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  • Use Custom Workouts to Take Control of Your Fitness on the Apple Watch

    Use Custom Workouts to Take Control of Your Fitness on the Apple Watch


    With the app, you can create custom, structured workouts that are available through the Workout app.

    Using the app, you can create the perfect workout for you tailored to your goals. You can add work and recovery steps to group and even put them on repeat. All of the steps can be customized with goals like distance and time. It’s also possible to set target alerts like pace, heart rate, power, and more.

    You can select from all activity types that are available on the Apple Watch.

    HIIT fans can also tap exercises to create a routine. Each exercise is displayed with an animation highlighting the muscles targeted. The step-by-step instructions will show details like difficulty level, exercise type, focused body parts, and any necessary equipment.

    You can also adjust exercise durations, rest intervals, and the number of rounds for HIIT.

    Once you’ve created the perfect workout, it can be transferred over to the Apple Watch and started in Workouts. As a fun touch, you can even send custom workouts to other Apple Watch users to enjoy, even without the app.

    When on your iPhone, you can use a home screen widget to see what exercise is for today and the completion rate for the week. There are three sizes to choose from.

    Custom Workouts is a free download now on the App Store. It’s just for the iPhone.

    There is an optional Custom Workouts Pro subscription available for $1.99 per month or $14,99 yearly. A lifetime unlock is $24.99. There is a free, seven-day trial with the yearly option.

    Subscribers can access more than 100 exercises and 40 workout types. You can also take advantage of advanced workout customizations and scheduled workouts.



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  • All the features I want to see

    All the features I want to see


    Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 in hand

    Ryan Haines / Android Authority

    With another launch season approaching, I’m focused on what might be coming down the pipeline. The Samsung Galaxy Watch line, in particular, has plenty of room for improvement this year. While the company’s smartwatches have been strong contenders in the Wear OS market over these last few years, a few key upgrades could really help the next model stand out. Here’s what I hope to see in the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8.

    The return of the rotating bezel

    A Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic displays the Stretched Time watch face.

    Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority

    Like many fans, I’d like to see Samsung bring the rotating bezel back to the Galaxy Watch 8 series. It’s one of Samsung’s most distinctive hardware features, first introduced on the Gear S2 and most recently seen zipping through Wear OS tiles on the Galaxy Watch 6 Classic. The design offers an intuitive way to navigate the interface without relying solely on touch, which is especially handy after sweaty workouts.

    In a market where most smartwatches lean heavily on swipe gestures and digital crowns, the rotating bezel helps Samsung stand out. Last year, the company launched an Ultra model instead of a Classic, and to my despair, the pricey new sibling skipped the iconic feature. Bringing it back this season on a Classic variant would go a long way in keeping Samsung’s signature smartwatch feel alive.

    Improved heart rate tracking

    Samsung Galaxy Watch FE sensor

    Ryan Haines / Android Authority

    Better heart rate accuracy is near the top of my list for the Galaxy Watch 8. While the current sensor does fine for steady workouts like runs or walks, it still struggles during cycling or any activity with a lot of wrist movement. I’ve seen noticeable lag in readings, especially when cadence picks up, which makes it hard to trust the data for things like interval training or even recovery insights. It’s not a dealbreaker, but for a watch that pitches itself as a serious fitness tracker, I’d love to see more consistent performance.

    More importantly, Samsung needs to step up here if it wants to keep pace with Google and Apple. The Pixel Watch 3 already delivers some of the most accurate heart rate data I’ve tested, and Apple’s Watch Series 10 is highly reliable. Both brands are likely to launch equally powerful next-gen models.

    Better battery life

    Samsung Galaxy Watch FE buttons closed loop

    Ryan Haines / Android Authority

    I look forward to the day I can write one of these lists without mentioning battery life, but that day is not today. Power efficiency remains a major talking point for nearly every smartwatch. While I’ve found the Galaxy Watch 7 will last about two days with moderate use, its performance varies, especially during GPS activities. Compared to competitors like the OnePlus Watch 3 with its dual-chip architecture or the TicWatch Pro 5 with its dual-display technology, the Galaxy Watch 7’s battery life is good, but not great. I want the 8 to last more than 48 hours on a single charge, even with heavy usage.

