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Tag Archives: march

Samsung Galaxy S20 begins shipping March 6

February 12, 2020   Big Data

At the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco this afternoon, Samsung unveiled its newest flagship series: Galaxy S20. Like S-series lineups before it, the S20 is a showcase of the company’s technological innovations, which this time around include a powerful eight-core processor, a display with a 120Hz refresh rate, and across-the-board 5G compatibility.

Preorders go live this week ahead of a March 6 ship date. Here’s what you need to know.

Design

Samsung stuck with tradition in announcing three phones today, not one: the Galaxy S20, the Galaxy S20+, and the Galaxy S20 Ultra. Sadly missing in action is a low-end “e” model, like the S10e — that experiment appears to have begun and ended last February.

The Galaxy S20 and S20 feature aluminum frames and bezel-to-bezel screens, as well as new adhesive glass — Corning’s Gorilla Glass 6, to be exact — that’s extraordinarily light and thin. (The S20 and S20+ clock in at 0.36 pounds and 0.41 pounds, respectively; the S20 Ultra, which trades that aluminum for stainless steel, weighs 0.49 pounds.) They’re IP68 rated to withstand exposure to water 1.5 meters deep for up to half an hour, and Corning claims the display glass can withstand up to 15 consecutive drops from 1 meter onto rough surfaces and that it’s two times stronger than the S9 and S10 series’ Gorilla Glass 5.

The S20 series’ top and bottom bezels are a tad narrower than last time around, mostly to make way for an ambient light sensor and an earpiece speaker. (The S20 measures 29 x 63.7 x 3 inches, while the S20+ measures 27.2 x 59.7 x 3 inches.) Perhaps more noticeable is the 6-millimeter hole-shaped cutout in the top center, machined to precisely fit the front-facing camera. Samsung calls the design “Infinity-O,” and it made its debut on the S10 series and midrange Galaxy A8 series phones, which launched in 2019. On the S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra, the hole-punch cutout is a perfect circle that measures about half the circumference of the Galaxy S10 series’ cutout.

Here’s how the display sizes and resolutions break down:

  • Galaxy S20: 6.2 inches, 3,040 by 1,440 pixels (542 PPI)
  • Galaxy S20+: 6.7 inches, 3,040 by 1,440 pixels (502 PPI)
  • Galaxy S20 Ultra: 6.9 inches, 3,040 x 1,440 pixels (487 PPI)

The Galaxy S20’s HDR-compatible, Dynamic AMOLED screen is a tad taller than that of the S10, which measures 6.1 inches diagonally — the result of a taller 20:9 aspect ratio — and it’s almost imperceptibly blurrier at about 542 pixels per inch (compared with the S10’s 550 PPI) owing to the unchanged 3,040 by 1,440 pixels resolution. On the subject of the display, which supports 16 million colors at 100% color volume, it curves around the lips of either edge, as does the S20+’s and S20 Ultra’s. Noteworthy is the refresh rate: It’s 120Hz, double the refresh rate of the S10 series and on even keel with the Razer Phone 2 and the Asus ROG Phone 2.

A 120Hz fresh rate will translate to improved overall responsiveness — at least in theory. Anecdotally, scrolling through apps and pinching-to-zoom on webpages feels smoother on high-refresh-rate phones. But there’s a trade-off on the S20 series — switching to 120Hz sets the display resolution to 2,400 x 1,080. Expect icons and graphics to look slightly out of focus.

 Samsung Galaxy S20 begins shipping March 6

Both the Galaxy S20 and S20+ have a Qualcomm-supplied 3D Sonic Sensor ultrasonic fingerprint sensor embedded beneath their display glass. They work as you’d expect — placing a digit on the highlighted portion unlocks the phone — but the tech is said to be faster than rival solutions and more secure to boot, with FIDO Alliance Biometric Component certification. We’re hopeful the performance bit is true, given that the S10 series’ fingerprint sensors were criticized for their sluggishness.

You’ll find a vertically aligned camera module and an LED flash around the back of the S20 and S20+, a perpendicular contrast to the Galaxy S10 series’ horizontal camera module. Exclusive to the S20+ and S20 Ultra is a 3D Depth Camera, a time-of-flight sensor that resolves distance based on the speed of light by measuring the time it takes for photons to pass between the sensor and a subject. Like the range-based imaging system on the Galaxy S10 5G and Note10+, it’s used with Samsung’s Live focus video and Quick Measure features, letting you blur out the background in real time as you take a video; swap between foreground and background focus; or judge the width, height, area, volume, and more when an object is in the frame.

As for the handsets’ bottom portions, present and accounted for are a USB Type-C port, a loudspeaker (which works in tandem with the earpiece to deliver stereo sound), and a microphone, but not a 3.5mm headphone jack. The S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra are the first S-series phones to ship without audio ports (and they likely won’t be the last). Making matters worse, there isn’t a Type-C-to-3.5mm adapter in the box, so you’ll have to make do with the included Type-C AKG earphones if you have nothing on hand but analog headphones.

Analog jacks aren’t the only victim of this year’s nipping and tucking. Absent is the Bixby key, a button on a number of Galaxy-branded devices that triggers Samsung’s homegrown AI assistant by default. On the S10 series, it sat next to the power button on the left side, opposite a right-aligned power button and a volume rocker. The power button and volume rocker haven’t gone anywhere on the S20 series, but they’re the only physical keys in sight.

