How Samsung's Bixby smart assistant might compete against Siri, Alexa

Dive Brief:

• Samsung unveiled its new Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus phones yesterday, simultaneously introducing Bixby, a smart assistant meant to compete with Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa and others. The news was detailed at a live event and in a press release. 
• Bixby is currently only available on the new phones, which feature a dedicated button for accessing the digital assistant. A tight integration with the built-in camera and voice commands that mimic touch commands are two of Bixby’s unique features. Pinterest's visual search technology will support image search in Bixby, according to Ad Age. 
• The S8 phone will have a 5.8-inch screen and start at $750 while the larger S8 Plus will have a 6.2-inch screen and start at $850. They are available for pre-order starting today and will land on shelves April 21. 

Dive Insight:

Samsung needs a win in the smartphone space following a tough year that saw a worldwide recall of its Note 7 device because of battery issues, putting a dent in the company’s reputation as a leader in the space.

The company, which has a lot riding on the Galaxy S8, is turning the spotlight on Bixby as a key point of differentiation, suggesting that digital assistants have become a must-have for mobile devices. Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others may have beat Samsung to the table, but the company is hoping a couple of marketer- and user-friendly features could help it gain traction. 

Bixby’s integration with the S8 camera means users can point their phones at an item and ask Bixby for information about it. It’s easy to see how this feature could be extended making a purchase. With Bixby and the camera, users can also search for wine, identify places and landmarks, translate text, find similar images and read QR codes and barcodes.

Offering voice commands that can be used instead of touch interactions is another point of differentiation, although this feature currently only works for a few Samsung apps like the photo gallery and messages. For example, users can tell Bixby to show them specific photos.

Other apps will have an opportunity to integrate Bixby, suggesting this could be one way the company hopes to build a stronger ecosystem, something that has been a challenge for it previously. Building such an ecosystem of third-party apps and services is crucial if Samsung is to compete with Google, Apple and Amazon, who have each built a formidable combination of consumer-friendly hardware and complementary software services.

#MobileMarketing #Application #G8appz

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“Breathe. its just a bad day, not a bad life!.”

Wal-Mart cracks open Snapchat opportunity with Easter egg-themed ad

Dive Brief:

• A Wal-Mart ad promoting “6 Easter Basket Must Haves" showed up this week in a Popular Mechanics Snapchat Discover story.

• The ad uses simple animation and colorful Easter shades to depict a large egg bringing a basket of goodies to a smaller egg.

• Viewers who tap the “read” prompt at the bottom of the ad are shown a different screen that they can scroll through to view a variety of Easter-themed baskets and items to put inside them, including a new Beauty and the Beast doll, exclusive Lego sets and candy.

Dive Insight:

The Wal-Mart ad itself is noteworthy because of its use of simple animation and attention-grabbing colors to tell a story in just a few seconds, a format mobile users are familiar with on Snapchat and other mobile-first visual platforms. Giving viewers the option to tap through to see more information, including tips on how to make an Easter basket, takes advantage of Snapchat users' familiarity with navigating Discover content, which typically starts with a multimedia screen announcing a topic and then encourages viewers to tap to read more.

With consumers visiting physical stores less frequently, Wal-Mart is using campaigns like this one to keep its name top of mind for planned shopping trips, like for Easter merchandise. In addition to the Snapchat campaign, Wal-Mart also debuted a how-to video on YouTube for building an Easter basket and videos of its new holiday TV spots.

The holiday, traditionally an important one for mainstream retailers like Wal-Mart, could be even bigger this year because it arrives later than last year. The later holiday means the weather is likely to be warmer and consumers could be more interested in shopping for spring items during a trip for Easter items. An improving economy could also boost holiday sales. For these reasons, the National Retail Federation is forecasting that Easter retail sales will increase 6% this year to $18.4 billion.

Wal-Mart is smart to gain a better understanding of Snapchat’s users, as the platform’s combination of camera-based engagements like scanning and geofilters as well as the way it brings together an array of media elements — including video, animation, digital overlays and more — is having an influence on other digital platforms like Facebook and Instagram.

