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Radical strategy for post-lockdown real estate
A radical new post-lockdown real estate strategy is cleverly bringing buyers and sellers together.
The Australian property industry was one of the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic that effectively brought some sectors of the market to a standstill due to health restrictions.
Despite this, prices in many parts of the country have remained remarkably resilient, due largely to low interest rates, consumer confidence in the housing sector, government incentives and stimulus and a lack of stock.
It has created never before witnessed market conditions that have both buyers and sellers optimistic about their chances but uncertain about values. In turn it has brought the traditionally wildly varied December and January market conditions together with the 'list now, launch later strategy' taking a foothold.
"Barring economic factors, the best time to buy is always December and the best time to sell is January," real estate industry expert and Sky News commentator Tom Panos explained.
"In December, there is leftover stock, as buyers take a break to focus on Christmas. A dilemma for vendors right now is whether to list on the market before Christmas or after. But this December will run longer than others due to COVID.
"A great strategy available is called 'list now, launch later'.
"An agent lists your property without launching a full marketing campaign, allowing a vendor to catch buyers looking over the festive season, who may pay a premium price as not much else is around.
"It's always better to sell in isolation than in competition. People won't be travelling overseas for holidays this year and realestate.com.au says December and January is always a strong period for consumers on their portal."
The strategy allows both vendors and buyers to dip their toe in the market and get a solid idea of the current market value of properties. This soft approach also enables both sides of the transaction more flexibility, safety and discretion in looking at, or opening homes in a world still battling with COVID-19.
"If the property is not sold, the vendor already has photography, styling and advertising done for the new year with many agents readying to launch in early January," Mr Panos said.
Seller's agent Nick Muzha has nine vendors on his books embracing the 'list now, launch later' strategy.
Mr Muzha, of Little Real Estate in St Leonards, said the unique strategy allows both buyers and sellers to better understand a complicated market.
"It provides a lot of options," he said.
"It gives an opportunity for both owners and buyers to save time and money to achieve a sale at a premium price. It gives clarity to buyers as to what properties might come up and for owners it allows them to get a good idea of the market value of their home.
"At the end of the day we're here to help both buyers and sellers achieve their dreams over this period."
Daniel Lourenco, his wife Anita, son Cristiano, 2, and newborn daughter Valentina are looking to upsize the family home to meet the needs of their growing family and the list now. launch later strategy has allowed to look at homes such as 8 Hawking St, Artarmon, that is for sale through Mr Muzha.
"We really appreciate the flexibility and transparency this gives to the process. Mr Lourenco said.
"With a baby only a few weeks old we are still getting to understand what we want and having the homes shown at different times of the day fits in with our new schedule and can help to avoid some of the frenetic activity that can occasionally happen at open homes.
"It's great that agents like Nick are offering this flexibility to buyers and I think it is also an attractivefor the sellers too."
Originally published as Radical strategy for post-lockdown real estate


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March 28, 2005 12:24 PM US Eastern Timezone
More Consumers Plugging Into Solar Power; Easy Financing Makes PV Technology Accessible
Residents on Camborne Way in Rocklin, Calif., are stopping by the Parker house regularly these days to watch the electric meter spin backward. Parker and his wife, Kimberly, recently installed a photovoltaic power system on their 3,700-square-foot house and are now enjoying electricity bills that often read "zero" in the "amount due" column.
"The people who installed the system told me the meter would run backward on sunny days and it's true," said Parker, a firefighter with the Sacramento Fire Department. "My electric bill used to be around $130 to $150 per month. Over the winter we actually produced more electricity than we used."
A lot of California homeowners may have considered alternative power sources but were discouraged by the cost of installation and the difficulty of obtaining financing. A residential solar electric system can range from $20,000 to $60,000 in unsubsidized costs, depending on the size and type of system. That price would be manageable for many people if financed over time, but until recently, financing for a solar electric power system was not readily available.
"In the 1970s and '80s a lot of solar-thermal power systems were sold by small, fledgling businesses and financed through traditional home improvement loans," explained Dean Marks, president of Premier Power, a company that designs, engineers and installs solar electric systems for homes and businesses. "A lot of those companies quickly went out of business, and some customers were unprepared for the maintenance involved and ultimately defaulted on their loans. As a result, some banks have been very reluctant to finance residential solar power."
The new photovoltaic systems, according to Marks, are extremely reliable. Unlike solar-thermal technology, solar energy systems have few moving parts, require little maintenance and will last for decades. Nevertheless, past experience with residential solar power made banks wary about financing new installations.
All that has changed recently as new lenders have stepped into the solar electric power business. GE Consumer Finance's Retail Sales Finance unit began offering credit to homeowners last year for PV systems. Marks said his company has built or retrofitted almost 500 homes with the technology.
"GE Consumer Finance looked at us very carefully to make sure the product was reliable," said Marks. "We actually sell solar electric power systems that are made by GE Energy. We believe that being able to see how another division of their own company was involved in solar manufacturing helped GE Consumer Finance decide to get involved in financing out customers."
Before financing was available, Marks said the typical customer for solar power was someone with more disposable income. Now that financing is easily available, more average homeowners are plugging into the sun.
Mike Pryde of GE Consumer Finance said the potential market for PV systems is enormous, both in California and across the country.
"Solar electric power makes good economic sense for consumers. We've seen interest growing exponentially across the U.S. over the last few years and expect that to continue," said Pryde. "Financing a solar electric system enables consumers to budget for a fixed, monthly financing payment for a limited period of time. This is offset by their reduced electric bill, which will always be substantially less with the solar system as long as the sun continues to shine."
Federal and state tax credits, along with a rebate from the power company, make PV systems even more affordable.
"Our solar electric system originally cost about $49,000," said Parker. "With the rebates and tax credits, the actual cost to us was $29,000, which we financed. And the financing process was really easy. The financing company (GE) got back to us super quick and there was no hassle."
Making solar electric systems affordable and easy to finance will no doubt lead to many new solar-powered homes in the near future. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently announced his support for a state senate bill to create the "Million Solar Roofs Initiative," a framework to help promote residential and commercial solar energy use. If approved, homeowners who install PV systems would earn an additional 7.5 percent tax credit above and beyond the rebate received from state and federal sources.
The state of California alone is already the third-largest consumer of solar equipment in the world behind Germany and Japan.
Solar Electric technology has been around for years. It has been used to power satellites since 1958. Solar cells are made of a semiconductor material, typically silicon, which is chemically treated to create a positive charge layer and a negative charge layer. When sunlight strikes a solar cell, an electron is dislodged. The loose electrons are gathered by wires attached to the cell, forming an electrical current. The more cells, the greater the current and voltage.
How the technology works is of little interest to most consumers. They simply want to know if they can afford a solar electric system and will it really work. The answers are "yes and yes."
For proof, you can watch the Parkers' meter spin backward.
About Retail Sales Finance and GE Consumer Finance
Retail Sales Finance, based in Kettering, Ohio, is part of GE Consumer Finance and provides private label credit card programs, marketing, installment lending and financial services for national and regional retailers in key industries: outdoor equipment, automotive/recreational vehicles, consumer electronics and appliances, furniture, floor covering, jewelry and health care. With $151 billion in assets, GE Consumer Finance, a unit of General Electric Company, is a leading provider of credit services to consumers, retailers and auto dealers in 41 countries around the world. GE Consumer Finance, based in Stamford, Conn. (USA), offers a range of financial products, including private label credit cards, personal loans, bank cards, auto loans and leases, mortgages, corporate travel and purchasing cards, debt consolidation and home equity loans and credit insurance. More information can be found online at www.geconsumerfinance.com. GE (NYSE: GE) is a diversified technology, media and financial services company dedicated to creating products that make life better. For more information, visit the company's Web site at http://www.ge.com
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The gaming industry has been one of the largest segments of ecommerce traffic since its inception in the late 1990's with no signs of slowing down anytime soon. With 2016 estimates showing about $45 billion in revenue, and 2018 projections placing it at about $56 billion, the gaming merchant account services industry is still a rapidly growing segment of the ecommerce landscape.
Merchants operating in the gambling industry do face some obstacles when it does come to establish high risk credit card processing services for their company. Many countries have taken steps to make gambling online illegal; by eliminating the ability for merchants to accept or send payments, creating a sort of illegal market for the industry to operate within. In such places as the United States, individual States have begun regulating and legalizing online gambling within their borders, but this does not always make it easy for businesses to operate.
There are 2 types of gaming merchant accounts that payment processors can use, coded and non coded accounts. Every merchant is assigned a merchant category code (MCC) depending on the type of business they are operating. Merchants that are operating licensed gaming companies or websites will generally be set up as being a Coded gaming service, using the MCC code of 7995, that is used by providers for games and other such activities.
Merchants that operate using a gaming merchant account put the payment processor and banks at risk for significant fines. Many times, these merchants can be fraudulent or laundering money, more reasons that banks and payment processors not providing thorough background checks or not willing the take the risk avoid gambling altogether.
The online gambling industry is a thriving and continual growth industry that will continue to have banks and other payment organizations looking to increase the number of gaming merchant account clients in their portfolios.
One of the largest ecommerce credit card processing sectors in the world has consistently been the online gaming industry; generating over an estimated $45 billion in revenues in 2016 and increasing to an estimated $56 billion in 2018. As the demand for gambling credit card processing continues to increase, merchants are facing 2 major issues; establishing secure payment processing solutions and fighting fraud.
More and more banks have tightened the restrictions facing the online gambling industry due to the ever changing legal landscape surround the legality of online gambling. Within the United States, online gambling remains illegal except for 3 states that have passed legislation to allow internet gambling; Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey. While more states are considering the idea of legalizing internet gambling, it is still a ways off and even with the passage of laws in some states, banks and other financial institutions are still hesitant to provide gaming credit card processing services.
Banks also have other concerns when it comes to gaming credit card processing accounts, the frequency and persistent problem of fraud. The most common fraud is not from stolen credit card account information; but from the card holders reporting friendly fraud, also known as chargeback fraud. In gaming, this occurs when a customer authorizes a charge, uses the funds for sports betting or in a game and loses the money. Instead of accepting the loses, some players will call their credit card bank and report a theft to recoup the loses instead of paying the charges, resulting in a chargeback and loss of funds for the gambling company.
How Does a Credit Card Transaction Work
For an online gaming credit card processing transaction to occur, the business needs to have a few key components in place. Businesses will need to have a gaming merchant account, a shopping cart built into their website and a payment gateway integrated into the shopping cart.
Once a customer is ready to make a purchase, the website directs the customer to the shopping cart that has a list of the items ready for purchase. From the shopping cart, payment card information is received through a secure connection provided by the high risk payment gateway and sent along to the acquiring bank (merchant's sponsoring bank) for authorization for transfer direct to the corresponding card association, whether its Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Discover.
Once received at the card association, the customer card information is deciphered and transferred to the issuing bank (customers' bank) for authorization of the transaction. Regardless of a positive or negative response, the answer is sent back through the same channels to the merchant website, displaying either an approval or decline nearly instantaneously for the customer.
The demand for gaming credit card processing is only going to increase over time as more and more people start gambling from the comfort and privacy of their own home. As merchants require additional volume and new merchants enter the industry, the need for banks and payment services to handle the increasing demand with continue to grow. Working with a payment processor specializing gaming credit card processing like Island Payments, merchants can be assured their needs will be met with affordable terms and superior service.


