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Chlorpyrifos pesticide dangers have been well documented for decades. The insecticide came into widespread use in 1965 as a replacement for DDT, and since then has been sprayed on everything from asparagus and apples to corn, soy and citrus fruits.
But this week, the Biden administration announced it is banning the pesticide for all food use due to its links to neurological damage in children.
The newly established rule will go into effect in six months.
The hasty move to ban the neurologically damaging chemical comes in stark contrast to the Trump administration’s refusal to ban chlorpyrifos, despite the well-established science on its dangers to children’s brains. (The original ban on chlorpyrifos was initiated by the Obama administration, which had sought to outlaw the use of chlorpyrifos as a pesticide on food crops, but was blocked by Trump’s EPA.)
Common pesticides have been shown to raise the risk for disease in children, including ADHD. Let’s take a look at how decades of widespread use have impacted millions of children’s neurological health.
What Is Chlorpyrifos?
Dow Chemical Company introduced chlorpyrifos, also known as Lorsban, as a pesticide in 1965. It was originally developed as organophosphorus gas in Nazi Germany. Commercially, it’s also known as Dursban, Bolton Insecticide, Nufos, Cobalt, Hatchet, Warhawk and used in household products, including Raid Ant & Roach Killer, among others. Also, in some countries, veterinarians prescribe it in flea killer prescriptions.
So, what is chlorpyrifos? It’s a pesticide that’s used in about 100 countries. The Bush administration banned indoor use of this nerve agent. However, it’s still widely used outdoors today on U.S. crops like broccoli, strawberries and citrus. It’s also widely used on golf courses and included in other products, such as products used to treat wood and utility poles.
Dangers of Chlorpyrifos
Make no mistake, chlorpyrifos affects humans and animals, including children and pets, just like it does the pests it’s intended to kill. In fact, chlorpyrifos is known to be dangerous to fish and wildlife, including ducks and aquatic wildlife. Exposure in humans to small amounts of this chemical can cause runny nose, diarrhea, headache, dizziness, and even more seriously, vomiting, abdominal muscle cramps, difficulty breathing and paralysis.
The EPA’s own analysis of this dangerous chemical showed that not only is it dangerous to wildlife and the environment, it can also affect the nervous system and brains of developing fetuses and children.
Yet, Dow AgroSciences, makers of the chemical, tried to kill the study. Dow contributed $1 million dollars to the Trump inaugural committee. Dow also spent $13.6 million on lobbying in 2016.
Will action on other pesticides linked to health problems also be banned?
10 Ways to Avoid Dangerous Pesticides
So what can you do to protect yourself and your loved ones and pets from these dangerous pesticides? It may seem daunting to avoid these chemicals, but there are at least 10 things you can do to cut down your family’s exposure to chlorpyrifos and other chemicals.
But make no mistake, without better regulation based on the best health studies, it will be impossible to fully avoid these harmful compounds, since they are so widespread.
1. Eat organic locally grown fruits and vegetables.
Buy organic, local food as much as possible. And remember, avoiding all types of ultra-processed foods will help clean up your diet.
2. Wash fruits and vegetables with a solution of mild dish soap diluted with water (1 teaspoon dish soap per gallon).
Then rinse with lukewarm water. Or, rinse produce under running water and scrub firm fruits and vegetables like melons and potatoes. Remove the outer layer of leafy vegetables, like cabbage or lettuce. Peel fruits and vegetables when possible. Doing this can reduce some residual pesticides, but understand that many pesticides are systemic and actually taken up inside of the food.
3. Know which conventionally grown fruits and vegetables are exposed to more pesticides and contain higher levels of pesticide residue.
Check the dirty dozen list to know which fruits and vegetables to be sure to buy organic to avoid chemical pesticides.
4. Grow your own produce using organic methods.
Growing your own produce allows you to control the environmental conditions, including soil and use of safe pesticides and fertilizers. Follow sustainable landscaping practices to cut down on chemicals, improve health benefits, save money over time and protect the environment.
5. Use non-toxic pest control products.
Rather than chemical pesticides, use detergent pesticides, such as Safers. I highly recommend that you try neem oil, which is a naturally occurring pesticide. Also, try traps with natural chemicals (pheromones) to attract pests.
6. Leave your shoes by the door.
Removing your shoes when you come in the house helps to cut down on pesticides, fertilizers and dirt tracked through your home.
7. Protect children and pets.
If you do use any chemical pesticides or fertilizers, be sure to use these products appropriately. Keep children and pets away from treated lawns. Do not use pesticides indoors. Never spray pesticides on a windy day.
8. Store pesticides carefully.
Do not store pesticides or other chemicals in a soda bottle or other food container. Children may not understand that the contents are dangerous. Make sure to store pesticides out of the reach of children.
9. Choose plants suited to your area and use proper cultivation methods.
Mulching and picking bugs off plants are two examples of pest control methods that don’t require chemicals. But be sure you buy good-quality mulch. Also, there are helpful insects such as ladybugs and praying mantises that eat some pests.
10. Eat only organic, grass-fed beef and other organic, antibiotic-free meats.
What an animal eats moves up the food chain. If an animal has eaten contaminated grass or feed, you are essentially eating those same contaminants when you eat the animal. Eating organic, grass-fed beef helps ensure that you are not exposing yourself or your family to these chemicals. Also, be sure to trim the fat and skin from meat as pesticides and other chemical residue can accumulate in fat.
It may be scary to learn that dangerous chemicals like chlorpyrifos are used on our food crops. Thankfully, after decades of use, it will finally be “retired” from the food system. This is a huge victory, for sure, but there are still other harmful pesticides on the market.
Here are steps you can take to limit your family’s exposure to other dangerous chemicals. Here are a few reminders of some simple, quick steps you can take:
- Buy organic when you can, especially local produce.
- Grow your own produce if possible.
- Use non-toxic pesticides (like neem oil) and fertilizers.
- Wash fruits and vegetables.
- Don’t wear your shoes in the house.
- Make sure to store pesticides in appropriate containers out of children’s reach.


