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[The Verge] Oppo unveils the world’s first under-screen selfie camera
The past couple of years of smartphone design have been dominated by debate over how best to increase the screen-to-body ratio, and where to put critical components on devices that are dominated by their screens. The holy grail is, of course, the ability to integrate them directly into the display, as we’ve already seen with fingerprint sensors — and selfie cameras are next.
Oppo, a company that’s done its share of anti-bezel experimentation with display notches and pop-up selfie cameras, is the first to demonstrate an under-screen camera to the public at MWC Shanghai this week, after a tease earlier in the month. Alongside the showing, Oppo has revealed more information about how the technology actually works.
Most excellent news! The days of that damned notch is finally numbered, and I look forward to a 100% notch-free experience in the next year or two.
- 4930K @ 4.5 GHz | Asus X79-Deluxe
- MSi 980 Ti Gaming @ 1500/8000
- 4x4 GB Dominator Platinum 2400 MHz
- 2x 850 Pro 2TB
- Seasonic PRIME Titanium 850W
- Phanteks Enthoo Primo
- Custom watercooling (420+360+240)
- XB270HU 27" 1440p 144Hz IPS


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The LG V30S ThinQ comes with AI-backed camera features, as well as a new voice assistant.
Dubai - LG V30S ThinQ with up to 256GB of storage
LG Electronics is stepping up its game when it comes to artificial intelligence on mobiles.
The South Korean company on Sunday announced that it will be launching its new LG V30S ThinQ at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, integrating new AI tech into the most commonly used features that are closely aligned to the needs and usage behaviour of consumers today.
"Many companies talk about AI but we're already delivering on our promise... [with] the LG V30S ThinQ," Hwang Jeong-hwan, president of LG Mobile Communications, said in a statement to Khaleej Times.
"And we will continue to introduce new AI capabilities to enhance usability."
The V30S ThinQ features Vision AI, coming with three camera capabilities that enhance image capturing: AI CAM, which analyses subjects for optimal shots; QLens, which scans QR codes to boost online shopping; and Bright Mode, which uses special algorithms.
The smartphone also comes with a new digital assistant, Voice AI, which, working with Google Assistant, takes out the need to go through menu options and allows direct selection of specific functions.
The device comes with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. A higher-end version, the V30S+ ThinQ, has 256GB of storage.
LG also says that the phone is still the lightest and thinnest in the six-inches-and-up category.
As at Press time, no release date and prices were available.

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We’re now almost a month into the on-premise shut down caused by COVID-19.
No matter what area of the industry you call home, odds are that if you’re still working, it’s not as much as you were before bars had to shut their doors.
Not only are we economically impacted by this loss, we’re also affected by the lost social interactions and missed growth opportunities. Without the physical ability to be in a bar as we’re used to, feeling connected to a career in the bar industry is difficult.
If this is something you’re struggling with, you’re not alone. And, thankfully, there are some things that can help.
Across social media there are virtual places you can connect with your industry. You can upskill, discuss products and techniques, share isolation tips, or even just hang out and socialise. The hospitality community is a great thing, and so we’ve collated some ways to get involved with it virtually below.
‘Social Exchange’ from Coca-Cola Amatil
The Exchange is an initiative by Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA), aimed at helping bars and their staff achieve success. Their team of marketers, sales managers and brand ambassadors are experienced across the industry, and endeavor to celebrate, create, promote and support Australia’s drinks culture through the CCA alcohol portfolio.
And now, with social distancing and isolation being the new norm, it’s relying on the virtual world with the Social Exchange – a live steamed social media series that’s providing a virtual venue for people to share knowledge and training and connect with conversations and a drink from afar.
The series is now in its third week, having already explored the ideas behind some of the world’s most iconic products and cocktails, with sessions Tuesday to Saturday on Facebook. The Social Exchange welcomes everyone, from bartenders and hotel groups, to all spirit enthusiasts.
Cam Pirret, The Exchange NSW Brand Ambassador, said the Social Exchange grew from an educational series into one that supports and connects people in the industry.
“It is a really tough time. People are having financial hardships, they are isolated, and they’re quite worried about their family and friends. Tough times don’t last but tough people do, and we think there’s nothing tougher than reaching out for help,” Pirret said.
“We are asking people to reach out – not only to your friends, but to the industry that is so supportive and has such an amazing community spirit.”
Erica Richards, The Exchange SA Brand Ambassador, added: “What’s really important at the moment is that we support each other, that we are kind to each other, but also that we can have a bit of a laugh…We can still have a drink, we can still talk to our friends and community via social media, and together with this awesome industry we will make it to the other side.”
‘Jameson Hosts’ from Jameson
Jameson have launched an online platform intended to support, inspired and engage the international bar community throughout the pandemic.
Through an Instagram page, Jameson is bringing the community together to connect and learn from each other, sharing ideas and collaborating through video content from across the world. Content is set to cover a range of topics, including cocktail masterclasses, wellbeing, career coaching and whiskey tutorials, as well as advice on adapting to challenges like the one COVID-19 has presented.
Brendan Buckley, International Marketing Director at Irish Distillers who produce Jameson, said: “The global bar community has dedicated its life and career to the service of others. Now, more than ever, this community needs a new place to come together and share inspiring stories, real-world guidance and encouraging words to help each other overcome the challenges they face today and those that lie ahead.”
Find Jameson hosts here.
‘Daily Happy Hour’ from Applewood Distillery and Unico Zelo
From the Adelaide Hills recently came an announcement by Brendan Carter, Winemaker, Distiller and Co-founder of Applewood Distillery and Unico Zelo. Carter said that from March 20, they would live stream every day, where they would talk wine, spirits, cocktails, and just generally banter on camera.
Over a month later, the live streams keep coming, with thousands of views fostering a social media community that shares ideas and starts conversations across the brands pages.
Other specific groups
These are just a few of the virtual locations that are popping up across the internet, and it’s likely that some of your favourite brands, big and small, have similar things happening on their social media pages too.
But if you’re looking for specific places to connect, try searching on Facebook for them – you would be surprised what would show up. For example, Worksmith runs a great Hospitality Industry COVID-19 support group, while your local city might have a bartender group, a business owners group, or a general hospitality workers group.
Branch out and see what you can find. We’re all in this together and you don’t have to go through this alone.
Header image: Erica Richards, The Exchange


