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In our annual poll of executives at leading design and virtual prototyping software companies, we found that in difficult economic times, providing customers with easy-to-use, value-added products is even more important. We asked executives to give their views on the importance of 2D to 3D, upfront simulation, and trends that will affect the software market in 2010.
The 2D-to-3D Barrier
Each year, CAD users cite that there are still barriers to migrating from 2D to 3D, and most include ease of use as one of those barriers. But, according to Jeff Ray, CEO of Dassault Systèmes SolidWorks, more people than ever before are adopting 3D. “Once they make the change, they never go back. For us, it’s respecting the user’s reality – they still need 2D to get the job done,” Ray explained.
Ease of adoption of a 3D product also continues to be a major concern for many customers. The learning curve, cost, and change in processes all lead to hesitation in migrating to 3D. “Modeling in 3D is a slightly different design process from modeling in 2D,” said Tom Shoemaker, vice president of solutions marketing for PTC. “Users must change their way of thinking about a design from simple 2D tasks like drawing lines and geometries, to something that resembles sculpting or a richer 3D visualization of a shape. 3D products are becoming more intuitive and much easier to use, which helps overcome the ease-of-use barrier,” he added.
Dan Staples, director of Solid Edge product development for Siemens PLM Software, agrees that ease of adoption is critical. “Most 2D users are familiar with product development and refining designs using a certain workflow. Generally, that workflow is to design in each orthogonal view,” he explained. “Then when changes are required, they manipulate specific elements within each view accordingly. The process is simple to grasp and master, but is not automated. Most 3D CAD systems automate by replaying the model’s design steps upon an edit. So, the 2D user has to learn how to program a model so it reacts a certain way during an edit.”
Simplifying the 3D environment also helps in adoption from 2D. “Feature-based solid modeling is conceptually challenging compared to 2D, most 3D CAD systems are overloaded with features, and 3D itself is difficult to conceptualize,” according to Chris Randles, president and CEO of SpaceClaim. “We address the first problem by being fully dedicated to direct modeling, which brings the ease of 2D editing to 3D.”
For Autodesk, the biggest barrier to 3D adoption is the status quo, according to Amy Bunszel, senior director of Digital Engineering. “It’s human nature that when people are comfortable with something, they don’t want to rock the boat. We hear, ‘It works today, why change?’ The downturn in the economy will be the biggest advantage to people changing. It’s not business as usual and old methods simply will not work anymore.” Added Bunszel, “Companies must rethink their design-to-manufacturing processes with fewer people to take on the workload. One way to be more effective and increase productivity is with 3D design.”
But with the down economy, cost also is a factor, although Shoemaker believes it should not be a barrier to migrating to 3D. “There are general misconceptions about the cost of 2D versus 3D CAD products. The price of a 2D package is roughly the same as an entry-level 3D CAD product. The benefits of 3D modeling in a design process can also significantly outweigh the initial cost of the 3D application,” he added. “The higher fidelity, richer 3D model enables engineers to streamline design, analysis, and manufacturing processes.”
Integrating Simulation and Analysis
So, as organizations are required to do more with less due to cutbacks, designers and engineers are being asked to wear more hats – assuming the role of analyst in some cases, and looking for more upfront simulation and analysis capabilities in their design software.
“The trend of designers taking a more active role in performing simulation has been ongoing for the last few years,” said Staples. “The recent economic situation has further escalated the need for engineers and designers to cut costs through reduced physical prototypes and alternative materials. Yet, they can’t sacrifice product performance or quality.”
According to Ray, SolidWorks’ simulation business continues to be one of the fastest-growing products in the company’s portfolio. “Users want a tightly integrated solution that doesn’t make them think about how to use multiple products together.”
Shoemaker agrees that integration is key in upfront simulation and analysis. “True upfront simulation gives designers the capability to perform simulation earlier in the design cycle in order to validate performance requirements as they design. The upfront capabilities should ideally be seamlessly integrated into the design environment so designers don’t need to learn another application’s user interface to import or export data,” Shoemaker explained. “Designers also need access to a variety of capabilities that will help them address a broader range of requirements such as human factors, manufacturing tolerances, and electromechanical performance specifications in addition to the traditional thermal and structural requirements. Designing better products earlier in the process can reduce time wasted in multiple designs and time-intensive back-end analysis iterations.”
“Many of our customers have risen to recent challenges by focusing on what they do best: innovation in engineering and accelerating time to market,” said Randles. “One of the best ways to do that is to separate the concept engineering and detail design phases to ensure that concepts deserve to work before investing in expensive, detailed CAD models. With concept models that incorporate input from disparate engineering teams, industrial designers, customers and suppliers, and engineers can run simulations that prove the concept and create an excellent specification for detailed CAD work,” added Randles.
Virtual Prototyping and Design
Virtual prototyping is a trend that has been the focus of discussion for a number of years. Since CAD and design software are vital parts of virtual prototyping, we asked our executives if they believe true virtual prototyping – enabling a designer to simulate how a product will work entirely in software, without physical models – is possible with today’s software tools.
“It’s interesting how, every few years, a vendor will roll out the ‘virtual prototyping’ mantra,” said Ray. “The ugly fact is very few vendors offer products that actually play well together to provide the complete virtual prototyping experience. Our goal continues to be to put customer needs first. That’s why we were the first to offer integrated analysis. Today, the fit is seamless. We are now at the level of maturity that we have gone past simple stress analysis and have actually integrated flow and event-based motion,” Ray added.
Bunszel added that more of Autodesk’s customers are adopting specialized tools in order to put more detail into their digital models. “Are we capable of getting everything in the model? Yes, of course,” she stated. “We see more and more people working with the single digital model starting with conceptual design and bringing it all the way through to manufacturing. The customers who are greatly reducing their reliance on physical prototyping demonstrate that it is working.”
But as with any application, the success of virtual prototyping is only as great as the tools, and not all tools are created equal. “Some CAD tools are better than others in their ability to support virtual prototyping,” according to Shoemaker. “Virtual prototyping capabilities have been available in software for many years. Continuous improvements in CAD/CAE applications have enabled higher-quality, more accurate results. A few examples of improvements in CAD/CAE software that enable virtual prototyping include higher fidelity modeling of complex shapes and assemblies, better data interoperability between applications, increased breadth of simulation capabilities, and better user experience, which makes simulation capabilities accessible to CAD designers,” Shoemaker explained.
“The feature set in mature 3D systems has been able to provide complete digital prototyping for some time,” added Staples. “You can digitally test fit and function to determine mass properties, interferences, motion, and structural integrity. While most of these capabilities are available in a mature 3D system, the real difference between them becomes evident when it’s time to refine or optimize a product’s function and finish. Physical prototypes are still produced. Digital or virtual prototyping has reduced them by 35 percent from what we have seen at our customers,” according to Staples.
But according to Randles, the true value of CAE is not in virtual prototyping, but in using simulation at the beginning of the design process, before constructing detailed CAD models. “Certainly, CAE technology can successfully model an increasingly broad set of multiphysics problems, which narrows the gap between what can be accomplished virtually and physically. With today’s rapid prototyping technology, the cost of creating a detailed model in CAD is often far greater than the cost of constructing a physical prototype,” Randles explained. “If simulation is merely used to test a virtual prototype, it does not add significant value over testing a physical prototype.”
The Forecast for 2010
While there are some glimmers of hope for economic recovery this year, software vendors are generally cautious regarding what 2010 will bring. Some vendors have adjusted pricing, release schedules, and other aspects of their business, while others are proceeding with business as usual. “The economy has absolutely no impact on our investment in R&D,” stated Ray. “We have actually increased our investment in technology.”
Autodesk also is staying the course with its current release cycle. Said Bunszel, “We are still committed to release new versions of our products as always. We are certainly focused on affordable innovation for mainstream manufacturers, however. Our customers need to be innovative, but they need to do so in a way that allows them to be profitable,” she added.
According to Randles, SpaceClaim has adopted a continuous development process in which they release new functionality every few months. “In contrast to large CAD and engineering software vendors who rarely release significant new functionality more than once a year, we work closely with customers and partners to get them the capabilities they need as soon as practicable.”
Mark Anderson, vice president of software for Concepts NREC, agrees that while the recession is affecting customer demands on the pricing side, it has not affected the company’s product release cycle. “In general, the time cycle of a recession is not significantly long enough to directly impact longer-term product strategy in software. Customers are asking for a lot more specifics about what they can expect and when in the next versions. They are also becoming more upfront about specific demands and requirements,” he added. “The nature of these requests is not new, but the pressure to control costs and get maximum value is definitely higher than I’ve seen in a long time.”
As far as new trends in the software market for 2010, hardware continues to be important, with multicore processing. Added Anderson, “I see hardware changes driving a lot of trends. New and inexpensive multiple-core processors are really starting to change how computationally intensive applications are designed and sold.”
Another trend is the impact of data management within CAD. Said Bunszel, “Due to workforce cutbacks, we’re seeing a trend to invest more in data management. Previously, designs may have been organized on a file system, but now there aren’t as many people to maintain processes manually.”
Staples agrees that data management will play a larger role in selecting CAD products. “PDM and CAD are inseparable. Anyone purchasing CAD today is also making a decision on their next-generation PDM system. The key here is selecting a vendor that can take you from a single user to thousands while protecting your data,” he explained.
“Improved collaboration – making it easier for engineers to share their designs and get help, regardless of technology, time zones, or geographies” will be an important trend, according to Ray. “Products will ‘play better’ together and new collaboration tools will help engineers design great things.”


