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(CNN) - Tainted peaches could be the cause of a salmonella outbreak in nine states.
The Food and Drug Administration is investigating the incident, that has left more than 60 people sickened.
The bagged peaches were reportedly sold under the Wawona brand name at Aldi stores in 16 states, starting in June.
The grocery store chain has recalled the peaches in the states affected and the FDA is urging anyone who bought the peaches to throw them out.
More information on the recall can be found on the FDA website.


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Jailbreakers have the ability to run a homegrown version of Siri on unsupported iOS devices, and it appears that Apple doesn’t like it. According to mixed reports, a large amount of unsupported Siri users are now unable to use Siri. Has Apple stepped up its game, or is this merely a routine update to the spunky digital assistant?
iDownloadBlog says that Apple has added a “SetActivationToken” requirement for Siri to function properly. According to the report, Siri server users on Twitter are claiming that deleting the com.apple.assistant.plist file located in the jaibroken iOS device’s var/mobile/Library/Preferences/ folder fixes the issue.
Because the problem can be fixed so easy, it’s unclear as to whether this is a direct attack by Apple on non-4S Siri users. It could be a coincidence that this new token blocks unsupported access. To get Siri up and running on a non-4S device, jailbreakers must install Spire and set up their own SiriProxy server. The process isn’t for the faint of heart, and the number of unofficial Siri users can’t be too high. We’re hoping that Apple has bigger fish to fry, and that this added Siri token is something for the iPad 3.
Let us know if your Siri sever isn’t working anymore, and if the fix mentioned above worked.

domain: news


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From the CaptusHUB blog:
The Lexus GX460 just received a very special "Don’t Buy" rating from Consumer Reports and I believe this is the very first time the brand has ever received a negative rating or comment from CR.
In spite of this [and other recent bad publicity], I think Toyota is a brand that could easily bounce back. It would take some time and a complete reconnect to the consumer, but they could do it. And they need a new product and marketing strategy to bring them back from brand hell.
To view the full post, visit CaptusHUB.


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Updated January 30th, 2024 at 16:37 IST
Servotech surges 5% after bagging Rs 120 crore order from BPCL
The EV charger maker will be involved in manufacturing, supplying, and deploying 1,800 EV chargers across India
- 2 min read
New Order: Shares of Servotech Power Systems Ltd surged 5 per cent to hit an intraday high of Rs 86.30 after securing an order worth Rs 120 crore for producing 1,800 DC fast electrical vehicle (EV) chargers from Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL).
The EV charger maker will be involved in manufacturing, supplying, and deploying 1,800 EV chargers across India, particularly at BPCL petrol pumps in major cities, as part of the BPCL E-drive Project, according to a regulatory filing.
The project, which encompasses production of two charger variants, 60 kw and 120 kw, is pertinent to strengthen the EV charging infrastructure in the country, the company said.
With a focus on establishing e-mobility touchpoints, and optimising navigation for EV users, Servotech aims to complete this project by the end of 2024.
Sarika Bhatia, Director of Servotech Power Systems Ltd, said,"Our partnership focuses on establishing a dynamic EV charging network that makes EV charging accessible for EV owners nationwide."
Earlier this year, the company also bagged an order to supply and install 2,649 AC EV Chargers at different locations for BPCL’s E-drive project.
The company has completed 36 per cent of supply and installation and the entire project is slated to be completed by March this year.
The shares of Servotech Power Systems Ltd. closed 5 per cent higher at Rs 82.20.
Published January 30th, 2024 at 16:37 IST


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Walmart and its wholesaler, Sam’s Club, announced they will be implementing real-time, farm-to-store tracking. To do so, Walmart will be utilizing blockchain technology. They will begin their new procedures in the produce aisle. More specifically, with their lettuce products. This new development is a large step towards the prevention of food-safety incidents.
Tracking Lettuce Through Supply Chains
The goal of tracking food at every distribution point through the supply chain is to improve safety. Walmart didn’t act alone when announcing the tracking of lettuce with blockchain. The superstore consulted with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). With the ability to trace food comes more information about potential sources of food contamination and food-borne illness. Preventing outbreaks will not only assist the government and CDC, but could also limit food recalls and help Walmart save money in the long run.
Walmart is striving to improve their sustainable value chain through their “aspirational goals” of creating zero waste, having full operations of 100% renewable energy, and only selling products that sustain their own resources as well as the environment’s. Using blockchain technology could prove to be the most scalable way to achieve these goals.
Bigger Blockchain Future
Other large retail companies like Starbucks and Maersk have also announced that they are using blockchain to improve their businesses and environmental impact. What makes Walmart’s decision to track food with blockchain significant is their overall potential impact. Walmart is the world’s largest company by revenue. They have made the Fortune list for the 24th time and are number one for the sixth year in a row.
95% of U.S. consumers shop at Walmart or on their website each year. And one out of every four US grocery dollars is spent at the supercenter. This alone can indicate that Walmart has a serious impact. If Walmart and Sam’s Club implement blockchain to track lettuce and all other items they sell, the ramifications will be massive.


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It will explain more about Computer-Generated Holography and why it represents the future of AR wearables.
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VividQ Wins 'Best Innovation: VR/AR' at the CogX Awards
September 12, 2023
Innovation is vital to what we do at VividQ, so we are proud to announce that we won the Best Innovation: VR/AR award at this year’s CogX Awards.
As CogX explains on its website, the award “highlights the best new VR/AR innovation and draws attention to the vast potential of this field.” The award is one step to recognising our cutting-edge innovation and groundbreaking display technology that has the potential to lead us into an exciting new future.
Recognition at this year’s awards is inspiring as it comes amid significant AR and VR industry developments, with Apple’s Vision Pro announcement and new products from Meta Quest and PICO.
VividQ is a pioneer of holographic display technology for AR and VR, specialising in developing game-changing visual experiences for the future of gaming and entertainment. Through our Cobalt hardware development kits, we license our technology to AR/VR headset manufacturers to develop the next generation of displays.
Another big winner at the CogX Awards was Professor Ronjon Nag, Managing Director and Founder at VividQ investors R42 Group who won the 'Lifetime Achievement Award' and 'Outstanding Investor in AI' for his contributions the technology field. His ongoing support of the company has been influential in achieving our recent growth.
The CogX Awards ceremony happened tonight (12 June 2023) at the O2 Indigo, London. The event is part of the larger CogX Festival in London, which calls itself the “world’s biggest festival of inspiration, impact and transformational change.”


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Banks can skip mailing their privacy statements as long as they don’t share your information in ways that are restricted by law
The regulation lets financial companies stop sending you their privacy policies by mail under one important condition: that they do not share your financial details in ways that trigger your right to opt out.
Under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, financial companies, including credit card issuers, must allow customers to opt out of certain types of information sharing. You can say “no” to sharing your nonpublic personal information with outside companies for marketing purposes, for example. You can also limit the use of certain information by the company’s own affiliates.
In California and Vermont things work slightly differently: companies may share customers’ information only if customers opt in.
Some information sharing, however, such as reporting your payment status to credit bureaus, is a condition of having the account, and no opt-out is available in any state.
One privacy advocate applauded the move toward fewer mailings.
“It would serve as an inducement for banks to provide a greater level of privacy to their customers, just to save the cost of mailing those notices,” said Paul Stephens, director of policy and advocacy at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
About one in four banks shares information covered by the opt-out requirement, according to an industry estimate that was cited by the CFPB.
Until the rule change, financial institutions had to inform their customers, via a disclosure notice mailed annually, what kind of sharing they do. The new rule lets financial companies avoid mailing the annual notices and just post their policies online — if they restrict the use of their customers’ information to the point where there is nothing they could opt out of. Policies must be available on the Internet to customers and noncustomers alike, the rule says. The company must tell customers about the existence of the online material and alert them to changes via monthly statements or other regular communications.
When privacy statements do arrive by mail, they will be more meaningful. Receiving a paper copy means your financial details are probably being used in ways you could limit.
Financial counselors recommend exercising your opt-out rights to reduce the sharing of the information — and not just to cut down on unwanted marketing pitches. Shared data may include sensitive details that can be used for fraud or identity theft if they fall into the wrong hands. Breaches and misuse of information by data brokers have heightened concerns about data sharing.
Under the new rule, financial companies must also use a model disclosure form designed by regulators in order to skip the mailings and post the privacy notice online. The model form is displayed as a chart with question-and-answer format.
“Posting privacy notices online will make it easier for consumers to access these important policies, while also making it cheaper for financial institutions to provide disclosures,” CFPB Director Richard Cordray said in an announcement.


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GGV Capital Adds New Managing Partner Eric Xu
We are thrilled to announce Eric Xu as a new managing partner for GGV Capital. Eric is a long-time friend and early-stage co-investor who is passionate about innovative ideas championed by promising entrepreneurs.
“Early stage companies in China move extremely fast with very few resources so it takes a unique investor to recognize potential of both founders and ideas, and be able to cultivate those into vibrant, meaningful global companies. Eric is a tremendous asset for any founder and we are thrilled to be working with him,” said Jixun Foo, Managing Partner.
We first met Eric more than 11 years ago when our offices shared the same 25th floor of the K. Wah Centre in the Xuhui District in Shanghai. We often met with the same entrepreneurs and shared noodle lunches talking about our shared passion for working with first time founders. During that time, we witnessed the success of Eric’s philosophy that entrepreneurship goes hand-in-hand with innovation — the ability to produce new ideas; provide better solutions; and pioneer new products. His idea that the most successful entrepreneurs are not simply the hardest working, they are the most innovative is evident investments such as ChineseAll (300364.SZ) and VisualChina (000681.SZ).
We have also had the opportunity to work alongside Eric as a co-investor with companies such as 51credit.com where he was an amazing partner in exploring new technologies and business models. Eric will be an excellent resource to our companies in China, in particular advising founders on growth and product market fit.
Eric has significant experience in working with early stage Chinese companies, having been a board member at companies that are creating new opportunities to reach the mass-market consumer, including Babytree, the largest and most popular parenting website in China, Fruitday, online delivery of fresh fruits and vegetables, and XimalayaFM.
Eric was most recently managing director with SIG Investment Asia where he led investments in the consumer Internet and frontiertech sectors. Before that, he was an investment professional at CITIC Capital and TDF Capital (TDF formed an alliance with KPCB in China in 2007). He is a graduate of Shanghai University and holds a Master of Finance from the University of Manchester (UK) School of Business.
We are excited to have Eric working alongside us now as a partner in Shanghai. He is a true asset for GGV and for our portfolio companies as well. Please join us in welcoming Eric to the team.


