pay such a high premium.

Vista clearly likes to buy enterprise tech companies having snagged Ping Identityfor $600 million and Marketo for $1.8 billion in 2016. It grabbed Jamf, an Apple enterprise device management company and Datto, a disaster recovery company last year. It turned Marketo around for $4.75 billion in a deal with Adobe just two months ago.

Read More »

Bonobo AI raises $4.5M seed round to help companies turn interactions with customers into valuable data

Bonobo AI raises $4.5M seed round to help companies turn interactions with customers into valuable data

Bonobo AI, an AI-based platform that helps companies get insights from customer support calls, texts and other interactions, announced today that it has raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by G20 Ventures and Capri Ventures. Founded in 2016 and led by co-founder and CEO Efrat Rapoport, the Tel Aviv-based startup claims that its technology has been used to analyze more than a billion interactions so far and that it has signed up a “few dozen” clients, including DreamCloud and Honeybook.

The idea behind Bonobo is that even though customer service texts and voice calls can provide companies with a trove of valuable information, these data points are difficult to aggregate and analyze at scale. Bonobo’s technology integrates into the platforms that its clients use to communicate with customers, like Gmail, Zendesk or Twilio) and CRM platforms like Salesforce or HubSpot. Then it analyzes interactions for “events of interest in calls,” Rapoport told TechCrunch, like “when customers ask for a discount, complain, ask for a missing feature, become dissatisfied, etc.”

There are two main types of issues that Bonobo helps its clients with. One is opportunity detection, or identifying things that can either help the closing of a sale, like features that have proven popular among past buyers, or hinder it, such as customer questions that aren’t satisfactorily answered. By doing so, Bonobo is also able to help clients create very targeted marketing campaigns. For example, instead of sending marketing material to all customers who need to renew their subscriptions, Rapoport says Bonobo’s clients can create campaigns to help retain customers who need to renew their subscriptions but have complained about the price being too high or missing a feature.

Another example of how Bonobo can increase conversion rates is predicting customer cancellations and other potentially costly issues. For example, one vehicle repair company was losing millions of dollars due to cancelled jobs. Bonobo helped it identify factors associated with a higher likelihood of cancellations during customer interactions with the company’s representatives, which helped it retain thousands of customers.

The second is risk detection. For example, Bonobo detects if a customer starts mentioning a competitor, threatens to post their complaint on social media or brings up problems that are a legal or compliance risk. Rapoport says that Bonobo’s technology can identify specific segments in conversations, so companies can review it directly from Bonobo’s dashboard without having to perform a time-consuming search.

Rapoport says that she and her co-founders (CTO Idan Tsitiat, COO Barak Goldstein and VP of Research and Development Ohad Hen) began working on Bonobo after they realized that while there are many tools from companies like Tableau, Oracle, Microsoft, SAP and Salesforce for gathering insights from structured data (like customer behavior on websites), very few exist for analyzing unstructured data, including conversational data, at scale. “It’s easy to measure how many people go to their cart but then change their mind and exit, but how do you do the same on thousands of customers calls? How do you know what’s the reason customers change their minds?” says Rapoport. “That’s the gap we are filling.”

Read More »

Alibaba sets new Singles’ Day record with $31B in sales, but growth is slowing

Alibaba scored another blockbuster Singles’ Day after customers around the world shopped in stores and online on the tenth edition of its November 11 shopping festival. That puts this year’s gross merchandise volume – a measure for the dollar value of total transactions – at a staggering $30.8 billion, although the company recorded its lowest-ever annual growth rate for the event.

The figure makes the spending bonanza more than twice the size of Cyber Monday and Black Friday combined in 2017.

This is by far the largest-ever Singles’ Day to date. Just 15 hours and 49 minutes into the spending spree, transactions leapfrogged that of 2017’s tally of $25 billion, the company announced on Twitter.

View image on Twitter

Alibaba Group

✔@AlibabaGroup

And there it is. Gross merchandise volume at this year's 11.11 Global Shopping Festival tops last year's total.

50

12:18 AM - Nov 11, 2018

27 people are talking about this

Twitter Ads info and privacy

As the world anticipates when the supercharged shopping day will hit a ceiling, sales are already cooling. The final total of 2018 represents a 27 percent increase from last year. That’s the lowest Alibaba has seen in the history of Singles’ Day sales, and a drop from 36 percent in 2017 — still, it remains impressive given how large the target is each year.

