appointment
Latest
Facebook will help you find and book a COVID-19 vaccination
Facebook has announced that it's launching a tool that will show "when and where you can get vaccinated" for COVID-19, and provide a link to help you make an appointment.
Lyft offers non-emergency rides to Medicaid patients in Arizona
Lyft will offer rides to more people in need of them for health reasons, as it's signed up to become a Medicaid provider in Arizona. Non-emergency medical transportation rides will be covered for eligible patients. Lyft is also working on expanding the program to Medicare services in other states.
Google's CallJoy is an AI phone operator for small businesses
Around a year ago, Google unveiled Duplex, an AI-powered feature that can call businesses and book appointments for you. Ahead of this year's I/O, Google revealed the other half of the equation, a virtual customer service agent that can automatically handle inbound calls for small businesses.
Google's Duplex AI can make reservations on non-Pixel devices
You no longer need to carry a Pixel phone to have Google's Duplex book reservations on your behalf. Google has quietly expanded support for Duplex to other Android devices (5.0 Lollipop and newer) and iPhones using Assistant. While it's not certain just which hardware will work at this stage, there are reports at XDA and 9to5Google that Duplex is working on the Galaxy S10 and iPhone.
Google Assistant will soon be able to make calls to book your appointment
During Google I/O today, the company announced that Assistant will soon be able to make appointments and reservations for you even when they can't be booked online. It's powered by a new technology called Google Duplex and it will be rolling out as an experiment soon.
Instagram will help you book a haircut
Instagram will soon be about more than browsing your friends' photographic adventures. The social service tells Bloomberg that it will soon add an option to book appointments by visiting a company's profile. Yes, you could schedule that overdue haircut in between liking cat photos. The feature is only slated to arrive sometime within the "next couple months," but there's talk of adding reviews and other tools in the future.
Square's appointment booking makes sure that you never miss a haircut
Booking time at the hair salon or dentist's can be a decidedly low-tech affair. You often have to do it over the phone, and you may not even get a courtesy call, let alone email. That may not be an issue for much longer now that Square has just launched its Appointments service. The system lets you request an appointment through a simple web form that automatically adds to a shop's calendar. After that, you can get email or text reminders that will help you arrive on time.
Konami Digital Entertainment appoints Tomohiro Uesugi as president
Konami Digital Entertainment Inc., the North American division of the Metal Gear Solid publisher, announced a change in its leadership by appointing Tomohiro Uesugi as its president this week. Uesugi was formerly executive vice president of the digital division, which he joined in 2013 following his stint as executive vice president of Sanyo North America Corporation. Uesugi is filling the role of former president Tomoyuki Tsuboi, who was appointed in February 2012. Tsuboi will return to Konami's finance division in Japan, according to a Konami representative that spoke with Gamasutra. [Image: Konami]
John Legere confirmed as new Chief Executive Officer of T-Mobile USA
Back in the heat of summer, T-Mobile USA's then CEO Philipp Humm resigned to take up the mantle at Vodafone. In the interim, former COO Jim Alling stepped up to keep the chair warm while a permanent replacement was found. Today we learn that John Legere, former CEO of Global Crossing, will relieve Alling of those duties, and fill the top spot full-time. With 32 years experience in the industry, Legere also spent time at Dell as president of European, Middle East and African operations. For now, his first task will likely be leading the firm's LTE deployment, and trying to win some of the faithful back. Head past the break for the full PR and the new CEO's first video address to employees.
Yahoo appoints former Google exec Marissa Mayer as CEO
As a top executive and employee number 20 at Google, there wasn't necessarily a tremendous opportunity for growth at the Mountain View search giant. That may explain Marissa Mayer's recent decision to jump ship in favor of joining Yahoo as the company's chief executive -- a role the former Google VP of Local, Maps and Location Services plans to assume tomorrow. Mayer joined Google way back in June of 1999 as the company's first female engineer, and remained employed until her resignation earlier today. There's no question that Yahoo will be in good hands -- its new CEO does in fact have a degree in computer science -- but the company's future still remains in question, following a clear inability to catch up to its chief competition.