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Short video platform Kuaishou launched a data research institution
On Tuesday the short video platform Kuaishou announced its cooperation with several prominent universities, including Tsinghua University and Peking University, in terms of AI algorithms and data analysis. The collaboration will be carried out by the Kuaishou Social Impact Institute. The institute has been established to provide users in rural areas with a more precise content match scheme by which to facilitate videos sharing between those who have the same interests and hobbies. The main motivating factor lies in Kuaishou’s ambition on social e-commerce – following Taobao and Douyin’s (TikTok) efforts marching towards content marketing led retailing mode, Kuaishou is paving its own way to convert audiences to potential customers by making them aware of products geared to their interests in the watched videos.


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New York: US markets ended higher on Friday, with the S&P 500 hitting a 2 year high on an unexpected drop in the trade deficit and better consumer confidence. For the week, the dow was up 0.4%, the tech heavy nasdaq rose 1.5% and the S&P 500 increased 1.3%.
In economic news, a report showed the country’s trade balance, which measures the difference between imports and exports, was down 13%, bringing the trade deficit to a 9-month low, with exports increasing 3.2%, the most since August 2008.
Early in the week, investors welcomed news of a compromise made to extend tax breaks for the middle class as well as unemployment benefits which are due to expire for several Americans, but on Thursday, Democrats voted against considering the tax package.
And the consumer confidence index, which measures Americans attitudes toward the economy, rose slightly in early December, more than economists expected, and indicating that Americans are spending more.
China’s central bank made further policy decisions to help control inflation and ease the heated economy by increasing the reserve ratio amount for banks to 18.5%, the 6th hike this year. Separately, a report showed that China’s trade surplus fell 16% in November, while its exports surged 35%.
In corporate news, General Electric surged 3.4% after it announced that it increased its quarterly dividend 17% to 14 cents a share.


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Rubbing the belly for good luck! Kim Kardashian ran into her girlfriend, Serena Williams, during a shopping trip in London — and the tennis pro couldn’t help but get all handsy with Kim’s growing baby bump!
So cute! In the UK for the Glastonbury music festival, where her hubby Kanye West, 38, is headlining, Kim Kardashian, 34, decided to kill her free time with a mini spending spree at London’s famed department store, Harrods. But before going in to shop (for blue baby clothes, most likely), Kimmy ran into her bestie, Serena Williams, 33 — who couldn’t resist giving the reality TV queen’s burgeoning tummy a nice little pat.
What a coincidence! The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star ran into her longtime friend Serena during a day outing dedicated to retail therapy. With a huge smile on Kim’s face, it was clear she was beyond thrilled to see her old gal pal.
However, Serena might have been even more excited to see the second time mom-to-be — judging from photos taken of their surprise run-in! The number one tennis champ’s eyes made a beeline for Kim’s expanding stomach and immediately gave it a little rubdown.
The brunette beauty seemed to appreciate Miss Williams’ excitement for the arrival of North West‘s little brother — making his way this December. With a big grin on her face, Kim caught up with Serena for a small chat and then bid her farewell with a nice, long hug. Talk about #FriendshipGoals, right?!
As you can see in the pics of Kim’s chance encounter with Serena, she has certainly not ditched her signature smoking-hot style regardless of her pregnancy — which we’re totally not mad at! Showing off massive cleavage in a skintight black trousseau, it’s clear that Kim has zero plans to slow down her fashion game.
Making her maternity wardrobe even sexier? Her choice to go braless in plunging necklines! “Kim plans on taking advantage of this added bonus,” an insider tells HollywoodLife.com EXCLUSIVELY. “There’s no way she’s going to minimize the size of her breasts — she wants them to bounce around and be free!”
“Even if her boobs start to hurt later in the pregnancy, she’d still rather go braless and feel sexy and voluptuous,” our source adds. You do you, girl! Maybe Kim’s racy fashion MO made her baby bump even more tempting for Serena to touch?
HollywoodLifers — what do YOU think about the athlete copping a feel of her BFF’s growing belly? Let us know!
— Evan Real


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Today, 55% of adults believe that women are portrayed negatively in the media, according to new research from the Association of National Advertisers Alliance for Family Entertainment (AFE).
The study, which studied the representation of women in the media and the impact it has on consumer behavior, also found that if women are more accurately portrayed, consumers’ intent to purchase could increase by more than 30%.
The AFE hopes statistics such as these will compel marketers and their agency partners to take a closer look at how they are representing women in their advertising. The full results of the study will be released later this month.
To change those representations, the AFE in June launched the #SeeHer campaign at the United State of Women Summit at the White House.
By 2020, the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote, the AFE hopes to see more than a 20% increase in the accurate portrayal of girls and women in advertising, media and programming.
In order to reach that goal, the AFE will advise marketers and their agencies on how to create more accurate ads and provide them with toolkits to help guide them. The kits will provide research and scorecards to help them evaluate their work. A #SeeHer website will provide best-in-class examples and research partners ABX and Tivo will regularly publish top-scoring ads and programs.
The AFE is a coalition of more than 500 family brands, including the Coca-Cola Company, Procter & Gamble, Walmart and Post Foods. Together, the members represent more than $20 billion in ad spend for US TV, according to organization.
"We know that media has a really big impact on how people see themselves," said Stephen Quinn, CEO of AFE. "The ‘See Her’ name came from the insight: If she can see her, she can be her."
Campaign US spoke with Quinn to discuss #SeeHer and why it’s in marketers’ best interest to change.
How can AFE make a difference?
The group represents, by far, the biggest advertisers in America. There’s a very significant spend by those marketers. They can get rid of the bias in their own advertising, but also their advertising supports a huge portion of the content that’s available in digital form as well as on television. We see AFE being the change agent.
How are women not accurately reflected in media today?
Women are often absent. For example, in movies today, one out of four roles are women and one out of eight roles involve speaking. We need to show the diversity of roles women can play.
And the representation is really narrow compared to the reality, especially when it comes to STEM fields, and that’s the part that the White House is especially interested in. They have a mandate to increase the participation of women in technology. When they looked into why women didn’t apply to these jobs, they discovered the media either discouraged or were not encouraging girls to get jobs in the tech sector.
Why should advertisers make a concerted effort to portray women accurately?
These are all really large advertisers, and there’s a lot of transparency these days. They are all working on getting women into more executive roles. What we’re saying is that how you portray women in your own content ties to all those efforts as well.
Marketers have to realize just how important women are for the economy. 85% of consumer purchases are directly made by women or heavily influenced by women, and in some categories like food, it’s 93%. A lot of services it’s in the '90s, healthcare it’s in the '80s. It’s really important that they get this right — it affects how effective the pitch is to those people.
Which age demographic is the most dissatisfied with the way women are portrayed right now?
Millennial consumers are the most dissatisfied in general, and they projected that they will be more dissatisfied five years from now if, in fact, there wasn’t significant change taking place.
How hard will this initiative be for brands to follow?
We’re giving agencies a toolbox of a briefing approach that they could use to help to eliminate these biases. When it comes to the content programs’ support, we’ve already tested about 300 TV programs, so marketers will be able to go through a list of those that are doing the best job, and they can move their advertising to those shows.
Our idea is to highlight the people that are making the most progress or doing the best work, and not to spend much time on vilifying those that do not.
Which brands have done a good job?
I think Unilever has been a real leader in this area for a number of years. What they’ve done recently is they’ve made it a much more company wide effort, not just with their Dove brand. They’ve provided a lot of leadership within the AFE. For them this really aligns with what they are already doing.
Since the announcement, how many AFE brands have agreed to join this initiative?
We had 50 of these companies at the White House and I believe just about every one of them has committed to this program. Our expectation is that one year from now there will be a significant improvement. I can tell you that being involved with the AFE for the better part of a decade that this was the most significant engagement we’ve seen from the marketing community.


