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The iPhone 8 release date is still a long way. But that doesn’t stop sources from speculating on the device. One of the recent reports on the next generation iPhone point to a neglect of changes.
The report comes from Yahoo! Tech. Consequently, the article cites a recent claim regarding the future of the iPhone 8. The claim in question appeared on Quora, posted by user Brian Roemmele. An overview of the discussion posits that “Apple will create an iPhone primarily from ZrO2 – Zirconian Ceramics”.
The bulk of the discussion centers on explaining how Zirconia Ceramics work. However, the bottom line of the text points at Apple potentially going with Zirconia Ceramics on the next generation iPhones.
To back the claim, the user reveals Apple-filed patents concerning the use of ceramics and polymer structure.
iPhone 8 release date neglects biggest iPhone change?
Nevertheless, although the user supports his argument with extensive research, the Yahoo! Tech article offers a different view.
It cites Atomic Delights product designer Greg Koenig’s discussion on why the next iPhone won’t feature any major change in terms of material. Yahoo! Tech quotes Koenig’s explanation as follows:
“…Apple would need 2 football field’s worth of kiln space for each ceramic iPhone to sinter for the requisite 36 hours. For the 2 hours of hard ceramic machining to finish the case details, Apple would need to go from 20,000 CNC machines, to 250,000. They would need another 200,000 employees to perform the 2 hours of hand polishing to ‘bring out the strength and luster’.”
With Koenig’s point, Yahoo! Tech explains that the major logistic strain it will cost Apple is reason enough why it won’t go with ceramic.
Hence, no matter how the idea seems enticing, the next iPhone will still be made out of “familiar” materials.
However, despite this disappointment, rumors point that the iPhone 8 will introduce major changes. At this point, however, those changes are still a mystery. Stay tuned for more news on the iPhone 8 release date and other details.


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When Snoop Dogg announced on Instagram in November that he had “decided to give up smoke,” it raised eyebrows. Was the cannabis-happy rapper really going cold turkey? Days later, Solo Stove, which makes a smokeless firepit, named him its official “smokesman.”
Turns out the announcement was part of an advertising campaign, created by The Martin Agency, that soon went viral. The video ad has 1.8 million views on YouTube; Solo Stove gained thousands of new social media followers; and Ad Age ranked it No. 18 among its best ads of 2023.
But the campaign soon flamed out; in early January, Solo Stove’s CEO, John Merris, resigned. Its interim CFO said in a statement that its marketing campaigns “did not lead to the sales lift that we had planned.” The company lowered its revenue guidance for 2023.
“The campaign was a success in terms of visibility, but its shortcomings in converting awareness into revenue were evident,” says Nyah Chapman, founder and creative director of media agency Luxe List Media.
The fallout shows how a viral and creative idea can only take a campaign so far. While it generated online buzz, the disappointing sales could suggest that it largely failed to convert brand discoverers into customers.
“Storytelling alone isn’t enough; you need story-selling.”Daniel Burke, freelance go-to-market marketing analyst
Without the proper support to target the right audience, even the best and brightest campaigns may not live up to expectations. The campaign flop further illustrates the delicate balance facing many marketers today when allocating budget and attention between branding and performance efforts. Focusing on the right channels — and utilizing data-driven approaches to help maximize reach and land the spot in front of specific consumers — has become just as imperative as flashy creative.
“While creativity for the sake of fun or buzz can be enticing, it’s essential to balance it with a data-driven approach, considering the ultimate objective of business prosperity,” Pedro Wald, a senior marketing strategy consultant, tells The Current. “Companies like Ikea serve as excellent examples of successfully blending data and creativity. Their creative endeavors are deeply rooted in customer knowledge and insights, resulting in ads that resonate effectively with their audience.”
Finding the right audience
Consumer insights are today’s gold mine for a successful campaign. But Daniel Burke, a freelance go-to-market marketing analyst, says advertisers can’t succeed in precision targeting or personalization without investing in solid ad tech and martech to analyze consumer data and test different strategies.
“Personalization and precision targeting is not a destination, it’s a direction,” he says. “You move in the right direction through experimentation.”
Chapman suggests that companies like Solo Stove could target “consumers genuinely interested in outdoor recreation and firepits,” rather than focusing too heavily on a spokesperson.
Echoing this sentiment, Wald shares his view that leaning on celebrities in campaigns can be a double-edged sword: it can drive awareness, but also overshadow the product and its purpose.
“The campaign unintentionally became more about the celebrity endorsement than the product itself,” Wald says. “While the viral headline attracted attention, the conversion rate suffered as the benefits of the firepit were relegated to an afterthought. A firepit is inherently a passion product, and Solo Stove’s ad failed to evoke that desire, missing a crucial opportunity to engage the audience.”
As Burke says: “Storytelling alone isn’t enough; you need story-selling.”
The biggest lessons for marketers
Ultimately, the three marketing experts The Current spoke with agree that the campaign lacked a call to action and relied too heavily on Snoop Dogg’s persona, which failed to lead to what all successful product campaigns are supposed to do: increase sales.
“Marketers should ensure that celebrity endorsements align seamlessly with the brand and product, avoiding forced fits that can backfire,” Chapman says. “Clarity, purposeful messaging, and a compelling call to action are indispensable components for sustained engagement and conversion.”
Burke said the Solo Stove debacle — and all campaigns that get attention but don’t convert — underscores the importance of communication, ensuring everyone is aligned on goals, KPIs, and timelines.
For Wald, a crucial lesson is to never fall too in love with an idea.
“This often results in a scenario where the idea looks good on paper but fails to deliver or steer the campaign in the right direction,” he says. “Objectivity and a willingness to adapt are key to successful marketing endeavors.”

domain: news


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Though dedicated handheld consoles may no longer be popular, portable gaming devices are seeing renewed success thanks to devices like Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck.
The PSP and PS Vita both struggled against smartphone market dominance, yet Nintendo Switch has reignited interest in portable gaming. Is this a new era or simply another phase?
Table of Contents
1. They’re not dying
Mobile gaming is often blamed for the decline of dedicated handheld consoles, yet these consoles continue to exist and evolve into something entirely new.
The development of handheld consoles is truly astounding. What was once just a pocket-sized device has blossomed into an all-in-one console capable of playing triple A experiences both at home and on-the-go – not only Nintendo is taking advantage of this opportunity to reach different audiences; major console companies Sony and Microsoft are entering this hybrid market by offering their own handhelds.
When the PlayStation Vita first hit shelves, its innovative design won widespread acclaim. Equipped with a 5-inch OLED touchscreen and backtouch panel for remote game streaming capabilities, this console was not enough to compete with smartphones at that time and failed to meet expectations.
Many were led to believe that handheld gaming had come to an end due to smartphone gaming’s increasing influence; but in truth, Vita’s failure is less due to smartphones than due to it having been released at precisely the wrong time against an established competitor.
The DS line of consoles unfortunately did not make an impression with gamers, although not for lack of trying. They offered many incredible innovations ahead of their time but just couldn’t compete against smartphones in terms of appeal.
Nintendo’s Switch remains one of the only handheld devices that have managed to remain relevant among an increasingly competitive handheld market. Although not as groundbreaking as its predecessor, DS, Switch nonetheless did an incredible job of keeping this market alive with record sales and its ability to provide both portable and tabletop gameplay options.
The Switch may not be the last handheld console ever made, but it could mark its demise as traditional handheld consoles become less desirable over time. That is fine; smartphones now support many of the same games you could find on handheld consoles so it is no longer necessary to spend several hundred dollars on a device you will likely only use occasionally.
2. They’re evolving
Though mobile gaming may be the go-to method of choice for video game enjoyment, handheld consoles remain an integral part of the industry. Not only can you use them to access AAA titles but they provide something mobile gaming doesn’t: an actual physical device dedicated solely for playing games.
Handhelds offer more of an intimate gaming experience than home consoles, making them better suited to traditional RPGs where the screen is in front of your face. Plus, their compact form factor means they’re ideal for travel or taking to school; Game Boy was one of the most successful handhelds ever because its unique gameplay experience couldn’t be replicated via smartphones at that time.
As technology has advanced and phone screens become sharper and sharper, handhelds have seen their market decline; that’s partly why Nintendo Switch is so successful – offering gamers an excellent gaming experience similar to that offered on home consoles and boasting an extensive library of games as well.
There are still dedicated handhelds out there, but none have achieved the success that Nintendo’s handhelds did. Sony’s PSP was surprisingly powerful but couldn’t match up to Nintendo’s affordable and approachable offerings.
Similar to its counterpart, the 3DS also suffered initial setbacks but managed to recover thanks to exclusive content and an affordable price point.
Now, however, handhelds are experiencing a renaissance due to advancements in technology. The Nintendo Switch stands as an exemplar in this regard and boasts incredible game power thanks to its advanced hardware; other similar handhelds include Valve’s Steam Deck for PC games on the go; Panic’s Playdate from Panic; and Analogue’s Pocket from Analogue which will be released sometime before 2021.
3. They’re not dead
Nintendo still dominates handheld gaming with their 3DS and Switch handheld systems, and this market is headed into an exciting era of indie-centric curated apps (Apple Arcade), streaming services (such as the Switch itself) and throwback charm (no more so than with the Switch itself). There is even an emerging best portable gaming console PC option called Steam Deck that is relatively complex to setup but offers a massive library of free titles.
Mobile gaming is here to stay and won’t go anywhere anytime soon; major publishers aren’t spending billions of dollars on free-to-play for no good reason. Tablets are ideal for casual games while on the move; for an enhanced experience though, dedicated devices with long battery lives may be required.
The PlayStation Vita and 3DS were two handheld consoles that initially faltered in their early years before rebounding thanks to affordable prices and exceptional game lineups. Of particular significance is the PlayStation Vita as it marked one of the last generations of handhelds featuring truly innovative games such as Patapon and Loco Roco as well as cinematic stories and blockbuster titles like The Last of Us.
Sony’s move is even more surprising given their failures have little to do with smartphones; rather they stem from treating handhelds poorly while pitting them against more robust competitors.
Sony may follow its pattern with their next handheld console release, though there’s no telling. Perhaps they could experiment and introduce something unique; then we may witness a handheld console renaissance! Let’s hope so!
4. They’re not dying
There was once a time when many believed handheld gaming consoles were on their way out. Mobile gaming had seemingly stolen all their thunder since smartphones could now run graphic-intensive titles with ease.
But that was far from the case; Nintendo managed to keep the handheld gaming market alive with their DS and 3DS consoles, even if they weren’t as successful as previous handheld game consoles they still sold enough units to sustain its viability as an industry.
Sony responded to Nintendo and their DS consoles by developing their Playstation Portable (PSP). This handheld device was ahead of its time, offering graphic power comparable to what the PS2 could achieve at that point in its lifespan and offering UMD movies for entertainment options.
The PSP sold over 80 million units and became a favorite among fans of fighting games, indie titles, and RPGs. Unfortunately, its commercial failure led Sony to discontinue producing their handheld gaming system; though that may be disappointing news to PSP enthusiasts at large, Sony likely realized it wasn’t necessary juggling both systems at once; after all, they had already developed Xbox home console systems successfully at that point.
Competing against Nintendo was no easy feat; their handheld console market leadership had established themselves firmly over time. While the 3DS underperformed when compared with its predecessor DS, it still managed to sell 70 million units – an amazing accomplishment considering this console was effectively just an improved DS 1.5!
The Nintendo Switch is currently one of the hottest handheld consoles on the market thanks to its hybrid design and wide variety of games. However, whether or not its popularity will sustain itself and keep handheld consoles alive remains to be seen; should that happen it would certainly make for an exciting handheld renaissance!


