Company Overview
        Tesla is first and foremost a technology company that also develops electric cars and solar energy products. They produce the Tesla Model S, 3, X, and Y as well as solar panels and the Tesla Powerwall, a home battery backup system. All of their products work together in the Tesla ecosystem to deliver a seamless, all in one, company experience paired with the Tesla mobile app. Their structure and approach to products is very similar to Apple in that they attempt to build and produce every single component to their spec all the way from software to hardware. In a way, Tesla is a bigger software company than others may realize with their Autopilot technology, industry leading car user interface, and energy production in the Tesla app. Plus their upcoming FSD (full self-driving) Beta program is showing very promising results and will be the future of transportation.
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Strategic Organizational Goals
         Tesla’s mission is to accelerate the worlds transition to sustainable energy. To do this they launched a master plan to help obtain this goal. They started with the Roadster in 2008, a high priced, low volume production, all electric car that was fun to drive and proved their initial concept that electric cars don’t have to be boring. It had to be expensive to fund the research and production of their next car, the Model S. The Model S is a premium, four door, hatchback style sedan that has a lower price point and large electric range. Part two of the Model S plan introduced a larger electric SUV called Model X, which addressed the other half of the premium car market. Both cars still cost a lot, and this was once again to cover new production technique costs and research and development for their next affordable electric car. The Model 3 was introduced in 2017 as a mass marketed, high volume production, affordable car. Starting at $35,000 it opened the floodgates setting the new standard for the electric car market just as they did before with the S and X. It has over 300 miles of range and built using an almost fully automated and streamlined production line.
        Now, all their cars are produced using a casting process with the world’s largest casting machine saving both time and production costs. Not only do their electric vehicles help achieve the companies mission statement, but their solar energy products do as well. You need a green grid to live our lives with and charge our cars on. So, Tesla builds their own solar panels at their Buffalo, New York Gigafactory and produce batteries at their Sparks, Nevada Gigafactory for their Powerwall home battery packs as well. This allows homes to be totally independent from the grid if needed (and in blackouts). Putting free energy from the sun right into the battery pack to use to charge the car and power the house. It also helps relieve some of the stress off the grid, especially during peak times. Tesla also has large scalable battery packs that replace substations called the MegaPack. This system allows mass energy storage for local utilities stress relief off the grid. Paired with a solar farm, you can have a whole city running off solar energy 24/7.
        Megapack’s are also scalable to smaller sizes to cover large buildings instead of needing many Powerwalls in a series. Part two of the Master Plan is expanding into all forms of ground transportation starting with the Tesla Semi Truck and Cybertruck pickup truck. Adding over 500 miles of electric range to areas of the market that drastically need a shift to green energy. Tesla is also going back to their roots and reviving the Roadster to be the supercar that beats all supercars with a range of 620 miles and a starting 0-60 time of just 1.9s, all for $200,000. An affordable tag in a high-priced supercar market. Their goal is to disrupt every aspect of the transportation market and create a fun and compelling alternative to shift people’s opinions on electric vehicles. Thus, to accelerate the transition to sustainable energy.

Technology Assessment
        As a tech company, Tesla is nothing but technology focused. From advanced cutting-edge tech found in their cars to leading production processes in the factory. Tesla’s focus on technology can be found in four categories. Battery and powertrain, vehicle control and infotainment software, self-driving development, and energy generation and storage. With battery and powertrain Tesla has designed their own proprietary powertrain system to be adaptable, efficient, reliable and cost-effective while withstanding the rigors of an automotive environment. Tesla offers dual motor powertrain vehicles, which use two electric motors to maximize traction and performance in an all-wheel drive configuration and are introducing vehicle powertrain technology featuring three electric motors for further increased performance.
        As far as battery development, they maintain extensive testing and R&D capabilities for battery cells, packs and systems, and have built an expansive body of knowledge on lithium-ion cell chemistry types and performance characteristics. In order to enable a greater supply of cells for their products with higher energy densities at lower costs, Tesla is currently using their expertise to develop a new proprietary lithium-ion battery cell and improved manufacturing processes. Vehicle control and infotainment software is a major part of the customer experience as it’s the main interaction between the user and the vehicle. The performance and safety systems of our vehicles and their battery packs require sophisticated control software.
      Control systems in their vehicles optimize performance, customize vehicle behavior, manage charging and control all infotainment functions. Tesla develops almost all of their software, including most of the user interfaces, internally and update their vehicles’ software regularly through over-the-air updates. Self-driving development is coming along fairly quickly as this category will become one of the defining factors of Tesla’s long-term success. If it hasn’t already done so yet. Tesla has expertise in developing technologies, systems and software to enable self-driving vehicles using primarily vision and radar-based sensors.
      The FSD Computer runs Tesla’s neural networks in their vehicles, and they are also developing additional computer hardware to better enable the massive amounts of field data captured by vehicles to continually train and improve these neural networks for real-world performance. Currently, Tesla offers users certain advanced driver assist systems under Autopilot and FSD options. It is extremely important to note the driver is ultimately responsible for controlling the vehicle, and Tesla’s systems provide safety and convenience functionality that relieves drivers of the most tedious and potentially dangerous aspects of road travel much like the systems that airplane pilots use, when conditions permit. As with other vehicle systems, Tesla improves these functions in their vehicles over time through free over-the-air updates.
          Finally, energy generation and storage offer customers an extension of the Tesla ecosystem to fully integrate a sustainable energy lifestyle. They leverage many of the component-level technologies from their vehicles in their energy storage products. By taking a modular approach to the design of battery systems, Tesla can optimize manufacturing capacity among energy storage products. With the expertise in power electronics, it enables them to interconnect battery systems seamlessly with electrical grids while providing fast-acting systems for power injection and absorption.
          Tesla has also developed software to remotely control and dispatch energy storage systems using their real-time energy trading platform for larger scale productions such as Megapack. They have also engineered Solar Roof over numerous iterations to combine aesthetic appeal and durability with power generation. The efficiency of Tesla’s own solar energy products is aided by their own solar inverter, which also incorporates their power electronics technologies. Both products have been designed to integrate directly with Powerwall.