Photography and speakers

Samsung’s flagships have long ranked among heavyweights like the Pixel and the iPhone on the photography front, and the company is looking to cement its dominance with the Galaxy S20 series. Here’s how it breaks down between models:

  • Samsung S20: 12-megapixel (wide), 64-megapixel (telephoto), 12-megapixel (ultrawide)
  • Samsung S20+: 12-megapixel (wide), 64-megapixel (telephoto), 12-megapixel (ultrawide), 3D Depth Camera
  • Samsung S20 Ultra: 108-megapixel (wide), 48-megapixel (telephoto), 12-megapixel (ultrawide), 3D Depth Camera

The S20 series’ cameras feature the same variable aperture tech found on the S9 and S10 series. A tiny contracting and expanding motor switches between f/1.5, a lower aperture better suited to dim lighting, and f/2.4, the default setting.

 Samsung Galaxy S20 begins shipping March 6

Elsewhere, the zoom has improved. Both the S20 and S20+ boast 3x hybrid optical zoom (3x optical zoom, 10x digital zoom), while the S20 Ultra bumps things up to a whopping 10x. Samsung’s calling the S20 Ultra’s zoom Space Zoom, and it says the periscopic lens delivers up to 10x optical zoom and 100x zoom overall when combined with “AI-powered” 10x digital zoom.

The S20 and S20+ have 64-megapixel telephoto lenses, up substantially from the S10’s and S10+’s 12-megapixel lenses. As for the S20 Ultra camera’s 108-megapixel resolution, it’s matched only by Xiaomi’s recently released CC9 Pro, which features an identical 1/1.33-inch sensor — Samsung’s ISOCELL Bright HMX. (Samsung and Xiaomi designed the sensor together, in point of fact.) Samsung says it captures several lower-resolution shots that combine nine pixels into one by default (for an effective 12 megapixels), and that there’s an option to shoot in the full 108-megapixel resolution for those who wish to do so.

Camera software

Hardware is nothing without great software, and the S20 series appears to have it in spades.

The camera app’s Automatic mode flips to the f/1.5 aperture automatically when the ambient lighting dips below a certain level, and an AI-powered scene detection feature — Scene Optimizer — tweaks color settings like contrast and white balance and enables HDR based on the landscapes, people, animals, and objects in-frame. (It’ll even recommend switching to the ultrawide angle lens when appropriate, as well as to modes fine-tuned for food photos, selfies, panoramas, and more.) There’s a faster and more accurate version of Samsung’s Dual Pixel focusing technology and multiframe noise reduction. And as with the S9 and S10, the S20 series improves image crispness by capturing a multi-image burst shot, dividing it into separate and distinct sets, and generating a composite picture.

In addition, there’s Single Take, which takes pictures and videos —  live focus, cropped, ultra-wide, and more — as you pan around an environment and curates the best of the bunch. (It also works for selfies.) Best Shot takes a photo autonomously when the Galaxy S20 detects it’s properly lined up, complementing a multi-capture feature that snaps photos using multiple sensors simultaneously.

There’s a bevy of bokeh effects in what Samsung’s calling Artistic Live Focus, which blurs the background while maintaining foreground focus, including Color Point (it drains color from the blurred background, turning it black and white), Mono (it makes the entire picture black and white), and Side Light (it adds a virtual light source off-camera).  There’s also Ultra Bright Night, an improvement upon the Galaxy S10’s Bright Night (a take on Google’s Night Sight and Huawei’s Night Mode) that combines multiple shots from the primary, telephoto, or front-facing camera to enhance the quality of pictures in “very dark” conditions.

Samsung last year opened up the Galaxy Camera software development kit, enabling developers to make custom photography plugins and apps for the S20 series. And every handset in the Galaxy S20 series has an “Instagram Mode” co-developed by Facebook, which allows you to launch into Stories, editing, and other features quickly.

As for the S20 series’ front-facing cameras, the S20 and S20+ have a single Sony IMX 374 10-megapixel shooter — a slight downgrade in the latter’s case. The S10+ had dual sensors that captured wide-angle selfies and ostensibly delivered better bokeh in Live Focus portraits. On the other hand, the S20 Ultra packs a 40-megapixel Wide Front camera that’s able to record footage at 4K and 60 frames per second.

All of them benefit from Samsung’s new Smart selfie angle feature, which taps AI to detect the number of people in-frame and switch to an appropriate angle.

On the subject of video, the S20 series can record clips at up to 8K at 30 frames per second (or 4K at 60 frames per second) and optionally in HDR10+ (with 10-bit color), though you’ll need an HDR-compatible display to fully appreciate the latter. (Thanks to a partnership with Google, 8K clips can be uploaded directly to YouTube.) Super Slow-Mo is present too — the G20 series shoots clips at a blistering 960 frames per second at up to 1080p, as with the S10 series.

In cases where you need a shot steadier than what the S20 series’ optical image stabilization can provide alone, there’s Super Steady 2.0, which Samsung is positioning as a “professional-level” setting that can hold its own against action cams like GoPro’s Hero 7. That’s thanks in part to sophisticated electronic stabilization algorithms fine-tuned over the course of months, as well as AI motion analysis.

AKG

All three phones in the S20 series — the S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra 5G — play stereo sound through the earpiece and a bottom-firing loudspeaker. They’re both tuned by AKG Acoustics and support the Direct Stream Digital (DSD) format (64/128) and Dolby’s Atmos 3D simulated surround sound technology in supported apps.

And thanks to an ongoing collaboration with Spotify, the Z Flip’s default keyboard lets you quickly search and share songs, albums, and playlists from Spotify via a generated link, and Samsung’s clock app lets you choose a song to wake up to. And the S20 series’ Music Share feature extends the Bluetooth connection to a car radio or speaker.

Connectivity and processor

The beating heart of the S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra is one of two chips: Samsung’s Exynos 990 or Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855+. Samsung detailed the Exynos 990 variants at today’s event, but some territories — likely North America, Latin America, Hong Kong, China, and Japan — will get a Snapdragon-based model.

