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Sorry, Samsung Galaxy users who can’t live without their (one or two) Starbucks Lattes every day. You’ll still have to make sure to go to the shop during slow times, or wait in line twiddling your thumbs. Or, playing on your phone.
The Starbucks iPhone app has been taken to a new level with the rollout of its Mobile Order & Pay program. The program was already implemented in Portland last December and was accessed via the iPhone app.
Now, Starbucks has announced that the program will be rolled out in other parts of the country – 3,400 locations in the southern and central United States.
The service is so simple in concept, one might wonder how it took Starbucks this long to implement it. Then again, the backend details are probably not that simple.
So how does it all work?
All an iPhone user has to do is open the Starbucks iPhone app, choose their drink/s, pay using the app, and pick up his order at the store.
In the official announcement of the rollout, store managers share their experiences with Mobile Order & Pay.
Jesse Wenkoff-White, who managed a store in downtown Seattle says he “has also noticed that customers quickly started building Mobile Order & Pay into their daily routines to save time. Some were using the app to place orders each morning as they got off the bus, others as they were running out to grab a late lunch, or from their desks as they’re about to take an afternoon coffee break.”
Outside of Seattle, store manager Kaylene Schaefer says it’s not all about people in a rush:
“We see a lot of parents with young children order ahead with Mobile Order & Pay, which makes it easier to manage the kids without standing in line. We also see nearby businesses use the app for their large food and beverage orders for meetings.”
So, Starbucks addicts, keep an eye out for this feature in your favorite store.
Oh, and yes, while it’s for iPhone only, that’s temporary. Android users will have it in the future, too.


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China is making a national standard on mobile phone chargers sold in the country to avoid waste and lower costs for users.
The standard, drafted by the Telecommunications Academy under the Ministry of Information Industry (MII), has been submitted to the MII for approval, said He Guili, director of a laboratory under the academy in charge of the program.
"It is likely to be approved before the end of this year," He said.
Under the new standard, all mobile phones, no matter what brands they are, can share one charger with an USB access. Users can even charge their handsets through connection with laptops.
Though not compulsory, the standard will be recommended by the MII. "We believe that the home-brands makers will give positive response to it," said He.
He said the standardization may reduce profits of handset manufacturers and force them to redesign their products.
The new standard would also help lower the demand for mobile phone chargers as consumers do not have to buy new charger in purchase of new handsets. It may affect the charger making industry, said He.
With application of a unified standard, cost of a new handset will be lower, which is a good news for users, said the expert, adding that it will also reduce electronic waste and consumption of resources.
The expert predicted that the standard, which has been under study for more than two years, may take effect in the first half of 2007.
Lou Peide, executive secretary general with China Mobile Communications Association, estimated that the new standard may save nearly 2.4 billion yuan (306 million U.S. dollars) each year for handsets made in China if the cost of each charger is set around seven to eight yuan.
Statistics show that about 1 billion handsets are made every year in the world and 300 million of them are made in China. There have been no unified standards in the world for mobile phone chargers.

domain: news


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The brain trust of yet another artificial intelligence technology startup has been snapped up as automakers prepare for our terrifying, dystopian future.
That, Sergio Marchionne has a sure-fire recipe, jury selection begins in ignition trial, Tesla doesn’t need no stinkin’ successful low-priced car, and GM goes big on commercial sales … after the break!
Forgive me father, for not only have I sinned (at least for right now), but I’m going to make a sordid confession about my daily work life that will tick off 99 percent of the people here.
I find that auto enthusiasts — that’s you — are completely irrational. In fact, sometimes you’re just plain nuts.
It has nothing to do with conspiracy theories, the federal government, or the fact that every manufacturer wants us enthusiasts to become mindless traders and renters instead of long-term keepers. What it really comes down to is that most auto enthusiasts I know simply act like emotional fools.
These photos are of a vehicle that recently visited my driveway for a week. I’m not going to tell you what that vehicle is — yet — but it does raise a very interesting question.
Are bad panel gaps an indicator of a poor quality product? And what “quality” are we talking about anyway?
A quarter of a century can yield an amazing level of improvements to a modern day car — but this isn’t always the case.
Take for example a 1958 Chevrolet Bel Air and compare it with the 1983 Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera. Even back in 1983, a 1958 Bel Air could offer the keepers among us the enduring joy of a long-term relationship. That big block Chevy V8, even in the early Reagan era, could give you a fiendish ear-to-ear grin behind the wheel. The Cutlass Ciera on the other hand was a rental car from birth with the vapid empty soul of a parts bin beater. It would take a special masochist of an owner to make that a long-term keeper.
Modern day cars have similar parallels.
Nissan has told its dealers to stop selling specific models of the Maxima due to unspecified quality issue, Automotive News is reporting.
The issue involves Maximas with a specific VIN, not a model type. It’s unclear if those cars have been delivered to dealers or customers. According to Automotive News, Nissan hasn’t identified how many models would be affected by the stop-sale, nor how many of the models may have already been sold.
Nissan hasn’t made available details about the VIN number or how to identify the held cars.
A Denver-area Nissan dealer said he wasn’t aware of the stop-sale at all.
Doug Betts, former senior vice president at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in charge of quality, quietly began work at Apple this month, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.
Betts, who led the effort to turnaround Chrysler’s quality rankings beginning in 2009, left the car company last year one day after Consumer Reports ranked the car company near the bottom of its quality survey.
Betts’ LinkedIn page confirms the appointment at Apple, but the famously secret computer company won’t say whether he’s working on an automotive-related project — or perhaps, janitorial duty.
(photo courtesy: svtrichie @ www.Hyundaiforums.com)
I hope this new year finds you well. Back in 2007 I bought a new Hyundai Santa Fe. Nothing special, no ABS or four wheel drive. But it did have 20”s on it with low profile 12 inch wide tires. Later that year I had the chance to drive it in the snow. First time ever. Was not a good time. (Read More…)
Hans Greimel of the Automotive News is reporting that Takanobu Ito will be replaced in June by Takahiro Hachigo as president and CEO of Honda Motor Company. Ito’s replacement comes after a spate of recalls in its home market of Japan led to a delay in a number of new product launches, followed by the even more image corroding recall of millions of cars worldwide due to Takata supplied airbags that can detonate which have been linked to six deaths.
Quick question: what was the number one factor in your most recent new vehicle purchase? Was it styling? Performance? Features? Financing? Price? Comfort? Practicality? Or that old stalwart, quality? If you answered in the affirmative to that last suggestion, you’re part of a shrinking bloc. There were a lot of winners in the 2014 auto sales race, but quality wasn’t one of them.
Dear Mr. Lang,
Your most recent article put the final nail in the C4 coffin for me and for that, I’m everlastingly grateful.
The VW GTI is but a distant infatuation, another foolish pleasure set aside.
Onward to the Infiniti M35.


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Avara Foods has published its third responsible business report outlining its achievements and plans for improving sustainability, animal welfare, donating food to charity, and taking on more apprentices.
Avara Foods was formed in 2018 as a joint venture between Cargill and Faccenda Foods. The report looks at areas including
- Science-based targets for carbon reduction emissions across the supply chain, as part of its wider ambition to achieve NetZero by 2040.
- Commitment to sustainable soy, including progress in its 2025 ambition and joining the UK Soy Manifesto.
- Introduction of new packaging that uses significantly less plastic in a convenient and food safe format.
- Donations of fresh poultry to FareShare, and on track to provide the equivalent of 1M meals before the end of the year.
- Extensive welfare trials on farms, testing a range of potential welfare-improvement measures.
- Recruiting staff via the kickstart apprentice and graduate programmes in 2021.
“Acting responsibly is one of the cornerstones of our business and has become the everyday expectation of the team at Avara,” said chief executive Andy Dawkins. “In every aspect of our business, we want to be clear about what we stand for and what anyone working with, or for, us can expect.
Avara’s full 2021 report can be found on its website.


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Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida - has praised the battle with Microsoft's Xbox One console against his own PS4 while at the same time stating that Microsoft made mistakes.
Speaking in a recent interview the affable Yoshida said of the competition, "It's always great to have two companies fighting each other. People like it; it creates a news story. The games media will cover any platform launch, but the general media - a big Sony versus Microsoft battle is a bigger story. Microsoft launching Xbox One in the same year, the same Christmas - people compare them, lots of news stories are written."
He continued to explain that, " We know they're very smart people. It's great that they were able to quickly realise that some of the things they were doing were not popular, and were able to make really quick decisions to change some of those things - even things that their engineering group must have spent a lot of time preparing before the launch. It must have been a very tough time for them. That shows how smart they are, and it shows their dedication to making Xbox One successful.
"We never took them lightly. Especially in the States, we are the challenger - we're trying to compete with them. Some of the messaging that they stumbled on just gave us more chances to compete with them in the States. Other markets are very different - in Europe, we have a larger market share and in Japan, we have a much longer history of being here. Being consistent and persistent helps; the legacy and people's associations with the brand, their memories of having a great time before."
Read the full interview on GamesIndustry


