Half of the world population will be short-sighted

Text: https://app.box.com/s/vvag4npgx402mrpvjkc28osfzu47tl20

Audio: http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1602/160224-short-sightedness_ff.mp3

What life will be like in 2116

Text: https://app.box.com/s/zv2hz7kjt44x9u317yl31er1ml00t0b9

Audio: http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1602/160218-the-future_ff.mp3

Who Really Counts? Mapping Internal Influence in the B2B Buying Game

Everyone knows that B2B customers buy as a team. Participants play different roles – technical, line-of-business, financial, etc. Marketers usually focus on individual personas. But buying is not conducted in isolation. It's social. By understanding not only the players but also the way the game is played, marketers will develop more compelling content and campaign conversion strategies.

Buying teams can be large. According to IDC's 2015 IT Buyer Experience Survey, the average buying team for companies with 1,000+ employees has 9.2 members. While each buying team member goes through their own decision-journey, they don't all march through in tandem. And like a sports team, different players contribute in different ways.

Using data from the IT Buyer Experience study, IDC mapped the relative influence of buying team members to understand the dynamics at the exploration, evaluation, and purchase stages of the buying decision-journey.  IDC looked at the influence of the LOB executive, LOB staff, CIO, IT staff, CFO, and purchasing.

Here's a chart showing the rise and fall of influence for just two of these team players - the CIO and the LOB staff-level roles. Survey participants were asked to rank the relative influence of various buying team roles. The higher the ranking, the more influence the survey participants gave to different roles.

 

Influence Scenarios

Based on these influence ratings and other data such as use of content types at different stages, here's what IDC finds is happening during the buying decision stages.

• Exploration stage: Exploration can be time-consuming. It's no wonder that staff-level "explorers" (both LOB and IT staff) do most of the work and thus have the most influence in this very early stage. The (LOB) executive who owns the problem is also very influential. IDC Guidance: Make a compelling case for change that will convince the executive who owns the problem. Also, educate the staff-level explorers so they can serve as internal experts. Spur the internal conversation with "shareable" content that says, "Hey, check this out. We really should be talking about this issue."

• Evaluation stage: Many more influential players, including the CIO and purchasing, are added to the team during the middle stage of the decision journey as the enterprise works through the complexities of consideration and selection. IDC Guidance: Since vendors are infrequently present at the table to explain their messaging during internal discussions, there is a premium on clear, complete, easily accessible, and shareable information.

• Purchase stage: Financial and contractual considerations are most important at this final stage. Purchasing function and even the CEO rise in influence, while other players move into spectator mode.  IDC Guidance: Marketing needs to help sales close the deal. But also stay alert to social buzz. The closer the deal gets to the wire, the tension rises. On one hand, the buying conversation gets very narrow, personal, and specific to the deal, and on the other hand, it widens out to intensely search for any final verification of a good choice or any final hidden reasons to divert the process.

Continue to pay attention to the information needs of specific buyers. But to really serve the full customer experience, don't forget that buying is also a social activity.

See IDC.com for the full report (Subscription or fee required)

This post first appeared on January 11, 2016 on LinkedIn

the.education

Piano Tiles 2 (Don't Tap...2) APK

Fans of Piano Tiles (Don't Tap the White Tile) have a lot to be happy about this week. Today the new expansion for the latest entry in the series, Piano Tiles 2, has been released in all regions to the Android game. If you haven’t played the game for a long while and would love to experience some new content, you will be happy to know that a new Piano Tiles 2 (Don't Tap...2) update is now available for download.

The new Piano Tiles 2 update added brand new songs and levels. The new level makes the game slightly more challenging, so if you’re looking for a challenge, this new levels is perfect for you. There are brand-new gameplay and new color scheme, multicolor instead of black and white. You can now compete with players around the world and share your piano performance with your loved ones.

In Don't Tap...2,  you test your fingers and abilities to go fast, and you have the ever to never stop.  The challenges are fantastic for your mind and thumbs. Just tap the black tiles to the music and avoid tapping anywhere else. The gameplay is the perfect mixture of challenge, addiction, and fun with hundreds of songs to choose from, you will never get bored if play this game. Enjoy the piano music, train your fingers to be faster, and see if you can beat your friends!

