Introducing Motorola Spotlight Stories™ - Storytelling Designed for Smartphones

Smart phones have become deeply personal devices, indispensable in our lives.  Storytelling is the most timeless and human of activities.  Yet the stories that live on our mobile phones are mostly adapted from other media -- like TV shows, movies and books -- merely shrunk down to a smaller screen.  Why is that?  We decided to change it.  So, we created a new way of telling stories, one designed specifically for smartphones, where the capabilities of the device are part of the experience itself.

Together with our team of Motorola engineers and Oscar-winning director Jan Pinkava, we’re happy to announce the debut of Windy Day, the first immersive, interactive story made for mobile phones, launched using a first-of-its-kind storytelling platform called Motorola Spotlight Stories.

Motorola Spotlight Stories aren’t games, movies or videos. They’re different.  New.  Here’s how some of our first audience members reacted when they saw Windy Day for the first time:

When the first Android phone came out almost five years ago, it had roughly the same graphics computation performance as a Nintendo Gameboy Advance, which came out five years before that. Since then, the performance improvement of mobile processors has been astonishing.  The graphics chipset on the Moto X has 600 times the computation capability of that first Android device, and next year mobile graphics processors will surpass the computation capabilities of video game consoles such as the PS3 and Xbox 360.

Where is all that graphics power going?  When we measured it, we found that outside of a few graphically advanced apps and games, it’s barely being used.  It was a graphics-processing treasure chest hidden in plain sight.

So, we decided to make something new.

We tuned the Moto X so that, even in the most stressful user-interface conditions, up to 60% of its graphics capability is accessible. We took advantage of that access to build a powerful creative canvas for storytellers, incorporating a real-time 3D graphics engine, an advanced rendering technique from Pixar called OpenSubdiv, and sensor algorithms adapted from the landing systems of interplanetary spacecraft. Really.

We invited some of the best storytellers of our generation to paint something on this canvas.  Jan Pinkava, the Oscar-winning director of Geri’s Game and co-director of Ratatouille, Oscar-winning producer Karen Dufilho, animator and Academy Award nominee Doug Sweetland, Caldecott-winning illustrator Jon Klassen, veteran animator Mark Oftedal, composer Scot Stafford and artists from eight different countries joined us to build the first Motorola Spotlight Story: Windy Day.  It’s our gift to you.  We hope it makes you smile.

Motorola Spotlight Stories are featured exclusively on the Moto X. Stay tuned for more, because we are continuing to work with award-winning storytellers.  There are a lot more stories to tell.

Watch what happened when one of our own product managers, Kevin, showed Windy Day to his 2-year-old son—then check out Windy Day for yourself.



Baback Elmieh
Advanced Technologies and Project (ATAP) Technical Program Lead

Visit our Tumblr page to stay up to date with future Stories and further information on the technical achievements.

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Goodbye Sticky. Hello Ara.

Over the last six months, our MAKEwithMOTO team took Sticky, a truck wrapped entirely in velcro and filled with rooted, hackable Motorola smartphones and high-end 3D printing equipment, across the country for a series of make-a-thons. On that trip we saw the first signs of a new, open hardware ecosystem made possible by advances in additive manufacturing and access to the powerful computational capabilities of modern smartphones. These included new devices and applications that we could never have imagined from inside our own labs. Open fuels innovation. See some examples here, here, and here.

After the trip, we asked ourselves, how do we bring the benefits of an open hardware ecosystem to 6 billion people?

Meet Ara.

Led by Motorola’s Advanced Technology and Projects group, Project Ara is developing a free, open hardware platform for creating highly modular smartphones. We want to do for hardware what the Android platform has done for software: create a vibrant third-party developer ecosystem, lower the barriers to entry, increase the pace of innovation, and substantially compress development timelines.

Our goal is to drive a more thoughtful, expressive, and open relationship between users, developers, and their phones. To give you the power to decide what your phone does, how it looks, where and what it’s made of, how much it costs, and how long you’ll keep it.

Here’s a sneak peek at early designs for Project Ara:

The design for Project Ara consists of what we call an endoskeleton (endo) and modules.  The endo is the structural frame that holds all the modules in place. A module can be anything, from a new application processor to a new display or keyboard, an extra battery, a pulse oximeter--or something not yet thought of!

