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One of the bonuses of renewable energy is when you're producing more than you consume and are then able to sell excess energy back to the grid. This is what Apple intends to do with the new Campus. The company has set up its own energy subsidiary that will oversee selling excess electricity back to the grid that it generates.
As reported by 9to5Mac, the Cuppertino company has set up Apple Energy LLC. While it makes sense for Apple to look to sell any excess electricity it generates, the company may well be looking to branch out in the energy field, a likely prospect given how the Apple electric vehicle project is still under way. From the 9to5Mac reports:
"Currently, when private companies sell their excess power, they can only do so to energy companies – and they often (varies by state) have to sell at wholesale rates. What Apple seemingly could to do, however, is sell directly to end-users at market rates. In other words, get paid retail prices for its excess power. [...] Apple has told the FERC that it meets the legal criteria for selling electricity at market rates because it is not a major player in the energy business and thus has no power to influence electricity prices. It has requested permission begin within 60 days of its filing on 6th June."
It's not likely for Apple to become a major energy supplier in the U.S. or any other market, and this new development fits in with company plans when it comes to renewable energy and ensuring its sites are self-sustaining.
Update: Apple has also received approval to turn landfill gas into electricity. It has been reported that the company has been given the go-ahead to construct a landfill gas energy plant in North Carolina. More details can be found over on Hickory Record.


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Internet.org is extending its connectivity to the remaining two-thirds of the world – increasing online work opportunities for people around the globe and providing Australians businesses better access to global talent.
According to statistics gathered by oDesk, if Internet.org successfully extends its connectivity to the remaining two-thirds of the world, the online work market has the potential to reach $42.5 billion by 2022. This compared to approximately $14.9 billion without extended connectivity, meaning that workers around the world stand to gain $27.6 billion of online work.
Matt Cooper, Vice President of International and Enterprise at oDesk, says online work provides two revenue streams for the economy. Firstly, it allows startups and established business to grow and remain competitive – on a local and global front.
“Australian businesses are already leading the trend in online working, being oDesk’s number one country for hiring in terms of dollars spent per capita,” says Cooper.
Secondly, the expansion of online work allows freelancers from all corners of the world to earn extra income. According to oDesk, 57 percent of money earned by Australian freelancers came from foreign clients in 2012.
Cooper also points out that Australia has a well-documented talent shortage, particularly in the technology sector.
“This shortage has created a war for talent – a war that all companies find extremely hard to win. Gaps exist when it’s difficult to find an appropriate worker with the skills a business needs, when it needs them,” he says.
“This pain is especially acute for entrepreneurs and small business owners, who may not be able to justify full-time hires and who may have to compete against larger companies.”
But talent gaps need not be so painful. Internet access for all not only means talent-constrained companies can hire the people they need, regardless of location, but that professionals around the world have greater opportunities to work and earn what they are worth in a global economy.
“If the entire world were online, the possibilities for businesses everywhere would be massive. For this reason, I hope Internet.org succeeds – for the sake of all of us who are ready to think bigger and build businesses together, regardless of where our ideal colleagues happen to be located,” says Cooper.
He adds that “infrastructure doesn’t build itself … the history of the Internet is an amazing combined effort of individuals, academics and institutions.”
“Internet.org builds upon this effort and helps take it to the next level in an initiative that hopes to benefit the world, and could amplify entrepreneurialism in the process along with work opportunities.”
Visit Internet.org for more information.

domain: news


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Apparel exporters’ body, AEPC, has strongly opposed Rs 10,000 as minimum payable wages to contract labour, saying if it is implemented, the industry will not be able to afford the existing level of employment and hence capacities and turnover will be affected.
The Central Government has proposed to amend Rule 25(2) (iv) of the Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Central Rules, 1971 to ensure minimum monthly wage of Rs 10,000 to contract workers of the country.
Asserting that the proposed move has come as a “shock” to the apparel industry, AEPC said it could lead to a decline of at least 10 per cent in the export turnover, i.e. Rs 11,000 crore of exports in a year and a proportionate decline in employment.
It is estimated that if this provision is uniformly implemented across all states, the result will be over 90 per cent increase in wages in states like Odisha and Rajasthan and over 30 per cent for most of the other states.
There is no proposal to bring into the ambit of Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970 those establishments and contractors that employ less than twenty workmen.
India’s apparel sector provides employment to over 45 million people directly and 60 million people indirectly.