The slowdown came on the heels of Alibaba’s weakest revenue growth since seven quarters ago and a cut in annual revenue forecast – though revenues were still increasing at a healthy rate of 54 percent year-over-year in its latest quarter.

New growth fuel

Consumers are expected to tighten their purse strings as an economic downturn hits China. The ecommerce giant is, however, unconcerned for it’s betting on the country’s rising middle class in the long run.

Shoppers “are looking for new ways to upgrade their lifestyles and make their lives better,” Alibaba executive chairman Joe Tsai  said at a media event on Sunday. “This will really offset a lot of the short-term cyclical effects.”

More than 300 million of China’s 1.4 billion people have entered the middle-income bracket, according to the national statistics bureau. That means discretionary items will drive much of the growth in the Chinese retail titan – and the upmarket trend is already underway. Health supplements, small home appliances, and skincare items are among the fastest growing categories by GMV during Singles’ Day this year.

Alibaba has also tapped into physical stores. The online retailer is poised to “digitize the whole consumer retail market,” Daniel Zhang,  current CEO and incoming chairman as Jack Ma hands over the helm next year, told media on Sunday. Over the past two years, Alibaba has been jostling with close rival JD.com to snap up strategic partnerships with brick-and-mortar retailers who remain keen to reach Chinese consumers.

Alibaba CEO Daniel Zhang started the Singles’ Day shopping festival in 2009 when he was in charge of the company’s Tmall business (Photo Vivek Prakash/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

There are nuances in the sheer size of GMV, however, as it doesn’t reflect final revenues. A slew of factors could boost the figure. For one, refunds cannot be processed on November 11. Many vendors run pre-sales weeks in advance, taking deposits for items at the time but only processing full payments on Singles’ Day.

Alibaba also aired a star-studded gala on the night of November 10 to drum up sales. It said that over 240 million people – that’s almost one in five people in China – watched the show and its Singles’ Day commercials through two of China’s top TV broadcasters and Alibaba’s own Youku  video streaming site.

Next ten years

As Alibaba enters its 19th year, it’s turning to new channels to sell. “Voice will be an important entry point,” said Zhang. The firm’s efforts to brace for China’s transition from a mobile-first age into an AI-powered one include a tie-up with voice assistant startup Rokid.

Alibaba also has its sights set on international consumers. This year, merchants from over 200 countries participated in Singles’ Day, including those on Alibaba’s Southeast Asia-based Lazada platform. “From day one, our dream was to create a global shopping day,” suggested Zhang.

An 11.11 advertisement in New York

Alibaba celebrated another big milestone this year: over one billion packages were shipped throughout the shopping day. But the company is also under mounting pressure to address its packaging waste problem.

“We have to redefine packaging,” said Zhang. That means more than using recycled material. More important, the CEO wants items to travel at a closer distance. This is made possible by algorithms that optimize inventory management. Alibaba could also lean on Ele.me, which it acquired this year and runs a fleet of food delivery staff, to process neighborhood orders which may require less or no packaging at all.

Singles’ Day was first popularized as an antidote to Valentines’ Day for the way the date is written numerically: 11.11, which represents four single people. Nearly a decade after Zhang first turned it into a sales promotion for Tmall, Alibaba’s online sales platform for brands, the one-day event has swollen into the world’s largest online shopping festival.

“We created this day for people who are lonely. Today, we totally redefined the day for how people shop,” concluded Zhang.

Read More »

Cloudflare rolls out its 1.1.1.1 privacy service to iOS, Android

Months after announcing its privacy-focused DNS service, Cloudflare is bringing 1.1.1.1 to mobile users.

Granted, nothing ever stopped anyone from using 1.1.1.1 on their phones or tablets already. But now the app, now available for iPhones, iPads and Android devices, aims to make it easier for anyone to use its free consumer DNS service.

The app is a one-button push to switch on and off again. That’s it.

Cloudflare rolled out 1.1.1.1 earlier this year on April Fools’ Day, no less, but privacy is no joke to the San Francisco-based networking giant. In using the service, you let Cloudflare handle all of your DNS information, like when an app on your phone tries to connect to the internet, or you type in the web address of any site. By funneling that DNS data through 1.1.1.1, it can make it more difficult for your internet provider to know which sites you’re visiting, and also ensure that you can get to the site you want without having your connection censored or hijacked.

It’s not a panacea to perfect privacy, mind you — but it’s better than nothing.

The service is also blazing fast, shaving valuable seconds off page loading times — particularly in parts of the world where things work, well, a little slower.

