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Just over 1y ago, Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures popularized the term ‘App Constellation’, which he defined as ‘…a collection of mobile apps that share a single login and have app to app linking built in.’
At that time, we wanted to dive deeper into the trend, and understand how the strategy was playing out with Facebook, Foursquare, Dropbox, and a few other mobile apps. A collection of Quibb members contributed their perspective on this new, lauded strategy, and made predictions about how the strategy would pan out over time. No one was overly optimistic.
Evolution of mobile app distribution hasn’t become any easier to navigate these past 12months, and competition has only increased. When I asked Toufeeq Hussain (Senior Product Manager at Storm8) if the App Constellation strategy had failed, he noted:
“Maybe failure is too harsh a word as I feel the mobile space is now so well established that the success metric needs to shift from being in the Top-100 to being in the Top-1000.”
Facebook has managed some great results in spinning-out Messenger. Notably, since the beginning of 2015, the iOS version of the app has never slipped below 5th place in the US in either the Social Networking nor Overall category. Impressive.
You could argue that a couple of their other constellation products (Instagram and Whatsapp) that were acquired via acquisitions are also doing very well, while those created internally (i.e. Paper, Slingshot, Rooms, all launched out of Facebook Creative Labs) have more or less failed.
Dropbox’s Carousel - another internally created product - has also continued to struggle over the past year:
It has been hovering around 50th place in the US Photo and Video category of the iOS App Store, and well past top 500th position Overall for most of 2015. Meanwhile, there are rumors of Dropbox continuing to push in this direction with pending Google Docs-style collaborative word processor product.
One year after our initial post, we again chatted to mobile experts from inside the Quibb network to better understand — Does the app constellation strategy still make sense? What have we, as an industry, oberserved and learned about this strategy over these past 12 months?
Casey Winters (Growth Lead at Pinterest)
I don’t think much has changed in the year since we last talked about app constellations. Most companies that have tried them have failed, and the successes seem to crowd around these specific strategies:
Acquire already successful apps and cross-promote
Unbundle a part of existing app that is already successful and go for niche or broad appeal
Cross-promote new apps heavily and recognize you’ll have wins and losses
Facebook and Google are clearly the most mature in their strategy. They make bets on new apps of which they know they’ll have a certain success rate (Rooms, Moments, Keep, Slingshot, Paper, Riff, Field Trip). They also successfully unbundled popular pieces of larger apps (Messenger and Groups from the Facebook app, Sheets and Docs from Google Drive, Hangouts and Photos from Google+, Inbox from Gmail). They do this for two purposes: to make popular features take up another spot on the charts (Messenger, Photos) and to make more performant apps for niche features that are important to certain people (Groups, Pages, Sheets).
Evernote is the only other company of note with a similar success ratio. Almost all other companies have had no success with app constellations (Dropbox and Foursquare, notably). Microsoft, while late to the game, is following Facebook and Google’s strategy of acquiring great apps (Sunrise, Accompli) and launching their own successful desktop apps on all platforms.
Twitter focuses on cross-promoting app launches within their main app. This was successful for Vine and Periscope, and not so successful for Music. Instagram has had one success (Layouts) and one failure (Hyperlapse).
It will be interesting to see what Uber does here. As Uber expands outside of transportation of people to things (via Eats and Rush), they will likely be pressured to unbundle those apps. They are doing the right thing right now which is using the install base of the main app to gain popularity for these features. Then, if those features succeed, they can unbundle them like Messenger.
Andrea Friedenson, Consultant at Halfshark Industries
One year later, app constellations are still an ideal growth strategy for our current silo’d app ecosystem. If you have a big enough audience, a differentiated use case for the non-core apps, and are willing to take the risk of pushing users out of your core app and onto a new property, you can not only acquire a huge audience for little cash outlay, but you can also limit the ability of your competitors to get those organic installs. Facebook has done the best job capitalizing on app constellations. By breaking out Messenger functionality from its core app, and Layout from Instagram, Facebook has claimed 4 of the top 10 spots in the App Store and 3/10 in Google Play. They just dominate app discovery.
But I think App Constellations are a fundamentally short-term play. In a few years, we won’t need as many affordances to make our devices do what we want. Apple and Google have already made strides towards turning apps into service layers for their hardware. Prime real estate in the App Store becomes a lot less valuable in a world where we need fewer apps. I’m sure that Facebook has thought about this. I’m interested in seeing what their plans are for avoiding a declining share of attention in a post-app world.
Alex Schiff, Product Manager at Occipital
Last summer, I made two main claims about the whole unbundling/constellation strategy in the wake of the launches of Swarm, Paper, Carousel, and a few others:
1) Unbundling into “constellations” vs. single apps rarely works. Facebook Messenger is one of the only successful examples.
2) The only time it does work is when two use cases compliment, not cannibalize each other. This is one reason Messenger took off and Paper did not.
One year later, I think those arguments have generally held up. However, I think in many cases, we were thinking of “success” as one-dimensional: Did the company succeed at getting multiple apps on your phone or not? With the benefit of hindsight, you can see that more often than not this wasn’t really the goal.
For example, Paper was not an attempt to get more real estate on your phone — it was a UI experiment.
This card-like UI interaction is what you see when you’re looking at profiles of suggested friends from the friend request page, and it’s straight out of Paper. You’re starting to see more and more Paper-esque UI paradigms permeate the Facebook mobile app, and I think you’ll see that continue.
Somewhat different is the case of Foursquare and Swarm. When we commented on the strategy last summer, Swarm was chalked up as a failed unbundle because Swarm itself didn’t take off. And it still hasn’t:
However, Swarm wasn’t really about Swarm — it was about saving Foursquare. Foursquare needed to escape the legacy of check-ins to go more mainstream, but just axing the feature outright would have caused even more revolt. Swarm allowed them to gracefully remove check-ins, and Foursquare has been steadily rising in the ranks since last fall (when the dust settled from the launch of Swarm).
One interesting new strategy we’re seeing is big companies simply buying constellations — i.e., purchasing ready-made apps (sometimes with existing user bases) that they believe can be successful as part of a product suite. The most notorious example as of late is Microsoft, who has bought their way back into relevance in the consumer productivity space by acquiring Wunderlist, Sunrise and Acompli within 7 months. They’re not the only ones, though — Twitter has been quietly building a constellation via M&A for years (Vine, Periscope), as has Evernote (Skitch, Penultimate).
If anything, I think we’ll start to see more companies entirely outside of tech “buy constellations” as a way of getting in the game. There are plenty of companies with a ton of cash and declining relevance.
Adam Sigel, Product Manager at InsightSquared
A year ago, we talked about how platforms were breaking up into constellations of apps. Each app was targeted at a different use case. Facebook spun off Messenger and launched a slew of standalone apps around different forms of social consumption and creation. Foursquare separated its recommendation engine from its social gamification platform. And so on. People griped at the need for more apps on their homescreens, but optimists saw the promise of a new wave of apps that could be optimized around a more targeted use case.
Today, I see something similar happening again on a smaller scale. Apps are being broken out into separate faces to take advantage of the different form factors that now exist, specifically wearables. Translating an iPhone app to an iPad app by and large gave you the same experience with perhaps more breathing room or fewer options obscured behind a menu. Shrinking that same app down into 390x312 pixels has forced people to think about the core value they provide to users. It’s almost like rediscovering your MVP. Just as related apps must plug back into a single platform, faces must work together within a single app. Apple Maps does this quite well. Once you tell your phone where you’re going, the job of getting you there is handed off to the watch, which nudges you when it’s time to make a turn.
Each app is like its own tiny ecosytem that plugs into a broader multi-app universe. Power users no longer have to choose just one social, payment, or location app. It’s getting easier for them all to play together thanks to Extensions in iOS 8 and the deep linking that’s coming in iOS 9. Conversely, a well-executed ecosystem creates a moat of ever present usability for mainstream users. I love collaborative playlists in Spotify, but I love having offline Apple Music playlists on my watch even more.
I’m excited to see what developers do with watchOS 2 when they start getting access to more of the hardware in Apple Watch. We may have to put up with a few more cycles of cluttered home screens — and perhaps some very ambitious watch complications — but I’m still optimistic that we’ll end up with better experiences as companies learn how to engage users with the right face/app of their platform.
The App Constellation strategy is still going strong — but only really paying off for those with massive, highly engaged audiences and clear differentiation between apps. In those cases, it’s interesting to note that the ‘product acquisition’ approach seems to work best, while in-house spin-offs are less likely to fail outright.
The recognition by these companies that they’ll eventually encounter the Innovators Dilemma is amazingly astute for such young companies. It’s a very powerful statement to their core DNA — they’re willing to keep pushing this strategy forward, even if that means many failures along the way and potentially cannibalizing their core product.