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We have been hearing more and more rumors about Microsoft’s Windows 9 over the last few weeks, and the company is rumored to release a Windows 9 preview some time this fall.
According to a recent report from The Verge, Microsoft will be holding a press event on the 30th of September, and the company will be showing off a Windows 9 preview.
Microsoft is expected to show off some of the key features of Windows 9 at their press event, and they are also expected to release a Windows 9 preview for developers around the same time.
The company is also reported to be working on another new version of Windows, which is a combined version of Windows Phone and Windows RT, Microsoft recently announced their plans for one major platform, with cross platform apps for all devices.
We are looking forward to seeing what Windows 9 is like, and it will be interesting to see if Microsoft can make their new OS popular, and whether they are able to make a platform that brings a similar user experience across all devices.
As soon as we get some more information on what will be included in Windows 9, and also some details on when the preview will be available, we will let you guys know.
Source The Verge
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Las Vegas Convention Center
6-11 April 2019
Facilis Technology to Unveil New Products at NAB 2019
Version 7.2 now shipping plus technology previews of upcoming features
HUDSON, MA (January 31st, 2019) – At NAB 2019, Facilis (Booth SL6321), a leading international supplier of cost-effective, high performance shared storage solutions for collaborative media production networks will debut significant new products further raising the price-performance bar for content creators and media organizations. The latest shipping version of the Facilis Shared Storage (7.2) will be on display alongside several new version 8 features currently in development.
Version 7.2 adds significant new enhancements to the already popular v7.1 in use at facilities around the world. Some of the new features shipping in 7.2 include:
- Automated bulk operations within Web Console
- New interface look and usability improvements
- Value-add third-party integration's
FastTracker Version 3 will be shipping by NAB as well, and includes several new features taken directly from customer requests.
- Simple tag and comment fields
- Advanced proxy generation and accessibility
- Export of FastTracker records to CatDV
“We’re keeping a lot under wraps but NAB 2019 will be a particularly big show this year for Facilis,” said James McKenna, VP of Marketing at Facilis Technology. “Our shared file system and storage architecture is the best in the business and continues to improve, but we’re also adding value in the areas of cloud workflows and archive integration because these features will be important to our customers in the coming years.”
About Facilis Technology
Founded in 2003, Massachusetts-based Facilis Technology, Inc. designs and builds premium, turnkey shared storage solutions for collaborative media production across all content creation workflows. Their production-proven solutions are designed for use by the craft editor, facility engineer, and owner-operator alike. Flexible, scalable and compatible with industry-standard creative solutions, Facilis’ products blend seamlessly into any network environment and have been installed in more than 3,000 facilities worldwide. https://www.facilis.com/
All trademarks and copyrights are property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
For more information, please contact:
Veronique Froment or Doug Hansel
Dawn Bochenski, Bubble Agency
+44 (0)1753 656548


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The year 2018 has been difficult for Dollarama (TSX:DOL) so far. After reporting a weak first quarter, the discount retailer reported an even weaker second quarter. The market was used to Dollarama reporting better-than-expected quarters.
Shares plunged dramatically following disappointing results, falling over 17% on Thursday, the biggest decline since December. This is the worst collapse of the stock since its entry on the TSX nine years ago. The sell-off continued on Friday; the stock dropped almost 4% during that day.
This is a major setback for Dollarama, whose stock has provided a significant and consistent performance in recent years. The Montreal company has been one of the best-performing stocks on the TSX for nine years.
What caused Dollarama’s stock plunge is rather disappointing results in fiscal 2019 second quarter.
Although generally in line with analysts’ expectations, the results were surprising because same-store sales increased by only 2.6% — far from the 6.1% recorded last year. This performance was well below the expectations of most analysts, who were expecting a 5% increase in sales. Same-store sales growth was especially strong last year because of souvenir sales geared to Canada’s 150th anniversary.
Dollarama has also lowered its forecast for the current year. The company expects sales of comparable stores to increase by 2.5-3.5% for the full year in 2019, which is lower than the initially established range of 4-5%, because of its decision to delay price increases.
Dollarama executives told analysts in a conference call that they had decided to delay increasing prices for now because the cost of its imported goods has been more stable than expected and cost reductions introduced last year have offset the impact of higher minimum wages. The company followed its competitors who haven’t passed on the increase in minimum wage in Ontario to consumers.
Dollarama generated sales up 6.9% to $868.5 million compared with $812.5 million last year. Analysts expected sales of $887.6 million.
Nevertheless, net income increased by 7.6% from the same quarter last year to $141.8 million. Dollarama was also able to improve its gross margin from 39.6% to 39.7% of sales.
Diluted net earnings per share amounted to $0.43, up 13.2% from $0.38 last year, missing analysts’ estimates by only $0.01.
While Dollarama’s quarter was disappointing, I think the market overreacted. Sales were weaker than expected, but a rise of 7% is still high. Dollarama managed to increase its adjusted profit by 13%, which is still good considering competitors’ pressure and the impact of the minimum wage rise. Earnings are expected to rise by 10% per year on average over the next five years, which is lower than Dollarama’s past growth rate, but it’s still pretty decent for a retailer.
Due to the stock price dropping sharply, Dollarama’s P/E ratio is becoming more reasonable at 26.8, while still high.
The plunge may represent an opportunity to buy Dollarama on the dip. Management has plans to open more stores, targeting as many as 70 new openings this fiscal year. It is also launching an e-commerce site to sell items in bulk in Quebec, which could generate further revenue if the initiative is successful. In addition, the company is gaining efficiencies related to cash-handling and labour scheduling.
But Dollarama may have to increase prices to remain competitive, and if consumers aren’t willing to accept paying more, it could weigh down on the retailer’s shares.
This article represents the opinion of the writer, who may disagree with the “official” recommendation position of a Motley Fool premium service or advisor. We’re Motley! Questioning an investing thesis — even one of our own — helps us all think critically about investing and make decisions that help us become smarter, happier, and richer, so we sometimes publish articles that may not be in line with recommendations, rankings or other content.
Fool contributor Stephanie Bedard-Chateauneuf owns shares of DOLLARAMA INC.


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JAPAN: Beer/happoshu shipments fall in January
Japanese shipments of beer and "happoshu", the low-malt beer, by Japan's five top brewers fell 11.4% in January, compared to the same period last year, to 24.23m cases.
Brewers blamed a lack of product innovation in the month and heavy demand a month earlier for the fall.
Beer shipments fell 12.7% to 15.29m cases, declining for the 46th month in a row. Shipments of happoshu shipments fell 8.9% to 8.94m cases, down for the first time in three months.
According to statistics from the top brewers, this was the first total year-on-year decline in two months.
Spirits company Blavod Extreme Spirits and the Japanese drinks group Suntory recently announced the formation of a joint venture to develop and market new spirits brands. Chris Brook-Carter spoke with...
Sapporo Breweries has raised its sales targets for its low-alcoholic fruit drink brand "Fruit Sparkling"....
Suntory International Corp. is to release three types of shochu in the US....
The Blavod Extreme Spirits joint venture Diamante Spirits is to produce and market a new Tequila, El Diamante del Cielo (Diamond in the Sky). The new product will have a retail value between US$45-60 ...
Blavod Extreme Spirits has agreed to form a joint venture company with Suntory International Corp, the US subsidiary of Suntory Limited. ...
Sapporo Holdings Ltd has reported a consolidated pretax loss for the half ended in June....
Suntory Ltd is to suspend sales of its Bubbleman Soda Jet soft drink....
The Japanese brewer, Sapporo Breweries Ltd., is to launch a new range of low-alcohol drinks in the autumn under the brand name, Fruit Sparking....
- Diageo Q4 & FY - Preview
- Has Diageo added Beer to its 'Non-Core' List?
- Is Diageo approaching its "Et tu, Brute" Moment?
- Focus - Diageo's FY Performance by Region
- Diageo " knew United Spirits would be complicated”
- NPD: Tomatin Contrast, Cù Bòcan
- Challenges remain as Diageo posts flat FY sales
- Diageo, Heineken end South Africa, Namibia JV
- Bacardi creates Bacardi rum marketing role
- Diageo comm's director latest to leave
- Global gin insights - market data, product innovation and consumer trends research
- Global rum insights - market forecasts, product innovation and consumer trends research
- Global Tequila insights - market forecasts, product innovation and consumer trends research
- Global liqueurs insights - market forecasts, product innovation and consumer trends research
- Global Scotch whisky insights - market forecasts, product innovation and consumer trends research