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- Apr 12, 2001
Update: iOS 14.5 is now available. Our full coverage:
- Apple Releases iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 With Apple Watch iPhone Unlocking, Dual-SIM 5G Support, Apple Maps Accident Crowdsourcing and Tons More
- How to Unlock Your iPhone With Your Apple Watch When Wearing a Mask
- Apple Releases watchOS 7.4 With iPhone Unlocking, Apple Fitness+ AirPlay 2 Support
- Apple Releases macOS Big Sur 11.3 With M1 Optimizations, AirTag Integration, Updated Controller Support, Apple Music Updates and More
- Apple Releases tvOS 14.5 With New Color Balance Feature, Expanded Controller Support
Apple plans to release iOS 14.5 later today, according to media outlets like The New York Times and the UK's Financial Times. The software update has been in beta testing since February 1 and has a long list of new features, including the ability to unlock an iPhone with Face ID while wearing a mask with the assistance of an Apple Watch.
iOS 14.5 also introduces support for 5G in Dual-SIM mode on iPhone 12 models, new Waze-like features in Apple Maps, AirPlay 2 streaming for Apple Fitness+ workouts, new emoji, new Siri voices, support for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X game controllers, a redesigned Apple Podcasts app, a Battery Health bug fix for iPhone 11 models, and more.
Starting with iOS 14.5, Apple will also be enforcing App Tracking Transparency, which will require apps to receive a user's permission to track their activity across other apps and websites for targeted advertising purposes.
Apple previously confirmed that iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, and tvOS 14.5 will be released this week. The software updates will likely be released around 10 a.m. Pacific Time as usual (see our list of other time zones). We can likely expect the release of macOS 11.3 this week too given the Release Candidate version was seeded last week.
Article Link: iOS 14.5 Will Reportedly Be Released Later Today [Update: It's Out Now]


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Microspace Communications Attends 2014 NAB Show
Raleigh, NC -- (SBWire) -- 04/16/2014 --Microspace Communications recently attended the 2014 NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) Show at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas. The NAB Show consists of the world’s largest digital media event which covers satellite broadcasting and content delivery across all mediums.
Microspace was among the 1,725 total exhibitors on site for the 2014 show. This year’s attendance brought in over 93,000 media and entertainment professionals from over 150 countries. Among the attendees at the 2014 NAB Show, Microspace Communications contributed to the $20.7 billion in purchasing power present at this year’s event.
Joe Amor, the Vice President and General Manager with Microspace described his experience in Las Vegas as "...an extremely exciting and invigorating event to participate in. Every year we strive to stand out among the leaders of the Digital Signage and Satellite Broadcasting industry. The NAB Show is outstanding because like minds can gather and learn from each other. I am already excited for Microspace Communications to showcase our advances at next year’s NAB Show.”
Satellite broadcasting, digital cinema and digital signage were among the top industries present at the 2014NAB Show and Microspace Communications is strategically positioned to showcase their own technological advances at the 2015 NAB Show.
Microspace is an innovative broadband solutions company, providing reliable, cost-effective and long-term multicast delivery platforms to Fortune 500 and small companies throughout the world since 1988. They are a pioneer in the industry, establishing and merging various concepts, including digital signage, digital cinema and multimedia entertainment. To learn more about Microspace and their broadcasting services, call them at 919-850-4500 or visit their website at http://www.microspace.com
Media Relations Contact
View this press release online at: http://rwire.com/494218


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Amazon turns to moms and Facebook while Macy's touts turkey day sales.
Amazon.com Inc. and Macy’s Inc. are getting into the holiday spirit early, and they are hoping consumers follow suit.
Amazon.com, No. 1 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, today announced updates to its e-commerce site designed to help parents find gifts for their children with an updated gift finder and limited-time deals.
For the first time, Amazon.com says its 2013 holiday toy list is created by Facebook fans of its Amazon Mom program. Amazon Mom is free membership program for parents and caretakers of small children offering 20% off diapers and wipes, and other promotions geared toward parents. Amazon Mom fans on Facebook voted on the toys to include across 10 toy trend categories—from technology and retro toys to crafts and road trip-focused toys. Amazon shoppers can browse the complete list of Amazon Mom Picks on this year’s Amazon Holiday Toy List.
Amazon also announced today new features in its gift-finder tool, including the ability to filter by age, gender, interest, brand and price range, and the option to search by and view bestsellers.
In an effort to draw in customers early with discounts, Amazon tacked on to today’s announcement the kick-off of its Lightning Holiday Deals, promotions good for a short time or until the product sells out. Today, for example, Amazon is offering 50% off Crayola Toys, and it says other deals from brands including Fisher-Price and Hasbro will follow. The features and deals extend to Amazon.com’s mobile app as well, the retailer says. Last holiday season alone Amazon customers purchased more than one toy per second via mobile devices.
Macy’s, meanwhile, is hoping to use something Amazon.com can’t to draw in early holiday shoppers—its network of 800 stores across the U.S. The retail chain and web merchant, No. 13 in the 2013 Top 500 Guide, announced it will welcome eager consumers to its stores by opening most of them at 8 p.m. Thanksgiving evening, when it will offer its Black Friday sales four hours early. Consumers can get a sneak peek of some of those sales on the retailer’s Pinterest page.
Macy’s says it chose to open stores on Thanksgiving in response to consumer requests. “In a move to minimize the impact on associates, Macy’s began planning early to allow associates the time to review available shifts throughout the holiday season, including on Thanksgiving weekend, and to volunteer for the shifts they prefer,” the retailer says in its announcement.
Macy’s isn’t the first chain store to open its doors to greet shoppers on Thanksgiving evening. Wal-Mart, No. 4 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, last year opened its doors at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving night. Meanwhile, Target Corp. (No. 18) and Toys ‘R’ Us Inc. (No. 30) stores opened on Turkey day 2012, at 9 p.m. and 8 p.m., respectively. Macy’s last year opened its stores at midnight on Black Friday
Shoppers also can use Macy’s mobile app to plan their Black Friday shopping strategies in advance. Beginning Nov. 21, a week before Thanksgiving, customers will be able to view Black Friday specials on their mobile devices and create customized shopping lists that they can edit and share with friends.


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A large-scale system for efficiently recycling batteries will be a critical part of the new clean energy ecosystem. However, battery manufacturers and automakers may well be concerned that recycled products may be lower in quality than those built from newly mined minerals.
Now a team of researchers has developed a recycling method that involves refurbishing the cathode, and they claim that batteries they made with their new technique perform just as well as those with a cathode made from scratch—or maybe even better.
Current recycling methods typically involve dismantling and shredding the entire battery, then either melting it down or dissolving it in acid to produce black mass, from which chemical elements or simple compounds can be extracted. The recovered chemicals then go through the standard manufacturing process to make new cathodes.
Professor Wang and his colleagues use a similar process, but they keep some of the components of the cathode intact. After shredding the battery, they physically remove the less-valuable parts (such as the electronic circuits and steel casing) and recycle them separately. Most of what’s left is the cathode material, which they dissolve in acid and purify. Next, they add carefully-calibrated amounts of fresh elements such as nickel and cobalt, ensuring that the ratio of ingredients is optimal. The result is a “refreshed” cathode powder, which can be used in a new battery.
Slight changes to the structure or composition of a cathode can compromise performance, Professor Emma Kendrick of the University of Birmingham (who was not involved in the new study) explained to Scientific American. Thus, much of the cathode powder’s value is “in how you’ve engineered the particles [of powder] in the first place.”
Wang and his colleagues compared the particles in their recycled cathode powder with those in commercially manufactured cathode powder, and found that their powder particles were more porous. This reduced cracking, which is a major cause of battery degradation. More pores also mean more exposed surface area, which can enable faster charging.
Linda Gaines of the Argonne National Laboratory (not involved in the new study) told SA that “the cathode they can make is as good as—or even better than—the commercial material that we’ve been importing.”
Professor Wang has co-founded a company called Ascend Elements to scale up the new recycling process. The company recently announced plans to open a battery recycling facility in Georgia later this year, where it will recycle lithium, cobalt and nickel.
Source: Scientific American


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The innovation year always begins with a lot of noise at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, which kicks off today with the world’s big tech companies (even Apple will be there after a 28-year boycott) converging to showcase new ideas and trends.
Some of it is simply weird and whacky, signalling the general direction for a company rather than products likely to hit the shops in the near future. Hyundai, the Korean automaker, is joining the flying car club with a concept vehicle, a sign that car companies will increasingly want to be part of this space. BMW, meanwhile, is preparing for the day that cars take over driving and is emphasising the luxurious in-car entertainment experience in its i3 Urban Suite showcase vehicle.
Playing up the toilet humour, Procter & Gamble is displaying a toilet paper delivery robot and bathroom odour-detecting sensor. These are jokes rather than serious products, but also a sign that tech can be used to improve even the most mundane of consumer experiences.
We’ll do a more thorough roundup next week of what CES taught us. In the meantime, for a serious look at the CES tech trends that businesses should note, this ZDNet roundup is a good place to start.
L’Oreal partners with Google for virtual hair colour
Just before Christmas L’Oreal snuck in the news that it was partnering with Google Lens, the visual search tool, to help people see what they would look like if they dyed their hair. Pick up a packet of Garnier Nutrisse or Olia hair colour and point the Lens app at the box to be taken to a site where you can virtually try on the shade. It is a project that has come out of L’Oreal’s acquisition of augmented reality company ModiFace last year.
Swapping connected car data
Also sneaking in just before Christmas was news that Daimler had struck a deal with Wejo, a UK startup providing a data exchange platform for connected cars.
Cars produce a huge amount of useful data: speed, fuel efficiency, location, insurance status and so on. But if, say, an insurance company wants to tap into this to offer drivers tailored products, it needs to strike separate deals with each car maker. Wejo is hoping to offer a platform where this can all be done more efficiently, in one place.
Deepfakes get real
One of the 2020 tech trends that everyone will have to get to grips with is deepfakes, which are highly-realistic fake video. It’s not new news — we all saw that fake video of Obama in 2017. But in 2020 this technology is set to become widespread.
Snap, the parent company of Snapchat, began the year with the $166m acquisition of AI Factory, a Ukrainian company that lets you take a selfie and have it animated in a short video. Sort of cute for Snapchat’s legions of teenage users, right?
But Snap’s rival, China’s ByteDance, parent company of the TikTok app, shows where this is all headed. According to Techcrunch, ByteDance has built an even more sophisticated technology that lets you insert your face into other people’s videos. The ByteDance technology involves taking pictures of your face from several angles and using artificial intelligence to blend it seamlessly into something that looks very real.
Deepfakes have so far taken a lot of time and trouble to do, but one of the big fears has always been what happens when they are easy and ubiquitous. ByteDance is making that happen.
Plus there is a big question over what might be done with all that sensitive facial biometric data that the company is gathering.
But are deepfakes all bad? D-ID, an Israeli privacy company, claims that its deepfake technology will actually protect people’s privacy. They take video footage and “anonymise” it by changing the faces, in theory, so that it can be shared without violating privacy rules. Except experts can’t decide if this is legal or not.
This is the next direction for artificial intelligence systems, believes David Cox, director of the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab. Artificial intelligence can beat humans at games and undertake precision tasks at a scale unimaginable to humans, but can still be outmanoeuvred by toddlers at some tasks. One problem is that artificial intelligence still needs a lot of data to learn, but Cox believes that marrying today’s neural network technology with a more old-school symbolic AI (popular in the 80s) would get machines to learn from smaller data sets, similar to the way human learn from seeing just one or two examples.
Nine ways to ruin your Open Innovation Challenge
A great slide deck from Aurelie Wen, managing partner of the US-based open innovation platform Agorize outlining nine reasons why innovation challenges fail. Here’s a quick summary:
- Launching a challenge for the sake of it
- Figuring out the rules as you go
- Not working hard enough to recruit participants
- Setting high barriers to entry
- Keeping the intellectual property to yourself
- Picking the wrong judges and mentors
- Making it all about the competition
- Offering unfit prizes (you need a minimum $10k first prize)
- Getting the timings wrong (you need four weeks to prep, eight weeks to promote)
Forget the “cult of innovation”
Financial Times columnist Janan Ganesh says we have become too obsessed with innovation, running after the new while forgetting to keep the fundamentals going. He wants us to do more to celebrate “the maintainers”, the vast majority of humanity that just keep things ticking over. Ganesh’s rant against neophilia is sparked by the hiring of a new and very young coach for Arsenal football club, but applies to industry more generally.


