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If you live in North America, you could be forgiven for thinking the mid-tier smartphone market died a cruel death a few years ago. According to GFK, in fact, 81% of smartphone sales in 2019, in the US, came from smartphones costing $600 and higher. Across the rest of the world, however, where the $600 and higher price points captured anything between 11 and 65 percent, the mid-tier smartphone market is alive and well. There are different reasons why consumers chose a mid-tier device. The biggest driver is, of course, cost. Consumers might have limited disposable income to allocate to the device many see as their computing device in their pocket. Price for some is not only what they can afford but what they are willing to spend, the right balance between cost and return on investment.
Not Every Mid-Tier Smartphone is Created Equal
For many years, mid-tier devices were mostly designed as a stripped-down version of a higher-end device. Brands would start from a higher-end device and lower the feature-set to hit the price they thought was right. Often this meant that phones aimed at emerging markets did not quite feel as if they were designed for the users in that market. There was a disconnect between wants and needs and the product, which in turn was impacting what potential customers were prepared to pay. Another side effect of this lack of focus was that consumers might have preferred to opt for a refurbished or secondhand flagship product or a new but older version of that flagship model.
In the last couple of years, we have seen a drastic change in the way some top brands have been addressing the needs of consumers in this space. The drive behind this more targeted approach was born out of necessity as Chinese brands started to expand outside of China with a very aggressive pricing strategy. Brands like Huawei, Xiaomi and the brands in the BBK franchise were delivering smartphones showcasing features akin to a high-end device with a price point much closer to a mid-tier. Brands like Motorola started to bring to market more tailored mid-tier products and, as their position in the higher-end of the market weakened, they doubled down on product families like the Moto G and the Moto E.
But what could vendors with a robust high-end portfolio do to win share back and reinvigorate upgrades of a sizable part of the market? Well, in September 2018, Samsung’s Mobile CEO at the time, DJ Koh, made a decision that left some industry watchers puzzled. He announced a change in its mid-tier strategy. Koh wanted to bring to market new technology in its mid-tier portfolio first, rather than its flagship products, at first trying to appeal to the growing numbers of Millennials across the world who were in the market for a phone but saw flagship models just out of reach. Before the year was over, we saw the first example of what Koh envisioned in the Galaxy A8s, the first Samsung’s phone with an Infinity-O Hole-punch display. Then in early 2019, at an Unpacked -like launch event in Bangkok, Thailand and Milan, Italy, Samsung introduced the Galaxy A80 sporting Samsung’s first slide up triple camera system and an in-display fingerprint sensor. As the Galaxy A series grew, so did the number of countries where Samsung started to bring these products with skews that addressed both consumers’ needs and the competitive landscape.
The Times They Are a Changing in the US
Historically, the Galaxy A series phones you could purchase in the US were unlocked and mostly international models not optimized for the American networks or market dynamics. Earlier this month, Samsung announced a whole set of Galaxy A models that will come to the US market starting early this summer. In the portfolio, two models stand out the A71 5G and the A51 5G two devices that bring 5G to the $600 and $500 price points. As 5G networks continue to roll out, it is clear that carriers cannot only rely on high-end buyers to get their return on the huge infrastructure investment they made. At a similar time as Samsung’s announcement, we also had TCL confirm their TCL 10 line up, which included the TCL 10 5G prices at €399 or $488. Samsung’s strong brand, channel presence and marketing power will no doubt make TCL’s effort harder. Still, the opportunity in the market is sizable, sadly also due to the expected economic recession generated by the COVID-19 crisis.
This is not the first time that the smartphone market has faced an economic recession, but it is the first time such a recession happens at a time when there are no strong technology or market shifts. Back in 2008/2009, we were still at the very beginning of the smartphone market. Innovation around software, cameras and 4G technology were converging, giving consumers a solid reason to upgrade from their feature phones. Today most consumers have a capable smartphone already, it might not be the latest model, but it does the job. This means that, as their disposable income is restricted, if they need upgrading their phone, they will be driven by core purchase drivers such as display size and quality, camera and battery. For those consumers who are particularly pragmatic and usually hold on to their device for three to four years, they might also be interested in future-proofing their purchase when it comes to cellular and buying an affordable 5G device might look appealing. Bringing 5G into the mid-tier should also help Samsung lower the risk of churn towards the newly released second-generation iPhone SE.
The current economic environment might also bring to the US a trend that has been developing in Europe: the resurgence of the corporate-liable smartphones in the enterprise market. Having mid-tier devices that tick the box on crucial features will help organizations provide a full portfolio of options that are attractive to users. Samsung’s ability to have Samsung Knox support across the portfolio, including the Galaxy A series product, provides differentiation for enterprises looking at Android devices that have attractive features at a lower cost.
What About Cannibalization?
If you are a consumer, having options is great. If you are an investor or an industry watcher, however, you might be concerned about the cannibalization that products like the Galaxy A series and iPhone SE might bring to the flagship models. Well, you should not worry. I want to remind you of one point I made at the start of this article: the needs of consumers who could not afford a high-end phone have been met by older flagship models and secondhand phones. These will be the two main markets that will be impacted. Vendors will benefit from higher satisfaction and higher engagement that the newer features these mid-tier devices offer will drive in their users. In turn, that satisfaction and engagement might drive unique revenue opportunities from adjacent product categories like wearables or new services.


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NEW YORK (AP) - AOL relaunched Games.com, a site with more than 5,000 free games, designed to attract a large online gaming audience online and on mobile and tablet devices.
AOL said Tuesday that the games are from developers and distributors such as Big Fish Games, Masque Publishing, Mochi Media and others. About 100 of the games are built on HTML5 technology, which means they are playable on the iPad and other devices that don't run Flash technology.
The company said it plans to add new features in the coming months. Games.com competes against sites such as addictinggames.com, bigfishgames.com and even Zynga.com.
Shares of AOL Inc. slid 9 cents to $36.64 in midday trading Tuesday.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
Some cockroaches only take five years to evolve to avoid poison.
Which big cat had some trouble coughing this up? (Photos)
A study has a gloomy forecast for U.S. amphibians.
Doctors saved this boy's life with a medical first involving a printer.

domain: news


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DETROIT, March 30 (AP)—United States auto output in the 1964 model run is expected to pass 5 million tomorrow. Sales and production are continuing at high levels.
Despite a slight slowdown in production last week because of the Easter weekend, production hit an estimated 166,907 cars, better than 2,000 ahead of the previous week. The output was almost 5 per cent ahead of the 159,332 units built in the corresponding week of 1963.
Auto makers' schedules showed that by tomorrow night they will have built the 2 millionth car of the calendar year. One statistical agency, Ward's Automotive Reports, estimated United States auto plants would end the first quarter tomorrow night with an output of 2.1 million cars and 410,000 trucks —the latter a new truck high for any quarter.
One Plant On, One Closed
General Motors worked no overtime on Saturday because of the holiday. Its Flint, Mich., Chevrolet operations resumed after a work stoppage, but another Chevrolet plant in Atlanta closed because of a strike at an adjacent Fisher Body supplier plant.
Ford worked seven of its 16 assembly lines overtime on Saturday. Its output of Mustangs, the new Ford sports car that will make its debut next month, passed the 2,000‐a‐week rate last week for the first time.
Chrysler, and American Motors worked regular five‐day weeks.
The weekly production report prepared by Automotive News, trade publication, showed:
|Week Ended||Week Ended||1‐1‐63 to||1‐1‐64 to|
|3‐2 ‐64||3‐21‐64||3‐3 ‐63||3‐28‐64|
|Total Gen. Mtrs.||90.127||88,000||1,075,689||1,156,211|
|Total cars, U.S.||166,907||164,807||1,938,654||2,078,580|
|Total cars, trcks, U.S.||199,405||197,800||2,305,298||2,480,388|
|Total cars, trks, Can.||13,295||16,538||160,436||199,659|
|Total units U.S.&Can.||212,700||214,338||2,465,734||2,680,047|
Chevrolet built 11,600 trucks in the week compared with 11,264 the week before. Others: Dodge, 2,100—2,504; Ford, 9,807—10,077; G.M.C., 2,350—2,375; International, 3,321—3,339; Jeep, 2,350—2,368.Continue reading the main story


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New EU customs regulations have caused severe problems for individuals and small businesses sending parcels to Ireland from non-EU countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom.
Introduced on July 1, 2021, the regulations require senders to provide electronic customs information for each parcel, while customs charges may also apply.
These charges must be paid in full before Ireland's postal service An Post is permitted to deliver parcels in Ireland.
A spokesperson for the postal service told IrishCentral roughly 90% of parcels sent from outside the EU reach their intended recipient without any issues.
The spokesperson added that An Post has worked with almost all large non-EU retailers to ensure that a simple and clear ‘duty paid’ facility is included at online checkouts, allowing all VAT and customs to be paid upfront.
However, the spokesperson said parcels sent via postal services such as the USPS or the Royal Mail by individuals or small businesses are "more problematic" because the senders are often unaware of the "new complex data and tax requirements".
"Unlike parcels which are posted in bulk from large non-EU retailers who An Post can advise and assist with the new rules, An Post has no simple way of advising the personal customers or small businesses posting parcels to Ireland from outside the EU, and whose own postal operators or trade organizations are not providing sufficient guidance on the new regulations, required customs data, and prohibited items," An Post said in a press release in October.
The postal service launched an information and awareness campaign last October to advise customers on the new regulations.
An Post said in September that the new regulations had caused "significant delays" or "customers not receiving their goods at all".
It said parcels were often delayed or returned because "the necessary electronic data is missing or incomplete, or the contents are restricted or prohibited".
An Post said the issue was affecting gift parcels sent by family and friends in non-Eu countries.
For more information about the issue, visit the An Post website.


