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We’re creating a more connected travel industry, underpinned by sustainability and long-term investor relations.
Pierre Louis Chouette
Head of Airline Sales and Account Management, Africa, Amadeus IT Group
I moderated an extremely interesting panel discussion on ‘The use of technology to achieve cost reduction and enhancement of revenues’. During the panel, key members of the African airline industry talked about how success in today’s world requires a strong focus not only on cost efficiencies but also – and particularly – on revenue maximisation. From my vantage point, airline revenue growth is frequently driven by delivering a unique customer experience which differentiates one airline from another and helps build customer loyalty and brand value. At Amadeus, our solutions portfolio is designed to address these primary business objectives.
Zimbabwe’s breath-taking Victoria Falls played host to over 300 airline industry leaders who gathered to discuss the future of the industry at theAFRAA AGA. This year’s edition, held under the theme ‘Managing the Survival and Market Recovery of African Airlines’, focused on the solid growth rates in Africa, that while positive, have yet to meet their full potential.
During the CEOs Roundtable, a pressing question was asked: How can African carriers harness the opportunities inAfricato recapture leadership of African skies? Panellists delved into the specifics of the issues preventing African airlines from sustainable growth and discussed how to overcome the challenges being faced by African airlines. According to the panel, these challenges include inadequate infrastructure, high industry costs, taxes and charges, and lack of adequate government support.
TheYamoussoukro Declaration, calling for the liberalisation of access to air transport markets in Africa, was also a topic of hot discussion. Airline CEOs had a positive overall outlook on adoption of the declaration with 15 countries on board to open Africa’s skies. Attendees agreed that this was just one way for African carriers to regain market share. Other suggestions included, fleet renovation, new visa rules, and improvement to airport infrastructure among others.
There was certainly a call for partnership in the air. A potential African alliance where airlines would join forces to increase their competitiveness was heavily discussed and debated by the CEOs in attendance. One CEO recommended that carriers should rely first on their management to make big decisions like this rather than their respective governments.
Overall, the assembly further reinforced the need for teamwork amongst industry players and the importance of technology in working towards a single African sky.
Have a look at our Fly Africa blog seriesfor insights on the experiences and strategies of our partners in Africa


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Tecno Phantom V Yoga, an allegedly upcoming flagship mannequin from the Chinese language smartphone firm Tecno, has been reportedly noticed on a Chinese language platform. The put up on the web site has tipped a number of specs of the flip smartphone, which is alleged to be powered by a Mediatek Dimensity 8050 SoC. The Tecno Phantom V Yoga has been noticed with mannequin quantity Tecno AD11. Apparently, it additionally homes six rear cameras, together with a 32-megapixel selfie sensor. Tecno has not formally confirmed the specs or the existence of the smartphone.
Twitter consumer Bronya (@Bronya_0916) has shared Photos of the alleged options of the upcoming Tecno Phantom V Yoga, noticed on a Chinese language platform. The smartphone, seen in a lavender shade variant, has the mannequin quantity Tecno AD11. As revealed within the photos, the Tecno Phantom V Yoga might are available an 8GB RAM + 256GB storage variant.
The smartphone from the Chinese language smartphone firm is alleged to deal with seven cameras, which incorporates six rear sensors and one selfie digital camera. The rear setup of the Tecno Phantom V Yoga is anticipated to sport a 50-megapixel 1-inch sensor, a 64-megapixel digital camera, a 32-megapixel lens, an 8-megapixel sensor, a 5-megapixel digital camera and a 2-megapixel digital camera. lenses. In the meantime, for selfies and movies, it’s tipped to get a 32-megapixel entrance digital camera.
Moreover, it could possibly be powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 8050 SoC, and run the most recent HiOS primarily based on Android 13. The Tecno Phantom V Yoga can also be anticipated to get a 4,000mAH battery with 66W tremendous quick charging. It’s tipped to get a 6.75-inch AMOLED display with a 144Hz refresh charge. Nevertheless, it does not. get an exterior show.
Nevertheless, the leaked photos haven’t revealed any data concerning the launch date or the anticipated pricing of the smartphone. Nevertheless, the Twitter consumer has urged that the Tecno Phantom V Yoga is suspected to value round CNY 8900 (practically Rs. 1,05,575). The corporate is but to verify the main points or the existence of the smartphone.

domain: news


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A number of Federal Government departments are unlikely to meet a September deadline set by the Department of Home Affairs to migrate their data from a company that is now totally Chinese owned to a new data centre.
A surprisingly high proportion of MIT's Center for Information Systems Research sponsors are Australian organisations.
Optus is refunding more than $2 million to about 175,000 of its mobile customers after failing to disclose information about its mobile phone insurance.
It is World Consumer Rights Day tomorrow and it has prompted Australia’s consumer watchdog to alert Aussies that they should make sure they understand their consumer rights, particularly when buying and using their mobile phones.
Consumer advocacy group CHOICE wants a toughening up by regulators on credit card fees, calling on them to enforce surcharge limits.
The blocking of 1200 legal websites by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has sparked calls for the federal goverment to reveal who it's censoring, and why.
I would love to know if it has the equivalent of the HP E-print. That was such a great feature[…]
I wonder what ACMA is going to do to help those people who are disadvantaged? Send out inspirational messages to[…]
The link to Vodafone in the article links to the Vodafone group website in the UK, not the Australian site.[…]
Just for a start the removal of copper from the system will mean that the NBN will be a better[…]
Linux is becoming worse than Windows. :-(


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Great lesson here for all travel marketers. Sydney Aquarium turned its struggling business around with a fresh approach to marketing sparked by the arrival of a special attraction – two dugongs. Sydney Attractions GM of Sales and Marketing, Michael McKeon, told the Daily Telegraph that sales were down earlier this year and “we needed to do something. Bringing the dugongs from Queensland was something we instigated quickly.” He said marketing has to evolve to be effective. “It used to be set and forget,” he said. “But now we market things differently. When the two dugongs arrived it was about creating theatre.” Next up is a focus on crocodiles at another of its businesses, Wildlife World – a move certain to give its marketing further bite. Sydney Attractions also owns Sydney Tower and Oceanworld Manly. Parent company is Village Roadshow.
- Sydney, November, 2020 -
Work is under way on Short Term Thinking, the first Australian event focused on short stay accommodation.
It will be an action-packed day where all sectors of the industry can meet, learn and network, setting up their year ahead with new relationships, contacts and prospects.
Space has been blocked for mid-November in Sydney.
While a lot can change between then and now, we're confident we'll be able to run a flesh and blood event with live streaming for those who can't make it.
Because final capacity is understandably uncertain at this point, please register your interest to be put on a non-obligatory wait list and also receive the latest updates.
At the moment we're looking for foundation partners - please call event producer Martin Kelly on 0414 774 978 to find out more.
- IDEAS, ACTIONS, CONTENT -
Travel IQ is a content, marketing, research and strategy consultancy for travel businesses.
It helps travel companies improve positioning, communications, stakeholder engagement and public relations through content-led strategic initiatives.
Typically, Travel IQ develops a multi-tier approach including stories/blog posts, newsletters, media releases, white papers, reports and events - all designed to better connect business with their customers.
Often, clients have neglected their marketing communications, so Travel IQ works with them to create credible positioning and messaging to ensure a solid, relevant platform before embarking on outreach.
Travel IQ is run by Martin Kelly, who has a strong background in travel, journalism, communications and marketing.
He is also a respected travel industry analyst, contributing to Phocuswright's regional research reports while representing them as a speaker at events in Australia and overseas.
For further information please email firstname.lastname@example.org
We’re proud to be a part of Travel Massive - a tourism community that started in Sydney and has grown to more than 40,000 members world-wide in 70 countries.
Connect with TravelTrends on Travel Massive, and join the community so your business can get discovered.
You can find Travel Massive in these Australian cities:
It's a fantastic community - the only one of its kind - isn't it time you joined?


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Bedford Hills teen accused of Mount Kisco burglary
- A Bedford Hills teen is charged with breaking into a Mount Kisco store
- Found with box of Nike sneakers
- Faces charge of third-degree burglary, a felony
MOUNT KISCO – A teenager accused of breaking into a South Moger Avenue store is due in town court Thursday to face a felony charge.
The 16-year-old from Bedford Hills was holding a box of Nike sneakers that belonged to the store at 5 South Moger Ave. when police arrived to investigate a burglar alarm and found the back door unlocked at 5 p.m. Friday, police said.
The teen, whose name was withheld because of his age, was one of four youngsters found in the area, Mount Kisco police said.
He was charged with third-degree burglary and released to his father's custody.


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Plémont: Did the States make the right decision?
Friday 14th December 2012, 8:51AM GMT.
The Plémont headland will not be saved from development after the States voted against using public money to buy the site.
There was just one vote in it with members voting 25-24 against a proposition from Chief Minister Ian Gorst to buy the land, using compulsory purchase if necessary.
We want to know what you think. Did Jersey’s States make the right decision? Cast your vote in our online polll below.


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Marshall Brewing Co. has announced new packaging for its Oktoberfest Lager. The fall seasonal will be available throughout Oklahoma starting Aug. 14 with the new six-pack design.
A ceremonial tapping of the season’s first keg is planned for 5 p.m. Aug. 22 at Fassler Hall, 304 S. Elgin Ave. Marshall Brewing founder and brewmaster Eric Marshall, as well as his staff, will be there to answer questions about the traditional German beer.
The beer is a deep copper-colored lager highlighted by a complex malt flavor, balanced by the bittering of noble German hops with an ABV of 6%.
The new package design prominently features the traditional colors of the Bavarian flag.
“While the packaging is new, the beer remains the same. Since we opened the brewery in 2008, we have been proud to use 100% German-sourced malt, hops and yeast to create our World Class Oktoberfest Lager. Our Oktoberfest Lager is not a craft beer interpretation of a traditional German lager, it is exactly what you would expect to find in a Bavarian biergarten,” explained sales and marketing director Wes Alexander.
In 2007, German-trained brewmaster Marshall returned to Tulsa to found Marshall Brewing Co. Opening in 2008, Marshall Brewing Co., has grown into a full-production craft brewery, taproom and Biergarten at 618 S. Wheeling Ave.