Technology Goals
          All of Tesla’s goals directly relate to their mission statement and goal of transitioning the world to sustainable energy. With their battery development Tesla is developing their own battery and unique dry cell manufacturing process to reduce production time, waste materials, and produce a highly efficient battery to transition all their cars to 400-to-500-mile range plus vehicles. This new battery process will also allow vehicles to ultimately cost less to the consumer as well. Their goal of achieving full autonomy with all their vehicles that have a Full self-driving computer already installed is very close to being ready. Tesla intends to establish a future autonomous Tesla ride-hailing network, which would also allow give Tesla access to a whole new customer base even as modes of transportation evolve.
          Moving forward, all new orders for Tesla solar or Tesla Powerwall will require both to function. Meaning if you purchase solar you must purchase a Powerwall and vice versa. This streamlines the process of installation to be simple and require less involvement with permitting and PTO (permission to operate) from the city and local energy utility. It also allows solar panels to directly connect to the battery eliminating an inverter and additional installation costs. Public charging infrastructure continues to grow as the Supercharger network adds many large-scale and medium-scale charging stations worldwide, every single year. Supercharger stations are typically placed along well-traveled routes and in and around dense city centers to allow Tesla vehicle owners the ability to enjoy quick, reliable and ubiquitous charging with convenient, minimal stops. Adding stations in areas that are needed the most as customers request specific areas to add a station.

Information Systems Guidelines
       Tesla doesn’t disclose much about its information systems guidelines as a strategic advantage in their competitive market, but we can infer some from looking from the outside. Tesla adheres to a hectic schedule of streamlined goals. Whether it’s during production hell and building a semi-temporary production line to increase capacity or raising and lowering prices without notice. Tesla does this to survive, to maintain focus, and achieve long term growth. Even if some of their tactics seem odd, there’s always a driving goal in mind. Tesla is also a data driven company. With huge amounts off data coming from their vehicles every day, improving self-driving modeling.
          Tesla, like Apple, takes privacy very seriously and Elon Musk has affirmed his stance on the user’s privacy by anonymizing incoming data. He is also very adamant about his stance on AI (Artificial Intelligence) and machine learning. The need to control who has the most power and contain a healthy level of AI to survive as humans. This take would be assumed across all instances of Information Systems at Tesla. We know that Tesla uses AGL (Automotive grade Linux) for most of its computers and lobes to customize their software widely. No secrets are to get out and we can infer everything is very secure.

SWOT Analysis of Technology Goals

Strengths
1. The Power of the Tesla brand name.
The Tesla logo and brand name is everything and highly recognizable around the world. Tesla came at the perfect time when both adoption, innovation, demand, and market shift made them a list of Tesla’s greatest hits. They have the premium electric vehicle market too themselves and are dominating in new vehicle sales. Tesla has become a household name just as Toyota and Honda have but for electric vehicles solely. Leaving behind legacy auto to continuously struggle with miss after miss as Tesla pushes forward getting farther and farther ahead of the competition.

