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Cryptocurrencies have become so mainstream that they have managed to gather support from various types of people. While it was initially a niche investment opportunity that most people did not understand, its unprecedented success has made people more interested in investing as well.
Some of the people who have grown a softer side for cryptocurrencies are celebrities and influencers like David Gokhshtein. In fact, David has been so in touch with the latest happenings around the crypto market, that he even predicts that XRP will take the win over the SEC in court.
While certainly a bold claim, thanks to his incredible experience in the crypto field, it goes without saying that he understands that he understands how it works better than most people. So, suffice it to say that his predictions hold plenty of weight.
Looking to buy more XRP
If there is anything that defines Gokhshtein, it’s his ability to stir up a storm with his tweets. And with his latest one, he made waves in the industry when he said he’s looking to buy even more XRP.
XRP has struggled a lot more than most other cryptocurrencies in the market, mainly because it had trouble getting mainstream appeal. However, this case with the SEC could be just what XRP needs, according to Gokhshtein.
He said that if XRP manages to win the court case, its prices will likely skyrocket. Therefore, he’s looking to make a massive profit and is encouraging most of his audience to do the same.
Not just a rise in XRP price
Gokhshtein went a step further in his next tweet, where he said that it was likely for the entire market to go parabolic once XRP pulls through in court. So, plenty of cryptocurrencies will see a major boost in their sales.
However, due to the volatility of the market, there’s no way to really determine how long this boost will last. But Gokhshtein is almost certain that prices will rise following their win in court.
A major supporter of Meme coins
Meme coins were possibly one of the biggest additions to the crypto market. DOGE coin was an especially monumental addition since what started out as a joke became one of the biggest players in the industry.
Gokhshtein, of course, sees the incredible potential of these types of cryptocurrencies, which makes him such an avid supporter. He believes that these types of cryptocurrencies hold incredible promise, as long as the meme itself manages to stay relevant.
But with the constantly shifting online landscape, it is very unlikely that most memes will have the same shelf life as something like the Doge meme. However, as long as it can drum up enough support, things can work out for the cryptocurrency.


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PETER VAN DOREN, CATO INSTITUTE
The Washington Post recently criticized the Trump administration for proposing to eliminate an Obama administration rule that would extend minimum lightbulb energy efficiency standards to specialty bulbs and add them to a list of incandescent lights that will be effectively banned in 2020. The Post argues that the policy of imposing energy efficiency standards on lightbulbs “has no downside.” Energy efficiency regulations are often described as the equivalent of a free lunch, but these rules, like all regulations, have both benefits and costs.
Lightbulb efficiency standards were included in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA), which established efficiency standards for “general service lamps.” These standards applied to various technologies, including traditional incandescent bulbs, CFLs, and LEDs, but excluded many types of specialty bulbs, such as decorative candelabra bulbs. The act also required the Department of Energy (DOE) to initiate procedures to determine whether the lightbulb standards should be increased and required a final rule to be published before 2017. If the DOE was unable to fulfill this requirement, the act created a backstop that would impose a 45 lumen (a measure of light intensity) per watt (lm/W) minimum on lightbulbs starting January 1, 2020. A traditional 100 watt incandescent bulb emits 1600 lumens of light, only 16 lumens per watt, and thus would be banned.
After passage of the EISA, Republicans in Congress stymied implementation of the standards by inserting language in DOE appropriation bills prohibiting the use of federal money for their implementation and enforcement. During the Obama administration the DOE attempted to circumvent the appropriation restrictions by creating new rules that expand the lighting standards to include many of the originally exempted lightbulbs and apply the 45 lm/W backstop in 2020. These regulations were published shortly before Trump’s inauguration in January 2017. The new proposed rules eliminate the Obama revisions.
Despite the Post’s assertion, the Obama regulations do impose costs. As the 2017 rule notes,
DOE acknowledges that manufacturers may face a difficult transition if required to comply with a 45 lm/W standard. Manufacturers have voiced concern regarding the loss of domestic manufacturing jobs, the stranding of inventory, the ability to meet the demand for all general service lamps with lamps using LED technology, and the burden associated with testing and certifying compliance for all general service lamps.
The fact that manufacturers are upset by the rule indicates there are some costs. Furthermore, limiting consumer choice itself is costly; some specialized incandescent bulbs may not be available after 2020.
The benefits of the standards also may be small. The Post states that the lack of the mandate would cost consumers $12 billion per year and 140 billion kilowatt-hours in energy waste. But these estimates assume that consumers will not choose LED and more energy efficient lamps over incandescent bulbs on their own.
Ever since the first oil shocks in the 1970s there has been a debate about the necessity of energy efficiency standards for autos, trucks, and appliances. Consumer groups and engineers, often working at federal energy laboratories, have argued consumers fail to purchase vehicles and appliances that are more expensive initially but save money over time through less energy use. Economists have responded with evidence that consumers make appropriate tradeoffs between initial costs and savings over time and that public programs to promote energy conservation have costs that are greater than benefits.
As I have previously summarized, the most extensive evidence exists for cars. According to this research, consumers are quite willing to pay more initially for a vehicle that saves them money in gasoline costs over the ownership life. The same argument applies for appliances and lightbulbs. As the president of the Alliance to Save Energy, a pro-efficiency standard group, argued,
There aren’t many people out there clamoring for outdated light bulbs that use four or five times as much energy. Consumers have moved on and embraced high-efficiency bulbs like LEDs because prices are plummeting and because they’re getting a better-performing, longer-lasting product that saves them money.
I recently replaced the incandescent candelabra bulbs in the outdoor lights outside my front door that used 40 watts of electricity with LED equivalents that used 4. The market provided me with an energy saving option even though no regulation required it to do so. If the light is used 3 hours a day 365 days a year and the electricity costs 10 cents per kWh, then the annual savings is $3.94 per year ($4.38 annual costs for the 40 watt bulb vs. $.438 for the 4 watt) which pays for the $8.26 cost of the LED bulb in a little over 2 years.
As the economic literature, manufacturers, and even some proponents of efficiency standards recognize, I am not unique. Consumers understand the cost savings of LEDs, so the economic and environmental benefits propounded by the Post will occur without the tradeoffs required by government mandate.
Written with research assistance from David Kemp.
Peter Van Doren is Senior Fellow and Editor of the Cato quarterly journal, Regulation, and an expert on the regulation of housing, land, energy, the environment, transportation, and labor. He has taught at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs (Princeton University), the School of Organization and Management (Yale University), and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. From 1987 to 1988 he was the postdoctoral fellow in political economy at Carnegie Mellon University. His writing has been published in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Journal of Commerce, and the New York Post. Van Doren has also appeared on CNN, CNBC, Fox News Channel, and Voice of America. He received his bachelor’s degree from the MIT and his master’s degree and doctorate from Yale University.

domain: news


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A few days ago we discovered this amazing looking Macbook Air clone. The knock-off, which is thought to cost only $450, not only looks exactly like the 13.3 inch Macbook Air, but it even sports a similar one piece construction and a pretty good hardware specification.
Now we have a video of it to gawk at too!
Gizchina News of the week
The photos we had shown didn’t show the Chinese made SSD equipped clone with the Apple logo but it seems there will at least be one version of the clone going ‘full knock’ and will get the light up cut away emblem.
Watch the video hands on with ultimate Macbook Air knock-off below.
As we have already posted the new generation Macbook Air clone is made of a single chunk of aluminum, features 2GB RAM, an Intel Cedar Trail CPU, 32GB SSD and a built in battery. You can read our previous coverage here.
Video via: MicGadget


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Microsoft has clarified that the next iteration of Kinect, the motion tracking peripheral unveiled alongside the Xbox One earlier this week, will be coming to Windows next year. We had previously known that the device would eventually be supported by Windows, but didn’t know when.
Unfortunately, Microsoft is keeping quiet in regards to how developers will actually be able to take advantage of the new Kinect; the firm simply stated that it will share more details at its BUILD conference next month.
Microsoft did share a number of potential use cases with us, however. The company highlighted how Kinect for Windows could be used in particular for “interactive displays in retail environments,” rehabilitation and fitness applications, as well as education and training software.
The company clarified that the existing Kinect sensor serves retail environments well, but that HD video will “make this a lot better,” especially for augmented reality displays. Microsoft also shared that the rehabilitation and fitness use case is “most exciting for us.” The company stated that the “need for extremely high precision human tracking is critical,” and the next generation Kinect features a whole new level of fidelity to make this possible.
New Kinect, new
The new Kinect offers an ultra wide-angle 1080p HD depth camera, which should offer professional recordings and video calls for apps such as Skype, as well as improve its sensitivity and practicality in small living rooms.
The device captures RGB color video at around 30 frames per second and comes with a few interesting parlor tricks, such as the ability to monitor the user’s heart rate. Kinect has always been an input device for the Xbox first and foremost, but it’s a fairly unique piece of hardware that has also attracted the attention of the modding community.
Who knows what Microsoft has planned this time around. Perhaps it will simply sell the peripheral separately and let developers do as they please, as before. Or, there’s a chance that the company will integrate it somehow with Windows 8, introducing a new user interface similar to Leap Motion.
We’ll just have to wait and see.