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Hewlett-Packard, the nation's third-largest computer company, shocked Wall Street's already jittery technology investors yesterday morning with the news that its earnings had fallen well short of projections despite stronger-than-expected sales.
Hewlett-Packard also announced that its negotiations to acquire the consulting arm of PricewaterhouseCoopers had been called off, a not entirely unexpected development that many on Wall Street treated as good news. Most analysts had been arguing that the Pricewaterhouse asking price was too steep -- a deal worth as much as $18 billion had been discussed in September -- and many feared that Hewlett-Packard would find that absorbing 31,000 consultants was too distracting.
The announcements were made before trading began yesterday. Investors, who had been expecting earnings to be released at the end of the day, reacted by sending Hewlett-Packard's stock plunging nearly 17 percent in heavy early trading. As the surprise wore off, sentiment improved and the shares ended the day at $34.81, down $4.44.
Hewlett-Packard said that it earned $922 million, or 45 cents a diluted share, in the quarter that ended Oct. 31 , a 21 percent increase from the $760 million, or 36 cents, reported a year ago. Revenue jumped 17 percent, to $13.3 billion from $11.4 billion a year ago.
But the headline for Wall Street was that excluding gains on investments and other one-time financial events, Hewlett-Packard's earnings amounted to 41 cents a share, a full 10 cents a share less than Wall Street's expectations, based on analysts' projections tracked by First Call/ Thomson Financial.Continue reading the main story
Investors had been looking for news that would reverse the slide that began in July when Hewlett-Packard's stock topped $68, but this only added to their concerns. Instead, they heard Carly Fiorina, the Hewlett-Packard chairwoman and chief executive, apologizing not just for the earnings shortfall but for the company's inability to see it coming.
Unlike last week, when Dell sent technology shares plunging by meeting expectations but forecasting slower-than-projected growth for next year, Hewlett-Packard's news was harder for investors to parse.
''There is no one overriding cause,'' Ms. Fiorina said during a conference call with analysts. She went on to give a litany of reasons for the earnings shortfall, some of which might be classified as good news in disguise.
The clear-cut rotten apples in the mix included an increase in bad debts in the finance arm and losses in the company's venture capital portfolio stemming from the woes of dot-com start-ups in which Hewlett-Packard had a stake. Ms. Fiorina said that the latter problem was being addressed by a management shake-up, a more formal process to review investments and lowered ceilings on how much the company will invest in individual start-ups.
Hewlett-Packard's Verifone subsidiary, which sells electronic payment services, performed worse than expected, costing $48 million in losses and restructuring costs in the quarter. Hewlett-Packard has been unsuccessfully looking for a way to sell the unit.
And, like many other multinational technology giants, Hewlett-Packard also suffered from the unexpected trends in exchange rates during the quarter. Profits from sales in Europe were reduced and the costs of laser printer components in Japan were higher than projected.
But a substantial part of the shortfall came from developments that might be seen more as accounting surprises than bad news. Selling expenses were unexpectedly high because the sales force responded more enthusiastically than anticipated to incentive packages. The fired-up sales force pushed revenue for October higher than Hewlett-Packard had expected and created a strong order backlog for the current quarter, which is the first of fiscal 2001 for the company.
Ms. Fiorina said that the company was re-examining the incentives but that the problem was largely self-curing since most were automatically reset when the new quarter started.
Another unexpected growth in costs resulted from faster-than-expected hiring of new sales employees, consultants and researchers. Ms. Fiorina said that the hiring would pay off in the future. However, the company is now requiring senior executives to oversee it more closely to prevent future spending surprises, Ms. Fiorina said.
Taken together, the various problems highlighted weaknesses at the company in tracking its businesses rather than serious earnings concerns, Ms. Fiorina said. The monitoring shortcomings should be addressed by new information systems the company brought online Nov. 1 and unexpected selling expenses should be better controlled by new tools managers have been given to track pricing and profits in their groups, she said.
''The reality is that our business is healthy with good momentum,'' she told analysts.
She said that revenues would grow 15 percent to 17 percent in the coming year and that the mix of products sold would shift toward higher-margin products as the year progressed.
Ms. Fiorina and analysts agreed that the company was unlikely to win back investors until it had shown that it could meet both revenue and earnings growth projections. ''People are worried they had to get too aggressive on price to drive the revenue growth,'' said Antonio Sacconaghi, who follows the company for Sanford C. Bernstein.
The end of the Pricewaterhouse talks removed at least one weight on the stock though. ''It would have been a huge distraction,'' said Daniel Kuntsler, who follows Hewlett-Packard for J. P. Morgan.
Ms. Fiorina denied that integrating so many consultants would have been a problem. She called the consulting company a ''high-quality operation'' and said that the strategic logic for such a deal was ''compelling.'' But she acknowledged that the two sides had been unable to agree on how to make sure the consultants stayed with Hewlett-Packard. Perhaps the biggest roadblock though was what James J. Schiro, chief executive of Pricewaterhouse, diplomatically called ''market conditions.''
In plain English, the sharp decline in Hewlett-Packard's stock since the talks began made it impossible for the two sides to agree on a cash-and-stock package large enough to satisfy the consultants without killing the stock.Continue reading the main story