    Thanks to sleuthing on South Korea’s product safety platform by XpertPick, we already have an idea of what we might see on the next model. Listings reveal two batteries, EB-BL330ABY and EB-BL505ABY, which are likely tied to the standard Galaxy Watch 8 and the Watch 8 Classic, respectively. The EB-BL330ABY battery has a rated capacity of 435mAh, which is slightly larger than that of the 44mm Galaxy Watch 7.

    More reliable GPS accuracy

    Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 running coach

    Ryan Haines / Android Authority

    Accurate GPS tracking is another area where I’m hoping Samsung will improve the Galaxy Watch lineup. I was excited when the Galaxy Watch 7 introduced dual-frequency GPS, which typically enhances reliability in challenging environments like urban areas or trails with dense foliage. In reality, though, the watch’s performance can still be inconsistent. In real-world tests, it’s recorded me everywhere from the wrong side of the road to running inside buildings.

    Samsung’s biggest Wear OS competitor, the Google Pixel Watch 3, also struggles more than I had hoped, which only makes it more important for the Galaxy Watch 8 to improve so it can stand out. Meanwhile, the Apple Watch delivers accurate GPS tracking, as do Garmin’s devices. For the Galaxy Watch 8 to become a viable option for serious endurance athletes, it needs to provide reliable and precise GPS tracking.

    Full access for all users

    A Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro displays a Samsung Pay prompt screen.

    Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority

    Finally, I hope the Galaxy Watch 8 offers full access to all features for non-Samsung phone users. While Samsung’s watches are packed with great functionality, some premium features are locked behind a Samsung phone. Features like Samsung Pay, advanced health tracking including blood pressure detection, and even some customization options are either limited or unavailable for those of us using phones from other brands. It feels like a bit of a missed opportunity, especially when greater inclusivity would make the Galaxy Watch line a stronger Pixel Watch rival. Though unlikely, I’d love to see Samsung open the Galaxy Watch 8’s features to all, regardless of phone brand, so users can take full advantage of everything the watch has to offer.

    What do you want to see on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8?

    4 votes

    Will there be a Samsung Galaxy Watch 8?

    Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 rings

    Ryan Haines / Android Authority

    While Samsung has yet to officially confirm the Galaxy Watch 8, regulatory filings suggest its imminent arrival. As mentioned, batteries likely corresponding to the lineup have been certified by SafetyKorea, suggesting shoppers will see both a standard Galaxy Watch 8 and a Watch 8 Classic. We’ve also seen entries in the GSMA’s device database, including one reference tying model number SM-L505U to a Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 Classic, as spotted by Smartprix. These certifications point to a summer launch for the Watch 8 series, which would make sense given the company’s launch schedule historically.

    • Galaxy Watch 5 series — August 10, 2022
    • Galaxy Watch 6 series — July 26, 2023
    • Galaxy Watch 7 series — July 10, 2024

    We will most likely see the new generation announced and the company’s Summer Unpacked event. My best guess is that this will take place in July, though I’ll keep this hub updated as we see more leaks and rumors surface. We could also see a second Ultra model land as well as a sequel to the Galaxy Ring.

    Should you wait for the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8?

    Samsung Galaxy Watch FE buttons from the side

    Ryan Haines / Android Authority

    We’re now in that awkward window where upcoming launches are just months away, and buying an existing model feels a bit silly. If you’re currently eyeing the Galaxy Watch 7, I recommend holding off. With the Galaxy Watch 8 on the horizon, it’s worth waiting for the next iteration, especially considering the useful upgrades it could bring, like improved battery life, more accurate tracking, or even new features. Plus, once the new model lands, you can expect the price of the Galaxy Watch 7 to drop. In other words, you can save cash by simply waiting a few months.

    That said, if you want a watch on your wrist sooner rather than later, the Galaxy Watch 7 ($299.99 at Amazon) is a good buy for Samsung phone users. For a more durable device and a larger battery, Samsung also has the Ultra ($649.99 at Amazon) in its lineup. The Google Pixel Watch 3 ($349.99 at Amazon) is the best Wear OS smartwatch available overall, but the OnePlus Watch 3 ($329.99 at Amazon) offers the best battery life. Of course, if you’re an iPhone user, your best bet is the Apple Watch Series 10 ($386 at Amazon).



