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This article discusses how self-service POS systems are now under fire from the ADA for not being accessible to people with disabilities. Most of the lawsuits have claimed that the problems with these systems are 1) they are mounted too high or at angles that are inaccessible for people in wheelchairs, 2) they do provide captions for those with hearing disabilities, and 3) they do not provide tactile feedback for those with visual disabilities. The ADA provides guidance for different types of technology, such as ATMs and vending machines, but has not provided such guidelines for these new POS systems. Because of this, the courts are having difficulty determining how to better enable these POS devices to work for those with disabilities, having to determine what to do for each individual device. Furthermore, these lawsuits pose a big risk to these companies. Businesses need to better evaluate their POS devices in order to make them more user-friendly for all individuals.

virtual events provider ON24, which announced today that it has teamed up with Veteran Recruiting Services - the market leader in virtual career fairs for the military community - to host the first-ever virtual career fair for veterans with service-related disabilities. The career fair gives disabled veterans the opportunity to benefit from the advantages that virtual meetings offer, not the least of which is having equal access to the event, with no physical travel required.

What I found interesting was the type of device and number of users that actually enable or disable their devices. Android users tend to leave their location-tracking enabled. 4 percent of iOs users in the U.S. opted in to app tracking. In addition privacy still is a concern when it comes location-based marketing.

The article discusses five issues that hotel operations are facing, and how to decrease these issues in regards to data thieves. The first security issue discussed is "Remote Access", the article states "Many hotel operators and franchisors use remote management applications (RMAs)". This enable easy access to manage multiple locations downloads; conduct sales polls, and other systems within multiple companies. A advices to remote control issues are to change vendor default settings, in which you can create unique user IDs and complex passwords. Another advice is to "Configure the RMA", in which users are only allowed to connect to known MAC/IP. I personally don't think that creating a unique ID or account password may solve this issue, but allowing connection capability to a set IP/MAC is a wise intake. Although being able to just connect to a set MAC, will cause a limit on where and when you connect. The second security issue is "Network Security", many transaction volumes are being exposed, brand recognition as well; and that attract hackers. In order to reduce this problem, it is suggested that companies need to install and maintain a fire wall at all time. I agree with this other suggestion which is to Use outside resources to help identify new security vulnerabilities. This is great, because a company will be able to receive an outside outlook in regards to security. The last three issues that are on this list are: Password Management, Wireless Security, and Incident Response Plan. Overall it's evident that any system that has a password requirement is causing a major attraction towards security thieves. The suggestions within this article are great, but from my observation; many companies will have to put in time to track and monitor their systems. Systems can't allow to be left open without monitoring, and the internet is a lead way to all this, so any system that requires the internet must be monitored, and protected.

Technology enables service. That's the idea, anyway. In the hotel industry, thousands of companies worldwide provide hundreds of software applications to help hotels and hotel companies manage operations to provide better guest service. However, the hospitality industry continues to find itself targeted for damaging data compromise events by hackers. There are some good ways to decrease the attack of hackers. For example, Remote Access, many hotel operators and franchisors use remote management applications (RMAs).  Their ease of use in managing multiple locations makes them ideally suited to disseminate business downloads, conduct sales polls or survey inventory. RMAs are often packaged from vendors with default or blank passwords. Creating unique user IDs and complex passwords can reduce the risk of data compromise and help facilitate compliance with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS). Another example is about Network Security, transaction volume, brand recognition and the potential for sensitive data retention are all factors that make hotels (particularly franchise networks) juicy targets for hackers seeking to exploit insecure networks via the Internet. The hotel can install and maintain a firewall at all times.  Disabling a firewall can put a business at heightened risk of Internet attacks and potential system compromise.

Due to the vulnerability of some POS systems, hackers have made the example of SAP whose POS system does not authenticate or check any internal commands, meaning if an hacker is able to get into their POS system they can change prices, add discounts and even disable the check out systems. Even though they have made the example out of SAP, it is said that this vulnerability is across almost all POS systems. One reason that this is happening is because many companies that run their POS system off the internet are not updating their programs, such as the windows, the internet explorer or the POS system itself. Today companies are very aware of the measures they must take to ensure their POS systems are safe as many breaches have happened causing many people to have their personal data stolen, therefore due to the efforts POS system breaches have been decreasing over the recent years.