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On June 17th, 2011 RIM’s stock lost 21 percent of its value, as investors cashed out.
This doesn’t come as a surprise, as I have been observing my friends and classmates at the New York University gradually get rid of their old BlackBerrys, replacing them with flashy new iPhones or Android operated phones. Obviously, RIMM is losing the smartphone war to the competition, for three reasons:
1. RIMM has an ineffective innovation Model.
RIMM has simply not been able to keep up with the innovation of Apple and Google (GOOG). In fact, RIMM spends more money on R&D than Apple, but still fail to create better products. Specifically, it has failed to compete with the new touchscreen smartphones from Apple, Samsung (SSNLF.PK), LG (066570.KS), and HTC (2498.TW) that are fast and easy to use. Its latest attempts to break into this market with the BlackBerry Storm and Torch flopped.
2. RIMM is late to the app market.
RIMM was slow to develop the various apps, widgets, and games that are standard features of Apple and Google phones. Apple is the pioneer of the app market, now having over 450,000 apps, with Google following suit, with over 150,000. RIMM is dead last, with the smallest app store, and still many of its phones do not support apps. Without a strong app program, RIMM phones lack personalization, making them less appealing, and contributing little to the company’s bottom line in the long run.
3. RIMM is unable to create hype and buzz for new products.
With competition so intense in the smartphone industry, the ability to create hype for new products is vital. Apple has mastered the art of creating hype, with a cult following for the iPhones, and Google’s Android seems to be quickly gaining popularity. RIMM, on the other hand, has only been losing followers as its products and marketing campaign have come up short.
Ultimately, RIMM is fighting a losing battle. Its software and hardware are becoming outdated, edged out by a highly innovate, new generation of touch screen phones with great personalization and usability. I would stay away from the stock, even after its sharp decline, as it is unwise to jump on a sinking ship.


text: Toshiba has announced that it’s diving into a Penta-level cell capability to expand the density of current NAND flash standard. This was revealed during the recent Flash Memory Summit, as shared by the report from Tom’s Hardware. \n \nFor those unfamiliar with how NAND flash memory works, they have several types, each with its distinct functionality and purpose. \n \nSSD manufacturers have long been trying to upend HHDs in terms of storage density. The data transfer of performance of SSDs compared to just a few years ago is like day and night. So the next step is for manufacturers to try to add more storage capacity to the SSD. \n \nFlash memories work well due to the data transfer capability, quicker application load times, and faster boot rates. Another advantage is that they have fewer moving parts. That means they consume less energy and less vulnerable to damage. \n \nThe standard flash memory packs three-bits per cell (TLC). This has been the standard for a long time because it’s cheaper than the SLC and MLC. SLC and MLC, of course, refer to the single-level cell and multi-level cell, respectively. However, you have now the QLC or the quad-level cell. \n \n \n \nFor a long time, SSDs have earned a reputation for easily breaking down. In recent years, however, manufacturers have optimized these NAND drives that endurance can be overlooked. While they are still less durable compared to HHDs, consumers are now getting their money’s worth. \n \nBut why is nobody doing what Toshiba is attempting to come up with a Penta-level cell (PLC)? \n \nWell, it all comes down to the challenge, said PCGamesN. \n \nFor instance, each cell has to store 32 distinct voltage levels, which then needed to be read by SSD controllers. Not only will the controller read them at lightning speeds, but it must do so accurately. The challenge is the total quantity of the voltage levels at such a small scale. \n \nToshiba needs to come up with new processes to serve as a bridge for the TLC and QLC. \n \nAnd there’s another thing that needed to be addressed. The higher the bits per cell, the slower the flash seems to be going. There’s also a question of endurance since the QLC doesn’t really last that long. \n \nIf Toshiba can’t make some remedial measures, the PLC is expected to be even slower and more brittle. Accordingly, Zoned Namespaces, an NVMe protocol, might help arrest the problem, especially in the areas of latency and throughputs.


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Democratic presidential contender Sen. Bernie Sanders is an overt, self-admitted socialist, and unfortunately his campaign is generating far too much support in a country that was built on free-market capitalism. If only his supporters would cast their eyes to Venezuela, where the country’s experimentation with socialism is failing – miserably.
As reported by The Daily Sheeple and the Los Angeles Times, inflationary conditions in the country are now so bad that ordinary people are spending entire salaries each week on nothing but food – and that’s if they can even find any. A dozen eggs, for instance, is $150. As the Times noted, one 42-year-old mother, Maria Linares, living in the capital of Caracas provided just one glimpse into the economic horror created by a succession of hard-Left socialist leaders who themselves never seem to do or go without:
In December, she was spending about half her salary on groceries. It now takes almost everything she earns to feed her two children, who subsist on manioc (also known as cassava or yuca), eggs and cornmeal patties called arepas, served with butter and plantains.
“The last time we had chicken was in December,” she said.
Most Venezuelans get the best deals at government-run stores, where prices are regulated. But in order to shop at those stores, she and scores of others have to get in line overnight. And even then, the possibility is high that she might come home with nothing if everything sells out before she actually gets to go into the store – or if she is robbed while leaving it.
“The last time I bought food in a Mercal was three months ago,” she said. “They sold me one kilo [2.2 pounds] of rice, a kilo of pasta, a kilo of sugar and a liter of cooking oil for 1,540 bolivars. But to buy the basket of regulated products, I had to buy a watermelon for 400 bolivars. I didn’t want the watermelon and didn’t have the extra money to pay for it.”
She went on to say that she gets most of her food from illegal street venders (itself one the only capitalist enterprises left in the country).
Speaking of Linares’ monthly pay from her government job, it’s 27,000 bolivars, or $2,700 a month, at the official exchange 10-bolivers-per-dollar exchange rate, the Times noted. That includes a government food allowance.
“Now we are feeling hunger,” she said. “I don’t know what I’ll do if prices keep going up.”
CNN reported May 31 that the country was running out of just about everything – toilet paper, food, basic supplies, medicines, and even electricity. Businesses, what are left of them, are fleeing. “There’s a shortage of everything at some level,” Ricardo Cusanno, vice president of Venezuela’s Chamber of Commerce, told the news network. Cusanno says 85 percent of companies in Venezuela have halted production to some extent.
And still, the country’s president, Nicolas Maduro, doubles down on this failed economic model. He doesn’t even have the intestinal fortitude to take responsibility; he blames the country’s ills on some fantasy U.S. plot to take him down.
It’s bad enough that far too many people still fall for the lie that socialism is a viable economic model. It’s worse that leaders and would-be leaders use it as a means of gaining and keeping power with promises of “equality” and “wealth distribution.” It is unforgiveable for any American leader to arrogantly think he (or she) is smart enough to do it right.
Socialism as an economic model just doesn’t work. And it doesn’t matter who tries to make it work, it will fail each time it is tried because it violates inflexible rules required to experience true economic growth: supply and demand, motivation, incentive, and profit motive, among others. Socialism removes all of these principles, hence its lengthy record of failure.


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Microsoft’s PC Game Pass will come to Nvidia GeForce Now on August 24th.
With this launch, those subscribed to the Nvidia service will be able to play some PC Game Pass titles. The first wave of titles includes Deathloop, No Man’s Sky, Grounded and Mount & Blade II: BannerLord. Gears 5 from Vancouver’s The Coalition also landed on GeForce Now in May.
Nvidia GeForce Now offers limited streaming sessions for free, although there are subscriptions to increase playtime and fidelity: the $12.99/month Priority (1080p) and $24.99/month Ultimate (4K) memberships.
This all comes after Microsoft signed a 10-year Xbox games licensing deal with Nvidia in February. The company made the agreement to address the UK’s anti-competition concerns over its pending acquisition of Activision Blizzard. As part of those efforts, Microsoft also just announced plans to sell its Activision Blizzard cloud gaming rights to Ubisoft.
Image credit: Bethesda


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Even in a time of weakened economy, Candles & Gifts on Main was a successful business, according to Bonnie Allnutt. But now the store, located at 536 Main St., is getting new owners and, in time, a new look.
“I was retired from banking, and I needed something to do. And I decided to open a business,” Allnutt said. “It’s too demanding. It’s been very successful, but I have two children, in Texas and Colorado, and I couldn’t just take off and see them. It was just more than I really wanted to do.”