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The COVID-19 crisis has upended urban life as we know it. Cities are on lockdown, and the once bustling streets of Paris, New York, London, Rome, and more now sit virtually empty. Technology has been critical to the way cities and society have coped with the crisis. Online delivery companies have been essential for getting food and supplies to residents, while their restaurant delivery counterparts have helped keep restaurants up and running during the lockdown. Urban informatics has helped track the virus and identify infection hot spots. In the not-too-distant future, as cities begin to reopen, digital technology will be needed to better test and trace the virus as well as to ready urban infrastructure, like airports, public transportation, office buildings, and businesses, to open back up safely.
Many of these new technologies are part of a new high-tech sector of “urban tech.” Urban tech is a suite of technologies that are largely applied in cities and urban areas like online delivery, smart city technology, urban informatics, ride-share and bike- and scooter-sharing services, coworking, online rental platforms, real estate technology, and more.
Urban tech has grown at an astonishing clip over the past five years. Global venture capital investment in urban tech surged from virtually nothing in 2010 to some $20 billion in 2015 and $70 billion in 2018, based on our analysis of data from Pitchbook. (Our data covers 128 nations and 669 global cities or metro areas). Investment ticked slightly downward in 2019 as some well-known urban tech companies like WeWork and Uber struggled to meet investor expectations. Still, global investment in urban tech averaged some $65 billon a year in 2018 and 2019, comprising more than a fifth (21.4%) of all such investment.
Some urban tech industries like coworking and online rental will be hard hit by the COVID-19 crisis. Others, like urban delivery and urban informatics are likely to grow in importance as we recover. The larger takeaway is that urban technology will play a crucial role in determining which cities thrive, and which ones falter, in the wake of COVID-19.
The winners, losers, and heroes of urban tech
The lockdown has been a massive opportunity for urban delivery firms that provide groceries and needed supplies as people shelter in place. Instacart announced in late March that it would be hiring 300,000 more employees, while Amazon is looking to add another 100,000 employees to its warehouse and delivery operations to keep up with demand. DoorDash’s advertising slogan, “Never Leave Home Again,” has taken on new meaning in a time of social distancing.
When Wuhan was fully locked down, delivery drivers traveled through the streets, supplying inhabitants with food and hospitals with medical supplies. JD Logistics, one of China’s largest courier companies, hired 20,000 workers to help with deliveries. Food delivery giant Ele.me organized more than 100 restaurants to prepare food for frontline medical staff.
In Italy, where online shopping makes up only 4% of total retail sales, the supermarket chain Carrefour reported a tenfold increase in orders during the lockdown through its partnership with logistics startup Glovo. French customers bought food through the startup Ollca, which delivers goods from the local online boulangerie, butcher, or fishmonger. Demand for delivery is likely to continue even as lockdowns are lifted, especially if people remain afraid of contacting the virus, and lines are still longer at stores as social distancing continues.
Another big winner is urban informatics. Technology has been, and will continue to be, key to monitoring hot spots and tracking people with the virus. Temperature readings from Kinsa’s digital thermometers were used to identify hot spots in the United States early on. Cellphones in South Korea vibrate with emergency alerts whenever new cases are discovered. Smartphone apps provide detailed timelines of infected people’s travel and movements. Singapore’s TraceTogether app uses Bluetooth signals between phones to gauge the distance between users, and the duration of such encounters. VigilantGantry, an AI-driven temperature screening technology, integrates disease monitoring into heating and cooling systems. In April, Apple and Google announced a partnership to enable iPhone and Android phones to alert people who may have come in contact with COVID-19. As the economy reopens, airports, convention centers, arenas, office buildings, and schools will likely be retrofitted with health and temperature screening.
Mobility enterprises like Lyft, Uber, and Lime may also fare surprisingly well. Prior to the crisis, they made up the biggest single sector for urban tech investment. In the short-term, ride-share services have suffered since few people are traveling during the lockdown. However, as the economy reopens, but people remain fearful of buses, trains, and other forms of public transit, demand for ride-share services will likely grow, with demand for scooter and bike shares growing even more.
The pandemic has hit hard at coworking firms, like WeWork, which were already struggling before the crisis. A survey of more than 14,000 coworking spaces in 172 countries in March found that nearly three-quarters (72%) saw a significant drop in the number of people working from their spaces. The long-term risk is that customers might never return. In early April, Softbank terminated its deal to purchase an additional $3 billion worth of equity in the company, citing the company’s governance, not the fallout from COVID-19 crisis, as the cause. But it stands to reason that coworking spaces will not weather the storm. Before the pandemic, being surrounded by new and different people seemed energizing and exciting. That will not be the case in the future when fear of viral exposure is top of mind.
Short-term rental companies saw reservations evaporate as travel was restricted and cities locked down. In many cities, hosts have had little choice but to convert their buildings and apartments into longer-term rentals. The hotel industry will be slow to rebound with rooms heavily discounted, putting additional pressure on the short-term rental sector.
Across all of these urban tech sectors, the true heroes of the crisis have been the frontline workers who have done so much to keep our cities up and running. These workers are organizing to demand higher wages or so-called hazard pay and better protective equipment from urban tech companies like Instacart, online retailers like Amazon, and grocery chains. The crisis shines a light on the trying conditions facing urban tech’s gig workers and is likely to spur an ongoing movement to improve both their pay and working conditions.
An opportunity to rethink infrastructure
Urban tech will also play a key role in retrofitting cities. Previous pandemics have shaped the adoption and adaptation of urban infrastructure. The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic led to upgrades in urban sewer and sanitation systems and new building codes that called for improved lighting and ventilation. We’ll see similar transformations as a result of COVID-19.
For instance, people will be afraid of crowded trains, buses, and subways as the economy begins to reopen. As they revert to their cars, the flood of traffic threatens to worsen already substantial congestion in large cities and metro areas. Sensors can be used to track road congestion and help mitigate it.
Streets will also need to be retrofitted to support increased demand for walking and biking. Cities like Oakland, California, are already pedestrianizing streets to promote social distancing. As cities reopen and recover, streets can be redesigned and supported by technology to more adequately encourage different kinds of mobility, like walking, biking, delivery vehicles, and ride-share vehicles.
The dominance of urban tech clusters
The cities and nations that are home to leading urban tech clusters will be able to reopen and recover more quickly, providing an economic edge. Up until recently, the United States was the unquestioned leader, accounting for more than 95% of all global venture capital investment until around the year 2000. By 2017, that share had fallen to just 50%. The United States ranks second to China in urban technology, controlling just 35% of global investment compared to China’s 40%. But the United States remains on top with roughly three times the number of urban tech deals as China. (China’s investment totals reflect a small number of mega-deals). Europe lags with less than 5% of global investment.
But it is cities, not nations, which are the core organizing units and the platforms where urban tech clusters and ecosystems take shape. Beijing tops the list with roughly $54 billion in investment, a quarter of the global total. This is a whopping $20 billion more than second-place San Francisco Bay Area’s $34 billion, about 16% of the global total. Shanghai and New York, and then Singapore, Bangalore, Delhi, and Los Angeles comprise a second tier, while cites like Jakarta, London, Berlin, Paris, Tel Aviv, and Miami make up a third tier.
The role of urban tech companies in mitigating the COVID-19 crisis may help mute some of the so-called “techlash,” driven by concerns over privacy, political abuses of social media, and the affordability and inequality of leading superstar cities. As Ezra Klein put it: “I care about my privacy, but not nearly so much as I care about my mother.” Still, it remains essential to put in place new and more robust governance mechanisms and institutions that can protect privacy and anonymity, while ensuring people and communities are safe.
The places that develop and deploy these urban technologies effectively will have a leg up in public health, until the virus is controlled or vanquished. No doubt, their economies will also rebound more quickly. Cities may never return to the way they were before coronavirus. But that might not be such a bad thing.
Richard Florida is university professor at University of Toronto’s School of Cities and Rotman School of Management, distinguished fellow at NYU’s Schack Institute of Real Estate , and cofounder and editor-at-large of CityLab. He is the author of The Rise of the Creative Class and most recently of The New Urban Crisis.
Patrick Adler is research associate at University of Toronto’s School of Cities and Rotman School of Management and a PhD candidate at UCLA.
Henrik Hoelzer is researching cities at Cambridge University’s Department of Land Economy and an advisor to urban tech companies.


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Rowing Towards a First-of-its-kind-Adventure
People have sailed across the world, but have you ever considered ROWING across an OCEAN?
For Jordan Hanssen, it's about opening your eyes, and taking in an experience not many have had.
Hanssen is president of the group Oar Northwest, and in December, he and three others will take their souped-up row boat across the ocean on what's being called the "Canadian Wildlife Federation Africa to the Americas Expedition."
For the 50-80 day adventure, Hanssen will be joined by local outdoor enthusiast Pat Fleming, olympic gold medalist Adam Kreek, and filmmaker Markus Pukonen. The guys will travel aboard the "James Robert Hanssen," a boat named after Jordan Hanssen's father.
For more on the journey, watch the video above. You can actually meet the crew and see the boat at this week's Boats Afloat Show on Seattle's Lake Union, and you can learn more about the expedition at www.oarnorthwest.com


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Zacks: Analysts Expect Columbia Sportswear Company (COLM) to Post $1.15 EPS
Equities research analysts predict that Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ:COLM) will announce earnings of $1.15 per share for the current fiscal quarter, Zacks reports. Seven analysts have made estimates for Columbia Sportswear’s earnings. The lowest EPS estimate is $1.10 and the highest is $1.23. Columbia Sportswear posted earnings of $1.18 per share during the same quarter last year, which indicates a negative year over year growth rate of 2.5%. The business is scheduled to announce its next quarterly earnings results after the market closes on Thursday, October 26th.
According to Zacks, analysts expect that Columbia Sportswear will report full-year earnings of $2.78 per share for the current fiscal year, with EPS estimates ranging from $2.68 to $2.84. For the next year, analysts forecast that the company will report earnings of $3.03 per share, with EPS estimates ranging from $2.90 to $3.15. Zacks’ EPS averages are a mean average based on a survey of analysts that that provide coverage for Columbia Sportswear.
Columbia Sportswear (NASDAQ:COLM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 27th. The textile maker reported ($0.17) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.20) by $0.03. The business had revenue of $398.90 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $394.53 million. Columbia Sportswear had a negative net margin of 2.84% and a negative return on equity of 2.97%. The business’s revenue was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.12) EPS.
A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $68.00 price objective on shares of Columbia Sportswear in a report on Sunday. Zacks Investment Research raised Columbia Sportswear from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $60.00 price objective on shares of Columbia Sportswear in a report on Wednesday, October 4th. Pivotal Research assumed coverage on Columbia Sportswear in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a “buy” rating and a $72.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Canaccord Genuity set a $60.00 price objective on Columbia Sportswear and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 25th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Columbia Sportswear currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $63.92.
In other Columbia Sportswear news, Director Edward S. George sold 6,664 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $56.90, for a total value of $379,181.60. Following the sale, the director now owns 8,664 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $492,981.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 58.86% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of COLM. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in Columbia Sportswear in the first quarter valued at $114,000. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in Columbia Sportswear in the first quarter valued at $137,000. Creative Planning grew its holdings in Columbia Sportswear by 2.6% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 2,826 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $164,000 after purchasing an additional 72 shares during the last quarter. Advisor Group Inc. grew its holdings in Columbia Sportswear by 11.2% in the second quarter. Advisor Group Inc. now owns 3,364 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $195,000 after purchasing an additional 339 shares during the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE grew its holdings in Columbia Sportswear by 36.1% in the second quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,564 shares of the textile maker’s stock valued at $207,000 after purchasing an additional 946 shares during the last quarter. 38.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
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Shares of Columbia Sportswear (NASDAQ COLM) traded up 1.69% on Friday, hitting $61.83. The stock had a trading volume of 305,963 shares. The stock has a market cap of $4.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.54 and a beta of 0.82. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $59.88 and a 200 day moving average of $57.68. Columbia Sportswear has a 12 month low of $51.56 and a 12 month high of $63.55.
Columbia Sportswear Company Profile
Columbia Sportswear Company is an apparel and footwear company. The Company designs, sources, markets and distributes outdoor lifestyle apparel, footwear, accessories and equipment under the Columbia, Mountain Hardwear, Sorel, prAna and other brands. Its geographic segments are the United States, Latin America and Asia Pacific (LAAP), Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and Canada.
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The Galaxy Fold is an ambitious new take by Samsung on what smartphones can do and what smartphones can look like today. The Samsung Galaxy Fold was released initially in April 2019 but was soon retracted by Samsung due to some issues regarding the design and durability of the phone. Samsung took the phone to the drawing board again and came up with solutions to some of the problems the phone faced.
Samsung Galaxy Fold is being launched again by Samsung after doing some changes to the design of the phone to make it sturdier and more difficult to peel off the screen protection film which caused problems on the earlier version of the device. The relaunch was announced at IFA 2019 where the new phone was up for display.
A popular YouTuber named JerryRigEverything, who is famous for his scratch and bend test on phones on YouTube got his hands on the new Samsung Galaxy Fold and did a series of tests on the latest foldable phone from Samsung. The Samsung Galaxy Fold survived the Bend tests as well as the Flame tests; however, it failed in the Scratch tests as well as the Sand tests.
Upon booting up the phone, the phone displays a series of warnings which says to avoid users from pressing hard on the screen, to not allow foreign objects in it, to avoid applying any screen protectors on the screen, as well as keeping the Galaxy Fold away from magnetic objects like credit cards as the Galaxy Fold contains magnets to snap it into its folded position. This means that you cannot keep your Galaxy Fold along with your wallet in your pockets.
In the Scratch tests, the phone performed normally on the external display but performed exceptionally poorly on the inner screen. The warning from Samsung should be taken seriously as even fingernails can do considerable damage to the display. In the dust resistance test, the YouTuber sprinkled some dust on the screen and closed the folded display. When the phone was opened, sand particles were already inside the hinge and made a few scratches on the display.
These tests prove that the Samsung Galaxy Fold, however revolutionary the device may be, is very fragile. It can be damaged even by some residual dust in your pant pockets. Samsung obviously knew about the fragility of its new device and released a video in which they told users to take care of their Samsung Galaxy Fold as “A Smartphone as incredible as this deserves care like no other.”
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Two recent plant enhancements enables Whitehall Specialties to complete a broader range of product orders more quickly. Dave Kelsey, COO, explained the company installed a new, fully automated IWS line with capability to process 2,000 slices per minute, while running 24 hours a day, five days a week. The new line – (Natec) – can handle eight to 48 slice packages in six to 32 pound boxes.
“This is the latest and greatest. It’s the best technology in the world for individually-wrapped slices,” he said. “This is our second line of this kind. It’s exciting because it gives us the ability to produce even more consistent and uniform slices and packages than we could before.”
Kelsey said the new line can slice, wrap, package, palletize and prep orders for shipping automatically.
“All we have to do manually is pick up the pallet with a fork truck and send it on its way.”
He also discussed a $3.5 million plant expansion underway at the Hillsboro facility. This expansion will be dedicated to Whitehall’s new hybrid products line, bridging the gap between analog and standard of identity cheeses that we are trying to replace or duplicate.
“This should provide another tool in our toolbox.”
“We’re investing in our future as a company through lean manufacturing, automation and just keeping up with technology.”
“We’re doing this for the company, but we’re also ensuring that we have the capacity to help customers capitalize on their opportunities, too.”