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It appears no onerealized Google’s Nest Guard home security device has a built-in microphone.In a blog post earlier this month, the company announced. Google Assistant would roll out to Nest Guard so users can ask it for information like the weather or traffic.
The blog post acknowledged the gadget has one microphone — news that was not made clear to users. Google previously did not disclose the microphone’s existence in any of its product descriptions but said it wasn’t a “secret.”
“The on-device microphone was never intended to be a secret and should have been listed in the tech specs. That was an error on our part,” a Google spokesperson told CNN Business on Wednesday in a statement.
The microphone isn’t enabled by default and can only be activated when users turn on the option. A Google spokesperson said it included the microphone on the device so it could potentially offer users additional features, such as the ability to detect broken glass during a break in.
“Security systems often include microphones to provide features that rely on sound sensing,” the spokesperson said. Users shared their concerns over Google not being transparent about the microphone on social media. Business Insider was first to report the news.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation shared its reaction via a tweet: “No product should ever come with a secret microphone, regardless of whether or not it’s enabled. That’s just bad security design, @nest.”


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EA has released 17 minutes of Battlefield 4 gameplay footage as part of the official reveal event at GDC 2013.
In an announcement long on hyperbole but a little short on detail, EA and DICE said that Battlefield 4 will launch in “Fall 2013″, but did not confirm the platforms it would arrive on. It did, however, say that single player play “will now track players’ progress, adding an element of persistence and friendly competition to the campaign.”
Patrick Soderlund, executive vice president of EA Games spoke of “creating a dynamic, open design that brings people together” and “surprising unscripted moments” in Battlefield 4. Pre-order incentives were also confirmed. You can see the video in full below.


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Brace yourselves. We have important news to share…
Instagram is scrapping its 3x3 format in favour of a new 4x4 grid (we were shocked too). For those of you who are meticulous about the layout of your feed and have worked hard to create an aesthetic based on the traditional 3x3 layout, this isn’t great news (cry). On the bright side
, think of it as a perfect excuse to embark on a mission to visit loads of new places and create lots of content! 📸
As if this news wasn’t enough to handle right now, Instagram is shortly going to be informing you if a person follows you back via each profile. There’s nowhere to hide now…🙈
We noticed recently that Instagram have launched a feature highlighting paid partnerships for verified accounts. This comes after several complaints to these Influencers warning that their posts didn’t contain sufficient disclosures about paid sponsorship.
Wanting to end on a positive note, you may have also seen that Instagram have made their stories even more interactive with a new ‘poll’ feature. This allows people and brands to engage with their followers even more. We have an idea for the weekend – Are we going out on Saturday? Yes or Yes.
By the time we’ve got used to all these changes, Instagram will probably introduce a 5x5 grid…#justkidding😆