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For the past decade, Kristen Blum has been immersed in the creator economy.
When Blum first joined Dallas-based LTK nine years ago, the fashion tech company (formerly known as rewardStyle) had around 25 employees. They set out to pioneer a new generation of shopping, deploying a multifaceted platform that gives content creators a way to connect with mobile consumers and earn monetary gain.
She was an integral piece of the go-to-market team that launched LIKEtoKNOW.it, the influencer-driven consumer shopping app that gave users the ability to instantly purchase real products in fashion, beauty, home, and family markets that they viewed on high-profile accounts. Today, the app—now also known as LTK—has more than 8 million monthly users.
Blum built LTK’s creator success team from the ground-up, overseeing a group responsible for managing some 200,000 relationships with content creators. In the past year, shoppers have bought more than $3 billion worth of products from LTK’s creators.
She helped grow the company to become a fully remote organization, one that’s comprised of more than 350 employees scattered across the globe.
Now, as Blum exits for Gig Wage, she leaves behind an industry titan valued at $2 billion. (LTK recieved a $300 million investment from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 in November).
For her next act, Blum has set her sights on doing it all over again. She’s joining another Dallas-based tech team with a similar mission—and big plans for 2022—to launch a product that also has the potential to impact millions.
“I’m definitely someone who loves being at the stage in a company where I can really help to accelerate growth,” Blum told Dallas Innovates. “I love feeling like I’m making a tangible impact. And at this stage in a company, it’s all hands on deck. You really pull together and build something amazing.”
A power team
Blum was recently appointed the senior director of strategic brand initiatives for Gig Wage, the fintech working to simplify payroll for the gig economy. It’s a pivotal time: Gig Wage this year raised an additional $2.5 million to its 2020 $7.5 million Series A round to continue boosting its seamless, reliable banking platform.
CEO Craig J. Lewis founded Gig Wage to shape the modern financial infrastructure for what his team calls the “future of work.” The startup tackles complex challenges around contractor payroll, payments, and compliance.
That mission is something Blum was immediately attracted to.
“When having conversations with Craig and Clarisa [Lindenmeyer], you can just feel the energy. They’re both so passionate when talking about the problems that they’re trying to solve, the team they’re building, and the opportunities they saw for the business,” Blum says. “So it was almost near impossible not to catch the bug and just want to be a part of it.”
Lindenmeyer, the founder and former CEO of Proximity to Power, joined Gig Wage in July as its chief of staff to the CEO and chief brand officer. Over the past few months, Lindenmeyer has worked to enhance the brand’s image, experience, and mission—both internally and externally.
Lindenmeyer had her eye on Blum for a long time as a fan of her work and LTK. She tapped the executive to lead the charge in thinking creatively and strategically on products and services that serve contractors.
“To say that we are excited to have Kristen join us to lead is an understatement,” Lindenmeyer told Dallas Innovates. “We have massive growth in our 2022 plans, and Kristen is going to be essential to that. We’re really excited about her ‘been there done that’ startup knowledge.”
At LTK, the goal was to make creators as economically successful as possible. “At Gig Wage,” she says, “its economic empowerment for all.”
The move feels a bit like déjà vu for Blum. She believes Gig Wage is in the right place at the right time, similar to where LTK sat at the forefront of the creator economy years ago.
“There are just so many similarities and parallels between the creator economy and the gig economy,” she says. “Creators are contractors. They’re solo entrepreneurs and experience a lot of the same pain points that we’re trying to solve for at Gig Wage. They struggle with how to set up their finances and get paid quickly and file their taxes at the end of the year.”
A large takeaway from her time at LTK was that there isn’t currently a one-size-fits-all solution for any creator, contact worker, or other independent entrepreneur. The ever-evolving industry requires a flexible product or service tailored to each individual’s unique needs, says Blum—one that meets their desire for speed and efficiency.
“The creator economy’s a little more mature than the gig economy, but they’re both still kind of in their infancy in a lot of ways,” she says. “What I learned at LTK is that creators and contractor workers are just so hungry for knowledge and education and guidance. They really want a partner that they can rely on that’s going to provide them with the information that they need.”
That’s what Gig Wage is aiming to do.
Gig Wage’s solution benefits both sides of a transaction, enabling employers to instantly pay 1099 workers with more control, flexibility, and scale, while giving independent contractors a convenient and efficient way to receive payments.
Blum will be tasked with shaping various partnerships and programs that can accelerate the fintech into its next phase of growth. That includes leading the launch of Gig Wage’s first consumer product and contributing to the development of its new GreenHouse program.
“People call it the creator economy, freelancer economy, gig economy, independent economy—really it is just becoming the economy,” Lindenmeyer says. “That is what we’re building and that is what 2022 is all about. Kristen sits at the center of that.”
Gig Wage’s first consumer product
Launching in 2022 is a solution for what Blum calls the “lifeblood of the gig economy.”
For contract workers, who tend to be underbanked or unbanked, Gig Wage wants to ensure they receive proper payment when, where, and how they want it. The fintech also wants to provide access to quality banking services.
By 2023, half of the U.S. workforce will receive a 1099, according to Gig Wage. But, the payroll structure is designed for traditional work situations—leaving 1099 workers to lose 2% to 20% of their income.
Next year, Gig Wage plans to hone their focus on the contract workers themselves.
“We’re really just thinking a lot more about how we can serve contractors, because the better that we serve them, the better we can serve the businesses paying contractors. Everyone wins,” Blum says. “We’re already providing such tremendous value to the businesses that are paying contract workers. So thinking about the contract workers themselves just really feels like a natural next step for us.”
The GreenHouse program
Another major rollout for Gig Wage next year is its new GreenHouse program, which is currently in beta. Its generation was entirely organic, as the team has been working to craft initiatives that propel its growth.
Gig Wage Chief Strategy Officer Ethan Austin often heard from the customer success team or in meetings with clients that businesses were in dire need of making connections.
As a former managing director at Techstars, Austin facilitated numerous relationships between startups and essential contacts. That snowballed into an idea.
Similar to how a greenhouse nurtures, protects, and grows plants and vegetables, Gig Wage’s GreenHouse program will provide the tools necessary for businesses to blossom.
The team is currently designing various services that could be offered. Some examples include mentorship with Gig Wage or community experts, access to business development and sales expertise, and introductions to venture capital firms.
The typical GreenHouse member will be Gig Wage customers—or potential customers—that are integrated with its API, looking to raise money, and on a path to scale. The Gig Wage team will identify businesses that perfectly align with their own strengths. Most often, fellow tech companies fit the bill.
“The idea is really for us to be successful, the businesses that we’re working with have to be successful and they have to grow,” Blum says. “So it’s a win-win for everyone if we can help invest in them to be successful overall.”
The GreenHouse program will also launch in 2022.
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Displaying results 1 - 10 of 53
Information society faces both new opportunities and challenges
4 Aug 2020
UNCTAD discusses the state of the information society at the 15-year anniversary since the landmark World Summit on the Information Society summit.
Developing countries pay environmental cost of electric car batteries
22 Jul 2020
Digital cooperation to accelerate the digitization towards the SDGs
2 Jul 2020
Written byAlicia Bárcena, Executive Secretary, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, UN-ECLAC
Demand for raw materials for electric car batteries set to rise further
25 Jun 2020
Making Digital Work for Sustainable Development: The Time to Act is Now
15 Jun 2020
Written byMukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of UNCTAD and UNGIS Chair 2020-21
Commodity exports to China could fall by $33.1 billion in 2020, study finds
28 May 2020
UNCTAD research shows that total commodity exports to China could fall dramatically as a result of the coronavirus crisis, but there may be a silver lining for some products.
Angola eyes former coffee glory for more sustainable growth
6 May 2020
Overdependence on oil has fuelled volatile and uneven growth. Coffee could help the country change course if it can revive production and add value to its beans.
Germany gives €1.6m for UNCTAD's work on the digital economy
29 Nov 2019
Contribution will support developing countries to reap inclusive and sustainable development gains from e-commerce and the digital economy.
Promoting cotton by-products in Eastern and Southern Africa: Lessons from an UNCTAD technical assistance project
3 Jul 2019
Written by:Kris Terauds, Economic Affairs Officer, UNCTAD


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Ryanair, Europe’s No 1 airline, today (27 Mar) celebrated the start of its Newcastle summer 2017 schedule and the first flights on its new routes to Barcelona Girona, Faro, Madrid and Palma.
Ryanair’s Newcastle summer 2017 schedule, its biggest ever, includes 12 routes, with more flights to holiday hotspots Alicante and Malaga, and new summer services to Lanzarote and Tenerife.
To mark the start of the summer season, Ryanair has released seats from Newcastle at prices starting from just £21.99, for travel in May and June, which are only available for booking on the Ryanair.com website until midnight Wednesday (29 Mar).
Ryanair’s Robin Kiely said:
“Summer is finally here and we’re pleased to officially launch our Newcastle summer 2017 schedule and our new routes to Barcelona Girona, Faro, Madrid and Palma.
Ryanair customers in the North-East can choose from 12 routes from Newcastle Airport this summer, and enjoy more flights to the likes of Alicante and Malaga, as we continue to grow our Newcastle traffic and routes.
To celebrate the start of the summer season, and our new Newcastle routes, we are releasing seats on sale from just £21.99 for travel in May and June, which are available for booking until midnight Wednesday (29 Mar). Since these amazing low prices will be snapped up quickly, customers should log onto www.ryanair.com now and avoid missing out.”
John Irving, Business Development Director, Newcastle International Airport, said:
“We are delighted to see Ryanair launch their summer 2017 schedule as their route offering grows to a total of 12 destinations, their biggest ever schedule from Newcastle. This includes our first ever service from Newcastle to Madrid, a fabulous destination that has long been desired by the North East travelling public and is the latest in our exciting city break offering.
The Spanish capital is not only a great place to visit but we also believe this will help boost the region’s business and trade links, as well as support inbound tourism.”


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It’s been eight years since Patrick Swayze’s death at the age of 57, but fans looking to keep a little piece of Swayze alive in their hearts (and wardrobes) are in luck. Celebrity-focused auction house Julien’s has announced that its first major sale of 2017 will be artifacts from Swayze’s estate.
Julien’s hasn’t posted a list of everything for sale online—and catalogs of the entire collection run $100 a pop—but they did list a few juicy Swayze artifacts that are up on the block. The leather jacket from Dirty Dancing—a.k.a. the perfect outfit for determinedly not putting people in a corner—tops the list, at an estimated $4,000-$6,000 price tag. There’s also his shirt and shoes from the movie Ghost, even though we don’t remember “wearing a shirt” as a thing Swayze did a lot of in that film. Point Break fans are in for a treasure trove, too, including surfboards, wet suits, and skydiving gear. But the biggest find might be Swayze’s old Saturday Night Live scripts, because who doesn’t want to spent an estimated $600-$800 to say they own the original draft of Swayze and Chris Farley’s classic Chippendales sketch?
Julien’s will put the collection on display in Los Angeles on April 24, ahead of the auction on April 28.


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(SUGAR LAND, Texas) – Constellation Field is set to host a Launch Party from 4-7 p.m. on Jan. 29 in which the Houston Astros will announce the new brand for its Triple A franchise in Sugar Land. The re-branding of the Triple A franchise in Sugar Land will take effect
(SUGAR LAND, Texas) – Constellation Field is set to host a Launch Party from 4-7 p.m. on Jan. 29 in which the Houston Astros will announce the new brand for its Triple A franchise in Sugar Land. The re-branding of the Triple A franchise in Sugar Land will take effect immediately.
A presentation of the new brand, including a mascot introduction, logos and uniforms, will kick off the event. The Launch Party will serve as the first opportunity for fans to purchase merchandise with the new branding. The Constellation Field Team Store will be open throughout the event and merchandise will be available for purchase online through the team’s official website.
Tickets for the Launch Party will be $1, and proceeds will benefit the Astros Foundation. Fans can purchase tickets to the Launch Party by visiting sugarlandskeeters.com/events.
An announcement regarding a pre-season exhibition at Constellation Field will also be made during the Launch Party. Astros officials will provide updates regarding renovations currently taking place at Constellation Field that will be completed prior to the beginning of the 2022 season as well.
Partial-season ticket plans will be announced and will go on sale as well. Individual tickets will be put on sale at a later date.
The Launch Party will include the following programming:
- Appearances and autograph sessions with Astros prospects Brett Conine, Chad Donato, JP France, Korey Lee, and JJ Matijevic, and Sugar Land manager Mickey Storey.
- Panel discussion amongst Astros officials, players and Storey
- Live music
- Live art creations
- Inflatable attractions
- Clubhouse tours
- Face painting
- Photo booths
- Introduction of food items being debuted for 2022 from Aramark, the exclusive food and beverage partner of Constellation Field
- Fireworks show to close out the event
Parking for the Launch Party will be free, and fans and media can access the main parking lot at Constellation Field through Stadium Dr.
The Astros purchased the Sugar Land Skeeters prior to the 2021 season and named them as their Triple A franchise. The Skeeters were members of the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball from 2012-20.
The Sugar Land Triple A franchise is set to begin its season on April 5 with a road series against the Sacramento River Cats and will host its home opener on April 12 vs. the Round Rock Express.


