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One of the most praised features of Apple’s new iPhone 6 models is their main cameras, with the iPhone 6 Plus in particular gaining praise for its camera performance. Thus, The New York Times decided to give both smartphones to staff photographer Todd Heisler — who also happens to be a 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner for Feature Photography — to test them out in real-life scenarios.
Heisler decided to test only the iPhone 6, as the iPhone 6 Plus “made it too unwieldy to use on a daily basis,” but found the device, which lacks the Plus’ optical image stabilization feature, to be closer to his professional camera than any previous Apple smartphone.
“Mr. Heisler said the camera on the iPhone 6 was closer to his professional gear than ever before, because of the slider that lets you fine-tune exposure even when you’re rolling video and built-in tools for fine-tuning light, exposure, contrast and color,” the Times wrote. “And he said that because of those controls, there’s no need to turn to third-party camera apps that can be more complicated to use.”
Heisler also identified some annoyances with the camera, such as freezes, although he said other cameras may have their own problems, so ultimately it’s up to the user to find ways to deal with any issues they might find in a gadget.
Heisler’s video review of the iPhone 6’s camera follows below, while another iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus review from a professional photographer is available at this link.


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Developers unveiled plans this week for a 10-story building housing LGBTQ youth and a 15-story building for formerly incarcerated people.
By Nick Garber Patch Staff
Harlem, NY - When Petrushka Bazin Larsen and Nick Larsen opened their
first ice cream shop on a hot jULY DAY IN 2017, they ran out of ice cream by the
day's end, unable tosatisfy the throngs of customers flocking to their new
Central Harlem store.
"Even the machine we

domain: news


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News Corp is a network of leading companies in the worlds of diversified media, news, education, and information services.
I'm proud to back The Sun's Baby, Bank on Us campaign, says Kate Middleton
Prince Harry becomes first royal to give evidence at trial in 130 years today
William & Kate hooked on padel tennis & play competitive matches with pals
Royal fans spot cheeky comment ‘relatable’ William makes to Kate Middleton
I’m a fashion expert - how to dress like Princess Kate in colourful co-ords
Kate dazzles as she joins Wills at Prince of Jordan's wedding reception
Inside Kate and William's former home in Wales & how she secretly struggled
Kate's £150k a year charity boss stabbed dad-to-be to death on train
The new fashion trend that even has Kate Middleton dressing like Barbie
Kate Middleton beams as she steps out in pink with shades of Princess Diana
Royal fans will be racing to Matalan to get Kate Middleton's pink suit dupe
Amazon's 'Citadel' featuring Meghan’s pal makes 'obscene' sex joke about Kate
Inside the lavish royal wedding and palace party of 'Germany’s Kate and Wills'
Kate reveals sweet detail about Louis, 5, as she joins kids at garden picnic
Fury as drama featuring Meghan's pal makes crude sex jibe about Kate Middleton


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With the rise of technology and popularity of video games in recent times, nobody is away from these games. I still remember my old days when I used to play “Mario” and “Contra”. And now the games like PUBG and Pokémon has made us speechless with the new level of gaming and user experience. The Graphics of these games have also changed a lot. And all these achievements in the gaming industry have led to the rise of addiction of gaming in children and adults.
If we talk about gaming revolution in India then it is still not as much as it in developed countries like US and Japan. But with the introduction of Players Unknown Battle Grounds also known as PUBG, it has reached a large section of Indian Youth. This game is made in such a way that you have to land with 100 players on an island and you have to survive as a last player to win the match. Basically it a type of game where either you kill or you get killed. So, in order to survive you have to kill others and be the last one surviving.
The playing area also gets shorter as time passes in the battleground. This game has become very popular and it is played worldwide and mostly because it is free game. Before this, China’s Tencent Holdings Ltd. also introduced a mobile version of the death match which was free to play and gained the same type of popularity but PUBG has broken all the records. It has become world’s most popular and played game now.
But in many of the states in India, it has seen a lot of protests. Recently as published in Navbharat Times news, it was declared as an epidemic that is turning children into psychopaths. It was said that many children is losing their mental condition just because of this game. I don’t know why it was published as such as we are seeing these kinds of games from a long time.
GTA Vice City
Previously when Grand Theft Auto vice city was launched, nobody protested that game. That game too has some illegal things like dealing with drugs, kill strangers and stealing others cars and vehicles. Last year china took strict action on games and freezed approval of new titles of games. It was said that games were causing adverse affects on children health.
According to me India has gone through a phase of digitization recently and there is no control on it. The govt. is also not taking serious actions against gaming industry. This new era of gaming industry requires some strict laws as it is stopping children to play outdoor games. Now you can see most of the children playing video games and not going outside of their games. Playing any video games not only have adverse effect on health but it also leads to problem in their eyesight.
In recent years India has changed a lot. Many of the rural areas which even do not have the access to PC and laptops can now be seen having smartphone in everyone’s hands. With the launch of JIO every one of us has now a working 4G connection in phone and smartphones and mobile internet has also become so cheap to be affordable by almost everyone.
Recently, in a student competition for playing PUBG in Hyderabad more than 250,000 registrations were received from 1000 colleges which show the popularity of PUBG among youngsters. The prize was $22,000 which was won by the top team.
Aryaman Joshi, 13, has played PUBG for a couple of hours every day and says every one of his companions play as well. “It’s somewhat fierce and there’s a great deal of shooting so young men like me like it,” he said. His mom, Gulshan Walia, says she needs to adopt a reasonable strategy to Aryaman’s amusement playing.
That sort of interest is giving an allude to India’s potential as a gaming market. It’s modest today, producing a tiny $290 million in income. In any case, it’s as of now the world’s second-biggest cell phone advertise, after China, and the quickest developing.
According to Lokesh Suji, a Gurgaon based head of the Esports Federation of India, PUBG has made the online gaming industry very lucrative and showed that India is a developing and attractive market for this.
Local government officials, guardians and many instructors have already communicated shock over PUBG, and said that it will arise violence in children and will divert them from their studies. In Mumbai case, a young person’s suicide gave a much outrage to this demand. A local leader went to such an extreme as to describe it as “the evil presence in each house.”
PM Narendra Modi Troll
Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also requested by a mother in an open meeting about her child’s addiction on mobile games. “Is that the PUBG one?”. One 11-year-old even recorded an open intrigue claim in a Mumbai court looking for a restriction on the diversion.
South korea’s Bluehole Inc. which developed PUBG for PC and after that it partnered with Tencent Games for mobile version has taken this matter seriously after all these ban demands. They said that they are working with the government officials to come out with a solution on this. They also said that company is looking for a limited playtime for players who are underage to play this game. But this is being done for India only.
Since gaming in India is new, therefore, there are no such strict laws made till now. In china, a player cannot register himself if he is under 13 years of age. And in Germany the legal age to play this game is 16 years and they have to make registration on real names not fake one.
National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences in Bangalore is clinic run to break digital addictions is getting a lot of PUBG addiction cases every day. Recently, they got a case of a 11 year old boy who wanted to quit studying to become a professional full time PUBG player


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China supplies 67% of critical components for making UAVs to Russia
The main supplier of critical components for Russian UAVs production is China, which accounts for 67%, with Turkey and the United Arab Emirates accounting for another 7%. This conclusion was reached by an International Task Force working on sanctions against Russia, according to the website of the President of Ukraine.
- The Russian Army regularly uses three main models of drones: Shahed-136/131, Lancet, and Orlan-10. At the same time, Russia still relies heavily on foreign-made components, including microelectronics, in the production of UAVs.
- According to a study by the International Task Force, China is the main supplier of critical components for Russian drones, accounting for 67% of shipments, with 17% of them going through Hong Kong.
- Turkey and the United Arab Emirates account for 5% and 2% of the components, respectively. Components made in Japan, the Republic of Korea, Switzerland, and other countries, including processors, chips, transistors, and other key components, were also found in the drones.
- At the same time, according to the International Task Force’s report, many details can be obtained through publicly available platforms, which complicates regulatory oversight.
- In regards to this, the experts called on manufacturers to do more to prevent Russia from accessing their products to circumvent economic sanctions.
- In particular, it is proposed to coordinate sanction lists among partner countries, to standardize lists of dual-use goods based on the Harmonized Systems, and to expand the categories of goods subject to sanctions based on the Harmonized Systems.