2. Tesla has the best range of any electric car.
Tesla’s focus on consistently achieving the highest range in every category is paramount to its success. In combination with their future battery manufacturing process and efficient powertrains, Tesla will continue to out range perform the competition. The Model S Plaid+ currently has a whopping 520 miles of range. The Model 3 and Y are approaching 400 miles too. Killing the age-old myth that gasoline cars a more reliable because they have a longer range.

Weaknesses
1. Customer service needs help.
While customer satisfaction is the highest of any car on the road today, Tesla customer have some of the worst interactions with customer service. Calling in to customer service to help with an issue takes forever. Getting help during the buying process isn’t as reliable anymore. And wanting to instantly talk to an actual person is pretty rare especially if you have a custom request or project regarding solar.

2. Tesla = Musk
When you think of Tesla you instantly think of Elon Musk. Whatever he does in his life can affect Tesla whether those decisions involve Tesla at all. There’s also the fact that he runs 3 other successful companies at the same time such as SpaceX, The Boring Company, and Nueralink. If he retires or just vanishes, will Tesla survive on its own? I’d like to think so, just as Steve Jobs did with Apple. But it’s remained to be seen and one guy can only do so much.

Opportunities
1. Gigafactories are growing left and right.
Tesla has the opportunity to be in every corner of the world distributing its vehicles anywhere. Currently there is a Gigafactory in California, Nevada, New York, Texas, China, Germany, and now possibly Japan and Asia. This factory blueprint can scale massively and have the ability to out produce very other car brand in both quality and by number.

2. Tesla could sell fleets to corporations so they can meet their environmental goals.
As electric vehicle adoption becomes widespread, bigger companies need to race its gas guzzling fleets of vehicles. Tesla has the opportunity to sell the Model Y, 3, Cybertruck, Semi and a possible van to hundreds of companies around the world. They just need to meet current production demand, helped by the growing number of Gigafactories and refining their production process.

Threats
1. Competition
Competition is heating up from companies such as Ford with its Mach-E and GM with their Bolt and Hummer-EV. Legacy auto still has a lot to learn but they also have deep pockets. So, it is only a matter of time until they catch up. Catching up to charging infrastructure and self-driving technology may take even longer for them as Tesla has an even bigger lead on that technology. Almost every major car manufacturer has recently announced that they will go all electric by 2024 so it’s only a matter of time for Tesla to uniquely position themselves as the better brand.

2. Self-driving car acceptance.
For their self-driving division to succeed they need mass market acceptance of the technology. And as usual with new technologies, people are apprehensive. Other car manufactures may make it normal but that will take some time. Tesla being the first to do it right will always come under scrutiny even if it’s much safter than driving the old fashion way. People don’t like change, it’s human nature, and that will take some time for people to get used to.

Information System Strategic Initiative

Customer Service and PR Overhaul
          Tesla’s current customer service is abysmal and how they respond to major issues and false stories is almost nonexistent since they got rid of their PR team. A plan is needed to fix those faults and remedy their public image on the customer relations front.

        The cost of expanding customer service alone will be an extra 2 million dollars a year plus reviving the PR department at another estimated 2 million. Their current services revenue is 19 million and can easily cover the 4 million needed to fix this issue. This estimated value is more on the high end to cover customer service overhaul and department expansion. This will also be adding a whole new PR department which was recently defunct 2 years ago. So, some infrastructure may still be present, technology moves fast so it will have to be checked and upgraded.
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          Some risks include an outcome where increased customer service availability may not fix reliability of customer service. This will need to be addressed with a management change and mass department training. Making sure the right policy is written to respond to any case necessary. Being a high-profile company. Any major issue that may arise in customer service should be looked at by PR in anticipation of false information in the media or customer retention on social media. Elon Musk also does not believe in the value of PR and would first, have to allow the department to be reopened, then try to see the value and believe in its greater good for the company’s public image.

            Looking at job listings at Tesla we can infer that their network infrastructure is built very similar to other major players. Listings looking for people experienced in using Juniper and Palo Alto Network firewalls, configuration management with Ansible, Puppet or Terraform systems, and Linux operating system internals knowledge. Docker, GCP, Kubernetes, and AWS experience is also needed. So, it would be a secure Linux based environment, at least on the network side. On the employee side with customer service, Windows is the standard choice on small form factor computers at the desk of employees paired with modern VoIP phone systems. Standard practice seems to be in play here even without the exact knowledge of what programs they use to respond to and look up customers.

            Current network engineers and help desk employees will suffice for the initial expansion. Adding one or two more help desk employees will help with ongoing issues in the expanded user base in the customer service department. There may be a need to add an additional network engineer who already has specific knowledge on customer service systems, especially if a new system is needed. A new system may only be needed once an internal audit is taken on the current feedback from employees.