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A federal judge in Texas ruled that the national ban on evictions is unconstitutional. Advocates warn of a spike in evictions.
- Robinhood and Coinbase top Apple App Store
- Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Simon Property, Cisco, Sunrun & more
- New $3,000 child tax credit payments set to start in July. Here’s what to know
- Fed’s Waller says the economy is ‘ready to rip’ but policy should stay put
- Betterment sees record growth, as GameStop frenzy ‘shines a light’ on investing


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It would seem even early collaborators on the project don’t have verifiable proof of Satoshi’s identity. To reveal conclusively who Satoshi Nakamoto is, a definitive link would need to be made between his/her activity with Bitcoin and his/her identity. That could come in the form of linking the party behind the domain registration of bitcoin.org, email and forum accounts used by Satoshi Nakamoto, or ownership of some portion of the earliest mined bitcoins. Even though the bitcoins Satoshi likely possesses are traceable on the blockchain, it seems he/she has yet to cash them out in a way that reveals his/her identity. If Satoshi were to move his/her bitcoins to an exchange today, this might attract attention, but it seems unlikely that a well-funded and successful exchange would betray a customer's privacy.
Bitcoin prices saw tremendous activity during 2017, rising several thousand percent over the year. The market has seen some volatility, although many of the dips seen in the cryptocurrency have thus far proven to be good buying opportunities. This trend may or may not continue, but given the outlook for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, the trend could potentially remain higher for a long time to come.
Miners found other advantages. The cool winters and dry air helped reduce the need for costly air conditioning to prevent their churning servers from overheating. As a bonus, the region was already equipped with some of the nation’s fastest high-speed internet, thanks to the massive fiber backbone the data centers had installed. All in all, recalls Miehe, the basin was bitcoin’s “killer app.”
The domain name "bitcoin.org" was registered on 18 August 2008. In November 2008, a link to a paper authored by Satoshi Nakamoto titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System was posted to a cryptography mailing list. Nakamoto implemented the bitcoin software as open source code and released it in January 2009. Nakamoto's identity remains unknown.


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Almost 12 months after first confirming it had received interest in a possible takeover, Sainsbury’s has said it will not sell its banking arm.
The supermarket giant had been in advanced talks back in August to sell the division for £200million to American private equity firm Centerbridge Partners, according to reports by Sky News.
However, it has concluded that a sale of its financial services arm would not provide ‘better value’ for investors than if it was kept under its control and so has ended all discussions.
No sell-off: Sainsbury’s concluded that a sale of its financial services arm would not provide ‘better value’ for investors than if it was kept under its control
Reports first circulated in late October last year, also from Sky, that Sainsbury’s was looking to offload the division, which has about two million customers who use a wide range of services, including car loans, insurance, and savings accounts.
Soon afterwards, NatWest Group was mentioned as a potential new owner in what would have been its first major acquisition since taxpayers bailed out the financial services firm during the 2008-09 global financial crisis.
That came as the coronavirus pandemic was causing a troubling time for Sainsbury’s Bank, which plunged from a £48million profit in the 2019-20 financial year to a £21million loss the following year.
Demand for its financial products, such as credit cards and personal loans, dwindled as Britons tightened their belts, while overseas travel restrictions badly affected travel money purchases.
But even before the recent global health crisis, low interest rates severely threatened the group’s profitability, and the supermarket stopped putting more capital into its banking division.
It also decided to exit the low-margin and highly competitive mortgage market in order to focus on less capital-intensive services such as insurance and credit cards.
Speculation: Sainsbury’s started to be increasingly touted as a private equity takeover target just as a bidding war was being waged for Bradford-based supermarket Morrisons
‘We continue to make progress strengthening and simplifying our financial services business in line with our strategy,’ the FTSE 100 business stated today.
The grocery chain itself started to be increasingly touted as a private equity takeover target just as a bidding war was being waged for supermarket giant Morrisons.
Morrisons shareholders overwhelmingly agreed this week to accept a 287p-per-share offer from Clayton, Dubillier & Rice, beating out bids from a consortium led by Fortress Investment and including Apollo Global Management.
In late August, the Sunday Times reported that New York-based Apollo Global Management was taking an ‘exploratory’ look at Sainsbury’s after failed approaches to buy Asda and Morrisons.
Shares in Sainsbury’s skyrocketed soon after the story broke, having already grown steadily for over a year, particularly since Czech billionaire investor Daniel Kretinsky expanded his stake in the business to nearly 10 per cent.
Loss making: Despite growing customer sales, Sainsbury’s made a massive loss in the last fiscal year due partly to the high costs of Covid safety measures
The rising share price has caused havoc for some major short-sellers, including hedge fund Third Point, which closed its whole ‘short’ position on Sainsbury’s soon after the Apollo takeover rumours started.
Though Sainsbury’s has never confirmed whether it has been in discussions about being bought, it has hired boutique advisory Robey Warshaw to help prepare it for such an eventuality.
‘A more streamlined Sainsbury’s might have made more sense as a bid target, and there has been significant speculation on this front since the takeover of rival grocer Morrisons,’ remarked Danni Hewson, a financial analyst at AJ Bell.
Sainsbury’s has seen very strong sales levels during the pandemic as grocery stores were allowed to stay open because of their essential status, though the chain also recorded a massive surge in customers making online orders.
But in the last fiscal year, the group registered a massive loss due to the high costs of Covid safety measures, more than £400million in one-off restructuring costs from closing hundreds of Argos stores, and a large writedown on the value of its stores and its banking division.
Shares in Sainsbury’s closed trading 0.9 per cent lower at 293.6p on Friday.


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This is more by way of a bulletin from the field, as this week's travels are a challenge to daily posts.
That said, this is interesting.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the awaited "return of the first-time buyer" to the housing market is coming to pass. Here's a few flashes we've picked up, in Las Vegas and San Francisco.
- First-time buyer demand has picked up significantly in the Las Vegas market, according to a number of executives we heard from there. A fits-and-starts mode, where strength in one segment gains for a burst, while another segment slows down, has in very recent weeks shed light on momentum in the lower price tiers, among first-timers. Meanwhile, builders have detected a slowing in demand for their higher-end offerings in the market.
- D.R. Horton's torrid roll-out of its Express brand of entry-level homes has now expanded to 44 markets in 14 states. We're hearing that Horton divisions nationwide are undergoing a re-tool as on-the-ground operations reduce and streamline plans around only very slight regionalizations of the basic Express model line, and work hard at driving the per home gross margins toward D.R. Horton's expected high-teens level of performance.
- Remember now, Horton is on pace to delivering on a promise to stakeholders that it would grow its volume in 2015 by 27%, or 8,000 homes, to a total northward of 36,000 homes. The rough-math of about one-in-five deliveries being against the Express line would mean 7,200 of the entry-level brand. That's at current run-rates, not even reflecting its planned growth as part of the Horton mix. That figure is bigger than 90% of the other home builders in the country. In commentary on its third quarter, D.R. Horton vp for investor relations Jessica Hansen noted this:
Our Express homes brand, which is targeted at the true entry-level buyer, focused primarily on affordability, is currently being offered in 44 markets and 14 states with the significant majority of our Express sales and closings to-date coming from Texas, Florida, and the Carolina. This quarter Express accounted for 19% of our homes sold, 16% of homes closed and 10% of home sales revenue. The average closing price in an Express Home in the third quarter was $188,000.
Hansen further commented that the "depth of market" that Horton is seeing in traffic and its model homes is strong for the entry-level, and that just-under-700 FICO scores are adding up to plenty of qualified buyers.
Could it be that--now that the credit box as begun to open and banks are making mortgages more widely available--that the first-time buyer market will activate in a big way?
It's hard to say, but more likely, this "watching-paint-dry" recovery will continue to show volatility, feints and dodges, and choppiness across time, particularly as jobs and wage baselines reset around widespread structural economic changes in industries.
Here's a note from RealtyTrac Daren Blomquist on trends in age and homeownership. Looks like those Millennials are trying to say something here.


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Concept Interactive has designed a range of four CD-ROM cards using the Mr Men and Little Miss characters. On sale next month, the blank greetings cards with activity CD-ROM feature Little Miss Naughty, Mr Happy, Mr Noisy and Mr Tickle.
Children’s book illustration student Viola Wang has scooped this year’s top prize, beating over 80 other entrants.
As the production designer works on last-minute preparations for the Brits, we speak to her about creating sets for the likes of Coldplay and One Direction, mastering the skill of
New research has found that while 30,000 students graduated from design courses between 2012-2013 and 2015-2016, only a quarter ended up going into “highly skilled” design jobs.
We Launch has redesigned the branding to “change the stigma” associated with the sports, which have now been brought together under one organisation.


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Posted Mon May 3, 2010 at 10:00 AM PDT by Tom Landy
Thomas Haden Church stars in and executive produces this edgy independent thriller taking its Blu-ray bow this June.
In an early announcement to retailers, Image Entertainment is working on 'Don McKay' starring Thomas Haden Church, Elisabeth Shue, Melissa Leo, M. Emmet Walsh, and Keith David for Blu-ray on June 29.
The film had a limited theatrical release this year and debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival 2009.
The Blu-ray will feature 1080p video, a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack, and supplements will include: Feature commentary with director Jake Goldberger and producer Jim Young, deleted scenes, and a trailer.
Suggested list price for the Blu-ray is $35.98.
You can find the latest specs for 'Don McKay' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where it's indexed under June 29.
The latest news on all things 4K Ultra HD, blu-ray and Gear.


