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Google Trends structures the chart to represent a relative search interest to the highest points in the chart. A value of 100 is the peak popularity for the term “Bitcoin” and a value of 50 means it was half as popular at that time. A score of 0 indicates that the term was less than 1% as popular as the peak. It’s amazing how the searches relating to Bitcoin have spiked in the past few years.
After Bitcoin nearly reached $20,000, it was not able to maintain those figures. January did see a high of over $17,500 around the 7th, but this was short-lived and followed by a steady drop. By the end of January 2018, Bitcoin was at just over $10,000. By Feb. 5, it was under $7,000. It rallied again, getting over $11,000 in early March, but this was followed by a drop back below $7,000. The largest recent high for Bitcoin was in early May, when it was above $9,500. By late June, it was under $6,000. Following a rise to more than $8,000 in late July, Bitcoin has remained around $6,000 to $6,500, other than a brief spike up over $7,300 in September.
If the private key is lost, the bitcoin network will not recognize any other evidence of ownership; the coins are then unusable, and effectively lost. For example, in 2013 one user claimed to have lost 7,500 bitcoins, worth $7.5 million at the time, when he accidentally discarded a hard drive containing his private key. A backup of his key(s) would have prevented this.
Bloomberg reported that the largest 17 crypto merchant-processing services handled $69 million in June 2018, down from $411 million in September 2017. Bitcoin is "not actually usable" for retail transactions because of high costs and the inability to process chargebacks, according to Nicholas Weaver, a researcher quoted by Bloomberg. High price volatility and transaction fees make paying for small retail purchases with bitcoin impractical, according to economist Kim Grauer. However, bitcoin continues to be used for large-item purchases on sites such as Overstock.com, and for cross-border payments to freelancers and other vendors.
Bitcoin's journey continued slowly at first, but it hit the mainstream in 2013 after the first of several hyperinflation incidents occurred in the currency. In late 2013, the cryptocurrency spike in value from around $100 per coin to $1,000 in just over a month, before halving in value over the next three or four months. Bitcoin would not hit $1,000 again until 2017.
In September 2015, the establishment of the peer-reviewed academic journal Ledger (ISSN 2379-5980) was announced. It covers studies of cryptocurrencies and related technologies, and is published by the University of Pittsburgh. The journal encourages authors to digitally sign a file hash of submitted papers, which will then be timestamped into the bitcoin blockchain. Authors are also asked to include a personal bitcoin address in the first page of their papers.
Nakamoto is estimated to have mined one million bitcoins before disappearing in 2010, when he handed the network alert key and control of the code repository over to Gavin Andresen. Andresen later became lead developer at the Bitcoin Foundation. Andresen then sought to decentralize control. This left opportunity for controversy to develop over the future development path of bitcoin.
Bitcoin is one of the first digital currencies to use peer-to-peer technology to facilitate instant payments. The independent individuals and companies who own the governing computing power and participate in the Bitcoin network, also known as "miners," are motivated by rewards (the release of new bitcoin) and transaction fees paid in bitcoin. These miners can be thought of as the decentralized authority enforcing the credibility of the Bitcoin network. New bitcoin is being released to the miners at a fixed, but periodically declining rate, such that the total supply of bitcoins approaches 21 million. One bitcoin is divisible to eight decimal places (100 millionth of one bitcoin), and this smallest unit is referred to as a Satoshi. If necessary, and if the participating miners accept the change, Bitcoin could eventually be made divisible to even more decimal places.
Bitcoin is pseudonymous, meaning that funds are not tied to real-world entities but rather bitcoin addresses. Owners of bitcoin addresses are not explicitly identified, but all transactions on the blockchain are public. In addition, transactions can be linked to individuals and companies through "idioms of use" (e.g., transactions that spend coins from multiple inputs indicate that the inputs may have a common owner) and corroborating public transaction data with known information on owners of certain addresses. Additionally, bitcoin exchanges, where bitcoins are traded for traditional currencies, may be required by law to collect personal information.
Regulatory Risk: Bitcoins are a rival to government currency and may be used for black market transactions, money laundering, illegal activities or tax evasion. As a result, governments may seek to regulate, restrict or ban the use and sale of bitcoins, and some already have. Others are coming up with various rules. For example, in 2015, the New York State Department of Financial Services finalized regulations that would require companies dealing with the buy, sell, transfer or storage of bitcoins to record the identity of customers, have a compliance officer and maintain capital reserves. The transactions worth $10,000 or more will have to be recorded and reported.
The proof-of-work system, alongside the chaining of blocks, makes modifications of the blockchain extremely hard, as an attacker must modify all subsequent blocks in order for the modifications of one block to be accepted. As new blocks are mined all the time, the difficulty of modifying a block increases as time passes and the number of subsequent blocks (also called confirmations of the given block) increases.
More recently, at a congressional hearing on Capitol Hill, global economist and New York University professor Nouriel Roubini said, "Crypto is the mother or father of all scams and bubbles." He called out "swindlers" who tapped into investors' fear of missing out and took them for a ride with "crappy assets that went into a bust and crash — in a matter of months — like you have not seen in any history of financial bubbles."
Bitcoin’s popularity has undeniably been its number one advantage over the numerous other cryptocurrencies. By gaining a large number of adopters and users, Bitcoin has achieved a network effect that attracts even more users. Users who would otherwise be more apprehensive investing in a relatively unknown and unproven digital currency are reassured by Bitcoin’s performance over time, its growing community, and the fact that people they know are adopting cryptos.
The domain name "bitcoin.org" was registered on 18 August 2008. In November 2008, a link to a paper authored by Satoshi Nakamoto titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System was posted to a cryptography mailing list. Nakamoto implemented the bitcoin software as open source code and released it in January 2009. Nakamoto's identity remains unknown.
In March the bitcoin transaction log called the blockchain temporarily split into two independent chains with differing rules on how transactions were accepted. For six hours two bitcoin networks operated at the same time, each with its own version of the transaction history. The core developers called for a temporary halt to transactions, sparking a sharp sell-off. Normal operation was restored when the majority of the network downgraded to version 0.7 of the bitcoin software. The Mt. Gox exchange briefly halted bitcoin deposits and the exchange rate briefly dipped by 23% to $37 as the event occurred before recovering to previous level of approximately $48 in the following hours. In the US, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) established regulatory guidelines for "decentralized virtual currencies" such as bitcoin, classifying American bitcoin miners who sell their generated bitcoins as Money Service Businesses (or MSBs), that may be subject to registration and other legal obligations.
In January 2015 Coinbase raised 75 million USD as part of a Series C funding round, smashing the previous record for a bitcoin company. Less than one year after the collapse of Mt. Gox, United Kingdom-based exchange Bitstamp announced that their exchange would be taken offline while they investigate a hack which resulted in about 19,000 bitcoins (equivalent to roughly US$5 million at that time) being stolen from their hot wallet. The exchange remained offline for several days amid speculation that customers had lost their funds. Bitstamp resumed trading on 9 January after increasing security measures and assuring customers that their account balances would not be impacted.
Bitcoin is one of many cryptocurrencies currently finding its way across the world of business and finance, Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and was thought of as Internet money in its early beginnings. Unlike fiat currencies Bitcoin is considered a decentralized currency that means that a network of users control and verify transactions instead of a central authority like a bank or a government.
The Bank for International Settlements summarized several criticisms of bitcoin in Chapter V of their 2018 annual report. The criticisms include the lack of stability in bitcoin's price, the high energy consumption, high and variable transactions costs, the poor security and fraud at cryptocurrency exchanges, vulnerability to debasement (from forking), and the influence of miners.
The unit of account of the bitcoin system is a bitcoin. Ticker symbols used to represent bitcoin are BTC[b] and XBT.[c] Its Unicode character is ₿.:2 Small amounts of bitcoin used as alternative units are millibitcoin (mBTC), and satoshi (sat). Named in homage to bitcoin's creator, a satoshi is the smallest amount within bitcoin representing 0.00000001 bitcoins, one hundred millionth of a bitcoin. A millibitcoin equals 0.001 bitcoins, one thousandth of a bitcoin or 100,000 satoshis.
If fewer people begin to accept Bitcoin as a currency, these digital units may lose value and could become worthless. There is already plenty of competition, and though Bitcoin has a huge lead over the other 100-odd digital currencies that have sprung up, thanks to its brand recognition and venture capital money, a technological break-through in the form of a better virtual coin is always a threat.
That crash was made up for by a rally in October and November of that year. By early October, Bitcoin was at about $100, and it hit $195 by the end of the month. In November alone, Bitcoin had an unbelievable rally, going from $200 to more than $1,120. The causes of this rally were fairly obvious to most people, as more miners and exchanges were supporting Bitcoin. In addition, China had entered the marketplace.
In case you haven't read any of my Bitcoin Value Indicator reports, you can get caught up here. The idea is that since Bitcoin is a log scale phenomenon, and the organic growth of the network can be modeled using several proxies, then we can estimate a range of values that may be appropriate by using this data and creating meaningful visualizations with it.
The receiver of the first bitcoin transaction was cypherpunk Hal Finney, who created the first reusable proof-of-work system (RPOW) in 2004. Finney downloaded the bitcoin software on its release date, and on 12 January 2009 received ten bitcoins from Nakamoto. Other early cypherpunk supporters were creators of bitcoin predecessors: Wei Dai, creator of b-money, and Nick Szabo, creator of bit gold. In 2010, the first known commercial transaction using bitcoin occurred when programmer Laszlo Hanyecz bought two Papa John's pizzas for 10,000 bitcoin.
Bitcoin's blockchain can be loaded with arbitrary data. In 2018 researchers from RWTH Aachen University and Goethe University identified 1,600 files added to the blockchain, 59 of which included links to unlawful images of child exploitation, politically sensitive content, or privacy violations. "Our analysis shows that certain content, eg, illegal pornography, can render the mere possession of a blockchain illegal."
Josiah is an assistant editor at CCN. A former ancient and medieval literature teacher, he has been reporting on cryptocurrency since 2014. He lives in rural North Carolina with his wife and children. He holds investment positions in bitcoin and other large-cap cryptocurrencies. Follow him on Twitter @Y3llowb1ackbird or email him directly at josiah.wilmoth(at)ccn.com.
By December, Bitcoin was on track to hit its all-time high thanks to a dramatic and steady increase in price. On Dec. 17, 2017, it reached $19,783.21, the all-time high that has yet to be broken. Unfortunately, that high was followed by a drop of about 30 percent, with a market correction that brought it down to under $11,000. The price did recover, reaching $16,000 again on Dec. 27.
Bitcoin is a new currency that was created in 2009 by an unknown person using the alias Satoshi Nakamoto. Transactions are made with no middle men – meaning, no banks! Bitcoin can be used to book hotels on Expedia, shop for furniture on Overstock and buy Xbox games. But much of the hype is about getting rich by trading it. The price of bitcoin skyrocketed into the thousands in 2017.
In 2013 and 2014, the European Banking Authority and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), a United States self-regulatory organization, warned that investing in bitcoins carries significant risks. Forbes named bitcoin the best investment of 2013. In 2014, Bloomberg named bitcoin one of its worst investments of the year. In 2015, bitcoin topped Bloomberg's currency tables.
Since its launch in 2009, Bitcoin has proven to be a profitable investment for those who owned it initially. Having bought it for only $50 back then, one can now earn high revenues, as now its price has grown hundreds of times larger. Observing the popularity of BTC to USD exchange operations, there are immense opportunities to gain benefits from the Bitcoin trade. After the coin was launched, it cost $0.003 on April 25, 2010, at BitcoinMarket.com, which was the first cryptocurrency exchange. Starting at that time, the Bitcoin to dollar exchange rate has increased dramatically, and some of the initial owners gained earnings of over thousand percent. Now, while some users may be simply attracted by the potential of growing prices, many buyers believe that the currency itself has a high level of volatility. According to some financial specialists, it is even more volatile than gold. And some individuals believe that Bitcoin has the potential to replace fiat money in the future.
In the blockchain, bitcoins are registered to bitcoin addresses. Creating a bitcoin address requires nothing more than picking a random valid private key and computing the corresponding bitcoin address. This computation can be done in a split second. But the reverse, computing the private key of a given bitcoin address, is mathematically unfeasible. Users can tell others or make public a bitcoin address without compromising its corresponding private key. Moreover, the number of valid private keys is so vast that it is extremely unlikely someone will compute a key-pair that is already in use and has funds. The vast number of valid private keys makes it unfeasible that brute force could be used to compromise a private key. To be able to spend their bitcoins, the owner must know the corresponding private key and digitally sign the transaction. The network verifies the signature using the public key.:ch. 5
In September 2012, Bitfloor, a bitcoin exchange, also reported being hacked, with 24,000 bitcoins (worth about US$250,000) stolen. As a result, Bitfloor suspended operations. The same month, Bitfloor resumed operations; its founder said that he reported the theft to FBI, and that he plans to repay the victims, though the time frame for repayment is unclear.
As the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin’s long price history should come as no surprise. Bitcoin was created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto, an alias for a person or group who has still not been revealed. Over the years, it has hit many highs and lows, To better understand the past of this cryptocurrency, as well as its potential in the future, take a deeper delve into its history.
Well I haven't forgotten or forgiven you Mr Major; for the ERM debacle. I suffered 2 years of unemployment because of that nonsence. I was 50 at the time; in those 2 years my savings, insurance and pension plans were all decimated. And because of my age I never ever got back to my previous earning or job status. I think your judgement is flawed. I voted to improve the future quality of life for my grandchildren, confident that the UK, in rejoining the whole world, is fully capable of giving them the benefits that (according to the Baby Boomer haters); we enjoyed, prior to our memebership of the ECM EEC EU etc!!
An official investigation into bitcoin traders was reported in May 2018. The U.S. Justice Department launched an investigation into possible price manipulation, including the techniques of spoofing and wash trades. Traders in the U.S., the U.K, South Korea, and possibly other countries are being investigated. Brett Redfearn, head of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Division of Trading and Markets, had identified several manipulation techniques of concern in March 2018.
Bitcoin is in the very early stages of acceptance, and although it is already accepted as a means of payment by numerous merchants, it has yet to become more widely accepted and “mainstream.” This could change, however, as more and more users are attracted to cryptocurrencies for the various potential benefits they may provide. In fact, investors have been flocking to the currency in significant numbers, and some even feel that eventually Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies could replace other traditional payment methods.
In November 2013, the University of Nicosia announced that it would be accepting bitcoin as payment for tuition fees, with the university's chief financial officer calling it the "gold of tomorrow". During November 2013, the China-based bitcoin exchange BTC China overtook the Japan-based Mt. Gox and the Europe-based Bitstamp to become the largest bitcoin trading exchange by trade volume.
^ Jump up to: a b c d "Statement of Jennifer Shasky Calvery, Director Financial Crimes Enforcement Network United States Department of the Treasury Before the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Subcommittee on National Security and International Trade and Finance Subcommittee on Economic Policy" (PDF). fincen.gov. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. 19 November 2013. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2016. Retrieved 1 June 2014.


