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Dell’s new 15-in. Dell Precision M2800 mobile workstation offers optimized performance and design application certifications.
Slated for release later this spring, the Dell Precision M2800, says the company, helps to bridge the gap between business-class laptops and mobile workstations by offering an affordable independent software vendor (ISV) certified system with professional graphics and processors.
“Many designers and engineers are not realizing the full potential of their professional software because they are using a business or consumer-class PC instead of a workstation,” said Andy Rhodes, executive director of Dell Precision workstations, in the M2800 announcement. “We are filling that gap by introducing a new mobile workstation at a price that lets more professionals and students maximize their software while on the go. This is the right tool to help more people design and deliver innovations faster, no matter where they are.”
The M2800 can be configured with fourth-generation dual-core Intel Core i5 or quad-core Intel Core i7 processors. It uses AMD FirePro W4170M graphics with 2GB of dedicated GDDR5 video memory, and supports up to 16GB of system memory and 1TB of storage to run graphics- and data-intensive workloads, the company says. It comes with a 15.6-in. Dell UltraSharp display with HD or Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolutions, external multi-monitor support and docking compatibility.
The Dell Precision M2800’s starting weight before options is 5.6 lbs. (2.56kg). Pricing will begin at $1,199, according to Dell.
To maximize performance of CAD solutions, the M2800 will be ISV-certified for such applications as Autodesk AutoCAD, Inventor and Revit, Dassault Systemes SolidWorks and PTC Creo. It will also be certified for a number of digital content creation and editing applications. In addition, the M2800 comes with Dell Precision Performance Optimizer (DPPO) technology, which automatically adjusts system settings for optimizing specific applications.
“Prior to the Dell Precision M2800 many AutoCAD users were running their software on a non-professional workstation due to budgetary constraints,” said Amy Bunszel, vice president of AutoCAD products, Autodesk, in a statement provided with the press announcement. “Now our customers will be able to upgrade to a workstation-class system that has been tested, optimized and certified for AutoCAD, increasing performance for minimal cost.”
Dell says that its new Dell Precision M2800 mobile workstation will be available worldwide this spring. For more information, visit Dell.
Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.


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The U.S. federal and state departments will make a trial against Apple Inc who is accused to increase the price of tablets.
The appearance makes the tech giant accountable to the U.S. Justice Department in a case that examines the interaction of content providing firm with online retailers.
Last year the United States Justice Department accused Apple and five U.S. largest publishers of conspiracy. The trial alleged them of raising e-book price tags and shatter Amazon.com Inc’s image on pricing.
Apple is now facing the lawsuit alone as the other five accused firms have said to give compensation of $164 million for their unlawful act in order to benefit customers.
The five alleged publishing firms are Pearson Plc’s Penguin Group, News Corp’s HarperCollins Publishers Inc, CBS Corp’s Simon & Schuster Inc, Hachette Book Group Inc and MacMillan.
Apple is going to face a difficult task as the presiding judge commented on the eve of final hearing before the trial.
“I am sure that the authorities will prove that Apple played a pivotal role in the conspiracy in order to increase the price tags of e-books,” U.S. District Judge Denise Cote said at the case hearing on May 23.
The upcoming harm claims by states and class actions make it better for Apple to go for the trial, John Lopatka, a law professor at Pennsylvania State University, quoted.

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THQ has effectively ended the Red Faction series, citing poor performance and reviews for the recent Red Faction: Armageddon. President and CEO Brian Farrell has stated that the company will not be continuing with the series. At least, not in any significant way. This means that fans can effectively count out any new releases.
The company is also displeased with the performance of other recent releases such as UFC Personal Trainer and MX vs ATV: Alive. Metacritic scores for recent games were mentioned by Farrell, saying that getting ratings in the average range was not acceptable for the company as a whole.
They're hoping that the upcoming quarter will be a much better one, putting their hopes on the upcoming Saints Row: The Third and a few other upcoming releases. Hopefully THQ will be able to pull out of it's funk and release some quality games; they've given us some pretty cool titles and it would be sad to see them go out on a sour note.


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As far as apologetic gestures go, this one doesn’t sound terribly persuasive.
In light of the ‘Adpocalypse‘, whereby a fleet of marketers pulled their ads from YouTube after discovering that they had run against extremist videos perpetrating violence and hate speech, YouTube reportedly offered nominal refunds to advertisers that, in some cases, amounted to less than $3.00, reports The Financial Times. Three companies were offered refunds by YouTube — though one advertiser refused the offer outright, as it amounted to just a couple of dollars.
“When someone violates our ads policy repeatedly, we terminate the account, credit our advertisers and do not pay the content creator or publisher,” a Google spokesperson told the Times. The small refund figures would seem to echo Google business chief Philipp Schindler’s claims earlier this year that ads running on extremist videos was a negligible occurrence, and that ads appearing in this way represented just 1/1000th of marketers’ total impressions.
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“The optics of giving these refunds are not great, but my guess is that Google had a technical responsibility to offer them,” Rob Norman, chief digital officer for ad agency Group M, told the Times.
Last month, YouTube announced new measures to clamp down on extremist material on its platform, including training its Content ID system to better identify terrorist videos and installing warnings on videos that contain dicey rhetoric.


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OnePlus 7 and OnePlus 7 Pro will be officially launched on May 14, and the company is leaving no stone unturned to generate hype for the device. In partnership with its online retail partner Amazon India, the company is running a quiz asking shoppers on the platform to guess the complete specifications. In some countries, it is running full page ads in newspapers about the specifications and now the company has given an early preview of the smartphone to gamers in India. The company has posted a video sharing their reactions and as you would expect, most of them are surprised by its performance.
The video starts with a message saying, “We gave India’s top gamers an exclusive sneak peak of the OnePlus 7 Pro”, and then introduces four gamers – MortaL, RakaZone, RaV3n and Manasvivi. The first reactions of these gamers are that OnePlus 7 Pro is sleek and one gamer appreciates the new color. This could be an attempt by the company to confirm the leaks that OnePlus 7 Pro will come in Nebula Blue, Mirror Grey, and Almond color this year. OnePlus is likely moving away from black finish for its smartphones this year.
The video also shows the surround sound without earphones and it is not clear whether we are looking at front-facing stereo speakers. However, the main motive of this video is to show gaming performance, and all the four gamers seem to be impressed by the performance of OnePlus 7 Pro. “My emulator doesn’t give me this experience,” one gamer says looking at the device, which has been blurred in the video. The gamers add that they don’t see any frame drops and claim that gaming performance is better than on their PC. Another gamer jumps the gun and claims that she is going to buy the device and start streaming from OnePlus 7 Pro.
The video is a fitting way to tell mobile gamers around the world that a new performance behemoth is on the way. The leaks so far show that OnePlus 7 Pro will be all about “fast and smooth” performance. It is expected to achieve unmatched performance by using Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 855 mobile platform coupled with up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 3.0 storage. The smooth aspect of the device is expected to be handled by a new 6.64-inch Quad HD+ curved AMOLED display with a faster 90Hz refresh rate.
The display should make it easier to play games that support playback at 60 frames per second. The display has already received A+ rating from DisplayMate, and is also HDR10+ compliant. The leaked specifications of the device claim that it will feature triple rear camera setup with 48-megapixel main camera paired with an 8-megapixel telephoto camera and a 16-megapixel ultra wide-angle camera. In the video, one of the gamers ask, “Where is the camera?” confirming the pop-up selfie camera. The OnePlus 7 Pro is expected to feature a 16-megapixel shooter for selfies and will have a pop-up mechanism similar to Oppo F11 Pro.
OnePlus 7 Pro will debut with Android 9 Pie out-of-the-box, and is expected to pack a 4,000mAh battery. The smartphone will also support 30W Warp Charge for fast charging the smartphone. The leaks so far claim that OnePlus 7 Pro will start at Rs 49,999 in India, making it one of the most smartphone from the company yet.


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Intel made headlines about a year ago when The New York Times reported that the chip maker rejected Vista for the computers of its 80,000 employees. In analyzing Vista, Intel's technology staff had concluded the cost of migrating to the OS was more than the potential benefits.
With Windows 7, however, Intel sees "just one big positive" for businesses and consumers, Intel's Sean Maloney said Wednesday in answering questions at the company's Technology Summit in San Francisco. "This time, we think it will go faster," Maloney said of Windows 7 adoption.
Windows 7 is seen by many reviewers as much better than Vista, which a lot of businesses considered buggy and requiring too much of a hardware upgrade to run. However, despite Maloney's comments, how fast companies will deploy Windows 7 remains to be seen.
An InformationWeek Analytics survey of businesses found many of them in no rush to upgrade to Windows 7. Fully 42% of the more than 1,400 business technology professionals surveyed said Microsoft ending of support for XP was the biggest reason to migrate. Only 18% said it was because of new features, and a third said their companies had no plans to deploy Windows 7 at this time.
On the popularity of netbooks, Maloney said the market for the inexpensive mini-laptops appeared to be "maturing." Even though the devices have been the fastest growing segment of the PC market during the current economic recession, their performance limitations prevent them from becoming the choice of first-time mobile PC buyers.
"The first time you buy something, you want the real deal," Maloney said. "It's human nature."
Netbooks would likely settle in as a second or third computer among people looking for a small laptop to check e-mail and surf the Web, or as an option for parents looking for a PC for their children, Maloney said.
Netbooks will account for one in five of the roughly 163 million laptops expected to ship this year, according to DisplaySearch. The mini-laptops, which sell for less than $500, have been most popular in the emerging market of Latin America and in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
InformationWeek has published an in-depth report on Google's upcoming Chrome OS. Download the report here (registration required).


