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Google Voice Sneaks Back Onto iPhone
Jan 26, 2010 11:27 AM PT
Google on Tuesday launched a new version of Google Voice for the iPhone, half a year after Apple kicked the application off the iTunes App Store.
However, the latest version of Google Voice is a browser app leveraging HTML 5 and accessible through the iPhone's Safari browser, not an app that's downloadable from the App Store.
It offers several new features, including the ability to send and receive text messages for free.
The App That Almost Wasn't There
The Google Voice mobile Web app works on iPhone OS 3.0 and higher, Google software engineer Michael van Ouwerkerk wrote in the Google Voice blog. It offers a streamlined version of the user's Google Voice inbox.
The Web app also displays the user's Google Voice number as the outbound caller ID number, so return calls come back to that number. It lets users send and receive text messages for free and place international calls at Google Voice's discounted rates.
The app has an AppCache feature that lets users interact with Web apps without a network connection. It lets users store data locally on their device. Users can add shortcuts to their iPhone home screen for quick access to the dialer, inbox and contacts, or to compose SMS messages.
The Google Voice Web app offers native app-like performance and speed, according to Google managers Marcus Foster and David Singleton.
However, having native app-like speed is not the same thing as being a native app, pointed out Josh Martin, a senior analyst at Strategy Analytics. "You won't have access to certain components like the iPhone's address book if you're a browser app," he told MacNewsWorld. "So you have to create a second, replicated phone book in your browser."
On the other hand, a browser-based app has its own benefits. "For example, you're not tied to your device, and you can call people from someone else's phone if you need to," Martin explained.
The Makings of HTML 5
HTML5 is the new version of the Hypertext Markup Language. It aims to reduce the need for proprietary plug-in rich Internet application technologies such as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight and Sun Java FX.
Google has a built-in advantage in leveraging HTML5 -- Ian Hickson, who's been instrumental in working on HTML 5, now works for Google. Hickson, a member of the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG), which began working on HTML5 in 2004, was editor of the specifications for HTML 5.
"This actually seems to deliver on the core premise that Java was created for -- being able to write an app once and run it across multiple platforms," Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group, told MacNewsWorld. "It showcases Google's strength in current technology and Web concepts."
The Winds of Mobile App Change
Google's use of HTML 5 perhaps also signals a change in mobile app development.
"This is the next step in mobile app creation," Julien Blin, principal analyst and CEO of JBB Research, told MacNewsWorld. "Not only do you save money, but you'll be able to push apps through the browser. You can do that now with Google Chrome, and I expect to see the same thing for mobile browsers in the future."
It helps that Google is throwing its weight behind leveraging HTML5 and browser-based mobile apps. "Google is both a leader and one of the major drivers for applications on the Web," Enderle said. "If this Google Voice app is successful, it will likely create a trend."
Using HTML5 might also render app stores' software development kits and their restrictions obsolete. "This app is a nice end-run around the iTunes App Store's restrictions," Enderle said.
Trouble Ahead for AT&T?
While the Google Voice app may be good for iPhone users, it may cause problems for AT&T and any other carrier offering the iPhone. AT&T is currently the sole carrier for the iPhone in the United States, but Apple is widely expected to announce on Wednesday that it's adding another -- possibly Verizon -- to the list.
The trouble could occur with carriers' all-you-can-eat plans. Family Talk plans with unlimited calling start at about US$120, according to AT&T's Web site, although that may have changed recently as many U.S. carriers have modified their talk plans.
AT&T's Family Talk plan gives users unlimited mobile to mobile calls to other AT&T users, unlimited night and weekend minutes for all lines and eliminates roaming and long-distance charges.
"If you make the Google Voice number one of your numbers, you can theoretically call anybody," Strategy Analytics' Martin pointed out. "This puts AT&T on the defensive; if it tries to restrict Google Voice, that makes them the bad guys instead of Apple."


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While in a clip outside the cafe in Chonburi, Thailand, she flaunts her chest while saying ‘the coffee is so good, they use plenty of milk’, glancing down at the breasts.
But the stunt backfired and Sukkorn is now facing a jail sentence of three to five years and or a fine of 100,000 Thai baht for obscenity.
Prasong said: ‘There was no intention to be sexual or offensive. I posted the pictures online just as a way of marketing the business. I have apologised for this.’
Police commander Thanachai Usakit from the Sattahip district station said the owner admitted uploading ‘obscene materials’.
He said: ‘The owner said that he didn’t know better and admitted it was a way to publicize his coffee shop that just opened last Tuesday.
‘The pictures were removed but the original offence is still present. We must investigate that and proceed with the law.’‘He didn’t realize it would break the law, because the model in the photos wasn’t fully naked.
Suwannawong, 22, and friend Minggomut Kongsawas, 21, said they felt sorry for Sukkorn because the shop was struggling to drum up business and they offered to help.
Suwannawong said: ‘I wasn’t paid anything for this. I just did it out of the goodness of my heart to help the coffee shop.
‘They are a new business and didn’t have customers so I just wanted to help.
‘I have apologised for this. I hope people will forgive me. I didn’t know how angry so many people would be about it.’

domain: news


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Microsoft determined new CEO
IT company Microsoft in the United States, announced band Satya-Nadera Senior Vice President, was appointed CEO = Chief Executive Officer of the third generation, Bill Gates Founder and appointed advisor technician by retired as chairman were.
Cabinet decision, such as tax reform bill to encourage wage increase
The Cabinet approved the bills of tax reform that incorporates and the abolition of the special reconstruction corporation tax money to cover reconstruction financial resources of the Great East Japan Earthquake, and tax cuts to encourage wage increases for companies, the 4th, the government has submitted to the Diet.
Kobe Steel to 100 billion yen capital increase procurement
Order to increase the capital investment of Kakogawa Works in Hyogo Prefecture, Kobe Steel, a leading steel manufacturer, announced that it is subjected to capital increase also by the end of this month, to raise funds of 100 billion yen approximately from the market.
Even in decline across the board in Europe Asia Ltd.
The Asian stock markets of the 4th, a cautious view on the future of the American economy is spread, stock index in Hong Kong, such as the low level of approximately half a year, stock prices of countries fell across the board. In addition, the order is out selling from the fact that in addition to concerns about the emerging economies, cautious has spread to the economic outlook of the United States, European stock markets of the 4th is, in many places, such as the London market and the Frankfurt market stock price has fallen.
100 yen late one o'clock yen exchange rate
From that a cautious view has spread to the future of the American economy, the movement to buy a circle that is a relatively safe currency is strengthened, temporary Tokyo Foreign Exchange Market on day 4, yen exchange rate, $ 1 = 100 yen I rose to the level of the month and a half the first time or approximately 2 and the second half.
12.1 billion loss in Kanebo Kao
Problem symptoms that skin is white mottled in people using the products of "Kanebo Cosmetics Inc." came out, the parent company "Kao", losses amounted to 12.1 billion yen, such as payment of medical expenses and product recall I've clarified that.
The first time in three years last surplus Sharp
Etc. It is financial results for the 9 months to December last year, major electronics manufacturers have promoted the rebuilding of the management of the "Sharp", the sale of the liquid crystal panel of the mainstay were strong, profit final surplus for the first time in three years I was turned on.
Drops 600 yen or more stock
Tokyo stock market four days becomes a deployment fared a cautious view on the future of the American economy is spread, it drops more than 600 yen, the Nikkei Stock Average was down and the width of the largest this year.
Hitachi to '23 the first time in record profits update
Of major electronics manufacturers "Hitachi", such as from that for financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31 this year, business for overseas markets is growing at a weaker yen, revised upward to 510 billion yen forecast of operating income that indicates the core business of providing the , today announced that it has become a prospect you have to update the highest income first time in 23 years.
Interest rates of long-term fixed mortgage is the lowest
And 1.79% in the lowest one of the loan 35 years, interest rates of mortgage this month of long-term fixed types that handle financial institutions in the private sector in partnership with the Housing Finance Agency of "Flat 35" means that the handling Since October 2003 it began, it became the lowest.
Drops 500 yen or more stock
Tokyo stock market of the 4th becomes a deployment fared a cautious view on the future of the American economy is spread, the Nikkei Stock Average has fallen more than 500 yen.
400 yen more than stock prices fall one o'clock
Cautious outlook for the American economy is spread, the Tokyo stock market of the 4th becomes a deployment fared from trading immediately after the start, temporary Nikkei Stock Average has fallen more than 400 yen.
Tasting of Iwate Prefecture food in the United
The 3rd, open the tasting in Los Angeles near Iwate Prefecture that was devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake, and will Urikomo to the United States, such as rice and beef-producing province, I worked in PR of ingredients.
Continued high level of 200 trillion yen more than the Bank of Japan supply quantity
indicate the amount of money that the Bank of Japan is supplying to the market "monetary base", the balance at the end of last month was slightly below the previous month in the seasonal factors, although high levels of more than 200 trillion yen by monetary easing large-scale I have followed.
Drops greater Tokyo stock market
The Tokyo stock market of the 4th, a cautious view on the future of the American economy is spread, will deploy and fared from immediately after the start of trading, the stock price has fallen significantly beyond the 400 yen width down.
A month the first time in the United States or minus 4 new car sales
Since sales were sluggish due to the influence of bad weather such as cold wave record, sales of new cars in January in the United States, were lower than the performance of the same period of the previous year in the month or the first time 4.
Greatly reduced business confidence of the United States manufacturing industry
Economic indicators typical that represents the sentiment of the manufacturing industry in the United States, greatly reduced in January to reason and the drop in orders, cautious is spreading to the future of the American economy recovery trend was followed.
100 yen a month and a half the first time $ 1 or NY 2
In New York foreign exchange market of the 3rd, from the fact that among concern for emerging economies is strong, cautious has spread to the future of the American economy, is a movement to buy a circle, which is relatively safe currency by selling dollars The stronger, the yen has risen to $ 1 = 100 yen a month and a half the first time or approximately 2.
The decline in the month the first time level rice or long-term interest rates 3
In New York bond market three days, from the fact that a cautious view has spread to the future of the American economy, the movement to buy American government bonds to try to avoid the risk is strengthened, long-term interest rates fell to the level of the month the first time or 3.
The Ieren Mr. appointed FRB new chairman
It means that the 3rd, Ieren Mr. appointed officially to the new chairman of the FRB = Federal Reserve Board, which corresponds to the central bank of the United States, as a woman chairman of the first, hit the mission, such as a reduction of quantitative easing now, emerging Amid unstable movement spread around the world, such as currency depreciation, I will be ability of the new chairman is asked.
$ 200 or more drops NY Dow
From the fact that in concern for emerging economies is strong, a cautious view of the future of the American economy has spread, order collection sell a wide range of stocks, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the New York stock market three days a week dawning, $ 200 I've fallen over.
101 yen NY forex market $ 1
In New York foreign exchange market of the 3rd, from the fact that among concern for emerging economies is strong, cautious has spread to the future of the American economy, is a movement to buy a circle, which is relatively safe currency by selling dollars The stronger, the yen has risen to $ 1 = 101 yen level.