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Ford Motor Company will produce luxury vehicles in China to skirt the country’s high import tariffs, the company revealed Monday.
Lincoln Motor Company, a division of Ford, will start producing cars in China in two years. The aim is to catch up with competitors and seize a larger share of the world’s largest auto market, where the demand for luxury vehicles is on the rise, reports Fox Business. Producing vehicles in China will allow Ford to compete against rivals like General Motor Company and other rivals and dodge high tariffs on imported goods.
On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump repeatedly criticized China for its “unfair” trade and currency management practices, claiming China is “raping” the U.S. In his recent address to Congress, Trump announced the U.S. has “lost 60,000 factories since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.”
The Chinese auto market is designed to make domestic manufacturing a requirement. If a company attempts to export cars to China, it will face a 25 percent tax; however, the company can avoid tariffs by building the cars it intends to sell in country. For this reason, Ford intends to produce luxury cars in Chongqing.
Foreign auto companies, however, cannot directly set up independent operations. Foreign car companies cannot construct factories on Chinese soil without a joint-venture partner. In Ford’s case, the company will produce Lincolns in cooperation with state-owned Changan Automobile, reports Axios.
The U.S., on the other hand, has an import tax of only 2.5 percent.
Were China to be more open to foreign trade, Ford and other automakers could produce cars domestically and export their products to China rather than manufacture products in China, which could lead to job creation in the U.S. This is especially true given the rising demand for luxury vehicles in China. Last year, Ford exported 33,000 Lincolns to China. The demand for high-end luxury vehicles in China is growing 30 percent per year, faster than the auto market.
When it comes to China, unfair trade practices are not limited strictly to the auto sector.
Two years ago, Premier Li Keqiang announced the Made in China 2025 initiative, which strives to ensure China remains self-sufficient in multiple industrial sectors. The plan is a $300 billion initiative designed to allow Chinese industries to control at least 80 percent of the domestic market in 10 industrial sectors ranging from robotics to electric cars to computer chips.
While China has sought to assure other countries that the plan does not discriminate against foreign companies, outside observers suspect the program is a massive state-run assistance program created to force out foreign competitors and build Chinese companies into international giants due to their ability to compete unfairly.
Chinese leaders have stated they stand for globalization and against protectionism, but certain Chinese business practices continue to suggests otherwise. That is not to say that China has not made progress or that all of Trump’s accusations are accurate, but evidence indicates that China still has a way to go to get to fair trade.
The U.S. trade deficit with China stood at $347 billion in 2016.
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Nurture sustainable competitive advantage through CX
Disappointing, annoying, frustrating and a hassle; this is not what any business wants to hear from its customers. Yet, a recent Forrester report found that only 16% of consumers surveyed across six major Asia Pacific markets experienced interactions that exceeded their expectations.
The significant causes of dissatisfaction raised by unhappy consumers in Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore were failure to address enquiries from the first interaction (62%), long wait/response times (54%), and not achieving the expected outcome from the interaction (52%). The more developed markets tended to be disappointed by their experience due to higher expectations.
It’s a whole new ball game now that online-only and bricks-and-clicks are becoming the standard for shopping. In a previous article, we touched on how retailers can up their game to serve changing realities and customer expectations. Tech Wire Asia recently talked to Patsy Wong, chief strategy officer at CINNOX – a 100% Asia-born innovative customer engagement and analytics platform.
Wong said that while more businesses are aware of shifting consumer sentiments, they don’t necessarily know how to address it. There also tends to be a narrow view of what goes into crafting an exceptional customer experience.
“Most people come to us with a particular pain point, not a comprehensive view [of CX]. Many of them will come in and say, ‘I want to talk to my customer on the robot app [via chatbots]; I want to talk to a customer on WeChat’,” Wong said. “The customer experience conversation is relatively new in the Asia Pacific market. Some businesses are more mature, but some are still pretty early.”
Many companies were not prepared for the pandemic’s impact on everyday life and customer behavior, and simply reacted; but will now have to map out their way forward.
“They’re not thinking long-term yet, but once they get past the initial stage of addressing some key pain points, our approach is to show them the workflow so they can see the entire customer journey end-to-end,” she said. Many companies are not aware, she added, of what tools are already available that can be easily implemented.
“Once they see the whole picture, they can appreciate the platform more. It’s not just a live chat, you can have multiple channels and integrate with other systems. You can also do analytics.”
The CINNOX platform allows all communications and CRM data to be seamlessly sync-ed and automatically updated, without affecting existing workflows. It can also integrate with customer relationship management platform Salesforce, as multinational healthcare company Roche has done.
There are three essential things to consider to boost the quality of CX, according to Wong. “First off, what are the expectations? A lot of times, if the company is either not aware of or not establishing the right customer expectations, then a positive resolution is going to be tough to achieve. The second is the intent. Why are people coming to you in the first place?” she said. “The third layer is preferences. People will have different preferences, depending on the type of communication they want, and what they are familiar or comfortable with.”
According to the Forrester report, five key consumer personas have emerged post-pandemic. The largest segment at 44% is the omnishoppers – working adults aged between 20 and 49 who feel safe with digital interactions, consider both human and digital touchpoints important, and want an omnichannel experience. Then come the multichannel enthusiasts (15%) who differ from the omnishoppers in that they prefer not to switch communication channels during interactions.
Those aged 50 and older made up the other two personas. The reserved digital immigrants (15%) feel less safe with digital interactions and prefer human touchpoints. Meanwhile, the affluent high-touch seekers (14%) also prefer human touchpoints, even though they are comfortable going digital. They want a personal touch from in-person interactions.
Adults below 30 years old are the last group, referred to as the low-touch digital natives (12%). They consider digital touchpoints more important than humans, and prefer to keep communications digital without switching channels.
With offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan, the team at CINNOX sees their distinct advantage in serving APAC businesses directly, with a keen regional understanding. “For us, we are 100% Asia-focused, whereas global platforms may dedicate 20% of their attention to the region. Unlike the larger players, we can partner closely with our customers to get a lot of the features that we have, like the one we especially created for financial services clients,” Wong explained.
CINNOX is cloud-based, but with a module to enable banks, insurance companies and others in highly-regulated industries to securely store data on-premises, as required for data compliance. The platform is also multilingual, with more local languages added regularly to better serve the diverse communities in the region.
Another standout feature of the platform is its unique and seamless integration of telephony and digital channels. As noted in the Forrester report, around 50% of APAC consumers still want to call companies directly – which means that phone lines are still a critical customer service tool.
While CINNOX started as a telecoms company, its integration of traditional telephony with digital channels offers both the old and new communication channels in a single convenient interface, and at a competitive cost. “Technically speaking, this is not an easy thing to accomplish,” Wong said. “Many people in the industry were pretty amazed that we could pull it off.”
The data analytics available from the platform also provides insights into customers and their personas. Interaction data from all channels can be aggregated to develop a 360-degree view of each customer, enabling the business to build a more contextual and flexible CX strategy – which is imperative in an age of hyper-personalization.
To find out how CINNOX works and what it can do for your business, request a demo via the CINNOX website.
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- Manufacturers solve the puzzle to achieve both growth and profitability: Better ERP support


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Founder of Shilpkriti India, Mrs. Deepti Mohanty at the outbreak of Covid, envisaged ‘Shilpkriti India’ as a medium to lend an empathetic hand to the struggling artisan community that was terribly hit by the pandemic. Lock-down had brought about the break-down of the entire productive and financial machinery bringing the entire craft ecosystem to a halt. The profound image of the Lord of Kriti -Shiva, metaphorically exalts the underlying spirit of “creation” in the logo as well as the name of the brand.
To help the artisans of the state of Orissa, the team dived deep into the issue to generate solutions. Besides redundant business activities during the pandemic, the other major challenge that they identified was cannibalization of the handcrafted product market by cheap replicas and knock-offs.
The brand is laying special focus to strengthen the impoverished community of Flexible Brass Fish- makers of Bellaguntha. While working on the design interventions, they are striving to accomplish GI (Geographical Indicator) for this craft.
With the intent of using technology and AI to address the challenges, Shilpkriti India was launched as an initiative to provide a digital platform to the rural artisans and their crafts which have the potential to get worldwide recognition. Acting as a bridge between the potential customer and the indigenous artisan so as to help them to generate revenue without having to look for physical markets to sell their products. Internalizing the spirit of Government of India – Vocal for Local, the brand is working for the artisans at the grass-root level for creating an Atamanirbhar Bharat.
One major trailblazing undertaking by Shilpkriti India is the concept of attaching a unique traceability core to the craft product to validate the craft and its authentic creation journey. With their spear-heading efforts of promoting skills, sharing diversity, and engaging in cultural collaboration, the brand is set-on carving a niche for the indigenous crafts of India among the international community of buyers through their e-commerce platform.