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Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse on the Mille Miglia video
This latest evo Diaries video follows Harry Metcalfe on the Mille Miglia event, driving a Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse support vehicle.
evo boss Harry Metcalfe has once again taken part in the Mille Miglia, this year driving the 1183bhp, 255mph Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport Vitesse. Although modern supercars are not technically eligable to enter, the Veyron was acting as a support vehicle to the classic Type 35 competing on the event. Watch the video below.
See the Veyron Vitesse hit 255mph with the roof off
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Toyota GR Yaris revealed in full – return of the homologation special
One of most sought after hot hatchbacks of 2020 has finally been revealed: the Toyota GR Yaris
10 Jan 2020
New 2020 Honda Civic Type R makes debut at Tokyo Auto Salon
Honda has released the first images of the revised Civic Type R that’s being shown for the first time in Tokyo
10 Jan 2020
2020 Subaru Levorg STI prototype revealed at Tokyo Auto Salon
Proving there’s still life in Subaru’s STI performance sub-brand, the Levorg has benefited from some tweaks
13 Jan 2020
Hyundai i30 N versus Hyundai i30 TCR
Can Dickie Meaden beat Steve Sutcliffe in a straight(ish) race? We sent them to the Circuit Nuvolari with a pair of Hyundai i30 Ns to find out.
20 Sep 2019


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BENGALURU: The cash crisis
and a overlapping weekend have prompted Bengalureans to go for home partying on the new year eve. A couple of five star hotels
have seen a slight dip in number of tickets being sold out for parties, the hoteliers mostly blamed house parties and people travelling to their favourite getaways.
Shruti, 26, a techie, said: “House parties are much convenient and way too cheaper. I can have as much food and drinks as possible and don’t have to worry about bills making holes in pocket. Also, house party gives me a chance to pick up the crowd of my own choice, play music of my taste and avoid the inconvenience of travelling back home from the party venue at the middle of the night.”
Some five star party venues are already houseful and have sold out tickets . “We haven’t faced anyone selling out party tickets due to demonetisation as most of those attending lavish parties conduct the transaction through net banking or by using debit and credit cards. There’s hardly any cash based transaction,” said the manager on duty at Sheraton Grand.
Bhaskaran T, general manager at Lalit Ashok, said: "We will be hosting three different events for the new year. We don't have any problems with demonetisation as we deal with established vendors and most of our transactions are already cashless. However, there has been a dip by 20% in ticket sale as people are more into house parties this year.”
Sources from Chancery Pavillion added: "Although we have seen a slight drop in ticket sale, I would point out at the overlapping weekend than demonetization. Most of our customers use card for payment and not cash. But as it is a weekend, most people are leaving for getaway spots around Bangalore.”
Goa, Gokarna, Pondicherry, Coorg and Kodaikanal have seen a rising demand this New Year among travel lovers. “Partying hard and celebrating New Year has become too common and spending money on parties is nothing more than a waste. As it is coinciding with a weekend, I am not losing the chance to get away of the city bustle and enjoy some fresh air on the beach,” said Sandipan who has planned for a three-day-trip to Goa.
Swarnima Reddy,a design student at Srishti School of Art design and technology said, " When I went shopping yesterday, I barely saw people in stores though it is festive season and there are sales everywhere. I myself have decided to cut down on splurging on goodies for myselfas I do not have enough cash to pay.”


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Twitters woes continue this week with its stock tumbling 10% just hours after delivering their worse than anticipated 4th quarter revenue forecasts. This comes at the same time as it was announced that both their UK Head of Telco and Tech and one of their sales leads have jumped ship to Snapchat who have just opened in London. I think the next 6 months will define not only the future of Twitter, but also have a huge impact on what is now being perceived as the over valuation of the wider social/digital universe.
It couldn’t be more different down the road at Facebook HQ where they became the worlds biggest publisher with the full roll out of instant articles, signed up the entire RBS workforce (some 100,000 of them) to their Facebook at Work platform, ramped up notifications to include TV show reminders, sports scores and more, rolled out the next stage of their quest for social video domination and finally, and most importantly, announced that they are killing off Candy Crush invites!
The rise of Uber seems to be unstoppable. Fresh from ‘winning’ the right to continue in the UK they are now raising another $1b in financing to expand into more avenues which will bring their value to $70bn. For perspective, this makes them bigger than eBay, Time Warner and PayPal. What’s clear is that they are not going away and everyone from DHL to Zhejiang Geely Holding Group should be worried.
Yahoo! Made a play in the lucrative market of sports entertainment by streaming the first ever live NFL game online. This is however not the first time that an online platform has tried to break the TV domination of sports. Way back in 2011, through a partnership with then sponsors Budweiser, Facebook streamed an FA Cup game. I genuinely think that this is one of the last big battle grounds and in the next few years don’t be surprised if you see Facebook and Google fighting SKY and BT for rights.
More on innovative uses of holograms this week with a great Russian campaign to stop people parking in disabled parking spaces, and an ‘acoustic hologram’ tractor beam that is able to move objects with sound.
Google are fighting back against Facebooks efforts to take over search by launching Customer Match. This allows brands to integrate a users search activity with known CRM data to personalise messaging anyway on any device. However, spare a thought for this Google employee who lives in a truck in their car park so he can save 90% of his salary.
With lots of 3-D printers sat around in agency ‘Innovation labs’ gathering dust ecpect to see more things like these Adidas printed shoes coming around.
Stat of the week – $7.9bn. the estimated global consumer spend on Halloween
Halloween is one of our favourite holidays, but do you know the real story behind it? This should clear it up for you. A bit of fun if you want to run away from zombies and for those of your who are Parks and Recs fan, here is John Raphio in what is one of the weirdest Halloween videos I have ever seen.