We’ve been working on Project Ara for over a year. Recently, we met Dave Hakkens, the creator of Phonebloks. Turns out we share a common vision: to develop a phone platform that is modular, open, customizable, and made for the entire world. We’ve done deep technical work. Dave created a community. The power of open requires both.  So we will be working on Project Ara in the open, engaging with the Phonebloks community throughout our development process, as well as asking questions to our Project Ara research scouts (volunteers interested in helping us learn about how people make choices). In a few months, we will also send an invitation to developers to start creating modules for the Ara platform (to spice it up a bit, there might be prizes!). We anticipate an alpha release of the Module Developer’s Kit (MDK) sometime this winter.

So stay tuned. There will be a lot more coming from us in the next few months.

--Paul Eremenko, and the Motorola Advanced Technology and Projects group, Project Ara Team

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Hey, New York: Moto Tweet Fleet to the Rescue

At Motorola, the kinds of things we obsess over are answering real people’s needs and unlocking the power of personal, customized interactions.

Then we got to thinking: Why should we stop at device experiences?

So we’re rolling out a new social experiment to take customer support to a completely new level: the Moto Tweet Fleet. It’s a roving troupe of Motorola ambassadors that leverages public hyper-local data on Twitter to rush to your rescue in real time when you need help.

We’ve all been there: Your battery is dead. You’re lost and frustrated. You’re hungry and cranky. Whatever it is, the friendly fleet is ready to come give a hand. While you’re with the fleet, you can even meet our new Moto X and customize your own using the Moto Maker online studio.

Oh, and did we mention swag? We’ve partnered with smart USA to deck out the fleet with stylish smart cars, from which ambassadors hand out Sol Republic headphones and other Motorola accessories to lucky passersby. What could be better to pair with a fully customizable Moto X and accessories than a customizable smart car?

We’re starting with a beta program in neighborhoods throughout New York City and hope to expand to Chicago next. If you’re in New York, all you have to do is tweet at @MotoTweetFleet between 11 a.m. ET and 7 p.m. ET daily. See you out there.

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Logon group configuration in SAP

This article answers following questions:

• How to configure/setup logon groups in SAP?
• What are logon groups in SAP?
• What transaction code is used for logon group configuration?
• How to perform work load distribution in SAP system?
• Explain the benefits of logon groups in SAP?
• What are the advantages of creating logon groups?
• What are the guidelines for creating logon groups in SAP?
• What is the default logon group in SAP?
• How to delete logon group in SAP?
• How to check logon load distribution in SAP?

Logon Groups:

Logon groups (or work groups) are configured to dynamically distribute the load being processed by the dialog work processes.

In many cases, SAP systems will have 2 or more sap abap instances. In these cases, logon groups can be configured to achieve dynamic distribution of dialog users on the ABAP instances.

Setting up logon groups helps in uniform distribution of the work load across the available instances. While logging on using a logon group, the ABAP message server is contacted to identify the instance with best performance statistics within the selected logon group. A report runs in SAP every 5minutes which determines the load across each server and updates in the memory area of the message server. This information will be used by SAP GUI to determine the best instance to distribute the next user.

SPACE is the default logon group. By default, every instance of an SAP system (including central instance) is assigned to the logon group SPACE. This performs uniform distribution of the dialog workload.

However, if you want to distribute users on some other criteria as following, you can create additional logon groups using SMLGtransaction code.

Other criteria:

Logon groups according to SAP application / module:  Separate logon groups can be setup for applications/modules such as HR, FI/CO, SD, MM etc. It means HR module users will be restricted to logon to identified instances, similarly other module users are allowed to login to their respective identified instances.  The advantages of this method, is only the programs of the respective module are loaded into the program buffer of the particular instances of that logon group. Due to this, program buffer requires less memory and this helps to avoid buffer displacements thus improving system performance.

Logon groups according to language, country or company division: 

 If your SAP system is operating across multiple countries or languages, in that case it is good idea to create logon groups specific to a country or language. By this way the data and text related to specific country or language will be loaded into the buffers of the respective instances. 