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It's official: Product prices in Israel have risen in recent years by more than the increase in manufacturing costs, the Bank of Israel said on Wednesday, confirming what Israeli shoppers have suspected - they're paying through the nose, and more so than ever before. Moreover, many product prices are higher in Israel than in the OECD, the central bank report reveals.
A central bank report published on Wednesday reveals that not only are many product prices in Israel higher - sometimes by tens of percent - than in other developed nations with similar per-capita income, the gap has also widened in the last three years.
Israeli food prices in 2008 were 15% higher than the average among countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which Israel joined last year, says the report. Compared with countries whose gross domestic product per capita is about the same as Israel's, prices here were about 20% higher in 2008.
From 2008 to 2011, the price gaps between Israel and the European nations have widened, by about 10%, say industry insiders.
The level of pricing in each country is usually correlated with income per capita. The more people earn, the more they can spend and the more manufacturers can charge. But in 2009, the Bank of Israel wrote, price levels of consumer products in Israel were 15% higher than they should have been according to the income-per-capita test.
Moreover, in 2010, consumer prices in Israel were higher than in the other OECD nations, says the report. The gaps seem even wider when one considers that income per capita is lower in Israel than the OECD average.
Why? Blame the absence of competition in the Israeli market regarding certain products, says the Bank of Israel. Another reason is that value added tax on food in Israel is relatively high, the central bank adds.
When it applies at all, value added tax in Israel is a flat 16%. The United Kingdom, for instance, has a standard rate of 20%, but there are plenty of exceptions to the rule - the usual reduced rate there is 5%, and no VAT applies to food and drink for human consumption, for example. So, one reason food prices in Israel are higher than in many other comparable nations is that VAT is applied, and import taxes are high.\
Dairy costs 44% more
In identifying VAT on food as a culprit, the central bank is opening up a front against the Finance Ministry, which is adamant about keeping the tax - including on food staples, drugs and transportation - unchanged.
That said, why did prices rise so sharply in Israel from 2008, compared with the rest of the countries in the OECD (to which Israel didn't belong at the start of this period )? Because of feeble competition, says the central bank.
Israeli shoppers have long suspected that one of the worst offenders against proportional pricing is the dairy industry - and the Bank of Israel reports confirms it.
In 2008, Israeli dairy and fish prices were 30% higher than in countries with similar income per capita. And when compared with the OECD average, dairy prices here were 44% higher in 2008, the report says.
Many developed nations subsidize dairy products, which lowers their cost to consumers, points out the report. But another reason for the high level of prices here is import tax of 150% on butter and milk, which effectively rules out competition by imports. Locally the dairy market is not marked by competition, and there is little control over prices.
The same applies to fish - import tax is high and competition is scanty. There is only one big importer and two local suppliers. Nor is the fresh-meat market subject to competition - import tax on fresh beef and poultry is high enough to constitute a barrier, says the central bank.
Especially wide gaps were also found in prices of cars, which cost 70% more here on average than in the OECD nations. Nonalcoholic beverages cost 48% more in Israel, and hotel and restaurant prices were about 30% higher here than in the OECD countries in 2008. The Bank of Israel report says feeble competition is the reason nonalcoholic drinks in Israel cost so much relative to OECD nations. There are just three big manufacturers, the central bank points out.
But it doesn't end there. Yet another barrier to imports is the insistence on kashrut. The big retail chains won't touch products that aren't kosher, which again stifles competition.
If there's an upside for the Israeli shopper, it's that fresh fruit and vegetables are cheaper here than abroad, in part thanks to the employment of foreign workers, the central bank says.
Clothing is competitive
While the price of food is clearly higher, that can't be said of clothing and footwear. Intense exposure to imports, including low-cost imports from China and India, has quite possibly made a mark. The price of apparel and shoes hasn't changed significantly in Israel in the last three years.
But the cost of a stay at an Israeli hotel, and a meal at an Israeli restaurant, has risen, and in 2008 ran about 30% higher than that in OECD countries.
The Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry said in response to the central bank report that it views reducing the cost of living as a key goal. That is why it, together with the Finance Ministry, set up the so-called food committee, which is being headed by the Industry Ministry's own director general, Sharon Kedmi. The committee has announced its interim recommendations, the ministry continued, and legislation will clearly be needed to introduce competition into the food market.
Regulation, legislation and explanations will be forthcoming after the committee releases its final recommendations, the committee said.
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Nike Zoom Uptempo V White
After the shooting, Harrell said she drove off because she was trying to drive to the hospital to get treatment for her injuries. She said she was planning to call police.
Harrell said that Bagley was not telling the truth and was standing too far away to see or hear anything. During the hearing, Bagley testified that he was standing between 25 and 30 feet from the women.
"I was not the aggressor in this situation Sakinah was. They should have never let her out of jail. She was a menace to society," Nike Air Uptempo Black And Pink
"She started attacking me," Harrell said. "She was beating me in the head with her shoe I'm standing up by my door just trying to get away from her. I'm confused. I'm just trying to get away."
Her story The night of a concert by rapper Yo Gotti was only her third time at The Alley. A friend was supposed to go to the concert with Harrell but later declined, so Harrell decided to go by herself she didn't want to waste Nike Air Uptempo 97 Freshwater
"It didn't even look real," she said. "I was going to give it to police."
Next he said he heard Breathwaite and Harrell, who was walking nearby, arguing. Bagley testified he couldn't hear what they were arguing about, but that they were both cursing. Eventually, the women were standing on opposite sides of a black Audi that was in the parking lot. The argument continued, Bagley testified.
Yo Gotti never showed up.
"It's OK. It's OK," Harrell said.
Bagley testified he heard Harrell say, "I'm not gonna fight you. I'm gonna shoot you."
said Harrell, referencing a hit and run charge that Breathwaite was convicted of earlier this year.
Eyewitness During a preliminary hearing this week, Ezel Bagley testified that he was standing outside the nightclub when he saw Breathwaite walk out with a group of people. He said he saw Breathwaite fall to the ground briefly, and someone she was walking with told her to "get up, you're embarrassing me."
Police say Harrell got in her car and fled the Newmarket Center Shopping Center, with witnesses giving police a description of the car and its license plate number.
"I was nowhere near her when the gun went off," she said. "It was an accident when it went off. She was nowhere near me."
"She [Harrell] had her gun pointed at the victim, then I heard a shot fired, and the victim fell to the ground," said Bagley, who testified Harrell was pointing the gun over the roof of the car at Breathwaite. "She got into the car and drove off."
Harrell said Breathwaite was hitting her with a five inch heel. At some point, Breathwaite stopped attacking her, Harrell said, declining to give details about what caused her to stop.
and Breathwaite were strangers and had not come into contact inside the club, so Harrell said that she continued to walk to her car.
In a jailhouse interview Thursday, Harrell said the shooting was an accident that occurred after Breathwaite attacked her.
Harrell said that Breathwaite was with some men in a parking spot nearby, but the two never spoke.
When Harrell opened her car door, she noticed a gun that she had found earlier. Harrell said she forgot the gun was in her car. Earlier that day, Harrell was dropping a co worker off at Stuart Gardens apartments in south Newport News when she saw the gun sitting beside a dumpster.
Before leaving the club, Harrell had Nike Zoom Uptempo V White agreed to give a woman she had never met a ride home, she said. As Harrell and the woman walked outside, she saw Breathwaite "trip and fall down." Harrell Nike Air Total Max Uptempo White Blue
Accused killer says gun accidentally went off before Hampton shooting
During the hourlong interview at Hampton Roads Regional Jail in Portsmouth, Harrell declined to say what happened prior to the gun being fired, saying that she plans to testify when her case goes to trial.
her $50 VIP ticket, she said.
"I don't want to say what happened next," she said repeatedly.
Harrell says she said nothing to Breathwaite.
All of Breathwaite's jail time was suspended for that offense, according to court documents.
She eventually told him she was charged with murder.
Harrell, 21, of Newport News, is charged with shooting Sakinah Breathwaite to death in the parking lot of The Alley Aug. 23. Breathwaite, of Chesapeake, died at the scene. She was 29.
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Apparently there are those who think the Fuhrer was a hero.
Some of these people live in the Ukraine, where an Adolf Hitler action-figure has gone on sale. The $200 doll is compared to Barbie by sales-women in Kiev and, just like the famous blond, it comes complete with accessories and several changes of clothes. Although any form of Nazism or fascism is prohibited in the Ukraine, the dolls are already on sale and will be mas-produced starting this summer. This is a result of growing extreme right political sentiment and increasing xenophobia and racism.
It looks like some Ukrainians, especially the young ones, have forgotten that Hitler killed 3 million of them during WWII, including 1.5 million Jews. He wanted to turn the country into slave populated buffer zone with Russia, now they think he was a hero…that’s sad.
The doll comes with a spare head that gives Hitler a kinder face…because he was such a kind person?!?