In the article, "Travel Agents Increase Use of GDS to Book Hotel Rooms," it talked about how the leading global provider of revenue is generating solutions for hotels, it shows how important GDS platforms are to travel agents. "84 percent of respondents indicated that they were using their GDS platform the same amount or more often than in the past, with 35 percent stating that they are using GDS more." Back in 2009, when the last study was conducted, about 26 percents of travel agents said that they used their GDS platform more often than in the past. This study also states that the annual GDS shopping displays will be over $50 million in 2011, which will increase more than a million bookings compared to 2010. There was another survey that was done and they surveyed different travel agents from across the world that were subscribed to a major GDS system. In the survey the travel agents indicated that promotional messages are effective and often prompt bookings. Out of the travel agents they surveyed, 66% said that they were aware of the "promotional messages requested addition information by looking at the screen attached to he promotional message." From this survey it showed that promotional messages are an excellent way to reach travel agents and from reaching the agent, they also reaching the customer, it's a win-win reaction.

I enjoyed the part about brand and promotional messaging, that is always a lure for me. When I see an attractive offer, evern If I'm not interested in booking or going to the destination, I often click on it anyway just to see the offer. It is a very effective marketing tool.

Ransomware is a modality that takes digital devices hostage and prevents the user from accessing or generating information. Hackers then request the user to pay a ransom in order to recover access. Ransom money is requested in digital currency, usually Bitcoins. In 2016, an Austrian Hotel experienced ransomware for the first time. Devices were hacked and encrypted in a way that prevented hotel staff from programming room key cards and kept some guests out of their rooms. This risk could be mitigated by recognizing and acting fast at the signs of an attack. When the first devices have been compromised, staff can act by disabling other devices from being held hostage. Back ups can also save a company from being unable to access them in the event of an attack.

Zig Bee technology in hotels is happening right now in some hotels that has been installed. This articles talks about the new techonology that let the user have control of almost everything. In the case of hotels, it will let staff to monitor guestrooms, public areas, and any place through their devices as long as they have internet conection. This techonology can go through walls, furniture, cabinets, and human body. An interesting feature of this is that it will eliminate the future use of batteries.

Intel has three main processors, the i3, i5, and i7. However the biggest market for Intel is the primary mid-range processor i5. It is targeted at the heart of the market, with pricing that is not at budget levels but still affordable, and performance that is extremely quick but not the fastest Intel offers. Intel Turbo Boost is a standard feature on all i5, and i7 processors. As expected, the more you pay, the more you get. For instance, the Core i5 2300 has a base clock speed of 2.8 GHz and a maximum Turbo Boost speed of 3.1 GHz. The Intel Core i7 2600, on the other hand, offers a base clock speed of 3.4 GHz and a maximum Turbo Boost of 3.8 GHz. Another significant performance difference is how the Core i7 and Core i5 products will be handling hyper-threading. Hyper-threading is a technology used by Intel to simulate more cores than actually exist on the processor. While Core i7 products have all been quad-cores, they appear in Windows as having eight cores. This further improves performance when using programs that make good use of multi-threading. However, all Core i5, processors have hyper-threading disabled and all i7 processors have multi-threading enabled. This is a major difference of the two different core processors and gives the i7 an edge over the i5 processors. Last but not least, the average difference in price between the two different processor is about $80 dollars with the i7 processor coming out to be $294 and the i5 processor ranging from $177 to $216 dollars. You are basically paying for the difference of 100 MHz clock speed on the processor and the ability to have multi-threading capabilities.

Follow this link to learn how a jammer works: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cell-phone-jammer1.htm Recently, Marriott was found to be noncompliant with FCC regulations that ban the use of any "Jammer"-to include cell, radio, Wi-Fi and others-by any individual or entity that is not an approved federal agent. The result? A $600,000 fine and removal of the jamming equipment from any Marriott property currently participating in the illegal activity. In a regular Wi-Fi network, a user connects to the Internet by connecting to the ISP, which could be a wired modem and separate Wi-Fi router or a combined wireless modem/router that will connect the computer to the ISP server and allow the user to launch their browser where they can search the web or access a particular URL. In Marriott's case, the company utilized a Jammer to prevent users from accessing their chosen ISP-their personal Wi-Fi networks, typically provided via cell phone companies. The jammer functioned by interrupting Wi-Fi signals that operated on a particular frequency. By placing their own Wi-Fi on a different frequency, Marriott's service was the only signal capable of connecting a user to an ISP service and the Internet and was therefore offered at a premium price. The management decision to utilize this technology was short sighted and over all a very poor decision. The decision was made based on the greed of money. By jamming competitors' signals, Marriott was attempting to force patrons into paying premium prices for Wi-Fi service during their stay, including large business accounts (meetings and events). What Marriott either failed to research or decided to ignore was the legality of such a decision. According to the FCC, Jammers of all types are strictly illegal except by approved Federal Entities and Agents. The Marriott management team made their own bed by making a poorly evaluated decision that has since come back to bite them in the rear.