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The Egyptian automotives market is seeing a range of fictitious discount offers on car prices. The prices advertised are the original prices of the car, after they increased in the past few months. Some companies, however, offered discounts as part of their plan to increase sales and meet the clients’ needs at the expense of their revenues.
Most of the automotive companies announced discount offers on cars, while at the start of this month, 50 car model prices increased. Another 58 car model prices increased in April, including the cars offered now with discounted prices.
Experts said market indicators point to most automotive companies selling some of their cars below their fair prices, despite the customs decrease on European cars imported to Egypt.
Some international companies did not increase the price of their new car models. However, car prices are still witnessing an increase for two months.
A number of automotive companies sell their cars from their stocks, while others justify the increase with the lower exchange rate of the Egyptian pound. Some companies, on the other hand, did not import in the first quarter of this year.
Mohamed Anwar, head of the Vehicles Committee at the Consumer Protection Agency (CPA), told Daily News Egypt that the discount offers after some prices increased are considered false offers for the current car prices.
Anwar stated that the current consumer protection law did not give the right to the agency to deal with this case. The law will not categorise these offers as false ones, according to Anwar.
These offers are made by the automotive companies after an agreement between them on the cars prices, so that the price would be unified across the country, Anwar said, adding that this is hardly called deceit, but is categorised under monopolisation. The CPA is the authorised entity to deal with such cases.
As for listing these offers as “false offers”, Anwar said that the CPA is studying the situation to categorise soothe offers as such in the new consumer protection law. He added that the law is still being discussed with the civil society organisations to reach a recommendation by the organisations for this to be in the new law.
On the other hand, car expert Raafat Masrouga said that discounted offers on cars by some companies are a correction to a marketing error.
Masrouga added that companies sell cars at a fictitious price, which leads to overpricing. This indicates that demand is high on this car, so the company increases the price to gain more revenues.
When the car price increases, the company observes lower demand on the car. This way, the companies offer their cars with discounted prices as a correction to a marketing error by the company.
Masrouga declared that the dollar exchange rate against the Egyptian pound has nothing to do with the increase in the cars prices. If companies import their cars, car parts, or the spare parts of the car, most of them use the euro, especially as its exchange rate is decreasing, according to Masrouga.
The car expert said that most of the companies justify the increase in their car prices by saying that the dollar exchange rate increased. However, these companies have been selling from their stock since the end of 2014. They also use the euro only if they are going to import, to avoid the dollar exchange rate crisis.
On the other hand, Alaa Elsaba, Chairman of Elsaba Automotive, said the discount on car prices is a way to attract clients, adding that these offers mean for the companies to have a stock of the cars offered.
Elsaba confirmed that the increase in car prices while there are cars in stock is only a correction of the high prices, which would go back to their real price. Most of these companies then fix the offers permanently.
Raouf Ghabbour, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Auto Ghabbour, said that in the next period, car prices will witness increases in light of the Egyptian pound’s lower exchange rate against the dollar.
Ghabbour added that sector workers cannot bear the increase in customs and taxes completely for the sake of the consumer.
“At the start of the year, the dollar exchange rate was at EGP 7.12, but recently it has gone up to more than EGP 7.65. This has to be reflected on prices so that there would be a balance in revenues of the sector,” said Ghabbour.
Auto Ghabbour, Hyundai, Geely, and Mazda agents in Egypt, decided to raise all car model prices. The Geely Emgrand 7’s price went up by EGP 1,500 in April. The Geely Pandino and Geely X Pandino’s prices increased by EGP 3,000 in April and another EGP 1,500 in May. The price for both cars is now up by EGP 4,500 in total.
The Hyundai Verna’s price, on the other hand, increased by EGP 3,750 to reach EGP 83,600 in April and May. As for the Hyundai Accent, its price went up by EGP 3,590 to EGP 128,400. The Hyundai I10’s price is now at EGP 90,400, an increase of EGP 2,500 in April.
All Kia models also witnessed price increases at the start of this month, in addition to April’s price rises. The Kia Carens’ price was up by EGP 3,000 in May and by another EGP 3,000 in April.
The Kia Cerato’s price, on the other hand, reached EGP 142,900 after it was at EGP 136,900 by the end of March. The total price increase for the car is at EGP 6,000. The Kia Rio’s price went up by EGP 3,500 in May and by EGP 3,000 in April.
Previously, Bavarian Auto Group, BMW’s agent in Egypt, raised the price of 10 models in April, in addition to an increase in Mitsubishi Lancer EX’s price by EGP 1,000. Auto Jameel also raised the Ford Fiesta’s price by EGP 1,500. Honda, on the other hand, witnessed a price increase for its Civic and City models between EGP 6,000 and 12,000 last month.