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Why scammers are targeting your loyalty program points
The family of a dad and son killed in bushfires suffer another loss.
Australian consumers warned over Christmas scammers
This technology could save your bacon
Now the hunted become the hunters as tech-savvy seniors fight back
Four out of five self-employed people are worried
Whitsunday woman falls victim to sophisticated scam
How disturbing AI technology could be used to scam online daters
Have you ever really considered the cost of having no education?
Radio personality opens up about her family's big move
Queenslanders warned after spate of holiday scams
Data reveals Indigenous Australians being scammed like never before.
The scam comes ahead of the Banora Point firies climb for MND.
“We advise not clicking the link or responding to the message"
IF you shop online you’re at risk of two popular scams crooks are using to rob...
Victims are warned not to interact with the email at all
Telstra, NBN, Microsoft phone scammers costing Aussies $20,000 a day
A new Centrelink scam helpline has been launched by the Government
The “boisterous” posse, with kids in tow, "trash” restaurants
nbn alerts community to scammers asking for personal information


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Google planning changes to Chrome that could break ad blockers
The APIs that ad blockers depend on are also popular among malicious extensions. ...
To replace webRequest, Google has proposed a new API, declarativeNetRequest. With this new API, instead of having the browser ask the extension what to do with each and every request, the extension declares to the browser "block requests that look like X, redirect requests that look like Y, and allow everything else." These declarations can use some simple wildcards but are otherwise very simple. Chrome itself can then compare each URL to X and Y and take appropriate action.
The new API also offers no way to modify the response at all.
Not every ad blocker will necessarily fall afoul of the new restrictions. The syntax for declaring blocked URLs for the new declarativeNetRequest API is very similar to that already used by AdBlock Plus, for example, so that blocker should be able to adapt to the new API easily enough. But anything with more rules, or more complex rules, is going to be out of luck. In a bug tracking Manifest V3's progress and related discussion thread, authors of, among other things, NoScript and uBlock Origin both say that the new API is not sufficient for their extensions.
Developers of other blocking tools have also expressed concern. The same API is used by a range of anti-phishing/anti-malware extensions. These extensions work in much the same way as the ad blockers—matching URLs against a blacklist—but they have additional secrecy concerns. As the developer of anti-phishing extension blockade.io explains, the URLs for their extension blocks are stored only in a hashed form. The new API requires the URLs to be provided in plain, readable text. Using a plaintext list would make it easier for malware distributors and phishers to see that their sites have been blacklisted; it would also make the list a useful resource for anyone on the lookout for sites actively exploiting browser flaws.
- Posts: 22233
- Joined: Sat Mar 02, 2013 4:44 pm
- Location: Texas Gulf Coast and North Fork of Long Island
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Today's Google Dooddle-
Celebrating the 225th birthday of Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge the chemist who identified caffeine.
Celebrating the 225th birthday of Friedlieb Ferdinand Runge the chemist who identified caffeine.
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
freshly revealed in a email newsletter
About Chrome is within the Help submenu of the options pulldown.Stop what you're doing and update Chrome. Do it now.
Just as we were going to send, a days late this week and perhaps fortunately so, news broke of a Chrome 0-day vulnerability that allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary code on the victim’s computers and take control of the device. This vulnerability has been assigned CVE-2019-5786 and is being actively exploited in the wild right now:
"Without revealing technical details of the vulnerability, the Chrome security team only says the issue is a use-after-free vulnerability in the FileReader component of the Chrome browser, which leads to remote code execution attacks.”
If you haven’t done this before, just open Chrome, click on the “Chrome” pulldown and select “About Chrome”, at the top of that box it will show you your version and whether there is an update available. While you’re in there you could enable automatic updates.
Read: https://thehackernews.com/2019/03/updat ... -hack.html
And: https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.c ... -2019-5786
EU regulators hit Google with $1.7 billion fine for blocking ad rivals
PUBLISHED 3 HOURS AGO | UPDATED AN HOUR AGO
EU regulators slap the Alphabet unit with a fine for stifling ad competition.
It’s the third antitrust fine from Brussels to hit Google.
The European Union on Wednesday ordered Google to pay 1.49 billion euros ($1.69 billion) for stifling competition in the online advertisement sector.
The European Commission said Google had placed exclusivity contracts on website owners, stopping them from including search results from Google’s rivals. It said these clauses were replaced in 2009 by premium payments and in the same year, Google had asked publishers to seek permission on how rival ads were displayed.
The EU’s competition commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, said Google had prevented rivals from being able to “compete and innovate fairly” in the online ad market.
“Google has cemented its dominance in online search adverts and shielded itself from competitive pressure by imposing anti-competitive contractual restrictions on third-party websites. This is illegal under EU antitrust rules,” Vestager said in Brussels.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/20/eu-vest ... e-for.html
PENTAGON SAYS ALL OF GOOGLE’S WORK ON DRONES IS EXEMPT FROM THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT
March 25 2019, 7:54 p.m.
IN SEPTEMBER 2017, Aileen Black wrote an email to her colleagues at Google. Black, who led sales to the U.S. government, worried that details of the company’s work to help the military guide lethal drones would become public through the Freedom of Information Act. “We will call tomorrow to reinforce the need to keep Google under the radar,” Black wrote.
According to a Pentagon memo signed last year, however, no one at Google needed worry: All 5,000 pages of documents about Google’s work on the drone effort, known as Project Maven, are barred from public disclosure, because they constitute “critical infrastructure security information.”
One government transparency advocate said the memo is part of a recent wave of federal decisions that keep sensitive documents secret on that same basis — thus allowing agencies to quickly deny document requests.
“It is the path of least resistance that enables the agency to avoid detailed review of records.”
It’s been a full year since the first reports of Google’s work on Project Maven, and the public still knows precious little beyond the basic gist of the story: that Maven would use artificial intelligence to help pick out drone targets faster and more easily, and that Google backed out of its Maven contract amid staff outcry. (Maven is now linked to defense startup Anduril Industries.) Black’s email was obtained and partially published by The Intercept last year.
https://theintercept.com/2019/03/25/goo ... agon-foia/
YouTube TV adds channels and raises price—you can’t opt out of either change
YouTube TV raises price from $40 to $50 for new and existing customers.
JON BRODKIN - 4/11/2019, 5:44 PM
YouTube launched its competitor to cable TV two years ago, charging $35 a month, but it's now over 40 percent more expensive.
Google raised the price of YouTube TV to $40 in March 2018 and yesterday announced it's raising the price again, this time to $49.99. In both cases, the Google-owned streaming TV service paired the price hike with extra channels, but subscribers have to pay the new, higher price whether they want the new channels or not.
"To keep bringing you the best service possible, we are also updating our membership pricing," YouTube TV told subscribers in an email yesterday. "The price for new and existing members will be $49.99/month."
The new price is effective immediately for people who sign up for new YouTube TV service, Google said. Existing subscribers will pay the higher rate "in their subsequent billing cycle after May 13."
The price is higher still for customers who get billed through Apple—they'll pay $54.99/month to account for the fees Apple charges distributors. But you can order service on YouTube's website to avoid the $5 markup.
https://arstechnica.com/information-tec ... er-change/
Google reportedly ends business with Huawei, will cut it off from Play Store [Updated]
Trump's Huawei ban means no early access to Android Q, no Google app ecosystem.
RON AMADEO - 5/20/2019, 3:47 PM
Update: Statements from Google and Huawei, other companies join the ban
Huawei sent a statement to Ars Technica and others about the ban, saying "Huawei will continue to provide security updates and after-sales services to all existing Huawei and Honor smartphone and tablet products, covering those that have been sold and that are still in stock globally. We will continue to build a safe and sustainable software ecosystem, in order to provide the best experience for all users globally."
View more stories Google issued only a terse one-liner, saying "We are complying with the order and reviewing the implications." On Twitter, the company's official Android account was a bit friendlier, saying "For Huawei users' questions regarding our steps to comply w/ the recent US government actions: We assure you while we are complying with all US gov't requirements, services like Google Play & security from Google Play Protect will keep functioning on your existing Huawei device."
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/05 ... lay-store/
Google recalls Titan Security Key due to hijack risk
Google has offered free replacements to owners of the Bluetooth Low Energy version of the Titan Security Key, after a vulnerability was discovered in the device.
Google introduced the Titan Security Key at its Cloud Next ’18 convention as a physical USB device that eliminated the need to input usernames and passwords. The security key is easy to set up, taking only a few minutes to provide better protection against phishing attacks compared to other two-step authentication methods.
The technology was developed by Google and Yubico, which also helped build a security key with a Bluetooth Low Energy component. Yubico, however, decided not to release such a product because it did not meet the company’s standards for “security, usability, and durability,” and that it was not as secure as NFC and USB.
Yubico’s concern turned out to be well-founded and is exactly what happened with the Bluetooth version of the Titan Security Key, which is sold alongside the USB version. According to Google, a misconfiguration in its Bluetooth pairing protocols makes it possible for an attacker to communicate with the security key or communicate with the device to which the security key is being paired.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing ... rity-keys/
Gmail logs your purchase history, undermining Google’s commitment to privacy
Google tracks many of your online purchases, even if they are bought from a non-Google affiliated store like Amazon, according to a report from CNBC this week — a troubling example of the way that Google collects data from the services you use without you being aware of it.
Google has recently tried to portray itself as more focused on privacy; CEO Sundar Pichai wrote a May 7 op-ed in the New York Times saying that “privacy should not be a luxury good.” Yet the reality is that Google, like many internet companies, makes its money from your data. The more data a company has on you, the more accurately it can target advertisements to you specifically.
The “Purchases” page on Google keeps track of many of the purchases that you have made, using digital receipts sent to your Gmail inbox. It seems to track both physical purchases and digital ones, meaning both actual items like clothes or groceries, and services like Apple Care or music MP3s.
https://www.digitaltrends.com/web/gmail ... y-privacy/
Audit suggests Google favors a small number of major outlets
IN THE LAST WEEK OF APRIL, nearly 23 percent of all traffic to news sites tracked by web analytics firm Parse.ly came from search engines. Google alone accounts for nearly half of external referral traffic—traffic, that is, that comes from platforms, apps, and other outside sources— to news sites. Together with the fact that Facebook referral traffic is on the wane, this means that Google’s search algorithm is now perhaps the most powerful mediator of online attention to news.
But for all the influence Google has in directing attention, we know painfully little about how its algorithm selects and curates news. Which sites does it direct traffic toward? And how does Google’s news curation impact the diversity of information found?
To find out, the Computational Journalism Lab at Northwestern, including Daniel Trielli and I, undertook an audit study of the “Top Stories” box on Google search. Top Stories often shows up in the prime real-estate at the top of search results, presenting a carousel of news articles relevant to the query.
https://www.cjr.org/tow_center/google-n ... orithm.php
even the best...
Google says some G Suite user passwords were stored in plaintext since 2005
Google says a small number of its enterprise customers mistakenly had their passwords stored on its systems in plaintext.
The search giant disclosed the exposure Tuesday but declined to say exactly how many enterprise customers were affected. “We recently notified a subset of our enterprise G Suite customers that some passwords were stored in our encrypted internal systems unhashed,” said Google vice president of engineering Suzanne Frey.
Passwords are typically scrambled using a hashing algorithm to prevent them from being read by humans. G Suite administrators are able to manually upload, set and recover new user passwords for company users, which helps in situations where new employees are on-boarded. But Google said it discovered in April that the way it implemented password setting and recovery for its enterprise offering in 2005 was faulty and improperly stored a copy of the password in plaintext.
Google has since removed the feature.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/21/googl ... plaintext/
Google Is in U.S. Antitrust Sights as DOJ Gears Up for Probe
By David McLaughlin
June 1, 2019, 2:31 AM GMT+2 Updated on June 1, 2019, 6:20 AM GMT+2
Deal reached with FTC to take over Google-related matters
Enforcers are under pressure to step up scrutiny of big tech
The U.S. Justice Department is preparing to open an antitrust investigation into Alphabet Inc.’s Google, according to a person familiar with the matter, marking the Trump administration’s first major step to scrutinize the potentially anti-competitive conduct of a giant technology firm.
The move comes after the Justice Department reached an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission that scrutiny of the company’s conduct would fall to the department’s antitrust division, according to two people who declined to be identified discussing a confidential matter.
Representatives of Google didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment late Friday. The Justice Department declined to comment.
American antitrust officials are under increasing pressure from both Democratic and Republican lawmakers and advocates of tougher enforcement to step up scrutiny of technology giants like Google and Facebook Inc. While European officials have aggressively pursued antitrust cases against American tech firms, including Google, the U.S. has been mostly hands-off.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... l-with-ftc
Google whistleblower launches GoFundMe page after being SUSPENDED for claiming the company is politically biased - and promises to use any money raised to expose more secrets
Greg Coppola, who says he has worked for Google for five years, spoke to Project Veritas on Wednesday
He was placed on administrative leave and is now asking for money on GoFundMe because he thinks he will 'probably' be fired
Coppola has worked for Google since 2014 and he says it was fine until the 2016 presidential election when the site turned against Trump
He says he 'just knows how algorithms are' and said it was 'ridiculous' to suggest that Google is unbiased
He says there are people whose jobs are dedicated to promoting certain sites
Coppola works on Google Assistant which he insists has no bias
He however wanted to speak out, he said, after listening to his company deny that it influences what people see
He said it had made his job less 'fun' because he does not 'buy' that it's unbiased
By JENNIFER SMITH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 18:16 BST, 25 July 2019 | UPDATED: 19:13 BST, 25 July 2019
A Google engineer who spoke out to accuse the company of pushing its political bias into search and news results was put on administrative leave on Wednesday hours after speaking out.
Greg Coppola spoke to Project Veritas to share his views and said that while he 'respects' his manager, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, his comments on bias are inaccurate.
He claims to be based in New York and says he has worked for Google since 2014. On Thursday, he launched a GoFundMe page asking for donations because he'd been put on leave.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... iased.html
Tulsi Gabbard, Democratic Presidential Candidate, Sues Google for $50 Million
In her lawsuit, Tulsi Gabbard asserts that Google muffled her free speech rights when it briefly suspended her ad account after the Democratic debate in June.
By Daisuke Wakabayashi
July 25, 2019
Representative Tulsi Gabbard, the long-shot presidential candidate from Hawaii, said in a federal lawsuit that Google infringed on her free speech when it briefly suspended her campaign’s advertising account after the first Democratic debate in June.
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday in a federal court in Los Angeles, is believed to be the first time a presidential candidate has sued a major technology firm.
In a twist that reflects Ms. Gabbard’s unorthodox political views, the claim that her speech was stifled by Google is similar to complaints made over the last year in Republican circles. Few Democrats have raised similar concerns.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/tech ... oogle.html
TL;DR: biased man goes to biased organization in order to accuse a company of bias.
I've heard this bull before.