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Car makers and component firms are working on multiple strategies including optimising the supply chain to overcome the shortage in semi-conductors that looks set to to continue in the coming months.
Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) has prepared both short- term and medium-term strategies.
Large component manufacturer Bosch is taking steps to keep supply chains running and trying to find technological solutions.
“The semi-conductor shortage will not resolve in the coming three-to-six months and the shortage cycle will continue over six-to-nine months,” said Rajesh Jejurikar, executive director, auto and farm sector, M&M.
In the short-term, M&M is scouting for alternative suppliers to its Malaysian supplier of integrated circuits (IC) that are a component of electronic control units (ECUs).
The shutdown of the Malaysia plant had caused an acute shortage leading to production losses 20,000 units to the Mahindras.
“New IC source is being identified to create fungibility,” said Jejurikar. “Besides reserve stocks of critical ICs are being developed.”
“In the medium-term, the company is looking into its product development to find suitable substitutes to complex multi-functional ICs,” said Veejay Nakra, CEO, auto division, Mahindra.
He said the basic design of ECU in BS-VI changed as a lot of functions got integrated from multiple ECUs to a single ECU of a particular grade.
“As we realise that this could create a limitation going forward, we have taken steps to simplify and unbundle some of those complex functions of ECUs and that makes it easier to source them. We are also trying to source ICs from the open market.”
Asked if this will take a longer production time and have an effect on quality, Anish Shah, managing director, Mahindra said: “The time will be taken for proper testing and validation of the components. Once that is done the production will continue as scheduled and all this is being done to ensure quality and performance of our products. We will be reshaping the supply chain to counter any such crisis that may happen.”
Bosch India will continue to expand its chip manufacturing capacity and manage supplies with its partners.
“We expect the shortage to continue this year,” said Sandeep N, executive director and head of sales, mobility solutions, Bosch Limited.
“We are trying to find alternative chip for our auto customers to ease up the situation and take steps to run supply chains in a normal way. We are in very close contact with the automobile makers and are trying to find technological solutions,” said Sandeep.