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A race is on to connect, transform and digitise mundane household tools. The outcome is set to have repercussions for industry and for everyday life. But will smartwatches and the like take off or will privacy concerns grind innovation to a halt? Jessica Kennedy finds out
There's a new cold war underway. The modern version doesn't include a race to the moon but it could end with us looking out of this world. It doesn't feature Russia or America but the victor will more than likely vanquish the stragglers. It doesn't feature threats of nuclear war but it's an arms race.
It's the race into wearable technology and it's a battle being fought by innovation and tech giants Apple, Google, Samsung, fitness brands and the indie start-ups.
"There's always a race on the latest bit of tech, whether it's a phone, TV or running shoe. When it comes to screens though, it's always incredibly fierce," says production company Finch's director of applied technology, Emad Tahtouh.
Google Glass ignited the fire, and rumours of an iWatch are keeping punters on their toes, with Samsung recently unveiling its first smartwatch at the IFA 2013 consumer electronics show, and also the Kickstarter funded Pebble watch.
In September Nissan become a surprise player in the war launching its smartwatch Nismo – which monitors the biometrics of the wearer as well as the car – at the Frankfurt Motorshow. There's Nike's FuelBand, MisFit's Shine and FitBit all aimed at the more athletic consumer.
Then there are the more 'out there' advancements such as self-cleaning fabrics and Nokia's patent for a vibrating tattoo.
The race is definitely on but speed to market is not going to define the winner, it will be the inventor who gets it right that will win. As it stands, will wearable technology ever be mainstream or is it innovation for innovation's sake?
"Wearable technology will become part of our everyday life in the same way that we use the internet for online banking, or use our mobile phones to do a host of things other than talk to our friends," says CumminsRoss' new chief digital officer Scott Heron.
Andy Lark, chief executive of Group Lark, believes that we will all have two or three wearable tech items on each of us down the track.
"Much in the same way as it was impossible to sit out the smartphone revolution, this one will also be impossible sit out," Lark says.
Mindshare's chief digital officer questions the longevity of smartwatches that "basically duplicate smartphone functionality". "The watches don't do it for me; they're 21st century Dick Tracey watches," says Ciaran Norris.
But Lark, the former marketing lead at Commonwealth Bank, says it is important not to focus on their current form and instead cast your mind forward.
The race to wearable technology may be on but it's only in its infancy. "When they work out how to shrink lithium-ion batteries to the size of an ant, that's when you know the floodgates are about to open up and the big boys are going to come out and release something groundbreaking," Tahtouh says.
When they do hit a chord, Heron predicts the adoption rate will be very fast, akin to what we saw with the arrival of the iPad. New players will rise to prominence and household names may fall behind.
Either way, when this happens the devices are sure to shake up the media landscape.
When wearable technology takes off, Lark says the effect will be significant. "They will underpin a new era in relevant marketing and communications," he predicts.
The rise of wearable devices will drive the adoption of Bluetooth low energy (BLE), according to Tim Devine, creative technologist at DT, who believes this in turn will "finally forge a path for digital payments".
When content is able to more easily shift between devices, wrist devices may be able to control bigger screens.
"You might pick up any tablet or smartphone and it doubles as your device. I like the potential for 'shell devices' populated by your cloud account, this would open up new media channels," he explains.
Data, data, data
Enhanced personalisation of offers and a boost in location-based marketing are the more obvious outcomes of a flood of always-connected, data-gathering wearable tech products.
A wealth of gritty data opens up opportunities but it also leads to greater complexity and changes consumer expectations.
"With the self quantified, through sensing and processing data from all aspects of your life, advertising and marketing may need to reassess what the value is in a quantified value exchange," according to Devine.
For example, the common concept of offering a discount when a consumer parts with a set amount in one transaction, or offering one free coffee in every six will be seen as "programmed and dull".
"Random moments in life are often the best," adds Devine. "Maybe we'll end up in a Skinner Box rewarding more exaggerated behaviour." (see below)
Google Glass has given rise to "untold issues that need to be covered off", according to Norris, and these concerns are likely to rise in prominence, thanks to fear of the unknown, before they subside.
For instance, the Wall Street Journal claimed Glass is "years away from hitting the European market" due to privacy concerns.
Ensuring companies use the data for good and not for evil is tantamount to making consumers comfortable.
Picture this scenario painted by Heron: "If I am wearing my iWatch in an area of town where there is a crime – is my insurance going to go up?
"People will only use these devices if they feel their data is being respected and protected."
Being visually and audibly recorded is quickly becoming the norm, not the exception, according to Tahtouh. "The term 'right to privacy' itself is what's going to go through the biggest change. Ultimately I think people have to either be more vigilant about what they want to protect, or start letting go of what they traditionally considered to be private."
The race into wearable technology may be heating up but the starting gun has only just been fired. Smartwatches, fitness focused armbands, sensors in your shoes. All the developments on the market so far only automate an existing technology or behaviour.
"That's great but hardly revolutionary," says Lark. "The real breakthroughs in wearable technology are yet to come. We have real problems to solve and what we have today is, well, a small step for mankind."


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We could use them in everything from autonomous cars to AR glasses.
LENS-FREE IS THE WAY TO BE. For a camera to work, it's pretty much gotta have a lens. That little piece of glass is responsible for directing light to the camera's sensor so it can produce an image. Now, researchers from the University of Utah have found a way to effectively capture videos and images without this typically essential component.
They published their study in the journal Optics Express.
A NEW PERSPECTIVE. If you were to remove the lens from a standard camera — like, say, the one in your smartphone — you'd still be able to take a photo, but there'd be pretty much no point because it would look like a pixelated blob that no amount of Photoshop magic could fix. The researchers behind this study suspected that they could train an algorithm to decipher the image and make it look like one taken using a lens.
“Why don’t we think from the ground up to design cameras that are optimized for machines and not humans. That’s my philosophical point,” said study author Rajesh Menon in a news release.
To do this, the researchers started by attaching a digital camera sensor to the edge of a sheet of plexiglass, pointing it toward the glass. Then they wrapped reflective tape around the remaining edges of the plexiglass to direct light back towards the sensor.
Using the sensor, the researchers snapped pictures and video of several images displayed on an LED screen in front of the plexiglass (and at a 90-degree angle to the sensor). Finally, they had their algorithm interpret the image to produce one that looks like a slightly lower resolution version of what they displayed on the LED screen.
You can view the entire process in the video below.
APPLICATIONS APLENTY. Why should we even spend time making a lens-less camera? Turns out, there are lots of uses. We could use them to turn the windows of autonomous vehicles into cameras, or turn the windows of our homes into a security system.
A lens-free camera would make augmented reality (AR) glasses a lot less bulky, since you wouldn't have to point heavy cameras at the wearer's eyes — we could instead place sleeker sensors on the edges of the glasses.
“It’s not a one-size-fits-all solution, but it opens up an interesting way to think about imaging systems,” said Menon in the release.
For now, he and his colleagues plan to continue developing their lens-free camera system to effectively capture 3-D images and objects bathed in normal light, the not-insanely-bright kind you probably encounter at home. If their work goes as the researchers hope, the lens may no longer be a necessary component of a camera — maybe it'll just be an optional one.
READ MORE: Picture This: Camera With No Lens [The University of Utah]
More on lensless cameras: A New Lensless Camera Transforms How Scientists See the Cosmos
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Covidien (NYSE:COV) agreed to sell its 37 radiopharmacies in the U.S. to Triad Isotopes Inc. of Orlando, Fla., for an undisclosed amount.
The Mansfield, Mass.-based medical products conglomerate said it’s making the move after examining the proverbial “strategic alternatives” to focus on businesses with more growth potential. Covidien has 38 of the businesses worldwide, including one in London and the 37 in the U.S., under its Mallinckrodt brand.
The company said the U.S. radiopharmacies pulled in $180 million in net sales during fiscal 2009.
The deal, expected to close during the second quarter, will more than double Orlando, Fla.-based Triad‘s network of 26 radiopharmacies (the company also runs six cyclotrons in the Southeast) and expand its geographic footprint. Covidien has radiopharmacies, which dispense imaging agents containing radioactive compounds, in 18 states:
- California: Loma Linda, Los Angeles, San Francisco
- Colorado: Denver
- Connecticut: Milford
- Florida: Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, St. Petersburg
- Georgia: Atlanta
- Illinois: Chicago, Crestwood
- Maryland: Beltsville
- Massachusetts: Boston
- Michigan: Detroit, Saginaw
- Minnesota: St. Paul / Minneapolis
- Missouri: Kansas City, St. Louis
- New Jersey: Pine Brook
- New York: Hicksville
- Ohio: Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, Toledo
- Oregon: Portland
- Pennsylvania: Altoona, Bethlehem, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Wilkes-Barre
- Tennessee: Memphis
- Texas: Dallas, Ft. Worth, Houston


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US Copyright Office approves phone jailbreaking and video remixes
Tablets and consoles still locked down
The US Copyright Office has published the latest exceptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and it's good news for phone jailbreakers and video remixers, who are now legal – well, until 2015, at least.
The terms of DMCA lockdowns are reviewed every three years, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is claiming victory after it successfully petitioned for exemptions in the current round of changes.
In particular, the EFF asked that owners of smartphones, tablets, and games consoles should be allowed to do what they like with the devices they purchase, changing the operating system or software to suit themselves. In a partial victory for those owners, the Copyright Office ruled that smartphones can legally be jailbroken, which is good news for modders. But if you own a fondleslab, you're out of luck.
"The Register concluded that the record did not support an extension of the exemption to 'tablet' devices," the ruling said. "The Register found significant merit to the opposition's concerns that this aspect of the proposed class was broad and ill-defined, as a wide range of devices might be considered 'tablets,' notwithstanding the significant distinctions among them in terms of the way they operate, their intended purposes, and the nature of the applications they can accommodate."
In legalese, this means that someone in government can't decide exactly what a tablet is. Clearly the combined adverting and market segmentation efforts of Apple, Android, and Microsoft haven't had much of an impact on the fusty folks at the Copyright Office.
"If you bought your gadget, you own it, and you should be able to install whatever software you please without facing potential legal threats," said EFF senior staff attorney Marcia Hofmann in a statement.
"We're pleased the Copyright Office renewed our smartphone jailbreaking exemption request, but we're disappointed that it couldn't see that consumers deserve the same rights for all the gadgets they own. We'll be back with more exemption requests in the next rulemaking, and we're hopeful the Copyright Office will keep moving in the right direction."
The smartphone ruling came despite representations from the Wireless Asociation, formerly the Cellular Telephone Industry Association (CTIA). It argued that jailbreaking should not be allowed because users buy handsets, but don't necessarily own the software that runs them. The industry pressure group also warned that jailbreaking broke the current business model of operators subsidizing handsets.
Games console owners who want to tinker are also going to be stymied. The Copyright Office report records that the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) and Sony "vigorously opposed" jailbreaking, saying consoles are "the center of an intellectual property ecosystem." Those objections seem to have worked, with the new ruling saying there was no compelling case for allowing console jailbreaking.
In a move guaranteed to delight video editors and the creators of cute cat or child videos the Copyright Office ruled that it is legal to use music or clips from copyright media for personal or educational use. Politicians will also love this for their campaign clips.
"Remix videos are thriving on YouTube and other sites, offering dynamic criticism and commentary on popular movies as well as popular culture," said EFF Intellectual Property director Corynne McSherry. "It's a great example of how new technologies foster free expression, yet the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA endanger these important works," .
"We're thrilled that the Copyright Office broke new ground in protecting remix artists," she said. "We can't let misguided federal law block a new form of art and expression." ®