Former EA, Activision exec Kathy Vrabeck joins GameStop board of directors
GameStop has announced that executive Kathy Vrabeck is joining its board of directors this week. Vrabeck is a former executive at both EA and Activision, served as the head of digital at Legendary Pictures, and currently serves as a partner at LA-based leadership consulting firm Heidrick and Struggles.Her appointment brings the total number of board members at GameStop to 12.
Micron appoints Mark Durcan as new CEO
In the wake of last week's fatal plane crash that took the life of its CEO, Micron Technology has appointed a successor, Mark Durcan. The former CTO has been with the company since 1984, and has -- per company bylaws -- been serving as interim chief since February 3rd. Robert Switz, the company's previous Board Director, will assume the duties of Board Chairman and Mark Adams, formerly the VP of Worldwide Sales, has been named as the company's President. In a press release announcing the appointments, the new CEO wrote that the company was "deeply saddened" to learn of the death of its top executive, and that the management team would work relentlessly to "continue to move the company forward."
Tim Cook defends Senior VP of Retail appointment
Apple announced earlier this week that the former CEO of UK electronics chain Dixons, John Browett, was being appointed to the head of retail in Cupertino, but since then, there's been some rumbling among those interested that Browett might not have been the best man for the job. Dixons hasn't exactly been a huge hit in the UK lately, and the pick of an old school retail head for Apple's very progressive retail division seems like it might have been a mistake. But Tim Cook doesn't believe so. The new Apple CEO says as much in an email sent to blogger and photographer Tony Hart. In the email, published in a post about why Hart loves Apple, Cook says "John was the best by far." To answer the critics claiming that Apple went backwards hiring an old electronics retailer head for their stores, Cook says plainly that Browett's "role isn't to bring Dixons to Apple, [it's] to bring Apple to an even higher level of customer service and satisfaction." Well now. Aside from the actual news about the appointment, that certainly sounds like a CEO who's making decisions and standing behind them. Obviously that might backfire in the future, but if the most recent releases are any indication, Apple's future in Tim Cook's hands looks very secure.
Sony confirms Kazuo Hirai as new President and CEO, replacing Howard Stringer
Sony has just confirmed Kazuo Hirai as its new CEO and President, validating rumors that have been swirling for a few weeks now. Outgoing CEO Howard Stringer, meanwhile, has been appointed Chairman of Sony's Board of Directors. The Hirai era officially begins April 1st, while Stringer will assume his new role sometime in June (until then, he'll remain executive chairman). Today's announcement, coming a day before Sony's earnings call, brings an end to more than a year's worth of speculation, though Hirai's selection hardly comes as a surprise, considering his recent string of promotions. In April, he was named Executive Deputy President; five months later, he was promoted to Sony Computer Entertainment Chairman. According to Stringer, in fact, Sony has been grooming Hirai since as early as 2009, when the Board began designing its succession plans. Kaz, he says, stood out from the crowd: Kaz is a globally focused executive for whom technology and the cloud are familiar territory, content is highly valued, and digital transformation is second nature. I believe his tough-mindedness and leadership skills will be of great benefit to the company and its customers in the months and years ahead. I look forward to helping Kaz in every way I can so that succession leads inevitably to success. It was my honor to recommend him to the Board for the positions of President and CEO, because he is ready to lead, and the time to make this change is now. Kaz, for his part, acknowledges that Sony is going through some "challenging" times at this juncture, but credits Stringer with steadying the ship, and seems clear-minded about the future. "The path we must take is clear: to drive the growth of our core electronics businesses - primarily digital imaging, smart mobile and game; to turn around the television business; and to accelerate the innovation that enables us to create new business domains," the 51-year-old PSN architect explained. "The foundations are now firmly in place for the new management team and me to fully leverage Sony's diverse electronics product portfolio, in conjunction with our rich entertainment assets and growing array of networked services, to engage with our customers around the world in new and exciting ways." Click past the break for Sony's full press release.