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Cédric Charbit named as mentor of 31st edition of ANDAM
As applications open for its 31st edition, ANDAM (France's Association Nationale pour le Développement des Arts de la Mode) has announced that Cédric Charbit, CEO of Balenciaga and member of Kering's executive committee, is the competition's new designated mentor. Balenciaga, which has achieved popularity and success under creative director Demna Gvasalia, recently announced its return to Haute Couture.
Charbit succeeds Renzo Rosso in the role of ANDAM mentor. Last year, the founder and president of Italian fashion group OTB (owner of Diesel and Maison Margiela, among others) awarded the prize to Christelle Kocher, founder and designer of ready-to-wear brand Koché. Global production and distribution of her brand have since been licensed to OTB.
Founded in 1989 by Nathalie Dufour, with the support of France's Ministry of Culture and Communication, and the DEFI, the fashion competition dedicated to young design will also welcome two new sponsors this year: L'Oréal Paris – already an official partner of Paris Fashion Week – and Google France.
The pair join Chanel, Chloé, the Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent, Galeries Lafayette, Hermès, Kering, Lacoste, Longchamp, LVMH, OTB, Saint Laurent, Swarovski, Tomorrow London Holdings, design and manufacturing group OBO, and trade show organisers Première Classe.
As in previous editions, ANDAM 2020 will award four prizes: the grand prize, worth 250,000 euros; the Pierre Bergé prize, which replaces the creative label prize (100,000 euros); the fashion accessories prize (50,000 euros); and the innovation prize, which was introduced in 2017 and is also worth 50,000 euros.
The competition will therefore award a total of 450,000 euros this year. Winning brands will also take part in a mentoring programme offered by ANDAM's sponsors. Applications close on 27 April and the list of finalists will be revealed in May, while the competition's winners will be announced on 2 July 2020.
As well as Koché, which received the grand prize at the competition's 30th edition, ANDAM awarded the Pierre Bergé prize to French designer Nicolas Lecourt Mansion in 2019, while the accessories prize went to Khaore, an ethical, New York-based brand founded in 2017 by Wei Hung Chen and Raiheth Rawla. The innovation prize was won by British business Worn Again Technologies.
Copyright © 2023 FashionNetwork.com All rights reserved.

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World's Largest MBA Case Competition Proud to Welcome FlightHub as Its Premium Diamond Sponsor
MONTREAL, Nov. 13, 2019 /CNW/ - FlightHub, a leading online travel technology company, is proud to be partnering with Concordia University's John Molson School of Business MBA Case Competition, which will take place the week of January 6th, 2020 in Montreal. In addition to sponsoring the week-long event, several of FlightHub's executives will be included in the panel of judges.
"More than 300 business executives serve as judges, using their unique backgrounds, experiences and perspectives to critically assess the participants' presentations," state the event's organizers. "In 1992, the competition went international and now comprises 36 teams coming from 5 continents. It is the oldest and largest case competition in the world involving 200 outstanding MBA students from well-known business schools as well as judges from the Montreal business community. Teams are evaluated on creativity, insight, substance and plausibility of implementation. We are proud to welcome FlightHub as our premium diamond sponsor this year, for what will be the 39th edition of the John Molson School of Business Case Competition."
The competition is open to top business schools worldwide and is recognized as the largest case competition of its kind. During the event, students will be presented with seven unpublished case studies, as well as a live case presentation by a company facing an actual business challenge. It is an opportunity for the students to apply the skills and knowledge they have acquired throughout their MBA training, as well as to showcase their business acumen to an international audience.
"As a Montreal-based company focused on connecting people to new places and experiences internationally, this tournament is very aligned with us as an organization," states Melanie Tabet, FlightHub's Director of Communications and Brand Management. "The case competition is the largest of its kind and gathers some of the world's brightest business students in the city where FlightHub has chosen to establish its headquarters. We are excited to be involved with an event that unites the business and academic communities on such a multicultural level."
FlightHub and its American affiliate JustFly are top online travel agencies serving 5 million customers per year in North America and generating over $3 billion in annual sales. Their mission is to help more people connect to the world and each other by providing travelers with the cheapest flights available, along with exceptional customer service. They achieve this by investing heavily in both technology and people, constantly striving to streamline and optimize the customer experience. Proudly headquartered in Montreal, they are growing rapidly and have imminent plans for international expansion.
For further information: please contact Mélanie Tabet at 514-240-8008 or by email at [email protected]


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BOSTON (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) With Cyber Monday nearly two weeks away, a new report suggests online retailers will rake in more revenue during the holiday season than the year before.
Net News Check released the report from Forrester Research on Thursday. The report projects 2012 holiday sales to be 15-percent higher than 2011 with retailers receiving an estimated $68 billion in online revenue.
Forrester Research says many customers will be looking for free shipping and 27-percent of those customers will be adding unplanned items to their cart in order to meet free shipping minimum totals.
Some online retailers are already rolling out their Cyber Monday and Black Friday deals. Walmart is advertising their "ultimate online specials" that include a 32" television and an iPod touch both for $179.
Here are a few Cyber Monday sites:
© 2017 Cox Media Group.
Report: Internet holiday sales to see 15-percent increase in 2012
Led by technology and health care, stocks set more records
AT&T suit may herald a new antitrust era - or Trumpian pique
Conyers confirms harassment settlement; ethics probe opens
Indictment returned against man in NYC bike path attack


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NAB senior leaders discuss the economy and why there’s good news ahead for business.
SME confidence is expected to increase as financial markets show some improvement and consumers continue to spend strongly in certain sectors. While the dollar is expected to remain high, the cash rate could fall as low as 2.25 percent this year, reveals NAB’s Head of Australian Economics.
Going into 2013, caution is still the by-word for many Australian owners of small and medium sized businesses (SMEs). “They’re still very conservative in their gearing and, like consumers, are putting a lot into bank deposits,” says Rob Brooker, NAB Head of Australian Economics.
Anxiety fuelled initially by the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) has been exacerbated for some time by uncertainty about Europe and, more recently, the US fiscal cliff. However, with global financial markets looking better than they have for some time, confidence could increase throughout the year.
For SMEs this could be tempered by consumer caution – though Dean Pearson, Head of Industry Analysis at NAB, warns against the assumption that consumers aren’t spending. “We’re seeing more discrimination than in an upturn but they’re still spending strongly in some sectors,” he says. “For instance, they’re buying cars, going on holiday and visiting cafés and restaurants, and we’d expect this to continue.”
Australia’s multi-speed economy is still being affected by the high exchange rate. Although the mining sector has come off the boil lately as commodity prices receded, the Aussie dollar has stayed high, keeping the squeeze on non-mining exports like tourism and manufacturing. Governments are also cutting back and, overall, there are signs of increasing job insecurity.
“We’ve seen a lot of jobs lost in manufacturing and hardly any growth at all in retailing,” says Brooker. “Wholesaling and construction are also generally weak and tourism is still struggling with the high dollar, so there’ll still be a fair amount of pressure on the economy for the next six months or so. This is likely to be felt more acutely by smaller businesses because, in general, they have fewer opportunities to diversify. Small businesses in the weaker sectors are likely to be particularly exposed.”
This may be offset by further interest rate cuts – NAB is anticipating that the cash rate will fall as low as 2.25 percent by the end of the year. “As the mining sector starts to shift from its construction cycle to supplying exports, employment growth may be tougher and there’s an incentive for the Reserve Bank to cut rates in order to get consumers spending again,” adds Pearson.
The mining boom, the high dollar and recovery from the GFC have all conspired to distort the economy and trigger significant structural adjustment. For example, around 250,000 jobs were created in health, childcare and aged care over the past four years while around 150,000 were lost in manufacturing over the same period.
“It’s more important than ever to understand your customers, to see where they’re spending and to search out opportunities to meet that demand,” says Pearson. “For instance, the number of tourists coming to Australia is up by about three percent but Chinese arrivals are up by 17 percent.”
As the recent Government White Paper pointed out, Asia will continue to present wide-ranging opportunities for those willing make the effort to understand the market and to remain agile and open-minded.
For more economic analysis read the latest NAB Quarterly Business Survey – December 2012
© National Australia Bank Limited. ABN 12 004 044 937 AFSL and Australian Credit Licence 230686.


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Quick Note: Details on RIM's L-Series, N-Series BlackBerry 10 Smartphones Leaked
June 25, 2012 10:18 AM
comment(s) - last by
Two BB10 smartphones get an early reveal via leaked slides
Although RIM currently appears to be
self-inflicted knife wounds
, new leaked slides show that the company is still hard at work on fresh hardware to headline its BlackBerry 10 operating system. The slides shows two devices, the L-Series (
) full-touch screen device and its N-Series (
) QWERTY keyboard-equipped sibling.
Although not much is known about the hardware inside the phones, the L-Series is said to feature a 768x1280 OLED display (356 PPI) and is 2.16" wide. The L-Series looks similar to the dev hardware that was shown off at the
official unveil of BlackBerry 10
[Image Source: N4BB.com]
The N-Series' screen size is obviously compromised by its physical keyboard and is limited to a 720x720 screen resolution (330 PPI). The N-Series is slightly narrower at 2.08".
For comparison, the iPhone 4S and Galaxy S III weigh in at 326 PPI and 306 PPI respectively.
According to N4BB, the L-Series could make its way to the market in September, while those looking for some physical keyboard action with the N-Series will have to wait until the first quarter of 2013.
This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
RE: Answer me, please?
6/26/2012 2:23:03 PM
Why? Because it's still being run by incompetent leaders after Bastille was shown the door. It was on a decline by the time RIM v. NTP ended. Whatever it's doing now is buying time until excrement really hits the fan.
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Digital platforms allowing people to book short-term rental accommodation have been one of the disruptive innovations that will define the past decade.
As with many technological changes, there are pros and cons, including a loss of long-term rental housing for locals and unfair competition for traditional accommodation providers.
The Chamber advocates for Fair Rules for new and established businesses and supports new initiatives to level the playing field. One proposal is to require companies promoting short-term rentals to share information with local governments. This would help municipalities track and ensure all businesses providing accommodation are licensed.