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Following state guidelines, Amazon, Flipkart, Nykaa suspend non-essential goods deliveries in Maharashtra
As Maharashtra’s government continues to impose anti-coronavirus restrictions in the state, e-commerce businesses including Flipkart, Amazon, Nykaa, and Reliance JioMart have announced that they are only delivering essential items once again.
In a move reminiscent of last year, only essential goods are permitted for delivery by e-commerce firms in Maharashtra, the local government announced on Tuesday. A number of trade bodies including the Competition Commission of India and Nasscom have made petitions to the Ministry of Home Affairs to seek to reverse the order, arguing that the economic fallout will be highly disruptive, the ET Tech reported.
Multi-brand beauty retailer Nykaa, which last week opened two new kiosks and is continuing to expand across India, recently announced on Facebook that it is only delivering essentials from its e-commerce platform in Maharashtra. The business did reassure customers in the area that it will continue timely deliveries of permitted merchandise. Other e-commerce firms have made similar social media announcements.
The Maharashtra lockdown is currently scheduled to continue until May 1. E-commerce firms, under current state regulations, may only deliver groceries, personal care, and hygiene products during this time.
“Letters are being sent to the Maharashtra government and the Ministry of Home Affairs requesting that restrictions don’t carve out distinctions between essential and non-essential goods and services, because people who are stuck at home need access to everything,” an anonymous source told ET Tech.
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More than a decade after its launch, Facebook has finally found its feet as a powerful marketing platform. When Pricewaterhouse Coopers surveyed 19,000 online shoppers around the world last fall, it found that fully half of them used Facebook as part of their overall shopping experience. At the same time, Brafton reports, Facebook video plays grew 785 percent from 2013 to 2014, with engagement up 25 percent over the same period. Facebook itself reported 50 percent growth in video views last summer, breaking through the billion-a-day barrier. It’s now up to three billion per day. The conclusion: marketers can find customers on Facebook, and they can engage them with video.
“Facebook is becoming a real player in the video space,” says Jonah Goodhart, CEO and co-founder of Moat, which measures online engagement. “It’s actively encouraging developers of content to upload directly to Facebook. I think it’s realized that having appropriate metrics and tools is critical to building a video marketing ecosystem.” It’s also a huge opportunity to divert branding dollars from TV, Goodhart notes.
And video has a powerful pull. When social media tracking agency Socialbakers looked at 670,000 Facebook posts from 4,445 brand pages from October 2014 to February 2015, it calculated that video had an organic reach of 8.7 percent, while photos had a reach of just 3.7 percent.
According to Visible Measures, a leading content advertising company, Facebook videos accounted for 25 percent of all Super Bowl ad views this year, a real roundhouse punch to YouTube. Facebook accounted for 27 percent of all viewership of the top ten campaigns, where eight of the top ten ran content. The top performing campaign of Super Bowl XLVIX, Budweiser’s Lost Dog, garnered an impressive 54 percent of its viewership from Facebook.
“For years, brands have relied on the YouTube view counter to judge the measure of their videos’ success because it was the core platform for distributing and watching content. But the recent unveiling of public video data on Facebook has shown definitively that YouTube is not the only platform where brands are posting videos or consumers are watching them,” Visible Measures said.
Why are all these numbers spiking now? Because Facebook has spent more than a year launching wave after wave of programs, features, and enhancements to its video marketing arsenal.
- In March 2014 it introduced 15-second Premium Video Ads that start playing without sound. If viewers click, the ad expands to full-screen view, and the sound kicks in. The ads are bought and measured TV-style, with ratings points and oversight from Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings (OCR).
- In May it added new video metrics in its Page Insights and Ads Reporting programs that include measurements such as video views, unique video views, the average duration of the video view, and audience retention.
- In June it improved its video rankings for the NewsFeed. The new formula includes not only traditional factors such as likes, comments, and shares but also new measurements of whether a viewer has actually watched a video and for how long. The goal: to get videos people actually watch in front of a larger audience.
- In September, it extended the availability of autoplay videos to more content from more brands in the U.S. market.
- Just this month, it declared it would charge advertisers for viewed rather than served ad impressions. “We measure an ad impression the moment an ad enters the screen of a desktop browser or mobile app. If an ad doesn’t enter the screen, we don’t count it as an ad impression,” Facebook said in a blog post.
Add to that Facebook’s $500 million acquisition of online video ad platform LiveRail last July, and all the pieces that let Facebook deliver video inventory to marketers, and display ads most effectively seem to be in place.
Tips and Tricks
So how can you best use Facebook as a video marketing tool? Here’s what the experts have to say:
Find your best audience: “Because Facebook is a more passive experience than, say, Google, you’re not going to get the crazy clickthrough and conversion rates you’ll get on Google until you understand who your target audience is,” says Brad Goldberg, vice president of ad operations at Facebook-centric ad agency OrionCKB. One way to target your ads at people most likely to engage with them is to use Facebook’s Custom Audience Pixels code, which lets you aim your Facebook ads at people who have visited your website and remarket to people who have expressed interest in your products. “You want your ad to get in front of people who will be happy to see you in their NewsFeeds and who will consider you to be at least sort of a friend,” Goldberg adds.
Control your creative: You know your business and your brand best. If your approach to video is to outsource production to an ad agency, that’s fine, but try as hard as you can to retain creative control. “The first step is always going to figuring out the content, no matter what kind of ad it is,” says Goldberg. “The content is always key to getting that first pop of attention, especially in the entertaining NewsFeed environment.”
Add a call-to-action: One of the most important video features Facebook has added in the past year is the ability to embed a clickable call-to-action within a video. You’d be crazy not to take advantage of such a compelling opportunity to convert a viewer.
Test and measure: You may not strike gold on your first try, but now that so many metrics are available within Facebook, it’s much easier to step up to bat again with a better idea of what will work and which tactics will generate the most conversion. Plan to be iterative.
Understand Facebook’s view on viewability: “My problem is that Facebook—and Google, by the way—are measuring viewability on their sites using their own definitions,” says Goodhart. “Facebook said viewability is a no-brainer metric, and it’s great to see it’s embracing it, but it doesn’t allow independent third-party measurement. Isn’t it important for Facebook to let itself be measured by the independent and unbiased third-parties that advertisers demand? Is it okay for them to say ‘No, we believe in self-measurement?’”
Combine relevant ad formats: Video is undeniably powerful for storytelling, but the strongest campaigns combine several ad formats in whatever sequences and combinations prove to be most effective in reaching the target audience. According to 2014 research from social media ad tech firm Adaptly, a 12-day Facebook ad campaign featuring different “sequenced” ads that first told the brand story and later provided product information before finally inviting people to sign up yielded 87 percent more people visiting the landing page than a test group who simply saw the same ad over and over. “If you’re building a brand and have a little patience, it’s an interesting approach,” says Goldberg.
Prioritize on mobile: Do you look at Facebook on your phone? Facebook says that almost two-thirds of video views on Facebook happen via its mobile app. If your video ad ultimately leads to your website, then you must make sure your site is optimized for mobile viewing.
Get free advice from Facebook: Facebook’s marketing team shares an extensive amount of research and coaching in order order to get more marketers on board. It’s well worth following along as the company continues to make its case for its improved metrics, ad integration, and optimization tools.


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Figures from the national charity Diabetes UK in 2014 estimated that over 700 people a day are diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in this country alone. The statistics are sobering, especially when considering that this amounts to one diagnosis every two minutes.Meanwhile, the charity also estimated that around 590,000 people in the country do not yet have a diagnosis and are living with the condition without realising it. The number diagnosed with diabetes has been rising dramatically for the last few years, with the figure doubling in less than ten years, from 1.6 million in 1996 to 3.3 million in 2014, and it is likely that it is even higher now in 2018.
While the figures are alarming and a diagnosis of diabetes must be taken extremely seriously, at the same time, extensive research is taking place around the condition. It has long been known that avoiding becoming overweight or obese and eating a healthy diet go a long way towards reducing the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, but are there certain foods which are specifically linked to a reduced risk of the disease?
The Institute for Food, Nutrition and Health, in collaboration with Dutch Dairy Association, and Friesland Campina, is currently reviewing data and pulling together the evidence that examines the links between dairy products and the risk of Type 2 diabetes. The emerging evidence suggests that, alongside a wide range of other health benefits, dairy foods, and fermented dairy foods in particular (e.g. yoghurt) may help to reduce the risk of developing diabetes, although more work must still be done to develop this research. Director of the IFNH Professor Ian Givens was involved in an earlier review study in 2016 which indicated that, despite scepticism about the health effects of dairy products from the public, intake of milk or dairy products in adults was associated with a neutral or improved risk of developing type 2 diabetes. You can read this paper in full here .
Meanwhile, another paper co-authored by Professor Julie Lovegrove, Director of the University of Reading’s Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition, and Professor Givens showed a post-prandial stimulation of insulin by whey protein. It is suggested that this may be one of the mechanisms whereby certain products containing dairy protein have a beneficial effect on type 2 risk, but further research is needed to confirm this. You can read this paper in full here.
A meta-analysis published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition by Gijsbers et al. suggests that plain yoghurt, in particular, may be associated with the reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. While the paper cautions that randomised controlled trials are needed to confirm this link, it also proposes the possible reason being yoghurt’s beneficial metabolic effects may be due to probiotic bacteria present in it. Yoghurt also contains vitamin K-2 (menaquinone), which is also associated with reduced risk of type 2 diabetes in a large prospective cohort, although the study also noted that cheese contained the same vitamin but did not appear to display the same beneficial effect on reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. You can read the paper in full here.
While more work must still be done to ascertain the link between dairy and any benefit it may have in reducing the risk of Type 2 diabetes, it is clear that the inclusion of dairy products in your daily diet can be extremely beneficial for your health. Diabetes UK offers a number of helpful tips with regards to lowering the risk of developing the condition, and while changing your diet may not prevent diabetes completely, it can certainly go some way towards reducing your risk as well as improving your health overall.