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The two founders of Rocksteady Studios, Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker, have set up a brand new company.
As spotted by Polygon, the duo has established Hundred Star Games in London. Information from Companies House shows that the firm was founded in February 2023, while the outfit's website went live in October. The website says that the studio is going to be working on triple-A titles, and also makes reference to "100 People", perhaps suggesting that it isn't planning to expand massively.
At the moment, Hundred Star has hired around 25 people, according to Great Place to Work. The studio is registered with that organisation for 12 months, starting in December 2023.
"With innovation at our core, we're dedicated to pushing boundaries, embracing diversity, and fostering a vibrant gaming community," the firm's blurb on that site said.
"Our empowering company culture is unique to the industry which encourages leadership at all levels, accountability, team support, vulnerability, and connection."


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Digital currency exchange Bitfinex has fallen victim—again—to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack, just as bitcoin continues its unrelenting rally to set a new all-time high.
Clients of the Hong Kong-based exchange received an email on Tuesday, informing them of the disruption. In the email, the company said customers can still access the platform, but they have to submit themselves to a check by DDoS protection service Cloudfare.
“We have taken steps to identify and block the attack. The system is returning to normal,” the digital currency exchange said in its email.
Six months ago, Bitfinex was forced to stop trading, withdrawals and deposits in all digital currencies including ethereum after it discovered a security breach in the system, which resulted in some 119,756 bitcoins—worth more than $61 million at the time—missing from its users’ accounts. What caused the breach remained unclear, but the hackers appeared to have bypassed the bitcoin exchange’s mandated limits on withdrawals.
To “generalize losses across all accounts,” the bitcoin exchange replaced a portion of all Bitfinex users’ accounts with the BFX token, which will remain outstanding until they are repaid in full by the digital currency exchange. The token was given without release or waiver and was transferable on the blockchain. To reimburse its clients, Bitfinex teamed up with UK investment platform BnkToTheFuture for a special purpose vehicle that will allow clients to redeem their BFX tokens for equity in iFinex Inc., at a value of $1 per BFX.
Bitcoin’s price surges above $1,100
The timing of the DDoS attack came just as bitcoin is enjoying its longest-ever stretch above $1,000.
Overall, the price of the popular digital currency has been trading upwards of $1,000 since February 14. On Thursday, bitcoin prices surpassed $1,100 to reach a six-week high. As of Wednesday morning, bitcoin was trading at $1,117.04 on Luxembourg-based exchange, Bitstamp.


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Investors have lost their appetite for the initial public offering of meal-kit delivery company Blue Apron, fearing the emergence of Amazon.com as a competitor with its acquisition of Whole Foods.
Late Wednesday, New York-based Blue Apron Holdings APRN, +4.47% priced its shares ahead of its initial public offering at $10 a share, at the low end of the price range, and giving it a total valuation of $1.9 billion, below its most recent valuation of $2 billion at its last funding round. Blue Apron joins the growing number of “unicorn” companies going public at valuations below their most recent private valuations.
The company had already warned investors of a haircut in its pricing in a regulatory document early Wednesday, in which it said its shares would price in a range of $10 to $11 a share, a drop from previous expectations of $15 to $17 a share. Its shares will begin trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange and the company raised about $300 million.
“I think the Blue Apron lower valuation is due to increased concerns about Amazon and Whole Foods and a lot of anxieties about the retention of the Blue Apron customer base,” said Eric Kim, a co-founder of Goodwater Capital, a venture capital firm with many consumer focused investments.
Read also: Why Blue Apron’s valuation just got slashed.
Two weeks ago, Amazon AMZN, +0.45% surprised investors with a deal to buy Whole Foods Markets US:WFM for $13.7 billion, fueling speculation ranging from whether a food delivery company would be next or if a bidding war would ensue. But additionally, the impact of the deal has lead to further analysis of the economics of other food-related companies, such as Blue Apron. Whole Foods already offers prepared meals, and combined with Amazon’s delivery focus, it could become a ferocious competitor to Blue Apron. The companies share the same type of customer: urban, affluent and environmentally conscious.
“So the ingredients are there, but if this market continues to pick up steam, it wouldn’t surprise us if Amazon more aggressively entered the market,” Kim said.
Blue Apron is also, as previously reported, spending heavily to retain its customers, with marketing costs growing at a faster rate than its revenue, which grew 42% in the most recent quarter. In a report he wrote ahead of Blue Apron’s IPO, Kim included data from Goodwater’s survey of 2,600 U.S. consumers, 91% of whom said they expected to increase usage of Amazon, while only 7% expected to use Amazon less. In contrast, 42% said they would use Blue Apron more, while 44% planned to decrease their usage of the service.
“Even before the Whole Foods and Amazon merger, we found that the same amount of people who would likely to increase their usage of Blue Apron were also likely to decrease their usage,” he said.
At a $1.9 billion valuation, the company will be trading at a higher multiple than regular grocery companies, but below the average e-commerce company. It will be the first e-commerce company to go public since Etsy Inc. ETSY, -1.04% in 2015. Kim noted that Blue Apron’s valuation is about 1.5 times its 2017 sales, a steep discount to e-commerce companies, which on average are trading at about three times 2017 sales.
“You have to show both growth and strong margins,” he said. “What investors are concerned about are its growth and its margin structure. ...For other tech companies, it just highlights that dynamic, you need to have both to be successful in the public markets.”
Investors may still see Blue Apron’s shares fare better in the market, when they actually trade Thursday, because the lower price may set the stock up for a potential first-day pop. But the company did not raise as much money as it initially hoped and it could face a serious fight for its customers, especially if Amazon really decides to focus on meal delivery.
Amazon shares have gained 32% in 2017 so far, while the S&P 500 SPX, +0.68% has gained 9%.


text: Samsung might have good reason for suggesting that midrange phones could help it escape its profit slump. Canalys estimated that Samsung was thriving in Europe in the second quarter of 2019 thanks partly to its midrange phones, surging to 40.6 percent share versus 33.9 percent a year ago. That's 18.3 million phones in total. It had three of the top five shipping phones, all of which were more affordable A-series models like the Galaxy A50 (which represented about 3.2 million units by itself). Flagships like the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note might have been the stars of the show, but it was the lower-cost models that really got people into stores.


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A downtown Antigonish anchor is being hoisted.
Oak Manor Men’s Wear will be gradually sailing off into the sunset this summer as owner Donnie MacEachern has decided, after a lifetime of helping customers look their best, it’s time to retire.
“I purchased the store in 1963 – an estate sale,” MacEachern told the Casket June 12 from his small office in the back of the store, which sits, prominently and appropriately, at the corner of Main and College streets, in the heart of the downtown.
In 1963 … there must have been some significant changes since then?
“Just as it is,” MacEachern said to that inquiry. “Nothing, no big changes over the years.”
Stepping into the store, even just before, an immediate sense of its history washes over. And that traditional look and feel is in perfect juxtaposition to the clothing found within – the latest in fashions and popular name brands.
“The people,” MacEachern said without hesitation, when asked what he’ll miss most.
“The customers, the camaraderie, the travelers who I have met over the years … and just working,” he said.
The camaraderie, he notes, spreads beyond the customers who come in to Oak Manor to include his Main Street neighbours over the years. MacEachern said it’s unfortunate those years have seen fewer and fewer actual retail businesses in Antigonish’s downtown.
“You would like to have a variety for people,” he said. “We have people from outside of town who would always come in to shop.”
When asked about how the community has been for him and the business during its many years, MacEachern says succinctly, “It’s quite obvious … very well.”
FROM THE STORE'S WEBSITE
‘Where quality still counts’
Years of tradition with a modern twist defines Oak Manor Men’s Wear’s mantra.
Family owned and operated since 1963, Oak Manor Men’s Wear offers stylish and sophisticated clothing. Oak Manor Men’s Wear has anchored Antigonish’s vibrant downtown, and it will become your “go-to” spot for all your clothing needs.
The mission of Oak Manor Men’s Wear is simply two things: to provide excellent customer service and to provide high quality products. When entering into Oak Manor, it is like stepping through a time capsule when customer service was still important. Customers will not be inundated by nameless faces, but will be helped by family employees that are knowledgeable on all clothing inventory.
Oak Manor Men’s Wear is an iconic symbol for fine men’s clothing in Atlantic Canada. It offers quality products for both men and women. Oak Manor’s all-luxe inventory includes; Lacoste, Michael Kors, The North Face, Bugatchi, Samuelsohn and Jack Victor.
It carries everything from made-to-measure suits to rugged outdoor-wear.
Oak Manor Men’s Wear is the place where quality still counts.