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Here we are at the finish line, the iPhone 14 will probably be presented in September. As is customary at this time of year, rumors and revelations invade the web for our greatest pleasure.
What’s new under the hood of the iPhone 14?
Some sources explain that Apple reserved the new A16 Bionic chip for the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max, leaving the iPhone 14 in the hands of last year’s A15 Bionic. However, new instructions posted on the ShrimpApplePro Twitter account confirm this thesis.
The iPhone 14 would have had an A15 Bionic chip, but it would have received a bit of “home staging” from Apple. The game will feature a brand new modem, there is also talk of more RAM and an architecture upgrade to improve overall performance. Another modification will affect the battery, which will now be compatible with 30W fast charging compared to 27W on the iPhone 13 Pro. Given the difference in power, don’t expect a revolution in usage. In comparison, the new OnePlus 10T has a 150W charge, allowing it to fill up in less than 20 minutes.
Another major difference will be the removal of the notch, a change that is again reserved for the iPhone 14 Pro. Pictures have also been released in recent weeks:


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Pizza Ice Cream Is Now a Thing
Most people enjoy pizza by the slice. Now, you can eat it by the scoop.
Quirky ice cream company Coolhaus recently debuted a pizza-flavored ice cream, currently served in its two Southern California storefronts and Los Angeles-based trucks, reports Vice. The chain, which has previously scooped savory flavors like Fried Chicken & Waffles and Cream Cheese & Rye, says the ice cream uses a mascarpone and olive oil base, adding in sun-dried tomato, fresh basil and salt.
Coolhaus CEO Natasha Case told Vice that the flavor is already a hit, with customers unable to resist trying the outlandish flavor. And yes, she says, it actually tastes like pizza -- but without directly mimicking the distinct flavor of a dollar slice.
If you like your pizza piping hot, you might opt for other Coolhaus flavors in the works. Case says the company is currently developing a lineup of breakfast-inspired flavors.
Case and co-founder Freya Estrella began selling quirky, architecturally-influenced ice cream sandwiches out of a second-hand postal van in 2009. Today, Coolhaus operates two storefronts and 10 mobile ice cream trucks, published a cookbook and sells treats at more than 4,000 gourmet markets across the U.S.
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This year could be the year marketers decide to put more budget spend towards traditional media, says a report from agency-client relationship experts RSW/US. The thing is, agencies don’t see any significant spending growth in traditional media.
The report, 2016 New Year Outlook Survey, asked 165 senior level marketers and 115 marketing agency execs about expectations and issues during December last year. The report included a number of questions from US trade media publication, AdWeek. You can download it here, registration is required.
From the report, 34 per cent of marketers think spending in traditional media would be higher, but only 18.9 per cent of agencies believe that.
The gap between agencies’ and traditional media spending is not the only disagreement area, as agencies see more spending being allocated to digital, mobile and social media than marketers this year.
From the report, the numbers show 91 per cent of agencies think digital spending will be higher, alongside 79.6 per cent of marketers.
Some 67.6 per cent of agencies think it will be higher spending on mobile, compared to 53.7 per cent of marketers.
And in social, 71.2 per cent of agencies reckon more money will be splurged in this space, but only 61.2 per cent of marketers agree.
The difference between agencies and marketers falls hand in hand with another aspect of the report, the issues both agencies and marketers see with each other, called ‘troubling trends’.
One of the ‘troubling trends’ for marketers was that agencies were downplaying the importance of traditional media.
“The disparity in anticipated spending changes across new and traditional media is illustrative of marketers’ positions on this,” the report says.
“It may be a matter of who’s right or who’s wrong. And it may not be. Agencies may indeed be leading marketers in the right direction, but if so, marketers aren’t understanding why. Or, it could be that agencies are being too quick to leap on new media channels without adequately quantifying beneficial effects.”
Nevertheless, the intention of marketers to invest in advertising and marketing this year is at 62 per cent, up from 51 per cent in 2015.
Breaking down the numbers 53.5 per cent of marketers reckon their marketing spending will ‘increase somewhat’ this year, with 8.2 per cent seeing it ‘increase significantly’ and 25.8 per cent believing there won’t be a change.
From an agency perspective, the expectations for their clients on increase in marketing spending for this year is slightly lower.
Some 46.9 per cent reckon it will ‘increase somewhat’, slightly lower than marketers’ expectations. Only 1.8 per cent reckon it will ‘increase significantly’ – rather different to the marketers’ 8.2 per cent – and 35.4 per cent of agencies believe their client’s marketing spending will exhibit no change.
However, the report says the numbers are encouraging for both marketers and agencies.
“Particularly given the volatility of the global market, keep on eye on how your clients proceed with plans through the first half of the year,” suggests the report to agencies.
“If you see them begin to hold back, watch your own spending on ‘extras’ such as equipment or renovations. Maintain your commitment to invest in your own marketing and sales efforts. These support the health of your firm through both lean times and good years.”


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China’s Huawei etui coque samsung galaxy note 2 Technologies is making a coque samsung glaxy s6 second attempt at cracking coque samsung j5 gaming the Brazilian smartphone market, coque iphone 7 pas cher the fourth largest in the world, custom iphone 11 case coque samsung j5 2017 survivor with the launch of two high end handsets coque huawei p8 lite harry potter
„Brazil is a coque samsung galaxy j5 silicone amazon market with very significant opportunities for Huawei and we have a competitive portfolio to satisfy consumers’ expectations,” said Ketrina Dunagan, Huawei’s coque samsung galaxy j3 vans vice president of coque samsung galaxy j3 6 paillette marketing for the Americas, coque samsung galaxy grand prime coque miroir in a statement emailed to Reuters.
Huawei’s plans for Brazil underscore the rise of Chinese companies expanding coque samsung galaxi j5 in Latin America’s technology and consumer sectors, moving beyond a coque incassable huawei p8 lite traditional focus on commodities and infrastructure.
Brazil is a rare Latin American market where Huawei’s phones are still absent from store shelves. The company currently sells handsets in more than a dozen countries in the region, kawaii iphone 11 case coque samsung j3 éclairé often with a double digit market share.
Huawei, the world’s third largest smartphone manufacturer, star wars iphone 11 case first launched a smartphone in Brazil in 2014, but the Ascend P7 handset met with weak demand and the project coque samsung galaxy grand prime silicone personnalisable was discontinued.
Now, Huawei is planning to import two premium devices from the new P30 Seriesequipped with high resolution cameras, the company said, withholding details ahead of the April 30 launch.
„The commercial strategy is completely different this time because the brand is still not well known by Brazilians,” said a person familiar with the matter, requesting anonymity to speak openly about plans that have not been made public.
Whereas five years ago, Huawei set up as a supplier to coque samsung galaxy s6 mirroir mobile carriers, coque iphone 6huawei p8 lite coque noir new smartphones in coque samsung galaxy a3 2016 mickey Brazil, coque iphone xs this time the company is looking to partner with retail chains that sell more than two thirds of handsets, the source said.
More cutting edge models should also help Huawei lure the attention of increasingly sophisticated buyers.
„The Brazilian market has coque fortnite huawei p8 lite coque samsung galaxy core prime boulanger reached a maturity level and manufacturers must bring novelties to convince consumers to replace their smartphones for new ones,” said Renato Meireles, a research coque samsung j3 2016 equipe de france analyst at IDC Brasil.
Smartphone sales in Brazil are expected to fall 4.3 percent this year, Meireles added, after a 6.8 percent drop in 2018.
„The coque samsung galaxy a3 2016 iron man first semester is still affected by economic and political turbulences, but sales should improve in the second semester with the arrival of new players”,


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BAHP calls WVE fem hy products report ‘unsubstantiated, based on misinformation’
ARLINGTON, VA, June 7, 2018-
The Center for Baby and Adult Hygiene Products (BAHP) Executive Director Jane Wishneff released the following statement on behalf of the industry in response to the Women’s Voices for the Earth (WVE) report regarding the safety of feminine hygiene products:
“BAHP is disappointed that the Women’s Voices for the Earth has released a report that is unsubstantiated and based on misinformation regarding the safety of feminine hygiene products. The report, which needlessly frightens women, ignores the extensive information that is readily available supporting the safety of these products. Feminine hygiene products are classified as medical devices under federal law and are subject to specific regulatory requirements, including device listing, appropriate labeling, adverse event reporting and good manufacturing practices. These requirements are applicable to all feminine hygiene products before they are available for purchase and while they are in market. In addition, the Agency has rigorous inspection processes in place for all facilities that manufacture them.
Not a subscriber?