Being in the food and beverage side of hospitality I tend to post mostly restaurant technology, this one specifically caught my eye as the restaurant I just recently left in New Orleans would always get complaints about how loud it was. With the new app iHEARu, users can measure the decibels in a restaurant as well as track how it changes at different times throughout the day. The app could help users find places to have business meetings, take someone who is hearing impaired, or even help families find a welcoming restaurant if they have younger kids or just patrons in their party who tend to be a bit louder. With the overgrowing effects of social media reviews on restaurants I found this rating system to be mostly beneficial. This would only lower the number of things a guest has to potentially complain about or upset other guests. Often diners don't realize how important noise level is to their experience until is it something that upsets them. Personally if I was going out with just my mom or sister, I might want something quieter so we could catch up, but if we are going out with my entire family we better pick a loud restaurant so we don't get dirty looks when we are inevitably yelling across the table. This app essentially helps all kinds of diners find the right fit for them.

CaterTrax is a catering software that clients can add an event, order food, and set up the event the way they want. its a great system and is very intuitive. CaterTrax partnered accessiBe. acessiBe offers users a fully automated solution for web accessibility and ADA compliance. The way the CaterTrax Assist works is that it scans the website and looks at activities on the accessibility screen to adjust the website to the users needs. this shows that even event management software is trying to make the software accessible because they want to make sure that they "cater" to everyone.

This article sums up the ways in which POS is currently changing. These ways include by using shared commerce POS systems, mobile POS systems such as Square and PayPal, integrated real-time transactions with CRM solutions, and POS security. 

This article sums up the ways in which POS is currently changing. These ways include by using shared commerce POS systems, mobile POS systems such as Square and PayPal, integrated real-time transactions with CRM solutions, and POS security. 

This article outlines some of the main cyber attacks on the Hospitality industry. It exposes the threats due to the wealth of data stored in PMS, POS and CRM and suggests steps to take to protect against malware and randsomeware. The article further highlights the necessity for antivirus software on all devices.

The article describes the five most common cybersecurity risks for hotel brands such as ransomware, remote hacking and DDoS attacks. The operational elements of each risk have also been discussed. It also covers best practices that hotels and other hospitality organizations can adopt to curb breaches.

This article explained the benefits of AR, VR, and AI in the hospitality and tourism industry in order to enhance guest experiences and create smoother work operations. The implementation of this technology seems to be happening more due to the pandemic and hospitality companies are learning the best ways to use them to match the new needs of guests.

They can work together. Based on this article, this can be beneficial for all industries.

Robotics, virtual reality, and augmented reality can work together to create cutting-edge solutions for diverse businesses. Businesses use robots to increase efficiency while also ensuring employee safety in potentially dangerous situations. Virtual reality and augmented reality, two contemporary technologies, have provided an immersive platform for media and gaming. People can explore strange environments both indoors and outdoors with the aid of AR and VR. The "Three Amigos" can be augmented reality, robotics, and virtual reality when they work together. Robot control using immersive technologies like VR and AR is possible. Business executives need to be aware of the potential benefits of combining virtual reality, robots, and augmented reality. Robots can be programmed to do a variety of jobs using virtual reality and augmented reality. There are two different kinds of neural networks: imitation networks, which attempt to comprehend demonstrations and examine how actions are executed, and visual networks, which use images taken by the robot's camera to understand the current state of an object. Dual neural networks can be used by organizations to enable robots to learn new tasks by monitoring and dissecting several behaviors. Robots that use artificial intelligence (AI) are exposed to a wide variety of data, which helps them learn how to distinguish between distinct objects, group related objects together, and recognize new objects that resemble what they have already seen. The expense and effort needed to gather data and real-world items can be reduced by trainers and developers. Robots can also be taught to recognize certain biological structures in the human body using 3D models. Virtual reality can be utilized to construct teleoperating robots that can function with the help of many sensor displays by employing hand controllers. The homunculus concept of the human brain, which postulates that there is a miniature human inside the brain that controls movement