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The National Insurance Crime Bureau, which fights insurance fraud, has discovered a method for thieves to steal vehicles from a significant number of automakers. Using a so-called “mystery device,” a nefarious person could capture the code from the key fob and gain access to the automobile. Modern push-button-start systems would then allow the criminal to drive away.
The NICB obtained one of these devices from “a third-party security expert from an overseas company.” It consists of two parts. One portion detects the key fob’s code, and needs to be within a close distance of it to work. The other half broadcasts the data back at the vehicle. The gadgets are supposed to be for automakers and security experts to check the vulnerability of the locking system.
The NICB tested the device on 35 new and used vehicles from various automakers. In 19 cases, the investigators were able to unlock the model, and they were able to drive away 18 of those examples. In 12 instances, the researchers were able to shut off the engine and restart it. The bureau's evaluation found that four 2017 Chevrolet vehicles were immune from this hack.
However, the group admitted that this test was not scientific. There are other versions of these devices that could be even more effective or work on different vehicles.
A separate group of researchers found that a similar hack worked on around 100 million Volkswagen Group vehicles. The group discovered company used just four cryptographic keys for its fobs.
“We’ve now seen for ourselves that these devices work,” NICB President Joe Wehrle said in the group's announcement. “Maybe they don’t work on all makes and models, but certainly on enough that car thieves can target and steal them with relative ease."
The only way to prevent these thefts on existing vehicles is to keep criminals from getting your key fob’s code. To avoid being a victim, the NICB recommends common-sense tactics. For example, people should hide valuables in their automobile and keep an eye out for anyone suspicious.
Source: The National Insurance Crime Bureau
National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) Reveals Mystery Device
That Opens and Starts Vehicles
DES PLAINES, Ill., Dec. 7, 2016 – The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) says new technology is being used to not only unlock and open vehicles, but to also start and steal them.
NICB recently obtained one of the so-called “mystery devices” that the public was first warned about over two years ago (release). At the time, thieves were being seen on security cameras across the country, using unknown devices to unlock vehicles and steal valuables inside. In recent months, NICB has noted reports of thieves not only opening the vehicles, but also starting them and driving away.
The device obtained by NICB was purchased via a third-party security expert from an overseas company. It was developed by engineers in an effort to provide manufacturers and other anti-theft organizations the ability to test the vulnerability of various vehicles’ systems. Called a “Relay Attack” unit, this particular model only works on cars and trucks that use a keyless remote and a push-button ignition.
In a series of unscientific tests at different locations over a two-week period, 35 different makes and models of cars, SUVs, minivans and a pickup truck were tested. We partnered with NICB member company CarMax, because they are the nation's largest used car retailer and have nearly every make and model in their inventory. Tests were also done at a new car dealership, an independent used car dealer, at an auto auction and on NICB employee vehicles and ones owned by private individuals.
The vehicles were tested to see if the device could:
open the door
start the vehicle
drive it away
turn off and restart the engine without the original fob present
The NICB was able to open 19 (54 percent) of the vehicles and start and drive away 18 (51 percent) of them. Of the 18 that were started, after driving them away and turning off the ignition, the device was used to restart 12 (34 percent) of the vehicles.
NICB says there are a number of different devices believed to be offered for sale to thieves. Some use different technology and may work on different makes and models and ignition systems. More expensive models may have a greater range and better capabilities for opening and starting a vehicle.
Click to see the video report.
“We’ve now seen for ourselves that these devices work,” said NICB President and CEO Joe Wehrle. “Maybe they don’t work on all makes and models, but certainly on enough that car thieves can target and steal them with relative ease. And the scary part is that there’s no warning or explanation for the owner. Unless someone catches the crime on a security camera, there’s no way for the owner or the police to really know what happened. Many times, they think the vehicle has been towed.”
Wehrle says it’s important for law enforcement officers to be aware of this threat and be on the lookout for thieves who may be using the technology.
According to NICB’s Chief Operating Officer Jim Schweitzer, who oversees all NICB investigations, vehicle manufacturers must continue their efforts to counter the attacks on anti-theft technology.
“Vehicles are a valuable commodity and thieves will continue to wage a tug of war with the manufacturers to find a way to steal them,” said Schweitzer. “Anti-theft technology has been a major factor in reducing the number of thefts over the past 25 years. The manufacturers have made tremendous strides with their technology, but now they have to adapt and develop countermeasures as threats like this surface.”
While there may not be an effective way of preventing this kind of theft at this time, NICB advises drivers to always lock their vehicles and take the remote fob or keys with them. Drivers should also be on the lookout for suspicious persons or activity and alert law enforcement rather than confronting a possible thief.
It’s also a good idea to never invite a break-in by leaving valuables in plain sight. And once thieves get inside, they can easily steal a garage door opener and valuable papers such as the vehicle registration that could lead them to your home. So take the garage door opener with you and take a picture of your registration on your cell phone rather than keeping it in the glove compartment.
Anyone with information concerning insurance fraud or vehicle theft can report it anonymously by calling toll-free 800-TEL-NICB (800-835-6422), texting keyword “fraud” to TIP411 (847411) or submitting a form on our website. Or, download the NICB Fraud Tips app on your iPhone or Android device.
About the National Insurance Crime Bureau: Headquartered in Des Plaines, Ill., the NICB is the nation's leading not-for-profit organization exclusively dedicated to preventing, detecting and defeating insurance fraud and vehicle theft through data analytics, investigations, training, legislative advocacy and public awareness. The NICB is supported by more than 1,100 property and casualty insurance companies and self-insured organizations. NICB member companies wrote over $413 billion in insurance premiums in 2015, or more than 79 percent of the nation's property/casualty insurance. That includes more than 94 percent ($187 billion) of the nation's personal auto insurance. To learn more visit www.nicb.org.


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Netflix is coming up with a new rating system – now you rate titles with 2 thumbs. On Monday, the OTT streaming giant announced that it will offer a third thumbs-based option to rate movies, TV shows, reality shows, and documentaries that you loved. Usually, there are two options to rate titles – Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down, but now with this 3rd option people will be able to express their opinion even better.
If one thumbs up mean you liked the title, 2 thumbs up will mean you loved the title. Netflix has already started to roll out this feature for TV, Android, Web, and iOS.
Why Netflix is introducing Two Thumbs Up?
In a blog post on Monday, Netflix’s director Christine Doig-Cardet added: “Consider Two Thumbs Up as a way to fine-tune your recommendations. A Thumbs Up still lets us know what you liked, so we use this response to make similar recommendations. But a Two Thumbs Up tells us what you loved and helps us get even more specific with your recommendations.”
It takes us back to the question about what is the value of Two Thumbs down? Doig Cardet in an interview with Gadgets 360 said that it will be a step towards providing better recommendations to the users and there’s no ‘predetermined weight’.
5 years back Netflix had the 5-star rating system which Netflix changed into only Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down and now it has bought the double thumbs-up option which looks like the previous rating system, yet is presented differently.
For more breaking news, click here.


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Tinder features a track record as a hook-up app, exactly what about those who wish to get a hold of lasting interactions? Whenever they appear in other places, inquiring friends to put all of them right up or striking upwards talk at a bar as opposed to going online? How can Tinder actually compare to people who meet with the traditional means â in real world?
New research (accredited and released by Tinder) indicates that unlike stereotypes, many people utilize Tinder making use of the intention of finding a relationship. As well as people who prefer the actuality strategy, just who proclaim it to be a lot more real or natural, it seems this isn’t the reality, often.
Owing to Tinder, we could possibly already have a glimpse of just what daters want.
The study in comparison the choices of their users with that from offline daters (those who are perhaps not presently online dating sites and people who have never attempted), and discovered that Tinder customers happened to be very likely to keep an eye out for connections, not granny hookups.
According to research by the document, just 9% of men on Tinder claim that sustaining a committed connection is difficult, compared to an astonishing 30percent of traditional daters. Additionally, merely 9percent of Tinder consumers say it is sometimes complicated to commit because there are numerous possibilities, versus 42per cent of offline daters whom state alike.
As it turns out, Tinder users are not averse to revealing their particular emotions when it comes to love often. Indeed, these are typically a little more likely than traditional daters to fall crazy and wish to proclaim it. The survey found that 35percent of on the web daters say “Everyone loves you” within the basic three months to be in a relationship, in comparison to 30percent of off-line daters.
The research found an especially fascinating statistic that seems to go against many online dating assumptions. When you look at the chronilogical age of unwanted messages and photos, a regular problem of females would be that a lot of men are giving unwelcome sexts, and it’s really a large turnoff. Shockingly, Tinder found this presumption about males to get false, with gents and ladies both admitting to sending unwanted sexts in equivalent quantities â 50percent of that time each.
As soon as you are considering politics, there can be a small distinction between online and traditional daters. On line daters are much less ready to damage; 71percent consider opposing governmental views a deal breaker, versus offline daters at 66%.
The studies happened to be commissioned by Tinder, but executed by Morar asking. Jessica Carbino, Tinder’s sociologist just who analyzed the findings said: “The practical view will most likely not offer exactly what the business wants,” she mentioned, “however its my duty to take action and provide data that is precise.”
Morar Consulting administered a survey via the app to 7,072 Tinder customers, ages 18 to 36, and a second survey of 2,502 traditional daters, ages 18 to 35.
For more on this solution look for our very own Tinder application overview.


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Over the next couple of decades, rural North America will undergo a drastic change.
That will continue a trend that already has been underway for years. Cities are spreading into the countryside, and of course that is affecting rural life.
In North America and in Europe too, the economy depended on “foundation industries,” agriculture, mining, and manufacturing. All three have been transformed by events. That has had a profound effect on rural North America.
Manufacturing here has been a feature of cities, but gradually it became scattered over rural communities; hundreds of thousands still work in manufacturing and related industries, still more than in farming.
Now, many of the small textile mills and machine shops are closed. Their workers, less persevering and more expensive and less hard working than agriculture workers, are seldom trained or educated to take up anything else.
This might have been less onerous if farming still could utilize these workers. It is not surprising then that ghost towns in Ontario, Manitoba and in parts of the Maritimes, now haunt the landscape.
The present miseries of some farmers may have been exaggerated. A significant percentage of farmers have gone out of business. Creditors, both public and private, turned them away from farming. The recent upturn in crop prices has entailed a surge in farmland prices, but that has deterred young people from starting out as farmers.
In the l970s and l98Os small towns attracted many “back to landers” but that has ended. It became apparent that people there had to work, perhaps at retail establishments, commuting to nearby more populous centres. Now cities are growing at the expense of these trends as the exodus from full-time farming continues.
Does this mean an inexorable exodus from rural areas? Not necessarily.
Metropolitan areas are growing outwards, blurring the rural-urban distinction. While many have moved back to city centres, they no longer are the fastest growing areas; nor are the suburbs, or even the outer suburbs.
The most rapid rise has taken place in “exerbs,” districts that are effectively in the countryside. Yuppies and the internet have become omnipresent. They still may play at farming, but they have transformed rural areas and will continue to do so.
Technology means that rural life is being altered beyond recognition, leading to an economic and political revolution.