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MICHAEL DELL TURNS THE PC WORLD INSIDE OUT HE'S SELLING COMPUTERS AS FAST AS HE CAN MAKE THEM, PUTTING A SCARE INTO COMPETITORS COMPAQ AND IBM--AND MAKING HIS SHAREHOLDERS RICH. AT 32, HE'S NOW THE RICHEST MAN IN TEXAS, WITH A NET WORTH OF $4.3 BILLION.
(FORTUNE Magazine) – At Dell Computer's annual shareholders meeting this July, there are no celebratory baseball games or t-shirts like the ones at Warren Buffett's now famous Berkshire Hathaway "event" in Omaha. But that doesn't make it any less of a love fest. People have streamed into Austin, Texas, in the midst of a sweltering summer, to get a personal peek at the PC company's 32-year-old founder and chief executive, Michael Dell. A palpable buzz goes through the ballroom of the Austin Four Seasons as the anything but charismatic Dell walks in to make his presentation. Like a politician on a campaign tour, he is quickly surrounded by admirers, arms outstretched for a handshake. The autograph seekers range from a 10-year-old computer buff to a grateful, wide-eyed retiree.
Eventually Dell makes his way up to the dais. He puts his head down for a moment, then looks up and grins coyly as a slide pops up on the huge screen behind him. It's a chart of Dell's stock over the past three years, compared with six other bigtime bull-market success stories: Coca-Cola, Intel, Microsoft, Gillette, Cisco Systems, and rival PC-maker Compaq. The upward slope of the Dell line is easily twice as steep as the others', and those who have most enjoyed its rise--the shareholders--can't help but "ooh" and "aah" at its drama. Dell looks over the crowd, pauses, then grins again: "And that concludes our presentation." The applause is deafening.
Dell goes on to give more details--about sales and earnings, the future challenges and opportunities--but the big point has been made: Owning stock in his company over the past few years has been like owning a winning lottery ticket. From a split-adjusted low of $0.39 a share in 1990, Dell Computer stock has soared to $80--a gain of more than 20,000%. (By comparison, Microsoft's stock is up 2,600%.) A $10,000 stake at Dell's 1988 IPO is now worth more than $1 million.
The reason for this meteoric stock rise is simple enough: Dell Computer has become the driving force in the PC business. In just a few years the company has gone from a compelling sideshow in the industry to a fast-charging threat to big boys like Compaq and IBM. Thanks to a low-cost, direct-sales model--which the competition is now rushing to emulate--Dell's global-market-share rank has climbed to a virtual tie for No. 3, from No. 8 just over a year ago (see the story following this one). You may remember Dell Computer as the cute company that started in a dorm room. Well, that was then. Today's Dell has stormed into the business-to-business market, selling most of its PCs, servers, and workstations to the likes of Ford, Boeing, and foreign giant Deutsche Bank. Total sales have jumped from $159 million, when the company went public in 1988, to an estimated $12 billion this year--an average annual growth rate of some 54%. What about net profits? This year they should come in at around $900 million.
In the process, of course, the company has become a glittering Wall Street star, the one stock able to lift money managers above the recent soaring market indexes. After a 109% jump in the last half of 1996 and a 121% gain in the first half of this year, the stock rose another 46% in the month of July alone. "The stock has defied gravity," marvels one Wall Street insider. "It hasn't mattered if the market goes up or down. If you short this stock, you get carried out."
No one has benefited more from all this than Michael Dell himself. A 16% owner in the company, Dell is now the richest man in Texas--richer than any oil baron or real estate tycoon, more flush than Perot or any Bass. Over the past year, a guy who can't say where he was the day J.F.K. was shot because he wasn't born yet has watched his holdings appreciate by $3.5 billion, an average of almost $10 million per day. His net worth at last report: some $4.3 billion.
And yet, for all Michael Dell's accomplishments as a businessman, a communicator with Wall Street, and a personal wealth generator, he is rarely acknowledged as a titan of technology. There is a sense that Dell is something less than he appears, a youngster who just happened to be in the right place at the right time and, in effect, got lucky. "I'm no Larry Ellison," he admits, referring to the freewheeling and eminently quotable CEO of Oracle. He knows he lacks the swagger of, say, a Steve Jobs. If his company's products are derided as commodities--boxes, nothing more--and his business model, of direct sales to customers, as declasse, well, so be it. He's got other things on his mind--his customers and his competitors, to name two.
Which is what makes the attention he's received from the ultimate tech titans, Intel's Andy Grove and Microsoft's Bill Gates, so telling. Recently Dell and Grove dined together at the Lion & Compass in Silicon Valley, where Dell's mission in part was to make sure Intel could keep up with his company's demand for chips. Says Grove of Dell: "He tackles jobs others think are overwhelming and prevails. Michael isn't afraid of anything."
Gates paid homage to Dell, whose company is among Microsoft's biggest customers, by flying down to Austin this past spring. They discussed everything from Dell's burgeoning server business to the company's website, which now accounts for $2 million in daily sales, or some 5% of the company's business. Gates--who more than any other man in the universe is betting on Internet commerce, and termed Dell's profitable website "pretty cool"--sees similarities in their talents. Aside from the fact that both men are billionaires (Dell is actually richer at age 32 than Gates was), they also have strong ideas about where the world of technology is headed and about their respective companies' roles in that progression. "We have both stuck with our convictions, and learned from our mistakes," says Gates. "Michael has the same passion for the industry I do." Says Dell: "We're in the business of dramatically reducing the cost of distributing technology. To do that, we are going to get closer and closer to our suppliers and our customers."
The reason Dell's company has become such a juggernaut has nothing to do with exotic software or cutting-edge chip technology. Instead, it's a matter of execution. Selling computers directly to customers is hardly an earth-shattering concept, but then again neither was Sam Walton's idea of putting Wal-Mart megastores into rural areas. What made Walton a genius (and a multibillionaire) was a God-is-in-the-details vision of how the whole operation should work. Michael Dell's distinctive edge is his understanding of that same landscape in the computer business. "I don't think Michael gets enough credit," says Dell vice chairman Mort Topfer. "He has an incredible sense of the market. And he has created every element of the Dell model."
Here's one simple example: Although the company's computers have long had some of the highest quality ratings in the PC industry, Dell recently became obsessed with finding a way to reduce his machines' failure rate. The key, he came to believe, was to cut down on the number of times that each hard drive--perhaps the most sensitive part of a PC--was being handled during assembly. So he insisted that the number of "touches" be dramatically reduced from an existing level of more than 30 per drive. Production lines had to be revamped, but eventually the number of touches was trimmed to fewer than 15. Soon thereafter, the rate of rejected hard drives fell by 40%, and the overall failure rate for the company's PCs dropped by 20%.
You can't attribute an improvement like that to "luck." Michael Dell, it turns out, is a master at optimizing the details of his business. (In fact, it was Dell's idea, personally, to try selling PCs on the Web, when others on his senior staff were skeptical that a market would materialize, and he pushed the project ahead.) Dell may not be Mr. Excitement, but his deliberate approach allows him to sweat the little things that keep his company moving. There is no such thing as an accidental billionaire.
Most billionaires wouldn't choose to walk halfway across San Francisco to get to dinner, but that is Michael Dell's preferred mode of transit during a recent midsummer business trip where we caught up with him. Casually dressed in a gray button-down shirt and black pants, Dell moves down the street unrecognized. Such anonymity is a luxury that Bill Gates no longer has and that Dell himself could well lose one day.
On the other hand, if Dell's behavior this particular evening is any indication, a steady stream of stares wouldn't slow his stride--indeed, wouldn't even be noticed. There is a citywide demonstration under way by thousands of militant bicyclists who want to restrict car traffic. At times the demonstration grows violent, and before the night is over 250 cyclists will be arrested. Dell walks straight through one fracas, where tattooed, body-pierced believers howl, pound on cars, and scuffle with police. He seems almost oblivious, so intent is he on explaining the tax advantages and infrastructure issues behind the location of a new manufacturing plant.
Dinner is at Stars, a high-energy restaurant near City Hall, and Dell slips in without fanfare. When the others at the table order drinks, he asks for a glass of white wine, just to be polite. But the glass sits untouched in front of him for the whole meal. Later he admits that he rarely drinks, though you'd think this evening might be an exception: That day Dell's personal net worth dropped by $150 million when the company's stock fell $3 a share. His response is the stuff of press releases but rings true nonetheless. "Employees ask me about the stock all the time," he says. "I tell them over the short term, there's nothing I can do." This is someone who knows what he can control and what he can't.
Throughout the dinner Dell is friendly and soft-spoken, but it becomes clear that as a businessman, he has a ruthless side. He will look you straight in the eye and tell you exactly how each one of his competitors is poised to fail. IBM: "There's no real momentum there." Apple: "We're taking huge chunks of the education market from them." Packard Bell: "Cruddy machines. Look at their repurchase rate." Gateway: "They're focused on first-time users. How many first-time users will there be in the year 2010?"
Dell's snidest comments, though, are reserved for Compaq. Run by the Teutonic Eckhard Pfeiffer only 160 miles down the road from Dell's Austin headquarters, in Houston, Compaq has more than twice Dell's sales and market share, and there's a real Texas rivalry between the two companies. Some Dell executives seem to have an inferiority complex when it comes to Compaq (as in "we're just as good as Compaq"). But Compaq's recently announced plan to sell some PCs directly to customers has hardly put the fear of God in Michael Dell. "It's like we're the best baseball player and Compaq is the best basketball player," he says with a smirk. "Now they want to play baseball." The implication is that Compaq will fare no better than Michael Jordan did when he tried his hand at hardball--and quit after batting just .202 for the minor-league Birmingham Barons.
Pretty strong talk for a guy who only 13 years ago dropped out of college. Dell grew up in upper-middle-class neighborhoods around Houston (Meyerland and Memorial). His parents moved to Texas from the Bronx--dad is an orthodontist and mom a broker with Paine Webber--and they wanted young Michael to become a doctor. By the time he was in junior high, though, Dell was hooked on computers. He loved to take the top off his Apple II to check out its motherboard. There was also a profit motive buzzing in young Dell's brain: "I always knew I wanted to run a business someday."
To please his parents Dell enrolled as a premed at the University of Texas in 1983, but by then he was really only interested in tinkering with computers. That first semester found him buying up remaindered, outmoded IBM PCs from local retailers, then upgrading them in his dorm room and selling them--not just around campus, but literally hawking door to door to local law firms and small businesses. One day his roommate piled his ever-growing inventory up against the door. "He was kind of frustrated, I guess," says Dell. "So I moved."
When he told his parents that he wanted to drop out at the end of his freshman year, they were furious. He agreed to go back if the summer's sales proved disappointing, but instead the business took off--he sold $180,000 worth of PCs his first month--and Dell never returned for his sophomore year. He quickly realized that instead of upgrading older machines, he could buy components and assemble the whole PC himself more cheaply. Then he could sell the machine with his name on it directly to customers at a 15% discount to established brands. Demand was astounding right from the start, and Dell was able to fund his initial growth internally. (That's one reason he's become so rich today: He's never had to share with a venture capital partner.) Later he got bank financing using his receivables as collateral, and before long Wall Street took notice. The company did a private placement through Goldman Sachs in October 1987 (right after the market crash), then raised $30 million in an initial public offering in 1988. Dell's take: some $18 million.
For many tech startups these days, that would have been the pinnacle: a quick-hit payoff, and time to move on to the next promising venture. The 23-year-old Dell, though, was just getting started. Sales leaped forward to more than $800 million by 1991. In 1992 Dell was hoping to pass the $1.5 billion mark; the company blew right past that figure and did $2 billion.
That pace was too much for the young entrepreneur to handle, and the wheels nearly came off. A major cash crunch hit as the company rushed to expand. Design flaws emerged in Dell's notebooks. And the dearth of senior managers began to show. The company ended up reporting a loss of $36 million. Skeptics declared the Dell dream over, and, indeed, many high-tech companies have rolled over and died under similar circumstances. Instead, Michael Dell had the vision--and ironically, the maturity--to take his creation to the next level. Recognizing that he could no longer run the company by the seat of his pants, he began recruiting experienced empire builders to assist him. At the top of the pyramid, for instance, he brought in Mort Topfer, a seasoned executive from Motorola, to handle day-to-day operations. That choice was inspired: Like Dell Computer, Motorola is a high-tech component assembler, so Topfer had ample experience with the ins and outs of purchasing and manufacturing. He also had helped Motorola set up a manufacturing facility in Asia, which Dell was on the verge of doing itself; Topfer recommended Penang, Malaysia--precisely where he'd brought Motorola. "Plus, Intel and a whole bunch of our other suppliers are in Penang," says Topfer.
Aside from Topfer, Michael Dell also brought in other well-regarded managers, such as Kevin Rollins, an organizational expert from Bain, to run the American operations. And he stole away key Apple executives from that company's Powerbook team to fix his notebooks. Result? Within 12 months the company was righted, and the following year profits climbed to $149 million. The company has never looked back.
At first, even after Dell pulled his company through that troubled time, Wall Street continued to have doubts. How many customers would really be willing to buy computers directly from a manufacturer? And did Michael Dell really have the skills to guide the company in a dog-eat-dog industry? The answer to both questions, of course, came in the continuing explosion in Dell's business. Higher sales proved that the direct market was far larger than investors had anticipated, and higher profits showed that Michael Dell was getting the job done. As the company consistently exceeded Wall Street's expectations--right through to today--the stock soared.
Nestled along a dammed-up section of the Colorado River in Texas hill country, Austin has long been known for its slackers and Willie Nelson shows. But lately that's changing. Today it's no exaggeration to claim, as Austinites are wont to, that this metropolitan area of one million is one of the nation's most important high-tech centers after Silicon Valley--inevitably branded Silicon Hills. Motorola and Advanced Micro Devices both have chipmaking facilities here, and scores of smaller, high-profile companies like Tivoli Software also call Austin home.
But none have had greater impact on the city than Dell. The company now employs 9,000 people in Austin and is hiring an additional 100 a week. Thousands of others are riding the Dell boom in construction and service jobs, as the company races to add millions more square feet of work space. "Austin has gone from a big, small city, to a small, big city, and Michael Dell has played an anchor role," says Mayor Kirk Watson. "It's like watching one of the neighborhood kids grow up to become a big success. You feel like you're a part of it."
Dell's headquarters--15 miles north of Austin in Round Rock--is a cluster of gigantic, chalk-white, neo-Bauhaus structures. The CEO works on the second floor of the main building, in one of only two private offices in the entire complex; Mort Topfer has the other. Dell loves to talk "speeds and feeds" with his engineers, and spends one day each week checking out the innovations at one of the site's tech facilities. He also spends a ton of time with customers, including a recent visit to Chicago where he participated in a sales presentation to senior executives. For Dell, customer contact isn't just a question of boosting the business; it's staying up on and in tune with an ever-changing market. ("Let's just say Michael has kept us away from making the mistake of going into PDAs, subnotebooks, and DVD players," says Rollins.)
The company's production model has come a long way since Dell's dorm-room days. His company now moves about four million PCs, notebooks, servers, and workstations a year. Most are sold to businesses, not consumers. Buyers call Dell's 800 numbers or log on to the company's Website, where they can configure their own model and then watch as their customized PC is priced by features on the screen. (Enter a credit-card number, hit Return, and you're done.) Or in the case of big customers like Boeing--which buys an average of 160 Dells a day--customers simply tap the shoulder of a dedicated sales rep working inside their company.
Each PC is made to order, yet the whole process from phone call to loading onto a delivery truck takes just 36 hours. Orders are instantly relayed to one of Dell's three plants--in Austin, Penang, or Limerick, Ireland. You won't find any inventory there, though. "All our suppliers know that our components must be delivered within an hour," says Austin plant manager John Varol. Chips, boards, and drives are kept in trucks backed up into bays 50 feet from the beginning of the line. There's no inventory of finished goods either--Dell learned from his initial foray into the computer business in college that he doesn't want any of his products remaindered.
On Saturday morning, during that same midsummer trip to San Francisco, Michael Dell is out for a run along the Embarcadero. Dell isn't a particularly graceful runner--he scoots along flat-footed--but he's pretty damn fast, especially considering his 6-foot 180-pound frame. "You know, there are still people who don't get it," he says, making a turn at Fisherman's Wharf. "They think that we're just a niche company serving a small group of customers. How could that be, if we're growing faster than anyone? That's not a claim--it's the truth."
It's also a situation that not everyone believes can last. Some question whether Dell's direct-sales model can be adapted to overseas markets. ("I think our numbers speak for themselves," responds Topfer. "In Europe we're No. 3, and growing 3 1/2 times faster than the market.") Others question whether Dell's shares can go much higher: Recently analyst Andy Neff of Bear Stearns downgraded the stock. (On the other hand, Morgan Stanley's Mary Meeker recently predicted that "the stock will knock up to $100 in the next 12 months.")
In the short term, the company could be tripped up by any number of problems: a slowdown in PC sales, say, or a broad stock-market decline. Six months from now Dell's stock might be down $10 or $15 a share. Over the long haul, however, it's probably a mistake to bet against this company. For an increasingly sophisticated computer-buying public, the company's allure will only rise. Even if Compaq and the others move aggressively into direct selling, Dell has a huge head start. "We already have a quick-ship plan for large customers where we can deliver a machine within 48 hours of an order," Dell explains.
"Dell has always been able to figure out the next wrinkle to stay ahead," notes Andy Grove. "It's in their genes." Told of Grove's comment as he trucks back toward Market Street, Dell nods. He's certainly not standing still.