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Despite the influx of e-commerce orders this holiday, retail needs a bigger push across channels if it has any chance of outpacing last year’s haul.
Retail sales increased 3 percent in the week of Dec. 6-12 compared to the same week last year, a bounce back from a Cyber Week that saw sales dip 3 percent, according to data from The NPD Group. Combining the 1o total weeks tracked by NPD, holiday 2020 sales have grown 2 percent year over year.
The market research firm noted that Cyber Week was “soft” due to the extended holiday season, which began in mid-October as Prime Day and other retail promotions pulled sales earlier into the calendar. For context, when NPD released holiday sales after the first six weeks of the season, which was calculated starting the week of Oct. 4-10, season-to-date sales growth showed a 13 percent uptick.
NPD’s sentiment on the earlier sales is similar to that of the National Retail Federation (NRF), which reported that while retail sales in November grew 8.8 percent year over year, sales actually declined 0.3 percent month-over-month despite the inclusion of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
While NPD said sales increased in the week ended Dec. 12, the firm’s early indicator data shows unit sales for the period declined 5 percent year over year. The continued divergence of total dollar and unit sales is the result of higher-priced items being sold and decreased promotional activity, which is a positive sign for retailers as they aim to mitigate markdowns.
As has been the norm for 2020, in-store purchase activity through the season still lags, with year-over declines reaching 7 percent, according to NPD’s Checkout data. Online purchases have continued to see strong growth at a 33 percent jump, which managed to push overall omnichannel buying activity up 3 percent compared to the same week last year.
Overall, the week was pivotal for growth, as it was the first time NPD said it tracked two consecutive weeks of total purchase activity that outpaced 2019’s performance.
“The final holiday push has arrived, but in 2020 the days seem to blur together, and it’s clear consumers still have shopping to do,” said Marshal Cohen, NPD Group’s chief industry advisor, retail. “Now officially past comfortable shipping deadlines, last minute shoppers will be forced to look to physical retail stores for those remaining holiday gifts. While the arrival of the vaccine is likely to make consumers feel a little merrier, rising Covid-19 case counts will make BOPIS and curbside pick-up options more important than they have been all season.”
Last-minute shoppers have their moment, but spend the least
Now that the third week of December is a wrap, this is the time for last-minute shoppers to shine.
According to NPD’s annual Holiday Purchase Intentions Study, 17 percent of consumers didn’t plan to start shopping until after Cyber Week, and 4 percent said they planned to wait till the last minute to start their holiday shopping.
As many as 18 percent of total shoppers said they are usually shopping until the last minute. These shoppers, as defined by NPD Group, typically have the greatest concern for their own finances and the economy.
This is evident in their planned spending, with those who began shopping in December spending the least through the season by a healthy margin. While shoppers who start in December spend $448 on average, those who begin during Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday spend $680. The earliest shoppers, who purchase their gifts before Thanksgiving, also happen to spend the most at $876 a person.
NPD characterizes these shoppers as wanting to give physical gifts, since they are less likely than earlier season shoppers to buy gift cards and intangibles, and virtually none planned to buy subscriptions as gifts.
Prior to the season, NPD estimated that shoppers planned to spend an average of $691 during the holiday season—less than the $740 they planned to spend last year, according to a holiday survey of more than 3,400 consumers. In the study, 30 percent of shoppers said they planned to spend less than they did last holiday season.
Sport lifestyle footwear is Cyber Week’s second-hottest category
Regardless of when shoppers are spending during the holiday season, it doesn’t appear apparel is a top item on most people’s radar. But footwear happened to get a much needed boost as the heart of the holiday season kicked in.
The hottest categories during Cyber Week, according to the research firm, were LCD TVs, with sport lifestyle footwear coming in second place. This is a nice win for the footwear sector, since its sales are expected to still decline in the mid-single digits during the fourth quarter. Overall, NPD expects the footwear category to stabilize and recover through 2021, with improved fashion footwear and performance sales are forecasted to lead increased dollar sales.
Rounding out the top five categories purchased during Cyber Week include monitors, sports toys and video game consoles.


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Juvenile charged in liquor store robbery
A 16-year-old male has been charged in connection with a robbery Thursday at a liquor store on Whitehall Street.
The teen, who has not been identified, has been charged with aggravated robbery in Madison County Juvenile Court.
Jackson police confirmed the robbery was reported around 8:15 p.m. on the 800 block of Whitehall Street Thursday. A man with a handgun entered the store and demanded money.
The suspect left the store with an undetermined amount of cash.
He was later taken into custody near Whitehall Street.


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Teradata, a leader in big data analytic solutions, has recently undergone extensive restructuring and rebranding by its new owners, Marlin Equity Partners, as part of an ambitious strategy to remain domain leaders. The company, which recently acquired Teradata’s Marketing Applications (TMA) has separated its core offerings into two separate businesses which include marketing operations and marketing execution respectively. Each business will be assigned its own branding, market strategies, leadership teams and operations.
It has been revealed that the new marketing operations division will include Revenew, Marlin’s newly acquired partner marketing automation vendor. TMA’s marketing automation capabilities along with its resource management platform will be joining forces with Revenew’s platform to create Aprimo. As a brand, Aprimo is a hark back to the original marketing management platform which was acquired by Teradata for $525 million in 2010. Even Aprimo’s new chief has been selected from its original leadership rank. John Stammen, who was most recently CEO at Revenew, had served as executive VP of Aprimo before it was acquired by Teradata. He has now been invited back to lead the reinvigorated Aprimo brand.
Adam Dougall, the current Asia-Pacific director of TMA who will be heading the new and improved Aprimo in the region was quoted in a report as saying, “It makes sense to run these separately – the teams were separate, working on different technologies and projects. This delivers a renewed sense of focus on our respective markets.”
Teradata’s Digital Marketing Component Combines with BlueHornet for Better Customer Engagement
The Marketing Application’s marketing execution business, recently acquired by Marlin Equity Partners from Teradata, will be merged with BlueHornet, a current portfolio company, and a leading provider of SaaS email marketing services and software. The merger will be leveraging the bet of Teradata’s digital marketing capabilities with BlueHornet’s email campaign platform to create “a global presence and complete omni-channel solution driven by a market-diferentiating data management platform to power campaign targeting and effectiveness,” It was also announced that Michael Biwer, BlueHornet’s current CEO, has been appointed to lead the new company.
Teradata Partnership with Nuix Unearths “Dark Data” to Facilitate Informed Decision Making
Teradata has announced a partnership with Nuix, a leader in cybersecurity and risk management, for the purpose of integrating the latter’s indexing and data processing engine with Teradata Aster® Analytics. Nuix’s engine can be leveraged to glean crucial metadata and text from volumes of documents and file types. In return this will yield actionable data for Aster’s advanced analytics capabilities to provide valuable customer and business insights.