 Samsung Galaxy S20 begins shipping March 6

On the Wi-Fi connectivity side, the S20 series supports the standards you’d expect in flagship 2020 smartphones — namely Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax (Wi-Fi 6) and Bluetooth 5.1. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 models benefit from the FastConnect 6800 Wi-Fi chip, which can deliver Wi-Fi 6 speeds nearing 1.8Gbps while including Super Wide Band voice over Bluetooth for higher-quality audio communications and 75% improved power efficiency. Plus, there’s Samsung’s software-based Intelligent Wi-Fi feature, which jumps between LTE and wireless with the help of AI that recognizes when the phone’s in an enclosed location and when it’s on the move (like when you’re in a car or walking down the street).

It’s worth noting that only the S20+ and S20 Ultra support mmWave 5G connectivity in the U.S. The S20 supports sub-6HGz 5G networks exclusively — at least for now. Later this year, Verizon will introduce a version of the S20 that supports mmWave 5G.

Exynos 990

As my colleague Jeremy Horwitz wrote in October 2019, when the Exynos 990 was officially announced, Samsung’s flagship chipset is built on the latest 7-nanometer process rather than the 980’s older 8-nanometer technology. It’s an eight-core design comprising two unnamed “powerful custom cores,” two high-performance Cortex-A76 cores, and four power-efficient Cortex-A55s — an upgrade from the 980’s twin Arm Cortex-A77s and six Cortex-A55s. And on the graphics front, the chipset packs a Valhall-based Mali-G77 GPU as opposed to the Exynos 980’s Mali-G76 GPU, which Samsung claims offers a 20% boost in graphics performance or power efficiency.

Also on tap with the Exynos 990 is a dual-core neural processing unit and improved digital signal processor can “perform over 10 trillion operations per second,” as well as an image signal processor that can concurrently process data from three image sensors. The 990 boasts LPDDR5 data rates of up to 5.5Gbps, and there’s a 120Hz refresh-rate display driver that’s meant to improve animations and reduce screen tearing. Plus, it’s designed to work together with Samsung’s Exynos Modem 5123, which can tap into both sub-6GHz and millimeter wave 5G networks and legacy 2G, 3G, and 4G networks.

Thanks to ultra-dense 1024-QAM signal encoding and 8-carrier aggregation, Samsung quotes the Modem 5123’s theoretical download maximum download speeds at 3Gbps on 4G networks, 5.1Gbps peak speeds on sub-6GHz 5G networks, or 7.35Gbps from mmWave 5G.

Snapdragon 865

Qualcomm is billing the Snapdragon 865, which was unveiled during the company’s annual Tech Summit last December, as “the world’s most advanced 5G platform.” To this end, it packs all of the chipmaker’s latest wireless and processor components, including a new 2.84GHz Kryo 585 CPU, Adreno 650 GPU, fifth-generation AI engine, and Spectra 480 image signal processor (ISP).

 Samsung Galaxy S20 begins shipping March 6

Above: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 processor.

Image Credit: Qualcomm

The aforementioned Spectra 480 ISP promises up to 2 gigapixels per second of processing speed for dramatically higher-resolution photography and videography, as well as support for 200-megapixel still photos (roughly twice the Snapdragon 855’s upper limits) and 8K video capture. The GPU improvements — which are equally tangible — include between 20% and 100% improved graphics performance compared with the Snapdragon 855. At 90Hz screen refresh rates, Qualcomm says the GPU achieves a 35% power efficiency improvement over the prior chip.

On the AI front, the fifth-generation AI Engine inside the 865 — Hexagon 698 — delivers 15 trillion operations per second (twice that of Qualcomm’s fourth-generation processor) with 35% superior power-efficiency. And using the Snapdragon X55 modem and RF System, the 865 supports global 5G roaming and multi-SIM devices including both millimeter-wave and sub-6GHz frequencies, with peak 5G speeds of up to 7.5Gbps.

Battery life, memory, and storage

So clearly the Galaxy S20 series packs a processing punch, but what about the battery life? That depends on the model. Fortunately, all three smartphones support Samsung’s Adaptive Fast Charging tech and Fast Wireless Charging, and both the Galaxy S20 and Galaxy S20+ ship with 25W fast chargers in the box. (Galaxy S20 Ultra owners get a speedier 45W charger, which Samsung claims can fully recharge the battery in 74 minutes flat — it’s calling this Super Fast Charging.)

Snapdragon variants have the advantage of hardware acceleration for H.265 and VP9 codecs, which improves power efficiency by 7 times compared with the Snapdragon 845 and reduces power consumption during video recording by 30%. And all S20 models boast Samsung’s Adaptive Power Saving tech, which optimizes battery performance based on app use.

Here’s the capacities of each phone:

  • Galaxy S20: 4,000mAh (up from the S10’s 3,100mAh)
  • Galaxy S20+: 4,500mAh (up from the S10+’s 3,400mAh)
  • Galaxy S20 Ultra: 5,100mAh

One reason for the larger batteries is the Galaxy S20 series wireless power-sharing feature — PowerShare — which lets you use the S20, S20+, or S20 Ultra to recharge Qi accessories by placing them on the flat portion of the phones’ rear covers (below the camera).

 Samsung Galaxy S20 begins shipping March 6

While all three phones in the S10 series are endowed with PowerShare, they don’t share RAM and storage configurations. See below:

  • Galaxy S20: 12GB RAM (8GB in some regions), 128GB/256GB storage (expandable up to 1TB via microSD)
  • Galaxy S20+: 12GB RAM (8GB in some regions), 128GB/256GB/512GB storage (expandable up to 1TB via microSD)
  • Galaxy S20 Ultra: 12GB/16GB RAM, 128GB/256GB/512GB storage (expandable up to 1TB via microSD)

Software

Like the Galaxy S10 series before it, the Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra run One UI 2.1, Samsung’s redesigned overlay atop Android 10.