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Business Owner Explains How FDA Rules Harm Smokers
Ron Marshall knows all too well how hard it is for people to quit smoking using traditional methods. He sees it every day in his business. Marshall owns Freedom Vapes in Montana, a shop that sells e-cigarettes and vaping products to smokers who want to kick the tobacco habit. E-cigarettes don’t contain tobacco, but the liquid that is used in them can contain nicotine. This can help smokers gradually reduce their nicotine intake while providing the physical hand-to-mouth action of smoking – something that nicotine gums and patches can’t do.
Marshall sees people every day who have successfully quit smoking tobacco cigarettes thanks to e-cigarettes, which is why he is concerned about the U.S. government’s attitude towards the products he sells. The Food and Drug Administration has decided that e-cigarettes are tobacco products, despite the fact that neither they nor the liquid used in them contain a trace of tobacco. Some e-liquid doesn’t even contain nicotine, but this hasn’t stopped the FDA from its continuing efforts to treat e-cigarettes as if they are exactly like tobacco cigarettes. If the FDA continues to push its agenda, Marshall says, most if not all e-cigarettes and vaping products could be removed from the market, wiping out an entire industry and leaving smokers with fewer alternatives to improve their health and possibly save their lives.
The FDA is planning new rules that would require that most e-cigarettes be taken off the market for review. The rules would apply to any e-cigarette or vaping products that were manufactured after 2007, which would include most products that are on the market now. Marshall has implored his Montana senators to support the Cole-Bishop Amendment, which would change the FDA’s time frame for and allow current vaping products to be kept on the market. The amendment was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives but still needs to be approved by the Senate.
The United Kingdom recently proclaimed that e-cigarettes are 95 percent safer than tobacco cigarettes, but the U.S. government continues to ignore the science that keeps showing little, if any, harm from e-cigarettes. There are various theories as to the reasons for this. Some say the government may be protecting big pharmaceutical companies who see e-cigarettes as a threat to sales of nicotine gums and patches. Others suspect anti-smoking hysteria naturally crosses over to e-cigarettes because they simply look like regular cigarettes. Another theory, and possibly the most frightening, is that government wants to maintain a certain percentage of cigarette smokers in the country to keep filling its coffers with cigarette tax money.
Ron Marshall notes that as an e-cigarette retailer, he welcomes common sense regulations, but the current proposal by the FDA not only runs counter to their mission to protect the public health by eliminating a safer alternative to smoking, but would also harm small businesses. Small privately owned businesses account for a significant portion of e-cigarette retailers. The vast majority of these businesses will not sell their products to anyone under the age of 18, though there is no current law actually preventing them from doing so. Those in the e-cigarette industry have consistently shown their integrity in making e-cigarettes a product available only to adults as an alternative to smoking. The FDA needs to see the reality of e-cigarettes and the industry and stop treating it like it’s the same thing as smoking, because it is not.


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Meet Enride, the Swedish freight tech company. Founded in 2016, Enride develops commercial mobility solutions using autonomous electric vehicles.
Since then, they have become one of Europe’s largest electric truck fleets, working alongside major companies like Coca-Cola.
Now, they have officially expanded their operations to the United States, complete with new system software and an updated Pod truck designed for American roads.
Check out the replay of today’s launch event below:
Our system is not a compromise, but a better solution. We are going electric not because of the benefit of sustainabilty, but because it’s the most competitive way of doing transport. It’s cheaper, safer, and more efficient.
– Robert Falck, Founder & CEO
The newly designed Enride Pod and Flatbed Pod will be the first autonomous electric trucks on public roads this side of the ocean.
The flatbed can hold standard shipping containers and is capable of transporting them from sea to freight. These EVs could become useful as many US ports remain congested with container ships off the west coast.
However, these EVs won’t be entirely self-driving.
Enride doesn’t believe that machines can do without human oversight. That’s why they have created a new type of job opportunity; remote truck drivers who will operate a driverless EV Pod from a control center.
Enride has already hired their first remote driver, and they plan to hire 2,000 more over the next five years.
See Also: Ten fastest electric cars
Saga, the brain behind Enride
Alongside the US launch, Einride has introduced Saga, the new all-in-one operating system, serving as a holistic network to help operators transition, manage, and streamline their vehicles.
Saga means “she who sees everything,” the Goddess associated with wisdom. To build the transportation system of tomorrow, wisdom and vision are needed.
-Linnéa Kornehed, Co-founder & CMO
Here are some of the critical applications that Saga offers:
- Evolve – A roadmap to cost-effective electrification and automation.
- Book – Order and track shipments.
- Orchestrate – Oversee vehicle routes and their assignments.
- Explore – View data and gain insights.
According to Einride, analyses from Saga estimate that 40% of US road freight transportation could transition to electric today for the same cost as diesel. But, it could even be cheaper as technology continues to improve.
These operations will all stem from Einride’s headquarters in New York, with plans for regional offices in Austin, San Francisco, and the Southeast US.