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The market has had a tough start to the year, with January underperforming the long-term median and average. The market sell-off has been driven mostly by growing inflationary pressures, the Fed’s decision to raise interest rates, and weaker-than-expected labor market data.
However, we believe beaten-down growth stocks are ideal bets now for investors looking to maximize their returns over the long run. Investors’ interest in growth stocks is evident in the SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 Growth ETF’s (SPYG) 11.9% gains over the past year.
Intel Corporation (INTC), Intuit Inc. (INTU), and NetEase, Inc. (NTES) are companies whose stocks have suffered significant price declines over the past few months. However, based on their solid fundamentals and impressive growth attributes, we think they could gain considerably in the long run.
Intel Corporation (INTC)
INTC in Santa Clara, Calif., is a global manufacturer and designer of technologies for the cloud, smart, and connected devices for retail, industrial, and consumer uses. The company operates through DCG; IOTG; Mobileye; NSG; PSG; CCG, and All Other segments. Accelerators, Connectivity, Memory and Storage, Platform products, and Boards and Systems are INTC’s products.
This month, INTC announced its plan for an initial investment of more than $20 billion to construct two new leading-edge chip factories in Ohio. The company believes that this investment should boost production to meet the increasing demand for semiconductors and to power a new generation of innovative products.
During the fourth quarter, ended Dec. 25, 2021, INTC’s net revenue increased 2.8% year-over-year to $20.53 billion. The company’s gross margin came in at $11.01 billion. And its operating income amounted to $4.99 billion. Also, the company’s net income came in at $4.62 billion during the period.
Analysts expect INTC’s revenue to increase 4.6% year-over-year to $76.7 billion for its fiscal 2023. The company has an impressive earnings surprise history; it beat the consensus EPS estimates in each of the trailing four quarters. Also, its EPS is expected to increase at a 3.2% rate per annum over the next five years. INTC’s Revenue and EBITDA have increased at CAGRs of 4.3% and 3.5%, respectively, over the past three years. The stock has declined 7.5% in price over the past month but has gained marginally over the past three months.
INTC’s strong fundamentals are reflected in its POWR Ratings. The stock has an overall B rating, which equates to a Buy in our proprietary rating system. The POWR Ratings assess stocks by 118 distinct factors, each with its own weighting.
Also, the stock has an A grade for Value and a B grade for Quality. We have also graded INTC for Stability, Sentiment, Momentum, and Growth. Click here to access all INTC’s ratings. INTC is ranked #22 of 100 stocks in the A-rated Semiconductor & Wireless Chip industry.
Intuit Inc. (INTU)
INTU is a global technology platform that provides financial management and compliance products and services in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company operates in Small Business and Self-Employed; Consumer; Credit Karma; and ProConnect segments. Its professional tax offerings include Lacerte, ProSeries, ProFile, and ProConnect Tax Online.
This month, INTU’s QuickBooks campaign launched two new products to provide small businesses and their employees with faster access to their money to give them greater cash flow flexibility so they can succeed and prosper.
During its fiscal first quarter, ended Oct. 31, 2021, its total net revenue increased 51.7% year-over-year to $2.01 billion. The company’s operating income came in at $195 million. Its net income grew 15.2% from its year-ago value to $228 million. Also, the company’s EPS rose 9.3% from the prior-year quarter to $0.82.
INTU’s revenue is expected to increase 27.4% year-over-year to $12.27 billion in its fiscal year 2022. Also, its EPS is expected to increase 20.1% in fiscal 2021 and 16.8% in fiscal 2022. INTU’s EPS and net income have increased at CAGRs of 13.5% and 15.3%, respectively, over the past three years. INTU stock has lost 20.8% in price over the past month. However, the stock has surged 24.3% over the past nine months.
It is no surprise that INTU has an overall B rating, which equates to a Buy in our POWR Ratings system. Also, the stock has an A grade for Quality and Sentiment.
NetEase, Inc. (NTES)
Headquartered in Hangzhou, China, NTES is a technology company that offers online gaming, communication, intelligent learning, commerce, Netease mail, news, and other products services. The company operates in three segments: Online Games Services; Youdao; Innovative Businesses, and Others. It caters to both domestic and international markets, including Japan, the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
NTES’ net revenues for the third quarter, ended Sept. 30, 2021, increased 18.9% year-over-year to RMB22.19 billion ($3.49 billion). The company’s gross profit grew 19.5% from its year-ago value to RMB11.81 billion ($1.86 billion). Its operating profit rose 31.5% from the prior-year quarter to RMB3.78 billion ($593.48 million).
NTES’ $3.76 billion consensus revenue estimate for its fiscal period ending March 2022 represents an increase of 17.6% year-over-year. The company’s EPS is expected to increase 6.5% in fiscal 2022. In addition, its revenue and total assets have grown at CAGRs of 12.5% and 22.7%, respectively, over the past three years. NTES stock has declined 7.1% in price year-to-date but has gained 7% over the past six months.
NTES’ POWR Ratings reflect this promising outlook. The stock has an overall B rating, which equates to a Buy in our proprietary rating system. Also, the stock has a B grade for Growth and Value.
What To Do Next?
If you would like to see more top growth stocks, then you should check out our free special report:
What makes them “MUST OWN”?
All 9 picks have strong fundamentals and are experiencing tremendous momentum. They also contain a winning blend of growth and value attributes that generates a catalyst for serious outperformance.
Even more important, each recently earned a Buy rating from our coveted POWR Ratings system where the A rated stocks have gained +31.10% a year.
Click below now to see these top performing stocks with exciting growth prospects:
Want More Great Investing Ideas?
INTC shares were trading at $46.78 per share on Friday afternoon, down $1.27 (-2.64%). Year-to-date, INTC has declined -9.17%, versus a -8.43% rise in the benchmark S&P 500 index during the same period.
About the Author: Priyanka Mandal
Priyanka is a passionate investment analyst and financial journalist. After earning a master's degree in economics, her interest in financial markets motivated her to begin her career in investment research. More...
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It's been clear at least since the Dreamcast era, if not further back, that Sonic the Hedgehog's console games were going to be in 3D. If you wanted old-school 2D Sonic, you went to the handhelds. Well, now the next Sonic game on handhelds is 3D, too.
Is this a bad thing? Maybe not!
To judge for yourself, take a look at the video above, which was shot by the good people from NTower at the Gamescom show in Cologne last week. It shows this fall's Nintendo-exclusive Sonic: Lost World running on a 3DS. Imagine that with the 3DS' glasses-free 3D effect turned on.
I dare say that a 3D Sonic on a handheld looks pretty good! Sorry, purists. Hey, at least the game has a mix of 2D and 3D gameplay. So it's not a complete departure from the old retro design.


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This ad that just appeared on CNET.com says that the Sprint Galaxy Nexus is going to be the very first LTE phone from Sprint. Ditching WiMax, Sprint announced today that is going to roll out LTE in markets by the middle of the year. Think this ad is legit? Or was it a test ad that just slipped? Head on over to CNET and click on this article, this is where the ad appeared, maybe you’ll see it too! What really makes this interesting is that the ad says that the specs are not a 1.2GHz dual core processor, rather a 1.5GHz dual core processor.
Update: We just went back on CNET and not to our surprise, the ad has been pulled. We’ve reached out to Sprint for comment as well.


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If there’s anything we know about Kylie Jenner, it’s that she never fails to seize a marketing opportunity. Most recently, the beauty mogul filed to trademark the phrase “rise and shine” after singing it to her daughter, Stormi Webster, in a viral video clip. But does she really have the grounds to do it? Here’s what we know.
First, a recap of the moment
On Oct. 10, Jenner posted a YouTube tour of her massive office, which includes a room for her daughter, whom she shares with Travis Scott. In the video, the reality star woke up Stormi from a nap and used a sweet tune to do it.
“We’re going to wake Stormi up and get out of here and show you guys her room,” Jenner told the camera before entering her daughter’s room and turning on the lights. “Rise and shine,” Jenner sang.
But viewers weren’t so pleased with her singing voice and almost immediately began giving the moment the meme treatment. Others copied and remixed it. Even celebrities, including Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande, joined in on the roasting.
Jenner wants to capitalize on the phenomenon
On Oct. 22, Jenner made a move to own the phrase. According to TMZ, she filed legal documents to trademark “the slang version of the famous wake up call,” which would cover cosmetics, as well as “belts, pants, coats, dresses, footwear, gloves, headbands, headwear, jackets, loungewear, scarves, sleepwear, socks, swimwear and undergarments.”
But she might have trouble when it comes to her cosmetics application. Trademark attorney David Leichtman told Yahoo Finance on Oct. 26: “There are already several other registrations and applications in the same classes, all of which claim earlier use dates.” Though they have variations in usage and spelling, Leichtman claimed that “it is probably close enough that it will draw an objection.”
But if she does somehow succeed, it’s safe to say that the branded products will be a hit. After Jenner went viral, she released two “rise and shine” hoodies, and both sold out almost immediately.
Her move comes shortly after Kanye West got denied a “Sunday Service” trademark. TMZ reports that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office determined in mid-October that someone else had already registered the name.
The Jesus Is King rapper had planned on releasing merchandise in honor of his weekly Christian gatherings, which are basically pop-up church experiences.
Jenner has faced backlash for trying to trademark “rise and shine”
As you can imagine, people are not happy that Jenner, a “self-made billionaire,” is trying to capitalize on this, especially considering that the phrase is already so commonly used.
Many of them took to social media to share their opinions, writing things like, “I just trademarked Good Morning” and “Stop trying to profit off of literally everything, you have enough money.”
As of writing, Jenner has not commented on the backlash. But it seems like she’s simply trying to grow her brand. Over the past year or so, Jenner has reportedly filed for more than a dozen trademarks for beauty products,
But here’s wishing her good luck on her effects.