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It looks like today’s software releases are taking a toll on the App Store servers. We’re seeing several reports of users having trouble making purchases, downloading apps or just browsing the App Store or iTunes Store. I myself have been seeing “Cannot connect to the iTunes Store” errors and failures to download apps and updates. more…
It’s moved beyond tradition and into the realm of meme that Apple manages to dominate the news cycle around major industry events, all while not actually participating in said events. CES rolls around and every story is about HomeKit or its competitors; another tech giant has a conference and the news is that Apple updated some random subsystem of its ever-larger ecosystem of devices and software .
This is, undoubtedly, planned by Apple in many instances. And why not? Why shouldn’t it own the cycle when it can — it’s only strategically sound.
This week, the 2018 Game Developers Conference is going on and there’s a bunch of news coverage about various aspects of the show. There are all of the pre-written embargo bits about big titles and high-profile indies, there are the trend pieces and, of course, there’s the traditional ennui-laden “who is this event even for” post that accompanies any industry event that achieves critical mass.
But the absolute biggest story of the event wasn’t even at the event. It was the launch of Fortnite and, shortly thereafter, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on mobile devices. Specifically, both were launched on iOS, and PUBG hit Android simultaneously.
The launch of Fortnite, especially, resonates across the larger gaming spectrum in several unique ways. It’s the full and complete game as present on consoles, it’s iOS-first and it supports cross-platform play with console and PC players.
This has, essentially, never happened before. There have been stabs at one or more of those conditions on experimental levels, but it really marks a watershed in the games industry that could serve to change the psychology around the platform discussion in major ways.
For one, though the shape of GDC has changed over the years as it relates to mobile gaming, it’s only recently that the conference has become dominated by indie titles that are mobile centric. The big players and triple-A console titles still take up a lot of air, but the long tail is very long and mobile is not synonymous with “casual gamers” as it once was.
“I remember the GDC before we launched Monument Valley,” says Dan Gray of Monument Valley 2 studio ustwo. “We were fortunate enough that Unity offered us a place on their stand. Nobody had heard of us or our game and we were begging journalists to come say hello, it’s crazy how things have changed in four years. We’ve now got three speakers at the conference this year, people stop you in the street (within a two-block radius) and we’re asked to be part of interviews like this about the future of mobile.”
Zach Gage, the creator of SpellTower, and my wife’s favorite game of all time, Flipflop Solitaire, says that things feel like they have calmed down a bit. “It seems like that might be boring, but actually I think it’s quite exciting, because a consequence of it is that playing games has become just a normal thing that everyone does… which frankly, is wild. Games have never had the cultural reach that they do now, and it’s largely because of the App Store and these magical devices that are in everyone’s pockets.”
Alto’s Odyssey is the followup to Snowman’s 2015 endless boarder Alto’s Adventure. If you look at these two titles, three years apart, you can see the encapsulation of the growth and maturity of gaming on iOS. The original game was fun, but the newer title is beyond fun and into a realm where you can see the form being elevated into art. And it’s happening blazingly fast.
“There’s a real and continually growing sense that mobile is a platform to launch compelling, artful experiences,” says Snowman’s Ryan Cash. “This has always been the sentiment among the really amazing community of developers we’ve been lucky enough to meet. What’s most exciting to me, now, though, is hearing this acknowledged by representatives of major console platforms. Having conversations with people about their favorite games from the past year, and seeing that many of them are titles tailor-made for mobile platforms, is really gratifying. I definitely don’t want to paint the picture that mobile gaming has ever been some sort of pariah, but there’s a definite sense that more people are realizing how unique an experience it is to play games on these deeply personal devices.”
Mobile gaming as a whole has fought since the beginning against the depiction that it was for wasting time only, not making “true art,” which was reserved for consoles or dedicated gaming platforms. Aside from the “casual” versus “hardcore” debate, which is more about mechanics, there was a general stigma that mobile gaming was a sidecar bet to the main functions of these devices, and that their depth would always reflect that. But the narratives and themes being tackled on the platform beyond just clever mechanics are really incredible.
Playing Monument Valley 2 together with my daughter really just blew my doors off, and I think it changed a lot of people’s minds in this regard. The interplay between the characters and environment and a surprisingly emotional undercurrent for a puzzle game made it a breakout that was also a breakthrough of sorts.
“There’s so many things about games that are so awesome that the average person on the street doesn’t even know about,” says Gray. “As small developers right now we have the chance to make somebody feel a range of emotions about a video game for the first time, it’s not often you’re in the right place at the right time for this and to do it with the most personal device that sits in your pocket is the perfect opportunity.”
The fact that so many of the highest-profile titles are launching on iOS first is a constant source of consternation for Android users, but it’s largely a function of addressable audience.
I spoke to Apple VP Greg Joswiak about Apple’s place in the industry. “Gaming has always been one of the most popular categories on the App Store,” he says. A recent relaunch of the App Store put gaming into its own section and introduced a Today tab that tells stories about the games and about their developers.
That redesign, he says, has been effective. “Traffic to the App Store is up significantly, and with higher traffic, of course, comes higher sales.”
“One thing I think smaller developers appreciate from this is the ability to show the people behind the games,” says ustwo’s Gray about the new gaming and Today sections in the App Store. “Previously customers would just see an icon and assume a corporation of 200 made the game, but now it’s great we can show this really is a labor of love for a small group of people who’re trying to make something special. Hopefully this leads to players seeing the value in paying up front for games in the future once they can see the craft that goes into something.”
Snowman’s Cash agrees. “It’s often hard to communicate the why behind the games you’re making — not just what your game is and does, but how much went into making it, and what it could mean to your players. The stories that now sit on the Today tab are a really exciting way to do this; as an example, when Alto’s Odyssey released for pre-order, we saw a really positive player response to the discussion of the game’s development. I think the variety that the new App Store encourages as well, through rotational stories and regularly refreshed sections, infuses a sense of variety that’s great for both players and developers. There’s a real sense I’m hearing that this setup is equipped to help apps and games surface, and stayed surfaced, in a longer term and more sustainable way.”
In addition, there are some technical advantages that keep Apple ahead of Android in this arena. Plenty of Android devices are very performant and capable in individual ways, but Apple has a deep holistic grasp of its hardware that allows it to push platform advantages in introducing new frameworks like ARKit. Google’s efforts in the area with ARCore are just getting started with the first batch of 1.0 apps coming online now, but Google will always be hamstrung by the platform fragmentation that forces developers to target a huge array of possible software and hardware limitations that their apps and games will run up against.
This makes shipping technically ambitious projects like Fortnite on Android as well as iOS a daunting task. “There’s a very wide range of Android devices that we want to support,” Epic Games’ Nick Chester told Forbes. “We want to make sure Android players have a great experience, so we’re taking more time to get it right.“
That wide range of devices includes an insane differential in GPU capability, processing power, Android version and update status.
“We bring a very homogenous customer base to developers where 90 percent of [devices] are on the current versions of iOS,” says Joswiak. Apple’s customers embrace those changes and updates quickly, he says, and this allows developers to target new features and the full capabilities of the devices more quickly.
Ryan Cash sees these launches on iOS of “full games” as they exist elsewhere as a touchstone of sorts that could legitimize the idea of mobile as a parity platform.
“We have a few die-hard Fortnite players on the team, and the mobile version has them extremely excited,” says Cash. “I think more than the completeness of these games (which is in and of itself a technical feat worth celebrating!), things like Epic’s dedication to cross-platform play are massive. Creating these linked ecosystems where players who prefer gaming on their iPhones can enjoy huge cultural touchstone titles like Fortnite alongside console players is massive. That brings us one step closer to an industry attitude which focuses more on accessibility, and less on siloing off experiences and separating them into tiers of perceived quality.”
“I think what is happening is people are starting to recognize that iOS devices are everywhere, and they are the primary computers of many people,” says Zach Gage. “When people watch a game on Twitch, they take their iPhone out of their pocket and download it. Not because they want to know if there’s a mobile version, but because they just want the game. It’s natural to assume that these games available for a computer or a PlayStation, and it’s now natural to assume that it would be available for your phone.”
Ustwo’s Gray says that it’s great that the big games are transitioning, but also cautions that there needs to be a sustainable environment for mid-priced games on iOS that specifically use the new capabilities of these devices.
“It’s great that such huge games are transitioning this way, but for me I’d really like to see more $ 30+ titles designed and developed specifically for iPhone and iPad as new IP, really taking advantage of how these devices are used,” he says. “It’s definitely going to benefit the App Store as a whole, but It does need to be acknowledged, however, that the way players interact with console/PC platforms and mobile are inherently different and should be designed accordingly. Session lengths and the interaction vocabulary of players are two of the main things to consider, but if a game manages to somehow satisfy the benefits of all those platforms then great, but I think it’s hard.”