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  • Build the Perfect Watchface for Your iPhone Home Screen With Tinker

    Build the Perfect Watchface for Your iPhone Home Screen With Tinker


    The app makes it easy to create a face. You can use your own images to design the hands, background, centerpiece, and more to make it unique. Even if you don’t have any images in mind, you can select from a wide variety of pre-made options in the library.

    In just a few minutes, I was able to create a beautiful timepiece for my home screen.

    As a fun plus, all of the widgets you create with the app can also be used in the iPhone StandBy mode.

    Tinker is a free download now on the App Store for the iPhone.

    There is an optional, one-time in-app purchase of $4.99. That will allow you to create unlimited watchfaces instead of the maximum of two with the free version.



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  • You’re collecting feedback, but what happens next?

    You’re collecting feedback, but what happens next?


    You’re gathering valuable, high-quality feedback through surveys, in-app interactions, or other channels. But once that data is collected, what happens next? Is it all stored in one centralized location, or does it end up siloed across different teams or systems? If this sounds familiar, how can you expect your teams to act on feedback in a unified way? 

    This is where feedback integrations and automation come into play. With the right tools and strategies, you can break down data silos and connect feedback to key systems across your organization. This enables faster, more personalized, and more impactful action. 

    This post references our latest e-guide, “Transforming Insights into Action: How Feedback Integrations and Automation Revolutionize CX Programs”. You can read the full (and free) e-guide, here! 

    So, what exactly do we mean by integrations? 

    At their core, integrations are the connections between different systems and platforms that allow data to flow seamlessly updating systems, triggering actions, and giving your teams access to real-time feedback. When it comes to customer feedback, integrations amplify its value by sharing it with other tools, making it accessible to various teams. A common example is connecting feedback to your CRM, like Salesforce, but this could also include other CRMs, business intelligence tools, or customer service platforms. 

    Integrations ensure a smooth flow of information, turning feedback into something contextual and actionable. 

    Now, let’s explore why integrations are so essential: 

    1. Break down feedback silos across channels and systems 

    Feedback often ends up scattered across various systems like CRMs, support tools, survey platforms, and more. When these systems don’t communicate, silos form, preventing teams from gaining a complete, unified view of the customer experience. This lack of visibility results in fragmented insights and delays in taking action, as valuable feedback stays isolated in separate platforms. By integrating feedback with your key business systems, you unlock crucial data and ensure it reaches the right people instantly. 

    2. Eliminate manual feedback processes 

    Many organizations still rely on outdated, manual processes for collecting, analyzing, and acting on feedback—like manually entering data, generating reports, updating internal teams, and following up with customers. These tasks are not only time-consuming but also prone to human error and inconsistencies. Automation simplifies these processes, cutting down on manual work and speeding up response times. 

    3. Act quickly on feedback 

    The longer it takes to analyze and respond to feedback, the less relevant it becomes. Often, feedback is collected but not acted upon quickly enough, causing missed opportunities to resolve customer issues or capitalize on positive experiences. 90% of customers expect an “immediate” response to their feedback, and for many, “immediate” means within 10 minutes or less. Failing to act fast enough risks losing that customer—and their future business. By integrating feedback with your core systems, you enable real-time action, ensuring the right teams are notified immediately to resolve issues or enhance the experience. 

    4. Take personalization to the next level 

    Generic feedback surveys often fail to capture the unique needs and preferences of individual customers. Without integration with customer data platforms—such as behavioral data or purchase history—personalizing feedback requests becomes a complex and manual task. 

    Show your customers you care! Data integrations allow businesses to personalize surveys based on customer data, ensuring that feedback requests are relevant and engaging. This leads to higher response rates and more meaningful insights. 

    Continue reading  

    Don’t let valuable feedback go to waste—learn how to make it work for you! Download our new e-guide, “Transforming Insights into Action: How Feedback Integrations and Automation Revolutionize CX Programs.  