            Interestingly their current customer support is a division of the sales team. A separation of the teams may help distinguish operations and procedures to better suit the customer’s needs. That way it will be quicker for a customer calling into sales help and another customer calling in for support for their car or solar system. This also avoids any conflicting interest to sell more products to existing customers increasing customer satisfaction and simplifying department processes. This helps the infrastructure team on the software side to create two separate programs to aid employees in the assistance of customers.

          It is not specifically known if a third party or internally developed program is used for support. But we can infer from job listings that it may be internally developed due to no requirements of industry known systems. Just customer service environment experience seems to be needed. Because of the unknown and possibly internal systems used, in addition to Tesla’s position on secrecy, outside contracts and business partners are not used in the PR and customer service divisions. This is only more apparent on their production lines with building contractors, machine companies, and new equipment processes.

            New training initiatives and programs will be created after receiving internal feedback from customer service employees in addition to surveys conducted by Tesla owners who call in as well. As for the PR side, a new take on public relations and press release tactics using social media will garner modern support while connecting directly with the ever-strong Tesla community on Twitter and Facebook. Since dissolution of the previous PR team, Twitter has been the defending ground by Tesla owners and enthusiasts on Tesla’s behalf when any incidents occur. By leveraging social media and precise responses, Tesla will have better control of the narrative while only needing a smaller PR team, when compared to other major tech companies. This approach saves Tesla money and is a modern alterative to mass distributed teams.

            The timeframe of expanding customer service, retraining employees, and recreating the PR division will take roughly one year. This include searching for new hires, expanding network capacity, and with the help of a work from home option, an easy expansion without needing a lot of on-site workspace. This will cost an extra $4 million a year with the possibility of customer service budget expansion later if needed. Adding 25 new employees to customer service and 15 new employees to the newly created PR department. 

To succeed with this initiative Tesla must:

• Identify their current customer service issues.
• Accept that this needs to be addressed.
• Elon Musk will also need to reassess his stance on good PR.
• Listen to the Tesla community.
• Identify weaknesses in the sales and support programs.
• Look at third party software solutions in addition to weighing the costs of bolstering their own.
• Hire over 40 new employees to staff these changes.
• Train new and existing employees with new training program.
• Expand network infrastructure into workspaces.
• New computer distribution via help desk with new help desk employees.
• Encourage a work from home environment for customer support.

References
TSLA 10K EDGAR Filing for 2020. (2020, December 31). Retrieved April 27, 2021, from https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1318605/000156459021004599/tsla-10k_20201231.htm
Dougherty, K. (2021, April 14). Elon Musk's complete master plan. Retrieved April 27, 2021, from https://solartribune.com/master-plan/
Running head strategic information system tesla strategic. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2021, from https://www.ozassignments.com/solution/running-head-strategic-information-system-tesla-strategic
Li, Zitong. Strategic Audit on Tesla (2018, April 16) Retrieved April 27, 2021, from https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1055&context=honorstheses
Privacy & Legal: Tesla. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2021, from https://www.tesla.com/about/legal
About Tesla: Tesla. (n.d.). Retrieved April 27, 2021, from https://www.tesla.com/about

As healthcare systems around the world evolve into a fully digital experience, developers in the healthcare industry look for a language and platform to focus their attention on. PHP has not been a slacker by any majority. From its easy database integration to its ever evolving speed and maturity, PHP in the healthcare industry today is a widely adopted tool and it may surprise you just how widely it is used.

    PHP has been around since the mid 90s originally created as a scripting language to interface with binaries written in the C-programming language (5). After iteration and iteration popularity has blown up to create the basis for over 80% of the active web today (1). Thats right, 8 out of every 10 websites you have visited are most likely made with PHP. A couple major sites you may know of is Facebook, WordPress, Flickr, and Wikipedia just to name a few (1). PHP is known for its ease of use and fully integrated server side scripting. Since its been around for a while and still considered modern, you’ll be hard pressed not to find any senior developers to hire who know how to program in PHP. That is not to discredit younger developers either. In the past 10 years, we have seen a market share grow from 11% to 26.2% worldwide. That is only about ~6% less than the already popular C# and ~15% less than Java at 40% of the market share. (6). This gives anyone in the industry hope that PHP as a language should stick around for at least the next 10 years. (Obviously until something way better comes along.) So why choose PHP for programming in the healthcare industry? Simply because of its high availability, adoption, and great integration with databases. Something hospitals have an ever growing number of as we approach an always connected world in 2021.