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Beatles Songs Finally Available on iTunes
“It’s fantastic to see the songs we originally released on vinyl receive as much love in the digital world as they did the first time Around,” says Paul McCartney.
NEW YORK - The Beatles are finally available on Apple's iTunes digital music store.
Apple, Apple Corps and music major EMI made the announcement, which Apple has pursued for years, Tuesday morning.
Financial details weren't disclosed, but debt-ladden EMI is seen as possibly avoiding debt covenant problems a while longer depending on how much it makes from Beatles sales on iTunes.
The partners didn't detail how long the deal will run for, but an EMI official confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter that the Beatles music will be exclusive to iTunes until some time in 2011.
The band has been one of the highest-profile iTunes holdouts.
Starting Tuesday, the group’s 13 remastered studio albums, the two-volume Past Masters compilation and the Red and Blue collections are available for purchase and download on iTunes worldwide as albums or individual songs.
Fans can also get a special digital Beatles Box Set featuring the Live at the Washington Coliseum, 1964 concert film.
“We’re really excited to bring the Beatles’ music to iTunes,” said Paul McCartney. “It’s fantastic to see the songs we originally released on vinyl receive as much love in the digital world as they did the first time around.”
“I am particularly glad to no longer be asked when the Beatles are coming to iTunes,” said Ringo Starr. “At last, if you want it - you can get it now - The Beatles from Liverpool to now! Peace and Love, Ringo.”
Apple CEO Steve Jobs said: “We love the Beatles and are honored and thrilled to welcome them to iTunes." He added: “It has been a long and winding road to get here. Thanks to the Beatles and EMI, we are now realizing a dream we’ve had since we launched iTunes ten years ago.”
Yoko Ono said it was appropriate that the deal was done in her late husband John’s 70th birthday year. And Olivia Harrison said: “The Beatles on iTunes - Bravo!”
EMI Group CEO Roger Faxon called the deal "a great milestone in the development of digital music.”
Single albums are available for purchase and download for $12.99 each, double albums for $19.99 each and individual songs for $1.29 each.
Apple Corps Ltd. was founded by The Beatles in 1968 to look after the group’s affairs. It has administered the catalogue of The Beatles releases of the 1960s, which to-date have sold more than 600 million records, tapes and CDs.


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Tinton Falls, NJ and New York; At this years Trans Pacific Maritime conference (#TPM22) LOG-NET opts not to award their e-commerce excellence award. CEO John Motley sited specific data points that led to this including;
-Ocean Carrier ETAs that our AI flagged as being statistically impossible.
– Volumes in feeder networks exceeding the capacity of line haul networks during the October 2021 through December 2021 period.
– The majority of electronic bookings for space were not responded to as intended, where delayed and required extensive manual intervention to complete.
– Contract terms were introduced for digital interchanges with ocean carriers that waived any responsibility or liability for data about customer shipments to complete, timely, secure or useable.
Mr. Motley noted the lack of industry’s goal to know the estimated and actual time cargo loads “on the boat, off the boat, and all the way there” remains unachieved.
His commentary was covered this morning by Bloomberg.
Photo courtesy of Laura Curtis


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Just like Hurricane Katrina, Cuppy’s Coffee gained momentum along the Gulf Coast and moved inland, leaving a path of personal loss and financial devastation in its path. Yet when franchisees are in crisis, there is no Red Cross or National Guard to come to their aid. In fact, the only active group that claims to be fair franchising advocates on behalf of franchisees is the AAFD, a group that makes FEMA look like a model of efficiency and effectiveness.
The AAFD’s indifference to the franchisee victims of Cuppy’s Coffee is palpable and disgraceful. Cuppy’s Coffee is easily one of the 10 worst franchisee disasters of recent years, affecting not only the dozens of franchisees owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in unreturned deposits, not only the dozens more who have been waiting interminably long times for their franchises to open, but the dozens who must continue to depend on a financially struggling franchisor and a worsening brand reputation.
How does the AAFD advocate on behalf of Cuppy’s Coffee franchisees? By giving Cuppy’s Coffee a fair franchising award. By making their representatives guests of honor at its golf convention. By featuring Cuppy’s Coffee President Doug Hibbing up on stage in song & dance numbers, and having him hand out Fair Franchising awards. And by praising them in the press:
Blue MauMau recently asked Robert Purvin: “What five companies stand-out in having the best, most friendly franchise agreements for franchise owner-operators?”
Purvin: It is easy to rank the agreements that I have reviewed and graded as conforming to the AAFD Standards. Starting from the top as the ‘most fair’:
1. Cuppy’s Coffee and More
When Fransynergy purchased Cuppy’s Coffee, along with parent Medina Enterprises, and affiliates Java Jo’z and Elite Manufacturing, Dale Nabors publicly promised to quickly address the issue of unreturned deposits and repay those who were owed tens of thousands of dollars. Months later, Dale Nabors has not only refused to address the issue, he does not take nor return calls from those who have involuntarily contributed $30,000, $40,000, even $50,000 to fund his company.
Both the AAFD and Cuppy’s Coffee expects their franchisee depositers to just go away quietly and let them continue with their fun and games without distraction. Hmmm… wonder if they will?
WHAT DO YOU THINK? SHOULD CUPPY’S COFFEE & JAVA JO’Z FRANCHISEE “DEPOSITERS” JUST TAKE THEIR LOSSES AND LET CUPPY’S COFFEE KEEP THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS THEY’RE OWED? WILL THEY?


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Those who buy pre-owned (aka second hand) Nintendo Wii U consoles are able to re-download for free games from the eShop that were bought by previous owners of the device, according to a new report.
Nintendo's Wii U has a convoluted policy towards Nintendo Network accounts and ties them to the console on which it was created.
As such, those who opt to sell their devices should be wary about any unforeseen consequences.
Apparently, the poster got a pre-owned Wii U and, after creating a new Nintendo Network for his own use, he visited the online eShop. After accessing the page of a game, the option of re-downloading it appeared, instead of buying it.
Nintendo hasn't commented on this supposed glitch, but you can expect an official statement soon enough.


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First family spending drop for 10 years
Family spending has dropped for the first time in more than decade, figures show.
The average household paid out £443.40 a week on essentials and luxuries last year - £2.60 less than the £446 it could afford in 2005.
Critics said the fall, which follows three years of stagnated spending, reflects how many families are struggling with inflation and rising taxation.
The Tories said the figures showed that despite Labour's boasts about the economy, incomes were not keeping pace with rising costs.
Family spending last fell during the recession of the early 1990s when John Major was prime minister. Levels began to increase as the economy recovered in 1995.
Last year's fall was revealed in the Expenditure and Food Survey, carried out by the Office for National Statistics, which checks spending in almost 7,000 homes.
The gross income before tax available to an average home also dropped from £617 to £616. Disposable income - money available to a family after tax and deductions - also fell from £502 to £500.
The figures come in the week that inflation rose to three per cent, according to the Consumer Prices Index. On the longer established Retail Prices Index, which includes housing costs, inflation is now running at 4.4%.
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said: 'Despite Gordon Brown's boasts about the economy, people's incomes are failing to keep up with the rising cost of living.
'No wonder the Chancellor is so keen to move next door to Number Ten before the truth about the economy catches up with him.' Ruth Lea, head of the Centre for Policy Studies think-tank, said: 'It is not difficult to see why this is happening. It is triple whammies all round: higher prices, higher taxes, worse services.
'People are looking at huge bills for gas and power, they have big debts, and they are having to tighten their belts.'
Mr Brown's increase in taxation to pay for much greater state spending began in 2002. The ONS said yesterday: 'Measured on 2005/6 prices there has been little change in overall household expenditure over the period 2001/2 to 2005/6.'
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A few minutes every morning is all you need.
Stay up to date on the world's Headlines and Human Stories. It's fun, it's factual, it's fluff-free.
The backstory: In 1957, Dhirubhai Ambani launched a small yarn business in India. From those humble beginnings, it eventually grew into Reliance Industries, a heavyweight in India's business scene, dabbling in everything from petrochemicals to telecommunications. Today, his son Mukesh Ambani is at the helm and holds the title of Asia's richest man.
In June 2022, Reliance made headlines by snagging the streaming rights for the Indian Premier League cricket tournament and beating out Disney. Then, Reliance's Viacom18 secured the rights to air popular HBO shows in India like "Succession" and "House of the Dragon," which were previously Disney's domain.
More recently: Disney has been in India's market since 1993 through a joint venture with Modi Enterprises. In 2019, Disney Indian TV giant Star from 21st Century Fox for US$71 billion, which gave it access to dozens of TV channels and India's biggest streaming platform, Hotstar.
The development: Disney and Reliance Industries are now teaming up to create a massive media company valued at around US$8.5 billion. By joining Star India and Viacom18, they plan to reach around 750 million viewers. This partnership also secures exclusive rights to distribute Disney content in India, which is a major win for Reliance's streaming service, Jio Cinema. But before it's all official, they still need the green light from regulators and shareholders, which they expect to get by the end of this year or early 2025.
Reliance will own just over 63% stake in the new entity – 16.3% directly and 46.8% through Viacom18, in which it has a controlling stake – while Disney will hold the rest. Ambani's wife, Nita Ambani, will chair the company, with Viacom18's Uday Shankar as vice chair. When it comes to the boardroom, Disney will have three board seats, while Reliance will have five, plus two independent directors.
"India is the world's most populous market and we are excited for the opportunities that this joint venture will provide to create long-term value for the company," said Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger.
"This is a landmark agreement that heralds a new era in the Indian entertainment industry," said Mukesh Ambani.
"The combined entity will create a sports behemoth in India," said Jinesh Joshi, an analyst at India's Prabhudas Lilladher. "This merger will give Reliance great bargaining power when it comes to negotiating advertisement contracts ... For Disney, coming together with a bigger player, in terms of (financial) pockets, will give it a cash cushion."