    In this guide we:   

    • Explore common challenges organizations face with siloed feedback and manual processes—and how integrations solve these issues. 
    • Highlight real-world examples of automation in action, from event-based automation to personalizing surveys and enriching customer profiles. 
    • Identify key integrations that enhance feedback programs, including CRMs, analytics tools, and customer service platforms. 
    • Provide a checklist for evaluating feedback integration capabilities. 



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  • The One Mistake Is Putting Your Brand Reputation at Risk — and Most Startups Still Make It

    The One Mistake Is Putting Your Brand Reputation at Risk — and Most Startups Still Make It


    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Most entrepreneurs and business owners understand they need a comprehensive communications strategy to reach their target customers. However, all too many think that only means branding, marketing and advertising and forget to include public relations (PR). In particular, many small businesses and startups neglect this part of the communications equation.

    This has always been a mistake, but that’s even more true today. Here, I explain how PR impacts brand credibility and customer trust, as well as how those seemingly ineffable factors connect to your hard revenue numbers.

    The problem with investing solely in marketing

    Investing only in marketing and ignoring PR is a problem because marketing drives awareness, but PR builds trust — and without trust, awareness doesn’t convert.

    One study has put the number of consumers who believe advertisers have integrity at 4%. Customers’ trust in conventional advertising is also plummeting, especially for members of the younger generations. As Wharton Magazine reports, 84% of millennials not only dislike traditional ads but also distrust them.

    Research also shows people don’t pay attention to ads and actively avoid them. According to consumer research firm Bulbshare, 63% of Gen Zers use ad blockers, meaning they don’t even see ads online. If they do come across one, 99% say they hit “skip” when given the choice.

    In short, today’s consumers are savvy. They know how to follow the money trail and identify conflicts of interest. Indeed, the Content Marketing Institute has found that 80% of corporate decision-makers prefer to glean information from articles that are more objective rather than ads, which are recognized as biased and self-interested.

    Meanwhile, today’s consumers increasingly prioritize ethics. B2B services company BusinessDasher explains that 84% of customers weigh companies’ ethics and values when considering a purchase, and 63% say they would like companies to adopt more ethical practices.

    For companies that would like to expand their market reach, these statistics send a clear signal. Investing only in advertising and marketing is unlikely to move the needle. To develop a good reputation for your brand, you need to do PR.

    Related: How to Make the Most of Your Public Relations

    PR: Ethical strategic communications

    PR differs from other communication strategies like branding and marketing because it specifically focuses on developing your organization’s positive reputation and earning consumers’ trust. While ads and marketing campaigns may attempt to tell people about the business’s great reputation, good PR shows them. It enables the business and its spokespeople to demonstrate ethical conduct rather than just making claims to this effect.

    For instance, while a top PR team will draft and release press releases and media advisories on a company’s behalf, they will also seek out opportunities for the company’s leadership to serve as expert sources in the media. When the public needs help understanding current events and a journalist turns to a company’s spokesperson for expert analysis, the viewers understand that this person and their company are trustworthy. In addition, they come to rely on and appreciate the spokesperson’s valuable advice.

    In the course of such an interview, the company’s representative may never even mention their product or service. By demonstrating their willingness to share important information, however, they signal their care for the greater good, their own sterling character and that of their company. This forms positive connotations in viewers’ minds. People come to associate the spokesperson and company with credibility and garner their trust.

    Behaving in an ethical manner and showing goodwill tends to be more convincing than merely claiming to be good. This is how strong connections with customers can still be forged despite today’s cynical environment.

    Related: How You Can Leverage These PR Strategies to Build Your Company’s Credibility and Trust — Even When Under Attack

    How PR contributes to revenue growth

    To be clear, PR is not a direct method of boosting sales or generating leads. Instead, it works in the background, burnishing your brand’s reputation and predisposing people to think highly of your company. This can pay off in the end, however.

    Take Sears, Roebuck and Co. as an example. When the brand partnered with The Oprah Winfrey Show to provide Christmas gifts for 100 foster children, the results were staggering. After the episode aired, customer surveys showed an 11% jump in positive sentiment toward the brand — and people said they planned to spend 39% more at Sears.

    The final impact? That single PR moment helped generate $13 million in new revenue.