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03-07-2013, 02:16 PM #1
Mozilla’s Mobile Firefox OS Raises Security Questions
Web-based: Alcatel’s One Touch Fire, one of two announced models that will run the Firefox OS, displays a screen of apps.
Mozilla’s new Firefox OS for low-end smartphones—aimed initially at Eastern European and South American markets—will face challenges protecting users from the malicious mobile apps that are a growing problem around the world.
Malicious apps have been known to creep into Apple’s and Google’s app stores even in the face of security screening. More problematic are unofficial Android marketplaces, where knockoffs of popular apps are among the malicious versions that crop up (see “Attacks on Android Devices Intensify”). In response, an industry is growing around mobile security companies like Lookout (see “How to Detect Apps Leaking Your Data”).
In the case of Mozilla, the issue is that it will not just make apps available through its traditional app store, called the Firefox Marketplace. In addition, the company will encourage developers to make apps that can be downloaded from the Web or run from a Website. (While it is possible to download Android apps that are hosted independently, the practice is not very common.) The OS is based on a language called HTML5, which essentially makes Web applications work as well as desktop software. It allows websites viewed on mobile devices to act like apps that have been downloaded. Researchers have long been saying that this raises security concerns (see “New Web Standards Bring New Security Worries”).
It’s not clear how Mozilla will screen apps to eliminate those that could pose threats or privacy problems, says Janne Lindqvist, a mobile security researcher at the Winlab at Rutgers University. “How do you control the user privacy and security if you make it so flexible that with just some keyword search, you have lots of apps available? I can’t understand at this point at all what the security model will be,” he says. “Who controls what appears on your phone with the searches, and who controls what kind of information these suddenly appearing apps have?”


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Apple Officially Buys Beats
Super-producer Dr. Dre is a whole hell of a lot richer with the sale of his headphone empire Beats! Apple officially purchased Beats for $3 billion, including $2.6 billion cash up front and approximately $400 million in stock. If that isn’t impressive enough, Dre and his Beats co-founder Jimmy Iovine will join Apple’s roster of visionaries. The company that brought us the iPhone, iPad and Macbook also acquired Beat’s sister company, a subscription streaming music service.
“The addition of Beats will make our music lineup even better, from free streaming with iTunes Radio to a world-class subscription service in Beats, and of course buying music from the iTunes Store as customers have loved to do for years,” Apple Senior Vice President Eddy Cue said.
When the merger was first announced, it was assumed that Dre would become a billionaire with the sale. However, Dre only owns a percentage of the company. The deal will boost Dre’s net worth from an estimated $550 million to approximately $700-$800 million. And yes, that puts him ahead of Diddy on Forbe’s List!
UP NEXT: Mama Joyce Said WHAT About Todd Tucker?


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Dangdang (DANG) to Release Quarterly Earnings on Thursday
Dangdang (NASDAQ:DANG) is scheduled to announce its Q114 earnings results on Thursday, May 15th. Analysts expect the company to announce earnings of ($0.01) per share and revenue of $281.76 million for the quarter. Individual that are interested in participating in the company’s earnings conference call can do so using this link.
Dangdang (NASDAQ:DANG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.04 EPS for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of ($0.07) by $0.11. The company had revenue of $325.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $315.83 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.24) earnings per share. On average, analysts expect Dangdang to post $0.09 EPS for the current fiscal year and $0.36 EPS for the next fiscal year.
Shares of Dangdang (NASDAQ:DANG) opened at 11.59 on Wednesday. Dangdang has a 1-year low of $4.79 and a 1-year high of $19.05. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $12.36 and its 200-day moving average is $11.04. The company’s market cap is $953.7 million.
A number of analysts have recently weighed in on DANG shares. Analysts at Credit Suisse initiated coverage on shares of Dangdang in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Analysts at Zacks upgraded shares of Dangdang from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. They now have a $19.20 price target on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. The company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $45.53.
E-Commerce China Dangdang Inc (NASDAQ:DANG) is a holding company.
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Free credit reports: In response to the unprecedented challenges posed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic uncertainty, the three major credit reporting agencies in the United States—Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion—have collectively announced the extension of their free weekly credit report service through the entirety of 2022. This continued offering is aimed at assisting consumers across the nation in effectively managing their financial well-being during these trying times.
Commitment to Consumer Financial Health:
CEOs Mark W. Begor (Equifax), Brian Cassin (Experian), and Chris Cartwright (TransUnion) have expressed their shared commitment to supporting consumers in strengthening their credit profiles and securing their financial futures. Acknowledging the multitude of challenges faced by individuals, including job losses, market volatility, inflationary pressures, and health-related concerns, credit reporting agencies are determined to assist consumers in making informed decisions by providing easier access to regular credit monitoring.
The Importance of Credit Reports: Credit reports serve as comprehensive records that provide factual information about an individual’s credit history and payment activities. These reports play a critical role in financial health, as they are used by lenders, creditors, service providers, and businesses to assess creditworthiness and make informed decisions regarding financial opportunities. By accurately evaluating individuals’ credit profiles, credit reports facilitate fair access to credit and other financial services, contributing to the overall health of both consumers and the economy.
Accessing Free Credit Reports:
To conveniently access their free weekly credit reports, consumers can visit the official website www.annualcreditreport.com, which serves as the designated platform for obtaining credit reports from Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. It is essential for individuals to carefully review all sections of their credit reports, paying close attention to the provided information. In the event of any errors or discrepancies, consumers should promptly contact the respective credit reporting agency to rectify the inaccuracies and ensure the accuracy of their credit information.
The decision by Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion to extend the availability of free weekly credit reports throughout 2022 underscores their unwavering commitment to supporting the financial well-being of consumers during the ongoing pandemic and economic uncertainty. By offering easier access to regular credit monitoring, these credit reporting agencies aim to empower individuals to make informed financial decisions and take control of their financial futures.
For more detailed information and to access your free weekly credit reports, please visit the official website www.annualcreditreport.com.


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Massachusetts council looks into changing pawn ordinance
Nov 01, 2012 Quinn Thomas
Many communities have adopted ordinances that monitor for the practices of thieves. Some have required brokers to put identifying information about the seller and merchandise into a database, while others force shops to hold items for a certain length of time to make sure no victims file a police report after realizing the piece was stolen. However, where should the line be drawn? Holding onto some items can make them outdated by the time they are able to hit shelves, and the businesses have to swallow storage costs while in wait. With this in mind, aldermen in Somerville, Massachusetts, are looking into changing the local law that requires brokers to hold metal merchandise for 45 days, according to Wicked Local Somerville. The main concern, the source said, is the sale of metals. Currently, a Massachusetts state law forces pawn shops to hold items for 30 days after a sale to prevent against selling stolen merchandise, the news source reported, so the Somerville council is looking to make that limit applicable to metals to not put certain stores at a disadvantage to others. Could 30 days be too long?
However, in other areas, some brokers are arguing that even 30 days is too long to hold items. For instance, in Manchester, New Hampshire, aldermen are considering changing the law requiring no sale until 30 days have passed. According to the New Hampshire Union Leader, it used to be that brokers in the Granite State had to only yield transactions for seven days after the initial sale and submit details to the police within three days. Now, the leaders are considering imposing a two-week rule to lessen a broker's burden.