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The market opportunity for high-quality, custom-designed semiconductors used to support artificial intelligence projects is growing faster than JP Morgan had anticipated.
On Friday, analyst Harlan Sohr increased his estimate of the market size for ASICs, which stands for Application-Specific Integrated Circuits, or custom-made custom chips. He offered a range, with a minimum of $13 billion to $15 billion and a higher of $15 billion to $18 billion.
He wrote that “the massive adoption of generative AI…is accelerating the demand for custom chip (ASIC) AI computing accelerators”.
(Stock ticker: AVGO) f
(MRVL) “Will be the biggest beneficiary of this resurgence in custom chip design.”
in Friday trading,
The stock fell 1.5%, to $814.45, and
Shares fell 0.1% to $57.51.
Generative AI has been a popular investment topic this year. Technology ingests text, images, and videos to create content. The OpenAI release of ChatGPT late last year sparked interest in this form of AI.
Sur expects the overall ASIC market to grow by 20% annually in the future. According to the analyst, Broadcom is the market leader with a 35% share, followed by Marvell with a 12% share. Since June, Broadcom is believed to have won two or three major new custom chip projects, while Marvell has secured one or two other deals.
“We believe these customer initiatives continue to drive strong order/design activity for both Broadcom and Marvell,” he wrote.
The analyst has an overrated rating on Marvell stock with a $70 price target. It currently has no ratings on Broadcom; He dropped the coverage after it was announced that JPMorgan was acting as a financial advisor to
(VMW) in connection with its sale to Broadcom.
Marvell is scheduled to report its second-quarter financial results next Thursday.
Write to Tae Kim at firstname.lastname@example.org


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CNBC takes an inside look at the new office Facebook needed after growing its ranks 48 percent to top the 10,000 employee mark.» Read More
Two industry watchers disagreed over whether social media stocks' drubbing this week served as an opportunity or a warning sign.
Food deliveries spike during the last week of studying before the end of the semester.
Twitter's problems are linked to marketers' reluctance to use direct response advertising, which prompt immediate action. The NYT reports.
"Who knows where we're going next?" That's what Mark Zuckerberg asked in his first interview with CNBC, in 2004.
Twitter announced that it acquired an online advertising company called TellApart. Among its investors: the guy who runs Twitter.
Facebook has launched video calling through its Messenger app, in a move that puts it in competition with the likes of Microsoft's Skype.
Twitter's decision to change the way it scores advertisements has disrupted its core business, analyst Ronald Josey tells CNBC.
The challenge facing Periscope isn't user interest or support from its parent, Twitter. It may come down to usage and speed.
Twitter's early earnings release made for an unexpected headache as the company faced reaction to a disappointing quarter, CEO Dick Costolo said.
As Nepal grapples with the aftermath of a devastating quake, technology giants are helping some breathe a sigh of relief amid the chaos.
Despite Facebook's revenue miss, the social media site wields enormous power, analyst Ivan Feinseth tells CNBC.
Investors should not sell Facebook’s stock based on its latest revenue miss, CNBC’s Jim Cramer says.
After criticism of its 10b5-1 program, including by CNBC's Jim Cramer, the company quits the sales and the stock price goes up.
Twitter announced that it will allow privates messages for all users internationally. The NYT reports.
Traders may get a big move when the social media giant reports earnings after the bell on Wednesday.
Six months ago, a year-old messaging app called Slack lit up the tech blogs when it raised money at a $1.2 billion valuation. Try $2.8 billion
The first-quarter battered many companies, but mobile and video have helped spark continued growth for Facebook, an expert said.
A new twitter homepage designed to entice new users to join is live, reports Recode.
Actor Ashton Kutcher is auctioning his Twitter account for a day.
Hillary Clinton has already taken an early lead in this key area.
Get the best of CNBC in your inbox
Matt Hunter is the senior technology editor at CNBC.com.
Working from Los Angeles, Boorstin is CNBC's media and entertainment reporter and editor of CNBC.com's Media Money section.
Jon Fortt is an on-air editor. He covers the companies, start-ups, and trends that are driving innovation in the industry.
Josh Lipton is CNBC's technology correspondent, working from CNBC's Silicon Valley bureau.
Flipboard CEO Mike McCue said on Wednesday that he personally loves Twitter, but would not comment on acquisition rumors.
Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek explains why his company must compete with Instagram, not just Pandora and Apple's Beats Music.
9to5Mac senior editor, Mark Gurman, said Friday that Apple is trying to revive declining iPad sales with a new function.
Mobile games have exploded recently but many gamemakers are struggling forcing them to look for new ways to engage users.
The "Internet of Everything" – the connection of people, process, data and things – could usher in a new era of growth in the Middle East.
An entrepreneur has launched a fund called Fuel.Ventures and is crowdfunding part of it with starting investments as low as £100.


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Photo courtesy of GizChina
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip is not that far from us, as Qualcomm already announced that the next Snapdragon Summit will get held on 14 November. A reputable tipster is now letting us know what to expect before the next-gen flagship chip arrives, and it's regarding the improvement in energy efficiency.
As per IceUniverse, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will offer 15% better energy efficiency than the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. With that said, the chip should allow the devices to get better battery life, or the companies can decrease the battery sizes a bit, therefore offering some lighter devices. Of course, the chip should also provide better thermals.
Since the chip will only get presented near the end of 2022, the first batch of smartphones should start to appear in Q1 2023. If the latest rumour turned out to be correct, the entire Galaxy S23 series, in every market, would utilize the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. It could be the Exynos 2200 ended up disappointing while being used inside the Galaxy S22, so Samsung has to do something to gain its customers' trust again.
What are your thoughts on this article? Drop a comment to let us know, and stay tuned to TechNave.com for more tech reports.


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HCM City specifies key agricultural products - HCM City specifies key agricultural products - Website Ho Chi Minh City
The administration of Ho Chi Minh City has issued a list of key agricultural products to develop to improve the income and living standards of rural residents.
These products are vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants, dairy cows, pigs and brackish water shrimp. Meanwhile, ornamental fish were named in the group of potential products.
Director of the municipal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Phuoc Trung said these products not only account for big proportions in local agriculture but also generate high profit for farmers. With considerable potential, their productivity and quality can be improved using high technology and new varieties.
In 2017, the production value of these key and potential products reached 11.85 trillion VND (509.4 million USD), making up 60.9 percent of HCM City’s total agricultural production value.
Trung noted they have been included in local agricultural development programmes, including ones on developing high-quality plant varieties and animal breeds, safe vegetables, ornamental plants and dairy cows.
He added that his department will continue building plans and suggesting policies, especially on supporting capital, transferring high technology, creating new varieties and training labourers, to develop these key products.


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A Florida man decided to go on a beer run at his local convenience store in Jacksonville... with his pet gator along for the ride.
Not only did he take the large reptile inside, but he also chased customers around the store with the gator underneath of his arm.
"Y'all ain't out of beer yet are you?", he asked the store clerk upon entering.
The man said it was all in good fun- he knew everyone inside of the convenience store. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission didn't find it nearly as funny, though. No charges have been filed yet, but they are investigating the case, and say the man could be in violation of Florida law. Note to self: If you run out of beer, leave your pet gator at home!


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iPhone 4 Rumors – Users Petition Apple to Fix iPhone 4 Problems
After the iPhone 4 hit the market a few weeks ago, customers have been frustrated from problems associated with their new device. The main issue has been the iPhone 4 losing connectivity (antenna power) by holding onto the metal bands along both sides.
When Steve Jobs responded to the issue, he said simply “just hold the iPhone 4 differently”.
Well that response was not sufficient for a lot of iPhone 4 owners, and there are now rumors that a petition has been started with the hopes of forcing Apple to fix the problem.
Basically, users want Apple to either issue free iPhone 4 cases that will mitigate the problem, or simply fix the hardware or software issue that’s causing it.
C’mon Steve Jobs, you’ve come so far with the iPhone – don’t hang yourself, and your invention, by not fixing this issue!


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MINNEAPOLIS — Kradle Pet Calming Company expanded its presence at Pet Supplies Plus on June 16. According to the pet company, it has secured an additional 4 feet of shelf space in the main aisle of Pet Supplies Plus’ health and wellness section.
“We are excited for this opportunity to build on our partnership with Pet Supplies Plus and demonstrate our commitment to pet specialty,” said Tim Siedlaczek, vice president and general manager of retail at Kradle. “Pet Supplies Plus Neighbors will be the first try our next wave of innovative delivery methods that help solve canine anxiousness.”
Since expanding its distribution to include Pet Supplies Plus in June 2020, Kradle has become one of the retailer’s best-selling dog supplement brands. The expansion will provide Pet Supplies Plus customers with a greater variety of Kradle products.
“The Kradle brand has helped expand the calming category with innovation and the use of multiple forms,” said Tim Wall, category manager of pet treats at Pet Supplies Plus. “We love how this brand creates products that help our neighbors deal with stress-driven issues.”
According to Kradle, its expansion comes at an important time for customers seeking pet calming solutions for upcoming July 4 fireworks.
“Fireworks can be incredibly stressful for pets and wildlife,” said Lindsay Hamrick, director of shelter outreach and engagement at the Humane Society of the United States. “Efforts to reduce the impact on cats and dogs can greatly reduce the likelihood that pets become lost from their families.”
Kradle also launched a reward and loyalty benefits program in partnership with Fetch Rewards. Through the program, Kradle customers can save on pet calming products purchased through a variety of retailers, including Pet Supplies Plus.
Currently, Kradle’s pet calming solutions include chews, melts and bars formulated with calming ingredients, including CBD.
Read more news from pet food manufacturers.


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Leading swimwear manufacturer Linea Aqua (Pvt) Ltd announced its latest landmark accomplishment in the field of environmental sustainability through obtaining WaterNeutral Certification for its Hanwella Factory, thereby making it the first apparel manufacturing facility in the world to have achieved this status.
Water Neutrality is a novel concept first coined by the Water Footprint Network of the Netherlands – a non-profit, multi-stakeholder, global organisation, in collaboration with the University of Twente, which was further customised by The Sustainable Future Group (SFG) taking into account other published global concepts in developing its WaterNeutral certification. The theory behind it is based on achieving the maximum, reasonably possible reduction of a business entity’s fresh water consumption by means of reusing and recycling water. Another important requirement of this certification is the reasonable, responsible and effective investment(s) into projects aimed toward improving sustainable and equitable use of water.
Commenting on the historic occasion at the official handover ceremony, Sarinda Unamboowe, outgoing CEO/Managing Director of Linea Aqua (Pvt) Ltd who initiated the project remarked, “Linea Aqua has always placed sustainability at the forefront of its business operations and this latest initiative is no different. We pledge to become the first-ever WaterNeutral® apparel manufacturer in the world, and we hope that our efforts towards reducing our operational Water Footprint would set a precedent within the industry.”
The Hanwella Factory has been systematically monitoring, mitigating, and replenishing its overall water consumption over a period of three years through exhaustive Water Footprint Assessments and Water Audits, conducted for its operations by an independent sustainability solutions provider – The Carbon Consulting Company – the results of which have been further verified by SFG prior to certifying the factory as WaterNeutral.
This significant achievement of Linea Aqua further showcases the company’s commitment towards becoming a more sustainable business entity in Sri Lanka. Already equipped with SFG’s proprietary- conscious range certifications for Carbon, Water, Waste and Biodiversity, they have also planted one thousand native and endemic trees in a unique reforestation project known as the ‘Hiniduma Bio-link’, aimed at conserving the last remaining rainforest patches of Sri Lanka.