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Lawsuit claims Microsoft tracks Windows Phone users
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- Aislyn Greene
- Contributing Writer
Updated with comment from Microsoft.
Users of Microsoft's Windows Phone are tracked by the company, even after they have opted out of location tracking, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Seattle federal court.
The class-action lawsuit (PDF, 17 pages) was filed on behalf of Rebecca Cousineau, who claims that the company gathered information about her location via the phone's camera, even after she opted out of the geo-location service.
The suit comes less than four months after Microsoft told Congress it no longer tracks individual smartphones.
The suit alleges that the "deceptive" tracking is a scheme on the part of Microsoft to build a system that can send targeted ads to consumers' mobile phones based on their location.
"Microsoft is racing to develop a system that facilitates targeted advertisements to consumers based upon their geographic locations. Before Microsoft is able to effectuate such a marketing campaign, however, it must first compile a digital map by collecting geographic information and unique identifiers from cellular towers, wireless network routers, cellular telephones, and computer systems."
"Faced with the expensive and laborious task of collecting this information, Microsoft has elected to gather instead, the necessary geolocation information through its customers’ mobile devices. In this way, Microsoft uses its customers as a virtual army of surveyors who constantly gather and transmit the geolocation information necessary to build its digital map."
The first time Windows Phone owners use the camera, the software prompts them to allow or deny access to their geo-location. Lawyers for Cousineau claim that, even after she denied access to her location, Microsoft continued to record "the approximate latitude and longitude coordinates of the user’s device, a unique identifier for the device, current date and time, and the locations of the closest cellular tower and WiFi network."
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(Pocket-lint) - When Samsung was originally asked to pay Apple $1 billion in damages in the first case ruling, it was much-rumoured that it paid the entire amount in US nickels. This turned out not to be true, sadly. For a start, the final ruling hadn't yet been decided as part of the damages were contested.
It might want to crack out the nickels this time though, as although the contested amount was reduced in the latest case which finished yesterday, it wasn't by much.
Samsung was ordered to pay Apple $290 million in the latest patent dispute case. That brings up the total outstanding balance to $930 million owed to Apple by Samsung. The latest case was based on Samsung infringing several of Apple’s tablet and smartphone patents.
We usually don’t cover this news as it’s petty, slows technology progression and makes us feel a little ill.
"For Apple, this case has always been about more than patents and money," Apple said in a statement. "It has been about innovation and the hard work that goes into inventing products that people love. While it's impossible to put a price tag on those values, we are grateful to the jury for showing Samsung that copying has a cost."
Why innovation can’t be shared to help progress further isn’t mentioned, of course. But sure, it’s not about the money. Where would we be if every musician sued another who riffed off their style?
Samsung presented market research surveys conducted by Apple and third parties that showed myriad of reasons why people bought its phones, including the large screens, longer battery life and close integration with Google. It argued that the presence of the patented Apple technology wouldn't have changed these purchase decisions and so Apple lost no sales. But the jury didn't find enough evidence to support this.
One juror, who is currently using an old Nokia phone, decided to buy a smartphone after sitting through the testimony and trying out the devices that made up part of the evidence in the case.
Did he decide on an Apple or Samsung smartphone? "He said he liked a Sony.”


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Remember how people were disgusted when we suggested putting human breast milk in ice cream? Compare that to the latest news story out of Australia—the one about the family of vacationers who discovered that, no, that wasn’t chocolate ice cream; it was more of a dookie congelée. Now whose ice cream is gross, hmm?
That’s right—a pair of guests at the Coogee Bay Hotel in Sydney were served a nice dish of gelato, complete with its own poop garnish. They believe that they were served the chocolate poo chunk as an act of “kitchen revenge”—the couple had complained about some loud music earlier that evening.
You know what my favorite part of this story is? That “DNA analysis is now being carried out to determine whether the poo was of human or (sic) animal origin.” (“I went and threw up, obviously,” the woman said. No kidding!)
On the other hand, as Alexia over at PETA Europe points out, is this so very much worse than the frozen secretions in milk? I mean, yeah, it is disgusting, but at least it’s not full of pus, right? And hey, both get squeezed out of an animal. … I’m just sayin’.
And wait a minute—it’s not like a lot of people aren’t regularly eating poop anyway. Think about it: Animals on factory farms are stuck in their own waste all day long—is it any surprise that meat is so often contaminated with feces? And people wonder where salmonella comes from ….
Written by Amanda Schinke


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HP wants Chinese to heed rules
- Body of missing motorist found in Pickaway County pond
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US & World
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Hewlett-Packard Co., the world’s largest personal-computer maker, is vowing to crack down on its Chinese suppliers to reduce the use of low-paid student interns and other temporary workers.
The guidelines unveiled last week are the latest attempt by a major U.S. technology company to weed out labor abuses at Chinese factories that manufacture the gadgets for an Internet-connected world.
HP, which is based in Palo Alto, Calif., said its new standards are meant to ensure that its Chinese suppliers don’t lean too heavily on student interns and temporary workers as a way to save money. The company says it wants to protect workers’ rights when they are hired.
The new standards come a few months after Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., a major Chinese manufacturer better known as Foxconn, acknowledged it has hired interns as young as 14.
Both HP and Apple Inc., the maker of iPhones, iPads and Mac computers, rely on Foxconn to make some of their products.
Apple, which is based in Cupertino, Calif., also has been trying to reform the labor practices at Foxconn and other Chinese suppliers in recent years in response to scathing criticism about the inhumane treatment of workers.