Snapchat and Wal-Mart share an interest in leveraging mobile to integrate online and physical shopping. The social media platform acquired augmented reality startup Cimagine to enhance scans of real-world images while several recent promotions in Wal-Mart’s IT department point to how the retailer is working on unifying online and in-store technology with mobile serving as the linchpin, according to The Wall Street Journal's CIO blog.

At the same time that Wal-Mart is leveraging mobile ads to drive shoppers into stores, it is also beefing up its e-commerce strategy, including its recent acquisition of ModCloth, in an attempt to meet consumers online where more shopping is taking place.

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“Everyone wants happiness. No one wants , pain. But you can’t have a rainbow, without a little rain.”

Mobile Marketing

#mobilemarketing #video          

                             

G8Appz is a mobile application development and Internet marketing company, building mobile applications for iPhone, iPad, Android devices, as well as mobile web apps. We provide a wide range of specialized and custom services to industries ranging from events to video games and can work with any company or organization to implement a mobile application strategy.

This video is about building mobile apps for hotel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFdja5b7bgY

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“You are confined by the walls you build yourself”

AR upstarts paint picture of technology's location-based potential at SXSW

Integrating immersive smartphone experiences with location could make for a data-driven marketer's dream if adoption grows.

Apple CEO Tim Cook recently suggested that augmented reality (AR) has the potential to match the influence and ubiquity of products like the iPhone but, to date, use cases for the technology have appeared slim for marketers, raising questions of whether and when AR's media hype will see mass mainstream adoption.

The runaway success of Nintendo and Niantic's Pokemon Go app last summer drew up a much clearer blueprint of how AR might be leveraged to bridge on- and offline marketing efforts — a practice many marketing professionals still struggle with. While some of Pokemon Go's initial hype has simmered in the time since launch, Nintendo and Niantic have continued to forge fruitful brand partnerships and, perhaps more importantly, have spurred more marketers and developers to try their hand at building AR experiences.

A number of upstart vendors at this year's SXSW Conference and Festivals showcased the horizons where AR might help mobile marketers better make the connection between digital and physical efforts. In sectors as varied as retail to sporting events, these apps and experiences might ultimately open up entirely new pools of consumer data for businesses both small and large to glean insights from. 

"[Pokemon Go] was the perfect combination of just enough tech, an adored IP and a highly-motivated user base, and it mainstreamed AR globally over the course of a few months," said Tom Wright, co-founder of VR specialty studio Tactic.

"Innovation-focused brands already had an interest in AR and in location-based experiences, and the success of Pokemon Go has made it seem more achievable for everyone," he said.

Augmented reality, real-world prizes

Movers in the AR space must continue to innovate to push past the gimmicky label and convince consumers of the technology's sustained value.

Analysts at the International Data Corporation (IDC) forecast that AR could be "on track to create a shift in computing significant enough to rival the smartphone," with the qualifier that AR is very much in its "infancy" and has a "long runway" before reaching mass adoption. Part of the technology's acceleration is currently being stymied by cookie-cutter approaches that don’t utilize AR's unique strengths, vendors said.

"The majority of AR campaigns right now are: 'Put your phone in front of this picture and it will turn into a movie,'" said Jon Cheney, CEO at Seek, a location-based AR app that offers players real-world prizes and discounts. "Nobody cares. That will get old so quickly. Just put a TV there so that I can consume the content more easily.

"Most AR content is just a gimmick," he added.

Seek attempts to set itself apart by using location-based AR to then offer players real-world prizes, speaking to enhanced reality's potential to lessen friction in omnichannel marketing.

Cheney detailed a scenario where visitors to a Chick-Fil-A location receive a mobile push notification to open Seek. The in-app camera then presents an AR overlay of Chick-Fil-A’s brand mascot — a cow — that, when interacted with, rewards users with a digital "chicken" token that can be converted to in-store credit.

"You receive a discount or a coupon for something on the menu inside, and you go in and redeem it right there,” he said. "That is value — relevant, engaging and shareable."