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10.5-inch iPad Pro to Enter Limited Production Stages This Month – Rumor
According to the latest report from IHS Markit analyst Rhoda Alexander, the 10.5-inch iPad Pro will enter early production stages this month. The analyst believes that Apple’s manufacturing partners will start limited production of the tablet that is expected to be announced either in spring, or at WWDC in June, or in the second half of this year.
According to the analyst, even though Apple has already released an updated 9.7-inch iPad, there are still some chanсes that the company will unveil a completely new model sometime soon. Rumors suggest that the 10.5-inch iPad Pro will get an edge-to-edge screen and lack the Home button.
Just like Rhoda Alexander, some MacRumors sources also expect the new tablet to be announced in the spring.
It looks like Apple is doing the releases in a staggered fashion. I still expect a 10-inch-range iPad sometime in the spring. The supply chain is pretty clear that it is coming, maybe as soon as April.
Other analysts and insiders are almost certain about Apple’s plans to release a new iPad model, however, they claim that the release will take place in October.
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Card Factory Plc (LON:CARD), the UK’s leading specialist retailer of greeting cards, dressings and gifts, announced its trading update for the nine months ended 31 October 2018.
· Year-to-date (“YTD”) group revenue growth of +3.4% (2018: +6.7%)
· YTD Card Factory like-for-like (“LFL”) sales of 0.0% (2018: +3.5%)
· Continued store roll out with 41 net new UK stores opened YTD and on track to deliver approximately 50 net new UK openings in the full year
· Card Factory website delivered YTD revenue growth of +70.9% (2018: +44.6%)
· Getting Personal YTD revenue reduction of 8.9% (2018: +3.8%)
· Board’s underlying EBITDA expectations for the full financial year remain unchanged at
£89m – £91m
* Comparator data set out in this announcement is for the 9 months ended 31 October 2017
Recent trading performance
In the nine months ended 31 October 2018, group revenue increased by +3.4% (2018: +6.7%).
Third quarter Card Factory store LFL sales of +0.1% improved the YTD store LFL to -0.5%, reflecting an improvement in the performance of our core Everyday Card product category and increased average spend. Card Factory website sales grew +47.3% in the third quarter, bringing YTD Card Factory website growth to +70.9%. Including the strong growth delivered by the Card Factory website, overall Card Factory LFL performance for the quarter was +0.4%, resulting in a flat YTD LFL performance (0.0%).
Sixteen net new UK stores were opened in the third quarter, bringing YTD net new UK store openings to 41 with one new store in Republic of Ireland. As a result, the total number of stores as at 31 October 2018 was 963 including seven trial stores in Republic of Ireland. The business remains on track to deliver approximately 50 net new UK stores in the current financial year and has a solid pipeline of new store opportunities for the next financial year.
Getting Personal continues to face a market environment defined by heavy discounting and increasing customer acquisition costs. The business is focused on delivering profitable sales via lower cost acquisition channels, and continues to be a profitable contributor to the group.
The Group remains cash generative, driven by robust operating margins, limited working capital absorption and relatively low capital expenditure requirements.
As at 31 October 2018, net debt, before deduction of capitalised debt costs, totalled £172.0 million (2018: £156.0 million). The £12.2 million increase since the FY19 interim results reflects the planned build-up of stock for the forthcoming Christmas trading period.
The 2.9 pence interim dividend and 5.0 pence special dividend announced on 25 September 2018, amounting in total to c. £27 million, will be paid to shareholders on 14 December 2018.
Christmas trading and preliminary results announcements
The Group will announce its preliminary results for the year ending 31 January 2019 on Monday 15 April 2019. In addition, a post-Christmas trading update is planned for 10 January 2019.
Karen Hubbard, Card Factory’s Chief Executive Officer, said:
“Despite the continuation of challenging high street trading conditions, we delivered positive LFL sales in the third quarter, marking a slight improvement on the LFL performance seen in the first half. This reflected further growth in average spend and improved performance of our redesigned Everyday ranges, in addition to our growing Card Factory online business.
“The business faces reduced, but ongoing, external cost pressures such as national living wage and foreign exchange-related input cost increases; the latter is expected to ease in FY20. We remain focused on mitigating these headwinds with our ongoing programme of business efficiencies.
“Given our new ranges and our seasonal performance to date, we approach our Christmas trading period with confidence. We also remain positive about the growth prospects for the business over the medium term.”


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Private cargo operator Silk Way West Airlines has ordered five 777 Freighters.
Manufacturer Boeing said it represented the first purchase of the long-range, high capacity twin-engine freighter in the Caspian region and Central Asia.
Silk Way said the aircraft would allow it to increase capacity to meet growing cargo demand. “This deal is an incremental part of our fleet renewal and our commitment to meet our customers’ expectations,” said Silk Way Group president Zaur Akhundov.
“I am confident that the acquisition of new freighters will further strengthen our leading position on the global air freight market for the next 15 to 20 years.”
Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and CEO Stan Deal commented: “Silk Way West Airlines has been rapidly expanding the geographic reach of its network.
“With the global air freight market forecasted to grow more than 60 per cent over the next 20 years, this new order bolsters their ability to meet trade and e-commerce demand in the Commonwealth of Independent States, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and North America.”


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Those using an unlocked Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge in the UK have probably received the official Android 7.0 update by now, but what about those who got their device from one of the carriers in the country? Well, according to a Reddit user, Vodafone could start sending out the update to its users on Monday, January 23rd.
The date comes from a Vodafone customer care agent, but as we have seen in the past, customer care executives aren’t always the most accurate when it comes to providing information on software updates. But given the speed at which Samsung is moving with the Nougat update, don’t be surprised if you wake up next week to see your Vodafone-branded Galaxy S7 or Galaxy S7 edge being treated to the latest version of Android.
Are you on Nougat on your Galaxy S7 or S7 edge already? What do you think about the update? Do let us know in the comments, and check out our list of all the major features introduced by Android 7.0.


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Listen to this article
For the first time, yearly orders of robots from non-automotive sectors surpassed automotive robot orders, as sales of robotic units in North America increased 3.5% in 2020 from 2019. This growth was driven by a strong Q4 that was the second-best quarter ever for North American robotic sales with a 63.6% increase over Q4 2019.
Industry statistics released today by the Robotic Industries Association (RIA), part of the Association for Advancing Automation (A3), show North American companies ordered 31,044 robotic units, valued at $1.572 billion in 2020. In Q4, companies ordered 9,972 units valued at $479 million.
“The surge in robot orders that we’re seeing, despite the pandemic, demonstrates the growing interest in robotic and automation solutions,” said A3 president Jeff Burnstein. “It’s promising to see the growth of robotics in new applications and reaching a wider group of users than ever before.”
Year-over-year orders in life sciences increased by 69%, food and consumer goods grew by 56%, and plastics and rubber saw a 51% increase. Automotive orders increased 39% in 2020.
“In 2020, we saw two trends in particular that propelled growth in non-automotive orders for robotics technology,” said John Bubnikovich, Chief Regional Officer – North America, KUKA Robotics. “First, the automation competence level in general industry has grown, and that matured into greater demand for the technology. Second, consumer behavior shifted significantly and the expectations created by this shift were tough to satisfy without automation.”
The same trends are being noticed by other major robot manufacturers.
“With the changes in people’s personal buying behavior caused by COVID, robots have been utilized in record numbers to allow for the fulfillment of orders in the e-commerce space while allowing for correct social distancing practices,” said Dean Elkins, Segment Leader – Handling, Yaskawa Motoman. “In addition, robots largely aided in the production of personal protection and testing equipment and the medical devices needed to keep our society healthy and safe.”
“We have seen a substantial increase in activity in non-automotive sectors, as customers focus on making their production lines more flexible and better able to efficiently achieve high mix, lower volume production in response to constantly evolving customer demands,” said Mark Joppru, Vice President – Consumer Segment & Service Robotics, US ABB Robotics and Machine Automation. “In food applications, for example, where robots were traditionally used to automate simpler processes like case loading, they are increasingly being commissioned for higher value processes, like directly preparing food, resulting in improvements to food safety and hygiene. While these trends have existed for several years, COVID has changed perceptions and priorities for customers, accelerating the adoption of robotic automation.”
Burnstein joined The Robot Report Podcast today to discuss these numbers in-depth. You can listen to the podcast below. The interview with Burnstein starts at the 1:34 mark.


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Nearly 30 years after its release, 'New Coke' is still a lesson in product failure for engineers.
Transient-voltage-suppression diode technology eliminates surges and enhances vehicle safety.
An attack on the grid could do mammoth damage and experts say our power plants are the least equipped to withstand cyber attacks.
Thalmic Labs' Myo is an arm-worn device that lets users control computers, smartphones, drones, and other digital devices using only hand and arm gestures.
The big data processing of 3D simulation is now blended into CAD programs to ease and speed the design workflow.


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Apple changes its mind on iPhone screen repairs; Face ID will no longer be at risk
Last week we told you that Apple added a microcontroller chip to the iPhone screen. When a broken iPhone display is replaced, the microcontroller needs to be added to the new screen from the original glass, or else Face ID will fail to work.
The process of moving over the microcontroller is so complex that most independent repair shops cannot properly handle the job without breaking Face ID. Of course, Apple does this on purpose to make sure that only certified repairmen touch an iPhone with a damaged display. You see, certified repair shops have access to a software tool developed by Apple that makes it easier to move over the microcontroller and install it on the replacement display.
The Verge that it plans on disseminating a software update that will allow Face ID to continue working following a screen swap even without the microcontroller getting moved to the new screen. This will help repair shops that don't have the financial wherewithal to purchase the equipment needed to move over the microcontroller and allow them to do screen repairs. After all, such work could be quite lucrative for small repair shops.But Apple has told
A video posted on YouTube by iCorrect discusses the process of replacing an iPhone screen and how such a repair puts Face ID at risk until Apple releases the aforementioned update. When that will take place is not yet certain.


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At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Fictiv Inc. announced a new category of injection molding manufacturing services the company claims enables production quality parts and prototype speeds.
Rapid Design Mold Services is part of Fictiv's Agile Manufacturing Solution.
“CES provides a first look at the next generation of inspiring consumer products,” Dave Evans, Fictiv's CEO and co-founder, said. “But the ugly truth is that many of these products will never make it to market as you see them today because of the design tradeoffs and volume commitments required from traditional manufacturers.”
Instead of aluminum tooling for low-volume injection molding jobs, Fictiv's Rapid Design Mold services taps into the existing worldwide manufacturing capacity through its network of vetted partners to enable on-demand, rapid parts for even low-volume runs.
Fictiv is based in San Francisco.
Tel. 415-580-2509, www.fictiv.com/tools/injection-molding-service