Samsung teamed up with Google to optimize Google Duo video calls on the S20 series, the companies said — you’re able to chat with up to eight friends at a time in 1080p quality. Samsung and Netflix collaborated on exclusive content for S20 users, which is accessible through the Samsung Daily app and Bixby as well as Finder. Later this spring, Microsoft will launch a Forza series spinoff — Forza Street — in the Galaxy Store.

The Galaxy S20 series is also the first non-Google device to support Live Caption, which uses a combination of three AI models to transcribe speech from any media in real time.

OneUI 2.1 brings with it quality-of-life improvements like a screen recorder with controls that let you adjust the resolution, record external and internal microphone audio, and more, in addition to an enhanced dark that works with a wider selection of apps and time-based triggers. In other news, One UI 2.1 adopts the iOS-like navigation gestures introduced in Android 10, including a one-handed mode that can be accessed with a swipe down on the gesture bar.

The camera app is a bit easier to use in OneUI 2.1, thanks to a streamlined design with a drag-and-drop gesture that puts photo and video modes at your fingertips. And thanks to Samsung’s ongoing partnership with Microsoft, the Gallery app now integrates with OneDrive.

In other improvements, non-app shortcuts can now be added to the lock screen, including for Do not disturb and the flashlight. OneUI 2.1 ships with the latest version of Google’s Digital Wellbeing, which features a focus mode that disables all notifications and apps so you can focus on work and other things. Plus, the revamped Device care section of the settings menu lets you decide when Wireless PowerShare should stop charging other devices.

All three handsets in the S20 series ship preloaded with a customized version of Adobe Premiere Rush, Adobe’s cross-platform video editing app for smartphones, tablets, and PCs. They’ve also got Quick Share, which lets you beam files to compatible Galaxy devices within range, and an improved default keyboard that recommends emojis and stickers based on the words you type.

Bixby

One UI isn’t the S20 series’ only spotlight software feature. Bixby Vision — which taps computer vision to recognize and classify objects in photos, much like Google’s Google Lens and Amazon’s Flow — natively supports document scanning. And thanks to integrations with Vivino, Amazon, Nordstrom, Sephora, Cover Girl, and others (and Samsung’s data-sharing partnerships with FourSquare and Pinterest), it can scan barcodes and show relevant product listings, recommend wine, display the calorie counts of food, and let you virtually “try on” makeup products.

As for Bixby Voice, Samsung’s answer to Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant, it works just as it does on the S20 series — say “Hey, Bixby” or hold down the Bixby key to prime it for commands like “What’s the weather forecast?” and “Call John.” It supports more than 3,000 commands in all, including chained ones like “Open the gallery app in split-screen view and rotate misaligned photos” and “Play videos on a nearby TV.”

The newest incarnation of Bixby has better natural language processing, faster response times, and built-in noise reduction tech that together significantly enhance its phrase and word comprehension skills. And as of publication time, it’s conversant in eight languages, including English, Korean, Chinese, Spanish, German, French, Italian, and Spanish.

It’s also decently conversational. When you ask Bixby about upcoming concerts around New Year’s, for example, it’ll remember the date range and your preferences when looking for tickets in the future. And when you request that Bixby book a restaurant, it’ll infer the size of your party and the time based on past reservations and make recommendations based on your previous searches.

Bixby, like any modern voice assistant, recognizes requests to add items to your calendar, queue up tunes, place calls, and launch apps, and it can answer basic questions about sports scores, movie showtimes, business hours, and more. Additionally, thanks to newly released developer tools (Bixby Developer Studio, Bixby Templates, and Bixby Views) and a digital storefront (Bixby Marketplace), it supports a greater number of third-party apps and services than ever before.

Bixby also boasts Bixby Routines. Much like Alexa Routines and routines on the Google Assistant, Bixby offers preset and personalized routines, such as Driving and Before Bed routines, which can be customized based on your habits.

DeX

There’s good news on the DeX front: As with DeX on the Note10 and S10 series, it doesn’t require a dock — Samsung calls this Dex Lite. All you need is a USB Type-C-to-HDMI adapter; connecting it to an external display gets DeX up and running in a jiffy.

Like the Galaxy Tab S4 before it, the S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra in DeX mode display a Windows-like interface, replete with resizeable windows, a dedicated taskbar, mouse and keyboard support, and shortcuts to files, the photo gallery, and settings. Samsung teamed up with Microsoft to optimize Office apps (Word, PowerPoint, and Excel) for the interface, and with Epic Games to support Fortnite. Other partners include the New York Times, Deezer, Amazon, TripAdvisor, Citrix, VMWare, and Craigslist. Smartphone apps run in DeX, but Samsung makes no guarantees that they won’t misbehave.

Pricing and availability

In the U.S., only 5G-compatible variants of the S20 series will be available for purchase, but that won’t be the case elsewhere. 4G LTE versions of the S20 and S20+ will make their way to some markets in the coming weeks and months.

Here’s how the pricing breaks down:

  • S20 5G: from $ 999
  • S20+ 5G: from $ 1,199
  • S20 Ultra: from $ 1,399

The S20 and S20+ will be available in Cosmic Gray, Cloud Pink, and Cloud Blue in the U.S. As for the S20 Ultra, it’ll come in Cosmic Gray and Cosmic Black. A special edition Olympic Games Athlete edition with a matte gold finish will be released to coincide with the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

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Big Data – VentureBeat

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Primary Day, March 3, 2020

February 1, 2020   Humor
blank Primary Day, March 3, 2020

I’ve mentioned before that I live in Colorado. For the first time in over 20 years, Colorado is going to have a Presidential Primary election. I have absolutely no clue who will be on the ballot when it comes to Demoncrats, but I’m sure it will be the standard fare of boneheads.