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CULER Joins TBR for Coca-Cola 600
HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. (May 20, 2015) – Tommy Baldwin Racing proudly welcomes CULER aboard the No. 7 Chevrolet at the Coca-Cola 600.
CULER space coolers can drop the air temperature as much as 30 degrees. Made in the USA and featuring multi-patented technology, CULER products provide industry-leading effectiveness and efficiency. The home sized space coolers operate on as much energy as a 40-watt lightbulb.
This is CULER’s first time sponsoring a car in NASCAR, but their products have been involved within the midway at NASCAR events in the past.
“It’s great to see CULER want to become further involved in NASCAR,” said team owner Tommy Baldwin. “Many race fans are familiar with their product from seeing them at the track and now will be able to associate a name with the innovative cooling technology.”
“CULER is very proud and excited to support Tommy Baldwin Racing and driver Alex Bowman for the Memorial Day weekend race at Charlotte,” said Jeff Badovick, Chief Executive Officer of CULER. “Our CULER associates wish Alex and TBR a solid run and great finish.”

domain: news


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Here are the first 24 Apple Watch apps. FYI, Google and Facebook are nowhere to be found.
The list below, scraped from the App Store by 9to5Mac’s Zac Hall, was presumably curated by Apple with a purpose. Initial impressions are critical for a device whose utility is still an open question.
These apps — and any others approved before April 10 — are the ones staffers will be showing customers in Apple Store test-drives. They will shape the initial impressions in the first wave of Apple Watch reviews. They will also get a huge leg up — a first-mover advantage — on the competition.
It’s an interesting list. All 24 are updates of existing iOS apps. Some are there to show off functions — as hotel keys, credit cards, airline boarding passes. Others…
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In recent days, Walmart was the center of a major controversy surrounding their decision to sell “IMPEACH 45” apparel — making a public, political statement against President Donald Trump. The retail chain faced a massive amount of backlash including a boycott from Trump supporters.
As previously reported, Walmart responded to the backlash by disabling the links to purchase that particular clothing line. However, an official statement was never issued.
Following the outrage, Franklin Graham — son of the legendary Rev. Billy Graham — offered a bold suggestion for Walmart. Instead of selling products that promote impeaching the President of the United States, Graham suggested that Walmart sell products that promote a positive message — like prayer.
“Walmart was in the news today for selling a t-shirt online that promotes ‘IMPEACH 45.’ That brought about a boycott against them, & rightfully so,” Graham began. “I’m glad they’ve removed the shirts from their online store pending review—a good move on their part.”
“How about promoting something that can really make a difference—PRAYER!” he boldly suggested. “Rather than criticizing and tearing down the president, we need to pray for him and our other leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-2).”
What do you think of Franklin Graham’s suggestion? Do you agree with him? Share your thoughts in our Facebook comments.
In breaking news, a famous American television and radio host sadly died in Washington, D.C.


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Anti-Piracy Lawyer Wins ‘Unique’ YTS Trademark Case Against Pirate Sites & Apps
Anti-piracy lawyer Kerry Culpepper has secured three $250,000 judgments against operators of sites and apps that used the YTS trademark his company owns. The court initially dismissed the case, ruling that it didn’t have jurisdiction over the foreign defendants. However, a recent order from the appeals court in a separate piracy lawsuit changed that.
Two years ago, Hawaiian anti-piracy lawyer Kerry Culpepper turned some of the most popular piracy brands into a powerful anti-piracy tool.
The attorney, who is listed as director of the company ’42 Ventures,’ registered several piracy-related trademarks, including ‘YTS’ and ‘Popcorn Time.’
The company, which was founded a year earlier, legally claimed these marks and uses them on a website that doesn’t draw any significant traffic. What did get people’s attention, however, were the enforcement actions that followed.
The rest of this article can be read on TorrentFreak.com


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Taiwan’s industrial production grew at a faster pace in November, data from the Ministry of Economic Affairs revealed Wednesday.
Industrial output climbed 7.84 percent year-on-year, faster than the 6.44 percent increase seen in October.
Manufacturing output climbed 8.19 percent and mining and quarrying production grew 6.31 percent. At the same time, electricity and gas supply gained 4.61 percent and water supply output rose 1.96 percent.
On a monthly basis, industrial production was up 1.40 percent in November.
Another report from the ministry showed that retail sales increased 2.5 percent annually in November, but slower than the 3.3 percent increase logged in October.
The material has been provided by InstaForex Company – www.instaforex.com
- South Africa Consumer Confidence Bounces Back On Increased Willingness To Spend - December 8, 2022
- South Africa Manufacturing Output Growth Slows Unexpectedly - December 8, 2022
- Brazil Retail Sales Rise For Third Month - December 8, 2022


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A car buyer was told his new vehicle had ‘one previous owner’ - only to later find out that owner was an international hire firm.
The customer bought the car in January 2017 for about £10,000 from Peugeot’s Robins and Day dealership on Bensham Road, Gateshead, and was told at the time of sale that the car had one previous owner.
Within a matter of days he noticed a burning smell in the car and returned it to the dealership, only to be told the clutch needed to be replaced.
He was then told he would need to cover the majority of the costs for the replacement - approximately £650 - himself as the dealership felt the problem had been caused by his wife’s driving style.
It was only after he received the V5 registration documents for the car a few weeks later he noticed the named previous keeper appeared to be car hire firm Europcar.
He then complained to Gateshead Council Trading Standards, who investigated and were able to confirm that the previous keeper had leased the car to Europcar Group UK Ltd and it had been used as a daily rental car with multiple users.
The authority prosecuted Peugeot Citroen Retail UK Limited for an offence under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.
The company pleaded guilty to the offence and was fined £5,000 plus costs of £500. The company was also ordered to pay the customer £1,000 in compensation.
Peugeot Citroen Retail UK Limited is part of the multinational car manufacturing company Peugeot SA Group.
Anneliese Hutchinson, service director for development, transport and public protection at Gateshead Council, said: “It is extremely disappointing to find a main car dealership failing to provide its customers with this kind of information.
“It is reassuring that the courts appear to have taken this matter very seriously, and imposed a significant fine and order for compensation.”