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Whatever you think about the pros and cons of last week's revelations about The National Magazine Company and its Audit Bureau of Circulations figures, the whole episode can hardly be construed as good news for the integrity of the ABC system. But so what, you may well ask. There have been question marks over the ABC system for as long as anyone can remember.
For those who missed it, NatMags was found guilty of breaching rules on bulk sales. In the figures for January to June last year, it included a large number of copies in the bulks column that should by rights have appeared in the "monitored free distribution" column. A minor distinction, you might think, but the extra copies made a substantial contribution to trading currencies during the period in question. The rogue "sales" were those shifted in joint promotions with national and regional newspaper publishers whereby the titles were "bagged up" with newspapers. They were thus extra incentives to a newspaper purchase. However, no money changed hands for the magazine in each bag.
This was a reminder, should one be needed, that the rules on bulk sales are still open to abuse, prompting many to speculate that reform of the system is not moving forward quickly enough. Even fans of NatMags (and it has many defenders) admit that the publisher was being difficult when it claimed it hadn't understood the rules. After all, it found countless ways to prevaricate, including disputing the ABC's preliminary findings line-by-line, paragraph-by-paragraph. The appeal process took three months.
So is it time for the industry to demand movement here - not just on the issue of bulks but on other transparency issues, such as forcing magazines to release figures on individual issue sales? Some analysts believe that single-issue figures are now the main priority. Once that level of transparency is achieved, the bulks issue will be easier to police. Of course, publishers tend to argue that this will be too costly for all concerned, especially for the big buying points. And anyway, buying the medium is already complex enough.
"Rubbish," Paul Thomas, a managing partner at MindShare, counters. "The reason publishers don't want monthly figures is obviously that it will highlight the massive issue-by-issue variations there are and that will open up the market to seasonal pricing. I'm more than happy to negotiate against circulation."
It would also, he argues, make publishers manage their inventory more effectively. At the moment, everyone has a fair idea of the issues that genuinely sell well and those that don't. So a lot of opportunistic advertisers come into just a handful of issues, which grow to the thickness of telephone directories. "There's a need to penalise advertisers that are creating the clutter and aren't committed to using the medium the rest of the year," Thomas says. "If there is a seasonal market, they can run smaller issue sizes and charge more. For many magazine advertisers, stand-out is a real issue. The current system allows publishers to hold prices artificially - and the fact that they resist change makes you wonder whether they have any faith in the ability of their sales teams to trade against the actual figures."
Ian Locks, the chief executive of the Periodical Publishers Association, states the publishers' case: "Advertising space needs to be bought and sold with the confidence that what is promised is being delivered, that what is bought will be paid for within an agreed time frame and that transactions will be handled in a cost-efficient way."
He says that ABCs are really a back-up to the main trading currency, the National Readership Survey. And in any case, magazine publishers recently adopted a package of changes to ABC figures, including indicating where single issue sales varied by more than plus or minus 20 per cent. The clearer definition of actively purchased copies also provides the additional transparency on bulks many had been requesting.
He adds: "Adoption of single-issue figures would force up costs for everyone through pressure for a level rate base, increased ABC audit costs, agency costs in handling hugely increased volumes of data and the costs for both sides of renegotiating on issue by issue rather than average issue historical data. A shift to single-issue data for magazines alone would be totally unacceptable, making magazines excessively costly to use compared with newspapers."
Some buyers have sympathy with this position. Tim Kirkman, the director of press at Carat, says: "You can reach a point when you are asking for figures for the sake of figures. The truth is that a lot of the magazine advertising business is driven by broader seasonal effects anyway." In other words, fashion advertisers, for instance, will always be in the spring or autumn issues of glossy titles, because spring and autumn are the busiest periods in the fashion business. Summer issues aren't necessarily punished by advertisers (as the publishers fear) because everyone suspects that their circulations are low. "I don't think anyone will gain any extra insight from having the numbers," Kirkman adds. "They might influence my non-season brands but not hugely. In practical terms, you can have the figures anyway if you ask for them. It's always possible to have sensible conversations with grown-up people."
However, not all buyers are as understanding as Kirkman. Some are irked by the fact that this has taken so long to come to light. The period that the restatement relates to is January to June one year ago. Now that we're in a new budget period, it's going to be messy negotiating any compensation packages that advertisers are now entitled too.
Of course, the people who can do most to force a change are the advertisers themselves, aren't they? Alison Brolls, the head of marketing at Nokia, says the unwillingness of publishers to change is a substantial obstacle.
Meanwhile, the whole issue of transparency continues to be frustrating.
She states: "We need to know how many copies are being distributed and sold every month. The rules for bulks should be simplified - and publishers should also disclose where they are going. Are they just being used to hoist sales or are they being used as genuine, carefully targeted sampling?
"The current six-month ABC audit period is not an accurate way of assessing the impact of one-off monthly initiatives, yet a one-off hike in circulation can massively skew the six-month figure for a particular title. We are counting on the publishers changing the way they do business and in future they have to be more accountable and transparent. In any other business, the way the ABC figures are currently presented would certainly be regarded as creative accounting."


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Even after all of the patent battles over mobile device gestures, Apple is setting its sights on the future by looking beyond the touch screen alone. Future iPhones and iPads could feature a invention that would replace or supplement pinch-to-zoom gestures with other technology. A patent for the concept was filed by Apple in May 2011.
The above diagram from AppleInsider shows how the automatic zoom system might work on an iOS device. Essentially content on the screen would dynamically resize based on the change in distance from the viewer's face. There would be two distinct modes of operation for the automatic zoom feature.
Apple released iOS 5.1.1 a few days after iOS developer pod2g announced that his jailbroken iPhone 4 running iOS 5.1 was untethered. Of course you will want to avoid the update if your device is currently jailbroken. For non-jailbreakers the update brings improved reliability for the HDR option when accessing the camera app, and a few bug fixes. Here is a complete list of changes:
Improves reliability of using HDR option for photos taken using the Lock Screen shortcut.
Addresses bugs that could prevent the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G networks.
Fixes bugs that affected AirPlay video playback in some circumstances.
Improved reliability for syncing Safari bookmarks and Reading List.
Fixes an issue where ‘Unable to purchase’ alert could be displayed after successful purchase.
Some iOS users have great app ideas, but maybe they're just not very good at programming. Apple could be seeking to broaden app development opportunities to people without typical developer skills if a patent revealed by AppleInsider means anything.
Apple has already released the iBooks Author software package to help streamline the process of publishing ebooks. Although there are already services that help build iOS apps, nothing would compare to a software package from Apple dedicated to the process. Drawings from the patent application show a variety of graphic interfaces that could be used to make apps.
Apple has started to prompt iOS users to enter security questions in an effort to increase security for Apple ID accounts. The dialog box that pops up on the home screen may look suspicious, but the process is legit. The box reads "Security Info Required" and explains that a password confirmation is necessary.
If you see the pop up, don't be alarmed, simply tap the Security Info button to make sure that Apple doesn't bother you again. This will forward you over to a Security Info screen, where you'll need to enter three separate security questions with answers.
Rockstar Games has announced that Max Payne Mobile will be available for iOS devices on Thursday, April 12th. The Android version will be available two weeks later on April 26th. Both the iOS and Android versions will feature HD graphics, high-resolution textures, Social Club connectivity and user-customizable controls. Pricing is unknown, but Rockstar's last iOS game Grand Theft Auto III retailed for $2.99.
Max Payne Mobile will be available for the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch 4, iPad, iPad 2 and the new iPad. A list of supported Android devices will be listed on their blog in the coming weeks.
Sometimes the iPhone home button stops working properly. The iPhone operating system is heavily dependent on the home button for several features and functions, and when it ceases to be responsive this can really slow you down. There are several reasons why the home button might not register a press, these can be both hardware and software issues.
The most common problems with the iPhone home button are when pressing the button does nothing, or a double-click only registers a single click. Delays can also happen between presses and action. Luckily there is a quick fix that will calibrate your iPhone home button you can try first. This trick can fix an unresponsive home button thanks to a software reset. To reset a sluggish home button perform the following steps on your device:
Apple just announced at today's Apple "Let's Talk iPhone" event that iOS 5 will be a free update available to all users come October 12th. iPhone and iPad owners have been long awaiting the release of iOS 5 since its announcement earlier this year. The iOS has been through multiple beta releases with Apple's iOS developer community and is now ready for release.
Apple has basically been reviewing iOS 5 features and has yet to make an announcement regarding what version of a new iPhone will be released. Rumors from earlier this morning suggest that Apple will not be releasing an iPhone 5 today, but will instead be releasing only the iPhone 4S.
Two patents submitted by Apple point to major feature enhancements under development that would dramatically change the iOS Maps app on iPhones and other mobile devices. Both patents were discovered in the past two weeks by AppleInsider. The patent diagram below shows Apple's take on augmented reality.
Several apps have tried to implement augmented reality by overlaying graphics on top of live video from the iPhone camera. In one example, Yelp included a feature that showed nearby businesses directly on live video of the area. The app made waves two years ago as the first iOS augmented reality application, combining data from the camera, GPS and compass.
Screenshots acquired by 9to5 Mac reveal a gesture-based passcode lock screen already in use internally at Apple. The AppleConnect iOS application for employees makes use of the feature.
Much like a similar gesture-based passcode lock found on Android devices, the Apple version allows users to set a private code based on points that are connected by the user on the screen. The iOS version has a progress bar indicating the strength of an individual gesture entered for use as a passcode.
In September 2010 the Apple iPhone overtook BlackBerry for the top spot in US smartphone market share. A new report by Nielsen shows iOS commanding 28.6 percent of the market in November 2010, more than any other smartphone operating system.
BlackBerry and Android were neck and neck in November, with Android devices on the rise and BlackBerry devices losing market share but maintaining a slight edge. It's not clear how long iOS can keep its top position, as Android almost doubled its share from June to November.