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Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ India launch event is set to start, with all eyes on the smartphones’ price in India and release date. The two Samsung smartphones are the first flagships since the fateful Samsung Galaxy Note 7, and will determine how the public perceives the brand after the debacle. The Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ India launch event is being live streamed on the official website.
Samsung Galaxy S8 price in India
Gadgets 360 has exclusively learned that Samsung Galaxy S8 price in India will be Rs. 62,600; this is the MRP (Maximum Retail Price), while the dealer price will be Rs. 56,900. The bigger Galaxy S8+ price in India will be Rs. 69,000 (MRP), and the dealer price is Rs. 63,900. The two smartphones will release in the country on May 5 in dual-SIM variants.
Samsung Galaxy S8 pre-orders
While Galaxy S8 pre-orders in India have not yet started yet, Gadgets 360 has learnt that Samsung will start the pre-bookings for the two smartphones today. The company on April 5 had started a Galaxy S8 pre-registration page, where users could sign up to receive notifications regarding the smartphone ahead of launch. Flipkart earlier this week started teasing the availability of the two Samsung flagships on its platform. Globally, Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ pre-orders have reportedly crossed 1 million units in its home country within 10 days.
Samsung Galaxy S8 India variant
The Galaxy S8 India variant will be powered by the Samsung Exynos 8895 SoC; the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC variants will only be available in select regions including the US. This should not be a deal-breaker for potential buyers in India, as the two SoCs were recently spotted to have comparable performance – in fact, the Samsung Exynos 8895 SoC beat the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC in some benchmarks.
The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are identical smartphones, with the only difference being dimensions, battery capacity, and screen size of what the company calls the Infinity Display – featuring dual-edge curved display, minimal bezels on the top and bottom, and 18.5:9 aspect ratio. The displays are certified by the UHD Alliance as Mobile HDR Premium.
Samsung Galaxy S8 features a 5.8-inch QHD+ (1440×2960 pixels) Super AMOLED display while the Galaxy S8+ sports a 6.2-inch QHD+ (1440×2960 pixels) Super AMOLED display. Both bear Corning Gorilla Glass 5 protection. Both the handsets pack 4GB of RAM and come with 64GB inbuilt storage while also supporting expandable storage via microSD card (up to 256GB).
When it comes to the camera, Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ smartphones sport 12-megapixel ‘Dual Pixel’ rear cameras with optical image stabilisation and an f/1.7 aperture, while there are 8-megapixel front cameras with autofocus on board as well, also featuring an f/1.7 aperture.
Connectivity options on the Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ include 4G LTE (Cat. 16), Wi-Fi 802.11ac (2.4GHz, 5GHz), Bluetooth v5.0, USB Type-C, NFC, and GPS. Sensors on board include an accelerometer, ambient light sensor, barometer, gyroscope, heart rate sensor, magnetometer, and proximity sensor. They both support Samsung Pay, with NFC and MST connectivity.
The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ support wireless charging as well as fast charging. The Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ pack 3000mAh and 3500mAh batteries respectively. The Galaxy S8 measures 148.9×68.1x8mm and weighs 155 grams. The Galaxy S8+ measures 159.5×73.4×8.1mm and weighs 173 grams.


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Apple iPhone 12 series may feature faster 120Hz displays
Apple”s upcoming iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max will reportedly feature displays capable of up to 120Hz refresh rates.
Famed tipster Ice Universe, who has previously been proven right on leaks regarding Samsung, Xiaomi as well as Apple claimed that the two of the premium upcoming models may feature a 120Hz refresh rates allowing for a smoother on-screen experience.
Apple already uses variable refresh rate technology in its iPad Pro models, but they still use LCD panels. However, by bringing it to a new breed of OLED iPhones would raise the smartphone performance even higher.


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Expert: Khomich Maria, Director of Commercial Department, Tellus Group
The trend of a shortage of high-quality areas is confirmed in the investment holding "Tellus - Group". They note that most often small and medium-sized companies are looking for a place for production, which need areas from 2 thousand to 5 thousand m2. This year there are also a lot of requests for projects for darkstores with an area of 1.5 thousand to 5 thousand m2 in the city.
Over the years, the international conference "Woman leader", initiated in 2015 by the Vice-President of the Leningrad regional chamber of Commerce and industry Elena Dyukareva, has become an integral part of the program of events within the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. As part of the global initiative to support women's entrepreneurship, career advancement of women and equal opportunities for business development, the idea of holding the Conference was actively supported by the government of the Leningrad region and the Chamber of Commerce and industry of the Russian Federation.
Participants of the "Alley of Business" were greeted by 25 red-leaved maples planted last year, the anniversary for "Delovoy Petersburg".
On December 17, the XVI Winter Assembly of the business community of the Leningrad region was held – a traditional event of the Leningrad regional chamber of Commerce and industry.
E. Smotrova expressed her position about women's leadership and gender equality in the debate between men and women politicians, business owners, top managers, workers in culture.
E. Smotrova, Chairman of the Board, became the St. Petersburg Business Woman prizewinner in the commercial realty category.
Kola Industrial Park was presented on the Leningrad region stand in the exposition zone of the Sochi Forum.
Tellus-Group starts constructing a slip road
It was held a meeting with the Association of Russian and Turkish organizations «Business cooperation» RUTID
For the first time Kola Retail Center was presented within the framework of international retail real estate show MAPIC
Turkish Association of Automotive Parts and Components (TAYSAD, Turkey) is interested in cooperation with the participants of the Leningrad Region automotive cluster.
The visit of "Tellus-Group" LLC in the delegation of the Leningrad region took place in the Republic of Turkey.
An Expert: Elena Smotrova, Chairman of Board of directors Tellus-Group
Industrial park «Kola » as a territory for developing of production import substition
Elena Smotrova received ‘Expert in innovationnal-industrial area’ award in ‘Expert in industrial park development’ nomination.
Tellus-Group held a meeting with Japan Association for Trade with Russia
Kola Industrial Park meets the requirements
Tellus-Group visited the conference of automotive suppliers of Turkey
Kola Industrial Park attracted a lot of attention during the 18-th China International Fair for Trade and Investment.
Tellus-Group became a partner of VII Annual Conference for Property Market Professionals.
Tellus-Group participated in V International Forum of AIOP “Industrial Projects in Russia – 2014”.
Tellus-Group and Renaissance Construction launch multimillion-dollar industrial project.
Tellus-Group became a tenant of Ecopark
In April 2014 Tellus-Group held a meeting with Finpro and Invest in Finland.


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A new 9-story hotel and shopping center complex has opened in Kabul, Afghanistan. The 90-store mall is the first fully air-conditioned building in the nation and features Afghanistan’s first ever escalators.
Security outside is tight. Half a division or so troops are protecting the shoppers, most of whom have never seen a mall before. As relatively unsafe as things appear to be outside, the real danger is inside where burkas have been catching in the escalator mechanisms causing a good deal of anguish and fear .Moving stairways to lady’s fine fragrances is a new concept in these parts.
The Mall’s developers have announced that they are planning on opening a second mall in the western part of the country in Herat. It’s tentative name is The Twin Towers.
If you own an Einstein bagel franchise, you may want to be aware that not all of the 90 retail spaces are currently rented.


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Consumer Broadband a Healthy Evolution
Even though dial-up will remain the primary method of consumer Internet access through the year 2006, DSL subscribers numbers will continue to gain momentum, according to In-Stat/MDR. In-Stat forecasts that nearly 1 out of 4 online households will subscribe to a broadband service by the end of this year. DSL broadband service, specifically, will grow by 3 million installed lines to a total of 7.6 million subscribers in the US by the end of 2002, with approximately 80% of those lines serving consumer households.
The In-Stat/MDR Research Highlight reports that, in a recent survey of consumers, service, price and lack of compelling applications are the main reasons cited by dial-up users on why they don’t plan to get broadband service. Yet, interactive gaming with it’s captivating and intensive, high-speed Internet-friendly video games, promises to continue to drive demand for DSL broadband connections.
Find out more here.


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Originally Posted by rtart
Folks, you're just going to have to accept that Comcast customer service just sucks. Every single interface I've ever had with them leaves me shaking my head in amazement. Anything I've ever attempted with them has been an exercise in frustration. My problem is that my alternatives, AT&T for phone and DSL and DTV for TV are sub-par alternatives and/or a lot more money. Comcast ISP consistently gives me 31 Mbps versus AT&T 1.5 Mbps on a good day. It has never dropped me in the six months since I switched while AT&T dropped me daily. DTV has a better HDDVR interface, but has rain fade, an ugly dish, and costs a lot more. I was with them for ten years, and they refused to cut their price to keep me - until I was gone.
It's a real shame that Comcast's customer service falls far short of its technology. Sure wish I had another alternative, like Charter.
Charter is a Comcast wannabe. Comcast, Jr. I have friends with Charter who complain about their clueless customer service.
Comcast may not be perfect but they are so much better than the AT&T DSL I left (which had previously been Bellsouth). At least Comcast gives you the broadband speed you are paying for, not excuses.
Being an AT&T customer was an exercise in frustration. Left them and went to Comcast/Vonage -- and never looked back.
Speaking of Motorola set top boxes, they will soon be obsolete: http://www.nypost.com/f/print/news/b...Nv3MBNzKw8aAZK
Google looking to unload Motorola's TV set-top box business
By CLAIRE ATKINSON
Posted: 11:25 PM, March 6, 2012
This just in: The TV set-top box is on its deathbed.
Google is looking to unload the set-top box business it will inherit from Motorola Mobility even before it closes on the $12.5 billion acquisition, The Post has learned.
The move appears to be an about-face from last August, when Google CEO Larry Page, in announcing the deal, suggested the business would play a role in his plans for revolutionizing the living room.
Google isn’t the only player looking to get out of the business. As The Post reported exclusively last month, Cisco is also seeking to sell Scientific Atlanta, which along with Motorola has had a near duopoly on the set-top box business.
And at least two other smaller cable-box players, Pace and Thomson’s Technicolor, are also expected to test the marketplace by putting their businesses on the block, sources said.
Once the main conduit to the couch, the clunky cable box is viewed in many circles as an obstacle to a newer generation of software and devices capable of integrating TV and the Web.
Plenty of people predict that the box won’t survive the onslaught. For instance, Google offers its own Internet-connected operating system, Google TV.
“Software is the value, not the hardware,” said one set-top box executive.
Infonetics, a company that tracks the set-top box market, predicted that last year was the peak for the business and that sales will decline this year and beyond.
To be sure, some executives believe the set-top box will shrink but not fade away entirely.
“Boxes will get thinner because more intelligence will be in the ‘cloud,’ but you’ll still need a gateway to the home,” said one executive in the business.
That’s prompting speculation that private-equity firms may look to milk the business by rolling up the main players.
“We’re beginning to hear private equity stirring on how they could put it all together,” said one source.
While Google hasn’t put out a sales book on the set-top box business, it has enlisted Frank Quattrone’s investment bank, Qatalyst Partners, and Barclays Capital to help shop the asset.
“On a long-term basis, legacy set-top boxes don’t win,” one senior tech source said, adding that Google gets “10 times more data from their other devices than they can get from a cable box.”
Other sources have confirmed that, while it is still early in the process, Google is highly likely to sell off the business, in part because cable operators have shunned buying boxes from Motorola ahead of Google’s purchase.
Meanwhile, Motorola, which has been losing share, tried unsuccessfully to sell the business in 2009 for $4.5 billion.
With other devices such as Apple TV and Roku,stealing the show, the price tag is expected to be even lower. One source ballparked the price at anywhere between $2.5 billion and $4 billion.
“We don’t comment on rumor or speculation,” said a Google spokeswoman.


