Amazon ties up with big apartment operators for easier home delivery: Just in time for the busy holiday shopping season, Amazon has inked deals with a number of large apartment building operators that will see in the installation of delivery lockers called Hubs. Companies who have signed up so far collectively manage more than 850,000 apartment units in the U.S., according to the Wall Street Journal.
The program has a few key goals: More security and flexibility for customers, cost savings gained through dropping off large batches of packages at once, and to help ease the burden on apartment management companies who must grapple with a ever-higher pile of delivery boxes in building lobbies.
POV: Customers get a code they can enter in the locker to retrieve their packages. It's a similar idea to delivery boxes Amazon has already installed at gas stations and other high-traffic locations, but should have much greater appeal to both customers and apartment managers. Meanwhile, the shopping season will certainly give Amazon a test bed to prove out the Hubs at scale.
Apple, GE team up for mobile industrial apps: General Electric will partner with Apple on the creation of mobile applications for machinery and factories, Bloomberg reports:
The Boston-based company on Oct. 26 will publish a toolkit it has built with Apple that helps developers build software for iPhones and iPads that uses its Predix data-collection and analysis tool, Kevin Ichhpurani, the head of sales at GE’s digital division, said in an interview. Apple is making Predix its preferred tool for connected factories.
“More of the customers in the industrial world want to drive mobile experiences to their end users,” Ichhpurani said. “Employees within those enterprises want those same experiences that they have in a consumer world.”
The focus of the apps will be on monitoring and diagnostics of machinery, as Apple's announcement explains:
For example, a Predix app can notify a worker on their iPhone of a potential issue with equipment such as a wind turbine and allow them to collaborate with remote teams when performing inspections and repairs, collecting relevant data instantly.
GE and Apple also plan to use the iPhone maker’s recently released augmented-reality tools to help train engineers and identify mechanical problems.
POV: This is one partnership that goes beyond a splashy announcement. For example, GE will standardize its mobile devices on iPhone and iPad, while Apple "will promote Predix as the industrial IoT analytics platform of choice to its customers and developers." The SDK for iOS devices will be launched next week during GE's Mind + Machines conference. Overall, the deal cements Apple as a major player in enterprise and digital transformation efforts.
Adobe rolls out next-generation Creative Cloud: During this week's MAX conference, Adobe is unveiling a series of enhancements to its Creative Cloud portfolio, including four new applications. It has also injected more AI capabilities into Creative Cloud from its Sensi AI platform. Here are the key details from its announcement.
- Adobe XD CC is a cross-platform toolkit for rapidly prototyping mobile apps and websites.
- Adobe Dimension CC provides designers with 3D image creation capabilities.
- Character Animator, is a 2D animation tool. Sensei offers improved lip-syncing.
- Adobe has also redesigned Lightroom, its cloud-based photo storage, editing and sharing service.
POV: As expected, Adobe is also unveiling updates to its core creative apps, such as Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign, but these improvements appear to be more iterative than transformative. What will be of particular interest to enterprises are new integrations between Creative Cloud and Adobe Marketing Cloud, making it easier for companies to use both in tandem as they bring branding development operations in-house. Constellation analysts Cindy Zhou and Alan Lepofsky are in attendance at Creative Cloud this week. You can follow their ongoing coverage on Twitter at @cindy_zhou and @alanlepo.