    From 2004 to 2017, hospital adoption rate of digital EHR (Electronic Health Record) systems has blown up to 96% (2)! And for good reason too. Having an EHR compared to paper records have helped save lives by having live, up to date, accurate information that can be sent from floor to floor, hospital to hospital, or anywhere that’s needed really. This amount of data created is massive and what other language to handle large amounts of data in conjunction with a database than PHP. Data needs to be entered in forms all the time, and having an always available system or webpage to import patient data is vital to the EHR system’s success and PHP is perfect for sending forms of information into a system. PHP is huge in creating web apps in healthcare. An application that can be added and accessed from any device, whether desktop, mobile, tablet etc is an amazing tool to collect and retrieve vital data, records, and insurance connections for the patient (1). The exponential impact on quality of service isn’t just for the patient, but for the healthcare workers, ie doctors, nurses, techs, is highly beneficial to them and the industries success. As a patient, being able to order prescriptions online, schedule appointments, see past visits, or view lab results instantly or as soon as they become available is amazing. Something unheard of 20 years ago! Especially in 2020 with our current COVID-19 pandemic, seeing test results as fast as possible is vital to everyone’s safety and its all mostly done with PHP! PHP isn’t just for web apps too, its a full blow programming language that enables developers to create great applications for any app store to help, for example, connect patients and doctors over video chat. Easy migration of web apps to standalone phone, tablet, and pc apps is a wonderful experience that expedites development, cuts down on costs, and reaches an even broader audience for patients. Something the industry has been trying to solve to save lives and make everyone live healthier as a result. Many EHR systems are connected to massive databases run using MySQL, SQLite, FrontBase, Oracle, IBM, OBDX and so much more, all highly compatible with PHP (1). PHP is famously web based and used for many social media platforms, so it is known to handle large amounts of simultaneous visitors at once. This is exactly what any healthcare EHR system needs to run efficiently, stay available at all times, and cater to any number of users, anywhere in the world (3).

    Development, integration, and high availability enable lots of data to be produced and stored for many many uses. Big Data comes to mind and its impact on the healthcare industry and as a whole (7). With vast amounts of data about patients, visits, location, sickness etc, trends and predictions can be produced to help us as humans understand what’s going on around us. Specifically prediction, finding when the next pandemic may hit and how to isolate it and stop it is now most likely priority number one in the industry. Enabling real time alerts based off location, patient data, and past results is already a thing today. For example, if you have an Apple Watch and lets say you fall with fall detection on or your watch tells you that you’ve been having irregular heart rates, that data can be sent to your doctor with a push of a button to diagnose you before anything major, like a heart attack, could even occur. And with all that data collected, the watch can suggest different workouts and ways to keep you in shape if it detects anomalies that can be corrected. Isn’t that amazing! PHP, if implemented correctly, is also highly secure (5). With more secure ways built right in to handle user data connecting to servers to be stored. After chatting with a few friends in the healthcare developer side of the industry, they all confirm that they have seen a push with prediction, analytics, and just broadly, the impact of Big Data information integration. All thanks to the input and systems that run using PHP. 
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    This highly customizable, expandable, and reliable platform to develop with here to stay and I can only predict its adoption will grow exponentially in the healthcare development world. PHP is widely adopted, easy to develop on, and highly secure if built right, perfect for the healthcare industry.


Follow Daniel Burns on Twitter, @DBurnsOfficial

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   This week I was surprised to read about the direction AT&T has put out for the future of its acquired satellite tv service DirecTV. At an investor conference John Stankey, president of AT&T, admitted that DirecTV is no longer seeking subscribers for its service. DirecTV has seen its subscriber count fall from 20 million to 16 million since they bought the company for $49 billion back in 2015. Initially seen as a great addition to AT&T’s media arsenal is now becoming a pain in the neck that might have to eventually be cut off.​
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    Stankey said AT&T will continue to sell DirecTV but only in “more rural or less dense suburban areas.” Given that DirecTV was originally launched in 1994 as a way for rural subscribers to watch tv in areas not covered by traditional cable, its not much of a surprise that strategy isn’t working too well today. “But in terms of our marketing muscle and our momentum in the market, it will be about software-driven pay-TV packages." AT&T TV (Starting at $50), not to be confused with dying Uverse, made its debut this past week and has been greeted with poor response due to its need for equipment rental and a two year contract upon signing up. This structure is exactly what people are trying to avoid by streaming in the first place. Anyone can go out and buy an Apple TV or streaming device that can run apps and services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and YouTube TV. So the need to rent a device that can do the same thing doesn't appeal to consumers anyone. 