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There was a lot of handwringing from commenters last night about the demise of Pontiac. Whether you buy it that the Federal government forced General Motors to kill it, or you think that GM killed the brand themselves, it was the right thing to do. I would've done the same. And here's why.
This post is an adaption of a comment I left last night on the original article about Pontiac's death, but I feel it needs a lengthier explanation in its own right. The original comment that I left lies below:
You know I don't actually blame the Feds or GM for this one. While we love big RWD V8s, this looks to be purely a business decision.
Think about this way. Every year the US Army, the Navy, Air Force, and the Marines submit their huge annual budgets for Congressional approval. They're actually more wishlists than actual budgets.
Most programs are approved, some are even expanded depending on the politics of it (and who is the sitting chairman of the House Appropriations committee and what jobs are coming back to their district, etc.), but some programs are always cut.
As the military knows that some line items in the budget are always cut, they purposely insert a few programs that they know they can stand to lose. Like the Airborne Laser. Does the Air Force really need a giant ridiculous laser strapped to the front of a Boeing 747 for its current and any foreseeable needs? Of course not. The Taliban ain't getting ICBMs anytime soon, and when the Russians or Chinese or whoever does decide to launch them at the US, they're going to launch hundreds, if not thousands of missiles. So one little Boeing 747 with a ridiculous laser taking potshots one at a time isn't exactly going to cut it.
But when Congress comes back to the military and they say "we need to cut five billion from the budget to make the math work," the military goes "well what about this airborne laser we got?" And Congress okays the cut, so they're happy, and the Air Force loses a program it never really wanted but they get to keep everything else, so they're happy.
Pontiac was the Airborne Laser of GM. GM clearly needed to cut a division of the company – that was just good business sense. Even Lutz admits this. Would he admit that they offered up Pontiac as a sacrificial lamb? No, of course not. But it makes total sense. Yes, you could have sentimental value attached to the badge, but the cars that were planned we're still all getting. They're just being badged as Chevys or Cadillacs now or what have you. The bean counters got what they want, and the enthusiasts got what they want, and nobody really lost anything.
With Pontiac gone, everyone goes home happy.
We can expand upon this theory in a purely business sense though, beyond ideas of sacrificial lambs or hypothetical planning sessions. The simple fact of the matter was that Pontiac was not making money.
Put yourself back into the days of early 2009. You're looking at the worst recession in generational memory. This great industrial titan of corporate America was barely breathing, and on life support. American consumers aren't buying anything, let alone driving anything. And when they may start to buy and drive again, they're going to do it frugally.
When you're worried about the continuation of a massive company as a whole, one that not only employs thousands of workers on its own, but through its entire supply chain pipeline and everyone else peripherally involved, you try to cut out the disease to save the beast.
You could say that the government killed Pontiac, or that GM killed Pontiac. But with Pontiac dead, GM lives.
But when you have a car brand that has made no money, and you have nothing to show for it besides a track record of mismanagement, then it needs to be shut down. Sure, Bob Lutz can talk about how it was going to be saved, but it's not like the people responsible for mismanaging it would've all been fired in the first place. That's often not the way the world works, sadly. Pontiac would've continued, with many of its same managers. And even worse, Lutz was trying to save it with the big thirsty sedans that it looked like the average car-buying public wouldn't want for decades.
So when you're a bean counter, and you're looking to save the company as a whole, and all you have is one guy saying he's going to turn it all around, starting with the worst brand in the stable, just wait and see, well then you're not going to stomach it for very long.
And in a way, Pontiac can live. Pontiac never did anything another brand could never do.
It can be recreated. In the case of the Pontiac G8 GXP, it will live on as the 2014 Chevrolet SS. There's nothing stopping GM from bringing a downmarket, everyman's version of the Cadillac ATS to the car-buying public as well to create a Baby SS. Hell, they could even call it a Monte Carlo or a Bel Air. Yes, losing the GTO nameplate is tough, but we've lost many great monikers over the years, and we've created new ones. The world for the enthusiast in all of us will keep spinning.
The simple fact of the matter is that, purely from a cold, hard, logical standpoint, some brands had to go. It's not something new to the automotive industry. There are still legions of fans of Oldsmobile, Studebaker, and hell, even the Stutz Bearcat around. If the GM executive board insisted on keeping everything, though, and the company completely failed, we wouldn't have cars like the new SS, the Corvette Stingray, or the Camaro ZL1 to show for it.
Maybe it doesn't matter who killed Pontiac. But if you do think it matters, then maybe we should find out who was responsible.
But only to call them a hero. The kind that makes tough decisions that need to be made.
Photo credit: GM, Sam Smith


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Tesla has unveiled its latest large-scale battery project, this time in Europe, where an 18.2MW collection of 140 Powerpacks and inverters has been connected to the grid in Terhills, Belgium
140 Tesla Powerpacks now live in Belgium and balancing the European electrical grid 100 times faster than fossil fuel plants pic.twitter.com/f8XzCYgrJZ
— Tesla (@Tesla) May 14, 2018
The project – which Tesla says took six months to complete from inception to operation, with the battery installation itself taking about five weeks – was unveiled on Tuesday afternoon (Australian time) by the California based company via its various social media channels.
According to ReNews, the €11 million storage array, located at the Terhills resort, is pooled with a mix of demand response assets from industrial and commercial consumers, and is one of the largest batteries in Europe contributing to the grid.
While a fraction of the size of the 100MW Hornsdale Power Reserve “big battery” in South Australia, the Belgian battery bank will be used for similar “grid balancing” purposes on the European grid – as the video below explains.
It will combine with various demand response services to provide around 32MW of grid capacity. The number of Powerwalls – 140 – suggests storage capacity of 28MWh, but this will depend on the final configuration.
If it’s anywhere near as effective as its SA counterpart, it should do a pretty good job.
As RenewEconomy reported on Friday, new data from McKinsey and Co – presented at Australian Energy Week – shows that the Hornsdale Power Reserve has taken a 55 per cent share in the state’s frequency and ancillary services market, and lowered prices in that market by 90 per cent, since being switched on.
Meanwhile, in Australia, work has begun on the Bulgana Renewable Energy Hub in Victoria which will see the state’s first combine wind farm and battery storage, including a 20MW/34MWh Tesla battery.
Tesla is also working on another large-scale battery storage project – the Gannawarra Energy Storage System, which will add a 25MW/50MWh Powerpack battery system to Victoria’s biggest solar farm, the 50MW Ganawarra project in the state’s north-west.
And earlier this month, Tesla CEO and chief visionary Elon Musk let slip about a soon-to-be announced new big battery project that would dwarf the SA installation.
Musk said the new project would be announced within a few months – he did not say where it will be installed – and that at 1GWh it would would be eight times bigger than Hornsdale.
“The utilities have really loved the battery pack. I feel confident that we will be able to announce a deal at the gigawatt hour scale within a matter of months,” Musk told a conference call following the release of the company’s March quarter results.


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The group announced that they will launch an exclusive private signing with Karen Gillan of Avengers, Jumanji, and Dr. Who fame.
The new series (which starts streaming November 24 on Disney+) finds Clint Barton enjoying Christmas in New York with his family, before the ghosts of his past begin to haunt him.
You don’t have to be a horror fan to appreciate a good ghost story, and Snap Judgement’s podcast Spooked features all sorts – from angry spirits and demons, to lost souls trying to connect with the living.
With 14 series and specials (equaling more than 50 hours of content across Travel Channel, Food Network, and Discovery+), you’ll be losing a lot of sleep this fall attempting to keep up with the Ghostober IV programming!
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings earned an estimated $35 million to once again win the box office battle in its second week of release.
Owen Wilson and Rosario Dawson will join LaKeith Stanfield and Tiffany Haddish in Disney’s long-awaited reboot of Haunted Mansion.


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Nvidia has showcased its first quad-core Tegra processor, codenamed Kal-El, and the new part should enable much more powerful tablets and high-end phones.
Senior VP of Nvidia's Mobile Business Phil Carmak announced that the new processor will deliver a five-fold graphics performance increase over the current Tegra 2 dual-core. Capable of driving 2560x1600 displays, the new processor could power much more serious products than current tablets.
"You'll have full photo editing, video editing, writing of documents, browsing the Web, all sorts of stuff," he said.
He noted that Kal-El will allow hi-res displays on tablets, comparable to Apple's Retina display in terms of pixels per square millimeter. This should reduce eye strain and improve user experience.
On the CPU side of things, Nvidia claims Kal-El will outperform an Intel Core 2 Duo T7200 in CoreMark, which sounds quite impressive. The new processor should also speed up web browsing and other applications. Nvidia also showed off some 1440p playback on a 2560x1600 screen.
Nvidia started sampling Kal-El chips to manufacturers two weeks ago, but actual products won't appear until the end of the year, or early 2012.