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Antimicrobial resistance is like a forest fire — because only you can take steps to prevent it.
Think about resistance every time you use antimicrobials, producers were told during Alberta Pork’s latest telephone town hall.
“Any single time one of us uses an antimicrobial, we are tipping the scales toward resistance, said Dr. Leigh Rosengren, a veterinarian and consultant with Rosengren Epidemiological Consulting.
“Does that mean that we should never use them? Absolutely not. What we need to do is stop and think of the cost — both the tangible economic cost of the drug and the larger societal cost of resistance to the immediate benefit of your herd in the use.”
By 2050, 10 million people around the world could die each year from antimicrobial-resistant infections. And 18,000 people in Canada are hospitalized each year with an antimicrobial-resistant infection.
“When we use a product in our pigs, we kill off the susceptible bacteria and resistant bacteria are the population that’s left,” Rosengren said on the conference call. “They go on to reproduce and over time, if that exposure continues, the resistant population can emerge within the pigs.”
Bacteria can acquire genetic material as resistant elements move around in the gut of the pig, she said. Certain bacteria, particularly E. coli or salmonella, pick up those resistant elements and acquire that resistance.
“Every time an antibiotic is used, it increases the chance for resistance, because we’re always putting that pressure on those bacteria to evolve or maintain the resistant genes that they have,” said Rosengren.
- More on the Alberta Farmer: Antimicrobial resistance a global threat
The link to farms
Many people acquire antimicrobial-resistant infections in hospital, but there is an increasing number of such infections acquired in communities. And slaughter plants could be a route for such cases. When an animal is slaughtered, some of the millions of bacteria in its gut can contaminate the carcass and people can then acquire a foodborne infection — commonly called food poisoning — if the meat is handled or prepared improperly. If the foodborne infection is resistant, then antibiotics may not work.
“There definitely is a chain connecting agricultural antimicrobial use to the burden of disease in people,” said Rosengren. “It’s difficult to say how often this happens, but there is a chain there. And for that reason, there is a very intense scrutiny on what we are doing in agriculture in terms of antimicrobial use.”
Part of that scrutiny involves the Canadian Integrated Program for Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance (CIPARS). It collects and tests bacteria from farms, abattoirs, and retailers for resistance.
“Bacteria found in pork at an abattoir can have up to 70 per cent bacteria resistant to tetracycline. That’s a high number,” said Rosengren.
While tetracycline is an old drug no longer commonly used in human medicine, it’s still concerning that such a high level of resistance has been established. CIPARS has also been tracking resistance to drugs that are of high importance to human medicine.
“In that situation, the pork industry has a good-news story,” said Rosengren. “Less than five per cent of those E. coli are resistant to antimicrobials that are of high importance to human medicine.
“But the take-home message is that it is being watched. We’re in a good situation as an industry now, but we need to continue to work hard to make sure that resistance doesn’t emerge and establish.”
Change is coming
Producers in this country can still use some antimicrobials without a veterinary prescription. But Health Canada and the Veterinary Drugs Directorate are reviewing this and considering whether veterinary oversight should be increased.
“That’s something producers should be aware of,” said Rosengren. “That will probably be changing over the next few years. It’s possible that your veterinarian will be more and more involved in those decisions on your farm.”
By December 2016, antibiotics used in human medicine will no longer be permitted for growth promotion purposes in agriculture, and the label claims for growth promotion will be removed.
“In some instances, you will need to have a sit-down discussion with your veterinarian or your nutritionist to discuss if there are other things you can be doing with your feed to get your performance,” she said. “In other situations, it will be a discussion with your veterinarian to discuss whether those products were in there for other reasons, to control or prevent disease.”
Because most drugs in Canada have label claims for several indications, it’s not anticipated that any products will be removed from the market.
“What will change is how we’re using them, and the veterinary involvement in these decisions,” she said.
Antibiotics of high importance in human medicine, such as Exceed and Baytril, should never be used in an extra label manner. Any producer using those products should be talking to their vet. They should also be discussing their antimicrobial use protocol, she said.
“Most veterinarians are very proactive in taking on samples to test for susceptibility so that they can be picking the most appropriate drug for the situation,” she said.
Producers might also want to participate in CIPARS.
“I think we’re going to see more action towards collecting antimicrobial use data, so we can better understand the relationship and the choices that we make on our farms to the resistance we see.”


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Analysts think that the market is punishing General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) because the company is not realizing its huge potential. It’s almost a consensus amongst major analysts that GM is highly undervalued. Recently, Morgan Stanley said in a report that GM has a potential to cross $50 mark if its management could reposition Cadillac against Tesla and take steps to unlock shareholder value.
General Motors is expected to gain from its rising sales in China. In the US, things have started to take a good turn as auto sales in August jumped 4.1%. Another excellent reason to buy General Motors is that legendary investor Warren Buffett is among the top shareholders of the company.
Over the current book year the total revenue will be 147,81 billion USD (consensus estimates). This is hugely lower than 2016's revenue of 166,38 billion USD.
The analysts expect for 2017 a net profit of 9,14 billion USD. For this year most of the analysts expect a profit per share of 6,13 USD. Based on this the price/earnings-ratio is 6,31.
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August 31, 2010
Swatch are set to release a new range of super-sized Gent watches comprising of several colorways. Its simplicity and use of basic colors make it easy to match and will definitely be a staple piece in your closet. There will be launched on September 20th, 2010 at colette. Hit the jump to have a closer look at the entire collection.


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Industry 'will withstand scandal'
Food marketing chiefs have said the industry in Ireland should be strong enough to withstand the horse meat burger scandal.
Bord Bia, which markets businesses and their products around the world, said it is too early to assess the potential impact, if any, on exports.
Aidan Cotter, chief executive of Bord Bia, described the horse meat controversy as a disappointment.
"This is a disappointing development at a time when the Irish food industry has been performing so strongly," Mr Cotter said.
"Nevertheless it is important to note that the industry's success is based on robust relationships with premium customers, built up over an extended period and capable of withstanding many challenges.
"Bord Bia is liaising closely with the FSAI and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to provide all the necessary assurances to overseas customers where required."
Ireland's food exports surpassed 9 billion euro for the first time last year. The industry has been promoted and billed as a major success story in the midst of the recession and long-running banking, property and financial crises.
Ciara Jackson, Grant Thornton head of food, warned about the reputational damage being done to the Irish food sector on the back of the investigation.
"Every second that the horse meat story runs on Sky News could translate into millions of euros in lost sales," she said, adding that the integrity of the food supply chain in Ireland was the bedrock that underpins the food and drink industry.
"All stakeholders in the meat business, from farmers through to supermarkets, are under severe pressure to sustain profitability," she said. "Now, more than ever, it is vital the industry collaborates to create a resilient supply chain that can deliver cost efficiencies whilst ensuring Irish produce maintains its international reputation."


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Bits & Bytes is a weekly roundup of the most important news in the fast evolving fashion-tech space.
Fossil Group Inc., a maker of watches, handbags and other accessories, tumbled as much as 14 percent in late trading after its holiday sales and annual forecast missed analysts’ estimates.
Swatch Group AG plans to start selling a smartwatch in the next three months, potentially pitting the Swiss maker of colorful plastic timepieces’ debut directly against Apple Inc.’s Apple Watch.
Swatch will launch a smart watch in the next two to three months, the Swiss watchmaker said on Thursday.
Swatch Group AG reported 2014 earnings that missed analysts’ estimates as political protests in Hong Kong weighed on demand for Swiss watches in that market.
Swiss watch exports kept growing at the slowest rate since the financial crisis for a second year as shipments to China and Hong Kong dropped in the final quarter.
The common denominator to attract female clientele in the luxury watchmaking industry has so far usually been a sparkly one — diamonds. Vacheron Constantin, the oldest Swiss watchmaker in continuous operation, plans to change that.
Small, lower-end Swiss watch brands face a more uncertain future after the Swiss National Bank’s U-turn on the franc cap, according to Greubel Forsey SA.
Swatch Group AG, Switzerland’s biggest watchmaker, will raise prices at some of its brands by as much as 10 percent after the Swiss National Bank’s surprise decision last week to abandon the cap on the franc exchange rate.
Roger Dubuis, a Swiss watchmaker owned by Cie. Financiere Richemont SA, anticipates increasing prices in the euro zone by 7 percent in reaction to the Swiss National Bank’s Jan. 15 decision to exit a three-year-old euro cap.
TAG Heuer is set to enter uncharted territory this year with plans for a smartwatch that will be its only timepiece developed outside Switzerland.


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Microsoft news and other technology news, photos, charts and data from seattlepi.com.
Posts filtered on Category
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Microsoft and Yahoo have been cleared by both the U.S. and the European Union to go ahead with their proposed search deal, the companies announced Thursday. [Read More]
Another month, another half-point. Microsoft’s Bing search engine saw its market share grow to 11.3 percent in January, up from 10.7 percent the month before, according to new comScore data. [Read More]
A growing but obviously still trailing Microsoft Bing (formerly Live Search) fielded nearly half as many more U.S. searches last year than it did in 2008, analysis firm comScore said Tuesday, outpacing Google’s growth rate and the industry average. [Read More]
The Associated Press reports: SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo Inc. moved further down the road to recovery in the fourth quarter as online advertising began to snap out of a yearlong stupor to ease the Internet company’s long-running slump. [Read More]
Bing seems to be getting better at retrieving what Americans are looking for. [Read More]
2009 was a year of ups and downs for Microsoft – like just about every year recently. It had two big product launches, Bing and Windows 7, and finally reached a search deal with Yahoo. But the company also was marred by legal issues and big layoffs, and its status in the smartphone market continued slipping. [Read More]


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Exotrail deployed its first cubesat with the latest advanced ExoMG electric propulsion system, according to the report it divulged last week. The company sent the cubesat to the low-Earth orbit (LEO) two months ago. This mission was testing its in-orbit […]
Exotrail deployed its first cubesat with the latest advanced ExoMG electric propulsion system, according to the report it divulged last week. The company sent the cubesat to the low-Earth orbit (LEO) two months ago. This mission was testing its in-orbit technology with the help of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) PSLV rocket. The mission implies that the company is ready for venturing more space operations with other satellites below 250 kilograms. The ExoMG electric propulsion system is under the direction of ExoOPS. ExoOPS is Exotrail’s operation software running the propulsion system, proving that it created two new products in this mission.
The chief executive and one of the founders of Exotrail, David Henri, stated that everything they planned for this mission proceeded as expected. Moreover, customers of the company commended the company for unveiling this advanced technology. The customers are also ready to work with this company to enjoy the technology developed by the company’s engineers. Additionally, Eutelsat is contacting the company for the development of cloud-based mission design software. The company unveiled this technology revealing its involvement in advanced technology. The project manager of Eutelsat, Antonin, Hirsch, commended the simplicity of the software in understanding. The software allows the engineers to optimize the operations of a constellation of satellites, change the projection of the satellites, and determine the effect of propelling the system in another trajectory.
Exotrail revealed that they conducted numerous pilot tests for this program before they allowed Eutelsat to purchase and enjoy its versatility. The company generated data from constellation operators, satellite controllers, and engineers to develop a system that adjusts with the satellites’ operating system. The company protects this technology, and it has allowed only Eutelsat to explore its variations while giving back feedback to the company for updating of the next production. David Henri stated that this contract is creating a solid foundation for the partnership between these two companies.
Additionally, Eutelsat announced that the next series of Eutelsat satellites under the ELO constellation would host the technology created by Exotrail. The company wants to test the electric propulsion system developed by Exotrail to display a new variable that the space industry has never witnessed. Exotrail’s CEO explained that their obligation is to become a peculiar technology company in the space industry by offering propulsion system designs, satellite technology, and mission designs for the company’s customers. Other companies that have declared interest in the Exotrail electric propulsion and want to install it in their systems is CNES, a popular French space company.