Seek was also designed to allow brands to tap its service to build AR campaigns on-demand. By outsourcing AR content creation to Seek, marketers can then bypass some of the technology's steep developmental learning curve, Cheney said.

Arena-sized audiences

AR tie-ins seem particularly well-suited to sectors like food and retail — look no further than the deals Pokemon Go has inked with big-name brands such as Starbucks and Sprint — but there's no real ceiling for connecting the technology to real-world experience, according to Virtex Apps founder Jeff Green.

"Options range from simple signs or objects in the background of a scene to entire experiences that focus on particular product," he said. "Some scenarios may even mix real and virtual worlds, such as when participants in a virtual game win real world prizes or public acknowledgment. Truly, the sky's the limit."

Virtex Arena, following Green's sky's-the-limit attitude, is an app with ambitions that are stadium-sized. Arena builds multiplayer AR competitions centered around breaks and downtime during large sporting events or concert performances, with interactive virtual elements appearing on the field or stage.

Outside of potentially providing a fun distraction via gamification, Arena aims to build a powerful platform for connecting marketers with real-world audiences. Think of it as a digital spin on the jumbotron games of old, though with tangible engagements and impressions to measure.

AR experiences that effectively tie together actual locations like arenas to a great mobile experience make for a data-driven marketer's dream, according to Wright. And while the technology is still working its way toward adoption at scale, brand partners might ultimately help drive those connections home. 

"The main challenge is that AR is a new concept in this field, so the idea is not yet well established with the public," Green said. "However, sponsor relationships are very well established with sporting events and concerts, and this app builds on audience participation methods that are already in practice today."

Giving a reason to engage

The first challenge mobile marketers have to overcome for AR is simply incentivizing people to participate at a location, said Green. Today's consumers are busy and easily distracted, so the marketing hook needs to be strong enough to convince them to pull out their devices and interact with a virtual scene.

Giving people a reason to engage means making the experience unique to AR and not something that marketers have simply shoehorned in to get in on a trend, said Wright. Stemming from that, technology alone won’t be enough to draw in large audiences, but if it enhances an experience people already enjoy — a concert or dropping in at a local food joint — more users will participate.

"Augmented commerce apps like Ikea's have proven that AR can help drive sales and engagement, and Pokemon Go has shown that there’s a passionate global audience to be found and engaged if you create a strong enough experience, for the right types of users," Wright added. "Product apps like the [Jose] Cuervo 'History in A Bottle' allow product companies to tie an experience to the physical object they're marketing."

There's no shortage of opportunity for brands looking to get started learning with AR, as Google's building out of its Tango platform or Apple's purchase of Metaio demonstrate. Shazam also recently launched an AR platform for its brand partners that fosters AR experiences such as 3-D animations, product visualizations, mini-games and 360-degree videos.

"The brands that will win here will need to plan for AR, and commit to doing something great," said Wright. "These pioneering AR experiences can't just be the version of the idea that’s been slimmed down to fit into what's left of a fiscal budget."

#MobileMarketing  #MobileApplication

 

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“A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself.”

-Joseph Campbell

Instagram expands shoppability after promising test

Dive Brief:

• After an initial test (working with 20 retailers including Kate Spade New York, Lulu’s, Macy’s and Warby Parker) launched just in November, Instagram has been encouraged enough by the results of a new more in-depth shopping feature to more businesses, the Facebook photo-sharing unit said in a blog post Tuesday. 
• The feature works with a tap-to-view icon at the bottom left of a photo, which can showcase up to five products and their prices. Once a tag is selected, a detailed view of the product opens, bringing product information to the consumer directly in the app. A shopper can tap a “Shop Now” link from the product details view to go directly to that product on the business’ website, simplifying the path to purchase.
• Retailers will also soon be able to get insights from the metrics, including how many people tapped to see more product details or clicked on “shop now,” the company said.