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Champion sales globally increased 6 percent on a currency-neutral basis in the first quarter and expanded 28 percent on a two-year stack basis although supply chain constraints restrained the gains. Officials at Hanesbrands, Champion’s parent, also spoke highly of the hiring of former Adidas executive Vanessa LeFebvre to guide Champion’s growth.
Hanesbrands on Thursday morning announced the hiring of LeFebvre as president of Hanesbrands’s global activewear business, which is led by Champion. She was most recently SVP, North America for Adidas with responsibility for e-commerce, retail stores and wholesale. Before joining Adidas in 2019, LeFebvre was president of Lord and Taylor
Steve Bratspies, CEO, on a call with analysts, touted LeFebvre’s industry experience. He said, “She’s in the industry today in the activewear space, a great background in merchandising, e-com channel strategy, which I think is one of the big opportunities for us to continue to get smarter about channel strategy and continue to build product on a global basis. And she’s done all those things before. And I think she brings a lot of experience as we go forward. So excited to have her joining the team to continue to grow that business over time.”
In the first quarter, Champion saw the strongest growth internationally with sales ahead 10 percent in constant currency, or 4 percent on a reported basis. The gains were driven by growth in Europe and Latin America, as well as continued expansion in certain Asian markets, including China. Champion sales in the U.S. increased 2 percent over the prior year, driven primarily by strong growth in the collegiate channel.
Michael Dastugue, CFO, told analysts, “While we’re encouraged that we positively comp last year strong 41 percent growth rate in the U.S., we were disappointed that product supply challenges did not improve as expected in the quarter. Delays in receiving Champion product with some of our suppliers resulted in approximately $40 million of in-hand orders in the U.S. going unfulfilled in the quarter. Had the product arrived in time, Champion sales in the U.S. would have increased at a high teen’s rate and constant currency sales for global Champion would have grown 14 percent for the quarter.”
Bratspies said Champion remains on its path to reaching $3.2 billion in annual sales by 2024, representing a 14 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR). In February of this year, the goal was raised from a previous target of $3 billion. Champion’s sales were about $2 billion in 2021.
Addressing progress at Champion, Bratspies said Champion in the quarter continued its expansion in China, adding new stores in the quarter through partners. In Europe, Champion continued to reach new consumers with new styles and silhouettes for kids. Champion also doubled its spring/summer footwear sales in the period, driven by expanded product offerings across channels and geographies.
“We also launched our ‘Win with Women’ campaign as we grow our Champion franchise with young female consumers,” said Bratspies. “This campaign celebrates women in sports with an underlying narrative of fueling confidence for women to feel comfortable in their own skin. We launched the campaign in mid-March, which is centered on our soft-touch sports bras and leggings. The integrated marketing campaign is off to a great start. And we’ve seen strong consumer engagement our Champion site with higher conversion and increased sales.”
Companywide, net sales at Hanesbrands of $1.58 billion increased 5 percent over the prior year and 7 percent on a constant currency basis. Sales topped the company’s guidance in the range of $1.51 billion to $1.57 billion.
Besides Champion, Hanesbrands Activewear segment makes products under Hanes, Alternative, Gear for Sports, Comfortwash, JMS/Just My Size, and Hanes Beefy-T. Hanesbrands’ Innerwear business makes products under Hanes, Bali, Maidenform, Playtex, Champion, JMS/Just My Size, Bras N Things, and Polo Ralph Lauren.
Net income for Hanesbrands totaled $114 million, or 32 cents per share, down from $128 million, or 37 cents, last year. Adjusted income totaled $118 million, or 34 cents, against $136 million, or 39 cents, in the first quarter of 2021. Earnings of 34 cents on an adjusted basis topped guidance calling for earnings in the range of 24 to 31 cents.
The earnings decline was expected due to the expected impact from higher inflation and the higher-than-planned strategic investment in expedited freight to service new retail space gains and new product innovation.
Among its segments, Activewear sales grew 6.3 percent to $386.9 million. By brand, Champion sales were consistent with the prior year. Champion was able to comp last year’s strong growth in the segment as the result of strong growth in the collegiate channel. However, product delays resulted in approximately $40 million of in-hand orders going unfulfilled in the quarter. Had the product arrived in time, Champion sales in the U.S. would have increased at a high-teens rate, and constant currency sales for global Champion would have grown 14 percent for the quarter. In the quarter, sales of other Activewear brands increased mid-teens over the prior year.
Operating margin for the Activewear segment of 12.7 percent decreased approximately 400 basis points compared to the prior period as volume benefits were more than offset by the expected impact from higher inflation, merchandise mix and increased investments in brand marketing. Activewear price increases are expected to be in effect in the third quarter.
Innerwear segment sales increased 1.5 percent over last year to $579.0 million, positively comping last year’s significant 35 percent growth. The growth was driven by retail space gains, a positive mix benefit and the partial-quarter benefit of price increases. This more than overcame last year’s one-time sales benefits from retailer restocking and government stimulus. For the quarter, sales grew in its women’s, men’s, and socks product categories.
Innerwear segment operating margin of 17.6 percent decreased approximately 470 basis points compared to prior year. The partial-quarter impact from the price increase and the benefits from volume and mix were more than offset by the expected impact from higher inflation, the higher-than-planned strategic investment in expedited freight to service new retail space gains and new product innovation, as well as increased investments in brand marketing.
International sales, on a constant currency basis, increased 7 percent to $510.1 million to the prior year driven by growth in Europe, the Americas and China. Constant currency sales declined in Japan due to ongoing COVID-related pressures and in Australia due to product delays.
Operating margin for the International segment of 17.5 percent increased approximately 30 basis points over prior year driven by fixed-cost leverage from higher sales, benefits from a business mix and disciplined SG&A expense management.
For the full year, Hanesbrands now expects sales of approximately $7.0 billion to $7.15 billion. At the midpoint, this represents approximately 6 percent growth over the prior year on a constant currency basis and 4 percent growth on a reported basis. Previously, guidance called for 5.5 percent growth on a constant currency basis and approximately 4 percent growth over the prior year on a reported basis.
Hanesbrands maintained its EPS guidance for the year. EPS is projected in the range of $1.50 to $1.67 on a reported basis, and in the range of $1.64 to $1.81 on an adjusted basis.
For the second quarter, sales are expected in the range of $1.68 billion to $1.73 billion, which includes a projected headwind of approximately $40 million from changes in foreign currency exchange rates. At the midpoint, this represents sales consistent with the prior year on a constant currency basis, or down 3 percent on a reported basis. By segment, Innerwear and Activewear segment sales are expected to be down approximately 1 percent over the prior year. International segment sales are expected to be up low single digits on a constant currency basis, and down mid-single digits on a reported basis.
EPS is expected in the range of 28 cents to 32 cents on a reported basis and 32 cents to 36 cents on an adjusted basis.
Photo courtesy Champion


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With Black Friday and the Christmas period on the horizon, retailers will be gearing up for a surge in consumer spending, says Brian Flesk, head of retail at Hitachi Capital Consumer Finance
Consumers want the ease of shopping from their sofa as well the security of an in-store purchase. Both in-store and across ecommerce platforms, the expectation is for a fast, seamless customer journey whatever channel they choose to purchase through, putting greater onus on retailers to provide a frictionless and interactive experience.
Meeting the surge in demand
The challenge is to convert increased consumer demand into sales within a highly competitive market. Ensuring you have the right tools in place is vital, which is where point-of-sale finance comes in.
Offering POS finance solutions for high-value items with simple and straightforward payment terms can play a huge role in converting browsers into buyers. Our research shows that 55% of customers cite finance solutions as a key reason for completing a purchase. Moreover, Hitachi Capital data shows 43% of customers spend more on big-ticket items when finance is available at the point of purchase.
During the golden quarter and beyond, this approach will attract more consumers, increase conversions and spend, and provide a great customer journey.
An omnichannel future
We have seen a seismic shift in buying behaviour as consumer habits have increasingly shifted online. Many consumers explored new categories, brands and retailers for the first time online during lockdowns and confidence has grown in making digital purchases.
The benefit of funding solutions is clear for those building an online presence. Over the past 12 months, we have been onboarding more retailers than ever as demand surged for our ecommerce solutions. This significant growth was down to the fast, seamless integration, creating a 24/7 retail offering, with improved credit decisioning functionality, the ability to process deposits on behalf of retailers, and fully integrated soft search.
The retail world is changing and so are we
It is not just the retail word that is repositioning itself. Our business is also embarking on a major rebrand, setting our sights on rapid expansion and accelerating investment in our retail systems.
The rebrand to Novuna Consumer Finance, which will be fully implemented by March 2022, paves the way for us to respond to the huge upheaval our retail customers have faced over the past two years.
Brian Flesk is head of retail at Hitachi Capital Consumer Finance
Brian Flesk leads the retail point-of-sale finance business at Hitachi Capital Consumer Finance, overseeing the relationship management with more than 3,200 high street and online retail partners. He has been instrumental in implementing the digital transformation of the business, responding to the seismic shift in buying behaviour that has transformed the industry in recent times.
With a distinguished career spanning 20 years in financial services, before joining Hitachi Capital Consumer Finance, Flesk worked previously for Barclays and Premier Legal Funding.