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Techs will take the stage hesitantly Wednesday, as they await a tidbit of economic news and prepare a batch of IPOs sure to pale in comparison to yesterday's dazzling performance of Foundry Networks. Asia and Europe moved up, and the Dow is set to open slightly lower.
Several IPOs will take off in the shadow of Foundry Networks' towering success. The maker of networking products for enterprises and ISPs shot up 525 percent to close at 156 1/4 in its debut Tuesday. Calico (Nasdaq: CLIC), Shopnow.com (Nasdaq: SPNW), Netsolve (Nasdaq: NTSL), and FTD.com (Nasdaq: EFTD) are priced for trading Wednesday.
On the economic front, the Commerce Department will release data on August durable goods orders. The index, which shows demand for big-ticket items such as cars and refrigerators, is expected to fall 0.9 percent.
Expect the following technology stocks to be among Wednesday's most actively traded issues: America Online Inc. (NYSE: AOL), Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), Global Crossing Ltd. (Nasdaq: GBLX), Network Solutions Inc. (Nasdaq: NSOL), USWeb Corp. (Nasdaq: USWB) and VTEL Corp. (Nasdaq: VTEL).
Internet stocks and initial public offerings made all the noise Tuesday as the Dow Jones industrial average fell 28 points to 10,275.53 after being off more than 200 points in early trading. The Nasdaq shaved off 5 points to end at 2,756.26.
At the Bell
The Dow Jones industrial average may open about 29 points lower. The Standard & Poor's 500 index for June futures contracts was down 3.6 points to 1290 at 7:32 a.m. EST in 24-hour electronic trading.
The Inter@ctive Week @Net Index rose 5 to 322.35.
Trading in Asia was on a downswing. The Nikkei 225 fell 0.25 percent to 17,282, Singapore's Strait Times index lost 0.34 percent to 2,017 and Hong Kong's Hang Seng shed 0.08 percent to 12,835.
European markets were also in the red. London's FTSE 100 rose 0.33 percent to 5,988. The CAC 40 in Paris fell back 0.75 percent to 4,5610 and the Xetra DAX in Frankfurt was down 0.65 percent to 5,086 at 7:15 a.m. EST.
Reuters contributed to this report.


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Amazon acquires warehouse robotics startup Canvas Technology
The world’s largest online retailer has increasingly automated its fulfilment centres with robots, originally from Kiva Systems which it agreed to buy for $775 million in 2012.
Amazon.com Inc on Wednesday said it had acquired Canvas Technology, a robotics startup in Boulder, Colorado, that has built autonomous carts that can move goods around warehouses.
An Amazon spokeswoman did not comment on the deal's price tag but said the companies "share a common vision for a future where people work alongside robotics to further improve safety and the workplace experience. We look forward to working with Canvas Technology's fantastic team to keep inventing for customers."
The world's largest online retailer has increasingly automated its fulfilment centres with robots, originally from Kiva Systems which it agreed to buy for $775 million in 2012, that transport shelves of inventory to workers to pick customer orders. Amazon has also shown growing interest in self-driving technology more broadly, recently participating in a $530 million funding round in driverless car startup Aurora Innovation Inc. The deal was earlier reported by TechCrunch.
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Adify: Red-headed stepsister to
news, cable ad networks
Cox Enterprises has just purchased Adify for $300 million, reports PaidContent.
The union joins a major online ad network with a high-profile representative of major news and cable ad alliances.
Last August Adify launched the Gay Ad Network, which now tops the LGBT category. Adify also helps power Six Apart Media and enjoys the attentions of major investors, including NBCU and Time Warner. Clients include the Guardian, Forbes and Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.
Cox is part of newspaper ad alliance quadrantOne and a founding partner of cable ad network Project Canoe. Both coalitions were launched by industry giants in defense against networks launched by Google and Yahoo.
PaidContent believes Adify's suite may be integrated in Cox's cable-based ad offerings. And while Adify will continue to operate independently, major media investors are expected to cash out, though NBC is expected to stay on as a customer.
The transaction is expected to finalize in May.


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Many habits such as smoking, chewing tobacco, biting lips unnecessarily and using products that contain harmful chemicals will damage the lips.
Know about WeRIndia
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Coca-Cola Consolidated Inc (NASDAQ:COKE) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, January 13th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, January 24th will be given a dividend of 0.25 per share on Friday, February 7th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 23rd.
Coca-Cola Consolidated has a payout ratio of 9.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings.
Coca-Cola Consolidated stock opened at $279.30 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.01, a current ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39. The company has a market capitalization of $2.62 billion, a P/E ratio of -473.38 and a beta of 0.60. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $280.03 and its 200 day moving average is $294.80. Coca-Cola Consolidated has a twelve month low of $200.76 and a twelve month high of $413.39.
Coca-Cola Consolidated (NASDAQ:COKE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 5th. The company reported $3.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.56 by ($0.12). The company had revenue of $1.27 billion during the quarter. Coca-Cola Consolidated had a positive return on equity of 20.44% and a negative net margin of 0.11%.
Several analysts recently weighed in on the company. BidaskClub downgraded Coca-Cola Consolidated from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. ValuEngine raised Coca-Cola Consolidated from a “strong sell” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th.
About Coca-Cola Consolidated
Coca-Cola Consolidated, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, produces, markets, and distributes nonalcoholic beverages, primarily products of The Coca-Cola Company in the United States. The company offers sparkling beverages, including carbonated beverages; and still beverages, such as energy products, as well as noncarbonated beverages comprising bottled water, tea, ready to drink coffee, enhanced water, juices, and sports drinks.
Read More: Quiet Period
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EC Keeps AD Duty on Steel Pipe Import from Belarus, China & Russia
The European Commission has extended duties of between 10.1% and 90.6% on imports of steel welded tubes and pipes from Belarus, China and Russia for five years. Chinese producers face the highest rate of 90.6%. The rate for manufacturers in Belarus is 38.1%, while Russia’s OMK Group and TMK Group pay 10.1% and 16.8% respectively. Other Russian companies, such as PAO Severstal CHMF.MM, face tariffs of 20.5%. The Commission concluded that China, Belarus and Russia have significant spare production capacity and that dumping is likely if measures are removed.
The duties, in place since 2008, followed a complaint by a group representing 50% of EU production. The investigation cites ArcelorMittal, Spain’s Celsa Atlantic and Italy’s Arvedi Tube Acciaio as EU producers.


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As recently, Reliance India launched a video-conferencing option for the US-based competition Zoom. JioMeet saw 1 million downloads within a week of its launch. However, it was not Jio’s launch of this Indian-made video-conferencing app that created buzz in the industry, but its striking untold UI and app similarity to Zoom was heavily ridiculed by Twitterists, who might Motivates the industry to invite legal action. Zoom against JioMeet.
A twitter User said, “Looks like development [JioMeet] Started by decomposing Zoom’s Apk file. “JioMeet did some minor tweaks before its launch, but used the same phrases, design and content placement as Zoom, the only difference between the two – the color scheme and font size.
Zoom claims to be US-made and not Chinese development
Meanwhile, the video-conferencing platform has been holding its firm ground for some time on the specialty of its products and technology, which is trying to dominate people’s minds due to misconceptions. It has been in constant contact with the Indian government for the last three months on how the platform works and it does not store any data outside the country.
During the ongoing lockdown period, Zoom emerged as one of the top-downloaded apps with video-conferencing facilities for work-from-home employees and even educational institutions conducting online lectures. However, in April, the Home Ministry flagged off data security and security around Zoom.
Zoom took a 90-day pledge on April 1 to address users’ security and privacy concerns.
In a statement issued by Eric Yuan, CEO of Zoom, told ET this weekThe app aims to “double efforts to bring meaningful changes to its Video Meet app after the 90-day pledge ends. The company will put mechanisms in place to ensure that security and privacy remain a priority at each stage.” Product and Facility Development. ”
To ease security concerns, Zoom will now Implement end-to-end encryption (E2EE) both free (for those who have to sign up) and premium for all their users. The company will soon launch the E2EE video calling feature in the coming weeks.
Reliance tapped into Zero and launched JioMeet
Redeeming on occasion, JioMeet was launched during these days to meet work-from-home employee requirements, allowing for up to 24 hours to go seamlessly each day. In addition, JioMeet users can experience HD video quality even in low bandwidth, and guests can click on the JioMeet invite link and join the meeting from their browser even without downloading the application.
In chit chat With Economic Times, Zoom India head Sameer Raje said, “We knew this was coming. It’s fine, this is not the first time Zoom has faced competition. Our strength has been our products and technology , And our focus is on customers. Competitive is their strategy.”
Will Zoom take legal action against JioMeet?
Commenting on how Zoom planned to file a legal suit against JioMeet, Raje indicated that many internal discussions had been held by the Zoom team, adding, “I would not like to comment on this as it is my legal There is a case for the team. ” to see it. I will leave it to them.”
Feeling the need to introduce itself to the Indian market, Zoom said it is a US-based company publicly traded on the NASDAQ, founded and headquartered in San Jose, California. Raje said, “We have two data centers in India; people forget this.”
In its efforts to bring the truth to light, Zoom is working closely with law enforcement agencies in India and sharing details with the government. “We work closely with law enforcement agencies if there is a 600% increase in children and cybercrime using the platform,” Raje told ET.