    In addition, father-daughter co-authors Al and Laura Ries studied 91 launches of new products in their book “The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR.” Those campaigns that incorporated PR were more successful than those that only deployed marketing approaches. Indeed, they conclude that PR is a better investment than advertising for most businesses.

    In my own experience leading a PR firm, I can attest that campaigns sometimes generate so much new business that clients can’t scale fast enough and have to pause our services while they catch up with demand.

    Enter the limelight with PR

    Hiring a PR firm, especially one that can show a track record of success in your particular industry, is indispensable to make your brand image shine. This strategic communications approach avoids the common missteps of advertising and marketing while aligning with today’s customers’ preferences for ethical business practices.

    For these reasons, more businesses should consider taking PR firms up on their offers of a free consultation call. There’s nothing to lose and the limelight to gain.



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  • Expand Your Vocabulary With the Word Building Game Next Letter

    Expand Your Vocabulary With the Word Building Game Next Letter


    Getting started is easy. Each games starts with a randomly chosen letter from A to Z and give possible next letters. Some of those are valid to create words while others are not. When you select a valid letter, it adds to the words and earns points. An invalid word deducts points.

    That process continues until a complete word is formed. You can submit the word to head to the next round or try to extend it. The round continues until no further extensions are possible, leading to a new random letter.

    As a nice touch, the game is playable without an Internet connection, making it perfect for a long flight or a car ride without Wi-Fi.

    Next Letter is a free download now on the App Store. It’s for the iPhone and all iPad models.

    There is an optional in-app purchase of $9.99. That will unlock additional themes, detailed statistics, and more than 190,000 words with definitions.



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  • Unlocking Brand Success with Alchemer’s Brand Health Tracker 

    Unlocking Brand Success with Alchemer’s Brand Health Tracker 


    If you ask any brand marketer, they would agree—competition is fiercer than ever, and brand perception can shift in an instant. That’s where brand health tracking comes in—and Alchemer is here to make it easier than ever for you to monitor and improve your brand’s performance. 

    The Alchemer Brand Health Tracker is a game-changer for businesses of all sizes to stay on top of brand performance. By continuously collecting and analyzing key metrics like brand awareness, customer sentiment, and loyalty, you get a real-time snapshot of how your brand is performing – all in one place. 

    Why is Brand Health Tracking So Important? 

    Think of it as a fitness tracker for your brand. Just as checking your health stats helps you make smarter choices about your well-being, tracking brand health gives you the continuous insights to adjust your marketing strategy, fine-tune your messaging, and strengthen customer relationships. 

    When done right, tracking brand health allows you to: 

    • Stay ahead of trends: Spot emerging shifts in customer preferences and market dynamics before they become mainstream. 
    • React quickly: Implement real-time adjustments to campaigns or customer touchpoints to improve engagement and sentiment. 
    • Build long-term loyalty: Use data to nurture customer trust and elevate brand equity over time. 

    How Does Alchemer Help? 

    Alchemer’s Brand Health Tracker provides a robust solution that integrates seamlessly into your existing workflow. With customizable surveys, real-time dashboards, and easy-to-understand insights, you’ll get a deep dive into what’s working and where there’s room for growth. 

    In-house Team:  

    The Alchemer Research Solutions team brings high-level expertise to brand tracking and market research. With PhD-level researchers ensuring survey best practices, advanced programming solutions, and a dedicated project management team, we deliver high-quality, actionable insights. Our strategic partnerships provide access to over 100 million respondents worldwide, ensuring diverse and impactful data.  

    Whether you’re a well-known consumer brand, or a fast-growing startup, the Alchemer platform gives you the tools to continuously track, analyze, and act on customer feedback—ensuring that your brand stays aligned with market expectations and remains competitive in a rapidly changing landscape. 

    The Bottom Line? 

    If you want to future-proof your brand and create lasting connections with your customers, understanding how your brand is performing is essential. Alchemer’s Brand Health Tracker empowers you to make smarter, data-driven decisions that impact both short-term wins and long-term growth. 

    Ready to take your brand to the next level? Learn more about how Alchemer’s Brand Health Tracker can help you make more informed, confident marketing decisions today. 