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Earnings grew by 2.3% in the three months to October, falling behind inflation for a seventh month.
Bank staff now alert police when a potential scam victim attempts to withdraw large sums of cash.
A sale of Rupert Murdoch's entertainment assets could be confirmed as soon as Thursday, reports say.
Water bills in England and Wales will fall by between £15 and £25 a year from 2020 onwards, the regulator Ofwat says.
Phone sales tumble at the retailer as consumers hold onto their handsets for longer.
Other most searched topics included the UK general election and the crypto-currency Bitcoin.
Some passengers face disruption after 79 Dublin-based pilots and others around Europe plan walkouts.
The MoneyTaker group has also stolen banking documents that may be used in future attacks.
Silicon Valley giants are focusing heavily on artificial intelligence and its future applications.
The Japanese firm needs to sell its valuable memory chip unit to cover losses from its nuclear business.
Satoru Anzaki, who has terminal cancer, invited 1,000 people to the party to thank them and say goodbye.
National Lottery cash for good causes fell 15% to £1.6bn last year, the spending watchdog finds.
The advertising giant is to change its tax arrangements in about 30 countries after a similar move in the UK.
Italian-born hairdresser who built his south London salon into a global chain dies
The BBC understands that an independent ethics watchdog will recommend new laws on online content.
Customers have been sold tickets for trains that will not run or will be disrupted, a watchdog says.
Barry Fox, 72, says he had "a close shave" with scammers when trying to buy a Rolls Royce on eBay.
With a workforce of just 15 people, the Hiut Denim Company now sells its jeans around the world from its small factory in rural Wales.
Bakery owner John Foster explains how the rising price of imports is affecting his business.
Paying for healthcare in Kenya has got easier thanks to M-Tiba, a mobile "electronic health wallet".
The new action plan means businesses have to make guarantees in order to get financial support.
Garden shed inventors talk about the challenges they face to get government funding for their ideas.
CEO Secrets: Tech start-ups should concentrate on their core business and fight on one front at a time, says Stefano Tresca
As the first phase of talks come to an end, what's been agreed and what is still to come?
A German father petitions against the sale of Lego-style soldiers in Nazi uniforms.
Restaurants face having to seek planning permission if they heavily use food delivery apps.
Despite being based in a small Welsh town, the Hiut Demin Company is exporting its jeans globally.
The next international Pisa tests are going to compare how well young people understand other cultures.
These are the choices faced by many families living in Kenya's slums. Could technology help?
The female social entrepreneur buildings dams for farms and villages across Rajasthan, India.
Kristina Karlsson set up her stationary business following a eureka moment, and it has since gone global.
As Jerome Powell prepares to take over the Federal Reserve, is the era of central bank independence ending?
Learning to paint while enjoying a drink has become a popular pastime - but can you improve under the influence?
A "revolution" in our financial lives will begin next month, but what is it and how will it work?
People are paying friends, family and firms through their social media apps.
The Bitcoin bull run has been welcomed by many but regulators are still trying to understand it.
It is in the finest carpets, it is in Harris Tweed, and now you'll even find it in top-of-the-range beds; but at £1 a kilo, UK wool hasn't been this cheap in seven years.
Babbel, one of the world's most popular language learning websites, was set up by friends after one of them wanted to learn Spanish.
Live streaming in Asia has boomed thanks to a massive youth market who spend big through mobile apps.
At every key moment in US economic history, the chair of the Federal Reserve has set the pace.
An intact mummy, excavated a century ago, is the first to be scanned by an advanced X-ray system.
The tech tackling fake baby formula, dodgy drugs, conflict diamonds and fishy fish.
Putting Pakistan's missing female doctors and midwives to work to save lives.
Tej Lalvani heads up his family vitamins firm but says luck "wasn't handed to him on a plate"
The growth of easily available credit profoundly altered our attitude to money.
Within 15 years, retirees who are renting may have to pay up to 42% of their income, according to a new study
The inspiring stories of people who quit their day job for something completely different.
Food businesses serving up cheesy dishes are thriving, but is the trend bad for our health?
What do US central bankers do during a financial crisis?
They won't give you superhuman strength, but exoskeletons are making physical tasks easier.
Skiing faces a number of challenges, including ageing participants, climate change, and even Brexit.
Japan's years of stagnant wage growth and a rapidly ageing population offer lessons to other developed economies.
The digital currency Bitcoin is going through the roof - but what is it, and why has it shot up in price?
How a Brazilian company put itself at the forefront of biological pest control - using insects to control other bugs.
Imagine pointing your phone's camera at any object and being given useful information about it.
The interest rate set by America's central bank, the US Federal Reserve, is one of the key levers of the global economy.
The volunteers pushing to get up to three million Indian girls into school instead of becoming child brides.
The founder of the sports nutrition company MaxiMuscle wants to buy back the firm he founded.
This simple yet transformative piece of technology made civilisation possible.
How Advent has gone from chocolate treats for children to an extravagant present-filled bonanza.
A growing number of businesses are finding creative uses for surplus food - but will the trend ever go mainstream?
Not every country has a single number to call in an emergency. One start-up is trying to change that.


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The latest economic reports indicate that the summer tourist season in the U.S. Virgin Islands for 2014 was among the strongest in recent memory. This is good news for the territory, following a winter tourist season in which activity actually declined 0.9 percent compared to the same period the year before. The summer numbers, however, reveal a jump of 7.6 percent over the summer of 2013, bringing this year’s overall numbers to nearly 1.5 million cruise visitors and more than 560,000 stopover tourists, both of which represent 3 to 4 percent increases over last year.
As tourism remains the prime contributor to the USVI economy, this news is being met with much enthusiasm, and there are additional plans to expand the industry’s growth in the territory. Particularly since the 2012 closure of the Hovensa oil refinery, the U.S. Virgin Islands has become increasingly dependent on tourism as the primary driver of the economy. Whereas the tourism industry once employed about a third of the territory’s labor force, that number has now risen above 50 percent. Marketing efforts across the United States, the construction of new resorts and the addition of flights from Atlanta, New York and Boston all seem to be having positive effects on the local economy.
The U.S. Virgin Islands combines an important history, a booming sustainable tourism industry and the allure of duty-free shopping, all in a picturesque natural setting that makes the territory very attractive to potential tourists. The ease of travel for Americans, who don’t have to deal with a language barrier, passports or currency exchange, helps make the territory especially attractive to citizens from throughout the U.S. and its territories.
Although it’s well known that Christopher Columbus first landed in the Caribbean in 1492, fewer people are aware that he reached St. Croix just a year later. Additionally, the Jamestown settlers stopped off in St. Thomas in 1607 en route to Virginia. Remnants of this history and more can be part of the USVI tourism experience.
Preserving the character of the islands so they can be experienced, at least visually, in much the same way explorers did years ago is a true priority. To this end, there has been an increasing focus on ecotourism and sustainable tourism, which allow visitors to experience as much of the natural beauty of the USVI as possible.
Meanwhile, for those who want to shop, there are no customs duties or sales tax on tourism-related purchases, and U.S. citizens benefit from a $1,600 duty-free shopping quota. This allows travelers to enjoy many of the territory’s great shopping bargains, from cameras and leather goods to fine china and jewelry.
With all of the growth occurring in the U.S. Virgin Islands, it has become an attractive moment for businesses looking to open in the Territory, as well as for groups connected with the tourism industry. Entrepreneurs considering a move to the USVI are encouraged to speak with an experienced local business law attorney to ensure a successful relocation.
BoltNagi is a widely respected and established business and corporate law firm serving clients throughout the U.S. Virgin Islands.