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A bill to turn off online sales of Minnesota Lottery tickets moved ahead Friday in the state Senate.
The bill, which would also do away with “play at the pump” lottery sales available at some gas stations, cleared the State and Local Government Committee and was headed to the Finance Committee.
The measure seeks to pull back the expansion of lottery offerings from “beyond what was intended,” said Sen. Rod Skoe, DFL-Clearbrook, sponsor of the bill.
Skoe chairs the Senate Taxes Committee, and the bill is co-sponsored by Senate Majority Leader Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook, and Minority Leader David Hann, R-Eden Prairie.
Bakk has said he thinks it has enough support to pass the Senate.
The lottery has been offering lotto-style games on the Internet for more than three years. In early February, it started offering online scratch-off games, which have generated the backlash.
The difference, say critics of online gaming, is that the lotto-type games allow players to select numbers and then find out later through a drawing whether they’ve won, whereas the online scratch-off allows players to get instant results and to play continuously from their home computers or laptops, which increases the chances for addictive behavior.
And the new games are aimed at young people, critics complain.
They say the lottery should have sought legislative approval before expanding its online offerings.
But Minnesota State Lottery executive director Ed Van Petten has argued the 1989 law setting up the lottery authorized his agency to sell lottery tickets and to decide how that’s to be done.
Skoe said that regardless of whether the state lottery had the authority, making Minnesota the only state to offer online scratch-off games goes beyond what’s appropriate.
Van Petten told committee members Friday that the online program comes with spending limits to deter addictive behavior and that it will boost business at brick-and-mortar retailers that sell lottery tickets. Halting an effort that’s been underway only about six weeks “is acting very prematurely,” he said. “It’s just too early to tell at this point.”
The Minnesota Lottery was established after voters passed a constitutional amendment in 1988 to set it up and dictate that at least 40 percent of net proceeds be deposited in a natural resources trust fund. It now generates more than $500 million per year in total revenue — about 60 percent of which goes back via prizes. In fiscal year 2012, $124 million went to various state programs.
This report includes information from the Associated Press. Doug Belden can be reached at 651-228-5136. Follow him at twitter.com/dbeldenpipress.


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Molson Coors Q1 Profit Surges Despite Lower Sales
(RTTNews) - Molson Coors Brewing Co. (TAP-A, TAP) on Wednesday reported a surge in profit for the first quarter from last year, reflecting a benefit on the early termination of a joint venture in Canada as well as lower costs and expenses that helped offset a decline in sales. Meanwhile, sales for the quarter missed analysts' estimates.
Denver, Colorado-based Molson Coors, which makes Coors Light and Blue Moon beers, posted net income attributable to the company for the first quarter of $163.4 million or $0.88 per share, up from $28.5 million or $0.16 per share in the same period last year.
In the latest quarter, Molson Coors recognized special items resulting in a benefit of net $52.5 million pretax, largely driven by $63.2 million received from Modelo for the early termination of the Modelo Molson joint venture in Canada.
This was partially offset by a charge of $4.9 million related to the accelerated amortization of the remaining carrying value of the Modelo brand intangible asset in Canada. Additionally, the company recognized charges of $5.8 million during the quarter related to restructuring programs.
Underlying after-tax income for the latest quarter were $102.2 million or $0.55 per share, compared with $47.5 million or $0.26 per share in the year-ago period. On average, five analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.35 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
Net sales for the quarter declined 2 percent to $816.0 million from $828.5 million in the prior-year period, but edged up 0.3 percent on a currency basis. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $818.43 million for the quarter.
Molson Coors' global beer volume for the quarter edged down 0.1 percent from last year to 11.92 million hectoliters.
Molson Coors said its underlying pre-tax income in Canada for the quarter rose 21 percent from the year-ago period, reflecting higher net pricing and lower marketing, general and administrative expenses. Underlying pre-tax income in Europe rose to $16.2 million on volume growth, cost savings, and a $2.8 million benefit from favorable currency movements.
The company's cost of goods sold for the quarter declined 4 percent to $523.2 million, while marketing, general and administrative expenses decreased 10 percent to $263.9 million.
At the U.S. operations - MillerCoors LLC, a joint venture between Molson Coors and SABMiller Plc. (SAB.L, SABMRY.PK) - net income attributable to the company for the first quarter increased to $291.2 million from $271.9 million in the same period last year.
Underlying earnings for the quarter rose 7.4 percent to $291.9 million from $271.9 million in the year-ago period. The results at MillerCoors were led by driven by positive pricing and sales mix, cost savings, and lower marketing spending primarily due to timing differences compared to last year.
Net sales for the quarter edged up 0.1 percent to $1.790 billion from $1.788 billion last year. The company sells beers such as Miller Lite and Coors Lite in the U.S.
Total company net revenue per barrel, including contract brewing and company-owned distributor sales, increased 3.4 percent. Domestic net revenue per barrel grew 3.3 percent as a result of favorable net pricing and positive brand mix.
TAP closed Tuesday's trading at $59.77, down $0.78 or 1.29 percent on a volume of 755,271 shares.
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Shree Cements has reported its results for the July – September quarter, which show profit after tax is down by 24.5% to Rs.172.2 crore. Total income in the quarter fell from Rs.1297.16 crore a year ago to Rs.1247.54 crore. Though volumes rose 7%, realisation was down across India, which has put pressure on margins.
Net sales fell 4% to Rs.1248 crore from Rs.1296 crore in the same period last year. Quarterly expenditure was up 11% y/y at Rs.1112 crore. High freight and ‘other costs’ have been blamed for the decline in profitability over the quarter.
The company chairman told press that he is hopeful that demand will pick up over the coming months bringing about increased prices.
Shree Cement is not the first company to report a downward trend in the July – September quarter. A number of companies have reported the impact of high input costs. Price hikes have met with outcry from the construction industry, however, with the Builders Association calling for government intervention to prevent projects from being brought to a halt due to high costs.
You can read more about India’s quarterly results by using the following links:
Edited from various sources by Katherine Guenioui
Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/asia-pacific-rim/25102013/shree_cement_reports_fall_in_quarterly_profits_342/