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Tanzanian start-up Kilimo Fresh is a digital distributor of fresh produce to hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, institutions, wholesalers and export markets. The young company has now been named the winner of the MEST Africa Challenge, winning US$50,000 in equity investment.
Several start-ups from Ethiopia, Kenya, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Ghana, Tanzania, Senegal, Nigeria and South Africa were selected to take part in the MEST Africa Challenge, run by pan-African training programme, seed fund, incubator and hub MEST Africa.
The challenge, which last year had three winners, offered the winning company US$50,000 in equity investment, plus access to Microsoft support, coaching, and a continent-wide network of start-up hubs.
Disrupt-africa.com reports that, after a virtual pitch event held today on August 12th, Tanzania’s Kilimo Fresh was named the winner. The start-up is developing digital farming solutions, and will now benefit from MEST support and funding.


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Jake Ejercito and style influencers to grace Abreeza Mall’s Breezapalooza
Style Origin is an annual fashion event that tours Ayala Malls nationwide. This time, it is set to take over Abreeza Mall. And to make this year’s edition of the signature fashion spectacle a truly invigorating experience, Ayala Malls promises “MAS!”: “more music, art, and style.”
The Abreeza Mall leg aims to deliver all that and more with a fun-filled fashion festival dubbed Breezapalooza happening at the Abreeza Mall Activity Center on July 30, 4pm.


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The SDGS still face a big challenge: providing universal access to modern energy services and doubling energy efficiency and renewable energy.
A look at the pyramid of employee dynamics that provide the base to an ethical organization.
How to build the 5 levels of ethical company culture
Comments Off on Supply Chain Scrutiny Drives Need for More Accurate Data
Many suppliers are ill-equipped to identify, track and manage emissions, and even manufacturers who are able to measure and report emissions still face challenges, especially when it comes to ensuring data accuracy.
Read more here:
Supply Chain Scrutiny Drives Need for More Accurate Data
Comments Off on Home Energy Management Takes Center Stage at CES 2012
Last week's consumer electronics extravaganza featured plenty of whimsical gadgets — gyro-stabilized electric unicycles, anyone? — but it also showed just how practical, and poised for popularity, home energy management systems have become.
Or, to put this question another way, is the corporate sustainability office in the wrong box in the organizational chart? The first in a series of articles that looks how organization design affects sustainability performance.
Is the CSO Trapped by Location?


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The Nothing Phone (2a) would be a cheaper smartphone than the other two previously launched models
The Nothing Phone (2a) is about to become a reality. The startup London team led by Carl Pei has just confirmed that its third smartphone will be officially presented to the world on March 5 at 12:30 Spanish time. If the rumors do not fail, it will be the most economical model of all those launched by the brand so far.
The Nothing Phone (2a) already has an official presentation date
Through a statement published by the company, it has been confirmed that March 5 It will be the day chosen to present your new smartphone to the world. At the moment, however, the company has not revealed any more information about this device.
However, we know about him that he will be a cheaper terminal than the Phone (2), but it will still introduce important improvements with respect to the first smartphone in the brand’s history, the Nothing Phone (1). The brand itself made it clear at the time of its announcement a few weeks ago, where it assured that “it will be a product focused on the basic needs of the user, based on the design philosophy of Nothing.”
According to its leaked characteristics, the Phone (2a) would equip a MediaTek Dimensity 7200 processorin addition to a 120 Hz AMOLED screen, 50 megapixel dual camera, Android 14 with Nothing OS 2.5, and the “Glyph” luminous interface in its rear part, whose design would have completely changed compared to the brand’s previous models. In the same way, there is talk of a possible price that would not reach 400 euros.
The presentation of the device will be held on March 5, and you can follow live through the brand’s official website from 12:30 Spanish time. Although no data on its availability has been revealed, since The Verge They assure that this new model will be available in the United States on a limited basis. Its launch in Europe is practically confirmed today.
To always be up to date with the latest in technology, subscribe to our official and verified Andro4all channel on WhatsApp.


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With just two trading sessions left in 2015, the markets are charging higher, but will it be enough to put the Dow back in positive territory for the year? The Dow saw gains of 192 points Tuesday, but the big level to watch is 17823. If the Dow does not end positive for the year, it will be the first time that's happened since 2008. The Dow wasn't the only winner; the S&P 500 saw gains of 21 points and the Nasdaq added nearly 67 points.
Oil rebounded as investors awaited U.S. crude supply data, which was scheduled to come out Wednesday morning. Oil had plunged Monday on renewed worries over a global supply glut and uncertain demand. Crude rose 2.9% to settle at $37.87 per barrel.
Activist investor Carl Icahn revved investor engines late Monday night by upping his bid for auto parts company Pep Boys (NYSE:PBY). Icahn's newest bid of $18.50 per share bested rival Bridgestone by $1.50, putting the deal in the neighborhood of $1 billion. Shares of Pep Boys jumped 8.8% to hit a new multi-year high.
Online retail giant Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) had a very merry Christmas! The e-commerce company touched a new all-time high Tuesday of $696.44 thanks to strong holiday sales.
Amazon was one of the biggest leaders of the Nasdaq for the day, seeing gains of 2.7%, but could it be one of the next names to join the Dow in order to keep the old-time index "relevant?" Talk is that Amazon would be one of the first picks along with Google, owned by Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL), to join the Dow.
Who's hiring? Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)! The electric vehicle high-flyer announced plans to hire thousands of new employees in the coming years, with a particular focus on its race to build an autonomous car. The electric car company has already grown by 14 times since 2010 and plans to add another 4,500 California-based employees in the next four years. Shares of Tesla charged higher by 3.6%.


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SINGAPORE - Last month, perhaps for the first time in years, a nondescript night lounge in Tanjong Katong found itself in the news again.
Sin Po Po Bar, said to be the last Chinese hostess bar of its kind in Singapore, was mentioned in news reports about Malaysian Seow Lam Seng, who fled Singapore in 1980 after being spotted by police officers allegedly carrying a pistol in his back pocket.
He and his accomplice, who was shot by a police officer in defence and killed, were seen behaving suspiciously near Sin Po Po Bar in Tanjong Katong Road.
The Straits Times takes a look at some old-school eateries that you can still visit.
1. Islamic Restaurant, from 1921
745 North Bridge Road
This 97-year-old restaurant has served a fusion of Arab and Indian cuisine for decades, and prides itself on its Turkish-Indian version of nasi briyani.
It also serves Roti Mariam, a cross between naan and prata that can be eaten with sugar, condensed milk or curry.
It is said to be created by a woman of the same name who reportedly sold the unique roti or bread from a pushcart in Kampong Glam.
She is said to have been hired by the Islamic Restaurant, which put her dish on its menu.
2. Chin Mei Chin Confectionery in East Coast Road, from 1940
204 East Coast Road
The Hainanese-style coffee shop is known for its traditionally designed interior, kaya toast and soft-boiled eggs.
It serves lavishly buttered toasted buns, egg tarts and other pastries, along with local breakfast staples of soft boiled eggs with tea and coffee.
The 78-year-old shop sits at the edge of a row of shophouses, with neighbours such as the 328 Katong Laksa.
In 2013, the owner of the shop came out to quash rumours that it would be closing.
3. Hainan Chicken Rice Ball in Jalan Besar, from 1945
3 Dickson Road
Third-generation owner Ba Chin Fong, 58, told The Straits Times that the shop has its beginnings from 1945, when the Japanese surrendered.
Regular chicken rice costs $3.50, while its signature chicken rice balls cost $4.50 per plate.
Located in Shing Boon Hwa Food Centre, a small coffee shop in Jalan Besar, the store sells hand-moulded balls of chicken rice, with Hainanese steamed chicken lashed with dark soy sauce. The shop also sells braised pork dishes.
4.Heap Seng Leong in Lavender, from 1974
10 North Bridge Road
Heap Seng Leong, located in a sleepy housing estate in Lavender, is an old-school coffee shop known for its butter coffee.
The Chinese-style coffee is served with a thick slab of butter in it.
The dimly lit shop also serves kaya toast and boiled eggs, and there is another stall inside the shop that sells epok-epok or curry puffs.
5. Mariner's Corner in Tanjong Pagar, from 1984
120 Cantonment Road
Western restaurant Mariner's Corner has a distinctly 80s vibe, with its checkered tablecloths and oldies music.
It serves dishes like colonial oxtail stew, lobster bisque, escargot and cuts of steak.
Among the restaurant's clientele are seafarers who visit the Singapore Mariners' Club, which is housed in the same building.
6. Shashlik Restaurant in Orchard Road, from 1986
545 Orchard Road
Russo-Hainanese diner Shashlik Restaurant was reportedly opened by nine waiters, cooks and bartenders from another restaurant who pooled their life savings together to open it.
They had all lost their jobs when Troika, which also served Russian dishes by Hainanese chefs, closed suddenly.
The restaurant had closed temporarily and reopened in 2016, with minor renovations.
It is known for its borsch, a sour beetroot soup, and shashlik or skewered kebabs, and also serves flambed desserts.
SOURCES: The New Paper, The Straits Times archives


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US retail giant Target is in the early stages of developing its own mobile payment service. “Target’s team has taken some important decisions such as partnering with credit card companies,” Reuters reports. “The mobile wallet could launch as early as next year.” Target is the latest member of retailer-led consortium MCX to show interest in launching its own mobile payment service, following in the footsteps of Walmart which launched Walmart Pay earlier this month.
- Visa finalises acquisition of Rambus’ payments and ticketing businesses
- Ahold Delhaize brings mobile self-checkout to US supermarkets
- Payments networks begin rollout of single buy button for online commerce
- Report: EU antitrust investigators are examining Apple Pay
- EBA sets new Strong Customer Authentication deadline