    AT&T isn’t the only company trying to push this model of renting their own device. Both Cox and Comcast have a wireless standalone smart box that runs on Comcast’s X1 platform allowing basic cable and apps over the internet. It just doesn’t make sense to rent a box anymore to watch tv. If you just buy an Apple TV 4K for example, it offers a way more premium experience to users than anything big cable can put out. In fact the AT&T box required for its new streaming service is just a custom made Android TV box with its own AT&T branded skin on it. Nothing too special about it at all. So AT&T’s decision to cut back on DirecTV’s service ends up making a-lot of sense from a marketing perspective.

    One big draw to DirecTV is its NFL Sunday ticket which gives you access to every live game across the country in one package deal. But in two years their contract with The NFL is set to expire and it doesn’t look like AT&T is planning on renewing it either. As AT&T looks to expand its presence in the now crowded streaming market with HBO Max and now AT&T TV, it needs to shift its resources away from aging DirecTV. There have been talks of selling off DirecTV after Sunday Ticket expires to satellite competitor Dish Network. Who ironically also owns Sling TV in the streaming TV space. According to Wall street analyst firm MoffettNathanson; about 6 million subscribers ditched satellite and cable in just 2019. If this were to happen Dish would be the only satellite TV provider in the US to cater to those who still need satellite tv with a combination of over 25 million subscribers. With the emergence of 5G and internet seemingly almost everywhere these days, steaming tv is bound to be the go to when available. Whether the streaming market is becoming too crowded is another story to cover.

    So, what happens to anyone wanting to sign up for DirecTV in urban areas? Looks like its tough muck for them. Just switch to streaming because it's the end to a long and pricy era in traditional pay tv. There are two main live tv streaming services that I see still remaining. YouTube TV ($49.99), which is owned by Google, and then there’s Hulu with Live TV ($55), which is owned by Disney. Both services have big backing and carry so much potential to survive if they can keep prices down. Or at least low enough when combined with the price of internet so that it's still a better deal than the traditional cable package of yesteryear.

   In my strongest opinion, cable tv is just about dead and DirecTV is just another nail in the coffin. It was a terrible purchase by AT&T and I’m pretty sure they see that now. Before AT&T bought them their service was decent, very competitive to cable (at least in the first year), and their technology was actually pretty good. But it all went down hill as they were bought, left to rust, and streaming tv apps on flashy new platforms looked a lot better. So here’s one last toast to DirecTV as its put out to the pasture and sold off for scraps.

Follow Daniel Burns on Twitter, @DBurnsOfficial

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      Jimmy Iovine is an American record producer who founded Interscope Records in 1990.  In 2006 he and rapper Dr. Dre founded Beats Electronics. Apple bought Beats and their just off the ground music streaming service in May 2014 for $3 billion dollars. Apple then turned that service into Apple Music and still continue to make and sell Beats products today, but with an Apple accent. I recently read an article from The New York Times written by Ben Sissaro interviewing Iovine on leaving Apple. And it was what he said about the music streaming industry that got me thinking. Music streaming services need something to set them apart from each other and, at the moment, they are all pretty much the same. Iovine outlined a central problem with streaming services today calling them utilities.

    “And the streaming music services are utilities — they’re all the same. Look at what’s working in video. Disney has nothing but original stuff. Netflix has tons of original stuff. But the music streaming services are all the same, and that’s a problem.”

    What he said is what I hope other streaming services pick up on loud and clear. Music streaming services need exclusivity and original content to survive. Much like Disney and Netflix have original content they produce for themselves. As we know with original content in video, it draws people in and creates a loyal fan base of viewers who come to watch exclusively on a platform for a certain show or movie. But with music, all the services pretty much have the same catalog of artists and albums to choose from. Aside from special exclusive releases, it all ends up on all the services eventually. You don’t see a Netflix made show on Amazon Prime Video and you will probably never will. So what’s stopping, let's say Apple or Spotify from doing the same thing? The only thing comes to mind is record labels and contracts with artists. If Apple would sign artists to do exclusive content just like they do with TV+, then I think they would succeed over Spotify by bringing in more loyal listeners. It wouldn’t be very hard for them either. Apple has had a way better track record of having good relationships with artists versus Spotify. If you remember the Taylor Swift pay rights debate, Apple responded. Spotify has been in deep water before by paying artists less on their service compared to Apple. This isn’t just happening with streaming tv video, the online streaming gaming community is seeing this happen with Amazon’s Twitch competing with Microsoft’s Mixer. Mixer picked up an exclusive deal with previous Twitch streamers Ninja and Shroud in hopes to attract more subscribers to its new service. To some degree it has succeeded. Iovine highlights the biggest problem with growing a music streaming service.

    “It doesn’t scale,” Iovine said. “At Netflix, the more subscribers you have, the less your costs are. In streaming music, the costs follow you.”