Dive Insight:

Instagram is moving assertively with a marketing feature that could overshadow Snapchat. The ease is part of the appeal: Retail marketers with product information already on Facebook can plug them into Instagram Shopping or tag their products in a photo uploaded to Instagram. The social image-sharing site also recently added advertisements and new insights via Instagram Business Tools for its Stories feature.

The smooth path from the Instagram app to an e-commerce site proved effective during Macy’s test of the feature over the holidays, Macy’s director of social media Tessa Kavanaugh told Retail Dive in an email.

"Instagram’s shopping capabilities perfectly align with Macy’s strategy of creating a frictionless shopping experience for our customers,” Kavanaugh said. “By allowing users the opportunity to purchase featured items they want via a seamless transition from the social platform to our e-commerce site, Instagram is helping us create better engagement with consumers. We’re encouraged by the results we saw during the holiday and gifting timeframe this past year, particularly the double digit increase in sessions on our ecommerce site directed from the platform.”

Abercrombie & Fitch and its Hollister brand also found that its shoppers took advantage of the tags to view production information and travel to its site, and the company said the feature significantly boosted engagement.

“Abercrombie & Fitch and Hollister’s participation in this type of alpha program is key to ensuring our brands remain at the forefront of discovering unique ways to engage with our customers,” Abercrombie & Fitch Chief Marketing Officer Will Smith said in an email. “Shopping on Instagram is an important brand and product awareness driver for us, and it greatly influences our consumer's path to purchase. We found that as many as 25% to 30% of people who clicked through to the product details went on to visit our website, ultimately allowing further product exploration and brand discovery. From there, we can convert these consumers at a higher rate through Facebook and Instagram retargeting tools."

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“Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later. - Og Mandino”

How mobile point-of-sale goes beyond checkout

For many retailers, a mobile point-of-sale (mPOS) system will not replace the traditional POS counter. 

The mPOS model works for a retail store such as Apple because it is selling only one or two small items and emailing most receipts. 

But that process is not always realistic for a clothing retailer who uses the checkout counter for several functions. It needs a place to scan multiple items, remove security tags, provide a bag, receipt and possibly a promotional card. 

The checkout counter is also a place where merchants showcase goods to upsell. If you take that away, you could be missing out on sales.

Retailers should think of mPOS as more than just mobile checkout. 

If your mPOS systems have access to shopper and inventory information, it can help sales associates engage with customers at the time of decision. 

Single source of data 

Many retailers unsuccessfully comb through a hairball of fragmented integrations where their bricks-and-mortar stores are disconnected from their Web site and distribution centers. 

So before you can start empowering your sales associates with a mobile device, you need to have a single system for order, customer and inventory data from all channels. This data can then be supplied to the mPOS device and other customer facing systems such as ecommerce or customer care. 

This single system will eliminate duplication and fragmentation while delivering real-time data and creating efficiencies and opportunities to improve the customer experience.

Make the sales associate the expert

Giving sales associates access to accurate, real-time information on inventory, product specs and reviews allows them to offer real value to the customer on the floor. 

Today’s consumer has so much information at her fingertips. By the time she has walked into a store, she has probably researched a product extensively online. 

Sales associates on the floor usually do not have the same access to content, or if they do, it requires them to leave the customer. 

A handy mobile device can level the playing field by giving the sales associate quick access to the same product information and reviews that the customer has researched. Now the sales associate is not only seen as the expert, but also providing real value to the customer. 

Insight into your shoppers

Not only does mPOS give sales associates the tools to look up product information on the spot, but it also gives them access to detailed data about the customer – one of the most valuable benefits of using mPOS.  

The key is to know your customer as soon as she enters the store. 

Imagine a customer walking in and being greeted by an associate who can pull up her order history, or her wish list from your online site. 

This type of access gives the associate unprecedented insight into the customer’s favorite brands, colors and sizes. It also makes the customer feel like the sales associate actually knows her and can be of value– not just telling her what is on sale. 

The alternative is the associate trying to gather all of this information during a long conversation that many customers do not even want to start. 

Endless aisle 

Shoppers want what they want, when they want it – if it is not available at your store, they will turn to your competitors to buy it. 