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If you haven’t already, over the next several days you will get email notifications from various companies – from retailers that deliver your socks, to the card companies that manage your frequent flyer programs, to the bank that holds your mortgage – with a subject that includes the phrase “Security Update”. The email will suggest that you should change your password on the company’s site and some will include a helpful link to start the process.
The reason for this notification is the Heartbleed vulnerability in the OpenSSL library. This bug essentially means that passwords and other sensitive data from servers across the Internet may have been compromised. Security expert Bruce Schneier says Heartbleed “is an 11” on the scale of 1 to 10 because of the scale of the compromise and the type of information that may have been leaked. The bug impacts a significant number of services, companies and sites – estimates suggest about two-thirds of the world’s web servers. Companies that own these servers will need to update the software on these servers and many will notify their customers to change their passwords.
While many of the email notifications will be legitimate, criminals will use this opportunity to trick consumers into revealing passwords. They will do so by sending spoofed security-related emails purporting to come from popular brands and services. These spoofed emails will include password-reset links that take the recipients to fake sites that phish usernames, passwords and other sensitive information. This is a common pattern when a breach or vulnerability is revealed – criminals often attempt a one-two punch to get access to even more sensitive or valuable information from customers of the impacted company. This time, of course, the potential targets of such phishing attempts will be almost everyone on the Internet.
Even when you see an email you believe to be legitimate, do not click on links within the email to reset your password. Instead, go directly to the site or service in question.
Some of the top brands on the Internet, including Facebook, Yahoo! and JP Morgan Chase use an open standard called DMARC to protect their customers from such spoofing attacks. DMARC allows a company to ensure that only legitimate emails representing their brand are delivered. Consumers of brands that use DMARC are better protected from email attacks of all types, including the ones triggered by unfortunate circumstances like Heartbleed.


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The BATC Fashion Merchandising Department just finished their annual Fall Fashion Show. With record breaking attendance for show history at BATC, and an overwhelming amount of positive feedback from the community, models, and students, the show was a complete success! The theme for the show was, “Legends of the Fall”. The students enrolled in the Fashion Merchandising classes were responsible for coordinating the clothing, choreography, music, advertising, and all other elements of the show, which featured clothing from retailers in the Cache Valley Mall, DownEast, and Old Navy.
"I received a job in the field of dental assisting before I graduated thanks to hard work, and the awesome instructors at BATC. I have been an official member of the Haws Family Dentistry dental team for the past 4 months, and I have loved every second of it. I would have to consider myself a lucky part of the 85% of BATC students obtaining employment in this career field. Thanks to everyone involved in my success at BATC!" - Amy Butts


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Benchmark Reprographics has taken delivery of a Canon Océ Arizona 460 GT, as the manufacturer said 5,000 had been sold worldwide.
Imagedata Group has invested £1m in an Inca Onset X3 wide-format flatbed UV inkjet printer.
AB Print Group has bought a range of new machinery to boost its productivity and in-house capabilities.
Northern Flags has re-established its UK print and finishing operation in Leeds after what it calls an “eight-year hiatus” and celebrated its return home with the installation of a 2.5m-wide printer.
EFI has reported record fourth-quarter sales of $257m (£180m), an increase of 22% on Q4 2014 revenue of $211.1m, leading to an annual sales rise of 12%.
Mimaki looks set to acquire Italian textile machine manufacturer La Meccanica Costruzione Tessili in a move that would expand its position in the textiles printing market.
Potts Print (UK) has become the first UK company to install the Fujifilm Acuity F flatbed printer, the manufacturer’s OEM version of Canon’s Océ Arizona 6100.
Recycling is something we all do so naturally now that we barely stop to think about it. All of us have at least two bins in our driveways, if not three...
We live in a high-tempo world that demands information in volume and delivered at speed. And to satisfy the public’s insatiable appetite for news, over...
Digital technologies disrupt supply chains – including print – and establish new structures and new paradigms. However, there are some markets where the...
Question: what do solar panels, banknotes, cars and Monopoly all have in common? Answer: they all feature, or are expected to soon start featuring, printed...
Elite Labels is, as the name suggests, a label producer but it’s not your standard label outfit producing self-adhesive labels for product decoration....
High-end flatbeds for high-volume applications.
Collaboration with web-to-print developer Infigo was the key to London digital printer Rapidity winning a big web-to-print contract with property agent...
Konica Minolta’s much anticipated B2 inkjet sheetfed press will launch at Drupa 2016.


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Each year the US publishes a report called Special 301. The report is an annual review of the global state of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection and enforcement.
"This Report reflects the Administration’s resolve to encourage and maintain effective IPR protection and enforcement worldwide. It identifies a wide range of serious concerns, ranging from troubling “indigenous innovation” policies that may unfairly disadvantage U.S. rights holders in China, to the continuing challenges of Internet piracy in countries such as Canada and Spain, to the ongoing systemic IPR enforcement challenges in many countries around the world. Positive accomplishments recognized in this year’s Report include improved efforts by trading partners the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland, all of whom have been removed from the Watch List."
One of the most interesting aspects of the report, as pointed out by ars technica, is the fact that Canada is lumped in with China and Russia on the Priority Watch List. Canada is on the list because they have not completed legislative reforms that they have committed to implementing. The report goes on to recommend that Canada should fully implement the WIPO Internet Treaties which they signed in 1997.
China makes the priority list for other reasons. The report states that 79% of all infringing products seized at the US border were of Chinese origin, that number is down from 81% in 2008. Small retail shops throughout China are also blamed for their status because they sell pirated movies, music, books and software.
The report goes on the list the other countries in US Watch List and Priority Watch List stating what the US feels they could do better to protect intellectual property rights in their country.


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How a Winooski family tries to live a ‘zero waste’ life
WINOOSKI, Vt. (AP) — Take a tour through Meredith Bay-Tyack’s home, and you’ll see covered metal cans in the kitchen, the bathroom, and other common areas. These aren’t garbage cans — in fact, the opposite. They’re for collecting laundry: diapers, towels, cleaning wipes and tissues.
For about four years, Bay-Tyack, her husband Josh Tyack, and their two young daughters have been doing whatever they can to reduce their contributions to the landfill.
That means shunning plastic packaging, buying in bulk, and aiming for “zero waste.” (Bay-Tyack prefers the term “low waste” because it’s more realistic.)
The effort began when the couple had their first child in 2014 and chose to use cloth diapers. Soon, they couldn’t help but notice disposable products everywhere.
“If we can wash diapers, what else could we wash and reuse?” Bay-Tyack recalled thinking. Instead of paper towels, Bay-Tyack made “unpaper towels” out of an old flannel sheet. The changes snowballed from there, leading to a yearlong challenge to reduce as much waste as possible.
“I decided to be an activist in my own home,” she said.
The family used to take out the trash every week. For 2016, they started being able to fit their trash in a glass mason jar each month. Bay-Tyack blogged about their progress and posted photos online.
“I celebrated it because it was such a massive shift for us,” said Bay-Tyack, 33.
But the photos also meant being vulnerable to the opinions of strangers on the internet. Some people applauded her efforts, while others were critical of her efforts, pointing out small pieces of plastic in her photos or downplaying her efforts by comparing them to traditional methods that had been used for generations.
Now several years into the effort, with two children aged 4 and 2, Bay-Tyack no longer tracks by the month. But certain zero-waste habits have become almost second nature.
Take the kitchen, for starters: The family shops in the bulk section at the grocery store when possible. Bay-Tyack makes her own liquid dish soap, mixing Castile soap and filtered boiled water in a mason jar.
In the bathroom, the family uses shampoo bars and a bottle of apple cider vinegar that functions as a hair conditioner. A box full of cloth tissues sit ready to be used and rewashed.
Nearly everything in their Winooski home is secondhand, including the girls’ toys, many of which were birthday gifts passed down from cousins and other family members.
“We’re careful about what we say yes to,” Josh Tyack said.
Restraint brings simplicity.
“We just spend less time managing our stuff,” Bay-Tyack said/
After dinner, Bay-Tyack scrapes leftovers into a metal bento box for her oldest daughter’s lunch the following day. Any other food scraps go into the compost to be dropped off at a local transfer station along with the family’s recycling.
When eating out or buying prepared foods, they bring their own containers and utensils.
“If I forget my coffee cup, I don’t get coffee,” Bay-Tyack said. “So I remember my coffee mug.”
In a place like Vermont, where sustainability is a watchword, residents might assume they’re getting better and better at keeping our stuff out of the landfill.
Vermonters are composting and recycling more than ever before, according to the state Agency of Natural Resources, but the amount of stuff reaching landfills has only slightly declined since the start of the century.
Vermont saw some progress in recent years after passing a universal recycling law, but that progress was wiped out by a trash spike in 2017.
On average, each Vermonter sends about 3.7 pounds of municipal solid waste to the landfill per day, a figure that includes household, business and industry waste. State government is aiming to reduce that to 2.8 pounds.
Living without disposable products means plenty of laundry, every day, in the Tyack family’s in-house washer and dryer. Cloth diapers and wipes get their own extra-hot load every few days.
Not everyone has such easy access to laundry, Bay-Tyack noted as she showed a reporter around her home.
“This isn’t something that everybody can do in the same way,” Bay-Tyack said. She has learned not to prescribe perfection, for herself or for others. Some habits turned out not to be feasible for her family, such as making their own toothpaste or driving long distances to buy food without packaging.
But she believes that people who have the means to choose sustainable options have no excuse but to try.
“People in a place of privilege should be doing more, individually and collectively,” she said.
She sees more people shopping in the bulk section, using their own containers, compared to a few years ago.
“Just that alone shows me that more people than we realize in the area, but not enough, considering how much access we have,” Bay-Tyack said.
Vermonters have one year remaining before state government requires everyone to adopt more waste-reduction habits.
Gov. Phil Scott recently signed a law that will stop stores and restaurants from handing out single-use plastic shopping bags and polystyrene food and drink containers.
The plastic bag ban begins July 1, 2020. On the same day, food scraps, which today comprise about a quarter of all disposed waste, will be banned from the landfill.
Bay-Tyack sees waste reduction as freeing rather than burdensome.
“I can’t go back,” Bay-Tyack said. “You can’t unknow it. You can’t unsee it. You can’t unlearn it.”
Information from: The Burlington Free Press, http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com