“We launched 1.1.1.1 to offer consumers everywhere a better choice for fast and private Internet browsing,” said Matthew Prince, Cloudflare chief executive said. “The 1.1.1.1 app makes it even easier for users to unlock fast and encrypted DNS on their phones.”

You can download the app from Apple’s App Store and Google Play.

Read More »

Quick Google Adsense Approval practical tips

You will learn easy way to get Quick Google Adsense Approval which is what i might call the nightmare of some webmasters or bloggers.

It’s time to solve that nightmare once and quickly got adsense approval;if only you will carefully read and practiced whatever i will discuss on this article.

Having had vital experience on how Quick Google Adsense Approval works, and also how a day,week,month old blog or website can get approval on first time. I am willing to tell you that to get Quick Google Adsense Approval is more easier and simple than tying your shoe, hey! am joking, but its true!.

For newbies, it might seem heartbreaking glancing at the title of your mail messages showing Google Adsense disapproval message. Don’t worry, am once like you(you not alone!).

I know of many hardworking bloggers and webmasters that lost focus on publishing content to their readers and eventually sell of their website or abandoned it, simply because their website were not approved by google Adsense so as to aid them monetize their blogs.

Now in this article, am going to guide you on the A-Z approach to take when applying for Adsense.
The truth is that most people don’t clearly understands what the disapproval message from Adsense meant or the corrections they want you to take.
Am going to list and explain what Google Adsense really wants you to do or note before applying again or else you might keep getting disapproval. Google are smarter!, you have to follow rules they set.

Without boring you much, i will list all the necessary steps and action one take before you can get

Quick Google Adsense Approval from Google Adsense:
1. Creating original and Educative contents:
The first step one can take before applying for Adsense is to make sure that you have original content that is meaningful and well formatted.

Having a good content is a good way to start making your website Adsense ready and also it will help rank your sites in search engine. Content is the tea of every website be it music blog, sports,education,eCommerce,health, business site. You need to learn how to craft a good article that is relevant to your niche.

When your are creating original content, try to make your article length to be at least 500-1k words or more depending on whatever topic you are writing at,but let it have a good length.
Google search engine have a sweet spot for every website that publish great article that is well structured and with a nice article length.

Structuring your content when creating it is very important factor to consider because it makes your site visitors to keep on checking for your newest article.

What i mean by structuring your content is that you should:
⦁ Have straightforward headings that justifies your article at the beginning of your content
⦁ Use good font style or font size where it matters.
⦁ Apply bold/italic character where you want your readers to put good attention to.
⦁ Learn how to use paragraph in your article because it’s the first step to having structured article.
⦁ Specificy a good width and height when including image,video,slider in a post and try to make it fit perfectly where it help tells your stories more.

If you followed the above explanation i did,you will get the focus of how you can structure your post whenever you are writing a new article.

So having an original articles on your blog is the forward approach to skyrocketing your website. Before you can apply and get Quick Google Adsense Approval,make sure you have created at least 15-20 different original articles on your site and also with minimum of 500 words.

Applying this instruction is the key to get quick adsense approval because google will trust your site easily when you have great content that matches your niche.

2.Never copy articles from different websites:
Like they usually say ‘No man is an island of knowledge’ but i always say ‘ atleast man have knowledge’.

Now this is the most critical advice am going to give on this article,if truly you want to get Google Adsense approval.
Well, just like normal human being do hate plagiarism of articles, Google Search engines hate it the most and they are out to punish any website that does that.

What am trying to let you know here is to avoid plagiarism at all possible means because it will kill your website faster than you can ever imagine. Never look on your friends that does or say that it doesn’t matter or advice you to use article spinner and others
Like i mentioned in the first paragraph of this section ‘No man is an island of knowledge’, that the universal truth but that doesn’t give you an edge to copy other website article and paste on your own website.
The sites you copy their articles might have spend so much time on researching and getting facts that will help create an content that worth their readers interest. As an author or content developer, will you be happy if another person live by your sweat and stress?. I guess the answer is ‘NO’.
When you have a new website,try to make it an obligation never to copy other site article no matter how juicy or huge traffic is generating for them.

There are so many way you can get or copy article from a site (Hey!! not what you think) that is legal and not harmful:

⦁ Read your competitors article and learn from the way they write their article
⦁ Check on their articles that is driving huge traffic and embark on more research or fact finding that will help you write more about that particular article and add fresh meaning to it.
⦁ Giving credit to the original site where you copied a particular content
⦁ Notifying the author of that particular content you want to copy from and get their permissions, Google will understand.
⦁ Careful editing of an original content before publishing, this is most used format but add your own knowledge or experience on that article, include image or videos that will make yours exceptional.
Adsense always frown at site that involve in plagiarism and they will keep on warning you to remove plagraise article on your site before they can give you access to earn from them.