MPOS solutions can prevent losing a sale by providing endless-aisle capability. 

With real-time, enterprise wide inventory data being provided to your mPOS, store employees can immediately locate and allocate the products for the customer without ever leaving her side. They can arrange for the item to be delivered to their desired location or picked up at a store, ensuring that the customer has a great shopping experience and the sale is made.

WITH MPOS SOLUTIONS on a unified platform, retailers can seamlessly connect inventory and customer information to engage customers more effectively, drive more sales and provide a delightful shopping experience. 

Cutting-edge retailers know that mPOS goes beyond mobile checkout. It is about offering on the spot service and interacting with the customer where the customer is shopping.

Josh Goodwin is group product manager for NetSuite Global Business Unit, a San Mateo, CA-based provider of cloud-based omnichannel software and a wholly owned subsidiary of Oracle.

#MobileMarketing #MobileApplication

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“Trust is like an eraser, It gets smaller and smaller after every mistake”

Implementing Facebook Analytics for Apps into a retailer’s mobile app strategy

With more than 50 percent of retail traffic and 34 percent of ecommerce purchasing coming from mobile (eMarketer), it is clear that implementing a full-cycle mobile strategy is no longer an “if” decision for retailers, but a “when.”

For those just starting out, it can be an intimidating challenge, but one ripe with opportunities for growth and innovation.

Marketers suddenly have an entirely new sales channel that requires its own marketing initiatives.

Most face some initial challenges as they work to acquire application installs, improve user experiences and checkout flow, keep consumers incentivized, and measure performance and attribution.

Addressing these problems can be as simple as implementing a comprehensive analytics and marketing solution, such as Facebook Analytics for Apps.

The key to effectively using this tool requires retailers to truly delve into every component of the solution to connect all data points and maximize the reach of a mobile app.

Ninety percent of Facebook’s active daily users access Facebook through mobile (thenextweb), making it an ideal platform to capture new app users.

Key factors to focus on when implementing Facebook Analytics for Apps into a retailer’s mobile app strategy include:

Tracking
Typically, the data collected is defined by the user activity that app marketers choose to track. This app activity is referred to as an App Event. For even better insights, add parameters to these events.

For example, for “View Product,” marketers can add “Product Type,” “Product ID,” or “Value,” and use this information to re-target users with personalized messaging throughout the app.

Optimization
Once the app events are defined, marketers can start working to better optimize the retailer’s app performance by looking at the full purchase funnel to identify where users may be having challenges within the app or why they are abandoning their cart.

For example, maybe the retailer’s current category flow is confusing, or it is asking for too much information during registration or checkout.

One way to help users pass seamlessly through the checkout process is by offering social login options through the app, allowing users to connect an existing account to skip the manual entry process.

Analytics for Apps, for example, allows retailers to offer Facebook Login within their app for easy registration. It works with retailer’s existing account system, so they can still offer a standard registration, guest registration or other social connect options.

Growth
To develop an audience, there needs to be a clear understanding of the desired target audience.

Facebook Analytics for Apps allows for clearer insights on a particular app’s user base, and also a deeper dive into certain segments of their users to answer key questions about behavior.

This segmented user analysis will answer the questions: who is my ideal customer, and what do they care about?

Once equipped with this information, app marketers can focus efforts on customer acquisition and re-engagement, maximizing efficiency with data-fueled relevancy. Keep in mind that every user is different.

Retention
Marketers find that new customers typically cost five times more than current customers.

The probability of selling to a returning customer is 60 percent to 70 percent, compared to 5 percent to 20 percent for a new one.

Facebook Analytics for Apps lets app marketers group consumers who have completed a set of events during a specific time period, such as viewing a product page and purchasing.

By comparing these time periods, they can examine if certain changes affected overall retention or engagement.

Additionally, retailers can maximize retention by connecting with current app users through Facebook push and in-app messages.

In fact, apps that use push notifications see up to seven times higher engagement rates than apps that do not use push.

In-app messages are received directly in the app and can be displayed using rich media and creating a deeper connection with the customer.