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Interesting news today from Amazon, who have announced a surprise deals weekend just 2 weeks before Black Friday week.
We are expecting Amazon to replicate what they have done in previous years and offer an extended Black Friday deals week, potentially over 8 days instead of 7, which is why it is interesting that they have opted to run a weekend promotion so close to the main shopping period of the calendar year.
The Amazon US site is advertising the weekend promotion as “Happy Holiday Deals” whereas in the UK the same promotion is labelled as “The Hidden Gems Sale” and is advertised as running from the 8th to the 12th November.
Is Amazon Competing With Singles’ Day?
With Amazon famously dominating the Black Friday and Cyber Monday space for years it raised the question what are they doing with this weekend sale so early?
The obvious answer is to compete with Singles’ Day.
Earlier this week it was announced how a survey conducted in China found out that due to Political reasons the Chinese population would be snubbing American brands.
By doing their deals weekend over Singles’ Day (11/11) Amazon are giving western sellers the opportunity to make the most of increased web traffic over this weekend and potentially bring more sales to their sellers.
Amazon are obviously not competing with AliBaba with the Singles’ Day brand and awareness, and whilst seemingly encouraging sales for itself and their third party sellers they are also being careful not to drive awareness or traffic to their competitors in the East.
When it comes to sales periods Singles’ Day massively outperforms Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. In 2018 Black Friday sales totalled $6.2 Billion, Cyber Monday totalled $7.9 Billion. Singles’ Day however hit a huge $30.8 Billion in GMV.
Is Amazon looking to take a slice of the Singles’ Day pie? Let us know what you think in the comments down below or over in our Facebook Group.
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Social media has influenced our society in so many ways. Industries are also one sector that has benefited immensely from social media. Their various platforms have made it possible for information to be shared, viewed and consumed in vast quantities in a ready manner at all times. The crypto and blockchain industry is however no different from the other industries that can attribute a part of their success to social media.
The relationship between social media and cryptocurrency together with its blockchain technology has been something positive for years now. Social media has played a vital role when it comes to the popularity and the integration of cryptos into the mainstream media, leading to their growth.
Many networks on the internet have been fully dedicated to the development of cryptos, thus announcements, new offerings, news, new ideas, discussions, new plans for ICOs and digital coins, regulation, hard for and many more.
There’s even been the emergence of blockchain-based social networks on the internet of late. Cryptos and social media have had somewhat of a mutual relationship.
The future for the two was exciting and might still be but social media’s influence has now turn into a scare for cryptocurrencies. Social media now is allowing scams on cryptocurrencies and making it much easier for criminals.
Although scams have been around for as long as one could remember, the rate at which they are happening in the market, through many social media platforms is spiraling out of control.
Facebook was recently flooded with phishing scams and adverts which led to many complains from its users. Some were offering gigantic profits from trading binary options, an example being Cloud Trader and Bitcoin Code, whiles some targeted funds in your digital wallet.
The social media platform was even sued by one individual for scam-related activities, with his image involved. Another social media powerhouse, the Twitter social media platform has also been heavily involved with cryptocurrencies.
Many crypto experts and fanatics are fond of tweeting new information and ideas on their pages from time to time, mostly trading the platform into heated arguments and discussions. However, aside from the good, the social media platform does for the crypto market, crypto scams seem to be abundant there also.
A recent research on the platform revealed that there are more than 15,000 bots, aimed at promoting crypto scams and such bots were designed to escape detection. They normally spoof accounts of high-profile people, steal images and all other shady kinds of stuff, just to trick users into falling into their trap.
Crypto ads and related activities on the various social media platforms are necessary to push the market forward but if tables are turning and the only good social media is now doing for cryptos is to direct scams their way, then the crypto market will be much better off them.


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But it was not a clean sweep for the domestics. All the Chrysler group brands finished below average. Many owners of Jeep Grand Cherokees and Chrysler and Dodge minivans complained that problems weren't fixed right the first time.
Traditionally strong players Lexus, Saturn and Infiniti all dropped in the ratings despite showing better CSI scores than last year.
"They showed fairly sizable improvements in hard-core service quality, not just the soft skills," Ivers said. He said that Buick and Mercury were beginning to threaten Saturn's lead among nonluxury brands.
Toyota Division continues to suffer in the customer satisfaction arena, finishing well below average. Toyota customers blasted dealerships for their handling of maintenance work, mostly in the post-service tasks of paying the cashier, getting the car returned promptly and having the charges explained adequately.
Ivers said Honda had a profile similar to Toyota's but has worked hard to correct its problems. It moved up to 14th of 39 brands, while Toyota was 28th. Toyota has just begun a new CSI program that holds its regional representatives accountable for the successes and failures of dealerships.
Despite Audi's massive recall last year for faulty ignition coil switches, the brand still finished above average. Audi, along with Jaguar, shared the largest improvement of any brand.
Although Land Rover also improved strongly in the survey, it still finished far below average. It was the only luxury brand to score below average.
While BMW continued to have a strong showing in customer care, its new Mini brand finished eighth from the bottom. Mini has tended to have much more repair business, and a paucity of dealers means long drives and long waits to get the service done.
Mini buyers also are balking at paying BMW rates for service.


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SGRA Kawaraban (Essay) in English
Xie Zhihai “COVID-19 and World Economy”
COVID-19 is steadily going to spread in worldwide scale and we cannot see any prospect of convergence. According to the totaling by John Hopkins University, on May 4, 2020, the number of infected people shows over 3.48million and the number of deaths became 240 thousand. The world economy has been affected seriously by COVID-19. It is now clear that an impact by COVID-19 exceeds the “Oil Shock” or so-called the “Lehman Shock” (2006 financial crisis) and we call it the “Corona Shock”.
International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced on April 4 that the world economic growth rate of the year 2020 is (-) 3.0% compared with the previous year. JP Morgan Chase & Co. predicted also that world economy will suffer loss of five trillion dollars in the next two years. This figure is equal to the Japanese GDP. According to other data, many countries in the world show a serious fall in GDP in the first quarter of 2020. For example, (-) 6.85% in China and (-) 4.8%, (-) 3.8%, (-) 3.4% in America, the Euro zone and Japan accordingly.
Medical experts point out that it will take at least one year to converge COVID-19. It means it will take one year or more to recover economies.
Then, how does each country overcome the economic crisis caused by the corona shock?
Almost all the major countries in the world are taking financial relief measures on a big scale. But there are questions whether such relief measures are effective or not. Relief measures tend to focus on the prevention of cooling down of consumptions at this moment, but recoveries in the production fields may be more important. At the time of the Lehman shock, financial fields have been damaged at first and then the real economy was affected. In case of corona shock, the first damage was the real economy. It may be more difficult to recover from corona shock than that from the Lehman shock.
We are now in the back current of the globalization and protectionism in the world which came from threats of corona shock. And those phenomena may continue for the time being. We cannot expect a V-shaped recovery in economy even if COVID-19 converge.
In fact, OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) warned that it would take a few years for the world economy to recover from the pandemic of the new coronavirus.
Then, how about the Japanese economy? On April 27, the Bank of Japan announced that the growth rate of Japanese economy of the fiscal year 2020 would be minus 3～5%. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics have been expected as a catalyst for the Japanese economy, but they have been postponed due to the new coronavirus. According to the estimate by the specialist, this postponement will result in an economic loss of about 640 billion yen. Even if the Olympic game would be held in summer 2021, the numbers of foreign visitors to Japan would be lower than originally expected. Whether or not the inbound at that time can save the Japanese economy is still uncertain.
However, we cannot say that everything by corona shock has negative for the world economy. There are at least four positive aspects points.
1）We can see illogical phenomena in the field of supply chains of the shortage of relief supplies such as masks. In global economies, it is now urgent to rebuild supply chains. As Japan has relied on China too much in the field of supply of daily necessities or goods, it becomes difficult to get when it comes to the crunch. This is what we learned this time. For example, Japan has imported 80% of masks from China. Japan, as a big country of “hay fevers”, had a big demand for masks and should have produced in Japan more.
2）Corona shock made us revolutionize our working styles in world wide. When many people worked from homes, they realized that there was a lot of useless meetings. Such works shall be selected hereafter. After convergence of COVID-19, works from homes or shorten the time of works should be left partly. For example, it will be unnecessary to keep the shops open. Convenience stores or family restaurants, which open 24hours should be reviewed. When many people work from homes and shorten their working time, congestions at public transportations would be eased.
3）Corona shock will accelerate new technical innovations. In fact, the advancement of IT will continue in various fields, such as the arrival of 5G will move ahead of schedule due to the influence of corona. For example, “On-line classes” or “video conferences” became common, and IT enterprises in America, such as “Zoom”, have made rapid progress. There were reports in America that robots are doing very good jobs in delivering foods and goods.
4）Finally, I think corona shock made us consider how globalization should be. When we compared the epidemics of infectious diseases in the past, COVID-19 this time has spread very fast due to globalization. On the other hand, because of globalization, countries can quickly share information, technology, experience and supplies, which is useful for corona countermeasures. Globalization will not be withdrawn due to corona shock, but rather, globalization will be further promoted through the improvement of various systems and strengthening of cooperation.
Xie Zhihai / Associated Professor of Kyoai Gakuen University
Translated by Kazuo Kawamura
English checked by Sabina Koirala