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Earlier this year, food distribution enterprise Food Connect called on its community of supporters to help raise $2 million in funds to purchase the warehouse it had been operating out of for the previous decade.
Having now surpassed its crowdfunding target thanks to donations from 570 new co-owners in the property, Food Connect director Ms Emma Kate Rose says her role as one of four inaugural Social Entrepreneurs in Residence (SEIRs) working out of Griffith Business School’s Yunus Social Business Centre “helped enormously” in the enterprise reaching its goal.
“I had three other colleagues in there with me; they not only supported me in general but they used their networks for our campaign to promote it, so that was a huge benefit,” Ms Rose said.
“And also being able to have a platform at the Griffith Business School’s Gala Dinner, and being able to speak to a room full of 500 Business alumni, was really beneficial for the campaign as well.”
With the aid of the Yunus centre and the Griffith Business School alumni and industry networks, Food Connect was able to raise the necessary funds — via crowdfunding platform PledgeMe, co-founded by fellow SEIR Ms Anna Guenther — to purchase their long-rented warehouse, where, over the past six years, Food Connect has installed a commercial kitchen and managed the tenancies of multiple ethical food entrepreneurs.
Ms Rose said that having the opportunity to work with her fellow SEIRs — Ms Guenther, Mr Tony Sharp (Substation33) and Mr Tom Allen (Impact Boom) — has been immensely beneficial, and praised the Yunus centre as a “fantastic initiative”.
“I just feel really supported and encouraged in the work that I’m doing on the ground for social change, and particularly having the Policy Innovation Hub backing it as well has been an enormous help,” Ms Rose said.
“You can’t buy that sort of support.”
Food Connect was founded in 2004 by Robert Pekin, and has since grown to encompass an eponymous foundation (launched in 2009) and the newly established Food Connect Shed.
With the warehouse now secured, the enterprise will look towards ways to refurbish its operating space through improvements such as commercial food processing facilities and co-working space to better connect the community to urban food makers, local farmers, market gardeners and each other.
Yunus Social Business Centre director Mr Alex Hannant congratulated Ms Rose and Food Connect on their successful campaign, and said the result was reflective of the real impacts Griffith Business School is capable of producing in the community.
“It’s been so rewarding to see our Social Entrepreneurs in Residence rally around Emma-Kate and Food Connect to help them realise their goal of owning their long-term warehouse,” Mr Hannant said.
“This result is testament to not only the social and economic value of bringing together great entrepreneurial minds as we have done in the SEIR program, but Food Connect’s deep ties to the community and the clear regard in which it’s held by the people it helps the most.”
“We look forward to working with Emma-Kate and Anna to create a case study covering the whole process. Their learning and insights will be invaluable to other social enterprises seeking to use crowdfunding to raise capital, and help us better understand the potential of this new model of financing.”
Find out more about the Yunus Social Business Centre here.
See Food Connect’s website for more information on its mission and vision.


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Corsair Partners with EA for Gamescom 2012Category: Gaming
Posted: August 3, 2012 04:49PM
Corsair has announced that it was selected by Electronic Arts as its official gaming PC supplier for Gamescom 2012. Corsair will supply 250 PCs for game demo stations featuring Corsair components and Vengeance peripherals. Almost the full PC except for the CPU, GPU, and motherboard can be provided by Corsair, as the company has continued to branch out in recent years from its core market of memory. The PCs are being built by German company MIFcom and will feature AMD FX processors, ASUS motherboards, and Sapphire GPUs. Corsair representatives will be on hand to help answer questions and show the latest hardware.


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Burglar hits Omaha skate shop
Thousands of dollars worth of merchandise taken
An Omaha skate shop owner was targeted by a thief who made off with thousands of dollars worth of merchandise.
Authorities said someone smashed the glass at the Wake N' Skate early Saturday morning in the Shops of Legacy at Center Road and 168th Street.
The store is equipped with surveillance cameras, and officials said they have a clear picture of the thief, who smashed glass to enter and was inside for about five minutes before fleeing with the merchandise.
"This rack was completely full at one point and is completely empty now," store owner Hans Schroeder said.
The video showed a middle-aged man making multiple trips in and out of the store, grabbing a $200 jacket, 15 skateboards and a drawer full of cash.
For Schroeder, the theft puts a big dent in December sales figures during the month that matters most.
"When you take a hit like this, it doesn't look like a good month so far," Schroeder said.
The video showed the burglar fleeing in a white sedan, possibly a Crown Victoria.
Anyone with information should call CrimeStoppers at 402-444-STOP.


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Amazon is making its largest push into the healthcare trade but with the launch at this time of Amazon Pharmacy: a brand new service providing dwelling delivery for prescription treatment.
Customers can signal as much as the brand new retailer by making a ”safe pharmacy profile,” with the choice of including details about their medical health insurance, any excellent medical points like allergy symptoms, and any common prescriptions. The retailer will supply a spread of “generic and brand-name drugs,” reports CNBC, together with “commonly prescribed drugs like insulin, triamcinolone steroid creams, metformin for controlling blood sugar, and sumatriptan for migraines.” Notably, the pharmacy won’t promote Schedule II medications, which incorporates many widespread opioids like Oxycontin.
As typical for Amazon, Prime members will get an a variety of benefits over common prospects. These perks embody free, two-day delivery on orders and reductions on treatment. Amazon claims Prime members will be capable of save “up to 80 percent off generic and 40 percent off brand name medications when paying without insurance.” Prime members may also be capable of save on treatment purchased in particular person from over 50,000 pharmacies throughout the US, together with Rite Aid, CVS, Walmart, and Walgreens.
Amazon Pharmacy might be accessible in 45 states this weeks, studies CNBC. States at present not coated embody Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana and Minnesota, although Amazon plans to develop to these areas sooner or later. Amazon says it accepts “most” insurance policy, and can give prospects the choice of chatting with a pharmacist for recommendation.
The launch of Amazon Pharmacy is a major transfer from Amazon, however removed from surprising. The firm has been steadily increase its place within the healthcare market for years now, with indicators pointing to a launch into pharmaceutical companies.
In 2018 it purchased pharmaceutical delivery startup PillPack for slightly below $1 billion. The firm later rebranded the service as PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy, and CNBC studies that PillPack’s infrastructure (together with its success facilities and relationships with healthcare suppliers) have been used to create Amazon Pharmacy. Amazon says PillPack by Amazon Pharmacy will proceed as a “distinct service,” geared toward prospects “managing multiple daily medications for chronic conditions.”
According to Healthcare Weekly, the pharmacy trade is price $312 billion within the US, with annual development charges of three % pushed primarily by the rise of on-line shops and residential delivery. Given Amazon’s prowess in logistics and its community of warehouses and drivers, getting into this area appears logical. And at a time when extra persons are staying at dwelling due to the pandemic, the prospect of delivering treatment is much more enticing.
In a press assertion, Amazon’s Senior Vice President of North American Consumer, Doug Herrington, advised that this dynamic would work within the firm’s favor. “As more and more people look to complete everyday errands from home, pharmacy is an important and needed addition to the Amazon online store,” stated Herrington.