BY LEVERAGING the capabilities of Facebook Analytics for Apps, app marketers can work to tackle some of their biggest challenges.

Whether they are segmenting users based on the products they have viewed, re-engaging a long lost app user, or providing customers with one-click login, leveraging Facebook’s massive user base and data collection can serve as a secret weapon that will benefit the retailer for the long run.

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“Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices makes you.”- Gayle Forman

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oj2Z8pwSK74

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“Don’t worry about failures, worry about the chances you miss when you don’t even try”- Jack Canfield

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Napean sells Mobile Marketer publication, retains events business

Napean LLC has sold its Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily publications, but retained the events business comprising conferences, webinars, podcasts and awards, founder Mickey Alam Khan announced today.

Industry Dive Inc., a Washington, DC-based media group known for widely read publications such as Retail Dive and Marketing Dive, is the buyer. The Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily newsletters were divested as part of a strategic move for Napean to focus on events and its Luxury Daily publication, which is the world’s leading luxury business title that recently adopted a paid-subscription model.

“It’s been a privilege to be part of the growth of mobile marketing and mobile commerce from its formative years, even setting the agenda for marketers and retailers to shape their multichannel strategy with mobile at its core,” Mr. Alam Khan said. 

“When we launched Mobile Marketer in 2007, there was not much of a mobile marketing ecosystem, and ditto with Mobile Commerce Daily’s debut in 2009, where mobile commerce was in its nascent stage,” he said. 

“And here we are today, living a mobile-dominated work, home and play life. At least from the business standpoint, we feel that the two publications anticipated, served and met a key need for brand-focused information and analysis on mobile.”

At their new Industry Dive home, Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily will add to a stable of 13 publications focused on different verticals that attract 2 million readers. 

Strategic makeover

Napean will continue to focus its attention on the key industry events formerly attached to Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily, including conferences such as FirstLook, Mcommerce Summit, Mobile Marketing Summit, Mobile Research Summit, Mobile Insights Summit and Mobile Women to Watch Summit, among others. 

Webinars, podcasts, Mobile Women to Watch honors and the Mobile Marketer Awards and Mobile Commerce Awards are also an area of focus as part of a strategic makeover.

“We’re exploring all options as part of our strategic shift,” Mr. Alam Khan said. “Being the founder and steward of Mobile Marketer and Mobile Commerce Daily was exhilarating, and I’m looking forward to their next chapter and Napean’s as well. 

“Thank you to our loyal readers and advertisers, as well as our editorial, ad sales, events and tech team members who were instrumental in making the two titles truly news leaders,” he said. 

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Enjoy Life Now. This is not a rehersal

Mobile Minutes: Samsung S8; Uber's Waymo suit; WhatsApp hack; Live streaming risks

Samsung's new S8 to adopt facial recognition for payments

Samsung Electronics Co.’s new Galaxy S8 will employ facial-recognition technology for mobile payments within months of release, adding cutting-edge security to help the marquee device stand out from rivals such as Apple Inc.’s iPhone, people familiar with the matter said.

Read more at Bloomberg

Uber tells judge it will seek to have Waymo case go to arbitration

A lawyer for Uber [UBER.UL] told a federal judge on Thursday he intended to file a petition to compel arbitration in the Waymo trade secrets case within two weeks.

Read more at Reuters

WhatsApp, Telegram flaws left accounts vulnerable to hackers

The problems -- now patched -- meant hackers could have sent malicious photos or videos with the power to take over your account.

Read more at CNET

Gamer’s death pushes risks of live streaming into view

Early on Feb. 19, Brian C. Vigneault was nearing the end of a 24-hour marathon of live streaming himself playing the tank warfare video game World of Tanks when he left his computer to buy a pack of cigarettes. He never returned.

Quote of the day

“STOP PLANTING FLOWERS IN PEOPLES YARDS WHO AREN’T GOING TO WATER THEM”

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“No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again”

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you were born to be real, not to be perfect

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“We all have two lives. The second one starts when we realize that we only have one” – Tom Hiddleston