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At first, Victoria’s Secret had modest expectations for Pink, its sleepwear line for female teens. A brainchild of Leslie Wexner, CEO of Victoria’s parent company Limited Brands, the extension had launched in 2004, appearing on a few racks in Victoria’s Secret stores. The clothing (mainly T-shirts, sweats and pajamas in polka dots and stripes with slogans including “I Like Boys”) was inexpensive and cute, and much tamer than the racy, lacy lingerie that dangled provocatively from hangers nearby. With a laser-aimed demo of 19-year-old female college sophomores, headquarters was happy with Pink’s $300 million in yearly sales. But a billion dollars? Not likely.
Then Jessica Simpson’s shapely derriere entered the picture. Literally.
Sara Tervo, vp of pr and event marketing, still recalls how it happened. MTV had recently premiered its Newlyweds series starring Hollywood’s sweetheart couple of the moment, singer Jessica Simpson and her then-husband, Nick Lachey. But while audiences would remember inimitable Simpson moments (such as her pondering whether a can of Chicken of the Sea contained chicken), Tervo would recall the moment, on the Feb. 19, 2005 episode, when Simpson strode on camera wearing a pair of Pink sweatpants. It was all over.
“The phone rang off the hook,” Tervo, 32, said. Young women everywhere wanted to know where they could buy sweats like that. The Simpson appearance, of course, had been a fluke, but Tervo, savvy to the possibilities, wasn’t about to let it fade. Tervo was an eight-year vet of Secret, heavily involved in fantasy catalogs and the brand’s annual fashion show. Until her arrival at Pink’s offices, headquarters seemed stymied over how to make Pink—a chance “to bring in a slightly younger target to Victoria’s Secret,” in Tervo’s words—into a major brand. Tervo, apparently, did not share the confusion.
“I moved over to Pink when I saw an opportunity,” she said. Once Jessica Simpson appeared in her pajamas on national television, Tervo saw another one. If the MTV Newlyweds episode “reaffirmed that we were gaining traction and could be a bigger business,” Tervo said, it was time to start crafting marketing that would fuse the powers of celebrity appeal and peer influence together. “Our customer base was growing rapidly,” Tervo added, “and it wanted more.”
A Pier for Your Peers
Reasoning that there would be few better ways to promote a sleepwear collection than a slumber party, Tervo, with some outside pr and event-planning support, staged what was quite probably the biggest one in history. Taking over Manhattan’s largely unused Pier 54 on a hot July night in 2006, Tervo’s marketers rolled out a pink carpet and stocked the old steamship dock with mountains of pink drinks, pink food and pink candy. In what Tervo called a case of “stars aligning,” Ashlee Simpson (Jessica’s sister) had a break in her tour schedule and was booked to play live. It was a move that gave Pink a nod to the sweatpants episode with the elder Simpson that had started it all.
It was an ambitious idea, one that would be embarrassing if it flopped. Young shoppers had been alerted to the party via street teams, e-mail blasts and fliers stuffed into shopping bags at the flagship Victoria’s Secret store in Manhattan. Still, Tervo was worried. “It was like, OK, do you think anyone’s going to show up?” she recalled. But they did—in droves. The Victoria’s Secret Pink Pajama Party drew close to 3,000 people, all dressed for a night’s sleep. Most were college girls, though a quick look at Flickr confirms some intrepid boys were in the crowd, too.
Local-event marketing usually can’t generate the buzz that a national commercial can, but according to NPD chief retail analyst Marshal Cohen, playing to a local crowd was the smartest thing Pink could have done. “It’s more effective and communicative to the 24-and-younger generation,” he said. An event like a pajama party, he added, “is tangible to them.”
This past July, it was tangible for more of them. Taking her cue from the success at Pier 54, Tervo staged “Pinkapalooza” on the Santa Monica Pier, where pink drinks flowed and the band Fall Out Boy took the stage. This time, 10,000 people showed up, a threefold-plus increase over the East Coast count. Pinkapalooza and similar events would feature another of Tervo’s creations: pop-up stores where attendees could buy items from the new Collegiate Collection. In some instances, they purchased $40,000 worth in just five hours.


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10 Sep 2020 Small Business Measures
The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Kate Carnell has urged the Federal Government to abolish fringe benefits tax (FBT) for at least two years to provide a much-needed cash flow boost to the economy and support struggling small businesses.
In a letter to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, Ms Carnell argued this small change to the tax system would provide a big boost to small businesses in the industries hardest hit by the COVID-19 crisis.
Ms Carnell cites EY modelling done on behalf of Tourism Accommodation Australia and the Australian Hotels Association that indicates suspending FBT on accommodation, meals and beverages alone, would produce economic returns of up to 3.8 times the direct cost to the Government.
Read more here.


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Motorola Moto Edge 2022 Smartphone Launch: There are many smartphone brands in the market which keep on launching many phones from time to time and each brand has its own user base. Smartphone maker Motorola is also very popular and it is well-liked for devices. Recently, Motorola has launched a new mobile phone, Moto Edge 2022. Let us know what are the features of this phone (Moto Edge 2022 Features), how much is its price (Moto Edge 2022 Price) and how it can be bought.
Moto Edge 2022 Price
Motorola’s new phone, the Moto Edge 2022 has been officially launched and will be made available in the US for the time being. For your information, let us tell you that this phone is being launched in Mineral Gray color at a price of $ 498 (about Rs 39,800) and according to Telecom Talk, this smartphone will be available universally at a price of $ 499.99 (about Rs 39,900). will go. It can be purchased from the website of BestBuy, Amazon and Motorola.
Moto Edge 2022 Camera
Let us tell you that this brand new smartphone of Motorola, Moto Edge 2022 is being launched with a triple rear camera setup. In this you will get 50MP primary sensor with f/1.8 aperture, 13MPs ultra-wide camera with macro mode and 2MP depth sensor which is coming with f/2.4 aperture. This smartphone will be equipped with a 32MP front camera for video calls and selfies.
Moto Edge 2022 Battery
All the features of Moto Edge 2022 are quite good but everyone’s attention is towards the battery of this smartphone. In this Motorola phone, you are getting 5000mAh battery which is coming with 15W wireless charging and 5W reverse charging support. Not only this, this phone has come with 30W Turbo Power fast charging feature and for charging it has a USB Type-C port.
Moto Edge 2022 Specifications
Now let’s talk about the rest of the features of Moto Edge 2022. This smartphone has been launched with a 6.6-inch FHD + OLED screen, resolution of 2400 x 1080 pixels, refresh rate of 144Hz, HDR10 + support and 10-bit color space. This is the world’s first smartphone to work on Mediatek Dimesnity 1050 6nm Processor.
The Moto Edge 2022 with IP52 rating is being given 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, which can also be expanded. Equipped with in-display fingerprint sensor and three mics, this phone runs on Android 12 OS and you are also getting WiFi 6E 802.11ax, Bluetooth 5.2, GPS and NFC support in this.
You read this news on the country’s number 1 Hindi website Zeenews.com/Hindi.


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Apple’s release of iOS 12.1 earlier today has already given us a peek at a new feature: Memoji syncing. In that article, I suggested that this feature would make sense with the release of a new 2018 iPad with a TrueDepth camera system later this year. Currently, Memoji is only supported on the iPhone X and 2018 models. But adding support to the iPad would mean users would want to sync their characters between each device.
Now, iOS 12.1 offers another hint at new iPad models coming this year.
Digging into assets used by the Setup app, which is the app that runs when you set up a new device, we found a new identifier for a “2018 fall” iPad. The previous version of the app only included identifiers for the 2018 iPhones. This means the app is being updated to teach users how to use the new gestures on a new model of iPad to be released this fall.
Earlier today, we reported on new evidence that landscape support for Face ID is coming. This, combined with the icon found by us earlier and the new Memoji sync feature, already served as good indication of new iPads coming soon. Now, this new identifier found in iOS 12.1 basically confirms new iPads for this year. If Apple follows their usual schedule, it means we’ll see have another event in October.
USB-C on iPads?
Several reports have suggested that Apple has new iPad Pro models in the works for this year. Most recently, Ming-Chi Kuo reported that the new 2018 iPad Pros will feature USB-C connectivity instead of Lightning.
October 2018 iPad Event?
While some had anticipated Apple would unveil the new iPad models at its September event, that turned out not to be the case. It now seems likely that Apple will hold another event in October for new iPads and Macs. Also early November could make sense as well as long as it is before holiday shopping season.
Identifier for new iPads found on iOS 12.1
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The next generation of smart locks in a garage will be made of steel, which means that they will last longer and cost less to manufacture and install.
The new generation of security products, which will include the security door knob lock and the shower door knob locks, are already available to purchase.
But now the company is looking to make the locks in new and improved versions, with the intention of getting them to the market before 2020.
In a blog post, the company said the new generation was “designed with durability in mind”.
The company says the key features of the new locks are:More secure and more durable than standard lock technology, more secure than standard door and door knob locking, and will last up to 30 years.
The company is currently making the lock in a high-density polyethylene plastic (HDPE) that can withstand up to 10,000 volts of electricity.
The lock will be available to customers of its existing security door and shower door locks, and to customers who already have an existing lock.
The locks will be sold to the public for $149.99 and will be on sale at stores such as Lowe’s, Home Depot, Homebase, and Lowe’s Home Service.
The brand is also launching an online store that will offer its products in its own store, alongside other brands.
“As we ramp up to commercial release in 2020, we are bringing our products to market to meet the evolving security needs of the home and business community,” said Steve O’Neill, CEO of The HomeSecurity Co.