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The tech segments of the stock market were a mixed bag today. The reason, this time at least, had nothing to do with technology and everything to do with medication. Oh, and Red Hat posted an operating profit, for whatever that's worth.The Dow closed on Friday at 10,604.59, down 110 points from Thursday but only minus 19 points from last Friday's close. The Big Board had its worst moment of the week on Tuesday's close -- when the bell rang, the index closed at 10,596 points that day. The Nasdaq ended Friday and closed out the week at 2034.23, dropping almost 24 points from yesterday, but ending another week on the plus side, up by 30 points from last Friday's close.
Surprisingly enough, tech stocks weren't the whipping boys for this week's Dow decline. Those honors went instead to the normally stable and dependable drug companies. The market edged lower on news that Merck & Co. will miss its second-quarter and full-year earnings forecasts due to disappointing sales of its arthritis medication Vioxx, and the conditions of foreign markets.
Paul McManus of John Hancock's Core Equity Fund provided a CNN reporter with the double-edged quote of the day on the drug company decline: "If you can't hide in drugs, where can you hide?" Something, we're sure, that many tech investors have been asking themselves as they witnessed their securities plummet late last year. Make that a vicodin with a codeine sidecar, please.
Red Hat in the blackRed Hat Linux made big headlines everywhere this week with its announcement of a $600,000 operating profit for this quarter. Announcing profits in a market segment that, according to industry doomsayers, will never make a dime, should be cause for celebration. For Red Hat, it meant that it was time to take a beating: Analysts at Hambrecht & Quist and Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock, noting that Red Hat's sales have actually dropped from the last quarter.
The company's announcement may eventually bring it more than it bargained for. The accounting method -- called pro forma -- used to divine that profit announcement exclude items like one-time chargers for mergers and restructuring activities. Pro forma results go against the grain of Generally Accepted Accounting Principals (GAAP) that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requires companies to use for their filings with that agency. When going by GAAP -- or what the Red Hat profit announcement called "on a reported basis" -- the company had a net loss of $27.6 million, or about 16 cents per share.
The SEC is investigating several companies for possible deception through the use of pro forma financial results. While Red Hat is not one of those companies under investigation, that the regulatory agency is looking into such results should be taken for what it is: A warning shot across the bow of public companies hoping to spruce up their public image during the economic downturn.
LynuxWorks beats a retreat
Embedded Linux software and service provider LynuxWorks has withdrawn its plans for an initial public offering (IPO). In a June 21 letter to the SEC, the San Jose, Calif.-based company said it had chosen to abort its planned IPO "due to general market conditions." LynuxWorks, apparently content not to elaborate further upon this decision, did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
Apple bitten by lawsuit
Apple Computer this week was hit with a patent-infringement lawsuit. Document processing company Pitney Bowes claims that one of its patents comprises the key technology in Apple's now-discontinued line of LaserWrite printers. Pitney Bowes has similar lawsuits pending against Xerox, Lexmark, and NEC, and recently settled with Hewlett-Packard, who ended up paying $400 million in damages.
Dateline: Big Blue
IBM this week received a green light from the European Commission to buy Informix Corp's database division. The EC issued a statement saying that its investigation has shown that IBM's share of the global distributed database management systems market does not raise any antitrust concerns. IBM's purchase of the Informix datbase business is valued at $1 billion.
Back in the land of Linux, the company teamed up with Trustix AS to release a joint product by the name of GoldBox. GoldBox was described as a turn-key IT infrastructure based on Linux, "the fastest growing operating systems for servers."
Change of guard at Borland
Borland Software Corporation on Friday announced the promotion of Frederick A. Ball to the office of executive vice president. In addition to his new role as excecutive VP, Ball will do double duty as the company's chief financial officer. Borland offers a range of development products; for the Linux platform it promotes a rapid application development environment under the name Kylix, and a "Kylix-compatible" version of Delphi 6.
Here's how Open Source and related techs ended this week on Wall Street:
|Company Name||Symbol||6/22 Close||6/15 Close|
|Borland Software Int'l||BORL||13.36||13.40|
|Merlin Software Tech.||MLSW.OB||0.16||0.125|
|VA Linux Systems||LNUX||2.94||2.79|
|Wind River Systems||WIND||18.00||21.00|


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Brandt Tractor unveils new facility
By Brandt TractorNews
Sept. 16, 2015 - After 23 years of service to the Saskatoon and northern Saskatchewan construction and forestry industry from their location on Millar Avenue in Saskatoon's North Industrial area, Brandt Tractor Ltd. is excited to welcome the public to their brand new 60th Street home. The all-new facility represents a well-timed vote of confidence by the company in the continuing strength of the Saskatoon and area economy and its industry base.
“Saskatoon has always been a key market for us, so we pulled out all the stops in the creation of this facility,” says Brandt President, Shaun Semple. “Its unique, forward-looking design and increased capacity will significantly enhance our ability to do what we do best; to help our customers to be productive and profitable by offering them the best support in the industry.”
The larger, LEAN-designed new facility was created to easily accommodate the growing size range within John Deere’s product line; from small skid steer loaders to large Production Class construction and mining equipment, as well as giving local businesses access to a greatly expanded service department and on-hand parts and whole goods inventory.
“Our provincial economy is tremendously resilient and we see significant long-term strength in the industry,” adds Saskatoon Branch Manager, Rod Bowes. “With the unveiling of this purpose-built facility – the only one of its kind in this market – we’re demonstrating our firm commitment to our customers.”
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The US Environmental Protection Agency is asking Volkswagen to take electric car production to the United States as part of compensation for the German carmaker’s fake emission results, according to a newspaper report from Germany's Welt am Sonntag.
The EPA is in discussion with Volkswagen over the punishment for 2015’s ‘dieselgate,’ when it was discovered over half a million VW diesel vehicles were critically in breach of emission caps, releasing up to 40 times the limit.
The report alluded to potential compensation through electric car production in Tennessee and construction of an electric vehicle charging station network, which may completely dash any hopes of a Volkswagen electric vehicle making its way to Australia despite the company’s increasing popularity.
Australian Volkswagen sales bumped up 10% in 2015 in trend with its 90% increase over the past 15 years but represents a comparatively small market that, along with the complex infrastructure costs and distraction of crisis management, thwarts any chance of cars, like the e-Up or e-Golf, being sold down under.
Despite Volkswagen's sales initiative to rebuild customer trust in America after the revelations of November, sales there dropped by seven per cent in January.
Another German newspaper, Bild am Sonntag, also previously reported Volkswagen's supervisory board chairman Dieter Poetsch has pledged full commitment to solving the crisis regardless of the impact on the company, so its priorities seem clear.
Bringing across new models and competing in the emerging Australian electric vehicle market will not be at the top of Volkswasgen’s list as it continues working towards a final report on the diesel crisis management to law firm Jones Day around April.
Neither Volkswagen nor the EPA have confirmed reports on a deal or commented on the ongoing negotiations, and Welt am Sonntag has not disclosed its source.


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Video takes up 58% of the total downstream volume of the internet today. And the slice of Netflix (NFLX) in it is huge. Yes, the streaming giant now takes up a whopping 15% of the total downstream volume across the entire internet, according to The Global Internet Phenomena Report October 2018.
In late 2018, it is no surprise that streaming video is the top application type on the internet. If anyone had to pick a favorite category for internet use, video will win in a landslide. And that is when we say that ‘Streaming Video’ includes not just over-the-top (OTT) video streaming services such as Netflix, YouTube, and Amazon Prime, but also operator-based streaming and direct consumer streaming services.
Streaming content offerings of DirectTV, Comcast, and the like, and social network video sharing and real-time streaming such as like FaceTime are also included.
Now, let’s get back to Netflix. The streaming giant, as of October 2018, is available in all but four countries worldwide and appears in the top 10 of all the regions when you check the internet usage. Yes, that right, the sheer volume of Netflix on fixed networks makes it among the cream, if not the top video site in the world.
Taking just the Americas, Netflix now has a mindblowing traffic share of 19.1%!! And Netflix also leads in the way it uses the data space. Playstation Downloads are in the tenth position with just 2.67% of the share. Now, here’s an interesting fact… Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 is 101GB on Sony’s PlayStation, while Grand Theft Auto V is 65GB. When you compare that with an hour of 4K video on Netflix, it only takes 7GB. That means that in the download space of Call of Duty, you can have 14 hours of 4K video.
Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) today reported its fourth quarter financial results for the period ended January 31, 2021. Net income for the fourth quarter was $911.3 million, or $4.10 per
Beyond Meat (NASDAQ: BYND), a specialist in plant-based meat substitutes, Thursday reported a wider loss for the fourth quarter, despite an increase in revenues. The numbers also missed the consensus
Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) reported fourth-quarter 2020 financial results after the regular market hours on Thursday. The space tourism company reported zero revenue in the fourth quarter, compared to $529,000


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WalMart today made a major announcement about how the low cost leader will continue to help American families save money. They will soon be test piloting a program of offering private EMS service.In an exclusive interview with CallTheCops Dan Bartlett an executive vice president with the company sat down with us to explain how WalMart EMS came to be. “Our fonder Sam Walton said ‘Listen to your associates. They are the best idea generators’. Each year we have grassroots surveys of our employees. Year after year we keep getting people asking us to do more to support associates who volunteer on fire/EMS services.”
Mr. Bartlett explains that many WalMart stores are in rural and suburban areas. Most rural areas are serviced by volunteer or paid-on-call emergency services. So it stands to reason that at many of their stores a few employees might be members of these volunteer services.
“One day a group of us executives was sitting around talking about what kinds of things we could do to support our associates who volunteer as EMTs. I can’t recall who said it but someone blurted out, that maybe we should own the ambulance. Support our volunteers by paying them their WalMart wage to drive the WalMart ambulance to the call. The logic was amazing.”
After doing some research WalMart brass realized this could be a lucrative new business model. With the power buying ability WalMart has they could buy EMS supplies in bulk at much lower cost than a standard EMS service can.
“We created a win/win system here. Response times will be better because we are using staff at our stores to respond in an ambulance posted at our stores. So the community gets a better, faster EMS response. As a company we have a new income source, billing for EMS services.”
WalMart is in a unique position to run a private EMS service. They can get double duty out of thier EMTs. At a typical full time EMS service, when not on a call the EMTs will post, or park, someplace to wait for a call. Thus these employees are being paid for time they are not actually doing “work”. But WalMart will have their EMTs stocking shelves and running cash registers. So every hour the EMT is working they are providing “work” to the company.
Bartlett closed with this. “Our slogan is ‘Save Money, Live Better’. By us providing EMS services we are truly living up to our slogan. We will be offering EMS services at a lower cost than other private EMS providers. We also will be helping save lives, or helping people live better.”