But… Colorado, being run totally by Demoncrats, was intelligent enough to pass a new law awhile back that says anyone who is an independent can vote in the primary of their choice. That means that my son and I get to both vote in the Demoncrat primary. How cool is that! Years ago, Colorado had a law that said one could declare their party affiliation at the polling place so I went out and registered independent so I could vote Demoncrat and vote against Colorado’s own Gary Hart. Doing that always gave me a warm fuzzy. This year I get to do the same thing.

You guys need to give me some good reasons for whom I ought to vote. I figure it won’t really matter, because these dimwits will probably setup the whole thing for whomever they want to win, but I get the opportunity to help them out and select the person I think could be the easiest for your hero and mine, Donald J. Trump, to beat in the Presidential Election. If these idiots want to pass this kind of law that lets a person like me who despises Demoncrats vote in their primary, I’m sure going to take advantage of it and do my best to submarine their process. I can’t wait.

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ANTZ-IN-PANTZ ……

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Spotfire Lands TIBCO in the 99th Percentile for March Tournament Brackets

April 29, 2019   TIBCO Spotfire
march madness 2019 696x461 Spotfire Lands TIBCO in the 99th Percentile for March Tournament Brackets

The country’s most exciting college basketball tournament of the year has come to an end, and TIBCO pulled out a win once again. For the second year in a row, the TIBCO Data Science team landed in the 99th percentile with its forecasted bracket, including predicting the tournament champion, Virginia.

But how did they do it? With the help of predictive analytics tools TIBCO Data Science® and TIBCO Spotfire®. The two solutions are integrated to create a seamless data analysis experience. TIBCO Data Science finds and extracts data patterns, while the Spotfire platform delivers self-service analytics for everyone and works with all kinds of data, including historical sports data. By relying on the power of data science, TIBCO was in the top one percent of more than 70 million tournament brackets. Here’s how:

First, we had to provide Spotfire with data upon which it could build a model. We put historical public data sets for past teams into TIBCO Data Science, with statistics like offensive efficiency, rebounds, turnovers, points per game, and three-point shots. The platform took those data points and decided which were the most relevant for each team, based on game wins. The topmost relevant data points were then used to create an algorithm.

Next, we had to test our model. We ran our algorithm on the historical data, to see if we could ‘predict’ the outcomes that in actuality had already happened. When the predictions lined up with the true outcomes, we knew we had an accurate machine learning model.

Finally, when the full tournament lineup was announced on March 17, historical data for each of the 68 participating teams were put into Spotfire, and the model was run for each initial match-up followed by the predicted winners of each round.

Those predictions panned out, as TIBCO employees, as well as those who attended our Metrics of Data Madness happy hour and webinar, can attest: they have TIBCO to thank for the cash in their pockets from winning their own personal bracket pool.

Data science can give you a leg up in your bracket predictions—just think what it can do for your business. To learn more about how you can leverage TIBCO Spotfire on the court and in the office, download a free trial today. Make sure to check back in next March to get in on the action before the tournament begins, so that you can be the winner of your office pool.

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Top Five CIO Blogs Of March 2019

April 6, 2019   SAP
1903 FBTW Top Five CIO Blogs Of March 2019

Top Five CIO Blogs Of March 2019

Jean Loh

Readers of the Digitalist Magazine’s CIO Knowledge section have come to expect a broad range of perspectives, and that’s what they found in March. Among the most popular blogs were contributions from BackOffice Associates, Cognizant, and IDC, while SAP authors reflected on the critical importance of people and partnerships in the successful transition to the intelligent enterprise.

What Does It Mean To Be A Data-Driven Enterprise Today?

Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast, Innovation For Lunch, And Transformation For Dinner

Overcoming Common DevOps Challenges To Gain Full Productivity Benefits

Dissecting The Engine Of The Intelligent Enterprise

Accelerating Out Of The “Digital Deadlock” – Enter The Digital Platform


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The Digitalist Magazine is your online destination for everything you need to know to lead your enterprise’s digital transformation.

Read the Digitalist Magazine and get the latest insights about the digital economy that you can capitalize on today.

7523 Top Five CIO Blogs Of March 2019

About Jean Loh

Jean Loh is the director, Global Audience Marketing at SAP. She is an experienced marketing and communication professional, currently responsible for developing thought leadership content that is unbiased and audience-led while addressing market challenges to illuminate and solve the unmet needs of CFOs, CIOs, and the wider global finance and IT audience.

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Digitalist Magazine

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Digitalist Magazine’s Top Posts Of The Week [March 25, 2019]

March 25, 2019   BI News and Info

Digitalist Magazine’s Top Posts Of The Week [March 25, 2019]

Shelly Dutton

300w x 200h 300x200 Digitalist Magazine’s Top Posts Of The Week [March 25, 2019]Digitalist Magazine, online edition, covers a variety of topics around the challenges businesses face in the digital economy. Whether you’re interested in the future of work, customer experience, digital economy, the Internet of Things, or digital supply networks, we provide a vast array of thought leadership and real-life stories on the practical application of digital technology.

Each week on Digitalist Magazine, we publish a list of the top ten posts of the week from across our content categories. We hope you find these articles valuable, informative, and interesting.

What Does It Mean To Be A Data-Driven Enterprise Today?

How Optimizing Your Supply Chain Creates Value For Customers

Overcoming Common DevOps Challenges To Gain Full Productivity Benefits

Blockchain For Utilities: A Reality Check

Why B2B Startups Are On The Rise In India

Accelerating Out Of The “Digital Deadlock” – Enter The Digital Platform

What AI Competencies Does Your Finance Team Really Need?