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Today's Talk: Columbia City Council to discuss renewing sales tax
COLUMBIA - The Columbia city council planned to discuss a measure Monday night that would renew a sales tax for the next 10 years.
The capital improvement sales tax would aim to help fund various street, sidewalk and building improvements and help fund police and fire departments. The city council was set to discuss putting the measure on the August ballot.
The sales tax is anticipated to generate $10 million in revenue for the city in fiscal years 2016 and 2017, and $53 million from 2018 to 2026, making the total impact $63 million for Columbia.
The current capital improvement sales tax is a one-fourth cent sales tax that generates $6.3 million annually, according to the city finance department. The sales tax, in place for ten years, expires Dec. 31, 2015. If voters approve the measure in August, the tax would extend another 10 years and maintain its one-fourth cent rate.
Do you think the sales tax should be extended? What should the tax revenue fund? Do you have suggestions for how the funds should be used? Let us know in the comments section or on Facebook, and your comments could be used in our "Today's Talk" segment on KOMU 8 News First at Five.


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Surbiton mums flocked to the popular mum2mum market in St Mark’s Church Hall to pick up nearly-new items at bargain prices on October 14.
The monthly pop-up sales give mums the chance to buy and sell anything maternity, baby and child related (ages 0-6), with buyers paying mum2mum a £2 entry fee and sellers paying £25 to book one of over 20 stalls in the hall.
Franchise owner for Kingston Janine Turland lives in Surbiton and organises the markets. She said the sales are a fantastic way for mums to recycle and pass on children’s items that are often still in almost perfect condition.
“It’s great for the environment. It’s not all going to landfill, it’s being passed on, so the market does have a green value as well… Lots of the younger baby stuff, they’re only in it for a few months and it’s hardly worn,” she said.
Turland, who has previously run sales in Kingston, Chessington and New Malden, added that Surbiton’s “close-knit community” is what makes this venue so successful.
One 44-year-old local mum ran a stall for the first time this weekend, having attended all but two markets in the last three years to pick up items for her two-year-old daughter.
She said: “I think it’s a really good community thing. It allows people to find affordable things and allows hard-working mums to get a little bit back, and it’s a form of recycling as well.”
The next mum2mum market in Surbiton will take place on November 25 from 10.30am-12.30pm.


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WICKLIFFE, Ohio—Lubrizol Corp. is donating $2 million to combat the coronavirus pandemic while customers are "leveraging its science" in the areas of polymers and elastomers to manufacture products needed by health care workers.
The specialty chemical company's materials, additives and coatings are used for hand sanitizers, medical gowns, face masks, drug products, medical devices and transport vehicles.
In response to the respiratory virus outbreak, Lubrizol is spending $2 million globally to support hospitals and medical staff in the U.S., Europe and China, and it has established a matching gift program with the American Red Cross.
Founded in 1928, Lubrizol operates manufacturing facilities in 17 countries and has 8,800 employees around the world.
The company contributed $325,000 in critical supplies to China as part of its $2 million pledge, which extends the work the company is already doing to support billions of lives.
For example, company officials said Lubrizol "pulled every available lever" in early January to meet increased demand for is Carbopol polymers, which thicken hand sanitizer formulations into a gel-like form.
Lubrizol made Carbopol production a priority at its manufacturing sites and boosted output enough to make an additional 1 billion bottles of hand sanitizer every month.
In addition, Lubrizol scientists are collaborating with customers of their Estane brand thermoplastic urethane materials, which are used for protective garments, face shields, barrier curtains, hoses, tubing and cables, and devices. The scientists are helping manufacturers adjust their operations to address critical shortages of medical supplies.
"Every day, our employees deliver products that enable the world to move cleaner, create smarter and live better, and our team is fully committed to meet those needs, do it safely and deliver even greater impact during this global crisis," Eric Schnur, Lubrizol CEO and president, said in a news release. "In addition to the work that ends up in critical end-use products, we have been and will continue to support communities in need throughout this pandemic."
Lubrizol teams also are helping their pharmaceutical customers with active ingredients for a variety of drug products and medical customers with flexible, biocompatible materials for vascular catheters, IV tubing sets, wound dressings and medical device components utilized in ventilators, valves, and infusion pumps.
Lubrizol also produces additives that keep vehicles running reliably and its coatings protect food packages.
Company officials said they had pandemic plans and teams in place to protect employees before the COVID-19 crisis. Employees who can are working from home and others are practicing social distancing while the company steps up cleaning procedures.