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Still looking to buy a computer or a tablet for school or just to upgrade? You need to know the reliability of computers on the market.
RESCUECOM – which has repaired hundreds of thousands of computers, tablets and smartphones – is in a great position to give you advice on what level of reliability you can expect on different computers. Stick to Apple and Samsung if you want the least problems based on RESCUECOM’s experience.
“With the beginning of a school year just getting underway, it is important to know which computers and tablets are most reliable for your child to use in the classroom and what device they can depend on for completing daily homework assignments,” says David Milman, CEO of RESCUECOM, in his latest quarterly report.
Interestingly, in this report major brands such as Amazon are notably absent. Amazon took the top spot in a recent Computer Reliability report, but Amazon tablets have sunk in popularity and drastically reduced the company’s market share to the point where they are no longer in this report. The order itself has shifted only slightly, as most of the brands expected to be at the top remain there. These include Samsung, Apple, and IBM/Lenovo holding the same ranks they held most recently due to an increase in each one’s overall score, while Dell has risen from almost last and Acer dropped one spot. Asus keeps its spot in the median range, while Microsoft takes the spot just above it.
The fight for the top spot has been between Samsung and Apple in recent quarters, and no contender has topped these extremely reliable brands for it. While Samsung takes first place in this quarter, the scores for Apple were higher than in the previous report. It is important to note that Samsung’s market share is in the median range at 6.8% while Apple’s 21.4% is the largest market share of any manufacturer. Apple has held a large market share for nearly two years, making its unvarying reliability all the more meaningful and notable.
IBM/Lenovo currently remains the third most reliable brand, a spot it has held for some time, and its score has risen slightly since the most recent report. Its overall score, based upon the ratio of service calls to market shares, has not improved as drastically as either Samsung or Apple, slowing its progress in catching up to either one and keeping it solidly in third place. Still, it maintains a position as one of the most consistently reliable brands on the market and remains a contender for first or second place with further improvement.
Microsoft and Asus each fall into the middle of the rankings, a familiar spot for Asus, and Microsoft receives its ranking from its production of the Surface tablet. Asus scores just above average, though its score is a little lower than it was in the most recent report, while differences between scores becomes less drastic toward the bottom of the list. While Microsoft has a smaller market share than some might expect considering its size and how many tech devices utilize its software, it is not surprising given that its hardware, namely the Surface tablet, is just gaining traction in the tech industry. This is Microsoft’s first inclusion in the Computer Reliability Report, mainly because its hardware is only recently becoming more popular in the market. Also key is the fact that Microsoft has had some initial difficulties with its Surface tablet and has only recently been able to make adjustments to fix them. Time will tell if these adjustments lead to a rise in the rankings and market share.
Dell has risen close to the middle from being next to last most recently. It holds a significant market share at 15.5 %, but also holds the distinction of having the second highest repair share. Its increase in score brings it close to Asus, though Toshiba is very close behind. Toshiba’s score has increased the least significantly since the last quarter, equaling to a gain of only a few points. It also holds the same rank as it did then, exactly the third place from last overall.
Rounding out the bottom of the list are Acer and HP, marking a drop in both score and ranking and making HP the least reliable manufacturer for this quarter. This is especially concerning for consumers because HP has the second highest market share at 16.8% and more than doubles the second highest repair share. It is significant that its score has dropped despite having held last place most recently. Though second to last, Acer’s score is a few points above failing, making HP the only manufacturer to receive a failing grade, an unenviable feat achieved in the last report at well.
In comparison to the most recent previous report, no manufacturer has seen a particularly significant increase or decrease in ranking, though some of the changes in score have been significant. Microsoft’s rank may easily change as it continues to produce unique tech devices and platforms. Samsung, Apple, and IBM continue to rise, and will only display improved reliability scores if the trends continues to hold. There is clearly a great deal of work for HP to do in order to improve it reliability, and its continuing failure is reason for concern. The technology industry is a constantly changing one, so any manufacturer could make potentially drastic changes with the right policies and practices.
To create the Computer Reliability Report, we take the market share of every manufacturer’s computers plus tablets in the U.S. and contrast each one with the number of calls RESCUECOM receives for tech support needs regarding that manufacturer’s products, thus determining each brand’s overall reliability. The report includes calls for the top PCs and tablets for all brands that have been on the market for a year or more.
Here are the rankings according to the new computer reliability report for 2015 Q2:
|Manufacturer||U.S. Computer/Tablet Market Share 1,3(Percentage of Share computers shipped)||RESCUECOM Computer/Tablet Repair Share 1, 2(Percentage of service calls to 1-800-RESCUE-PC)||Reliability Score 1, 2||Reliability Grade|
|1. SAMSUNG||6.8 %||1.3 %||407||A+|
|2. APPLE||21.4 %||7.4 %||218||A|
|3. IBM/LENOVO||8.3 %||4.3 %||147||B+|
|4. MICROSOFT||2.5 %||1.6 %||117||B|
|5. ASUS||4 %||3.2 %||96||C+|
|6. DELL||15.5 %||13.8 %||85||C|
|7. TOSHIBA||3.6 %||3.4 %||79||C-|
|8. ACER||3.6 %||3.9 %||69||D|
|9. HP||16.8 %||30.1 %||42||F|
1 – Computer repair share percentages and computer reliability scores include tablets.
2 – The computer reliability report does not include “other” manufacturers, defined as all manufacturers that have below 1.0% market share or not on the market for at least one year.
3 – Market share numbers are provided by IDC.
RESCUECOM provides the best computer repair and tech support, 24/7. Meeting every computer repair need including virus removal, data recovery, networking, wireless services, and tech support for PC’s, MAC’s, Tablets, Phones, hardware and software with excellence. For the best tech support or information on products, services, or computer repair, visit https://www.rescuecom.com or call 1-800-RESCUE-PC (1-800-737-2837).
For More Information, Contact:
Filed under: rescuecom


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China based manufacturer Lenovo has expanded its business all across the world, and it remains one of the primary Chinese tech company names to come up in the Indian smartphone market. Its not been so long since Lenovo released Yoga Tablet 2 designed by Hollywood star Ashton Kutcher, now the company has launched its budget new budget smartphone Lenovo S850. Priced at Rs. 8,999 it is exclusively available on Snapdeal.
Lenovo S850 Specifications
Dubbed as Lenovo S850, it comes with 5-inch HD display, powered by 1.2 GHz Quad-core Snapdragon 200 processor along with 1GB of RAM, runs on Android 4.3 (Jelly Bean), 8MP rear camera with LED flash, 2MP front-facing camera. Further, it has 3G connectivity, dual SIM support with dual standby, 8GB of internal storage with expansion slot and a 2150mAh battery.
It comes per-installed with Lenovo proprietary DOit app for smooth data sharing, security and sync.
Sudhin Mathur, Director - Smartphones, Lenovo India, said:
"Lenovo has been in the forefront of product innovation offering consumers a range of superior value for money smartphones. The new range of S series smartphones are stylish and feature rich suiting the users' aspirations. The S580 is an amalgamation of stylish design, blazing fast processing speeds, and integrated Lenovo proprietary apps making it a unanimous choice for users looking at smartphones at a sub 10k price category."
With lots of budget devices coming into the market, we take a look at some of them:
The Moto E sports 4.3-inch display with a resolution of 540x960 pixels, 1.2GHz processor alongside 1GB RAM, 5 MP rear camera and has no front camera, 4GB of internal memory with expandable storage upto 32GB via microSD card and runs on Android 4.4 KitKat. It is priced at Rs. 6,999 and available exclusively on Flipkart.
Asus Zenfone 5
Priced at Rs. 9,999, Asus Zenfone 5 comes with 5-inch display with a resolution of 720x1280 pixels, 1.6GHz processor alongside 2GB RAM, 8MP rear camera, 2MP front camera, 8GB of internal memory with expansion of 64GB via microSD card and runs on Android 4.3 on top of ZenUI.
Nokia Lumia 630
Nokia Lumia 630 sports a 4.5-inch display with a resolution of 480x854 pixels,1.2GHz processor alongside 512MB RAM and 5 MP rear camera, 8GB of internal storage with expansion slot and it runs on Windows phone 8.1. It is available for Rs.6,944
With lots of budget phone coming into the market, will Lenovo S850 able to sustain in the Indian market?
Post your opinion in the comment box below and Stay tuned to GizBot for other updates!


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Announced last March, Realms is a service that will allow players to work together on a single world via an online cooperative mode. The service is expected to be launched this summer for both PC and mobile editions of Minecraft.
The alpha version of Realms, which has just been added to Minecraft – Pocket Edition, is currently free. But it will be an optional paid service following its official launch.
If you can’t see the video embedded above, please click here.
The service will cost around $10 to $15 per month for the PC version. No price range has been announced for Minecraft – Pocket Edition, but it will probably be less than the charge for the desktop edition.
The latest update to the game also adds buckets, fire, smooth lighting, spawn eggs, chat, eggs, milk, and cake. Also, it introduces new menus and ensures that the connecting players inventory is now saved on a server.


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First Niagara CEO to leave
First Niagara Financial said Tuesday that John R. Koelmel was stepping down as CEO after six years at the helm of the Buffalo, N.Y.-based bank. His departure, which was "mutually agreed upon," was effective immediately, the company said. The board appointed executive vice president Gary M. Crosby to succeed Mr. Koelmel on an interim basis while a special committee of independent directors conducts a search for a replacement. First Niagara, which reported profits of $140.7 million in 2012 vs. $173.9 million in 2011, is the fifth largest retail bank in the Pittsburgh region with 60 offices and deposits of $2.83 billion here.
Eckert to create Trenton office
Downtown-based law firm Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott will merge April 1 with a Trenton, N.J., law firm to create Eckert's 13th office nationwide. Sterns & Weinroth has 17 partners and seven associates, which will boost Eckert's attorney headcount to over 385.
Dick's director will retire
Dick's Sporting Goods Inc. said longtime director Walter Rossi plans to retire from the Findlay retailer's board effective at the June 5 annual meeting. Mr. Rossi, who was listed as 69 in regulatory filings in April 2012, was formerly chairman and CEO of Mervyn's department stores, among other positions.
Builders begin moving faster
U.S. builders started more homes in February and permits for future construction rose at the fastest pace in 4 1/2 years. The Commerce Department said Tuesday that builders broke ground on houses and apartments last month at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 917,000, the second-fastest pace since June 2008, behind December's rate of 982,000. Building permits, a sign of future construction, increased 4.6 percent to 946,000.
Siemens plans Germany cuts
Siemens AG is preparing to eliminate 1,200 to 1,400 jobs at three sites of its energy and infrastructure businesses in Germany, according to two people familiar with the matter. Siemens is also planning to offload units such as airport luggage systems, mail automation and water technology.
Also in business...
Samsung Electronics is developing a wristwatch as it races against Apple to create a new industry of wearable devices that perform similar tasks as smartphones. ... Lego is building its first factory in China as part of a plan to move production closer to Asia, its fastest growing market. ... Federal safety regulators are investigating reports of fuel leaks in about 250,000 Mercedes-Benz E-Class cars from the 2003 to 2008 model years. ... ... BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, says it has agreed to sell its travel guide business, Lonely Planet, for 51.5 million pounds ($77.8 million) to U.S.-based NC2 Media.businessnews