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Honda of America showed its all-new 2015 Fit to a group of media in Detroit Dec. 17, ahead of the car’s official North American debut at the 2014 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS). The quasi-secrecy surrounding the Detroit media unveiling was a bit odd, given that an early drive report on the new B-segment sedan by Motor Trend magazine (based on a July 2013 preview at Honda’s Takasu Proving Ground) is posted, with an array of approved images, on motortrend.com.
The large group of Detroit media was given the lone teaser photo of a Fit rear taillamp shown here.
But the big engineering news for the Fit’s competitors is the new Honda gets its own version of the company’s stout ACE (Advanced Compatibility Engineering) body structure, constructed of high levels of high-strength and ultrahigh-strength steel and featuring unique door-ring assemblies. “With the addition of the ACE structure on the new Fit, our entire model range now features the ACE occupant protection,” Chuck Thomas, Chief Engineer, Safety, at Honda R&D told AEI.
Thomas is optimistic the 2015 Fit will perform better than the 2013 version, which has scored “good” (top) Insurance Institute of Highway Safety ratings in the side impact, roof strength, and rear crash protection/head restraint testing.
Veteran Honda Chief Engineer Makoto Konishi led the development program. The car’s Chief Designer is Toshinobu Minami. Chassis tuning was the province of Terumasa Kotada, who benchmarked the Volkswagen Polo in terms of vehicle dynamics, according to the Motor Trend article.
The new Fit’s wheelbase adds about 2 in (50 mm) to the incumbent car’s 98.4 in (2499 mm), while its overall length, width, and height are nearly the same—currently 161.6 in (4105 mm), 66.7 in (1694 mm), and 60 in (1524 mm), respectively. Official specs will come during the NAIAS.
The car’s exterior form is best described as being a fresher, bolder evolution of the incumbent Fit, perhaps mildly inspired by Honda’s handsome Clarity FCV, in the author’s view. The global subcompact will be built at Honda’s new plant in Celaya, Mexico, beginning in 3Q14, which Honda of America Senior Vice President Mike Acavitti said will provide much needed North American production capacity for the model that has thus far been imported from Asia.
The new platform also underpins a compact crossover utility (introduced at the 2013 Tokyo Motor Show as the 2014 Vezel for the Japanese market), which also will be built at Celaya for North America for MY15. The new Fit Hybrid (featuring the company’s new single motor/DCT drive system), battery EV, and sporty RS variants, the latter featuring a turbocharged 1.5 L and 6-speed manual transmission, are also in the pipeline for MY15-16.
In addition to the new stronger and more crashworthy body structure, Fit gets significantly upgraded 1.5-L four-cylinder Earth Dreams engines (including a move to DOHC valvetrains and direct injection) offering 127 hp (98 kW) and 111 lb·ft (150 N·m). They're coupled with CVT or six-speed manual gearboxes to provide up to 10% greater fuel efficiency than the 2014 car. The HEV version will use an Atkinson-cycle engine, and the EV will feature a unique suspension system.
The base car rides on front MacPherson struts and a torsion-beam-type rear setup. Steering is by a rack-mounted electric system. The base car relies on drum-type rear brakes, a cost-saving measure.
At the Detroit media event in December, Honda officials also noted that Acura will show a prototype of its new 2015 TLX sedan at the 2014 NAIAS. Based on the Accord platform, the TLX replaces the Acura TL.


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Home Tags Travel company
Tag: travel company
The world's largest leisure travel company's AIDA Cruises, Germany's leading cruise line, launches its newest ship, AIDAnova, which makes history as the world's first cruise vessel powered at sea and in port by liquefied natural gas, the world's cleanest burning fossil fuel
The Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Hajj and Umrah have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) supporting the Kingdom's vision of 2030 goal to increase its capacity to over 30 million pilgrims by utilizing Agoda's technology and travel expertise, marketing platform capabilities, intelligence tools, and resources.
There have been a number of challenges from the external environment that the travel industry has had to keep an eye on over the past 18 months.
Alexandre Glauser (1st left front row), General Manager of Centara Kata Resort, and Jason Lu (1st right front row), Director of Sales, Southern Thailand, Centara Hotels and Resorts, welcome Jonatan A
NEW DELHI - Carlson, a privately held, global hospitality and travel company, today announced that it plans to have more than 100 hotels in operation in India by 2015.
A family of Florida-based travel companies doing business in Austin and San Antonio are facing charges of deceptive trade practices and other business and commerce code violations from the Texas Attor
Hundreds more British tourists have been left stranded abroad tonight following the collapse of a second travel company.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA (August 27, 2008) - Sweet, a new lesbian travel company, today announced it has finalized an agreement with Norwegian Cruise Line to charter the 1,972-passenger Norwegian Spirit.


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With the hospitality industry awakened from its impromtu hibernation, the local tourism sector will welcome the announcement that the Carlingford Lough Ferry will resume full service from Friday 10th July.
The first daily sailing leaves Greencastle at 9am and then every hour on the hour until 8pm. Greenore departures run every hour on the half hour from 9.30am until 8.30pm. Full ferry timetable is available on the Carlingford Lough Ferry website.
Commercial Director with Carlingford Lough Ferry, Irene Hamilton commented, “We’re delighted to be able to reopen our service and we’d like to thank all our customers for their patience during the lockdown. Like many other businesses, our team have been working hard to implement our new onboard safety protocols in line with public health guidelines.”
“We have a range of new measures in place including regular intensive disinfecting of the public areas, social distancing protocols while onboard and an online pre-booking option that offers customers a 10% discount when they book online prior to travelling.”
The ferry offers tourists a quick and easy way of exploring even more of the area. The 20 minute crossing is regarded as one of the most scenic ferry routes on the island of Ireland, connecting the Mournes to the Cooley Peninsula. A new four trip explorer ticket means that holiday makers can hop back and forth during theyr stay for as little as £7.29 per sailing.
This summer, Carlingford Lough Ferry will also be offering their iconic Lough and Lighthouse Cruises. These will run every Saturday and Sunday evening during five weekends in August. The two-hour cruises showcase the beauty of the Lough and will take passengers to within 400 meters of the historic Haulbowline Lighthouse, located just off Cranfield Point, which is still active having been first built in 1824. These cruises sold out quickly last year and high demand is expected again when tickets are released.


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This time, there is a very serious news about virtual reality as Google Inc. is said to be getting ready to unveil a new-fangled smartphone headset.
According to The Financial Times, the new headset will succeed Cardboard, and would be featuring much better sensors, lenses, and a more solid plastic skin.
It’s said the product is the like of Samsung’s Gear VR since it will use a smartphone to display as well as most of its processing power. The only difference is that the current Cardboard VR headset is just a cardboard headset like its name with an inserted smartphone, while the new one will be coming with an extra motion sensor for adding whatever the phone places out.
Going by a post of The Financial Times, unlike the Gear VR that works with just a limited range of Samsung phones. The new Google’s virtual reality headset will be working with a little wider range of Android devices compared to Gear VR.
Other than the headset, Google is rumored to be looking forward to building a virtual reality support into the android system itself so that all the future releases of android natively support it. On the contrary, the current approach with the cardboard depends on applications to deliver the virtual reality experience. To be exact, the application of native virtual reality support, is said to stun the present issues whereby latency causes some of the users to feel nauseous, the notion being that virtual reality support parched into android at its central may stun lag time issues.
Though it is fair to note that Google is more or less late regarding taking virtual reality seriously, which puffed up, rightly or wrongly, as the next biggest thing. It is as well careless not to point out that the Google Cardboard VR headset has become temperately successful, with 5 million units having been shipped to date.
While virtual reality supremacy battle is ahead of us in the extensive market, with a number of releases in line for the year ahead, the lower end virtual reality headsets utilizing smartphones for the screens may yet be a major market in case virtual reality takes off, mainly given the undue prices being charged by Oculus Rift and its likes as well as the conventional experience offered by HTC Vive.
Apple might have commercialized and promoted the market of the smartphone with its iPhone, but it was the dead cheap Android devices which eventually made smartphones globally ubiquitous, again it might be that cheap headset catering for the lower end market that would make virtual reality universal as well.


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Tesla Inc s NASDAQ: TSLA hotly anticipated electric vehicle Cybertruck's supposed latest photos are doing the rounds on social media.
What Happened: The new photos of the Cybertruck reveal a smaller looking pickup compared to the original design — with removable side mirrors and a big wiper blade — as shared on the microblogging site Twitter.
Sawyer Merritt shared two pictures of the Cybertruck, which he said was sourced from an online owners club forum.
A second photograph shows a number of Tesla employees gathered around the Cybertruck and checking it out.
According to a report by Lease Fetcher, Cybertruck won't launch electric vehicles behind Tesla's electric sports car Roadster, but it was the second most looked-up yet-to-be launched by car-leasing research firm Lease Fetcher.
See Also: No Production In Sight For Tesla Roadster, Apple Car, Cybertruck, or Apple Car But People Are Really Out 'Searching' For Them!
The production of the Tesla Cybertruck has been delayed until 2023 due to the automaker's changes and improvements to the vehicle.
In the first quarter of 2023, Tesla hopes to make a number of the Cybertrucks before increasing output, according to a report earlier this month.


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ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES chips are having issues not to mention Windows 11 and the up-to-the-minute OS update has made the problems even worse.
AMD and Microsoft earlier mentioned revealed that Windows 11 was basically causing a reduced performance about AMD Ryzen CPUs for many applications, with extreme events seeing as much as a 15% performance hit.
Microsoft practices a software update is in benefits to address these issues, but it is similar to the very first Windows 11 educate since launch has made the trouble even worse.
TechPowerUp has documented that the latency is significantly greater now. The Ryzen six 2700X chip reportedly visited an increase from 10ns for you to 17ns when Windows 22 first launched. However , the latest The computer 11 patch (which set up on 12 October) do this problem even worse, seeing the exact latency reportedly skyrocket a lot as 31. 9ns.
Latency is generally measured in milliseconds and then measures how long it takes documents to travel between the source while the destination, so a lower latency means a faster step. Seeing the latency enlarge so much could potentially cause detectable performance slowdowns if your process uses a Ryzen processor.
Some whispers on Reddit are recommending that the L3 cache thing will be addressed on nineteen October. However , the basis patch will need to be addressed by just an AMD driver, that could come at the end of the month.
It seems that issues have been discovered specifically on Ryzen cpus, with the recommendation now might be anyone with an AMD Ryzen processor should try and put off on the Windows 11 enhance until all the bugs were already ironed out. Intel processors so far seem unaffected, unfortunately we’ll keep an eye on these fashion just in case anything changes.
If you don’t use an ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES processor and want to test out Ms windows 11, you can check out the best download the latest OS. Only be aware that patches and fixes are still arriving, since Windows 11 considered in its infancy.