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Kawasaki Opens New Showroom in Hyderabad
Kawasaki has finally opened a new showroom in Hyderabad. The showroom will be run by Orange Auto that has experience in running Honda & Chevrolet sales/service operations. The earlier Kawasaki showroom was located in Kachiguda which is now shut down and in its place comes this new dealership that is located at Roxana Fortune, Road no 12, Banjara Hills in the capital city of Telangana. The new showroom is spread over an area of 3,600 sq. ft., and offers services and spare facilities along with the sales. The dealership will also deal in Kawasaki motorcycle gears and apparels.
Roxana Fortune, 8-2-686/6/D/9,
Road No.12, Banjara Hills,
(m): +91 – 9885501234
Email: [email protected]
The bookings for the motorcycles are being officially accepted though the dealership store has yet to be inaugurated. The official inauguration is expected to take place at the end of this month. Bajaj-Kawasaki went separate ways from its long partnership in March this year.
This separation has opened the gates for Kawasaki to gain full control over their products again since earlier they were sold via Bajaj Pro Biking showrooms. This will also open ways for Kawasaki to bring its middle-weight SuperSport motorcycle, the Ninja ZX-6R which is present in the international markets but is still awaited in India. The new dealership store is currently set to focus on strengthening the Kawasaki dealership and service across the country.


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You’re reading it here first: The Anand Bazar Patrika Group (ABP) has launched a mobile games portal Mjoy4free. The site has around 500 free game titles, and these will be supported by advertising wraparounds. Kedar Gavane, Manager-New Media for ABP confirmed to ContentSutra that the company has tied up with US based Greystripe for the service.
The site currently features games with advertising that will be shown before and after the game. Advertisements will be delivered via GPRS, which I think is going to hinder adoption due to low GPRS penetration. Anyway, why should the user pay for ads served to the game via GPRS? However, ABP also has plans to launch games, though fewer in number, with advertisements that do not require connectivity. Gavane says that they’re in talks with advertisers and should be closing deals by the end of the week. So far the ads have received around 150,000 impressions.
Also launched is a wap site: wap.mjoy4free.mjoy.in, that gives users automatic access to games that are compatible with the handset with which they access the site. Gavane says that the idea is to disrupt the existing model, considering that most games today are priced above Rs. 40. They will promote the portal using ABPs media properties, online advertising and a viral campaign.
The Mjoy4free model is similar to Hovr’s, which has an office in India but has so far focused on a global market. We’re told that Hovr has recently tied up with VAS magazine XG for Indian advertisements around their games. Hovr also has a mobile community, but apparently ABP isn’t looking at that option yet.


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All twelve women who work at the “Show Malilo Night Club” brothel in Arauca, Colombia are from Venezuela. As Venezuela’s socialist economic crisis continues, many Venezuelan women have turned to the sex trade in neighboring Colombia to eat and provide for their families.
“We’ve got lots of teachers, some doctors, many professional women and one petroleum engineer,” brothel owner Gabriel Sánchez said of the women who sell their bodies for $25 an hour. “All of them showed up with their degrees in hand.” Sanchez who is 60 years-old, started the brothel in Arauca, Colombia after he lost his job in a car repair shop in Venezuela thanks to the government’s socialist policies.
We are now accepting pre-orders for our healthy and delicious storable food. Stock up today!


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WASHINGTON – Manufacturing expanded in April at the slowest pace this year and companies took on the fewest workers in seven months, adding to evidence of a slowdown in the world’s largest economy.
The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index fell to 50.7 from the prior period’s 51.3, the Tempe, Ariz.-based group said today. Fifty is the dividing line between growth and contraction. The ADP Research Institute said private payrolls rose 119,000 last month, the least since September, while another report showed construction outlays slumped in March.
Factories are pulling back as the need to rebuild inventories wanes, across-the-board federal budget cuts take hold and higher payroll taxes restrain consumer spending. Federal Reserve policy makers said today at the conclusion of their two-day meeting that they will continue to pursue record stimulus in an attempt to bolster the economy and job market.
“Manufacturing is stalling a bit,” said Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics Ltd. in Valhalla, N.Y., who was the best forecaster of ISM manufacturing over the past two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “Hiring has probably slowed a little. For the Fed, it’s going to be full speed ahead.”
Stocks and Treasury yields declined after the figures. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index dropped 0.9 percent to 1,582.7 at the close in New York. The yield on the benchmark 10-year note decreased to 1.63 percent from 1.67 percent late yesterday.
Details of the ISM’s factory index showed more producers and their customers reduced inventories in April than a month earlier. Along with leaner stockpiles, increases in measures of orders, a leading indicator of demand, and production show manufacturing may avoid further deterioration.
The median forecast for the ISM factory index called for a 50.5 reading. Estimates from 84 economists in the Bloomberg survey ranged from 49 to 53.
Other figures today showed manufacturing across the globe is also struggling. In China, the world’s second-largest economy, factories expanded at a weaker pace in April. The Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 50.6 last month from 50.9.
A U.K. factory index showed manufacturing contracted for a third month. The gauge rose to 49.8 last month from 48.6, according to Markit Economics and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.
Tenneco Inc., a maker of diesel-exhaust filters and mufflers, is seeing a “mixed global industry environment,” according to CEO Gregg Sherrill. The Lake Forest, Illinois-based company expects to benefit later this year from improving light-vehicle production in North America and overseas markets including China.
“With a continued weak global market and the significant inventory destocking taking place, we anticipate production to remain at low levels in the second quarter,” Sherrill said in an earnings conference call on April 29. “However, as inventory issues are worked through, we expect to see some volume improvements in the second half of the year.”
The ISM’s inventory index decreased to a four-month low while a gauge of customer stockpiles dropped to the weakest level since November.
“Inventories are in a fine position, albeit low, and ready for a build-up,” Bradley Holcomb, chairman of the ISM’s factory survey, said today on a conference call.


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Advertising authorities have sided with Tesco in a spat with Morrisons over a press ad for Finest beef.
The Advertising Standards Authority rejected a trio of complaints by Morrisons arguing that the ad was misleading.
The advert said: “Our butchers take their time. Carefully selecting meat with marbling for tenderness and flavour. Tesco butchers are fussy when it comes to Finest beef. For starters, they'll only use meat from long established, family-run British farms.”
Among its complaints, Morrisons claimed the advert suggested Tesco directly employed its own butchers and that meat was cut for customers in-store.
But the ASA backed Tesco’s argument that butchers worked for their suppliers on an exclusive basis to the supermarket’s strict specifications. It also pointed out that trained butchers prepared cuts for customers at meat counters in 374 of its stores.
Tesco wins latest round in advertising battle with Asda (22 September 2010)
Asda complaint prompts ban on Tesco basket ad (15 September 2010)


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Gemma get the (lady)bug
Will produce Miraculous new range
Gemma International will launch a new range of licensed cards, gift packaging and partyware for Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir, after striking a deal with Bulldog Licensing.
The brand has attracted over 200 international licensees, with Bandai as master toy partner, and over 3,000 products in development.
Licensing Director Tim Rudd-Clarke says: “We first discovered Miraculous in Las Vegas a few years ago and we have been keeping a close eye on her ever since. The brand has been growing at a great rate of knots, and gaining traction across multiple platforms, and it’s no wonder as she fills a huge gap in the market that has been vacant for quite some time; for a strong and empowered female superhero, and unlike the majority of other girls properties out there, she isn’t pink!”
“I would urge all those buyers who like to follow new trends, to take look at this wonderful new brand! Bulldog Licensing are an agency reaching for the stars, and we are pleased to be working with them on Miraculous Ladybug,” adds Tim.
“All of us at Zag America, who run the consumer products program for Miraculous, could not be happier to have Gemma on board as one of our premiere licensees. They embody the type of company who we love to work with – both committed and extremely creative,” says Andrea Green, VP of Global Consumer Products.


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Coronavirus and Meetings
to see Northstar Meetings Group’s comprehensive and continuing coverage of how coronavirus is affecting meetings
Carnival Cruise Line, Norwegian Cruise Line and MSC Cruises are the latest cruise lines to expand the suspension of their operations due to the worsening
Covid-19 pandemic. The three lines announced they plan to resume sailing in May.
Last week, Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. extended its sailing suspension through May 12, 2020. RCCL's four brands, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Azamara and Silversea, were originally set to resume sailing on April 11.
Below is the latest information for the following cruise lines; For further details, contact the operators directly.
A March 16th statement from the company stated that the cruise line has suspended its European river cruise fleet sailings until June 30, 2020. "The health and safety of our guests, and the wellbeing of our staff and crew, are of the utmost importance and we must be vigilant and responsible in ensuring your safety during these uncertain times," AmaWaterways said.
Due to ongoing changes regarding COVID-19, Avalon Waterways has suspended cruises to all its destinations until April 30, 2020.
Carnival has paused service from March 14 through May 11, 2020, for its North American fleet. "We are sorry to share the news that Carnival Cruise Line is temporarily pausing service..." Christine Duffy, president, said in a statement. "...We extend our sincere apologies for the disruption of your plans and trust you understand this decision was made with everyone's best interest at heart."
All Celestyal Cruises sailings have been suspended until May 1, 2020. "We all currently face a situation that it is unknown, extraordinary, unpredictable, and constantly changing and, as a result, is causing major disruption to travel," the cruise line said in a March 13th statement. "As the World Health Organization recently said, every sector and every individual must be involved in the fight against COVID-19 and Celestyal Cruises is following this advice and that of health professionals and regulators around the world, and acting accordingly in order to reduce the risk of quarantine or medical detentions for our guests and crew.
In an abundance of caution, Disney Cruises has cancelled all departures from March 14 through April 28, 2020. The company said in a statement that the Disney Wonder vessel, which is currently in the midst of a westbound Panama Canal cruise, will continue on its scheduled itinerary, with guests disembarking in San Diego on Friday, March 20. All other ships have already returned to port.
has cancelled its Caribbean cruises scheduled for March 14 through May 29, 2020. Details are outlined in a statement on the company's website.
Norwegian Cruise Line has expanded its pause on cruises through May 10, 2020.
Royal Caribbean has suspended sailings of its global fleet. According to RCCL's orginal statement posted on the company's website "after the decision was made on March 13th to voluntarily suspend our sailings departing from US ports." The company extended the resume date to May 12 on March 24.
In a March 12 statement, the cruise line revealed it would voluntarily pause global
operations of its 18 cruise ships, impacting
voyages departing March 12 to May 10.
Uniworld has suspended all European itineraries until April 23.
Viking Cruises has halted its river and ocean cruise operations until May 1, according to a statement on the company's website.
The new cruise line has postponed the April 1 maiden sailing of the 2,700-passenger Scarlet Lady. In a statement, Richard Branson and Tom McAlpin said "We know many of you are very excited to sail on Scarlet Lady, and we can tell you after spending time on board, she has captured all of our hearts But at this time, much of our attention is focused, rightly, on the current global health crisis. Uur team has made the very difficult decision to postpone the Showcase Tour launch and inaugural sailing season for Scarlet Lady until July 15, with our maiden voyage taking place August 7.