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Social Media Bids Farewell to BlackBerry Smartphones as Company Finally Pulls Plug on Operating System
BlackBerry, which once dominated the cell phone market with its full keyboard and BBM instant messaging service, pulled the plug on service to any remaining devices on Tuesday, officially bringing the BlackBerry smartphone era to an end. Photo: Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press
BlackBerry Ltd is pulling the plug on service for its once ubiquitous business smartphones, which were toted by executives, politicians and legions of fans in the early 2000s.
The move marks the end of an era as the phones, which sported a tiny QWERTY physical keyboard, pioneered push email and the BBM instant messaging service.
Former U.S. President Barack Obama, one of its most celebrated users, made headlines in 2016 when he was asked to give up his BlackBerry and replace it with an unnamed smartphone.
BlackBerry lost favour with users with the advent of Apple’s touchscreen iPhones and rival Android devices. In recent years, the company pivoted to making cybersecurity software and embedded operating systems for cars.
Social media was alight with tributes. One Twitter user reminisced it was a “fabulous machine” and hoped the company’s phones would be resurrected.
In a document published in 2020, the company said it would take steps to decommission legacy services for BlackBerry 10 and BlackBerry OS operating systems and added devices running on them would no longer be supported and may not be able to receive or send data, make phone calls or send messages reliably.
A U.S. judge on Monday rejected the company’s bid to dismiss a lawsuit claiming it defrauded shareholders by inflating the success and profitability of smartphones using BlackBerry 10 OS, and said the class-action case could go to trial this fall.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram and Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
Social Media Pays Tribute
With the BlackBerry smartphone era officially coming to a close on Tuesday, fans took to social media to bid a final farewell to the outmoded devices.


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FACT: The proposed new EU copyright rules will harm Europe’s open source community.
Mandatory upload filters and copyright licensing provisions in article 13 of the proposed EU copyright law are unworkable for open source software firms like Mozilla and the open source ecosystem generally. The obligations cover all forms of copyright-protected content, including software. Indeed, the cost and legal risk associated with these new rules would push smaller open source software developers out of Europe and threaten the code-sharing platforms (e.g. GitHub) on which they depend to innovate. The fluid nature of technology and software development means that any carve-outs — say for software development platforms — would still risk creating a risk-laden environment.
FACT: The proposed new copyright rules will negatively affect everyday user’s internet experiences.
When internet users want to share a witty meme online, or a home movie in which background music is audible, or even a photo of themselves wearing a t-shirt with an album cover printed on it, they may well find that their favourite online service blocks the content upload. Internet services of all sizes will be forced to implement automatic filtering technology, likely suppressing anything that looks like it might be infringing copyright, irrespective of whether the user has a right or permission to use the content. Given the crucial role the internet plays in citizens’ everyday lives, the impact on creativity, communication, and free expression from such blanket filtering would be palpable.
FACT: The proposed new copyright rules will lead to direct surveillance of users’ activities online.
Article 13 demands that online services build or buy specific technology to monitor and categorise each and every user upload. At a time when the EU is showing global leadership on privacy and data protection, it is deeply regrettable that lawmakers are nonetheless seeking to codify a regime that would compel service providers to monitor European internet users’ activity with even more vigour.
FACT: The proposed new copyright rules will negatively impact independent creators.
Article 13 will be used to restrict the freedom of expression and creative potential of independent artists who depend upon online services to directly reach their audience and bypass the rigidities and limitations of the commercial content industry.
Sadly, the fight over this legislation has been construed as giant rightsholders versus giant online platforms. But in reality, the true victims will be creators and fans themselves. There’s a bitter irony at play: the directors, actors, songwriters, and artists who benefit from the viral sharing of their creations are now pitted against their fans, who in fact do some of the most efficient online marketing artists can hope for.
FACT: Smaller online services – and not giant platforms – will be hit hardest by the new rules
In addition to its impact on user experience, this law will have another, more insidious impact: it will further entrench the power of the biggest online platforms. Only a handful of the largest tech companies have the technical and financial means to operate the sprawling filtering systems that this law demands. Ironically, the companies at which this law is aimed are already filtering content — and so will have a competitive advantage vis-a-vis their smaller rivals and startups, who will need to invest heavily to comply with the law. In addition, the biggest platforms also have the resources and clout to mount legal defences when larger corporate rightsholders seek to suppress legal content. This is not an option for smaller players who will face a high-stakes game of legal risk.
This piece first appeared on Mozilla’s blog here


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Samsung is all set to launch the next Galaxy S23 series on February 1. Recent reports have already floated about the specifications and design of the Galaxy S23 lineup. Now the price of the US units of the Galaxy S23 Series has been leaked ahead of the official debut.
A recent post shared on Reddit confirmed the pricing of the Galaxy S23 series in the US. The Samsung Galaxy S23 price will start from $799.99 in the US for the 8GB/128GB configuration. The Samsung Galaxy S23 Plus price will start from $999.99 in the US for the 8GB/256GB configuration.
The Galaxy S23 will be offered with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, while the Galaxy S23 Plus will also come with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. Lastly, the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra price could start from $1,199.99 for the base 8GB/256GB configuration.
Commenting on the upcoming launch, Dr TM Roh, President & Head of MX Business, Samsung Electronics, said, “There’s no better example of Samsung delivering on this vision than the Galaxy S series. This year, Galaxy S series has extended our innovation heritage by doubling down on our fundamentals.”


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The Latest From the Oregon Truffle Festival
Register Guard.com: Truffle Trailblazers
Vineyard owners think beyond wine in planting trees primed for producing cultivated European varieties. Maneuvering up the long driveway into Pfeiffer Winery in Junction City on a recent spring morning, there is a moment of indecision as to which direction to take at a fork in the gravel road. Bear right to continue on up to the tasting room, and acres of pinot noir vines stretch beyond — just what you would expect at a vineyard.
Read full article.


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In news that continues to emerge tonight, it appears as if Activision is to close the doors of UK developer Bizarre Creations. Around 200 jobs could be lost in the process.
Bizarre is best known for creating Microsoft’s successful Project Gotham Racing series, though its gaming heritage began far earlier; firstly with its Formula One games on PlayStation and later with Dreamcast hit Metropolis Street Racer – the forbearer of the Gotham brand. Its Xbox Live Arcade hit Geometry Wars remains a firm favourite with many fans.
The subsequent years had been less successful for the firm, with innovative shooter The Club faring well with critics but proving a flop at retail. It has made two titles since joining the Activision camp – PS3 and Xbox 360 racer Blur and recent James Bond outing 007: Blood Stone. Neither sold as expected.
Activision acquired the studio in late 2007.
For the time the publisher has not confirmed the closure, with conflicting reports continuing to emerge. Some claim that staff have already been lost, others that Activision is to put the studio up for sale.
For updates as they happen keep an eye on sister site Develop.