    Even with a healthy growing number of subscribers the same pay rate per play, due to contracts and equal opportunity deals with artists and record labels, doesn't go away unless the actual service, like Apple, were to sign with the artist, produce and record in house, and release their song or album exclusively as original content. Apple has some very smart people working for them and Spotify does too. So one day I suspect this will happen. In fact, this will need to happen to keep rates the same and to make music streaming more profitable. This also applies to Spotify's growing podcast service in competition to the gold standard, Apple's stand alone Podcast app. Whether or not this leads to tiered pay levels of service remains to be seen. But something has to be done and the name an Apple Music Original doesn’t so sound crazy.

Quoted WSJ Article

Follow Daniel Burns on Twitter, @DBurnsOfficial

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With the improvement of technology and miniaturization wearable tech is getting more and more advanced every year.  Wearable devices consist of three main categories; smartwatches, health and fitness devices, and AR/VR (Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality). Just like smartphones and computers in general, these devices are getting smaller and smaller while gaining power and capability the world couldn’t of imagined 5 years ago.

    For smart watches, the dream started in the 1930’s on television with the imagined radio commutation watch warn by Dick Tracy himself. Today this is a laughable reality with the addition of popular smartwatches being constantly connected, used as communicators, every single day. Smart watches started out as being a companion device to the smartphone. Connected via bluetooth, the smart watch was a way to display notifications and alerts on your wrist, track steps, and later monitor heart rate. Most of all still do very well today as those are the bare minimum specs to become a “smart watch.” There are a ton of smart watches on the market today from Apple, Samsung, Fitbit, LG, and the now defunct Pebble. But let’s look at the Apple Watch as the gold standard of smartwatches. After all, the Apple Watch now towers over any completion thanks to its massive 80+% growing market share. It started out as a really stripped down companion to the iPhone with all the basic features, an OLED display, thick shell, and only single day battery life. Now the current Series 5 is bigger, thinner, more powerful than the first 4 iPhones, has an always on display, and connects via LTE and Wifi alone when the iPhone isn’t in range. The Apple Watch has become the next iPod so to speak with its small form factor, and ability to stream and store millions of songs directly form your wrist with the help of some bluetooth EarPods or AirPods. Since the introduction of the Series 4, Apple has added the ability to take an ECG anytime on your wrist in addition to regular heart rate monitoring. Which is crazy cool and the first of its kind to be FDA approved!

    Which perfectly leads us into the health and fitness category of wearable devices. There are a numerous players in this category from the makers of Polar, Garmn, Nike, Basis, Withings, and now including Apple. These devices don’t just monitor heart rate and activity, but some can track blood pressure, sleep patterns, and other types of physical activity. Some devices can be worn around your chest with a strap, belly, arm, and wrist. Most people now prefer the wrist because of its convince and less restrictiveness during workouts. In the past chest worn devices were more accurate than wrist warn but every year sensors, data, and now AI has filled that gap along with the previously mentioned user convenience towards wrist warn being the preferred. The Apple Watch and some other devices have been credited numerous time with saving peoples lives thanks to early detection using the devices. For example the Apple Watch will let you know if you have afib thanks to monitoring for irregular heart rates, high heart rates, and now low heart rates. May have been pre diagnosed before doctor confirmation of symptoms thanks to the incredible capabilities of the Apple Watch and wearable devices as a whole. You can even thank the device in emergency situations when your phone is out of reach thanks to fall detection, automatic 911 calling, and on star type emergency button convenience.

    Other types of wearable devices now include AR and VR goggles and glasses. With VR or virtual reality googles, you can put them on and step into a whole nother world dreamed up by game developers. VR goggles and handsets rest over your head and slide onto your face covering just your eyes and ears. Using two small but high pixel dense screens and lenses, the VR goggles let you see something unlike the real world and move about the virtual space to play and explore to your hearts content. Now AR or augmented reality you overlay information on top of the real world. This can be done with glasses and small transparent screens or projections onto your eyes. It can also be achieved on your smartphone using its camera and moving about the room. In both situations you can use your hands and controllers to play and position items. It really is a unique experience that is best just explained by actually doing it in person. VR and AR is powered either internally in the goggles or glasses like a smartphone or externally through a one cable solution connected to a gaming computer or a computer with a graphics card capable of powering the experience. The most successful VR devices on the market are from Oculus and HTC with the Rift and the Vive while AR glasses have been made by Google with the Google Glass or Microsoft with its Hololens.
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    Wearable technology has come a long way thanks to the evolution of technology and Moores law. Miniaturization of components and complete systems have enabled devices like smart watches and VR glasses to become more powerful and more capable. I can’t wait for the day we wear AI powered communicators and step into full room virtual worlds just like Star Trek and The Orville alike have imagined. Dream on and virtual reality might just become our reality.