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The Justice Department and eight states have filed a lawsuit against tech company, Google.
The suit was filed today in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
It alleges that the company is harming competition with its dominance in the online advertising market and calls for it to be broken up.
Google is also being accused of bullying publishers and advertisers into using its proprietary ad technology products.
The eight states joining the suit include the tri-states.
Lawmakers and regulators have frequently raised concerns about the tech giant's power but have so far failed to pass new legislation or regulations that might rein in the company or its peers.


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Riedel sues M&S over ‘Sommelier’ glassware
Austrian glassmaker Riedel has brought a lawsuit against UK retailer Marks & Spencer for what it calls infringement of its trademark.
Riedel’s owner, Tiroler Glashütte, has reportedly filed a lawsuit against M&S over the latter’s ‘Sommelier’ range of glasses which are a little too close to Riedel’s ‘Sommeliers’ range for its liking.
As reported in The Sunday Times, Riedel complained to M&S in October last year but the retailer wrote back to deny any liability.
In its lawsuit Riedel apparently alleges that M&S tried to claim ‘sommelier’ was a “generic term for glassware”.
“In reality,” said Riedel, “it describes an expert in wines.”
While this is true, it is possible that M&S was trying to argue that ‘sommelier’ is a generic term that might be applied to wine glasses rather than coming up with an alternative meaning for the term.
M&S’s ‘Sommelier range covers glasses for reds, whites (including ‘refreshing’ whites), Champagne, Port, a tall mixer and cocktails. A set of four glasses costs around £29.50.
Riedel’s ‘Sommeliers’ line meanwhile covers a much greater range with glasses suited for, as is Riedel’s calling card, styles of wine and regions ranging from Alsace to vintage Champagne, Hermitage, Burgundy, malt whisky and the Loire. A single stem can cost up to £125.
A hearing is reportedly scheduled for Wednesday this week. Both Riedel and M&S declined to comment on the on-going proceedings.


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Wine filter could remove sulphites from the bottle as wine is poured
Image credit: Dreamstime
Researchers at the University of Kansas are working to develop an inexpensive filter that could remove 99 per cent of sulphites from wine as it is poured.
Sulphites are a class of sulphur-based compounds which have valuable antibacterial and antioxidant properties and consequently have been used since the days of the Roman Empire to preserve wine.
Sulphites are sometimes added by winemakers, although they can also occur naturally in the process of winemaking.
These preservatives can boost flavour and are mostly harmless, although a small number of people suffer from a sulphite allergy, meaning that the amount of sulphite contained in a wine is tightly regulated. According to the US Department of Agriculture, people with sulphite allergies can suffer chest tightness, hives, stomach cramps, diarrhoea and breathing problems after drinking wine.
In order to prevent these symptoms in people with sulphite allergies, engineers at the University of Kansas are working to design a cheap, simple-to-use device capable of filtering 99 per cent of sulphites from wine – and other drinks, such as fruit juice – as it is poured.
According to Professor Mark Shiftlett, who is leading a group of students on the product, many of the products already on the market which claim to remove sulphites from wine have shortcomings. These sulphite-removing products require drops of a chemical to be placed inside the glasses of wine, for a filter to placed on top of the glass, or for a filter to be stirred through the wine. Some products that his group tested only removed half the sulphites from the wine samples.
“Our idea is that you’d have a device like an aerator,” said Professor Shiflett. “You’d stick it on top of the bottle and as you pour a glass through the device, it removes the sulphites. It would be inexpensive. When you’re at the cash register you’d have these devices for sale. They’d be a dollar or less. You’d buy a handful.”
The University of Kansas device under development works through chemical separation: as the wine is poured through the filter, the sulphite molecules contained within it are selectively bound to the material of the filter and do not pass into the wine glass. This could remove up to 99 per cent of the sulphites in the wine.
The other components of the wine, such as sugars and tannins, which are associated with its flavour and quality, are not affected.
“A year from now, maybe we could go onto ‘Shark Tank’ or go to a big wine producer like E&J Gallo Winery and say: ‘Look, a box of wine could come with one of these sulphite filters on the end of it,’” said Professor Shiflett.


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The Coronavirus pandemic has drastically changed the way we live our lives. With social distancing becoming the new norm, many businesses have had serious questions about how they will continue.
One of that businesses is movie theaters. Obviously the idea of sitting next to a stranger in a big room for 2+ hours will not be something people are comfortable with for quite a while.
But there could be an alternative to still going to watch a movie; drive-in theaters. There are only about 300 drive-ins currently operating in America, but I wouldn’t be surprised if those numbers increase.
In Texas, the Showboat Drive-In Theater has seen a 40 percent increase in ticket sales, and the theater, which usually closes during the week, has been able to remain open since the pandemic began. There, cars must park ten feet away from each other, and moviegoers must wear a mask whenever exiting the car. But is seems to currently be the perfect date night considering the current situation.


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Tesla shares (TSLA) yesterday briefly reached a level never seen before for the stock, except in Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s controversial tweet from over a year ago. In that tweet, Musk said that funding had been secured to take Tesla private at $420 a share, something which never materialized.
Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 7, 2018
After climbing to as high as $422.01, Tesla shares eventually finished the day at $419.22, up 3.4%. The stock has gained more than 73% over the last three months alone.
To celebrate the milestone $420 share price, Musk went to Twitter and had a little fun making a reference to his now infamous appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast where he lit up a joint with the host Joe Rogan.
Whoa … the stock is so high lol
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 23, 2019
According to a 2019 SEC filing, Musk owns roughly 38.6 million shares of Tesla. At current prices, that makes Musk’s shares worth over $16 billion. That’s an increase of nearly $10 billion over a few short months, when shares bottomed out at as low as $176.99 back in June 2019.


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It’s the rollout of the largest fleet of shared electric scooters in the world — 1,000 sleek, white motorbikes to be spread throughout Paris. While that sounds like a modest effort in a city of 2.2 million, it will become the biggest program of its kind to date by the end of this summer.
While Paris’ pioneering Velib bike-share program for kids has been a semi-public effort, this effort is 100 percent driven by a private company called Cityscoot. Having completed what they consider a successful pilot with 50 scooters, the company expects launching the full program in Paris — with its well-established scooter culture and experience with sharing bike and car services — will provide a key demonstration of their vehicles’ viability.
Vincent Bustarret, spokesman for Cityscoot, says that while the electric vehicles are more sophisticated than bicycles, their deployment is actually simpler.
“There are no reserved spaces,” he explains, “so there’s no infrastructure work to do.”
That’s not the only difference from bike-sharing. Because scooters can be dropped off anywhere, the company won’t have to go out and reshuffle them from full corrals to empty ones. Users will not need to pay a subscription fee; they’ll sign up once, and pay per use, €2 per 15 minutes (around $2.25 U.S.).
Bustarret says this should make it simpler for users to mix and match their transportation methods, using scooters when speed is of the essence.
Unlike car-sharing, drivers will also avoid the misery of trying to find a parking space in such a densely packed city. But there will be one shared key barrier: Users must have a proper license to use the motorbikes.
This will pose less of a problem in Paris, where mopeds are commonly used, but would likely prove a barrier to adoption elsewhere.
A (similarly named) company called Scoot Networks launched with 50 scooters in 2012 in San Francisco. Its fleet has grown to around 400 vehicles and now includes both two-wheelers and a four-wheeled electric vehicle called the Scoot Quad, which is made by Nissan.
Carly Keller, a representative for Scoot Networks, says adding four-wheeled vehicles “gave us an opportunity to look at what it would be like for riders to carry a passenger.”
She declined to provide the breakdown of two and four-wheelers saying, “we don’t split out numbers for press use.” Programs in Europe remain relatively small. The company Enjoy keeps 150 in Milan, eMio has a fleet of 150 in Berlin and Scoome operates 50 scooters in Munich and another 50 in Cologne.
Scale is important. Janet Kornblum, a media trainer in her 40s who has been using the scooters in San Francisco for about a year, says the biggest downside has been a lack of availability.
This has made her use of scooters more targeted.
“I use it most when I go to my elderly aunt’s house because I don’t wanna lose my parking space, in a city where parking is horrific,” she says. “I’ve used them to travel at night since I don’t feel comfortable walking.”
Both Paris and San Francisco are fairly eco-conscious places, but Paris is dealing with a pollution problem that reached crisis levels last summer, with the city out-smogging the famously polluted city of Shanghai at one point. This is because the vast majority of France’s cars run on diesel and release more particulates. The government has announced plans to move away from encouraging diesel use but this will take time.
Notably, Cityscoot found 21 percent of owners of polluting scooters who participated in the pilot reported they’d consider switching over completely to Cityscoot’s electric option.
“Unfortunately the impacts of scooter sharing and its users have not been extensively studied. More research is needed to understand the impact of this emerging shared mode,” notes Susan Shaneen, co-director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at University of California Berkeley.
But she says, “the air quality benefits of ride-sharing began to really be discussed widely in the 1960s and ‘70s. Ride-sharing is re-emerging as a frequent topic […] as cities try to achieve Climate Action goals,” as well as with the emergence of enabling technology like ride-sharing apps.
The U.S., she believes, will pose more challenges to the scooter model. There’s a reason scooters are already popular in Europe.
“The central core of European cities tends to be higher density, more mixed-use, and in particular, [they] have narrower streets,” she points out. “In much of the U.S., the urban form is quite different. For example, speed limits are generally much higher and lanes are much wider, making U.S. roadways more conducive for automobiles.”
While currently focused in Paris, Cityscoot has interest in later expansions to other French and European cities — long before it would dare to venture out into tougher markets like the U.S. Scoot Networks in San Francisco, which has significant venture capital investment, also has plans to forge ahead in other cities “around the world.”