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Almost one month ago, Microsoft made the Office 2016 preview available for Windows. And today marks the release of the preview for Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite.
As you may have gathered, Office 2016 will be the next version of Microsoft’s cash cow, and it’s expected to be out in the second half of this year. In the meantime, though, the Redmond software giant is working on it. Read more »
Today Google has released the latest version of Gmail for iOS. Gmail 4.0 comes with a few new features, chief among which is the support for quick actions in notifications. So now when you get a notification about an email, you can archive or reply straight from the notification.
As this functionality is made possible by iOS 8, it will only be available to you if you’re on that version of Apple’s mobile operating system (or its later updates, of course). Read more »
Slingshot, Facebook’s answer to the very popular Snapchat, has today added a couple of new features. On both its iOS and Android apps, you now have a brand new Explore view.
This surfaces “funny, inspiring and creative people from across the globe”. It’s basically a list of popular people who are active on Slingshot. And you can immediately follow those who you consider to be interesting. Read more »
Samsung has decided to create its own hands-on videos for the recently announced Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge. These include an ‘official unboxing’, in which the Korean company reveals the packaging of the handsets.
The new boxes can be seen in the image above, and they’re certainly simple and understated. Samsung’s ‘official hands-on’ videos each focus on one aspect of the two new smartphones. Read more »
A new rumor out of France claims Google is currently working on releasing the Android Wear app for Apple’s mobile platform. As you might have imagined, this would enable smartwatches running Android Wear to work with iPhones and iPads.
As this is nothing but an unconfirmed rumor at this point, the usual pinch of salt is advised. The new app for iOS could be launched during Google’s I/O developer conference in May, but it might get officially teased even sooner – so as to make (at least some) people think twice about buying an Apple Watch. Read more »
AT&T is announcing that it will release the Modio LTE case for iPad Mini models on March 20. This is an intriguing concept – it’s a case that will bring LTE connectivity to Wi-Fi-only small iPads. It will work with the iPad Mini 3, iPad Mini 2, and the original iPad Mini too.
The flip side is that you’ll need to sign a two-year contract if you want to get the Modio case for just $49.99. That’s right, we’re talking about a long-term commitment for a tablet case. That’s quite odd, but luckily you can also purchase it with no strings attached, though in that case you’ll need to shell out $199.99. Read more »
As many mobile device makers are holding their pre-MWC press events, HP has unveiled a new laptop – the Spectre x360. This is actually a convertible PC, and HP says that we’re looking at its “most premium and versatile” computer ever.
The Spectre x360 can be used in a few different ‘modes’ – there’s the laptop mode obviously, as well as the tablet mode, but you can also choose ‘tent mode’ for playing, and ‘stand mode’ for watching entertainment. Read more »
After having leaked earlier today, both the Huawei TalkBand B2 (pictured below) and the TalkBand N1 are now official. The Chinese company has updated the design of its original TalkBand B1 from one year ago, this time opting for a more premium look. The materials are different too, since the B2 is made from an aluminum alloy. Its functionality is similar to its predecessor’s – namely, it’s a fitness tracker that’s also a Bluetooth headset.
On the other hand, the TalkBand N1 is a Bluetooth headset and music player apparently aimed at the fitness market. Read more »
For almost two weeks now Meizu has been teasing the upcoming release of the Ubuntu-running edition of its MX4 smartphone. At first, things were pretty cryptic, but yesterday the Chinese company published the first official screenshots of Ubuntu running on the MX4 – so all was clear. Today it’s keeping the teasing campaign going with the image you can see below.
So we get yet another confirmation that the Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition will finally become official during MWC next week. Meizu even found time to take an ever so subtle jab at the BQ Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition, which was the first ever handset to run the mobile version of the OS. But indeed that is no “premium device”. Read more »
Well, the cat’s out of the bag now. Huawei has been teasing a smartwatch for a couple of weeks or so, but today we get to see exactly what it will look like. This is thanks to the fact that Huawei already has ads for the watch at Barcelona airport, waiting to welcome people attending MWC we assume.
Since the Android Wear logo is present in the bottom right corner of the ad, it’s clear which platform the Huawei Watch will run. As you can see, this is another round contender in the smartwatch space, and judging from this image alone it seems to be one of the best looking wearables revealed so far. Read more »
Today Google has released the latest version of its Maps application for iOS. Google Maps 4.3.0 is already up for grabs from the iTunes App Store, for both iPhone and iPad (running iOS 6.0 or later). The update brings with it a few new features.
For starters, you now see nearby businesses when you look up an address. Additionally, you get quick facts on popular points of interest, and you can add transit directions to your calendar. Read more »
So far, Motorola’s Moto Maker service has allowed you to order a very personalized Moto X from the company. But next month it will become available for the Moto 360 smartwatch too.
You’ll get to choose a casing – either silver, black, or champagne gold. Then you pick a band size, from the two available. The band itself can be either metal or leather. And finally, you select one of 11 watch faces, and the one you like will show up when you first turn the wearable on. Read more »
The People Sense Windows Phone app leaked just a couple of days ago, and now it’s gone live in Microsoft’s mobile app store. However, it’s done so under a different name. The app is called SquadWatch, though its functions are unchanged.
Internally codenamed Buddy Aware, SquadWatch is basically a location sharing app for groups of people. It’s bidirectional, so the users you add won’t see your location unless you can also see theirs. Read more »
Speaking to employees at the company’s Kurfürstendamm store in Berlin, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that he now wears his Apple Watch all the time, even while showering. So even if the company’s first smartwatch won’t be able to come diving with you, at least it will be able to withstand water splashes.
Up until now there’s been no mention of water resistance from Apple, save for the promotional image you can see above. It also implies that the Watch will be splashproof, but maybe nothing more. Read more »
Today Google has started rolling out the latest update for its Calendar app for Android. Google Calendar 5.1 brings with it a 7-day view for phones. Additionally, you can now add Google Drive files to events, and Drive will even check if everyone who’s participating in an event can open them.
These are the main new features, but there’s more stuff in this update. For example, you can now control whether birthdays from your Google+ contacts are shown on your calendar. This setting will arrive on the Web version of Google Calendar too, but next week. Read more »


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A mother and entrepreneur from Leeds has created a market which allows black business owners to sell and showcase their products.
Rachael Mills is the founder of Mahogany Market which runs once and month and gives a platform for Black-owned businesses in the city and around Yorkshire.
The first event was hosted in October this year and the 34-year-old says it has grown ever since.
Ideas of the event came from the Black Pound Day initiative launched this year to call for more support for black-owned businesses as they are more likely to struggle in comparison in comparison to White or Asian owned businesses.
As reported by The Mirror, a 2013 report for the UK government by Warwick Business School, Black-owned businesses are more likely to be rejected for an overdraft and charged higher interest rates than their white-owned counterparts.
Vendors who take part in Rachael’s Mahogany Market sell a range of products which vary from hair and skincare products, jewellery to multi-racial dolls for children.
Speaking on how she came up with the idea, Rachael said: “I’ve always done markets with my business and I found that markets are a good way to meet people and other businesses.
“With the markets being cancelled because coronavirus, it meant I lost that income especially with the events being cancelled. When I found out about new rules about markets I thought why not especially with the current times to support black businesses.
“It hit home like why don’t we have a black-owned businesses market?
“The event brings people together and people can support local small businesses that deserve recognition and support.”
Rachael, who is mixed race, also added that in her experience working and attending markets in the past she has often been the only vendor who is a person of colour and sometimes the experiences have been ‘uncomfortable’.
She believes this is down to her skin colour and preconceptions people have.
“Sometimes I feel fine usually when I’m nearer to home. It can be an uncomfortable experience,” she added.
“When I’m doing the market my daughter (who is black) sees all the people that look like her, running businesses and interacting with her community. That’s something to be proud of.”
Rachael also said people of different backgrounds and races have also attended and enjoyed their experience at the event.
The next event for Black Pound Day will be held at The Corn Exchange today (December 5) from 11am to 5pm.
Tickets are available to purchase for different sessions to avoid breaking any social distancing guidelines that are in place.
What is Black Pound Day?
So Solid Crew's Swiss created Black Pound Day 12 years ago but it resurfaced after the Black Lives Matter protests earlier this year and is now held every first Saturday of every month.
It has inspired other black-owned campaigns such as #IAMBOB, a week-long Twitter campaign, launched by the Daily Mirror and other Reach titles to highlight black-owned businesses up and down the country.
Speaking to The Mirror, DJ Swiss said: “I felt the protests were justified but to what ends? What are we going to get out of this? I’ve always been part of the protest community but in this instance, we needed something productive to come out of this. I thought it was the perfect time to redirect the energy and have a positive outcome.
“I've experienced a bit of pushback with people asking, ‘what about white pound day?’ But what they don’t realise is that every day is white pound day. The majority of our economy is white.
"We deserve this day, something that should have been done a very long time ago."
He believes that campaigns such as Black Pound Day and #IAMBOB are vital to close the £3.2bn the UK pay gap for Black, Asian and ethnic minority workers compared to white colleagues doing the same work.
DJ Swiss added: “People don’t understand that the struggles of marginalised communities.”


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It takes two minutes to drink 250ml of soft drink from a plastic bottle using a plastic straw. The bottle and the straw may be thrown right away, but they will remain in nature with little changes to chemical compounds for as long as 500 years.
Bangladesh generates 821,250 tonnes of plastic waste annually. Only 293,825 tonnes of that waste are recycled and 527,425 tonnes go to the landfill and the environment, according to a study of the Department of Environment (DoE).
ResearchGate, a European commercial social networking site, says Bangladesh is responsible for 2.4% of the world's mismanaged plastic waste.
Though the sector players claim that there are 300 plastic recycling factories in the country with the capacity to recycle half of the total plastic waste produced in the country, DoE study finds that only 36% of plastic waste is recycled.
Most of the recycling factories are small and environmentally noncompliant.
Industry insiders said most of the large plastic manufacturers in the country have their own recycling plants.
However, the plants are operated on a very limited scale.
Chowdhury Kamruzzaman Kamal, director (marketing) of RFL Group, a leading plastic manufacturer in Bangladesh said the company recycles 3,000 tonnes of plastic annually.
"We use old or recycled plastic in manufacturing mainly cleaning and outdoor products," he added.
Bangladesh lost 3.4% of 2015 GDP only due to pollution and environmental degradation in urban areas, said World Bank acting country director for Bangladesh and Bhutan Dandan Chen, referring to a country-wise analysis by the World Bank.
The Covid-19 pandemic further exacerbated the challenge causing an escalation of about 20% plastic waste, including PPE and other hazardous waste. For resilient economic recovery, Bangladesh must ensure green growth and address environmental degradation, stated Dandan Chen.
Threat of single-use plastics
Among the entire plastic waste, single-use plastic is a matter of great concern, because most of such plastic materials are non-recyclable. Bangladesh generates around 86,707 tonnes of single-use plastic waste annually, 96% of which comes from food and personal care packaging, according to a study by Environment and Social Development Organization (ESDO).
MdZiaulHaque, director of the DoE, said, "Solid waste management rules are at the final stage for getting approval and we are also trying to introduce recycling with the assistance of the Word Bank."
Unilever Bangladesh and UNDP are also going to start a pilot project shortly on the basis of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) principle, he said. EPR is a policy approach under which producers are given a responsibility – financial or physical or both – for the treatment or disposal of post-consumer products.
"Thus, we have a plan to begin a sustainable plastic waste management system within the shortest possible time," said the DoE official.
Harming biodiversity and human lives
According to ESDO, municipal solid waste containing about 12% of plastic is burnt, releasing toxic gases like dioxin, furans, mercury and polychlorinated biphenyls into the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide and methane are released into the air when plastic waste decomposes, contributing to global warming. About 30% of plastic waste is directly discharged into the water, which finally flows into the ocean through canals and rivers.
Scientists estimate that by 2050, 99% of seabirds will have ingested plastics. And the number of plastics will surpass the number of fish in the ocean. A recent study found that roughly 100,000 particles of plastic enter our bodies each year by consumption and inhalation.
The chemicals from plastics that enter into the food chain and gets into the human body may cause severe health complications, but the common problems include obesity, asthma, stomach upset, lung congestion, vision problem and skin diseases, said ESDO.
Suggesting a reformation of the country's waste management infrastructure, Jasim Uddin, vice-president of Bengal Group, said, "Consumption [of plastics] is over 100kg per capita in Japan and Singapore but they are 100% plastic waste free countries. We should learn from them."
In the meantime, to inspire entrepreneurs the government has decided to give a tax holiday to the plastic recycling industry.