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FTC settles with car dealership accused of unfair loans to blacks and Latinos
On the issue of junk fees, the FTC said Passport is marketing certain used products cars as “certified” or “inspected”. But when a customer came to buy the vehicle at the advertised price, the dealership added hundreds or thousands of dollars in fees falsely labeled as “required,” the FTC said. In one case, Buyer of a Certified Pre-Owned 2018 Nissan Rogue advertised for $24,050 was charged a An additional $2,390 in illegal fees for repackaging and certification, according to the FTC complaint.
In many cases, automakers specifically prohibit dealerships from charging certification costs separately, the agency said.
“Passport does not tolerate behavior that violates customer trust, and the company took prompt action after learning that some customers were charged redundant fees,” the company said in an emailed statement.
In its defense, the dealership said that “an internal investigation determined that the violations were largely isolated to a group of three employees, and that those employees are no longer part of the organization.”
OK very good. But what about the other accusation of unfair lending practice?
The legacy of decades of housing discrimination still plagues the United States
Part of the settlement involves a “markup,” an industry practice that needs plenty of sunshine.
Applied unevenly, even when borrowers are equally creditworthy, it shows how discrimination can thrive and be profitable.
Dealerships often arrange financing for car buyers. In such a process, the dealer submits an application to one or more lenders on behalf of a consumer. A lender, taking into account the potential buyer’s credit history and other information, such as income and loan term, will approve the loan at a certain annual percentage rate called the “purchase rate.”
Stick with me on this, because you need to know this if you choose to take out dealer financing.
In certain circumstances, depending on its policies, the auto lender may allow the dealership to add a finance charge to the purchase rate. This is the “markup”.
So, unbeknownst to many borrowers, the dealer may decide to increase the purchase rate for no other reason than that. For example, a customer’s purchase rate may be 5%, but the dealership may tell a consumer that they have been approved for a 7% loan.
The dealer doesn’t tell you the purchase rate, only the final contract rate for the loan, which is equal to the purchase rate plus the markup, the FTC points out. Importantly, the markup is not related to any credit issues with the borrower, the agency said in the lawsuit against Passport.
The dealers say the markups are legitimate compensation for helping arrange the loans.
This is where this practice can be discriminatory.
Opinion: Guess how much cheaper your auto loan would be if dealers were to play fair
According to the FTC, Passport’s discretionary use of mark-up rates resulted in higher loan rates for some black and Latino consumers compared to loans offered to white consumers.
Passport has a policy of charging a 2% markup but gives employees the discretion to reduce or eliminate it for certain reasons, such as the consumer has a more competitive credit offer, the FTC said in its complaint.
Black consumers received the maximum markup allowed by passports about 47% more often than whites, the FTC said. For Latino consumers, it was 38% more often.
The agency said Passport had received letters from a finance company — one in June 2019 and another in June 2020 — pointing to a statistically significant difference in mark-up rates charged to black borrowers.
The car dealership denied that it was discriminating.
“Passport refutes these allegations in the strongest possible terms, but bringing this matter to court would have required a multi-year, multi-million dollar legal battle that would ultimately distract us from the important work that we do,” he said. said the company.
A markup shenanigan almost happened to me at another dealership in Maryland a long time ago when I was financing my car purchases. I pay cash now.
A salesperson filed my credit application for a car loan. I didn’t tell him that I had already shopped around and had received a loan offer from my credit union. I just wanted to test what the dealer would offer me – a black woman – as a loan quote.
I had reported accusations of dealer discrimination in a two-tier loan pricing system that penalized blacks and Latinos who were creditworthy but had higher financing rates. My credit union offered me a rate that matched my outstanding credit history. On the FICO credit score model of a low of 300 to a high of 850, I was in the high 700s. My current credit score is a perfect 850.
At the time, the average rate for a used car loan was around 5%.
The seller said the lender came back with a 10% rate.
“That’s awfully high,” I protested.
He countered by suggesting that I had problems with my credit.
What I thought next is not suitable for printing.
The car dealership was counting on two things: that I wouldn’t know about my excellent credit score, and that I wouldn’t bother shopping around for a better loan rate. Since I wrote this column, there have been lawsuits and reports of racial discrimination in the area of auto loans.
U.S. consumers are going into more debt to buy new vehicles, reports Experian
Part of the FTC settlement with Passport requires that each dealership location not charge any financing markup or charge the same rate of markup to all consumers. The agency said it plans to use the settlement funds to reimburse consumers.
“This is the third instance in recent years where we have acted to protect consumers from discrimination in the automotive marketplace,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Consumer Protection Bureau. “Buying a car is one of the most important purchases a consumer will make, and they deserve protection from hidden charges and discriminatory practices.”
With inflation at its highest level in 40 years and supply chain issues still plaguing the auto industry, driving up prices for used and new cars, you need to shop around for your financing. Pay attention to the hidden margins on your car loan. And definitely, you need to shop around for loan rates, especially if you’re a minority car buyer.


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Tech News Today 428
Recorded: February 1, 2012
Published: February 1, 2012
Tech News Today 428: Friend Facebook Financially
Facebook files for IPO, Sony's new CEO has his work cut out for him, Microsoft and Google are mudslinging, and more.
Submit and vote on story coverage at technewstoday.reddit.com
- Sarah Lane ( )
- Iyaz Akhtar ( )
- Jason Howell ( )
- Shannon Morse ( )
- Facebook IPO Filing: What to Look Out For
- Facebook files papers for $5 billion IPO
- Facebook’s S-1 And The Largest Shareholders: Who Owns What?
- Facebook's S1
- FB IPO Filed for potentially $5B, would be the largest debut in about 4 years
- Did not specify projected price range in the filing
- Symbol is FB, but the exchange wasn't specified.
- Facebook: profitable for three years straight. $3.7B in revenue in 2011, $3.9B in cash on hand.
- Revenues 2009: $777M | 2010 $1.974B
- Morgan Stanley gets the role as lead underwriter. JP Morgan, Goldman, Sachs, and others will also underwrite
- Google's 2004 IPO - raised $1.9B at a $23B valuation
- Stats: 845M monthly uniques is impressive, but 483M DAILY active users (Dec 11)
- Mark Zuckerberg is the largest shareholder with 28 percent of the company. He’s followed by Accel (invested in 2005) and Accel Partner Jim Breyer who owns 11.4 percent of the company. Co-founder Dustin Moskovitz owns 7.6 percent of the company, followed by DST with 5.4 percent. Peter Thiel, Facebook’s first investor, owns 2.5 percent. COO Sheryl Sandburg has 1,899,986 shares.
- Sony's Hirai to replace Stringer as CEO in April
- Sony Names Hirai as Head to Succeed Stringer Amid TV Losses
- For Sony's New CEO, a Big Challenge Is in Your Living Room
- Why Sony needed to swap out its CEO
- Sony announced Kazuo Hirai will become the company's president and CEO on April 1st, replacing current CEO and pres. Howard Stringer (The rumor was Kazuo Hirai to be named President of Sony, Howard Stringer to remain CEO back in January)
- Stringer will become chairman replacing Yotaro Kobayashi. earlier this month Stringer said he expected Hirai to become Prez soon, no mention of CEO.
- Hirai is the youngest Sony CEO ever at 51
- His current title is Chairman of Sony Computer Entertainment which includes the PlayStation line
- BTW Sony will announce its fiscal third-quarter earnings tomorrow.
- Under Stringer, Playstation network security breach, sluggish initial sales for PS3, Sony TV biz has posted 8 straight losses, Sony-Ericsson partnership ended over flat mobile growth
- Over the last year, Sony's shares have lost nearly 48% of their value and fallen to $18.22. Over the last 5 years, Sony's shares has lost nearly 62%.
- "The path we must take is clear: to drive the growth of our core electronics businesses — primarily digital imaging, smart mobile and game; to turn around the television business; and to accelerate the innovation that enables us to create new business domains," Hirai said in a statement.
- "Analyst Reaction: Hirai "understands the culture of the company, clearly understands Japanese culture, but he's U.S. educated and lived here for a long time running an important business, so he's in tune with Western consumers," says Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter. "I think he's a good fit."
- Microsoft Slams Google Privacy Changes With “Putting People First” Ad Campaign
- Microsoft Turns the Tables on Google with Ad Campaign
- Gone Google? Got Concerns? We Have Alternatives
- Yesterday, Frank X. Shaw, VP of corp. communications for MS, wrote on a MS blog that Microsoft has your alternatives to Google.
- New "Putting People First" ads ran in in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and USA Today
- Selections from the Ad copy:
- "Google is in the process of making some unpopular changes to some of their most popular products. Those changes, cloaked in language like “transparency,” “simplicity” and “consistency,” are really about one thing: making it easier for Google to connect the dots between everything you search, send, say or stream while using one of their services."
- "Every data point they collect and connect to you increases how valuable you are to an advertiser."
- "If these changes rub you the wrong way, please consider using our portfolio of award-winning products and services…."
- The ads link to the Google Policies & Principles page, which seeks to reassure customers that their data will be just as safe after the March 1st update.
- Danny Sullivan of marketingland.com spoke with Frank Shaw - “There’s actually a philosophical difference. When you boil it down, Google really only has one customer, and that’s its advertisers”.
- Pirate Bay Founders Lose Supreme Court Appeal, Going to Jail
- The Pirate Bay Moves to .SE Domain To Prevent Domain Seizure
- Sweden’s Supreme Court just announced it won’t agree to hear an appeal by The Pirate Bay’s founders, meaning the jail sentences and fines imposed by the Swedish Court of Appeals in 2009 will stand.
- Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm and Carl Lundström, who started file-sharing site The Pirate Bay in September 2003, face jail time and have to collectively pony up a fine of 46 million Swedish kronor (US$6.7 million).
- April 2009, The Pirate Bay’s founders were found guilty of abetting copyright infringement and sentenced to a year in prison, plus a fine of 30 million SEK (about US$4.2 million at the time).
- The Appeals Ct lowered the jail time, increased the fine
- Final terms of sentencing, Sunde faces eight months in prison, Neij, 10 months and Lundström just four months. Svartholm, who missed the appeals hearing for medical reasons, faces a full year in prison.
- the operators of the the pirate bay quickly moved to change their domain name from .ORG to the Swedish .SE. A Pirate Bay insider informed TorrentFreak that this move was made to prevent the US authorities from seizing the domain, which is a serious risk now the court case has completed.
- the .org site redirects to the .se
- Redbox breaks with Warner Bros. over 56-day waiting period
- YouTube could introduce a subscription service of its own
- Redbox will get WB movies when they are released. The company will not be subject to the 28 day wait it previously dealt with, nor will it be like Netflix which is subject to a 56-day wait.
- Redbox will now obtain its WB movies from a source other than WB. That means Redbox will not get the movies at a discount.
- At the D:Dive Into Media conference Tuesday, YouTube CEO Salar Kamangar said his company could potentially create a service that could enable content providers to create their own subscription-based video offerings on the YouTube platform.
- Kamangar gave an example of being able to sign up for individual yoga channels, for instance. While he warned that it’s a bit premature and that YouTube doesn’t currently have a product to announce, it’s definitely something YouTube is thinking about.“
- Apple: Piper's Munster Finds More Evidence TV Coming Soon
- Photos show quad-core iPad 3 processor, Wi-Fi and global LTE options
- More photos of iPod Nano with a camera emerge
- Rumor Mill time!
- Piper Jaffary analyst Gene Munster is back saying, “We recently spoke to a major TV component supplier who has been contacted by Apple regarding various capabilities of their television display components,” he writes in a research note. “We are confident that Apple will enter the connected TV market, but timing remains uncertain."
- Apple is investing in manufacturing facilities for LCD displays ranging from 3.5″ mobile displays to 50″ television displays.
- Same stuff:
- Apple could enable its television to manage a consumer’s live TV service from within a unified interface, like TiVo, but without a set-top box.
- Apple could offer access to live TV from network programming in combination with Web-based video services.
- Apple could offer monthly subscriptions on an a-la-carte basis for live TV packages with content from content providers; this is the most challenging scenario due to existing licensing arrangements, he notes.
- BGR has photos from a source who says he's got an prototype iPad 3.
- The photo shows a developer and debug tool called iBoot
- specs show a quad core processor, the A6 - two models: WiFi only and WiFi + GSM/CDMA/LTE for all carriers
- Then Apple.pro published pics of a nano that looks like it has a camera.
- ARM's CEO Warren East says Microsoft's brand recognition among consumers gives it an edge over Android, when asked by an analyst why Windows 8 tablets would be a hit when Android tablet sales have been "disappointing". He says he still believes in Android, but thinks Intel's got its work cut out for it compete "with the 20 or so ARM licensees who are very actively supplying apps processors."
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation is collecting information from Megaupload users in hopes to recover their content. The EFF along with Megaupload host Carpathia Hosting set up MegaRetreival.com. The EFF is focused on bringing back lawful content and will review factual situations. The CMO of Carpathia published a statement at the site, saying "We have no immediate plans to reprovision some or all of the Megaupload servers. This means that there is no imminent data loss for Megaupload customers. If this situation changes, we will post a notice at least 7 days in advance of reprovisioning any Megaupload servers at www.Carpathia.com andwww.MegaRetrieval.com."
- Score one for Samsung! The Munich Regional Court rejected a motion by Apple to get a preliminary ban on sales of the Galaxy 10.1N and Galaxy Nexus phones in a case where Apple invoked a patent granted last year protecting technology related to touch screens for tablets and smartphones.“Samsung has shown that it is more likely than not that the patent will be revoked because of a technology that was already on the market before the intellectual property had been filed for protection,” Presiding Judge Andreas Mueller said when delivering the ruling.
- Let's have some more Samsung news! Samsung announced that you won't be see the upcoming Galaxy S III at this month's Mobile World Congress. Samsung told The Verge that we'll see the next Galaxy S at a separate Samsung-hosted event.
- Seagate Technology says supply of hard disk drives this year will fall short of demand, citing floods in Thailand as a leading cause in the need for long-term agreements with large customers. Last month research firm Gartner predicted the major impact of the HDD shortage after the floods will be felt in the first half of this year, but continue through 2012. PC shipment growth could be temporarily affected during 2012, Gartner said.
- The Senate Judiciary subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights will hold hearings examining Verizon's deal to buy wireless spectrum from Bright House, Comcast, and Time Warner. The deal allows the cable companies to sell Verizon services and vice versa. Comcast is already selling Verizon LTE service with its other services in Seattle and Portland.
- Google wants to keep operating its Google Maps service in China and is in discussions with the Chinese government to get an essential license granted to do so. This morning, Chinese media reported that Google would miss the deadline to apply for the license, however a Google spokesperson says "We’re currently in discussions with the government about how we can offer a maps product in China." A1Google is required to hold a number of licenses to legally provide services in China, the mapping service license requirement is new.
- Romanian Police believe they've arrested NASA and Pentagon hacker TinKode. Razvan Manole Cernaianu is accessed high profile computer systems without authorization. He's a 20 year old IT-student. Both NASA and the FBI were part of the investigation that led to the arrest.
- WikiLeaks may move operations to the high seas! Financial backers OF WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange are reportedly on the hunt for a boat that would house Wikileaks' servers in international waters to avoid U.S. legal authorities, according to FoxNews.com. Another option ? Run WikiLeaks from a maritime micro-nation like the Principality of Sealand, a North Sea World War II-era anti-aircraft platform. Meanwhile, Assange went before Britian's Supreme Court today to appeal against rulings by lower courts approving Mr. Assange’s extradition to Sweden. The judges are expected to announce their conclusions in several weeks.
- WikiLeaks Founder Appeals Extradition at Britain’s Supreme Court
- Boxee removed all copies of its app for PCs last night. The company says the future of TV will be driven by the Boxee Box and other connected devices, rather than PCs.
- Firefox 10 for Android now available in the Android Market includes anti-aliasing for WebGL, HTML5 support, but no Flash in the browser.
- Mint has launched a free Android app which should provide a similar experience to its iOS app. Mint launched in 2007 and was acquired by Intuit in 2009.
- PSN maintenance starts this Thursday at 9am EST, through 3 am EST Friday morning. It doesn't affect gameplay, just the PS Store, Customer Account Management and Registration services.
- Gotham City Impostors launches February 7th on North American PSN and PCs, and February 8th for Xbox Live and PSNs worldwide.
"Last week, Tom mentioned the Hawaii bill that would have required ISPs to record & save user history & other information for two years. Today, Rep. John Mizuno bowed to pressure & killed his own bill!
Yay! Countless Hawaii internet users sigh in relief. Guess John heard Tom was on the way...
- ad times: :51-1:01 and 22:53-24:38
- Edited by: Jason
|This area is for use by TWiT staff only. Please do not add or edit any content within this section.|