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, the developer of travel and expense management software, said Wednesday that it has opened up a new joint venture in Tokyo, Japan. Concur said the new venture, Concur Japan, will be led by Shigeru Fujii, and is a joint venture with SunBridge Corporation. Financial arrangements of the joint venture were not announced, however, Concur said the joint venture is with SunBridge Corporation, the joint venture partner of Salesforce.com Japan, as well as Marc Benioff. Benioff is the founder of Salesforce.com.
posted on Wednesday, January 19, 2011
> Concur Expands To Invoices
> Concur Links With InterContinental Hotels
> Concur Acquired By SAP For $8.3 Billion
> Concur Targets SMBs With New TripIt Bundle
> Concur Names COO Singh to Board
Northwest Innovation Home


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EXAMPLE SENTENCES FROM THE WEB
All these metrics that can easily be tracked can reveal your app’s discoverability in the app marketplaces.
In a blog post, Amazon said it would back the bill, provided the language was amended so all stores and marketplaces were held to the same standards, regardless of their model for collecting fees.
For our programmatic data-driven business, our private marketplace revenue has grown north of 50% in the last year.
The remainder of 2020 will be crucial for brands to win Share of Voice in these marketplaces and start building a customer base.
These new curated marketplaces, however, don’t come at a premium — at least not yet.
Some don’t sell wholesale through other retailers, and they haven’t developed their own marketplaces.
Data from jobs marketplace ZipRecruiter shows that in 2020, so far, the share of company job postings offering four-day work weeks is 69 for every 10,000 job postings.
Amazon, for one, cut back its service to third-party sellers but as this comes back online, there may be opportunities to expand your ecommerce presence in the world’s largest marketplace.
In addition to that, cable companies are now entering the marketplace with very aggressive offerings.
The front of the Town House and the whole circuit of the marketplace were in a blaze with brilliant colours.
USE marketplace IN A SENTENCE
Join our early testers! See how your sentence looks with different synonyms.


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27 Apr The Racial Gap In Entrepreneurship Is Costing The U.S. Economy Billions
Minority businesses could boost the economy by as much as $300 billion.
How? A new study from the Center for Global Policy Solutions titled, “The Color of Entrepreneurship: Why the Racial Gap Among Firms Costs the U.S. Billions,” analyzed business owners by race from 2007-2012 and found that firms owned by people of color have contributed to the economic recovery. The research was based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners (SBO), which comes out every five years.
During that five-year period, non-white business owners added more than 72.3% of the jobs created by privately held companies. Nearly all entrepreneur-of-color groups experienced significant growth in the number of their firms, with Asian-American women-owned businesses taking the lead at 37.6% growth.
“Non-white business owners added more than 72.3% of the jobs created by privately held companies.”
That’s just a fraction of the potential, according to the report. Discrimination, both past and present, is inhibiting the true growth of these businesses. Without that, an additional 1.1 million businesses could be established and could produce an estimated 9 million more jobs. This would increase the nation’s income by the aforementioned $300 billion.
The report also analyzed the differences between firms with employees and those operated by sole proprietors. This is important because annual sales and job creation have a major economic impact.
For example, on the growth side, the strongest annual sales were posted by firms owned by Hispanic men, increasing 7.2% to $1.6 million in five years. The boost came thanks to industry concentrations in wholesale and retail. Overall, firms owned by men had higher than average annual sales that translated to higher than average pay for employees at these businesses.
According to the data, 67.3% of firms without employees had annual sales of less than $25,000. Not only does that make it likely that the profits were only a fraction of the sales, but also that they weren’t able to keep their owners and the owners’ families out of poverty.
However, there are more entrepreneurs of color operating businesses without a single employee. For example, 71.5% of businesses owned by Asian-Americans (not broken down by ethnicity) were without employees, as were 97.5% of businesses owned by African-American women.
Although they are a growing part of the labor force, Hispanic women-owned businesses didn’t fare as well. Average annual sales declined by 7.2%, due in part to a 26.2% drop in average sales of Hispanic women’s construction firms and a 13.5% decline in average sales of Hispanic women’s retail trade firms.
Why Become An Entrepreneur, Anyway?
The researchers point to a number of economic and social factors that play into making the decision to become an entrepreneur. They write:
“Research shows that individuals who are wealthier, better-educated, and foreign-born are more likely to start a business. Also, individuals who cannot find a decent job or who feel that they are not being treated well in the labor market may feel pushed into starting their own businesses. The overall overrepresentation of Asian-Americans as business owners is due to economic and social factors such as these.”
Fast Company previously reported how African-American women in particular are more likely to step off a corporate career track and start their own business. This is because there aren’t other leaders of color at the executive level, and they lack the champions necessary to support their climb through the ranks.
Unsurprisingly, African-American female entrepreneurship increased by 20.2% while their participation in the labor force only grew by 8.8% between 2007 and 2012. These new businesses mostly concentrated in the health care and social assistance industries, but had lower than average annual sales.
Other Factors That Inhibit Success
The researchers observe that “it takes money to make money.” Indeed, access to capital is key to start and operate a successful enterprise. And the difference between what a white man can expect to raise in startup capital is radically different for his American Indian female counterpart.
“The difference between what a white man can expect to raise in startup capital is radically different for his American Indian female counterpart.”
The report cites the work of economists Robert W. Fairlie and Alicia M. Robb, who found that lower levels of startup capital explain much of the difference between the success rates of businesses with white owners versus those owned by people of color (with the exception of Asian-Americans). Their businesses’ success relative to whites is attributed to Asian-Americans investing more startup capital in their firms.
Those who rely on the bank of mom and dad or other family members’ money to start their enterprise also bump up against racial inequality. “At the median, Asian-Americans have about 80% of the wealth that whites have,” the researchers say. “Hispanics and African-Americans have less than 10%.” This is due to being historically disadvantaged, they say:
Much of American history can be understood as a story of brutal alchemy, where American Indian wealth is transformed into white wealth. African-Americans have been disadvantaged because of slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, redlining, and their exclusion from the G.I. bill and homeownership incentives that enriched whites after World War II.
Because wealth is an important driver of business success, it is necessary to encourage wealth building in communities of color, the researchers note. Measures such as tax credits to promote venture investing in minority business would help, as would credits for low-income entrepreneurs, and the use of alternative credit data. Other initiatives from providing disadvantaged minority groups with quality pre-K education, all the way through executive mentorship through SCORE and similar organizations, could change the ratio of successful businesses owned by people of color and have lasting impact on the U.S. economy.