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For Immediate Release
OCA Calls on Safeway, Starbucks and Target to Support I-522 Campaign to Label GMOs
Three leading Consumer Companies Are Members of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, the Largest Donor to the NO on I-522 Campaign in Washington State
FINLAND, Minn. - The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) today called on its million-plus network of consumers to ask the executives of Safeway, Starbucks and Target to support Washington State’s I-522, a citizens’ initiative to label genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food products.
The OCA also is asking these three large retailers to demand that the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) stop bankrolling the NO on I-522 campaign, and if it won’t, to cancel their memberships in the group.
“Consumers spend billions of dollars on products purchased at Safeway, Starbucks and Target,” said Ronnie Cummins, National Director of the OCA. “It’s time for consumers to exercise their spending power by refusing to support those businesses that support the GMA.”
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The GMA donated over $2 million last year to kill California’s Proposition 37, a citizens’ initiative that would have required mandatory labeling of GMOs on food products in California. The group recently contributed $472,500 (twice the amount given by the next largest donor) to defeat I-522 in Washington State.
“Safeway, Starbucks and Target are large, nationally recognizable brand names with a strong presence in Washington State,” Cummins said. “It’s time they stand up for consumers by denouncing the GMA’s efforts to defeat I-522, by withdrawing from the GMA and by financially supporting the YES on I-522 campaign to label GMOs.”
The OCA has launched a petition to the top executives of Safeway, Starbucks and Target.
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The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) is an online and grassroots non-profit 501(c)3 public interest organization campaigning for health, justice, and sustainability. The OCA deals with crucial issues of food safety, industrial agriculture, genetic engineering, children's health, corporate accountability, Fair Trade, environmental sustainability and other key topics. We are the only organization in the US focused exclusively on promoting the views and interests of the nation's estimated 50 million organic and socially responsible consumers.


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First Republic Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Hanesbrands Inc. (NYSE:HBI) by 2,075.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 247,228 shares of the textile maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 235,865 shares during the period. First Republic Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in Hanesbrands were worth $4,420,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.
Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HBI. Comerica Bank raised its holdings in Hanesbrands by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 72,967 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $1,111,000 after buying an additional 673 shares during the last quarter. Hartford Investment Management Co. raised its holdings in Hanesbrands by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Hartford Investment Management Co. now owns 62,904 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $788,000 after buying an additional 698 shares during the last quarter. Banced Corp raised its holdings in Hanesbrands by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Banced Corp now owns 21,075 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $264,000 after buying an additional 759 shares during the last quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can raised its holdings in Hanesbrands by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 233,350 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $2,781,000 after buying an additional 825 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NEXT Financial Group Inc raised its holdings in Hanesbrands by 5.3% during the fourth quarter. NEXT Financial Group Inc now owns 17,740 shares of the textile maker’s stock worth $222,000 after buying an additional 890 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 96.38% of the company’s stock.
NYSE HBI opened at $17.80 on Tuesday. Hanesbrands Inc. has a 1 year low of $11.57 and a 1 year high of $22.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.84, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 0.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.44 billion, a PE ratio of 10.18, a PEG ratio of 1.01 and a beta of 0.93.
Hanesbrands (NYSE:HBI) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The textile maker reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.25 by $0.02. Hanesbrands had a net margin of 7.99% and a return on equity of 69.68%. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.26 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 8.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Hanesbrands Inc. will post 1.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 4th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, May 14th will be paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, May 13th. This represents a $0.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.37%. Hanesbrands’s payout ratio is 35.09%.
HBI has been the topic of several research reports. ValuEngine upgraded shares of Hanesbrands from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday, February 8th. Zacks Investment Research downgraded shares of Hanesbrands from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, April 25th. Barclays set a $19.00 price objective on shares of Hanesbrands and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, February 9th. Finally, Deutsche Bank downgraded shares of Hanesbrands from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $24.00 to $16.00 in a report on Friday, January 11th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. The stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $20.36.
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Hanesbrands Company Profile
Hanesbrands Inc, a consumer goods company, designs, manufactures, sources, and sells a range of basic apparel for men, women, and children in the United States. The company operates through three segments: Innerwear, Activewear, and International. It sells bras, panties, men's underwear, children's underwear, activewear, socks, hosiery, intimate apparel, shapewears, and home goods; and T-shirts, fleece, sport shirts, performance T-shirts and shorts, sports bras, and thermals, as well as licensed logo apparel in collegiate bookstores, mass retailers, and other channels.
Further Reading: Diversification
Want to see what other hedge funds are holding HBI? Visit HoldingsChannel.com to get the latest 13F filings and insider trades for Hanesbrands Inc. (NYSE:HBI).
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LOS ANGELES (AP) - You may pay more than ever for a late-summer drive.
There is nothing like a brush with death to make one realize what's important in life. And of course, what's important are things like family and friends and good health. What's not really all that important are things like "delayed retirement credits" and "file and suspend" rules and all the other Social Security benefit gaming tactics that have taken up so much of this column space, and my email inbox capacity, in the past couple of months.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Unemployment rates rose in 44 U.S. states in July, the most states to show a monthly increase in more than three years and a reflection of weak hiring nationwide.
NEW YORK (AP) - Facebook's stock fell to $19 for the first time on Friday, losing half its market value since the company's initial public offering in May.
CUPERTINO (AP) - Apple's stock hit a new high Friday after a four-month swoon, as investors looked ahead to the release of a new iPhone and possibly a smaller iPad.
NEW YORK (AP) - Encouraging earnings from Cisco and hopeful signs in a housing report lifted the stock market Thursday. The gains nudged the Standard & Poor's 500 index near the four-year high it reached earlier this year.
SAN FRANCISCO AP) - Gap Inc. reported a 29 percent increase in second-quarter net income, evidence the fashion retailer's moves to liven up its clothing with brightly colored trendy looks are winning over shoppers.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Groupon's stock hit another low, days after the online deals company issued a lackluster quarterly report.
MENLO PARK (AP) - Facebook's stock plunged to a new low Thursday as some of the social networking leader's early backers got their first chance to sell their shares since the company's initial public offering went awry.
RICHMOND (AP) - Nine people have sued Chevron Corp. over a California refinery fire that sent thousands to hospitals with respiratory issues and contributed to higher gasoline prices on the West Coast.
NEW YORK (AP) - With another six Olympic medals around his neck, swimmer Michael Phelps is once again touting the breakfast of champions.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Target Corp. raised its full-year profit projection Wednesday after the cheap-chic discounter reported better-than-expected second-quarter revenue that showed healthy spending in food, beauty, fashion and other items.
WASHINGTON (AP) - A voting member of the Federal Reserve's policy committee is cautioning that the Fed's power to fix the U.S. economy is limited now.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The recession that ended three years ago this summer has been followed by the feeblest economic recovery since the Great Depression.
SAN JOSE (AP) - Cisco Systems Inc., the world's largest maker of computer networking equipment, is seeing its ambitions cramped by the global economic turmoil, but results for its latest quarter were strong enough that it announced an increase to its dividend.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Twitter co-founder Biz Stone hopes to demonstrate that a picture can be worth even more than 140 characters of text.
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) - Alan Mulally is staying at Ford.
LAS VEGAS (AP) - After attempts to hawk 3-D and OLED TVs fizzled in recent years, television manufacturers are taking small steps toward making a new technology, Ultra HD, more viable for mainstream consumers.
NEW YORK (AP) - Aereo, a Barry Diller-backed startup that provides broadcast television channels over the Internet for a monthly fee, said Tuesday that it has secured $34 million in additional funding from outside investors.
CUPERTINO ( AP) - Apple says people spent more than $10 billion in its app store last year, on apps such as "Minecraft," ''Angry Birds Star Wars" and "Sleep Cycle" alarm clock.
Apple's iBeacon now in grocery stores
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest maker of TVs, said Monday that it is tackling the problem of getting ultra-high-definition content to its new TV sets by teaming up with the Internet streaming services of Comcast, Netflix and Amazon.
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Dish Network Corp. has unveiled a new digital recorder system that can record eight TV shows at once and can be controlled by voice.
NEW YORK (AP) - Sony has unveiled a waterproof smartphone that sports a 21 megapixel camera and expands what users can do with it underwater.
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Toyota said Monday that it expects to sell more hydrogen-powered electric cars in the U.S. than previously planned.