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Farmers in the US are set to be bailed out by up to $15.5bn (£12.3bn) of government aid amid an unprecedented slowdown in demand for a range of agricultural commodities.
Details of how the funding is to be distributed will be announced as early as this week, as the US government moves swiftly to ensure the coronavirus pandemic does not trigger food shortages, according to news agency Reuters.
Arable and livestock producers in the US have seen prices tumble as a number of meat processors have closed factories to stem the spread of the virus, and slowing demand for fuel has reduced the market for crops domestically and for export.
These and other factors, such as the closure of restaurants and availability of labour, could see US farm income fall by 12% or $20bn (£15.9bn), according to preliminary research by the Food and Agriculture Policy Research Institute, an think tank based at the University of Missouri.
Maize growers could be among the hardest hit in the long term, with supplies from both the previous harvest and the next harvest forecast to be well ahead of demand, according to the latest World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimate (WASDE) from the United States Department for Agriculture (USDA).
It said there had been an unprecedented slowdown in ethanol production and fuel consumption as a result of the pandemic.
This is forecast to reduce consumption by 375m bushels (some 9.5m tonnes) from a total use of about 5bn bushels (128m tonnes) from April, although this has been partly offset by increased use in other sectors.
The USDA now forecasts the farmgate price of maize will be about £131/t, down from £148/t a month ago.
This is likely to help hold down the price of feed for some UK livestock producers, although a reduction in ethanol production has reduced the supply of distillers’ dried grains and already sent prices spiralling.
Last week, the UK delivered price stood at £262/t for imported maize distillers’ grains, up from £214/t four weeks earlier, with reduced ethanol production in the UK and EU also pushing prices higher.
Meanwhile, wheat prices have held up well on both sides of the Atlantic as domestic consumption increased and major importing nations moved to secure supplies.
This is despite record global supply levels, with the WASDE putting 2019-20 production at an all-time high of 764m tonnes, up from 731m tonnes the previous year, with about half of those stocks in China.


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Sony has become the largest multinational corporation to announce its intention to have a zero environmental footprint by 2050, including zero carbon emissions and the elimination of all non-renewable material from its products.
The plan includes the entire company, from electronics to music and films, and is intended to have a knock-on effect throughout its entire supply chain.
The first phase of the plan will start in 2011 and run through to 2016. During this time drastic cuts will be made across the board, including:
- halving the amount of waste produced and recycling at least 99% of the remainder
- reducing water consumption by 30% in operations
- cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 30% in operations and 14% in logistics
Other activities will include conducting biodiversity impact assessments and establishing mechanisms and practices to measure suppliersâ€™ contribution across a variety of areas including climate change and resource utilisation.
The commitment is radically different from other companiesâ€™ commitments to being carbon neutral. These commit a company to offsetting the resources used, for example, by planting trees.
Sony is pledging to stop emitting altogether and follows in the footsteps of Interface Global, an international flooring manufacturer which is aiming to have zero impact by 2020.
Sony has an impressive environmental record, with leadership in electronics recycling programmes in the EU, USA and Japan, andÂ Sony Pictures having reduced its waste to landfill by 80% over six months to December 2009.
Sir Howard Stringer, Chairman, CEO and President of Sony Corporation said: “We are fully committed to putting our innovative spirit and technological expertise to use to help solve environmental challenges… We will work aggressively to meet the ambitious targets we are setting for ourselves and, at the same time, establish a model for others in our industries to follow.”


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1 Current news from the ressort productionrss
Five-year effort will impact chocolate, gum, confection, food and drink brands
Mars, Incorporated announced today that it will remove all artificial colors from its human food products as part of a commitment to meet evolving consumer preferences. Though many of the company’s products are already free of artificial colors, by expanding the scope of the effort to its entire ...


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The Czech Republic’s fragile economic recovery has, among other things, affected Czechs’ beer drinking habits. After an 8-percent drop in beer production last year, data by the Czech Beer and Malt Association released on Tuesday now show that in 2009, imports of low-quality, cheap beers reached a record level of around one million hectolitres, three times more than the previous year. RP spoke to the association’s head, Jan Veselý about the changing beer market in the country.
“A vast majority of these beers come through retail chains; these are very low-price beers, sometimes they resemble beer-like beverages rather than the real thing, to be honest. Because of the economic crisis, people want to have their beer but they are pushed to switch to the cheapest beers possible. Some of the consumption therefore relies on imported beers and the retail chains meet that demand.”
Why are cheap beers imported, rather than produced by Czech brewers? Why don’t they meet the demand?
“Because beer producers generally don’t want to make beer under such conditions; it’s poor quality beer.”
Are brewers in the Czech Republic reacting to the trend in one way or another?
“They are trying to make relatively cheap beer but they cannot go that low with the prices and they want to comply with the regulations obligatory on the Czech market. For instance, if you mark the beer as lager, its original gravity must be 11 or 12 percent. But beer that comes from Poland through the big chains like Lidl, Kaufland and others, is labelled as lager but its original gravity is just 7 or 8 percent.
“And because of EU legislation, we cannot legally fight them. According to the Common Market Act, if beer or any product is made in compliance with the legislation of the country of origin, it must be accepted in other EU countries even if the importing country has tougher legislation.”
The Czech economy is expected to pick up a little this year and grow even more in 2012. Do you think Czech beer drinkers will return to their favourite brands?
“I’m very optimistic. I suppose that once things start to get better, consumers’ will return to their former habits. But an increase in GDP does not necessarily mean that habits in family consumption will immediately follow. Family budgets will increase much more slowly than the overall figures.”
Would you say that record imports of cheap beer bust the myth of Czechs as a nation of beer experts?
“No, people know. They usually say they know it’s of poor quality but argue they cannot afford anything better.”
Beijing ends agreement with Prague – but can spat harm Czech capital?
Czechia now ahead of Spain in GDP per capita, but still below EU average
Czechs observe day of mourning for pop idol Karel Gott
Thousands pay tribute to deceased national pop icon Karel Gott
In memoriam: Karel Gott, the ‘Bohemian nightingale’


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SAN DIEGO—The Keating Hotel here has just added capability for its visually impaired guests to navigate the property easily through the use of a new app.
When guests with the RightHear app enter the property, it provides them with audio instructions to get to the reception desk: “Right after the entrance door, continue 10 feet; the reception will be to your right…”
The app was created after its co-founders, Idan Meir and Gil Elgrably, came across Apple’s iBeacon technology, which stores information in stationary devices and can be accessed by smartphones when nearby via Bluetooth. “After hearing about this new technology, they started to think about how they can use it to have a bigger impact on the world,” said Sam Levinson, a representative of the company. “After doing some research, they soon discovered that there was no good solution on the market that helps individuals orient themselves in indoor spaces. They immediately knew that the iBeacon technology would be a perfect solution to this problem and started to develop what today is globally known as the RightHear solution.”
Beacons (Bluetooth low-energy sensors) are installed throughout the property that enable playback of voice information in locations where they are installed. They contain a tiny, smart, self-powered sensor that uses Bluetooth technology to detect whenever a user is nearby. They can typically be found near entrances, restrooms, elevators, stairs or any other points of interest in the venues.
The RightHear smartphone application reads the information to the user, allowing them to orient themselves and gives the user the option to call for assistance, if needed. All of the instructions are controlled on an online dashboard interface that is updated by the location’s management.
Adding the RightHear technology to a property is simple, according to the company. The venue needs to be mapped out to pinpoint prime locations where the beacons will be most effectively used. “The way this works is as simple as it sounds,” said Levinson. “We ask the venue to send us a blueprint or map of their venue and our expert mappers create what they believe to be the perfect accessible venue.”
After the number of beacons are chosen, RightHear will install them or the hotel can do it themselves. From there, the beacons are programmed with the information needed using the dashboard interface.
In addition to helping visually impaired guests navigate the hotels, the app’s call-for-assistance button allows the user to call the reception desk and order room service. “Another feature that hotels enjoy is the ability to add support for multiple languages to the beacons,” said Levinson. “This allows for hotels to not only be accessible to disabled individuals, but also to individuals facing language barriers.”
Management at The Keating decided to add the RightHear after Meir and Elgrably stayed at the property. “I was approached by Mr. Meir and his business partner during their stay here at The Keating with their product, and I loved the idea and I loved the concept for The Keating,” said Jeff Owens, operations manager of the hotel. “I was able to roll it out in a couple of months from Mr. Meir’s departure.”
While The Keating is the first hotel in North America to use the app, the platform has been installed in more than 600 locations around the globe, including shopping malls, universities, restaurants, fast-food chains, museums, hospitals, office and municipality buildings, airports, theaters and supermarkets. “Our solution is currently available in several hotels across Israel,” said Levinson. “Some of our hotels include the Inbal Hotel Jerusalem, the InterContinental David Tel Aviv, the Leonardo Inn Dead Sea and the West Lagoon Resort Netanya.”
Feedback from users and venues has been positive. “Our users are both excited and grateful that we are granting them the independence they deserve in venues of all types,” said Levinson. “From grocery shopping to a weekend getaway, our users are now able to complete tasks never imaginable before on their own. Our venues share the same excitement as our users but from the other end—their venues are now available to individuals who previously felt that they were off limits because of their disability.”