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They say that, in Bollywood, history and success repeats itself at frequent intervals. Well, we would like to add a bit more to that. We would like to say that, in Bollywood, its not just history and success, but also a successful jodi that repeats itself at frequent intervals!
After 'Race-ing' ahead of everyone, the successful pair of Saif Ali Khan and Bipasha Basu will now be seen in a different avatar. This time round, they will be seen promoting the to-be launched mobile handsets called 'Wynn Mobiles', as they have been roped in as the brand ambassadors. Sources close to Bollywood Hungama say that the said brand will be having a grand launch by mid 2010 as they feel that it's the right time to hit the market and reach the consumers. As far as the reason why they zeroed down on Saif and Bipasha, our source says, "The company was scouting for every single hit actor. But they chose to zero down on the Saif-Bips pair as they felt that it's a safe bet to bank upon, as this pair has already delivered celluloid hits like Omkara and also Race. When asked about the commercials involved, our source added that it was indeed a practical way of saying 'Sky is the limit'.
Repeated attempts to reach Saif and Bipasha and also their spokespersons proved futile.
Catch us for latest Bollywood News, New Bollywood Movies update, Box office collection, New Movies Release , Bollywood News Hindi, Entertainment News, Bollywood News Today & upcoming movies 2020 and stay updated with latest hindi movies only on Bollywood Hungama.


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Fieldline Goes Social Online
Leading Manufacturer of Hunting Packs and Accessories Launches Official Facebook Page.
Los Angeles, CA –-(Ammoland.com)- A great deal of thought and consideration goes into choosing a reliable pack that can endure the challenges that await hunters in the field. That’s exactly why outdoorsmen have been selecting Fieldline’s high quality packs and accessories season after season to keep them organized and comfortable.
And now, worldwide fans of the brand can make their search for the perfect pack even easier while keeping up with the latest product introductions, company news, hunting tips, special contests and more with the new fully integrated corporate Facebook page: www.facebook.com/fieldline.
Join in on the conversation not just about great hunting gear — find out the scoop on top hunting spots, see photos of the biggest and baddest trophies from fellow hunters, plus get a chance to win some cool gear for next season. Along with the popular Facebook features such as an ongoing newsfeed, photos, and more — the company plans to rollout another custom tab featuring video and multimedia content that will keep the action going, and its followers in the mix.
“Social media platforms like Facebook are quickly becoming an important information and communication source for every activity, including hunting,” says General Manager Andrew Altshule. “We’re excited to be able to engage with our customers on a personal level, and provide special content and promotions available only on Facebook.”
Fieldline has been developing high-quality hunting packs and accessories since 1972. The company packs in a variety of innovative features into every piece of gear with a focus on incredible organization, superior function, and unmatched comfort for even the heaviest of loads — allowing hunters to keep their eye on the prize and their focus off carrying their gear.
To learn more about the full line from Fieldline, designed to keep hunters comfortable and organized, contact the company at 1919 Vineburn Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90032 • Telephone: (800) 438-3353 • www.fieldline.com.


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Tech Startup Paradise?
Like many city and states across the country, Hawaii hopes to position itself as a paradise for tech start-ups. As Pacific Business News has found, there may be another way forward. Editor in Chief A. Kam Napier has more.
There’s been a concerted effort of the part of both the public and private sectors in Hawai‘i to create a sustainable tech startup environment. There are a lot of good reasons to do so. It would diversify the economy, create more high-paying tech jobs, and who knows, perhaps Hawai‘i could be home to the next Facebook.
There has been progress. Hawai‘i is home to three incubators, five accelerators, six investment funds, and six start-up organizations. However, a pattern has also emerged suggesting there’s a limit on how far Hawai‘i can go. At a certain point, our fledging tech companies need to leave for the mainland to find major funding or to go public.
Looming over all of this is the likelihood that financing for tech, in general, will get tighter now that interest rates are going up.
In this cover story, we spoke to tech leaders who think our natural role may be as a tech incubator rather than the next Silicon Valley…and that’s okay. Local investors can still do well by securing an ownership stake in companies that go on to bigger markets. And young talented tech entrepreneurs from the islands can still get the head start they need. And there’s every possibility that some of them will return, bigger and better than ever to launch businesses here.


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Walmart and Flipkart has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME), Government of Madhya Pradesh to help local entrepreneurs in the state.
Business-to-business jewellery exhibition the Gems & Jewellery Manufacturers Show will hold its first edition at the Surat International Exhibition and Convention Centre with the aim of boosting business in the area.
French luxury group Chanel has hiked prices of some of its most sought after handbags at a time when strong consumer demand and low stocks in the run-up to the holiday shopping season are boosting their exclusivity.
The Union Minister for MSMEs highlighted the importance of Indian manufacturing and shared his confidence that MSMEs will help the country to achieve its export target of $400 billion (Rs 26.6 lakh crore) this fiscal.
Design, production and consumption of apparel that increases resale, subscription, renting and reuse of clothes using safe and renewable materials is a growing trend, according to a new research brief by the ILO.
Small and medium business-to-customer shopping fairs have been restarting over the past month as local lockdowns lifted across India, but the continued second wave of the virus has seen numerous events cancelled again.