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B2B Ecommerce Market To Reach Nearly 7 Trln By 2020
The B2B ecommerce network is expected to generate USD 6.7 trillion
in revenue by 2020, according to a recent research study.
In total, ecommerce platforms supporting business trade will make up 27% of the USD 25 trillion market by 2020, according to the Future of B2B Online Retailing report issued by Frost & Sullivan research company. The move to ecommerce is facilitated by a transfer away from costly legacy systems, as well as the advantage of automating many of the time consuming and costly aspects of procurement.
Large ecommerce businesses have recently attracted considerable attention, with the IPO of Alibaba raising a notable USD 21.8 billion. Each year, the use of ecommerce-based platforms is increasing, a recent research from Capgemini shows. In 2014, the UK ecommerce business-to-consumer B2C market grew by 12% and now accounts for 24% of the retail spend.
China and the US are set to lead the B2B online market, of which the latter is anticipated to double its revenue contribution to USD 1.2 billion by 2020. These platforms are, like their B2C counterparts, often being developed to facilitate a wide range of businesses. Thus rather than providing a facility that is one-to-many, the development of the market will see more many-to-many businesses arrive.
In the B2B sector, the complexities that wholesale ecommerce platforms need to deal with are of a magnitude bigger than in the B2C sector. Businesses tend to buy in bulk and in greater variety while, unlike in the B2C setup, prices are variable. The necessity for flexible shipping introduces further complexities into logistics solution.
Last modified: 13:28 - August 3rd, 2015
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- Infographic: A comparison of e-commerce in the US and Europe
- Cyber Monday is largest online sales day in history
- Report: ecommerce in Europe to hit EUR 602 bln mark in 2017
- Ecommerce increases with 15% in UK
- US ecommerce sales reach 15.6% in Q3 2016
- Preparing for Increased Holiday Sales: The Definitive Guide
- B2C global ecommerce sees growth in 2015


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Attorney general: Don't fall for tech support scam
Be wary of phone calls or online pop-up ads from companies claiming to offer tech support services for your computer. These scammers use software designed to trick consumers into thinking there are problems with their computers and then make high-pressure, deceptive sales pitches for needless or phony tech support services.
The Federal Trade Commission has recently cracked down on these scammers, but they continue to skirt authorities and target consumers. The Indiana Attorney General’s Telephone Privacy Division has received 559 complaints from Hoosiers about “tech support” calls this year.
Once they have you on the phone, these scammers might tell you they have detected virus activity on your computer, claim to be with a reputable computer company and insist on remotely accessing your computer. They often use fear tactics, urging you to purchase security software or tech support services to fix critical problems with your computer. If they obtain access to your computer, they could install malware or change settings to make your computer more vulnerable.
“I know from first-hand experience how convincing and effective these scam artists can be,” Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller said. “My home office computer was targeted by one of these scams. I spent a few minutes on the phone with a telemarketer who told me my computer was infected and needed urgent attention before I realized it was a phony offer from an illegitimate software company. A red flag went up when they told me they needed to take over my computer remotely and would be charging me for services. These scams can seem legitimate and are easy to fall for. Always be on your guard.”
If you get a call like this, hang up immediately. If you are worried about your computer, call your security software company directly for assistance.
Follow these tips to guard against tech support scams:
• Never give any telemarketer remote access to your computer.
• Do not provide credit card or financial information to someone who calls and claims to be from tech support.
• If a caller pressures you to buy a computer security product or says there is a subscription fee associated with the call, hang up.
• Do not disclose computer passwords or other sensitive information over the phone.
Consumers who believe they have been targets or victims of a tech support scam should file a complaint with the Indiana Attorney General’s Office online at www.IndianaConsumer.com or by calling 1-888-834-9969.
To help prevent your phone number from being targeted by telemarketers, sign up for Indiana’s Do Not Call list by visiting www.IndianaConsumer.com or by calling 1-888-834-9969.


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“You have a dream and you think you know how to make that dream come true, but it’s so wonderful to have the resources available. Northern Initiatives really helped us.”
Bethany Bauer and Brittany Meloche remember lunchtime at their previous job – scheming and dreaming of the pastry shop they wanted to open.
“We found out about the Italian families we each grew up in and we started eating lunch together and daydreaming. The biggest thing was, there was nowhere around here to get good cannoli,” said Bauer. They wanted to bring a taste of Italy to Muskegon.
Those dreams were more about mascarpone than marketing and the women knew they needed not just capital but education, too. Through fellow Italians, the owners of Nipote’s Italian Kitchen, they found out that Northern Initiatives, a CDFI with a mission to provide money and know-how, not only could help with funding the startup phase, but had all sorts of technical assistance to go with it.
After securing a loan for equipment, they increased the pastry production and plunged into Initiate, Northern Initiatives’ online technical assistance portal. Access to Initiate and its plethora of online resources is available to all Northern Initiatives loan customers.
As part of Northern Initiatives’ blended learning approach, Business Coach Chris Wendel started working with the women in conjunction with their online lessons. “They really wanted to learn,” Wendel said. He remembers a struggle with balance sheets. “They just couldn’t get their heads around it, then something in a video clicked. The lightbulb went on.” He especially credits Bauer and Meloche for their openness to learning. “Admitting you don’t know financial statements is hard for a business owner to say,” Wendel said.
At first, the women were creating their pastries in an incubator kitchen and selling at farmers markets. It was getting expensive because they paid the kitchen by the hour and they make all their shells and cream from scratch. “Spending so much time in the kitchen was getting astronomical. We needed something more stable, more predictable,” Bauer said. In 2019, they moved into a tiny space, “nothing glamorous, less than 300 square feet, in a cute area of Muskegon,” Bauer said. Road construction started outside their door the day of the grand opening. What was supposed to take a couple of months took almost the entire year they were there.
But still, the cannoli, cakes, cheesecake and cookies kept selling. Turns out “Italians abound” in Muskegon, Bauer laughed, and word-of-mouth helped grow the business.
In 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, The Only Cannoli used a second Northern Initiatives loan to expand to a larger location in downtown Muskegon. Both Northern Initiatives loans were funded by an investment from the Community Foundation for Muskegon County, designated to help small businesses in their area.
Sales continued to flourish in the new location and the women continued their education on Initiate and with Wendel, paying special attention to goal-setting and projections. “We wanted to prepare for the worst but who could have predicted 2020?” Bauer said.
Their COVID strategy included expanding the menu for growing demand while streamlining the interior model for take-out orders in the new, larger location. They now provide Nipote’s with cannoli, along with other wholesale clients, and are catering weddings, brunches and showers. They offer cannoli kits and helped create the Obi-Wan Cannoli ice cream treat at UCC Desserts. They employ four people besides themselves.
“You have a dream and you think you know how to make that dream come true, but it’s so wonderful to have the resources available,” Bauer said. “Northern Initiatives really helped us.”
The Only Cannoli Impacts:
- Jobs created: 4 plus two working owners.


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This news release from the Boston University School of Medicine covers a study describing a new technology in which ultraviolet (UV) LEDs at a specific wavelength produce more vitamin D in a shorter amount of time in human skin samples compared to natural sunlight. These lights are also a safer alternative than sunlight, the news release claims.
However, the release offers no caution that findings from in vitro skin samples may not necessarily be replicated in living humans and that larger studies are needed to show if the lights make a difference in actual health outcomes that people care about.
We also wish the release had been more cautious in discussing the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency. There’s disagreement among experts over the rate of deficiency, and the effects of vitamin D on conditions other than bone loss needs more research.
We do appreciate the findings being given in absolute terms, since this helps readers judge the treatment’s benefits more accurately.
The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and its links to certain diseases is a source of continuing debate in the United States.
Since vitamin D deficiency is linked to bone health and future studies may confirm links to other diseases and conditions, health professionals and the public remain interested in interventions to treat vitamin D deficiency.
Our philosophy: if not too early to talk about a device’s effectiveness, then it’s not too early to start discussing its potential price on the market. And the release claims there “will be” a new generation of marketable products based on this research.
The news release states RayVio’s 293nm UV LED was the most effective out of all the UV LEDs tested in this study. The California-based manufacturer sells its UV LED products online, with unit prices ranging between $6.93 to $68.06 for a single device.
Since costs are not discussed in the news release, we give it a Not Satisfactory rating here.
The news release states skin samples exposed to RayVio’s UV LED produced “more than twice as much vitamin D3” after 0.52 minutes compared to samples exposed to 32.5 minutes of sunlight.
We applaud the news release for giving readers absolute values for the time instead of providing relative figures. However, we’re not sure from the news release exactly how much vitamin D3 was produced in these samples. And how was this measured? Was there any variation in the amount of vitamin D3 produced depending on the wavelength and skin type?
In the original journal article, researchers looked at the percent conversion from an intermediate chemical compound to previtamin D as a way to measure vitamin D production.
Since benefits data were only half released, we rate this one Not Satisfactory.
The release gives a nod to harms, although only to discuss how it would reduce risk compared with sunlight exposure. It states: “A vitamin D3 producing UV LED device could be used on skin areas that experience less exposure to sunlight such as upper legs and arms and abdomen and back thus minimizing risk for developing non-melanoma skin cancer. The UV LED device also emits a much narrower band of UVB light and thereby decreasing likelihood of skin damage that can occur when the skin is exposed to higher wavelengths of UV radiation.”
Almost all interventions are associated with potential harms, and light therapy is no different. Although light therapy is considered generally safe, it may cause eyestrain, headache, nausea, irritability or agitation, and mania, euphoria, hyperactivity or agitation associated with bipolar disorder. Specifically, UV light can cause eye and skin damage, as well as increase one’s risk of skin cancer.
Since harms from UV LED aren’t addressed in this news release, we give it a Not Satisfactory rating here.
Readers can deduce from the release that this was a controlled study based on the description comparing UV LED vs. sunlight results.
Some things that would have made this release better in terms of evidence:
An acknowledgement that more research is needed to know if these tests in isolated skin samples would achieve the same result in actual living patients. And we’d need even more studies to know if the lights made a difference in actual outcomes that people care about as opposed to a lab value.
Without stating the source or elaborating further, the release states that 75 percent of teens and adults in the US are vitamin D deficient. However, noted experts have disputed high claims of deficiency as being a misinterpretation of Institute of Medicine nutrition guidelines.
Being vitamin D deficient in itself is not a disease. It can lead to a loss of bone density, contributing to osteoporosis and fractures. Severe vitamin D deficiency in the US is rare, and the effects of vitamin D on other conditions need to be investigated further.
For these reasons we rate this Not Satisfactory for disease mongering.
The news release discloses the study’s funding sources, which include the Boston University School of Medicine and a Boston University Ignition Award.
The original journal article states the study authors have no competing interests.
We rate this one Satisfactory.
Natural sunlight is the main alternative discussed in the news release, since skin samples exposed to sunlight needed much more time to produce comparable levels of vitamin D3 than those exposed to RayVio’s UV LED. The news release also mentions diet, pointing out that vitamin D is also found in plants, yeast and mushrooms. Other foods containing vitamin D include oily fish — like salmon, mackerel, and blue fish — as well as fortified milk and other dairy products.
Another alternative to treat vitamin D deficiency is oral supplementation.
We feel the news release’s comparison to natural sunlight is enough for a Satisfactory rating here.
RayVio already has other UV LEDs out on the market for health and hygiene purposes, but these don’t include the 293nm UV LED — the prototype tested in this study. The news release makes clear that this technology is still being developed, hinting that a “wearable device” could be available to consumers in the future.
We wish the news release had given more information on the types of UV light therapies accessible now for patients, as well as what a treatment session currently looks like.
Since the news release makes clear that the 293nm UV LED technology isn’t widely available, we rate this one Satisfactory.
The news release makes it sound as if UV LED therapy is a novel treatment option, since it states “this study will lead to a new generation of technology…labeled as photopharmacology.” It adds that “the use of LEDs with targeted wavelengths can cause specific biologic effects in human skin to help treat and prevent chronic illnesses.”
UV light therapy, also known as phototherapy, has been widely used as an option to treat skin diseases, like psoriasis, T-cell lymphoma, vitiligo and atopic dermatitis. UV lamps to synthesize vitamin D have been around since the 1940s, when the Sperti lamp was available in US pharmacies to prevent and treat rickets.
In addition, UV LED therapy has been previously explored. A 2016 study in Food Chemistry looked into the efficiency of UV LEDs in producing vitamin D3 in pig skin. Another 2014 study published in the National High School Journal of Science also looked at the effect of UV LEDs on vitamin D production.
We especially would have liked more context surrounding UV LED research, which is why we rate this one Not Satisfactory.
We wish the news release had used more neutral, cautionary language, especially in its quotations. Red flags are raised when we see unsubstantiated, extolling phrases, such as “this study will lead to a new generation of technology” and “potentially improve and save hundreds of thousands of lives.” Furthermore, this technology has “enormous” potential.
Therefore, we rate this one Not Satisfactory.