Piano Tiles 2 (Don't Tap...2) is now available in all regions on the Google Play Store. The update also is now available for download. So, Make sure you upgrade the game to the latest version to access all the divine new content. You can also download Piano Tiles 2 (Don't Tap...2) APK from the source link given below.

What do you think of the new songs and levels?

MARVEL Avengers Academy 1.0.9 APK

A new adventure game developed by a successful TinyCo team has been released on the Play Store a few days ago, a game that fans of Avengers will surely enjoy. The new game is called MARVEL Avengers Academy, and it’s let’s you play as favorite Avengers characters reimagined as students developing their superpowers. Build the ultimate Super Hero Academy and meet your heroes, defeat Hydra, and uncover the truth behind it all.

Here’s a quick look at the features of the game, which you can play on Android Ice Cream Sandwich and above.

DISCOVER A NEW MARVEL AVENGERS WORLD
- Experience your favorite MARVEL Avengers heroes and villains as young adults
- Play as Iron Man, Thor, Black Widow, Hulk, Loki, Captain America and more!
- Develop their iconic powers at Super Hero academy

POWER-UP YOUR TEAM
- Strengthen your MARVEL Avengers team and upgrade their powers!
- Send them to activities, sporting events, class and training sessions

EXPERIENCE CAMPUS LIFE
- Live true campus life as a MARVEL student
- Go on dates and confront rival cliques
- Navigate the social ups and downs of your characters' lives

EMBARK ON NEW ADVENTURES
- Go on exciting missions and battle epic foes
- Interact with other characters from the MARVEL universe
- Participate in events and updates that introduce thrilling new storylines and quests

BUILD YOUR DREAM ACADEMY
- Create the ultimate Super Hero campus
- Construct dorms, classrooms and labs for your MARVEL Avengers
- Fill your campus with training facilities, sports stadiums and more

See also: MARVEL Future Fight

MARVEL Avengers Academy seems like a very interesting  Avenger's game with good graphics and immersive gameplay so make sure to check it out if you’re a fan of the genre. While the game is free to download and play, be aware that it also contains in-game purchases. You can check it out on the Google Play Store now or download MARVEL Avengers Academy apk file from the source link given below.

MARVEL Avengers Academy Update
You can now download the latest version MARVEL Avengers Academy  V1.0.9:
* Couple of bug fixes and performance improvements has launched and is now available across the world!

ori.genes

Microsoft Really Wants You to Upgrade to Windows 10

Have you upgraded to Windows 10 yet? Soon, Microsoft might make it hard to say no.

According to media reports, Microsoft is 'aggressively' pushing out notifications to Windows 7 and 8 users to upgrade to Windows 10. The Windows 10 download will now start in the background automatically, as it will now be considered a "recommended update" in its Windows Update system, but users will still have a choice if they want to make the upgrade.

Here's what a Microsoft spokesperson had to say to The Verge on the issue:

"As we shared in late October on the Windows Blog, we are committed to making it easy for our Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 customers to upgrade to Windows 10," says a Microsoft spokesperson. "We updated the upgrade experience today to help our customers, who previously reserved their upgrade, schedule a time for their upgrade to take place."

This comes weeks after Microsoft's announcement that next-generation processors from Intel, AMD and Qualcomm would only be compatible with Windows 10 and not earlier versions of the operating system.

What do you guys think? Is this the right move by Microsoft? Let us know on our Facebook page.

Check Out This Interview With GIGABYTE's Very Own Sofos1990

One of GIGABYTE's in-house professional overclockers, Sofos 'Sofos1990' Oikonomou, was recently featured on OCTV's Overclocker in Focus series. Sofos is part of the overclocking team in Taipei, working with HiCookie to make sure GIGABYTE motherboards perform their best under the pressure of overclocking.

During the interview, Sofos discussed how he got into overclocking, his educational background, and where he sees overclocking in the future. 

You can check out his interview with OCTV here:

You can find the rest of OCTV's Overclocker in Focus interviews on their YouTube channel.