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New York — The Anti-Defamation League’s National Consumer Technology Industry divisio
In the past two days Panasonic, Sony, Sharp and Toshiba reported on their fiscal first quarter results (ended June 30), and, in varying degrees, there has been progress as they try to emerge from prolonged losing streaks.
This TWICE webinar, hosted by senior editor Alan Wolf, will take a look at what may be the hottest CE products at retail that will be sold during the all-important fourth quarter. Top technologies, market strategies and industry trends will be discussed with industry analysts and executives.
Osaka, Japan — Sharp Electronics reported higher sales and posted an operating profit and reduced net loss in its fiscal first quarter, ended June 30.
Sales were up 32.6 percent to 607.9 billion yen. Operating income was 3 billion yen, compared with the prior year’s operating loss of 94.1 billion yen, and the net loss was 17.9 billion yen, down from the 138.4 billion yen loss in the prior year.
Tokyo — Sony returned to profitability in its fiscal first quarter, thanks in part to posting a profit in its TV business and favorable foreign exchange rates.
In its quarter, ended June 30, Sony net income was 3.5 billion yen ($35 million) compared with the prior year’s loss of 24.6 billion yen. Operating income increased 30.1 billion yen from the prior year’s first quarter to 36.4 billion yen ($367 million.)
Sales and operating revenue rose 13 percent to 1,712.7 billion yen ($17.3 billion) year on year, Sony reported.
San Diego — Sony Electronics has begun to accept orders for its FMP-X1 4K Ultra media player, set for delivery by July 15.
The $699 player will be preloaded with 10 titles from Sony Pictures Entertainment with more expected later in the year.
Those who have already purchased a Sony 4K Ultra High-Definition TV are eligible to receive a $200 voucher toward the purchase of the media player, according to the company. The voucher will be valid for 60 days from the date of the email.
New York — Manufacturers can’t just make a CE device pink and expect it to automatically resonate with female consumers.
A trio of panels, hosted by Techlicious during CE Week, here, offered market research, retailer perspective and buying advice, all under the umbrella of better understanding women consumers.
As Holly Pavlika, strategy senior VP at social-media shopping company Collective Bias, noted, “We’re one of the most studied groups out there on the Internet.”
San Diego – Sony introduced Thursday a pair of advanced RX-series Cyber-shot point-and-shoot cameras targeting the professional/advanced amateur audiences.
Models DSC-RX1R/B ($2,799 suggested retail price) and DSC-RX100M2/B ($749 suggested retail) both feature advanced CMOS sensors, with the former featuring a 24.3-megapixel 35mm full-frame Exmor sensor and the latter offering a one-inch 20.2-megapixel Exmor R sensor. Both models also include Sony’s latest BIONZ image processors.
Shanghai, China — Sony Mobile unveiled a premium Android LTE smartphone said to offer the world’s largest FullHD display at 6.4 inches.
With a chassis depth of only 0.26 inches (6.5mm), it’s said to be slimmer than any other phone with FullHD display.
Los Angeles — Sony and Microsoft came into E3 with guns blazing Monday, revealing more details on forthcoming next-generation consoles.
Sony fired what was perhaps the largest salvo in the clash by revealing that its PlayStation 4 console would ship in time for the holidays at a $399 suggested retail — $100 less than Microsoft’s Xbox One.
Taipei, Taiwan – Sony has rolled out three Ultrabooks including one that is a slider hybrid laptop/tablet.
The new Ultrabooks are the Vaio Pro 11 and 13 and the Duo 13.
The Pro models feature 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch touch displays and weigh in at 1.92 and 2.34 pounds, respectively. The chassis is made of carbon fiber and has an aluminum hand rest.
Basic features for the three devices are fourth generation Intel Core i7 processors, PCIe solid state drives and near field communication capability.
Palo Alto, Calif. — EyeIO said Friday that Sony Pictures has licensed its Ultra High-Definition compression-encoding technology to support native 4K movie downloads to the home.
Sony Electronics plans to use the technology as the backbone to its previously announced 4K Ultra HD entertainment service that will deliver native 4K movies to owners of Sony’s new 4K Ultra HD TV sets via a new Sony 4K media player, which launches this summer.


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at any time.
Vodafone chief executive Vittorio Colao told BBC News: "We got an offer that we thought was in the interests of our shareholders to accept - at the end of the day it's as simple as that."
The company is launching a £6bn investment plan called Project Spring, which will accelerate the introduction of 4G networks and increase investment in laying fibre optic cables, among other things.
The investments would allow the company to offer much faster broadband services to customers.
Project Spring will also add to Vodafone's high street stores and develop mobile payment services.
Analysts said that the funds would also allow Vodafone to invest in Europe.
"I think Vodafone has looked at its European market and decided it needs to consolidate its business in a number of countries by buying up broadband and cable TV assets to go with its mobile businesses," said Mark Newman, telecoms analyst at consultancy Informa.
It is the third biggest corporate transaction, behind Vodafone's 1999 deal to buy Germany's Mannesmann and AOL's purchase of Time Warner in 2000.
Despite the huge size of the deal, it will not generate tax revenue for the UK.
Vodafone shareholder Stan Grierson says he will reinvest his additional dividend
Vodafone says that as the US business is owned by a Dutch holding company, it will not be liable for tax.
However, it will pay $5bn in tax in the United States.
Not paying any tax on the deal may be controversial.
"Everybody is entitled to his or her opinion... but we don't deal with opinions, we deal with rules, and with standard rules and practices and tax practices from any jurisdiction where we operate," Mr Colao said.
"This jurisdiction is the Dutch one but even the UK one has very similar rules - we apply the rules."
Although the deal will not give the UK a direct tax windfall, it could provide a boost for the UK economy in a number of ways.
Founded in 1985 in Newbury, Berkshire. Now has its headquarters in London
Among the four biggest companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with a market capitalisation of £92bn
One of the biggest telecoms companies in the world
Operates in 30 countries, partners with other networks in 50 more
Serves more than 403 million customers
Launched in 1983 in Philadelphia as Bell Atlantic
Market capitalisation of $133bn (£86bn)
Operates the largest 4G wireless network in the United States.
Delivers services to customers in more than 150 countries worldwide
Founded Verizon Wireless in 2000 as a joint venture with Vodafone.
Vodafone will invest some of the money in developing its business, of which a significant part is in the UK.
Shareholders will receive a payout, which they might choose to spend or invest.
They will also pay tax on the dividends they receive.
BBC Business Editor Robert Peston said: "Possibly it would be wrong to carp and wring hands that Vodafone won't be paying a penny of tax to the British taxman on the tens of billions of pounds of profit it will make from the disposal.
"Because if it had been obliged to pay very substantial tax on the sale, it would have turned down the offer from Verizon Communications - and a windfall for the British economy would have been lost."
Nevertheless, the tax affairs of big companies have been under scrutiny, particularly since it emerged that Google, Starbucks and Amazon had found legal ways to pay relatively little tax on their big operations in the UK.
Margaret Hodge, who questioned executives from those firms as chair of the Public Accounts Committee, told the BBC: "I think we want reassurance that HMRC is doing its darndest to look over this deal in huge detail to make sure that Vodafone, under the existing law, is paying all tax due."
The deal ends a long-running saga, with both Vodafone and Verizon trying to take full control of Verizon Wireless over the years, but having been unable to agree a price.
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This Saturday, the Richmond Hill City Center will be hosting it's first bridal show, Elegance in the Park, a chance for brides to come see the center, gather ideas and meet area vendors.
Some 20 vendors are expected to show up from florists and caterers to photographers.
"A lot of brides that I've met with, they're still indecisive on certain people and certain vendors, so that way they get a chance to see them all in one visit all in one day," Christina Walters of the City Center said.
Some local vendors that are set to come include Richmond Hill Florists, Mrs. T's Baked Goods, Pattie Todd Photography and Rowe Photography.
Walters said they are expecting about 150 people to come see the facilities and a bridal fashion show by Ever After Bridal Boutique. There will be an outdoor ceremony with a dove release, an ice sculptor, a chance to learn about how to have a green wedding and other latest wedding trends.
Prizes will be given away, including a Sterling Creek wedding ceremony package that includes a ceremony site, decoration, floral arrangements, bridal bouquets, specialty wedding chairs and a soloist to perform at the ceremony.
Proceeds from the event will go to support Operation Homefront, an organization that supports families of service members and wounded soldiers by providing food, housing and financial assistance, vehicle repair and other types of support.
"Our whole objective of the wedding show is to feature all the different areas of our building and show how you can use it the best ways and think outside of the box," Walters said.


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(Reuters) - Suedzucker SZUG.DE, Europe's largest sugar refiner, said on Thursday its second-quarter earnings more than halved and revenues fell as a result of low sugar prices and weaker drought-driven harvests.
The group posted an operating profit of 28 million euros ($31 million) in the second quarter ending Aug. 31, down 54.8% from a year earlier. Quarterly revenues fell to 1.64 billion euros from 1.73 billion euros, the company said.
Suedzucker said in July that trading conditions remained intensely difficult with low sugar prices and no turnaround likely for the company’s current financial year.
The European Union liberalized its sugar market in September 2017, ending its system of guaranteed minimum prices and protected production quotas.
That gave European producers more freedom to expand and export but left them exposed to collapsing world prices as a result of global supply glut, with raw sugar futures hitting a decade low at the end of last year.
Suedzucker’s sugar division made an operating loss of 55 million euros in the second quarter, compared to an operating loss of 6 million euros last year. It said it expected another year of below-average sugar beet yields because of hot and dry summer weather.
The company confirmed its previous forecast for the full year of revenues between 6.7 and 7.0 billion euros and an operating result ranging between 0 euro and 100 million euros. Suedzucker expects the sugar segment’s revenues to decline moderately in 2019.
($1 = 0.9104 euros)
Reporting by Bartosz Dabrowski in Gdansk; Editing by Tomasz Janowski
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.


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Don't-Miss Component Stories
Apple on Tuesday released an update to its MacBook Pro portable computers, sporting Core i5 and i7 processors and new graphics chips from Nvidia.
Intel will ship systems with the experimental 48-core chip in a few months.
Not even a day old, and iFixit has already subjected an iPad to the indignity of being disassembled into its component pieces.
Intel remained the world's largest chip maker by revenue for the 18th straight year in 2009, despite an overall decline in the global chip market, Gartner said.
Sony plans to cut 8,000 jobs, close factories and reduce electronics investment by nearly a third in response to the current economic conditions, it said Tuesday.