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With OnePlus 8T leaks beginning the heat up, we figured a launch event of some sort was on the horizon. OnePlus confirmed as much today by announcing that October 14 will be the day they fully reveal their next phone.
In a press note, OnePlus has sort of suggested we won’t see a series of phones and could instead just get a OnePlus 8T, which some rumors have hinted at. The note reads, “Following the launch earlier this year of the OnePlus 8 Series, the company’s first full lineup of 5G-enabled flagship smartphones, the upcoming OnePlus 8T will feature a range of new and improved technologies that will elevate the OnePlus experience to new heights.”
Notice the nod to the OnePlus 8 Series, but only talk of the OnePlus 8T being a singular device. And since that’s all that we have seen leaked thus far, it would make sense.
To recap, we believe the OnePlus 8T will feature a 6.55″ AMOLED display with 120Hz refresh rate, Snapdragon 865+, 8GB RAM, 128GB storage, a quad-camera setup with main 48MP lens, and Android 11 under OxygenOS 11.
The 8T’s event will kick off on October 14 at 10AM Eastern (7AM Pacific). It will be live streamed at the link below.


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Here's When You Can Start Shopping Sephora's Black Friday Sale
Black Friday only comes once a year, and you definitely don't want to miss out on any of the deals happening. But considering there are, IDK, a million brands, it's super easy to be overwhelmed with sales and miss out on some of the best steals. Before you get too swamped, here are the logistics regarding one sale you won't want to miss: Sephora's 2020 Black Friday sales and hours. Not long after your turkey-induced coma, it'll be the best time of the year to snag your favorite beauty products... and maybe a few extra to give out to friends and family.
For 2020, Sephora is trying out a new game plan. Rather than its usual schedule of opening on Thanksgiving, all Sephora stores will be closed on Thursday, Nov. 26. And before you hop in your car on Nov. 27, there's no one-for-all set up for Black Friday hours, either. Instead, hours will vary store to store, so check in with your local Sephora to see exactly how early you can start your Black Friday shopping if you plan to go IRL.
Sephora's online Black Friday sale likely starts at 12 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 26, extending into Nov. 27. However, in 2019, the beauty brand ran its online sale all the way from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday. You can expect mad deals on cult-favorites like Urban Decay, Tarte, and Lancôme. I'm talking up to 50% off — and you don't need a code to score the discounts. Instead, you'll be able to check out all the deals on Sephora's Hot Deal page. If you can't wait, you can download the Sephora App to preview the deals as soon as Nov. 19.
If you prefer to shop in person, make sure you first check to see if your local Sephora is open, as some may be in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Know that the stores will limit the numbers of customers allowed in to shop, so you may have a longer wait than usual. Shoppers are expected to wear a mask, there's a no-touch policy for displays, and sampling is extremely limited. In addition to abiding by those and any other posted health and safety guidelines, you should continue to follow the most recent CDC guidelines regarding essential errands during the coronavirus pandemic.
For all Sephora Beauty Insiders, no matter your status, you'll also be able to score points back on every purchase. Depending on your status, you might even end up with increased savings on top of the Black Friday sales. Although Sephora hasn't yet released all the information about its Black Friday sale yet, I think it's pretty safe to say you won't want to miss out on it.
This article was originally published on


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Apple released the third beta of iOS 7 to developers this morning, and even though it doesn’t come with any big new features, the new update has plenty of small fixes and encouraging UI refinements.
Here are six GIFS of the biggest UI tweaks Apple made in the new beta:
The lockscreen now displays the time while playing music.
Safari keyboard ditches the “.com” button
Passbook passes appear as passes when attached to emails.
Calendars updated with a grey dot indicator for days with events.
New animations for app downloads
The font has been changed to Helvetica Neue Regular instead of Ultra Light
GIF via Twitter


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Microsoft is buying Nokia’s smartphones, as well as a portfolio of patents and services, in a $7.2 billion deal announced late last night.
“Devices help services and services help devices,” is how outgoing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer put it — meaning of course, that Microsoft is taking on the Apple model of integrating software and hardware.
Google took the same step by acquiring the cell phone division of Motorola in 2011.
The deal shows Microsoft hopes to become a serious competitor to both Apple and Google for mobile devices. For Nokia, the world leader in cell phones before Apple’s iPhone changed the landscape, the deal is an admission that the company needs a partner to compete.
With the Apple model for integrating software with hardware now the norm in the industry, what will it mean for consumers?
JEREMY HOBSON, HOST:
From NPR and WBUR Boston, I'm Jeremy Hobson. It's HERE AND NOW. Can two struggling giants make one blockbuster device? That is the question today after Microsoft announced that it will buy Nokia's cell phone operation for $7.2 billion. Nokia, of course, used to be the world leader in cell phones, before the iPhone changed the landscape. It is still a top seller of traditional cell phone, especially in emerging countries, but the company has been losing billions as it has tried to establish itself in the smartphone market. And Microsoft only has about 3 percent of the U.S. smartphone market with its Windows phone. So what does this acquisition mean for the companies and for consumers? Laura Sydell is digital culture correspondent for NPR. She's with us from San Francisco. Laura, thanks for being here.
LAURA SYDELL, BYLINE: You're welcome.
HOBSON: And let's start with the big question here: Does this make Microsoft competitive in the U.S. smartphone market?
SYDELL: They hope.
SYDELL: Right? They sure hope so. I mean, it certainly will make it easier for the two companies to work together, which they've already been doing. But now, they're under one roof. So the hope is that things will happen faster. They'll be able to be more nimble. But, of course, the problem is they're now a bigger company. And so, as a bigger company, you run into problems, as well. There's more bureaucracy, potentially. I don't see that it necessarily makes them more competitive.
Perhaps people will hear about the deal and think, well, I'm used to Windows on my computer. I haven't really looked at their phone. And by - many people have said, reviewers have said it's actually a good phone. People just don't think about it. So maybe now, they'll hear about this deal. They'll think, maybe I'll look at that Windows phone.
HOBSON: Is Microsoft about to become more of a smartphone company now - the way that Apple has - than a software maker, which, of course, it traditionally has been?
SYDELL: You know, I think not necessarily. I think Apple's model of owning both the software and the hardware is one that people see won out. You know, years ago, it was Microsoft was making software for computers. They were not a hardware company. Apple always kept the two things together. And for a long time, that didn't look like the winning model. Now it appears to be. I mean, there's a lot of synergies, a lot of things you can do when you own both the hardware and the software. I don't think Microsoft is only going to suddenly become a smartphone maker. There are still a lot of other things Microsoft does - for example, its Xbox business, which is huge.
SYDELL: And Microsoft will still make software for computers, which, so far, while they're selling less, you know, are still not out of style. So I wouldn't say a phone maker yet.
HOBSON: Well, what about Nokia? What does this mean for them, and what really is Nokia without its smartphone business?
SYDELL: You know, they have a mapping business. They make infrastructure for communications devices. But, yeah, it pretty much cuts the company in half. And I actually saw there were some tweets from employees, and there was a lot of sadness because, for Finland, Nokia has been, you know, it put them on the map. It showed their talent. It's a home brand. One tweet I saw, which mentioned Elop - who is the CEO, or had been the CEO, who came from Microsoft - said let Elop that company. Elop - hostile takeover of a company for a minimum price through CEO infiltration. So there's some anger about it.
HOBSON: And there are questions about Elop is now going to be the successor to Steve Ballmer. But in just the 30 seconds or so we have left, what does this mean for consumers? Anything, Laura?
SYDELL: You know, so far, I really don't see anything huge that it will be for consumers, other than my sense is they will probably push this brand. You're going to hear more about this brand, and maybe people will simply say, OK. let me look at this. But I really think for most of us, it doesn't mean much.
HOBSON: Laura Sydell, digital culture correspondent for NPR, joining us from San Francisco to talk about Microsoft's announcement that it is buying Nokia's cell phone business. Laura, thanks so much.
SYDELL: You're welcome.
HOBSON: And we'll be back in a minute. HERE AND NOW. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Dividends took an almighty smack in 2020 as Covid-19 damaged corporate profits and bashed balance sheets. But it looks like payout levels from UK shares might recover strongly in the later half of this year. That’s on condition that the economic recovery kicks in as expected, of course.
The possibility of handsome dividend growth over at Halfords Group (LSE: HFD) makes this one UK retail share worth serious attention, in my opinion. The company’s share price rocketed to two-and-a-half-year highs this week on the back of a robust trading update. Though news of soaring cycling and auto-services sales weren’t the only things that caught people’s eyes.
One notable billionaire made 99% of his current wealth after his 50th birthday. And here at The Motley Fool, we believe it is NEVER too late to start trying to build your fortune in the stock market. Our expert Motley Fool analyst team have shortlisted 5 companies that they believe could be a great fit for investors aged 50+ trying to build long-term, diversified portfolios.
Are dividends set to soar?
Analyst Sophie Lund-Yates of Hargreaves Lansdown said: “The strong trading update means it’s likely the balance sheet is still in good nick… Quite what the group plans to do with that stash is unknown, but an attractive dividend can’t be ruled out.” Strong trading and cost slashing helped Halfords enjoy net cash of £97.8m as of the beginning of October.
City analysts tend to think annual dividends will soar over the medium term. A 1.1p total dividend is predicted for the outgoing financial year (to March 2021). And this jumps to 7.9p for fiscal 2022, which in turn drives the yield to an inflation-beating 2.4%. Next year’s bulky payout is covered 2.6 times by anticipated earnings too, giving investors extra confidence that Halfords will meet current estimates. A reading of 2 or above is widely considered as being quite robust.
Bear in mind that trading at this UK retail share might begin to struggle later in 2021, however. And this could naturally have an impact on actual dividend levels. Firstly, demand for cycles might slump as Covid-19 lockdowns are rolled back and gyms reopen. It could also see demand for its high-ticket products fall if a long and painful downturn in the British economy kicks in.
A UK bargain share
I still think Halfords is a very-attractive dividend stock for long-term investors like me. Its strongly-performing Autocentres services arm should continue gaining market share as it expands. The company eventually plans to have 1,000 garages on its books, up from the 370 or so workshops it currently operates.
Jaunty demand for its bikes and cycling products could also remain a thing as people avoid public transport post-pandemic. Rising environmental concerns could see people increasingly leaving the car at home in favour of pedal power. And rising health awareness could keep its bikes rolling out of stores too.
Today Halfords trades on a sub-1 forward price-to-earnings growth (PEG) ratio of 0.6. It’s a reading that suggests that the UK retail share might still be undervalued despite its share price leap this week. I’d happily buy this dividend stock for my Stocks and Shares ISA today.