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Tag - Tunisia
Apple is bringing the third-generation iPad to 30 more countries this weekend, the company has announced. The bulk of launches will happen on May 11th; for that day the list includes Argentina, Aruba, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Cambodia, Chile, Costa Rica, Curacao, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, Malta, Martinique, Mauritius, Morocco, Peru, Taiwan, Tunisia, and Vietnam. Several Middle Eastern countries will get the tablet on May 12th, those being Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
The iPhone 4S is now available in over 20 more countries, checks show. A list includes Bahrain, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Morocco, Peru, the Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam. The expansion coincides with expansions of the iTunes Store and iTunes Match.


text: Schneider Trucking is sending its Ride of Pride truck to a fundraiser motorcycle event this Saturday. The Veterans of Foreign Wars is having a Ride for P.A.W.S. event starting at 9 a.m. at the Brewer Culley Post 2693, 529 N. Apple St., Greenfield. The ride will include stops at the American Legions in Morristown and Greensburg, and there will also be a spaghetti dinner, silent auction and dessert auction with proceeds benefiting Partners for Animal Welfare Society. To sign up for the ride, call 317-281-0505; riders get the dinner as part of the event at about 3 p.m., but people can purchase dinner tickets separately or participate in the silent auction from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. or the dessert auction from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.


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Finally, after over 5 years of pleading, the FDA does something I can get behind! As I wrote in my book, the FDA had planned to investigate the health and safety of anti-bacterial chemicals like triclosan, a very common ingredient in hand soaps, deodorants, and even toothpaste and make a decision on whether regulations were appropriate. Well after their investigation, the FDA announced their decision to regulate not only consumer products containing triclosan, but also the use of antibiotics in livestock. They claim that there is enough evidence to show that the use of these products leads to human antibiotic resistance and illness.
Contrary to the false propagated belief that the use of antibiotics in livestock makes the food safer, the primary use of antibiotics in livestock is to make larger animals and more profits…. and we know the use of antibiotics leads to illness. Eating livestock that have been treated with antibiotics affects the antibiotic resistance in the humans who eat them as well as pollute the groundwater and surrounding areas with antibiotic run off. This is having a huge effect on un-targeted animals and wildlife. The FDA will regulate “some use” of these antibiotics, but the entire regulation is not entirely clear. This is just one of the dozens of reasons I have phased meat out of my life. Don’t want it. Don’t miss it.
The use of triclosan and triclocarban containing soaps also have hormonal properties….something we’ve known for years.
A statement from the FDA says:
“In rat studies, we’ve seen decreases in thyroid hormone levels, and in some cell-based systems, we’ve seen changes in cells’ ability to respond to estrogen and testosterone,” she said. “The challenge is trying to understand what those mean for effects on humans.”
Well, FDA, there’s more to the story than that. There is also evidence that trilosan when it mixes with tap water, breaks down into cancer causing compounds.
Under the new regulations, the manufacturers of antibacterial soaps would have to show that there is a just reason for the antibacterial part of the soap and that it cleans better than regular soap and water alone. There is substantial evidence to show that washing for less than a minute using friction (rubbing hands together) and using plain soap and water is just as effective, if not more so, than using the antibacterial soaps.
But don’t be expecting any changes in the products you see on the shelves and time soon. In it’s ever-loving speediness, the FDA won’t have their plans finalized until September of 2016, and the regulations won’t be slated to take effect until Sept 2017. They’ve been “discussing” this issue of safety since 2009 although evidence has been piled up in their office for to show that that triclosan is harmful. Ah yes…the motto of the FDA “Better late than never”.
Excluded from the regulations are hospitals. My hope is that a safe alternative will be developed for this purpose. I think I’m OK with that, except for the employees that are exposing themselves on a daily basis.
Proper hand washing is as easy as wet, lather, friction for 20 seconds, rinse, dry. If you need pictures and more text you can find it here.
I urge you to check your personal care products not only for triclosan and triclocarban, but for other harmful chemcials like parabens, parfum, artificial dyes, aluminum, DEA, TEA, phthalates, DMDM hydantoin, and a host of others. It’s better to just know the ingredients in the list than have to look any of them up. I have been using Dr Bronners for years. They make products for all areas of your life and are fair trade and treat their workers pretty nice too. Read the doc’s story…it’s pretty amazing.
Although the FDA is taking action here, please don’t forget it was the FDA that gave triclosan its approval in 1979. We’ve had to wait 35 years for them to say “oops”. Don’t wait for them to keep you safe. That’s your job.


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Donald Trump Jr. Shows Off Trump-Branded Camo Gear Just in Time for Fall
OutdoorHub Reporters 09.11.19
You probably saw the photo circulating the internet lately of a stern faced Don Trump Jr awkwardly lying in what looks like some sort of outdoor patio chair and sporting a (stained) Trump-branded camo t-shirt. But instead of fixating on what could have possibly dribbled on Don’s collar, lets take a closer look at the new merch.
The “Fall & Camo Collection” includes camo wallets, drinkware, baseball caps, dog collars, footballs and more, all with the family’s name emblazoned front and center.
Need some new digs for hunt camp? Look no further..
— The Trump Organization (@Trump) September 9, 2019
Here’s a look at some other items available at the online Trump Store:
Split Boss Pullover Hoodie ($55):
Varsity Blue Polo ($100):
Knit Toque Hat ($35):


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FDA urges parents not to use belladonna-containing teething tablets
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday advised parents not use Hyland’s homeopathic teething tablets that contain a toxic substance called belladonna.
Belladonna, which commonly known as deadly nightshade, is a potentially dangerous toxic substance that can affect the health of infants.
Los Angeles-based Standard Homeopathic Co., the producer of Hyland’s, has already discontinued the belladonna-containing products.
Discontinuing the products on Oct. 7, the company said, “We discontinued it because we are committed to our moms and our dads who choose to trust us to put medicines in their young infants' mouths, and we didn't want to put them in a place between the FDA warning and us saying the product was safe.”
Homeopathic teething tablets containing belladonna, which provide temporary relief to infants growing their first teeth, have been around in the United States since the early 1900s.
The FDA originally warned against the tablets in 2010 after a study showed that they contained belladonna in inconsistent amounts. Since then, the federal agency has received hundreds of reports of adverse events, such as seizures and some infant deaths, linked to teething products.
The health of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is in...Read More
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As the Trump administration is reportedly mulling...Read More
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The Mighty Quest For Epic Loot release date announced
Ubisoft have announced the official release of The Mighty Quest For Epic Loot on February 8, 2015.
Ubisoft have announced the official release date of “The Mighty Quest For Epic Loot” as February 8, 2015. The ‘open beta’ tag to the game has now been dropped and the Infinite Pack has been added as a part of the launch. This pack allows users to purchase additional game content from the past and the future. What more, the pack allows players to use all four Heroes, one material mine, two epic rings and all traps and rare creatures that have been released previously.
The pack is available at a cost of $30 USD, however, Steam has tried its best to help by reducing it to $25.
This entertaining free-to-play multiplayer game was introduced as an open beta, about a year ago, which sees player hacking and slashing through each others while building impenetrable castles to pile up the loot and at the same time attacking castles belonging to other players in an attempt to loot them!


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Colorado Healthcare Expert and Small Business Owners Available to Give Small Business Perspective on Affordable Care Act Repeal
Tim Gaudette, Colorado Outreach Manager for Small Business Majority, and Colorado small business owners available to speak to media about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and how it has helped small firms and their employees.
Who: Small business and economic expert Tim Gaudette, Colorado Outreach Manager for Small Business Majority, is available to speak to media about the ways in which small employers have benefited from the Affordable Care Act.
“The Affordable Care Act has been of tremendous benefit to small business owners in Colorado,” said Gaudette. “Thanks to the healthcare law’s cost-containment provisions, we’ve seen much smaller increases in small group market rates compared to pre-ACA, when double-digit increases were often the norm. What’s more, 28 percent of self-employed Americans were uninsured before the ACA—many because of pre-existing conditions. Now these entrepreneurs can obtain quality, affordable health coverage and focus more on running their businesses. Any lawmaker who would repeal the ACA is far more interested in scoring a political victory than in helping our nation’s job creators and their employees.”
When: Tim Gaudette is available for interviews this week and next. Small business owners across the state are also available for interviews.
To Request An Interview: Contact Simon Brown, Media Relations Manager for Small Business Majority: (303) 223-6335 or email@example.com.
About Small Business Majority
Small Business Majority is a national small business advocacy organization, founded and run by small business owners to focus on solving the biggest problems facing America's 28 million small businesses today. Since 2005, we have actively engaged small business owners and policymakers in support of public policy solutions, and have delivered information and resources to entrepreneurs that promote small business growth and drive a strong, sustainable economy. We are a team of more than 30 working from our 11 offices in Washington, D.C. and 9 states, with a network of more than 45,000 small business owners and more than 2,000 business organizations, along with a formal strategic partnership program of more than 125 business organizations, enabling us to reach more than 500,000 entrepreneurs. Our extensive scientific polling, focus groups and economic research help us educate and inform policymakers, the media and other stakeholders about issues including taxes, healthcare, access to capital, entrepreneurship, workforce development, clean energy and immigration. Learn more about us on our website and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.