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February 15, 2008
1 Min Read
Anaheim, CA—During the Medical Design & Manufacturing show (MD&M; Jan. 29-31, Anaheim, CA; organized by MPW’s parent Canon Communications LLC) material manufacturer Eastman launched a new online Medical Technical Center to pair with its Innovation Lab. The company says the sites assist with the medical-product development process. Glenn Petrie, marketing manager for medical packaging and tubing at Eastman, told MPW that the company’s medical-grade copolyester offers clarity, toughness, chemical resistance, and color stability for non-invasive medical devices and flexible- or rigid-packaging applications.
Petrie says that preceding the launch, Eastman had updated its medical info, and one year ago, it launched its Innovation Lab, geared towards the design community. The Technical Center will look at viable materials by process and product. Eastman offers its Eastar copolyester 6763 for rigid packaging, with 15 grades available for injection molding. The company also offers Ecdel elastomer as a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) replacement for products like IV bags.
Petrie says that medical is a very important market for Eastman, and one that the company has emphasized more in recent years. “Medical is definitely an area that’s growing,” Petrie told MPW. “There has been good growth for devices and packaging over the last few years,” as well as non-invasive devices. The website allows customer s to link directly to Eastman, as well as product data and regulatory information. It is in response to changes in how OEMs and designers research materials. “I think you see a lot more people go online,” Petrie said. “Before, they would call us.”—[email protected]
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Ascend Wellness Signs Term Sheet To Settle Lawsuit With MedMen & Buy Its NY Operations For $88M
Ascend Wellness Holdings, Inc. (CSE:AAWH) (OTCQX:AAWH) has signed a term sheet to resolve its lawsuit against MedMen NY, Inc. and MM Enterprises USA, LLC (CSE:MMEN) (OTCQX:MMNFF) in the Commercial Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York in New York County. Pursuant to the term sheet, MedMen has agreed to complete the sale of MedMen NY, Inc. to AWH, and upon closing, AWH will enter its seventh state.
To settle the dispute, AWH will increase the transaction consideration by $15 million, $4 million of which is contingent on the start of adult-use sales at a MedMen NY dispensary. The revised total consideration of $88 million remains significantly below recent precedent transactions. As part of the settlement, MedMen will withdraw its counterclaims against AWH. The parties will also amend certain terms in the previously announced transaction agreement.
Amended Transaction Terms
AWH will receive a 99.99% controlling interest in MedMen NY at closing.
AWH will pay MedMen $74 million at closing, inclusive of the $63 million transaction consideration and the $11 million settlement payment. AWH has already paid $4 million of the consideration as a deposit.
AWH will make a subsequent payment of $14 million upon the first sale of recreational cannabis in a MedMen NY dispensary, inclusive of the $10 million transaction earn-out and the incremental $4 million related to the settlement.
There will be no additional earn-outs and no assumption of debt.
"We are thrilled to put this dispute behind us and look forward to the imminent closing of this transaction," stated Abner Kurtin, founder and CEO of AWH. "We continue to build scale in some of the most sought-after locations in premier, limited license markets in the country, and with this investment, we will bring our high-quality products and exceptional retail experiences to our seventh state. While we always seek accretive deals, this transaction is particularly attractive given a recent comparable acquisition valued at $247 million."
Michael Serruya, MedMen’s chairman of the board stated: “This resolution is a clear win for MedMen shareholders, as the company will receive $15 million in additional value,”“This resolution enables MedMen to move forward with plans to significantly restructure its balance sheet, reduce debt, and focus on its core markets.”
The transaction is expected to close within thirty days.
Innovative Industrial Properties Reports Unaudited Q1 2022 Revenue Growth Of 50% To $64.5M YoY
New Jersey's Cannabis Industry Expected To Boom Big Time, Workers Needed, Job Fairs Abound
Ascend Wellness Launches Adult-Use Operations In New Jersey


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This story is part of Holiday Gift Guide 2020, CNET’s gift picks with expert advice, reviews and recommendations for the latest tech gifts for you and your family.
The new iPhones debuted in October, and surprise: For the first time ever, they don’t come with headphones in the box. The good news is that Apple’s AirPods true wireless earbuds have never been more affordable. No, we’re not talking about the price you’ll pay for these headphones at the Apple Store: Those are stuck at $159 for the standard AirPods, $199 for the AirPods with wireless charging case and $249 for the AirPods Pro with better sound quality and active noise cancellation. But shop around, and you’ll find much better prices across the board: We saw the AirPods Pro drop to $200 and the regular AirPods dip to $115 during Prime Day sales, for instance.
AirPods pricing 2020
Apple Store price
Best price right now
Best price (all-time)
AirPods with wireless charging case
With Black Friday just around the corner, big sales are getting ready to start — or have even already started — at retail giants like Home Depot and Best Buy. And Walmart has already thrown down the gauntlet with major early Black Friday sales starting at 4 p.m. PT on Nov. 4, including the baseline AirPods for $99. That beats the earliest price we’ve seen by $16. Costco and now Amazon, meanwhile, have beaten Walmart to the punch by offering them for $100. (Best Buy’s price was also briefly at $100, but has reverted back to $130 for now.)
Now, we can’t guarantee that you’ll see better prices than those between now and the end of the year. But the moral of the story is that you shouldn’t pay full price — the Apple Store price — for any Apple headphones right now.
The AirPods Pro briefly dropped as low as $190 during Prime Day sales at Woot, but that instantly sold out. Woot is now selling Apple’s top-of-the-line noise-canceling true wireless earbuds for $195, and the discounter has kept inventory up for several days. Meanwhile, the Amazon price has returned to $219, but we’d expect it to drop back to $199 later in the season.
The standard AirPods with the wired charging case dropped as low as $115 during Prime Day, and they’re back to $129 on Amazon. But now they’ve hit $100 at Amazon and (with membership) Costco, and later on Nov. 4 they’re slated to drop to $99 at Walmart, too.
Read our AirPods review.
Personally, I would either get the cheaper AirPods or the AirPods Pro. But if you’re really a zealot for wireless charging, know that you can get the standard AirPods with a wireless charging case for $160, which is a $39 savings versus the Apple Store price.
This article is frequently updated to reflect current pricing.
CNET TVs, Streaming and Audio
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Always looking to cement its lead over rival providers, UK LTE network operator EE has announced that it's partnered with Huawei to bring data speeds of up to 300Mbps to London's Tech City, as part of its LTE-Advanced trials. The scheme will kick off in December in conjunction with businesses in Tech City, an area of East London home to many high-tech organizations. Customers won't be able to get these faster data speeds directly on devices until mid-2014 though, instead the trial will begin using Huawei Cat. 6 Wifi hotspots, which will provide access over an 802.11 ac connection.
To achieve such high speeds EE says it's paired 20MHz of 1800MHz spectrum with a further 20MHz of 2.6GHz obtained through the recent 4G spectrum auction. The EE 300Mbps trial is due to be extended to other parts of London in 2014 — naturally, you'll need an as yet unreleased Cat. 6 mobile device to take advantage of the faster network when it's available.
Samsung takes folding phones mainstream with the Galaxy Z Flip
Last year's Galaxy Fold was very much an experiment for Samsung is an entirely new product category, but in just a year's time, the Galaxy Z Flip has debuted with the makings of a mainstream hit. If you ask me, that's mighty impressive.
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Galaxy Fold 2 tipped to come equipped with an under-display selfie camera
The Galaxy Fold 2 is reportedly code-named "Champ" and is going to launch in July this year with an under-display selfie camera.
The best screen protectors for your Huawei Mate SE
Protect your Huawei Mate SE's screen with one of these protectors.


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is encouraging its partners to
familiarize themselves with the next version of Dynamics CRM for a number of
Code-named “Titan,” the customer relationship management
3.0. Customers will be able to pick one of three deployment options for
Titan: on-premise, Live CRM hosted by Microsoft, or Live CRM hosted by a
But while Live CRM hosted by Microsoft is an option, the Redmond,
Wash.-based software vendor thinks its customers could do with at least a
It is thus encouraging partners to participate in its technology adoption
program (TAP), in the hopes that they will get up to speed with the new code
base before the product ships this summer.
Microsoft’s thinking is that once those partners have familiarized
themselves with Titan, they will be able to offer customers a bundled
application set that includes CRM, whether hosted or not. And if their
customer wants to go with a stand-alone Microsoft-hosted version of Live
CRM, they would also be in a position to offer consulting services.
“We’ll at least suggest a partner that can help [customers] be more
successful,” said Brad Wilson, general manager of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.
“CRM is more than a product — it’s a strategy. It helps to have the
perspective of someone who has experience with that kind of application.
People who do it for a living can bring a lot to the table,” Wilson told
That kind of experience will come in handy, Wilson said, for
addressing strategic issues such as defining territories for a sales force,
designing workflows for routing new leads or determining sales stages.
“People often get confused and think SaaS means there’s no need to think
about strategy, but you need to connect the product to the strategy.”
Wilson added that most customers are likely to pick third-party hosting of
Live CRM by partners specialized in their vertical markets.
Partners participating in TAP will get a head start in developing bundles
and mash-ups between Live CRM and other applications, he explained.
Microsoft said that 300 partners have already signed up for TAP during the
first quarter of 2007 and expects more than 1,000 to have signed up by mid-year about the time specific pricing information will be revealed.
Wilson would not provide pricing information but said that would be made
available towards the end of the first half of 2007.
Initially, said Wilson, Microsoft will make the hosted CRM Live service
available in North America only, but does plan to expand to other markets in
Last March, Microsoft announced that Live CRM would be available for hosting by partners and last summer announced that
it planned to host Live CRM on its own Windows Live servers.
While the Live CRM initiative can be seen as Microsoft’s latest foray into
it may also reflect recognition that some customers may not want to
own an on-premise CRM application.
“It’s almost certainly a reaction to the success of Salesforce.com
,” said Chris Alliegro, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft.
“Microsoft recognizes that there is a class of customer that is unwilling to
take the risk or does not have the skill set to manage an on-premise CRM
solution,” he told internetnews.com.