Apple hires former Dixons CEO John Browett as senior VP of Retail
More than six months after Ron Johnson's departure, Apple has finally found a new retail chief to replace him, in one John Browett. The Cambridge- and Wharton-educated Browett will be coming to Cupertino in April after serving nearly five years as CEO of Dixons -- the Taj Mahal of British retail. Before that, he held a smattering of obscurely defined "executive positions" at Tesco plc and advised retail clients at Boston Consulting Group. In a statement, Apple CEO Tim Cook lauded his company's latest appointee, citing his "incredible retail experience" and commitment to customer service. Read more in the PR after the break.
Henry Tirri appointed CTO of Nokia, permanently replacing Rich Green
Not much of a surprise here, but today it finally becomes official: Henry Tirri has been appointed CTO of Nokia, nearly four months after assuming the position on a temporary basis. Tirri, who joined the company in 2004 and previously served as head of its research center, will permanently replace former CTO Rich Green, who took an indefinite leave of absence from Espoo back in June, citing "personal reasons." At the time, some local media outlets reported that Green's absence would be permanent, due to disagreements over CEO Stephen Elop's smartphone OS strategy. Reportedly a one-time Meego advocate, Green will now return to the US to "pursue new opportunities" and, as of today, is no longer a member of the Nokia Leadership Team. Tirri, meanwhile, will be responsible for designing "Nokia's technology agenda both now and in the future, and driving core innovation to enable business development opportunities." We'll have to wait and see where that path leads, but you can find more details about the appointment in the full press release, after the break.
OmniFocus for iPhone finally has reminders, but implementation is awful
[Update] Ken Case comments below, addressing some of the concerns listed here. It looks like a future version of OmniFocus on the Mac will be able to directly update the OmniFocus reminders on the server, removing at least one of my complaints. Ken Case from The Omni Group has been twittering for awhile about the impending inclusion of alarm reminders for OmniFocus. The task management app's iPhone users have been pestering The Omni Group to implement reminders as push notifications, but OmniFocus refuses to do so. They say that reminders that rely on connectivity are not good enough, and they have instead chosen to implement reminders by exporting due dates and times into iCal. Once the time comes for a reminder, it pops up like a normal iCal appointment reminder. Well, OmniFocus 1.5.2 for iPhone was released, and now we get to see how this alternative reminder system works. If I had to choose a word to describe this implementation, that word would be "awful." Here's why: The Omni Group has taken great pains to point out that you do not need to be using the desktop version of OmniFocus to get use out of the iPhone version. But for users that only have the iPhone version and are not synchronizing it to either MobileMe (which has a yearly fee) or a WebDAV server (complicated for non-techies), they can't use this implementation of reminders. That's right; the way it works is that OmniFocus on the iPhone exports your reminders to your synchronization server, then points iCal on the iPhone to the server to import your reminders. That means that if you enter new due dates in OmniFocus for iPhone but don't happen to have connectivity, you won't get reminders. Wait, I thought it was implemented this way in the first place to guard against a lack of connectivity? Your OmniFocus reminders unnecessarily pollute your iPhone calendar with reminders. This is a visual problem when you need to glance at your calendars and see what actual appointments are coming up. On the iPhone you can either look at one specific calendar, or all calendars, so if like me you need to regularly stay on top of more than one calendar, you're forced to look at your OmniFocus reminders as well. Oh, and even when you complete them in OmniFocus and resync, they don't go away in your calendar. [Update] Stephen points out in the comments that this works as expected, and upon further testing I have to agree. Maybe I was being a bit too impatient. Since your OmniFocus reminders are actually just fake appointments, there is no way to audibly differentiate them from appointment reminders. They sound and look exactly the same. Remember the Milk, for example, uses push notifications on its iPhone app, and you can set the notification sound to a number of different options. That way you know