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(WASHINGTON, DC) -- Although the economy has been growing lately, fallout from the recent recession continued to negatively impact commercial real estate sectors in the fourth quarter, but there is hope for some improvement next year, according to the National Association of Realtors.
Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said commercial real estate almost always lags the economy. "Because of the lingering impact from the deep recession over the past two years, vacancy rates will trend higher and many commercial property owners will need to make rent concessions," he said.
"With the job market expected to turn for the better later this year, we'll see rising demand for office and warehouse space, but that isn't likely before 2011," Yun said. "At the same time, improved consumer confidence would help sustain the retail sector and encourage more people to enter the rental market."
Yun notes that commercial vacancy rates remain high in most market areas and are depressing rents.
The Society of Industrial and Office Realtors, in its SIOR Commercial Real Estate Index, an attitudinal survey of more than 700 local market experts, suggests a flattening level of business activity in upcoming quarters with 55 percent of members expecting the market to improve in the second quarter.
The SIOR index rose 0.2 percentage point to 35.5 in the fourth quarter, compared with a level of 100 that represents a balanced marketplace. This is the first gain following 11 consecutive quarterly declines. Although some indicators show that a decline in commercial property values is beginning to flatten, 86 percent of respondents report prices are below replacement costs.
Nearly nine in 10 survey participants said new commercial development is virtually nonexistent in their market areas, and rent concessions are reported almost everywhere.
An independent survey earlier this month showed a couple dozen banks are willing to expand commercial credit this year, which is critical. The lending expansion is aided by the Federal Reserve's Term Asset-Backed Loan Facility, which is encouraging issuance of commercial mortgage-backed bonds. In addition, regulators are prodding lenders to extend terms for many existing commercial loans.
"We have a long way to go for satisfactory levels of commercial credit, but these are important first steps," Yun said. "Given that about $1.4 trillion in commercial debt will come due over the next three years, more extensive action is needed and the Fed needs to more actively help resuscitate commercial mortgage-backed securities. The credit improvement will mean more commercial property sales in 2010, even some at deeply discounted prices."
Looking at the overall market, commercial vacancy rates generally will stay at elevated levels, according to NAR's latest COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE OUTLOOK. The NAR forecast for four major commercial sectors analyzes quarterly data in the office, industrial, retail and multifamily markets. Historic data were provided by CBRE Econometric Advisors.
With a lot of sublease space currently on the market, vacancy rates in the office sector are forecast to rise from 16.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 17.6 percent in the fourth quarter of this year; the longer term outlook is for vacancies to average 17.4 percent in 2011.
Annual office rent is projected to decline 7.2 percent in 2010, following a drop of 12.7 percent last year. In 57 markets tracked, net absorption of office space, which includes the leasing of new space coming on the market as well as space in existing properties, should be a negative 27.3 million square feet in 2010.
There is proportionately less industrial sublease space on the market than in the office sector, but obsolescence remains a factor. Industrial vacancy rates will probably rise from 13.9 percent in the fourth quarter of last year to 14.9 percent in the closing quarter of 2010; they could average 14.5 percent next year.
Annual industrial rent is likely to fall 9.6 percent this year, after declining 10.9 percent in 2009. Net absorption of industrial space in 58 markets tracked is seen at a negative 93.5 million square feet in 2010.
Retail vacancy rates are expected to edge up from 12.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009 to 12.7 percent in the same period of this year, and may hold at that level in 2011.
Average retail rent is forecast to decline 2.4 percent in 2010, following a drop of 4.0 percent in 2009. Net absorption of retail space in 53 tracked markets should be a negative 3.4 million square feet this year.
The apartment rental market - multifamily housing - is poised to gain from a rise in household formation. Multifamily vacancy rates are likely to decline from 7.4 percent in the fourth quarter of last year to 6.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, and possibly edge down to 6.1 percent next year.
Average rent is projected to decline 3.4 percent this year, following a decline 3.6 percent in 2009. Multifamily net absorption is expected to be 115,000 units in 59 tracked metro areas this year.
The COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE OUTLOOK is published by the NAR Research Division for the commercial community. NAR's Commercial Division, formed in 1990, provides targeted products and services to meet the needs of the commercial market and constituency within NAR.
The NAR commercial components include commercial members; commercial committees, subcommittees and forums; commercial real estate boards and structures; and the NAR commercial affiliate organizations - CCIM Institute, Institute of Real Estate Management, Realtors Land Institute, Society of Industrial and Office Realtors, and Counselors of Real Estate.
More than 81,000 NAR and institute affiliate members offer commercial brokerage services.
The National Association of Realtors, "The Voice for Real Estate," is America's largest trade association, representing 1.2 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries.
For more real estate industry news and trends from the National Association of Realtors, visit www.Realtor.org.


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Grade school students in more than 100 cities around the world are considering who might deserve 2,500 cookies this holiday season thanks to DoubleTree by Hilton’s Teaching Kids to CARE program.
Through the Caring Community Cookie Project, DoubleTree is using its signature chocolate chip cookie as a teaching tool to show kids how they can make a difference with simple acts of kindness. Each participating DoubleTree hotel adopted classes at their local elementary schools this fall and pledged 2,500 of the brand’s signature chocolate chip cookies to their team of “kid volunteers,” so they could present them to the group they voted for most. As a result, students will present more than 250,000 cookies to various community groups and organizations worldwide.
“During the past 10 years, we’ve worked with more than 5 million grade school students through our Teaching Kids to CARE initiative to share one simple lesson — caring and giving back to our communities can be rewarding and fun,” said John Greenleaf, vice president – brand marketing, DoubleTree by Hilton. “And with our Caring Community Cookie Project this holiday season, a gesture as simple as sharing a fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie with someone unexpectedly is sure to make them smile.”


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Francis Tan is the Asia editor of TNW, who is based in the Philippines. He is particularly interested in Asian Internet startups, social me Francis Tan is the Asia editor of TNW, who is based in the Philippines. He is particularly interested in Asian Internet startups, social media and e-commerce. Get in touch with him via Twitter @francistan or Email [email protected].
In 2010, China Unicom attracted more than 140 million 3G subscribers special thanks to the huge popularity of the iPhone 4 in China.
The company recently said that the number of 3G users increased by 1.28 million in December to reach 140.6 million subscribers by the end of 2010. It exceeded its annual target of 100 million by 40% in part, due to the company being the only provider in China to offer the iPhone 4 with a contract. Yu Yingtao, GM for marketing, said that the daily orders for the iPhone 4 reached more than 10,000 units. By mid-December, they had already topped 1.3 million since the September launch.
Although still behind China Mobile’s 207 million by the end of 2010, analysts claim that this figure could surge to more than quadruple this year to around 400 million. This may not be far from possible thanks to China Unicom’s efforts to push 3G all throughout the country this 2011 by investing on new infrastructures to broaden their coverage and cheaper 3g handsets.
China telecom, although not much details have been released, expressed a willingness to cooperate with Apple after the launch of the CDMA version of the iPhone 4. It is crucial, however, that they roll this out as soon as possible because the iPhone 5 is due to be released early this year as well.
Just to give you a perspective: China is currently the biggest internet population in the world with 457 million internet users, 303 million of which are on mobile.
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Opto Circuits buying Cardiac Science for $55M
- Staff Puget Sound Business Journal
Cardiac Science Corp. is being bought by Opto Circuits of India for about $55 million.
Opto Circuits of Bangalore, Karnataka, is paying $2.30 a share for the Bothell biotech's outstanding 2.38 million outstanding shares, which is a 10 percent premium on Cardiac Science's closing price Monday of $2.10.
Medical device maker Cardiac Science (NASDAQ: CSCX) makes automated external difibrillators, electrocardiac devices, cardiac stress treadmills and diagnostic work stations. Opto Circuits makes and markets healthcare equipment products.
After the deal closes, which is expected late in the fourth quarter, Cardiac Science and its estimated 550 employees will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Opto Circuits.
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ONE corner of the Food Hall at the Royal Welsh Show has become a hot spot for visitors as they queue up for their £1 a pot curries from the Authentic World Foods stand.
The company has run a promotional stand at the show for the past eight years and see it as a key part of their marketing drive.
Managing Director Paul Trotman from Penyard Merthyr Tydfil, who spent five days at the show in Builth with his hard-working team, said: “The show helps us get our products out to massive audience in a short space of time. Despite the poor weather this year, we have done almost to the pound, the same amount of business as we did last year.”
The company sell thousands of their promotional £1 a pot Welsh Black, Chicken Tikka and Dragon’s Fire curries during the four-day show and it gives the public a taste of products that are now on the shelves of Tesco, Asda and Morrisons with other big chains also looking to the Cynon Valley company for orders.
Over the past five years the business has grown from £300,000 annual turnover to a £2m annual turnover. It employs around 25 staff and is looking to step up production and recruitment.
The company has a 100-product range; its curries sold under the company name Authentic Curry Company and other products under the company name Authentic World Foods.