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Gaming hardware company Razer has been on our radar for quite a long time: they’ve made high-end gaming peripherals like mice and keyboards for years, and have recently expanded into more esoteric devices and game-specific partnerships. They’ve been running under their own steam this whole time as what’s called a “successful business,” but they’ve decided to take a big funding round to expand their reach.
IDG-Accel, specifically their joint China Capital Fund, has chipped in to the tune of $50 million, a minority investment that allows the fund to join the board at Razer, and allows Razer to expand further into the whole-systems business, something that requires considerably more R&D and space to manage.
Razer tells us that the new money and board member shouldn’t affect day-to-day operation, and says the investment was “fairly straightforward,” though they wouldn’t say whether it was contingent on any goals, markets, or products.
The money will largely be used for R&D, particularly in gaming user interfaces and systems. The company has been putting more effort into partnership deals, like StarCraft 2 branded mice and keyboards, and most recently they put out a full-on gaming laptop, the Blade, with a built-in touchscreen and LCD keys among other things. Presumably more systems like this or product partnerships with larger OEMs will be enabled by the cash infusion.
And the fact that the fund is China-focused is not trivial; the Chinese gaming market is exploding and is considerably more PC-based than the US and Japan, where consoles are more popular. PC gaming is the primordial ooze from which Razer emerged, and although it is still going strong here, it’s going stronger in China and Razer likely senses the magnitude of the opportunity.
Accel Partners is a venture capital firm that has been dedicated for over 25 years to supporting entrepreneurs who possess the unique insight to define new categories and build world-class companies
Razerâ„¢ is more than just the worldâ€™s leading brand in high-end precision gaming products, perpetually defining the gaming technology space. Founded in 1998 in Carlsbad, California, Razer is driven by the ceaseless pursuit for absolute precision and heuristics in a distinctive, aesthetic design that will give gamers the edge they demand. With labs and offices in seven cities around the world, Razer dedicates user-interface research and development to bring cutting-edge technology to each and every product. Razer is made...


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Since 1995, the InfoAg conference has billed itself as the premier event for precision agriculture. Sponsored by the Fertilizer Institute and supported by dozens of agricultural technology and farm services companies, this year’s InfoAg conference was held at St. Louis’ historic Union Station on July 23 to 25.
The choice of St. Louis was apt. Among the ag groups that have headquarters here are the American Soybean Association, the Farm Equipment Manufacturers Association, the National Corn Growers Association and the United Soybean Board. St. Louis serves as North American headquarters both for agribusiness and food ingredient company Bunge, and international animal nutrition company Novus, not to mention Monsanto (now Bayer).
St. Louis is the front-runner among a group of peer cities—including Indianapolis, Indiana, Kansas City, Missouri, and Memphis, Tennessee—that are bidding to become ag tech powerhouses. A 2017 article for AgFunder News asked, “Is St. Louis the Silicon Valley of Ag Tech?” Echoing that question, a September 2018 report by the St. Louis Regional Chamber noted, “The emerging ag tech boom represents a unique opportunity for the St. Louis region to establish a globally recognized brand in one of the fastest growing innovation sectors. In the next five to seven years, we have a real opportunity to become the ‘Silicon Valley’ of ag tech.”
This year’s keynote speaker at InfoAg was Ranveer Chandra, a Microsoft chief scientist who is leading a project area called Farmbeats, whose website proclaims, “Our goal is to enable data-driven farming.”
Some of the companies with booths at InfoAg capture aerial field data, like TerrAvion, a subscription aerial imagery company; others store, process or package it. Companies like AgStudio and Farmobile promise actionable, easy-to-use data systems. One notable absence was drone-makers. “Last year, there were six or seven drone makers; I didn’t see one this year,” one attendee told High Plains Journal.
Agronomists and crop consultants analyze the data, image it and tailor it into actionable recommendation and solutions. All the companies at AgInfo are seeking niches on the value chain with fewer direct competitors where they can focus on core strengths. While some of the attending companies deal directly with farmers, most deal with each other as they sort out their relationships while waiting for rural broadband to mature.
In an April report, “The Case for Rural Broadband,” the USDA said, “Today, agricultural technologies are often framed as standalone tools, which does not capture the end-to-end use of tech in agriculture. Currently, most producers plan, produce and organize sales of their goods using independent and disassociated technologies. Use of Precision Agriculture will continue to increase as technologies begin working together interdependently, as an agriculture ‘Internet of Things’ to transform the entire business of farming, regardless of which technology or design ultimately creates this value.”
Cracking the code of IoT
Senet is one company that seems to have cracked the code of the Internet of Things.
According to Noelani McGadden, vice president of strategic accounts at Senet, the company that became Senet began a decade ago as a maker of Low Power Wide Area sensors for propane tanks. Both the sensors and the network the company built to transmit their data were the first ones to be licensed by the FCC. The sensors saved money for fuel distributors by sending drivers to refill the tanks only when necessary—an example of “precision maintenance.” Some of those early sensors, powered by simple AA batteries, are still pinging 10 years later.
The data that the tank sensors sent out—pings indicating tank levels—was simple. That kind of low-power, low-density telemetry could be sent over unlicensed, allocated parts of the radio spectrum, using a protocol called LoRaWAN, short for Long-Range Wide Area Network.
At first, the gateways—devices about the size of two bread loaves that connect the sensors to the internet—cost between $3,000 and $4,000. Each gateway handles all the sensor traffic in a radius of between 20 and 30 kilometers. Over time, many commercial gateways became available and the cost continues to drop. There are low-cost options on the market today that are just a few hundred dollars, enabling new and different business models. Even end-users could afford to buy their own to connect to various operator-managed networks. Those end users could be private—such as individual farmers needing data from soil sensors or businesses monitoring carbon dioxide machines—or public, like water districts monitoring water meters. Many of those customers have applied for Connect America Funds money, a special fund established by the FCC to speed the pace of rural broadband connectivity.
As equipment costs fell and competitors crowded in, the company realized that it needed to find a new place in the value chain. “We climbed the whole tree, and hit every branch on the way down,” is the way McGadden puts it.
The company sold its tank-monitoring business to Anova, its biggest cellular competitor. It concentrated on its unrivalled experience in building cloud-based network management software and operating LoRaWAN networks. “We decided to build and maintain the rural internet backbone that all the sensors connected to. There’s a specific skill set around network design. We built up our practice around network design and pure-play cloud services,” said McGadden.
The company has relationships with more than 500 installation crews. McGadden said the company has 220 cities built out in the U.S. and has a “prospective build-out” of between 40 and 45 more worldwide. The networks can deploy quickly; through an international partner in India, networks were installed in 38 cities in only 18 months. “We don’t claim complete coverage like the cell phone companies do. Instead, we are letting our customers determine where and how fast the Internet of Things is growing,” said McGadden.
Farmers and growers remain core customers. But any company that uses low-power, low-frequency sensor data is a potential customer. In India, McGadden said, local governments used the network to operate an array of “no-parking” sensors to monitor lots where vehicles were not allowed to be parked. Fine collections, and hence return on investment for the agencies, “rose through the roof,” she said.
From the beginning, said McGadden, “We knew that any telemetry solution needed to be affordable to the end user and to provide immediate ROI.”
Ag company rebirth
According to Steve Rao, the year 2013 was a “wake-up call” for companies involved in ag tech and information technology. That was the year that Monsanto (as it was then called) bought Climate Corporation, a weather forecasting and insurance outfit started by former employees of Google, for $930 million.
At the time, Monsanto predicted that data science for farmers could be a $20 billion revenue opportunity beyond its core business of seeds and chemicals. According to Rao—whose background includes providing data and analytic services to consumer companies focuses on financial service, retail and insurance—the agriculture industry has only recently begun viewing data as “fuel” rather than “exhaust” for its businesses.
Rao is chief executive officer of Farm Market ID, which has been around for 40 years but has reinvented itself in the past few years. “We used to sell data by the pound,” said Rao. “Now we use our data in applications that solve agribusiness problems, all of which have been built within the past three years.”
As a company that bills itself as “the leading provider of farm and grower data to inform and improve agribusiness strategy, marketing and sales efforts,” Farm Market ID has a unique competitive advantage. It has a proprietary database of 34 million farm field boundaries covering 600 million acres of farmland linked to both owners and operators of the land. This data includes highly accurate government-sourced data, including Common Land Unit data from the USDA, real estate transaction data, and a host of other resources. The data is kept current through quarterly and annual update processes.
That unique data—acquired through a quirk in the legal time continuum, a window that immediately slammed shut—has since become the foundation of Farm Market ID’s proprietary databases, whose information (confirmed by human analysts) has granularity and accuracy without parallel.
“We can link more than 93 percent of U.S. farmland geospatially to owners and operators and can provide a 10-year history of the crops, acres and farm operations,” said Rao. “Earlier this year, we completed our on-farm grain storage compilation, successfully locating and quantifying 98 percent of grain bin storage capacity in 20 states.”
When crunched with other, publicly available data from USDA, state and municipal governments, Farm Market ID can provide precisely targeted information of immediate used to grain elevators, input retailers, farm lenders, irrigation companies, equipment dealers, seed and fertilizer companies, and many other ag-related customers. He puts his company’s mission succinctly: “We show companies serving farmers where to hunt and help them understand the customer.”
‘Last inch’ data
One of the July 23 presentations at AgInfo was, “What End Users Disliked about AgTech in 2018.” Its presenter, Aaron Bobeck, is a farm equipment sales and ag tech consultant who blogs about ag tech issues.
In December, to prepare for this panel, Bobeck compiled a list of comments submitted to his Twitter feed by readers of his blog, AgSnap. Among the randomly gathered complaints about ag tech marketing and products:
Data, data, data (I’d much prefer useful information myself);
Solutions in search of a problem;
Producer feels company gets more value out of data than they do;
Management doesn’t understand customer base, chases latest fad;
Investment has been too high in some areas—everyone wants in the space and to scale right now; and
Enterprise resource planning software: excessively expensive, tailored to specific and larger farms.
In the world of transportation, some logistics experts estimate that that “last mile” of a shipment can account for up to 28% of its total cost. In a similar way, some ag tech data providers talk about the “last inch” of data going to the farmer, the useful data points that actually help farmers make decisions that reduce their costs and increase their profits. It’s the most crucial, and probably the most difficult, inch.
It’s the inch that Servi-Tech specializes in. Servi-Tech, headquartered in Dodge City, Kansas, has been specializing in that “last inch” for decades. A full-service company combining crop consulting with lab testing, Servi-Tech also has offices in Amarillo, Texas and Hastings, Nebraska. The company, formed by co-operatives in 1974, is a kind of super-co-op “formed out of a recognized need to optimize farm inputs,” said Cunningham.
Cunningham grew up on a farm in the Texas Panhandle and graduated from Texas Tech University, studying zoology and chemistry. He spent 37 years at IBM, working with Fortune 100 companies on their networks.
For someone with that background, Cunningham is surprisingly low-key about technology. When he was first appointed to Servi-Tech, Cunningham was quoted on its website saying, “There will eventually be a cycle of consolidation among those [ag tech] startups that will stabilize the marketplace and standards will emerge. In the meantime, the most significant challenge for tech in ag will be proving a clear business value of a given technology and convincing the market that it’s worth the investment.”
Cunningham is more anxious to talk about the company’s trained agronomists, between 75 and 80 of them, one-third of whom have more than 25 years of experience. Many of them do independent crop consulting. Cunningham estimates that Servi-Tech’s clients and customers account for about 800,000 acres on the Great Plains. Servi-Tech recently rolled out a new delivery platform called called Servi-Tech Bridge
Cunningham says Servi-Tech has no direct competitors except in particular areas. “We provide services that help smaller and mid-size farmers and growers scale up,” he said. “Our lab quality is very high and that’s recognized.” Right now, it’s “high-touch” companies like Servi-Tech that are providing direct value to farmers and growers.
A lot of money has been flowing into the ag-tech space, and a lot of hype is being aimed at eager investors.
But a stroll around the InfoAg booths shows that the ag tech revolution so talked-up in the broader media is in its early days.
David A. Murray can be reached at email@example.com.