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|Daily Range||$73.04 - $73.80|
|52-Week Range||$68.80 - $79.99|
|Dividend (Yield)||$0.78 (2.6%)|
Dividend Pay Date
|Average Daily Volume||661,791|
|Current FY EPS||$3.46|
Thai prawn suppliers have been the subject of several exposes, and changes may finally come
JAB Holding Co. makes a bold move with the acquisition of the brew-it-yourself beverage specialist.
Pulling Keurig Green Mountain off the public markets benefits all parties involved in the sale of the K-cup retailer to JAB Holding Company.
These products may be the epitome of Americana, but their manufacturing labels probably won't read "Made in USA."
Costco says it is working with several parties to promote better labor practices.
Nestle and Unilever are growing at strong rates, and their stock prices have handily outperformed P&G so far this year. Here are three reasons why.
The sparkling water maker has changed its focus and that clouds the drink maker's prospects.
Having exposure to international stocks can be one of the best ways to protect your portfolio from U.S. market crashes.
Our three analysts weigh in on some under-the-radar dividend payers that are ripe for the picking.


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Why You Should Choose Wireless Charging
Wireless charging has been around for sometime. However, the trend has picked up immensely since the release if the iPhone X generation released, this is increase is due to Apple allowing their users the option to wirelessly charge their device. Previously, companies such as; Android and Toyota started incorporating this kind of technology in their products, however, the fact that Apple has decided to hop on this train symbolizes that wireless charging has reached mainstream level and that consumers should back their bags and get ready for the new era that consists of way less cords. After all, wireless charging has created many positive changes as it alleviates multiple problems and inefficiencies that are closely tied to connecting devices and chargers into outlets.
In this article, we will address many of the problems associated with the use of wired charging and what it has started to become the thing of the pass. Afterwards, we will discuss the benefits of wireless charging and the rationale to switch to it completely.
People tend to carry multiple cables for their smartphones so they can have the capacity to charge them in more than one location, which will prolong their online use and lifestyle. However, this tends to be an annoying cost burden as people usually purchase smartphone charging cables for their homes, cars, and workspaces at their places of employment, and not to mention the amount of space is consumes in your bags and pocket. However, charging cables for smartphones and other devices don’t have long shelf lives, especially if they are frequently being used on a regular basis. Either it is due to overuse or just being poor quality made by the manufacturer since it can easily break, wear out, or just stop working on the spot.
In addition, the use of cables also leads to the charging ports of cell phone to experience shortages and burnouts due to constantly being plugged in via wires. This occurs because of the charging port being very fragile and exposed to elements that can easily damage it, which and turn will have to force a cost of repairs or even a new phone upon you, which in turn, will become a newly generated burdensome cost.
Damage and Security Issues When Plugging into an Outlet
Plugging one’s smartphone into an electrical outlet means that it is directly exposed to electrical connectors, which can create spikes in electricity that can harm the connection, as well as emitting electrical shocks that can hurt the unknowing individual. In fact, there have been several cases reported that have shown how several people have been injured and killed due to improper use of bad cables or cell phones, while still wire charging to an outlet. This direct exposure to electric sockets is one of the primary safety reasons why wireless charging has become a viable trend of the future since it is considered to be much safer than its predecessor.
In addition, the data security of the smart device can be highly vulnerable when plugged into a USB charger, particularly in a public setting. For instance cell phone chargers being publicly used by multiple people in places like airports, restaurants, and coffee shops can be unknowingly used to steal data from a person’s cell phone. This can happen when a person is charging their cell phone into a public USB charging hub and the hub itself has the capability to send and receive data between other cell phones that are charging as well. With a wireless charger, this safety and security concern has become greatly diminished since it was another key reason why the technology was created in the first place.
The Benefits of Wireless Charging
Wireless technology solves a lot of problems that are often associated with wired charging capabilities. It can either be built into the device or via external charging cases that make it possible to utilize the wireless charging capacity. The wireless charging process is quite simple as it utilizes magnets that incorporate electromagnetic fields from one device so it can make an electric current into a metal coil that is inside another device. A key benefit to using the wireless charger is that it can be used by multiple types of devices like tablets, smartphones, and smart watches in the same setting. It completely makes the process less complicated by never having to carry multiple wire chargers at the same time, since wireless charging capabilities have become commonly available at public settings throughout the world.
In addition, the universal charging standard eliminates the need to have different cables for different smartphones as well as reducing the need for international voltage adapters when traveling abroad as well. Overall, this creates a much safer and secured environment because the device is no longer directly exposed to the elements that can greatly harm it.
With wireless technology advancing and solving problems caused by wires. From tangled wires to directly exposed outlets and USB ports that have been known to cause great harm and damage, the wireless charger has come to save the day and make your life that much funner, safer, and simpler, all while making daily life functions that much easier. This is extremely crucial for professionals in the workplace as cluttered wires can have great negative impacts on overall worker productivity and morale.
This is why we developed our own stylish slim wood wireless charger designed for iPhone models 7, 8, and x, while also supporting universal charge with the use of the universal charger cords. Our device charge 50% faster than our competitors while having a stronger and further transmission rate. Our wireless charger adds to the user experience with uncluttered wires and a safer and more-secured universal device charging process.


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Hello Everyone today I bring you guys news on a game that is releasing this year.
Project Light is a modern 3D turn-based Japanese-style RPG set in a underground cyberpunk world ruled by a fierce empire.
This game will release this year and after speaking to the developer about this project he responded with the wii u version will come Q4. We first heard of this game since last year and looks promising but please be patient. The developer is currently working on Super Night riders which will release soon. Once this project is completed then project light will be fully worked on.


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It was a hit after the debacle of K-20
Xiaomi is the leading mobile phone brand in India. The latest model Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 sold out in few minutes after the flash sale went online. These budget phones are the key to the success of the company in the competitive Indian market. This was good for the company because it faced quite a backlash from its customers for K-20.
The mobile phones of the company are also available at the retail stores but most of the revenue is generated through the sale of the devices on e-commerce sites. The brand is quite popular among the masses as it allows them to use feature-filled phones at a cheaper rate.
Xiaomi started India operations back in 2015 and the company relied on online stores to market and sell their product rather than the normal route of retail stores. This helped the company to save money on the distribution channels and allowed them to sale the phones much cheaper price than its competitors.
The user base of the company is solid and growing
The marketing strategy soon got traction in the market and allowed the company to induce lots of customers who are also fans of the company. As of now, the Chinese smartphone maker is controlling more than half of the smartphone market in India. It has around 450 million users that approximately valued around 8 billion US dollars.
Once the brand considered cheap and unreliable is now got ahead of all the competition. At such a low price, the company gave many features that big brands were unable to deliver. This made the phones from the company instant hit among the Indian consumer.
This is not the only reason for the growth of Xiaomi, as the local companies were unable to produce quality smartphones at economical rates. If the company wants to keep leading and keep ahead of the competition they have to keep innovating and stretching the limits.


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Tablets, led mainly by the iPad, have “quickly reached a critical mass in the U.S.,” with one of every four smartphone owners also using a tablet in the three-month period ending in April, according to comScore.
Asynchronous eCourse beginning July 2 and continuing for 6 weeks
An ALA Editions eCourse facilitated by Rebecca Miller, Carolyn Meier and Heather Moorefield-Lang. It’s going to be awesome!
Thanks to all who attended our ALA TechSource workshop last week and today! The follow up blog post—complete with a major list of resources—is now available. Check it out! Our slides, apps document, and references are all there, as well.
The number of college students who say they own tablets has more than tripled since a survey taken last year, according to new poll results released today.
Amazon managed to ship 4.7 million Kindle Fire tablets by the end of 2011, according to a new report from research firm IDC. While that allowed the online retailer to seize an estimated 16.8 percent of the worldwide tablet market, it wasn’t enough to seriously challenge Apple’s iPad, whose share stands at 54.7 percent.
Corporations planning tablet purchases next quarter overwhelmingly voted for Apple’s iPad, a research firm said Tuesday.
Pitting the souped-up Apple iPad against the budget-focused Amazon Kindle Fire might seem like an unfair fight, but for many, a new tablet will come down to a choice between the two.