There are many damages your site will face if you keep on plagiarizing other site articles without giving them credit or editing thoroughly.

Read:how to create viral content that ranks faster

3. Poorly structured blog:
Google Adsense is a tech company that have interest of its user at hand and so therefore you have to aid them on that.
Regards to Quick Google Adsense Approval, how your website is structured is also co-factor that determines good response from them.

A poorly structured website can’t get approval from google no matter how many original articles you have written so far. Google needs your website to be user friendly and well structured so that to enable its crawler survey all your web pages before they can give you any approval message.

So far, i have been talking of Poorly structured site and maybe you don’t understand what it really meant.

A poorly structured or non-structured site is a website that doesn’t have the following component:
⦁ Navigation menu
⦁ Footer navigation
⦁ Title
⦁ navigation between pages in site
⦁ Sitemap
Above is the key tip a good structured website should have, You have to make sure your website is not under construction mode or testing mode before applying adsense.
I hope you have gotten an idea of how poorly structured website can deny your site quick approval.

4. Blog Niche or type of website:
Here we go again on what can make your site not to get Quick Google Adsense Approval.
There are some niches that Google Adsense does not support and those site have to look for alternative Ads network for them to monetise their blog or sites.
Example of niches or websites that Google Adsense prohibit and wont approve are:
⦁ niches that based on porn and adult based contents (18+)
⦁ Gambling and betting niche
⦁ websites that publish violence articles or humanity threat
⦁ websites that promote hard drugs,crime,killings,rape etc.
⦁ niche that promote cyber crimes,black-hat,malicious or virus tools
If your niche or site is plainly or partially based on the bulleted list above, kindly forget about using Google adsense for monetisation, use other available ad networks that support your kind of niche.
Even if you decides to buy adsense account from someone, your website will be banned immediately adsense code touch the website, so don’t try to complicate issues for yourselves but rather respect their rules and do what is right.
5. Blog Design:
One of the mistakes which I have seen many bloggers that is in hurry to get Quick Google Adsense Approval do is, they create a new blog, add few content, add lots of different ad networks, use a crappy or distorted design and apply for Adsense. Believe me, first impression is very important and it’s your blog design which matters a lot.
If you are on WordPress, you can use any professional WordPress theme from premium theme network or from elegant theme, as it’s cheap.
If you are on Blog-spot, use a blog Spot theme which is not only beautiful but also looks professional. Don’t clutter your sidebar widget and post with lots of blog widgets and different ads. Once you are approved for Adsense, you can always add as much widget or different ad network. (If required).
6.Apply for Google Adsense Again:
Now if your blog cleared all tests and mistakes, it’s the time to resubmit your application. You will find a link in rejected email from Adsense team to reapply for your adsense account.
Another tip is to use a custom domain and have a Google apps account. Now, use your Google apps Email Id to apply for Adsense account. This works for many.
At times, adsense reject your application for wrong reasons and one way to bypass this is by reapplying again and again. If you would keenly follow all i have written above, i assured you that you will be amazed at how fast Google will approve your website.
7.Promoting your blog:
This is the most secretive approach to get faster approval from Adsense. Although Google doe’s not list driving traffic or promoting your blog as their policy before they can approve your account, but have you gone on a survey to know why they did not list that?
Here is it, you might get Quick Google Adsense Approval if you are making effort to drive traffic to your blog especially new blog site.That will make them consider your blog easily regardless of some other necessary checkout they will do on your blog.
8.Alternative approach to Google Adsense:
I would love to advice all newbies in blogging not to hope on Adsense as the only source of monetizing their blog, there are so many opportunities that exists which will earn you greatly if you follows it up. Some of successful bloggers doe’s not have Adsense on their blog yet they make up-to 5k-10k dollars every month, do you know their secret?
Here are five alternative way you can earn big as blogger without Adsense:
⦁ Promoting content (this depends on your traffic).
⦁ Affiliate marketing
⦁ Advertising for companies or individuals
⦁ Earning with other available Ad networks such as bidvertiser, mgid
⦁ Advertising your product or business
There are so many alternative every smart blogger can engage which i will not cover all the details here, but will make sure i publish it in coming weeks.
Feel Free To Share!

Read More »