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Posts Tagged ‘Medford’
A longtime Planet Fitness franchisee has leased 24,500 square feet of space in Medford’s Sunshine Square shopping center as part of a 20-year deal.
The new Planet Fitness in Medford’s Sunshine Square shopping center will open in December as the chain’s “showcase gym.”
NMF Holdings will pay $12 million to buy 60 acres of industrial-zoned land on Bellport Station Road in Medford to store used or damaged cars headed for salvage auctions.
The Metropolis Diner in Medford has been ordered to pay 18 employees more than $60,000 in back wages and interest after violating the Fair Labor Standards Act. The charges stem from a September 2010 investigation by the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division. At that time, it was discovered the diner and its president, Andrew [...]
Aflac, a leading provider of supplemental insurance, has opened its very first retail store in the country here on Long Island. The Aflac store at 2799 Rte. 112 in Medford is intended to provide a central location where policy holders can personally file claims and find out about Aflac’s insurance products. The store will also [...]
A Long Island couple has pleaded guilty in a pharmacy robbery for prescription painkillers that left four people dead. David Laffer pleaded guilty to first-degree murder charges Thursday in Suffolk County Court on Long Island. His wife, Melinda Brady, pleaded guilty to robbery. Laffer walked into the Haven Drugs pharmacy in Medford on June 19. [...]
A New York woman who police say drove the getaway car after her husband massacred four people during a holdup for prescription painkillers is facing arraignment on a grand jury indictment. Melinda Brady has been jailed on $750,000 bail since she and her husband were arrested last month. She said in a police statement that [...]
Police have released a surveillance tape of a suspect in a robbery of a Long Island pharmacy who made off with prescription drugs and cash. It happed at a CVS Pharmacy in Farmingville on Sunday. There were no injuries. Police say the man entered the store, asked an employee if it had certain prescription drugs. [...]
The wife of the man accused of killing four people during a robbery for painkillers at a New York pharmacy pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that she drove the getaway car and grabbed a police officer’s leg while resisting arrest. Melinda Brady and her husband, David Laffer, were high on drugs when they were [...]
A former soldier pleaded not guilty Thursday to murder in the shooting deaths of four people at a Long Island pharmacy during a robbery for painkillers. David Laffer, 33, was ordered held without bail. Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney John Collins called the shooting at Haven Drugs “the most cold-blooded robbery-homicide in Suffolk County history.” [...]


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Apple will begin to manufacture its iPhone 5S variant in coming days as it gears up for a product launch this year. Strengthening the story further, Chinese manufacturer Foxconn that oversaw production of previous handsets from this brand has begun hiring 10,000 workers a week to make sure production lines will be up and running once manufacturing starts. According to Apple this handset will be quite cheap as compared to its predecessors and will be made out of a light weight plastic material.
According to reports, the new iPhone 5 will boast of updated software and camera as also processor. It will run on iOS 7 the latest software used on iPad's and the current iPhone. Rumors have it that due to software glitches, engineers working on OS X 10.9 have been roped in to sort out these issues. Information garnered also suggests that engineers working on the phone have been provided with devices that have polarizing filter on displays to decrease viewing angles and keep the overhauled UI under wraps until its release.
Seeing that the iPhone 5S will be launched in autumn, sales of iPhone devices could drop sharply as customers eagerly await launch of the new phone.


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ETF Sector Spotlight For 08/13/2021
Market Recap For August 13th, 2021
The week ended with a slightly positive market, will all four of the major indices we follow finishing in the green.
Ongoing forecasts are not changing much lately because the market continues to do the same thing: Move higher, no matter what, eventually.
Yesterday’s Sector Performance
Consumer Staples moved to the top spot for the first time in a while.
Energy pulled back again after a recent recovery.
Five-Day Sector Performance
Materials ended up winning the week, with Consumer Staples catching up.
Energy was the only sector finishing in the red last week.
ETF Trade Watch
Energy Select Sector SPDR (XLE)
Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR (XLP)
Consumer Staples won the day on Friday and is now nearly at the top of the weekly, which means now could be a good time to look at the XLP.
On the other end, Energy is struggling, and that is dragging the XLE down. Bearish traders might want to give it a look.


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It’s been a while since Netflix announced a brand new and extended relationship with Disney in December of 2012 and you’d be forgiven for forgetting about it. The deal announced on the official Netflix blog (which has all but disappeared in recent months) announced a brand new and landmark deal in which Netflix would be getting exclusive content before any other provider.
In the blog post Netflix gave details that it’d be giving its subscribers access to recently released theatrical releases long before they hit the premium cable channels which typically charge on a pay per view basis for brand new content. Time scales on windows between the initial theatre release and it commencing streaming on Netflix is not known but we estimate it’ll be the time between the movie release and it launching on DVD platforms.
The blog post also noted that the deal includes Marvel titles too we’re also predicting with the recently acquired Star Wars license that we may see some of them pop up too. It also states we’ll see plenty of content from 2012 to 2016 from Disney which we certainly have, including a Netflix Original series from Marvel.
So now we’re a little closer we’ve done some research on some of the Disney movies that are expected to launch in 2016 – here’s what we found.
From the graphic above, detailing all of the upcoming Marvel releases up to 2019, you can see two movies are slated for release throughout 2016. The first is the third in the Captain America series which will see Chris Evans once again take the shield in his solo series. November will see Doctor Strange get a debut in the box office.
There’s only one current Pixar movie known to be releasing in 2016 and that’s the follow up to the wildly successful hit – Finding Nemo. The story will act as a spinoff where you’ll most likely be looking for Dory, if we had to guess that is! While there’s no other firm releases in 2015 we’re seeing a new cycle for Pixar movies with one launching in the summer and one in the fall. With Finding Dory launching in the summer we’d put good money being another movie in the fall.
Other Disney Movies
We’re not going to list the full amount of known Disney movies to be launched in 2016 but you can find the ones known here. Highlights include a brand new Alice in Wonderland movie, a reboot of The Jungle Book and in the later of that year a brand new Star Wars movie series will begin with Rogue One which is part of the new Anthology series.
For full disclaimer a lot of time has past since this deal has announced and the inner workings of it may change so this is only going on us not hearing anything otherwise but assuming it does all go ahead it’s going to be an exciting time for Disney fans with Netflix subscriptions in 2016.


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SONY'S new PlayStation and Microsoft's next Xbox will have thousands of games ready to play at launch, a top game maker has claimed.
Both the PS5 and Xbox Series X are due to launch later this year, and will be desperately competing for gamers' cash.
Much of their success will depend on what games are available to play immediately.
Sony and Microsoft have largely kept quiet about their launch titles.
But Ubisoft chief Yves Guillemot says the majority of current console games will work on the PS5 and Xbox Series X.
"Those consoles will be running almost all the back catalogue of the previous consoles," said Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot.
He continued: "It will be something new in the industry.
"It will help the old generations to continue to be big consoles on the market for years to come."
Guillemot isn't specific, but he's likely talking about thousands of games.
Wikipedia has logged 2,446 different titles on its list of PS4 games.
And the same list for the Xbox One includes 2,384 games.
So it's safe to assume that the PS5 and Xbox Series X will likely have thousands of titles available at launch – or hundreds, at the very least.
This is only referring to existing PS4 and Xbox One games however, and not new titles.
We're also expecting developers to prepare a host of new games for the PS5 and Xbox Series X launch days.
It's a big change from the previous generation of consoles.
The PS4 was not backwards compatible, so PS3 game discs were largely useless.
Xbox One owners were able to play a select few Xbox 360 titles on their new consoles, but that's it.
Microsoft confirmed in December that its new console would be named the Xbox Series X.
Xbox Series X news and rumours – what we know so far
Here's what we know about the next-gen Xbox...
- Microsoft's next-gen Xbox will come out towards the end of 2020
- It was officially unveiled in December 2019 after months of rumours and speculation.
- Dubbed the Series X, Microsoft referred to the console under the development codename 'Project Scarlett' for several months
- As with the next PlayStation, it's going to use super speedy 'solid state' storage to drastically reduce or even totally eliminate loading times
- This means your games should start up almost instantly, and there won't be lengthy pauses between scenes, or when moving from one part of a game's world to another
- It's going to be able to play older games too, with Microsoft making big promises about backwards compatibility
- "Thousands of games across four console generations will look and play best on the Series X," they say, referring to the original Xbox, the Xbox 360, the Xbox One and the new console
- The third area where they matched Sony is the chips at the console's heart - the brains of the Series X is the same AMD Navi technology at the heart of Sony's next console
- It's not quite identical to the PlayStation chips, as both are custom-made for the companies in question
- AMD promised Sony's "special sauce" was built into their chips, while Microsoft describe the core of their new box is a "custom-designed AMD processor"
- Xbox boss Phil Spencer also revealed that processor would have hardware dedicated to ray-tracing
- Ray-tracing is a new technology just making it into the most expensive gaming PCs that makes lighting and sound incredibly realistic by calculating the exact path of each ray of light or sound wave through transparent objects and off reflective surfaces
- This gives you much more realistic lighting and reflections as well as much more natural looking materials and objects
- Sony has confirmed the next PlayStation will have something similar, but hasn't revealed if the console will have hardware specifically dedicated to it
- Finally, Microsoft also revealed that Halo: Infinite, which is first revealed at the same briefing last year, is going to launch with the new Xbox
- The latest chapter in the story of Master Chief will release alongside Series X devices in time for "Holidays 2020", meaning around mid-November
The contraption will apparently run games at 4K resolution - double that of HD - with the possibility of running 8K.
It will also process games faster so as to "eliminate" loading times. A new Halo title will launch with the console.
Sony got in a bit before Microsoft, revealing details of its PS5 console in October.
Loading up a game on the PlayStation 5 will be ten times faster than on PS4, according to the company.
We're expecting new God of War and Horizon: Zero Dawn titles to launch with the console.
Both consoles are expected to launch in time for Christmas 2020.
Concept PS5 images for this story were created by LetsGoDigital.
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In other news, the PS5 and Xbox Series X could be delayed due to the China coronavirus crisis.
Sony recently confirmed the PS5 will release in time for Christmas 2020.
A recent "price leak" suggested that the console could cost £250 more than its predecessor.
And we reveal the best PS5 games you can expect to play this year.
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In a groundbreaking move, Stellantis has announced a colossal investment plan totaling €5.6 billion (R$30 billion) earmarked for the South American region from 2025 to 2030. This historic investment marks the largest ever seen in the Brazilian and South American automotive sector. The venture is set to catalyze the launch of over 40 new products, revolutionize Bio-Hybrid technologies, drive innovative decarbonization methods throughout the automotive supply chain, and unlock strategic business opportunities.
“This announcement solidifies our trust and commitment in the future of the South American automotive industry and is a response to the favorable business environment here,” said Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares. “As a critical part of our ‘third engine’ growth strategy, South America will take a leading role in accelerating the decarbonization of mobility together with our employees, our supply chain network, and our partners. I want to thank each team member involved in helping create and execute our investment strategy so that, together, we can achieve our industry-leading carbon neutrality ambition.”
At the heart of this investment lies a commitment to accelerate the decarbonization of mobility. Stellantis is set to invest over €50 billion in electrification over the next decade, with a firm target to achieve carbon neutrality by 2038. South America stands as a cornerstone in Stellantis’ global strategy, serving as a thriving hub that contributes significantly to revenue targets beyond North America and Europe.
Key to this investment is the development of Bio-Hybrid technologies, which blend electrification with hybrid engines powered by biofuels like ethanol. These cutting-edge technologies will be integrated into various Stellantis vehicle models and are poised to strengthen Brazilian engineering and the domestic automotive industry. The production of the first vehicles equipped with Bio-Hybrid technology is flexible and can adapt to different manufacturing lines, fostering versatility and innovation within the sector.
Stellantis’ dominance in South America is underscored by its leadership in key markets such as Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. Last year alone, Stellantis recorded total sales exceeding 878,000 vehicles in the region, securing a notable 23.5% market share. The company’s market leadership in Brazil, with a 31.4% market share, highlights its robust position in the region’s automotive landscape.
Moreover, strategic acquisitions such as Argentina Litio y Energía S.A. and companies Norauto and DPaschoal position Stellantis as a formidable player in South America’s burgeoning electric vehicle and aftermarket segments.