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Marvel’s Avengers took up a big chunk of today’s Square Enix showcase, and for good reason. It’s a massive title for Square Enix, one that hasn’t exactly performed up to expectations. The game has fallen off for a majority of players and embroiled itself in a small controversy regarding XP changes. Today was a chance for developer Crystal Dynamics to flaunt the new content heading to the game, and it delivered in spades. A ton of content is coming to Marvel’s Avengers, including an expansion that will introduce Black Panther to the cast.
Before revealing the Black Panther expansion, a majority of the focus was on Hawkeye’s addition to Marvel’s Avengers. Besides a decent amount of gameplay with the bow-wielding hero, Crystal Dynamics revealed the next step for the game’s Future Imperfect story. In this new arc, players will go along with Hawkeye as he tries to find Nick Fury. Of course, things don’t go according to plan and somehow the team ends up sent into a future version of Earth. There, Hawkeye and the other heroes come upon Maestro, an older, wiser version of the Hulk. This new content is all available for players today.
Today’s showcase also outlined the game’s roadmap for the future. These include new events, character-focused quests, and advancements in the game’s ever-winding story. First up in spring is the Tachyon Anomaly event. While it’s ongoing, the limit on how many of one hero you can have will be removed. If you want, you can have four Hulks or Thors running around smashing baddies during this time.
The next event on the roadmap should arrive in May, and focuses on Black Widow. That shouldn’t be too surprising as a Black Widow movie is slated to release around the same time. During this event, players can earn new Red Room nameplates by completing quests for each hero. New hero outfits will also be added as part of this limited-time event.
After Black Widow’s time in the spotlight, things are shifting back to the game’s ongoing story. This summer, the Avengers will have to travel to the Frozen Tundra and fight against the Scientist Supreme. In the north, the team finds that a new Cosmic Cube is being constructed.
Black Panther arrives in Marvel’s Avengers
The biggest moment in today’s show goes to the reveal of Marvel’s Avengers Black Panther based expansion: War for Wakanda. So far the expansion doesn’t have a release date, but we do know what’s coming along with it. Naturally, Black Panther is being added to the game as a playable character. Players will also get a host of new hero outfits, new villains, a new faction, and an increase to the game’s level cap.


text: The court has to deal with appeals before millions can start receiving free credit monitoring. Plus: Who still is buying Lehman stock. By Kimberly Lankford, Contributing Editor October 22, 2008 I read a Kiplinger.com article regarding the TransUnion class action settlement. I registered for the free credit-monitoring service and provided my e-mail address, but I have not heard back about the next steps. It has been more than a month since the September deadline. On September 17, the court approved a settlement in which TransUnion agreed to offer free credit monitoring to more than 160 million people. However, the court now is dealing with appeals, which must be dismissed or decided before the settlement can be affirmed. At that point, the settlement class administrator will contact participants with instructions about how they can start receiving the credit-monitoring benefits. You don't need to do anything before then. "No action prior to this notification is necessary or required by the consumers who registered," says TransUnion spokesman Steven Katz. Sponsored Content For more information about the settlement, see ListClassAction.com. The deadline to sign up for benefits was September 24, 2008. Advertisement Who's buying Lehman stock? I am a former Lehman Brothers employee, and I still own stock in the company. The stock continues to trade on the pink sheets. Who is buying it and why? We can't exactly be sure who's buying, but we do know who's done quite a bit of selling. Not long after the investment bank filed for bankruptcy on September 15, chief executive Richard Fuld, other company officials and two directors sold millions of shares at prices ranging from 7 cents to 30 cents. The stock, which fetched as much as $68 in November 2007 and now trades under the symbol LEHMQ.PK, sold for 10 cents a share in mid October. Why would these insiders sell for so little? Because they know it's virtually certain that Lehman's common stock will eventually be rendered worthless; that's usually what happens when a company files for Chapter 11 reorganization. From the perspective of the honchos, a few pennies on millions of shares is better than nothing at all. Doing the buying are undoubtedly high-risk gamblers, as well as unsophisticated investors who figure they can make a killing if Lehman shares return to even a tenth of where they were during the glory days. And who knows? Speculators may make some money if they can sell to a greater fool. Got a question? Ask Kim at email@example.com.


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Major player: A BYD J6 autonomous electric bus during a demonstration at Hong Kong International Airport. BYD is now the world’s largest producer of NEVs, with its monthly sales breaking records several times this year. — BloombergTelegram群成员导出（www.tel8.vip）是一个Telegram群组分享平台。Telegram群成员导出包括Telegram群成员导出、telegram群组索引、Telegram群组导航、新加坡telegram群组、telegram中文群组、telegram群组（其他）、Telegram 美国 群组、telegram群组爬虫、电报群 科学上网、小飞机 怎么 加 群、tg群等内容。Telegram群成员导出为广大电报用户提供各种电报群组/电报频道/电报机器人导航服务。
BEIJING: China is already a leading player in the smart electric vehicle (EV) segment, which experts say may prompt the country to reshape the global auto industry by the end of this decade.
Global sales of EVs from 2021 to 2030 will reach 220 million units, and about half of them will be sold in China, according to a report released by global consultancy McKinsey.
Chinese electric carmakers and their auto suppliers have seized the first mover advantage, and local Chinese marques have replaced international rivals on the list of Chinese car buyers’ top candidates.
Chinese car buyers tend to choose international brands when they buy petrol cars. But Bill Peng, a McKinsey partner, said brands are not as important for electric car buyers as they are for people purchasing petrol cars.
Statistics from the China Passenger Car Association show that 12 out of China’s top 15 new energy vehicle (NEV) makers in the first 11 months of this year were Chinese. The three exceptions were Tesla and Volkswagen’s two Chinese joint ventures.
BYD, which stopped sales of petrol cars earlier this year, is now the world’s largest producer of NEVs, with its monthly sales breaking records several times this year.
According to the company’s report, its November deliveries hit a new high of 229,942 units, including EVs and plug-in hybrids, which is 155% more than 2021. Its total deliveries of NEVs have exceeded 3.1 million units.,
,trò chơi（www.vng.app）：trò chơi（www.vng.app） cổng Chơi tài xỉu uy tín nhất việt nam。trò chơi（www.vng.app）game tài Xỉu trò chơi online công bằng nhất，trò chơi（www.vng.app）cổng game không thể dự đoán can thiệp，mở thưởng bằng blockchain ,đảm bảo kết quả công bằng.
The carmaker expects its performance to grow further in 2023, with its premium marque Yangwang unveiled to compete in the high-end segment.
Guan Mingyu, a McKinsey partner, said: “Triggered by Chinese car buyers’ affection for smart EVs, the Chinese vehicle market is experiencing a series of changes far deeper and wider than expected.
“The surge of electric car sales in China is powered by the buyers’ actual demand instead of the authorities’ policies.”
The China Association of Automobile Manufacturers estimated that sales of electric cars and plug-in hybrids, both classified as NEVs in China, will reach 6.7 million units this year, up from 3.5 million units in 2021.
Chinese NEV carmakers are also wowing overseas customers with models that “beat their wildest imaginations”, which may see them raise their positions on the global stage, according to the McKinsey report.
Smart features are commonplace in those models. Earlier this month, Dongfeng’s Voyah launched its first sedan, which has more than 30 advanced driving-assist functions.
The sedan also sports an augmented reality head-up display, which is unique to its segment. It is capable of gesture control as well as facial and voice recognition.,
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It's time for the new Madden NFL game
Well, if it's late summer, you know what time it is. Not the start of football season. That's not for another month or so. No, we're talking the start of the Madden NFL football season.
The latest version of the most popular football video game from Electronic Arts hit stores just after midnight Monday and the early word is that it's the best Madden yet. That doesn't sound like much of an accomplishment, but after a couple of next-generation editions have fallen short of expectations, this one sounds like a title gamers will have no problem tackling with gusto.
It looks like the latest version is quicker (especially the Xbox 360 version, which runs at 60 frames per second), more beautiful and more realistic than past versions. Other additions include the ability to identify and use a player's "weapons," a system for collecting trophies for accomplishments, and a superstar option, where you build a player and follow him through camp and the regular season, playing each game from that player's perspective. There's also a casual mode that has simpler controls so players can jump into the game without the normal steep learning curve.
EA has sold 7.4 million NFL Madden 07 games, the best-selling title of 2007, despite some less-than-stellar reviews. The new version should result in similar if not better numbers. So if you're a Madden fan, are you ready for some more football?
- Ryan Kim
Doppelganger gets $11 million in funding
San Francisco's Doppelganger Inc., the creator of a Second Life-like online virtual world for teens, plans to announce today it has raised $11 million in funding.
Doppelganger, which got started with a virtual nightclub featuring the Pussycat Dolls, is renaming its online community vSide. The virtual world will feature clubs, apartments and recording studios populated by users, artists and celebrities. Downtown Records, which represents Gnarls Barkley and the Cold War Kids, will host a rehearsal studio where members can hang out and listen to music.
- Ellen Lee
Study finds what we do while we're online
Somehow, "Internet potato" doesn't quite have the ring of "couch potato." But according to an analysis released Monday by the Online Publishers Association, people are spending more time looking at news, videos and other content online.
In the past four years, people have been spending 37 percent more of their online time getting news and entertainment and less of it communicating and making purchases, the report said.
The shift, the group said, comes as the Internet offers more in the way of content, particularly with the increase in online videos, from YouTube clips to basketball tournament highlights. It's also easier and faster to find information on the Internet, it said.
In the meantime, people are spending less time e-mailing, opting for the more-efficient instant messaging instead, the group said.
- Ellen Lee


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U.S. laboratory equipment maker Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. agreed to buy Qiagen NV, a Dutch maker of tests for diseases including cancer and the new coronavirus, for about 9 billion euros ($10 billion) in the biggest health-care acquisition so far this year.
Investors will get 39 euros in cash for every Qiagen share, Thermo Fisher said. That’s 23% higher than Monday’s closing price. Qiagen also sells products for food and forensic testing. Bloomberg earlier reported the companies were nearing a deal after reviving discussions that broke off late last year.
The purchase would rank as one of Thermo Fisher’s largest after the company spent $13.6 billion for Life Technologies Corp. to gain DNA-testing capabilities in 2014. Deals have heated up in the industry after a slow start to the year, with this coming one day after Gilead Sciences Inc. agreed to buy Forty Seven Inc. for about $4.9 billion to advance into cancer treatments.
Qiagen shares surged as much as 22% in Frankfurt, the biggest gain in almost two decades. Thermo Fisher said the purchase will boost its earnings per share immediately after the deal is closed, which is expected in the first half of 2021. The company expects synergies of $200 million in the third year after completion.
Thermo Fisher will assume 1.26 billion euros in net debt, and it will finance the purchase through cash, bridge financing and new debt.
When a new coronavirus emerged out of China in January, Qiagen got to work on a test to detect the virus in bodily fluids. The test is now being evaluated at four hospitals in China and one in France. The diagnostic gives results in about one hour.
Qiagen’s stock took a hit last October as Chief Executive Officer Peer Schatz announced he would step down after 15 years at the helm and the Dutch company slashed its forecast for quarterly sales growth.
The testing company started exploring options after receiving approaches from several possible buyers, then ended them in December, saying the proposals weren’t compelling enough. Qiagen said its board backs the Thermo Fisher transaction.
JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley are advising Thermo Fisher. Qiagen hired Goldman Sachs and Barclays Bank.