Apple may not be an official sponsor of GDC, but it is hosting two sessions at the show, including an introduction to Metal 2, its rendering pipeline, and ARKit, its hope for the future of gaming on mobile. This presence is exciting for a number of reasons, as it shows a greater willingness by Apple to engage the community that has grown around its platforms, but also that the industry is becoming truly integrated, with mobile taking its rightful place alongside console and portable gaming as a viable target for the industry’s most capable and interesting talent.
“They’re bringing the current generation of console games to iOS,” Joswiak says, of launches like Fortnite and PUBG, and notes that he believes we’re at a tipping point when it comes to mobile gaming, because mobile platforms like the iPhone and iOS offer completely unique combinations of hardware and software features that are iterated on quickly.
“Every year we are able to amp up the tech that we bring to developers,” he says, comparing it to the 4-5 year cycle in console gaming hardware. “Before the industry knew it, we were blowing people away [with the tech]. The full gameplay of these titles has woken a lot of people up.”
In the smartphone industry, a pattern has developed over the past decade. Whether or not Apple is first with a new key technology or design, Android phone makers try as hard as they can to copy Apple’s iPhone as quickly as they can. There’s an endless supply of examples, but two in particular pertain to this article.
Apple unveiled the iPhone 5s in 2013, and it was the first iPhone to feature a Touch ID fingerprint scanner. Apple wasn’t the first smartphone maker to produce a phone with a fingerprint scanner, but no other vendors even batted an eye when companies like Motorola and HTC included the tech on their phones. Once Apple introduced Touch ID, however, every other phone maker on the planet rushed to add fingerprint sensor tech to their phones. Now, it’s next to impossible to find a globally available Android phone without biometric authentication facilitated by a fingerprint sensor.
Another example of Android phone makers playing follow the Apple is the notched display design Apple introduced on the iPhone X, and this example is even more pertinent to a new report issued early Tuesday morning.
In August last year, a smartphone startup called Essential released its first handset. The phone was among featured a new all-screen design with a small, round cutout at the top of the display for the front-facing camera. Precious few people actually bought the Essential PH-1, and no other Android phone makers of note even batted an eye at the design.
A month later in September, Apple unveiled the iPhone X with a different type of notch cut out of the top of the phone’s screen. Then this happened.
From little Chinese phone makers you’ve never even heard of to industry leaders like Huawei and LG, Android vendors can’t steal the iPhone X’s design quickly enough. But as we’ve discussed in several recent articles like this one titled “Good lord, Android phone makers, please just stop,” none of the Android phones that steal Apple’s iPhone X design have done it properly.
For one thing, the point of Apple’s notch is to keep the bezel surrounding the phone’s display the exact same size all the way around the screen, aside from the notch. But most Android copycats still have a big “chin” bezel under the screen because they don’t have the engineering prowess or budget to pull off Apple’s brilliant display design on the iPhone X.
The second purpose served by the notch is to house Apple’s advanced TrueDepth camera and sensor cluster, which enables Apple’s new Face ID technology on the iPhone X. No other smartphone on the planet has face scanning tech that’s anywhere near as advanced and secure as Apple’s, and a new report from Reuters suggest that will continue to be the case until at least next year.
It’s not that Android vendors don’t want to copy Apple’s new Face ID tech. They always want to copy Apple’s hot new tech, obviously. It’s that they can’t.
“Most Android phones will have to wait until 2019 to duplicate the 3D sensing feature behind Apple’s Face ID security, three major parts producers have told Reuters, handicapping Samsung and others on a technology that is set to be worth billions in revenue over the next few years,” Reuters reported on Tuesday morning.
The report continued, “According to parts manufacturers Viavi Solutions Inc, Finisar Corp and Ams AG, bottlenecks on key parts will mean mass adoption of 3D sensing will not happen until next year, disappointing earlier expectations. That means that China’s Huawei, Xiaomi and others could be a total of almost two years behind Apple, which launched Face ID with its iPhone X anniversary phone last September. In particular, Android producers are struggling to source vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, or VCSELs, a core part of Apple’s Face ID hardware.”
Apple’s supply chain mastery isn’t what it used to be. AirPods were released 15 months ago and Apple still isn’t shipping new online orders until more than a week after they’re placed. Several other products have been delayed, like the HomePod speaker that was finally released last month. But in the case of Face ID, Apple managed to lock down key component supply for more than a year, and it’s giving the company a big lead over Android vendors in an important new area that will play a huge role moving forward — not just in the smartphone market, but eventually across several different areas of the electronics industry.
Two months into its existence, Blizzard’s ambitious Overwatch League has seen a lot of positives. Viewership numbers are strong, Blizzard has managed to court big-name sponsors like Toyota, and last month the Shanghai Dragons made Kim “Geguri” Se-Yeon the league’s first female player. But there’s one issue that keeps popping up: players exhibiting toxic behavior. Today, the league made its biggest statement about such behavior so far, doling out punishments to four individual players.
Dallas Fuel player Timo “Taimou” Kettunen is being fined $ 1,000 for using “anti-gay slurs on his personal stream,” while the Houston Outlaws’ Tae-yeong “TaiRong” Kim has received a formal warning for posting a meme about the bombings of Hiroshima and…
The most wonderful time of the year isn’t necessarily the holiday season. The days are finally getting longer again, we’re past the worst of the winter snow, and oh yeah, it’s tax refund time.
Best Buy is celebrating the latter with a three-day sale on some of its most popular items, including a 9.7-inch iPad for $ 249, MacBook Airs for as little as $ 799, and BeatsX wireless headphones for $ 80.
The MacBook Air sale is perhaps the most significant, as three MacBook Air models are $ 200 off during the sale. The entry-level model, which has a 13-inch screen, Core i5 processor and 8GB of RAM, is down to $ 799, with an additional $ 50 off for students. The mid-range model with an expanded 256GB of flash storage is $ 999, and the top-tier model with a Core i7 and 512GB of storage is $ 1,349.
The 9.7-inch iPad (not to be confused with the iPad Pro) is $ 80 off during this sale, although the promo will continue running afterwards. That brings the price of the cheapest 32GB Wi-Fi model down to $ 249 from $ 329, and the more expensive 128GB model is $ 349 during the promo. The 4th-generation Apple TV is also on sale, with $ 40 knocked off the usual $ 199 asking price to bring it down to $ 159.
The sale on the BeatsX headphones is particularly interesting, since they don’t see a ton of deals. If you’re in the market for good workout headphones that sync up perfectly with your iPhone and have a bunch of battery life, there’s no need to look any further. The sale notionally takes $ 65 off the asking price, but the headphones are more commonly listed at $ 110 than $ 149, so it’s more like a $ 25 saving. Nonetheless, is’t an unusually good deal.
Social media is a place for brands to amplify their stories, humanize themselves, and connect with the people that make them what they are. More recently, it’s also become a stage for consumers to take brands to task for their missteps. As a social strategist and creative on the agency side for the better part of a decade, I’ve seen my share of digital crises and the aftermath. Social has ignited the rise of a culture where bad actors are called out and negative experiences are no longer discussed behind closed doors. Given the nature of social as such an…
In a piece published this week, Consumer Reports rated the dual-lens iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus as having the best smartphone cameras, with the single-lens iPhone 8 sitting just behind them.
AppleInsider – Frontpage News
Just a few months after the release of the Fitbit Ionic, the company is preparing another smart watch, to further compete with the Apple Watch.
AppleInsider – Frontpage News
Ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft were supposed to make our streets less congested, but studies suggest that they’re having the opposite effect.
A report published by the UCDavis Institute of Transportation Studies in October 2017, which surveyed over 4,000 adults in seven U.S. cities, found that after rolling out one of the two services public transport usage dropped by six percent. More worryingly, the study found that between 49 and 61 percent of journeys made using the likes of Uber and Lyft would have been made on foot, on a bike, on public transport, or not made at all, if those services weren’t available.
This observation was echoed by a new study carried out by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, which surveyed 944 ride-hailing passengers in the Boston metro area. Here, 12 percent said that if ride-hailing services weren’t available, they would have walked or cycled, and 42 percent said they would have used public transport.
This stands in stark contrast to comments made by Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick in 2015, when he said “we envision a world where there’s no more traffic in Boston in five years.” According to a report from the Boston Business Journal, he reiterated his point saying that if every car in the city was an Uber, the road network would be way more efficient. The company’s big plan for the future revolves around a self-driving fleet, which they claim could potentially prevent traffic jams.
If once there were hopes that ride-hailing services would work alongside public transport, they seem to have been quashed. “Ride sharing is pulling from and not complementing public transportation,” said Alison Felix, an author of the MAPC report, in an interview with AP News.
But this development doesn’t come as a surprise, not for everyone. Over a year ago, in an article for The Guardian, a senior fellow at the New Cities Foundation Greg Lindsay wrote that Uber was looking to “disrupt the bus.” If ride-hailing services are going to continue to play a major role in our travel plans, public transport might pay the price.
The post Ride-Hailing Services Aimed at Cutting Traffic Are Having the Opposite Effect appeared first on Futurism.
Everybody wants to make a difference, and if no one tried, the world would be a lot worse for the wear. Luckily, most people make an effort to exact change on whatever level they can and work toward making the world a better place. Individuals aren’t the only ones working towards change, of course. Businesses as a whole are beginning to implement programs through which they give back to their community, donate to those in need, work on preserving the environment, and so much more. What’s fueling this movement toward more socially conscious business? There are a lot of reasons…