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China has jailed four men convicted of involvement in a malware-fuelled scam that led to the infection of hundreds of thousands of Windows PCs across the country. The Fujacks worm converted icons of infected programs into a picture of a panda burning joss sticks, while surreptitiously stealing the user names and passwords of …
Where is our favourite martian, haven't seen him here in a while?
What, no death penalty?
Surely they will swing from 0 enforcement to 0 tolerance, as with Zheng Xiaoyu of the "China FDA"?
- Apple's spamtastic iBeacon retail alerts launch with Frisco FAIL
- Submerged Navy submarine successfully launches drone from missile tubes
- Cache in the Attic El Reg's contraptions confessional no.2: Tablet PC, CRT screen and more
- Pix Astroboffins spot HOT, YOUNG GIANT where she doesn't belong
- Developer unleashes bowel-shaking KILLER APP for Google Glass


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FTR’s Trucking Conditions Index for March showed its first negative reading in several years, reflecting a softening environment for carriers.
The March TCI reading fell to -1.18 driven by easing freight rates and sluggish, though still positive, demand. Active truck utilization and the truckload rate have also continued to ease. The weakness in truckload rates was attributed mostly to spot rates, but FTR also found that the contract rate outlook has turned slightly negative.
FTR’s outlook for loadings growth has been revised downward from previous forecasts with year-over-year growth now expected to be under 2%.
“The trucking industry has essentially returned to neutral conditions as deterioration in most market factors are offsetting continued solid, but not robust, freight demand,” said Avery Vise, vice president of trucking for FTR. “We generally expect this balance to continue into 2020, but TCI readings could turn positive or negative month to month based on relatively minor shifts in demand, utilization, rates, or costs.”
This trend was also spotted by analysts at ACT Research who noted in the May Freight Forecast that slowing freight and increased tractor sales will likely have a downward effect on freight rates.
“Freight remains soft, as expected, and while we see reasons for recovery in the second half of 2019, escalating trade tensions raise the risk of freight recession,” said Tim Denoyer, ACT Research’s vice president and senior analyst. “Class 8 tractor retail sales are on fire, adding capacity to the market at an unfortunate time for truckers. Shippers are increasingly targeting freight cost savings, likely emboldened by attractive rates in the spot market.”
ACT Research found that dry van truckload spot rates and net fuel have fallen nearly 19% year-over-year in April and more than 3% from March, twice the historical average seasonal drop for April.
While new trucks may be selling well, Class 8 truck orders continued at a snail’s pace. In April, FTR tracked truck orders at just 16,400 units for the month, 52% below April 2018’s numbers.
While orders are low, that doesn’t mean the demand is not. Fleets are continuing to search for open build slots in the 2019 production schedule, according to FTR. Backlogs are fluid with orders being rescheduled, often opening up build slots in the near term. FTR expects this pattern to continue until ordering for 2020 begins.
“Economic growth is expected to moderate soon, slowing down the freight markets,” said Don Ake, FTR vice president of commercial vehicles. “However, currently there is still a need to replace older trucks and also get more new trucks on the road.”
Medium-duty Class 5-7 truck orders continued on at a positive rate, benefiting from underlying strength in the consumer economy, according to ACT Research. ACT tracked 23,100 Class 5-7 truck orders for April, down just 6.8% from the previous year and up 12% from March.


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WELCOME TO The advertising REPORT
Feature market insights and perspectives from top C-Level executives, elite technology influencers and thought leaders from your company here. This signature initiative has garnered immense support...
Instacart | May 30, 2022
Instacart today announced two new advertising solutions that bring together the best of inspirational storytelling and action: shoppable video ads and enhanced shoppable display ads. These new formats expand Instacart's ad product suite with inspiring experiences to give brands a more immersive way to storytell, engage and drive sales. Shoppable video and shoppable display enable CPG brands to shorten the user journey from awareness and product discovery directly to purchase – all with...
thepublicopinion | January 21, 2020
On Jan. 21, the Out of Home Advertising Association of America (OAAA) and SmartBrief launched a twice-weekly news service: OOH SmartBrief. OOH SmartBrief shares the most important news affecting the out of home (OOH) advertising industry, including ad trends, industry insights and thought leadership from top media executives. OOH SmartBrief will serve as an authoritative resource on the fast-growing OOH advertising industry. The news service will also highlight events such as OAAA’s OBIE A...
Billups | February 22, 2022
Billups, the largest privately held out-of-home (OOH) technology and managed services company in the U.S., has acquired the assets of Outchart, a full-stack software provider for the digital out-of-home marketplace. The acquisition follows Billups' recent purchases of Ads on Top in 2022 and MacDonald Media in 2020. The company's growing footprint now covers 19 U.S. and five European markets with over 120 employees.
Together, Billups and Outchart will work to deliver on the...
Shutterstock, Inc | July 22, 2020
Shutterstock, Inc. (NYSE: SSTK), a leading global technology company offering a creative platform for high-quality content, tools and services, today announced an API integration with Microsoft Advertising. The first application of the integration provides free access to millions of commercially licensed images to customers of the Microsoft Audience Network, their programmatic native advertising offering.Advertisers can search, preview, and apply any Shutterstock image in the Microsoft Adv...
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The U Can Share Food Drive, which closes today, touches real people in real time.
When it became a choice between groceries and shoes for her children two months ago, Haley Rasco of Lubbock found an answer at the church she was attending, which accessed the supplies of food donated to the South Plains Food bank.
“I was going to a church downtown, and I would get my voucher there. Then, we would receive a food box wherever they told me to go,” she recalls. “A lot of times, I would pick it up from different churches. It sure did help.”
Her husband is working, now, she said.
“It really stretched our budget so we had extra gas, and at that point in time, my son needed new shoes, so we were able to go get the food voucher so we could have new shoes and not spend that much on groceries,” she said. “It’s really been helpful.”
The South Plains Council of the Boy Scouts of America will help today in picking up donations provided by residents of Lubbock.
“We have advertised for families to set their canned goods on their front porch by 9 a.m.,” said Nathan Baie, Scout executive. “We organized our Scouting unit with different areas around the city, and went out last Saturday to put door hangers on people’s doors. Now, our Scouts will go back to those homes.”
The Scouts’ goal is to pick up 50,000 pounds of food for the U Can Share effort.
According to Lyn Garcia, director of development for South Plains Food Bank, the overall goal this year is 500,000 pounds of food and $150,000 in cash donations.
“We are down a little bit from this same time last year,” she said of the collections.
Meanwhile, need for food is up 25 percent, according to Garcia.
“Times are tough,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of generous, wonderful people out there. But the need is just so great. And if the food doesn’t match the increased need, then there are going to be people getting less in their food boxes. That’s not what we want to do.”
Garcia said United Supermarkets’ stores will keep their barrels out for another week after the drive ends today.
“People can donate at any United. We are out at 82nd Street and Frankford Avenue so much, and that’s all people hear. But we need people to understand that they can donate money as well as food at any United.”
She said, “The need is great, and we hope everybody opens their hearts and does give so they can help other people this season when need is even greater.”
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New phone case provides workaround for inaccessible touchscreens
A new smartphone case could soon enable folks with visual impairments, tremors and spasms to use touchscreens independently. Developed at the University of Michigan, BrushLens could help users perceive, locate, and tap buttons and keys on the touchscreen menus now ubiquitous in restaurant kiosks, ATM machines and other public terminals.
“So many technologies around us require some assumptions about users’ abilities, but seemingly intuitive interactions can actually be challenging for people,” said Chen Liang, a doctoral student in computer science and engineering. He is also the first author of the paper accepted by the Association for Computing Machinery Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology in San Francisco, CA. Liang will demo BrushLens on Monday, October 30th at 7 PM Pacific Time and present the paper on Tuesday, October 31st at 9 AM Pacific Time.
“People have to be able to operate these inaccessible touchscreens in the world. Our goal is to make that technology accessible to everyone,” Liang added.
Liang works in the lab of Anhong Guo, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Michigan. Guo led the development of BrushLens with Alanson Sample, an associate professor in the same department.
Users can comb through a touchscreen interface by holding a phone connected to BrushLens against a touchscreen and dragging the phone across the screen. The phone sees what’s on the screen with its camera then reads the options aloud by harnessing the phone’s built-in screen readers. Users indicate their menu choice through screen readers or an enlarged, easy-to-tap button in the BrushLens app.
When given a target, BrushLens divides the screen into a grid, then guides the user’s hand toward the section of the screen containing their menu choice by saying the coordinates of both the target and device. Once those coordinates overlap, pushbuttons or autoclickers on the underside of the phone case tap the screen for the user, depending on the model.
“The user doesn’t have to precisely locate where the button is and perform the touch gesture,” said Liang.
Ten study participants, six with visual impairments and four with tremors or spasms, tested the hardware and app.
“As a blind person, touchscreens are pretty much inaccessible to me unless I have some help or I can plug headphones into the kiosk,” said study participant Sam Rau. “Somebody else has to order for you, or they have to help you out with it. I don’t want to be in a situation where I always have to rely on the kindness of others.”
It took some time for Rau to figure BrushLens out, but once he became familiar with the device, he was excited by the tool’s potential.
“I thought about myself going into a Panera Bread and being able to order from the kiosk,” said Rau. “I could actually see myself accomplishing something that I otherwise thought impossible.”
Likewise, BrushLens worked as intended for users whose tremors or spasms cause them to make unwanted selections on touchscreens. For one participant with cerebral palsy, BrushLens improved their accuracy by nearly 74%.
The inventors of BrushLens recently applied for a patent with the help of Innovation Partnerships, U-M’s central hub for research commercialization. The team hopes to bring the product to users as an affordable phone accessory. “The parts that we used are relatively affordable. Each clicker costs only $1,” said Liang. “The whole device is definitely under $50, and that’s a conservative estimate.”
The team plans to further streamline their design so that it easily fits in a pocket. Offloading the battery and processing to the phone, for example, could make the design cheaper and less bulky.
“It doesn’t have to be much more complex than a TV remote,” said Yasha Iravantchi, a doctoral student in computer science and engineering and study co-author.
The companion app could also be improved by allowing users to directly interface with it via voice commands, Liang said.
Participants were enrolled in the trial study with the help of the Disability Network, the University of Michigan Council for Disability Concerns and the James Weiland research group in the department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan. The research was funded by a Google Research Scholar Award.
This story was originally published by Michigan Engineering and authored by Derek Smith.