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Just in time for Independence Day 2019, sports apparel giant Nike released the Air Max 1 USA shoe, featuring a miniature “Betsy Ross” flag on each heel. This, of course, is the flag with the earliest American colonies represented by thirteen white stars in a circle which, legend has it, Mrs. Ross presented to George Washington himself. But when Nike pitchman Colin Kaepernick, former NFL national anthem protester, got wind of the plan, he complained to Nike that the flag recalls a time when blacks were enslaved. Also, according to a person who reportedly was privy to the conversation, Kaepernick informed Nike that the flag has recently been appropriated by American white supremacists.
Instead of telling Kaepernick, “So what?” and going forward with the patriotic product, Nike sparked controversy by recalling the shoe from retailers and issuing a statement in which it claimed the decision was “based on concerns that it could unintentionally offend and detract from the nation’s patriotic holiday” – a pathetic excuse. If anything detracted from the Independence Day holiday, it was the controversy that erupted over Nike’s choice to offend the patriotic majority of Americans by sending the message that the Betsy Ross flag is a shameful symbol of racial oppression.
On MSNBC, race-huckstering Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson chimed in on Nike’s decision, of which he predictably approved. He claimed that the Betsy Ross flag
hails from the revolutionary period of this nation’s founding which was deeply embroiled in, you know, in enslavement... But also, it’s the recent use of this flag that has been the most opprobrious. Right-wing white supremacists have used it as a rallying cry for their own cause... Right now this flag has been used by people who want to pummel African-Americans, Latinos, Jews and other people, neo-Nazis that want to claim that they have the true copyright on American identity. So why not choose a flag that is representative of everybody? The diversity of identities, ideologies, people of color and mainstream people who exist in this country? That’s the kind of blowback against the use of this particular flag.
The notion that white supremacist groups have appropriated the Betsy Ross flag is ludicrous. They aren’t in a position to appropriate anything unless the American people allow it. There is no more marginalized, politically impotent extremist element in America today than actual white supremacists, who have been hyped by the leftist media complex as a rising Hitlerian tide empowered by President Trump’s purported bigotry. (Meanwhile the media downplays or even covers for actual threats such as the violent Antifa network, human traffickers at our collapsing southern border, and Islamic terrorists). Mark Pitcavage, a senior research fellow for the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism, said that the ADL does not even include the flag in its database of hate symbols. “It’s not a thing in the white supremacist movement,” Pitcavage asserted. Lisa Moulder, director of the Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia, said she has never heard of the flag being used as a hate symbol. Even if random bigots have tried to adopt the Betsy Ross flag, we only empower and legitimize them when we declare that we don’t have the cultural power to stop them from making the flag their own.


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Save trees and energy by opting for electronic statements
To save money and environmental resources, more and more banks and credit card companies are urging their customers to opt out of receiving paper statements. Clients can simply head to the Internet to view records online, and, if they choose, print ’em up.
If you’ve hesitated to go paperless, consider this: even big government has seen the error of its ways.
Last month Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law a bill that eliminates an arcane mandate requiring paper-based transactions of the California Department of Insurance. Sponsored by Sen. Abel Maldonado (R-Santa Maria) and the CDI, Senate Bill 1279 allows the department to keep and send many documents in an electronic format.
If companies you do business with offer paperless transactions, give it a go. If the state of California can do it, so can you.


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Home » Posts tagged 'Samsung Galaxy Gear'
Tag Archives: Samsung Galaxy Gear
Perhaps the best indicator that the on-officer camera is an idea whose time has come is that business journals are now producing whole articles about the market gains of the companies that provide them. TASER International, Digital Ally, and GoPro have all seen dramatic gains in their valuations as the police surveillance market quietly begins to pick up momentum. Pending Congressional approval, one key driver of this potential windfall will be a new funding initiative from the Obama administration to provide $263 million to improve community relations with police through cameras.
While the crystal ball deep inside ExtremeTech’s technology bunker wasn’t designed for picking stock winner’s, we can provide some analysis of the products already in use by police forces across the country. Between TASER and another company called VieVu, over 70,000 cameras have already been sold to 5000 police agencies. The new funding would potentially equip an additional 50,000 officers with video capability, as well as training in exactly how this new technology should be used.
Pebble set a Kickstarter record when it launched the original Pebble Smartwatch way back in 2012. That’s like the smartwatch stone age. Now it’s back with a new campaign for the Pebble Time, a smartwatch with a color e-paper screen and a somewhat more refined design than the original watch. If you think the internet might react negatively to a second Kickstarter from this company after the first one netted a whopping $10 million, you’d be wrong. It took only 17 minutes for the campaign to smash the $500,000 goal, and it’s now well into the millions.
The Pebble Time seems to have more in common with the original Pebble than the slightly more premium Pebble Steel. It looks nice, but not something you’d get away with wearing at a formal event. The body is plastic and the bezels are fairly large in relation to the screen. The back is curved to allow for a more ergonomic fit on your wrist. It still has physical buttons on the side for control rather than a touchscreen as most other smartwatches rely on. There’s also a microphone for voice interaction, but it’s not clear how that will tie into your phone yet.
If, like me, you watched Google’s demonstration of Glass and Now, I have a humbling thought for you: You were watching the future of ubiquitous, omniscient, always-on, wearable computing; you were watching the future of Google; you were watching the future of mankind.
If you didn’t watch the Google I/O keynote presented by Vic Gundotra, Hugo Barra, and Sergey Brin, let me quickly bring you up to speed. Google Now is an Android app that uses your location, behavior history, and search history to display “just the right information at just the right time.” For example, if you regularly search for a certain sports team, Now will show you a card with the latest scores for that team. When Now predicts or detects that you’re leaving home in the morning, it will display a card with any relevant traffic information. If you have a lunch meeting in your Google Calendar, Now will show you the route you need to take to get there — and when you need to leave to get there on time. If you search Google for an airline flight, Now will show a card with the flight details (and any delays).
German material scientists from Kiel University and the Hamburg University of Technology have created the world’s lightest material, dubbed aerographite. One cubic centimeter of aerographite weighs just 0.2 milligrams, which is four times lighter than the previous record holder, 5,000 times less dense than water, and six times lighter than air.
Aerographite, as you can see from the picture above, is a mesh of carbon tubes, each around 15nm in diameter, interwoven at the micro- and nano-scale level. It is electrically conductive, ductile, jet black (non-transparent), and can withstand high compression and tensile loads. Aerographite can be compressed to a 30th of its original size, gaining extra strength and conductivity in the process, and spring back without any damage to its structure — or it can carry up to 40,000 times its own weight.
In 10 years, tablets computers will be archaic and obsolete. You will look back at the early 2000s, perhaps with an inquisitive child sitting on your knee, and laugh at how you carried around a cumbersome, neck-straining, gorilla arm-inducing, larger-than-pocket-size computer. “It made sense at the time…”
Desktops and laptops too, having already begun their slide into outmoded antiquity, will soon be nothing more than dusty cupboard-dwelling relics and museum exhibits.
The one form factor that will remain — the last and only bastion of consumer computing — will be the smartphone.
Over the last five years, smartphones have proven that they’re immensely capable. Through the continuing miniaturization of tech and Moore’s law, smartphones are now almost as powerful as a desktop or laptop PC. In a few years, everything you do on your laptop today will be achievable on a smartphone. So why continue to use a laptop?
Researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park have printed transparent transistors on transparent paper. The finished device is flexible, up to 84% transparent, and in theory this could be the first step towards green, paper-based electronics.
As we’ve covered before, printing computer circuits isn’t overly difficult — you just need to find the right conductive and semiconductive inks (which can be tricky), and then print them out on a suitable substrate until you have a transistor. Because these ink-based printed circuits are very thin, though, the smoothness of the substrate is very important. When you’re dealing with layers of ink that are a few nanometers thick, any blemish on the substrate is enough to disrupt the flow of electrons and break the circuit.
In the case of regular old paper, bumps and blemishes are usually measured in micrometers — far too irregular to print circuitry on. Not to be deterred, the researchers at the University of Maryland used nanopaper — paper created from wood pulp that’s been specially treated with enzymes and mechanically beaten. Nanopaper has a much more regular structure than normal paper, and is stronger (and transparent) as a result. More importantly, though, nanopaper is smooth to within just a few nanometers. “It’s as flat as plastic,” says Liangbing Hu, one of the researchers who worked on the project.
So many of the things we do with smartphones burn through the battery at an alarming rate, and taking pictures is one of the most draining. This limits the utility of having a super-high-resolution image sensor attached to your mobile device. Wearable computing and augmented reality will never be as helpful if you need to manually turn on the camera feed, but that might be about to change. A chip startup called Movidius is working on a chip that could allow mobile devices to keep the camera running at all times.
Movidius has been working on computer vision for eight years, but has just received a new round of funding to make the proposed chip a reality. It’s a big task, though. Movidius isn’t simply tweaking current chip designs — this is going to be an entirely new architecture as distinct from current ARM chips as ARM is from x86. The company believes it can build a co-processor capable of delivering several teraflops of computing on only a few hundred milliwatts of power.
A few teraflops is a big number. For instance, the top-of-the-line Nvidia Titan GPU is only capable of about 4.5 teraflops. This could just be a theoretical ceiling for the Movidius architecture, with phones needing much less actual power. A scaled down version of the chip may offer more than enough computational muscle to keep the camera going.