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XCOM 2 Officially Announced with New Screenshots
2K has officially announced that XCOM 2, the sequel to XCOM: Enemy Unknown, is in development for November 2015 release on Windows PC. The game will be set 20 years in the future where humanity has lost the war against the invading aliens and the XCOM forces have all but been forgotten. It will be up to you to take back the Earth from the clutches of the alien forces, so now humanity will be the invading force, which means resources will be much leaner, and strategies will have to be tweaked.
A batch of new screenshots for the XCOM 2 have been released, which you can check out down below. There’s also the official announce trailer to check out too! The game is set to launch for PCs sometime in November of 2015.
“Making you a better geek, one post at a time!”


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|By Business Wire||
|January 23, 2013 04:31 PM EST||
Apple® today announced financial results for its 13-week fiscal 2013 first quarter ended December 29, 2012. The Company posted record quarterly revenue of $54.5 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.1 billion, or $13.81 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $46.3 billion and net profit of $13.1 billion, or $13.87 per diluted share, in the 14-week year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 38.6 percent compared to 44.7 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 61 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
Average weekly revenue was $4.2 billion in the quarter compared to $3.3 billion in the year-ago quarter.
The Company sold a record 47.8 million iPhones in the quarter, compared to 37 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold a record 22.9 million iPads during the quarter, compared to 15.4 million in the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 4.1 million Macs, compared to 5.2 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 12.7 million iPods in the quarter, compared to 15.4 million in the year-ago quarter.
Apple’s Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $2.65 per share of the Company’s common stock. The dividend is payable on February 14, 2013, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on February 11, 2013.
“We’re thrilled with record revenue of over $54 billion and sales of over 75 million iOS devices in a single quarter,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re very confident in our product pipeline as we continue to focus on innovation and making the best products in the world.”
“We’re pleased to have generated over $23 billion in cash flow from operations during the quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “We established new all-time quarterly records for iPhone and iPad sales, significantly broadened our ecosystem, and generated Apple’s highest quarterly revenue ever.”
Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2013 second quarter:
• revenue between $41 billion and $43 billion
• gross margin between 37.5 percent and 38.5 percent
• operating expenses between $3.8 billion and $3.9 billion
• other income/(expense) of $350 million
• tax rate of 26%
Apple will provide live streaming of its Q1 2013 financial results conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. PST on January 23, 2013 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq113. This webcast will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.
This press release contains forward-looking statements including without limitation those about the Company’s estimated revenue, gross margin, operating expenses, other income/(expense), and tax rate. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ. Risks and uncertainties include without limitation the effect of competitive and economic factors, and the Company’s reaction to those factors, on consumer and business buying decisions with respect to the Company’s products; continued competitive pressures in the marketplace; the ability of the Company to deliver to the marketplace and stimulate customer demand for new programs, products, and technological innovations on a timely basis; the effect that product introductions and transitions, changes in product pricing or mix, and/or increases in component costs could have on the Company’s gross margin; the inventory risk associated with the Company’s need to order or commit to order product components in advance of customer orders; the continued availability on acceptable terms, or at all, of certain components and services essential to the Company’s business currently obtained by the Company from sole or limited sources; the effect that the Company’s dependency on manufacturing and logistics services provided by third parties may have on the quality, quantity or cost of products manufactured or services rendered; risks associated with the Company’s international operations; the Company’s reliance on third-party intellectual property and digital content; the potential impact of a finding that the Company has infringed on the intellectual property rights of others; the Company’s dependency on the performance of distributors, carriers and other resellers of the Company’s products; the effect that product and service quality problems could have on the Company’s sales and operating profits; the continued service and availability of key executives and employees; war, terrorism, public health issues, natural disasters, and other circumstances that could disrupt supply, delivery, or demand of products; and unfavorable results of other legal proceedings. More information on potential factors that could affect the Company’s financial results is included from time to time in the “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of the Company’s public reports filed with the SEC, including the Company’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 29, 2012, and its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended December 29, 2012 to be filed with the SEC. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information, which speak as of their respective dates.
Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.
NOTE TO EDITORS: For additional information visit Apple’s PR website (www.apple.com/pr), or call Apple’s Media Helpline at (408) 974-2042.
© 2013 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(In millions, except number of shares which are reflected in thousands and per share amounts)
|Three Months Ended|
|Cost of sales (1)||33,452||25,630|
|Research and development (1)||1,010||758|
|Selling, general and administrative (1)||2,840||2,605|
|Total operating expenses||3,850||3,363|
|Other income/(expense), net||462||137|
|Income before provision for income taxes||17,672||17,477|
|Provision for income taxes||4,594||4,413|
|Earnings per share:|
|Shares used in computing earnings per share:|
|Cash dividends declared per common share||$||2.65||$||0|
|(1) Includes share-based compensation expense as follows:|
|Cost of sales||$||85||$||63|
|Research and development||$||224||$||160|
|Selling, general and administrative||$||236||$||197|
UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(In millions, except number of shares which are reflected in thousands)
|Cash and cash equivalents||$||16,154||$||10,746|
|Short-term marketable securities||23,666||18,383|
|Accounts receivable, less allowances of $119 and $98, respectively||11,598||10,930|
|Deferred tax assets||2,895||2,583|
|Vendor non-trade receivables||9,936||7,762|
|Other current assets||6,644||6,458|
|Total current assets||72,348||57,653|
|Long-term marketable securities||97,292||92,122|
|Property, plant and equipment, net||15,422||15,452|
|Acquired intangible assets, net||4,462||4,224|
|LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS’ EQUITY:|
|Total current liabilities||46,879||38,542|
|Deferred revenue – non-current||2,938||2,648|
|Other non-current liabilities||18,925||16,664|
|Commitments and contingencies|
|Common stock, no par value; 1,800,000 shares authorized; 938,973 and 939,208 shares issued and outstanding, respectively||17,167||16,422|
|Accumulated other comprehensive income||612||499|
|Total shareholders' equity||127,346||118,210|
|Total liabilities and shareholders' equity||$||196,088||$||176,064|
UNAUDITED CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
|Three Months Ended|
|Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of the period||
|Adjustments to reconcile net income to cash generated by operating activities:|
|Depreciation and amortization||1,588||721|
|Share-based compensation expense||545||420|
|Deferred income tax expense||1,179||1,456|
|Changes in operating assets and liabilities:|
|Accounts receivable, net||(668)||(3,561)|
|Vendor non-trade receivables||(2,174)||(1,206)|
|Other current and non-current assets||413||(962)|
|Other current and non-current liabilities||2,373||2,472|
|Cash generated by operating activities||23,426||17,554|
|Purchases of marketable securities||(37,192)||(40,175)|
|Proceeds from maturities of marketable securities||3,460||3,038|
|Proceeds from sales of marketable securities||23,002||21,472|
|Payments made in connection with business acquisitions, net||(284)||0|
|Payments for acquisition of property, plant and equipment||(2,317)||(1,321)|
|Payments for acquisition of intangible assets||(138)||(108)|
|Cash used in investing activities||(13,521)||(17,128)|
|Proceeds from issuance of common stock||76||91|
|Excess tax benefits from equity awards||404||333|
|Dividends and dividend equivalent rights paid||(2,493)||0|
|Repurchase of common stock||(1,950)||0|
|Taxes paid related to net share settlement of equity awards||(534)||(355)|
|Cash (used in)/generated by financing activities||(4,497)||69|
|Increase in cash and cash equivalents||5,408||495|
|Cash and cash equivalents, end of the period||
|Supplemental cash flow disclosure:|
|Cash paid for income taxes, net||
|Q1 2013 Unaudited Summary Data|
|(Units in thousands, Revenue in millions)|
|Q1'13 (a)||Q4'12 (a)||Q1'12 (a)||Sequential Change||Year/Year Change|
|Greater China (b)||6,830||5,427||4,080||26%||67%|
|Rest of Asia Pacific||3,993||2,110||3,617||89%||10%|
|Q1'13 (a)||Q4'12 (a)||Q1'12 (a)||Sequential Change||Year/Year Change|
|Mac (c)||4,061||5,519||4,923||6,617||5,198||6,598||- 18%||- 17%||- 22%||- 16%|
|iPod (c)||12,679||2,143||5,344||820||15,397||2,528||137%||161%||- 18%||- 15%|
Q1'13 and Q4'12 spanned 13 weeks whereas Q1'12 included a 14th week.
Greater China includes China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Includes deferrals and amortization of related non-software services and software upgrade rights.
Includes revenue from sales on the iTunes Store, the App Store, the Mac App Store, and the iBookstore, and revenue from sales of AppleCare, licensing and other services.
Includes sales of hardware peripherals and Apple-branded and third-party accessories for iPhone, iPad, Mac and iPod.
Cognitive Computing is becoming the foundation for a new generation of solutions that have the potential to transform business. Unlike traditional approaches to building solutions, a cognitive computing approach allows the data to help determine the way applications are designed. This contrasts with conventional software development that begins with defining logic based on the current way a business operates. In her session at 18th Cloud Expo, Judith S. Hurwitz, President and CEO of Hurwitz & ...
Feb. 11, 2016 07:00 PM EST Reads: 268
SYS-CON Events announced today that Interoute, owner-operator of one of Europe's largest networks and a global cloud services platform, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 18th Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7-9, 2015 at the Javits Center in New York, New York. Interoute is the owner-operator of one of Europe's largest networks and a global cloud services platform which encompasses 12 data centers, 14 virtual data centers and 31 colocation centers, with connections to 195 ad...
Feb. 11, 2016 03:45 PM EST Reads: 407
SYS-CON Events announced today that Alert Logic, Inc., the leading provider of Security-as-a-Service solutions for the cloud, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Alert Logic, Inc., provides Security-as-a-Service for on-premises, cloud, and hybrid infrastructures, delivering deep security insight and continuous protection for customers at a lower cost than traditional security solutions. Ful...
Feb. 11, 2016 02:45 PM EST Reads: 439
Join us at Cloud Expo | @ThingsExpo 2016 – June 7-9 at the Javits Center in New York City and November 1-3 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA – and deliver your unique message in a way that is striking and unforgettable by taking advantage of SYS-CON's unmatched high-impact, result-driven event / media packages.
Feb. 11, 2016 01:45 PM EST
The Quantified Economy represents the total global addressable market (TAM) for IoT that, according to a recent IDC report, will grow to an unprecedented $1.3 trillion by 2019. With this the third wave of the Internet-global proliferation of connected devices, appliances and sensors is poised to take off in 2016. In his session at @ThingsExpo, David McLauchlan, CEO and co-founder of Buddy Platform, will discuss how the ability to access and analyze the massive volume of streaming data from mil...
Feb. 11, 2016 01:45 PM EST
SYS-CON Events announced today that Commvault, a global leader in enterprise data protection and information management, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7–9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, and the 19th International Cloud Expo, which will take place on November 1–3, 2016, at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA. Commvault is a leading provider of data protection and information management...
Feb. 11, 2016 01:30 PM EST Reads: 438
WebSocket is effectively a persistent and fat pipe that is compatible with a standard web infrastructure; a "TCP for the Web." If you think of WebSocket in this light, there are other more hugely interesting applications of WebSocket than just simply sending data to a browser. In his session at 18th Cloud Expo, Frank Greco, Director of Technology for Kaazing Corporation, will compare other modern web connectivity methods such as HTTP/2, HTTP Streaming, Server-Sent Events and new W3C event APIs ...
Feb. 11, 2016 12:00 PM EST
With an estimated 50 billion devices connected to the Internet by 2020, several industries will begin to expand their capabilities for retaining end point data at the edge to better utilize the range of data types and sheer volume of M2M data generated by the Internet of Things. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Don DeLoach, CEO and President of Infobright, will discuss the infrastructures businesses will need to implement to handle this explosion of data by providing specific use cases for filte...
Feb. 11, 2016 12:00 PM EST Reads: 209
SYS-CON Events announced today that Pythian, a global IT services company specializing in helping companies adopt disruptive technologies to optimize revenue-generating systems, has been named “Bronze Sponsor” of SYS-CON's 18th Cloud Expo, which will take place on June 7-9, 2015 at the Javits Center in New York, New York. Founded in 1997, Pythian is a global IT services company that helps companies compete by adopting disruptive technologies such as cloud, Big Data, advanced analytics, and DevO...
Feb. 11, 2016 11:30 AM EST Reads: 247
SYS-CON Events announced today that Avere Systems, a leading provider of enterprise storage for the hybrid cloud, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. Avere delivers a more modern architectural approach to storage that doesn’t require the overprovisioning of storage capacity to achieve performance, overspending on expensive storage media for inactive data or the overbuilding of data centers ...
Feb. 11, 2016 11:30 AM EST
Fortunately, meaningful and tangible business cases for IoT are plentiful in a broad array of industries and vertical markets. These range from simple warranty cost reduction for capital intensive assets, to minimizing downtime for vital business tools, to creating feedback loops improving product design, to improving and enhancing enterprise customer experiences. All of these business cases, which will be briefly explored in this session, hinge on cost effectively extracting relevant data from ...
Feb. 11, 2016 11:00 AM EST Reads: 126
Companies can harness IoT and predictive analytics to sustain business continuity; predict and manage site performance during emergencies; minimize expensive reactive maintenance; and forecast equipment and maintenance budgets and expenditures. Providing cost-effective, uninterrupted service is challenging, particularly for organizations with geographically dispersed operations.
Feb. 11, 2016 10:15 AM EST
With the Apple Watch making its way onto wrists all over the world, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a staple in the workplace. In fact, Forrester reported that 68 percent of technology and business decision-makers characterize wearables as a top priority for 2015. Recognizing their business value early on, FinancialForce.com was the first to bring ERP to wearables, helping streamline communication across front and back office functions. In his session at @ThingsExpo, Kevin Roberts...
Feb. 11, 2016 10:00 AM EST Reads: 396
As enterprises work to take advantage of Big Data technologies, they frequently become distracted by product-level decisions. In most new Big Data builds this approach is completely counter-productive: it presupposes tools that may not be a fit for development teams, forces IT to take on the burden of evaluating and maintaining unfamiliar technology, and represents a major up-front expense. In his session at @BigDataExpo at @ThingsExpo, Andrew Warfield, CTO and Co-Founder of Coho Data, will dis...
Feb. 11, 2016 09:15 AM EST Reads: 202
SYS-CON Events announced today that iDevices®, the preeminent brand in the connected home industry, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. iDevices, the preeminent brand in the connected home industry, has a growing line of HomeKit-enabled products available at the largest retailers worldwide. Through the “Designed with iDevices” co-development program and its custom-built IoT Cloud Infrastruc...
Feb. 11, 2016 09:00 AM EST Reads: 112
Eighty percent of a data scientist’s time is spent gathering and cleaning up data, and 80% of all data is unstructured and almost never analyzed. Cognitive computing, in combination with Big Data, is changing the equation by creating data reservoirs and using natural language processing to enable analysis of unstructured data sources. This is impacting every aspect of the analytics profession from how data is mined (and by whom) to how it is delivered. This is not some futuristic vision: it's ha...
Feb. 11, 2016 06:45 AM EST Reads: 444
Silver Spring Networks, Inc. (NYSE: SSNI) extended its Internet of Things technology platform with performance enhancements to Gen5 – its fifth generation critical infrastructure networking platform. Already delivering nearly 23 million devices on five continents as one of the leading networking providers in the market, Silver Spring announced it is doubling the maximum speed of its Gen5 network to up to 2.4 Mbps, increasing computational performance by 10x, supporting simultaneous mesh communic...
Feb. 11, 2016 05:00 AM EST
The cloud promises new levels of agility and cost-savings for Big Data, data warehousing and analytics. But it’s challenging to understand all the options – from IaaS and PaaS to newer services like HaaS (Hadoop as a Service) and BDaaS (Big Data as a Service). In her session at @BigDataExpo at @ThingsExpo, Hannah Smalltree, a director at Cazena, will provide an educational overview of emerging “as-a-service” options for Big Data in the cloud. This is critical background for IT and data profes...
Feb. 11, 2016 01:15 AM EST Reads: 217
SYS-CON Events announced today that Men & Mice, the leading global provider of DNS, DHCP and IP address management overlay solutions, will exhibit at SYS-CON's 18th International Cloud Expo®, which will take place on June 7-9, 2016, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY. The Men & Mice Suite overlay solution is already known for its powerful application in heterogeneous operating environments, enabling enterprises to scale without fuss. Building on a solid range of diverse platform support,...
Feb. 11, 2016 01:00 AM EST Reads: 238
One of the bewildering things about DevOps is integrating the massive toolchain including the dozens of new tools that seem to crop up every year. Part of DevOps is Continuous Delivery and having a complex toolchain can add additional integration and setup to your developer environment. In his session at @DevOpsSummit at 18th Cloud Expo, Miko Matsumura, Chief Marketing Officer of Gradle Inc., will discuss which tools to use in a developer stack, how to provision the toolchain to minimize onboa...
Feb. 10, 2016 11:45 PM EST Reads: 118