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Episode 356 - Back from Down Under - 6/30/1613 Comments
Sorry for the lack of an episode last week--we were abroad in Australia and New Zealand for some video shoots. In fact, Norm rushes directly to the office from the airport to record this week's episode with Kishore and Jeremy, sharing some info about the trip and catching up on two weeks worth of technology and pop culture news.
Episode 355 - WWDC and E3 2016 - 6/16/1613 Comments
Slow news week, right? Norm makes it back from a whirlwind week of travel to chat with Jeremy and Will about all the announcements from Apple's WWDC conference and E3. From Apple watch upgrades to Microsoft and Sony's next-gen console plans, there's almost too much to discuss. Plus, VR demo impressions!
Episode 354 - Elon's Shower Thoughts - 6/9/1617 Comments
Welcome to our new office! Kind of. While we're still setting up the place, Norm is joined by Kishore and Jeremy to talk about recent technology and science news, new VR experiences, our hopes for E3, and the many shower thoughts of Elon Musk.
Episode 353 - VR Backpacks - 6/2/1629 Comments
We've moved out of our old office, and once again podcast from Norm's living room. Topics include announcements from Computex, VR backpacks, and a recent autonomous vehicle testing event. Plus, we learn a surprising insight about Microsoft's Clippy.
Episode 352 - Pebble's Pivot - 5/26/1625 Comments
We're recording in Norm's living room this week while we move offices, but there's still a lot to go over! Kishore, Jeremy, and Norm talk about their favorite projects they saw at Maker Faire, the recent Star Trek fan event, Pebble's new products, and rumors of a new XBox. Plus, the ISS's inflatable module in a moment of science.
Episode 351 - Farewell, Tested Office - 5/19/1618 Comments
Big news this week! Norm, Jeremy, and Kishore record the final episode of This is Only a Test...at the current Tested office. We're moving! In this listener's choice episode, we talk about Doom, Nvidia's GeForce 1080 performance, Origami robots, surprising reactions to VR. Plus, hot takes of news out of Google I/O!
Episode 350 - Class M Planet - 5/12/1619 Comments
Lots to talk about this week on This is Only a Test, as we finally see the announcement of Nvidia's Pascal video cards, both the new Call of Duty and Battlefield games, and some rumors leading up to next week's Google I/O conference. Plus, we celebrate the transit of Mercury in A Moment of Science!
Episode 349 - Where is Jibo? - 5/5/169 Comments
Happy belated Star Wars day! This week, we talk about some new Star Wars-related announcements, Hulu live streaming, Maker Faire anticipation, science news, and our new favorite Oculus game. Plus, Kishore and Norm explain to Jeremy the plot of the Civil War comic book series, and share their hopes for the new film.
Episode 348 - Red Robin Ramen Burger - 4/28/1611 Comments
We're back after a week on the road to catch up technology, pop culture, and science news! Kishore and Will join Norm to discuss SpaceX's just-announced Mars plan, the anniversary of Aliens, and our recent visit to USC's ICT labs. Plus, the VR minute and an exploration of ramen burgers.
Episode 347 - Autopilot Activated - 4/14/1618 Comments
This week, Norm is joined by Jeremy and Patrick Norton to talk about Space X's rocket landing, speculate on Google's robot plans, and debate the merits of a $300 eBook reader. Plus, we get excited about the potential of autopilot in Tesla's cars.
Episode 346 - April Foolish - 4/7/1617 Comments
Norm, Jeremy, and Will meet up this week to discuss the new Star Wars Rogue One trailer, pooly-implemented April fools gags, a new 3D printing technology, and Tesla's Model 3 pre-orders. Plus, with the the release of the HTC Vive, we share our thoughts on the hardware and learn about Will's new VR show!
Episode 345 - Welcome to the Virtual Age - 3/31/1621 Comments
It's finally here! Norm is back from his trip abroad just in time for the launch of the Oculus Rift consumer release. Jeremy and Will join this week to discuss our experience so far with the headset, along with news from Microsoft Build and Tesla's Model 3 announcement.
Episode 344 - The Inmates Are In Charge - 3/24/201616 Comments
Jeremy, Kishore, and Will are in charge, with Norm halfway around the world. Topics discussed include the first Silicon Valley Comic-Con, this week's Apple event, Boston Dynamics for sale, the process for Tesla Model 3 pre-orders, and the last pre-Oculus Rift VR Minute. Enjoy!
Episode 342 - Go Time for Artificial Intelligence - 3/10/1616 Comments
We brace for next week's Game Developers Conference by packing this week with technology news discussion. Jeremy talks about the excitement of watching a Go match against Google's artificial intelligence, Kishore shares some recent science community controversy, and we talk about Amazon's Alexa strategy. Plus, pop culture news discussion!
Episode 340 - Don't Bully the Robots - 2/25/1626 Comments
This week, Norm and Kishore are joined by Will, who returns to the podcast studio to talk about the announcements from Mobile World Congress, new phones, and virtual reality headsets. We talk through the pre-ordering decision for VR early adopters, and also discuss the games we've been playing. Plus, replacing screens on Kindles, and testing a CNC milling machine.
Episode 339 - Beware the Spoiler Cake - 2/18/1632 Comments
Apple takes a stand against the government, Mattel announces a 3D printer for kids, and Google dumps yet another beloved application. We're joined in the studio this week by our Kishore and Frank to chat about this week's technology news, the wild success of Deadpool, and pirating academic journals. That, and TV Quest 2016!
Episode 338 - Quality Tweets - 2/11/1621 Comments
Lots to talk about this week as we're joined by Jeremy Williams and Kishore Hari to recap the Super Bowl (technology and chicken wings!), discuss our hopes for Star Trek, Jeremy's appearance on Mythbusters, and the latest news in tech. How do you feel about the newest changes to Twitter?
Episode 337 - Your DeLorean is Arriving - 2/4/1618 Comments
We're back in the studio this week as Norm is joined by Jeremy and Kishore to recap two weeks of technology news and updates from Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Tesla. We talk about over-hyped science stories in the media, the possibility of a 9th planet, and our hopes for Magic Leap.


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- Tips for wait staff and cashiers haven’t taken a hit despite inflation, according to new data.
- Aggregated sales data from Toast showed people tipped an average of 19.6% at full-service eateries and 16.9% at quick-service restaurants during the second quarter.
- The cost of food away from home rose 7.6% over the 12 months ended in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Even as restaurants and fast-food chains hike menu prices, customers aren’t pulling back on tips for wait staff and cashiers, according to a new report.
Diners tipped an average of 19.6% at full-service restaurants and 16.9% at quick-service eateries during the second quarter, which was roughly in line with a year ago, according to sales data from software provider Toast. In-person diners typically were more generous, tipping an average of 19.7%, according to the report. Delivery or takeout customers tipped an average of 14.5%.
The average tip amount rose by nearly 10% compared with the year-ago period − slightly more than how much restaurant menu prices have climbed over the last year, Toast said. The cost of food away from home rose 7.6% over the 12 months ended in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“Even though there’s some anecdotal feedback about whether inflation is impacting the rate at which people are tipping, we don’t see that in our data,” Toast co-founder and Chief Operating Officer Aman Narang told CNBC.
Other payment software providers have reported that restaurant tips have fallen after climbing earlier in the Covid pandemic. For example, Toast’s rival Square found that the average tip at quick-service restaurants fell from 17.2% to 15.2% from March 2021 to the end of February, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.
Both Toast’s and Square’s software can be customized to prompt customers to tip at different levels, like 10%, 15%, or 20% for a full-service restaurant or $1, $2, or $3 at a coffee shop.
“Certainly our technology is an enabler,” Narang said.
As inflation pressures household budgets, restaurant chains including McDonald’s and Chipotle Mexican Grill have reported seeing lower-income customers spend less money at their locations and higher-income consumers visit more frequently. Others, like Outback Steakhouse owner Bloomin’ Brands, have said diners haven’t changed their spending habits — or that they’ve even shown a willingness to pay for more expensive options.
Toast compiles its quarterly report on restaurant trends by crunching data gathered from the roughly 68,000 restaurants that use its software. Its customers range from independent eateries to midsize regional chains.
The report also said that full-service restaurant sales bounced back to the pre-pandemic levels for the first time in the second quarter. Sit-down eateries were hit hardest by the crisis as consumers cooked more of their meals at home or ordered through fast-food drive-thru lanes instead.