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PUBG update 1.99 for PS4 and Xbox is now available to download. According to the official PUBG 1.98 patch notes, the latest update brings various bug fixes and gameplay changes. Apart from this, PUBG console version 1.99 also includes performance fixes.
PC Update 16.2 is now available for players with the new Survivor Pass, Tactical Gear, Loot increase on Erangel & Miramar, return of Haven and more.
Previously, a big update added a new vehicle (Mountain Bike), weapon balancing, fixes, and more. and much more. Unfortunately, players are experiencing a number of bugs and issues. Today’s PUBG patch 1.99 will fix a few of these issues.
What is new in PUBG 1.99 Patch Notes? – March 14, 2022
- Fixed character movement.
- Optimize some backend systems.
- Addressed networking connection issues.
- Addressed performance and stability fixes.
- Other minor fixes.
Download free PUBG version 1.99 for PS4 and Xbox One.
#PUBG #Update #Patch #Notes #PS4 #Xbox #Official


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Apple HQ Targeted By Large-Scale Hacking
By Fionna Agomuoh | February 20, 2013 8:40 AM EST
Apple was struck Tuesday by a large-scale hack that is being called “highest-profile cyber-attack to date on businesses running Mac computers,” affecting not only Apple headquarters computers, but also several “other companies” that work with Mac devices.
The company told Reuters in a statement that the hack originated when Apple workers attempted to visit a software developer’s website infected with malware.
The malware, designed to specifically target Macs by “exploiting a flaw in a version of Oracle Corp's Java software used as a plug-in on Web browsers” was also used to hack Facebook, the social media company revealed Friday.
"Apple has identified malware which infected a limited number of Mac systems through a vulnerability in the Java plug-in for browsers," the company said.
"The malware was employed in an attack against Apple and other companies, and was spread through a website for software developers."
While Apple has not disclosed exactly how many companies have been affected by the cyber-attack, a person well-versed on the investigation said hundreds of companies have had their computers infected with the malicious software, or malware, according to Reuters.
"This is the first really big attack on Macs. Apple has more on its hands than the attack on itself," the source, who requested to remain anonymous, told Reuters.
Apple hardware has notably evaded the attention of hackers who tend to target PCs that run the Windows operating system; however, the criminal hackers are now taking the time to learn techniques of infiltrating the system.
"The only thing that was making it safe before is that nobody bothered to attack it. That goes away if somebody bothers to attack it," Charlie Milller, Apple security expert and co-author of the “Mac Hacker's Handbook,” told Reuters.
One newly adopted techniques in particular has hackers exploiting a flaw in Adobe Systems Inc's Flash software, Miller detailed.
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More and more people are buying smartphones, but fewer of those folks are choosing Windows Phone as their platform of choice. Gartner today said that smartphone sales surged 42 percent to 115 million units during the third quarter, buoyed largely by booming sales of Android devices.
In fact, Android accounted for 52.5 percent of worldwide smartphone sales during the third quarter. Amazingly, that was up from 25.3 percent during the third quarter of last year.
Nearly all of the other major platforms — including Apple’s iOS, Symbian and RIM — saw declines. Apple, for its part, had a slow quarter in part due to the fact that it’s iPhone 4S was not released until October.
“Android benefited from more mass-market offerings, a weaker competitive environment and the lack of exciting new products on alternative operating systems such as Windows Phone 7 and RIM,” said Roberta Cozza, a principal analyst at Gartner. “Apple’s iOS market share suffered from delayed purchases as consumers waited for the new iPhone. Continued pressure is impacting RIM’s performance, and its smartphone share reached its lowest point so far in the U.S. market, where it dropped to 10 percent.”
Windows Phone also is taking a beating. According to Gartner, worldwide sales of Microsoft’s mobile operating system sunk during the third quarter to 1.5 percent.
Overall, Gartner talled 440.5 million sales of mobile devices during the quarter, which was up 5.6 percent.
Here’s a look at the smartphone market according to Gartner.
Gartner also reported that Samsung was the world’s largest smartphone maker, as sales to end users tripled to 24 million. Meanwhile, Apple shipped 17 million smartphones during the quarter, an annual increase of 21 percent, but down three million units from the previous quarter.
Previously on GeekWire: Chart: Samsung rides Android past Apple, Nokia and RIM


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Painting cabinets, updating window trims or maybe new flooring? The COVID-19-induced shelter-at-home orders and the continuing social distancing has fueled the need for home improvements.
According to a recent poll conducted by Bank of America, people are investing time, money and effort in improving their homes.
The bank asked 1,054 Americans about their attitudes and shopping habits during the pandemic. The results showed that more than 70% decided to tackle home improvement projects, with more planned for 2021.
The trend to do-it-yourself projects resulted in rising stocks of home improvement stores such as Lowe’s, Home Depot Inc. and Tractor Supply.
According to statistics from the Bank of America, between 75% to 80% of Lowe’s customer base are do-it-yourself shoppers. As a result, the brand’s shares skyrocketing 56%.
About 55% of Home Depot’s customer base is with the DIY community, which helped increase shares 34% over the past three months.
Tractor Supply stock has soared 69% over the same timeframe.
While some feel confident of finishing home improvement projects on their own, others prefer to hire a professional. But these days, it can take a while to find a handyman with immediate availability.
“I’m pretty busy,” said Harker Heights resident Ricky Mengel, owner of the independent contracting company Handyman for Veterans.
Mengel’s schedule is already booked until August, but his phone keeps ringing.
“I think it’s because everybody is at the house, looking at the stuff that they have been wanting to do,” he said. “And now they think ‘hey, let’s get it done’.”
Mengel, who is licensed to make outdoor as well as indoor home improvements within Bell County, noticed the uptick in business shortly after the stay-at-home order was lifted.
“I believe the stimulus helped a lot,” he said. “A lot of people have put it off because they work and now they are sitting at home, looking at it. They don’t want to look at it anymore, so they are getting it repaired.”
Although people are slowly reporting back to work, the rising number of infections and the fear of a second wave keeps many on their properties. Restricted travel also keeps people closer to home.


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Web site operators are invited to carry banners linking to disaster relief donation pages.
The Red Cross has issued a call for donations of online ad inventory to support fundraising for its Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.
The humanitarian aid group has created a URL where the operators of blogs and other Web properties can obtain banners they can then place on their sites. The ads come in seven sizes and more than twenty creative executions. As of late morning, however, heavy traffic appeared to have brought down the site.
The Red Cross launched similar online fundraising efforts in the wake of 9/11 and last year's tsunami in Southeast Asia.
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To help brands control how they appear online, Google has developed a new offering: Google My Business Locations. This whitepaper helps marketers understand how to use this powerful new tool.
82 percent of shoppers say they would buy more items from a brand if the emails they sent were more personalized. This white paper offer five tactics that will personalize your email beyond the subject line and drive real business growth.


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Dozens of Tesla owner complaints prompted an investigation into suspension issues for older model Tesla vehicles built in the early half of 2016, the NHTSA announced on Friday.
Regulators are investigating the 2015-2017 Tesla Model S sedan and 2016-2017 Model X SUV for a front suspension link issue that can cause the tire to rub against the wheel arch. Numerous similar complaints prompt a NHTSA investigation into a vehicle, which can then lead to the NHTSA recommending or forcing an automaker to issue a recall.
On Feb. 10, 2017, Tesla issued a technical service bulletin (TSB) informing dealers that the front suspension fore link can fail but the driver can still maintain control of the vehicle. Typically, a TSB addresses a recurring problem noticed in road testing by owners in the first model year of a new vehicle. A TSB isn't deemed a safety risk, and is usually guidance from automakers to dealerships to oil the squeaky wheel of the owner. Some automakers will advise owners to have the issue fixed by dealerships within a certain timeframe.
Tesla owners logged 43 complaints on the left or right front suspension links, with 32 of those complaints citing link failure during low-speed parking maneuvers. The other 11 complaints identified a failure that happened while driving above 10 mph, including four at highway speeds. There may have been more complaints for the issue, but they have not been corroborated by visual proof or repair records.
The NHTSA said "the complaints appear to indicate an increasing trend, with 34 complaints received in the last two years."
The vehicles under investigation total nearly 115,000 Tesla electric cars, according to Autoblog.com.
It could take a while for the NHTSA to make a determination that could lead to a recall; the 2015 Tesla Model S and 2016 Model X are under four pending investigations, including one the NHTSA opened on Oct. 1, 2019 for software updates.
2016 Tesla Model X recalled
In a separate case, the NHTSA last week announced the recall of the 2016 Tesla Model X three-row SUV because cosmetic pieces of the roof may separate while the SUV is in motion. Two pieces of cosmetic trim can come unglued because primer wasn't applied before adhering them to the roof. One is a front applique affixed between the front of the roof and the windshield, and the other is a spine applique located in the middle between the pieces of falcon door roof glass. Though the NHTSA cited no known crashes or injuries, the pieces can fly off the car and create a road hazard for following motorists.
Owners may see the applique coming loose or hear an unusual noise inside the cabin. The recall applies to 9,136 Model Xs, but a software update won't fix this one. Owners will need to visit a dealership, and the necessary fix will be performed free of charge. Owners can visit Tesla's recall page or call Tesla customer service at 1-877-798-3752. Tesla's number for this recall is SB-20-12-005.
The same 2016 Model X is also under investigation for the suspension issue noted above. This is the fifth recall of the Model X, but there could be more due to four open investigations.
2020 Tesla Model Y recalled
In a similar but separate case, the NHTSA announced last week the recall of the 2020 Tesla Model Y for a suspension issue. The compact crossover may have loose bolts connecting the control arm and the steering knuckle on the front axle of models built between Aug. 28 and Nov. 6 2020. Owners may notice excessive vertical tilt or camber of the front wheels, excessive noise from the front suspension, and the steering performance can feel off.
Tesla reported no known crashes or injuries of the 437 units recalled. Owners will be notified by mail and, if the vehicle is in the affected class, it will need to be taken into a dealership for a fix under warranty. Owners can visit Tesla's recall page or call Tesla customer service at 1-877-798-3752


