Metaverse

You know how to amass a $1 million fortune investing in NFTs? Start with $5 million. If you are trying to “get rich quick,” stop reading now. There’s nothing here for you. If, on the other hand, you want to dig a little deeper into the most popular use cases for NFTs and the transitional technologies empowering web 3, read on. Continue Reading →

At the annual Gobble Gobble Wobble 5K run, a family-friendly “Turkey Trot” event that brings the community together to get their “tailfeathers moving,” there were a bunch of retail booths selling food, local produce, homemade goods, and arts & crafts. This year, each local artisan had an easy way for you to purchase with a credit card as well as an easily accessible eCommerce site. Three years ago, this was an all-cash shopping zone. This year (if you knew where to look), customer experience, customer service, customer relationship management (CRM), and relatively sophisticated data-gathering were on full display. Which made me wonder about the impact Web 3 and decentralized finance might have on future Gobble Wobblers. Continue Reading →

While reading this story on vice.com about Universal Music Group (UMG) -- the powerhouse label that represents Lady Gaga, Ariana Grande, and Jay-Z -- forming an NFT band made up of cartoon ape JPEGs “owned” by some guy, it has become clear that the NFT hype bubble has inflated beyond anyone's wildest expectations. Continue Reading →

Here's a headline from today's tech news: "Ethereum Game Axie Infinity Launches Ronin DEX, SLP Token Spikes 74% -- The Ethereum-based crypto game just added utility to its sidechain with the Katana DEX—and now its tokens are pumping." If you work in brand marketing, technology, media, or finance and you do not understand every word of the announcement above, it's time to level up. Continue Reading →

Apple has been awarded a patent for inventing a way to use AR or VR headsets (glasses) to project images directly onto your retina. Continue Reading →

The metaverse is all the rage right now. Facebook believes so heavily in the metaverse that it plans to rename itself to tie into its metaverse-based future. Shelly Palmer talks with Bianca Peters and Raegan Medgie about what the metaverse is -- and why you should care. Continue Reading →

The interviewer asked, "Is that image real"? There's no way to tell. "What about this video?" It's hard to say. "You can't tell if that's real or fake either." No. Not without analyzing it. "Well, what about the prose? Did a human write this sentence?" It's possible, but it would not surprise me to learn that it was machine generated. "What about the voice in the video?" It's sonically perfect. I'd say 60/40 it's a machine, but I'd need to hear a few more sentences to be sure. "So, what you're saying is that I can't trust my eyes or my ears?" Yes. That's what I'm saying. "Is this the end of truth?" Continue Reading →

Oculus Quest 2 users have a new space to explore: Horizon Workrooms, Facebook's vision for how we will do business in the metaverse. If you're worried that creating an avatar and doing business as a cartoon character isn't on-brand for you or your company, think again. Continue Reading →

Sales of NFTs have topped $2.5 billion since January 2021, and more than $2 billion has been invested in the sector this year. Here's a quick overview of the NFT projects and transactions that have my attention, and a look at some emerging NFT trends. Continue Reading →

The first time I saw the word "Metaverse" was in Neal Stephenson's 1992 sci-fi novel "Snow Crash." The word has evolved over the years to describe immersive virtual worlds. These environments can be experienced on your computer on a 2D screen, but are best experienced using technology such as VR, AR, XR, MR, etc. This is where Facebook believes we/they are headed, and they are assembling a high-powered product team to get us/them there. Continue Reading →