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Toronto: BlackBerry maker Research In Motion and Spanish telecom Telefonica are teaming up to test a payment system that turns a mobile phone into an electronic wallet and identity card, the companies said on Wednesday. While the decade-old technology, called near-field communications (NFC), is well-established in Japan and South Korea, its use has been stymied in Europe and North America by the competing interests of banks, merchants, device makers and wireless carriers.
This year, however, the logjam started to break after Google included NFC support in its Android operating system, the world's most popular smartphone software, and Nokia said all its phones will be NFC-enabled by the end of 2011. RIM moved to stake its claim in September, saying NFC chips embedded in several of its newest phones would allow users to gain access to office buildings.
But analysts say consumers have yet to be convinced they should discard their credit cards and embrace the NFC trend. "The big watershed moment would be if Apple decided to put it into the next iPhone," said Atlantic Equities analyst James Cordwell. "It probably needs that catalyst to get consumer interest in the technology." In the Telefonica Wallet for BlackBerry trial announced on Wednesday, 350 Telefonica employees will be able to make purchases, receive account balances and confirmations from their bank, as well as gain access to their offices by using their Blackberrys.
Banks, retailers, gas stations and other services near Telefonica's Madrid headquarters are also involved in the trial. By using SIM-based capabilities, Telefonica maintains some control over transactions conducted via phones on its network, a key issue for carriers concerned about being shut out.
In a survey earlier this year of companies that people most trust with their personal financial data, telecoms network operators didn't rank highly. The survey found eBay's PayPal electronic payment system was held in the highest regard, followed by Visa, Mastercard, Apple and Nokia. Telefonica has also reached a deal to collaborate on NFC technology with France Telecom's Orange and Britain's Vodafone.
"We are getting ever closer to the point where our customers will be able to take the contents of their wallets and put them on their mobiles," Telefonica's Matthew Key said. He said Telefonica chose BlackBerry for the trial because of the security of its platform. He said Telefonica expects to launch commercial wallet services in several markets next year. The company has more than 300 million customers with a focus on Europe and Latin America.


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Goldman Sachs Joining Tinkov in $750 Million TCS London IPOKsenia Galouchko
TCS Group Holding Plc, the owner of Tinkoff Credit Systems Bank, announced plans for a $750 million initial public offering in London, set to become this year’s first Russian company to sell shares in the city.
TCS is poised to sell between $150 million and $200 million in the form of global depositary receipts this quarter, according to a statement today from the Russian consumer lender. Chairman Oleg Tinkov, who owns of 61 percent of the bank, will sell shares, along with Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Baring Vostok Capital Partners, Horizon Capital and Vostok Nafta, TCS Chief Executive Officer Oliver Hughes said on a conference call. None of the selling shareholders is exiting, he said.
Tinkov’s offering comes after Russian coal miner Sibanthracite Plc and railroad-freight carrier NTS Holding Plc postponed London IPO plans this year. OAO Alrosa, the world’s biggest diamond producer by output, plans to sell a 16 percent stake in Moscow. TCS is seeking to benefit from Russia’s growing consumer lending market, even as credit risk rises.
“We’re very much an online company that enables investors to tap into the Russian consumer,” Hughes said today. “We have a very deep reach into Russia’s regions, there’s enormous potential for growth.”
Russia’s consumer-finance banks face an increase in bad loans in the unsecured retail lending market, Moody’s Investors Service Inc. said on Sept. 12, noting TCS among those with “heightened risks.” Russian bank lending to households rose 34 percent earlier as of Aug. 1 from a year earlier, while unsecured loans rose 39 percent, according to central bank data. That is higher than the regulator deems “comfortable.”
The branchless bank of Tinkoff Credit is modeled on Capital One Financial Corp. in the U.S., a pioneer of card distribution via direct mail, which Tinkov said he encountered while living in San Francisco.
Hughes said 85 percent of TCS customers live outside Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia’s two biggest cities. The bank had issued more than 3.5 million credit cards by the end of June, according to the statement.
TCS Bank’s net income in the first half of the year rose to $79 million, compared with $52 million in the same period a year earlier, it said. Total assets equaled $2.42 billion as of June 30, with consumer deposits at $977 million and loans to customers at $1.95 billion, according to the statement.
The London stock market is the front-runner for an IPO because there isn’t enough liquidity in Moscow and reporting rules are too stringent in the U.S., Tinkov said in an interview last year.
“I think Tinkoff’s IPO will trigger a lot of global investor interest,” Vadim Bit-Avragim, who helps manage about $4.4 billion at Kapital Asset Management in Moscow, said by phone. “This business is closer to the consumer sector, it has fast growth. Tinkov is a well-known businessman, he is very active and his views are liked by the investment community.”
TCS sees a “wide investor base” for the IPO, Hughes said, declining to reveal if the lender has any anchor investors.
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Sberbank CIB will be managing the sale, while JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Renaissance Capital will also be joint bookrunners, according to the statement.


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Posts Tagged «metal»
Breakthrough in shape memory alloy: 10 million bending cycles before failure June 9, 2015 at 10:28 am
A team of researchers from the University of Maryland (US) and Kiel University (Germany) have produced a metal alloy that can be deformed and heated 10 million times before failure.
New metal lets today’s 3D printers make tomorrow’s electronics November 14, 2014 at 4:15 pm
A new Kickstarter project could let regular 3D printers start making fully functional electronics, right away.
Bendgate: Is the iPhone 6 too bendy, or are your skinny jeans just too skinny? (Updated) September 26, 2014 at 3:03 am
First there was the iPhone 4 Antennagate. Then there was the iPhone 5 Scuffgate. And now, with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, there is Bendgate. This isn’t people sitting on their phones, either: A tight front pocket, plus the curvature of your thigh, is enough to bend the new iPhone 6 or 6 Plus. But is it a design flaw, or are your pants just too tight?
Samsung announces the metal-frame Galaxy Alpha to compete with the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 August 13, 2014 at 11:54 am
Samsung lives up to its promise to use new materials, but the Galaxy Alpha is not a flagship device – it’s an experiment.
Apple unveils Metal API for iOS 8, will shave off OpenGL overhead just like Mantle, DX12 June 3, 2014 at 1:38 pm
Apple’s new Metal API could revolutionize the company’s gaming support — will Google let this stand, now that both of its competitors have their own close-to-metal approaches to game rendering?
The world’s first 3D printed metal gun is a beautiful .45 caliber M1911 pistol November 7, 2013 at 4:15 pm
The world’s first 3D printed gun has come and gone. It fired a shot, but was made of plastic and broke down very quickly. Further revisions of the gun had it last a little longer but the weapons weren’t permanent, and thus unreliable. Now, 3D printing and rapid prototyping company Solid Concepts has improved upon the plastic gun, and 3D printed the world’s first metal gun.
All God’s titanium, for those spry enough to spring it October 11, 2013 at 8:01 am
Titanium is roughly half the weight of steel and twice the strength of aluminum. The downside is it can cost 10 times as much as aluminum per pound and up to 40 times that of carbon steel. In an effort to find a better way to extract titanium, the US Energy Department has just funded a group at Case Western Reserve (CWR) to the tune of $675,000.
Good news, space colonists! Researchers have figured out how radiation damages spacecraft hulls August 7, 2013 at 9:00 am
By carefully observing magnesium atoms, scientists may have learned how voids in materials are formed by radiation. This could lead to better spacecraft for long term missions, and safer power plants.
3D printing with metal: The final frontier of additive manufacturing December 27, 2012 at 9:21 am
Few fields have seen as much development in one year as that of 3D printing using virtually any material. Undoubtedly, the most dramatic and challenging has been printing with metal.


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Check out the results from Seraph's North American Manufacturing Survey.
North America can look to Asia for outcome data on contact tracing, factory hygiene protocols and government actions to stop the spread of COVID-19.
As many OEM’s and suppliers are preparing to restart their factories robust supply chain management processes are essential. Processes and systems at all levels will be tested as the auto industry comes back to life.
South Korea and Europe were weeks ahead of the U.S. for early confirmed COVID cases. Seraph Senior Advisor Jeff Jaisle explains the data he is using to understand shutdown timing across the world.