It’s Time To Prepare For The Smart Workplace

What My 25-Year-Old Truck Can Teach You About Intelligent Assets

Procurement Is Going Digital, But Not Overnight


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The Digitalist Magazine is your online destination for everything you need to know to lead your enterprise’s digital transformation.

Read the Digitalist Magazine and get the latest insights about the digital economy that you can capitalize on today.

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Digitalist Magazine

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Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

March 13, 2019   Self-Service BI

This month we have a lot of exciting announcements. Two of our most requested features on UserVoice are releasing this month, heat maps and single select slicers. Additionally, we are making our complete facelift of the modeling view generally available. New DAX functions and improvements to existing features, such as buttons and the selection pane, round out this update.

5d7f8edd 60a2 45e6 8cd8 5a7fa35e97b5 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

Here’s the complete list of March updates:

Reporting

Analytics

Modelling

Custom visuals

Data connectivity

For a summary of the major updates, you can watch the following video:

Single select slicer

The single select slicer option has been revamped to support radio buttons and allows one and only one filter selection. Additionally, for drop-down slicers, it closes the drop-down after selection, making the interaction much quicker for end users.

030219 0014 PowerBIDesk1 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

You can still use the previous behavior, where clicking a selection replaces the filter but they can Ctrl+click to multiselect, by turning on the Multi-select with CTRL option instead.

030219 0014 PowerBIDesk2 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

Watch the following video to learn more about single select slicer:

Heat map support for Bing maps

You can now enable a heat map formatting option for our circle Bing map visual. You’ll see an option to convert all the location dots on your map to a heat map layer through the formatting pane.

030219 0014 PowerBIDesk3 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

Once that option is turned on the map will automatically replace all the dots with the heat map layer.

030219 0014 PowerBIDesk4 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

If you don’t have anything in the Size field well bucket, the gradient is based on location density (how many dots are in that area). If you also have a measure in the Size bucket, the results are weighted by the measure’s value as well.

When you open the heat map formatting card, you’ll also see a lot of formatting control. You can set the radius and units for the radius to adjust the layer in addition to the colors used and their transparency.

030219 0014 PowerBIDesk5 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

While using the heat map layer, you won’t be  able to select individual points or see tooltips.

Watch the following video to learn more about heat maps:

Cross-highlight by axis labels

You can now use the axis category labels to cross-highlight, just like the data points in the visual. This is very useful when a category might be very small and hard to click.

030219 0014 PowerBIDesk6 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

Another use is if a category is broken out by another series in the legend. This lets you select all values with one click.

030219 0014 PowerBIDesk7 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

When you cross-highlight through the axis labels, the axis label is bolded.

Watch the following video to learn more about cross-highlighting on axis labels:

You can now format the default tooltip for each visual in your report. You can modify the tooltip colors, fonts and transparency, which you can find in the Tooltip card of the formatting pane.

030219 0014 PowerBIDesk8 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

To easily set these options across your whole report, you can control them as part of your theme. Here’s an example of the JSON for the tooltip section specifically:

"visualStyles":{
     "*":{
          "*":{
               "visualTooltip": [{
                    "type": "Default",
                    "fontFamily": "Arial",
                    "fontSize": 11,
                    "valueFontColor": {"solid": {"color": "#5B3780"}},
                    "titleFontColor": {"solid": {"color": "#5289BF"}},
                    "transparency": 2,
                    "background": {"solid": {"color": "#FFE1F0"}}
               }]
          }
     }
}

Watch the following video to learn more about default tooltip formatting:

Static web URL support for buttons, shapes, and & images

You can now link a specific website through an image, shape or button. You can do this by selecting the Web URL option in the Type dropdown of the Action card of the formatting pane.

030219 0014 PowerBIDesk9 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

We will automatically take you to the URL when you click on the button (ctrl+click in edit mode). In the Power BI service, we will open a new tab for the site. The URL will need to be a valid URL starting with http:// or https://.

Watch the following video to learn more about static web URL support for buttons, shapes, & images:

Filter pane improvement

Based on customers feedback, we’ve simplified the options for report consumers. Consumers of reports can no longer delete a filter card in the filter pane. Instead, they now have a clear button, which ensures they don’t get into state they cannot fix themselves.

030219 0014 PowerBIDesk10 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

Watch the following video to learn more about the filter pane improvement:

Page alignment options

You can now choose to align your report pages to the top the view instead of the center through the global report settings.

030219 0014 PowerBIDesk11 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

The “Align the canvas to the top of the wallpaper” option is the default for new reports where users are using new filtering experiences.

030219 0014 PowerBIDesk12 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

Changing this setting will only apply to new reports going forward.

Watch the following video to learn more about page alignment:

Selection pane improvements

You can now double click an object in the selection pane to rename the title. If the title is off currently, you can still rename it through the selection pane to make it easier to identify different objects in the list.

030219 0014 PowerBIDesk13 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

You can also use shift+click, along with ctrl+click, to quickly and easily select many objects in the selection pane at once and adjust their visibility all together using the Show and Hide options at the top of the pane.

Watch the following video to learn more about the selection pane improvements:

Formatting updates for maps

Adjust map points to a smaller  size

If the default bubble size is too large for your tastes on the bubble Bing maps, you can now adjust the bubbles to a smaller size. Just slide the Size control under the Bubbles card to the left to reduce the size.

map bubble sizes 1024x677 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

Ability to add zoom buttons

This month we also added the ability to add zoom buttons to your map. Zoom buttons can make it easier to zoom in and out of the map, especially if you don’t have a mouse with a scroll  wheel on it. You can turn them on through the Zoom buttons toggle under the Map controls card.