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Albert Einstein once said "Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving." It's clear that media agencies are at a crossroads, so for those of us in the industry, as we begin 2017, it's great time to reassess our role so we can continue to, as Einstein
The stock value of holding company MDC Partners, which owns Anomaly, 72andSunny, CP+B and other agencies, dropped precipitously before the New York Stock exchange's opening bell on Friday after the company failed to meet revenue goals for the third quarter of 2016.
Over the last year, media accounts have been put up for review left and right. Clients from Procter & Gamble to Coca-Cola put roughly
MDC Partners and Crispin Porter + Bogusky today announced a major win for the network. MDC has acquired Swedish agency Forsman & Bodenfors—perhaps best known as the agency behind Volvo's "Epic Split" campaign—forming a "strategic global partnership" between the agency and CP+B.
Jeff Liang is the new chief digital officer at Assembly, replacing Alan Smith, who had joined the MDC Partners' media network last March.
As 2015 began, Guy Hayward joined MDC Partners' KBS in New York as its first global chief executive officer.
Arby's brand president and marketing boss Rob Lynch realized shortly after joining the fast-food chain famous for those stacked-to-the-ceiling roast beef sandwiches that he had his work cut out for him.
Seeking a foothold in the fast-growing out-of-home advertising space, MDC Media Partners has launched EnPlay Media, a standalone, technology-focused OOH communications company.
Former MDC Partners chief Miles Nadal has already paid the company back $8.6 million and owes an additional $12.7 million in the wake of the SEC inquiry into


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Though Spotify stock (NYSE: SPOT) has parted with more than one-quarter of its value since the start of 2021, financial professionals at five-year-old Worm Capital are confident that the Stockholm-based audio-entertainment company “will ultimately prove out to be the Google of audio.”
Higher-ups at Boulder, Colorado-headquartered Worm Capital made the bold prediction – and explained their positive outlook regarding Spotify’s long-term potential – in a newly published Q3 2021 earnings report. After emphasizing the investment-management firm’s confidence in “aggregating marginal gains,” the quarterly performance analysis notes that each of the companies in Worm Capital’s “core portfolio” (Tesla, Spotify, Shopify, Airbnb, and Amazon) seeks to take a series of small, gradual steps towards significant growth.
“Spotify is a wonderful example of this dynamic,” continues the Q3 2021 report. “Although the market has pummeled this position in recent months, falling more than 35% from all-time highs—and has contributed significantly to our negative year-to-date performance—the company is meeting and often exceeding our internal expectations.”
The latter, the document continues, is attributable to Spotify’s “expanding territory,” working to reduce “frictions for creators,” “enabling the next generation of audio advertising,” and “continuously experimenting to improve the experience for both creators and fans to create an essential platform.”
“Spotify is, in many ways, building the essential audio infrastructure for the Internet, much like Google built the search infrastructure to power Web 2.0 or Apple built the hardware infrastructure [to] power the app economy,” the document continues. “We think the valuation represents one of the wider deviations between price and value in the market today, but we think time will be on our side here—like all our positions, we maintain a long-term view on the company and certain theses may take multiple years to play out.”
From there, the analysis characterizes Spotify CEO Daniel Ek’s vision as “far grander than most may realize” and discloses two charts, one showing Spotify’s paid-subscriber gains compared to those of competing streaming services, the other highlighting streaming’s overarching impact on the music industry.
“Like most great growth business stories,” the text states towards its conclusion, “the market tends to vastly underestimate the total addressable market in its early days. We believe Spotify will ultimately prove out to be the Google of audio, and it should command a far higher multiple today.”
Worm Capital also pointed to an interview given by its director of research, Eric Markowitz, for a more in-depth explanation of the perceived potential associated with Spotify stock.
“Spotify is such an interesting company,” said Markowitz. “There’s roughly 365 million monthly active users. As of today, the long-term plan is to get to a billion. How many platforms in the world have a billion users? Really, very few.
“The core thesis on Spotify, which we wrote a little bit about it, and the market really seems to maybe not grasp this, is there is a ton of opportunity to leverage that platform of – right now 365 million, but eventually a billion users, 50 million creators eventually – and really have truly the world-class platform for audio.
“Other big tech companies – Apple, Amazon – they have their own systems, but they are not (in our view, at least) optimizing really for both creators and listeners,” Markowitz proceeded. “It [Spotify] is one of the most loved platforms out there. … We just want the company to be going to new territories, improving the product for both users and creators. And ultimately, it’s like a big game of strategy; we just view Spotify taking over the world.”
Spotify is scheduled to release its own Q3 2021 earnings report on Wednesday, October 27th, and back in February, Amsterdam’s The Guardian Fund predicted that Spotify stock will be worth five times more by 2030 – or approximately $1,750 per share, factoring based upon SPOT’s price at the time.
Please see list of all the Professional musicians used by the Beatles on just one track. These people were all paid Union scale and their parts made a huge difference to the quality of the music.
George Martin – orchestral arrangement, harmonium (final chord)
Erich Gruenberg, Granville Jones, Bill Monro, Jurgen Hess, Hans Geiger, D. Bradley, Lionel Bentley, David McCallum, Donald Weekes, Henry Datyner, Sidney Sax, Ernest Scott, Carlos Villa – violins
John Underwood, Gwynne Edwards, Bernard Davis, John Meek – violas
Francisco Gabarro, Dennis Vigay, Alan Delziel, Alex Nifosi – cellos
Cyril Mac Arther, Gordon Pearce – double bass
John Marson – harp
Roger Lord – oboe
Basil Tschaikov, Jack Brymer – clarinets
N. Fawcett, Alfred Waters – bassoons
Clifford Seville, David Sandeman – flutes
Alan Civil, Neil Sanders – French horns
David Mason, Monty Montgomery, Harold Jackson – trumpets
Raymond Brown, Raymond Premru, T. Moore – trombones
I wonder if Worm knows how much Spotify is reviled by so many musicians and how little Ek cares about musicians…
My point exactly. Spotify can go F itself. There are many alternatives. Ek is a POS who needs to be dragged on his bald pate forever. Musicians will undermine SPOT’s value over time.
WOrm Capital can also go F itself.
Spotify has no other tools than price and marketing to reach more audiences. If you compare with the competitors, all of them are selling music as part of other services. To become the Google of Music, I think they should complete a lot of discographies, work on non musical, bootlegs and UGCs contents (in a way where copyrights are protected) and keep working with the search engine.
My prediction is P2P will render Spotify a dinosaur in less than a decade. Create a mechanism for artists to bypass websites and you will become fabulously wealthy. Maybe a directory of sorts? Direct micropayment?
I can’t stand crypto as a stock investment vehicle, but NFT is no joke when it comes to removing the middlemen from transactions between artists and buyers. This can make a giant difference in the future, and should do so.
Before too long, a major service is going to have to address NFT or they will all be out of business, because a new hungry company will come along.
Platforms and labels are becoming as interchangeable as clothing or tv fads. REAL Musicians will rule before much longer.
A new hungry company will come along and enable a NFT or sub-style platform with a micro-percentage of margin for creating the channel and environment. THis will only matter to those consumers unwilling to buy directly from their favorite artists.
Even if artists sell a song directly through NFT for 5 cents with zero margin, they will be miles ahead of the Spotify model.
I can’t wait to see DRECK and all his asshole major label funders eat sh*t and die in bankruptcy.
The only gatekeeping left is getting on television etc. There will be contracts for that in specific, but no more 360 deals, no more pay for the MBAs yachts. Good f*cking riddance parasites.


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Move over virtual reality, there's a new reality taking over at meetings, conferences, and events. Augmented reality has the potential to change the way people see events — literally.
Thanks to Apple’s recent product launch event, augmented reality (AR) is getting a lot of attention these days. Apple’s next generation of phones — the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X — will all carry Apple’s ARKit, a free iOS 11 software update that enables developers to create augmented reality applications that place digital objects in the real world.
With Apple’s ARKit and a similar technology by Google called ARCore, smartphones and tablets have been completely transformed and augmented reality is set to become a large part of our lives. In fact, TechCrunch predicted, “AR could become the primary driver of a $108 billion VR [virtual reality]/AR market by 2021, with AR taking the lion’s share of $83 billion and VR $25 billion.”
While augmented reality is often lumped into the same category as virtual reality, the technologies are actually different. Virtual reality completely transports a user into a virtual world. Augmented reality combines GPS and smartphone camera technology to project images and information onto the real world.
The hardware needed can also be very different: Virtual reality systems typically require some sort of headset. But augmented reality can be used with either wearables like Microsoft’s HoloLens glasses, or through a smartphone or tablet, which lends itself to use by groups in a shared space.
Without any additional gear, augmented reality creates an immersive experience and allows everyone in a room to experience the same thing and see the same images, making AR ideal for meetings and events.
“Augmented reality has the potential to add dimension to events that would take them to the next level — not just allowing for deeper engagement and more interaction, but creating solutions that provide a better overall attendee experience,” said Wilson Tang, VP of digital experience with FreemanXP.
Bringing ‘Star Wars’ to the Sports Technology Awards
Augmented reality has progressed light years since R2-D2 played a holographic plea from Princess Leia in “Star Wars IV: A New Hope.” In fact, AR is now being used to unveil and demonstrate new products at conferences, overlay product content at trade show booths, or engage event attendees through gamification and social media.
Or, as in the case of the most recent Sports Technology Awards (STA), augmented reality can help announce and provide information on award winners, drive attendance, and bring R2-D2, C-3PO, and other familiar “Star Wars” figures into their event.
Because the awards event was held on May 4th (also known as “Star Wars” day), organizers asked augmented reality technology firm skignz to create augmented content around the “Star Wars” theme. The 420 event attendees who had downloaded the skignz app and used their phones or tablets to scan the room saw a life-sized Yoda sitting next to them and the Millennium Falcon flying around London’s Roundhouse.
The partnership between the Sports Technology Awards and skignz started months before the actual event by giving the nominated companies a visual cue that they’d been shortlisted for the 19 award categories hours before the announcement was made public.
“We posted AR signage outside their offices and told people to download the AR app created for us by skignz, and scan their surroundings,” said Rebecca Hopkins, CEO and managing director of the Sports Technology Awards. “This was highly effective and generated a great response on social media.”
It also drove attendance and ticket sales as the “sky signs” created by skignz gave the nominees not only the information on when and where the awards would be held, but also a link on how to buy more tickets or reserve a table for the event. Skignz founder and CEO Si Brown said more than 300 people downloaded the app before or during the event.
On the day of the awards ceremony, skignz provided augmented reality table plans and menu information, directed attendees to videos of the winners in each category, and used the technology to engage attendees in some social media competitions involving those “Star Wars” characters. “We simply told them [skignz] what we wanted and they made it happen,” Hopkins said.
Hopkins said she’s a big fan of the technology and plans to include it in future STA events. “It is nimble, exciting and versatile. I was really surprised that we were the first event organizers to see its potential but I couldn’t be more delighted that we embraced it,” she said. “As the technology develops to include video, animation, and the ability to capture images, we would hope to make this a core part of the Sports Technology Awards DNA.”
For its part, Brown said his company’s goal is to make augmented reality a key component in event planning and to take interactivity at events to a whole other level.
“There’s a lot more we can do with it and we’re working with them to come up with a few more ideas to take it to the next level next year and test the boundaries of augmented reality,” Brown said. “We’re trying to make augmented reality an essential part of what they’re doing. As much as social media has become part of people’s marketing and delivery strategy, then why can’t AR?”
Have a confidential tip for Skift? Get in touch
Photo credit: An example of how augmented reality was used at this year's Sports Technology Awards in London hints at how the technology can be used at future meetings and events. skignz/Sports Technology Awards