Follow Daniel Burns on Twitter, @DBurnsOfficial

When it comes time to buy a new monitor to go along with your new computer, in addition as a second display, or even replacing an outdated one for your current setup, the decision you have to make may seem like daunting task. Not to worry, let's break down the three main types of displays and their varying technologies to find the best use case for your next monitor. We will be going over specifically flatscreen monitors , after all it is 2019 and no one is buying a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube - Tube Type Large Monitor) brand new anymore.

    Let’s start with size, one of the most important aspects to when selecting a monitor. Get it? Aspects? Anyway, if your current monitor has a small screen size of lets say 17”- 22” inches, measured diagonally, and you think its on the small size then by all means upgrade to your hearts content. Of course there are limitations to size when it comes to how much room you have on your desk, what it’s being used for, how far away do you sit from the screen, and then of course budget. Monitors, when compared to TVs have a different guide or general rule to how close you should sit in front of them. You can do a quick Google search about monitor distance relevant to your size that you want to select. You will even find calculator to input custom distances and sizes aside from the basic charts. For example if you have a 24 to 29” inch monitor the general rule is to sit an arms length away from the screen or about 4 feet for a healthy dosage of screen time. You will hear results will vary depending on use case allot during this paper because it really does. 

    Once you get your monitor size down now you will need to establish a budget and main use case. Generally if you want to save money the smaller the size of screen, then the cheaper they get. Then the bigger, the more expensive it gets, not including additional features and creature comforts. If you do everyday light email browsing, web surfing, and word processing then a cheaper and smaller screen with a resolution of 1080p at about $80 to $200 is fit for you. If you do that plus some light gaming then a bigger screen with a resolution of 1080p or 1440p that costs $200 to $300 is your ticket. But let's say you do some intensive gaming and edit photos and videos on the side, then expect to have a budget of $400 to $1,000 with a 4K resolution. Then at the very top of the market and you want it all, you’re an extreme gamer, or edit large videos and photos, then you already know you will be spending $1000+ on a single monitor with at least a 4K (2160p) or even 5K or 6K resolution these days. So adjust your budget to screen size and use case for the most part and screen technology will follow suit.

    Now let's get technical and get into the different types of monitors you may come across. Mainly three types of flatscreen technologies. First you might find cheaper and often smaller TN Panels which stand for twisted nematic. This is a type of LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) LED display that sacrifices color accuracy and viewing angles for perforce and budget. A TN panel has some of the fastest response times and high refresh rates for a display. For gaming, video editing, and just plain pleasure, having really fast response times and refresh rates is top priority. But a TN Panel also has some of the worst viewing angles on the market, meaning that when you view the screen at any other angel then straight on, colors, brightness, and clarity is greatly reduced. Next we have the middle child of display technology, the one that usually rides the line between price and performance. The VA panel or vertically aligned usually has the longest and slowest response times but really high refresh rates. You might not find a VA panel as often as a the other two because it's generally the most expensive. Best suited for viewing slo motion, high resolution playback during sporting events or slo mo shots on the shoot thanks to its high refresh rates. Colors and viewing angles on a VA panel are usually better than a TN panel thanks to its high contrast and image depth but when compared to the mack daddy of monitors, the IPS panel, it squashes them both. The IPS display, also called In-Plane Switching, is what you will generally find these days. Your TV is probably IPS, your phone’s screens are definitely IPS and most laptops are now IPS too. IPS panels give you the best color accuracy, contrast, brightness, and viewing angles out of any monitor. You can practically look at an IPS monitor at any angle, let's say 180 degrees to the side and not notice any degradation to quality and brightness. But they are currently the most expensive on the market for very good reason. Their refresh rates on the other hand are pretty lacking when compared to the others. But every year they are getting better and better and we are getting to the point where most IPS panels are good enough to be in a cheaper device or monitor.
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    So let’s wrap this up. It all really comes down to your use case. For the average user and every day Joe Shmo in 2019 a 1080p, full HD IPS monitor, with a screen size of 21 to 24” that costs around $160 would be great for the masses. If you’re a gamer or video editor then a high refresh rate, 4K, IPS monitor for $600 with a size of 27 to 32” is your best bet. You will always want to look at longevity and being “future proof” as a factor for spending more as well. Then if you have no budget, well, go crazy and treat yourself. Once again it comes down to use case and budget, then the rest usually falls into place.

​Follow Daniel Burns on Twitter, @DBurnsOfficial