This minimizes buffer displacements and improves system performance. Also less memory is required for the table buffer.

         Logon groups for certain user groups:

i)             We can setup separate logon groups for some department like sales whose work is performance critical. For that logon groups we assign  instances which operates with high level of performance (e.g: high speed processors, less users per server, no background or update workprocesses configured or a dedicated network etc)

ii)            Some department users may take time-consuming reports in dialog mode. For these type of users, you may have to create separate logon group and assign an sap instance where profile parameter rdisp/max_wprun_time is set to very high

In this way we can separate performance critical/resource intensive applications from others.

Logon groups for the SAP Web Dispatcher:

 For direct ABAP web service requests, we can setup logon groups that the SAP Web Dispatcher can use. If logon groups are not configured for web dispatcher, the load is distributed to all ABAP instances on which ICM is configured.  Also, based on URLs we can distribute certain group of requests to dedicated logon groups.

Logon groups for ALE/RFC:

Asynchronous RFCs are used to process in parallel. However if the parallel processes are not limited properly, they can occupy all the available processes which impacts dialog users and can bring down the application. So, it is good idea to create separate logon groups for incoming RFC calls so that RFCs are kept separate from workprocesses of online users and thus avoids impact to dialog users.

Guide lines:

After assigning instances to logon groups

i)             We need to verify whether the instances of logon groups are evenly distributed or not.

ii)            If an instance hangs or temporarily got disconnected, you should be able to redistribute the users

So, you need to setup at least 2 sap instances for each logon group.

iii)           Setting up logon groups involves extra administration and monitoring. So, unnecessarily large number of logon groups shouldn’t be setup

How to setup logon groups?

SMLG transaction code is used for creating logon groups.

Logon to SAP system and goto SMLG transaction as shown below:

In the above example there are 2 instances (00 and 09) in this SAP system. These are not yet assigned to any logon group.

We can create a new logon group by clicking on highlighted create icon on the above screen. It results in below screen.

In the above screen, either select logon group from dropdown or provide its name if you are newly creating. After that assign instance for that logon group and click on copy to save the assignment.

In this example iam creating two logon groups hr and fico and assigning instances 00 and 09 respectively. Please find below screenshots which explains the same.

Repeat the same step and create logon group fico and assign instance 09 for it as shown above.

After doing this, you can see following logon groups in SMLG

Once you are done with logon group setup, please log off from SAP system and goto SAPGUI of the respective SAP system.

Click on properties of the respective GUI entry and goto to connection tab as shown below.

Please select Group/Server selection option from the drop down of Connection Type as shown above and maintain description and system id of the instance as shown above.

Now, you should be able to view the newly created logon groups as shown in below figure:

Also, please note you are able to view logon group SPACE also which gets created by default

Now, you can configure any desired logon group to the users as shown below:

For example in the above screen fico group is assigned to the end users in his GUI so that now onwards, he will login into instance number 09 only.

How to delete logon group or assignment?

If you no longer require any logon group, you can delete by proceeding as shown below:

i)Goto SMLG transaction

ii) Select the respective row and click on delete assignment which deletes the assignment of an instance to a logon group (highlighted in green color in below screen)

Click on delete icon above which confirms deletion of assignment

iii)If you wish to delete logon group itself, then select the respective logon group and click on “delete group” in the above screen highlighted in red color (please refer screen 1 of point ii above). This deletes the logon group itself and removes all assignments related to this group.

How to check logon load distribution in SAP?

Goto transaction code SMLG as shown below and click on highlighted icon below to view the load distribution across instances

Alternatively, you can view this by navigating to Goto -> Load Distribution or  by pressing F5 key in the above screen

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Updated for Mac: FileMaker 2D Barcode Font Encoder

by Nate Schubert

August saw the release of IDAutomations' highly-anticipated FileMaker Pro Plugin, a new font encoder tool that allows barcode generation from fonts in FileMaker. This powerful encoder is included in the Font and Encoder packages for Data Matrix and PDF417 and will soon be included in the font packages for QR Code as well. Initially updated for support on Windows operating systems, this most recent update makes it compatible with Mac systems for the first time.