    Schedule a Consultation

    For Brand Health Tracker

    By accessing and using this page, you agree to the Terms of Use . Your information will never be shared.



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  • Art Fans of All Ages Will Definitely Enjoy The Great Sneeze

    Art Fans of All Ages Will Definitely Enjoy The Great Sneeze


    The fun game begins before an exhibition showcasing the work of Caspar David Friedrich. Just before it begins, a powerful sneeze throws everything into chaos.

    A trio of friends, Kaspar, David, and Friederike, are tasked with saving the exhibition. During playing, you will solve a number of puzzles while chasing after the Wanderer above the Sea of Fog while he journeys through Friedrich’s works.

    The game’s point-and-click mechanics make it accessible to players of all skill levels.

    While I was somewhat familiar with all of Friedrich’s work before playing, I enjoyed getting to learn more about the artist and all of his works.

    The Great Sneeze is for the iPhone and all iPad models. It’s a free download now on the App Store. There are no ads or in-app purchases.



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  • 5 Key Data and AI Innovations to Keep an Eye on in 2025

    5 Key Data and AI Innovations to Keep an Eye on in 2025


    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    At the end of the first quarter in 2025, now is a good time to reflect upon the recent updates from Amazon Web Services (AWS) to their services that provide data and AI capabilities to end customers. At the end of 2024, AWS hosted 60,000+ practitioners at their annual conference, re:Invent, in Las Vegas.

    Hundreds of features and services were announced during the week; I’ve combined these with the announcements that have come since and curated five key data and AI innovations that you should take notice of. Let’s dive in.

    The next generation of Amazon SageMaker

    Amazon SageMaker has historically been seen as the center for everything AI in AWS. Services like Amazon Glue or Elastic MapReduce have taken care of data processing tasks, with Amazon Redshift picking up the task of SQL analytics. With an increasing number of organizations focusing efforts on data and AI, all-in-one platforms such as Databricks have understandably caught the eyes of those starting their journey.

    The next generation of Amazon SageMaker is AWS’s answer to these services. SageMaker Unified Studio brings together SQL analytics, data processing, AI model development and generative AI application development under one roof. This is all built on top of the foundations of another new service — SageMaker Lakehouse — with data and AI governance integrated through what previously existed standalone as Amazon DataZone.

    The promise of an AWS first-party solution for customers looking to get started with, increase the capability of, or gain better control of their data and AI workloads is exciting indeed.

    Amazon Bedrock Marketplace

    Sticking with the theme of AI workloads, I want to highlight Amazon Bedrock Marketplace. The world of generative AI is fast-moving, and new models are being developed all the time. Through Bedrock, customers can access the most popular models on a serverless basis — only paying for the input/output tokens that they use. To do this for every specialized industry model that customers may want to access is not scalable, however.

    Amazon Bedrock Marketplace is the answer to this. Previously, customers could use Amazon SageMaker JumpStart to deploy LLMs to your AWS account in a managed way; this excluded them from the Bedrock features that were being actively developed (Agents, Flows, Knowledge Bases etc.), though. With Bedrock Marketplace, customers can select from 100+ (and growing) specialized models, including those from HuggingFace and DeepSeek, deploy them to a managed endpoint and access them through the standard Bedrock APIs.

    This results in a more seamless experience and makes experimenting with different models significantly easier (including customers’ own fine-tuned models).

    Amazon Bedrock Data Automation

    Extracting insights from unstructured data (documents, audio, images, video) is something that LLMs have proven themselves to excel at. While the potential value borne from this is enormous, setting up performant, scalable, cost-effective and secure pipelines to extract this is something that can be complicated, and customers have historically struggled with it.

    In recent days — at time of writing — Amazon Bedrock Data Automation reached General Availability (GA). This service sets out to solve the exact problem I’ve just described. Let’s focus on the document use case.

    Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) isn’t a new use case for AI — it existed long before GenAI was all the rage. IDP can unlock huge efficiencies for organizations that deal in paper-based forms when augmenting or replacing the manual processes that are performed by humans.

    With Bedrock Data Automation, the heavy-lifting of building IDP pipelines is abstracted away from customers and provided as a managed service that’s easy to consume and subsequently integrate into legacy processes and systems.