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Shortly after taking office in 2017, the Trump administration released its proposed budget cuts for FY 2018. Among the proposed cuts was a 31 percent decrease in the foreign aid budget, which includes cutting funding to the United Nations, the World Bank and other diplomatic institutions. With the already low foreign aid budget potentially decreasing, impoverished nations still do have dependable allies in the U.S. other than the government.
After the release of the proposed foreign aid budget cuts, American business leaders from companies such as Walmart, Nike and Coca-Cola signed a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urging him to reevaluate the proposed cuts. The May 22 letter highlights the fact that 95 percent of the world’s consumers live outside of the U.S. and that “eleven of America’s top fifteen export markets are in countries that have been recipients of U.S. foreign assistance.”
Not only are private businesses lobbying the government to take responsibility when it comes to stepping up foreign aid policy, but they have also stepped up in their own funding to developing countries and their economies.
According to The Guardian, private sectors have invested money to developing countries at a faster rate than government foreign aid; they receive 27 percent more foreign business investments than development aid. The investments, which have increased nine-fold since the year 2000, are starting to bring countries out of poverty with increasing business capital flow into their economies.
As businesses see more market potential in countries where citizens could come out of poverty and would have more money to spend on luxury goods, they have an incentive to invest in development.
For example, The Coca-Cola Company and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation teamed up with TechnoServe to invest in eastern African farmers to produce fruit for their Minute Maid drinks. As a result, local farmers were educated on how to produce better crop yields that would benefit both Coca Cola’s production and the farmers’ incomes. This venture was titled Project Nurture and increased the incomes of 54,000 farmers.
“We are committed to working with you in your role as Secretary of State to share our perspectives on the importance of U.S. international affairs programs to boost our exports abroad and our jobs here at home,” read the May 22 letter to Tillerson. Whether the proposed 31 percent foreign aid budget cut goes into effect or not, private businesses will continue to invest in foreign markets and give aid to developing countries. It is also important to note that, in budgetary matters, Congress holds the power of the purse. While the President is able to propose budgetary cuts, they must be approved by Congress before going into effect.
– Vicente Vera


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Foxconn Technology Group (2354.TPE) is seeking RMB50 billion (US$8 billion) worth of annual production from its new China plant by 2018 as clients ask suppliers for greener manufacturing, Bloomberg reported. The new plant will be more energy efficient and will use less chemicals and more recyclable materials, Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou said on Thursday without giving details. The plant is also part of Foxconn’s effort to expand into businesses such as automotive electronics, mobile phone services and cloud computing to boost growth amid slowing sales. Carbon nano tubes and recyclable materials are among the products Foxconn will develop at the site in addition to consumer electronics such as mobile phones and televisions.
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November 5, 1998
U.S. Deflation Is Frightening but Toothless
By MICHAEL M. WEINSTEIN
eflation is scary. The last time prices nose-dived throughout the economy was during the Great Depression. Then government stood by helplessly as wages and prices plummeted and over a quarter of the labor force stood desperately in unemployment lines.
No wonder, then, that investors cringe at the word "deflation." Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, recently warned that "deflation from the Far East is heading our way." Many analysts now echo the deflation theme. Charles McMillion, chief economist of MBG Information Services, wrote last week in The New Republic that deflation "could happen again soon."
But predictions of deflation amount to little more than blather. The experts who dwell on deflation can point to no data that show prices are generally falling. Nor can they point to evidence that across-the-board price cutting is likely to break out in the future. Most important, deflation has not reached the all-important sinews of labor markets.
Predictions of deflation miss the key difference between today and the 1930s: a Federal Reserve no longer asleep at the monetary switch.
First, the data. This year, as in most other years, prices in some individual industries are falling. Energy prices have dropped almost 10 percent in the last year. Commodity prices have dropped by about 20 percent in the last year. The prices of raw materials, clothes and other imported goods have also declined, partly in response to the economic collapse of Southeast Asia.
But other prices are more than making up for the slack. Producer prices, excluding energy and food, are rising about 1 percent a year. Consumer prices are rising by about 2 percent a year. These rates are small. But they are nowhere near negative.
Look to the labor market, which drives the formation of prices. Over the last year, wages and salaries have been rising about 4 percent a year. Nothing in economic logic or history suggests that wages will suddenly reverse course. Indeed, even if recession strikes, wages will almost certainly continue to rise, as they have in every recent downturn.
And if wages do not fall, prices will almost certainly not fall either. Labor costs typically account for two-thirds of the cost of producing goods and services. In general, wages and prices move up and down together.
They can move in opposite directions, however, in times of rapid gains in productivity. If, say, workers are given the tools to churn out 5 percent more each hour, then the extra output would yield enough new revenue to allow the company to pay workers 5 percent more even without raising prices. The company could even cut prices a few percent and still have enough extra revenue to pass along to workers as higher wages.
But productivity is now rising by less than 2 percent a year. That provides no room for prices to fall if wages continue to rise anywhere near their current 4 percent clip. As Martin Feldstein of Harvard points out, "Only in the extreme case of the economy falling into a deep depression like that of the 1930s would the level of prices actually begin a sustained decline."
Nor are prices falling in any other industrialized economy except Japan. Throughout Europe, prices are rising very slowly. In developing countries, inflation rules nearly everywhere outside China. Even in the decimated economies of Indonesia, South Korea and Thailand, prices are rising rapidly.
So why the frenzy over deflation? Robert Solow, Nobel laureate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, attributes some of the chatter about deflation to analytical confusion.
In virtually every industrialized country, the official task of the central bank is to achieve price stability, or roughly zero inflation. At least since the reign of Paul Volcker in the 1980s, Fed chairmen have been measured by their ability to get inflation down. With prices rising by only 2 percent a year, Greenspan has come close to victory.
But Solow observes, "if average prices are not changing, then, to a rough approximation, half the prices must be falling, while the other half must be rising" in order to keep the price index relatively level. To invoke the specter of specific price cuts for oil, apparel and computers as harbingers of deflation is, by this argument, to confuse economics with algebra.
The United States has not experienced deflation since the 1930s. But though economic historians continue to debate the underlying cause of the Great Depression, they do not dispute the simple proposition that deflation was then, and will almost certainly be in the future, a monetary event. Translation: Prices can only continue to fall if people are given fewer and fewer dollars to spend on good and services.
This is the flip side of the commonplace proposition that inflation can rage only if people are given more and more dollars to spend by the Fed. In the 1930s, the Fed committed the fatal mistake of sitting back while banks closed and the supply of money shriveled.
It is inconceivable that the Fed would make the same mistake today. If, as Greenspan fears, deflation forces drift ashore from Asia, the Fed has an ironclad remedy. It needs only to step on the monetary pedal, as it has already begun to do cautiously by lowering interest rates.
There are lots of economic forces to fear. Recession. Inequality. Productivity slowdown. In each case, living standards are at risk and government cannot perfectly anticipate what to do and when to act. But deflation isn't worth fretting about unless you believe that the United States will suffer a once-in-a-century catastrophe and the Fed will play dumb.
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At our Advertising in Social Media forum this week, I found myself chatting with JupiterResearch’s Emily Riley and Cymfony’s Jim Nail. We were playfully debating which industry engenders the most consumer ire: the airlines or cell phone providers.
The following day, I found myself at Yahoo’s Goin’ Mobile summit. The company’s ad sales division is making an aggressive push to get advertisers on board with mobile ads, an opportunity sales chief Wenda Harris Millard is calling a way to reach “possibly the biggest audience in the world.
“We think this will be the biggest advertising opportunity that exists, not the PC,” she asserted over lunch before presenting that argument to an audience of several hundred Madison Avenue executives.
U.S. mobile phone penetration is close to ubiquitous, and 90 percent of the devices in consumers’ pockets are Web-enabled. Last year, Yahoo’s mobile user base tripled, and that was before the company introduced its favorably received Yahoo Go service, aimed at making the mobile experience seamless. Yahoo claims to be adding 1.5 million users each month, making it the leading mobile brand in America.
And it’s added plenty of advertising opportunities around mobile search, display, video, in-game ads, and “anything around downloads.” David Riemer, Yahoo’s VP of audience marketing, considers mobile a new, highly personalized out-of-home advertising opportunity. “There are not a lot of competing messages on that screen,” he said.
Yahoo is also bullish on the fact it’s able to combine mobile and Web subscriber data for more personalized experiences across both handheld and PC platforms.
The afternoon was filled to the brim with compelling mobile marketing case studies, many presented by Laura Marriott, who heads the Mobile Marketing Association and writes ClickZ’s mobile marketing column, and Isobar’s Gene Keenan. Brands successfully advertising on mobile platforms domestically include Adidas, Procter & Gamble, and Pizza Hut.
Keenan says now’s the time to get on board. “We’re getting a 2 to 10 percent click-through rate. It’s like the old days on the Internet,” he said with glee.
There was even a show-and tell of next-gen technology. Scanbuy’s Jonathan Bulkeley demonstrated how barcode scanners in mobile devices tell shoppers when and where a head of lettuce was picked in Japan and when the next bus arrives at your stop in the Philippines. Marriott and Keenan shared a European ad for a mobile provider that literally moved some in the audience to tears. In the spot, a flash mob is dramatically convened via text messaging to rescue a beached whale.
Frank Boulben, who heads new business development for the world’s largest mobile provider, Vodafone, was on hand as well. He told the audience his company is poised to introduce flat-fee data pricing in Europe, thus “liberating usage.” Content and services will increasingly be ad-funded. “We have the audience and the inventory,” he affirmed, saying the company is looking toward ads on the mobile Web, content messaging, partner marketing, search, even ads on device idle screens (no connection required).
Vodafone was in the house, but notably I didn’t see anyone from Verizon, AT&T, Nextel, or other U.S. mobile providers. At lunch, I’d asked Yahoo’s top mobile executives whether they’re working with the providers — and if so, whether the providers see the platform’s value.
The answers I received from Millard and Dick O’Hare, VP of global strategic partnerships and emerging platforms, were…diplomatic. Along the lines of “We’re trying to show them the value in this,” and “CRM is what they’ll really have to work on in the coming year.”
While no one will come right out and say it, Yahoo seems well aware this country’s highly competitive mobile providers may be saving the newspaper industry with their relentless advertising. But when it comes to customer service; transparent, easily understood service agreements; and pricing models that gouge both sender and recipient on calls and messages, we’re back to that earlier conversation I had with Riley and Nail.
Here’s an example: Last week, I called my provider, Sprint, about upgrading my top-of-the-line smart phone, as its Web site provided none of the requisite information. After quoting three prices higher than the prices on the site, the salesperson informed me I could only upgrade by visiting a physical store. The rep was blithely unconcerned when I told her if I switched providers, I wouldn’t have to visit a store and take a number — and my chances — on a several-hundred-dollar upgrade that would necessarily result in an extension of my Sprint contract.
Such stories are anything but unusual. Everyone’s got a mobile provider horror story. Ten years ago, consumers were largely steered to their first provider through work — corporate discounts were offered to early adopters. With grandmothers and their grandchildren alike now bristling with mobile technology, something’s got to give.
Advertisers are increasingly eager to experiment with mobile advertising. Critical mass on the consumer level is firmly established. From corporate behemoths such as Yahoo to tiny mobile services startups, opportunities, formats, and services are being developed to ease marketers’ path into the channel.
But only mobile service providers are in a position to make the transition into mobile advertising easy and attractive to consumers. Until they ease pricing, upgrades, service contracts, and customer service, mobile advertising and marketing will remain five years behind the times in the U.S. market as compared to Europe and Asia.
Meet Rebecca at Search Engine Strategies on June 12-13 in Toronto.
Cynthia (Cyndi) Knapic, Head of Business at Animoto, discusses the latest trends in video marketing, why 'square video' is so popular, and how brands are changing their strategies with the rise of video.
Ecommerce marketing is all about coming up with new ideas to engage with customers. The latest trends are all about focusing on the customers and their needs, and that's a great way to improve your marketing efforts.
We all need data on the users that matter to us most. In many cases, to get this data, we need to have data forms to collect and capture information directly on our websites.
Facebook Canvas has been with us for just over a year and, whilst there are many brands that have made it work, there are others who have struggled with the new medium. What can we learn from both as we look to really make the most of Facebook’s flagship ad model?