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After old schools BMW 3-Series when the day of announcement it was 25 years ago. This 2014 BMW M3 was appeared on four different generations and evolved from a 2.3 liter inline-four cylinder engine with 200 HP to an impressive V8 hitting 420 HP. 2014 BMW M3 maybe not the best sport cars out there, but it have the most needed functions as sport cars such as extraordinary look, great performance, the best class handling, and a luxurious interior. The brand new 2014 BMW M3 concept was continuity from 2013 models which the sports car’s history will move on to its next chapter as BMW will be set to reveal the new generation M3.
The new 2012 Subaru FT86 will be revealed on Tokyo Auto Show according to topspeed informations. This new 2012 Subaru FT86 will be unveiled its new details actually in this later year and will be expected a longer than average life cycle for the car and is looking at variant packages. 2012 Subaru FT86 is including with a possible STI version which as the usual STI models are all about being turbocharged, the FT-86 STI will keep the engine naturally aspirated. This car will be offered a new performance driving experiences.
2012 Mazda3 is the brand new little compact car from Mazda that showed off at New York 2011 Auto Show. This 2012 Mazda3 coming with a mid cycle refresh that not only provides a refined exterior and interior. 2012 Mazda3 performance is dishes out a new engine that utilizes Mazda’s innovative SKYACTIV fuel saving and performance oriented technologies. Like Future Volkswagen Beetle Revealed on New York 2011, they use that fuel saving technology both on new and old Mazda3. With manual transmission revealed will enhance this city car.
2013 Chevrolet Malibu the first global version of the popular mid-size Chevy, has finally been revealed in 2011 New York Auto Show. 2013 Chevrolet Malibu was revealed one day before at 2011 Shanghai Auto Show. The 2013 Chevrolet Malibu concept will take all of modernism of car design include exterior and interior of the car. Like 2012 Dodge Avenger R/T in New York 2011 Auto Show, the Chevy got many eyes look on its beautiful modern design style. The new Malibu is 4.5 inches smaller in wheelbase at 107.8 inches, and it’s 191.3 inches long–but an inch wider.
As topspeed said, Autocar a British Magazine this 2012 Toyota FT86 will bring back the name of Celica to the Europe and Japanese markets. This 2012 Toyota FT86 coming as Scion at USA which bring new experience for impressive sport cars. Like Toyota said 86 is likely to be retained in its name somewhere, however, as the car has been conceived as a tribute to Toyota’s classic AE86 Corolla. 2012 Toyota FT86 is the second-coming of Toyota’s iconic Celica line and Subaru version which coming in Japanese version.
Related Auto Show & Car Showoff for when is the coming out car show for md 2014 at AutoCarShowOff.com
If you have off-road market, then the name of Jeep Wrangler Rock Raider River Raider Off Road may come to mind and this company has a new full service outside. We recently spoke with Kenny Hauk Hauk project and talked with him about the various models that the company developed for its customers. He mentioned [...]
Todays europe supercars is commonly dominated by Germany, Italy, and the UK. But today you must mix the World First Polish Supercar which showed up by Arrinera Automotive. The growing of high technology cars is make producers of this World First Polish Supercar joined in the supercar arms race by Sweden, Denmark, and Spain, among [...]
The most impressive 2011 BMW M3 GTS series car ever was tuned by G-Power into an awesome orange edition cars. Differences from standard 2011 BMW M3 GTS, this orange edition BMW got lightweight body parts, carbon aerodynamic parts, titanium exhaust, racing suspension, roll cage, and racing bucket seats with six-point seat-belts. But G-Power missing one [...]
From the exclusive blockbuster movies at hollywood and have appeared in a growing number of them that involve superheroes, from the Batman Dark Knight Rises a Lamborghini Aventador become a new Batmobile. The supercar hollywood movies has strated from Iron Man that trend when Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr., was seen riding the [...]
Lexus LX570 which tuned by Wald was turn the ordinary SUV into Black Bison Edition. Tuning an SUV is something often left to become more capable off-road specially on Lexus LX570. Some platforms luxury SUV like the Land Rover, being treated ultra-luxury, but you’ve seen a Lexus LX570 SUV makeover of a renowned tuner? Wald [...]
Mercedes Benz a world class car company was released new concept for their future car at New York 2011 Auto Show called Mercedes Benz A Class Shines. The Mercedes Benz A Class Shines concept was bring the shines into the full body of the car which make the car looks so glamour and luxurious. Mercedes [...]
The limited edition of Mercedes SLR Stirling Moss which only produced 75 units was actually showed up at Cannes Film Festval which drives by Kanye West. Improving the views of see one actually outside of an air conditioned and secured garage is a spectacular treat for the eye is the real unique feature of this [...]
After released the concept of 2012 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR at Los Angeles Auto Show in 2007, today Dodge was give the full review of this brand new sport cars. They say this 2012 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR bringing what would essentially be the last model presented before a whole new breed of Viper comes [...]
Minagi compact crossover concept was released for new 2012 Mazda CX5 since 2011 Geneva Motor Show. But in that time is only the concept of this awesome 2012 Mazda CX5 which has been hinting at production of its attractive. At New York 2011 Auto Show Mazda was finally released the true car named 2012 Mazda [...]
The german tuning company Novitec Rosso building a fabulous works with 2011 Alfa Romeo 8C Spider which stands on top of tuning specs and modification style. Featuring 2011 Alfa Romeo 8C Spider, Novitec Rosso gave the fastest and the most powerful Alfa Romeo even more another fast cars. This 2011 Alfa Romeo 8C Spider powered [...]


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The sale of Maurices Inc. – which is valued at about $300 million – comes as part of an Ascena review to enhance shareholder value, the company said. The deal, subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close by early summer.
Ascena expects to receive approximately $200 million in cash, after expenses, while still maintaining a minority interest in Maurices. The cash proceeds from the sale will be utilized to pay down an existing term loan balance, and/or to reinvest in the business, per the terms of Ascena’s credit facilities.
Ascena initiated its Change for Growth plan in 2016, according to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David Jaffe. The program is set to deliver a “leaner operating model and enhanced competitive capabilities,” Jaffe said in a statement.
Maurices will still be supported by Ascena’s shared business services platform through a managed services agreement for IT, supply chain, sourcing and other back office functions. Ascena said the deal will further the development of its platform services business.
Jaffe said the ongoing arrangement will provide a guide for offering third-party platform services to others.
“The sale of a majority interest in Maurices underscores the value that exists in our portfolio brands. The review and evaluation process we are undertaking, with the help of outside advisors, is designed to recognize this value on behalf of Ascena shareholders,” Jaffe said in a prepared statement.
Guggenheim Securities and Proskauer Rose LLP advised Ascena on financial and legal matters, respectively. PJ Solomon and Clifford Chance served as financial and legal advisors, respectively, to OpCapita.
Ascena is a national specialty retailer offering apparel shoes and accessories under such brands as Ann Taylor, Dress Barn, Lane Bryant and Justice.