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“Adobe Photoshop is coming to the iPad,” John Brandon writes for Inc. “Not the truncated version, a light version that lets you retouch a photo on the fly. Not a second display that helps you sketch out ideas for the ‘real’ app.”
“At a conference this week, Adobe announced that the full version of Photoshop–with all of the most powerful photo editing features–will come out next year,” Brandon writes. “This will be a huge milestone for computing, because it’s the first time a desktop app I use almost every day like Photoshop will debut on a mobile device like the iPad. And, it’s a sign of things to come. There’s a confluence happening between mobile and desktop unlike anything we’ve seen before, such that the phone in your pocket or a tablet like the iPad will be as powerful, fast, and useful as any laptop or desktop.”
“The reason this is such a big announcement is that Photoshop is really one of the last apps I use on a laptop, the one that keeps me from switching over to an iPad for many computing tasks,” Brandon writes. “And, it’s good timing. Apple is holding an event on October 30 where the tech giant will likely announce an even more powerful iPad Pro.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yup.
Here come the desktop-class apps to Apple’s iPad Pro! — MacDailyNews, October 15, 2018
Adobe’s Photoshop move is yet another stamp of legitimacy for iOS and iPad Pro, the combination of which has for some time now, even before Photoshop, equaled “real computing.” — MacDailyNews, October 17, 2018
We find that there are many older users longing to make iPad work like a laptop, because that’s what they know.
Take a look at a twelve-year-old who’s only really ever used an iPad for personal computing. It’s an eyeopener. It’s like looking into the future.
The answer isn’t to try to make the iPad into a MacBook. The answer is to provide all the tools possible in iOS for developers to make robust apps that can take advantage of the multi-touch paradigm. — MacDailyNews, May 16, 2017
Why Adobe’s full Photoshop on iOS is a huge win for Apple’s iPad Pro – October 17, 2018
Adobe is bringing full Photoshop to Apple’s iPad next year – October 15, 2018
Adobe Photoshop on iPad: ‘Hotel Transylvania 3’ artist is ready for the revolution – July 16, 2018
Adobe has killed the ‘iPad is not productive’ trope – July 13, 2018
Adobe to launch full version of Photoshop for iPad in strategy shift – July 13, 2018


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BALTIMORE ( Stockpickr) -- With the first full trading week of February kicking off this morning, we're about to find out if last year's pattern of "new month, new market" is still going to hold true in 2013. Stocks are starting off this morning's trading session in correction mode, not an altogether bad thing given the 1% hurdle higher in all three of the big indices. All told, the S&P 500 rallied 5% in January, giving equities an annualized gain of 60% if they kept that pace for the whole year. >>5 Stocks Poised for Breakouts No, a little correction isn't such a bad thing after all right now. But just how long it lasts is another question. With considerable data coming out this week, Mr. Market could get snapped out of his sideways pause sooner rather than later. With the S&P 500 now just 3.3% of a new all-time high, the significance of another upward push is even bigger. That's why we're taking a look at five new Rocket Stock names this week. >>5 Stocks Under $10 Set to Soar Higher For the uninitiated, "Rocket Stocks" are our list of companies with short-term gain catalysts and longer-term growth potential. To find them, I run a weekly quantitative screen that seeks out stocks with a combination of analyst upgrades and positive earnings surprises to identify rising analyst expectations, a bullish signal for stocks in any market. After all, where analysts' expectations are increasing, institutional cash often follows. In the last 186 weeks, our weekly list of five plays has outperformed the S&P 500 by 75.17%. Without further ado, here's a look at this week's Rocket Stocks. >>4 Big Stocks to Buy in February -- and One to Sell
Shareholders in Walt Disney ( DIS) are enjoying a good year. The $100 billion company already hit all-time highs of its own back in the summer, and it's up almost 40% in the last 12 months. Everyone knows Disney's brand, but just a day after my Baltimore Ravens took the Super Bowl championship in New Orleans, many investors may not realize just how big football is to Disney's business. >>4 Hot Stocks to Trade (or Not) Football matters to Disney because of ESPN, the crown jewel in the firm's TV network portfolio. ESPN pays the NFL approximately $1.8 billion each year for the rights to broadcast Monday Night Football games during the regular season; not surprisingly, that costs the network more than ad sales contribute during the games. But the real value in the deal is broadcast rights for other games, giving ESPN the ability to sell countless ads in today's inevitable Super Bowl post-game coverage. Disney's other networks include ABC, as well as stakes in the History Channel and Lifetime. The firm's portfolio of intellectual property is unmatched, with beloved characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Winnie the Pooh generating considerable cash from film, TV, merchandise and theme parks. The purchase of Pixar should keep Disney's portfolio growing in value as new favorite films come out of the independently run animation studio. Disney has a solid balance sheet, it pays a modest dividend, and its technical trajectory is stellar. With rising analyst sentiment in this Rocket Stock, we're betting on shares.
Goldman Sachs ( GS) is another name that's enjoying excellent relative strength of late. In 2013 alone, shares have rallied more than 17%, buoyed by breakneck performance in the rest of the financial sector. Goldman is one of the last remaining legacy investment banks, a status that gives it attractive positioning right now as an equity rally starts making deals look attractive to capital-hungry firms again. >>5 Bank Stocks That Can't Stop Posting Profits Goldman's legacy status counts for something in the financial sector. The firm has established a reputation as a well-connected firm that's staffed by smart professionals. Even if stories of GS employees mocking clients tarnished the firm's image somewhat, wealthy retail clients on the investment management side generally still feel that they'd rather be trading with Goldman than against it. Investment banking deal sizes generally move in kind with the equity markets. That's because, statistically, firms can capture bigger price premiums when stocks are moving higher. So equities being up more than 5% in 2013 stands to benefit Goldman Sachs more than most. The firm's decision to become a bank holding company was a matter of survival -- and it still is to some extent. Increased regulatory scrutiny helps to prevent Goldman from conspicuously over-leveraging itself in chase of returns. While that does mean that Goldman's profit potential is reduced, the bigger market share and more lucrative businesses that the firm has been enjoying post-recession should easily offset that. I also featured Goldman recently in " 5 Stocks That Want to Pay You More This Quarter."
The return of William Shatner as Priceline.com's ( PCLN) advertising front man may have fans of the ads happy, but he can't get all of the credit for the stellar price performance that this stock has seen for the past few years. Priceline has seen its share price increase by 535% in the last five years, and the trajectory is still pointed higher in 2013; shares are already up 10% year-to-date. >>5 Bargain Stocks to Play the Resurgent U.S. Consumer Priceline is one of the world's biggest online travel sites, offering bookings for hotels, airlines, rental cars, and vacation packages such as cruises. Here at home, there aren't many big advantages in travel anymore -- the U.S. travel market is largely commoditized at this point thanks to "lowest price" guarantees with hotels, a phenomenon that effectively means that it doesn't matter where you buy your next trip. But there is a lot more flexibility abroad, particularly in emerging markets in Asia and Latin America. And that's where Priceline has been focusing its attention. Financially, Priceline is in excellent shape, with $4.6 billion in cash and just $1.45 billion in total debt. The firm's business is light on capital requirements -- PCLN is able to earn huge net margins for its trouble -- so how management decides to part with that cash matters a lot. We'll either want to see acquisitions of mature, established travel outlets overseas or a big value return to shareholders in 2013.
As the largest life insurer in the U.S., MetLife ( MET) has a pretty stolid business. Insurance isn't that exciting, but sometimes, boring is better for your portfolio. MetLife may be the biggest insurer here at home, but the firm has growth at its fingertips in overseas markets. With operations in more than 50 countries, MetLife has exposure to currencies and economies that are much better positioned to swell in size -- particularly if the U.S. dollar starts to slump on an exodus from treasuries. Latin America is an especially attractive market for MetLife right now, and management knows it - the region makes up around half of the countries that MET operates in. Here at home, the commoditization of the insurance business has made profitability more challenging. That said, MET's size provides a big advantage. Because MetLife can underwrite business that smaller insurer's don't have the scale to dump on their balance sheets, the firm has an operational advantage in an industry where advantages are few and far between. MetLife is another financial firm that became a bank holding company in the height of the financial crisis, but the firm is trying to shed that status. Management has been selling off its banking assets for the past few years, decreasing its exposure to Europe, and working on gaining approval from regulators. Once that happens, MET will look more attractive to investors.
Last up this week is Ralph Lauren ( RL), the $15 billion apparel and accessory firm. RL owns a large number of sub-brands, most of which capitalize on the designer/CEO's name in them in some form or fashion. That ability to build out individual franchises from a single firm are beneficial because they enable RL to grab at a wider set of markets and across multiple price points. The firm doesn't have to risk devaluing its brand by selling lower-priced clothing -- it just sells them under a more value conscious brand. Typically, RL's core demographic has been older "mass affluent" consumers whose fashion tastes aren't especially volatile. That exposure is doubly attractive because it gives RL the ability to earn deeper profit margins on every polo shirt and pair of jeans without worrying about falling out of favor next season. 73-year-old Ralph Lauren still helms his namesake firm as CEO, bringing the question of succession when the founder ultimately steps down from his daily duties. That said, the brand should be able to maintain its strength even without Lauren himself involved in the day-to-day operation of the firm. With considerable room for international expansion in the firm's lucrative company-owned stores, this Rocket Stock stands to benefit more than most in a stock rally. To see all of this week's Rocket Stocks in action, check out the Rocket Stocks portfolio at Stockpickr. -- Written by Jonas Elmerraji in Baltimore.


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Amstrad fall not so sweet for Sugar
Sir Alan Sugar's Amstrad has unveiled an 82% first-half profits plunge, hit by slowing sales of BSkyB digital set-top boxes and the cost of subsidising its new e-m@iler phone.
Sugar also warned shareholders to expect more e-m@iler losses and that future set-top sales would depend on the uptake of Sky's digital package - which is facing competition from ONdigital and cable TV.
The shares closed 9p down at 112 1/2p, despite Sugar's insistence that once he stopped selling the subsidised em@ilers, revenue from customers sending e-mails on them would go straight to the bottom line.
Amstrad reckons it is reaping £20 a year in revenue from each unit sold and aims to crank that up by persuading retailers to advertise on screen.
The e-m@iler joint venture with Dixons, Amserve, lost £4.9m in the six months - of which Amstrad's share was £3.9m. Pre-tax profit for the six months to 31 December dived from £8.2m to £1.5m on turnover that plunged 28% to £44.1m. The interim dividend is held at 0.8p a share.
'As more e-m@ilers are sold, losses from the Amserve business will continue but the future profit potential of Amserve will increase,' said Sugar.
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