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Over the last two years, companies have kicked the process of moving information onto the cloud into high gear.
It’s a procedure that they consider absolutely vital for staying up to date and competitive, and we can find the proof in a metric that might seem easy to overlook: how much they’re willing to pay the employees in charge of the process.
A recent survey by the executive recruiting firm Robert Half shows that salaries for chief information officers (CIOs), who are often in charge of digital transformations, will rise to an average of $260,250 next year.
This news also comes on the heels of a report by Gartner that global enterprise IT spending is expected to hit $4.2 trillion by the end of the year. That’s up 8.6% from 2020.
And I’ve identified a leader in the field that just nearly doubled its quarterly earnings, a metric which share price often follows.
Let me show you why I still see so much upside ahead…
For anyone that follows Tesla, every time they hold an event, they know the world is watching. Last week’s AI Day was no different. They didn’t introduce a new car or even announce updates to its current line, but that didn’t matter. Instead, they announced to the world, they are much more than an electric car company.
A Special Note from Michael: Listen, I’m about to speak you about housing. A huge hot button right now. But investing on the right side of hot button topics is the best way to make money in the market. That’s exactly what I cover in a recent presentation you can get to right here.
“Sell Me a Home, Please”
My daughters Jordan and Kendall literally could not have picked a worse time to look for an apartment. Turns out the massive boom in home prices amid a housing shortage is filtering down to rentals.
It’s one thing to read about the nation’s historically hot housing market. It’s a completely different matter to actually be trying to find a place to live in this crazy market. My daughters’ apartment hunting became a deadlock as one apartment after another got snapped up in as little as two hours.
Many prospective first-time homeowners are getting priced out of the market. Even when they have the finances, there’s just no supply. For Montana resident Sean Hawksford, a young man with a successful construction business and a pregnant wife took to the streets with cardboard signs that read “PLEASE SELL ME A HOME.”
With all this, you can see why real-estate agents are turning to AI for help.
The S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller National Home Price Index released Tuesday rose a stunning 16.6%. It’s the highest annual rate of home price growth since the index began in 1987.
Even the most seasoned real-estate pros across our $34 trillion housing market are at their wits end. Meanwhile, the smart ones are doing what I would do-they’re tapping AI as a tech tool.
Today, I have a double play. Two stocks that cover both sides of the housing market: real estate and property insurance.
From shaving, making coffee or cutting up fruit for breakfast, listening to music on our soundbar, and sitting in a chair for work consumer products are woven into our everyday lives.
Each of them had to be bought and many after extensive research. Why wouldn’t you want the best coffee machine out there to start your day?
But these days, the growth of e-commerce has created a major problem for me. Every time I go on Amazon to buy something new for my home, the selection is overwhelming. I don’t have time to read every review and see all the flaws before I make a purchase.
Sure, you could just buy the first product that comes up, but based on how you search, it may not even be the product you are looking for. I am often led down a rabbit hole of reading reviews and trying to find out if I’ve found the best product for what I need.
That is where Mohawk Group Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: MWK) comes in. You have heard of smartphones, now we have smart commerce. Mohawk, an under the radar consumer product company is using an artificial intelligence (AI) platform to identify product categories where there is no clear leader.
They improve the product by addressing user issues in negative reviews and automate marketing and logistics to become the leading seller within the category.


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Rolling Meadows, IL - More than 40 commercial print companies were represented at the recent "411 on Sustainable Packaging" Conference held by Komori America Corporation, a premier manufacturer of sheetfed and web offset printing presses. The event took place on May 5th and 6th in Chicago at the Schaumburg Marriott and Komori's North American Headquarters. The conference featured noted industry speakers and live demonstrations focused on lowering the eco-impact when it comes to package printing.
Highlights from the "411 on Sustainable Packaging" Conference included presentations from:
- Ben Markens, President and Chief Staff Officer of Paperboard Packaging Council, shared what sustainability really means for printers and its importance to the industry's future success
- Don Carli, Senior Research Fellow for the Institute for Sustainable Communication, discussed the Walmart Initiative and how it is driving industry advances
- Thomas Oris, Procurement Manager at Morton International, spoke on what print buyers are required to look for in packaging today
Komori vendor partners that held live demonstrations the second day of the conference included Henkel Coatings, Harris & Bruno, Nordson, Diversified Graphic Machinery, HiFlex, Komori Chambon and Toyo Ink. Each company showcased how attendees can answer today's package printing environmental challenges with their products in every step of the print process.
"Protecting the environment and reducing the carbon footprint is one of Komori's most important responsibilities. This conference illustrated that fact as it offered attendees the latest information on the state of sustainability as well as hands-on eco-friendly print processes they could put to use in their operations," said Kosh Miyao, president of Komori America Corporation. "The high attendance we experienced solidified the importance of employing sustainable measures when it comes to package printing. Printers of all sizes are dedicated to educating themselves on these requirements as they are shaping the future of their business."
Komori has always believed that the ability to see the world from its customers' points of view is necessary to deliver a marketing approach that provides greater value to their unique business issues. With that in mind, the company plans to execute future activities like the Sustainability Conference that are highly relevant to their customers.
About Komori America Corporation
Tokyo-based Komori Corporation, a premier manufacturer of sheetfed and web offset printing presses, provides world class technology especially suited for today's highly competitive printing marketplace. Delivering the highest level in print quality coupled with impressively fast makeready and JDF connectivity through open systems architecture, Komori presses help printers achieve higher productivity levels essential for increased margins and business growth. Komori America Corporation is headquartered in Rolling Meadows, IL and manages a sales and service organization throughout North America.


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A pair of transportation technology companies from two of the funkiest cities in the US are merging to form Moovel North America, a new company that will provide mobile ticketing technology to cities and software kits to developers to integrate transportation options. Under the merger, Portland's GlobeSherpa will become Moovel Transit and Austin's RideScout will be renamed RideTap. Both will be operated by Moovel Group, which is owned by German automaker Daimler.
GlobeSherpa + RideScout = moovel North America
All of which is a roundabout way of saying that Daimler, which owns both Mercedes-Benz and car-sharing company Car2Go, is further extending its reach into non-traditional realms, like software and public transit. GlobeSherpa, which provides mobile ticketing for users of Portland's TriMet public transit system, was acquired by RideScout last year, but the two operated as separate entities. Now both will be consolidated and rebranded under the ownership of Moovel NA.
Moovel Transit (formerly GlobeSherpa) will contract with cities to create mobile ticketing and fare payment products for public transit systems. That includes integrating other transportation options, like ride-sharing and car-sharing, into ticketing apps to help solve the dreaded "first / last mile challenge," illustrated by the distance between a person's home and the nearest transit hub. The platform already operates in 11 US cities, including Chicago, Portland, and San Francisco.
"remove the silos that people face in getting around"
RideTap (formerly RideScout) is a software development kit available for developers who want to deep link to car, bike, and ride-sharing services in their apps. For example, TriMet users in Portland will able to hail a Lyft car through the transit service's app thanks to RideTap's software integration.
The merger of the two firms will "remove the silos that people face in getting around the cities where they live," said Nat Parker, CEO of Moovel NA. "These are two distinct products, but they compliment each other by basically creating platform level solutions for app developers to utilize."
It stands to reason that Daimler's own services like Car2Go, or those firms that Daimler is partnering with like Lyft, will get top billing in these integration efforts, but Parker said Moovel NA will also include competing services (like Uber and ZipCar) in order to provide a full suite of options for customers.
"converting from a car manufacturer to a mobility company"
Parker said the broader goal of his business is to get more people to use public transit, which is an odd position for someone who works for a company that's owned by one of the world's largest auto manufacturers. To that point, Jörg Lamparter, a former sales manager for Mercedes-Benz who is now the CEO of Moovel Group, said Daimler is "in the process of converting from a car manufacturer to a mobility company."
That may sound familiar if you've been following car news for the last year or so. A host of traditional automobile companies are in the midst of trying to rebrand themselves as software companies or mobility companies — basically anything other than an automaker. Ford just created its own Silicon Valley-based tech startup. General Motors is teaming up with Lyft to build a fleet of on-demand, self-driving cars. BMW and Jaguar are dipping their toes in car-sharing.
Daimler has been ahead of the curve with Car2Go, which launched in 2008 and is available in 28 European and North American cities. The Stuttgart-based company is also involved in a consortium of automakers that recently acquired Here, a self-driving mapping company. Lamparter said most people don't rely exclusively on cars to get around, and car makers like Daimler are starting to recognize that. "It is the customer's choice to choose their method of transportation," he said. "The car is one of them, of course, but it's not the only one any more."


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Durango Mountain Resort's 25-year development plan was approved by a joint San Juan and La Plata County Planning Commission in mid-January.
Vail Resorts announced today that it has closed on the purchase of a major portion of Vassar Meadows, 357 acres of open space located south of Eagle, Colo., from The Conservation Fund for more than $4.7 million.
Ski areas in New Hampshire and California will team up to offer discount ski passes to ski areas in their respective states.
Mountain Sports Media, publishers of SKI, SKIING and FREEZE Magazines, presented Golden Eagle Awards to seven ski resorts that achieved environmental excellence over the past year.
An update on expansion plans and environemental protests.
Go to skiingmag.com
Go to nastar.com
Go to warrenmiller.com
Copyright © 2015 Cruz Bay Publishing, Inc. an Active Interest Media Company.


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NEW DELHI: The government’s move to ease foreign direct investment
(FDI) norms for the single-brand retail sector as well as relaxing the sourcing norms for these entities is expected to allow such companies as Ikea, H&M, Uniqlo and Puma to expand their India
footprint and bolster the Make in India initiative.
Commerce minister Piyush Goyal
announced a slew of tweaks to the current FDI policy. While the present policy mandates that a single-brand retail company that has more than 51% FDI in India has to source 30% locally of the total value of goods sold in the country, the changed norms will allow it to include exports as well.
“We are delighted. H&M has been sourcing from India since the last 30 years for its international
markets. We see this supporting the ease of doing business in India and driving in larger investments from global companies,” said Janne Einola, country manager for H&M India.
Companies such as Ikea and H&M began sourcing from India much before they set up domestic operations. But under existing rules, they did not get credit for what they had been buying from Indian entities. So, if a company was sourcing goods worth $100 million before entering the single-brand retail segment, and it went up to $110 million in the first year, only the incremental purchases of $10 million were counted towards fulfilling the sourcing requirement. The new rules will allow the company to treat the entire $110 million as the value of goods sourced from India, explained an official. “I see this as a big opportunity for apparel companies, where Indian factories have strong capabilities,” said Puma India MD Abhishek Ganguly.
Similarly, a company which is part of Japanese retailer Uniqlo’s global operations, can now source from India and it will be added to the sourcing obligation of the apparel maker, making compliance easier. Even the goods sourced from a contract manufacturer, in which a company such as Uniqlo or Apple invest, will be counted for the purpose.
“Government’s efforts to enhance ease of doing business for single-brand retailers is encouraging,” said Ikea India CEO Peter Betzel.
In addition, the government has allowed singlebrand retailers to open online stores before setting up physical stores in the country. “This will help new entrants,” said Pinakiranjan Mishra, partner and leader, consumer products and retail, EY India.
But traders’ body, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) called for an urgent meeting on Thursday to discuss the Cabinet decision and its impact on domestic trade.