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Sony Online Entertainment is "hugely interested" in the opportunities created by Sony's recent announcement of the Project Morpheus PlayStation 4 VR headset.
That's according to the EverQuest franchise's development director David Georgeson, who told IGN that the acquisition of Oculus Rift by Facebook hadn't put the team off exploring VR; quite the opposite.
"Morpheus is only for PlayStation 4," Georgeson clarified. "So if we’re making a PC product, obviously we’re not embracing Morpheus, unless Sony does some really cool stuff with it.
"But I mean, VR and AR are things that I personally am extremely excited about. I honestly think that’s the future of gaming. But we have a lot of miles to go before we sleep. So we need to build the game, and then we can talk about virtual reality and stuff beyond that.
"I will tell you this though: I’m hugely interested in Project Morpheus. So… we’ll see what happens."
For more from our interview with Georgeson, keep your eyes on IGN.
Luke Karmali is IGN's UK News Editor. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on Twitter.


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Apple is set to pay older iPhone users $25 each as part of a $500m settlement following a ruling in the US that it purposefully slowed down smartphones.
Apple revealed in 2017 that it introduced a software feature in ageing iPhones to throttle performance, though it said that this would help to prolong the lifespan of devices.
Critics said that the move was proof that Apple is targeting “planned obsolescence” for older iPhones as it would force people to purchase a new model.
On Monday, Apple agreed to pay a $500m sum to settle the lawsuit after several years of costly legal wranglings, but it did not admit to any wrongdoing.
It means that owners of eight iPhones, including the iPhone 6, iPhone SE and iPhone 7 Plus, will soon be entitled to a $25 payment, which could cost Apple between $310m and $500m.
Apple did attempt to ease the fallout a couple of years ago when it offered replacement iPhone batteries for just $29, around a third cheaper than the standard $79 price.
Apple said at the time that it believed the software update would solve some of the problems with older devices, such as battery wear from high usage and temperature changes.
The Cupertino-based company noted that its engineers worked quickly to address the issues, but users contended that they were misled into believing that their devices were no longer as usable.
Lawyers for the consumers who raised the case are happy with the outcome after stating that it was “fair, reasonable and adequate”.
The latest ruling comes just several weeks after the company was fined €25m in France for the same problems.
French officials believe that Apple indulged in a “deceptive commercial practice” when it did not divulge details about slowing down phones.
Before you go
After spending over 20 years working with Macs, both old and new, theres a tool I think would be useful to every Mac owner who is experiencing performance issues.
CleanMyMac is highest rated all-round cleaning app for the Mac, it can quickly diagnose and solve a whole plethora of common (but sometimes tedious to fix) issues at the click of a button. It also just happens to resolve many of the issues covered in the speed up section of this site, so Download CleanMyMac to get your Mac back up to speed today.


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Originally appeared on Forbes.com - written by Peggy Anne Salz.
While there’s undeniably a huge benefit in leveraging AI to enhance advertising, some smart marketers are looking beyond the obvious ways AI can improve the user experience to focus on the ingenious ways AI can rocket user acquisition.
The application of AI to boost user acquisition (UA) efforts may currently take a back seat to the buzz around all the other ways businesses can introduce AI to personalize brand communications, infuse connected carsor deliver magical customer service through chatbots. But it’s just the calm before the storm. The realization that AI can take on the task of managing UA for top-grossing apps--a mammoth task that has grown in complexity and beyond the ability of marketers to master it--is capturing the interest and investment of mobile app companies, starting with games.
Tilting Point, which calls itself a “new generation mobile app partner for top independent developer studios,” is one of the first out of the gates, placing its bets on an AI system that can make a call on whether (and when) to double-down on spend or stop campaigns altogether when they fail to meet KPIs. The move to embrace AI earlier than most has allowed Tilting Point to break the mold of what it means to be a mobile games publisher. In addition to providing games, the company provides a full suite of services, including expert resources, operational support and funding, designed to give its roster of carefully selected apps mainstream success.
This model can flex significant financial muscle thanks to $132 million in capital committed this week by CFC Capital (Tilting Point’s majority shareholder) and Metropolitan Partners Group to fund and scale UA growth through advertising. The fund, which was just $12 million at the end of 2016, has grown, the company says, because the demands of UA and the tech needed to master it have also grown in complexity. The aim is to ramp up efforts to partner with games that have a sustainable business model and then accelerate growth through technology and teamwork.
It’s what Samir El Agili, Tilting Point’s President, has called the “winning formula” at the core of the company’s algorithm for success. Effective UA and marketing campaigns have already helped produce viral hits like Nukebox Studio’s Food Truck Chef and contributed to a 4X increase in Q4 revenue year-over-year.
At the heart of this approach is effective user acquisition, now and forever powered by AI. “The future of UA is AI,” Matt Sadofsky, Director, Growth Marketing, at Tilting Point, tells me in an interview. Sadofsky, who was recently recognized by mobile app marketing and retargeting platform Liftoff as a Mobile Hero for his UA accomplishments, is not only convinced AI can do the work of UA managers and marketers. He believes AI can go one better, doing whatever it takes 24/7 to make money, not burn it. “Humans make mistakes, change jobs and occasionally need to sleep,” he says. “AI doesn’t.”However, he adds, it’s still important to have an experienced media buying team behind the machine. This is part of the reason why Tilting Point has shifted its focus in recent months to hiring UA managers with more a technical background.
Early warning and winning big
The aim to architect an approach that will move the needle on UA across the Tilting Point portfolio of apps sent Sadofsky and his team on a one-year journey to “replace myself with a machine version of me,” he recalls. (A brave move at a time when most are more concerned about the threat AI poses to their jobs than its potential to unlock new growth opportunities.) The relentless pursuit of this ambitious goal has produced an AI system that goes a long way toward making sure Tilting Point is “netting the most profitable users and achieving the most scale,” he says.
Nicknamed DORA (which stands for Dynamically Optimized Revenue Optimization), the Tilting Point system uses AI to make predictions about customer lifetime value (LTV) and whether a specific campaign will succeed in attracting and converting the target audience after 100 installs or less. In practice, Sadofsky explains, the AI sits in the center of “an early detection and warning system” that can make projections and predictions about campaign outcomes earlier and better than the competition. This is further enhanced by the ability of DORA to detect ad fraud--including sophisticated forms of app install hijacking--within just 15 minutes of a campaign launch made possible by “building on top of native tools” supplied by mobile measurement company Adjust.
Tilting Point's mix of current and in-development technology is a fast-learner thanks to AI that processes data to make decisions and predictions in secondsTILTING POINT
Finally, deep integration with the APIs of partners such as Iron Source, Applovin and Facebook equips DORA to automatically update bids daily. “Performing LTV projections for each game--per campaign, per country and per platform--allows us to mitigate risk by making sure we have the perfect CPI bid for each game and for each source,” Sadofsky explains. The outcome is an intelligent, real-time approach to UA that “saves us loads of money.”
To put the savings into perspective Sadofsky offers the scenario of a game with a base CPI bid for a campaign of $2 on an ad network where the publisher (where the app is served) is only driving a $0.07 projected LTV. “You’re losing $1.93 on every app install you score,” he explains. “Now, imagine you have a system that can determine after 50 installs or less that this campaign has a very low likelihood of being successful. Pulling the plug early saves you $1.93 for every install. If you have 100 sub-publishers that you turn off thanks to this early warning system, you are saving nearly $10,000.”
The machine on your team
Overall, Sadofsky tells me, using DORA has allowed the team to reduce the time spent on doing LTV analysis and report updates by 70%. Even better, “having a machine on the team” has led to “an increase in the amount of spend optimized per manager by about 50%.”
Managers don’t only have more money to spend; they can spend more time analyzing mobile ad messaging and creatives, an aspect of UA and marketing where humans have the edge because they have the judgment. It’s all about determining why certain images attract certain audiences and then, armed with those insights, proceed to produce ads that draw from those elements to power and personalize UA campaigns.
It’s also an area where AI is expected to have massive impact. To date Tilting Point is exploring ways it can use Amazon’s Rekognition, the image analysis service available as part of the Amazon AI suite, to recognize and analyze creatives and components in mobile ad creatives. In practice, the AI automatically labels objects, concepts and scenes in ad creative and provides a confidence score that can help humans, or technology, crack the code on what defines a winning creative.
Harnessing Rekognition is just the first step in a wider strategy play to remove the human error and bias from being able to match the right creative with the right audience, Sadofsky says. “Being able to make this decision based on data, as well as our ability as marketers to walk in our users’ shoes, is super-exciting.” Someday soon--perhaps sooner than we think--UA teams (at least at Tilting Point) will have the mix of talent and technology necessary to produce engaging advertising users will find hard to resist.
UA has become unwieldy, requiring marketers to run scores of campaigns simultaneously across dozens of platforms and networks, and pay meticulous detail to audience sizes and segments, ad placements and formats, and perform extensive data analysis on LTV and profitability. Sadofsky, who also hosts his own podcast sharing firsthand UA learnings and lessons, is spearheading the way to a smarter approach at Tilting Point, proving that AI doesn’t make the jobs of UA marketers and managers obsolete. To the contrary, it just may make their jobs completely manageable--and utterly exciting-- for the very first time.