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Local multiplayer has been a staple of the Forza Motorsport series for years now, but does the new game support it? And what are Turn 10's plans for post-launch updates? Here's what you need to know.
Forza Motorsport Split Screen Support
Unfortunately, Forza Motorsport for Xbox Series X|S does not support split screen play - at least not at launch. The dev team says that the game's new next-gen technology meant that local multiplayer had to be cut. Here's the reasoning behind their decision:
"Our heavy investment in pushing our new graphical features and our complete overhaul of the rendering engine unfortunately made split-screen really difficult to implement, and it's not going to be in for launch."
It's worth noting that it does say "for launch" in that quote, so there's a chance it could be worked on sometime after release. But for now, you cannot play local split screen co-op in the new Forza Motorsport.
Multiplayer is purely online-only in Forza Motorsport for Xbox Series X|S.


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Browzwear, a 3-D technology firm for the apparel industry, has partnered with tech incubator Stitch on a new educational initiative for designers, patternmakers and product developers, the companies announced Tuesday.
The goal of the Stitch Accelerator Program is to ensure fashion’s flow of critical design tech talent — which may be critical for companies like Tommy Hilfiger. The brand, which uses Browzwear’s tech and Stitch’s design workflows, previously announced that its 3-D design process would go fully digital by 2022.
“Browzwear’s long-standing relationship with Stitch is part of our commitment to partnering with stakeholders throughout the apparel development process to bring to market solutions that will make their organizations and the entire industry more efficient, sustainable and profitable,” said Sharon Lim, cofounder and chief executive officer of Browzwear.
“We know from our vast experience that adopting 3-D solutions brings companies competitive advantage in a challenging business environment,” she added. “To maximize that advantage, it’s imperative that we work together to redesign the product life-cycle of the future.”
The programming focuses on developing efficient 3-D design workflows from Stitch and training on Browzwear tools, such as VStitcher 3-D apparel development software.
Participants get hands-on experience and certification, qualifying them to work for companies interested in beefing up their 3-D efforts — such as Stitch client PVH Amsterdam, which owns Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Van Heusen, Izod, Warner’s, Geoffrey Beene and other brands.


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Omni-channel data is usually based on surveys, where companies are asked about their practices. However, what we think we’re doing and what we’re actually doing can be two entirely different things. With an overall lack of understanding of omni-channel, the results of such surveys can be particularly unreliable. Order Dynamics took a different approach, investigating […]
Canadians have fully embraced online shopping. Many Canadian businesses fear they can’t compete with international eCommerce, but 65% of Canadians have shown a clear preference for shopping online within Canada, at least when the option is available to them.
Social media in Canada has reached a point of saturation, according to the latest data from Pollara. Virtually all Canadians who are online use at least one social media network (91%), primarily Facebook (76%). The majority (60%) access social media using their smartphone or tablet, while 35% use a computer or laptop. 63% follow companies, […]
Sometimes it feels like social media networks are taking over the world. Many Internet users visit social media sites more often than they use the telephone, although the use of smartphones can make that point moot. Canada is in the top five countries for social media usage, according to a survey by Pew Research Center, […]
It doesn’t seem like too long ago that digital marketing priorities consisted of a website, email marketing, banner advertising and maybe some ads in a search engine. Now there is a long list of marketing tactics and strategic planning involved in every effective online campaign.
Canadians are among the most active eCommerce consumers, with statistics indicating 76-80% of us shop online. Excluding travel, eMarketer estimates $38.74 billion will be spent online by Canadian consumers in 2017 and sales are expected to reach 43.95 billion in 2018. Of those sales, Internet Retailer estimates $17.97 billion will be spent at Canadian online […]
We have found statistical differences in how French Canadians use the Internet before. Most of the differences are assumed to be due to a lack of French content online, including on social media networks. This IAB Canada research reveals differences at a more tangible level with device usage statistics for 2015.
Influencer content on blogs and social media is one of the most trusted types of advertising, say Canadian consumers in a recent Izea survey. In fact, Canadians are more suspicious than Americans of other types of advertising. Our heavy use of social media and blog reading ensures an impactful, and often viral, social marketing campaign. […]
From ‘The Cloud’ to business phone collaboration systems, it has never been more practical and profitable to facilitate telecommuting (AKA virtual commuting, mobile commuting, teleworking, remote working). Part-time or full-time virtual teams have many proven benefits for employers, staff, and the environment. A 2012 Reuters Ipsos worldwide poll indicated one in every five employees work […]
Data from a number of sources paints a bright picture of Canadian online retail. Sales and marketing insights, combined with Canadian web usage statistics, facilitate a sound strategy for 2017. An internet retail presence is more important than ever, as international retailers set their sights on the growing online shopping market in this country.