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China's tech counterfeiters are notorious for having a nose for what's hot and what's not. Now, they seem to have set their eyes on a new potential money-spinner.
In one of the many mobile phone stores in the city's Huaqiangbei commercial area -- one of the China’s most notorious places to shop for electronics and hi-tech knockoffs -- I asked a young saleswoman if they have Apple’s smart watch.
"Absolutely!" she said with a confident smile. "Do you want original or a copy?"
I was naturally interested in the original since it's not set to be launched in China or the US until April 24. Unfortunately, she only had copies to offer that day.
She showed us a range if different watches, some with similar design as the Apple Watch. They come in all kind of colours and creative names: uWatch, iGreat, a8Watch etc.
In another store, a young salesman demonstrated an “iPhone Watch” by calling to it from his phone and taking photos of us. It could be connected with both my friend’s iPhone and my Xiaomi that runs on Android, he explained.
Quality is far from impressive; functions are few and image and sound quality have a lot to wish for (to say the least). Tim Cook, Apple's boss, called the gadget "the most advanced timepiece ever created". That statement would however not ring true for the ones in the Shenzhen stores.
But the knockoffs have one major upside -- low price.
Apple’s cheapest Sport model will sell at almost 3,000 yuan ($479) in China, while the top-end luxury Edition will cost more than 145,000 yuan ($23,157). Here in the stores in south China, prices range from 240 to 500 yuan ($39-80). For larger quantities, prices are even lower.
Apple rip-offs are also for sale on e-commerce site Alibaba, some openly advertised as Apple copies. One vendor offers “Cheap wearable bluetooth smart watch for Apple Watch copy.”
It's not uncommon for top-selling products to be on the market before launch of the original; there were pirated iPhone-lookalikes on the market months before the first iPhone launched.
Likewise, unpopular products are unceremoniously dropped by pirates who simply cannot afford to get stuck with the inventory.
Last year, I investigated a story for CNN about fake Samsung Gear smart watches. After having approached numerous wholesale companies and retailers in the Chinese tech malls, it was clear that the pirates had given the gadget the cold shoulder. Copies were nowhere to be found.
And, one might argue, if there is one thing worse than being copied, that is to be ignored.


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JJ Food Service announces record profits of £12 million
We are extremely happy to announce sales of £181.64m for the year ended 31 March 2015, with record pre-tax profits of £11.97m up 55% on the previous year.
Managing director Mustafa Kiamil said, “Our increase in profit is down to being able to source high-quality products from the UK and the rest of the world at competitive prices. We have also continued to increase efficiencies and achieve significant cost savings by investing in technology.”
To continue to grow the business and improve service to customers, much of this profit has been re-invested into the business with £10m being spent on two new branches. The first in Newcastle is expected to open in early 2016, whilst the second – a purpose-built branch in Dagenham – is due to open in summer 2016, growing JJ’s estate to 10 sites across the UK.
We have also continued to invest in technology and renewable energy with £500K due to be spent on solar panels to help power the Enfield and Sidcup branches and further plans to roll the technology out across all branches in the future.
We have also continued to invest in our FOODit venture, a software system first developed in 2013 to help independent restaurants to get online and optimise their presence in search engines.
Poised for further growth, we have our sights set on further expansion in the year ahead. “We are always on the look out for new branches when suitable properties are available for acquisition”, said Mr Kiamil.


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Hapag-Lloyd books $23 million Q1 profit
German container line Hapag-Lloyd said Thursday it made $22.9 million (16.1 million euros) in the first quarter, a 140.3 percent increase on the same period in 2010.
Revenue for the line increased 16.5 percent to $2.1 billion (1.5 billion euros) as the average freight rate climbed 10 percent to $1,563 per TEU. Hapag-Lloyd's container volume rose 2 percent to 1.2 million TEUs.
'Given the prevailing conditions, we achieved a good result in the first quarter,' said Michael Behrendt, chairman of the executive board of Hapag-Lloyd Holding AG. 'Nevertheless, the rise in the oil price, the weak U.S. dollar and growing competition are making business more difficult. Our aim must be to see that the additional external challenges are covered by appropriate rate increases.'
The line said its volume grew 6.5 percent in trades to and from Latin America, while Asia/Europe volumes fell 8.5 percent as the line 'rejected transport contracts with lower price quality.' Transpacific volume, however, increased 11.8 percent.
The line also confirmed that from May 31, the 'Albert Ballin' consortium will increase its stake in Hapag-Lloyd by 11.3 percent to 61.6 percent, with TUI AG's stake being correspondingly reduced to 38.4 percent.


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CALL IT THE multiplication of the metaverses. Ever since Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook—sorry, Meta—laid out his vision in late October for immersive virtual worlds he thinks people will want to spend lots of time in, new ones are popping up all over. An entertainment metaverse will delight music fans, influencers will flock to a fashion metaverse to flaunt digital clothes, and there is even a shark metaverse (it has something to do with cryptocurrencies). Mostly these are the brainchildren of marketeers slapping a new label on tech’s latest craze.
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One new virtual world deserves real attention: the “enterprise metaverse”. Forget rock stars and fancy frocks, this is essentially a digital carbon copy of the physical economy. Building living, interactive blueprints that replicate the physical world might, in time, come to shape it. The vision of what this might mean has become clearer in recent days. Microsoft, the world’s largest software firm, earlier this month put it at the centre of its annual customer shindig, as did Nvidia, a big maker of graphics processors, on November 9th.
Corporate virtual worlds are already more of a reality than Meta’s consumer version, where people will get to hang out with their friends at imaginary coastal mansions. Unlike that metaverse, which is populated mostly by human avatars, the corporate version is largely a collection of objects. These are “digital twins”, virtual 3D replicas of all sorts of physical assets, from single screws to entire factories.
Crucially, they are connected to their real selves—a change on the shop floor, for instance, will trigger the equivalent change in its digital twin—and collect data about them. This set-up enables productivity-enhancing operations that are hard today, for example optimising how groups of machines work together. Simulating changes virtually can then be replicated in the real world. And, its boosters hope, a path would be laid to automate even more of a firm’s inner workings.
Whether the enterprise metaverse becomes a reality is not simply of interest to aficionados of corporate information technology (IT). Innovations unlocked through insights gleaned from digital mirror-worlds can help firms become more adaptable and efficient—helping them reduce carbon emissions, for example. Promoters of the concept even argue that it will put to rest the old adage, coined by Robert Solow, a Nobel-prizewinning economist, that you can “see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics”.
The concept of this “twinworld”, as the enterprise metaverse might be called (a spiffy moniker will surely be found), is not new. Some of the necessary technologies have been around for years, including devices with sensors to capture data, known as the “internet of things” (IoT)—another field still waiting for a moniker upgrade. Software to design detailed virtual replicas originated in computer games, the current benchmark for immersive worlds.
But other bits have only recently become good enough, including superfast wireless links to connect sensors, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, which can predict how a system is likely to behave. “Digital twins aggregate all of these things,” explains Sam George, who runs the enterprise-metaverse effort at Microsoft.
As is its wont as a maker of corporate software, Microsoft has developed an entire platform on top of which other firms can develop applications. This includes tools to build digital twins and analyse the data they collect. But this “stack”, as such collections of code are known, also provides technology which allows people to collaborate, including Mesh, a service that hosts shared virtual spaces, and HoloLens, a mixed-reality headset, with which users can jointly inspect a digital twin.
Nvidia’s roots in computer graphics mean it focuses more on collaboration and creating demand for its chips. Its Omniverse is also a platform for shared virtual spaces, but one that allows groups of users to bring along elements they have built elsewhere and combine these into a digital twin they can then work on as a team. The common technical format needed for such collaboration will come to underpin digital twins in the same way HTML, a standard formatting language, already underpins web pages, predicts Richard Kerris, who is in charge of Omniverse.
Both platforms have already attracted a slew of startups and other firms that base some of their business on this technology. Cosmo Tech, for instance, takes Microsoft’s tools to do complex simulations of digital twins to predict how they might evolve. And Bentley Systems, which sells engineering software, uses Omniverse to optimise energy infrastructure. Both Microsoft and Nvidia have also teamed up with big firms to show off their wares. AB InBev, a beer giant, collaborates with Microsoft to create digital twins of some of its more than 200 breweries to better control the fermentation process. In the case of Nvidia, the top partner is BMW, which uses Omniverse to make it easier to reconfigure its 30 factories for new cars.
Despite all this activity, it is not a given that the enterprise metaverse will take off as fast as its champions expect, if ever. Similar efforts have failed or disappointed, including many IoT projects. “Smart cities”, essentially attempts to build urban metaverses, turned out to use technology that was just not up to snuff and relied too much on proprietary standards.
If the enterprise metaverse does indeed take shape, though, it will be an intriguing process. Will it be based on proprietary technology or on open standards (there is already a Digital Twin Consortium)? And, asks George Gilbert, a veteran observer of the IT industry, how will software-makers such as Microsoft be paid for their wares? Since their code will be more embedded than ever in firms’ products and services, some may ask for a slice of revenue instead of licensing or subscription fees.
And then there is the question of how the overall metaverse economy will function. Since most business activity will be digitally replicated, economists may have unprecedented insight into what is going on. Digital twins could exchange services between themselves and perhaps replace firms as the main unit of analysis. If digital twins live on a blockchain, the sort of platform that underpins most cryptocurrencies, they could even become independent and own themselves. Expect at least as many possibilities as metaverses to unfold.■
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline “Virtual world, Inc”