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World of Warcraft developer Blizzard has dropped new hints on its upcoming game announcement, which is widely reported to be a new installment in the StarCraft franchise.
On its official website a teaser image shows a timeline running up to a big old question mark, set to be filled in at a South Korean event on May 19.
Sources toldus earlier this month that the announcement will in fact be an online StarCraft game, though we've only got a few days to wait before Blizzard reveals all.
Of course the location of the event - South Korea - also gives off massive hints as to which franchise Blizzard is revisiting, as the country is widely known to be the epicenter of rabid StarCraft fandom.
Keep your eyes on these pages for the full low-down this weekend.


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Cybersecurity M&A Roundup for September 1-15, 2021
Nearly two dozen cybersecurity mergers and acquisitions were announced in the first half of September 2021.
Private equity firm Achieve Partners acquired managed security service provider (MSSP) Metmox with the goal of addressing the global talent shortage. As a result of the acquisition, Achieve will create a large-scale cybersecurity apprenticeship program that will prepare entry-level talent for cybersecurity careers at Metmox and its clients.
UK-based B2B2C platform Baanx announced buying a stake in US-based fintech bank Maxwell State Bank. Exact financial terms have not been disclosed, but it has been described as a multi-million-dollar deal and Baanx has become the third largest stakeholder in Maxwell. The goal of the investment is to “enhance cybersecurity and banking access to communities throughout America.”
Cybersecurity ratings company BitSight announced the acquisition of VisibleRisk, a cyber risk ratings venture created by credit ratings giant Moody’s and Israel-based cybersecurity think tank and venture creation foundry Team8. BitSight’s acquisition of VisibleRisk adds a cyber risk assessment capability and boosts its ability to analyze and calculate an organization’s financial exposure to cyber risk.
Consulting giant and government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton bought digital forensics and incident response company Tracepoint. Booz Allen Hamilton made a strategic investment in the company in January 2021 and it has now acquired the rest of Tracepoint’s business in an effort to expand its cybersecurity capabilities. Tracepoint and Booz Allen Hamilton’s commercial cyber business will be integrated in early 2022.
Information governance and data risk management firm Breakwater Solutions acquired Clairvoya, which specializes in data governance solutions. Clairvoya’s CEO will join Breakwater as COO and Clairvoya’s CTO will become Breakwater’s CTO. Breakwater says Clairvoya technology complements its own, adding data lineage for managing unstructured data in motion.
eDiscovery, risk management, document review and legal consulting services provider Consilio acquired the Adecco Group’s legal consulting and eDiscovery business of Special Counsel. Consilio says the acquisition of these business units will help it expand in areas such as document review, legal process outsourcing and cyber incident response.
Australia-based ICT and digital skills training firm DDLS has acquired New Zealand-based Auldhouse, which provides the same types of services, in a deal reportedly valued at roughly $17 million ($12 million). DDLS is Australia’s largest cybersecurity training provider and the acquisition will help both companies expand.
Software intelligence company Dynatrace announced the acquisition of parsing and query analytics company SpectX. Dynatrace said the deal will enable it to boost its platform’s observability and application security analytics capabilities.
Health information technology firm Document Storage Systems (DSS) acquired SBG Technology Solutions, a provider of IT services and solutions, including cybersecurity and governance solutions. SBG will operate as a subsidiary of DSS and they will help each other enhance their capabilities.
Professional services giant EY, specifically EY Australia, has acquired Australia-based MSSP SecureWorx in an effort to provide security operations center (SOC) services powered by Microsoft technologies.
Network security company FireMon acquired DisruptOps, which specializes in cloud security operations. FireMon said the acquisition will enable it to expand its solution to include security risk monitoring and response in cloud infrastructure. DisruptOps was founded by Jody Brazil, who also founded FireMon. As a result of the acquisition, Brazil will become CEO of the combined entity.
Software development company JFrog has acquired Upswift, a device management platform for connected products. The resulting platform will provide a wide range of capabilities, including several related to application development security.
Consumer cybersecurity firm Kape Technologies announced acquiring VPN service ExpressVPN for $936 million. Kape said the acquisition will help it create a “premium digital privacy and security player” and expand its customer base. The deal should also help Kape in terms of sales, cost savings, and product distribution.
Denmark-based SIEM solutions provider LogPoint is buying Israel-based threat detection and response firm SecBI in an effort to expand its XDR and SOAR capabilities. SecBI will become LogPoint Israel and it will remain in Tel Aviv.
Payments giant Mastercard is acquiring cryptocurrency intelligence and blockchain analytics company CipherTrace. Mastercard said its goal is to ensure that the digital asset ecosystem is trusted and safe, which it hopes to achieve by combining its own capabilities with those of CipherTrace.
Enterprise communications company Millennia Technologies is merging with Fusion IT, a cybersecurity firm and MSSP. The companies believe the merger will help them expand their offerings and their customer base.
Managed IT services provider Nexon Asia Pacific announced buying Veridian Solutions, which provides contact center, cloud and security services. Both companies are based in Australia. Nexon said Veridian’s contact center and unified communications offering complement its own, and Veridian’s dedicated cybersecurity practice complements its MSSP offering.
Critical infrastructure protection company OPSWAT acquired Israel-based malware analysis sandbox solution SNDBOX. SNDBOX will be integrated into OPSWAT’s Malware Analysis Solution offering, but will also be offered as a separate product. SNDBOX will help increase the accuracy of malware detection in IT and OT environments and reduce the cost of malware processing.
Network, cloud, workspace and cybersecurity solutions provider Orro acquired MSSP eSecure in an effort to strengthen its cybersecurity offering. Both companies are based in Australia. Orro’s security business will be expanded with detection and response, assurance testing, vulnerability management and incident response services.
MSP Solvinity has acquired a majority stake in Securify, which specializes in application security and penetration testing. Both companies are based in the Netherlands. The acquisition will enable Solvinity to expand its cybersecurity offering. Securify will continue to operate as an independent company under Solvinity.
Attack surface management pioneer Tenable is acquiring Accurics, an early-stage startup selling cloud-native security for DevOps and security teams, for $160 million in cash. The acquisition will help Tenable expand its product portfolio.
Consumer credit reporting agency TransUnion acquires risk, communications, security and marketing solutions provider Neustar for $3.1 billion. TransUnion said Neustar’s data and analytics technology will help it expand its digital identity capabilities, including fraud detection and prevention.


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Protest at the sale of furniture made from Kwila
Indonesia Human Rights Committee
PO Box 68-419,
28 March, 2008
Media Information: Embargoed until 12 noon Saturday 29 March, 2008
Protest at the sale of furniture made from rainforest “kwila” from West Papua
Indonesia Human Rights Committee and supporters will carry out a demonstration close to the Harvey Norman furniture store in the Supa Centre, Manukau, Ronwood Ave: 12 Noon Saturday 29 March. At the conclusion of the demonstration the letter below will be delivered to the Manager to convey our strong message.
The aim of the action - which will include street theatre featuring trees and native birds – is to highlight the devastating impact of the rainforest destruction and illegal logging on communities in West Papua. Most of the kwila in Auckland shops originated in West Papua. While some retailers are now turning away from kwila to other woods with independent certification of legality, Harvey Normans is yet to announce a change in direction away from the sale of kwila products.
Meanwhile impoverished forest communities in West Papua pay the price.
Please refer to the Forest Friendly Furniture Guide: http://www.greenpeace.org/new-zealand/news/the-forest-friendly-furniture
We are outraged that your store is continuing to sell products made from the tropical hardwood kwila despite representations from environmental experts.
As you know kwila comes from the last remaining tracts of undisturbed and unique rainforest in the Asia Pacific region. Research carried out by Greenpeace and the Indonesia Human Rights Committee confirms that most of the kwila coming to Auckland is sourced from West Papua. Almost all of this wood is illegally logged and none of it comes with reliable third party documentation as to its status.
Recently a new species of mammals was discovered in the pristine wilderness of the Foja mountains, deep in the tropical forests of West Papua one of most biodiverse areas in the world. The Governor of Indonesian-controlled West Papua, Barnabas Suebu, is trying to stem deforestation. He has declared a ban on the export of unprocessed logs and is also hoping to preserve areas of forest under a carbon trading or ‘pay and preserve’ scheme.
But he is up against a powerful illegal logging ‘mafia’ with its powerful military backers. Some local people are trying to stop the destruction of their traditional land and their all important food basket, but they are isolated, lack resources and are subject to military intimidation. They need our help to stem this diabolical trade.
The cost to earth of the destruction of kwila is incalculable – the species is already endangered and deforestation is a major contributor to global warming.
We urge you to cease importing all products made from kwila.