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But with tax men surrounding the company in Europe, with regulators in Brazil trying to tell it who it must search and how much it must pay for the privilege, and with the U.S. FTC reportedly preparing an ultimatum to resolve antitrust complaints or face Microsoft-like legal action, it's no longer a question of whether the stock will retreat, but how far.
Even the company's most recent quarter is signaling trouble ahead. Adding Motorola's results to the mix put the top line into overdrive - up nearly 35% from the spring quarter - but they have taken a big bite out of net income, down one-quarter in the same period. Mountain View has been trying to "take the hit" on Motorola quickly, aggressively cutting staff and product lines, seeking just one or two home runs instead of a bunch of singles. It all makes sense, but if Google can't compete more effectively with its biggest OEMs - Amazon.com (AMZN), LG, Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) - why did it bother taking over the company in the first place?
The legal troubles, especially those in the U.S., should be of greater concern. The FTC has been on the case 18 months. The company's rivals, like antitrust lawyer Gary Reback, are fighting hard against a settlement. That's political pressure.
But it's not just about the company's business practices. This is also a patent case. An FTC suit over how Google used the patents it got from Motorola would come just as the company is in court trying to extract money from Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) over those same patents. Motorola's patents on key mobile phone standards were considered a checkmate in the Android patent battle, but the value of that card seems open to question.
There are indications Google could do very well this Christmas, and its Internet Cloud infrastructure remains the best in the world. I remain a long-term bull on Google. But I do suspect we're going to get a much better entry point over the next month.
Disclosure: I am long GOOG, AAPL, MSFT. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.


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As consumers await Apple's iPad, a new study from market analyst RBC and ChangeWave Research has revealed that the demand for Apple's tablet currently outpaces the original demand for its iPhone. MacRumors first reported on the story.
According to the survey, which was mentioned in a research note to clients by RBC analyst Mike Abramsky, 13 percent of the 3,200 folks surveyed said they were likely to buy an iPad when it's released. According to ChangeWave, initial iPhone demand was at 9 percent prior to the launch of the original iPhone.
Perhaps more importantly, the survey … Read more


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Alibaba's Luxury Soho Platform To Draw Younger Consumers
Alibaba Group has piloted Luxury Soho, a new platform named after New York’s Soho district and aimed at young, value-conscious luxury shoppers. It is aimed at helping luxury brands efficiently manage inventory and stock and attract younger consumers and those who may be new to luxury, said Christina Fontana, head of Tmall Fashion and Luxury in Europe.
Restricted movements led to reduced foot traffic in brick-and-mortar stores – including from Chinese tourists who were not able to travel to brands’ boutiques and outlets in Western countries like they used to, Fontana said in a company press release.
So brands are now sitting on a worldwide abundance of stock and need to find ways to reach new consumers, she said.
With Luxury Soho, brands can now move select products and collections onto an online outlet store and bring them in front of a specific audience that is waiting to discover new products and brands.
“We designed Tmall Luxury Pavilion to serve almost as a second website for brands in China. Luxury Pavilion stores bring the exclusive experience of shopping in a brick-and-mortar environment online. It is more focused on branding and aimed at a more affluent class of consumers. Luxury Soho, on the other hand, targets younger, newer luxury consumers, such as those from China’s lower-tier cities or Gen Z shoppers who are just entering the world of luxury,” she said.
Luxury Soho is much more than an outlet; it is a full-chain solution that helps brands effectively manage their inventories. The platform provides brands with an opportunity to uncover new consumer insights and improve their engagement with different consumer segments across the product life cycle.
Luxury Soho also plays into brands’ existing outlet strategies. It can empower them to diversify their strategies in China to handle excessive inventories with more flexibility. As a platform, it offers the tools for brands to run their own stores with full control over their pricing, product selection, strategy and look and feel.
They can engage consumers in new ways using innovative features, from livestreaming, augmented reality and 3D interactive technologies to virtual icons and flexible payment solutions. Brands can even tap their offline store associates to engage with consumers online to showcase certain products and answer questions.


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Call to artists
The Friends of the Wilton Manors Library Summer Book Fair will be held on Saturday, July 9 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Hagen Park Community Center, 2020 Wilton Drive. The Friends will be selling books, audio books, CDs and other materials in exchange for donations. The money raised allows the group to support library programming, the purchase of audio and video materials for the library, and the acquisition of computers and other equipment. Call 954-390-2130 for more information.


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Marketers market radio
Commercial Radio Australia (CRA) has recruited marketers to speak on the benefits of radio advertising.
According to CRA CEO Joan Warner, the campaign aims to highlight how marketers with divergent goals use radio. The campaign comes after a Deloitte report found advertising revenues slipped for CRA, but audience grew.
“The testimonials from real people, and from businesses that rely heavily on advertising dollars, help prove the effectiveness of radio and are a powerful endorsement about the strength of the medium in getting a message across,” said Warner.
Marketers and brands involved in the campaign are:
- i-Select’s Roger McBridge, general manager – marketing and media
- GlaxoSmithKline’s Elena Pintado, senior brand manager – enterprise and nutritionals
- Geeks2Us David Hancock, managing director
- SMG Australia’s Bob Goodge, national client management and investment director, and
- Comedian Mark Mitchell hosts the interview style ads.
They also include an interview with Mark McCrindle, principal of McCrindle Reseach.
The ads were created by, specialist radio agency, Eardrum and can be heard at www.commercialradio.com.au/index.cfm?page_id=1404.


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Brisk iPhone 5 sales and price cuts for older iPhone models helped vault Apple back into the top 5 smartphone vendors in China during the first quarter of 2013, but Samsung continues to dominate the market.
Citing figures from Canalys, Sina Tech reported Friday the U.S. IT giant jumped from sixth to fifth in the most recent quarter on the back of increased sales of its smartphone and it now corners 8 percent of the Chinese market.
Market leader Samsung continues to be at the top with 20 percent, while Yulong Computer, Huawei Technologies and ZTE took second to fourth spot, respectively, it added.
China's smartphone market also continues to pull further away from the U.S., as device shipment there hit 82 million during the first three months of 2013. This is about three times that of the 27 million units shipped in the U.S. during the same period, it stated.
Going forward, Apple will have to release a cheaper version of the iPhone if it hopes to improve on its market share in China. Nicole Peng, research director for China at Canalys, said low-cost smartphones priced between 400 yuan (US$64.70) and 700 yuan (US$113.17) are driving shipment volumes domestically. As such, she suggested the price Apple should aim for is 2,000 yuan (US$323.33) as such an iPhone model would appeal to the budget-conscious Chinese consumer.
The 16GB iPhone 5 is currently priced at 5,288 yuan (US$854.90) while the 8GB iPhone 4 is sold for 3,088 yuan (US$499.22) on Apple's Web site.


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Online security has been one of the hottest topics on the planet for the past several years. Between Edward Snowden, the Sony hack, the Target hack and Hillary Clinton’s private email server, you would think that Americans would be on top of their own personal security when it comes to online accounts that contain sensitive information.
Unfortunately, you’d be mistaken.
READ MORE: The FBI has laid a clever trap for Apple
According to the results a recent survey from the developers behind password management app LastPass, 95% of Americans share between one and six passwords with friends or family members. This is in spite of the fact that 73% of them admit that they are taking a risk by doing so.
You might think that you’re not one of the millions sharing passwords, but if you’ve ever given anyone your Wi-Fi password or allowed someone to log in to your Netflix or HBO account, you’re a member of this massive group.
“Nearly all aspects of our lives have some online component and when you bring password sharing into the mix, all of that sensitive information is instantly compromised,” said LastPass Vice President Joe Siegrist.
Although letting a trusted friend jump on your Wi-Fi network might not be all that risky, another statistic from the survey is far more worrisome. Security experts will tell you that repeating passwords is one of the biggest mistakes you can make, but 59% of the 1,053 people surveyed said they reuse passwords on multiple sites.
If your Netflix password happens to be the same as your bank account password, an innocuous decision to share with a careless friend could suddenly leave you thousands of dollars in the hole.
So, for the last time: use a password manager.


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Good morning! Here’s everything you need to know in the world of advertising today.
1. WPP CEO Martin Sorrell has criticised the Association of National Advertisers report into rebates. Speaking at WPP’s annual general meeting, Sorrell slammed the report, which alleges agencies take rebates and indulge in non-transparent business practices, as “in no way independent”.
2. Alphabet CEO Larry Page was weirdly missing from the company’s first shareholders’ meeting since the re-structure. Page has spoken at all shareholder meetings since 2010 (except for 2012 when he had a medical condition) — a Google representative declined to say why Page did not turn up.
3. Ads are coming to the iPhone App Store in the form of sponsored search results. According to Apple’s senior vice president Phil Schiller, the ads will be chosen on an auction system like Google’s AdWords.
4. Analysts at Morgan Stanley think Google Maps could be the company’s next $1 billion ad business. The new Promoted Pins ads in Google Maps encourage people into visiting businesses, like restaurants or gas stations, that appear along their route.
5. One third (33.45%) of WPP shareholders rejected CEO Sir Martin Sorrell’s $100 million pay deal. Shareholders were expected to revolt against his compensation package, which was up nearly 64% on the previous year.
6. Mobile ad tech company Smaato has been acquired by Chinese marketing firm Spearhead for $148 million. The deal represents a new trend of Chinese companies buying up ad tech.
7. Coke and Pepsi are banking on focusing on healthy options, like bottled water. Bottled water has become a $13 billion industry, thanks to brands like Coca-Cola’s Dasani and Pepsi’s Aquafina.
8. Arianna Huffington is building a new media startup called Thrive that is backed by Alibaba founder Jack Ma. The new publication will focus on content about health and wellness, made by celebrities and bloggers.
9. Adidas apologised for spelling “Colombia” as “Columbia” in a Copa America ad campaign. Adidas said it has now removed the graphics.
10. 62% of all apps downloaded last month were owned by Facebook. New research by Nomura, based on Sensor Tower data, shows that Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp account for more downloads than every other app combined.
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