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Summer is here, which means it’s officially road trip season. While driving across the country can sometimes be a slog, often meaning foregoing basic hygiene and staying in some sketchy motels, thanks to Graduate Hotels’ Hall Pass, it can also mean a sweet new hotel room every night.
Graduate Hotels, which has 30 stylish properties across the US, began offering cross-country travelers a $500 “Hall Pass” last year that would allow them to stay in any of its hotels for a month. This year, it’s bringing it back.
For $500, you can get unlimited one-night stays at all Graduate Hotels


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Yesterday, Research In Motion Limited (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM), a world leader in the mobile communications market reported a strong fourth quarter that beat estimates driven by the success of its BlackBerry Storm, which initially had some technical problems in its release in Q3.
Q4 revenue was up 84% y-o-y and 24.5% q-o-q to $2.78 billion on a shipment of 7.8 million devices (up 80%). Net income was $518.3 million or $0.90 per share versus $412.5 million, or $0.72 per share last year. Analysts expected revenue of $3.4 billion and earnings of $0.84 per share.
For the fiscal year 2009, revenue was up 84% to $11.07 billion on shipment of 26 million devices. Net income was up 46.3% to $1.89 billion, or $3.30 per share. The total of cash, cash equivalents, short-term investments and long-term investments was $2.24 billion at the end of the quarter, down from $2.49 billion at the end of Q3. Uses of cash included capital expenditures of $252 million and the acquisition of intangible assets of $222 million. It recently completed the acquisition of Certicom (cryptography).
RIM added about 3.9 million net new BlackBerry subscriber accounts in the quarter, up over 50% q-o-q and the total BlackBerry subscriber account base at the end of the quarter was about 25 million. RIM shipped its 50 millionth BlackBerry in January. This tremendous performance was driven by better than expected momentum following the holiday season and positive reception of the touch screen model Storm and other products launched in Q3 and Q4. Device ASPs in the quarter were about $370, higher than Q3 due to shifts in product mix.
In its stronghold enterprise market, RIM had double-digit subscriber growth. Over the last two years, RIM has been focusing on the more competitive consumer market and currently about 70% of net new subscriber accounts were non-enterprise and about half of the total BlackBerry subscriber account base is non-enterprise.
In an earlier post, I had explored how new product launches in the consumer market are leading to the downward trend in margins. The consumer market typically has lower margins compared to the enterprise market, high marketing costs, and more pressure to launch new products. From about 50% in Q2 and 51.4% last year, gross margin has fallen to 40% in Q4. However, RIM expects to improve gross margin to between 43 and 44% in Q1 of fiscal 2010 through its cost reduction efforts, together with a favorable shift in product mix. For fiscal 2010, RIM expects gross margin in the low 40%s.
Somewhat on the line of Apple’s App Store, RIM has launched the BlackBerry App World that offers BlackBerry users a way to browse, buy, download, and install apps over the air. There is also talk of a new device to be launched in the summer that will feature a touch screen and traditional keypad and compete directly with the Palm Pre.
RIM is currently trading around $49 with a market cap of about $28 billion. I recently explored the possibility of Dell acquiring RIM. It hit a 52-week low of $35.05 on March 9. Its 52-week high was $148.13 on June 19 last year, a tumble driven mainly by the economy and its margin issues.
On strategy, I would personally feel more comfortable if RIM followed its strength in the enterprise market, and got more deeply into application infrastructure, making it viable for enterprise app vendors to make their applications accessible from the RIM devices easily, elegantly, and seamlessly. If I were advising RIM on their development platform strategy, I would ask them to focus on courting business application developers, an area that has never been Apple’s strong suite. I just hope that RIM is not going to go about chasing Apple’s tail in the consumer app arena with game developers, for instance.
I see a wide open opportunity for RIM. The question is, does RIM see it?


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Koç Holding Posts 183.8 Billion TL in Consolidated Turnover and a Combined Investment of 10.7 Billion in 2020
KOÇ HOLDİNG POSTS 183.8 BILLION TL IN CONSOLIDATED TURNOVER
AND A COMBINED INVESTMENT OF 10.7 BILLION TL IN 2020
AND A COMBINED INVESTMENT OF 10.7 BILLION TL IN 2020
KOÇ HOLDİNG CEO LEVENT ÇAKIROĞLU:
“WITH THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC IN ACTION, 2020 WENT DOWN IN HISTORY AS AN EXCEPTIONAL TIME. AT KOÇ GROUP, WE HAVE NAVIGATED THESE CHALLENGING TIMES BY MAKING OUR COLLEAGUES HEALTH A TOP PRIORITY. WITH OUR AGILE MANAGEMENT APPROACH, ROBUST BALANCE SHEET, WELL-BALANCED PORTFOLIO STRUCTURE, STRONG DEALER NETWORK, RESILIENT SUPPLY CHAIN, AND DIGITAL CAPABILITIES, WE WERE WELL-EQUIPPED TO TAKE ON THESE EXTRAORDINARY TIMES. WE WERE PRECISE AND QUICK TO PUT INTO EFFECT FINANCIAL HEALTH MEASURES ACROSS THE GROUP. WE CONTINUED TO INVEST, STEPPING UP OUR GLOBAL GROWTH. WITH A COMBINED INVESTMENT OF 10.7 BILLION TL IN 2020, OUR TOTAL INVESTMENTS REACHED 42 BILLION TL IN THE LAST 5 YEARS. IN 2020, A YEAR OF PREVAILING UNCERTAINTY, WE ACHIEVED SUCCESSFUL RESULTS AND CONSOLIDATED OUR SOLID POSITION. I AM GRATEFUL TO OUR COLLEAGUES, DEALERS AND SUPPLIERS WHO MADE THIS POSSIBLE WITH THEIR GREAT EFFORT AND SOLIDARITY. WE WILL CONTINUE TO WORK HARD AND CREATE VALUE FOR OUR COUNTRY AS WELL AS OUR WORLD.”
Koç Holding posted in 2020 a total of 183.8 billion TL in consolidated turnover and reached a combined investment of 10.7 billion TL. Koç Holding CEO Levent Çakıroğlu assessed the financial results for 2020: “This past year has been an extraordinary and challenging one as the coronavirus outbreak has struck the world. Our top priority during the pandemic has been the health of our colleagues, partners, dealers, suppliers, and their families. By the same token, we prioritized safeguarding our human resources and sparing our colleagues any loss of income. We have led public health projects that aimed to drive social impact with a range of goods from mechanical ventilators to intubation cabins, face shields, and masks. With our agile management approach, robust balance sheet, well-balanced portfolio structure, strong dealer network, resilient supply chain and digital capabilities, at Koç Group, we were well-equipped to take on these extraordinary times. We were precise and quick to put into effect financial health measures across the group. In 2020, a year of prevailing uncertainty, we achieved successful results and consolidated our solid position. I am grateful to our colleagues, dealers and suppliers who made this possible with their great effort and solidarity. We will continue to work hard and create value for our country as well as our world.”
Levent Çakıroğlu: “With a combined investment of 10.7 billion TL in 2020, our total investments reached 42 billion TL in the last 5 years.”
Koç Holding CEO Levent Çakıroğlu emphasized that despite all the uncertainties, Koç Group has continued with its investments unabated. “With a combined investment of 10.7 billion TL in 2020, our total investments reached 42 billion TL in the last 5 years. Arçelik closed a partnership deal with the Southeast Asian market’s key player Hitachi to establish a company for the Japanese firm’s overseas home appliances business. According to the deal, Arçelik will acquire 60 percent stakes of the new company. We believe our partnership with such a strong player like Hitachi in this region that we had set as a strategic growth area for the Group will step up Arçelik’s global growth momentum. On the other hand, Aygaz finalized the investment in Bangladesh to expand to the Asian market that boasts the world’s biggest share and the fastest growth trend in the domestic LPG consumption. To supply, fill and distribute LPG in the Bangladesh market, a 50:50 Joint Venture Company was established with United Enterprises & Co. Ltd., one of Bangladesh’s most well-established companies,” said Çakıroğlu.
Stressing that they are set to lead the transformation in the automotive industry as Ford Otosan started electric vehicle investments, Koç Holding CEO Levent Çakıroğlu elaborated as follows: “We have undertaken to manufacture at the Gölcük plant the first fully electric version of Transit, the most preferred commercial vehicle in the world. We will also leverage our engineering know-how at Ford Otosan to invest in battery installation at our Kocaeli facilities, the biggest commercial vehicle manufacturing plant of Ford of Europe.” Çakıroğlu remarked this as a milestone towards the first and only electric vehicle manufacturing plant in Turkey and said: “This investment is an achievement, not just for Ford Otosan but also on a national scale, and it will earn us a competitive edge in international markets.”
Levent Çakıroğlu: “Our Group companies continued to make a difference in their respective industries and contribute to the economy of our country.”
“In the face of the many pandemic-related challenges, our Group companies continued to make a difference in their respective industries and contribute to the economy of our country,” said Levent Çakıroğlu and continued: “From 2019 to 2020, the Tofaş brand Fiat maintained its market leading position. Tofaş accounted for 19 percent of the light vehicle manufacturing in the automotive industry. The leading manufacturer for a seamless 14 years now, TürkTraktör has renewed its support for the agricultural industry. The brand singlehandedly manufactured 68 percent of Turkey’s tractor output and recorded 86 percent of the tractor exports. Otokar, on the other hand, saw a 20 percent growth in turnover in 2020. For the 12th time in succession, the company confirmed its position as Turkey’s most preferred bus in its segment. The brand’s R&D efforts culminated in the development of the Safe Bus that reduces COVID-19 contamination risks. Two new export orders have been placed in the defense industry.”
Levent Çakıroğlu stated that Tüpraş, Turkey’s leading company in refinery capacity, invested over 800 million TL in 2020 and kept meeting the domestic fuel demand regardless of the circumstances. He also specified how they prioritized diversity of the resources and renewable energy investments through Entek that aspire to becoming an integrated pioneer in the energy market.
In his remarks on the developments in the financial sector, Çakıroğlu said: “Sustaining its unwavering support to the economy, Yapı Kredi provided 382.7 TL billion funds in 2020. The bank opened the year with an issuance of 500 million USD subordinated notes in the global markets. This transaction has seen participation of more than 200 investors from across the world, and the demand was more than sixfold the issue amount. This has confirmed the trust in the economy of our country as well as our bank.”
Levent Çakıroğlu: “We cannot separate the future of our group from the future of the community we live in or the world.”
Noting that environmental, social and corporate management stand out as the top agenda items of Koç Group in 2020, Levent Çakıroğlu added: “As we have highlighted in our sustainable growth approach Lead. Together, we cannot separate the future of our group from the future of the community we live in or the world. Stakeholders today expect companies to adopt a long-term perspective and identify sustainability priorities, strategies, risks and opportunities. At Koç Group, we are following the global developments on climate crisis. Within this scope, we represent Turkey at the World Economic Forum’s CEO Action Group in an effort to define the role of private sector in delivering on the European Green Deal in the best way possible. Accordingly, we, at Koç Group, are committed to contributing to the development of a road map for global green recovery. We are pleased to publish, in this joint declaration, our suggestions that the funding mechanisms be available for the companies of the non-EU countries and the sustainability performance be considered in the assessment.”


