Shoe retailer DSW kicked off a mobile web campaign for the holiday shopping rush that’s powered by an interactive augmented reality (AR) “smile meter” for customers to unlock discounts. Read more…
Amazon is letting more gadget makers use its software tools to connect Bluetooth devices like smart watches and headphones with its Alexa digital assistant. Read more…
Italian fashion giant Gucci is the exclusive provider of virtual luxury clothing and accessories to “dress up” emoji in Genies, an emoji-to-emoji chat application. Read more…
Dutch airline KLM is giving online users a chance to experience faraway places without leaving home by immersing them in computer-generated virtual reality (VR). Read more…
Amazon regained the lead in smart-speaker market share during the third quarter after lagging behind Google during the prior six months, according to a report from researcher Canalys.
Amazon promoted its Echo smart speakers going into its annual Prime Day shopping event, while Google cut prices of its Google Home smart devices to remain competitive with Amazon, Canalys said. Google was the top seller of smart speakers during the second and third quarters, the researcher said.
Smart-speaker shipments more than doubled (up 137 percent) to 19.7 million in Q3 2018 from a year earlier.
Amazon shipped 6.3 million Echo smart speakers that have its Alexa voice assistant, while Google sold 5.9 million of its Google Home devices that have Google Assistant.
While Amazon, Google and Amazon are the top sellers of smart speakers in the United States, Alibaba, Xiaomi and Baidu are the leaders in mainland China.
Instagram is cracking down on users who use software to artificially increase their followers, likes and comments on their posts. Read more…
Travel + Leisure magazine began airing a short-form series called “Locals” on IGTV, the video-sharing and streaming app that Instagram started in June. Read more…
Snap announced a partner program to help advertisers find creative shops that are certified to develop augmented reality (AR) lenses for the social media app. Read more…
Take-and-bake pizza chain Papa Murphy’s kicked off a social media campaign in August that resulted in metrics that exceeded industry benchmarks. Read more…
Digital publishers are showing a greater willingness to make readers pay for subscriptions as they cope with growing competition from well-funded tech companies, such as Facebook, Google and increasingly, Amazon. Read more….