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Biedronka retailer plans PLN 2.1bn capex this year
February 28, 2014
Biedronka, Poland's biggest retailer and unit of Portuguese Jeronimo Martins, will spend some PLN 2.1 billion on investments in 2014, Biedronka director general Tomasz Suchanski said on Thursday.
"We intend to invest some PLN 2.1 billion this year," Suchanski told a press conference. "We plan to build some 300 new Biedronka stores and three new distribution centers."
The retailer is on track to break the 3,000 stores mark by the end of 2015, the official said, adding that the firm will develop the network of franchise stores and open small stores under 200 square meters in bigger cities.
In 2013 Biedronka opened 280 new stores, increasing its network to 2393 stores, as well as two distribution centers. The 2013 capex hit PLN 1.7 billion.


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A recent case has highlighted the need for caution in the use of CCTV cameras. A Chinese firm whose subsidiary has been shortlisted to supply security cameras for Delhi is on a US watch list, with an advisory on threats, including remote hacking and potential backdoor access. Concerns have also been raised on the firm being owned by the Chinese government, adding a twist to the controversy over a Delhi government project to install 1.5 lakh CCTV cameras across the city.
India’s video surveillance market is projected to grow at a CAGR of nearly 13% during 2017-2023, according to a study by 6Wresearch. A 2016 report by American data storage company Seagate Technology said that Indian organisations use 249 cameras on average for video surveillance.
The number was about the same as in China, but significantly lower than that in developed countries such as the US and UK, where organisations uses about 349 cameras on average. This indicates vast scope for use of more CCTV cameras by organisations in India.
- Madhya Pradesh
According to an ET report, the video surveillance market is expected to more than treble from $700 million in 2017 to $2.5 billion by 2020. Most of the cameras will be installed in public places and commercial establishments, with the share of households at 13%.
All this points at rapidly increasing number of CCTV cameras in India. While the Chinese CCTV cameras are suspected of having bugs that can relay information to the Chinese government, even otherwise it's not difficult for hackers to manipulate CCTV cameras. According to Kaspersky lab researchers, uncovered flaws could allow attackers to obtain remote access.
By exploiting these vulnerabilities, malicious users could execute the following attacks:
Access video and audio feeds from any camera connected to the vulnerable cloud service; remotely gain root access to a camera and use it as an entry-point for further attacks on other devices on both local and external networks; remotely upload and execute arbitrary malicious code on the cameras; steal personal information such as user's social network accounts and information which is used to send users notifications; and remotely disable vulnerable cameras.
All these attacks were possible because experts found that the way the cameras interacted with the cloud service was insecure and open to relatively easy interference. They also found that the architecture of the cloud service itself was vulnerable to external interference.
The US government has found similar vulnerabilities in the products of the Chinese firm involved in the controversy regarding Delhi government's order of 1.5 lakh CCTV cameras. A US Department of Homeland Security advisory states that the products are “remotely exploitable” and require a low skill level to exploit. The vulnerabilities, advisory explains, are “improper authentication” and “password in configuration file”.
Thursday, 07 Dec, 2023
- Adani Looks to Buy SP Group’s Gopalpur Ports
Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone, India’s biggest maritime company by market capitalization, is in advanced talks to acquire Shapoorji Pallonji Group’s Gopalpur Ports in Odisha for up to ₹1,100-1,200 crore in equity value as part of a string-of-pearls strategy that involves owning considerable facilities along both eastern and western water margins.Cars, 2-wheelers Tow Vehicle Sales to a High
Vehicle registrations, a proxy for retail sales, rose 18% on-year last month to their highest level, amid robust festive demand. As many as 2.85 million vehicles were registered in November, surpassing the previous peak of 2.41 million in November 2022, according to Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) data.Japan Big on India’s Consumer Mkt, Mfg
Japanese companies see India as a credible long-term partner for manufacturing as well as a top consumer market, Masahiro Goto, global head of investment banking at Nomura, told Swaraj Dhanjal in an interview.
Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.


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Nintendo has announced when we can expect to join the party in Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival.
In Europe that will see the Wii U exclusive launch on November 20th, effectively replacing Star Fox Zero after Shigeru Miyamoto shared their decision to delay the intergalactic shooter into Q1 2016.
Fans will have chance to buy a Special Edition Pack, which includes a copy of the game, the Isabelle and Digby amiibo, and Goldie, Rosie, and Stitches amiibo cards. Whereas the Isabelle, Digby, K.K. Slider, Tom Nook, Lottie, Reese, Mabel, Cyrus amiibo will also be available to buy individually from the same day. Nintendo of Europe has also confirmed that it will release a Three-Pack, including K.K. Slider, Reese and Cyrus amiibo.
Animal Crossing: amiibo Festival will release exclusively for Wii U in Europe on November 20th, and in Australia and Japan on November 21st.
— Nintendo of Europe (@NintendoEurope) October 1, 2015


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Manufacturer to set up second factory
Press release from Sunseeker about just-announced expansion plans:
Sunseeker International Limited has agreed outline terms with US-based Luhrs Marine for the purchase of its Legend Yacht manufacturing facilities at Osprey Quay, Portland on the UK’s South Coast. The site will be acquired to accommodate Sunseeker International’s planned expansion with a licence to use the facilities immediately, and production starting as soon as the purchase is complete.
With demand for Sunseeker motoryachts growing year on year, specifically for the larger models, the need for more waterside production space has been an important issue for Sunseeker. With further investments being made at the company’s shipyard headquarters in Poole these new facilities will allow Sunseeker to meet future demand.
Robert Braithwaite MBE, managing director and founder of Sunseeker International commented, “Osprey Quay is an ideal location for our future expansion plans, we are particularly pleased that we can continue to build the business locally. I am sure that by moving a level of production to the Portland location we will be able to build on the company’s success whilst adding to the growth of the local economy and utilising the boatbuilding skills available in the area.”
Sunseeker is the world’s largest privately-owned builder of motor yachts of this type and is the UK’s largest producer with a current staff level over 1,800. The company recently launched its largest model to date, the 37 metre tri-deck yacht, at the London International Boat Show. With a number of orders already confirmed and a new range of models over 30 metres in development, the new facilities at Portland will play an important part in meeting future deliveries.
Sunseeker has worked closely with Luhrs and the South West of England Regional Development Agency (South West RDA) to secure the deal. Luhrs’ managing director, Stephen Cutsforth, said “We are pleased Sunseeker has agreed to take advantage of this excellent site and skilled employee base, and will build on a solid marine footing that has been developing here – very much in line with South West RDA and Weymouth and Portland’s Borough Council’s vision.”
Sunseeker is expecting production to be underway in May this year and is planning to employ up to 500 skilled staff at the 11.5 acre site over the next four years.
Commenting on behalf of South West RDA, Deputy Chief Executive, Colin Molton said: “We are delighted that, in order to facilitate expansion, the world renowned, Poole based motor yacht builder, Sunseeker International, are purchasing the facilities at Osprey Quay. We are encouraged to see a global brand such as Sunseeker going from strength to strength and expanding in South West England. The announcement that Sunseeker will be coming to Osprey Quay, a regeneration project led by South West RDA, is recognition that the development is creating the right business environment for the growth of the marine sector.”
Luhrs Marine will be remaining in the UK with a European headquarters for sales and customer service.


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The failure of the Fire Phone, which hit the market a year ago on Saturday, offers some lessons on what companies need to do -- and avoid -- when trying to create a successful smartphone.
Road Trip 2015: The second half of a two-part series about Vietnam's startup scene takes a deeper look at some rare success stories and how the country is fostering -- and hindering -- its homegrown tech community.
CNET's Marguerite Reardon helps a busy working mother figure out how not to break the bank when a work-issued iPad has to go back.
Technically Incorrect: A man gets a $150,000 doctor's bill after a rattler decides a selfie just isn't his thing.
Follow these steps to ensure a smooth transition to the latest version of Windows.
Has your browser turned to molasses? You probably have too many tabs open. Here's a one-click fix.
With its biggest hardware gamble a failure and Windows 10 about to arrive, the software maker is pressed to prove what it can achieve in the phone business.
Your TV might be cutting off the edges of your movies and TV shows. Make sure you check this setting to get the whole picture.
We've laid out every Marvel movie and tv show in chronological order for you to watch -- or just to impress people.
Road Trip 2015: The first in a two-part series on Vietnam's startup scene and how the government is trying to rev up investment and interest in businesses that hope to be the next viral hit.