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The pain keeps getting worse at Boston Scientific, which said yesterday that it would lay off 2,300 people, or 8% of its work force. The company didn’t say exactly who would be laid off, but more details are expected tomorrow, when the company announces third-quarter earnings.
Deep cuts have been expected for a while, and the size of this round of layoffs is consistent with what analysts had predicted. The job cuts are part of a company plan to shave $500 million in costs next year. But the layoffs will result in a charge of about $450 million, and the WSJ reports that the company is unlikely to make a profit this year.
Boston Scientific is carrying $8 billion in debt, which it took on to buy Guidant. But the cardiac device business the company got in that deal is hurting, as is Boston Scientific’s core stent franchise.


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Bluewolf, the cloud consulting arm of IT services provider IBM Inc., has launched its Salesforce practice in India.
As part of the new practice, customers can leverage Bluewolf’s expertise and delivery capabilities in Salesforce, augmented intelligence (AI), and innovation strategy, combined with IBM’s cognitive and design-thinking, the company said in a statement.
Bluewolf, which helps organisations come up with solutions to their customer experience problems through customisation across the Salesforce platform, also plans to train 500 employees in Salesforce methodology in Bengaluru.
“Giving developers the ability to integrate IBM Watson services into Salesforce will combine insights from unstructured data inside or outside an enterprise and customer data delivered by Salesforce Einstein to enable smarter, faster decisions across sales, service, marketing, commerce and more,” said Lula Mohanty, managing partner for global business services at IBM.
Last year, IBM and Salesforce announced a global strategic partnership to deliver joint solutions designed to leverage artificial intelligence and enable companies to make smarter decisions. With the partnership, IBM Watson and Salesforce Einstein connect to enable a new level of intelligent customer engagement across sales, service, marketing, commerce and more.
“This launch in India strengthens IBM’s commitment to the Salesforce ecosystem and deeper collaboration of IBM Watson and Salesforce Einstein,” said Sunil Jose, senior vice president and country leader, Salesforce India.
IBM had announced its plans to acquire Bluewolf in March 2016 with an aim to accelerate cloud-based customer experiences for Salesforce users. It had completed the acquisition in May.
According to a Bluewolf report, 88% of IT professionals say that the top two reasons their organisations use Salesforce is for customer acquisition and retention.


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Curry Up Now, an Indian street food chain that's based in the United States, announced that it would be launching a donation drive in honor of Veterans Day on November 11th.
Through its 'Roll it Forward' initiative, Curry Up Now will match all donations when consumers purchase one of its $12 charitable meals. Consumers can choose to purchase the donated meals individually, or can even buy them in bulk through Curry Up Now's website. CEO and Founder Akash Kapoor spoke to the Veterans Day initiative, stating "The Roll it Forward initiative is our way of saying ‘thank you’ to so many deserving heroes, and because of the generous response we received when we launched this campaign earlier this year, we have no doubt that our guests and the public will show the same appreciation for our veterans and military."
Image Credit: Curry Up Now


text: More news and pics just hit Twitter land, concerning the Galaxy SIV. Twitter news outlet @Evleaks leaked out a possible image of the Galaxy SIV. Along with the image came new specs, it was has been rumored that the GS IV would have a 4.99 inch display but now according to new news from @Evleaks the new spec suggest the smartphone is now sporting a 5 inch screen. Along with the new size screen @Evleaks also says, 13MP camera, 2GB of RAM, and 16GB, 32GB and 64GB storage configurations. It’s also rumored to launch with Android 4.2 Jellybean. Everything is still rumored stay tuned.


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Police investigate product tampering in Harrisburg suburbs
FILE PHOTO: Alicia Ortiz shops through the cereal aisle as her daughter Aaliyah Garcia catches a short nap in the shopping cart at a Family Dollar store in Waco, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
(Carlisle) — Police are investigating medication and beauty products that apparently were tampered with before being returned and restocked on store shelves in Cumberland County.
Cumberland County District Attorney Skip Ebert said Tuesday the investigation began on August 2, when someone who had purchased toothpaste from a grocery store realized the packaging contained a different brand.
Ebert says forensic experts are working to identify substances seized when authorities searched a Mechanicsburg residence.
The prosecutor says the unnamed suspect purchased items from stores in Hampden and Silver Spring townships in the West Shore area.
Ebert says there are no reports of people being sickened.
He’s asking people to call Silver Spring Township Police if they believe they purchased tampered items.


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Here's the catch: it's only available for schools.
Apple is also offering teachers and students 200 gigabytes of free storage in its iCloud service so they can access documents, photos and other digital content from any internet-connected device. Rumors suggested that Apple had a $259 price tag prepared for the new iPad. Again, this accessory is only for schools, but it does provide a ton of usefulness for its target market.
Last December, Apple announced it is working with CPS to expand a coding program to up to 500,000 students across the city.
When looked at as a school-wide initiative, iPad costs could quickly add up.
The new iPad doesn't include a Pencil or a keyboard, which significantly increases the price relative to the Chromebooks Apple has been competing with in educational markets. At $329 - the same price as the cheapest iPad - Google and Acer hope to bring the flexibility and versatility of the Chrome operating system to an even more portable device.
As you can imagine, Apple had a bunch of educational app demos and a couple might just have the potential to accelerate Cupertino's expansion into the heavily Google Chromebook dominated sector. Much of the information shared about the curriculum by Apple at its education event in Chicago today wasn't new.
Trump Still Talks To Rob Porter, Hopes He'll Return To White House
By the end of February, more than 30 Trump aides had their security clearances downgraded from top-secret to secret. Porter was dating former White House communications director Hope Hicks when the abuse revelations surfaced.
Nowadays, Google's Chromebooks own almost 60 percent of shipments into schools in the US, while iPad sales have just simply been decreasing over a 3-year timeframe.
The new addition 9.7-inch iPad also features an A10 Fusion computer chip that will deliver more multimedia-heavy experiences.
Here are the key specifications of Apple's new iPad compared with the previous cheapest iPad, which was released this time a year ago and which the new iPad replaces. Schoolwork and Classroom are created to help teachers and administrators get the most out of integrating Apple technology into schools.
The iPad will have Touch ID, an 8-megapixel rear camera (1080p video support), and a front-facing HD camera.
Software was a big part of the presentation.
Another nod towards the school sector is how the new iPad comes with new (and free) versions of Apple's iWork application suite, comprising Pages, Keynote and Number. So students can use AR apps like Boulevard to paint. Apple emphasized that the app keeps data private; it won't be uploaded to Apple. The new iPad is available now on Apple's website with an estimated home delivery of April 2 or 3.
Apple's thinking was simple: get students used to Macs while at school and college, and there's a good chance they'd choose one when it came to buying their own machines. Now, Google's budget-friendly Chromebook laptops occupy almost 60% of all devices in the classroom, according to research firm Futuresource.


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Anyone that owns an older iPhone may be rightly upset to learn that their device cannot perform as well as it did the day it came out of the box due to degradation of the battery. Apple offered an official response to clarify that additional power management actions are necessary to prevent iPhones from unexpectedly shutting down but that does not change the fact that the entire ordeal has been handled poorly.
After spending a small fortune for the latest iPhone available at the time, consumers have every right to be upset that they were not informed their devices were being restricted due to poorly designed power delivery stages. In fact, two residents of California have taken it upon themselves to seek class action against Apple for failure to disclose the throttling of processors in iPhones.
Stefan Bogdanovich and Dakota Speas have filed suit in the US District Court for the Central District of California, accusing Apple of intentionally slowing down older devices to promote the sale of newer models. Both plaintiffs are owners of iPhone 7 handsets as well as several previous generations. The duo is aiming to obtain national class action status for their suit which would allow anyone with an impacted device to seek damages from Apple.
"Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices." -Apple
While the lawsuit does not directly coincide with Apple's statement regarding their throttling practices, Apple is far from innocent in the way it has handled the matter. Hiding poor design choices instead of admitting there is a problem that cannot be fixed with software was the wrong decision. Having a slow iPhone is admittedly better than one that will not turn on but neither are desirable outcomes.
In this case, Apple should have more closely followed in the foot steps of Samsung and come forward with the issue sooner. The exploding Galaxy Note 7 was ultimately just a small blip in time for Samsung once the Note 8 rose to prominence.
Bogdanovich and Speas are asking for the replacement of their iPhones, compensation for the cost of replacement batteries and money back on the original purchase of their devices for not receiving a device of the quality they believed to be purchasing. Additionally, damages are being sought for depreciation in value and loss of value due to the inability to use their iPhones.