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West Papua is now seeing a positive economy. Thanks to infrastructure development, education funding, and encouragement to boost the regional economy. These beneficial moves are also backed by the availability of pre-employment cards distributed to the Papuan people.
Those are said to skyrocket the regional economy in eastern Indonesia. This article will provide a concise overview of the situation.
The Positive Trend
President Jokowi is well-known for being the first president to step foot in Papua and prioritize this region. That’s why there are distinct benefits that are seen to be highly significant in the growth of West Papua.
The existence of a special autonomy policy imposed by the central government is one factor that encourages this rise. For example, the Sorong SEZ was declared the first Special Economic Zone in Papua by Government Regulation 31/2016.
This Special Economic Zone was developed on 523.7 hectares of land in a favorable location near the Sele Strait. Its fishing and maritime transportation potential is expected to lift the Papuan economy significantly.
With an incoming investment project of Rp 32.2 trillion and the capacity to employ 15,024 people till 2025, It is not strange that the economic growth of West Papua outperforms national economic growth.
In addition to the Sorong area, the government is carrying out ambitious activities in this Raja Ampat territory. For example, the development of the trans-Papua sea toll road improves the smooth flow of trade commodities. It is thought that it will be possible to distribute the cost of goods and encourage more labor to be absorbed by doing so.
The Economic Growth
Its economy achieved positive monthly and annual growth in the fourth quarter of 2021, which was 5.16 percent greater than the third quarter of the same year, which only expanded by 2.84 percent.
According to data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the Papuan economy hit IDR 235.34 trillion in 2021, based on the quantity of gross regional domestic product (GRDP) at current prices (ADHB).
Overall, the economy grew by 15.11 percent in 2020 compared to the previous year. This statistic is far more exciting than the previous year’s growth rate of 2.39 percent.
Plus, it indicates the fastest growth rate in a decade. The expansion is undoubtedly backed by an increase in economic activity across the board, except for health care and social services and financial and insurance services, which are not faring and other sectors.
The Industry Sector
Some details of this expansion are supported by emerging sectors in Papua, with the mining and quarrying sector leading the way.
The mining and quarrying industries grew the most (36.84 percent). The construction sector came in second with 13.8 percent, and the agricultural sector came in third with 10.8 percent. Other industries that should be commended for their progress are real estate (7.04 percent) and electricity and gas procurement (5.77 percent).
Simply put, 11 business sectors are supporting the healthy growth of West Papua. They are power and gas supply, water supply, lodging and food and beverage, mining and quarrying, agriculture, real estate, health and education services, other services, wholesale and retail trade, and processing industries.
In addition to what has been stated, the positive trend of the economy in this region is supported by the growth of consumer credit in October 2021, which was recorded at 5.16 percent. It indicates that people’s purchasing power is beginning to improve after being hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, which devastated the economy and the world.
Nevertheless, in terms of expenditure, the economic growth of this region in the fourth quarter of 2021 was driven by increases in household consumption and investment. Also, the performance of government consumption and exports continues to shrink, posing a barrier to the rate of economic growth in this region.
But anyway, it is reasonable to say that the economy of West Papua has grown greatly over time. It is significantly higher than the national average growth rate of 3.69 percent, with this region increasing by 10.09 percent.


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Seems that according to attendees of the One Night Re:Birth Again concert, SaGa producer Akitoshi Kawazu let the cat out of the bag by announcing a brand new game in the long running series. Naturally, no real details about platform or release dates were spoken, but the sheer fact that it was mentioned is good enough for most.
The new game is meant to be a part of a much larger celebration of the SaGa series’ 25th anniversary and will accompany a new remixes album, Re:Birth II -Sen-.
While at the concert, Akitoshi Kawazu stated that the celebration will continue into 2015 as well. If fans are lucky, this will be an actual game and not yet another mobile title…which seems to be Square’s raison d’être.


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Asda has launched a major environmental drive involving more than 70 of its leading suppliers.
The retailer has recruited leading sustainability company 2degrees to run an online project that will look for ways to reduce their use of water, energy and waste.
“One of the major challenges of our sustainability strategy is that many targets are out of our direct control,” said Julian Walker-Palin, head of corporate sustainability at Asda.
“The potential ‘wins’ for both our customers and our suppliers are considerable so we have been looking at ways to engage. This is not about Asda demanding things from our suppliers but about working with them to help them become more sustainable.”


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Carl's Jr. has landed Hugh Hefner as a spokesperson in a new advertising campaign with a variety theme. The ads, according to Carl's Jr., "humorously allude to Hefner's enjoyment of variety." The press release announcing the campaign features the subhead "Because Some Guys Don't Want the Same Thing Day After Day."
The ads support the launch of a new line of Six Dollar Burgers.
Will the ads pay off or backfire? Stay tuned.


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Google has finally announced the roll out of its mobile phone operating system Android 8.0 Oreo after months of waiting. The search giant will first make the OS available to its products like Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel C, Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, and Nexus Player, before other OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) seed it to its popular devices. Xiaomi, which has become popular over the last few years, is also expected to release the firmware to several of its handsets, including Mi 5, Mi 6, Redmi Note 4 and Mi Mix.
The new Android 8.0 Oreo comes with features like New Notifications, Support for Picture-in-Picture Mode, New Emojis, Improved WebView API, Multiple Display Support, and Improved Doze Mode among others.
HMD Global has announced the list of its Nokia handsets that will get the Android 8.0 Oreo update, and OnePlus too but other OEMs are yet to do so.
Xiaomi is yet to announce the list of handsets that will be eligible to receive the new firmware but reports have claimed that its devices like Xiaomi Mi 6, Xiaomi Mi 5, Mi Mix, Redmi Note 5A and Redmi 5X will get it.
Interestingly, a Quora user named Moin Khan has claimed in his response to a query that over a dozen Xiaomi devices would get Android 8.0 Oreo update, and they are -- Redmi 4A, Mi 5C, Redmi Note 4, Redmi 4X, Redmi Note 4X, Redmi 4, Mi Mix, Mi 5S, Mi 5S Plus, Redmi 3S, Redmi 3S Prime, Mi 5, and Redmi Note 3. Interestingly, he missed out the latest Xiaomi device Mi 6.
The Chinese smartphone maker is yet to reveal the list of devices that will get the firmware update but the common perception is that most of the popular handsets that were released in 2015 and there after may receive it.
It may be mentioned that Xiaomi hasn't been prompt in rolling out new firmware update to its devices, so it is likely that the Mi 6 will get the Android 8.0 Oreo update only in the beginning of next year before expanding to other eligible handsets.


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Tag Warner, the CEO of GAY TIMES, has been recognised by Forbes on its annual 30 Under 30 list for his contributions to media and marketing.
Those named by the business magazine represent the brightest young entrepreneurs, leaders and stars the world has to offer, with Tag featuring in the 2022 instalment.
Since joining the company in 2019, he has led it during its transformation from a print publication into a content brand with its own strategy and creative agency.
It has grown to a monthly audience of more than four million, with GAY TIMES now being the biggest LGBTQ+ publisher on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook.
The 28-year-old, who graduated from the University of Manchester with a First Class degree in Management, also founded Amplifund – the philanthropic initiative created to amplify queer voices globally.
The charity recently launched the biggest campaign in its history, #WithTheT, by taking over more than 700 billboards across the UK in order to promote the message that LGBT is incomplete without the T.
Tag also launched GT133, a group of LGBTQ+ TikTok content creators, who have helped the brand go from strength to strength on the social media platform and have collaborated with the likes of Calvin Klein and Alexander McQueen.
Other people featured by Forbes include the co-founders of The Kyiv Independent, Toma Istomina, Anna Myroniuk and Oleksiy Sorokin, and Vogue’s VP of Brand Revenue, Michiel Steur, among others.
“As a young business leader, I hope that my recognition by Forbes 30 Under 30 goes some way to inspiring the next generation that LGBTQ+ people are a highly valued, and highly necessary, part of our world,” Tag said of the achievement.
“So much is possible with enough hard work, determination and vision – Forbes’ recognition goes beyond me personally and reflects upon our community as a space where tomorrow’s leaders live.”
GAY TIMES was established in 1975 and publishes a digital magazine once a month, with former cover stars including Bimini, Kylie Minogue, Munroe Bergdorf, Gus Kenworthy, Tinashe and Rickey Thompson.
In September 2021, the outlet became the first LGBTQ+ publication to pass one million followers on Instagram.
The company has worked on several prominent campaigns with a number of brands, including SKITTLES® and Apple Music.
You can view the full Forbes 30 Under 30 list by clicking here.
Photography: Morgan Hill-Murphy
Styling: Solly Warner
Make-up: David Sesmero
Shirt: Nu-In. Necklace by The Ouze from Revision


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Former Twitter employees are taking their anguish to the social-media platform that laid them off. Some are even using the hashtag #TwitterLayoffs.
Following a plan Monday to restructure Twitter, the company sent out emails addressed from newly tapped CEO Jack Dorsey to 336 employees letting them know that the company was letting them go.
"As always, please reach out to me directly with any ideas or questions," the email concluded.
Dorsey delivered the news this morning:
—Jack (@jack) October 13, 2015
The laid-off employees will get severance packages that will cost Twitter between $10 million and $20 million, according to the company.
—Simeon Franklin (@simeonfranklin) October 13, 2015
—Bart Teeuwisse (@bartt) October 13, 2015
—Jeff Sarnat (@Eigenvariable) October 13, 2015
—Fedor Korotkov (@fedor) October 13, 2015
—Chris O'Brien (@obrien) October 13, 2015
Meanwhile, employers did not waste a second and swooped in as anxious Twitter employees recounted their layoff stories. Here's a designer at Nest:
—Tomas Brennessl (@tbrennessl) October 13, 2015
—Lindsay Elliott (@linds) October 13, 2015
—Mitali Pattnaik (@mitali) October 13, 2015
—David Tobey (@detobey) October 13, 2015
—Sam Altman (@sama) October 13, 2015


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Apple’s iOS 15 operating system is due to launch in a few weeks, and it comes with a bunch of jaw-dropping new iPhone features that will beat Facebook. It comes after a years-long battle between the iPhone maker and Mark Zuckerberg’s social network over privacy.
Admittedly, Apple hasn’t really covered itself in fame over the past couple of weeks, after it emerged that iOS 15 will also include child protection features in iMessage and iCloud photos that could harm your privacy. the Iphone. But it’s important to point out that iOS 15 still comes with some amazing new iPhone features that will help you avoid being tracked on your iPhone. Here’s what to watch out for.
New privacy dashboard
Apple’s iOS 15 will come with a new privacy dashboard, which builds on the feature already launched in iOS 14.5, App Tracking Transparency (ATT) which makes tracking on your iPhone only enabled. ATT was a blow to Facebook as the social network released full-page ads to try and shut down iPhone functionality, and it’s still complaining about it now.
The dashboard will show which apps are allowed to access data such as your photos, contacts, and mic, and how often they access it. A later version of iOS 15 will integrate more with ATT by showing who follows you on your iPhone and when.
iOS 15 ends email tracking
iOS 15 will also help end email tracking by marketers, who can place web beacons in emails to track how often people open a message, as well as other details like your. location via your IP address. Not anymore – a new iOS 15 feature will allow Apple email users to block marketers from accessing this information, all you need to do is sign up.
ICloud features like Private Relay
Another feature, Private Relay, will soon be available as part of Apple’s iCloud + offering. Once activated, it will allow iPhone users to avoid being profiled when using Apple’s Safari browser. Private Relay has been called VPN, but it’s much more than that: the feature prevents you from being tracked and profiled online, known as a fingerprint, through the use of multiple proxies that help keep you safe. private traffic.
iOS 15 raises the stakes with Facebook
The launch of iOS 14 was already a big blow to Facebook, and iOS 15 goes even further. For my part, I can’t wait to try out Apple’s new iPhone privacy features, so check out this space for more tutorials and demos.