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[UPDATE 2: BlackBerry has confirmed to TheNextWeb that BBM will not be launching for iOS or Android on June 27th]
iOS and Android users are in for a treat later this month. Those who have been longing for BBM to finds its way to the world’s two most popular mobile operating systems will soon have their wishes granted on June 27th.
T-Mobile UK tweeted the following earlier this morning:
— T-MOBILE UK (@TMobileUK) June 6, 2013
Not only was the T-Mobile UK Twitter account nice enough to show off the Samsung Galaxy S III running BBM, but also announcing the June 27th release date. We knew it was going to be happening soon, but at least people who are excited about using the service on iOS or Android can start their countdowns.
Many people have been wanting BlackBerry’s messaging service to become available on more platforms, but it still remains to be seen as to how well BBM will do when it debuts. Whenever Google Hangouts receives SMS integration, BBM may end up being too little, way too late.
What do you think? Are you excited for BBM on Android and iOS?


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Mattel has issued yet another toy recall due to unsafe amounts of lead. This most recent of the three recalls that have been issued over the past five weeks includes about 848,000 toys worldwide. It covers 11 toys in all, eight from the Barbie name and the other three were sold under the Fisher-Price name. The company has now recalled almost 21 million toys since August 1st. Many were recalled excessive amounts of lead paint and millions more for magnets that could cause serious injury if ingested by a child.
“We kept the promises we made last month when these issues surfaced: I said we were going to look hard at all the toys produced by vendors,” Mattel Chief Executive Robert Eckert said in an interview. “We said we would promptly notify people if we found something and now, unfortunately, we have.”
This recall is part of Mattel’s promise to increase its testing and quality control efforts. These toys have very specific piece that contain the unacceptable amounts of lead and it is good to see that Mattel is following through with their promises. This will hopefully reassure some consumers of the safety of Mattel toys during the upcoming holiday season.
The U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission website provides a full list of recalled items and pictures of the items.
For more information on this subject matter, please refer to the section on Defective and Dangerous Products.


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ST. LOUIS - Emerson Climate Technologies has announced the strategic alignment of two of its solutions businesses which focus on delivering products and services to the retail, supermarket, convenience store, and restaurant industries. The alignment of Emerson’s Retail Services and Computer Process Controls divisions brings together engineering, field services, and customer support capabilities, to help increase product development and ultimately bring more energy-efficient technologies to the market.
“Providing our customers with advanced technologies that work better together to greatly improve energy efficiency and reliability, while also bringing a single face to the customer, are some of the key initiatives driving Emerson Climate Technologies. This alignment is a natural extension of those initiatives,” said Bill Coulombe, the new president of Emerson Climate Technologies Retail Solutions. “By aligning our engineering capabilities, we will continue to develop innovative, integrated technologies, such as our Intelligent Store™ architecture, that require our engineers to incorporate products and expertise from across Emerson.” Introduced in 2005, Emerson’s Intelligent Store architecture is a group of products and services that can work either independently or together to improve system efficiency, monitor system operations, and help prevent system failures.
“One change that our customers will see as a result of this alignment is a greater synergy of our internal teams, allowing us to more effectively bring the unique benefits of the Intelligent Store architecture to their businesses,” said Matt Lauck, Retail Solutions marketing director. “Customers will continue to see the CPC® and ProAct® names for our products and services.”
Computer Process Controls is a longstanding provider of controls to the supermarket and convenience store industries. Retail Services has been a leader in the development of monitoring and energy services to those industries. With CPC’s 15,000+ installations, Retail Services’ 5,500+ monitored sites, and estimated annual energy savings of over 42 million kWh, the alignment is designed to provide a proven and experienced solutions organization offering engineering and customer support.
For more information, visit www.emersonretailsolutions.com.


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2016 Mercedes-Benz S-Class facelift spotted – first spy pictures
Source : 2016 Mercedes-Benz S-Class facelift spotted – first spy pictures
Upgraded S-Class will get completely new Internal infotainment tech as well as minor external surfaces styling adjustments when of which goes on sale late next year
These are the first pictures of the facelifted Mercedes-Benz S-Class, which is actually from the early stages of development ahead of a planned launch towards the end of next year.
The sixth generation of Mercedes-Benz’s flagship saloon went on sale in 2013 however is actually facing increasing competition coming from the likes of the BMW 7 Series, Audi A8 as well as Jaguar XJ. These spy pictures reveal of which external surfaces adjustments for the updated S-Class will be minor, with of which prototype showing completely new LED headlight cluster designs.
More complex adjustments are expected for the Internal. The S-Class’s digital instrument cluster was one of its hallmark features when the vehicle was first launch, however rivals have been quick to adopt the technology in their premium designs.
due to of which facelifted design, Mercedes looks to be producing a wider, frameless dual-screen set-up, which will allow for a larger screen area. The completely new system will run the latest variation of Mercedes’ Comand infotainment software, as well as continues to be operated via a touch-sensitive controller on the centre console, although Mercedes is actually also known to be experimenting with gesture control.
Also completely new on of which prototype is actually a thicker three-spoke steering wheel, which is actually understood to replace the current two-spoke design.
Engines coming from the current S-Class are likely to be carried over in their entireity however could come with minor improvements to fuel economy as well as CO2 emissions.
A debut for the facelifted S-Class could come as early as next April at the Shanghai motor show, with premium manufacturers preferring to showcase their luxury-orientated designs to Chinese buyers first.
by via Autocar RSS Feed


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Buzz Bingo today announces a proposal to restructure its retail estate through the implementation of a company voluntary arrangement (‘CVA’). This follows a period of productive consultation with Buzz Bingo’s various stakeholders, including its landlords, aimed at securing a sustainable long-term future for the business following the outbreak of Covid-19 and resultant lockdown.
Under the proposed terms of the CVA, while the majority of clubs (91) will continue to trade, 26 clubs will close permanently due to what the company expects will be an unsustainable operating environment for the foreseeable future.
Across the rest of the portfolio, Buzz Bingo has been engaged in constructive dialogue with landlords to better align the rents of certain clubs relative to forecast trading. Regrettably, the proposed CVA will potentially impact 573 of Buzz’s c.3400 colleagues across the business, whom Buzz Bingo is committed to supporting at this difficult time.
The challenges facing businesses at this unprecedented time of lockdown due to COVID-19 are well understood. Like many others in the leisure and entertainment sector, Buzz Bingo was forced to close all its clubs across the UK, which have remained closed since Saturday 21 March. It put immediate measures in place: minimising costs where possible, reducing senior management pay and making use of the Government’s furlough scheme for the vast majority of employees.
Despite this, Buzz Bingo’s daily operations and its ability to generate revenues from its retail club portfolio has been severely impacted.
While Buzz Bingo intends to commence the reopening of its clubs from 6 August, it expects that it will take time for footfall to return to pre Covid-19 levels due to social distancing measures and customer confidence to socialise indoors taking time to rebuild, particularly among Buzz Bingo’s customer group.
The management believe the proposed CVA provides the best possible outcome for all of Buzz Bingo’s stakeholders as it looks to secure a sustainable long-term future for the business and its remaining c.2800 employees.
Buzz Bingo’s owner, Caledonia Investments, has indicated its willingness to provide an additional £22m of equity capital (in addition to the £5m that it invested in Buzz Bingo in May, 2020) once the CVA becomes effective. The new equity capital will be augmented with an additional £10m of debt provided by Buzz Bingo’s existing lender.
Chris Matthews, Chief Executive, Buzz Bingo commented: “The ongoing pandemic has had far-reaching consequences for the entire leisure and hospitality sector and an immediate and significant impact on our business.
“Following a thorough review of our options, the proposed CVA will restructure our retail portfolio to ensure we are well positioned for a return to growth, while adapting to the ongoing, challenging environment as we start to reopen the majority of our clubs.
“Our lenders are supporting our plans and our owners, Caledonia will be investing into the new structure to further strengthen our future business.
“The restructure will, very sadly, impact a number of our colleagues and my priority is to support all those affected and keep them fully informed as we continue with this process. I would like to thank every single one of our colleagues for their continued understanding and commitment over this period.”
Melanie Leech, Chief Executive, British Property Federation (BPF) comments: “These situations are never easy, particularly now for the retail, hospitality and leisure businesses on our high streets at the sharp end of the Covid-19 pandemic. Property owners, however, need to take into consideration the impact on their investors, including the millions of people whose savings and pensions are invested in commercial property, as they vote on any CVA proposal.
Buzz Group and AlixPartners engaged with the BPF before launching this CVA proposal. This has provided us an opportunity to improve understanding of property owners’ interests and concerns, but ultimately it will be for individual property owners to decide how they will vote on the CVA.”
Buzz Bingo will seek creditor approval of the CVA Proposal which is due on 3rd August. The online business will continue to trade as usual during this period.
Clubs identified for potential closure (26); Chatham, Salford, Salisbury, Antelope Park, Banbury, Boston, Bournemouth, Bridlington, Carlisle, Chorley, Cramlington, Derby Foresters, Edinburgh Westerhailes, Harpurhey, Hereford, Kilmarnock, Milton Keynes, Oxford Kassam, Stockland Green, Tamworth, Wednesbury, Weymouth, Wigan Robin Park, Wolverhampton, Worcester, Wythenshawe.


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Techprezz: So latest leaks have revealed more about the upcoming device codenamed HTC Desire Eye. Apart from some more pics of the device, more details on specification have also been tipped.
now companies are competing on selfie devices thus more powerful camera on both sides... that is good thing anway..
Haha.. Selfie is now the big thing... Sony was the benchmark earlier with its 5.0 front-facing camera.. but HTC just killed it..
I really don't understand the Selfie thing, a study suggests people who take too much selfies are Narcissists ... anyway this selfie Fever has pushed companies to offer better front cameras that can also be used for video calls ... that is a good thing...
im just happy companies are upgrading front cameras, some of them use to be horrible.
TechSpy is a community of awesome people posting and discussing the latest tech news. It’s part of NewsBoiler, a network of social news sites covering today’s pop culture.