text: Wikitude Opens Its Augmented Reality SDK to Glass Developers Matt McGee February 21, 2014 Glass Development The folks at Wikitude, a European company that bills itself as the first provider of augmented reality on mobile devices, are bringing their app — and the developer’s kit behind it — to Google Glass. The company announced this week that its Android SDK has been optimized for Glass, and a number of Glass developers are already using it. The SDK will let developers create apps using Wikitude’s Image Recognition engine and its Location-Based augmented reality services. Wikitude showed off its own image recognition-based app in the video below, where a person reading about Steve Jobs is able to ask Glass to “see more,” and Wikitude’s app finds a video of Jobs that matches the photo on the page she’s reading. Wikitude’s blog post says some of the apps that developers are already creating with its SDK are “truly inspiring.” But the company pulls no punches in saying that Glass really isn’t the perfect device for true augmented reality technology because the display sits above and to the right of a person’s field of vision. Says software architect Wolfgang Damm: Google Glass still very limited and I personally would have wished for a bigger screen that is directly in the field of vision. Afterall, this is what enables immersive augmented reality. That may be the case, but I suspect that many Glass Explorers — and future Glass buyers — will probably be more than happy with some of the things that this kind of technology will bring to Glass, even if it doesn’t fit the true definition of immersive augmented reality.


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Hot on the heels of last night's launch of GTA: San Andreas on iOS
, Rockstar Games has confirmed that the gangster simulator will arrive on Android and Windows Phone devices, as early as next week. In terms of content and graphical fidelity, these versions shouldn't be any different from the one Apple fans are playing right now. The price will stay the same, too - $6.99. According to WMPowerUser, the game will require at least 1GB RAM memory to run on your Windows Phone, and presumably, Android device.
The portable version of GTA: San Andreas includes over 70 hours of gameplay, as well as graphics and controls tweaked for mobile devices. The original game appeared in 2004 for the PlayStation 2, and was ported to Xbox and PC platforms one year later.
source: Rockstar Games via Engadget


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Chinese language automotive producer Xpeng Motors has raised $500 million in recent funding from a bunch of main traders.
The $500 million funding spherical got here from traders together with Aspex, Coatue, Hillhouse Capital and Sequoia Capital China and follows on from a $400 million money injection in November 2019 from a number of traders together with smartphone maker Xiaomi. To this point, Xpeng has secured a complete of $1.7 billion value of funding.
Xpeng just lately began deliveries of its long-awaited P7 electric sedan in China and is presently promoting it alongside the G3 SUV.
Learn Additionally: ‘Tesla Clone’ Xpeng Has A Website Just Like Tesla’s
CNBC studies that China’s electrical car sector has been hit onerous by the coronavirus epidemic, with gross sales of recent power autos (NEVs) falling by 33.1 per cent year-on-year in June, knowledge from the China Affiliation of Vehicle Producers reveals. Nonetheless, because the Chinese language financial system reveals indicators of rebounding, gross sales have been rising month-on-month.
The Chinese language authorities has been making an attempt to re-stimulate the native NEV market attributable to waning gross sales and demand. At the beginning of the 12 months it was introduced that new power car subsidies and tax break insurance policies could be prolonged to 2022, moderately than expire this 12 months as initially deliberate.
Xpeng was most recently in the news after it emerged that Tesla is continuous to pursue authorized motion towards it, claiming that the corporate stole and is utilizing its Autopilot supply code in its autos. In keeping with Tesla, former Autopilot engineer Guangzhi Cao downloaded the motive force help system’s supply code to his private machine by Apple Airdrop earlier than taking on a place at Xpeng.