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It's pretty much a year to the day that we reported the possibility of a quad-core Cortex-A15 from ARM, and look what just came across the wire! It's the Cortex-A15 Hard Macro -- the first design from ARM we're aware of that packs four A15 cores. The Hard Macro edition is of particular interest as it aims to help manufacturers bring products to market more quickly and at a lower cost. The chip variant runs at 2GHz, with performance of over 20,000 DMIPS if you were wondering. Notably, it operates with the same power usage of the A9 hard macro, which should mean it's got good efficiency credentials, and it's the first in the family to be based on 28nm process. There's no indication where we might see this turning up, but with the firm spilling the full details at the IEEE Symposium later this week, we're sure we'll find out soon enough.
ARM announces new quad-core Cortex-A15 Hard Macro variant originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink


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Kate Winslet has insisted that women do not have to be a size 2 to dress nicely.
The Carnage actress is the face of the spring campaign for St John. In a new video for the collection, Winslet praises the clothing for flattering "women with a shape".
"You don't have to be a size 2, or even a size 4, to be able to wear these garments," Winslet says. "They fall so well and are cut for women with a shape. And of course I love that. That's me all over."
The actress goes on to say that women have responded favourably to her campaign.
"A lot of women say they believe they could wear a particular dress or a pair of pants or a sweater because they have seen that I am able to wear those pieces," she says. "It is really important to be able to dress in clothes quickly that look effortless and feel comfortable."
Winslet recently said that it is weird to see Titanic returning to the big screen.
The actress will visit the wreck of Titanic this year with Richard Branson.
Watch Kate Winslet's ad for St John below:


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Brazil limits food delivery platform’s exclusivity clauses
Brazil’s competition tribunal has approved a settlement between the national antitrust enforcer and the country’s largest food delivery platform to suspend two separate but related abuse of dominance probes after the company agreed to limit the scope of its exclusivity clauses with restaurants.
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The on-demand economy has transformed the way we move around, eat, learn, travel and connect at a massive scale. It's here, and there's no sign of it slowing down. There's a number of market trends and technological progress that has gotten us to this point. However, with disruption and big aspirations comes big, complex challenges, especially as we continue to rely on the on-demand economy.
To take these challenges head-on, on-demand economy companies are finding new ways to deliver their services and products to an audience with ever-increasing expectations, and that's what we'll look at in this article.
What's Driving the On-Demand Economy?
There are 3 major drivers of the on-demand economy — instant gratification, accessibility to smart devices and plummeting costs of mobile data.
The Desire for Instant Gratification
Consumers want services, goods, data, and they want it now. They definitely don't want to wait for it. And it's the fulfillment of that desire for instant gratification that is a major driver of the on-demand economy. The emotion that comes from getting an update or confirmation is what brings users back to apps. We want to know our Airbnb reservation went through and be able to chat with the host. We want to see our Uber on a live map. We want to be able to virtually get in line for a busy restaurant. And we want it instantaneously.
Beyond the individual and into the world we live in, two major technological trends have brought the on-demand economy to the mainstream and caused it to skyrocket.
Smartphone Accessibility Rises While Mobile Data Cost Plummets
To understand just how accessible smartphones and how cheap data plans are getting, take a look at India, who are currently experiencing a smartphone revolution. Experts say that India's 300 million smartphone users could grow by 50% in the next couple years. What's driving it? A drastic drop in the price of mobile data. High-speed data plans available for as low as $2.30 USD a month, and stripped-down, low-end, and basic smartphones are available for just over $20 USD.
Mobile data is cheap and smartphones are cheap, and it's leading to a massive number of new users coming online year over year. And with that, it's given these users access to the many on-demand economy services available across the world.
But with all the always-on, always-connected users armed with smartphones out there, it's important to recognize the technology powering it as well. Reliable, secure, fast and globally scaled networks are the lifeblood of the on-demand economy and the connected shared experiences they deliver — and is the key to solving the many challenges that arise, which we will look at next.
Scale is the Biggest Challenge
Massive audiences, high expectations and global coverage present big challenges for on-demand companies.
The biggest challenge is ensuring scale. The big question is, how do you deliver a reliable and seamless user experience to every user, no matter where they are, and maintain that experience as the number of connected users grow and new features are deployed?
Scale is tough because on-demand apps continue to grow in data intensity — they're adding more and more interactivity. The connected experience of an on-demand app now includes chat, both with the service provider and support, pinpoint progress updates, geo-tracking, dashboards, live notifications, and more. This blending together a variety of features and capabilities into a comprehensive whole means leads to large scale challenges.
How are Companies Doing It?
With more success and market penetration comes scale challenges. The good news? The building blocks and underlying infrastructure is there, it's accessible, it's affordable, and it's incredibly powerful.
To meet the ever-increasing demands, companies are harnessing the power of pre-built components, the right set of APIs and infrastructure to get them from POC to MVP to full-on growth. That means faster time to market and future-proofing the app as requirements and expectations grow.
There are 4 major elements from a technology standpoint that companies use to deliver on-demand applications today, and solve the challenges they face:
High-speed messaging and signaling APIs: Powers live chat, realtime location streaming, pricing updates, dispatch requests, live notifications, etc.
Presence detection APIs: Identifies who is online and recognizes when they go online or offline.
Cloud gateways and integrations: Crucial for launching features like language translation, mobile push notifications, and chatbots (mission-critical for massive-scale customer support).
Serverless compute: Allows computation to take place at the edge, or as close to the individual user as possible.
Combining these interactive APIs with a trusted infrastructure is how companies can effectively solve the big challenges faced for a large scale on-demand product. That underlying network must deliver messages quickly enough for real time, regardless of geography; provide high reliability (preferably at least 99.999% uptime guarantee); and scale to trillions of messages transported, quelling the risk of outages when your app takes off in the marketplace.
It's safe to say the on-demand economy is here to stay. It's reinvented the ways we live our lives, and more and more businesses will be disrupted by on-demand services. It's the reason that other industries are taking on-demand functionality and delivering new experiences across the board. With more and more devices coming online each day, the on-demand economy is showing no signs of slowing down. The big question is: Will on-demand services make the right design and architectural decisions to keep up?
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