that you're being reminded of a task rather than an appointment. Reminders are set based on Due time, rather than Available time, and in terms of flexibility you can set the reminder to be 5 to 60 minutes before the task is due. By the time a task is actually due, isn't it too late to be reminded about it? Finally, if you're a user of OmniFocus for the Mac, your reminders are not created on your iPhone until you think to launch OmniFocus on the iPhone and synchronize it. That means that if you work all day in OmniFocus on your Mac (like I do), then drive home and start doing other stuff and don't happen to open OmniFocus on your iPhone, you won't receive any reminders for tasks that you might have set for that night, or until you actually open and sync OmniFocus on your iPhone. So, what would I rather see? Push notifications, like the many other OmniFocus for iPhone users out there that have been providing their feedback to The Omni Group. As mentioned, Remember the Milk has implemented push notifications, and the ability to change the notification sound isn't the only trick it has up its sleeve. The Remember the Milk icon on my iPhone's screen shows how many due tasks I have that day, and the number changes almost instantly when I make changes on the web version. To see how many currently available and due tasks I have in OmniFocus, I again have to launch the app and wait for it to synchronize. While I love OmniFocus and I think The Omni Group does amazing work, this implementation of reminders for the iPhone version of OmniFocus is just full of an amazing amount of fail. It's a hacky workaround that still doesn't ensure that a lack of connectivity won't adversely affect the user's ability to receive reminder notifications. Omni folks, this is just meant to be tough love -- I wouldn't be saying all of this if I didn't truly care about OmniFocus.
Midway CEO Zucker departs, company left looking for leadership
We imagine piloting a company like Midway, which has been exhaling money like it was CO2, is not an easy or even enviable task. That's why we can't fault longtime Midway CEO and president David Zucker for donning a life preserver and jumping ship, leaving the company and taking his chances in the murky waters below.In the interim, Midway has put executive Matt Booty in charge until a suitable replacement for Zucker can be found and shackled to the wheel. Says Midway chairman Shari Redstone, the company needs "dynamic new leadership," and that the publisher "has the resources and creative capability to once again be competitive with the best in the videogame business." While we'll believe that when we see it, we'd advise Midway to invest in some new locks -- Zucker's departure marks the third time this year an executive has run out the front door, abandoning the beleaguered company for greener pastures.
Microsoft hires former Nintendo exec to expand Euro footprint
Microsoft has opened its doors and brought on former I-Play and Nintendo Europe executive David Gosen to fill the role of Strategic Marketing VP for Microsoft's game business in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) territories. In his new role, Gosen will focus on expanding the European Market for the Xbox 360.Prior to putting on his Microsoft hat, Gosen spent more than five years as managing director of Nintendo's European arm, and most recently served as the CEO of mobile game developer and publisher I-Play. He will now report directly to Microsoft's European Interactive VP Chris Lewis, who sees the appointment as all part of Microsoft's new "laser-sharp focus" and its grand scheme to "widen the market for Xbox as a mass-market proposition," no doubt part of that whole 'Europe is key' party line the company toed late last year.
Terminal tip: Remind yourself about appointments
Got a place you need to be at 3:00? Want to send yourself a message to get out the door at 2:40? Terminal's "leave" command offers a simple way to remind yourself about your upcoming schedule. leave 0240 waits until 2:35 and then alerts you to get ready to leave with both text and a beep. Reminders occur at 5 minutes and 1 minutes before the time you enter, and then every minute after until you close the terminal window. (You can also kill the process whose id is listed for you when you issue the leave command.) Leave uses a 12-hour clock so you don't have to worry about whether to use 0240 or 1440. Both produce the same result. All times are assumed to be within the next 12 hours. You can also use the "+" flag to set a relative time. Say you want to work on a project for just the next hour. Use leave +0100. This sets an alarm for one hour from the current time.