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Sports Division float threatened by retail gloom
Tuesday 17 March 1998
Some analysts said it looked increasingly unlikely the fast-growing group would come to the market in April or May as originally planned. This timing had been seen as auspicious with the World Cup coming up in June.
Any postponement would be a significant blow not just for the company but the whole sports goods sector, which has enjoyed a huge boom on the back of the rising popularity of brands like Adidas, Reebok and Nike.
But it is thought that sales have been slower since Christmas and the whole retail sector has been suffering from the impact of higher interest rates. Sports Division's shops have been holding big clearance sales, indicating that they have been struggling to shift unsold stock.
John Richards, at the company's broker NatWest Securities, said the timing of the float had never been stated, but said: "We will go when the market conditions are right. The timetable is not set in stone."
The company would not comment on the possibility of its float being pulled. However, a spokesman added: "Sports Division does not have an absolute requirement to float because the company can comfortably fund its aggressive expansion programme through cashflow. It can pick its moment as to when it floats."
Nick Bubb, retail analyst at SG Securities said: "If demand is slackening which may be due to changing fashion trends or the wider economic backdrop, and the supply is increasing because of the aggressive expansion plans of these companies, then that is bound to affect profitability.
"These companies sell the same stuff at the same prices and there is not a lot to distinguish one from other. The market has been uneasy for some time about the amount of new space they are adding and demand has cooled since Christmas. That is not a happy background for a big float like Sports Division."
Sports Division has more than 250 stores and was transformed by the purchase of the Olympus Sports shops from Sears in 1995. Philip Green, the former Amber Day chairman, brokered that deal and now has a 13 per cent stake in Sports Division as a result.
It is understood that when the company floats Mr Green has given an undertaking to sell his entire holding. It is possible that if the company decides to delay its float, Mr Green's stake may be acquired by the company or by institutions
Sports Division, led by the chief executive Tom Hunter, has been battling with rival sports retailers such as JJB Sports, John David Sports, All Sport and First Sport, which is part of Blacks Leisure.
It is expected to record sales of pounds 310m this year. Its financial adviser is SBC Warburg Dillon Read with NatWest Securities acting as stockbroker.
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Listen to this story
The challenge may seem overwhelming: Roughly 8 million tons of plastic waste enters the oceans each year, and there will be more plastic than fish by 2050 if we do nothing. But a battle is brewing against ocean plastics, and one tech giant is urging other corporations to join the fight.
Dell has taken the first step in commercially scaling an ocean plastics recycling program. This summer, the Round Rock, Texas–based technology company began shipping its new XPS 13 laptop in packaging trays made from 25 percent marine plastic, or, more accurately, plastic that was collected from waterways in Haiti before it reached the open sea. (The other 75 percent is recycled plastic of the high-density polyurethane sort.)
In all, the new program — for which Dell teamed up with actor and environmental activist Adrian Grenier and his Lonely Whale Foundation — will capture 16,000 pounds of plastic this year. The company says the program is cost effective and now hopes to increase that amount to 20,000 pounds next year. In addition, Dell plans to continue exploring other ways these materials can be used for packaging and possibly products.
This is all good news, though still a proverbial drop in the plastic bucket — hence, the call to action.
“We don’t think we can do it alone. Other like-minded companies need to participate so we can set standards on how you collect the material, what you consider ocean plastic, and how you use it,” says David Lear, executive director of corporate sustainability at Dell.
Dell and the Lonely Whale Foundation are planning to convene a cross-industry working group in the coming months. Lear says, “We’re trying to get as many people involved as we can. We’ve invited our competitors to the table. This is a problem that industry as a whole, not just our industry, can help solve by creating demand. If that happens, we think we can really make a dent.”
Dell decided to focus on intercepting things like single-use plastic bottles, cups, and straws before they drift into the open sea, because they’re easier to recover that way. Some scientists agree that it makes the most sense to address the problem at the source, before the material begins to break down into smaller pieces and gets ingested by birds, fish, and other marine life.
The company sees the potential to create jobs in local communities, in places like Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where it began the program because its research showed that a large amount of ocean plastics come from there. Other potential locations include India, Vietnam, China, Indonesia, and the Philippines, which according to a white paper discussing Dell’s approach, have and will continue to produce the greatest amount of plastic waste destined to end up in the ocean.
These countries are definitely a good place to start. A study published in 2015 by the Ocean Conservancy and the McKinsey Center for Business and Environment found that as much as 60 percent of marine plastics comes from just five countries: China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. And it’s projected that by 2025, plastic consumption in Asia will increase by a mind-blowing 80 percent to surpass 200 million tons.
The study suggests that all this growth in plastic pollution in Asia is resulting from the rapid economic growth, reduced poverty, and improved quality of life that these emerging countries are experiencing. That’s positive, for sure, but as these economies grow, so does consumer use of plastic and plastic-intensive goods. And these countries do not yet have waste-management infrastructures that can tackle the accompanying excess waste.
“Specifically, interventions in these five countries could reduce global plastic-waste leakage by approximately 45 percent over the next ten years,” the study says, pointing out that we shouldn’t stop there. “Of course, extending these interventions to other countries could have even more impact on this global issue.”
According to the report’s authors, some of the best ways to deal with plastic waste in the highlighted countries include collection services, closing leakage points in collection facilities, gasification (converting waste into fuel), and recycling.
It should be said that the real source is usage: the ridiculous amount of single-use plastics human beings purchase and toss into the trash. Environmentalists argue that the main focus should be on avoiding the use of plastic in the first place, at least as much as possible.
Still, as Boyan Slat, the Dutch wunderkind entrepreneur who plans to clean up the “great Pacific garbage patch,” points out, we shouldn’t view this as an either-or proposition. When dealing with a crisis of this scale, everything that works and doesn’t do more harm than good should be on the table.
“We are about to give people hope, and I think hope makes people want to do something,” Slat recently told the Verge. “If you really think that the ocean will be polluted forever, there’s no way to make it go back to zero again, why bother?”
Slat’s startup, the Ocean Cleanup, is slated to begin its efforts in 2018.
Not Its First Recycling Rodeo
While the marine plastics initiative is the latest of Dell’s efforts to tackle waste, it’s certainly not its first. The company’s packaging innovation has also led it to use various sustainable products, including wheat straw, bamboo, and mushrooms. The goal, set in 2013 as part of the “Dell 2020 Legacy of Good Plan,” is to ensure that 100 percent of Dell packaging is either recyclable or compostable when customers are finished with it.
The company has also been a leader in reducing e-waste, going all the way back to 2000. That’s when Dell became one of the first technology companies to develop product take-back programs, giving both commercial and corporate customers the opportunity to return used computers and other electronics. These programs now span 83 countries and territories.
In the United States, Dell has partnered with Goodwill Industries since the program’s beginning, and today there are more than 2,000 locations where the nonprofit takes in used Dell products and refurbishes them when possible. Everything else gets sent to one of the company’s recycling partners, which Dell strictly audits. For example, these partners cannot ship materials overseas, where they often end up in toxic e-waste dumps.
In 2013, Dell set the ambitious aim of collecting 2 billion pounds of electronics by 2020. But rather than simply making sure its old computers were reused or somehow recycled, the company became the first in the industry to develop a “closed loop” recycling plan, meaning it would reuse some materials in its own products.
To that end, Dell set another 2020 goal that 50 million pounds of the materials it collects — we’re talking about the plastics and carbon fibers used to make the body of a laptop or monitor — would live a second life as part of a Dell product. Then, just two months ago, the company raised that goal from 50 million to 100 million pounds.
“We focus a lot on the product itself. That’s our big footprint,” says Lear.
Dell is also focused on helping others reduce their environmental impact—specifically, the role technology will play in solving the enormous social and environmental problems we face. Dell believes information technology will be key to addressing poverty, health care needs, dwindling food and water supplies, and climate change.
Dubbed Net Positive, the company’s capstone goal is that by 2020, the good that will come from technology will be 10 times what it takes to create and use it.
Looks like we’ll be checking back in 2020.


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Zelda: Breath of the Wild guide – dungeon walkthrough, master sword, upgrades, memories and more
Mass Effect Andromeda guide, tips and walkthrough – absolutely everything you need to know
Level-5 has just revealed a brand new Professor Layton game that will be hitting the iOS operating system. However, the professor himself will be absent.
Mystery Room headlines
Mystery Room latest
New Professor Layton title coming to iOS


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While some reports suggest small businesses won’t be slashing through IT budgets in 2009, is the average midmarket company willing to invest in virtualization technology? DataCore, among other vendors, says yes.
Virtualization has been widely touted as a major cost-saving technology that reduces infrastructure costs and streamlines IT management. But in this economic climate, are small and midsize businesses willing to spend their IT budgets on emerging technology? Some vendors are betting on it.
Software company DataCore is the latest vendor to offer virtualization products aimed at the small-business market. The company announced a new line of software packages, with entry prices starting at under £1400 per server, that includes thin provisioning, data migration technology, storage performance caching software, snapshots for fast disk backups, remote site disaster recovery replication and the company’s HA (High Availability) data protection.
DataCore President and CEO George Teixeira said the software is a “renewable resource” within SMBs that will provide years of return on investment, “Unlike throwaway hardware-based solutions, it can be expanded and upgraded to meet growth needs and stay on top of the rapid pace of changes in IT,” he said.
However, a recent report from research firm IDC suggests small-business owners will likely spend IT budgets on more bread-and-butter issues such as security and storage rather than on emerging technologies. The reasoning rests on the shaky global economic situation. But IDC did say a heavy marketing push by vendors should heighten interest in virtualization among SMBs in the next 12 to 24 months.
“Despite the global slowdown, SMBs across all regions need to look ahead to when the global economy rebounds,” wrote IDC’s research manager for Global SMB Research, John Roberts. “Most still have a near-term focus, with only modest interest in technology areas that have been getting a lot of attention elsewhere.”
Despite the report, other software companies are also looking to court SMBs with virtualization offerings. In October, virtualization software company VMware announced it would release three software packages by the end of 2008 to help SMBs take on virtualization projects. VMware’s least expensive kit, called Infrastructure 3 Foundation, is priced at approx. £2000 for three two-processor licenses. VMware says between 60 to 70 percent of its customers are SMBs.
In February, chip maker IBM entered the SMB virtualization market with the release of PowerVM Express, which can create up to 160 virtual partitions on a single IBM Blade or System p server. IBM said it is aiming to simplify the adoption of virtualization technologies for midmarket companies. Whether or not SMBs are going to make investments in virtualization technology a priority in 2009 remains to be seen.