Accessible visual interaction

You can now access data points on many of the built-in visuals using keyboard navigation. When a visual is in focus, pressing ctrl+right arrow will move focus inside the visual. Focus will now cycle between the plot area, categorical axis, and legend (if it exists) using the tab key. Press enter to select either the plot area or the legend and from there you can use:

  • Tab or arrow keys to navigate between data points or legend items
  • Enter or space to select and cross-highlight that data point
  • Ctrl + enter or ctrl + space to cross-highlight multiple data points
  • Ctrl + shift + c to clear all selection
  • Shift + F10 or the designated key on your keyboard to open the context menu to access options like Insights and Copy

030219 0014 PowerBIDesk14 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

Watch the following video to learn more about accessibility for visual interactions:

Q&A recommendations for improving results

The Q&A explorer dialog for reports now includes “Did you mean?” recommendations to help improve results. This includes terms that are misspelled or not understood by Q&A.

It will also surface what results are being shown when terms are ambiguous.

You can click on the suggestion to replace your current question with the suggestion.

Watch the following video to learn more about Q&A recommendations:

Show dates as a hierarchy now generally available

For each date column, we show each hierarchy level in the field list. The entire hierarchy, or a specific selection from the hierarchy can be used in visuals.

030219 0014 PowerBIDesk17 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

Watch the following video to learn more about showing date hierarchies in the field list:

New modelling view now generally available

We are excited to announce our new modelling view is now generally available. We’ve added a lot of improvements to the preview period based on your feedback. In case you haven’t been keeping up with the changes, some of the highlights of this new surface include:

  • Bulk editing of columns, measures, and tables.
  • Setting display folders on columns, measures, and hierarchies.
  • Dragging and dropping into display folders
  • Multiple diagram layouts

030219 0014 PowerBIDesk18 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

Watch the following video to learn more about the new modelling view:

New DAX Functions

You can now use either ContainsString or ContainsStringExact to get a Boolean value returned letting you know if a text field contains a specific string. ContainsStringExact is case sensitive. Another new function this month is DistinctCountNoBlank to return a SQL like distinct count where blank values aren’t counted.

We’ve also extended the LookupValue function to now take an optional last parameter to avoid raising an error. Lastly, we’ve also extended the All function so that using the All function without arguments will clear all filters in the filter context.

Intellisense support is also supported for all these functions except the All updates and the new DistinctCountNoBlank, both of which will come in our April release.

New certified custom visuals setting in admin portal

We are giving IT admins more control over the usage of custom visuals in their organization. With this new admin control setting enabled, users can view and use reports containing certified custom visuals only. Uncertified visuals will not render.

 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

Once the new setting: “Allow only certified custom visuals is enabled”, any report containing uncertified custom visuals in the report display an error message.

This setting doesn’t affect organizational visuals (visuals coming from the organizational store) as those are hand-picked and allowed by the admin. This setting only affects uncertified custom visuals from the Marketplace or private visuals that were uploaded using “Import from file”.

For this setting to also apply to Power BI Desktop, the admin will need to use Group Policy to enforce it.

Attribute Value
key Software\Policies\Microsoft\Power BI Desktop\
First value Name EnableCustomVisuals

A value of 1 (decimal) enables the use of custom visuals in Power BI Desktop, and a value of 0 (decimal) disables the use of custom visuals in Power BI Desktop.

Attribute Value
key Software\Policies\Microsoft\Power BI Desktop\
First value Name EnableUncertifiedVisuals

A value of 1 (decimal) enables the use of uncertified visuals in Power BI Desktop, and a value of 0 (decimal) disables the use of uncertified visuals in Power BI Desktop.

Craydec Regression Chart

The Craydec Regression Chart custom visual lets you plot your data on a scatter chart, without aggregating anything (unless you want to), add a linear regression to it, and then split it out by multiple categories as a small multiple. This visual also includes dynamic data loading, which ensures that it loads fast, and it can even handle 10,000+ rows of data with ease.

There’s a free version of this visual available to try out, but with a license you can:

  • Plot up to 30,000 data points
  • Add labels for small multiples
  • Assign custom colors & opacity for groups

030219 0014 PowerBIDesk19 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

You can download this visual from AppSource.

Watch the following video to learn more about the Craydec Regression Chart:

Power Slicer

The Power Slicer custom visual lets you add filter your report by different categories right on the report page, similar to the default Slicer visual, but with advanced layout and formatting support.

This visual supports:

  • A list, dropdown, hierarchy, and chiclet layout
  • Setting a dynamic default selection set using JavaScript, for ex. “(new Date()).getMonth()+1” to set the default selection to the current month
  • Control over the text and background colors for both the selected and unselected states

030219 0014 PowerBIDesk20 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

Find this visual on AppSource.

Watch the following video to learn more about the Power Slicer:

PDF connector now supports tables spanning multiple pages (preview)

This month, we’ve added support for certain kinds of tables spanning multiple pages in the PDF Files connector preview.

Intelligent Plant’s Industrial App Store connector

Intelligent Plant’s Industrial App Store Connector enables Microsoft’s powerful analytics and visualizations to be applied to real time and historical process data. Seamlessly integrate plant and corporate data and share with any colleague on any device, enabling faster, better, real-time decision making. The Industrial App Store Power BI Connector connects to Intelligent Plant’s Industrial App Store, while all data remains securely and safely on premises. The plant data may be centralized in a corporate data lake or globally dispersed across many sites and historians. Either way, Industrial App Store Power BI Connector brings it all together and delivers to your fingertips.