    Amazon Aurora DSQL

    Databases are an example of a tool where the level of complexity exposed to those leveraging it is not necessarily correlated with how complex it is behind the scenes. Often, it’s an inverse relationship where the simpler and more “magic” a database is to use, the more complex it is in the areas that are unseen.

    Amazon Aurora DSQL is a great example of such a tool where it’s as straightforward to use as AWS’s other managed database services, but the level of engineering complexity to make its feature set possible is huge. Speaking of its feature set, let’s look at that.

    Aurora DSQL sets out to be the service of choice for workloads that need durable, strongly consistent, active-active databases across multiple regions or availability zones. Multi-region, or multi-AZ databases, are already well established in active-passive configurations (i.e., one writer and many read-replicas); active-active is a problem that’s much harder to solve while still being performant and retaining strong consistency.

    If you’re interested in reading the deep technical details of challenges that were overcome in the building of this service, I’d recommend reading Marc Brooker’s (Distinguished Engineer at AWS) series of blog posts on the topic.

    When announcing the service, AWS described it as providing “virtually unlimited horizontal scaling with the flexibility to independently scale reads, writes, compute, and storage. It automatically scales to meet any workload demand without database sharding or instance upgrades. Its active-active distributed architecture is designed for 99.99% single-Region and 99.999% multi-Region availability with no single point of failure, and automated failure recovery.”

    For organizations where global scale is an aspiration or requirement, building on top of a foundation of Aurora DSQL sets them up very nicely.

    Expansion of zero-ETL features

    AWS has been pushing the “zero-ETL” vision for a couple of years now, with the aspiration being to make moving data between purpose-built services as easy as possible. An example would be moving transactional data from a PostgreSQL database running on Amazon Aurora to a database designed for large-scale analytics like Amazon Redshift.

    While there has been a relatively continuous flow of new announcements in this area, the end of 2024 and start of 2025 saw a flurry that accompanied the new AWS services released at re:Invent.

    There are far too many to talk about here in any level of detail that’d provide value; to find out more about all of the available zero-ETL integrations between AWS services, please visit AWS’s dedicated zero-ETL page.

    Wrapping this up, we’ve covered five areas relating to data and AI that AWS is innovating in to make building, growing and streamlining organizations easier. All of these areas are relevant to small and growing startups, as well as billion-dollar enterprises. AWS and other cloud service providers are there to abstract away the complexity and heavy lifting, leaving you to focus on building your business logic.



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  • Resident Evil 3 Lands on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and Mac

    Resident Evil 3 Lands on the App Store for iPhone, iPad, and Mac


    Here’s the official description of the game, which was originally released on consoles in 2020:

    A series of strange disappearances have been occurring in the American Midwest within a place called Racoon City. A specialist squad of the police force known as S.T.A.R.S. has been investigating the case, and have determined that the pharmaceutical company Umbrella and their biological weapon, the T-Virus, are behind the incidents—though they’ve lost several members in the process. Jill Valentine and the other surviving S.T.A.R.S. members try to make this truth known, but find that the police department itself is under Umbrella’s sway and their reports are rejected out of hand.

    However, soon reports of a grisly “cannibal virus” begin to surface, and vicious dogs begin roaming the streets. With the viral plague spreading through the town and to her very doorstep, Jill is determined to survive.

    However, unbeknownst to Jill, an extremely powerful pursuer has already been dispatched to eliminate her.

    While you can play the game on the touchscreen, Capcom recommends you use a controller.

    
Resident Evil 3 is a free download now on the App Store. You can play a limited part of the game.

    To unlock the entire game, you’ll need to make an in-app purchase. Until April 16, that’s just $9.99. You can also make a $1.99 in-app purchase to unlock all in-game rewards.

    You’ll need an iPhone 15 Pro or later to play on iPhone. On the iPad, you’ll need a tablet with an M1 chip or later, or the current-generation iPad mini. For a Mac, you’ll need an M1 chip or later.

    One purchase will unlock the game on all three platforms. You can also start playing on one device and pick up right where you left off on another.

    Finally, the game will take up 31GB of space on your device.



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