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President Donald Trump Isn't a Fan of Autonomous Cars
【Summary】“I don’t trust some computer to drive me around,” Trump told golf club members at his Bedminster club in 2017.
In its latest survey, the American Automobile Association (AAA) found that 71 percent of Americans are afraid to ride in fully self-driving cars. The association believes that accidents involving autonomous vehicles, like the one last March that involved an Uber that struck and killed a pedestrian in Arizona, are swaying opinions. Regardless of whether you vote blue or red, the majority of Americans agree with President Donald Trump, who also isn't the largest advocate for self-driving cars.
Trump's Concerns With Self-Driving Cars
In a report citing multiple sources, Axios claims that Trump has made his skepticism of self-driving vehicles well known. "He's definitely an automated car skeptic," said one unnamed source. Another source claims the president told him that driverless vehicles "will never work."
One of the more interesting reports Axios has of Trump's disdain toward autonomous vehicles involves a hypothetical situation he shared with a source. "He says, ‘Can you imagine, you're sitting in the back seat and all of a sudden this car is zig-zagging around the corner and you can't stop the f---ing thing?"
This isn't necessarily out of character for Trump, who usually speaks what's on his mind, but it does clash with what Secretary of Transportation, Elaine Chao, who was Trump's nomination for the role, doesn't seem to share the same sentiment. As TechCrunch reports, Chao recently announced the establishment of the Non-Traditional and Emerging Transportation Technology (NETT) Council. The organization's primary function is reducing the number of impediments autonomous vehicles, and other technology, face when it comes to jurisdictional and regulatory gaps.
"New technologies increasingly straddle more than one mode of transportation, so I've signed an order creating a new internal Department council to better coordinate the review of innovation that have multi-modal applications," said Chao.
What Companies Can Do To Bolster Popularity
So far at the moment, it doesn't look like Trump and Chao's viewpoints have collided. But as more policies involving autonomous vehicles make it higher up the government's ladder, the chance of that happening grows.
Obviously, if Trump were to put a stop to autonomous vehicles or driverless testing, it would leave automakers, technology companies, and others invested in the field out to dry. If they don't want this to happen, they need to show consumers, and the president himself, that autonomous technology is worth pursuing.
To that end, companies and automakers came together to establish Partners for Automated Vehicle Education (PAVE). The coalition, which includes companies like Mobileye, Nvidia, and Aurora, as well as automakers like General Motors, Toyota, and Audi, is all about providing information on self-driving vehicles. Its goal is to ensure that consumers have the right information to make their own opinion on the technology.
Educating people on how autonomous vehicles operate, what their parameters are, and all of the technology behind the vehicles may help them become more popular in the eyes of American drivers.
Vineeth Joel Patel
Joel Patel has been covering all aspects of the automotive industry for four years as an editor and freelance writer for various websites. When it comes to cars, he enjoys covering the merger between technology and cars. In his spare time, Joel likes to watch baseball, work on his car, and try new foods
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TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The extremely popular Taiwan Railways bento boxes are expected to be served as in-flight meals as soon as next year, reports said.
Prepared by the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA), the bento boxes containing rice, meat chops, and a variety of Taiwanese-style side dishes hold a special place on the local gastronomic scene. The boxed meals, which are sold at major railway stations and in train cars for between NT$60 (US$1.96) and NT$120 per unit, are a signature specialty in the lives of everyday Taiwanese.
According to Huang Shih-hsien (黃士弦) from the TRA's catering division, the company plans to franchise out the lunch box service in a bid to expand business. Ensuring the quality of the meals is a prerequisite for would-be franchisees, CNA quoted him as saying.
Kaohsiung Airport Catering Services, China Pacific Catering Services, and TransAsia Catering Services are among the companies having expressed interest in franchise operations, said the report. Clients of these three catering companies span both local and foreign airlines.
Franchise fees, food preparation procedures, price setting, package design, and other details are likely to be settled by next year, Huang stated.
According to the TRA, more than 10 million Taiwan Railway bento boxes have been sold per annum since 2016. The most sought-after variety is the pork chop meal, which accounts for 90 percent of sales on average, reported CNA.
Taiwan Railway bento box. (TRA website photo)


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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Local animal shelters have been sounding the alarm about being too full to take in animals, so one teenager spent the last year trying to help.
On Wednesday, he shared the results of his work with KC Pet Project.
Seventeen-year-old Jack Adel spent months going around the state to raise awareness and funds for the “Keep ‘Em Together, KC” fund at KC Pet Project.
It helps pet owners keep their pets instead of surrendering them due to financial difficulties. The fund helps pay for vaccinations, a pet deposit on a new lease or temporary fostering.
“It’s really a huge program that is so desperately needed right now in our community,” said Tori Fugate, spokesperson for KC Pet Project. “People every day come to us needing help and assistance with their pets.”
Adel raised over $5,000 in cash and donated goods for the program and the shelter.
KC Pet Project said the fundraising campaign has also led to other shelters around the state creating similar programs.


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Much ink has been written about Ubuntu lately, how it's the best thing to happen to Linux since The Matrix. For sure, Ubuntu's reputation for user-friendliness is much deserved, but voices are currently rising in support of the recently released Debian 4.0 "Etch" desktop.
Enthusiasts have long contended that Debian (the full name of which is the Stallman-approved Debian GNU/Linux) is one of the geekier Linux distros, by which they mean it requires a significant amount of wrangling to set up and use. But as Yousef Ourabi points out in the new issue of Free Software magazine, Etch's inclusive support for hardware and simple installation make it one of the easiest desktop Linux builds to use. He even brands it as a "good alternative to Ubuntu."
Ourabi reports that many of Debian's previous hardware misfires "just work" under Etch, including wireless networking on his Dell notebook.
A couple of weeks ago, we pointed you to an in-depth tutorial showing how to replicate the entire Microsoft Windows experience with Debian Etch. And maybe you saw this piece from Sys-Con listed on Slashdot today contending that Ubuntu totally owns Windows when it comes to usability, reliability and elegance.
It's no surprise that Linux geeks find Linux a solid replacement for Windows. But what's the verdict on the "easiest" distro to install and use? Has Canonical hit the mark with Ubuntu as far as simple installation and hardware support is concerned? And how does Etch stack up against it?
Is either distribution "easy" enough to actually win over Windows users?


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“We are extremely bullish about next year’s Arabian Travel Market with Sharjah, Saudi Arabia, Italy, France and India having stated their intention to increase their stand sizes and enquiries constantly coming in from new-to-market companies wishing to exhibit for the first time,” said Matt Thompson, Group Exhibition Director, Overseas Events, RTE.
“We are also highly optimistic that many of the Asian countries, which missed this year’s show because of uncertainties in the region and their own problems with SARS, will now return to the show.”
Arabian Travel 2004, which will be held from May 4-7, will also return to its original home – the Dubai World Trade Centre after two years at the Airport Expo Dubai.
“We may be going ‘home’ so to speak, but it is very much a renovated home. The new Dubai World Trade Centre is not only bigger but the facilities are second-to-none,” said Thompson.
RTE says conservative estimates predict a 15% growth in floor space next year compared to Arabian Travel Market 2003. The growth would take the show to around 10,500 square metres of contracted floor space.
“This would be an excellent result for Arabian Travel Market, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in May this year,” said Thompson.
“We anticipate we could well be facing a near ‘sold-out’ scenario once we have concluded our next major sales push at the World Travel Market in London this November.”
Wednesday, November 5- 2003 @ 9:58 UAE local time (GMT+4) Replication or redistribution in whole or in part is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Mediaquest FZ LLC.