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Separate names with a comma.
Discussion in 'Bee News' started by Eddy Honey, Mar 4, 2012.
"The swarm, estimated by D-backsâ€™ officials at 500 bees,"
I bet there were more than that
The article on Yahoo said workers (human) put lemonade and cotton candy on a cart to lure the bees away. I'm sure that worked well..... Would have been neat to see a beek in the stands come sweep them into a big gulp cup and bring them home.


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Game On Midland's NEW Location!
NEW GAME ON MIDLAND COMING SOON!
There is no longer a sign up but we are still open at our OLD #GameOnMidland location today, tomorrow and Wednesday! The sign has made its way to out new home NEW location where we plan to open Saturday February 1st.
OUR NEW LOCATION WILL BE AT
841 S. SAGINAW RD, MI 48640
While we're getting ready for the move, our Game On Midland Moving Sale continues today!
15% OFF* Your Entire Purchase (Excludes MTG Sealed Product) 3 Days Only Sunday - Tuesday
All MTG singles, accessories, video games, Warhammer, D&D, Board Games, Paints, Dice, and more on sale 15% OFF!
In the meanwhile, check out these behind the scenes renovation pictures of the new location while we get ready!


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Google has launched its own tablet, the Nexus 7, in the market already. Of course we have seen several problems addressed by the users that the app won’t work smoothly on tablet as it is on mobile phone. It makes Android app for tablets behind the iPad. Now Google launches this Tablet App Quality Checklist for developers to make sure that their app will work smoothly on tablet.
It helps developers to enhance the following features such as quality and user interface. In addition Google plans to launch a special section for app for tablet just as what on App Store for iPad.
The wave of Windows Phone 8 is flashing quite strong now. With good sign, FCC might approve the Verizon Windows Phone 8X sooner or later. This is a good hope for both the manufacture HTC and Verizon. We will be able to see another Windows Phone 8 in shelve in the near future. It is a good turn for Windows Phone to compete with iOS and Android.
The HTC Windows Phone 8X will come with GSM frequencies of 850 and 1900 making it go global easier.
[FCC | Engadget]
Rewind back in September 2011, Google has acquired Zagat. Till now Google has managed to reveal the products from this source with an app called Field Trip. It collects data of interesting place around the world for the users. The app runs in background so it won’t irritate you.
File Trip is available for free on Google Play not on App Store but promise to land there soon.
Recently Opera Mini for Android received update making the digit to 7.5. This new upgrade comes with “Smart Page” feature which will automatically display the update and news from your most visited websites. You will see this feature interesting when you want to have quick look at what’s new on your favorite sites.
Incoming search terms:
Alibaba has done its best to develop Aliyun to compete with Android operating system. We have reported that Alibaba home to be as strong as Android in China and even Acer turned to use Aliyun on one of its phone called Acer CloudMobile.
Now Alibaba is trying harder to improve Aliyun with strong team. $200 million is invested into this OS to make sure that the process is smooth. It is a big concern for Google since Aliyun can use Android Apps which is so far called cloud applications.
It is quite surprise to hear that Acer will stop using Android OS but using Aliyun. Aliyun is a new mobile operating system by Alibaba which is the top ecommerce company in China. Why? Now there is not official announcement from Acer over this switch.
Now the only reaction is that Alibaba said that Google threatened to cancel the license with Acer if the company switch to use Aliyun. In fact, Acer planned to launch an event on Thursday in China to announce Acer A800 which runs on Android but now the event is cancelled. Nothing so far from Acer leaving doubt for the change.
Note that Aliyun can use Android apps by cloud apps.
It is enough for planning and talking then it should be time for action. According to recent news, Xiaomi Mi-Two is about to start production. With this speed, the smartphone will be able to announced on September 22nd then release in the market by mid of October. The expected price of Xiaomi Mi-Two is 225 euro.
Recalled for the previous known specs, Xiaomi Mi-Two has a 1.5 GHz quad-core Qualcomm APQ8064 Snapdragon S4 Pro, 2GB of RAM, a 4.7-inch LCD IPS display with HD resolution, an 8-megapixel camera and a 2,000 mAh battery. It will run on the latest Android version of 4.1 Jelly Bean.
Recently Huawei and Wind has confirmed that the Ascend P1 will be available in Italy for 399 euro but with special promotion called “Super Smartphone” that the user can enjoy unlimited internet (wow), 150 minutes and 150 SMS for 9€ per month for 5 years
What else that you expect from this smartphone? Wait in case you forget, the Ascend P1 features features a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display with qHD resolution, a 1.5 GHz dual-core processor, 1GB of RAM, an 8 megapixel camera, a 1800 mAh battery and Android 4.0 ICS.
Visit Wind for more information.
Alibaba is a very famous ecommerce company in China. Last summer, they has created their own mobile phone operating system, the Aliyun, but seem like the company needs more time to advertise this new OS as well as attracting manufactures’ interest. Aliyun is a cloud base OS which operate with the cloud service by syncing data, SMS and photos.
Till now Alibaba claimed that there are a few manufactures has signed the deal to use the Aliyun as their mobile phone OS but rejected to mention by name. Check out this young OS soon more.
Recently Google has managed to acquire a more impressive feature of multi users face-to-unlock feature. You might already have known about face-to-unlock but this time it is multi face-to-unlock which is quite different from the previous feature. With multi face-to-unlock, more users can access to their own personal file with the same device which means that when one sits in front of the built-in camera, the device will be unlocked and automatically retrieve the specific data of user. The data will change if another person sits use face-to-unlock.


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Analyst predicts OLED lighting market
Japan is set to lead the OLED lighting business in Asia. Japanese companies have taken up key positions across the OLED lighting supply chain Sales of OLED lighting in Japan are expected to reach $1.1 billion by 2016.
Although, the addressable market for OLED lighting in China is limited, NanoMarkets expects the Chinese OLED lighting market to reach $420 million by 2016. OLED lighting is expected to be one of the industries to benefit from government support for technology. For South Korea NanoMarkets predicts OLED lighting sales of $230 million by 2016. However, the influence of Samsung and LG, which have both made a commitment to OLED lighting, should not be underestimated on a global basis.
In Europe, German firms and the German market will be the largest factor with Germany accounting for one quarter of OLED lighting sales between 2011 and 2018, NanoMarkets said. Germany is home to numerous OLED manufacturing facilities operated by BASF, Fraunhofer IPMS, Philips, Heraeus, Osram, Ledon, Merck and Novaled. German OLED lighting panel sales will reach almost $360 million by 2016.
The UK will be the second national market in Europe with revenues from OLED panel sales at $210 million by 2016. The UK is home to Cambridge Display Technology, E2M, Lomox and PolyPhotonix. European firms including Blackbody, Osram and Philips, already dominate the worldwide market for OLED luminaires and will continue to do so, NanoMarkets said.


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The Nintendo Switch will be shown off at a press event in Japan on the 13th of January, the event will also be shown in the US and the same time, with another event the next day in the US.
Nintendo has now revealed that the Nintendo Switch will be shown off at 8PM PT or 11PM ET on the 12th of January 2017 in the US.
The company also revealed that the event will be streamed in the UK at 4AM GMT on the 13th of January 2017.
We are looking forward to finding out more information about the new Nintendo Switch, from what we have seen it looks like it may be Nintendo’s best console for some time.
Source Nintendo / Facebook, Ubergizmo
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My colleague Farhad Manjoo asked on Twitter if Apple could use its cash stockpile to take itself private. A bunch of smart tech bloggers are also talking about this on Branch. It’s an interesting issue. The answer is almost certainly that it wouldn’t work, not because the math doesn’t work out but because no bank is big enough to underwrite an operation of that scale.
After today’s share price decline Apple’s market capitalization is $378.25 billion. Figure a very large aquisition premium of 50% and say you’d need a $567.38 billion loan to take the company private. Junk bond yields hit 5.5 percent this wake, meaning the company would need to generate $31 billion a year in nominal earnings to make the interest payments on the loan. Apple’s Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation and Amortization was $59 billion last year—more than enough to make the payments. So if Apple’s managers are confident in the company’s ability to maintain its 2012 level of earnings into the future they’d be way better off under a management buyout that took the company private than they are as employees of disgruntled shareholders.
The problem here is that in inflation-adjusted terms the largest leveraged buyout in history was KKR’s $55.38 billion aquisition of RJR Nabisco back in 1989 (that was $31.1 billion 1989 dollars). Could Apple tap its ~$140 billion in cash reserves to cut down on its borrowing needs and make the scenario more realistic? It sure could. But the problem is that a $512 billion loan isn’t really any more realistic than a $567.38 billion loan. It’s just way too much money. They say some banks are too big to fail, but Apple is too big to buy.
Now that said, if Apple keeps earning profits and stacking up cash while investors keep getting pessimistic about the company’s future outlook the gap does narrow. I’m told that in Japan, it’s not uncommon for firms to have cash balance sheets that exceed their total market cap. But Japan has almost no leveraged buyout industry and Japanese law makes takeovers very difficult. This is America. The current trajectory Apple is on, in terms of both share price and management strategy, is toward some kind of eventual management buyout scenario. But we’d need to walk another several hundred billion dollars down this road before that became feasible.