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Robloxplayer.exe goes public Wednesday— here‘s how indie game makers turned it into a $30 billion business
Ethan Gawronski was about 10 years old when he uncovered Roblox. He studied its games, mainly to fraternize other youngsters.
Now, at age 20, Gawronski has his own Robloxplayer.exe e that he services full time with his girlfriend, Elle Deppe. The couple, who satisfied on the app, gained greater than $49,000 in the past month from their activity game, Bad Business, by selling clothing as well as tools players can utilize to make their characters look cooler and also carry out far better.
“ Secretive designer areas, there were individuals that were making dumb quantities of cash as well as we thought we can do that,“ claimed Deppe, who‘s also 20, in a recent meeting.
Bad Business is among the numerous user-created games on Robloxplayer.exe , the children‘ entertainment readied to go public on Wednesday after being valued at $29.5 billion in January. The business has developed one of the top-grossing applications for Apple and also Google devices by transforming younger individuals right into game developers without compeling them to learn challenging coding. The company compensates programmers by sharing 30% of the income from online purchases.
Robloxplayer.exe said in the latest upgrade to its prospectus that it paid developers $328.7 million in 2015, up almost 200% from 2019. That far outpaced the company‘s sales growth of 82% in 2014, when it booked $923.9 million in total income.
Greater than 1,250 designers earned at the very least $10,000 in the digital currency Robloxplayer.exe , which can be transformed to cash. Over 300 earned $100,000 or more.
Robloxplayer.exe is telling possible investors to obtain comfortable with its significant payments. In its investor discussion recently, the company said it intends to fork over even more to creators to incentive higher-quality content and fund larger groups of designers, musicians, producers and designers .
“ What made use of to be a hobby has actually become a task for an private person, and currently is increasingly more becoming the structure for large, incredibly creative workshops that are emerging on our platform,“ stated Chief Executive Officer David Baszucki, that started Roblox in 2004.
On Tuesday, the New York City Supply Stock Exchange established a recommendation rate for Roblox‘s straight listing of $45 a share, which is the same rate financiers paid in January. The recommendation rate does not always show where the supply will certainly open up on Wednesday, when shares will trade openly for the very first time.
Gawronski dropped out of university last term after taking two years certainly at Grand Valley State College, where he switched over majors several times. Deppe completed her two-year affiliate‘s degree in Rose city, Oregon, and chose that sufficed. They have actually been living together because in 2015 in an apartment in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
The couple fulfilled face to face for the first time in 2017 at a Robloxplayer.exe developer meeting. They quickly started interacting and also were invited into an accelerator program at Roblox two years later on, at the firm‘s university in San Mateo, California. That‘s where they started constructing Bad Business.
“ The objective of the accelerator program for us was to build something that was profitable sufficient to move in with each other,“ stated Gawronski, including that regular monthly income is up around 30% since September. “It was a bit of a gamble but it exercised.“
Gawronski and also Deppe have actually been updating the game weekly approximately with brand-new tools, maps as well as various other functions. Along the way, they‘ve had the ability to add another full time staff member and also 8 contractors.
Roblox‘s Covid boom
Robloxplayer.exe has actually been a huge beneficiary of the Covid-19 shutdowns, which required children out of the class and far from their close friends. Without any institution to attend and birthday celebration events terminated, kids looked to Roblox, where they can socialize essentially, navigating amusement park, participating in performances and also playing action games while likewise remaining in touch utilizing its popular message conversation attribute.
Daily active customers leapt 85% in 2020 to 32.6 million. The variety of hours that players invested in the app more than increased to 30.6 billion.
That unanticipated and also unprecedented development has created some difficulties around its programmer community. The business has actually had to emulate an increase of scammers and spammers who are out to capitalize on a few of the millions of kids that are eager and prepared to invest their parents money on Robux.
In-game pop-ups draw customers with the guarantee of complimentary Robloxplayer.exe if they fill in a survey, only to reroute them to other websites where there‘s no Robux and also a lot more spam. In many cases, Roblox programmers unknowingly mount a harmful plug-in from the game advancement workshop, contaminating their very own game.
“ Due to the popularity of our platform, our company believe that we are an attractive target for these type of attacks,“ Roblox said in its syllabus. The firm claimed it‘s investing to make sure outside events can’t access user information as well as to avoid phishing, spamming and also malware as high as possible.
Roblox‘s second-biggest expenditure, behind developer costs, is privacy, framework and also safety and security . Those prices leapt 69% in 2014 to $264.2 million.
Alexander Hicks, programmer of the parlor game Robloxian Secondary school, said he noticed increased spam early in the pandemic when there was a surge in new individuals. He claimed the business took activity pretty rapidly to restore order.
Hicks has a deep financial passion in Roblox maintaining its website prosperous as well as tidy . In 2020, his game workshop, RedManta, increased revenue on the website to $2 million.
In addition to Robloxian High School, RedManta is the programmer of World// Absolutely no, where kids collaborate to eliminate monsters. Hicks began the business in 2018 after leaving of Carleton College in Canada and also transferring to Silicon Valley. He was currently making $50,000 a month from the high school game as well as prepared to reinvest his earnings to develop a business.
It hasn’t been all up and to the. As an enthusiastic player without real business experience, Hicks hired about 15 people, none over the age of 22. His business‘s preliminary efforts to duplicate the success of Robloxian High School stopped working, as well as RedManta burned with money so quickly that he needed to let go a great deal of his very early employees.
“ I had actually hired to our capability, so when the game started to do not also I might see a future where we would not have money in the bank to keep moneying it,“ Hicks stated. “That experience provided us the foresight for exactly how to scale without taking too large of a risk.“
Hicks‘ business flourished in 2015 from both the pandemic-fueled growth of Robloxplayer.exe as well as the success of his second game, which has 1.2 million monthly active customers, according to its site. He likewise closed the Silicon Valley office as a result of shelter-in-place orders as well as moved at the very least temporarily to Los Angeles, where he‘s leasing a home with buddies.
Expanding to lower threat
RedManta currently has 10 individuals, spread out throughout the U.S. and Canada, including features to both games while likewise working on the next prototype.
“The goal is to scale up so we have several teams and also numerous games to remain branched out so if one game sees its appeal decline, we‘re secure with various other ones,“ he said.
Robloxplayer.exe may quickly provide developers another means to expand: In-game ads.
So far, nearly all of Roblox‘s revenue has actually come from virtual products. A lot more just recently the firm turned out a costs registration solution so users could obtain a specific quantity of Robux each month.
Roblox has begun dabbling with top quality material, permitting business like Detector Bros., Netflix and Marvel to market their items via online experiences. The pop band Why Don’t We held an special launch event on Roblox over the weekend break for their brand-new cd.
Sam Drozdov, a former product developer at Facebook, sees a possibly larger untapped opportunity for marketing. In January, he introduced Bloxbiz to enable game designers to show advertisements within their games, utilizing 3D billboards and also posters.
Drozdov said that some programmers have done this on their own, putting up fixed advertisements in their games. However there hasn’t been an advertisement network to connect businesses with hundreds or countless Roblox titles in an automated method, even though in-game advertising is a swiftly growing business across mobile, console and video game.
Bad Business is amongst the millions of user-created games on Roblox, the children‘ amusement set to go public on Wednesday after being valued at $29.5 billion in January. The company has constructed one of the top-grossing apps for Apple as well as Google devices by transforming younger individuals into game designers without forcing them to find out difficult coding. The couple fulfilled in individual for the first time in 2017 at a Roblox designer conference. They soon started working together and also were welcomed right into an accelerator program at Roblox 2 years later on, at the firm‘s university in San Mateo, California. He was currently making $50,000 a month from the high college game and also was all set to reinvest his profits to build a business.


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The Chinese government finally ended a 13-year old ban on gaming consoles paving way from Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) to launch its first ever console in the country. Microsoft has already started taking orders from online retailer JD.Com Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:JD) via Tencent holdings, although the major concern at the moment is for how much the console will go up on sale.
Managing Partner at Niko Partners, Lisa Hanson, pointed out on CNBC that prices in China were extremely high during the ban period as the consoles had to pass through various channels, some of which that were not entirely legal resulting in exorbitant prices at the retail front.
“[…] The prices even while the consoles were banned’ were usually higher than you would find on the international market because they had to go through so many channels to get to the retail stores,” said Hanson.
People in China were used to paying high international prices to get gaming consoles, but were not used to paying high international prices on software’s for the consoles. Some of the speculative price tags that Hanson has seen on the consoles could be a bit higher than the normal prices that people were used to paying.
“Some of the speculative pricing that I have seen myself looks like it could be even two times as much as it is on the international markets. I would find that highly unlikely to come out that way,” said Hanson.
The pricing for the console has not been announced as of the moment, as people are only required to place pre-orders at a price of 499 RMB (around $81). Prices for the console are expected to be announced sometime before September, when the official launch will be made.
It is still unclear whether Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) can be able to attract a good amount of market share, with the new Xbox in china taking into consideration that a good percentage of people in China have been used to games offered on their PC’s. Mobile gaming is another challenge that the company will have to battle if it is to get increased sales for the Xbox.