Azure Cost Management connector

Azure Cost Management gives you easy access to your Azure cost and usage data. With it, you can make powerful and flexible reports to understand your spending, optimize your usage, and better administer your Azure deployment. This connector currently supports users on Microsoft Customer Agreement, with support for more on the way. This connector works in the Power BI Desktop currently and will light up in the Power BI service after the next Gateway release.

That’s all for this month! We hope that you enjoy these updates and all the updates of the past year. Please continue sending us your feedback and don’t forget to vote for other features that you’d like to see in the Power BI Desktop. For any preview features, you can always give us your feedback in our active community. You can also download the .pbix file I used, and if you’re looking for a similar design for your reports, I was using the Microsoft layout from PowerBI.Tips.

5d7f8edd 60a2 45e6 8cd8 5a7fa35e97b5 Power BI Desktop March 2019 Feature Summary

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Digitalist Magazine’s Top Posts Of The Week [March 11, 2019]

March 11, 2019   SAP

Digitalist Magazine’s Top Posts Of The Week [March 11, 2019]

Shelly Dutton

300w x 200h 300x200 Digitalist Magazine’s Top Posts Of The Week [March 11, 2019]Digitalist Magazine, online edition, covers a variety of topics around the challenges businesses face in the digital economy. Whether you’re interested in the future of work, customer experience, digital economy, the Internet of Things, or digital supply networks, we provide a vast array of thought leadership and real-life stories on the practical application of digital technology.

Each week on Digitalist Magazine, we publish a list of the top ten posts of the week from across our content categories. We hope you find these articles valuable, informative, and interesting.

Mistrust In The Numbers: The Global Scale Of Financial Data Inaccuracies

Can Blockchain Replace EDI In The Supply Chain?

International Women’s Day: Every Change We Make Today Goes A Long Way for Future Generations

These Three Trends Define The Next Phase of Cloud Computing

Welcome To The Future of Manufacturing – Brought To You By Intelligent Asset Management

The Power Of Relevancy: Leveraging The Three Cs Of Omnichannel Experience

How Midsize Companies Turn Digital Investments Into Long-Term Partnerships

Top Five Finance Blogs Of February 2019

Five Strategies To Catalyze Conversational AI

The Customer-Centric Organization: Boost Experiences And Revenues


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The Digitalist Magazine is your online destination for everything you need to know to lead your enterprise’s digital transformation.

Read the Digitalist Magazine and get the latest insights about the digital economy that you can capitalize on today.

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Quote Of The Day March 10, 2019

March 10, 2019   Humor
 Quote Of The Day March 10, 2019

Think before you speak.  Plato at Brainy Quotes.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.

See:

  • https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/plato
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Digitalist Magazine’s Top Posts Of The Week [March 4, 2019]

March 5, 2019   SAP

Digitalist Magazine’s Top Posts Of The Week [March 4, 2019]

Shelly Dutton

300w x 200h 300x200 Digitalist Magazine’s Top Posts Of The Week [March 4, 2019]Digitalist Magazine, online edition, covers a variety of topics around the challenges businesses face in the digital economy. Whether you’re interested in the future of work, customer experience, digital economy, the Internet of Things, or digital supply networks, we provide a vast array of thought leadership and real-life stories on the practical application of digital technology.

Each week on Digitalist Magazine, we publish a list of the top ten posts of the week from across our content categories. We hope you find these articles valuable, informative, and interesting.

Megatrends Reshaping Finance: How CFOs Can Stay Ahead For Competitive Edge (Part 2)

The Evolution Of Technology Continues: What’s Next In 2019

Why Growing Companies View Cutting-Edge Technologies As Necessity And Enabler

Building A Life Of Meaning And Value

The Internet Of Things And The Intelligent Enterprise

New Study: Finance Is Set To Gain Digital Transformation Momentum

AI: Your New Personal Shopper

Building Digital Trust

Cloud Is The Foundation For Digitalization For Manufacturers

People Vs. Machine: Where Do We Fit In The Future Of Tech?


Sharelines

The Digitalist Magazine is your online destination for everything you need to know to lead your enterprise’s digital transformation.

Read the Digitalist Magazine and get the latest insights about the digital economy that you can capitalize on today.

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Digitalist Magazine

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Announcing Power platform Summit Europe in Amsterdam, 27-29 March 2019

December 1, 2018   Self-Service BI
social default image Announcing Power platform Summit Europe in Amsterdam, 27 29 March 2019

The Power platform summit will help you stay ahead of the business intelligence demands of today’s data driven world and see the latest product roadmap on the Power Platform apps directly from Microsoft at this year’s user group community event, Power Platform Summit.  The event will be held in Amsterdam, 27-29 March 2019, Power Platform Summit delivers the can’t-miss annual conference for users of the Microsoft Power platform – featuring education on Power BI, PowerApps, and Microsoft Flow.

With incredible community experts and and Microsoft product group members at its core, this focused community event provides indepth learning on how Power BI can help you make sense of your data, produce beautiful reports, and uncover hidden insights for your business. Listen in as peers talk through how they have created apps that extend and mobilize their business using the no code PowerApps option. Then take it one step further by finding out how to automate processes, making your business more efficient with Microsoft Flow. It is THE event you should attend in 2019. 

Power platform sumit will give you  direct access to:  

  • Exceptional content: technical and functional training in a focused environment that you can utilize in your daily job today
  • Engaging networking opportunities: connect with peers, partners and Microsoft team members
  • Access to experts: learn from Power platform experts formally and informally, from the world's best Subject Matter Experts including MVPs, super users, and Microsoft engineers.
  • Grow your career: Many of the presenters at this conference started out as attendees in previous user groups events and used this regocnition to further their careers 

Click here for more information and to Register today: https://eu.powerplatformsummit.com/home

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