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In an attempt to resolve one of the most fractious issues in the Maryland tourism industry, Gov. Parris N. Glendening said yesterday the state would kick in up to $1.5 million in additional funding for the advertising budget of the Baltimore Convention Center.
"It makes no sense to invest . . . in an expanded convention center if you are not going to market it," Mr. Glendening said. Mr. Glendening's announcement came after more than a year of dispute among tourism-oriented businesses, the city and the state over who should pay for advertising for the convention center, which will be doubled in size by 1996.
Until recently, state officials and legislators have insisted that they shouldn't pay for additional advertising, since the state had contributed $100 million of the $150 million expansion project.
The city, citing other pressing needs such as police and education budgets, has capped its contribution to the advertising fund at about $2 million a year. And local hotels and restaurants have declined to increase their contributions, totaling about $400,000 a year, saying they already do their share of advertising.
A long-simmering conflict between the business community and the city government over the budget of the Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association -- the independent group that handles the convention center's marketing -- erupted last month. Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke announced he planned to replace the BACVA governing board because of concerns about overspending, sparking angry ripostes from the BACVA board.
Although each group thought someone else ought to foot the bill, all agreed that an increase in the advertising budget was needed because other cities are expanding their convention centers and increasing their advertising budgets.
The number of cities with public convention centers has tripled to about 350 since the 1970s. And because of expansions in cities ranging in size from Chicago to Duluth, Ga., the amount of space available for conventions has quadrupled.
Mr. Glendening said he hopes the state's gesture breaks the funding gridlock and persuades the other parties to dig a little deeper as well.
"I understand a few problems have to be resolved" before a new BACVA board is formed, but he said he expected the controversy over the makeup of the new board to be resolved by next month.
The state's office of tourism development will contribute $300,000 to the extra advertising fund, but Mr. Glendening said he hadn't yet determined where the rest of the money would come from, or exactly how much extra money the state would contribute.
He said he expected the total extra contribution to be between $1 million and $1.5 million.
Gail Gerber, sales director of the Radisson Lord Baltimore Hotel near the Inner Harbor, said she was surprised but delighted with the governor's announcement. "It's wonderful," she said.
Ms. Gerber said she often finds Baltimore and her hotel outgunned by competitors in other nearby cities, such as Philadelphia, with bigger advertising budgets.
"Business was being taken away from us," she said.
A spokesman for BACVA Chairman Henry A. Rosenberg Jr. declined to comment on the news.
Mr. Glendening's comments came after a speech to a conference of local tourism executives, in which state officials said they planned to spend a total of $8.9 million advertising the state to tourists this year, up $3 million from last year.
The state will also expand advertising of Maryland as a destination during the fall to expand the tourist season around the state, he said.
Participants in the conference said the state also needs to select a slogan that the expanded advertising can promote.
"Maryland needs to get a slogan, whether it is 'America in miniature' or what, and stick with it. It doesn't matter whether it makes sense or not. Look at 'Virginia is for lovers.' That has worked," said Russ Yates, vice president and manager of the Holiday Park Campground in Greensboro on the Eastern Shore.
Mr. Williams said the state is going to take another look at its slogan, currently "Maryland, more than you can imagine," and either emphasize it or develop a new one.


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The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has vowed to look into claims of fund misappropriation at the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA).
The decision comes as KTDA continues with a drive to have the new tea regulations gazetted by Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Cooperatives Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya set aside.
The agency has urged the Senate to reject the guidelines, saying if implemented, earnings from tea would significantly reduce.
Divisions between KTDA and its factories have begun emerging.
DCI head George Kinoti has received a petition from farmers allied to seven factories seeking his help in unravelling how much KTDA has been using in court cases without authority of the independent companies.
“I will hunt these lawyers with the pain of suffering farmers. This is similar to what brought down Mumias Sugar Company and left farmers in abject poverty,” Mr Kinoti told the Nation.
In a virtual meeting with the Senate Committee on Agriculture and the delegated legislations, KTDA accused Mr Munya of publishing the regulations without consulting anyone. In April, the CS asked stakeholders to send written memorandums from the public since gatherings had been banned.
Farmers have told the DCI to look into the circumstances under which KTDA billed the factories tens of millions of shillings for a case filed in 2019 when other litigants spent Sh500,000.
“Some people have turned farmers into cash cows,” Mr Kinoti said. In their letter, the farmers had asked the DCI boss “to demand a forensic audit of KTDA lawsuits and their ensuing costs”.
The Nation also established that Gacharage Tea factory in Muranga wrote to KTDA after the agency sent a prepared resolution asking it to approve the appointment of a city advocate in a case opposing the new regulations.
The factory told KTDA that it is not opposed to the reforms.
It also asked the agency to furnish farmers with the expected bill since the amount to be paid to the law firm was not indicated. “Experiences show exorbitant charges were incurred when the firm was contracted to challenge a case… the case cost farmers Sh70 million,” the letter from Gacharage, signed by its official Paul Kagema, said.
In the petition on Thursday, KTDA through its advocate, Benson Milimo, told the Senate committee that in publishing the rules, Mr Munya introduced unnecessary regulatory bureaucracies, contrary to the 2013 Crops Act.
The lawyer told the panel chaired by Embu Senator Njeru Ndwiga that the CS’s decision to allow individual factories to sell their produce at the auction is a violation of the Act, which vests the authority of value addition and marketing on the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA).
“Despite the provision of the Crops Act, 2013, the Cabinet Secretary has purported to assign himself this function and instead compel AFA to undertake its statutory duty. Mr Munya has removed these functions and imposed them on private persons such as tea buyers and exporters,” Mr Milimo said.
The agency added that regulation 36 (4), which requires a limited factory to build its green leaf collection centre at least 250 meters away from the collection or buying centre of another factory is a violation of Section 3 of the Crops Act. He said the section provides that regulations made should not create unnecessary and additional expenses on the industry players.
“This increased cost is in violation of Section 3 of the Act, which discouraged such endeavours. Indeed, there can be no justification in the government being dictating who constructs a business facility for citizens,” Mr Milimo told the committee.
Another opponent of the reforms is East African Tea Trade Association (EATTA) – which runs the auction platform in Mombasa.
EATTA told told the Senate team that the new regulations do not add value and that if implemented, would make Kenyan tea unmarketable across the globe.
Accused of corrupting
EATTA members have in the past been accused of corrupting the auction system and running a non-transparent platform which allowed brokers to thrive at the expense of farmers. EATTA representative, Mwangi Kibichio, said the regulations are unnecessarily restrictive, not alive to the reality on the ground and ambiguous.
He added that the guidelines are prone to abuse by authorities. “The regulations are largely silent on development and growth measures, relegate reduction of taxation and regulation burden and concentrate on marketing and trade rules where government roles and levying aspects are magnified,” Mr Kibichio told the lawmakers.
He added that the new guidelines do not address challenges bedeviling the tea industry such as high input cost borne by farmers, lack of competitiveness in the international market due to inadequate value addition, market distortion by middlemen and uncoordinated government agencies.
The stakeholders told the committee that the regulations should be withdrawn or subjected to radical amendments. President Uhuru Kenyatta on January 14 issued directives to clean the industry and restore profitability and hope to hundreds of thousands of local farmers. In particular, Mr Kenyatta called for reforms in KTDA, brokerage and auctioneering.
The President told stakeholders to seal corruption and embezzlement loopholes. Following the directives, Mr Munya published the regulations. They say farmers who market their produce through KTDA will be paid 50 per cent of the delivery monthly, with the rest given as bonus annually.
Farmers used to be paid by the factories Sh14 to Sh16 per kilo monthly, with the bulk of the money being paid in October.
In the new reforms, individual tea factories will also be allowed to sell their produce at the tea auction, outlawing direct sale overseas. The CS further said that any tea that is not sold during a particular auction shall be re-listed for sale during the subsequent auction.
The reforms also call for automation of the auction process in the next two months to promote accountability.
More so, buyers of the green leaf will have to deposit a down payment of 10 per cent with the balance paid before export of the purchased consignment. In turn, factories are required to pay farmers 30 days after receiving the auction proceeds.
All tea buyers, he also said shall henceforth submit to the Regulatory Authority –Agriculture Food Authority (AFA) a performance bond in the form of a bank guarantee equivalent to 10 per cent of the estimated value of the tea, they intend to buy.
To reduce conflict of interest, a single broker will only represent 15 factories at the tea auction.
The committee is currently looking regulations before presenting a report to the house on whether to adopt the new regulations or reject them.
Source: Nation Media


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Coral Springs — The Coral Springs Woman's Club will sell candle kits for the annual Festival of Lights Celebration on Christmas Eve.
The candle kits will be sold from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Dec. 21, 22 and 23, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Christmas Eve. The kits will be available at the Publix Supermarkets at Sample Road and University Drive, at Ramblewood and University drives and at Wiles Road and Coral Springs Drive.
The kit sells for $4. Call 954-954-345-4232.
Orchid Society meeting at Cypress Hammock Park
The Coral Springs Orchid Society will meet at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the community center in Cypress Hammock Park, 1300 Coral Springs Drive. Call 954-755-0870.
Newcomers Club sponsors photo shoot, garage sale
The Newcomers Club of Coral Springs has garage sale and photo shoot events planned.
On Jan. 25, photographers from Paradise Studios will be available in the clubhouse of Eagle Trace to shoot portraits. Makeup artists and clothing will be available. Cost is $20. Register before Jan. 15. Call 954-796-9050.
The club will host its annual multifamily garage sale Feb. 1. Proceeds will benefit SOS Children's Village, God's Little Acre, Women in Distress and other local charities. Booth space for vendors is still available. Call 954-796-9050.
Donate new, unwrapped toys for kids this holiday
A toy drive is being conducted through Dec. 20. Toys will be donated to needy Coconut Creek families and Family Central.
Bring new, unwrapped toys to the recreation complex at 4455 Sol Press Blvd.; City Hall, 4800 W. Copans Road; Rowe Community Center, 900 NW 43rd Ave.; or the Winston Park Publix Store, 5365 Lyons Road. Call 954-956-1580.
The Science Sleuth 2002 series continues Saturday
Science Sleuth 2002 continues at 10:30 a.m. Saturday in the Margate Community Center, 6199 NW 10th St. Children will make yeast pretzels and take them home to bake. Cost is $6. Call 954-972-6458.