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Reliance Securities Limited, one of India’s leading equity brokerage houses, is looking for more franchise centres. The company presently has 89 franchisees in Delhi-NCR.
Reliance Securities Limited, one of India’s leading equity brokerage houses, is looking for more franchise centres. The company presently has 89 franchisees in Delhi-NCR only. It has over seven lakh customers and a pan-India presence at more than 1,700 locations.
The company offers many services including stock broking, mutual fund, life insurance, corporate FDIs and all sort of general insurances. The brand offers its franchisees exclusive feature of trade booster which not all companies have. As per Company’s Official Spokesperson: “We have 89 franchisees in Delhi NCR only and we are looking for more franchisees. We have a vast pan-India presence. We provide all support and assistance to our franchisees so that we can together provide best services to the consumers.”
The company works towards bringing unique and rewarding opportunities for promising entrepreneurs. Its EDGE+ initiative helps like-minded entrepreneurs to understand the opportunity framework with-in the financial services and empowers franchisees to take informed business buying decision. The brand offers attractive product bouquet, cutting edge trading platform and proven track record of research.


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December 8, 2018, 12:05 p.m. by Josh Lew
Durian is known for its strong odor. Despite being banned in some hotels and subways, lovers of this unusual fruit go to great lengths for a taste.
One of the world's largest tombs is a keyhole-shaped forest
November 23, 2018, 9:52 a.m. by Michael d'Estries
The mysterious Daisen Kofun mound in Japan is thought to hold the remains of a 5th century emperor.
Christmas comes early with this a cappella version of 'Little Drummer Boy'
November 20, 2018, 4:59 p.m. by Laura Moss
You're not officially supposed to listen to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving, but this cover is worth breaking the rules for.
Will smoked 'watermelon ham' grace your Thanksgiving table?
November 19, 2018, 3:36 p.m. by Michael d'Estries
The most bizarre viral dish of 2018 sets its sights on the holidays.
3,700-year-old remains of Egyptian woman reveal she was very pregnant when she died
November 15, 2018, 7:45 a.m. by Christian Cotroneo
'There's something very poignant and quite sweet about it, but also very sad.'
Gen Z is skipping college in droves — and that's not a bad thing
November 12, 2018, 10:12 a.m. by Starre Vartan
We've all heard that college isn't for everyone, and the youngest generation is taking the idea seriously.
At 597 feet, new Statue of Unity in India is a record-breaking colossus
November 12, 2018, 8:24 a.m. by Matt Hickman
Twice the height of the Statue of Liberty, India's newly unveiled Statue of Unity also has nightly laser light shows.
World leaders to commemorate 100th anniversary of the end of WWI
November 10, 2018, 9:10 a.m. by Noel Kirkpatrick
Some European leaders, notably French president Emmanuel Macron, started remembrances early.
Girl Scouts file lawsuit against Boy Scouts over name change
November 8, 2018, 10:16 a.m. by Jenn Savedge
The Girl Scouts claim trademark infringement after boy scouts drop the word 'boy.'
17 memorable quotes from 'Elf'
Meet the durian, a tropical fruit you love or hate
6 things you probably didn't know about 'It's a Wonderful Life'
Why your brain can read jumbled letters
The physical feat behind Michael Jackson's anti-gravity illusion
7 Christmas movies you've never heard of (that are actually quite good)


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Last week I covered the next@acer 2018 global press conference in New York. There was a lot of hardware launched that day - and I concentrated on the gaming desktops, gaming laptops, and accessories. However there were several interesting mainstream laptops released too.
One of the most important products for Acer last week was Predator Helios 500 gaming laptop. It got its own press release and I shared the product video in my coverage. At the time we heard that Acer would allow buyers to specify up to an overclockable 8th Gen Intel Core i9 processor and overclockable GeForce GTX 1070 graphics with Intel Optane memory options, as well as other high spec choices such as ultra-fast NVMePCIe SSDs, Killer DoubleShot Pro networking, and up to 64GB of memory.
Acer built the Predator Helios 500 around a 17.3-inch screen with choice of either 4K UHD, or FHD IPS displays with 144Hz refresh rate. Furthermore, we heard that Nvidia G-Sync would work on both the internal and connected displays. Complementing this portable visual powerhouse are two speakers, a subwoofer, and Acer TrueHarmony and Waves MaxxAudio technology.
AMD choice updates
Sometime this weekend Acer updated its Predator Helios 500 laptop product pages with various powerful AMD options. If you head on over to the official product page now you will see that Acer is boasting of the 'Furious Power' on offer and of its AMD choices. Now there isn't just a choice of up to 8th Gen Intel Core i9-8950HK processor with six cores and 12 threads, you can instead choose an AMD Ryzen 7 2700 processor - with eight cores and 16 threads.
For graphics processing, again there is an AMD alternative. Buyers can now specify an AMD Radeon RX Vega56 GPU to push their pixels. And if you are going for the AMD GPU option it is only natural to want to equip an AMD FreeSync friendly display panel - another new option here.
At the time of writing Acer doesn't provide a proper tech specs list for the AMD options, nor any example configurations but surely they will be published in due course. Intel/Nvidia versions of this hefty gaming laptop start at around US$2000 but we don't have such details, or availability information, for the new AMD flavour model(s).


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It seems that many in manufacturing operations and IT are being tasked with quelling security fears instead of being given the opportunity to address these concerns, and leverage the advantages of greater enterprise-wide connectivity.
Taking advantage of government programs that aid in cost reduction and competitiveness within...
3D printer maker Voxeljet said it would use IPO proceeds to expand its business in the U.S., but...
By retrofitting your warehouse with the right automation technology, you can easily leverage...
The U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced it is launching a national dialogue with stakeholders on ways to prevent work-related illness caused by exposure to hazardous substances.
The advent of intelligent sensors and wireless technologies has paved the way for the Internet of Things (IoT) to gain wide recognition.
New research reveals that manufacturers are struggling to deal with increasingly complex IT estates, as 83 percent of firms report a rise in IT complexity driven by more users, increased locations, new applications and adoption of cloud computing.
A new global study, “Industrial Internet Insights for 2015,” from GE and Accenture reveals there is a growing urgency for organizations to embrace big data analytics to advance their Industrial Internet strategy.
Pioneering companies proactively embrace change — not on a reactionary basis or simply as inevitability, but as an opportunity to challenge the status quo and achieve greater success.
While moving manufacturing operations management to the Cloud may be the ultimate objective, manufacturers today face daunting challenges in their current operations, as well as obstacles in making the leap to the Cloud.
Police say five people were killed early Monday in an explosion at an illegal fireworks factory in southern China.
Consumer mobile devices are proliferating in the commercial sector. But in the industrial sector, their use has been limited to remote diagnostics and maintenance visualization in SCADA solutions — so far.
Here are seven use cases that illustrate how big data and Hadoop are being used to improve quality, optimize operations and reduce costs.
Mercedes-Benz U.S. International employees and the UAW announced the formation of UAW Local 112, a new local union providing representation for workers at the MBUSI assembly plant in Vance, Ala., near Tuscaloosa.
Smart devices create smart production lines, enabling a significant level of manufacturing agility that makes it possible to connect customer needs with a company’s ability to deliver a product — on demand.
The best safety device is the one that offers maximum safety with minimum impact on machine operations at the lowest possible cost. This article provides recommendations that will help in selecting appropriate safety device technologies.
As industrial robots become smarter, faster, more affordable, and develop advanced capabilities such as sensing, dexterity, memory and trainability, industrial manufacturers across industries are looking to advanced robotics to gain a competitive business advantage.
Real-time data is critical, and it positions the IoT as a significant enabler of gleaning vivid insight into real-time production performance and some really interesting new revenue opportunities.
Many industrial operations struggle to find the right approach to protect their assets. Instead of designing protections into their systems, some manufacturers wrongly rely on their system’s complexity to keep assets hidden.
Ford Motor Company is investing in the future as it begins installing LED lighting at manufacturing facilities across the globe. The new lights, valued at more than $25 million, will save energy and money while improving safety and lighting quality.
From automation changes in the body shop to improvements to the color booths in the paint shop, modifications were made across the plant. But the most extensive transformation came on the assembly line.
When it comes to working in the warehouse there are countless distractions.While not all distractions can be eliminated in a warehouse, they can surely be reduced to improve safety and efficiency. Here are 10 distractions to consider and address.
According to the Electrical Safety Foundation, accidents attributed to electrical hazards injure an average of 4,000 workers and claim 300 lives every year.
As part of ongoing efforts to lower its carbon footprint across all phases of its business, HP has announced a goal to reduce the emissions intensity of its product portfolio by 40 percent by 2020 compared to 2010 levels.
Your supply chain is the biggest source of risk in your entire operation. Unfortunately, there are many day-to-day aspects that you’ll never be able to completely control or manage.
Starting on Jan. 1, 2015, all employers under federal OSHA jurisdiction will be required to report not only all work-related fatalities within eight hours, but also in-patient hospitalizations, amputations and loss of an eye within 24.
Three quarters of decision-makers at U.S. companies have invested in energy efficiency programs in the past 12 months, and more than half (56 percent) project their investment in energy efficiency next year will be more than last year, according to survey results.
The flashlight company, started 50 years ago in South Carolina, refuses to go overseas.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has announced the preliminary Top 10 most frequently cited workplace safety violations for fiscal year 2014.
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Apple is making it much easier for iPhone X users to close apps in iOS 12.
When the iPhone X launched, closing apps was a little different than on other iPhones. Users had to swipe up into the multi-tasking view and long-press on a card. Then they could either tap the small red circle to close the app or swipe up on the app card to close it.
iPhones sporting a home button are simpler — users can swipe up on a card to close it without having to press and hold. Now iPhone X users won’t have to press and hold either.
OH MY GAWWWD.
In iOS 12 you can finally close apps without a very unnecessary press and hold action. Just swipe up on them. Should have been there all along. pic.twitter.com/jKjre5xSBy
— Dom Esposito (@macmixing) June 4, 2018
Android P works similarly with its new gesture-based multi-tasking display. Users can swipe up on cards to close them. Even on older versions of Android, users could swipe cards away to close apps — a horizontal swipe instead of a vertical swipe like in iOS and Android P.
Closing apps on smartphones — whether Android or iOS — doesn’t actually do much. A couple years ago, Google’s vice president of engineering for Android, Hiroshi Lockheimer, tweeted that closing apps is worse if you’re closing apps the system wants open.
The above Twitter thread discussed the effect closing apps has on battery life. The conclusion is to let the system do its thing. Android and iOS are designed to manage running apps for you. If you close an app the system wants or needs open, it’s just going to open it up again — a process that takes more power than just letting the app stay open.
Regardless, the consistency across iOS devices is welcome.
Source: 9to5 Mac