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Sanaa is a chemistry major and a Blockchain enthusiast. As a science student, her research skills enable her to understand the intricacies of Financial Markets. She believes that Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize every industry in the world.
The new idea of reshuffling and rejuvenation is introduced after a scheme revealed last October to slash its employee base by five percent or 4000 jobs, as the company suffers from the recall of millions of ventilators used to treat sleep apnoea.
Dutch multinational conglomerate Philips announced on Monday that it will go forward with trashing 6000 positions to revive its profitability after respiratory devices were called back toppling its market value by seventy percent.
Philips Respironics willingly recalled a particular kind of ventilator, bi-level positive airway pressure (also called the Bilevel PAP, BiPAP, or BPAP) machine along with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine in June 2021 owing to possible health concerns.
The Philips company also revealed that while half of the total number of cuts of positions will be made this year, the other half would be manifested in 2025.
The New Chief Executive Officer Roy Jakobs said in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” that it was a vital interruption to revive competition and undertake future challenges as a company. According to Jakobs, the company is working hard to target the health industry and has been able to develop a robust repertoire where it holds seventy percent of the first or second positions.
The CEO adds on to say that while that is true, it has not been able to squeeze value out of those industry spaces because of failure in execution. The roadmap that is introduced now specifically targets natural growth while focusing on the portfolio that the company possesses.
The new idea of reshuffling and rejuvenation is introduced after a scheme revealed last October to slash its employee base by five percent or 4000 jobs, as the company suffers from the recall of millions of ventilators used to treat sleep apnoea. The main issue with the ventilators was the concern over the foam used in the machines which were touted to be toxic.
The diminished employee base can result in a low-teens profit margin (adjusted EBITA) by 2025, along with mid-to-high teens margin past that year, with mid-single-digital comparable sales increase all along.
According to Jakobs, a less complex organizational plan is more likely to enhance patient safety and supply chain reliability.
Having said that, China’s COVID restrictions are to end and this will increase product demand in 2023. Even though the firm is still encountering problems in the market owing to factors like employee sickness and hospitals being oversaturated to install any more equipment.
The Amsterdam-based company, which was founded in 1891, had registered fourth-quarter adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, and amortization of 651 million euros, which was steady from 647 million euros a year earlier.
According to analysts, the estimated core profit would plunge to 428 million euros.


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Dubai | 14 July 2023: The number of US$10 million home sales in Dubai has climbed to 176 during the first six months of 2023 according to global property consultancy Knight Frank’s latest analysis.
The rising volume of luxury home sales has helped to drive the annual rate of change in all apartment and villa prices across the city to 15% and 46%, respectively, as of the end of June 2023.
Faisal Durrani, Partner – Head of Middle East Research, explained: “Dubai’s luxury homes market continues to attract the attention of the world’s wealthy, with global high-net-worth-individuals remaining laser focused on acquiring second homes in the emirate, as evidenced by the US$ 3.1 billion worth of homes sold in this exclusive price bracket so far this year.
“Furthermore, with 176 US$ 10 million home sales in the first six months of 2023, the city has already achieved 79% of the total number of US$ 10 million homes sold in 2022. In addition, with average transacted prices continuing to hover at around AED 6,900 per square foot, or about US$ 1,800 per square foot, the emirate continues to offer relatively affordable access to luxury living.
“What’s more, with 92 deals, Dubai emerged as the busiest US$ 10 million plus market in the world during Q1 2023, edging past Hong Kong (67) and New York (58)”.
Knight Frank says that the city’s prime neighbourhoods of Palm Jumeirah, Emirates Hills, and Jumeirah Bay Island continue to dominate sales, accounting for 63% of all US$ 10 million plus home sales in Q2. The average sales price during Q2 stood at US$ 16.5mn for all US$ 10mn+ home sales.
Other neighbourhoods such as Jumeirah Golf Estates, Al Barari, Tilal Al Ghaf, and Jumeirah Islands are likely to soon qualify as prime and remain on the consultancy’s “prime watch list”.
Durrani continued: “Improving inland infrastructure could be one way to spur development away from the coast, particularly given the rising importance of green space or parks to international HNWI eyeing up residential purchases in Dubai. We have found that 86% of global HNWI cite parks as their number one consideration when looking at a residential investment in Dubai. Given the limited number of development sites in coastal communities, this may be a way to create more inland prime neighbourhoods”.
Knight Frank points to an ongoing diversity in buyer profiles and preferences, with international buyers from China quickly re-emerging as key players in the city’s residential landscape.
Andrew Cummings, Partner – Head of Dubai Prime Residential explained: “The demand for luxury properties in the resale market, offering immediate occupancy, remains robust, driven by the discerning preferences of Dubai residents seeking both utility and a sense of presence within the city. Our flagship report, Destination Dubai report substantiates this claim, revealing that an impressive 66% of buyers intend to personally utilize the properties, further attesting to the significance of this trend. In parallel, within the realm of off-plan developments, there is a notable surge in interest for opulent branded residences, fuelled by the record-breaking sales and remarkable sell-out achievements witnessed by esteemed brands such as Six Senses, Baccarat, and Bvlgari. These market dynamics underline the compelling allure and enduring desirability of such properties, solidifying their position as coveted assets within Dubai’s esteemed real estate landscape.


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Do you play Dota2, Hearthstone or Warcraft 3? Want to go to China? World Cyber Games (WCG), Inc. has released the games and tournament schedule leading up to the WCG 2019 Xi’an main event, and announced that it will begin accepting player registrations.
World Cyber Games (WCG) 2019 Xi’an Official Games
The games that WCG has announced for WCG 2019 Xi’an are: Clash Royale, Crossfire, Dota2, Hearthstone, Honor of Kings, and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.
Application for National Preliminaries can be made via the official website. Online Qualifiers will begin on the 4th week of March in the APAC region. The Americas and Europe Qualifiers will commence in the following weeks and will conclude with the China Qualifiers. Global esports platform Battlefy will be used by WCG to administer the APAC, Americas and Europe tournaments, while China Qualifiers will be held on the
Pro Players & Main Events
In addition to the exciting matches between gamers representing
WCG 2019 Xi’an main event will be held at the Qujiang New District in Xi’an, China from July 18 (Thu) to 21 (Sun). Following the official game’s announcement, WCG will soon showcase the other elements that compose WCG – WCG Esports Conference for sharing knowledge; New Horizons, the future sports based on new tech; and Festival to add
For details on the official World Cyber Games (WCG) 2019 games and tournament schedule, go to WCG.com.


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How will you chill this summer? The new Coors Light packaging could get you some free Ray-Bans and your summer could be even more stylish.
Summer, sun and sunglasses? The only thing missing is an ice-cold Coors Light. Even with social distancing, a cold beer and summer fun are a perfect pair. If you are ready to kick-off summer with some time to chill, you could win some free Ray-Bans.
To start the summer, Coors Light created some new summer packaging. Instead of those icy mountains turning blue when the can gets cold, some chill sunglasses appear. Even at the highest peaks, that mountain cold beer needs the perfect temp.
With the new packaging hitting store shelves, the beer brand is ready to celebrate. 1,000 pairs of free Ray-Bans will be given away. For consumers over 21, they can enter the contest. Basically, people are encouraged to post some creative pictures on social media using the new sunglasses can. For complete rules, please visit the brand’s website.
The new packaging isn’t the first time that those mountain caps have been transformed. The Jonas Brothers took over some special bottles for a limited time. Even a classic can get a new look every once and a while.
By creating summer packaging, it shows that sometimes a beverage can be more than just another cold beer. Just like how some people pick wine by the label, some people pick beers based on the packaging. Even though all beers are not the same, appealing to a certain lifestyle can and does matter.
If you want to enter to win some free Ray-Bans, act quickly. The social media promotion is active till Monday, May 25 at 11:59:59 p.m. CST.
What beverages will be in your cooler this Memorial Day weekend?


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Despite the devastation and loss of life the COVID-19 pandemic has caused, a lot has been happening in the fintech world. Innovation in the space continues with new applications that provide access to economic support programs, such as Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans in the United States and Countingup, a scheme that provides government grants to the self-employed in the U.K. Consumer adoption of fintech apps has also risen rapidly – over 70% by some accounts – since the onset of the virus (http://ccw.fm/Zb0HH). All of this shows that fintech is alive and well, as participants in the Finovate FinTech Halftime Review will discover.
This year’s event – held virtually for the first time ever – is scheduled for June 22-26, 2020, and will encompass five full days of webinars, videos, white papers, e-magazines and more, with a new hot topic covered each day and all content accessible online. The Finovate FinTech Halftime Review will appraise the…
For more information, visit the event’s website at https://informaconnect.com/finovate-fintech-half-time-review and register your free place at http://nnw.fm/FinovateFinTechFreeRegistration
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The easy to use manual is designed to provide restaurants and other hospitality businesses, large and small, with all the essential information to ask the right questions in order to make the best long-term decisions about the millions of disposable items they use, from straws to bottles, cups to clingfilm.
Speaking before the launch of the toolkit at the SRA’s event “Unwrapping Plastics Use and Misuse in Hospitality”, Andrew Stephen, chief executive of the SRA, said: “Plastics play a crucial role in the day to day operation of most food service businesses, and right now the sector is facing an unprecedented level of awareness and pressure over their environmental impact. There is a huge tide of willingness to tackle the pressing issue of single-use plastic.”
“Many foodservice businesses have already taken the first step – acknowledging they have a plastic problem. A number have already acted decisively to ditch some items like straws. There are few in the industry though who feel fully confident about the available alternatives for their full range of disposables. We’ve created a toolkit to help the industry start to come to terms with its addiction to single-use plastic. It’s designed businesses better understand the realities of what they are using, what it’s made of and how they can actually dispose of it. Armed with this, we hope businesses will be better equipped to make informed decisions, making switches which are genuinely better for the environment, customers and business too.””