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Paolo Banchero’s Card Market Doesn’t Need a Flagship Release (Yet)
While collegiate products typically carry the NBA card market’s key players before flagship sets are released, Paolo Banchero and his 2022 Panini Instant Draft Night card have bucked that trend. On-demand, limited run cards like Panini Instant and Topps Now have grown in popularity in recent months, but the success of Banchero’s is nothing short of shocking.
Read about Banchero and other popular cards in this week’s NBA Market Movers.
Cards listed below are PSA 10s with a minimum average of $30 and 10 sales over the last 30 days.
PRICE GROWTH PERCENTAGE RISERS
1. Lauri Markkanen 2017 Prizm Base PSA 10 📈 169%
2. Lauri Markkanen 2017 Optic Base PSA 10 📈 143%
IS MARKKANEN’S MARKET FOR REAL? It’s probably fair to assume that most collectors and investors would be a little surprised looking at the top five biggest risers in the NBA over the last month based on price percentage. Lauri Markkanen isn’t much of a hobby standout, after all, but the reality is that he’s having an incredible season and his card market has adjusted accordingly.
The No. 7 overall pick in 2017, Markkanen didn’t really live up to his draft slot during his time in Chicago, but a breakout season in Cleveland changed things drastically as his game was unlocked in ultra-big lineups that also featured Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley. An offseason trade to Utah as part of the Donovan Mitchell trade looked like it might end Markkanen’s breakout, but it’s actually just empowered it.
The 7-footer is averaging career-bests in minutes, points, rebounds, assists, blocks and shooting percentage, and appears on his way to his first All-Star appearance. The next step, however, is continued growth among his key rookies — Markkanen lands here because his popularity has spiked on cards with very low prices, and it’s fair to wonder if his cards can survive in a Utah market that couldn’t sustain stars like Mitchell and Rudy Gobert.
PRICE GROWTH PERCENTAGE DECLINERS
GROWING PAINS: Unfortunately for many young players, hobby popularity just doesn’t pan out despite solid performances — that might be the case right now for Patrick Williams and Scottie Barnes. Now in his third season, Williams has had his career limited by injuries, but he’s remained a favorite among many anticipating a massive breakout. His shooting stats have been solid to start 2022, but an average of just 24 minutes per game has left him hitting double-digit scoring in just four out of nine games.
The NBA’s Rookie of the Year in 2021-2022, Barnes has actually improved his shooting in a big way and is averaging similar scoring stats despite fewer minutes. Unfortunately for Williams and Barnes, their key rookies are all down big over the last month. Williams’ Bulls are just 5-4 while they battle through some injuries, and Barnes has taken a bit of a backseat to Pascal Siakam, who is having an MVP-level season in Toronto so far.
Key Prizm Base and Silver PSA 10 rookies for both Williams and Barnes are all down big over the last month, and collectively their PSA 10s tracked by Market Movers are down 45% and 27% over that same period. It’s worth noting that relatively-low populations on graded cards from these two can result in some market volatility, but that doesn’t change the fact that their key cards are trending in the wrong direction.
DOLLAR GROWTH RISERS
1. Michael Jordan 1989 Fleer Base PSA 10 📈 $340
3. Ja Morant 2019 Prizm Silver PSA 10 📈 $175
5. Anthony Edwards 2020 Prizm Silver PSA 10 📈 $113
WHO NEEDS FLAGSHIP CARDS? Apparently Paolo Banchero doesn’t. In most years, some of Panini’s collegiate products do relatively well leading up to a player getting their first card in an NBA jersey with the NBA Hoops release — Banchero’s Hoops card isn’t expected to drop until December 2022.
A surprising development over the last month, however, has been the popularity of Banchero’s Panini Instant Draft Night card. Printed to-demand during a limited window, this Instant card has a print run of just under 1,700, and has seen its PSA 10 examples explode in value over the last 30 days. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2022 NBA Draft and an early favorite for Rookie of the Year, Banchero’s hot start has resulted in this Instant card climbing to a $350 average, which is actually above Prizm Base PSA 10 rookies from Ja Morant and Cade Cunningham while closing in on Luka Doncic.
Extreme hype around Banchero and a low graded population have certainly had a major impact on this Instant card, but the market doesn’t lie — collectors want Banchero and they are willing to pay relatively-high prices to get him. It’s worth noting that cards printed on-demand like Topps Now and Panini Instant don’t typically have strong long-term growth, and this specific card will almost certainly trend down once other products like Hoops and flagship releases like Donruss, Optic, Select and Prizm finally reach the market.
DOLLAR GROWTH DECLINERS
1. LeBron James 2003 Topps Chrome Base PSA 10 📉 $1,504
3. Zion Williamson 2019 Prizm Silver PSA 10 📉 $534
5. LeBron James 2003 Topps Base PSA 10 📉 $279
WHAT’S GOING ON WITH LEBRON? LeBron James’ ability to take just about any team to the playoffs has pretty much run out at this point. The Lakers stink, there’s no great solutions for that roster, and James’ key rookies are dipping amid a 2-5 start. Long-term holders probably don’t need to worry much, as James is still considered one of the safest holds in the sports card industry, but his immediate card market may get worse before it gets better.
James continues to play at a high level and is averaging 25-9-7 this season, but it might take a minor miracle for the Lakers to make the playoffs with uncertain futures for Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook. Collectors may start to wonder too if fatigue from James’ dominance has finally set in and the league is ready to completely turn itself over to young stars like Ja Morant, Luka Doncic and Trae Young. James’ market will go back up once he hits retirement, but that doesn’t necessarily make his current market dip sting any less.
SALES VOLUME LEADERS OVER LAST 30 DAYS
1. Zion Williamson 2019 Prizm Base PSA 10 📈 197 sales
2. Ja Morant 2019 Prizm Base PSA 10 📈 166 sales
3. Anthony Edwards 2020 Prizm Base PSA 10 📈 141 sales
4. Luka Doncic 2018 Prizm Base PSA 10 📈 119 sales
5. Jordan Poole 2019 Prizm Base PSA 10 📈 109 sales
POPULAR SEALED WAX (HOBBY BOXES WITH MIN. 10 SALES OVER LAST 30 DAYS)
1. 2021 Select Basketball 📉 13%
2. 2021 Spectra Basketball 📉 11%
3. 2021 Optic Basketball 📈 5%
4. 2021 Chronicles Basketball 📉 15%
5. 2021 PhotoGenic Basketball 📈 3%
MARKET PULSE INDEXES OVER LAST 30 DAYS
Basketball 2018-2020: 📉 12%
- KEY RISER: Ja Morant 2019 Prizm Silver PSA 10 📈 15%
- KEY DECLINER: Zion Williamson 2019 Prizm Silver PSA 10 📉 30%
Basketball 2010-2017: 📉 18%
- KEY RISER: Jayson Tatum 2017 Prizm Silver PSA 10 📈 29%
- KEY DECLINER: Devin Booker 2015 Prizm Silver PSA 10 📉 49%
Basketball 2000-2009: 📉 6%
- KEY RISER: James/Wade/Anthony 2003 Fleer Trio Rookie PSA 10 📈 38%
- KEY DECLINER: LeBron James 2003 Topps Chrome Base PSA 10 📉 19%
Basketball 1990-1999: 📉 9%
- KEY RISER: Dirk Nowitzki 1998 Topps Chrome Base PSA 10 📈 38%
- KEY DECLINER: Shaquille O’Neal 1992 Topps Gold PSA 10 📉 32%
Basketball 1980-1989: 📉 4%
- KEY RISER: Michael Jordan 1986 Fleer Sticker Base PSA 8 📈 18%
- KEY DECLINER: Bird/Johnson/Erving 1980 Topps Base PSA 8 📉 33%
Basketball 1979 & Older: 📈 3%
- KEY RISER: Paul Arizin 1957 Topps Base PSA 6 📈 38%
- KEY DECLINER: Pete Maravich 1970 Topps Base PSA 8 📉 6%
With the Sports Card Investor app, you can profit from the hobby you love by keeping up with trending cards, tracking real-time prices with Market Movers and buying items on eBay. Download the industry-leading app here for Apple or Android
Note to readers: If you purchase something through one of our affiliates, we may earn a commission.


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Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has signed a massive customer for Google Wallet. Domino’s Pizza, one of the largest pizza makers and delivery companies, has added more convenience to its customer experience by supporting Google Wallet with the Android ordering app. Domino’s customers who have an Android device can pay for their online orders using the Google digital wallet.
A federal judge has rejected a request for a patent consortium called Rockstar to transfer patent litigation from California to Texas. Rockstar is backed by Microsoft, Apple, BlackBerry, Ericsson and Sony. These companies purchased patents from Nortel Networks for $4.5 billion after outbidding Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) in 2011.
If you want to stay on top of the latest search trends, you may be happy to hear that Google Trends now has e-mail notifications. Google Trends will let people sign up to be notified by e-mail about the popularity of specified search terms. Google Trends launched in 2006 and has been a great tool for determining what people are looking for.
Before you buy the Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) Glasses product for $1,500, you could try-it-at-home as part of a pilot. 9to5Mac posted a screenshot of how it works. Reddit user clide posted an e-mail and photos of the kit he received in the mail from Google Glass as part of a trial that the company has launched.
Google launched a service last year called Helpouts. It is a service where people can connect with experts for free or paid depending on the complexity of the task through Google Hangouts. Google has now released a Helpouts app for iOS. The Helpouts iOS app offers users the ability to connect to any of the free video chats available on the Google powered platform. If Google charged for certain Helpouts, it would likely have to pay Apple a 30% cut.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) sold Google Glass to the public for only one day yesterday. Guess what? It sold out.
Google has added a feature on Gmail that makes it easier for people that back up photos from their smartphone and tablets on Google+ to share through e-mail. You can insert pictures and photos directly into e-mail, resize them with the message, and share them with friends and family. You would need to grab the photos that are pulled through the Auto Backup feature on Google+.
Continue reading →


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Last month YouTube for Google TV vanished from the Play Store like a vampire slain by Lincoln himself, quietly fading from public view, seen only by those who had previously downloaded it and already knew of its existence. But like the immortal being that it is, YouTube has risen back from the dead. Not only that, it's stronger, having now received a relatively minor update to version 1.7.5.
Last month Qualcomm released the SDK for its Toq smartwatch, inviting developers to create much needed apps for the device. Unsurprisingly, software hasn't exactly flooded in. Nevertheless, the Toq has just scored its largest win yet - the latest Augmented SmartWatch Pro update adds support for Qualcomm's wristwatch.
Primary features center around real-time alerts. Here are some fuzzy screens showing a Fitbit card and a weather alert.
The app also supports up to three Tasker tasks, with opening the card serving as the trigger.
For our readers across the pond, BBC iPlayer takes some of the network's shows and provides them for easy viewing on Android devices. What about the TV? The latest version of the app has that covered too. This would be a surprise, but we already spilled the beans on this release a few days ago. We knew this update was to coincide with the launch of Chromecasts in the UK on March 19th, and now it's here.
Using Dayframe to turn an Android tablet into a digital photo frame may not sound like the most affordable option out there, but at this point in time, more than a few of us have a couple old Honeycomb-era Android tablets lying around that aren't good for too much else. Following the introduction of Chromecast support in version 2.0 last month, it's pretty simple to turn your TV into one as well.
Yet another Motorola app has been added to the Play Store, but it's not as glamorous this time. MotoCare will now be kept up to date on all supported devices, and it's getting a new (slightly more descriptive) name – Motorola Help.
This app contains basic how-tos, tips, and support information. There is an option to call Motorola support directly, or start a chat session. That's more than you get with most OEMs.
Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.
Today's roundup is presented by Stock Tracker - Stock Prices from Handy Apps.
Google is really dropping the ball with regard to surfacing Chromecast enabled apps in the Play Store. Sure, there's that Chromecast app page, but that's just a tiny fraction of all the apps and games with support for Chromecast now that third-parties have been turned loose. Enter Cast Store, which aggregates a bunch of apps with Chromecast support.


text: Over 8,000 people are at KubeCon in Seattle. Every major tech company and businesses I’ve never even heard of are here and trumpeting their Kubenetes distros — about 80 of them. IBM recently bought Red Hat for a cool $34-billion. I, and others, think they did it to get Red Hat’s Kubernetes expertise. Why? To answer this question we need to look into the hybrid-cloud model.