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What you need to know
- Twitter has updated its Mac app.
- There's a brand new feature called 'Pin to top'.
- It means that you don't need to refresh your timeline to see new tweets!
Twitter's Mac app has been updated to include a new 'Pin to top' toggle that allows you to see a live stream of tweets without refreshing.
Twitter support announced the change overnight:
What’s that new button in your timeline settings ✨ on Twitter for Mac? It’s a “Pin to top” toggle!
Turning it on will keep you at the top of your timeline and let the latest Tweets stream in –– no need to manually refresh your timeline.What’s that new button in your timeline settings ✨ on Twitter for Mac? It’s a “Pin to top” toggle!
Turning it on will keep you at the top of your timeline and let the latest Tweets stream in –– no need to manually refresh your timeline.— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) April 20, 2020April 20, 2020
Version 8.17 of the app was released April 20 and the full release notes state:
We made a number of improvements to Twitter. A few highlights specific to Twitter for Mac:
- Now you can pin your Latest Tweets to the top of your timeline. That way, when new Tweets happen, you'll immediately see them when you're at the top of the timeline. Just turn on the toggle in your timeline settings.
- Fixed: While using input method, the marked text has missing underline.
- Fixed: Permission dialog for Photos no longer presented when opening Composer window.
9to5Mac notes that the feature is working well in initial testing:
Master your iPhone in minutes
iMore offers spot-on advice and guidance from our team of experts, with decades of Apple device experience to lean on. Learn more with iMore!
Stephen Warwick has written about Apple for five years at iMore and previously elsewhere. He covers all of iMore's latest breaking news regarding all of Apple's products and services, both hardware and software. Stephen has interviewed industry experts in a range of fields including finance, litigation, security, and more. He also specializes in curating and reviewing audio hardware and has experience beyond journalism in sound engineering, production, and design.
Before becoming a writer Stephen studied Ancient History at University and also worked at Apple for more than two years. Stephen is also a host on the iMore show, a weekly podcast recorded live that discusses the latest in breaking Apple news, as well as featuring fun trivia about all things Apple. Follow him on Twitter @stephenwarwick9


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A prominent industry analyst has cut his price target and profit estimates for Research In Motion Ltd. ahead of the company's fourth-quarter earnings release because of what he says is "a greater than 50 per cent chance" that the smartphone giant will negatively pre-announce the quarter and is now selling far fewer BlackBerrys than expected.
Perhaps more importantly, Jeffries analyst Peter Misek hints that the Waterloo, Ont.,-based company's international growth, which has fueled RIM's rise and carried the company through its recent struggles, may be at risk.
RIM doesn't report its fourth quarter earnings until March 29, but Mr. Misek has lowered his estimates well below the Street's consensus based on checks and surveys that indicate RIM won't live up to its previous guidance. He now says he expects RIM to sell only 10.5-million units and pull in $4.2-billion in revenue, compared to RIM's guidance of nearly 12-million units and between $4.6-billion and $4.9-billion in revenue. Mr. Misek's target price is now just $12, a far cry from the stock's 52-week high above $65.
"We believe higher-end handsets are doing poorly outside of Enterprise sales with continued iPhone 4S and Android momentum (especially Samsung) causing issues," Mr. Misek wrote in a note to clients.
As RIM's growth in the United States has stalled and its share of the smartphone market has shrunk to previously unknown levels, RIM has relied on overseas sales in markets where many people are buying their first smartphones and the BlackBerry brand is still strong. But Mr. Misek sees continuing pressure in developed markets for RIM's high-end devices, even as sales begin to deteriorate in the fast-paced emerging markets that have carried RIM through the last year of turmoil -- including missed guidance, botched product launches, and public relations disasters.
"We believe RIM's low-end handset sales trends have continued to deteriorate in North America, Latin America and Europe," he wrote. "In particular, sales in Europe decreased significantly towards the end of the quarter. We believe this is very negative as sales outside of the U.S. had typically been more resilient. Our checks indicate that sales in Asia seem to be okay."
If Mr. Misek's checks are correct, it could be disaster for the company: RIM's long-time co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie stepped down in January and helped promote the company's chief operating officer into the leadership role -- Thorsten Heins, who some credit with orchestrating much of RIM's successful overseas push.
But some analysts have pointed out that much of RIM's dominance in markets such as Argentina, Asia and African countries came at a time when there was little serious smartphone competition: Nokia, which has only recently put out devices running Microsoft's Windows Phone platform, had huge share but devices that were not compelling; Android was nowhere to be seen; and Apple was concentrating on more developed markets such as the U.S. and U.K.
When RIM reports later this month, few expect that the company's newest BlackBerrys -- those running the BlackBerry 7 operating system, such as the touch screen Bold 9900 -- will have fueled the U.S. comeback that Mr. Lazaridis mentioned back in an earnings conference call in December. More importantly, many will focus on the growth metrics in emerging market to see whether the overseas growth that was mitigating RIM's slow sales in the U.S. is still a significant factor.


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The big drug companies came down with a bad case of anemic stock prices at the beginning of last year, back when the health-care-reform movement was fit and robust. Now, after a hefty dose of big-bucks lobbying, some people are predicting government will forget about imposing price controls, and this could give pharmaceuticals a real shot in the arm.
"I'm more optimistic about not getting price controls than I have been for some time," says Dr. Charles Sanders, chairman of Glaxo Inc., the Research Triangle Park-based subsidiary of London's Glaxo Holdings PLC (GLX-NYSE-traded American Depositary Receipts). So is it time to start buying drug stocks again?
Not just yet, analysts say. Although the patient is recovering, the prognosis is still pretty grim. For one thing, the days of 70% gross-profit margins could be gone forever. Health-maintenance organizations have been cutting deals, and that cuts into profits. "The HMOs and PPOs have tremendous clout because of the volumes they deal in," says Winston Way of Buckhorn Capital Management in Charlotte. "They can get these drug companies to cut their margins to the bone."
In response, huge companies such as New York City-based American Home Products Corp. and New Jersey-based American Cyanamid Co. have been merging, hoping fatter sales will compensate for thinner profits. Rumor has it Glaxo is shopping for Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co.
The extra competition for cut-price sales comes on top of Medicare drug rebates and patent expirations. All of which could mean lower earnings for Glaxo and its British neighbor, Wellcome PLC (WEL-NYSE-traded ADRs), whose U.S. operation, Burroughs Wellcome, is also headquartered in RTP. Glaxo is extremely vulnerable to price pressures, analysts say, because nearly half its sales come from one product, the ulcer medicine Zantac. Way calls Glaxo "pretty much a one-horse company." Zantac, which brought in 43% of the company's $8.5 billion in sales last year, is threatened by discount generic versions of SmithKline Beecham PLC's Tagamet, which went off patent earlier this year.
This worries John Harloe, a health-care industry analyst with Sterling Capital Management in Charlotte. Rival pharmaceutical companies are gobbling up pharmaceutical benefits managers -- the middlemen who sell drugs to large employers at a discount. New Jersey-based Merck & Co.'s acquisition of Medco Containment Services, based in Montvale, N.J., is one example. "Merck, SmithKline and Eli...