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2019 in Digital Transformation

By now, digital transformation is already well under way in the vast majority of organisations, but owing to the market’s notoriously changeable winds, knowing where to invest can quickly turn into a challenge. Just last year, for example, cryptocurrencies were largely being hailed as a great unexamined goldmine, but there is now growing support that these popular technologies are significantly less secure than originally understood. And what of the case of Oracle, which is now charging Java users extortionate licensing fees?

Nonetheless, by staying well abreast of the latest technological trends, Software Planet Group believe that you can make wise decisions that will help your business stay firmly ahead of the game.

So without further ado, it is time to take a look at the year in digital transformation!

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The Difference Between Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

Over the past few years, with every new and exciting product, the terms “machine learning” and “artificial intelligence” have increasingly been thrown about. As a result, puzzled consumers everywhere are often left to wonder if they’re really just buzzwords for the exact same thing.

But could that actually be the case? After all, last time we checked, neither Siri nor Alexa were anywhere near the exceptional capabilities of Jarvis from Iron Man, or the solemn, ghoulish precogs in Spielberg’s Minority Report. So what gives, tech world?

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Dawn of the Progressive Web Application

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change” ~Charles Darwin.

Do you remember when native mobile applications first came meteor-crashing into the scene? Most people couldn’t get enough of them! From amusing virtual lightsabers to far more handy unit converters, back in 2008, it didn’t matter if your program was a star or a dud — if it was on the iPhone, all eyes were on your company.

But just as natural selection is so crushingly apparent in nature, in today’s lightning-paced, ever-changing technological world, the ubiquitous native application, long unchallenged, may soon be reaching an untimely demise.

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SPG Reviews: Influencer Marketing Solutions

Understandably, our customers are often concerned about the correct way to go about marketing their software products. But while no magic recipe for success currently exists, in recent years, it has become increasingly clear that highly sought for solutions like Google Adwords and content marketing can only take you so far. Beyond there, one must think outside the box.

So for this article, we would like to highlight just one of the many ways that you can do this, by ramping up your marketing efforts through the engaging power of social influencers.

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Native vs. HTML5 vs. React Native Apps: Who Wins?

In the seemingly eternal battle for mobile domination, campaigns are waged on multiple levels.

However, while most people are well acquainted with the public squabbles of Apple and Samsung, in the background, a much more subtle contest takes place, as programmers and CEOs scuffle to determine the best technology for mobile app development.

Understandably, to the technically disinclined, it may come as a surprise that not all apps are built natively. Yet in reality, not only are alternative technologies extremely common, but there are many valid reasons for putting them to good use.

A Cornucopia of Options

Beyond iOS’ native ObjectiveC and, Swift, and Android’s own version of the Java programming language, software engineers are able to create apps using web technologies like HTML5, or hybrid solutions that include both web and native components, such as Flutter, PhoneGap, React Native, the Ionic framework, among others.

With every case, it is important to be aware of the strengths and weaknesses that will serve to aid companies in their final decision.

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Top Trends in the Healthcare Industry Today

Despite the fact that many businesses are still yet to fully embrace digital technology, we are living in the time of what is widely being hailed the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Rapid advancement in fields such as quantum computing, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and nanotechnology are causing disruptive change to virtually every industry, and healthcare is no exception.

In fact, as one of the world’s largest and most dynamic industries — annual investment soared by as much as 26 percent last year — the healthcare sector is in a prime position to bring us some of the most exciting and life-altering applications. So as 2018 begins, let’s take a look at the trends that are starting to cast light on the future of digital medicine.

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When Game Development Meets External Vendors: Game Over?

The global gaming business is at an all-time high. This year, the industry is expected to generate over $150 billion (£116.5bn) in revenue. To anyone truly paying attention, however, this should come as no surprise. Just in the United Kingdom, between console, smartphones, PC, VR headsets and the internet, half of the population plays video games today. Astoundingly, however, despite the industry’s rapid expansion, most software companies have been unable to cope with the unique needs of game creators.

At Software Planet Group, we have worked very hard to overcome this problem. Over the years, our experience with various gaming companies has led us to refine our development process and create an entirely separate system that strives to work for everyone. As a result of this assembled knowledge, however, we have also found that many aspiring game makers are unsure of where to begin. This is why for this blog post, SPG would like to highlight some of the invaluable lessons we picked up along the way.

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A Common CMS Is Taking Bespoke Software to New Heights

While the advent of cloud computing has served to greatly raise the bar of convenience and portability, as luck would have it, developers of Software as a Service (SaaS) systems tend to fall into one of two unfortunate categories: those who build their applications around existing CMS, ERP or ecommerce platforms, such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and Magento, and bespoke developers, who build their own web solutions from scratch using technologies like Java, PHP, Ruby and Node.js. Due to their vastly different business models, these two camps very rarely intersect — a reality which often leads to anguish for bespoke solution users, who are left without a simple and easy-to-use content management system.

In reality, however, this status quo is problematic at every level. When it comes to traditional CMS-based solutions, for instance, these are typically only as convenient as they are limiting. Although developers are able to quickly build web applications, as pre-existing platforms are used as the core of their projects, the approach leaves very little room for adaptability and innovation.

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Can We Hack the Human Brain?

Although we love to think that our technology is highly advanced, there is much that science is only just beginning to understand about the universe. From the greatest depths of the oceans to the furthest corners of outer space, swathes of earth and cosmos remain teasingly beyond our grasp. But there is a greater mystery concealed just beyond the limits of our immediate perception — the human brain.

In all of the known world, the complexity of the human brain is without rival. While mankind has tried and failed to understand the organ since the days of ancient Egypt, even today, in spite of our best efforts, neuroscientists remain stumped. Experts are still oblivious as to how information is coded in the brain, how memories are stored and retrieved, how cerebral systems integrate with one another, and perhaps ironically, have even failed to crack what intelligence is in the first place.

Yet despite our limitations, ever since 1957, when psychologist Frank Rosenblatt first developed his brain-mimicking Perceptron device, engineers have slowly begun to create hardware that is capable of interacting with the human brain. Today, the field of neurotechnology has already grown to achieve incredible results.

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Is Faceted Search Right for You?

During the internet’s humble beginnings, we marvelled at the capacity of search engines to quickly return relevant results. At the time, it did not even bother us if we had to click and scroll through countless pages in order to find what we had been looking for. This was because search engines were always compared to age-old libraries, as the memories of sifting through hundreds of dusty pages still festered within our minds. Ironically, perhaps, in spite of our newfound disdain for the ancient paper system, it was precisely a librarian who first conceptualised the core of faceted navigation, one of the most advanced search features in software today.

After completing his education in library science at University College London, Indian Mathematician Siyali Ranganathan took immediate steps to reorganise libraries in a more scientific manner. In 1933, he published Colon Classification, a book describing what today is hailed as the very first faceted system. Since then, Ranganathan’s creation has evolved to become a standard search feature in e-commerce websites such as Amazon and eBay, along with other internet giants like Google. Yet despite its illustrious advocates, faceted search may be used by any company wishing to help customers quickly and intuitively browse through vast quantities of data.

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