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Blog: Trade talks scuppered again
Leonie Barrie | 30 September 2005
An air of uncertainty continues to hang over US-China apparel trade after yet another round of talks aimed at slowing surging imports of Chinese-made clothes onto the US market broke down this week. A deal – any deal – would surely be better than none at all. It would put an end to the insecurity plaguing both buyers and suppliers who are currently unable to make any concrete long-term sourcing plans out of fear that they may have to reallocate or cancel orders at the last minute on the whims of government officials and lobby groups. Just look at the fallout that continues in Europe after officials capped imports from China without really understanding the implications of imposing new quotas in the middle of a production cycle.
Liz Claiborne is the latest to admit it will limit its opportunities in China in the face of the ongoing trade dispute which makes it impossible to plan ahead. The New York-based company, which owns brands such as Liz Claiborne, Ellen Tracy and Dana Buchman, was in the process of reducing its global suppliers from 35 countries to just 10-15, including a focus on China sourcing. Now it says ongoing trade wrangles mean the company will maintain China sourcing levels at around 30 per cent.
But of course it won’t be US producers who benefit from this change of plans – despite what the lobbyists might hope. Production will instead be boosted in countries such as Thailand or there’ll be a return to outward processing arrangements (OPA) under which part of a Chinese-made garment is processed in Hong Kong so that it qualifies for a ‘made in Hong Kong’ label and avoids quota restrictions.
Either way, China will continue to be the most important country in any sourcing strategy. It’s there for the long term, and of course it’s not going to go away. And without a doubt, when the quota system finishes in 2008 and there really is free trade companies will pick up the China focus where they’ve been forced to leave it for now.
Confirmation that digital supply chains are top of mind for apparel industry executives came last week with the latest plans from global sourcing specialist Li & Fung....
As a barometer of the issues top of mind for apparel sourcing executives, it is hard to beat the annual Prime Source Forum in Hong Kong. ...
Over the past month, Donald Trump and his team failed to offer any clear plan to ensure Americans would "Buy American, Hire American" - while the British government's attempts to clarify the specifics...
The Bangladesh government was forced to respond late last week to pressure over its crackdown on labour activists after a number of global brands and retailers, including H&M and Inditex announced pla...
- Rana Plaza four years on – Timeline of change
- Using worker surveys to drive supply chain change
- Trump and Brexit get a dose of pragmatism
- No US rush to Myanmar despite end to sanctions
- Where does VF supply chain sit in growth strategy?
- Amazon wins on-demand apparel manufacturing patent
- Driving ban intensifies Myanmar logistics hurdles
- Inditex, Adidas and Patagonia top ethical report
- Trump bolsters "buy American" with executive order
- Calls for supply chain transparency standard
- Global market review of denim and jeanswear – forecasts to 2022
- When Things Go Wrong - A Practical Guide to Managing Common Problems in Apparel Sourcing
- Myanmar - ISA Country Report
- Southeast Asia strategic sourcing review – a focus on Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar
- Clothing Market in the Top 5 American Countries to 2021 - Market Size, Development, and Forecasts


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Server and storage markets across Europe have seen better days. Significant year-on-year declines in revenues and unit sales over the past two quarters of 2019 have worried some people in the IT channel. Volume and value sales were even lower in Q4 2019 than in Q4 2017. What's going on?
Macroeconomic and political challenges across the region and around the world have forced some businesses to delay investment and so had an impact on the recent performance of the IT infrastructure segment. But that's not the whole story. There are several other factors that are arguably more important.
Rationalisation to the fore
Both 2017 and 2018 saw the server and storage sectors performing well. But many of the businesses that invested in these technologies at that time may have thrown their money at IT infrastructure without first assessing their needs properly. According to Gartner, on average, only 56 per cent of datacentre storage space was being used in 2018 and, as recently as July 2019, nearly a third of servers (30 per cent) were underutilised or sitting idle. As a result of this and continued economic uncertainty, firms are looking more closely at the use and cost of their IT infrastructure with a view to avoiding overprovision.
Many are now satisfying demand by managing existing resources more efficiently rather than by adding more computing power and storage capacity. Companies have learned from their past mistakes and now understand the advantages of having an efficient software architecture on top of an efficient hardware architecture. Innovations in AI, machine learning and virtualisation are helping these organisations optimise existing infrastructure. Increased efficiency also chimes with growing corporate awareness of the environmental impact of datacentres and servers.
No technology leap in 2019
There was no major new technology available in 2019 that would give businesses an incentive to update their IT infrastructure. Compared with the processors available five years ago, those of today are not much different in terms of power even though they're more energy efficient and have more cores. This lack of a fundamental leap forward also hit 2019 sales.
The components conundrum
Another factor is the global shortage of Intel CPUs that has affected many market segments over recent months. Until the last quarter of 2019, the server space more or less escaped the effects of this because Intel prioritised the production of high-end chips. However, even with these extra efforts, several server vendors are concerned that the shortage is now starting to affect their business as the poor availability of some SKUs is forcing them to offer certain customers more expensive processor models.
Although the shortage has pushed up CPU prices and revenues, it has not had the same effect on other components. In 2019, SSD, HDD and RAM revenues fell by as much as -30 per cent, with SSD price per GB slumping by -50 per cent in the space of a year. This had an inevitable impact on the price of - and revenues associated with - infrastructure systems.
Many businesses on the digital transformation journey are migrating to cloud. This is great news for them, but it is having an impact on the datacentre market and more traditional vendors. The migration of customers to a small number of cloud providers that manage their IT assets more efficiently tends to benefit the hyperscale vendors as these are more likely to deal with the cloud providers and absorb the lower margins, and therefore revenues, in this segment.
The impact of datacentre-as-a-service (DaaS)
Distributors appear to be increasingly frustrated with new consumption models for IT infrastructure such as HPE GreenLake, Dell Flex on Demand and Lenovo TruScale. This stems from the vendors themselves appearing to be unconcerned by below-average sales through distributors, fuelling the suspicion that direct sales are growing without much involvement from the channel.
For now, revenues from DaaS are still relatively low, but it is vital that vendors clarify pricing and resolve contractual obstacles associated with these models as soon as possible if they want to soothe tensions with their partners.
So what's the picture for 2020? Well, while Intel CPU problems will continue into 2020, it's not all doom and gloom.
To start with, distributors are continuing to sell increasing amounts of storage capacity in terms of gigabytes; the volume of data that companies need to manage is continuing to grow exponentially. Prices for components cannot decline forever, and any move towards stabilisation should have a positive impact on revenues over the coming year.
In addition, software optimisation is creating a lot of new opportunities and these are helping to offset hardware sales losses. That vendors such as IBM and Red Hat performed well in 2019 is testament to this approach to managing datacentre infrastructure. We are now in a software-defined era, and vendors need to adapt to this reality. The acquisition of software companies by Dell EMC and HPE shows that diversification is key to the survival of traditional hardware vendors.
What's more, Brexit clarity and a US presidential election mean business confidence could return later in the year and such confidence is important if the right conditions for growth are to be created in the IT infrastructure sector. And if they do invest, after their recent experience, they will do so more wisely in the capacity, computing power and software which they need.
To put it simply, after such a poor end to 2019, the channel has a good chance of seeing at least some improvements in performance over the coming 12 months.
Gurvan Meyer is a business enterprise analyst at Context
Networking giant brings datacentre and enterprise divisions together, and expands cloud unit
The latest batch of earnings reports shine a light on the state of the public cloud market
Microsoft says customers will no longer be able to use their on-prem licences when moving to single-tenanted public cloud servers
Amazon follows Microsoft's lead
AWS still dominates the market, while Alibaba doubles in size
Context business enterprise analyst Gurvan Meyer on why a lack of innovation slowed sales last year
Comms VAR's M&A spree set to continue
Sustainability set to take centre stage for the channel in the 2020s, CRN's Doug Woodburn argues
Specialists in the circular economy give tips on sustainability


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Maharashtra Government assures help to BEST, but where will the money come from?
In what seems practically impossible to do because of the constraints its debt-ridden coffers face, the state government has assured the island city power consumers that it will grant financial assistance to the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking to avoid a tariff hike this year
In what seems practically impossible to do because of the constraints its debt-ridden coffers face, the state government has assured the island city power consumers that it will grant financial assistance to the Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) undertaking to avoid a tariff hike this year..
BEST has asked the state for a bail-out package
Energy minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule on Wednesday assured help in reply to a debate raised by MLC Narendra Patil, who opposed the BEST’s proposal that the power consumers across the city should pay for recovering its Transport Deficit Recovery Loss (TDLR) of R 1,689 crore. Currently, BEST recovers TDLR from its 10 lakh consumers.
“The government will intervene once Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commi-ssion (MERC) approves the BEST tariff. We will also see to it that all power consumers in Mumbai are not forced to pay TDLR,” said Bawankule.
According to power sector experts, offering financial grants to BEST or directing MERC to stay the undertaking’s new tariff would be the two best possible ways of doing it. The minister did not clarify as to how the state would help out a larger chunk of consumers in the western and eastern suburbs.
But the question is will the state which is reeling under a debt of Rs 3.50 lakh crore be able to shell out significant grant to BEST? The BJP government had even stopped a monthly subsidy of Rs 700 cr that the earlier government had sanctioned for reducing the burden of the consumers of the Mahavitaran, a state-controlled power distribution company that caters to the eastern suburbs of Mumbai and rest of Maharashtra.
“MERC decides tariff after electricity companies approach it for tariff revision. The government cannot intervene while MERC is hearing the tariff proposal. We are not in favour of imposing TDLR on all Mumbaikars and we will wait for the MERC decision,” said Bawankule. All of Mumbai’s power companies, two private (Reliance and Tata), civic undertaking BEST and state’s Mahavitaran have submitted their tariff revision proposals to MERC. All of them want better hike in next three years.
In view of differential tariff for all four companies, the consumers are demanding a uniform tariff in the city, which has close to 45 lakh consumers. The state government has recently appointed a consultant to study the issue. In case of BEST, which is fast losing its business to Tata Power in the island city, the business has become even more difficult to run because of a loss-making transport wing. Unfortunately, the two businesses – electricity distribution and transport – cannot be separated for legal reasons. As of now BEST’s transport is benefiting largely from the profit-making electricity business. BEST has repeatedly asked the state for a bail-out package.