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It wasn’t too long ago that Intel Corp. was the unquestioned king of U.S. chip makers and the largest semiconductor company by market capitalization. It’s also not long since most computing was done with a PC.
Since then, a host of changes have occurred in how people interact with technology, and other companies have specialized in taking advantage of those changes, causing Intel
to fall behind. While the company was worth as much as rivals Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
and Nvidia Corp.
combined five years ago, Nvidia is now worth as much as the other two combined, a massive sea change in semiconductor valuations that mirrors the change in the industry itself.
For instance, Qualcomm Inc.
rose to prominence with the rise of cellphones and then later with Blackberries, Apple Inc.’s
iPhones, and mobile devices in general. AMD took Intel head-on in the mid-2000s and gained a quarter of the market for central processing units, or CPUs — Intel’s bread and butter — only to retreat and then make a similar move in servers in recent years. Nvidia’s graphics-processing units, or GPUs, once known for just making videogames prettier, have taken to powering cloud-computing data centers after their utility in machine learning was discovered. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
or TSMC, grew to become the largest cutting-edge foundry for chip makers whose architectures surpassed Intel’s over the past few years.
Of the 30 companies tracked by the PHLX Semiconductor Index
Intel enjoyed the largest market capitalization for decades, but in the past few years that lead has disappeared; it is now the fifth largest, with other companies vying to push it farther down the list. Intel has learned the hard way that with all these competitors in an evolving landscape, it too needs to evolve, a plan that new Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger seems to be undertaking.
How Nvidia blew past Intel
One way to see how the chip industry reached this point is to look at the current heavyweight, the most valuable semiconductor company on the SOX index — Nvidia, with a market cap of about $580 billion. Nvidia has succeeded in two related areas of the fastest-growing chip segment: the data center, where the growth of cloud-computing services from the likes of Amazon.com Inc.
and Alphabet Inc.’s Google
have required ever more performance using less electricity, and artificial-intelligence capabilities.
First, Nvidia showed that GPUs could help to increase the ability of data centers, which have long been run with CPUs. While CPUs work quickly through tasks that require user or system interaction, GPUs can break complex problems into millions of separate tasks to work them out at once, in so-called parallel processing.
Then, Nvidia tried to corner the market on Arm-based processors with its $40 billion bid to acquire Arm Holdings Ltd., which eventually was withdrawn amid regulatory pressure. Arm uses an architecture that is different from the once-standard x86 one built by Intel in the early days of computing. While not being able to run Arm outright, Nvidia has a 20-year license with the company.
“One of the things I think that a lot of people don’t appreciate when they get down on Intel is the breadth of products that Intel has to build to be successful: It’s huge,” Maribel Lopez, principal analyst at Lopez Research told MarketWatch. “For example, no one’s looking at Qualcomm saying they expect them to unseat Nvidia GPUs in the data center.”
“Meanwhile, you got someone like Nvidia saying ‘I got to build some CPUs to go with my GPUs in the data center’,” Lopez said. “It’s the whole recognition that if you want to compete in the larger landscape, you have got to make acquisitions “
Then, there’s another area where Intel has a long way to go to catch up to Nvidia: Software. Nvidia over the years has developed an entrenched software ecosystem in which to run their chips, prompting some analysts to compare it with software companies.
Analysts say Nvidia is far ahead of Intel and others in software, but Intel is trying to catch up. Intel recently announced it was acquiring Israel-based Granulate Cloud Solutions Ltd. for an undisclosed sum, although TechCrunch reported the deal was worth around $650 million, citing “well-placed,” unidentified sources. Granulate develops cloud-optimization software that helps boost performance in existing hardware.
That tracks with Intel’s rationale behind the shedding of its nanometer-based naming convention back in July, as executives wanted to begin taking into account a chip’s “performance per watt” as a measure rather than just how many transistors it could fit in a given space.
And it’s not just Intel. Recently, both AMD and Qualcomm announced moves that will broaden their reach into software. AMD said it was acquiring the widely used data-center services platform Pensando for nearly $2 billion, coincidently just shy of the $2.24 billion the company’s enterprise, embedded and semi-custom chips business (i.e. data-center and gaming console unit) took in during the holiday quarter.
Qualcomm, on the other hand, said it closed on its deal to acquire a full stake in Arriver, the driving-automation software company it helped build with Veoneer Inc., from SSW Partners following a joint acquisition where Qualcomm and SSW Partners bought Veoneer for $4.5 billion. Qualcomm plans to use Arriver to build out a fully-automated driving stack for its Snapdragon Ride platform.
Chip maker Broadcom Ltd.
was comparatively early in broadening its software holdings through acquisitions like Symantec’s enterprise security business, CA Inc. back in 2018, and Brocade Communications Systems Inc. for $5.5 billion in late 2017. Those acquisitions once left analysts puzzled, but as of the last reported quarter, Broadcom derived about one quarter of its $7.71 billion in quarterly revenue from software sales.
Currently, the company seeking to dethrone Intel from the No. 5 position is AMD, which passed Intel in market cap at times in recent weeks, a dynamic few who tracked the industry a decade ago would have believed at the time. For years, AMD has lived in the shadow of Intel, referred to as the “smaller” rival in the data-center and PC chip market with respect to market capitalization, but that’s no longer the case as the two companies jockey for position.
The gap between the companies narrowed considerably after AMD closed its $35 billion stock deal to acquire chip maker Xilinx Inc., which sent AMD’s valuation higher than Intel’s for the first time. The boost in AMD’s share count gave the company a market cap of $197.63 billion at the close of market Feb. 15, when shares finished at $121.47, compared with Intel’s close at $48.44 for a market cap of $197.25 billion, a difference of about $380 million.
Since then, the lead has flipped back and forth several times, with AMD gaining its widest lead so far at about $6.2 billion on Feb. 28. With a recent decline in AMD’s share price, though, Intel leads by about $34 billion now.
One fab to rule them all
While chip makers seek to diversify to compete, there’s one factor in the background where a virtual monopoly exists, and that’s in where the silicon transistors are made. No matter how diversified an individual chip maker is, that diversification matters little if you don’t have the manufacturing capacity for the silicon, and that makes the industry beholden to TSMC, Raymond James analyst Chris Caso told MarketWatch.
“There is virtually no piece of electronics that doesn’t have substantial content from TSMC and comes out of Taiwan,” Caso said. “TSMC touches everything.”
TSMC owns fabrication facilities, or fabs, where the actual silicon wafers are made, for chip makers. Fabs are a huge capital investment, often taking two to three years to build because of their complexity.
TSMC first surpassed Intel in market cap in March 2017, then spent the next three years jockeying back and forth before stepping on the gas in June 2020, nearly two months before Intel announced that its next generation of chips would be delayed. Right before that, Nvidia started jockeying with Intel and similarly pulled away following the delay announcement.
Even though Samsung Electronics Co.
and GlobalFoundries Inc.
also offer third-party foundry services, Samsung, while it has leading-edge capacity, is smaller in the foundry space than TSMC and is “more selective with what they do,” and GlobalFoundries caters to those chip makers who produce lagging-edge — but still necessary — technology, Caso said.
Even Intel, which prides itself on having its own foundries and is seeking to move into TSMC’s market by offering third-party fab services, relies on TSMC for some of its cutting-edge products that require a greater transistor density. That reliance was laid bare when the company, in its July 2020 delay announcement, said a “defect mode” in its manufacturing process was the root cause for the delay, and that its contingency plan would be using “somebody else’s foundry,” widely considered to be TSMC.
“It’s more of an industrywide problem, which is if something happens to TSMC’s ability to produce inside of Taiwan, then pretty much the whole semiconductor industry, and the whole electronics industry, and frankly, the whole world economy have some big issues,” Caso said.
“I think the notion of being a fab for lots of people has been very successful,” Lopez said of TSMC. “This is one of the reasons you see the shift in Intel’s strategy. It keeps you at full capacity all the time as a fab.”
For a sense of scale, Nvidia and TSMC combined currently have come to account for more than a third — $1.1 trillion — of the $3 trillion market cap of the 30 companies that make up the PHLX Semiconductor Index. By comparison, the combined caps of Intel and AMD make up about 12% of the index.


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Seagate Technology might be in trouble with the law after failing on numerous occasions to deliver the reliability its marketing rhetoric tends to suggest. Today, consumers filed a national class-action lawsuit against the company, claiming Seagate was not only issuing faulty drives, but that the warranty appointed replacement hard drives were equally defective.
This news comes from consumer-rights law firm representing the consumers, Hagens Berman, whose portfolio includes challenges to Apple, Google, and DRAM manufacturers, among other companies in tech. The lawsuit itself is to be filed on February 2, 2016 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
“Seagate promised purchasers reliable hard drives that would safeguard their important documents and cherished photos, but consumers report that these Seagate hard drives fail sometimes just days after their first use,” said managing partner of Hagens Berman, Steve Berman. “These hard drives failed to deliver on Seagate’s promises, and replacements from Seagate were just as defective, amounting to loss of data and wasted money for thousands of purchasers – something we believe to be direct violation of federal consumer-rights laws.”
Specifically, the drives in question are Seagate’s Barracuda 3TB hard drive, and its Backup Plus 3TB external hard drive. If you purchased either of these products, Hagen Berman says you could be entitled to recompense, covering the cost of replacement and repair.
“Plain and simple,” Berman continued. “Consumers paid for a product that they did not receive, and we intend to fight for their rights to receive payback from Seagate.”
Unfortunately, receiving a defective hard drive bears much more severe consequences than many other products on the market. Since many people use these drives as their primary source of storage, or as a critical backup, a defect means not only then end of an expensive product, but the end of important files as well.
If you’re one of the many affected by Seagate’s alleged shortcomings in quality, you can contact the attorneys representing the lawsuit here.