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Tests conducted by an organization funded by Tesla conclude that the new 4680 batteries have an exceptional lifespan. Some cells can withstand more than 15,000 charge cycles, or the equivalent of 3.5 million kilometers. An essential prerequisite for launching the “Robotaxi” autonomous taxi service.
A durability study around the new Tesla 4680 batteries shows that these brand new cells have a durability which was hitherto unknown for Li-On cells. These new accumulators, which are denser in terms of energy density can withstand up to 15,000 charge cycles without significant loss, for a life of 3.5 million km. Much more than the lifetime allowed for a vehicle regardless of its engine system.
Researcher Jeff Dahn thus tested the new cells for three years by charging them for an hour and then discharging them for an hour. Every 100 cycles, load rate tests were carried out. The researcher also tested several degrees of charge and discharge, to define the ideal charge rates so as not to reduce the capacity of the accumulators.
Also read: Tesla drops 7-day return guarantee
New Tesla 4680 batteries have exceptional lifespan
The teaching of this is that 4680 batteries are ideal for electric vehicles: the degradation of their capacity does not decrease significantly up to 15,000 cycles if the battery is not completely discharged. According to the researcher’s tests, these batteries have an optimal performance when the consecutive discharges remain between 25% and 50%. This corresponds de facto to a classic use profile for an electric vehicle.
The Electrek site thus gives a typical case: for a Tesla with a range of 480 km, if you do about fifty kilometers every day and you keep the battery level between 70% and 80% the battery capacity will not degrade. Tesla announced the new type of 4680 batteries in late September. The idea was initially to reduce costs with a new method of seamless design, while resulting in a cell that is less likely to generate heat during charging.
Tesla also changed the size of each cell, before finding an ideal balance. The new 4680 cell (which bears this name because of its dimensions, 46 mm x 80 mm) continent 5 times more energy and 6 times more power than previous batteries. By assembling these cells into a complete battery system for electric vehicles, Tesla says it is now possible to increase total range by 16%.
The revolution is already announced
The advantages are also industrial. A single production line can now produce the equivalent of 20 GWh of batteries, which is 7 times more than current technology. Enough to allow the manufacturer to achieve, by 2030, an annual production of 3 TWh against 100 GWh currently. On top of that, Tesla plans to use these batteries simultaneously as power sources and structural elements in future vehicles. What to deliver in the long term even more autonomy by reducing the weight of the cars.
One big question remains: what can be such a long battery life in an electric vehicle? Jeff Dahn evokes several avenues. The first is the “Vehicle-to-grid”. To understand the value of this, you have to imagine the millions of electric vehicles that could act as batteries for the electricity grid when parked. This would smooth the load on the network, and allocate part of the energy available in its batteries to charge higher priority vehicles (eg school buses) at certain times of the day.
Tesla had long refused this possibility because of what it would have involved in the lifespan of vehicles, but this new technology could change everything. A Tesla engineer has already mentioned chargers that would work in both directions. Another possibility mentioned by the researcher is recycling: the batteries could be extracted from old Tesla to find a second life. Finally, it’s hard not to imagine this type of technology as the sine qua non for the future Robotaxi service that Elon Musk wants to launch in the long term.
The idea would be that owners of certain Tesla (Model Y and 3 for now) could let their vehicle “work” in an autonomous taxi service when they are not using it. An idea that would be difficult to convey if the Tesla batteries did not hold enough charge over time …


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The recent Spotfire on-demand webcast, “Data Science 2.0: Guided and In-line Analytics with Spotfire,” covers how Spotfire and data science are impacting global business across every market and industry.
For example, if you work in the retail banking industry this may mean using analytics to successfully combine data from all available sources to develop a better understanding of customer needs so you can serve them more efficiently.
Here’s a sample clip from the retail banking segment of the webcast followed by a post on how retail banks can benefit from data analysis.
Retail banks must mine customer data for actionable insight through big data analytics or face losing market share to competitors that do.
That’s according to new research from KPMG that advises banks to tap data analysis to gain insight from their internal data while integrating external data sources to effectively compete with new market entrants.
“The real competitive advantage will go to those players who are able to successfully combine data from all available sources to develop a better understanding of customer needs and, as a result, serve them more effectively,” according to KPMG.
However, many banks aren’t aware of the value that customer insight through analytics can bring to the bottom line, KPMG notes.
“The simple truth is that retail banks focus on product sales and, as a result, many see data analytics purely as a means to an end rather than recognizing the value of achieving a richer understanding of the customers themselves,” according to the KPMG research. “In the face of these challenges, banks should change tack and prioritize their investment in customer insight and analytics to fully exploit the rich data they already own but under-exploit.”
KPMG notes that banks should:
- Foster a new mindset throughout the organization with data and analytics ratcheted up to be a strategic priority
- Better demonstrate the value that analytics teams bring to the organization
- Instill leadership as champions of analytics and boost analytical literacy across the organization
“In the digital banking model of today, data is the most important asset (and will be even more so in the future),” KPMG notes. “Banks that are able to combine their internal and external data to create value can find themselves well placed to thrive in this new world. Those that are unable or unwilling will do so at their own peril.”
The companies that do embrace analytics deep into their operations can deliver productivity and profit gains that are 5% to 6% higher than those of the competition, according to McKinsey & Co.
But many companies still struggle with the first steps to harnessing the power of big data.
The solution? Start with developing a plan, McKinsey advises.
“The missing step for most companies is spending the time required to create a simple plan for how data, analytics, frontline tools, and people come together to create business value,” according to McKinsey. “The power of a plan is that it provides a common language allowing senior executives, technology professionals, data scientists, and managers to discuss where the greatest returns will come from and, more important, to select the two or three places to get started.”
A good analytics strategic plan will:
- Highlight the critical decisions or trade-offs a company must make and define initiatives that must be prioritized.
- Match investment priorities with business strategy. Companies commonly struggle with integrating their stovepipes of data, McKinsey notes. A central database will allow each bank to optimize its marketing campaigns by targeting individuals with products and services they’re more likely to want, thus raising the hit rate and profitability of the campaigns.
- Balance speed, cost and acceptance. Companies must balance the need for affordability and speed with business realities such as scheduled maintenance and buy-in among stakeholders.
- Focus on frontline engagement and capabilities. “Far too many companies believe that 95 percent of their data and analytics investments should be in data and modeling,” McKinsey notes. “But unless they develop the skills and training of frontline managers, many of whom don’t have strong analytics backgrounds, those investments won’t deliver. A good rule of thumb for planning purposes is a 50-50 ratio of data and modeling to training.”
- Subscribe to our blog to stay up to date on the latest insights and trends in data analytics and the retail banking industry.
- Check out the on-demand webcast Data Science 2.0: Guided and In-line Analytics with Spotfire.


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The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is comparable to that of a war and could last longer than the crisis itself. We will need a long time, some are saying 12 months, to see an overall recovery of the market.
FreshPlaza talked about it with SGMarketing Salvo Garipoli, who provided some interesting perspectives.
"Due to the current health crisis, we will have to deal with a considerable fall in purchasing power and therefore redefine our concept of 'value for money', which does not only mean saving money, but conveying added value and rationalizing the resources available. It will be essential to reassure consumers guaranteeing high food safety standards and emphasizing origin and traceability. Consumers will also assess purchases differently, as they might prefer packaged produce. But there is more: a focus on Italian products has emerged and we need to maximize this advantage in the post-crisis period."
Above. Nielsen data for the week of April 6th-12th (Easter week). Sales in modern distribution increased by 11.82% compared to 2019. Source: Nielsen, Osserva Italia
"Health and trust" will be the key words for communication
"The fresh produce sector is by nature associated with health and well-being, as shown by the increasing sales of purchases known for their vitamin content (oranges, apples, lemons and kiwifruit). We need to seize this opportunity and focus on effective communication for the future."
"When it comes to communication, the challenge is based on 'Human to Human'. Maybe for the first time in contemporary history, the Coronavirus hit people regardless of their economic, cultural and social status. Brands and products must reliably interpret the needs and values shared by the online and offline community."
The e-commerce trend in the big retail chain. Source: IRI, Osserva Italia
"The current crisis has pushed online sales. In the weeks between February 17th and March 8th, the growth was of 73.5% (IRI Osserva Italia). We discovered how practical home deliveries and click&collect services are, though we have also had to deal with the difficulty of managing processes and productivity. The entire chain is required to provide answers in a context that id destined to evolve."
We could summarize what was said above as follows:
1. #VALUE FOR MONEY. The economic crisis will lead to a reduced purchasing power. How to intercept this trend? What role should brands have and how much space should private labels have? Companies will have to rethink sizes and packaging options so consumers can spend less without giving up quality.
2. #REASSURANCE. Consumers need guarantees as regards food #SAFETY now more than ever: origin, traceability and certifications will need to be highlighted. In this context, #ITALIANNESS and #LOCALISM will play an essential role.
3. #HEALTH CONSCIOUSNESS. Consumers will prefer healthy products naturally rich in vitamins to the benefit of the fresh produce sector and the organic segment in particular.
4. #HUMAN TO HUMAN. Brand communication will need to get "closer" to consumers asking them to join communities founded on shared values.
5. #DIGITAL. Smart-working, home-schooling, home delivery, click and collect... the digital world has pushed itself into the lives of people. The digital revolution, which was already underway, accelerated further and found some companies unprepared. The supply chain should be reorganized to reach consumers with a more efficient communication.


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Silicon Valley HQ
1570 The Alameda, Ste 330, San Jose, CA 95126
WebEnertia is excited to announce the launch of the significantly updated Hoover Institution website (Hoover.org) on June 12, 2014. A new visual design enhances the visitor experience, and the …READ INSIGHTS POST
It’s here! Yes, we’re super excited about the upcoming holiday season but right now we’re more excited about our brand new Shutterfly application! We just built a creepy Facebook cover photo generator.READ INSIGHTS POST
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