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Nanuet, NY, September 23, 2009 --(PR.com
)-- Has Online Shopping Become More Of A Chore Than A Time Saver?
Online shopping used to be a real time saver. It was hassle free alternative to the process of going out to a shop, finding parking or dealing with crowded public transit systems and waiting line; and often finding out in the process that what you have been looking for was out of stock. Again, the operative phrase here is used to be.
The explosion in online commerce in the past five years has led to a curious phenomena; online shopping which can actually be more time consuming than shopping online. While consumers are not quite ready to give up on online shopping entirely, a growing number of people are finding shopping online to be more trouble than it’s worth.
It’s been getting harder and harder to shop online for years now; there are more sites every day and it’s hard to even find what you’re looking for, and trying to find the best deal could take you all day.
Curious why no one had supplied a solution to this problem, one New York Company took it upon themselves to bring an easier way of shopping online to consumers. The answer? The website http://www.OneMillionStores.com a sort of online shopping mall which offers an easy to use, searchable framework for online shopping which is intended to take the stress out of shopping, as site webmaster explains: "We'd seen it coming for a while, we knew that there would be a lot of people out there who could benefit from this and started putting together http://www.OneMillionStores.com."
The most important thing is that the site be well organized and searchable; basically, it’s a search engine for online shoppers. There’s an integrated search function and it’s also set up so that visitors can browse online retailers by the category of products they’re looking for. Online shopping used to be so easy; fun even. http://www.OneMillionStores.com provides people with something that will put the fun and convenience back into online shopping again.


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Rumors in the gaming world come and go but this specific one catches the eye. As always take this rumor with a pinch of salt as nothing is concrete. The latest rumor suggests that Sony might be working on a new and upgraded version of the PlayStation 4 which would be able to play games on high resolution of 4K.
This new PS4 will “supposedly” not only be coming with a better and more powerful GPU, but it would also have more processing power which would help in running games in 4k and in virtual reality, at a higher fidelity. Whether Sony will allow the current PS4 owners to trade in their current consoles is something we still don’t have an idea about.
In simple words, 4K resolution is around four times the pixel size of 1080p, which is the current standard for games on PS4 and competing consoles such as Xbox One. The current PS4 can output 4K photos and videos, but cannot support 4K resolutions for games.
There are still some questions regarding this rumour which are yet to be answered, such as the price of this new “PS4.5” or whether it will have an internal upgrade or an external graphic and processing amplifier. We at Gaming Central hope to see our curiosity answered soon.
For more news,reviews and information, be sure to check out Gaming Central.


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Release time：2022-01-15 08:30
Alexander Bastrykin, chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee, said that people who use cryptocurrencies should not remain anonymous. Therefore, the circulation of digital currency requires further legal supervision. First, there must be mandatory identification of users of this currency. The status of the online platform that offers the opportunity to buy and sell cryptocurrencies anonymously is also yet to be determined. It is reported that the Investigative Committee is Russia's main federal investigation and anti-corruption agency, under the Russian President. It is responsible for fighting corruption and conducting investigations into federal government agencies, local authorities and law enforcement agencies.
Copyright © 2023 HZD.com (HoriZon Digital) All Rights Reseved


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Hamster has revealed that the next Arcade Archives release to launch on Switch is none other than VS. Castlevania. You’ll be able to get your hands on it starting from tomorrow, 17 th October.
The game was originally liberated as an arcade name back in 1986 and is very similar to the NES game which launched its first year after. Retro Gamer notes that the most notable difference between the two is its impediment – this VS. variant is considerably harder with some enemies dealing doubled the damage they do on Nintendo’s platform – although other differences can also be found in areas such as the game’s colour palette.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Read more: nintendolife.com


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Digital tech company Sanderson ‘ahead of expectations’
Listed Sanderson Group, which has a major presence in Sheffield, has reported positive news in a trading update this morning.
The group, which provides digital technology, software and managed services for the retail, wholesale, logistics and manufacturing sectors, has said its performance is already ahead of management’s expectations.
It also managed to pay the last £500,000 deferred consideration payment in respect to its November 2017 acquisition of the Anisa Group - the cash consideration having been entirely satisfied by... You can carry on reading TheBusinessDesk.com for free, but you have reached the maximum number of pages an unregistered user can view. To register for an account, click here or login below...


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lynda.com is a rapidly growing online learning company that offers thousands of video courses to help viewers learn software, technology, creative, and business skills. With growth comes the challenge of recruiting, and the largest motivation for installing workplace electric vehicle (EV) charging stations came from the Human Resources department. Recently a top candidate for a managerial position included workplace charging as a key factor when making the decision to take the job. “We now have a charging station, a new producer, and other employees have decided to purchase EVs too. You can’t put a price on that,” said Cindy Mayer, HR Business Partner.
Committed to sustainability, the company has taken steps to reduce the overall energy and water usage of its facilities. However, the lynda.com team knows that employee commuting to its offices in Carpinteria is a large part of the company footprint, so they support their employees’ efforts to make greener transportation choices. Jacqueline Burge, Senior Director of Facilities at lynda.com, puts it this way: “lynda.com is committed to improving its sustainability and setting an example in the community. Our greatest opportunity to reduce our environmental impact is in the daily activities of our employees.” In addition to the charging station, lynda.com provides incentives for employees to carpool, use public transportation, and ride bicycles to work.
The company chose the Juice Bar, an EV charging station distributed by Green Garage Associates, because of its customizable design and security system. They also liked how it offered both 240 volt Level 2 charging and 120 volt Level 1 charging, so they could charge their four small neighborhood electric vehicles alongside employee cars. Since opening the charging station six months ago, three additional employees have purchased electric vehicles, and many others are considering them.
As one of the first Carpinteria companies to put in a charging station, lynda.com thinks the process should be streamlined for future businesses. The company faced challenges with the permitting process that resulted in delays. The charging station was subject to approval by the Architectural Review Board (ARB) because it was treated as a sign under local zoning laws. The ARB raised concerns over the color of the stations and the lack of nighttime lighting, but in the end they unanimously approved the charging station. This obstacle added two months to the project timeline.
As an online video company, lynda.com of course made a great two minute film about their charging station. Take a look:


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The Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau (OCTB) aims for Osaka to be a city full of diversity, one of the concepts for DMO business development, and prepares proactive tourism strategies with an eye on post-COVID-19. As one such strategy, the OCTB develops new initiatives to promote LGBTQ tourism.
The OCTB is proud to announce that Osaka has become a Featured Destination of the International LGBTQ+ Travel Association (IGLTA) for 2021! The OCTB became a member of the IGLTA in 2018.
In addition to the LGBTQ information portal “Visit Gay Osaka”, the OCTB has newly created a promotional video for the gay male market, and will release another one in the near future.
Under the initiative of the Osaka Convention & Tourism Bureau, to celebrate Pride Month this year accommodations, restaurants, cultural experience operators, and other businesses in Osaka will sell set plans that include the “One Cup Rainbow” sake from Ozeki Corporation designed with the symbolic LGBTQ rainbow colors. The OCTB is the first tourism bureau/ DMO in Japan to launch LGBTQ campaigns and events during Pride Month. A portion of sales will be donated to Osaka’s pride event “Rainbow Festa!” held every October.
For more information is on https://visitgayosaka.com/


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Starlink unveils a new premium internet 500 Mbps plan targeting businesses in remote locations that costs $500 per month…
Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service is rolling out a Premium Tier that can provide up to 500 Mbps. That’s twice the bandwidth that can currently be achieved with the standard service. But, it comes with a substantial price. However, it’s not for everyday consumers. Rather, it’s intended to benefit businesses or enterprise customers that are located in remote regions with poor and/or little infrastructure.
New Starlink Premium 500 Mbps Internet Tier Debuts with $500 per Month Price Tag
The new Starlink 500 Mbps tier will charge $2,500 for all of the required hardware, alongside a $500 deposit fee and a $500 monthly subscription service. While that sounds out-of-this-world expensive, it’s actually not as costly as what some businesses are currently paying. For example, a gold mining operation in Alaska was paying more than $8,000 per month for a pitiful 2 Mbps speed and 750 ms latency. So, Starlink’s new service will be a huge improvement. Starlink writes on its website:
“Starlink Premium delivers the same low latency with higher throughput allocation to serve small offices of 10-20 users, storefronts, and residential locations across the globe. Starlink Premium users can expect download speeds between 150 Mbps and 500 Mbps and latency as low as 20 ms in most locations.”