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The White House is enlisting allies in its efforts to rebuild U.S. manufacturing capacity in the high-tech sector. South Korean semiconductor makers are playing along, but with some misgivings.
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
There is a good chance that however you’re listening right now – in your car or through a smart speaker or smartphone – semiconductors are helping make it happen. They’re a crucial technology, and they’re in short supply. So it was welcome news to the Biden administration that South Korean industrial giant Samsung plans to invest $17 billion in a new chip plant in Texas. But as NPR’s Anthony Kuhn
→ Continue reading at NPR - Technology


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“I cannot think of a comparable moment where one team of developers killed so much internet culture in one unilateral move.” That’s how Bennett Foddy, designer behind QWOP and Getting Over It, tried to describe how a seemingly minor quality-of-life fix for the Chrome web browser has had a potentially devastating impact on games.
Here’s what happened. Over the weekend, Google pushed out a series of changes to its enormously popular Chrome web browser, hoping to fix one of the Internet’s great annoyances: autoplaying videos with sound. A noble quest, but one with unexpected consequences; as soon as the feature went live, it broke all kinds of web content that relies on audio, including games. A key component of those games—sound—now doesn’t work, unless the designers intervene.
In trying to address the legitimate problem of autoplaying videos—a shitty marketing and advertising tactic to trick you into “viewing” a video—Google messed with and changed the open standards all sorts of other developers had been working with. Not every website has been banned from autoplaying videos, however; certain websites have been whitelisted, users can opt-in, and there’s a fuzzy metric whereby if someone’s “Media Engagement Index threshold has been crossed,” videos start autoplaying again.
“Currently, the product I am developing that has tens of thousands of paying customers where audio playback is a core feature is broken,” wrote one developer in the comments section of Google’s announcement.
The damage isn’t yet known, but that’s largely because the impact has been scattershot, and it will take time before developers realize if Google’s change actually impacted their work. In a statement to The Daily Dot, Google suggested the onus was on developers to keep up.
“With Chrome’s new autoplay policies, developers shouldn’t assume that audio can be played before a user gesture,” the company said. “With gaming in Chrome, this may affect Web Audio. We have shared details on how developers can do to address this, and the design for the policy was published last year.”
The fact that so few developers were aware remains on Google. It also suggests the company doesn’t have meaningful plans to address the issue facing game creators.
“We are losing a substantial amount of our cultural heritage, just because people find it annoying when ads play audio,” said Foddy, “and the Chrome folks couldn’t find a better workaround, like a browser mute setting or a code solution that respects the ways that existing games and art projects already have ‘click to play’ implemented.”
(“Click to play” means the user clicks on the game, letting it take control of your computer.)
It’s hard to argue Google’s wrong for trying to eliminate autoplaying videos, but in failing adequately research how audio/visual artists deploy their work on the web, they’ve hurt bystanders. Based on the way Google positioned their announcement, it’s possible they may not have even considered what impact this might have on games and other digital artists.
Isaac Cohen, a designer and artist who does experimental work on the web, woke up this weekend to discover “pretty much all of my online work is broken.”
He learned something when wrong when he tried to send one of his interactive speeches, something he’s given at places like Pixar, to a friend, and it wasn’t working. After digging around the code for a solution, he saw a friend post on Facebook about what’d changed.
“It is 'just the audio' that has broken, as a few Twitter users pointed out,” said Cohen, “However, when your pieces are specifically audio-visual, it no longer becomes just the audio, and rather destroys your entire piece.”
One part of the presentation, for example, is color defined by audio. It requires audio.
Thankfully, it does appear Cohen has found a relatively easy solution to make his online work functionable, but for a while, Cohen had made peace with saying goodbye.
“I think if you are making work because you want it to last forever, it's just another way from running from the fact that all things end,” said Cohen. “It's obviously tragic when it does end, and we want it to last as long as it can, but clinging onto a thing, instead of moving forward, is something that would probably destroy me (or at the very least my ability to create new content). I also can't imagine what it was like to watch the death of Flash.”
Flash is probably the last time web creators ran into a similar bloodbath. Flash, a bloated but serviceable way of letting people play games online, was due to die eventually. I wrote about that moment for Kotaku in 2015. Flash games are where designers like Edmund McMillen and others cut their teeth. If you enjoy their work now, you have Flash to thank. But at least with Flash, its transition into the Internet trash bin was over “security concerns,” even if it was mostly bullshit, a convenient cover for Apple declaring Flash too slow for the iPhone.
“The Flash thing is not comparable because it’s been such a slow change, and because it is based on a consensus, and because Flash was never an open standard,” said Foddy. “In this case the Chrome team is killing thousands upon thousands of art and game websites that they have no ownership of whatsoever. There is no good comparison.”
(Flash was made and maintained by a third party, Adobe.)
The real damage won’t be done to games that can be fixed, though, it’s the countless games that have been abandoned by their creators, or the underlying technology simply can’t be fixed with tinkering the code. It’s possible they may forever be in a semi-broken state.
“What you're looking at is a complicated and time-consuming testing period for any single audiovisual work on the web right now,” said Andi McClure, designer of numerous web curiosities, including Anti and 4 Cubes. “Those are the works that are going to get permanently broken or removed in response to these changes, and that's what frustrates me.”
Lots of web games are built using third-party tools, McClure pointed out, and there’s no assurance those companies will get around to addressing Google’s changes. Even if they do, it’s not as simple as rolling out an update for your game. The moment you tinker with the code, something else might break. If your game is based in Unity, for example, upgrading to a newer version of Unity might end up breaking older parts of your game. So, you’re stuck.
Games have always faced problems over being so closely tied to the progress of technology. Combined with gaming’s commercial desire to look forward, not back, and you have a medium that shows depressingly little interest in remembering, preserving its own history.
McClure doesn’t have high hopes for what will change as a result of this. Even if Google manages to clean this up, the same dynamics that serve the powerful will come back.
“Nothing,” said McClure. “Same thing as when Flash got killed, or when the iPhone App Store mass deprecates old games. A bunch of artists most people haven't heard of get really frustrated. Media consumers look at new stuff and don't realize there's a block of several years worth of people's work that isn't there anymore. Nothing changes. The web is a commercial juggernaut and it exists for MSNBC, not me or any other small artist.”
Follow Patrick on Twitter. If you have a tip or a story idea, drop him an email: email@example.com.


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DUBAI: The International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data for global air freight markets showing that demand, measured in freight tonne kilometers (FTKs), rose 6.8 per cent in November 2016 compared to the year-earlier period.
Middle Eastern carriers enjoyed a boost in demand from the strong peak season with freight volumes increasing by 7.8% in November 2016, year-on-year. Seasonally-adjusted growth has slowed, however, mainly due to weak freight volumes between the Middle East and Asia, and the Middle East and Europe. Freight volumes grew by just 4% on these routes in the January-October 2016 period, compared with 8-11% over the same period in 2015. Capacity in the region increased by 5.1% in November.
This was a slight slowdown from the 8.4 per cent annual growth recorded in October 2016 - which was a 20-month high - but was still more than 2.5 times the average annual monthly growth rate of 2.6 per cent over the past decade.
Growth in freight capacity, measured in available freight tonne kilometers (AFTKs), slowed to 4.4% November.
The uptick in freight growth coincides with an increase in the shipment of silicon materials typically used in high-value consumer electronics shipped by air, and an apparent turnaround in new export orders. A modal shift to air cargo following the collapse of the Hanjin Shipping Company in August may have also contributed.
“Air cargo enjoyed a strong peak season in November. And there are encouraging signs that this growth will to continue into 2017, particularly with the shipment of high-value consumer electronics and their component parts. But, the trend in world trade is still stagnant. So it remains critically important for the air cargo industry to continue to improve its value offering by implementing modern customer-centric processes,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO.


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Silgan Holdings Inc., a supplier of rigid packaging for shelf-stable food and other consumer goods products, reported a record income per share for 2013.
The Stamford, Conn.-based company reported full year 2013 net income of US$185.4 million, or a record US$2.87 per diluted share, as compared to full year 2012 net income of US$151.3 million, or US$2.17 per diluted share.
Net sales for the full year of 2013 were US$3.71 billion, the company said, an increase of US$120.2 million, or 3.3 percent, as compared to 2012. “This increase was the result of an increase in net sales across all businesses,” Silgan said.
Income from operations for 2013 was US$324.2 million, a decrease of US$1.3 million, or 0.4 per cent, as compared to US$325.5 million for 2012, and operating margin decreased to 8.7 per cent from 9.1 per cent for the same periods. The company attributed the decreases to a decrease in income from operations in the closures business primarily in Venezuela and an increase in corporate expenses.
Net sales of the company’s plastic container business were US$647.0 million in 2013, an increase of US$32.5 million, or 5.3 per cent, as compared to US$614.5 million in 2012. “This increase was principally due to higher volumes of approximately 3 per cent, a more favorable mix of products sold and higher average selling prices due to the pass through of higher raw material costs, partially offset by the impact of unfavorable foreign currency translation,” Silgan said. “The increase in volumes was attributable to the inclusion for a full year of the plastic food container operations acquired in August 2012, which more than offset lower volumes in the legacy operations due in part to weaker customer demand as well as ongoing efforts to rebalance the portfolio of the business.”
According to Silgan, income from operations of the plastic container business was US$38.6 million, an increase of US$7.8 million as compared to US$30.8 million in 2012, and operating margin increased to 6.0 per cent from 5.0 per cent over the same periods.