Barcode fonts can be very easy to generate, but it is important to understand that barcode fonts do not operate in the same way that standard typeface fonts do. Since barcodes represent data that can be decoded and output when read with a barcode scanner, this means that the data must originally be turned into that barcode. This is accomplished through the use of a font encoder tool like the FileMaker Pro Plugin, which formats the data you want to encode into a special text string that will display an accurate barcode when the actual font is applied to it.

Update: Check out our newest video tutorial about how to create 2D barcodes in FileMaker 2 using fonts. It's still hot!

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How to Secure Your Streaming Barcodes

by Nate Schubert

Security is an important concern on the internet, not only for companies that have E-Commerce and web sites intended to engage and interact with users, but also for web surfers who seek out community or other valuable content online. If a website is not properly secured, then any data that is communicated between the web site and the visitor can be intercepted by anyone who has the means to eavesdrop. 

When considering which facets of your web site to make secure, think about the role that barcodes play. For example, many E-Commerce checkouts include barcode images on the order form. In many cases, the data encoded therein consists of names, addresses, and possibly even credit card numbers. Many membership-based websites require private information like social security numbers, addresses or other personal data that may be stored in a barcode for easy, error-free entry into a database. If the information in these barcodes is not encrypted and secure, then your data may be on display for anyone who wants it.

There is an easy way to determine whether you are surfing securely on a web site. If the beginning of the web address (URL) starts with HTTP, then there is no encryption and if someone is looking for it, they can potentially see the information you enter. If the web URL starts with HTTPS, then your visit is secure and so is all of the information you may give a website, because the data is encrypted and hidden from any prying eyes. 

IDAutomations' Hosted Barcode Image Generator Service is fully HTTPS-compliant. This means that the custom URL sourced in your HTTP code can reference the URL as HTTP for public areas of your site, or as HTTPS for checkout and other sensitive places. This feature makes our service one of the most secure ways of transmitting information through barcode images on web sites, in email and in other applications that may reference a URL to display an image.

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Low prices on Honeywell scanners

Feel the power: Honeywell special prices at Barcode Technologies

 

Benefit now from big savings on selected Honeywell scanners!* No matter which way you look at it - the price for these five hand scanners is scansationally low:

• Bluetooth scanner Voyager 1202g*
• Area imager Voyager 1400g*
• Laser scanner Eclipse 5145*
• 2D Bluetooth imager Xenon 1902g*
• Industrial scanner Granit 1911i*  

* Offer valid until 31 December 2013 , for selected part numbers listed below.
1202g-2USB-5, 1202g-1USB-5, 1202g-2, 1202g-1, 1911iER-3, 1911iER-3USB-5, 1902gHD-2USB-5, 1902gSR-2USB-5, MK5145-31A38-EU, MK5145-71A47-EU, MK5145-71C41-EU, MK5145-71A38-EU, MK5145-31C41-EU, MK5145-31A47-EU, 1400g2D-2USB-1, 1400g2D-2USB, 1400G2D-2-07879K, 1400g2D-2, 1400G2D-1

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Datalogic Introduces the QuickScan™ Lite QW2100 Linear Imager, the Best Choice for Entry Level Applications

 

Looking for a bar code scanner that can read long and truncated bar codes? Something inexpensive, but with the quality and performance to get the job done right? Meet the QuickScan™ Lite QW2100 linear imager, an entry level product from Datalogic that is perfect for use in retail, light manufacturing, document/bill processing and banking/finance environments.
 
This small, light and ergonomic linear imager offers:

• Relatively long depth-of-field (DOF) to meet most application needs
• Enhanced 60º field-of-view (FOV) generating an extra-long scan line to read longer bar codes in a nominal reading distance
• Thinner and brighter laser-like scanning lines
• Datalogic’s patented ‘Green Spot’ technology for good read feedback
• Reads bar codes on mobile phone screens or computer screens
• No moving parts and proven to be more reliable than laser scanning

The QW2100 imager also provides a variety of options. It is available with two interface possibilities: USB or Keyboard Wedge /RS-232 and includes various packaging alternatives so that it can be ordered as a scanner only or as a kit equipped with a scanner, cable and stand to facilitate hands-free reading options.

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