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You know that lovely piece of equipment that sits on or around your television? The one that lets you get all of those channels that you pay for but don’t watch? That same piece of equipment that was given to you by your cable company and that they charge you some $20 a month to rent from them? Well, if the Federal Communications Commission gets its way—which it usually does—the market for those things is going to explode in the very near future.
On Wednesday, the regulatory body announced a proposal that would allow cable and satellite subscribers to pick their own device that they want to use to watch programming—a move that would enable other tech companies and manufacturers (your Googles, Apples, and Amazons down to more localized manufacturers) to get in the game of developing these products and putting their own spin on it and integrating their own tech. The FCC’s five commissioners have a vote on the proposal scheduled for February 18.
According to the FCC, 99 percent of pay-TV subscribers are chained to their set-top box because cable and satellite providers have kept that market locked up. And as a result there has been a lack of competition in the space, meaning fewer choices and higher prices for the consumer—an average of $231 per year in rental fees and a total of $20 billion per year going from consumers’ wallets to their providers.


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Nuun launched Immunity, the brand's latest innovation created to support the body’s natural immune defense systems. Nuun Immunity was designed around a botanical blend containing anti-inflammatories, antioxidants and vitamins, and also includes electrolytes optimized for daily hydration.
Positive Beverage has added the American Heart Association to its list of charitable organizations hydrated with over 5,000 beverages at the Orange County Heart & Stroke Walk.
Celsius Holdings, Inc., maker of the leading global fitness drink, CELSIUS, today announced its entry into the drug store channel with distribution of its Originals line at over 550 CVS stores nationwide.
Currently launching its newly developed healthy beverage collection in Atlanta, HydroONE Premium Beverages took part in the 9th anniversary celebration of Lucy's Market, located in the city's Buckhead neighborhood.
Gratitude Health Inc., today announced it has entered into a definitive exchange and spinoff agreement with Vapir Enterprises, Inc, formerly traded under the symbol: VAPI.
Today, AQUAhydrate unveiled its Military Ambassador Program to encourage health and wellness amongst military service persons and the community that supports them.
Following a 20-year journey through the Himalayan Mountains, Himalayan Natural Mineral Water is ready to make its U.S. debut.
Boxed Water kicked off the first of many activations for its Better for Our Planet campaign, at the South By Southwest (SXSW) conference and festival in early March.
Today, Red Bull Energy Drink announced a limited edition can and 4-pack, in collaboration with Live Nation and their festival partners.
The San Jose Sharks are proud to announce a new partnership with Verve Beverage Company.
Introducing the new line-up of Sparkling Poland Spring Brand Natural Spring Water, made with real spring water, real fruit flavors and refreshing bubbles.
Canada Dry launched Canada Dry Ginger Ale and Lemonade, a new, delightful flavor combination.
FIJI Water, America’s No. 1 premium imported bottled water brand, recently unveiled its new FIJI Water Sports Cap bottle featuring a slim and sleek design.
Grass Fed Coffee announced today that it is now accepting online orders via it’s website, www.grassfedcoffee.com, and via Amazon.com in three-packs and twelve-packs, with free shipping for Prime members.


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China Unicom launching iPhone 4 (with Wi-Fi!), iPad
Looks like iPhone 4 will hit China Unicom next month, and with Wi-Fi to boot. Apparently the iPad is coming as well, but not at the same time -- or any time specified at all yet.
Previous versions of the iPhone in China have controversially not included Wi-Fi and suffered in sales compared to real iPhones sold unlocked in Hong Kong or smuggled in via the gray market.
Still no word on China's largest carrier, China Mobile, or whether or not any of the CMDA technology Apple is apparently cooking up is Chinese CDMA.
[Market Watch via AppleInsider]
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Our news, reviews, opinions, and easy to follow guides can turn any iPhone owner into an Apple aficionado
Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.


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LIBA launches new 'Keep South Louisville Weird' campaign
The Louisville Independent Business Alliance has launched the Keep South Louisville Weird campaign to support local independent businesses.
The poster and billboard for the campaign were unveiled Thursday afternoon at Supreme Peace Yoga.
"It's amazing, you know, there's everything from the international restaurant scene to gift shops to our coffee shops and also, of course, all the business-to-business services we have - designers, printers, etc. - so really a great community of local, independent businesses that can support each other," said Jennifer Rubenstein, executive director of LIBA.
A 2012 study by LIBA found for every $100 spent at local, independent business, $55 remained in the community, as opposed to $14 when shopping at chain stores.


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Inulin Market Size, Growth Opportunities, Current Trends, Forecast by 2018 to 2028
Fact.MR has recently published a report, titled [Global Inulin Market 2020 by Key Countries, Companies, Type and Application]. The research report provides an in-depth explanation of the various factors that are likely to drive the market. It discusses the future ...
11 days ago


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Exponent has bought Dennis Publishing, the parent to both Cyclist and Bikes ETC.
Rumours of a sale surfaced earlier this year, with another magazine publisher expected to take ownership. The private equity backers now in charge do have publishing experience, formerly owning BikeRadar parent Immediate Media.
Immediate sold to Hubert Burda Media in January of last year.
The value of the sale hasn’t been disclosed, though City Am speculates on a figure around the £150 million mark. Proceeds of the sale will go to founder Felix Dennis’ long-term passion of repopulating English forests via the Heart of England Forest charity.
Exponent executive, David McGovern, said of the buyout: “We believe that there is a significant opportunity to grow print and digital platforms, which will allow it to reach and engage even more readers and customers. We look forward to combining their expert knowledge with our own deep experience in consumer media and e-commerce to help further develop Dennis’ strong market positions and build on Felix Dennis’ legacy.”
Dennis Publishing’s portfolio boasts over 50 million readers and over 2.5 million magazine sales per month. Titles include Coach, Cyclist, Custom PC, CarBuyer, Computer Shopper and Auto Express.
Dennis chief executive James Tye added: “I’m thrilled to announce this exciting partnership between Dennis and Exponent. I’m confident that Exponent’s experience in our vibrant industry coupled with Dennis’ talented and experienced team, allied with our world class brands, will prove to be a formidable and unbeatable force in the publishing sector.
“As partners, we share the belief that innovation and ambition are the keys to success and it’s this shared vision that will propel Dennis to its next phase of growth.”


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This week we have had so many changes for some structured cabling projects it has been hard to keep up with some of the changes.
Our cable labels TCL-49 from Tech Cable Labels and our standard LSL 78 have been flying out the company to new projects in USA and UK. We are in the final stages of talk to sign a project that is bigger than anyone at our company has seen for many years.
More news to follow, but it’s a project the other side of the world and includes all cabling of so many parts of the project it’s hard to keep on top right now.
Cable labels are still been sold across the world and our expansion in the UK is growing every week now, with so many links in the UK it soon be time to make a visit back to my home country again to keep on top of the work we have there. Our Tech Cable labels keep getting better and we are working very hard to get the labeling software up to speed @ www.printmycablelabels.com.
We are very busy trying to interface our new 3D CAD Estimation software into the labeling business as well as making the 3D software so easy to use; we can make a structured cabling quote in less than 5 minutes.
We have more information as we make progress on all these projects.


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If we talk about Snapchat, everything is going wrong for them after CEO, Evan Spiegel commented something unusual regarding India. Well, Snapchat is an app which gives the camera the first priority.
|Facebook vs Snapchat|
We have seen how Facebook had tried to adopt many things from Snapchat. Facebook after making an exact copy of Snapchat’s popular AR filters, now wants to go one step further and use its army of developers to make this war crueler. During an F8 developer conference, Mark Zuckerberg talked about two step to bring something new in the market.
The first step was to release products that people already knew about (Well, this might sound like copying). The second one is to build the first mainstream augmented reality platform.
Mark Zuckerberg Said
“We’re not just going to build basic cameras, we’re going to build the first mainstream augmented reality platform”According to Mark Zuckerberg, the company is also working on Facebook Camera, which he called the first augmented reality platform. Facebook had already added special effects inspired by Snapchat to its core apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger. Facebook even brought Snapchat stories to these apps.
When Mark Zuckerberg was asked if Facebook had stopped innovating he said
“I Guess I am not that worried about that. I mean, I feel like we do different kinds of work in different areas”
Facebook invited developers all around the world to use its tools to create filters, geofilters, masks, etc. Not only this, Mark Zuckerberg also hinted plans regarding spectacle-like hardware in coming future.
“I used to think that glasses were going to be the first mainstream augmented reality”
Mark Zuckerberg even discussed about Evan Spiegel’s "Indians are too poor to use Snapchat" comment, he said:
“I think one thing that people probably don’t think about as much as we do is innovation to serve everyone in the community, not just the high end, right?”
Do you really think Facebook will bring down Snapchat?