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(JTA) — While commemorating its 100th birthday, the German auto company BMW expressed regret for its actions during the Holocaust.
In a statement on its website under the heading “Facing up to the past,” the car company said it “operated exclusively as a supplier to the German arms industry” under the Nazis, using “forced labourers, convicts and prisoners from concentration camps” in its manufacturing.
“To this day, the enormous suffering this caused and the fate of many forced labourers remains a matter of the most profound regret,” the statement said.
BMW notes that in 1983, it “became the first industrial corporation to initiate a public debate about this chapter of its history, publishing a book on the topic.”
“The BMW Group is explicitly facing up to this dark chapter of its past and in 1999, it became a founding member of the foundation Erinnerung, Verantwortung, Zukunft (Remembrance, Responsibility and Future) for the compensation of former forced labourers.”
In addition to the use of slave labor, BMW also benefited from its owner’s friendship with Adolf Hitler, who gave them businesses that had been confiscated from the Jews, according to the New York Post.
According to The Independent, a 1,200-page independent study commissioned by BMW and published in 2007 found that the company’s wartime owners, Gunther and Herbert Quandt, willingly collaborated with the Nazis and an average of 80 slave laborers died each month at BMW factories.


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Goldilocks would have made a good central banker – she valued getting just the right amount of something.
In her eyes, the latest inflation figures would have been “too cold”, as prices rose by less than 1 per cent in 12 months, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Anything above 2 per cent would have been “too hot” and somewhere in between “just right”.
For while consumers might not like it when prices rise, moderate inflation is a sign of a healthy economy, which is why the Reserve Bank has a medium-term inflation target of 2 to 3 per cent per year.
Why is some inflation better than none?
EY chief economist Jo Masters said we aspire to achieve moderate inflation, as an economy in which prices are static is one where equipment and people sit idle.
Moderate inflation, on the other hand, is a sign of a healthy economy with sufficient demand, as businesses can raise their prices when enough people want to buy their stuff.
Higher prices then lead to stronger revenues and allow businesses to take on more staff, kickstarting a cycle of increased consumer spending feeding into stronger jobs growth and even more consumer spending.
But the exact opposite happens when prices fall.
“If households and businesses expect prices to fall, they tend not to buy something today and [instead] hold off until tomorrow,” Ms Masters said.
And if [consumers] don’t spend today, there’s less money going into the economy, so fewer jobs are created, so then people’s income goes down and they have less to spend.
“So you can end up in this deflationary cycle.”
Which brings us back to the present day.
Over the three months to June 30, Australia suffered just its third bout of annual deflation since 1949, as the temporary suspension of childcare fees and plunging petrol costs cut prices by 0.3 per cent.
The federal government has since ended its free childcare policy and raised the tobacco excise tax by 12.5 per cent – resulting in a 0.9 per cent jump in consumer prices over the 12 months to December 31.
But economists said the underlying data pointed to insufficient demand.
Should the government increase spending?
University of Newcastle economics professor Bill Mitchell said most of the inflation at the end of last year came from “administrative price changes” rather than anything to do with “the market driving up excessive spending”.
BIS Oxford Economics chief economist Sarah Hunter made a similar point, noting that the pace of underlying inflation came in at just 1.3 per cent over the 12 months to December 31.
Professor Mitchell said the quarterly price rises published on Wednesday were driven by changes to childcare policy and excise taxes, and noted other data showed there was plenty of “productive capacity being wasted in the economy”.
“There’s people out of the labour force that really want to work, but just can’t or won’t look because there’s no jobs … and you’ve got lots of unemployment,” he said.
“So there’s unlikely to be inflationary pressures from increased spending arising from the so-called ‘overheating effect’.”
Professor Mitchell told The New Daily this meant the government could be doing more to combat unemployment.
“There’s incredible scope, much larger scope than the government will admit, for them to increase the deficit, reduce the waste of productive resources, and get us closer to a position where we might have to start worrying about inflation a bit, but we’re nowhere near it now,” he said.
“If you’ve got mass unemployment and high rates of underemployment, the fiscal deficit is too low.”
Professor Mitchell’s comments come after research from the Grattan Institute found it would take longer for unemployed Australians to find new jobs during this recession than most in Australian history.
The think tank argued at the time that stimulus was being withdrawn too soon.
“And the stimulus is made up of measures not particularly likely to create jobs, such as income tax cuts (where much of the money is likely to be saved rather than spent) and transport infrastructure, which creates fewer jobs per dollar spent than services such as child care, health and aged care,” economists Brendan Coates and Matt Cowgill wrote.
“We shouldn’t be content with a recovery that putters along at a below-average pace.”


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As we know that the 3G and 4G variety has sold in Pakistan on 23 Apr 2014 by Pakistan Telecom Power (PTA) Cellular interaction solutions have become a necessary part of financial work and operate, and the mobile telecommunication industry is constantly on the offer outstanding possibilities for financial growth in both creating and western world. As the technological innovation produces, mobile solutions have the potential of impacting a country’s financial system by offering High-value 4G information solutions that are right to use via smartphones, pills, and dongles that carry mobile information solutions to companies and customers.
In this article we will explain you the effects of 3G and 4G Online on the financial system of Pakistan. Public auction of 3G permits can carry a trend in the areas of Knowledge, Health, e-commerce, e-banking, Transport, Resources and the most important in the area of Information Technology in Pakistan. Due to internet a mobile customer will move from written text and speech solutions to data-driven solutions where a customer can enjoy the function of video contacting and live loading.
Economy of Pakistan
The application market will take best benefit from the auction of 3G variety, because due to high-speed and fully presented websites the application growth will increase beyond our objectives, designers will not have to delay longer as in the existing situation. Presently we have almost 1500 application organizations, Two are on the Karachi Stock Return (KSE), 2 on the Nationwide Organization of Investments Traders Computerized Estimates (NASDAQ) and 1 on the Dubai Worldwide Financial Return (DIFX). These information are before the appearance of 3G now we easily can think about after this technological innovation Pakistani Software Trade Industry can enhance the existing GDP of the Pakistan.
In Aug 2013, a UK-based company said Plum 3G could enhance Pakistan’s GDP.The review more achieved that: The govt will be able to generate around PKR 23 billion dollars to 70 billion dollars extra tax income 3G could result in extra GDP value between 380 billion/PKR and 1,180 billion/PKR up to the beginning of 2020.If the next variety permits are released today, they can generate 900,000 new tasks until 2018.Direct income from 2.1GHz variety can be in between 100 to 180 billion dollars PKR.Further delay in certificate auction could cost the GDP a lack of 5 billion dollars rupees monthly up to the next 7 decades OR income lack of PKR 300 thousand monthly. If we carry a conventional think of 0.5% strike on GDP and assume that effect will last for 3 decades then Pakistan’s existing GDP will enhance by Rs. 40 billion dollars in one season after auction, while a further Rs. 105 billion dollars enhance after second season of 3G auction and Rs. 210 billion dollars at some level in the third season of auction.
Thees new creation technological innovation delivers a bad information for internet organizations ISPs which are offering slowly, inadequate and snail rate internet connection at great costs. In order to withstand in cut through finalization with 3G/4G organizations, ISPs will have to provide better internet at smallest price to their customers. But thankfully that after the appearance of this technological innovation the finances of Pakistan will definitely enhance and will carry it to a lighter future.
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MapmyIndia, the mapping and navigational solutions provider, has announced the launch of its portable GPS-based ‘SafeMate’, a dedicated personal safety device for women, children, and families. SafeMate is available exclusively on Flipkart for Rs 6,990 which includes Rs 3,600 worth of the first year’s SIM card connectivity charges and service subscription fees.
SafeMate is matchbox size portable device that can easily be put in a school bag, purse or pocket. The device is constantly connected to the GPS and the Internet to transmit real time location to the mobile phone and desktop. There is a large SOS button on the device and with just a press of a button it can send email as well as SMS alerts to the designated phone number in case of emergency. One can even see their location on extremely detailed house-level maps from MapmyIndia, and get directions to them. As per the company, SafeMate battery lasts 3-4 days after which it can be charged in just a couple of hours.
There is a specially designed companion app that can be downloaded from Google Play Store and Apple App Store. For web browser users the application can be downloaded from company’s website.
Commenting on the launch of ‘SafeMate’, Rashmi Verma, director & co-founder, MapmyIndia, said, “Our mission at MapmyIndia is to make our world better through maps and location technologies. Hence, making India safer is an important priority for our team. Over the years we have built up tremendous expertise in digital maps, GPS navigation, tracking and location apps. The alarming increase in crime against women and children in India spurred us into thinking about how we could use our sophisticated technology to provide safety to individuals. We wanted to keep things simple so that the technology can be used in the most stressful situation. The result is SafeMate.”
Ms. Verma added: “SafeMate is a dedicated device and its only function is helping keep your loved one safe. It’s so simple that even a child can easily use it. The initial response from parents, young children and women who have used SafeMate has been great, and we will keep enhancing its safety features in future. I am happy that Flipkart, India’s largest e-commerce marketplace has joined us in achieving our mission by enabling and ensuring easy availability of SafeMate across the country. I warmly invite all parents, families, schools, companies, police forces, and government departments to also join us to help make India and life in India safer.”