Short Tutorial/FAQ – What is Extended Reality?


QUESTION: What is Extended Reality and how is it being used?

ANSWER: Extended Reality (XR) is an umbrella term encapsulating Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Mixed Reality (MR), and everything in between. XR offers an experience for the senses, where the line between reality and the simulated world becomes blurred as you dive into another world visually, acoustically, and through tactile sensations.

XR is revolutionizing everyday consumer experiences and transforming manufacturing and other industry segments. Here are a few examples:

Retail: XR lets you try out a product before you buy it. For example, IKEA is giving customers the opportunity to place furniture and accessories in their homes using their smartphones.

Training: XR can provide hyper-realistic training tools to help soldiers, medical personnel, pilots/astronauts, chemists, and others to find solutions to problems or learn how to react to dangerous circumstances.

Remote Work: Employees can connect to their home office or to professionals around the world in a way that makes both sides feel like they are in the same room.

Entertainment and Gaming: Consumers can virtually experience live music and sporting events from the comfort of their VR headsets. Gamers can intimately feel what their selected scenes would resemble in the flesh, whether crossing into another era, place, or exploring fantastic futuristic worlds.

Health Care: Medical imaging technologies like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and CT scans now make extensive use of XR. It gives staff full 3D representations of human bodies rather than traditional 2D imaging.

Stay Alert – Watch Out for Online Ticket Scams

Scammers are taking advantage of the fact that many concerts and sporting events are replacing paper tickets with digital tickets — which are bought online, downloaded into a phone app, and then presented at the arena gate for scanning. Instead of having to print counterfeit tickets and peddle them on a street corner, scammers can now stay home and post ads for tickets on online marketplaces.

Enthusiastic fans, desperate to get tickets, are losing hundreds or thousands of dollars. Many don’t realize they’ve been scammed until they show up at the venue and can’t get in. Some learn they bought counterfeit tickets. Others have legitimate tickets that the scammer sold to multiple people; in that scenario, the first person who has their ticket scanned at the gate gets in, but the others don’t.

How do scammers get away with it? It’s relatively easy to forge barcodes, QR codes, and logos of legitimate ticket companies using consumer-grade graphic design software. Scammers can also create counterfeit websites that look like the real thing, with a URL that’s only slightly different.

Here’s how to reduce your odds of being scammed:

• For ticket purchases, avoid Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and Instagram. The safest way to buy tickets is from the venue, either in person or through its official website.
  
  
• Don’t try to buy tickets from an individual unless it’s someone you actually know.
  
  
• For a sold-out event, an online reseller (such as StubHub, Vivid Seats, or SeatGeek) may be your only option. Live Nation and Ticketmaster also resell tickets. If you’re not familiar with the resale company, check it out at BBB.org.
  
  
• Steer clear of any reseller that won’t accept credit cards and especially those that want payment via gift card, wire transfer, or a peer-to-peer (P2P) payment app. Criminals prefer these payment methods because they’re instant, untraceable, and irreversible.

Do your homework and be careful out there. You don’t want to lose a ticket to theft!

Short Tutorial/FAQ – How to Access Google Tricks

Google tricks, also called Easter eggs, are hidden gems designed purely for fun. One of the oldest is the Do a Barrel Roll trick, which makes the Google page spin around a few times before recentering itself properly. To see it, simply type “Do a barrel roll” in the Google Search bar.

Do the same thing for these other Google tricks — enter the title in the Google Search bar and get ready for a playful experience.

Flip a Coin: Got a decision to make and fast? Open a coin toss.

Roll a Die: This is great for if you’ve lost the vital piece of a board game.

Google in 1998: Go back in time and see what Google looked like in 1998, complete with plain text and old-fashioned logo.

Pac-Man: Play Google’s version of this video game for free by searching the famous title.

Customer Alert – Be Suspicious of Free Gift Card Offers

The word “free” gets people’s attention and can cause them to act impulsively. Scammers take advantage of this weakness by sending bulk phishing emails that promise a free gift card if you provide personal information.

For example, scammers impersonate legitimate companies such as Amazon and say they’ll send you a $200 gift card as a reward for being a loyal customer. Or they may announce you were randomly selected as the winner of the gift card prize. All you must do, according to the email, is provide your credit card information to cover a small “handling fee.”

If you provide the requested information, you’ll likely see unwanted charges on your credit card account. The one thing you won’t see is the gift card you were promised.

To avoid becoming a victim, keep this old saying in mind: “There’s no such thing as a free lunch.” Companies usually don’t give away something for nothing, especially through a bulk email. If you receive an email about a free gift card, look for indications the offer is bogus — misspellings, bad grammar, or a suspicious email address. Never give out personal financial information in response to an unsolicited email from an unverified source.

CUSTOMER ALERT – SCAM MESSAGES CLAIM TO BE FROM AMAZON

In 2022, the Better Business Bureau reported 202 scams related to Amazon Prime and 186 scams that mention Amazon “account deletion, suspension, closure, or locking.” These scams continue to be common, so be suspicious if you receive a message that claims to be from Amazon.

One of the top scams now is the “Suspicious Activity Scam.” You receive an email or text saying Amazon has suspended or deleted your account due to suspicious activity. You’ll then be asked to “verify your account” by providing your login and password or payment information.

Another scam to watch out for is the “Fake Order Confirmation” message. It refers to a purchase that you didn’t make and says you need to click a link — which is fraudulent and malicious — to confirm or cancel the order.

Amazon recommends these actions to help protect yourself from scams:

Verify your purchases on Amazon. If you receive a message about a purchase, don’t respond to the message or click any link. Instead, log in to your Amazon account or go on your Amazon app to confirm the purchases you’ve made or not made.

Use Amazon first. No matter what the message or call says, use Amazon’s website or app to verify what’s going on.

Don’t give away your information. Amazon doesn’t ask for payment over a phone call, text, or email. It will only ask for payment through the app or on the website.

Be wary of urgency. Scammers will try to create a sense of urgency to persuade you to do what they’re asking without thinking about it.

Research it. If you get a message or call that strikes you as out of the ordinary, type it into Google or your search engine to see if anyone else has reported a similar situation. You can also look it up on Amazon’s website or the Better Business Bureau’s Scam Tracker page.

Contact Amazon. If you’re unsure of what’s being sent to you, stop engaging completely. Contact Amazon directly through the website or app. Do not use an email address or phone number that’s in the suspicious message.