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In line with a report from Electrek, a wave of layoffs at Tesla might have an effect on hourly staff, regardless of a company-wide e mail from Elon Musk on June third saying “Tesla might be decreasing salaried headcount by 10% as we have now change into overstaffed in lots of areas.” On June 4th, Musk tweeted that “[t]otal headcount will enhance, however salaried needs to be pretty flat,” in response to an announcement about Tesla’s staffing over the following twelve months.
The e-mail went out clarifying the scenario after preliminary studies of Musk telling firm execs it could want to scale back headcount by 10 % total and pause hiring worldwide on account of his “tremendous unhealthy feeling” in regards to the financial system. Tesla didn’t reply to a request for remark; the corporate disbanded its public relations division in 2019 and has not responded to requests from the media since then.
In different Musk-world information, SpaceX fired numerous staff linked to a letter vital of Elon’s habits, and in a Q&A session with Twitter staff, he hinted at attainable layoffs when / if he completes his acquisition whereas saying the corporate “must get wholesome” financially.
Electrek says its sources confirmed layoffs that included wage staff on Tesla’s gross sales and supply groups throughout North America. On the similar time, the corporate manages an end-of-quarter wave of deliveries and lately raised costs. This comes a day after Electrek additionally reported untrained staff from different departments like gross sales have been pulled in to help with the service division so as to shorten the “subsequent obtainable appointment” window that automobile homeowners see after they schedule service.
In a report from Reuters yesterday, it cited Thinknum Various Knowledge monitoring Tesla job postings, saying they’d dropped by 32 % since Could and by 14 % since Musk’s preliminary announcement. Reuters additionally spoke to a former Tesla worker in Texas who had been paid on an hourly foundation for over a 12 months in Austin, Texas, who was informed that his job has been eradicated.


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New Search, old goal at Microsoft
It wants users to drop Google habit
Microsoft Corp. is launching a finished version of its revamped Internet search engine, hoping to regain its footing after losing market share to Yahoo and Google over the past year.
The new Windows Live Search is due to be rolled out in stages over the next three days. Previously available in test form, it succeeds the internally developed MSN Search engine that debuted early last year. Microsoft's market share has slipped since that point, when MSN Search switched from technology it was licensing from Yahoo.
"We should start to see consumers respond favorably to this new version ... but generally we are taking a long-term view on (market) share," said Derrick Connell, general manager in Microsoft's Search Business Unit. "We're hoping that, if we continue to focus on the consumer ... we'll start to gain share."
Industry analysts acknowledge some improvements but say the overhaul, by itself, won't make a big difference short term.
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"Google is so synonymous with Web search," said analyst Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence in Oakland, Calif. "You really have to offer something that's quite different and seemingly better to get people off of their habitual behavior."
Microsoft does appear to have created a smoother and more integrated user experience, he said. Windows Live Search comes with a new look and additional features such as an interactive method of showing photo search results.
Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Kirkland-based research firm Directions on Microsoft, noted that the core technology is still the same as in MSN Search.
"Not to minimize the work they're doing, but it's an ongoing thing, and I don't think today's news is going to change anything in particular," Rosoff said.
Microsoft's share of the U.S. search market was less than 10 percent in July, compared with 24 percent for Yahoo and 49 percent for Google, according to Nielsen NetRatings.
Ultimately, search traffic plays a big role in determining online advertising revenue. Microsoft's Connell said testing of Windows Live Search indicates that people who visit are staying and conducting more searches, which helps ad revenue.
One way the company may gain ground is by creating links to Windows Live Search from its various products and online services, analysts said. But rivals and antitrust regulators also want to make sure Microsoft doesn't use the dominant position of its Windows operating system and Internet Explorer to unfairly advantage its search engine.
As part of the transition to Windows Live Search, Microsoft plans to automatically redirect users from the standalone MSN Search site to the Live.com personalized home page, which is also being released in finished form today. Users can access Windows Live Search through Live.com. In addition, Microsoft says people who search from the MSN.com portal will receive results from Windows Live Search, rather than MSN Search.


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Economy grows slower than forecast
Updated 7:08 pm, Friday, April 26, 2013
GDP growth below forecast
The U.S. economy grew less than forecast in the first quarter as a drop in defense outlays undercut the biggest increase in consumer spending in two years.
Gross domestic product rose at a 2.5 percent annualized rate following a 0.4 percent fourth-quarter advance, according to data from the Commerce Department.
Another report Friday showed consumer confidence fell in April, signaling that households that maintained spending last quarter by dipping into savings may not be able keep shopping at the same pace as tax increases start to pinch.
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Across-the board cutbacks in federal government spending that took effect in March also took a toll on growth.
Samsung rises, Apple drops
Samsung Electronics captured a third of the global smartphone market in the first quarter, as growth for Apple's iPhone dropped to its slowest pace ever, according to data released Friday by Strategy Analytics.
Shipments of Samsung smartphones jumped 56 percent to 69.4 million units in the March quarter. Apple iPhone shipments rose 6.6 percent to 37.4 million units, while LG Electronics gained third place for the first time.
Global smartphone shipments in the period rose 36 percent to 209.5 million units, driven by adoption of third-generation service in China and fourth-generation service in the U.S., Strategy Analytics said.
Samsung on Friday posted a record quarterly profit on surging sales of its Galaxy handsets as demand for its high-end smartphones and cheaper traditional models in emerging markets stoke sales.
"Samsung shipped almost two times more smartphones and grew nine times faster than Apple during the quarter," said Neil Mawston, a Strategy Analytics analyst, said in the statement.
"Samsung should continue to deliver strong smartphone volumes worldwide in the second quarter."
Google buys Wavii startup
Google has bought Wavii, a startup behind an application that condenses online content for time-pressed Web surfers. Both companies confirmed the deal Friday. As with most of its acquisitions, Google isn't disclosing how much it paid for Wavii.
Wavii's technology grasps the context of language so it can summarize the main points in news stories and other content. Although Wavii's app is shutting down, CEO Adrian Aoun says the startup's technology will be used in other Google products.
Google declined to discuss its plans for Wavii. The natural-language technology could be useful for Google's Knowledge Graph, an 11-month-old feature that summarizes information in boxes that appear alongside some of Google's search results
LivingSocial's servers hacked
Daily deal site LivingSocial said late Friday that it had suffered a breach in its servers, compromising user accounts and personal information. The information included users' names, e-mail addresses and dates of birth, and could include any user that's signed up for LivingSocial, regardless of whether they've purchased a deal or not.
Encrypted passwords were also compromised. However, LivingSocial says it never stores passwords in plain text, but instead "salts" and "hashes" them, technical terms for encoding passwords in a way that makes it almost impossible for hackers to understand unless they have a sort of digital key.
CEO Tim O'Shaughnessy said the database that stores customer credit card information was not affected or accessed, and Facebook credentials - for users that log in via Facebook Connect - were not compromised.
Though the company does not believe that any user accounts have been accessed illegally, it is now asking users to change their passwords.


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Not that it would be a novelty in 2016, but it was nonetheless introduced recently and the URWERK UR-106 Lotus is quite a phenomenon at the booth at SIHH.
Tagged “Urwerk”6 posts that have this tag
Urwerk landed in Geneva with 3 new versions of existing models last week. The UR-110 EastWood, the metallic UR-210S and the black EMC.
Grand Prix d’Horlogerie Genève (GPHG), the 14th edition of the prestigious celebration of fine-watchmaking is announcing winners on 31 October at the Grand Théâtre de Genève.
URWERK pocket watch on a large scale