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Rom-com core is Tik Tok’s next biggest fashion trend, style influencers predict, as the look pays homage to powerful women with the power of a main character. But for those who want to be their own superhero this Valentine’s Day, DIY TikToker Nava Rose has teamed up with ThredUp to see if you can spare the holiday waste.
Online resale platform has partnered with Rose for The Dump Fast Fashion Shop: a trend-forward second-hand storefront aimed at helping shoppers thrive for Valentine’s Day and beyond. The store, inspired by TradeUp’s Resolutions Survey, found that more than one in three consumers are resolving to ditch fast fashion this year.
“Gen Z’s passion for sustainability continues to clash with their fashionable consumerism. Our latest data shows that 2023 could be the year this generation finally leaves fast fashion for good, and we’re here to support them,” said Erin Wallace, ThredUp’s Vice President of Integrated Marketing. “We’re thrilled to partner with Nava Rose—her DIY ethic, love of thrift, and fashion-forward style make her the perfect person to make those outfit decisions for our customers guilt-free on Valentine’s Day. We hope the store helps people say goodbye to fast fashion and hello to thrift.” .
Influencers play a role in driving fashion trends, and in the past few years, there has been a growing awareness of the impact of fast fashion on our planet. That’s why Nava Rose has decided to stop buying from fast fashion brands by 2023 and hopes to inspire her 6 million Tik followers to do the same. With ThredUp, her Valentine’s Day shop gives shoppers a unique way to find the latest trendy styles while promoting the circular economy.
“I believe we need to start living more ethically by 2023,” Rose said. “And Faith, I know what it’s like to feel like fast fashion is the only option when you have a $20 budget. Been there, done that. But we – and the planet – deserve clothes that last, you know? This 2023, I am making big changes. With ThredUp, I’m committed to making fast fashion fun. New fast fashion is getting zero of my dime this year!”
The ThredUp shop with the Los Angeles creator will feature three different looks that Rose herself has featured on the resale marketplace this year. Shoppers can develop her style using ThredUp’s What They Thrifted tool, which uses AI to show hundreds of close matches from ThredUp’s inventory.
The styles include The Date Night Special, Hotties’ Night Out and You Do You. Rose’s top 10 brands to buy second hand include Bette Johnson, Guess and Juicy Couture, among others.
According to ThredUp’s Wardrobe Resolutions Survey conducted by GlobalData, many consumers are resolving to shop sustainably this year. The survey found that 36 percent of respondents want to stop fast fashion this year. Seventy-one percent want to reduce waste and more than 38 percent want to buy more condoms. Nearly half of Gen Z respondents (49.1 percent) are resolving to put sustainability at the forefront of what they buy.
This partnership is the latest in TredUp’s growing line of celebrity collaborations. Last December, the resale company made ’90s TV and style icon Fran Drescher the face of a one-of-a-kind holiday collection designed and produced in partnership with Brooklyn-based designer Daniel Silverstein, aka Zero Waste Daniel. That pairing is part of ThredUp’s ongoing Full Circle collection, which repurposes second-hand clothing.
In the year In October 2022, ThredUp partnered with entertainment journalist Juliana Rancic to sell clothes from her 20-plus year career, donating 100 percent of the proceeds from Rancic’s items to her charity Fab-U-Wish to grant wishes to people suffering from breast cancer treatment. Her shop was part of ThreadUp’s “Closet Shop” series, which offers a look inside the closets of famous and fashionable people like journalist Katie Couric.
Over the summer, ThredUp teamed up with “Stranger Things” actress Priya Ferguson on the “Fast Fashion Heretic Hotline,” to encourage Jane Z to ditch fast fashion in favor of more sustainable options. Celebrity stylist Carla Welch previously gave holiday-goers ideas on how to upgrade their outfits for Coachella and beyond, while ThredUp co-host Christian Siriano sent a second outfit down the New York Fashion Week runway in 2021.


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Has any other company had a more batshit year than Uber? In lieu of a traditional report card, I briefly considered just copying and pasting text from the Book of Revelation into this article. That’s how bad it was.
Let’s recap: Uber CEO Travis Kalanick joins President Trump’s business council, and faces an immediate backlash; Uber is accused of undermining a taxi driver protest at JFK airport; the #DeleteUber hashtag goes viral; Susan Fowler speaks her mind; Waymo files its lawsuit; a self-driving Uber runs a red light; a self-driving Uber crashes; Travis Kalanick is caught on camera being a jerk; we learn about Uber executives visiting a South Korean escort bar; Apple threatens to remove Uber from the App Store; “Greyball;” “Hell;” Anthony Levandowski pleads the Fifth; Anthony Levandowski is fired; Uber considers smearing a rape victim in India; many Uber executives resign; Kalanick resigns; Lyft outpaces Uber; London bans Uber; the new CEO apologizes; a failed auto-leasing program is canceled; a major Uber investor sues Kalanick, who countersues; Uber is subject to five separate criminal investigations; Uber is fined for enabling unqualified drivers; a data hack exposes personal information of 57 million riders and drivers; the hacker is paid off and the hack is covered up; and (last but not least) Uber’s secret spying unit is exposed, and it sounds insane.
It’s exhausting covering this company
It’s exhausting covering this company. Everyday brings a fresh allegation, a new self-inflicted humiliation or scandal, and the further abnegation of its responsibility to operate in good faith for the sake of its drivers and customers. At first it was kind of funny. I’d skip into the office wondering, “What fresh hell awaits me today?” But it quickly took a dark turn, especially as Susan Fowler’s story of systemic misogyny and harassment came into full light. And the reports of how Kalanick and others obtained medical records of a woman who was raped by her Uber driver made my stomach turn. Now I’m just numb.
Which is to say nothing of the hundreds of Uber employees who had to experience harassment first hand. Or the drivers who fought for more recognition, but were denied. Or the customers who used Uber with the reasonable expectation of safety, only to have that violated. Or the competitors who expected a fair fight, but were subjected to illegal surveillance and dirty tricks instead.
Competitors who expected a fair fight got illegal surveillance and dirty tricks instead
The story used to be about how Uber’s “move fast and break shit” philosophy upended the taxi hegemony and rankled regulators who were trying (and failing) to force the rapidly growing company to play by the rules. For better or worse, Uber embodied Silicon Valley disruption, which helped fuel the exponential increase of its market valuation. Many people cheered the company on, happy to see old ideas about technology and government oversight tossed to the side. But others were reasonably worried about the effects Uber would have on our society — the shift from a salaried workforce to independent contractors, the unrealistic expectations of the on-demand economy, the deleterious effects autonomous cars could have on employment.
Uber may not ultimately survive. It may continue to decline, while Lyft or some other more ethical-seeming rival takes over. It may be felled by the Waymo lawsuit, or some other scandal or court drama yet to emerge. Whatever wild ride we’ve been on with Uber for the past year may come to an end. But these issues of employment and artificial intelligence and capitalism run amok will outlast it. They are bigger than Uber.
Another reasonable take away from Uber’s annus horribilis is that none of its matters. 2017 is the year when “lol nothing matters” became the default response to a lot of the events occuring in our daily hell world. Uber continued its growth trajectory in 2017, while its core product arguably got way better and more functional. Millions of people continue to use the service every day, unbothered by the almost daily headlines of internal strife and scandal. Meanwhile the company took some very basic steps to address its weak spots, adding a tipping option and making other changes intended to improve the experience of driving for Uber. It stepped up some of its safety features, like live location sharing and 24/7 hotlines. And Dara Khosrowshahi, the new CEO, has said (repeatedly) that in no uncertain terms would he tolerate any more bad behavior.
Uber is rolling into 2018 on all flats with a leaky engine and the steering wheel is on fire
The question is: who’s buying it? Uber is rolling into 2018 on all flats with a leaky engine and the steering wheel is on fire. Softbank, which is expected to invest $10 billion in the company, is about to get the deals of all deals when it buys a huge chunk of Uber stock at a 30 percent discount. Gross bookings are up, but the ride-hail company can’t stop bleeding cash. Net losses are up. Lyft’s market share keeps growing. So much for that $69 billion valuation we all reported uncritically!
Transparency has been hell for Uber. Susan Fowler’s blog post, in addition to a lot of dogged journalism and the blessing that has been the Waymo lawsuit, helped tear the curtain back on Uber’s toxic culture. And #DeleteUber has helped expose the lack of loyalty many customers feel toward Uber. If all the drivers are driving for all the apps, what good is one app over the other? Many smart people believe that Uber has no credible path to profit. That its economics are abysmal and its business model is a sham. Khosrowshahi has said Uber will go public in 2019, which means all of its balance sheets and data on profits and losses will finally be laid out, fully transparent for everyone to see. We’ll see about that.
Final grade: F
The Verge 2017 report card: Uber
- A new CEO with a mandate to clean house
- Public contrition seems genuine
- Improving safety features and conditions for drivers
- Basically the least trustworthy company that ever was
- Unsustainable business model
- Honestly, just use Lyft


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(Ping! Zine Web Tech Magazine) – Game-centric computer maker Razer on Tuesday announced that it had begun pre-orders on its Blade gaming computer – a device the company describes as the “world’s most thinnest and powerful 14-inch laptop.”
Blade features tech components including a 4th gen Intel Core i7 quad core processor, a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 765M GPU, a 14” LED backlit HD+ display, 8GB of 1600 MHz DDR3L memory and more.
“Incredible innovation is happening across the computing landscape, and the new mobile gaming experience Razer is delivering with the Edge, and now its Blade, is remarkable,” commented Navin Shenoy, Intel VP and GM of the company’s Mobile Client Platforms via a press release.
Razer has demonstrated top game titles on the PC including Crysis 3, Metro, Skyrim and more.
The computer has a retail price of $1,799 and can be pre-ordered via Razerzone.com.